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FILM REVIEW

Country / Year: U.S.A. 1997

Genre: Action

Director: John Woo

Writing credits: Mike Werb, Mike Colleary

Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon,

Dominique Swain, Nick Cassavetes, Harve Presnell, Colm Feore, Margaret

Choo.

Music: John Powell

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

“I’d like to take his face off, eyes, nose, skin, it’s coming on” This is what Agent Archer would say after changing his face from his body to another body by surgery.

The film is directed by John Woo who is known and appreciated for his unique stylistic approach to violence and bloodshed, and creates a kinetic ballet of bullets and explosions that can drive your adrenaline level through the roof. He also directed other action films such us Broken Arrow (1996),Windtalkers (2002) or Paycheck (2004). The writers are Mike Werb who also wrote The Mask (1994) and Mike Colleary (Tomb Rider 2001) . The main actors are John Travolta who played films like Saturday Night Fever in 1977 which became him famous, Grease in 1978, Look Who’s Talking in 1989, Swordfish in 2001 and much more films (57 in total) and Nicolas Cage who played also a lot of films like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in 2001 or Conair in 1997 as the most importants in his filmography career.

Plot: The FBI’s Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) catches terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), who killed Sean’s son, in a violent arrest where Troy results injured and hospitalised with his bomb still ticking away in Los Angeles. Using the latest and the greatest surgical techniques, doctors remove Troy’s face and graft it onto Archer, effectively giving him a living mask of the terrorist’s face. Agent Archer, masquerading as Troy, attempts to discover the location of the bomb. But when the real Troy wakes up from his comma and discovers his condition, (without his face) he forces doctors to graft Archer’s preserved face onto his head. With his identity now changed, Troy (as Archer) wants to ruin Archer’s (as Troy) life and perpetrating all kinds of evil chaos in his good-guy role.

The type of language used in this film is colloquial American English. The vocabulary is easy to understand despite of the slang used in some speech. Although sometimes is hard to understand some idioms or expressions.

In my opinion, the film is fantastic and fascinating in so many ways. First of all, for example, both actors Travolta and Cage invest their dual roles that reflect the other actor’s character: the good and the evil person. About the plot, I have to say that is strikingly and amazingly imaginative and convincing. The action sequences are very good and very intensives, although the last persecution can be a bit boring unless you feel the action through your veins. Nevertheless, the rest of the film is quite good. The sound track is catchy and adapted on each scene. Even the sound effects are very good as well. The special effects are perfectly chilling in this kind of film, and the director must have invested a lot of money. The camera movements and angles are also quite perfect to try to show all the feelings that the director wants to communicate. You could realise about this in a scene that takes place inside a church.

I hope you like it if you decide to see the film.

By Oscar Sandoval Fernandez 5^th F

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD

BOOK REVIEW
Mª José Echevarría Meliá (5 F)

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Book Title: “To Kill a mockingbird”
Author: Harper Lee
Publisher/Year: William Heinemann Ltd. /1960
Book type: Dramatic fictional novel
Pages: 301 pages

