The Sunday morning of my 73rd birthday weekend started off well with some successful game playing against the computer and then some solid writing up of two interesting and engaged black comedies experienced yesterday and then I somehow managed to wipe the work with any recording. It is perhaps an indication of my resolve, patience and new found sense of purpose and sanguine state of being that I then got myself ready for going out to see a 3D production of Madam Butterfly, did the washing up and prepared lunch and then commenced to rewrite before the planned departure at 1300 for the 1400 performance using my you pre paid pass for the Tyne Tunnel crossings.
I commenced to write this second weekend celebration memory with some cool sounds from the Modern Jazz quarter on Deezer with All the things you are, Vendome, La Ronde where I had the original 10 inch LP with Rose of the Rio Grande and the Queen’s Fancy, Delaunay’s Dilemma, Autumn in New York, In a Sentimental Mood and The Stopper, Almost like being in Love, No Moe and Django(on original LP) One base hit and Milano(on LP) La Ronde Suit , Ralphs New Blues and All of me.
I also enjoyed the semi final of American Idol in which 25 hopefuls were cut to 13, 6 ladies and 7 men. My problem is that the ladies are collectively better than the men but because of the pubic voting which favours the men, it is likely that the winner will from them.
In the first show where the lowest public supported male and female will vie for the one place from the judges there were some outstanding performances and the group are significant better than any UK competition.
The present front runner in terms of singing voice is the Spanish American Jessica Sanchez only sixteen years from San Diego. She presently lacks the stage presence to guarantee a place in the last three.
The other twelve before the first sending home were Deandre Brackens a 17 year old from San Jose California who as a high voice in contrast to Jermaine Jones from Pine Hill New Jersey a 25 year old with an exceptionally deep baritone. Both will do well from a novelty aspect. The outstanding male is Joshua Ledet from Westlake Los Angeles with a gospel poor family background Phillip Phillips is a talented 21 year old musician from Georgia Lessburg musician who puts his own slant on whatever number he is asked to sing. He has confidence and stage presence but the voice is limited and with distinctiveness.
The potential dark horse is the Chinese Heehjun Han 22 from Flushing New York who is something of comedian but has a surprisingly seasoned swinging crooner’s tone. Colton Dixon 20 from Murfressboro Tennessee entered the competition last year and did not make it to the finals and this year came to support his sister but was persuaded to enter him. He made it and she did not. He has the looks and a vulnerability which should attract support from the young girls and their mums. There is also a highly emotional overweight 19 year old Jeremy Rosado who was rescued by as a Judges pick last week but without public support I forecast he would struggle this week.
There are three other outstanding female singers who I expect to reach the latter stages of the competition. Although she is unlikely to win my favourite is Skylar Laine 18 years from Brandon Massachusetts who has the natural voice of a country singer with the strength of a rocker reminding of Janice Joplin, Tina Turner and Loretta Lynn rolled into one. 18 year old Hollie Cavanagh form McKinney Texas has extraordinary powerful vocals while married Ericka Van Pelt at 26 from South Kingston Rhode Island is a strong professional lounge singer as is Elise Testone 28 from Charleston South Carolina. The six foot tall with taller parents sixteen year old Shannon Magraine from Tampa Florida found the Whitney Houston number too much and disappointed so I anticipate she will struggle in the public vote. It was of no surprise that Jeremy Rosado received the lowest public vote and they also held back Joshua Ledet. However 16 year old Shannon received the Florida vote over Elise and from there it was inevitable that Rosado was the first of the Finalist sent homes. It was the best result.
I now turn to the three black humour comedies of the weekend with the most interesting Limitless where the subject is the extent of our unused brain power. It is a subject week covered in recent fiction films and television programmes, particularly the series the 4400 but also episodes in the X Files, Star Trek and Babylon 5. There is a new BBC series starting about the same subject where it is argued that we only consciously use about one fifth of the brain operating and storage power with the main function our subconscious accumulating information and memory banks in addition to parts which do not use and who purpose remain unknown.
I have previously expressed the view that perhaps we also genetically inherit the memories of ancestors which accounts for individuals believing they have lived before including recounting experiences under hypnosis. Even the interactions of those who do not have children live on in the memories of the others.
In Limitless Eddie is a writer and similar to you will meet a tall dark Stranger he has encountered a writer’s block. His publisher is anticipating a completed novel and he has not written a word. He has also separated from his girlfriend having been divorced from the ubiquitous Anna Friel. It is a chance meeting with his former brother in law, a man with whom he has nothing in common, which is to change his life in dramatic ways.
