The story took place in the Iwo Jima island during the World War 2 against Japan. The commercial side of the selling the war bonds was the main controversial object behind the soldiers’ raising the flags on top of the island’s peak.

Many US soldiers died when the attack of the island took place in 1945. In order to capture the nationalism of the people, the President (FDR and then Truman) took advantage of the raising of the flags and the three surviving soldiers to sell War Bonds. The irony is that these supposedly heroes were not the original flag raiser. It was the 2nd shot. Most of the soldiers who raised the first flag were dead due to the fierce battle to take over the island against the Japanese.

There are several stories in this movie. The story of the violent battle. The stories of the three men who went on the bond selling tour after being hailed as the heroes in raising the flag. Hayes, the Indian “Chief”, were so struck by the guilt of surviving the battle and not living up to the hero statue. He turned to alcohol and drank himself to death. The self-righteous runner, Gagnon, was not able to sustain his fame and was soon forgotten and could only work as a janitor. The father of the narrator, Doc, did not even mention about the flag raising to his own children until nearing his death on the death bed. Also, Doc took up the funeral service business after the war, just like what he did for his fellow soldiers.

The movie was full of war graphic scenes, which serve as a reminder how terrible and ugly things could look for those in the middle of it. Of course, it also serves as the warning for the future generations about wars. The movie doesn’t flow very well; it goes back and forth but can be followed fairly easily.

At the end, it was reminded that most soldiers were not really fighting for the country but for his fellow soldiers, who are near them and are being depended on by one another. The movie shows that a war is a nasty business especially for the politics and self interests.

Clint Eastwood started out as the ultimate old Grumpy in this movie and at the end became the hero he doesn’t even know he’s capable of becoming.

Walt lives next to a Hmong family and a bad neighborhood in Michigan. He didn’t like the Chinks/Gooks next door to him. He stuck out and taught the neighbor’s kid, Thao, to become a man after his failed gang initiation attempt to steal his treasured Gran Torino car. Because of his “Dirty Harry” approach to dealing with the gangs, he became the center of the gang war. In his journey, he came to appreciate the Hmong people around him and was able to abandon his bigotry deeply rooted since he served in the Korean War and his working in the American auto industry.

At the end, he faced the end of his life to illness and decided to become the real hero saving all the Hmong lives by becoming the shooting target for the gangs that resulted in their arrests.

This movie was a heart-warming act that turns a bigot/recist into a hero for the people he had hatred for. This is an excellent movie that has the Gran Torino car as the symbolism for an old, inflexible man, and yet with deep sense of value and honor.

I wanted to read this novel but I figure the best way is to watch the DVD first to give a better idea whether I should read this classic book.

The movie started out when David Copperfield was born to a young mother who just lost her husband to illness. But he was loved by his mother and the maid (Peggoty) until his mother married another husband and later died. His fate took a drastic turn for the worse and became a child labor in London, where he met Mr. Micawber – the perennial debtor and Mr. Wickfield. Things got better when he went to find his aunt – Betsey Trotwood, who adopted him. Later he grew up and fell in love with his boss’ (Spenlow) daughter, Dora.

When the fortune of Betsey Trotwood turned for the worse, she and Mr. Dick moved in with Copperfield. After Dora died, David married Agnes Wickfield and had three children, the last one turned out to be a girl that appeals to the godmother, Betsey.

This is a great novel with many wonderful characters: good and bad. I’m certain the writings on the book form is spectacular. I’ll probably read it after all on one of my vacations.

This Wiki link is helpful too.

A small-town restaurant owner (Tom Stall) had a quiet family life until a pair of serial killers showed up in his restaurant and turned him into a hero and also revealed him as a vicious killer. When his heroic act showed up in the news, his arch-enemy (Fogarty) from Philadelphia also found him. He had to confront them and kill them. As a result, his own brother (Richie Cusack) had to kill him to make peace with the crime organization. He responded with more violence and killed his own brother. As he returned back to his family, it appeared that his family was able to accept him back as Tom Stall (not Joey Cusack).

