SUNSHINE for Heather

Every once in a while, I would like to take a step back from discussing a specific movie, or categories of movies to write about people I have met who either have worked, or are currently working in the entertainment industry in some way.

My first spotlight, then falls on a sweet young lady named Heather Ferreira. Now, Ms. Ferreira may not be a household name to you, yet, but it will be soon. Heather is the executive producer, creator, principal song writer and music coordinator, and one of the stars of a children’s TV show currently making it’s way around the country via local access channels. That show is SUNSHINE AGAIN. SUNSHINE seeks to recreate the original magic that was created by the best children’s educational shows of the early 1970’s. According to the SUNSHINE AGAIN website, located conveniently at http://sunshineagain.com, the action centers around the residents of a mythical town called Sunshine Again. The residents include a piano player named Joe (yes, in reference to my favorite Joe of all time), Ophelia (Ferreira), who works in a cupcake bakery, Jim (another tribute to yet another genius), who runs the TV station along with his receptionist Sylvia, and producer Jon (as in SESAME STREET writer Jon Stone). There are, as you might have guessed, some puppets that live in Sunshine Again as well. The fuzzy residents include: F. Scott Alphabets-Fitzgerald, who is into all things alphabetic, Schneider who is, well, we haven’t quite figured that out yet, Nip and Dave, patterned lovingly after another famous pair, and Mortimer, an English, um, we don’t know yet, who is into shapes.

Keeping in line with these classic shows, SUNSHINE AGAIN is going to, and in fact does feature film and animated inserts. A quick search of YouTube, or a visit to the site will give you some samples, but you know I can’t resist offering a taste of what you’ll see, so have a look at this clip that boasts a little of everything:

Now, you may be wondering how I got to know Heather. We met on YouTube a few months ago, when she started posting videos from her collection. I responded positively to what she had posted, and Heather, being the class act that she is, always had a response. Soon, I began to see some of her SUNSHINE material pop up, along with videos from another project or two that she is working on. We’ve been friends ever since.

You may have also noticed that Heather’s musical style favors Joe Raposo. That is NO coincidence. Joe is literally Heather’s muse. She’ll dream of Joe giving her a song, and within a week, Heather will be in the recording studio. I kid you not, we have had conversations about this. Jim Henson and Jon Stone are her scriptwriting muses. Again, we’ve talked about this, and I will vouch for Heather’s sources any day.

Right now, my good friend is hard at work fine-tuning SUNSHINE AGAIN for the next batch of episodes. If you want to know how to see Heather’s work, then you can pay a visit to her site. There, you will find a link to all of the stations that have agreed to air SUNSHINE AGAIN as part of their schedule. I am very hopeful that one day soon, when people discuss great Children’s TV talent, the list will not only include Jim Henson, Joe Raposo, Jon Stone, and Captain Kangaroo, but also Heather Ferreira.

When the Mood Strikes…

I’ve recently noticed that my DVD viewing habits tend to follow a specific pattern.  That’s OK, I guess.  Every day of the week seems to have a certain vibe, although the cast of SEINFELD may disagree.  Let me take you through a typical week of movie watching for me:

Sunday nights, I tend to watch something that will get my mind off of the fact that Monday is on the horizon.  It can be something totally escapist, with a lot of flash, and special effects.  Sometimes it’ll be a modern classic that by coincidence I watch on Sundays more than any other day of the week.

Monday nights, I tend to lean towards action or action comedies.  I guess that helps me wear off some of the left-over adrenaline I might have generated during the day.  Tonight, I may just watch THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, or maybe LADDER 49.

Tuesdays (when HELL’S KITCHEN isn’t airing, that is) are obviously for new releases.  Lately, though, I haven’t seen any new releases that catch my eye.  Fine with me, my money is better spent on other necessities.  But when I DO spot a new release that I want in my collection (which constantly threatens to overtake my living room), it’s a real thrill.  It also helps me prepare for the middle of the week when the next two days seem to blur together.

So I save those days for movies in my collection that I haven’t watched in a while, just to see if I still enjoy them.  I’m happy to say that 99% of the time, I remember why I enjoy that particular title.  Personally, I think it’s great when I rediscover a movie, or notice things about it that I hadn’t before.

Fridays and Saturdays are my nights at the movies, depending on my family’s social schedule-they ALWAYS come first.  On a REALLY good week, there will be two movies playing that I want to see, and with this week being the unofficial start of the summer movie season, my blog may start to get REALLY active.