The man claims to have found a mind expanding designer drug and later Eddie is tempted to try out and is amazed at the impact. The brain becomes hyper sharp and active with the capacity to grasp the significance of vast quantities of information. The mind begins to function like a super analytical computer. He completes the first 90 pages of a book before stopping for sleep and his publisher is ecstatic and cannot wait to see the rest.
He visits the home of his brother in law to see if more of the substance is available but while he is out on an errand the man is murdered and the apartment ransacked but fortunately the stash of drugs remains to be found.
He decides to put his new powers to making money on the stock market and is so successful that he turns to a loan shark, a Russian mobster for a loan of one hundred thousand dollars. It is interesting the tendencies for Hollywood to now make the mobsters Russian rather Italian, Irish, Jewish or Spanish American. He quickly turns the money into two million attracting publicity and the attention of a speculating company trader, a kind of Wall Street, Wall Street Michael Douglas character.
They meet and he is offered the opportunity to test his ability with a mass of information about a company where the speculator wants to force a merger. Edie makes the mistake of increasing the dose and this send him on a wild period of eighteen hours, full of hallucinations, a fight in which he reproduces various boxing, Kung Fo and other Marshall Arts abilities from the memory of what he has seen performed by others, he goes dancing in a night club and stays over night with a woman he meets up.
There are three immediate consequences of this experience. First he has re-established contact with the girl friend that is impressed by his drive and success, speaking fluent Italian at a restaurant, or it may have been French. While they are not living together she is concerned about his sudden loss in contact and begins to questions his new persona.
Secondly the woman with whom he spent the night is murdered and it takes a lawyer to ensure that when he comes under suspicion there is no evidence against him.
He is reluctant to attend the meeting arranged with the head of the firm to be merged because of his condition but the research undertaken arouses his suspicion that the man had also discovered the properties of the drug and has become a user to explain the rapid development of the company. However he is able provide the guidance to achieve the merger on favourable terms and for this he is paid 40 million which means he can progress from a bodyguard to a fortress penthouse,
There are then a number of developments which appear to put his new position and wealth in jeopardy. The Russian wants his money back with interest which is no problem but in the process he tries one of the tablets and is most impressed by the experience and understandably wants more.
He has contact with his ex wife who reveals that she had also taken the drug provided by her brother but had managed to come off before it killed her. What he does is to acquire a lab to produce the drug but also to re-engineer to avoid the side effects. He reduces the dosage taken by making soluble and injecting which also has an impact quicker but lasts longer.
When asked to attend a line up re the murdered girl he changes his suit at the suggestion of the lawyer but when it is returned he finds the tablets in a secret pocket have been taken. He then sees the lawyer on TV acting for the man owning the merged company. There has also been an advance leak of the merger affecting share prices which the man who hired him takes exception believing he is the author and send him the chopped hand of his body guard as a warning.
He has been shadowed by someone who turns out to be the chauffer of the Merger Man who correctly was after a new supply of the drug. After the loss of the supply from his suit he asks his girlfriend to bring some stored in her flat and she intercepted by the chauffer and agrees to take one of the tablets to enable her to escape and reach him safely. The experience is sufficient to break off the relationship.
The Russian now breaks into his apartment mob handed for the drug and there is a fierce fight in which he manages to stab the Russian and although wounded he survives and overcomes the rest by drinking the blood of the dying Russian.
The Merger man dies and Eddie contacts the chauffer and advises that his employer was double crossed by the lawyer who had kept the drugs for his personal use. The man agrees to steal back the drugs taken by the lawyer.
A year passes and the book has been finished and published and is great success. He is standing for the Senate and all the Polls indicate a landslide victory. He is back with his girlfriend. He is approached by the lawyer who says he has acquired the firm with the lab preparing the drug which he has shut down. He will reopen if Eddie agrees to do favours as he becomes more and more powerful as a politician en route to the White House.
He refuses to be blackmailed. He says that he is now 50 moves ahead of the lawyer and all rivals. He had sent up other labs for such an eventuality but in any event as a result of work on the drug and his careful use he has reached the point where his brain functions at the highest level without the substance. He tells the man he has a serious heart condition which required immediate surgery.
The film ends with a celebratory meal with the girl friend and he now impresses her again by speaking fluent Chinese. We the audience are left wondering if he has become drug free or is remains as dependent as before. The film can be argued as one aspect of the American Dream,
The Middle Men is an important film for although it is also billed as a comedy it is full of truths about one aspect of contemporary society and although a work of fiction presented as a true story one suspects it is closer to several truths than will be admitted by the powers that be.
The film is also the story of another normal Middle American white male who in this instance has a flair for problem solving and agrees to help out someone in the process of creating a nightclub bar half way across the states from his family. He has married a local girl and has two children and they struggle to live at the level which their background and education has equipped them for.
