Skip to main content

Night Falls On Manhattan

     Hey, everyone. I watched a good movie tonight. I think you might like to see it. It is Night Falls On Manhattan. It stars Andy Garcia as an idealistic young lawyer who is just starting to work as an Assistant District Attorney. His dad is a cop in New York and he was too, until he landed the new gig.
     You may remember the days when you were a young idealist. Very few arrive at an age where they can be called an old idealist. It is a dangerous business, being idealistic. Not many people will love you and fewer still will want to hang with you. Heck, they know you'd send them down the river too, because "It's the right thing to do." But I digress.
     So, Andy Garcia plays Sean Casey. Sean is only a few months into his career with the D.A. when his dad is shot during a drug bust. He survives but three other cops die during the raid.
     The dealer hires the best lawyer in town, Sam Vigoda. (Played by Richard Dreyfuss.) Sam foolishly uses the defense that a group of cops were on the take and therefore coming to kill the dealer. He was just defending himself, according to Sam.
    Sean draws the case and goes to trial. He also goes somewhere with Sam's assistant, Peggy Lindstrom. (Played by the smoking hot Lena Olin.) The place where he goes with Peggy is to her place. Lucky him. Or is it luck? When I saw this I said to myself, "This is poor judgement on his part".
     It turns out that Sean becomes known as a crusader and wins the election for District Attorney. Will his high ideals and standards survive in a city where favors are like poker chips? Will he walk the chalk if his own dad's aged butt is on the line? Can he possibly trust his dad's partner when he looks suspiciously like James Gandolfino from The Sopranos?
     This movie is odd, in that it makes you stop and think about that first time when you started thinking about shades of grey instead of black and white. About the fact that some things are so subtle that you still are not sure, decades later, what was cool and what wasn't. About words like 'the greater good'. About how much crap it is to punish the good guys when they chase the bad guys and where lines must be drawn. About the fearful and scary job that a judge has when he has to sit on a bench and decide people's fate. May God help these men and women as they have to exercise the power of their office.
     Speaking of responsibilities of office... I read that Steven Segal is thinking of running for Governor of Arizona. I figure he would make a good one. I also expect that he would win. I seriously doubt that anyone would intimidate the big guy.
    This film was well acted and directed. It was surprisingly entertaining, considering the fact that there wasn't much action.
     From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Game Review: NFS, Hot Pursuit

    This game was one which I refused to download for a while, even though it was on sale for 99 cents. I thought that it looked boring and narrow. Boy, was I wrong! This game totally kicks butt. It is one of those rare games that will actually give you an adrenaline rush. It is that intense. The developers, EA Games, have recently updated the app to include two main avenues of play. You can either be the cops or the racers who are trying to evade the cops. As a racer you have to deal with cops trying to hit you and make you crash, cops buzzing you with helicopters, oncoming traffic, tack strips spread across the road and roadblocks. In the cop mode you are a cop and you are trying to stop a reckless racer by any means, fair or foul. As a racer you can use nitrous oxide for increased speed, overdrive capability and oil slicks. You also can jam the cops communication with a jamming unit. Like almost all games these days, it gets harder as you go along. I prefer my games to...

Four Free Games

     Hey, everyone. If free games makes the start of a new week a little better, we're in luck. Check these out on your friendly, neighborhood app store. 1) Cowboys vs. Aliens vs. Ninjas- This is a dual stick shooter, much like Mini-Gore . You are an old-west cowboy with a vast array of weapons (earned gradually). You have to move and shoot, avoiding death, as you battle Ninjas and aliens. Some aliens are quite large. Some enemies are big Sumo Wrestlers. There are sword-wielding ninjas and these aliens that yield a mini-nuclear explosion when killed. When your enemies die they leave behind little stacks of money, or skulls. You collect these items because of a strange hobby of trophy grabbing for your macabre collection. Just kidding, the items can be spent or used as the game progresses. This is a good game and I played it for a while last night. 2) The Heist - A puzzle game with a twist. As you try to open a bank vault, you must face a series of different puz...

Bottle On The Doorknob

      Hey, everyone. I took a day of vacation today and really enjoyed it. We went out and bought some flowers. Flowers don't do well up here as a rule so we buy some and have a couple of big pots of assorted flowers on the deck for the summer. This year we are going to set the pots out in the yard a bit. The reason for this is the moisture and dirt in the pots seems to attract ants, scorpions and perhaps gnats. Bloody drag, what?     This weekend there seemed to be a bad odor in the house in the area of the master bedroom and the master bath. We could not isolate what the problem was. We did a number of things, including pouring vinegar and baking soda down the drains, which boils them out in rather spectacular fashion. Put a handful small amount of baking soda down them first, then pour vinegar down them. Very cool.     We finally deduced that a mouse had crawled up between the floor and sub-floor underneath the jacuzzi, after ...