SUMMARY:
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” revolves around a young girl named Jean Louise Finch who goes by the nicknamed “Scout”. Scout experiences different events in her life that dramatically change it.
Scout and her brother Jem are being raised by their father, a lawyer named Atticus and a housekeeper named Calpurnia in a small town in the South, Maycomb. In the time described in the novel, in the South racism and discrimination towards black was a big issue.
The story begins when Scout is 6 years old, and her brother is about to enter the 5th grade. That summer the two children meet a new playmate, seven-year-old Dill, who has come from Mississippi to spend the summer with his Aunt Rachel. Dill is fascinated by the neighborhood gossip Mr. Arthur "Boo" Radley, a man in his thirties who has not been seen outside of his home in years mainly because of his oppresive upbringing. Spured on by Dill, Jem and Scout try to think of ways to lure Boo Radley out of his house, and they play games based on several stories they have heard about the Radley family. Their favourite part of the game is acting out an incident in which Boo Radley supposedly stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors.
When fall comes, Scout enters the first grade. Because she has already taught herself how to read and write, Scout finds school a disappointment. Both she and Jem are intrigued, however, by the discovery that someone has been leaving small gifts in a knothole in one of the large oak trees on the corner of the Radley property.
Soon it is summer again, and Dill returns for another visit. The children's plans for making contact with Boo Radley grow riskier this year, and on Dill's last night in town they decide to sneak up into the Radley porch and spy on Boo through an open window. Jem goes first, but just as he reaches the window, Nathan Radley, Boo's brother, catches sight of the children and frightens them with a blast from his shotgun. In their get away, Jem leaves his trousers behind when they try to cross under a wire fence. That night Jem goes back to recover his pants and finds that someone has sewed them and left them carefully folded over the fence, as if someone was just waiting for his return.
By now Jem realizes that Boo Radley is not a monster after all, but has been playing along with the children's games. Scout does not realize this until the following winter, on the night that the house of their neighbour, Miss Maudie, burns to the ground. While Scout is standing outside in the cold watching the fire, someone sneaks up behind her and places a blanket around her shoulders. Later, Scout and Jem realize that there was only one person in town who was not already cooperating to put out the fire- Boo Radley. When Jem and Scout realize that Boo Radley is basically a kind person, their interest in the Radley family begins to disappear.
During this fall begins a trial. Scout’s father is the defense attorney for a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white woman Mayella Ewell. At first the children care about the case only because it means that their friends have begun to call Atticus nasty names. This has a big effect on Scout. Nevertheless, Atticus warns both, Scout and Jem, that they mustn't fistfight against their friends because of these taunts. But before and during the trial Scout is being constantly teased by friends because her father is helping this black man. In these days Scout starts to see the racism that exists.
Despite the taunts, Scout manages to keep out of fights until Christmas day, when her least favorite cousin calls Atticus a "nigger-lover," and she responds by punching him. After this incident Scout and Jem begin to think that perhaps their father's hatred of violence is just a sign of weakness on his part. Their suspicions are supported by Atticus' dislike of hunting. Although both children have received air rifles for Christmas, their father shows them his disapproval. He warns them that they can shoot “all the bluejays they want if they can hit them, but remember that is a sin to kill a mockingbird”
Then one day a mad dog wanders into the neighbourhood and the sheriff calls on Atticus to kill the animal. The children learn for the first time that their "feeble" father was once the best marksman in Maycomb County, and had given up shooting because he disliked to be over the others in such dangerous advantatge.
It is summer again, Dill has returned to Maycomb to spend his summer holidays and the trial of Tom Robinson grows nearer. The three children become more aware of the strong feelings it has aroused in everyone in Maycomb.
Two nights before the trial is to start, a group of men come to the Finch house to tell Atticus about threats against Tom Robinson's life. Atticus spends the next night camped out at the jail to defend Tom against the mob. Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill go downtown to check on Atticus and, by chance, arrive at the same time as a group of very angry men, who have come to kidnap Tom Robinson and kill him. Scout recognizes one of the men in the group as Walter Cunningham, the father of a boy in her class at school, and her friendliness embarrasses the man so much that he changes his mind and talks the mob to leave Tom.
The next day, at the trial, Atticus' questions make it clear that Mayella Ewell and her father are lying about the rape: Tom Robinson is innocent. Scout , Jem and their close friend Dill witness the trial. Even though they are young they can see that Mr. Robinson is innocent. But although Mr. Robinson’s innocence was clear even in the eyes of kids, the jury members convict him because their prejudices prevent them from taking a black man's word against two whites. Atticus is now a hero to the black community of Maycomb, but Bob Ewell, Mayella's father, swears to "get" Atticus for showing him as a liar in front of the whole town.
Since the verdict, Tom Robinson has given up any hope of getting justice from the courts and the same night he desperately tries to escape from the prison, and is shot dead. Jem and Dill, already bitter over the result of the trial, decide to be with Atticus when he tells Tom's wife of the death, and they are deeply affected by her grief.
Summer is finished and Dill returns to his house in Mississipi and Scout and Jem’s lifes return to normally. Everybody in the town seem to have forgotten the latest tragic events.
By the time Halloween comes around and there is a school show planned and Scout, has been cast in the role of one of Maycomb's most important agricultural products- a ham. After the show Scout decides to walk home still dressed in her bulky costume because she has forgotten her dress in the school, with Jem leading the way. The cowardly Bob Ewell, seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Atticus through his children, follows the children down a dark street and tries to kill them. In the confusion that follows Scout realizes that another adult has appeared and is fighting on their side. It is none other than Boo Radley, who had seen the attack from his window. Boo stabs Bob Ewell to death, and carries the wounded Jem home.
Yet at home all is confusion and Atticus calls the doctor and the sheriff to come to his home. When the sheriff arrives asks Scout if she had been able to distiguish the fight but she answers she wasn’t because of the darkness although she at first thought that was Jem who pushed the man who had captured her. The sheriff asks her who, then, was the man who had helped them, and she answered “he is there, Mr. Tate, behind the door”. The sheriff notices that the man is Boo and tells him “good evening Mr. Arthur”.
Meanwhile, Atticus thinks that Jem is the one who has killed Bob Ewell and is trying to order his ideas to improve Jem’s problem. But the sheriff tells him that Jem did not kill Bob Ewell. Atticus thinks that the sheriff is trying to protect his son. But the sheriff insists that Jem did not kill him. He knows that Boo Radley is the person who killed Mr Ewell and he, as the sheriff, will not permit anyone to expose Mr Radley to the grateful people in town for saving the two children.
The sheriff decides to file a report saying that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife and died. Atticus asks Scout if she understand what has happened. And Scout answers that she understands it, because on the other hand, it would be like to kill a mockingbird.
Scout never sees Boo Radley again after that night, but she has learned that he was a good man not the frightening man that she and the other children imagined him to be. She has learned a lesson about understanding and tolerance. And through the sheriff's action she sees that sometimes there can be justice and compassion in the world.