Now, it’s YOUR turn!  Do you have certain types of movies that you watch on certain nights?  Or, do you save your movie watching for special occasions?  Feel free to post your thoughts here!

Movie Music

A couple of my recent posts got me thinking about the songs from the movies I really like. I know we all have our movie playlists, and even the American Film Institute has a list of what they consider to be the 100 greatest songs in movie history. For my list, I decided to exclude the Disney catalog, because my list would be too long. I also wanted to focus on the movies of my preteenage years through now. So, without further delay, here are my favorite movie songs:

“Happiness Hotel” (THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER). If you read my last post, you know how much I admire Joe Raposo. Joe wrote many great songs for this film, but this one is an absolute must-hear. “Happiness Hotel” mixes bluegrass, dixieland jazz, and rock to spin the tale of the worst hotel in London. It’s also the only hotel that Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo can afford. I laugh every time the third verse comes in. See if this lyric doesn’t make you smile:

OK the lobby’s lookin’ shabby/And it’s got the wrong address/And the whole dang thing has been condemned by American Express/But the management is cheerful though the whole joint’s gone to (expletive deleted, but it rhymes with the next line)/Welcome home to the Happiness Hotel!

That has got to be Joe Raposo’s funniest lyric ever.

“Together in Electric Dreams (Philip Oakly)”/”Video” (Jeff Lynne). If you want to know the truth, I think the entire soundtrack to ELECTRIC DREAMS is worth listening to, but these songs really shine. Oakley, I think has done the impossible: he’s married some very sad lyrics to a wonderfully catchy song with the help of Giorgio Moroder. It’s the first song I heard from the soundtrack, and I flipped over it. “Video”, by contrast is a pounding fast-paced song that gets my foot tapping. I just love the nod to Spike Jones during the instrumental portion of the song, and the music video for this song matches the frantic pacing perfectly.
“Weird Science” (Oingo Boingo). I bet you were wondering when I would get to a John Hughes movie. Well, the wait is over. Before Danny Elfman hit it big working with Tim Burton, he was the front man for the group Oingo Boingo. What I love about this song is the brass section. I can only describe the sound as pure fun. And whle I’m on the subject of John Hughes:

“If You Leave” (O.M.D.). This was the big hit from Hughes’ PRETTY IN PINK. To this day, I can’t listen to this song without sensing the same pain that the lead singer expresses, as he sings about the end of the relationship he describes. That is one of the great things a good movie song can do.

“The Closing of the Year” (Wendy and Lisa, with Seal). TOYS was another movie with a soundtrack that blew me away, thanks to Hans Zimmer’s (THE LION KING) musical direction. This song frames the movie’s opening and closing scenes. I had never heard such a Christmas song before. Yes, this IS a Christmas song, and one that deserves radio airtime, as it expresses the hope that comes with the holiday season.

“That Thing You Do” (The Wonders). Admit it. If you know and love this movie like I do, you always pay extra close attention when The Wonders play their signature tune. I’m not downplaying the other songs featured in the movie by any stretch. They’re all great tributes to the variety of sounds that came out of the 1960’s, but this one really sells the movie.

“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (Aerosmith). Aerosmith surprised a lot of people with the power ballad-to-end-all powwer ballads. I’ll admit that I was never Aeromith’s biggest fan, but when ARMAGEDDON came out, and this song hit the airwaves, I was amazed at the beauty of the lyrics and the power behind the song.

“Rat Race” (Baha Men). RAT RACE gave me a laugh at a time in my life when I needed it the most. The Baha Men’s title song, with it’s brass and percussive sound, just make me feel like dancing.

Well, that’s MY short list. You’ll notice that many of the songs listed didn’t or do not get a lot of air time on the radio. That was deliberate, because I wanted to challenge myself to be as original as possible. Anyone can mention the soundtrack to GREASE or “My Heart Will Go On”, but that would have been too easy. So, what are some of YOUR favorite movie songs that should or should have gotten airtime on your favorite station?

DVD Paused: RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE (1977)

Before TOY STORY, there was THE TIN TOY. And, before there was TIN TOY, there was RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was one of my first movie going experiences, and I loved it. I loved everything about it. But, then, I guess we all have special feelings about the first movie we really enjoyed.

