City Of Lies

2021 Saban Films

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 52min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller ~ True Story

Starring: Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Rockmond Dunbar and Neil Brown Jr.

“The only thing more notorious than the murder was the cover up…….who killed Biggie?”

This Movie and the following review are based on the True Story of the unsolved mystery and murder of two of Rap Music’s biggest stars, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Suge Knight, an ex NFL Football Player for the Los Angeles Rams, started Death Row Records with Rappers Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. in Los Angeles in 1991. In 1995 Suge posted a 1.4 million dollar bail for a young aspiring Rapper named Tupac Shakur. The following February 1996 they released Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez On Me to great commercial success. In September 1996 Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting three hours after Tupac, Suge and others attacked a Southside Compton Crips gang member after a Mike Tyson Boxing Match.

Christopher George Wallace, AKA The Notorious Biggie Smalls, was a New York Rapper and the first Artist to sign to Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs Record Label Bad Boy Records in 1993. There developed an infamous rivalry between the East Coast Bad Boy Records and The West Coast Death Row Records. Underground rumors started circulating after Tupac’s death that Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records might have been responsible for the rapper’s death. On March 8th, 1997 Biggie and the Bad Boys entourage attended a Soul Train Music Awards after-party in Los Angeles. As they were leaving a car pulled up alongside and fired six rounds into Biggie’s vehicle killing him.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective Russell Poole is assigned to the case of Biggie’s murder and spends the next twenty years and the rest of his life trying to answer the question, Who killed Biggie Smalls? 1n 2015 Los Angeles Times Investigative Reporter Darius “Jack” Jackson is assigned to write about the Murder of Biggie Smalls. That led him to the now disgraced and retired Detective Russell Poole. Their journey to find and expose the truth leads the both of them on a trail of corruption, politics, gangs, drugs, crimes and murder that involves The Los Angeles Police Department.

Detective Poole had a theory that Suge Knight paid corrupt LAPD Police Officers to assassinate Biggie Smalls to draw attention away from the fact Suge Knight was responsible for Tupac Shakur‘s murder. Fearing he wanted to leave Knight’s record label, Suge had Tupac killed and then tried to divert the blame to Biggie and Bad Boy Records by having Biggie killed. Essentially throwing the blame onto the infamous East Coast – West Coast rivalry.

Johnny Depp stars as Detective Russell Poole and Forest Whitaker stars as Journalist Darious “Jack” Jackson. Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker both deliver powerful performances in this movie. It is a subject I do not know much about, but am familiar with. It is a fascinating story and exposé of the depths of the corruption in The Los Angeles Police Department and the murder of two young Black Music Artists. It is a story that needs to be told. Interestingly enough, this film was made in 2018 but never released until three years later in 2021. Makes you wonder why? More politics? More cover-up?

Completely under the radar apparently, because I never heard about it. I came across it by accident on Amazon Prime the other night as Plane ended and City Of Lies started playing. It immediately got my attention and I am glad I watched it. Enlightening to be sure. Even if you are not a Rap Music fan, I think it is worth watching. It is a little hard to follow the storyline as it is laid out so you really have to pay attention. But I definitely recommend it.

Two Thumbs Up!

In The Heart Of The Sea

2015 Warner Brothers Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 1min

Action ~ Adventure ~ Drama ~ True Story

Directed by: Ron Howard

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson.

“Since we have discovered that whale oil can light our cities, it has pushed man to venture deeper into the deep blue unknown. We know not it’s depths nor the creatures that live there.”

From the 17th to the early 20th century The Whaling Industry was a well organized worldwide business. Up to 80% of a whale’s weight is made up of oil, which was perfect for oil lamps and heat. It was also used for lubrication in machinery and making soaps. Whaling ships outfitted exclusively to hunt and harvest whales were plentiful, and being a Whaler was seen as an admirable occupation. They would head out to sea for a couple of years until their hold was filled with barrels of whale oil.

