Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's lawyer, told the Huffington Post that President Trump could shoot former FBI James Comey and not be indicted for it, i.e. charged for the murder. (Huffington Post) It's an overbroad interpretation of a President's constitutional power. On Monday, President Trump also tweeted that he could pardon himself.
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
My fellow Americans, these views by conservative Republicans mirror those by history's dictators. The ideas that the President can kill witnesses against him in a corruption investigation or critics or that he is above the law are un-American.
Let me say this as a lawyer. A president has broad constitutional powers. However, he may not exercise them for illegal, unconstitutional purposes. For example, a president as commander in chief cannot order the Air Force to bomb his political opponents. That would be taking an American's life without Due Process, a violation of the Constitution.
This November, we can start to take our country back from the dictators and fascists. Vote liberal Democrat if you want to live.
There are a bunch of productions named Lovesick. This guilty pleasure is the 1983 film Lovesick. It's a romantic comedy about psychiatrist Saul Benjamin (Dudley Moore) who falls in love with his patient Chloe Allen. (Elizabeth McGovern) During the affair, Benjamin is visited by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi... um make that the ghost of Freud. (Alec Guinness fresh off playing Kenobi in Return of the Jedi ) By the way, certain feelings for a patient or a patient's feelings for their psychoanalyst is known as transference. And Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. Anyway, look for early appearances of Christine Baranski (The Big Bang Theory, The Good Fight ) and David Strathairn. (Lincoln) The talented cast also includes legendary director John Huston, Ron Silver, Wallace Shawn and Alan King. Wow.
The film also features another great score by French composer Philippe Sarde. The music is lush, impressionistic in that French way, and just plain beautiful. Mix that in with the gorgeous New York cinematography by Gerry Fisher, witty dialogue and you've got a warm romantic comedy. Lovesick, the 1983, film is one of my guilty pleasures.
This trailer for Lovesick (1983) has some of Philippe Sarde's wonderful score.
The Manhattan Project is a 1986 movie about a brilliant high school student Paul Stephens (Christopher Collet) who builds a portable atomic bomb to protest a top secret government facility that has been researching a new type of nucclear fuel. He enlists the help of his girlfriend Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon) for his civil protest. Nixon and the idea of a high school student trying to change their world makes this film relevant. As we see high school students today try to get governments to enact gun law changes and Nixon's liberal candidacy for governor of New York.
Written and directed by Marshall Brickman (Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan), it's a funny and good thriller. It's also got an energetic score by French composer Philippe Sarde. The Manhattan Project is another of my guilty pleasures.
You know your franchise sequel has real problems when you put in a homage to the worst film of the series. Yet, Solo: A Star Wars Story must have had a good feeling about it. It has a shocking plot twist that gives a nod to the silly Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. (1999) Thankfully, this twist is not Jar Jar Binks.
Solo: A Star Wars Story begins on the planet Corellia. Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) are street hustlers and also lovers. Qi'ra is also the mother of dragons and has the ability to summon them to wreck havoc on.... um, sorry that's Clarke's Daenerys in The Game of Thrones. Anyway, Qi'ra gets captured while Han is able to escape. He decides to join the Empire Navy as a means to get back to her. Which doesn't make a lot of sense. I know he's being pressured to escape but couldn't he hop on a ship and have the freedom to later come back to save her? This is one of those contrivances in the movie that just makes you want to run your hand over your head like Yoda and Kimbei Shimada in Seven Samurai. (1954)
Well, anyway Han finds himself fighting in the infantry trying to subdue a planet. He deserts. There he runs into a gang of smugglers led by Tobias who's played by Woody Harrleson, a naive bartender from Indiana. Oops, that's Cheers. Also in the gang is the magnetic Thandie Newton (Westworld, Mission Imposible 2) who plays Val. Solo tries to blackmail the gang into letting him join them. They refuse and instead turn him over to Imperial troops. Solo escapes and Tobias orders their ship to pick him and his jail buddy, Chewbacca. (Joonas Suatamo) Why? I have no idea but it's just another contrivance. This time the plot thread is to get them together. Along the way, Solo will meat Kim Kardashian, I mean Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and his ship The Millennium Falcon.
Alden Ehrenreich's casting is not as bad as Jake Lloyd or Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker but he's not right for the role. Instead of lovable rogue, he's Christian Slater from Heathers. I will say his acting is a little better than Lloyd or Christensen. That's not saying much. Whereas, Donald Glover as Lando is marvelous. Glover has actor Billy Dee Williams's mannerisms who originally played Lando down pat. If there is a sequel, we need to see a bigger adventure with Han, Lando and Chewbacca.