He solves the problem and creates an effective business which he comes to own employing a group of heavies who he is able to call on for help when he asked to taken on another assignment of different proportions although this is not immediately apparent.
Because the lawyer contact is under Federal investigation he is asked to help sort out the business affairs of a couple of maniac college friends who allegedly created the US based Internet Porn business. One with a high IQ is a former NASA scientist, former because he became a crack head, and is alleged to have worked out the first programme which enabled people to buy goods and services on the Internet using Credit Cards. He does this in order to provide the first Internet Porn site originally pictures scanned from magazines. When this proves successful they have the idea to create their own porn film business and visit a local pole dancing club to do a deal with the owner, not appreciating that the club is owned by the Russian mafia. They do a deal in which they have unlimited access to the girls for 25% of the profits. The project is so successful that they make millions of dollars but fail to make any payments to the Russia and getting beaten up. The oversight was not intentional but they have become so involved with sex, drugs and drink and have no organisation or business sense. One point they leave an uncashed cheque for two million among other papers in a drawer.
Jack (Harris) played by Luke Wilson does not want to become involved with pornography but the lawyer explains that it is being a middle man like hotel owners who provides adult film channels. Jack then has the idea of creating business acting for the production companies and their Internet sites, including the TV channels where the purchase is itemised in a neutral way disguising the true purpose. For this they will charge ten percent offering the provider a vastly increased market as a consequence.
His first task is to buy out the interest of the lawyer who introduced him into the deal for two hundred thousand. His second is to broker a peace deal with the Russian Mafia boss who sends his Uncle for the outstanding amount which is said to be four hundred thousand to which he adds fifty thousand more as a good will gesture. Unfortunately the relative of the Mobster arrives in an aggressive mood and the leading heavy for Jack strike a blow to the man’s head which proves fatal. They dump the body at sea and Jack realises he is now committed to keeping a close watch on the partners because of their instability and tendency to talk.
The Russian is suspicious and there is a confrontation with a settlement of 50% of profits and the threat of severe retribution if it is discovered they had a hand in the disappearance of their relative.
At first he resent the time spent away from his family but over the years he becomes more and more attracted to the life and establishes a relationship with a young porn star nearly half his age.
His marriage breaks up and the porn star moves in with him, and despite giving 50% to the Russian they are each worth in excess of a hundred million with a major commercial and production centre. His now teenage son gets into trouble and Jack flies back to the East to blackmail those preventing the charges being dropped by revealing their record of Internet porn transactions.
At the race track he meets the Russians who advise that he is being watch by the FBI as well as themselves. They have someone trailing the FBI trailing them and overheard their interest in Jack. He arrives home one day to learn that the FBI have called on his mistress with a proposition which they then put to Jack when calling at his office, They have discovered that certain terrorists have become addicted to the site of his mistress because she does not have sex with others. They suggest she uses uniforms and weapons in her act and keeps them informed when she launches direct contact video services. They use internet tracking to locate the terrorists and carrying out successful strikes for which the government is appreciative for their efforts on behalf of the American people.
Everything then changes when the FBI arrive to advise that they have discovered the production company in which he is a partner is providing a child porn site and that in due course those involved will be prosecuted and sent to prison, including himself unless he can find a way out. They are not concerned about the manslaughter of one less mobster.
The situation arose because the lawyer introduced the partners to a contact who was able to provide more challenging sites and unbeknown to them this included those under age. Although alerted and intending to close the site they had forgotten to do so and then they spot the FBI meeting with Jack and assume he is selling them out over the child porn site when they see a handshake.
Jack visits the man responsible for the site at his mansion and finds a large sex party. He attacks the man and shoots him in the leg. He then sees his mistress with two hunks. He has her bags packed when she returns home and although has often said she feels no guilt about her life she pleads to stay needing the stability of normality of their life to counterbalance her professional life. He refuses.
He also discovers that the lawyer has been acting for the Russian mobster. It was he who persuaded the relative to seek double the amount which was owed and it he who introduced the partners to the child pornographer. The lawyer has remained aggrieved at being bought out so cheaply and has suspicions about the disappearance of the Russian. Now as pressure builds up in the partners about the child pornography and fearing the sell out to the FBI they share their knowledge of the disappearance with lawyer who in turn informs the Russians.
The consequence is that they set out to abduct his teenage son but instead take the young child of the Mexican housekeeper. Nevertheless decides to meet the demands for the release of the boy which is a huge amount of money. He fears for his life and has a talk with his son on the basis he may not return. He is asked to relinquish all his holdings to the new syndicate and agrees but asks for the contract to be backdate a year to avoid taxation on his earning of the year. This is agreed.
