A Few Good Men - 1992

Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia Pictures Corporation

Directed by Rob Reiner

Cast:

• Lt. JG Daniel Kaffee – Tom Cruise
• Col. Nathan R. Jessup – Jack Nicholson
• Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway – Demi Moore
• Capt. Jack Ross – Kevin Bacon
• Lt. Jonathan Kendrick – Keifer Sutherland
• Lt. Sam Weinberg – Kevin Pollack
• Lt. Col. Markinson – J. T. Walsh
• Col. Jeffrey Barnes – Noah Wylie
• Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson – Wolfgang Bodison
• PFC Louden Downey – James Marshall
• Cpl. Carl Hammaker – Cuba Gooding Jr.

Story: In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a young marine dies in an apparent homicide and two marines are accused of murdering him. A litigator with Internal Affairs, JoAnne Galloway, requests that she be assigned as lead counsel for the defendants. She feels the incident is a “Code Red”, a banned form of unit punishment that has gotten out of hand. The command assigns a young Lt. JG Daniel Kaffee to the case instead. Kaffee has a reputation for plea bargaining and the command feels it is best this case be dealt with quickly and quietly to save the military any embarrassment. Through a series of slick, subtle maneuvers, Galloway becomes involved with the case and accompanies Kaffee and Weinberg, his second chair, to Cuba to investigate the incident. When they arrive, the officer in charge of the unit, Lt. Kendrick, gives them a less than hospitable tour of the crime scene, and the commanding officer and his staff are less than forthcoming concerning the incident, leading Kaffee to believe there is more than meets the eye in this situation. After the lead prosecutor, Captain Ross, offers to knock the charges down to involuntary manslaughter with a two year sentence and release in six months, Kaffee realizes the military does not want this to go to trial. After letting the accused know their offer, and the offer being refused, Kaffee enters a plea of not guilty for his clients, and this trial is on.

Review: A Few Good Men is the epitome of performance for every member of the cast. And what a cast it is. Tom Cruise give the best performance of his career as Daniel Kaffee, the young JAG attorney with a reputation of plea bargaining and taking the easy way out. Demi Moore is incredibly adept as the driven, passionate attorney who lacks the skill to be a successful litigator, but possesses the insight to motivate Cruise's character. Kevin Pollack is the low key foil to Cruise, and his role in the film heightens the tension with a palatable air. Jack Nicholson is nothing short of phenomenal as the arrogant, powerful Marine commander who believes he is untouchable. Kevin Bacon is both Cruise's friend and his opponent and plays the quintessential professional attorney who must represent his client without “passion or prejudice”. Frankly, I could write a paragraph for every character in the film, but if you haven't seen this incredible movie, you need to. Rob Reiner proves beyond a shadow of a doubt his ability to bring out the best in every actor. The end result is a film which requires no explosions, no fluff, no extraneous diversions to be timeless. Rated R for language, this incredible piece of art is one that will be talked about for years to come. Collectible in every sense of the word, and without it, you do not have a collection.

The Shining - 1980

Warner Bros. Pictures, Hawk Films, Peregrine

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

MY 100TH POST! Cast:

• Jack Torrance – Jack Nicholson
• Wendy Torrance – Shelly Duvall
• Danny Torrance – Danny Lloyd
• Dick Halloran – Scatman Crothers
• Stuart Ullman – Barry Newman
• Delbert Grady – Phillip Stone
• Lloyd the Bartender – Joe Turkel

Story: Jack Torrance is a writer looking for a place where he can be alone to work on his novel. The Overlook hotel seems like the ideal location. The Overlook is located high in the mountains in Colorado, and when the winter snows set in, the roads become impassable. The hotel ownership hires one man to stay for the winter, doing odd repairs and rotating the heat to prevent mother nature from taking a hold while the place is unoccupied. But when Jack, his wife Wendy, and their son Danny move in, strange things begin to happen. Danny Torrance has some psychic powers, and the spirits at the Overlook are determined to contact him and his folks to make them permanent guests of the Overlook.

Review: Combine director Stanley Kubrick with writer Stephen King and the acting talents of Jack Nicholson and Joe Turkel, and you have one of the all time classic horror films of the modern age. This thriller is subtle and nearly misleading as we open. Long shots of open highways winding through incredibly beautiful scenery, incredibly appointed rooms with lush beauty, and some small background moments to give you a little insight into the characters. But once the preliminaries are over, the film begins to step up the pace. Little Danny is having visions, as is Jack, and the characters are portrayed like all the characters in King's books...unremarkable until affected by the evil that is the Overlook. Nicholson is incredibly powerful as Torrance, a man with little moral background, a recovering alcoholic and child abuser who has already injured his son. Slowly but surely he is drawn into the Overlooks plans through the manipulations of Lloyd the Bartender, exceptionally portrayed by Joe Turkel. While Shelly Duvall's character is two dimensional and somewhat weak, she nonetheless manages to pick up the gauntlet of the challenge and we witness a transformation from the weak-willed, battered wife to a mother intent on saving her child. While the MPAA did not have the rating system in place at the time, this film would be an should be rated R for language, brief nudity, and scenes of horror and violence. Definitely collectible, they will be talking about this film for years to come as one of Nicholson and Kubrick's greatest achievements.