“The American President”, released in 1995 is one of those cable movies that are broadcast frequently over the years because no matter how many times you see this great movie, it still is very entertaining and still relevant.

The American President, directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin, is one of those rare films that is a combination of great dialogue, relevant and believable story, great acting and even romantic comedy all in one. For this film, Sorkin’s dialogue is never over the top, or rapid fire like many of his other great films, including “Molly’s Game”, 2018 and “The Social Network”, 2010. In this movie, people more or less, talk the way normal people talk.

The American President is one of the few serious movie roles in the career of Michael J. Fox, who has several scenes in this film that are at the highest level in his many years as an actor. Micheal Douglass and Annette Benning are both outstanding in their lead roles with Douglass as the President and Benning as a lobbyist pushing for a 20% Global Warming fossil fuels reduction. This is all still very relevant even today. Throughout the story, the politics that included choosing between an anemic crime bill and global warming was always interesting, as the President and the Global Warming lobbyists, led by Benning fight for votes to pass legislation.

1995 is now 25 years ago and The American President has been shown on cable countless times. For those few who have still not seen this very good movie, I highly recommend it and agree with the very high 91% rankings on Rotten Tomatoes.

At the start of the movie “The Blind Side”, released in 2009 a video is shown about one of the worst injuries in the history of the NFL. On November 18, 1985, quarterback Joe Theisman’s career ended when his leg was shattered during a tackle where he was surrounded by several Giant’s linemen, putting his leg into a backwards position that considering the video (see below) it is amazing that he still has this leg . Due to this one horrendous leg injury, the NFL changed; creating the need for offensive linemen who were responsible for protecting the quarterback’s blindside.

The story about the movie The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock is a true story about a homeless man who is taken in by a rich family and eventually adopted. This is one of those movies that if the story were not true, nobody would have green-lighted the screenplay, because nobody would believe that this could ever have happened. The homeless man was Micheal Oher, a huge 300 pound offensive lineman who would eventually make it to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens and eventually win the Super Bowl with the team in 2013. Were it not for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock, Oher would have probably remained homeless for the rest of his life. Oher was raised by a drug addict mother, who was frequently in and out of prison, and despite his huge size and athletic ability he would have never found his true calling as an elite NFL offensive lineman.

In 2008, one year before the release of The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock was known as an actress who had made several good, but never great movies; the best being “Speed”, released in 1994. Most would have thought that she would have continued making mid-level quality movies for the rest of her career, and was not really an Academy Award level actress. Bullock won the best actress Oscar for The Blind Side in 2010, proving that all it takes is one miracle role or opportunity in any career, to prove the critics wrong. Miracles like this one in Bullock’s career are extremely rare and never guaranteed to any actor.

2009 is 11 years ago and Bullock has never gotten a role as good as The Blind Side since, proving once again how rare great acting roles come along for any actor. Just because a well known actor gets one great role, like Julia Roberts in 2000 for “Erin Brockovich”, this never means that lightning will strike twice, regardless of fame or clout. This is also true of the late Mary Tyler Moore who starred in “Ordinary People” in 1980. All movies start with the screenwriter, struggling to write and then re-write a great story that is first noticed by the right people and then, somehow, is made into a movie. This is why great acting roles like The Blind Side are so hard to find, because its not just because of the great writing or great story. It is also about luck and timing.

All the actors in the Blind Side were outstanding, especially the actor Quinton Aaron who played Oher in his first ever movie role. Kathy Bates is also great as the tutor who tries to get Oher’s grades up so he could be accepted into college and Tim McGraw, who plays Leigh Anne’s husband is also outstanding. This film has excellent moments of humor and emotion and I thought was one of the best movies released in 2009. For the few who have never seen The Blind Side, I highly recommend this outstanding movie.

If someone would have asked the best odds maker who ever lived on December 1, 2019, “what are the odds of a global pandemic that in less than 4 months would kill almost 34,000 people, and cause extremely serious damage to the economy of the entire world”, his answer would probably have been, “trillion to 1 odds”. The reason why the odds of something like this happening were so unlikely a short 4 months ago, is because medical advances have been astronomical since the Spanish Flu killed 50 million people in the world, 102 years ago. Medicine has leaped forward since the days of medical treatments that included blood letting. There are agencies, including WHO (The World Health Organization) that were created to prevent viruses like COVID-19 from infecting the world that have been vigilant in preventing viruses like this one.

What we all have right now, is one of the most fast moving and unlikely events in the history of the world.  Almost everyone is either quarantined or staying at home as much as possible. Working from home is now the standard, taxing the internet and servers more than ever before. Who would have ever thought that we would all see every movie theater close?  All gyms are closed, malls are closed, and the phrase “social distancing” the most common phrase. Through it all, there are still people who refuse to follow the common sense edicts that included  avoiding crowds, no doubt causing more people to test positive for this disease.  From the current ongoing pandemic nightmare, the world now is fully aware that it could all end one day. Not from an asteroid or another world war that would involve nuclear weapons, but from a tiny microscopic disease that is measurably more fast moving and deadly than COVID-19.

Against this disaster that has forever changed everything as we knew it before, we have all learned that inevitable losses in the stock market mean nothing against 34,000 people who have died so far and many more thousands who will suffer with this disease in the future. Then add the thousands more who will lose their jobs and businesses that will fail. The entire world is now on the same page. How long will this go on? Will life ever get back to the way it was before this all began?  We all now routinely worry about respirators, lack of hospital supplies and medical professionals. Will we be overwhelmed by this disease beyond the medical resources of countries around the world? For those who have compared this virus to the flu, and claim the media is making too much of this, the alarming growth rate of this virus, mortality rate and the fact that there is no vaccine are the obvious reasons why this is nothing like the flu. This virus has also taught us that we are all the same, regardless of fame, wealth or luck in life. Tom Hanks and his wife have this disease, Prince Charles, Boris Johnson and even Harvey Weinstein have all tested positive. This disease makes no exceptions. Anybody can get it and anybody can die from it.

As far as movies and the loyal readers of this blog, my first thought after all movie theaters have closed was NETFLIX or Amazon prime movies. Unfortunately, I have not found a movie on these two services so far that have inspired me to write another blog entry. Hopefully this will change in the near future and thank you to all who have read any of my movie reviews that I have been compiling for over 5 years.

What else is there to say about this extremely challenging and unusual time in the world other than for all to stay indoors, stay safe and pray that this will all be over soon.