Movie Reviews: TNT Jackson

TNT Jackson
directed by Cirio Santiago

This 1974 movie was an ambitious mix of blaxploitation, kung-fu, and pre-Charlie's Angels jiggle-vision. 

And by ambitious I mean that this movie was ambitious in exactly the same way someone pedaling a go-cart thinks that he's going to win the Daytona 500. 

It's okay to dream big but if you don't have the basic tools for success you're just wasting your time. 

This movie ran for a little over an hour but that was too long. 

With a better screenplay, better budget, better direction, and better special effects, this would have been more entertaining but then it wouldn't be the movie that it is.

Diana "TNT" Jackson (Jeanne Bell, one of the earliest African-American Playboy centerfolds) learns that her brother is missing and presumed dead. 

Discovering that her sibling was mixed up in the drug importation business, TNT (so called because of her dynamite looks and her kung-fu skills) traces her brother to Hong-Kong. 

Non-Citizen Voting In NYC

New York City recently made it legal for non-citizens to vote in municipal elections. 

This will include legal immigrants on green cards/visas and illegal immigrants with DACA status or who can otherwise show residence in NYC. 

When I first heard about this I thought it was a joke or some deliberate conservative lie, but no in fact, this was indeed the case.

New York City became the largest city in the country to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections after the City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation granting the right to more than 800,000 legal residents.
The move places New York City at the forefront of the debate over voting rights, serving as a stark contrast to some states that have moved to add voting restrictions, including explicitly barring noncitizens from voting.
The legislation was approved over the objections of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who questioned whether the City Council has the power to grant voting rights to noncitizens. Legal experts expect that the bill could face a legal challenge. Noncitizens would be able to begin to register to vote a year from now. They could begin voting in local elections as of Jan. 9, 2023, according to the City Council.

Not All Superheroes Wear Capes: Sixth Grade Boy Saves Two Lives On Same Day

It is important to remember that in the midst of political strife, selfish behavior, and predictions of oncoming civil war, that human beings still have an urge towards selfless behavior that will appear at just the right time. Davyon Johnson is an example of the the best that humans can be.

On December 9 sixth grader Davyon Johnson saved a fellow student from choking to death by performing the Heimlich maneuver. 

Later on the same day, while his mother was driving him to church Davyon noticed a house fire and convinced his mother to stop. Davyon helped an older woman escape to safety. Would that we could all rise to the occasion when we are met with life and death challenges on our journey through this world.

Davyon Johnson, 11, couldn’t quite understand it: the pizza party, the accolades from the mayor of Muskogee, Okla., his picture in the newspaper and on television — and the word that had been linked to his name: hero. Why, the sixth grader asked his mother, was he being rewarded for doing the right thing? “I told him, ‘You saved two people’s lives,’” said LaToya Johnson, Davyon’s mother. “‘That is special.’” 

And so began a whirlwind December for Davyon, who lives in Muskogee, Okla., who loves wrestling, basketball, remote-controlled cars and Fortnite, and who was honored by his community this month for saving the life of a fellow student who was choking and an older woman who was escaping a house fire, both on the same day, Dec. 9. The Muskogee Police Department and Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office presented Davyon with a certificate on Dec. 15, naming him an honorary member of their forces. LINK

Movie Reviews: Profile

Profile
directed by Timur Bekmambetov

The director produced the similar themed film Unfriended 2: Dark Web, reviewed here. As with Unfriended 2 everything takes place on a computer or phone screen. 

Profile is based on a true story that examined the phenomenon of successful ISIS recruitment of young Western, i.e. white, European women. 

Theoretically, when examining this experience, people might have something to say about the thrill of the bad boy to some women, the possibility that the dying standards or rejected morality of one group will inevitably be replaced by those of another, whether immigration that places groups with competing historical grievances and incompatible cultural ideas in the same space is wise, whether people need examples of positive masculinity or femininity, and various other discussions that might make both feminists and traditionalists equally uncomfortable. 

