This movie is adapted from the classic by Paul Theroux. Directed by Peter Weir, it stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and River Phoenix in the title roles. Harrison Ford plays the role of Allie Fox, a genius inventor who gets tired of the the crass commercialism pervading the American Society. He dreams about an ideal world where men live in harmony with what they need and not what they want. Allie abhors the materialism and the schizophrenic pace of the society and says “We eat when we’re not hungry, drink when we’re not thirsty. We buy what we don’t need and throw away everything that’s useful. Why sell a man what he wants? Sell him what he doesn’t need. Pretend he’s got eight legs and two stomachs and money to burn. It’s wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
To escape from this material world Fox uproots himself and his family, of six from rural Massachusetts to a remote island La Moskitia in south America. Here his wife and 2 sons and twin daughters follow him and his ideals. Initially everything is hunky dory with fox finding the peace of mind to pursue his inventions and trying to better the natives lives. Soon with absolute dreams comes absolute and painful reality. The plan to civilize the natives is also a kind of intervention which is not a natural course of events.

The movie is narrated through the eyes of the eldest son, Charlie who completely admires his father’s genius. His love and admiration is mixed and what has the upper hand is evident only at the end of the movie. Mother Fox, Allie’s wife is a dutiful spouse following the marriage vows to the end. She moves herself from the comfort of their home to come to a remote clearing Jeronimo to play house and puts up with the ravings of her husbands flawed genius.
Allie on the high for bettering the plight of the natives plans to build a giant ice machine which uses fuel to make ice instantly. His need to awe makes him go to the interiors of the jungle to show off his machine. On his way he meets some dangerous ruffians who follow him back to Jeronimo and set fire to his inventions. As everything goes in to smoke Allie’s descent in to chaos happens. In his madness he destroys his family, relationships and a fragile system he tried to nurture. At the very tragic end the movie poses some important questions about his despotic nature and the effect of it on his relationships.
The movie also has amazing philosophical moments when Allie spars with the preacher Spellgood whose fanaticism puts him off. But in the end Allie’s contention that progress brings about civilization is as flawed as Spellgood’s theory of religion uplifting man. One man’s desire to shock, awe and better the natives to ultimately achieve glory and splendor falls flat on the ground. In the end Allie did bring in what he had fled in America, a search for material things and thats is his downfall.
Splendid performances by Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren is the highlight of the movie. This movie failed miserably at the box office but I still recommend it as a must see. It is a thinking man’s movie and go with a philosophical frame of mind.

This movie directed by Jeremy Kagan starred Henry Wrinkler and Sally field. The other notable name was Harrison Ford who played a disturbed Vietnam veteran before his big box office draw days. This movie portrays the angst and depression faced by the veterans who are forgotten after the pageantry of war.
Jack Dunne played by Henry Wrinkler is a Vietnam veteran who is haunted by the depressive memories of the war. He is confined to a mental asylum from where he breaks out to go on a journey in search of his war time buddies. The film starts with a clownish Dunne pottering around in Times Square, where he tries to stop a sergeant in enlisting some kids. He is sent back to the asylum from which he breaks out to go on a road trip. He plans to establish a worm farm along with his veteran buddies.
Dunne the clown meets the Miss proper, Carol Bell who is also in the bus just to think about her engagement. She is unsure about her goals and about her relationship. Dunne initially gets on her nerves by his happy go lucky ways but soon Carol develops a soft corner for Dunne. She soon supports and encourages him in his ventures. And Dunne confides his plans and fears to her.

