The bad lieutenant epitomize the exact opposite of a good lieutenant should be. He takes drugs/dopes, takes sexual brides, gambles habitually, blackmails players to shave points, and many other bad deeds. He bends the rules, plants the evidences, steals dope from the property room, and lies to justify his drug habit and his perception of justice. His deeds sent a chill through your spine what an addict is capable of doing, much less an law officer. His good underlying quality: caring for the victim, his father, and his prostitute girl friend. Throughout the movie, I kept thinking that he’s on a suicidal path and he’s going to die a horrible death. But somehow at the end, he manages to get a promotion but remaining a drug addict. How did he get away with them all is just beyond me. It would probably happens only in New Orleans. Nicolas Cage acts his part very well and is quite believable. I can’t say I enjoyed the movie but it opened my eyes about the inner working of law enforcement.

“Get Smart” TV series were my favorite when I was a teenager. Agent 86 was the underdog Control secret agent who always got into trouble but managed to get things done one way or another, with the help of agent 99.

In this remake movie, agent 86 was the loyal, hardworking, detail-oriented analyst who had just lost 150 lbs and was launched into a field agent 86 because of the break-in to the Control headquarter, when the agents identities were compromised. He partnered with agent 99 and fell in love with her while working with her, each saving the other’s life on more than one occasion. Smart had many “shining” moments while helped compensate his shortcomings and impressed the re-made, beautiful Agent 99.

After demolishing the KAOS’ nuclear weapon production factory, Maxwell Smart got framed (by Agent 23, “Rock”) and jailed because it was found that the “Yellow Cake” was nowhere to be found. As it turned out, KAOS’ target was the assassination of the US President, who was scheduled to enjoy a concert in LA. Agent 86 managed to escape from the prison, foiled KAOS’ mass destruction scheme and saved the President.

The movie plot was silly like the original “Get Smart” TV series. Lots of elements like opening and closing of the “secret” doors, “cone of silence,” “shoe phone,” “Missed by that much,” “Hymie,” and etc. were preserved for nostalgia’s sake. This wouldn’t have appealed to people who hadn’t watched the show before like the younger generation but it surely brought back lots of memory for me.

It’s basically a movie about a young boy driven by hormone to search out sex partner across the country and ended up hooking up with his best friend. Sometimes, your best partner may be standing right in front of you all along. The main character, Ian, is the ever-apologizing, nice, virgin boy trying to have his first sexual experience. By pretending to be a “hunk,” he found a girl on Internet who’s willing to meeting up with him hundreds of miles away. Little did Ian know that it was a car-theft scheme to hijack his GTS car, which he “borrowed” from his homophobic brother (who later turns out to be gay). He drove across the country with his two pals and his “cool” friend, happened to ran into this Amish girl, when his car ran into troubles and got stuck in the Amish community. Lots of interesting events occurred in the Amish community and along their travel (tree of shoes, got thrown in the jail).

Overall, it’s a pretty hilarious movie. The ending is good and the characters (brother, parents, the weird duos, and etc.) are general lovable. The Amish angle is new and the use of the internet is new. Other than those, it’s not much different than American Pie.

A white man (Chris)/black woman (Lisa) couple moved in to the neighborhood next to a black cop’s (Able Turner) house. Things started to deteriorate really fast when the couple was making love on their pool, visible to the cop’s young kids and Chris didn’t help by flicking his cigarettes to his loan. Turner lost his wife three years earlier to a car accident, suspected to be driving with her “white” lover. The new neighbors really touched a nerve. He staged to a vandalism on Chris’ home and ended up shooting his accomplice to cover up. At the end, the shoot out occurred when Chris found the dead guy’s cell phone with Able’s phone number. Able was shot down by his own LAPD.

Samuel Jackson (Turner) seemed to have role locked up and played a very believable “bad” cop. Though the plot was simple and doesn’t have many twists and depth, it did keep me interested throughout the movie. I can imagine what it’s like to be living next to a bully with a badge. If I were they, I would just move out of there when the Prius’ tires were slashed. Why gamble with the wildfire in Los Angeles and live next to a psychotic washed-out cop.

I watched this movie as a follow-on to the “Flags of Our Fathers.” This movie takes on stories from the Japanese side. Many unwilling sons and fathers were drafted from the Japanese homes to fight the war in the name of Emperor. It’s not all obedience and sacrifice that we were often told of the Japanese people; they’re human playing the roles of fathers, sons, husbands to their own families. The fears and hopelessness seen on the eyes of the many soldiers while fighting the battle and committed suicides or surrender are no different than Americans or any other people.

The central characters are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, an US-educated general and a soldier who was taken away from his bakery profession and anxious to see his own daughter who was born after his being drafted to fight the war. The letters were hidden in a tunnel buried by the soldier. Another character is this military police that went against his superior’s command to kill the dog to a father-less family. Though he eventually surrendered to the US but was executed anyway, highlighting the cruelty and senselessness of the war.

As expected, the Japanese military would abide by their honor and would commit suicide instead of surrender. There are many suicide scenes by grenades, self-inflicted wounds, rushing toward the rain of machine gun bullets (Banzai Charge).

The war scenes look just like the ones from “Flags of Our Fathers.” The producers (Clint Eastwood) probably save lots of money by making two movies out of one same setting. But it’s hard to imagine there were so many tunnels (11 miles) and trenches in such a small island.

It’s good and yet sad to see the reality of the war from the perspective of the Japanese people. They were no less the victims of the war to conform and follow the wills of the powerful military command at the top. Let it be the lesson for the new found democracy of world that we the people will not tolerate the lies and whims of the few blind leaders.