Some movies will always be impossible to ever forget. The film “Midnight Express”, released in October 1978, is definitely one of those movies. This movie starred the late Brad Davis, who died of aids when he was only 41. This movie was written by Oliver Stone and won the Academy Award in 1979 for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. The late John Hurt was nominated for an Oscar for best-supporting actor and the movie was also nominated for best picture for 1978.

This story, about an American Drug Smuggler, Billy Hayes, who was arrested in Turkey is a true one and about as riveting and unbelievable as any movie about a true story has ever been. The series of events that lead to Billy Hayes arrest, his 5 years in prison and mostly the ending were so unbelievable I remember thinking that this story was almost impossible to believe really happened. I also remember one of the trailers for this movie in 1978 that simply stated, “If you get caught smuggling drugs over there, your in for the hassle of your life”.

The horrible and depressing life during Billy Hayes imprisonment in Turkey was extremely well depicted in this film and the conditions in the prison he was in for 5 long years were both cruel and inhumane. His family and lawyers tried many times to get him released only to fail time after time after being lied to repeatedly by the corrupt legal system in that country. How Billy Hayes finally got out of this horrible death spiral in a Turkish prison is the most amazing and best part of this great movie.

For those who have never seen or heard of “Midnight Express” I highly recommend it.

The movie “Hitch” that was released in 2005 is easily the funniest film both Will Smith and Kevin James ever made. The dancing scene in this movie (see video) below was so funny that Smith had to hold the stereo remote control over his mouth to not show that he wanted to laugh. There is also another practice kissing scene between James and Smith that is also very funny later in the movie.

Aside from the funny scenes in this film, I thought the message about life and the difficulties in dating were very strong throughout. “You only get one look, one kiss and only one shot, that is all we get”, just to name one. Another scene in this movie as Will Smith, who is of all things a relationship consultant, has a meeting with a real lowlife who wants his services to just use a woman for a one night stand. I thought was also very significant in how well Will Smith’s character handled him. Smith’s relationship with Albert is also very well brought out because we sense that Smith wants to help him get the woman of his dreams because of his decency and niceness as a person, more than any other reason. The conclusion at the end was also great, “just try and be yourself”, because eventually everybody who dates or finds the right person or never does, can only be themselves.

This is light mostly comedic subject matter but I thought this movie was highly entertaining and I recommend it.

The movie “Gifted” has ingredients of films we have seen before about child custody; probably the most famous of those is “Kramer vs Kramer” that was released in 1979. What is different with the story in Gifted is the suicide of the child’s mother, who was a mathematical genius and her suicide and prodigy are the connection to the 7-year-old child she left behind, who inherited her mathematical gifts. The rest of the story slowly uncovers the reasons why this brilliant woman killed herself and her brother, played by Chris Evans, who is trying to prevent her child from following her same depressing path in life. When your a genius at the level of Mary, the child in this movie played very well by Mckenna Grace, just like most everything else in life, there are good parts and bad parts. The good parts are your massive intelligence at a level where you could potentially change the world with your inventions or ideas. The bad parts are that you might become socially inept because you will be going to school in think tanks or special schools, possibly going to college with people much older than you and because of this you might never achieve your potential as a human being and as well as a gifted prodigy. Fundamentally, this movie asks the question: “is it even possible to be a child prodigy and also develop normal social skills”? As this movie shows, the young girl can be very impatient and rude around other ordinary children, which would be just one of many problems trying to raise a gifted child.

We find out during the story that one of the main reasons for the woman’s suicide was because of her overbearing mother, who tried to control her life and put too much pressure on her to succeed, even to the point of trying to ruin her relationships. Most of this comes out during the child custody court hearings which were boring at some points, but in the end took an unexpected twist that I thought was well done and lead to a satisfying conclusion. Most movies about child prodigies that can only come for Chess, Music and Mathematics are for the most part very impressive when they show the prodigy performing their main talent and this movie has several impressive mathematical demonstrations by Mary that I thought were very well done. Octavia Spenser also stars in this movie as neighborhood friend of Mary and her uncle and she seems out of place in this story and perhaps there was a deal made to add her to the movie to obtain more ticket buyers due to her recent success in movies like “Hidden Figures” that was another movie about a mathematical child prodigy.

Gifted is a good movie about a child prodigy but not a great one and I do recommend it.