Lawrence and Joanthan's Kasdan's script has too many contrivances. I had to swallow the idea that Tobias would rescue a guy that just tried to blackmail before I could go along with the rest of the movie. Then there are the many fanboy references. Nothing new here. There's a chase of the Falcon by Tie fighters ala Star Wars with the same music cues from that movie and The Empire Strikes Back, the Kessel run, a gigantic living creature in the vacuum of space ala Empire and of course that reference to Phantom Menace. The original thing in this film is the idea of droid and human sex. Yep, I'm talking about droid L-3 (Phoebe Walter Bridge) and Lando's relationship. Well, if we're going to have fishman and human sex in The Shape of Water, I guess somebody thought it might be funny if Luke Skywalker got it on with R2-D2. And by the way, she's not an attractive character in the movie. By that, I don't mean looks. L-3 does very little that endears you to her.
Ron Howard's direction is terrible. First, Howard is a wonderful film director. His movie A Brilliant Mind (2001) is a classic. But in this movie, the action set pieces are edited badly and not logical. There are way too many fast cuts. There's not enough tracking shots. The result is confusion. But the worse part of Howard's direction is the lighting of this film. Many scenes are shot in darkness. To make matters worse, Howard backlights many scenes. For example, on the big screen, you don't get a good look at crime boss Vos (Paul Bettany) I get the point that we're dealing with the criminal underground. Hence, all the shadow. But that's no excuse not adequately light the action or the actors. And so you know, I saw this movie at two different theaters. One with what looked like the theater left in the 3D filter and the second time at Regal Cinemas. At Regal Cinemas, the picture was the way Howard wanted you to see the movie. Kudos to Regal Cinemas. Anyway, Howard's outside scenes on a planet's beach were bright and well lit. But everything else was just a dark, confusing mess.
There are some redeemable things in Solo. One, this is a great idea for a Star Wars spinoff. The production values are fine. The money spent on the sets particularly The Millennium Falcon is on the screen. John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon) with the themes of John Williams has composed a lively and heroic score.
Great ideas, production values and soundtracks do not make great movies. They need a great script, direction and acting. Solo: A Star Wars Story is missing these. The grade is C Plus.
So it's Saturday and I turn to watch some impeachment news on MSNBC and what do I get? The Royal Wedding. Okay, the choice is watch a real life fairy tale romance about a prince and the beautiful bride or go see a comedy that makes jokes about mutilation. I chose to see cinematic body parts thrown at me. I went to see Deadpool 2.
Deadpool 2 begins with a series of mercenary assassinations by Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and his failure to complete one job leads to tragic consequences. A depressed Deadpool kills himself by bombing himself. Probably the funniest scene of a guy having his head and hand blown up from his body in cinematic history. You did know that Deadpool can heal himself? Well, if you didn't this movie would be over in the first ten minutes. And no, I'm not going to explain Marvel's X-Men and their mutant powers. Go download the first movie. Legally, of course.
Anyway, Colossus (Stefan Kopicic) picks up the pieces, i.e. Deadpool's body parts and takes him back to the X-Men academy. Yeah, this time Fox gave enough money to build the set for the school. Hey, as the joke goes, the first R rated Deadpool made more money than Jesus, the R rated The Passion of Christ. So, Fox better shell out the dough. After putting him back together, Colossus convinces Deadpool to become an X-Man.
Of course, you can see, making Deadpool an X-Man, is going to be a disaster. Deadpool is anything but a traditional superhero. Think the reverse of Captain America. This idea is like having a reality show, con-man, narcissist, and serial liar become President. How's that working, America? His first mission is to subdue a young mutant Firefist (Julian Dennison) Deadpool ends up killing an innocent man while convinced that Firefist has been abused. Both are sent to a mutant jail. Meanwhile, Cable (Josh Brolin) from the future has come back in time to kill Firefist. Deadpool forms a superhero team to protect Firefist.
The cast is excellent. The main characters are given their time in the spotlight. They have funny things to say and engage in some cool action scenes. Female characters are underused but this is a movie about Deadpool and the introduction of Cable. Get over it pc police. Ryan Reynolds who helped write the script is the perfect Deadpool with the ability to deftly deliver jokes as the loopy main character. Josh Brolin's Cable also turns in a fine performance. as the terminator from the future with plenty of motivation to fulfill his mission.
I do have one problem with the casting that goes all out political correct. I'm talking about having Afircan American actress Zazie Beetz as Domino. Let's be clear. In the comics she is white. And I mean really white. I'm saying chalk white with a black patch of skin over her eye. (WatchMojo.com video on the history of Domino below.)
