Do you turn news programs off when they start up with “pop news”?  Do you look at the magazines at the supermarket checkout with disgust?  Are you tired of paparazzi pursuing cult figures, and cult figures smacking around the paparazzi?  Are you fed up with the media turning killers into cult figures?  My answer to these questions is yes.  Maybe ordinary people’s lives are just so damn boring and dull that they become fascinated with personalities.  As a result, some become so larger-than-life from the media’s snowball effect that it always amuses me.  While part of human nature, following this seems a poor investment for a person’s time, though.

The Clintons, that shining example of marital bliss and fidelity, are having a grandchild.  Whoopee!  The media immediately creates the question, will this affect Hillary’s decision to run for president?  I don’t care.  You shouldn’t either.  But let’s hope her decision is made independently, weighing considerations that actually have something to do with a presidential run.  George Clooney, that shining example of liberal and progressive Hollywood thought, just tied the knot.  Given the fact that the wedding was estimated to have cost $13 million, it would seem that an elopement was in order so that the money could be better spent on his innumerable causes.  The one-percenters who get rich and then become do-gooders—the Clintons and the Clooneys are but two examples—make me suspicious.  They do their do-gooding after they become rich and famous.  Much appreciated, but why should Clinton’s Global Initiative or Clooney’s charity work and causes receive any more media attention than ordinary people’s where they’re working for charities like food banks and soup kitchens or taking up causes like campaigns to preserve the environment or stop global warming?

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[The first three movies below share a common feature—an aging protagonist who can really kick some butt!  They’re also representative of what I most like to watch, read, and write.  Sure, I read and write sci-fi too, but I split the time with the mystery/suspense/thriller genre.  The last movie is a comedy…of horrors!]

Hostage.  Robert Crais’ books, Hostage (2001) and Taken (2012), are definitely material for movie screenplays.  Hostage is a stand-alone; the movie stars Bruce Willis in a role that’s more serious—he isn’t the flippant smart-aleck so common in his other films.  He doesn’t quite master the suffering hound dog face of Harrison Ford, but he comes close.  He’s an ex-hostage negotiator from LA who left there seeking peace and quiet in the boonies because he lost a hostage—he doesn’t find the peace and quiet, though.  Probably because it’s based on a book, the plot here isn’t half bad.  Some neat twists too.  There’s lots of action and violence, very little romance.  I saw this on Encore, but most people will probably watch it on Netflix.  Recommended.

The November Man.  In this Hollywood version of Bill Granger’s There Are No Spies (1981), from the November Man series, Pierce Brosnan is an ex-spy who has to return to the game.  Speaking of Willis, this is what the movie Red should have been.  Brosnan as the ex-spy is an older version of Damon as Bourne, tough and lethal, but also a man with a heart.  Some strange geo-political maneuverings are going on as we learn yet another version of how the Chechen War started (I presume the book had some other international kerfuffle—never read it).  May Putin suffer the same fate as the Russian villain in this film.  Spoiler alert: there are American villains too!  Don’t look for Le Carre here—this is more action and thrills than intrigue.  Very enjoyable, though.

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