BEFORE: Starting with a correction - I wasn't using the filters properly on the IMDB yesterday when I calculated the number of appearances for certain actors. As a result, the counts included writing and producing credits, and I was trying to count only acting credits. My crack staff caught the error (they realized the list was a little too DeVito-heavy) and the figures have been adjusted. Actors who have produced or directed films without starring in them have had their totals reduced.
The new top 10:
1) Robert DeNiro, 29 films
2-3) tie - Owen Wilson and Samuel L. Jackson, 22 films each
4-7) (tie) - Brad Pitt, Steve Buscemi, Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington, 21 films each
8-9) (tie) - Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood, 20 films each
10) Jack Nicholson, 19 films
That seems more reasonable. Thank you for playing, contestants. And yes, that includes Denzel Washington's (and Matt Damon's) appearance in tonight's film, as Denzel carries over from "The Manchurian Candidate".
THE PLOT: A US Army officer, despondent about a deadly mistake he made, investigates a female chopper commander's worthiness for the Medal of Honor.
AFTER: I had a vague memory of seeing parts of this film before, but upon watching it, I didn't recall anything from before, so if I did see it, I clearly didn't pay much attention. 1996 was a tough year for me, I had a lot on my mind.
It should be obvious that I've started a military-centric chain (which should take me through July 4), but the unintended theme over the last 3 days has been the subjective nature of reality. Here that takes form in the differing accounts of the same event, as we see the same helicopter crash and its aftermath over and over from different points of view.
It's kind of like what George Carlin said about driving: anyone going slower than you is an asshole, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac. By the same token, the braver soldiers in the unit see the chopper pilot as a weakling, but the insecure ones see her as very confident. So relying on eyewitness accounts is fairly useless in judging her actions, especially if some of the soldiers are not being honest about what took place in the Iraqi desert.
At the same time, as Denzel Washington's character investigates the chopper crash, he's forced to come to terms with a traumatic event in his Gulf War history, and decide to what extent he needs to take responsibility for a friendly-fire incident.
I don't have much to say tonight, but I found this one pretty lackluster. Even the action sequences - but running footage of the same footage several times over the course of a film could be part of why they were boring.
Also starring Meg Ryan (last heard in "Anastasia"), Matt Damon (last seen in "Invictus"), Lou Diamond Phillips (last seen in "Disorganized Crime"), Michael Moriarty, Scott Glenn (last seen in "Secretariat"), with cameos from Bronson Pinchot, Zeljko Ivanek (also carrying over from "Manchurian Candidate"), Sean Astin (last seen in "The War of the Roses"), and Ken Jenkins (last seen in "Clockstoppers").
RATING: 5 out of 10 magazines
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