Directed by James Foley
Staring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey
Released 1992

I first heard of this film though a teacher when I was attending classes at ITT. He introduced this to the class by showing the opening sequence with Alec Baldwin’s character Blake giving a rather forceful “Always Be Closing” speech to the rest of the main cast. The reason he did this was to preface the flash short he did called Glengarry Glen Darth, which was hilarious, especially for a Star Wars fan, but has nothing to do with the rest of this review.

Until that point I had never heard of this film; which is kind of odd as I’m a fan of Harris, Spacey and Pacino. And after having seen the complete film I can say that I’m left with the feeling of having been mind melted.

The film on whole is about a set of real estate sellers who have horrendous leads that they have to cold call and try and sell property to at resort clubs in Florida and Arizona. What they want are the Glengarry leads, which Blake gives to Williamson (Spacey) at the beginning of the film. That’s the long and the short of the film. In the rough hour and a half you’re watching this you get to hear how disgruntled the employees are and what they could be doing or should be doing. And if I say much more I’ll spoil the whole movie. We’ll leave it at Moss (Ed Harris) eventually screwing one of his co-workers. The movie has a nice twist to it, so pay attention.

The script and the acting were amazing and you’re definitely left with a sense of completion when the film is over. Having worked in the sales business before I can honestly say that I really feel for the characters and what they have to do to survive.

I think what I most enjoyed about the movie was that there wasn’t a single female lead in the film. Not one. And that a movie in today’s world can work as well as this one does without the obligatory female lead was nice to see.

Final word: It’s not quite a Z-snap but its not worthy of a Hated It either (maybe I should go back to stars like normal people). It’s a great film, but one that I would definitely recommend that you grab from Netflix or borrow from a friend. See it once; it’s all you’ll need. Oh…and keep the youngsters out of the room as there’s at a hundred instances of a fat f-bomb, if not more.

Directed by Ridley Scott
Starting Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and Tim Curry
Released in 1986

What is the draw to this film that keeps me coming back to it? The incomparable proof that unicorns are real and Hollywood keeps them for themselves? The outrageously handsome Tom Cruise wearing skin tight clothes (and armor) for the whole of the film?

Uh uh baby. Tim Curry as Darkness. Man makes Evil sexy.

Legend is the quintessential high fantasy film. You have light verses darkness, elves, fairies and unicorns, the simpering royal princess and her crush, the woodland raised boy, and most importantly the one vile deed that changes everything in the blink of an eye.

I originally saw this film when I was eight or nine. Didn’t understand half the complications going on, only fell in love with handsome Jack and those ultra realistic unicorns. Darkness terrified me as a kid. I only cared for the righteous defeat of evil by the powers of good that were wielded by Jack and his forest friends.

And there was one more thing that held my attention, almost more than the film. The soundtrack that was provided by Tangerine Dream (with some vocals by Yes’ Jon Anderson). The scene in Darkness’ home where he seduces Lily with the ebony gown is the scene I most remembered as a child. The seduction was lost on me, but the music and dress burned themselves into my memory.

But as I grew older and continued to watch the movie I was left unsatisfied. I began to understand the implications of what would happen if Darkness won, but Lily’s “change” from light to dark left me wanting more. The whole thing just started to feel unfinished.

Then I got my greedy hands on the “Ultimate” version of Legend and found the British release of the film. You know - the one with exquisite Jerry Goldsmith’s score.

I don’t think I’ve watched the American version since. The UK release of Legend is what the story should have been to begin with. The rock and roll score is gone, replaced with the lilting and haunting melodies that underscore and finish the scenes. Lily is no longer a simple, pampered and simpering princess; you actually get a feel for her as becoming truly evil instead of fakery when she’s dealing with Darkness. Jack’s role didn’t scream pure naivety anymore, he actually comes off as clever in many scenes and you lose the feel that he’s an expert with the new sword and shield as soon as he has to use them. And Darkness….