He returns the boy to the parents and he and his wife are reconciled. The partners are indicated for their involvement in the child porn site and try to take jack down with them The FBI point out that he sold out his involvement six months before the start of the criminal site. The Russian has also disappeared presumed to back to his homeland. It is another form of the American Dream
Since returning from the opera I have been listening to Miss Saigon while writing and have reached the point towards the end of the musical with the number the American Dream. One of those interesting coincides of life.
The third black comedy is enjoyable rubbish the Oliver Stone film U Turn which is the name of the town in the desert which gangster money owing drifter Sean Penn as Bobby visits to find a garage where he blows his hose and he engine overheats. Here he meets the odd ball garage owner mechanic played by virtuoso Billy Bob Thornton who takes him as far to the cleaners as he is able. He has no other role except to undertake work which will have a crucial bearing on the outcome of the film.
Penn’s journey is to deliver a substantial cash sum borrowed from a gangster in California. With a few hours to kill he takes the money from the back of the car but leaves his gun which given his overall circumstance is stupid but this is a loser Sean Penn who deserves every misfortune that is to come his way.
He goes for a cool drink but first sees Jennifer Lopez armed with parcels of new drapes (curtains) and he follows his trousers unaware that she is a cold blooded calculating manipulative bitch. She invites him to her home for a shower and unaware that she is wearing a wedding ring he gets as far as a kiss when husband Jake, (Nick Nolte) arrives home and starts to beat the crap out of him, understandably, but also offers to drive him back into town knowing that the man will die in the desert midday sun. However he has an ulterior motive as he would like the stranger to kill the scheming bitch for a substantial fee.
In town he goes into the convenience store which is then attacked by two gun slinging robbers but who are no match for the store owner who zaps them with her blunderbuss destroying most of the money in the effort although Penn is so anxious about the situation that he leaves the remains of the money behind. He then cannot pay for the work on the car which is impounded by Thornton and the stupid Penn having left is gun in the boot cannot do anything about the situation other than go back into town and try and raise money, including contacting the owner of the money for another loan who sends someone to sort him out.
He goes to a bar and is approached by the local jail bait whose ten foot tall three foot wide boyfriend takes exception to the fraternization and starts to beat the crap again although worse damage is prevented by the arrival of the Sheriff. He drops the beet outside and encounters a blind Indian played by Jon Voight with a dead dog who bullies Penn into getting him a drink,
Back at the garage Nolte is doing more work on the car and says he will not release the vehicle until the growing debt is paid. There is nothing for it but to take the commission to kill Lopez by throwing her off a cliff to suggest suicide. However instead of carrying out the plan in he starts to have sex with her whom she cuts short and explains that she is not just Jake’s wife but his illegitimate daughter who he sexually abused as a child and married after her mother committed suicide falling from a cliff. Grace asks Bobby to kill her husband and share his money. This appears to be a dream.
He manages to get a bus ticket out of town and evades the man sent to sort him out as the Sheriff arrests the individual for speeding. Just when he believes he can escape he is confronted again by the boyfriend of miss jailbait( Joaquin Phoenix) but this time he manages to beat up the man after his ticket has been ripped up and eaten.
Penn then goes back to the home of Jake and Grace to kill Jake who is having sex with his daughter/wife and hears the arrival so he changes the story and says he has come to kill Grace but she overhears and attacks them with a tomahawk which eventually leads to the death of Jake. They find $200000 and celebrate by having sex.
He goes for his car and he and Grace drive off with the body in the back. They are stopped by the Sheriff who has been having sex with Grace until the arrival of Penn. She shoots the Sheriff whose body is also placed in the trunk of the car.
They get rid of the bodies over the cliff and then Penn gets his gun back by hitting Grace in the face saying he does not trust her but will split he money when they reach California. Grace manages to push Penn over the cliff and makes her way to the car only to find that Penn has removed the keys. Although badly injured he manages to strangle her when she arrives back and gets himself to the car with all the money. However he has not driven very far when the radiator hose bursts again and he dies from sub exposure in the car. And the moral is?
My 73rd birthday coincided with the launch of a new Formula 1 channel on Sky in HD and which promises racing without advertisement breaks. Before the start of the 2012 there is wall to wall programming featuring previous championship, championship drivers and the evolution of the Formula I racing Car. It is interesting that like Horse racing there are dedicated channels and no a generic channel on Association Football, although a few clubs have their own channel. There was also a showing of the film about the life of Ayrton Senna- Senna. I will review this tomorrow along with the 1945 film cornered, Madam Butterfly in 3D and Miss Saigon the Sounds track the musical together with a sport update. First thing though there is a blood sugars test at the General Hospital and then Leveson which I need to concentrate my reporting subsequently before a trip away at the weekend.