When the whaling ship would get close to a pod of Whales they would lower three smaller boats laden with men and harpoons with long ropes attached. They would maneuver the boats right up to the whales and then harpoon them. As the whale took off the men followed in the boat, being towed by the harpoon imbedded in the whale. They would ride it out until the whale bled out and died, then they would tow it back to the ship. There they would harvest it by cutting sections of the whale and boiling it down to oil, then storing it in barrels in the hold.

In 1820 in Nantucket Massachusetts, a whaling company outfitted The ESSEX for a whaling expedition. Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) is brought on due to his family’s deep ties to the whaling industry although he has little experience as a Captain or a whaler. Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) is hired on as First Mate and, having a rich history of being a whaler and a seaman, he and Captain Pollard clash from the start. The ESSEX has little luck in the first three months of their journey and at a stop in Ecuador a Spanish Captain tells them of a sweet spot 2000 miles to the west. He also warns them about a vengeful huge white sperm whale that destroyed his ship and killed six of his men.

The ESSEX and her crew head for the spot in the Pacific and find the spot full of whales. They also find the huge white scarred sperm whale the Spanish Captain had warned them about. What happened to the ESSEX and her crew after encountering the massive white whale became a worldwide story after what remained of the crew returned. Thirty years later it was this story that Herman Melville wanted, felt compelled, to write his next novel MOBY DICK about. As the movie opens we see Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) travelling to the home of Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), who was a 14 year old cabin boy on the ESSEX‘s doomed journey thirty years earlier, to get his firsthand account of the tragedy.

As Thomas Nickerson recounts the true tale of The ESSEX and the encounter with The Great White Whale, we watch it unfold on the big screen. It is a fantastic True Story told in 3-d directed by Ron Howard, beautifully filmed in The Canary Islands of Spain. The movie is based on the 2000 book by Nathaniel Philbrick titled In The Heart Of The Sea. I have seen this several times since it was first released, and I just watched it again on Netflix. I think it is a classic. Obviously a classic tale but I think Ron Howard did a great job at bringing the story to life. The lengths that Ron and the cast went to for realism was above and beyond, to the point of having the crew go on a strict diet to mimic the starving crew of the ESSEX.

It is a classic true story brought to life and I think it is well worth a watch.

Two Thumbs Up!

The Six Triple Eight

2024 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 9min

Drama ~ True Story ~ War

Directed by: Tyler Perry

Starring: Kerry Washington, Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Gregg Sulkin, Susan Sarandon, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston and Oprah Winfrey.

“They did not send us because they thought we could do it, we are here because they are sure we can not. But We…..Will Not…..Fail!”

On May 15, 1942, after being drug into WWII by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the creation of The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. It allowed women to serve in non-combat roles freeing up the men needed by the war effort on the front lines. The 6888th Battalion (Nicknamed The Six Triple Eight) was an all Black Female WAAC Battalion consisting of 31 Officers and 824 enlisted personnel. They watched as the White WAAC Battalions were given orders and missions overseas in Europe to support the war effort but, given the racial bias and discrimination of the day, they were left to continue training in Georgia.

The True Story of The Six Triple Eight is told through the eyes of Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian). As a young Black woman attending High School in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, she falls in love with a young Jewish boy named Abram David (Gregg Sulkin). Abram makes Lena promise to wait for him to return as he is drafted to go to Europe and fight in the war. Months pass and Lena gets a letter informing her that Abram had died in service. She vows to join the war effort the only way she can, by joining The WAAC, and fight Hitler. She joins and is sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where the highest ranking Black Female Officer during WWII is in charge of the new recruits.

Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) was Commanding Officer of The Six Triple Eight and oversaw the mission that took the Battalion to war in Europe. Mail delivery in and out of the war in Europe had come to a standstill. Families at home in the US had no word from their loved ones serving on the battlefield, and soldiers morale on the frontlines were growing low, being fully cut off from their lives at home. Major Adams and her Battalion were given orders to fly to Birmingham, England and sort the mess out, and get the mail flowing again. Nobody thought they could accomplish the task and they were given six months to complete the assignment. They were given an abandoned school building with no heat, and airplane hangars full of duffel bags stuffed with mail.