And it's not that Beetz had the greatest audition in the history of acting. The producers of Deadpool 2 were looking for a black or latin women to play Domino who is white. Hollywood Reporter. Now, think about the outrage if a fictional black character where cast with a white person. Say cast Star Wars' Lando Calrissian with a white man. People would be screaming. And it's not like Domino comes from an era where racism was the norm. She made her debut in 1992 not in the fifties. The hypocrisy is so thick you can cut it with a knife.
And you conservative trolls don't say I'm coming to your position on race. I'm still a politically incorrect liberal. Diversity in cinema should be handled this way. If the part does not call for a white actor, then consider casting someone of color. Regardless, how is Beetz as Domino? Let's check her out in this trailer with colorful language that Trump uses.
She's sleek, sexy and I can't take my eyes off of her. Never mind about the casting of Zazie Beetz. Must see what movies Elizabeth Debicki is doing. (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2)
Back to the review. Writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and star Ryan Reynolds do something really interesting with this film There's a point where Deadpool says to the audience that the movie is a family flick. And he's right. Amazingly, Deadpool 2 is a family movie and a romance. The difference is that it's a family movie with chopped off limbs and R rated jokes. Some of those jokes are the usual Deadpool way of breaking the fourth wall. And there are references to cinema from Yentl to Robocop. Most of the time the jokes are hits. Having Reynolds work on the script worried me though after seeing him in R.I.P.D. (2013) Thankfully, the writers stick to the movie being a comedy.
I like Director David Leitch's (Atomic Blond) work. He has a refreshing take on action scenes by showing full bodies in motion rather than let the editor chop up the film with fast cutting. That being said, there's a little too much fast cutting here. I'm guessing that it would be too sickening to focus on limbs flying off and people getting their bones broke in compound fractures. Still Letich stages the jokes as well as he does an action scene. They work.
A quick thing about the songs in the movie. They also are eclectic. They run the gamut from Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 to Yentl's Papa Can You Hear Me? ! And the use of a-ha's ballad version of their Take on Me had me crying. It was so romantic. I'm serious. So Deadpool 2 is a chick flick? Nah, action junkies. This is a movie with cyborgs, explosions and big guns. One more thing about Take on Me. The up temp eighties technopop version is the definitive one. (Classic music video below.) And you drunk white guys in the bar. Quit trying to sing the high notes.
Deadpool 2 is one funny superhero movie. I want to see it again to catch all the jokes. Of course, stay for the credits. I laughed the hardest during the mid-credits scene. And Ryan Reynolds. I really want to see Green Lantern rebooted. The grade is A.
Conservative President Trump's corruption is so brazen that it is frightening. He's currently trying to help a Chinese telecommunications company called ZTE to recover from current American sanctions. And there could be multiple reasons for doing so. Get China's help with North Korea so Trump will look good. Nobel Peace Prize for the blonde fascist. Or its payback for China bankrolling an Indonesian theme park that has given Trump licensing fees. (My blog post.) We need America's satirist, Stephen Colbert to make us laugh. Check out his video from The Late Show.
On Sunday, Republican President Trump tweeted that he was working with China's president to find a way for the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE to "get back into business, fast." He bemoaned that "Too many jobs in China lost." The conservative Trump then ordered the Commerce Department "to get it done." Now if you didn't know, ZTE has been sanctioned for doing business with Iran and North Korea. Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio also noted that there are also concerns that ZTE made devices could be used to spy on Americans. Business Insider.
President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
But why is Trump trying to make China great again? If you've watched his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump attacked China by stating that they had been economically raping America. Well, here it is. Only seventy hours before Trump's Tweet, China loaned MNC Lido City a whooping 500 million dollars to build a theme park in Indonesia. Here's the quid pro quo. The Trump Organization, controlled by Trump, has licensing fees for the park to use its name. That alone will earn 3.7 million dollars. Then Trump could earn more in management fees. Vanity Fair article. Bush Ethics Counsel Richard Painter also notes that Trump is in violation of The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution which prohibits foreign payments to the President of the United States. Id.
My fellow Americans, it gets worse. This week China is making trade demands on the United States. The Washington Post notes some of them are outrageous. (See CNN video below.) Will conservative Republican Trump cave and sell out America for his personal interest? If you're concerned, remember this. Vote liberal Democrat if you want to live.
Sarah Palin described bloggers as people in their pajamas sitting in their mother's basement. Well, Sarah I sometimes blog in my pajamas. Your comment has inspired a great name for this blog. Thanks, Sarah.
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