I commenced to write this second weekend celebration memory with some cool sounds from the Modern Jazz quarter on Deezer with All the things you are, Vendome, La Ronde where I had the original 10 inch LP with Rose of the Rio Grande and the Queen’s Fancy, Delaunay’s Dilemma, Autumn in New York, In a Sentimental Mood and The Stopper, Almost like being in Love, No Moe and Django(on original LP) One base hit and Milano(on LP) La Ronde Suit , Ralphs New Blues and All of me.
I also enjoyed the semi final of American Idol in which 25 hopefuls were cut to 13, 6 ladies and 7 men. My problem is that the ladies are collectively better than the men but because of the pubic voting which favours the men, it is likely that the winner will from them.
In the first show where the lowest public supported male and female will vie for the one place from the judges there were some outstanding performances and the group are significant better than any UK competition.
The present front runner in terms of singing voice is the Spanish American Jessica Sanchez only sixteen years from San Diego. She presently lacks the stage presence to guarantee a place in the last three.
The other twelve before the first sending home were Deandre Brackens a 17 year old from San Jose California who as a high voice in contrast to Jermaine Jones from Pine Hill New Jersey a 25 year old with an exceptionally deep baritone. Both will do well from a novelty aspect. The outstanding male is Joshua Ledet from Westlake Los Angeles with a gospel poor family background Phillip Phillips is a talented 21 year old musician from Georgia Lessburg musician who puts his own slant on whatever number he is asked to sing. He has confidence and stage presence but the voice is limited and with distinctiveness.
The potential dark horse is the Chinese Heehjun Han 22 from Flushing New York who is something of comedian but has a surprisingly seasoned swinging crooner’s tone. Colton Dixon 20 from Murfressboro Tennessee entered the competition last year and did not make it to the finals and this year came to support his sister but was persuaded to enter him. He made it and she did not. He has the looks and a vulnerability which should attract support from the young girls and their mums. There is also a highly emotional overweight 19 year old Jeremy Rosado who was rescued by as a Judges pick last week but without public support I forecast he would struggle this week.
There are three other outstanding female singers who I expect to reach the latter stages of the competition. Although she is unlikely to win my favourite is Skylar Laine 18 years from Brandon Massachusetts who has the natural voice of a country singer with the strength of a rocker reminding of Janice Joplin, Tina Turner and Loretta Lynn rolled into one. 18 year old Hollie Cavanagh form McKinney Texas has extraordinary powerful vocals while married Ericka Van Pelt at 26 from South Kingston Rhode Island is a strong professional lounge singer as is Elise Testone 28 from Charleston South Carolina. The six foot tall with taller parents sixteen year old Shannon Magraine from Tampa Florida found the Whitney Houston number too much and disappointed so I anticipate she will struggle in the public vote. It was of no surprise that Jeremy Rosado received the lowest public vote and they also held back Joshua Ledet. However 16 year old Shannon received the Florida vote over Elise and from there it was inevitable that Rosado was the first of the Finalist sent homes. It was the best result.
I now turn to the three black humour comedies of the weekend with the most interesting Limitless where the subject is the extent of our unused brain power. It is a subject week covered in recent fiction films and television programmes, particularly the series the 4400 but also episodes in the X Files, Star Trek and Babylon 5. There is a new BBC series starting about the same subject where it is argued that we only consciously use about one fifth of the brain operating and storage power with the main function our subconscious accumulating information and memory banks in addition to parts which do not use and who purpose remain unknown.
I have previously expressed the view that perhaps we also genetically inherit the memories of ancestors which accounts for individuals believing they have lived before including recounting experiences under hypnosis. Even the interactions of those who do not have children live on in the memories of the others.
In Limitless Eddie is a writer and similar to you will meet a tall dark Stranger he has encountered a writer’s block. His publisher is anticipating a completed novel and he has not written a word. He has also separated from his girlfriend having been divorced from the ubiquitous Anna Friel. It is a chance meeting with his former brother in law, a man with whom he has nothing in common, which is to change his life in dramatic ways.
The man claims to have found a mind expanding designer drug and later Eddie is tempted to try out and is amazed at the impact. The brain becomes hyper sharp and active with the capacity to grasp the significance of vast quantities of information. The mind begins to function like a super analytical computer. He completes the first 90 pages of a book before stopping for sleep and his publisher is ecstatic and cannot wait to see the rest.
