I've just seen "Thirteen Days" - the Cuban Missile Crisis one. Despite being an American interpretation of history it's really very good. Steven Culp, the guy who plays Bobby Kennedy, looks so like him it's uncanny.

I remember this happening when I was a kid. I remember the Ronnie carrying a huge headline saying "It's a step to WAR!" and I remember being scared witless. God, I'm getting old!

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Answers

Yes Jacko, as a teenager I vividly remember Kennedy issuing his ultimatum to Russia (Krushchev, I think) and leaving home one morning to go to school and thinking VERY seriously that I might never see home or my folks again. Vivid, scary memories, even after all this time!

I've been with wor lass tonight to see Robert De Niro's new film, '15 minutes'. Very violent, but canny story, great cinematography, and as ever De Niro is excellent as the tough NY cop with a soft centre.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

yeah right.... just got Porky's 1 and 2 on DVD!!!! Think I'll sit off and have a remember when weekend too!!!!

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

I've just watched 8mm (Nicholas Cage, James Gandolfini) for the second time. It wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but I think it's a fantastic film. It makes you want a wash after seeing it.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Jacko, alarmingly enough I can`t remember anything about it from 1962! How odd......maybe I was having a crisis of my own.....like my first term at Tynemouth High!?! Anyway, I think I should see the film and edumucate myself (even if it is a la American)!

Thanks for the review on 15 mins - another film I am looking forward to seeing.

8mm - that film was really well made, and yes, you do feel as though you need a good soak in the bath afterwards. I sort of felt that I shouldn`t really be watching it, if you know what I mean.

(:o)

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

You uni educated arty farty types get my goat.

I am really excited over the prospect of watching Chicken Run on video tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

good un gus... IMHO movies, like sport are meant to provide a distraction from everyday life for a while. Now sport takes on a life of it's own as the club is representative of the fans.

Movies on the other hand have proven more the opposite. Films like 8mm etc are sick, vile pieces of work that represent the worst of society. This added to the malicious media, is the reason why there are so many nutters out there.....

Chicken Run.... Porky's....its farsicle stuff, but you walk away knowing it aint gonna kill no one.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Believe me Gus, "15 Minutes" is not exactly Ibsen!

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Aw don`t spoil it Clarky........I was taking `uni educated arty farty types` as a compliment! (;o)

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

I picked up some Bruce Lee films at a fiver a go the other day and took the opportunity to settle down to some chop-socky when the missus was out. "The Way of the Dragon" was amazing when I saw it on cine-reels at a mate's house when I was 12 so I stopped just short of tieing a tie round my head and wearing my pyjama bottoms in case it has lost something over the years.

Forgot about the awful 70's incidental music although the dubbing was as terrible as expected, but come the great arse-kicking sequence at the back of the restaurant and we find that James bloody Ferman has had his poxy scissors out and removed the greatest part of the film. Why? Just in case somebody watches it and thinks that num-chuckas are a great idea. Honestly, folks, people who fail to notice that the bad guys get their arses kicked every time Bruce takes his shirt off will probably hit people anyway. I reserve the right to be excited or sickened by visual images as the mood takes me. Preventing people from doing the wrong thing doesn't make them good, does it?

Don't even get me started on removal of bad language from films for television broadcast...

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Well I taped Get Carter & Spinal from last week's telly & as two of my favorite films ever, I'll watch 'em tomorrow arvo. As for the big screen, most films I've seen this year have been hopeless, I might try 8mm. Is 13 days annoyingly re-written so the yanks come out smelling of roses? That sort of thing really annoys me. I think I'll write a warts & all film about Iranian civilian aircraft being shot from the sky which starts a series of terroist activity yet the US navy commander who ordered the attack gets a medel.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Erm Sparxx, I think that's the point of 8mm. It's a sick world out there with some very weird stuff going on. I'd hate you to think that I only like films with a sexual or violent content. Sex in films - I can live with, up to a point. It isn't very often however that I see a sex scene in a film, that the film couldn't have done without. 8mm is violent but that's the whole point of the film. It isn't revelling (One or two Ls?) in violence like a Bruce Willis "action movie" for God's sake. Like I said, I felt like I needed a wash after seeing it. Not because of the film as such but because of the subject matter.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Aw I have to come clean, I am University educted as wel.

I am not watching Chicken Run til tomorrow night, I'm watching the 2 semi finals tonit

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001

13 Days doesn't really glamourise the US part in proceedings at all - it actually makes the US military out to be a bunch of gun totin' hooligans who were desperate to nuke Castro and the Soviets. The Kennedys act as the voice of reason in the whole thing. The Soviet ambassador in Washington is also a good guy and Kruschev, whilst never appearing in the film, comes out of it as a man of good sense as well. Apart from the snippets with the American football, I thought it was well made!

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001