There are lots of steamy sex scenes between Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife, Edie (Maria Bello) – definitely an R-rated movie. And of course, there are lots of violent scenes. In the beginning, Tom Stall was quite believable that he doesn’t know who Joey Cusack. But as the story evolves when there are so many discrepancies like his quick action to overcome his enemy including his own son’s violence in school, his true identity started to show. This wiki page has a full details of the movie.

This movie is full of twists and turns and scenes that make you jump with fear and emotion. It’s definitely a guy movie. Excellent movie!

“Mall Cop” is the typical underdog-that-makes-good story. The underdog, Paul Blart (Kevin James, in “King of Queens”) has a weight and hyperglycemia problems that prevented him to serve in the New Jersey trooper and kept him as a mall cop/security guard. He had a crush on this lady running a hair cart in the mall. A devious scheme led by one of his young partners to rob the mall shops of the credit card codes (I don’t know how that’s possible, but I’ll go along) shut down the entire mall and took his girl hostage. Of course, Paul Blart turned into a hero and rescue his girl and his daughter from the hands of the bad guys due to his cleverness. And at the end, the SWAP team leader, his ex-high-school bully, turned into one of the co-conspirator of the scheme and he was put down by Blart’s boss – a corny twist at the end.

This slack-stick comedy movie is predictable and is probably a feel-good movie for those with weight problem in the audience, which are increasing in number for the US. As a side note, I noticed the movie took place in the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA, where I visited a couple of times for their Legal Seafood. Also, I don’t think I ever saw in mall the use of the Segway. It could be dangerous for the shopper as the Segway can move pretty fast.

Overall, it’s a no-brainer movie for those who need a uplift in spirit.

Four short-story movies get folded to one, in keeping with the spirit of the original “Twilight Zone,” which I was really fond of growing up.

The first story is about the worst nightmare for a bigot saleman who got thrown into the German soldiers as a Jewish, a KKK rally as a blackman, a shower of bullets by US soldier in Vietnam. This is like the “It’s a Wonderful Life” for a not-so-good prejudiced man.

The second story is about a man who walked into a elder care facility (called “Sunnyvale”, the city I live in) and turned them into young-in-heart persons, playing “kicking the can.” The interesting part is that most of the elderlies didn’t want to go back being young again, preferring to stay just young in heart. Why re-living your life? What the fun in that? Savor the memory and move on. I like it.

The third story is about a young boy with extraordinary power to turn wishes (including cartoons) into realities. Adults and elderlies were afraid of him, who trapped a passing-through woman into his house. But she managed to tame him to control his power at the end. It’s a bit spooky in the beginning but ends nicely.

The last story is the classic Twilight clip that the young William Shatner acted in. It is the ultimate nightmare for a person afraid of flying in the plane, who saw a monstor breaking down the airplane engines in a severe thunderstorm. No one believed him but he might have saved the lives of the entire plane passengers, though he ended up in a crazy house, ironically. Sometime, you just have to give people the benefit of the doubt, no matter how silly it may be.

This movie is only so so. It’s hard to re-do a classic without coming short of people’s expectation and nostagia.

Watched the movie for the second time. Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepard were so young in this 1976 movie.

A taxi driver, Traver, was having an anxiety attack and could not sleep. He worked hard and was looking for the meaning of life and trying to do something heroic in his life. He had a crush on a Presidential campaign manager, Cybil Shepard. But he was rejected by her because he didn’t have the right etiquette, like not taking your date to an x-rated movie. The rejection turned him into a gun-slinging cowboy, whose attempt at shooting the Presidential candidate was foiled. His attention turned into rescuing a young 12-year-old hooker from her pimp. And his shoot out with the pimp and the establishment turned him into a gang-busting hero. At the end, he came back to the obsession with Cybil Shepard.

This movie reflects the boredom and sense of purposelessness in our society, especially among the youths. Even a perfectly good-intention person can be on the wrong side of the law easily. Robert De Niro’s performance was simply amazing, especially the line, “Are you looking at me? .. ” The last shoot-out scene was such a classic in those days, though the scene was quite violent. The mentality of a stalker was revealed clearly as Traver went from a relatively healthy young man to a hateful, anger-mis-directed criminal. Very piercing and dark movie.