film – Page 3 – Looking to God

Kate McCallister

Posted on December 10, 2014December 14, 2014 by Jack Flacco

I have yet to meet someone who hasn’t seen Home Alone. That is no slight exaggeration. In its short twenty-four year history, the film has gone on to become a holiday favorite for many families, including ours. Once a year, we dim the lights, set the fire and curl up to the sights and sounds of “Kevin!”

Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister — Catherine O’Hara as Kate McCallister

Today’s Women Who Wow Wednesday is all about wide-eyed Kevin’s mom Kate McCallister—the parent who left her son home alone for the holidays.

It’s Christmas and the McCallister family has plans to vacation in France. The night before their trip, amid the chaos of the kids fighting, the ruined pizza and everyone ganging up on Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) for being a nuisance—read: kid with high IQ who no one appreciates—a wish passes through the nuisance’s lips and suddenly the next day the family disappears.

Among the family members who go missing is Kevin’s mom Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) who finds herself on a plane with her husband and family heading to France. Nothing wrong with that, it was the plan after all, until she realizes she’s forgotten her eight-year-old son home alone.

The guilt tears her up so much that she wonders what kind of mother she is for having forgotten her son during a family trip. And like any good mother, when the family arrives in France, the first thing on her agenda is fulfilling her desire to get home to see her boy.

It sounds like an easy task, hop on a plane and she’s good to go. But it’s Christmas time and all the flights are bustling with folks with the same idea—get home for the Holidays. Determined to get back to her son, Kate presses for an early flight that would get her close to home, but not close enough.

When Kate arrives on U.S. soil, she hits another obstacle. She can’t get transportation anywhere. Rentals and flights are gone and her only hope is that someone would be gracious enough to help her get home to see her son. But not before she let’s go on one of the airport attendants venting her plight, reminding them of the common decency of the season. To no avail she gets nowhere.

It isn’t until a bandleader (John Candy) and his buddies offer Kate a ride that things start to make sense again for the exhausted mom. In the back of an old dingy van, she and a gang of old-time polka musicians jet cross-country through the winter Illinois landscape.

Once she arrives home and sees Kevin for the first time since abandoning him, she doesn’t know what to day. Well, actually, she does know what to say, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. You can watch it on your own and relive the excitement of Home Alone.

A mother’s love for a child is a wonderful thing, and Kate shows us what that love is all about.

[Stay tuned next week when the new feature Wednesday Warriors debuts here on JackFlacco.com.]

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale now.

What do you like about Kate McCallister? What makes Home Alone so gratifying to watch year after year?

Monday Mayhem

My Fear of Zombies

Posted on November 10, 2014November 12, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Do you know what terrifies me the most about zombies? It’s not their slow, lumbering drag. Neither is it their insatiable appetite. Nor is it their decomposing flesh that I’m sure smells like something that came out of a garbage disposal unit. No. What scares me the most about the undead is their blank, vacant eyes. For behind that empty stare is a soulless body that possesses no sadness, fear, hate, love or passion for, or about, anything we humans consider as the stirring of the spirit.

Asbury Park [Photo credit licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.]

Let’s talk a bit about zombie terror for today’s Monday Mayhem. I’m almost positive everyone has a fear of the undead. What is yours?

Some may find the zombie appetite for human disconcerting. In reality, how different is it from the compulsion that potential cold-hearted murderers feel when they roam the naked streets? If you’ve ever seen Stephen King’s The Shining, then you’ll know what I mean. Jack Nicholson’s character reminds me of a hunger-driven zombie. Focused. One-track mind. His only goal is to kill. As frightening as he is, I’ve seen his character repeated from one movie to the next. It’s not scary anymore. Dare I say the word? His character is predictable.

But those eyes—they have to be the single most feared thing I can think of when someone asks me about zombies. It’s like looking into a cold bucket of ice knowing that no matter how much I try, I will always feel as if the frigid waters will wash over me whenever I get lost in them. I suppose this is understandable, considering the undead originates from the same dirt pit friends and family members may one day fill.

In that same vein, the bodies of the soulless increase in strength and might.

I can’t describe my feelings when I imagine what it would be like to confront a zombie with its piercing eyes on top of me. How could I put into the words the zombie’s ability to measure the time it will take for it to catch and eat me before I realize I should have made a run for it?