THE CHARACTERS
· SCOUT

Jean Louise Finch, whose nickname is Scout, is only five-and-a-half years old when the novel begins, but she is a complex and interesting personality yet. Scout's mother died when she was two and her father is a man in his fifties who has no idea of how to play with his children or talk to them on their own level. Scout has taught herself to read at an early age, and she has a vocabulary equal to that of many adults. Her habit of speaking her mind in the presence of adults makes Scout often seem older than her years. In fact her first day in the first grade, Scout thinks of herself and her schoolmates as little adults, who must take care of the confused first-year teachers.

Scout is also a kind of an outsider. She is still not completely accepted by her brother Jem and their friend Dill. We never hear of her having any close friends of her own age, either boys or girls. And in contrast to Jem, who is constantly disappointed by the faults of human nature, Scout deals with the bad news calmly, because her sense of humor seems to protect her from the disapointments.

Moreover, Scout is not only the most important character in the novel, she is alson the narrator. Everything that happens is seen through her eyes. I think the author chooses a child to analize the events occured during a period of time to make us see that the main issue of the novel is simple justice. And Scout as a child and in her innocence is able to see it.
In my opinion, Scout is not only interesting but highly believable. Perhaps this is because we all recall times from our own childhood when we were smarter and more aware than adults thought we were. Scout is able to put this awareness into words. Furthermore, Scout's sense of humor- and her unexpected mistakes and misunderstandings- save her from being a smart know-all.

• ATTICUS FINCH
  Atticus Finch sets a standard of morality that no other character in the book comes close to getting. Atticus is a studious man whose behavior is governed by reason. Once he decides that something is right, he perseveres regardless of threats or criticisms.
  But Atticus is not a crusader. The Tom Robinson case was not one he volunteered to handle- the judge assigned him the case because he felt Atticus would do his best to win. Atticus' desire to avoid conflict when possible is another quality that the author obviously wants us to admire.
  
