The Odd Couple (1968)

Director: Gene Saks

The film adaptation of Neil Simon’s play by the same name, The Odd Couple is a window into the lives of two divorced friends who move in together. During the their time under one roof Oscar (Walter Mathau) and Felix (Jack Lemmon) realize that while they love each other like brothers they hate each other like spouses. Full of great acting and funny bits the adventures of Oscar and Felix is certainly worth seeing.

Obsessive compulsive law:

1. Felix was once locked in a bathroom and wrote out his will on a roll of toilet paper. Probably not enforceable.

2. Oscar is behind on child support and his ex-wife threatens him with jail.

3. A cop plays in the weekly poker game. He says that he “can’t arrest the whole game.”

4. Felix’s wife is going to use his cousin as her lawyer in the divorce proceedings.

5. The Pigeon sister’s claim that divorce is tough with out the proper solicitors. One of them had her husband die “before the final papers went through,” so she isn’t technically divorced.

6. When it is suspected that Felix might be attempting suicide again they look for him in a police car. The Cop who is off duty and shouldn’t be driving around with all his buddies in the car tells some other officers that it is an “off duty arrest … caught them gambling.”

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Jackie Brown (1997)

Director: Quetin Tarantino

Jackie Brown is a tale of a small time arms dealer, Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) who is trying to save his own butt as his cohorts get pressured by the police. Each time one of them gets arrested, Ordell uses the services of Max Cherry (Robert Forster), a bail bondsman, to get his minions out of police custody so he can off them before they open their mouth. Max Cherry knows the score and when he is assigned the task of retrieving the beautiful Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) from the authorities he offers her his help. Jackie Brown turns out to be a little more than either Ordell or the Police can handle.

This is the first film that Tarantino released after Pulp Fiction (barring his contirbution to Four Rooms), and while it doesn’t quite measure up to the standard set by Pulp Fiction, it’s still pretty good. It sports a great cast including Robert DeNiro, Chris Rock Michael Keaton, and Bridget Fonda, but the plot twists aren’t as shocking as those found in his other work. The plot line is a lot more straight foward, but the movie doesn’t drag as a result. Instead we just get a straight foward cops and robbers flick with one bad momma in the middle of it all.

Guns, the law, and Jackie:

1. According to the film a Tech 9 is “the most popular gun in American Crime.”

2. Ordell uses the bail bondsman to keep his name out of the transactions. He first gets Omar (Chris Rock) out of jail, because he “ain’t got a doin’ time disposition.” Omar is shook up after his interrogation, and Ordell tells him that it is the police’s job “to scare the shit out of you.”

3. Omar is very worried about going back to jail. Ordell tells him that they will get his lawyer who is a “junkyard dog” and would “kick Johnny Cochran’s ass.” Course he then kills Omar.

4. Jackie gets arrested for bringing in more than $10,000 cash undeclared. She says of people in customs that the “job makes them a jerk.” Ain’t tax laws a bitch.

5. Max Cherry suggests that she get a lawyer. She says she can’t afford a good lawyer, and that she got 3 months before because of a public defender.

6. The soundtrack includes a song presumably called “Long Time Woman.” Which talks about 9 years in jail being a long time.

7. There is a scene with Jackie’s bail hearing. The bail is set high and the trial is set in six weeks.

8. Max Cherry wonders if there is Bail Bondsmen/ Client confidentiality. I doubt it.

9. Jackie discusses a plea deal, but holds out on the police. She claims that Samuel told her he sold guns. It’s hearsay so they can’t use it and they have to use Jackie to get hard evidence. Twist is Jackie is using them.

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Percy (1971)

Director: Ralph Thomas

In this film a young man loses the thing that makes him a man, but lucky for him there happens to be a new procedure for transplanting just such thing, and he becomes a new man. He then becomes obsessed with the previous owner’s past and seeks out all of the old owners old flames. His name is Percy and he calls it his Percy. It is sort of like Hi Fidelity with a bunch of penis jokes.

The beginning of this movie is hysterical as it attempts to use every euphemism for penis that one could think of and fill the sets with phallic set pieces. Unfortunately, when Percy starts searching out the life of the previous owner it becomes terribly boring and the tender message at the end just kills the whole movie. My advice is that once he is released from the hospital turn it off.

Law in them briefs:

1. At the beginning the doctor who has developed this amazing bit of surgery (this is well before those Bobbits) is being interviewed on TV but gets bleeped every time he says penis. Its a British movie and presumably that could be seen as state censorship.

2. When the poor boy finds out what exactly has been replaced he claims that the doctors have breached Magna Carta and the Ten Commandments. His nurse replies that without one of those you can’t break the best ones.”

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The King (2005)

Director: James Marsh

The last of my in flight films from those harrowing Delta flights, and what a way to go out. I think that the director of this film said to himself “Let me see if I can fill this movie full of stereotypes. Yes, yes, I can make it the stereotype menagerie. Muhahahaha.”

No really, this movie sucks, I thought I was going to get some good Elvis references, but instead I got an ex-navy sailor named Elvis. He hunts down his father (who has never seen him and has become an evangelical preacher) to say hello or something. Once he is faced with his father’s rejection he seduces his teenage half-sister, kills his half-brother, and makes the viewer miserable for close to an hour.

The law:

1. The preacher’s son (the legitimate one) is giving a speech and he holds up a dollar bill and says “this is the legal tender of the United States.” He also points out that it says “In God We Trust.”

2. The point of the boy’s speech is that he is trying to convince the school board to sanction the teaching of intellingent design instead of or along with evolution. He get’s denied by the school board.

3. There is an absolutely piss poor police investigation.

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