Bekmambetov avoids those discussions. The director focuses, with one major exception, on whether one person (or both) will discover that the other person on the computer/phone screen is not who he or she claims to be. 

This is intermittently exciting but I think the movie would have been stronger if it included a few of the aforementioned issues. Instead, the film often made the lead actress look dumb. 

Even before Jeffrey Toobin got caught making himself happy on a company Zoom call, I think most people knew that it was smart to keep work and personal id's, phones, and computers separate. 

Book Reviews: The Figure In The Shadows

The Figure In The Shadows
by John Bellairs

This is a sequel to Bellairs YA novel The House With A Clock In Its Walls, reviewed earlier here. As with the earlier book this is written for children's benefit while still having hints of issues and challenges that will resonate more with adults. 

Because this was a short book at about 150 pages I thought it would be fun to do a quick reread over the winter break and see if it still held up to my childhood impression of it. It did. 

Bellairs anticipated some of the current controversies over gender roles and how nature and nurture shape people.

And just for good measure there's something of a subtle shoutout to Tolkien and even Lovecraft. 

The story's protagonist is once again Lewis Barnavelt, who as in the first story, is an overweight shy boy with a very strong sense of cowardice (polite people would call it self-preservation). An orphan, Lewis lives with his uncle Jonathan Barnavelt. Jonathan's next door neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman, with whom Jonathan may or may not have a thang going on, also looks after Lewis. Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman are each powerful magicians, though Mrs. Zimmerman is more skilled.

Lewis has a new friend, Rose Rita Pottinger. 

Rose Rita and Lewis share interests. Rose Rita is in the same grade as Lewis despite being a year older. Rose Rita is a tomboy who never willingly wears skirts and blouses. Rose Rita enjoys rough and tumble sports and doing other activities that are socially unacceptable for girls. Rose Rita even considers getting a crew cut so she can fight without anyone pulling her hair.

Movie Reviews: Across 110th Street

Across 110th Street
directed by Barry Shear

Because of the time and the cast this 1972 film is often lumped in with the "blaxploitation" films of the time. It does have that element but it's just as much a classic heist film and even a noir and action film. 

Across 110th Street has a fair amount of explicit and implicit social commentary in its dialogue and cinematography. 

I remembered a song performed by Albert King titled "Little Brother (Make A Way)" in which the singer details the negative impacts of racism on his life. As King sings, he had to do things against his will because if he hadn't "little brother" wouldn't have lived. But King is both hopeful and insistent that the "little brother" to whom he is speaking (his son, grandson, or the entire younger generation of Black men) will take advantage of the struggles and sacrifices of the older generation and put things right. 

I was reminded of that song watching this movie because the film doesn't pull its punches in examining the fierce institutional and individual racism of whites in authority positions. Usually the Black characters are not in a position to do much about this. Not yet anyway... 

So Blacks and Whites on both sides of the law must work together against their adversaries even though they thoroughly despise each other.

Movie Reviews: The Racket

The Racket
directed by John Cromwell

This 1951 movie is often described as a noir film. The Racket certainly looks like a noir film but I don't think it quite meets all of the criteria. The Racket is really just more of a crime movie. 

Neither of the film's two primary male protagonists are particularly sympathetic nor do they suffer from any moral uncertainties or psychological battles. The film's female lead provides the only character growth. 

Cromwell also directed Dead Reckoning, reviewed here. The Racket is a remake of a 1928 silent film of the same name. It is interesting and occasionally enlightening to see how attitudes around sex and violence and righteousness have changed for good or bad since 1951. 

The Racket hints at things that are obvious to any adult and would be explicitly and tediously spelled out in any of today's films that used the same source material. Although this was marketed at being hard hitting at the time I didn't see it as such. 

As is usual in many of these older films the hooker with the heart of gold archetype is recast as some other "questionable" female worker. 

However whatever job title she holds her role is usually to tempt the hero or his friends and then die or perhaps help the good guys, be reformed and become a decent woman.