• JEM

Scout's older brother Jeremy, or Jem Finch changes considerably over the course of the novel. At first you see him as Scout's playmate and equal. Once the children start school, however, Jem becomes more aware of the difference in age between himself and his sister. He doesn't want her to embarrass him in front of his fifth-grade friends. And later he and Dill develop a friendship from which Scout is partly excluded because she is a girl.
Jem is also the more thoughtful and introverted of the Finch children. Unlike Scout, who is a fighter by temperament, Jem seems determined to obey his father's request to avoid fighting. He lets his anger build inside. At the time of the trial, Jem is probably the only person in town who really believes that justice will be done and Tom Robinson found innocent. When this does not happen, his disappointment is so great that for a time he can't talk about the incident.
By the end of the story Jem is almost grownup. Apparently, he seems quicker than Scout to put the trial behind, but inwardly he has been more disturbed than Scout by the events of the trial. Some people think that Jem's broken arm at the end of the story is a sign that he will be wounded forever by what he has observed.

• CALPURNIA
  Calpurnia is the black cook and housekeeper for the Finches. She is treated almost as if she was a member of the family. In some ways she even takes the place of Scout and Jem's dead mother.
  Harper Lee treats Calpurnia as admirable because she has made the best of her opportunities. She learned to read and to write when no black people had any opportunity to learn. Calpurnia has a sense of self-worth that is not affected by the opinions of people around her. This is a way in which she resembles Atticus.
  
• DILL
  Charles Baker Harris, known as Dill, is Jem and Scout's first friend from outside Maycomb. In many aspects Dill is a contrast to Jem and Scout. They come from an old family, and have a father who loves them very much. But Dill is an unwanted child. He has no father, and his mother does not want to be bothered with him.
  In his short life Dill has seen and done many things that Jem and Scout have not; on the other hand, Dill's stories are not always true; some are a product of his lively imagination. Dill's imagination is the cause that the children dream of ways to make Boo Radley go out of his house. In this sense Dill is responsible for setting the action of the plot into motion.
  

ARTHUR RADLEY
Even though you do not see Arthur Radley, called Boo Radley by the children, until the final chapters of the book, he is important throughout the story. You know very little for certain about Boo's life. The one reliable story you are told is that he was a normal teenager who then made friends with a wild crowd. When he got into a minor problem and was threatened with being sent away to a state school, Arthur's father promised that he would keep him out of trouble from then on. From that day Boo was never seen outside the house.
At the end of the book, even as you know that Boo is the killer of Bob Ewell, he seems less frightening now than he did before. Scout sees that he is really a shy, harmless man- a middle-aged child. In fact, by the final scene of the novel the roles of Boo and Scout are changed- he is the innocent child and Scout, still a child in years, is playing the part of the adult, protecting Boo from a world too complex for him to understand.
OTHER ELEMENTS

• SETTING
  To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in southern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States. Scout's family, the Finches, belong to the elite of local society. Atticus Finch is an educated man who goes to work in a clean shirt. The family owns a nice house and can afford to hire a black housekeeper. Still, the Finches are well situated only in comparison with the farm families who live in the same county. They, too, have little money.
  Of course, the most important difference between the South of the 1930s and the South today is that in the 1930s a system of segregation was in force. Blacks and whites were forbidden by law to mix in schools, in movie theaters, or on trains. They could not use the same rest rooms or drink from the same water fountains. Blacks had very little opportunity to get an education. Many kinds of jobs were not open to them. Black people were not allowed to vote. Nor could they serve on juries, not even when the defendant was a black man. Any black person (and, for that matter, any white) who challenged the system of segregation publicly would have been in serious danger of being killed by prosegregation fanatics. So Atticus Finch is risking his life for defending a black man against the white man’s accusation.
  
• STRUCTURE
  Although it seems that some chapters and parts of chapters could be lifted out of the pages of the book and read as stories in their own right- for example, the story of Atticus and the mad dog, or the chapter dealing with the death of Mrs. Dubose, if you read carefully, you will see that the structure of the novel is not quite so simple as it seems at first glance. I think those stories are a way of bringing nearer Atticus’ personality.
  The novel is divided into two parts. In part one, Scout, Jem, and Dill are absorbed in childish games and fantasies. In part two, they begin, to put away childish things. You may notice that events in the early part of the novel, which at the time seemed amusing, foreshadow something that occurs later on. For example, Scout's meeting with the Cunningham and Ewell boys in the first grade prepares us for our later meeting with the adult members of these families.
  