Major Adams and her Battalion rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Working three eight hour shifts twenty four hours a day, they sorted through an estimated 17 million pieces of mail. A great number of the letters and packages were damaged or had very little info as to who it actually went to, and coupled with the fact that the soldiers they were addressed to were constantly moving on the battlefield, it was a seemingly impossible task. The women of The Six Triple Eight gave it everything they had, playing detective, and pieced together where all the mail was supposed to go and got it there. And they accomplished their mission in 90 days, half the time they were allotted, and in spite of the working conditions, and the racial and sexist discriminations of the time.

I never did understand the racial bias and hatred towards another human beings skin color or ethnicity. I was raised in a Military household and I grew up around the world, exposed to many different cultures and ethnicities in and outside the confines of Military life. When I lived in the south for the first time it was indeed a cultural shock, at the time I was a long haired Hippie Child that loved playing guitar and Blues music. I might as well have been black, racism was rampant, and if you loved “Nigger Music” or played it you got the wrath as well. I remember playing in a country band back in the early 1980’s and somebody came up to me and said, “I’ll bet you love to play that Nigger Blues, don’t you….” Seriously?

Job well done to the women of The Six Triple Eight and Major Charity Adams, and to Tyler Perry for bringing this story to the big screen. He was so inspired when Producer Nicole Avant contacted him about the story, he sought out any remaining members of The 6888th. The next day he flew out to Las Vegas where he spent time with Lena Derriecott King. There is a video Tyler Perry posted on his Instagram account with Lena. I think Mr. Perry and the cast did a tremendous job bringing their story to the big screen. Kerry Washington had my attention from the time she walked in the barracks for the first time. Absolutely riveting performance. Ebony Obsidian as Lena as well. All the women get my utmost respect, I salute The Six Triple Eight and The Cast of the movie. Bravo. Standing Ovation………………

There is a tremendous lesson to be learned from these brave women…….no matter what obstacle, how high, how formidable….you never, ever give up…and you hold your head high as you do what they say can’t be done.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

The Bikeriders

2024 Focus Features

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 56min

Crime ~ Drama ~ True Story

Directed by: Jeff Nichols

Starring: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Damon Herriman, Beau Knapp, Emory Cohen, Karl Glusman, Toby Wallace, and Norman Reedus.

“Freedom Is For The Fearless.”

THE BIKERIDERS tells the true story of a Motorcycle Club created in Chicago in the 1960’s. In the movie the name was changed to The Vandals, the real name of the club was The Chicago Outlaws. Between 1963 and 1967 Danny Lyon rode with and documented, in pictures and audio recordings, the lives of the members of the motorcycle club as it grew in popularity and size. In 1968 he published a book using the stories and photographs he had documented entitled THE BIKERIDERS, the movie is based entirely on that book. There are scenes from the movie that were recreated from Danny’s photographs, some of which you can see at the end as the credits roll.

The story is mostly told through the eyes and words of Kathy played by Jodie Comer. In a chance encounter at a club bringing a friend money she meets Benny (Austin Butler), a member of the The Vandals and falls for him. Johnny (Tom Hardy), who started the club, convinces her that Benny is ok and that he will make sure that she is safe and looked after within the club. Within five weeks Kathy and Benny are married and she has a front row seat to the activities and events of the club. Benny is Johnny’s right hand man and protegé, and is high up in the hierarchy of the club.

As Kathy tells it Johnny, who is married with two daughters and has a steady job, got the idea for the Motorcycle riding group while watching Marlon Brando in The Wild One. As the Club grew and expanded Johnny struggled to maintain leadership. As members joined the club after coming home from Vietnam, they brought a different element to the club. Instead of beer drinkers, most of them were Pot smokers and heavier drug users, and there started to become a rift between the old and the new. Eventually the new won out and The Outlaws Motorcycle Club became more of a violent crime organization involved in prostitution and drug running, amongst other things.

