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!

Oppenheimer

2023 Universal Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 3 hr

Biography ~ Drama ~ History ~ True Story

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Jason Clarke and Kenneth Branagh.

“Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.”

Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, a Theoretical Physicist in charge of The Los Alamos project and one of the pioneers of the first atomic bombs built during World War II. It follows his life and education leading up to chairing the project to create the world’s first atomic bomb, and his life and career following the first Atomic bomb test. It also chronicles his personal battles dealing with the responsibility of being the man that changed the world with an atomic weapon, and his guilt that he may have ultimately laid the foundation for the destruction of our world.

The movie starts with the 1954 security hearing orchestrated by The Atomic Energy Chairman Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr). It was a kangaroo court orchestrated by Strauss with the express purpose of destroying Oppenheimer’s reputation and credibility, mainly due to Strauss’s jealousy and paranoia regarding Oppenheimer. There is a scene where Oppenheimer is having a conversation with Albert Einstein within eyeshot of Strauss, and Strauss is convinced that Oppenheimer is bad mouthing him to Einstein. But in reality Oppenheimer was discussing with Einstein his fear that in creating the atomic bomb he might have started a chain reaction that could destroy the world.

The movie centers on the 1954 hearing and the 1959 Senate Confirmation Hearing for Strauss where it is revealed how Strauss tried to undermine Oppenheimer and his work. It flashes back and forth between the hearings and the events in Oppenheimer’s life that led up to the first atomic bomb test (which is quite impressively depicted in the movie), and the events after as he grapples with the fallout personal guilt he has. There are a lot of stories going on here and it can be a little difficult to understand and follow. Especially as it flashes back and forth to different times and events, some being in black and white.

One of the main stories of this movie is the power struggle between Oppenheimer and Strauss as Strauss seeks to undermine his influence with the Atomic Energy Commission. Christopher Nolan, the director, uses color and black and white to differentiate between the two men. The Black and white scenes are used to show Strauss’s point of view and thinking, while color was used to represent Oppenheimer’s. That alone is a fascinating viewing if you know that and view the movie with that knowledge.

There is a lot of star power in this movie:

Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s Wife kitty
Robert Downey Jr. as Atomic Energy Chairman Lewis Strauss
Matt Damon as US Army Colonel Leslie Groves who oversaw The Los Alamos Project
Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist, Communist Party USA member, and Robert Oppenheimer’s romantic interest
Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel-winning nuclear physicist who worked with Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley
Casey Affleck as Boris Pash, a US Army military intelligence officer and commander of the Alsos Mission
Kenneth Branagh as as Niels Bohr, a Nobel-winning Danish physicist, philosopher and Oppenheimer’s personal idol
Rami Malek as David L. Hill, a nuclear physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory.
Jason Clarke as Roger Robb, an attorney and future US circuit judge who served as special counsel to the AEC at Oppenheimer’s security hearing.

It is a fascinating look at the man and his accomplishments, his relationships and his guilt at having orchestrated the potential demise of the world. I’ve watched it three times mainly because it took two to fully understand all the stories going on, and then a third to appreciate it with the knowledge and understanding of everything going on. It is well acted by everyone involved, and the cinematography is outstanding.

Some fun facts:

It grossed over 976 million worldwide, the third highest of 2023
It won 7 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best original Score
And 5 Golden Globe Awards
And 7 British Academy Awards
And was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by the American Film Institute

An excellent movie obviously but it is a long one coming in at three hours.

But it is a fascinating three hours.

Two Thumbs Up!!

Above Suspicion

2021 Lionsgate

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 44min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller ~ True Story

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Jack Huston, Sophie Lowe, Austin Hébert, Karl Glusman, Chris Mulkey, Omar Miller, Kevin Dunn, Thora Birch and Johnny Knoxville.

“That’s the way the devil comes. He don’t come to you as evil. He don’t come to you on fire. He comes as everything you ever wanted. He comes to you as you.”

Emilia Clarke stars as Susan Smith, a divorced mother still living with her ex-husband in Harlan County, Kentucky. Her ex husband Cash (Johnny Knoxville) is a drug dealer and they are both addicted to drugs. Economically there are not many options in town and Susan and Cash survive on welfare checks and drug money. For the sake of their children and economic reasons they live in the same trailer just outside of town, where they also throw parties and sell drugs.

Jack Huston stars as FBI Agent Mark Putnam. Mark has just moved to town with his wife and new baby to investigate a series of bank robberies. The suspect Joe B is currently residing with Susan and Cash along with his girlfriend in the trailer. As Mark investigates the trail of Joe B, it leads him to Cash and Susan. He attempts to convince Cash to cooperate and become an informant but soon realizes that he has a better chance of getting Susan to co-operate.

Susan willingly becomes his informant, already infatuated with this new dark haired stranger in her life. She sees Mark as a way out of the dead end existence she is living and the two quickly become romantically involved. Their relationship becomes very entangled and dangerous for Mark who realizes he is putting his Marriage and career at great risk. He tries to break it off with Susan but she refuses to let go. Mark eventually puts in a transfer request for a different field office and moves his family to Florida.

The movie follows the story of Mark and Susan and their tumultuous affair and horrific ending. After returning to Pikesville, Kentucky to wrap up a case, Mark tries to talk to Susan one last time about letting go. They go for a ride out to the mountain and Susan becomes very agitated and violent at Mark’s insistence that the baby she says she’s carrying is not his. A violent fight ensues and Mark strangles Susan, drops her body in the woods and goes back to Florida.

Over the course of the following year Mark Putnam can’t escape his guilt and remorse and confesses to the crime of killing Susan Smith. Mark was sentenced to 16 years in prison, served ten, and is now re-married and living in Georgia. He was the first FBI Agent to ever be convicted of Murder.

I love the True Story movies and this is one hell of a story. Adultery, jealousy and a crime of passion. I am not familiar with Emilia Clarke but I love her in this. Jack Huston is also very good in this role. Johnny Knoxville does an outstanding job as the drug dealer Cash. I have watched this movie three times now and I would watch it again. It is a great story and movie, but I think that Emilia Clarke’s performance as Susan Smith is absolutely riveting and is what really keeps me coming back.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!