• THEMES
  There are many different themes present in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The first of them is “Prejudice”. The whole story revolves around the prejudice views of this Southern community. In fact the only reason why the trial is going on is because white people views towards blacks in the south. Bob Ewell, the rape victim’s father, is embarrassed because his daughter is actually flirting with a black man. To combat this he falsely accuses the innocent Mr. Robinson of rape. If it wasn’t for the prejudice view which existed in the south the accusation would had never been brought against Mr. Robinson. These prejudice views in the south created a double standard of justice. With all the negative points that can be found in the story regarding to prejudice, there was a bright spot when it is dealed through Atticus’ eyes. Atticus represented hope. Hope that good people still exist. Even in a society filled with hate. Atticus represented the hope that one day things can change
  Another theme I would like to remark is the transition from innocence to experience. At the beginning of the story Scout's world is limited to the boundaries of her immediate neighborhood. She feels safe and secure, and totally confident that the way things are done in her home is not just the right way, but the only way. The arrival of Dill, gives Scout her first hint of a variety of experiences beyond her narrow. Scout who comes from a good home is awaken to the different quality of life that exists and is able to come to a conclusion that life exists beyond the world she knows. Through these experiences she grows more tolerant of others, learning how to "climb into another person's skin and walk around in it." She also learns that her father is an extra-ordinary man, fighting for a Negro's rights in court. During Tom Robinson’s trial Scout learns about equality and inequality and finally about racial prejudice. By the final chapters of the novel Scout learns that good people can still suffer injustice. She discovers that the courts does not always result in justice. In the end after all of Scout’s experiences and discoveries we get the sense that she will not follow the prejudice views which her society upholds. In the end Scout had matured and grown more as a kid, than many adults will do in there lifetime.
  Finally the third theme I would remark is “Justice”, not in a legal sense but simple justice. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird the author, Harper Lee describes true justice as a concept than can be easily seen through innocent eyes. Scout and her brother, being the innocent, can clearly see the injustice being done to Mr. Robinson. In contrary to Scout and her brother, the older people in the town, the people who have lived through different experiences, decide to ignore the true justice. This is clearly seen when they sentence an innocent man to death. So I feel that Harper Lee is connecting justice with innocence to a certain point. In my opinion Harper Lee describes justice as something that, in general terms, everybody can easily detect.
  
• LANGUAGE/STYLE
  The vocabulary used in the book is, in general terms simple, moreover the one used for the dialogues. Nevertheless, when the author describes places, situations, persons..., she uses a difficult and unfamiliar vocabulary, at least, for me. For that reason, I think the author uses a colloquial, everyday speech and informal vocabulary mixed with formal vocabulary for the descriptions. Harper Lee does not use jargon vocabulary and although she studied the career of Law, she does not use the legal jargon in the chapters dedicated to the trial.
  When Harper Lee uses specific words referring to places, people, situations, etc, the narrator explain us their meaning, so the reader does not feel lost into the plot. Regarding to the use of words with particular connotations I only have found one “nigger” or “negro” referring despectively to black people.
  The sentences used in the dialogues are short except when Scout looses herself in her own thoughts or when the author is describing in great detail.
  
• Would I recommend this book?
  I would definitely recommend people to read the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I found it to be an interesting and powerful book. I feel the book does a great job in portraying the extreme prejudice that existed in the south at that time and how justice can be altered through racism. I also think that the themes found in the book are themes which can still be found in our current society and that makes it the more interesting. You can even prove that prejudice still has an effect in our legal system today. So if you are looking for a powerful book about the battle for justice I would highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
  Finally, I think is a delightful novel which with some humour touches tells us a tragic story which will remain in our memory for a long time. I have read it several times and, with no hesitation, I can say that is my favourite novel since I was fourteen years old. Now is the first time I have read it in english and its last sentence, as ever, makes me cry.
  