First, let me talk about the animation. The animation was done by a talented team headed by Richard Williams. Williams is also the man responsible for the great animation in ROGER RABBIT, and the equally visually impressive THIEF AND THE COBBLER. In fact, there’s a chase scene in RAGGEDY ANN that reminds me of a chase scene in COBBLER, in which Ann, Andy and the Camel With the Wrinkled Knees are pursued by the Looney Knight in a black and white hall with impossible stairways that seemed to have found their way in the later movie. I also remember how Williams’ team gave the toys very realistic moves for hand drawn animation. You really do believe that this is how the toys would move when Marcella (the girl who owns Ann, Andy, and the other toys) plays with them.

And what about these great toy characters that come to life when Marcella isn’t around? Ann really loves being with Marcella when she goes out to school or to play. I could easily identify with Andy’s frustration at being one of the only male dolls in the playroom. Then there’s the Camel. All that poor Camel wants is a place to belong and feel loved and accepted. I don’t believe there’s anybody who can’t identify with those wants. For laughs, though, I have to go with King KooKoo. I love the fact that Marty Brill did his voice in the style of a German Mel Brooks-it’s great fun to listen to, even though he is the villain.

There is one aspect of this movie that I cannot, and will not leave out. I am a Joe Raposo fanatic. Let’s be honest, if you grew up on the early years of SESAME STREET and THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, then you know what a musical genius this man was, and what a great man he was to know. Joe’s (I just have to use his first name-I know he would want me to) inventiveness is at work here. He manages to incorporate a toy piano into the Twin Penny Dolls’ jazzy rhythmic observations. He gives Andy a rousing song about his desire to be “No Girl’s Toy”. But the real breakout songs are “Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers” and the Camel’s anthem “Blue”. See for yourself:

I’m sure that there are sites and people out there willing to burn and trade copies or even sell them. Let me be clear about something that I wanted to be clear about early on. I do not and will not advocate, defend or support illegal downloading and selling of copyrighted material. Therefore, I am insisting that you do not reply to this post with such information or requests for such materials-I will remove your post. Rather, I would suggest that we use our collective voices to request the studio(s) that hold the rights to this wonderful family film to open the vault and release the movie to DVD.

See What You’ve Missed: HEART AND SOULS (1993)

Time to introduce another new semi-regular feature. “See What You’ve Missed” will showcase movies that were not big box office hits, but should be seen, and ARE available.

I start with HEART AND SOULS. HEART AND SOULS tells the story of Thomas Riley (Robert Downey Jr.), and four people who died the night Thomas was born. These people are Milo (Tom Sizemore) a petty thief trying to go straight, Harrison (Charles Grodin) a would-be opera singer, Penny (Alfre Woodard) a single mom trying to care for her children, but forced to work at night, and Julia (THE CLOSER’s Kyra Sedgwick) a woman afraid to tell the man she loves how much she loves him. These people die at the hands of a careless bus driver (David Paymer), and their souls are transported to Thomas’ side.

None of these people know why they are with Thomas, and it doesn’t help matters that only Thomas can see or hear them. It’s no surprise, then, that Thomas’ parents think he’s strange. Nor is it a surprise that Thomas is getting into mischief that catches the attention of Child Services. This leads the four souls to a heart-breaking decision to disappear from Thomas’ life, and just watch over him.

Thomas, meanwhile grows up to be a tough financial lawyer who saves what little emotion he has for his girlfriend, Anne (Elisabeth Shue). Anne is patient with Thomas, but it’s obvious that her patience is growing thin, and that Thomas is running out of time to make a commitment. Thomas is not the only one almost out of time. The four souls are also out of time. The bus driver who caused their death is back to take them to the hereafter. The souls only then find out that they were supposed to use Thomas to make their lives complete. They bargain for more time, and the clock is ticking.

When the souls do reconnect with Thomas, it’s no happy reunion, and after a bit of posessive persuasion, Thomas reluctantly agrees to help. This leads to scenes that are hilarious one moment and tear-jerking the next, as the souls take care of business. Thomas also undergoes a transformation as he helps the four souls. But will he be able to to make things right with Anne?

I saw this movie when it came out, and felt wonderful at the end. I still don’t see why this movie failed to score at the box-office. The characters were all likable in unique ways. The possession scenes were hysterically funny, and we’re treated to some great renditions of “Walk Like A Man”. I also think this movie would make a fantastic musical, but that’s another column. So, if you get the chance, check out HEART AND SOULS, a movie that lives up to its title.

