SWING VOTE

SWING VOTE: Released August 1, 2008 - 120 minutes.

Ok, the movie trailer looked pretty good; interesting story. I was a little hesitant because of Kevin Costner's record for bad movies OR maybe his lack of movies lately... although he was good in MR. BROOKS (see this movie).

How can we ever forget WATERWORLD? Or THE POSTMAN? That Elvis movie? I know, I've tried to block these movies from my mind.

This movie clocks in at a whopping 2 hours... and I say 'whopping' since most comedies run about an hour and a half.

The basic premise of the movie is that it all comes down to one man's vote to decide an election. Beer drinkin', laid off, single father common man, Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner) has never voted in his life. His 12 year old daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll) decides to register her father to vote. On Election night her father forgets to pick up his daughter and in turn hangs out at the local bar getting drunk. Without giving too much away - his daughter then decides to make her father's decision in the election. By the next day the world finds out that the election will all come down to Bud Johnson's vote. Each Presidential candidate tries to entice Bud to vote for them.

Kelsey Grammer plays President Boone; who is running for re-election. Stanley Tucci (always great) plays his assistant. Dennis Hopper plays the Democratic candidate, Donald Greenleaf. Nathan Lane plays his assistant.

The movie was actually quit good and has an interesting scenerio although the probability of this ever happening is slim. Even though it is two hours it's not even a movie where you go, "man, is this ever going to end".

I wasn't happy with the ending but Sue thought this was probably how it would end. Not going to tell ya...

Also starring: Judge Reinhold, Mare Winningham (brief appearance), Richard Petty (yes, the Nascar guy), Willie Nelson and some guy who I was convinced was Charles Grodin (and it was not him)...

Special note: It is surprising to know that Kelsey Grammer is not that annoying in this movie and plays the part of the President quit well. I don't know why but I've always found his annoying and hard to watch.

THE EIGER SANCTION

This movie is hard to find on DVD but just recently I found a 4-pack of Eastwood movies (American Icon Collection) with this one included.

THE EIGER SANCTION - released May 21, 1975 - 123 minutes.

Clint Eastwood plays Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, a retired assassin who is called out of retirement to avenge a friend's death. Hemlock works as a History Professor until his old boss, Dragon calls him in to do a 'sanction'.

Hemlock's boss turns out to be an albino who can't go outside and sits in a dimly lit lair hidden behind a couple of pocket doors. Once in awhile he needs to have new blood (literally) pumped into his body.

I thought the word 'sanction' was used a little too much.. come on, we get the point.. instead of an assassination... it's a sanction... I like to see movies that don't mention the title at all.

The film starts out on a good pace and then kind of fizzles towards the end. The only thing saving it is the last scene where Hemlock goes on a climbing expedition (in the Alps) with 3 other climbers; one of them being the the assassin he's being paid to kill.

The thing is we don't know til' the end who the person is that killed 'wormwood' ... and we're not even sure Hemlock knows who he's supposed to kill until the end.

It's hard not to see some similarities between a s0-so bond film and this one (without the explosions and crashed cars). There are several woman who come on to Hemlock because they know what line of work he's in... I guess killing people for a living is a turn-on.

Here's some dialogue:

HEMLOCK: I can't believe that you're a stewardess.

JEMIMA: Actually I'm not. I'm a skyjacker in drag.

HEMLOCK: Oh, that's reassuring. (pause) Now if you just give me your name I'll report it to the proper authorities when we land.

JEMIMA: Jemima

HEMLOCK: And I'm Uncle Ben.

JEMIMA: I'm serious, that's really my name. Jemima Brown. My mother was hooked on being ethnic.

HEMLOCK: Or else turned on by a pancake.

Overall I will have to give the movie 3 out of 5 stars for trying.

*I would of liked this movie more if not for the cheesy scenes with Dragon and Hemlock. Bad dialogue and bad lighting.

Welcome

Welcome everyone to the shortest movies reviews known to man.. or let's just say they are short and sweet. I will be reviewing movies I've seen from time to time for my amusement... oh, and yours...

These can be new movies, old movies, movies I just discovered and you've seen a million times, or just movies that I ended up watching under the influence of lack of sleep, alcohol, or stress.. You get it.

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