The Debt

In 1965 three young Mossad agents, two guys and Jessica Chastain, are in East Berlin, assigned to kidnap the Surgeon of Birkenau, who experimented on living people in the death camps, and bring him to Israel for trial. He’s working as a gynecologist under another name. (The ploy to get to him involves Jessica visiting for fertility exams. He is empathetic and kind as she has her legs in ... Read more »

Deep Crimson

A fat, schizoid woman meets a penny-ante, bald, vain, grifter lothario and she moves in with him, going so far as to abandon her two children because she “loves” him so much. Either of these two, alone, would have been relatively harmless. The woman would have continued to cluelessly raise her kids, the man would have continued to steal money from lonely women like her. But every once in a ... Read more »

Deep Impact

I liked this movie, though apparently I was one of the few. Sure, it’s a formula disaster picture, but I’m a fan of Tea Leoni, and Morgan Freeman is very good. Usually you don’t much care for the characters in a film like this, but I did this time. I was touched, and awed by the special effects, which were on a whole new level for the time. Of course there’s better now (see Read more »

Deep Water

In 1967 Francis Chichester became the first person to sail solo around the world (by one definition of circumnavigation, anyway). This feat so enthralled Britons and the world in general that The Sunday Times soon announced The Golden Globe Race. Chichester had made one stop in Australia. This race was to be non-stop. Nine boats entered. Only one boat completed the trip.

I had ... Read more »

Deep Water

This is a four-part TV series that is based on the actual murders of somewhere between 30 and 80 gay men in the ‘80s and ‘90s. No one knows the exact number because … well, nobody gave a shit. Two police detectives, Tori Lustigman (Yael Stone) and Nick Manning (Noah Taylor) begin to suspect that there’s a serial killer on the loose. Tori is particularly fascinated by it because her brother ... Read more »

Deepwater Horizon

Since it is literally impossible these days to tell what is real in a movie and what is a special effect, I assumed that most if not all of the huge floating oil rig I was seeing was computer generated. Not so! Well, some parts of it certainly were, and I’m sure that most of the gigantic, fiery explosions were CGI, but they actually built a rig. I couldn’t find out whether or not it ... Read more »

Defending Your Life

Albert Brooks’s real birth name is Albert Einstein. No kidding! And his brother is Bob Einstein, better known as Super Dave Osborne, the world’s worst stunt man. Their father was a radio comedian, Harry Einstein, known as “Parkyakarkus,” who died during a Friar’s Club roast of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. You couldn’t make this stuff up!

Brooks has made several first-rate comedies, ... Read more »

Defiance

EPISODE ONE: Pilot.
A new series on the SYFY channel, so we decided to take a look at the 2-hour pilot. It seems we are to learn most of the back story piecemeal, as only a little here and there was revealed in this episode. That’s cool, no need for huge expository lumps (though we do get one). But the Wikipedia article has an EXTENSIVE summary of What Came ... Read more »

Defiance

True story … though I suspect the details are a bit fanciful here and there. It’s 1941 and the Nazis in Byelorussia—now Belarus—are rounding up the Jews to send them to the death camps, or else simply killing them on the spot. (I’m ashamed to admit I couldn’t have pointed to Belarus on a map until a few moments ago. It’s east of Poland and north of Ukraine.) Most of the Bielski family has ... Read more »