Love and a .45

In the early 90s, Hollywood was focused on cult films about lawless folks on the run.

Remember Thelma and Louise?  The 1991 classic about two women on the lam caught the imagination of viewers. We will always remember Gina Davis and Susan Sarandon on their cross-country escape.  Then in 1994, Quentin Tarantino did Pulp Fiction.  What a masterpiece!  That same year, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis wowed viewers with Natural Born Killers.

Amid the spate of films about felonious types in souped up cars one step ahead of the cops, a little known gem got lost:  Love and a .45.  It has recently replayed on the film channels, and if you loved some of the movies mentioned above, you'll be glued to this one!

Check out the picture.  That's a very young Renee Zellweger sitting atop the getaway car.  Next to her is Gil Bellows, when he was all of 26 years of age.  They're a dashing couple.  They are down and out, of course, like all the characters of those early 90s felons-on-the-run movies.  They are illiterate and downtrodden. They have lived a life of petty crime.

But there is something vaguely sympathetic about them.  They get into trouble more out of stupidity than larceny. Trouble?  You have no idea!

Never the spoiler, I can only hint at the plot:  Our heroes, or perhaps anti-heroes, are living on the fringes, deeply in debt, and deeply in love.  They need cash!  They owe the mob and they have no way of paying back the gangsters.

So a heist is in order.  Problem is, it is a heist gone bad.  Mayhem ensues.  The couple must hit the road and run for their lives!  They are chased by a bunch of evil cops, very bad gangsters, and a hodgepodge of offbeat characters.  Everyone is after the couple, either for money or for revenge.

This movie is downright fun!  You will be rooting for the couple to make it.  The characters are charming, likable, and real.

Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

The Imitation Game

What's in a name?  A lot, it would seem.  I, for one, kept shying away from seeing this movie because the title told me nothing...or maybe something....that did not really attract me.  The Imitation Game?  What imitation?  What game?  Huh?

Of course, the film got some buzz, so the word sort of got out that the movie had nothing to do with any imitation game of any kind.  It had to do with the guy who invented computers.  Even that does not seem so enticing.  We all know that someone way back when invented computers...so?

Okay, this review starts with a strong negative. The title is misleading and dumb.  But the film isn't.

What's it really about?  No spoiler here, but I'll give a few clues.  Go back to WWII, when the Germans used codes to communicate their military positions.  Now consider that the Germans had a very complex coding system that the allies could not break.

Enter Alan Turing.  He is a math whiz.  A very eccentric professor.  England calls upon him to break the German codes.  How does do so?  With the world's first computer, that he invented.

Back to the title:  If the film had been called "The Turing Machine" my curiosity would have been piqued.  Actually, that is how the world referred to computers for many years until the word "computer" became more popular.

This is a very tense film.  Will Mr. Turing, the extremely weird professor, figure out the code?  Every day that he tries and fails more soldiers are dying on the battle fields.  How can the ragtag team of scholars he has assembled help him save the world?

Good stuff!

What makes the film fun is not only watching a mad genius at work, but trying to figure out how the social outcast can find success among military men who don't quite understand his style!  There's more:  The professor is gay at a time when gays were shunned and blackmailed.

Turing is brilliantly played by Benedict Cumberbatch.  If you can't pronounce his name, that is because you have probably never heard it mentioned before.  The actor somehow emerged from bit roles in prior movies (Star Trek into Darkness, The Hobbit, Atonement) and landed this very important lead role.

Kiera Knightley is equally as good as the sole female on the code-breaking team.  She got her start as a twelve year old in Bend it Like Beckham and is now an A-List British actress.

Bottom line:  Ignore the silly title and watch this film on Netflix.  It is a winner.  You will be entranced by the odd man who invented today's computers and helped England win the war.