War Games

At the height of the Cold War, there were a bunch of mainstream movies that came out bearing pacifist messages. “War Games” (1983) might have been the best of them, for many reasons. The then-implausible plot that an AI computer program, accidentally activated by a hacker, could take the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, becomes more plausible every day. And it stars Ferris Bueller! And Ally Sheedy co-stars as the girl in your English class you never had the guts to ask out. And Dabney Coleman! And two dudes play essentially a young Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

 

No Country for Old Men

Whenever I hear about Hollywood executives forcing a movie to re-shoot its ending, I roll my eyes. Can’t they just let the filmmakers’ vision unfold and not worry about whether a focus group thinks an ending is sufficiently upbeat? But then I saw “No Country for Old Men” (2007), which could have been re-titled “No Payoff For Patient Moviegoers.” I mean, you spend two hours immersed in mesmerizing acting and brilliant dialogue as drug money leaves a bloody trail across West Texas. And then Tommy Lee Jones tells a story about a dream he had. The end. Seriously? Seriously? WTF?