Movie Review: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (PG-13) ****

I became a fan of Jackie Chan about eight years ago, when I went to see him in SHANGHAI NOON.  Up until that day, I just didn’t understand why he was so popular.  Then again, martial arts movies were not my thing, having only seen the badly dubbed second rate ones on Saturday afternoon TV as a boy.  After seeing NOON, though, I became a believer, and tried to see just about every Jackie Chan movie that came along.  I even saw the ones that were considered misfires, and found something to like in those.

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM shows us Chan doing what he does best.  One of Chan’s trademarks is to try to tell a story during each of his fighting sequences.  Another is to give the viewers a good and sometimes astonished laugh at his acrobatic tricks.  KINGDOM offers a healthy balance of both.  If his drunken boxing scenes early on don’t make you smile, his lightning speed will certainly amaze you.

Not only do we get treated to the Jackie Chan we know and love, but he’s teamed up with another huge martial arts star in Jet Li.  I must admit that I am not as familiar with Li’s work as I am with Chan’s, but I am developing a liking for Jet Li now.  That could be because Li is so much fun to watch as the legendary Monkey King.  Li’s Monkey King smiles, laughs, and makes wonderfully silly noises as he dispatches China’s threats to peace and harmony, in this case the soldiers of the Jade Emperor (a very sinister Deshun Wang).

Sadly,  there’s trouble in the Middle Kingdom.  The Jade Emperor succeeds in robbing the Monkey King of the source of his power-a magical fighting staff.  Now the Monkey King is nothing more than a statue in the  palace, and the Jade Emperor is terrorizing the countryside.  Peace can only be restored if the Monkey King has his staff returned to him.

Enter Jason Triptikas (Michael Angarano).  Jason is a Boston teenager obsessed with the martial arts (especially kung fu), who spends his time at a store owned by his elderly friend Hop.  When bullies discover that Jason has access to Hop’s store they force Jason into setting up Hop for a robbery.  As the robbery goes bad, Jason spots a staff in the storage roo.  The wounded Hop tells Jason that he must return this staff to its rightful owner.  In case you haven’t guessed by now, this is the same staff used by the Monkey King.  Suddenly jason is in medieval China.  This is whhere he meets, receives training from, and learns the story of the staff from Chan’s character.  Along the way they will meet a monk (also Li) with a few secrets of his own, a beautiful young lady played by Yifei Liu, and a witch who can even use her hair as a weapon, which would be great if she weren’t in league with the Emperor.

There’s a lot to like in this movie.  Some of my favorite moments involved Jason’s training, and the chemistry between Chan and Li.  I wonder why it took so long for these two to get together?  I was also amazed at the aerial fighting techniques.  Yes it’s fighting, yes it can be pretty hairy at times, but it’s also like watching trained acrobats.  It’s just thrilling.  I guess I should not have been surprised that these aerial combat sequences were designed by the same person who did CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

All of this is under the direction of Rob Minkoff, who was last seen directing Disney’s HAUNTED MANSION.  While Minkoff’s style is definitely aimed at an older audience, he never forgets that Jason is a teenager trying to cope with a bizarre situation as well as his ultimate destiny.  Credit also John Fusco for creating a very believable Chinese legend about immortals, evil emperors, and typical teenagers.  THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is a kingdom I look forward to visiting again

Carryin’ the Banner

In 1992, the director of the wildly popular HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL teamed with the composer of THE LITTLE MERMAID to make a movie musical that would star 3:10 TO YUMA’s Christian Bale, screen legend Ann-Margaret, and Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall. That movie musical was NEWSIES, and with all of the talent in front of and behind the camera, you would have thought that this movie would be a hit with the critics as well as the audience.

That was NOT the case as far as the critics were concerned. Most of the major critics HATED this movie. The negative reviews seemed to have two complaints in common. The first was that NEWSIES was rather violent. OK, I’ll go along with that. I watched it a few nights ago, and I did notice how much violence there was. While I don’t defend the violence, I understand why the writers felt it was necessary. This was New York City at the turn of the century, and Unions back then were more violent than they are now. Still, I think they could have done with less, and I can understand why the critics pounced on that.