HEAVY METAL "A COMFORT FOR THE BRIGHT CHILD"

Heavy Metal 'A Comfort for the Bright Child'
Published: March 23, 2007
"The results of a study of more than 1,000 of the brightest five per cent of young people will come as relief to parents whose offspring, usually long-haired, are devotees of Iron Maiden, AC/DC and their musical descendants."
An interesting article in The Telegraph the other day. You can comment on it via the Telegraph website, and we thought some of you may like to.
It's easier to read the article online - main article side panel (mentioning Bruce)

WHY HEAVY METAL FREAKS ARE KISSING TO BE CLEVER?

Why heavy metal freaks are Kissing to be clever.

Published: March 27, 2007
"Heavy metal is the preserve of knuckle-dragging simpletons, right? Of delinquent Beavises and monosyllabic Butt-heads; people for whom making the sign of the devil's horns was the point of evolving an opposable thumb?
Wrong, according to a study presented this week to the British Psychological Society Conference. Warwick University's Stuart Cadwallader, who carried out the study, says some of the brightest young people in Britain like nothing more than a monster riff to unwind to after a hard day of being a chess prodigy..."
Another article in the UK press today (The Observer) that you may find interesting. Again, you can comment via their website.
Read it all at The Observer website

"MIDNIGHT RUN" REVIEW

MY FILM REVIEW
By María José Echevarría Meliá (5F)

Film Title: MIDNIGHT RUN
Country/ year: USA/1988
Genre: Road, comedy, action, buddy movie
Director: Martin Brest
Cast:
Robert de Niro-Jack Walsh
Charles Grodin-Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas
Yaphet Kotto- Alonzo Mosely
John Aston-Marvin Dorfler
Dennis Farina-Jimmy Serrano
Joe Pantoliano-Eddie Moscone

Late night road movies have always been a little pleasure of mine. There is something in those films which takes me on a journey with its main characters from the beginning to the end that always manages to attract me to watch them.

One night about seven years ago, I was watching a football match on the TV. When it finished and I was over to switch off the TV the main theme of this film caught my attention compelling me to tune in; fortunately I stayed on.

The movie begins by introducing you to Robert de Niro’s character, Jack Walsh, who plays an ex cop now working as a bounty hunter. From this moment his character establishes himself as a man who must not be messed with, but who also has a very dry and hilarious sense of humor.

At this stage of the movie, the idea of rivality in the bounty hunter profession is also introduced when Jack’s closest rival, Marvin Dorfler (John Aston), makes his first appearance trying to arrest Jack’s latest capture.

After making profit on his last prisoner, Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantaliano), Jack’s bail bondsman employer, offered him a job. If Jack returns embezzling accountant, Johnathan “The Duke”Mardukas (Charles Grodin) from New York to Los Angeles he will receive $100.000 fee. Eddie Moscone says the job is a piece of cake, a Midnight Run. (In the bounty hunter world Midnight Run is a slang expression which means aprehending a suspect who has escaped from his parole and returning him back to the parole board by midnight). This kind of jobs is usually considered as easy catches, and most of them they are.

Jack accepts this Midnight Run because he needs the $100.000 to give up his actual employment as a bounty hunter to start a small coffe shop.

On the other hand, Jonathan “Th Duke” Mardukas is a sensitive and fussy accountant who has embezzled $15.000.000 from the gangster Jimmy Serrano, (Dennis Farina), and given most of it to charity when he realised he had been working for the Mafia. Since then, Serrano wants him death.

To complicate the matter, the FBI headed by Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto), is also after the accountant to testify against Jimmy Serrano, and of course, the nervous Jack’s employer, Moscone, sends another competing bounty hunter into the mix.

Althoug Serrano’s bullies and the FBI have been searching “The Duke” all over the country during a couple of years without any success, Jack Walsh seems to find him in about thirty seconds using an ingenious trick. Once Jack has found John he realises that his latest bounty is harder to transport than he thinks when Mardukas makes a scene on the cross country airline from New York to Los Angeles and Jack is forced to take the long way across the country with the talkative John.

The two unlikely partners suffer an entertaining an hysterical road trip via plane, train and car crossing the USA as they attempt to outrun John’s enemies: the Mafia, the FBI, the rival bounty hunters and thousand other problems.