It is a fascinating look at the birth and growth of one of the most infamous Motorcycle Organizations in the world. Jodie Comer does an excellent job of portraying Kathy. She is an English actress and you have to give her props for her accent in the movie, definitely Midwestern. There are audio recordings and pics of the real Kathy and Jodi Comer absolutely nailed the accent! Tom Hardy as the tough skinned leader was great, reminded me of his role as Forrest Bondurant in Lawless. Austin Butler also did a great job as Benny, going from the clean cut ELVIS to the polar opposite as the notorious motorcycle club member. Michael Shannon was a little different and freaky as Zipco, a guy you just didn’t want to look at funny for fear of retribution.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, I really liked all the characters, and you know I like the True Story ones. I would watch this again, maybe several times.

Highly Recommended….

Two Thumbs Up!

Killers Of The Flower Moon

2023 Paramount Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 3 hr 26min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Epic ~ Mystery ~ Romance ~ True Story ~ Western

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Scott Shepherd and Brendan Fraser.

“With it’s great black wings of spray, arcing above the rigging, it rose before them like an angel of death.”

In 1821 the Osage Indians were removed from their homes and land they had lived on for generations alongside the Osage river. They were relocated west to the US Government designated “Indian Territories” in Oklahoma. Their former home and lands were sold to white immigrant settlers while the Osage tried to survive on the unhospitable barren Oklahoma land that was foreign to them. It was given to them because none of the white people wanted to live there, being too barren and not much good for farming. They were the poorest people in the United States.

75 years later a group of Osage Indians were walking through the fields of flower blooms in the valley during the annual Flower Moon. The Flower Moon is a name given to the full moon in May by the Osage people because of the flower blooms that take place every year. During May in the Oklahoma hills and valleys of the Indian Reservation, the fields of blooming flowers die out when taller plants crowd them out. The Osage refer to the month of May as “The time of the Flower Killing Moon”. As they were walking they came to a clearing and a patch of mud. Suddenly out of the middle came a geyser of black oil.

The Osage people were sitting on a vast underground oil reserve and almost overnight became the richest people in America. Because nobody wanted the land in the beginning, they had been given and retained all the mineral rights to the land. Almost overnight, the oil companies and oil prospectors invaded the once undesirable Oklahoma land, driven by greed and the temptation of riches beyond the imagination. The money flowed quick and in great volume. Suddenly it became fashionable for a white man to marry into an Indian family and acquire the rights by marriage, or by murder if necessary. It is against this backdrop that KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOONtakes place.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Ernest Burkhart who has just returned home to Oklahoma having been discharged from the army due to a health issue. He returns to his Uncle William Hale’s (Robert De Niro) farmhouse where he is reunited with his brother Byron Burkhart (Scott Shepherd). Uncle William informs him of the current climate amid the oil rush in the county. He tells Ernest that it would serve a fellow well if he were to wed into an Indian family with “Headrights”, he and his family would do very well for themselves. Ernest soon falls for an Indian woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone), who’s mother and sisters own a very large chunk of “Headrights”. William tells Ernest that Mollie’s mother Lizzie is on her deathbed and soon Mollie would follow.

The Osage People were becoming victim to the white man’s diet and sugary confections. Diabetes was becoming very common and many died from lack of care. And Mollie had diabetes like her dying mother. They were also falling victim to the white man’s greed as Osage people were suddenly becoming victims of violent murders and poisonings referred to as “The Wasting Deaths”. Being Indian deaths there was not much concern for how they were dying, nor any inquiries into why. The foul play and deception led to a string of murders that was brought to the attention of Calvin Coolidge by Mollie. The President brought together a group of highly skilled detectives and law men to investigate. They were the unofficial beginnings of The FBI.

When the FBI arrived and started to investigate, they discovered a plot hatched by William and his family to deceive the Osage people and acquire mineral rights for his family at any cost, even if it meant poisoning and killing. This is unfortunately a True Story, based on the book by David Grann, Killers Of The Flower Moon. It is a long movie coming in at 3 hours and 28 minutes, but it is a good one. A fascinating tale of greed, betrayal and deception. I really liked Lily Gladstone in this, thought she did an excellent job. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro were great as always. It is well shot, great cast, great director, great story…..what’s not to like? Well, maybe the length…….