The second complaint made me laugh. These critics complained that the lyrics were ungrammatical, and had too much of a New Yawk accent. I would LOVE to ask these critics what they expected from, and I quote, “poor orphans and runaways”, when they opened their mouths to sing? Pavarotti, maybe? Or Josh Groban, perhaps? When poor, uneducated newsboys sing in this movie, I expect them to sing like poor newsboys, and that’s exactly what I got. If Jack Murphy, the lyricist, had done ANYTHING else when the newsies were belting out “King of New York” (one of my favorite songs from the score) or “Seize the Day” (another good one), the movie would have felt false and fallen apart.

Well, it’s no secret that NEWSIES was not box-office gold. Still, when I talk to some young people about this movie, their faces light up, and they start singing a favorite song. When I listen to a couple of radio program on WERS in Boston on Saturdays and Sundays, I can almost guarantee a song from the soundtrack will get airtime. That makes me happy, because it offers young people who may not have heard of NEWSIES the chance to see what HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL’s director (Kenny Ortega) did for Disney before he got “our heads in the game”.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? (Hanging Up, 2000)

Before you get the idea that I’m only going to talk about movies I’ve seen that I really love, I am going to talk about those movies that did waste two hours of my life.  I thought I’d start with the movie that I consider to be one of the worst I have ever seen.  That dubious distinction belongs to HANGING UP.

You would think that a movie directed by Diane Keaton, starring herself, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau(in his farewell performance), would be either hysterically funny OR an emotionally moving drama about what makes families work.  But this was not the case.

HANGING UP was one of the most self-indulgent and self-pitying movies I ever had the misfortune of seeing.  I went to this over-the-top melodrama as a favor to my parents, since they went with me to see THE WHOLE NINE YARDS.  For that reason, I decided to have an open mind about HANGING UP.  It took FOREVER for anything remotely interesting to happen.  I can summarize the plot for you in one sentence.  Two sisters argue (for almost the whole movie) about how to deal with their dying father.  That’s it, folks

As a drama, it was shrieky (the constant arguing and crying wore out its welcome about 45 minutes in).  As a comedy, there was a total of ONE joke that got laughter, delivered by Matthau’s character.  This was the first time I ever looked at my watch more than the screen HOPING it would end soon.  After about 90 VERY LONG minutes, it finally did.  My mom actually apologized to my dad and me for dragging us to this movie.
I remember walking out of this movie wondering how it could have gone so wrong so fast.  The cast was full of talent, the story HAD potential to be either very funny or very dramatic, and the Ephron sisters are very gifted writers.  But this was a MESS from start to finish.  To this day, I have yet to see a dramatic comedy as bad as HANGING UP, and I am grateful.

I meant to have a new release review up today, but I was unable to get out to the theaters this weekend.  Hopefully next week, I’ll have something for you.

What I Love about the Movies: You Don’t Have to Hide Your Emotions

I will never be one of the all time great poker players, nor will I ever be a stoic. You can read my emotional state at any time just by looking at me. That’s fine with me, I’d rather be honest with my feelings any day, than try to keep it bottled up. That’s another reason why I love going to movies. You can react with the emotion of the moment, and NOBODY will make fun of you, unless they are a cold-hearted slob, that is.

I didn’t learn this lesson until I was about 11. I was fresh out of sixth grade, and ready for a summer of fun (and I needed it). The movie that EVERYBODY was talking about, and falling all over themselves to heap praise upon was Steven Spielberg’s classic E.T. Of COURSE, we all wanted to see it, after hearing about how scary, adventurous, funny, and sad it was.

We hopped in the car and headed for Lincoln to see this masterpiece (cue the GCC film bumper). I settled into my seat, the lights went down, and the movie began. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING had prepared me for what would happen to me over the next two hours. Fans of the movie will recall that E.T. and Elliot form an emotional and psychic bond with each other. I have news for you. That bond goes beyond the screen and into the audience in a big way. When that little alien was scared, I was scared, when the situation was funny for all parties concerned, I was laughing my head off. But when E.T. dies on that operating table, and when E.T. and Elliot have to say goodbye to each other, it was Niagara Falls time in Lincoln.

I’ll admit that I was able to hold it together when E.T. died on the table, because I knew there had to be more to the story than this. Still, seeing Elliot standing there telling his little alien friend how empty he now felt, just went right through me. And in the end, when Elliot hugged E.T. goodbye, and that ship took off, I barely remember getting the words “Is it over now?” out of my mouth before I started crying my eyes out.