Talking in general about the movie the only thing I can say is that it is a great film. I liked all the characters, especially the two leading players who are very realistic and beliable.

Jack Walsh (Robert de Niro) is a Chicago ex cop who lost his job and family when he refused to join Serrano’s (the gangster) payroll. For that reason he is weary, worn out, short tempered and bitter and it takes John (Charles Grodin) less than the time it takes to fry an egg to get on his nerves. He picks at Jack’s eating habits, his smoking, his demeanor, his way of treating his ex wife, well, everything. If it wasn’t for the $100.000 Jack would most likely strangle “The Duke” to death.

In fact, I think that the best moments of the movie come from the speedy hysterical dialogues and discussions between both actors, with De Niro in a mixture of silence and rage, in front of Grodin’s amusing behaviour. You can also apreciate in De Niro’s role that, as ex cop, he still has to contend with his morals because he essentially goes after people for cash rather than for the good of law.

The other characters are all fantastic, especially the rival bounty hunter, Marvin Dorfler (John Aston) and the FBI officer, Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto), who gets continually annoyed by the pair he is chasing impersonating him before he can catch them.

In addition, I would say that the main players are brilliant, and personally I think, with no hesitation, that this is one of their best works. Not only De Niro, either Grodin play their funniest characters. I think much better than De Niro in his most famous comedy “Meet the parents” and Grodin in his top hit movie “Beethoven”.

Regarding to the film, it moves very fast and most of time the characters are always being chased running away from other people or just having some quick dialogue to speed up its slower moments. The movie also manages to cover succesfully a lot of genres including the buddy movie, the action movie and also some real good dramatic moments.

Other elements of the film such as cinematography, score, set design, costumes, editing and direction manage to do a pretty good job. For example, the director, Martin Brest, captures the whole journey aspects of the movie and always make you feel close to the two main actors; and the sets are all based on real world and this helps you to feel, even more, that the movie really is “on the road”.

Although the movie is actually quite long, the director has got succesfully that every scene was worthwhile and has done a good job editing the movie so that the whole trip and its developments come together to the end.

Another aspect I would like to remark is the movie original soundtrack by Danny Elfman, perfectly suitable in every scene or moment of the movie, specially its main theme which has a southern blues taste.

Before talking about if I recommend this movie to you, I can not avoid remarking my favourite scene. Perhaps it only takes five seconds but is really perfect. During the trip (or better runaway), John persuades Jack to see his ex wife, now remarried, and daughter, neither of whom Jack has seen for nine years. I like very much the moment when Jack (with John) is at his ex wife’s porch waiting for her to open the door. When she opens it there is a brief moment in which you can discover in De Niro’s sad and desperate glance that he is still in love with her, completely in love with his ex wife. Then you understand Jack’s suffering having to leave all his previous life, his wife and little daughter and the reason for his bittered behaviour.

Finally, would I recommend this movie? I would say, with no hesitation a definite and resounding yes. In fact when you see it you will wish it never ends, you will wish, as me, that it still goes on, overall because of his surprisingly end.

By the way, one curiosity. Universal Studios initially wanted Robin Williams to play the Charles Grodin’s character, but the director casted Grodin after watching De Niro and Grodin read together.

THREE WITCHES

How would you translate this into English?

Tres brujas miran tres relojes Swatch. ¿Que bruja mira que reloj Swatch?

Three witches watch Swatch watches. Wich witch watch wich Swatch watch?

A bit more difficult;

Tres brujas travestis miran los botones de tres relojes Swatch, ¿Que bruja travesti mira los botones de que reloj Swatch?

Three switched witches watch three Swatch watch switches, Wich switched witch watch wich Swatch watch switch?

The most difficult;

Tres brujas suecas travestis miran los botones de tres relojes Swatch suizos. ¿Que bruja sueca travesti mira a que boton de que reloj Swatch suizo?

Three Swedish switched witches watch three Swiss Swatch watch switches. Wich Swedish Switched witch watch wich Swatch watch switch?