The movie “Working Girl” that was released in 1988 is arguably the best role that Melanie Griffith ever had in her career. It is also one of the few roles that Harrison Ford ever made during this era where he was not the lead actor and in this movie; he played the eventual boyfriend of Melanie Griffith’s character. When I was experiencing this movie for the first time almost 30 years ago I was reminded why I go to the movies as often as I do. Firstly, because of my ambition to be a screenwriter, which is a very difficult profession to break into but mostly to relate to life situations that we all face every day.

The movie Working Girl captured the frustrations and outrage of a young woman trying to rise above herself because of her belief that she deserved better than her lot in life regardless of the opinions of other people who were deciding her fate because she had to make a living as a secretary. The problem with working for companies and other people is that your ability to advance is directly correlated to your ability to impress others and not just to complete your work every day. It is not enough that you complete a task very well, it must then follow that other people have to recognize what you have accomplished and then have the integrity to step aside and allow you to take credit for what you did. More simply stated, when you work for someone else, then your future is in the hands of someone else and no longer in your control. This is the fundamental message behind the movie Working Girl.

Sigourney Weaver played an evil, condescending, backstabbing and credit stealing boss of Melanie Griffith better than anyone I have ever seen in any movie. The great thing about movies is that we recognize characteristics and evil in the characters and relate them to people we know in our own experiences. Movies are also great because very often then have a satisfying ending where the hated antagonist gets what they deserve in the end and this unfortunately, does not happen very often in real life.

One the scenes that impressed me the most with Sigourney Weaver’s part in this movie was the moment where she found out that Melanie Griffith’s character had taken back her own idea and was going to present it at a meeting after she was injured in a skiing accident. Weaver’s outrage at this moment was an outstanding representation of the extent of evil in people like this. She was seethingly angry that her secretary took back the very idea that she stole from her in the first place. After this, the story took some believable twists and turns and eventually lead to an extremely satisfying conclusion that we all wish we could either live through ourselves or witness first hand.

If you have never seen Working Girl, you owe it to yourself to see one of the best movies ever made about the realities of life and having a job.

Keanu Reeves has been around for 30 years now and after the Matrix franchise of 3 movies ended 13 years ago he can call his own shots and do whatever he wants as far as acting or producing any movie. Since the Matrix Reeves has been making mostly action movies, with the exception of, “The Lake House” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Now, with the 2nd installment of the John Wick franchise and the extremely impressive reviews on IMDB (87%) and Rotten Tomatoes (90%), Keanu has found a movie franchise that could be the equal to the Mission Impossible franchise has been for Tom Cruise.

Like the first John Wick movie that came out in October 2014, this one has the same simple story, followed by extremely violent, bloody and one of kind hand to hand and gun fight sequences and action at a very intense almost insane level. Even if you hate violent movies like this, you cannot help but be impressed with the amount of preparation, training, stunts and risks the producers of both movies have taken to create so many dangerous action sequences. Both of these movies have perfected the art of the rapid-fire handgun shooting and a very high percentage of the people shot in this movie were shot in the head. Of course, the logistics of these action sequences are absurd. Thousands of bullets are shot at John Wick and even though he is wearing body armor, he is rarely severely injured or even killed and this is despite Wick killing probably 100 people in this film outdoors, indoors, in underground tunnels and even inside a series of rooms covered with mirrors. Wick is also hit by a car and then thrown no less than 2 times and is able to get up and continue fighting, which is ridiculous. He is also able to continue fighting after getting stabbed and even shot. If you forego the logistical problems in the action sequences and appreciate the choreography then this film will keep your attention during the entire two hours.

The actors Common and Laurence Fishburne both have strong performances in this film.

Go to this movie if you appreciate a great action film but not if you expect a good story. I recommend John Wick Chapter 2.

Despite the very low ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes for the sequel to “Fifty Shades of Gray” that came out 2 years go, the second movie “Fifty Shades Darker” will still probably make a great deal of money only because people are sexually curious about what the actors do in several scenes in this film. As far as any kind of measurable compelling or interesting story, there really isn’t one in this movie or original one. The story for both of these films is surprisingly run of the mill and uninteresting, so you wonder why those 3 books made so much money for the author E.L. James, other than people are curious about the sexual acts mostly involving domination and submission.

You could also argue that no author of any book series has made more money and fame from less quality in the history of writing. Admittedly, this film is better and less stupid than the original one, but you have to at many times during both of these movies feel bad for the young actors trying to break into a career in Hollywood, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. As they read this script they had to weigh their desire to make movies in Hollywood against the mostly humiliating sex scenes which are at times pretty close to soft-core pornographic. They must have been worried about getting this big one-time score in their careers and then never working again.

The one part of this movie that I thought was only standout moment was when Dakota’s character takes over her bosses job and has a conversation with a co-worker who was now working for her, that was word for word the same as the ending scene in Working Girl, that starred her mother Melanie Griffith. As an avid movie-goer, I recognized the great dialogue in this very good movie from 1988 immediately. Working Girl is one of the best movies about the potential nightmares of working for other people, ever produced. And like any of us who have had their outrageous problems working for anyone, the happy and just ending in this movie was one of the best I have ever seen.

Kim Basinger and Marcia Gay Hardin also make appearances in this mostly bad film and considering that both of them won academy awards, I was thinking that perhaps given their age there are not that many movies offered to them because there is practically nothing worthwhile in terms of an opportunity for quality acting in this entire movie.

While this movie is better and less ridiculous than the first installment, I cannot recommend it.