BROTHERHOOD B+

If you liked the Sopranos . . watch this series. Sandy and I have watched 6 episodes of this Showtime Series. (Available from Netflix). It depicts real people, both weak and strong, criminal and legit, who have a knack of getting themselves in trouble because they are emotionally stuck in life and the routine of an extended family. 

If the strong would only get out of the Irish neighborhood In Providence, R.I., and start a new life, they would find that many of their problems would disappear. But then what would happen to the weak people who they are supporting? But that is what the story is about.

Tommy Caffee is a politician and family man. His brother Mike is a sadistic gangster who is deeply involved with the local mob. The fate of their Irish-American community depends on this family's struggle between good and evil. Showtime's Peabody Award-winning mob saga.

Movie Review: LONE SURVIVOR (2014) B+

LONE SURVIVOR is a predicable but exciting war movie.  It stars Mark Wahlberg and tells the story of four Navy SEALS on an ill-fated secret mission trying to gather information on the location of an important Taliban leader. Their task is to helicopter to rugged mountains, observe the goings-on in a nearby Taliban dominated village, and then report back to their superiors (who could plan a major attack).   

Lots of things go wrong. The four men lose their communications and are discovered by a goat herder and his two young sons who inform the enemy.  Soon they are attacked by a large group of Taliban fighters. (Still not clear to me where the Taliban get their weapons.)

This is an intense film. You get a sense of the brotherhood between the men and also the hopelessness of their situation. You’ll also feel their pain as they desperately attempt to flee by jumping off mountain cliffs onto to rocks and ground below. 

The film also deals with a moral issue. When the four SEALs are discovered by the goat herder and his sons, there is a debate about what to do. Do they follow the Rules of Engagement and let them go on the basis that they are innocent civilians . . . or should they kill the civilians to eliminate the risk that they’ll return home and alert the Taliban leaders . . . . which the goat herder ultimately did.

All in all, the film is a worthwhile watch, especially if you are a war movie buff. 

GONE BABY GONE (2007) D+

Someone, someone . . . please save me from these movies that are rated B+ by the "Critics".

We cut to the Irish Catholic poorer sections of Boston. Are we in a scene from the movie "Mystic River"? No. Is it the TV Showtime series "Brotherhood"? No again. This time it's Gone Baby Gone. The photography of the streets are cool. Real people. Older storefronts. Cool.

I'm sure someone . . . somewhere in Hollywood-land figured that a formula based on those two hits could work again. The bars, the messy houses, drug dealers, the dirty cops, women who hustle for a buck, people who talk with Boston accents that you can't follow . . . cool. Now If we throw all of this cool stuff into the stew it will work for us.

Unfortunately, what the people who put this movie together didn't know was that a good movie needs more than emoting, pretty faces, and a sideshow of down and outers. It needs a BELIEVABLE COHERENT STORY . . . and that was missing.

This movie looked more like a pilot for a TV series for the actor Casey Affleck. His brother Ben Affleck directed this mess.