But the world around them has its horrors from which even they are not immune. Dunne reaches each buddy who has fallen prey to depression, sadness, suicides and disappearances and he just cannot take it any more. His dreams of a worm farm above all a shared world with his comrades in arms are in tatters. Only Carol who comes to the reality that she does not love her fiancée anymore is with him.
Harrison Ford plays a small part as his distant buddy Ken Boyd who is a stock car driver who is in his extreme mania keeps a stolen machine gun in his vehicle. A tender moment happens with friends when they share once again their friendship by building a small rabbit cage. But largely the film belongs to Wrinkler who had immortalized himself as “Fonzie” in the TV sitcom Happy Days. Both Sally Field and Henry Wrinkler with this movie move on to the serious actor roles.
The most memorable part of the movie is the song which plays at the ending – “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas. For many the movie is worth watching for this haunting rock melody and the recent DVD raised quite a storm for editing out this song. This movie is considered one of the war time classics and earned Henry Wrinkler a Golden Globe nomination.
All said and done this movie moves the viewer to the plight of men who have demons raging within them, men who fought the worst things in life, men who see others die, men who have to kill to survive and men who survived to be haunted by brutal memories. A movie for the real world even today.

From viewing Martin Scorsese’s movies, it would seem that Robert De Niro was a perpetual favorite of Scorsese, so when he would make a movie without De Niro, it was always a surprise, like the movie After Hours, which was the first movie in a decade by Scorsese that did not star De Niro. Martin Scorsese was not supposed to be the original director for this movie, which was based on a screenplay that Joseph Minion wrote (given that he was only 26 years old when the movie was made); the screenplay was wrote when Minion was doing an assignment as part of a film course at Columbia University. The movie also faced a court case after release since the radio host Joe Frank claimed that the screenplay and parts of the dialog were based on his radio monologue (and there was a settlement in which he must have got a good settlement). The movie was a fairly low budget movie, costing around $4.5 million to make, and made around $10 million; and of course, like many other movies, this was not very acclaimed when it was released, and only later was classified as a cult movie.

The movie deals with the sudden happenings in the life of Paul Hackett (although the night finally ends with everything turning out okay in the end). He meets a lady called Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette) while in a cafe and they discover that they have a common interest in Henry Miller. They exchange phone numbers, and Paul also gets to know that Marcy lives with Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino) – a person who sells Plaster of Paris paperweights. Paul is interested, and goes to meet Marcy, but he loses his $20, and has no money left to pay the cab, which of course means that Paul has to face the hostility of the cab driver. And then in the apartment, Paul comes across some photos of Marcy which imply that she has serious burns; he leaves soon after, with the would-be-relationship between them ending, and then he learns that those photos were not true.
No longer able to afford a cab, he tries to use the subway, but with a fare increase coming into effect just at the stroke of midnight, he no longer has enough money. He goes to a bar, but the owner does not have the keys to the cash register to help him, so he takes the keys to the apartment to get the keys to the cash register, but then things keep on happening .. which eventually ends with him being turned into a plaster of paris cast, which is then stolen and falls off at his place of work, and he is ready to start a fresh day. Interesting movie ..

The Seven Dials Mystery was a piece of detective fiction written by Agatha Christie, and published in 1929. The book is set in the mansion of Chimneys, which featured in an earlier book by Agatha Christie, and as well as the characters from the earlier book, Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Lord Caterham, Bill Eversleigh, George Lomax, Tredwell and Superintendent Battle. The book is a pure detective novel, and was converted for television in 1981 (displayed in March, 1981). However, the book did not earn the usual amount of critical acclaim, with some initial reviews criticizing the book for somewhat deserting the pure detective yarn, and presenting more information to the readers than required. The book starts with a murder in The Chimneys (but with nobody identified as the murderer), and moves onto a seedy nightclub in London called The Seven Dials where there appears to be a meeting of conspirators in a secret room.

As usual, like the other works by Agatha Christie, there are many surprises, with no one being whom they claim to be; who can you trust ? The first murder in the book is at The Chimneys where Gerald “Gerry” Wade, one of the guests, normally sleeps late; his friends want to have fun with him, and they set 8 clocks with 8 alarms (at a time gap of 30 minutes), starting from 6:30 PM. However, Wade apparently sleeps through all the alarms, to the surprise of all, and why not, since he is dead in his bed, through poison, and one of the clocks is missing. However, the inquiry cannot find out who was responsible. After Chimneys returns to its original owner, Lord Caterham, his daughter, Bundle, wants to investigate further. This intensifies when another man drops dead in front of her car, having been shot. This investigation takes her further into mystery, with a secret science plan that is very important, a secret society, and so on.