Well, let’s just say I wasn’t terrified of him anymore. You get an understanding of Darkness that was lacking before. There’s times, even knowing how it ends, you want to cheer for him. You get an introduction that was missing and helps complete the film and you get an ending that isn’t the predictable Hollywood drivel.

I’m not saying that this film would be any easier for a child to understand, but here it is complete. And at least with the Ultimate edition you get both versions, just in case you still have a weakness to see a dancing black dress moving to a nice rock n’ roll score.

And no matter what version you watch, you just can’t resist the appearance of Voyager’s Doctor, Robert Picardo as Meg Mucklebones.

The film on the whole definitely gets a Z-snap and is worth adding to any fantasy collection.

I’ve been thinking in the past days since I started setting things up here. Like… how to give a final like or dislike of the subject, or do I quote lines from movies, or how much do I spoil, since we are talking about older works here.

There’s so much that I’m still learning here. So much that I’m not sure how to do things and will be learning as we move along.

For now though…

Quoted lines will probably be rare. It takes up space that could be left for the review, and let’s be honest, these are older films, you might have them memorized like I do.

How much do I spoil? Well… I’ve written my first review, which will be posted shortly, and tried not to spoil much at all. I get the feeling my reviews will improve as I learn and proceed with my posts and if there are any definitive spoilers they will be marked.

Final word? I spent too much time watching the Men on Films skit (staring Damien Wayans as “Dwayne Edwards” and David Alan Geer as “Antoine Merryweather”) on In Living Color. So I’ll leave the final word to “Hated it” which is obvious and “Z-Snaps” which means its something I truly enjoyed.

On another note there is now a page link that will allow you to add review requests and I would encourage you to do so. I’m always willing to try something new.

Timeww.com… what the hell is timeww.com…. hmm… Time Well Wasted. Okay, so what is it? Oh great, its another review blog.

Well, yes and no.

Yes in that it is reviews. Over the life of this blog you’ll find reviews for movies, games, and books primarily. Though I might throw some music and TV your way as well.

But there’s the no. I’m not going to be covering anything New very often. What you’ll find here is older most of the time. If it came out this year there’s a good chance you won’t find it on this blog. Hmm… let me review that statement…

Its 2007 and that means I can cover things from 2006… yay I get to write about Happy Feet! Yeah yeah, so it doesn’t come out on DVD till March (yes I’ve been waiting for it) but I saw it in the theater last November, so it counts.

What this blog is, for now, is a place for me to alleviate my boredom while I’m looking for work. A friend of me reminded me how much I enjoy talking about media and that I often have some very good recommendations, and a shelf full of 200+ dvds. Got to thinking about it and called someone with a little more worldly experience…. Yeah all right so I called my dad… sue me.

But he and I have been talking about this kind of stuff since I was old enough to understand and to this day I’ll get the random phone call from him that equates to, “Honey who’s the actor that played Wat and appeared in some space film with Nathan Fillion?” And I’d call back and give him the answer… usually without having to resort to Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Oh and in this case the “space movie” is Serenity and the actor he was looking for was Alan Tudyk from A Knight’s Tale.

Will there be spoilers? Um, more than likely. But there will be a warning so you could discontinue reading the article. Will I see the same thing said in every blog? Not unless they know my brain and my opinion on things.

The long and the short of it is I’m bored senseless and this gives me a chance to do something creative with that boredom. It may get snarky at times, but what doesn’t? And I promise I won’t be writing just about the movies and such that I enjoy, you’ll get the occasional quip of how it MUST be a slow news day because I keep seeing the same Britney Spears headline every time I open up my CNN Blogline. She shaved her head; do we need to be reminded of that every five minutes? No… I don’t think so.

So sit back, enjoy the ride, and feel free to comment. Hellfire I’ll even take requests for reviews if anyone has them. That’s what Netflix, radio and the library are for, right and I’m always looking for something new.