The blank stare is what generates terror in my bones. As hard as I try, I can’t shake its indifferent gaze from the deepest parts of my body. It will stop at nothing to gain an advantage over my weaknesses. It will never surrender.

All of the undead’s temptations originate from when it sets its pale eyes on its victim. How can I overcome such a vile beast if all I can think about are those eyes?

There has to be a solution to this fear I have. There has to be.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale now.

What do you fear of the undead? Do their eyes bother you as much as it bothers me?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Anderson

Posted on September 24, 2014September 19, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Her name is Anderson, and in the cold future where the world lives in a state of overpopulation, she, along with her mentor take on the city’s most powerful gang. Her mentor? Judge Dredd.

Olivia Thirlby as Dredd's Anderson — Olivia Thirlby as Dredd’s Anderson

Today’s Women Who Wow Wednesday series is proud to add Dredd’s Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to the list of powerful female characters worthy of example.

In the dystopian nightmare called the future, police have the power to act as judge, jury and executioner. Sentences are swift. Judgment is permanent. Among the officers, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) emerges as the de facto force of reckoning. With him, a young woman, top in her class, the youngest potential judge the Department of Justice has ever seen, accompanies Dredd for a training day of sorts.

The ultraviolent society is their playground. The insane-riddled criminals are their toys.

They move to collect a witness residing in a city block overrun by the neighborhood’s most ruthless overlord who will stop at nothing to protect her turf. Dredd and Anderson vs. Ma-Ma (Lena Headey).

It should have been easy—walk in, grab the punk, and walk out. In the midst of their assault, Judge Dredd and Anderson meet with resistance. From then on, it becomes a game of survival and escape once Ma-Ma orders a lockdown of the whole block.

The wild card? Anderson. There’s more to the young trainee than the thugs had bargained for. She doesn’t need weapons or a rulebook. She’s lethal without the help of anyone other than her ability to make her will a reality.

Although the leather-suited Anderson may sport a tough exterior, she retains a soft heart. When confronted with the inevitable decision to take her first life, under the tutelage of Judge Dredd, she has to render judgment regardless of what she feels for those facing their potential execution. Adding to the young judge’s allure is her striking beauty. Golden locks, big doe eyes, a porcelain complexion, and the build that would make any reasonable guy perform a double take.

Despite the viciousness of her later attacks, and prior to unleashing her irrevocable judgment on criminals, she attempts to find a fair and equitable solution for everyone involved. Spare a life, spare a generation. The gangsters have other ideas. The only fair and equitable solution for them is seeing Dredd and Anderson’s bodies thrown off the side of their building after a lengthy torture session.

In the end, what will matter is the quelling of the criminals and their unavoidable destiny in the hands of Judge Anderson.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What did you think of Olivia Thirlby in her role as Dredd’s trainee, Anderson?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Clara Murphy

Posted on September 10, 2014September 10, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Detective Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is the cop who had it all, a loving wife, a beautiful son, and a job, even though dangerous, he enjoyed doing. When multiple injuries in the line of duty nearly kill him, science comes to the rescue. Rebuilt from scratch, he becomes a criminal’s worst nightmare. As cliché as that sounds, his life becomes worth living again as an organic robot bent on destroying crime without pity.

Women Who Wow Wednesday presents Clara Murphy (Abbie Cornish), RoboCop’s wife who stands by her man during his darkest days.

This 2014 film, a remake of the 1987 hit RoboCop featuring Peter Weller as crime’s mechanical nemesis, contrasts the original by delving into Alex’s relationship with his wife who ultimately makes the man inside the armor better. A better man. A better husband. A better cop.

After his injuries, all Alex has on his mind is the thought of his wife, and if she’d accept him for the new man he has become. Clara doesn’t have to think about it, he will always be her husband. Her willingness to overlook his appearance and go beyond the shell makes her responsible for Alex’s future actions as a powerful crime fighter.

Beyond being Alex’s wife, she’s also her son David’s inspiration, leading him to accept his father’s new life. Through her constant vigilance of David’s welfare, she manages to protect and guide the boy without her father’s presence in his life, always reminding that his father loves him, no matter what.