He visits the home of his brother in law to see if more of the substance is available but while he is out on an errand the man is murdered and the apartment ransacked but fortunately the stash of drugs remains to be found.
He decides to put his new powers to making money on the stock market and is so successful that he turns to a loan shark, a Russian mobster for a loan of one hundred thousand dollars. It is interesting the tendencies for Hollywood to now make the mobsters Russian rather Italian, Irish, Jewish or Spanish American. He quickly turns the money into two million attracting publicity and the attention of a speculating company trader, a kind of Wall Street, Wall Street Michael Douglas character.
They meet and he is offered the opportunity to test his ability with a mass of information about a company where the speculator wants to force a merger. Edie makes the mistake of increasing the dose and this send him on a wild period of eighteen hours, full of hallucinations, a fight in which he reproduces various boxing, Kung Fo and other Marshall Arts abilities from the memory of what he has seen performed by others, he goes dancing in a night club and stays over night with a woman he meets up.
There are three immediate consequences of this experience. First he has re-established contact with the girl friend that is impressed by his drive and success, speaking fluent Italian at a restaurant, or it may have been French. While they are not living together she is concerned about his sudden loss in contact and begins to questions his new persona.
Secondly the woman with whom he spent the night is murdered and it takes a lawyer to ensure that when he comes under suspicion there is no evidence against him.
He is reluctant to attend the meeting arranged with the head of the firm to be merged because of his condition but the research undertaken arouses his suspicion that the man had also discovered the properties of the drug and has become a user to explain the rapid development of the company. However he is able provide the guidance to achieve the merger on favourable terms and for this he is paid 40 million which means he can progress from a bodyguard to a fortress penthouse,
There are then a number of developments which appear to put his new position and wealth in jeopardy. The Russian wants his money back with interest which is no problem but in the process he tries one of the tablets and is most impressed by the experience and understandably wants more.
He has contact with his ex wife who reveals that she had also taken the drug provided by her brother but had managed to come off before it killed her. What he does is to acquire a lab to produce the drug but also to re-engineer to avoid the side effects. He reduces the dosage taken by making soluble and injecting which also has an impact quicker but lasts longer.
When asked to attend a line up re the murdered girl he changes his suit at the suggestion of the lawyer but when it is returned he finds the tablets in a secret pocket have been taken. He then sees the lawyer on TV acting for the man owning the merged company. There has also been an advance leak of the merger affecting share prices which the man who hired him takes exception believing he is the author and send him the chopped hand of his body guard as a warning.
He has been shadowed by someone who turns out to be the chauffer of the Merger Man who correctly was after a new supply of the drug. After the loss of the supply from his suit he asks his girlfriend to bring some stored in her flat and she intercepted by the chauffer and agrees to take one of the tablets to enable her to escape and reach him safely. The experience is sufficient to break off the relationship.
The Russian now breaks into his apartment mob handed for the drug and there is a fierce fight in which he manages to stab the Russian and although wounded he survives and overcomes the rest by drinking the blood of the dying Russian.
The Merger man dies and Eddie contacts the chauffer and advises that his employer was double crossed by the lawyer who had kept the drugs for his personal use. The man agrees to steal back the drugs taken by the lawyer.
A year passes and the book has been finished and published and is great success. He is standing for the Senate and all the Polls indicate a landslide victory. He is back with his girlfriend. He is approached by the lawyer who says he has acquired the firm with the lab preparing the drug which he has shut down. He will reopen if Eddie agrees to do favours as he becomes more and more powerful as a politician en route to the White House.
He refuses to be blackmailed. He says that he is now 50 moves ahead of the lawyer and all rivals. He had sent up other labs for such an eventuality but in any event as a result of work on the drug and his careful use he has reached the point where his brain functions at the highest level without the substance. He tells the man he has a serious heart condition which required immediate surgery.
The film ends with a celebratory meal with the girl friend and he now impresses her again by speaking fluent Chinese. We the audience are left wondering if he has become drug free or is remains as dependent as before. The film can be argued as one aspect of the American Dream,
The Middle Men is an important film for although it is also billed as a comedy it is full of truths about one aspect of contemporary society and although a work of fiction presented as a true story one suspects it is closer to several truths than will be admitted by the powers that be.
The film is also the story of another normal Middle American white male who in this instance has a flair for problem solving and agrees to help out someone in the process of creating a nightclub bar half way across the states from his family. He has married a local girl and has two children and they struggle to live at the level which their background and education has equipped them for.
He solves the problem and creates an effective business which he comes to own employing a group of heavies who he is able to call on for help when he asked to taken on another assignment of different proportions although this is not immediately apparent.