I remember feeling silly and embarrassed by this reaction. After all, 11 year old boys do NOT cry at science fiction movies. It just doesn’t happen. I have to give my parents a lot of credit, though, because they told me that my reaction was exactly right. My mom even told me about losing it during those same scenes. She kept it to herself pretty well, because I don’t even remember hearing her sniffle.

So why am I bringing this up 25 years later? Well, the other night I wanted to see if this movie could do the same thing to me after all of these years. You might be thinking to yourself that this Andy guy is crazy, but fear not. The truth of the matter is that I hadn’t watched this film in a while, and was looking for just such a movie. Results of the experiment? You guessed it. I was wiping my eyes again. Not Niagara Falls time, but enough to realize that this movie does indeed deserve it’s status as a classic. So, while I am still a little sore at Steven Spielberg for making me cry at the movies for the first time, I’m also grateful to him for showing me how a movie can be so much more than an afternoon of fun. Now I don’t care if I lose it emotionally at a sad movie, because it just means that the movie achieved it’s purpose, and the makers, and the cast all deserve to be congratulated.

DVD PAUSED: Countdown to Looking Glass (HBO, 1984)

I was a teenager during the final years of the Cold War, but I remember it well.  Every month, I’d see my local stations run tests of the old EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM, complete with the disembodied voice, the droning Attention Signal, and the government approved slate cards (which could be scary in and of themselves).  We knew who the enemy was (the Soviet bloc countries), and they knew who we were.

I also remember the movies that would try to show us what would happen if the Cold War ever heated up.  There are three movies that most people will remember vivdly.  Those movies are THE DAY AFTER (available on MGM DVD), TESTAMENT (available from PARAMOUNT), and THREADS (a BBC movie that was only released as a Region 2 disc).  But I remember one other movie in this group because it tried to do something different.  I remember COUNTDOWN TO LOOKING GLASS.

COUNTDOWN was originally aired on HBO in the fall of 1984.  My family didn’t subscribe to HBO in those days, so I missed it.  That was OK, as my history teacher was going to show us THREADS six months later.  It would be another four years before COUNTDOWN would cross my radar.  It wasn’t because I saw it on HBO (we had it by then), but because it was now being broadcast on several independent TV stations around the country.  I saw it one night after coming home from work, and thought it was great.

I said earlier that COUNTDOWN tried to be different from the other three movies I mentioned, and here’s how they did it.  Instead of telling us a story of a group of ordinary people trying to cope with events beyond their control,we are shown the events as a series of reports on a nightly news broadcast.  My internet research tells me that the actors portraying the reporters are all Canadian actors, and not very well-known here.  I honestly believe that adds a level of authenticity to the movie.  To make the reports even more authentic, a few real-life politicians and reporters including Newt Gingrich and Eric Sevareid make appearances to offer their analyses of the crisis being reported.  This movie is also done on videotape, rather than film.  Again, I find it more realistic this way.

The crisis itself could almost be ripped from current headlines.  A group of countries default on loans to the USA.  This leads to an oil embargo headed by a new Soviet backed Iranian government.  The crisis comes to a head when the Iranians begin to impose a toll in the waterways leading in and out of the Persian Gulf.  I don’t think you need to be a Political Science major to figure out how quickly things worsen.  I find that the tension really builds when the network decides to start airing 24 hour coverage of the crisis.  You see the anchorman start to have moments of disbelief at how bad things get.  As the crisis begins to go nuclear, you see the studio workers stop what they are doing to watch the live reports come in from the Gulf.  My gut reaction to scenes like this is that this is EXACTLY what we would have seen in the event of a heated Cold war crisis.  And, those last five minutes can still make my blood run cold.

I should tell you that the title refers to the President’s military command plane.  At the start of the movie, a voice-over tells us the purpose of this plane in the event of a probable nuclear confrontation.  The anchorman repeats the same narration almost word-for-word at the end.

I explained why I won’t get into the reasons behind a studio holding onto a movie, not making it availble for DVD purchase, in my last DVD PAUSED column.  I will say that this title DOES deserve to see the light of day on DVD because of the way it’s done.  I would never take anything away from the human dramas of DAY AFTER, THREADS, or TESTAMENT.  Each is a worthy film in this genre.  But I think COUNTDOWN would make an excellent companion piece, and would offer some contrast to these films.