Clara’s role doesn’t end there. Her bravery surpasses all expectations when she stands in the middle of a street, stopping RoboCop’s motorcycle as it screams toward her. For months, she hadn’t had contact with her husband and she wanted to know where he had been hiding. The man in charge, Dr. Norton (Gary Oldman), kept Alex from her, but she couldn’t deal not having access to him. When she stands in the middle of traffic with her hand out, she does it knowing she could lose her life in the process.

The hardest thing Clara has to endure is not knowing. Not knowing what happens to her husband in the care of Dr. Norton. Not knowing if she’ll ever see him again. And not knowing if Alex would be the same person as he once was when they first met.

Clara’s strength comes from inside. Where others would have given up on their spouses, she stayed with him through it all without ever wafting from her center.

If there ever was a character with the resilience to fight back, Clara Murphy is that character.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

If you’ve seen it, what did you think of the movie RoboCop? How does it compare to the older version?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Sue Charlton

Posted on September 3, 2014September 2, 2014 by Jack Flacco

As a travel reporter who seeks interesting stories from the far reaches of the globe, Sue Charlton visits Australia to discover the biggest story of her career. But far better than the research for her job, she finds something else she didn’t expect. Love does appear in the strangest of places.

Crocodile Dundee's Sue — Crocodile Dundee’s Sue

Today’s Women Who Wow Wednesday celebrates the striking Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. Starring Paul Hogan in the title role, he is a character right out of a comic book. He can hypnotize a bull with the shake of a hand. He can kill a crocodile using only a knife. And he can tell the time simply by looking at the sun in the sky. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t so true, but he’s a rough-and-tumble character with the ability to save those who need saving.

Sue, on the other hand, is a city girl who is quite helpless in the Aussie bush. Her idea of roughing it has more to do with finding a place to wash her clothes than beating a crock senseless over the head with her weapon of choice. What makes her unique is her ability to capture the heart of Dundee with very little effort on her part.

In a moment of good-natured competition, she sets out on her own in the outback to prove she doesn’t need his saving arms. What could have been a disaster turns into an opportunity where they both become close friends. Their mutual respect for one another’s capabilities proves there’s a hero in everyone.

In the wild, Dundee reigns as the ultimate survivalist, yet in New York City, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. This is where Sue shines by walking him through the urban life. Even when he doesn’t know what a bidet is, she doesn’t look down on him. Her way of teaching is nudging him along so he can learn at his own pace. Eventually he figures out the ins and outs of a bidet—so to speak.

While Dundee loses himself in the journey of a foreign land, he also loses his heart to the beautiful and enchanting reporter he met in the Australian wilderness. If only life were as simple as sweeping her off her feet. It’s not, and in a rush to reconcile his feelings, he decides to leave America.

The story could very well end there. But it doesn’t. Like a well-used cliché, it’s just the beginning. As with all good things that grow from the smallest of seeds, so is Sue’s affection toward the man who once saved her life. She, too, realizes her life will never be the same again without Dundee. He’s showed her more than anything she could have learned on her own, and because of it, is grateful for his friendship.

Sue Charlton, Women Who Wow Wednesday’s best friend.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Have you seen Crocodile Dundee? What do you think of Sue Charlton?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Jo Harding

Posted on July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Among the bicycles in the trees, the broken lumber in the field and the torn foundations, a little girl rises to confront her greatest challenge—a twister.

When I first saw this film in the fall of 1996, my wife and I were in the middle of visiting family in Nova Scotia. The theater had a handful of folks and we had just settled into our seats. I didn’t know what I was in for, but I could feel magic in the air. About half-an-hour into the story, I remember turning to my wife and saying, “How did they do that?” From there, I didn’t say a word until the very end. When we left the theater that evening, it had rained. How appropriate, I thought.

“The suck zone. It’s the point…basically at which the twister…sucks you up. That’s not the technical term for it, obviously.” ~Dustin Davis (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

Women Who Wow Wednesday wouldn’t be complete without Twister’s Jo Harding (Helen Hunt), the go-getter who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. She and Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) chase storms for a living. They look for massive fronts, then they plow into them hoping to gain a better understanding as to how they form.

Who are we kidding? They chase tornadoes. The bigger they are, the more of a thrill the chasers get.