Because the lawyer contact is under Federal investigation he is asked to help sort out the business affairs of a couple of maniac college friends who allegedly created the US based Internet Porn business. One with a high IQ is a former NASA scientist, former because he became a crack head, and is alleged to have worked out the first programme which enabled people to buy goods and services on the Internet using Credit Cards. He does this in order to provide the first Internet Porn site originally pictures scanned from magazines. When this proves successful they have the idea to create their own porn film business and visit a local pole dancing club to do a deal with the owner, not appreciating that the club is owned by the Russian mafia. They do a deal in which they have unlimited access to the girls for 25% of the profits. The project is so successful that they make millions of dollars but fail to make any payments to the Russia and getting beaten up. The oversight was not intentional but they have become so involved with sex, drugs and drink and have no organisation or business sense. One point they leave an uncashed cheque for two million among other papers in a drawer.
Jack (Harris) played by Luke Wilson does not want to become involved with pornography but the lawyer explains that it is being a middle man like hotel owners who provides adult film channels. Jack then has the idea of creating business acting for the production companies and their Internet sites, including the TV channels where the purchase is itemised in a neutral way disguising the true purpose. For this they will charge ten percent offering the provider a vastly increased market as a consequence.
His first task is to buy out the interest of the lawyer who introduced him into the deal for two hundred thousand. His second is to broker a peace deal with the Russian Mafia boss who sends his Uncle for the outstanding amount which is said to be four hundred thousand to which he adds fifty thousand more as a good will gesture. Unfortunately the relative of the Mobster arrives in an aggressive mood and the leading heavy for Jack strike a blow to the man’s head which proves fatal. They dump the body at sea and Jack realises he is now committed to keeping a close watch on the partners because of their instability and tendency to talk.
The Russian is suspicious and there is a confrontation with a settlement of 50% of profits and the threat of severe retribution if it is discovered they had a hand in the disappearance of their relative.
At first he resent the time spent away from his family but over the years he becomes more and more attracted to the life and establishes a relationship with a young porn star nearly half his age.
His marriage breaks up and the porn star moves in with him, and despite giving 50% to the Russian they are each worth in excess of a hundred million with a major commercial and production centre. His now teenage son gets into trouble and Jack flies back to the East to blackmail those preventing the charges being dropped by revealing their record of Internet porn transactions.
At the race track he meets the Russians who advise that he is being watch by the FBI as well as themselves. They have someone trailing the FBI trailing them and overheard their interest in Jack. He arrives home one day to learn that the FBI have called on his mistress with a proposition which they then put to Jack when calling at his office, They have discovered that certain terrorists have become addicted to the site of his mistress because she does not have sex with others. They suggest she uses uniforms and weapons in her act and keeps them informed when she launches direct contact video services. They use internet tracking to locate the terrorists and carrying out successful strikes for which the government is appreciative for their efforts on behalf of the American people.
Everything then changes when the FBI arrive to advise that they have discovered the production company in which he is a partner is providing a child porn site and that in due course those involved will be prosecuted and sent to prison, including himself unless he can find a way out. They are not concerned about the manslaughter of one less mobster.
The situation arose because the lawyer introduced the partners to a contact who was able to provide more challenging sites and unbeknown to them this included those under age. Although alerted and intending to close the site they had forgotten to do so and then they spot the FBI meeting with Jack and assume he is selling them out over the child porn site when they see a handshake.
Jack visits the man responsible for the site at his mansion and finds a large sex party. He attacks the man and shoots him in the leg. He then sees his mistress with two hunks. He has her bags packed when she returns home and although has often said she feels no guilt about her life she pleads to stay needing the stability of normality of their life to counterbalance her professional life. He refuses.
He also discovers that the lawyer has been acting for the Russian mobster. It was he who persuaded the relative to seek double the amount which was owed and it he who introduced the partners to the child pornographer. The lawyer has remained aggrieved at being bought out so cheaply and has suspicions about the disappearance of the Russian. Now as pressure builds up in the partners about the child pornography and fearing the sell out to the FBI they share their knowledge of the disappearance with lawyer who in turn informs the Russians.
The consequence is that they set out to abduct his teenage son but instead take the young child of the Mexican housekeeper. Nevertheless decides to meet the demands for the release of the boy which is a huge amount of money. He fears for his life and has a talk with his son on the basis he may not return. He is asked to relinquish all his holdings to the new syndicate and agrees but asks for the contract to be backdate a year to avoid taxation on his earning of the year. This is agreed.
