As I write this on August 26, 2018, senator John McCain died of brain cancer yesterday at age 81. There is no doubt to anyone except maybe Donald Trump and his idiotic comments before the 2016 election about McCain being captured that John McCain will always be one of the greatest American war heroes of all time.

I was greatly privileged to meet and speak with John McCain in mid-April of 2000; in the very beginning of the worst bear market this country had seen since 1929. None of us knew in April 2000 that this bear market would last 30 months and cause great damage to the financial health of the world.

McCain was at a book signing for this book “Faith of my Fathers” at a Barnes and Noble in Princeton New Jersey and after I waited my turn in line I remember feeling embarrassed when I said to him simply, “thank you for your service”. I remember it didn’t feel right to just say “Thank You”, because considering the incredible ordeal that McCain had gone through as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, just saying “Thank You” would never be enough respect that I could give to this great man. After signing my book, much to my surprise McCain started asking about me and what I do for a living and then the subject of the stock market that had just started to crash came up. I was so impressed with how much he cared about a total stranger like me who was just standing there in front of him for a book signing. His questions and caring about what I was going through was sincere and real. It was impossible to not like this man who had gone through so much in the service of his country and showed such great compassion to a total stranger.

It’s a shame that John McCain never became President of the United States because just based on his integrity as a human being he would have been a great President. McCain was not elected the president because of timing. His time to be President was in 2000 when he ran against President Bush and for reasons that make no sense to me, failed to win the Republican nomination. When he ran again against Barack Obama in 2008 he was too old to endure the huge stresses to be the President. His decision to select Sarah Palin to be his vice president was a mistake in judgement based on desperation because he knew he was losing the 2008 election in the polls. Hindsight is 20-20 and they should have vetted Palin for much longer than just 90 minutes, but that is life. McCain defending Obama in a town hall when a woman said he was a Muslim and she didn’t trust Obama was typical of the man John McCain was.

McCain took his loss in 2008 with dignity and respect, just like he did everything else in his life of great service to this country. Rest in Peace my friend, you will be greatly missed.

One can only speculate on how a movie this bad could ever be made. Large amounts of money spent on a screenplay idea that is ridiculous and downright stupid. In some conference room, probably in Malibu California probably about 2 years ago, some producers thought “kids love robots”, “kids love dogs”. What we need is a Robot Dog. Who cares about a screenplay or a story of any kind? We can delay the release of whatever we come up with to the critics so we can get that first weekend box office of parents and kids so who cares of the movie is garbage.

The new movie A.X.L. is pretty close to garbage, most especially the ending that makes absolutely no sense. There is AI software, a Robot Dog that will be used by the army, using technology that does not even exist. There is a teenage motorcycle racer that finds the robot dog and becomes involved with a young woman and the entire movie is a series of events that are all disconnected that result in one of the worst conclusions to a movie I have ever seen.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for A.X.L are a very low 25%, IMDB is a very low 4.6. This is one movie that should have went directly to DVD. One bright spot is actress Rebbeca Marie Gomez, who looks like she could be related to Selena Gomez and should have a bright future in movies, just based on her looks alone and despite appearing in this horrendous mess.

Miss this nightmare of very bad movie making, one of the worst movies of 2018.

The movie “Papillon” is a remake of the 1973 classic film that starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. The most important thing to know about this story is that it is not only true but it also demonstrated the inhumane cruelty that existed in France in 1931. It is correct to understand that any one who commits murder or any kind of violent crime do not deserve a country club when they are sent away to prison, but the conditions and the administration of prisoners in French Guiana were so bad its a miracle anyone survived there. Most amazing is the main character in this movie, played very well by Charlie Hunnam, not only survived living with the fact that he was innocent and framed for murder, but also spent 7 years in solitary confinement for trying to escape twice. Very often this confinement consisted of total darkness. Unlike other bad recent remakes of classic films like Ben Hur, released in 2016, this movie stands on its own as different enough that its not just a scene by scene retread of the original film.

I was also impressed with the friendship that developed between Papillon and another man who committed a while collar crime and had no business being in a prison like this, played by Rami Malek. On several occassions Papillon risked both his life and freedom to save his friend.

As far as the story I was most impressed with the incredible resolve of Papillon who despite facing more years of solitary confinement, kept trying to escape his extreme injustice of being incarcerated for no reason because he was framed for murder. This story is first and foremost about “mans inhumanity to man” when it comes to running a prison. While prison reform has seen some improvements over many years, it is still a very long way to be what it should be.

The ending of Papillon for those who have not seen the original is so unlikely that many would not believe it unless it was a true story. At the end of the movie talks about the book Papillon that was a best seller when it was released in 1969 and sold over 13 million copies. I have included a link to this book on this web site.

Unlike so many other remakes, Papillon was well done and good enough to receive a strong recommendation.