For Jo it all started when she saw her father taken in a whirlwind. Since then, her fascination with tornadoes has only grown. Bill’s fiancée Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz) can’t understand the driving force that keeps the woman going. Jo treats the storms as a normal thing. Her matter-of-fact attitude shows when she tells Dr. Reeves, “If you have to pee, you should do it now. There’s not many places to stop on the road.”

But it’s not all chases, hootin’ and hollerin’. Jo genuinely wants to understand what makes a twister do what it does. She’s so enamored with the thought of an early warning system that she’ll do anything to make it happen, even if it’s getting out of the truck in order to reach out and touch the beast.

[Discussing at Meg’s on the tornadoes they have seen so far]
Joey: No, that was a good size twister. What was it, an F3?
Bill: Solid F2.
Melissa: See, now you have lost me again.
Bill: It’s the Fujita scale. It measures a tornado’s intensity by how much it eats.
Melissa: Eats?
Bill: Destroys.
Laurence: That one we encountered back there was a strong F2, possibly an F3.
Beltzer: Maybe we’ll see some 4’s.
Haynes: That would be sweet!
Bill: 4 is good. 4 will relocate your house very efficiently.
Melissa: Is there an F5?
[Everyone goes dead silent]
Melissa: What would that be like?
Jason ‘Preacher’ Rowe: The Finger of God.
Melissa: None of you has ever seen an F5?
Bill: …Just one of us.
[Looks upstairs, indicating Jo]

The fact of the matter is tornadoes don’t scare Jo. She’s seen small and large twisters, sisters and monsters. They don’t scare her. If she can help alert those in the storm’s path, then she will have done her duty. After all, she’s seen the worst of the worst and everything else is easy by comparison.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What did you think of the movie Twister? What did you think of the character Jo?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Veronica Mars

Posted on July 9, 2014June 29, 2014 by Jack Flacco

It starts with a simple request: “I need your help, Veronica.” It then balloons into an investigation of incredible proportions. She’s a girl who picks up her private investigator’s license at eighteen. Don’t let that fool you, though. Her crime solving skills came much earlier when her best friend became a murder victim and she wanted to know who did it. It was her way of coping.

If you don’t know Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), then you might enjoy this Women Who Wow Wednesday post, as I, too, have grown fond of this woman of many talents.

Veronica’s private eye bug originated with her father, who was Neptune, California’s sheriff. One day, he goes after the most powerful man in town, and the next day, he loses his job. Not a man for taking a loss, he opens his own P.I. firm called Mars Investigations. It only makes sense that Veronica would work there part time, of course. She naturally has her own caseload to solve and follows her dad in his footsteps.

To understand Veronica is to understand her friends. She loses them all with her father’s sudden unemployment. So much for friends. Her dead friend’s boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), however, is especially a cruel soul. Unlike Veronica who searches for her best friend’s killer by investigating leads, Logan’s distrust and rage fuels his need for revenge. Drawn by the common goal of finding a killer, Veronica and Logan become an item. At the same time, those same qualities that draw people together can also tear them apart.

How can someone quantify Veronica’s skillsets? Yes, she’s angry. She’s Vengeful. But there’s more to her than the dark, brooding character some make her out to be. Some folks call her a marshmallow.

Names aside, her strength lies in her ability to see through the confusion. When threatened, she doesn’t stand aside taking it. She dishes it out and ensures no one can make a comeback from her volley. Her idea of a solution is the direct approach. If things get too complicated for her, nothing quite like a right cross to solve a problem.

Her biggest asset is not her skill with a camera. Nor is it having the ability to mimic accents. It’s not even her willingness to dress different, talk different or walk different. Veronica’s biggest asset is the love she has for her dad. In spite of him losing his job, and her friends asking her to choose, without a doubt she chooses her dad. He provides the love and safety she needs to carry forward with her life and not worry what anyone else thinks. He’s her sounding board, always ready to listen, always ready to step in when she’s in over her head. No one else can replace him. He’s her everything.

Veronica Mars may have an attitude, but her will to stand firm in the toughest of situations makes her a true example of what a strong woman is.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Have you seen the Veronica Mars movie? If so, what do you think of it? What do you think of the series?

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