He returns the boy to the parents and he and his wife are reconciled. The partners are indicated for their involvement in the child porn site and try to take jack down with them The FBI point out that he sold out his involvement six months before the start of the criminal site. The Russian has also disappeared presumed to back to his homeland. It is another form of the American Dream
Since returning from the opera I have been listening to Miss Saigon while writing and have reached the point towards the end of the musical with the number the American Dream. One of those interesting coincides of life.
The third black comedy is enjoyable rubbish the Oliver Stone film U Turn which is the name of the town in the desert which gangster money owing drifter Sean Penn as Bobby visits to find a garage where he blows his hose and he engine overheats. Here he meets the odd ball garage owner mechanic played by virtuoso Billy Bob Thornton who takes him as far to the cleaners as he is able. He has no other role except to undertake work which will have a crucial bearing on the outcome of the film.
Penn’s journey is to deliver a substantial cash sum borrowed from a gangster in California. With a few hours to kill he takes the money from the back of the car but leaves his gun which given his overall circumstance is stupid but this is a loser Sean Penn who deserves every misfortune that is to come his way.
He goes for a cool drink but first sees Jennifer Lopez armed with parcels of new drapes (curtains) and he follows his trousers unaware that she is a cold blooded calculating manipulative bitch. She invites him to her home for a shower and unaware that she is wearing a wedding ring he gets as far as a kiss when husband Jake, (Nick Nolte) arrives home and starts to beat the crap out of him, understandably, but also offers to drive him back into town knowing that the man will die in the desert midday sun. However he has an ulterior motive as he would like the stranger to kill the scheming bitch for a substantial fee.
In town he goes into the convenience store which is then attacked by two gun slinging robbers but who are no match for the store owner who zaps them with her blunderbuss destroying most of the money in the effort although Penn is so anxious about the situation that he leaves the remains of the money behind. He then cannot pay for the work on the car which is impounded by Thornton and the stupid Penn having left is gun in the boot cannot do anything about the situation other than go back into town and try and raise money, including contacting the owner of the money for another loan who sends someone to sort him out.
He goes to a bar and is approached by the local jail bait whose ten foot tall three foot wide boyfriend takes exception to the fraternization and starts to beat the crap again although worse damage is prevented by the arrival of the Sheriff. He drops the beet outside and encounters a blind Indian played by Jon Voight with a dead dog who bullies Penn into getting him a drink,
Back at the garage Nolte is doing more work on the car and says he will not release the vehicle until the growing debt is paid. There is nothing for it but to take the commission to kill Lopez by throwing her off a cliff to suggest suicide. However instead of carrying out the plan in he starts to have sex with her whom she cuts short and explains that she is not just Jake’s wife but his illegitimate daughter who he sexually abused as a child and married after her mother committed suicide falling from a cliff. Grace asks Bobby to kill her husband and share his money. This appears to be a dream.
He manages to get a bus ticket out of town and evades the man sent to sort him out as the Sheriff arrests the individual for speeding. Just when he believes he can escape he is confronted again by the boyfriend of miss jailbait( Joaquin Phoenix) but this time he manages to beat up the man after his ticket has been ripped up and eaten.
Penn then goes back to the home of Jake and Grace to kill Jake who is having sex with his daughter/wife and hears the arrival so he changes the story and says he has come to kill Grace but she overhears and attacks them with a tomahawk which eventually leads to the death of Jake. They find $200000 and celebrate by having sex.
He goes for his car and he and Grace drive off with the body in the back. They are stopped by the Sheriff who has been having sex with Grace until the arrival of Penn. She shoots the Sheriff whose body is also placed in the trunk of the car.
They get rid of the bodies over the cliff and then Penn gets his gun back by hitting Grace in the face saying he does not trust her but will split he money when they reach California. Grace manages to push Penn over the cliff and makes her way to the car only to find that Penn has removed the keys. Although badly injured he manages to strangle her when she arrives back and gets himself to the car with all the money. However he has not driven very far when the radiator hose bursts again and he dies from sub exposure in the car. And the moral is?
My 73rd birthday coincided with the launch of a new Formula 1 channel on Sky in HD and which promises racing without advertisement breaks. Before the start of the 2012 there is wall to wall programming featuring previous championship, championship drivers and the evolution of the Formula I racing Car. It is interesting that like Horse racing there are dedicated channels and no a generic channel on Association Football, although a few clubs have their own channel. There was also a showing of the film about the life of Ayrton Senna- Senna. I will review this tomorrow along with the 1945 film cornered, Madam Butterfly in 3D and Miss Saigon the Sounds track the musical together with a sport update. First thing though there is a blood sugars test at the General Hospital and then Leveson which I need to concentrate my reporting subsequently before a trip away at the weekend.
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