Category Archives: Film & TV

One Battle After Another

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I rarely recommend a movie because no one ever really knows what someone else is going to like, no matter how well you know that person. Having said that…

Last night we paid $20 to rent One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film ran 2 hours and 45 minutes but the pacing was so fast –from the opening scene– it seemed much shorter.

Sean Penn gave an amazing performance as Col. Steve Lockjaw, the film’s bad guy and if you watch closely you’ll see a few scenes with Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale from The Wire). Some of the humor and the soundtrack reminded me of Quentin Tarantino but I’m not sure Mr. Tarantino could have come up with the Christmas Adventurers Club.

One Battle has earned more than $200 million and most reviews have been glowing (“A near-perfect blend of action, humor and political urgency.”)

How will drones change future war movies?

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While the Ukraine Russian war is still going on, it’s obvious the use of drone technology is changing that war and probably all future wars. I’m wondering how this technology is going to translate into the films that are made about this era.
ChatGPT: This gets at how storytelling evolves alongside military technology. Just as trench warfare shaped WWI films, and helicopters became the icon of Vietnam movies, drones will inevitably define how 21st-century wars are remembered on screen. A few thoughts on how filmmakers might handle it:

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The Ten Best U.S.-War Films

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Let’s see your list of the 10 best war movies ever made. And to make an impossible task a little less impossible, let’s limit it to wars in which the United States has been involved.

ChatGPT: Since we’re narrowing it to wars in which the U.S. was directly involved, I’ll pull across a mix of classics, modern interpretations, and films that capture both the brutality and psychology of war. Not necessarily the definitive top 10, but ten that stand up well as “best ever.” (in no particular order) Continue reading →