Our Nation's Best Kept Secret: Mani Dex , North Carolina




Mani Dex, FAR LEFT, has taken over the #1 spot from recently crowned champ, Mark O'Mara.

  Introducing the best defense attorney in the country: Mani D.  Most recently, Mani had been retained by Raven Abaroa in the murder trial of his wife, Janet.

A master of her craft, Mani and her sidekick, Tyndall, turned on the tact and more or less, won the trial.  This was a case centered on insurance - and Raven cashed in big time as a result of Janet's murder ( she was slashed to death with a knife).  Raven also had multiple affairs - some with very attractive girls like Jennifer Walker.  Their  6 month old son was unharmed, and I think a box of jewelry may have been missing.

To me, this case would be a slam dunk for the state.  After appraising the evidence, one can easily deduce that Raven hired a killer side-kick for the dirty work to get the job done... promising a nice slice of the cheese pie he would be getting from "Kill Your Wife And We Pay You Incurance Company, Incorporated."

However, if you look at some of the key evidence, especially having a critical look at some of the people who delivered it, the answer isn't as easy as it appears.  Take Investigator Jackson "IJ" - who reminds me of "Pat" from SNL - you can't tell if she is a guy or a girl.  It does not end there...

IJ is a concern... no matter how far back this crime may have been.

She reminds of Elisa Fleak - the bumbling, incompetent coroner investigator from the Michael Jackson - Conrad Murray case.  Ed Chernoff, the undefeated defense attorney from Houston - who Ms.  Dex replaces as the top defense attorney in the world, almost had the case won... all he had to do was expose Fleak's mistakes for a few more hours.  Fleak had been moving evidence to take "clearer" pictures.  More or less raping the murder scene - a setting which requires ultimate preservation at all times.  Not a big deal for Ms. Fleak, who took photos without recording any organizational appraoch.  She even moved prescription bottles around so she could line them up and take a picture so she could see the labels!  She manually moved objects in the scene and this is unacceptable!  If it were not the MJ case - it would have been a case buster.

However, even if Chernoff pulled it off, and had identified the opportunity, I am a bit uncertain if he would have been able to sustain the advance of mani Dex, who takes the role to whole separate level.

In the Raven Abaroa ( he changed his name to Peters and moved to Idaho after the death) trial, the jury had one hold-out- and Mani Dex got the win.

It's Official : Jay Z and Timberlake Win Award For WORST SONG EVER PRODUCED! Holy Grail Proves Jay Z Is A No Talent - and JT is a Disney Kid - with No Musical Ability - Together They Create an Embrassing Score - With No Rythm - Jay Z 's Sounds are Gross - We Really Do Not Need To Hear Sounds Like That From a Man As Ugly as He is. Congrats!!

Just listening to the song, "Holy Grail," one will feel embrassed for both idiots... song is worst ever made - what a joke!  They should both quit and spare us from any more disgust.

Rush (2013) [ R e c y c l e d - T i t l e ] Film Review: Meets High Expectations - Ron Howard is Back in "Beautiful Mind" Tier Form - Good For Us.





Similar to Wooderson, Michael Myers, Rocky, Greg Brady, and Leatherface, and last but not least - CHRISTOPHER WALKEN and Ledger's Joker...NIKKI LAUDA received vocal shouts of support from the Web-Master at his private screening this week.

   The real life tale of the 1976 Formula One racing circuit received valuable information from one of the two men this film centers on.  Nikki Lauda has publicly praised the film - even using the language "there's no Hollywood-type alterations, which is nice."

Ron Howard's last film, the ectremely unfunny "The Dilemma," appears to have permit him to come to the realization about having to go back and revisit some basic movie making principles.  All the better for us, as he has directed a fine film.

Daniel Bruhl plays Lauda, the best racer on the planet, from Austria, driving for Ferrari.  James Hunt, the blonde brit party guy, also exhibits an ability to be the best and the film chronicles the 1976 F-! racing season.

Outside of using silly dialogue, like "He's stoked!" the film does not err much.  Watching a racing film on the big screen is a good idea, I propose, and this one gets it done.

While it is true I have refrained from watching "Days of Thunder" purely as a function of how I could not watch Tom Cruise films ( still, I struggle, but ever since Kubrick decided to use him in EWS, I enjoyed his work in that film, and I think Kubrick educated him - and changed his method for the better.  Outside of DOT, and the Fast and Furious films ( another set of films I have no interest in seeing due to what I expect to be awful dialogue, atrocious acting, filming, and just a waste of resources), the last racing film I can recall is Burt Reynolds' "Stroker Ace (1983).

Race car films are enjoyable because we do not have to deal with the planted illuminati black and white pattern.  Yes!  We have the checkered flag - which is great!

While I did see some unusual faces ( not as obviouis as the eyes that can be seen on top pof the N and W on Paul McCartney's new album art) and I am sure there are some pyramids... I was impressed with the way Howard shot this film.  He did it right... and it was enjoyable.  I usually can gauge the score of a film during its first hour.  If I look at my watch and it's within 60 minutes of the film's start ( after the 18.5 minutes of previews), then there's a problem.

No issue here - "RUSH" represents a rare gem:  a film with true source material, exciting source material, races, competition, trgaedy and big comebacks that flirt with acheiveing the impossible... this film re-creates an adrenaline-laced, unporedictable set of circumstances... and it is almost perfect.



SCORE:  8.9991 ,  Daniel Bruhl does an excellent job playing Luada, Hemsworth is OK.  Howard is the real star here - as he composes a race car opera.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 MUST BRING BACK CRISPIN GLOVER !!!! Open , Desperate Plea to Steve Pink and MGM Pictures.

There will be moments when you can smile and feel comforted from a fine film.  Similar to the effect "American Gangster" had on me - one of the few films to also achieve this status includes "Hot Tub Time Machine."

Seeing the neon ski jackets cracked me up!  Too good, the script was great.  Now that a sequel is being filmed - I am begging MGM and Pink to bring Crispin Glover and Bill Zabka back ( Zabka played Johnny in "Karate Kid," and Osborne in "Back to School," also having a key part in "Just One of The Guys").

Both Glover and Zabka made the film magical.  Please bring them back. 

Film Review: INSIDIOUS I [ Cost to Produce: $1.5 million; Gross Rev: $95mm }



"Can you believe they left me out of the sequel?"  -- Lipstick Demon from "Insidous."

 Ahh, more Rosey Byrne, the once young and msmerizing blonde who co-starred with Heath Ledger in "Two Hands."  She reared her head in "Bridesmaids," perfectly cast ( with her flawless American accent) as the elite, new friend lined up for an inevitable clash with - uhn, what's her name - SNL girl- Twiig, I mean, Wiig ( see how Wiig dons the Luciferina one eye in "Paul," remember all films have a character with one eye - an homage to lucifer).

Then Rosie just burst onto the scene - becoming HW's most wanted, low-profile, cost-efficient actress.  From "X-Men 4" to the upcoming "Neighbors" with the no talent, and most annoying and un-funny man on earth, Septice Tank Rogen, where she does let her Aussie accent fly.

Here we enjoy Rose once again, cast alongside Patrick Wilson ( granted, "Little Children" is probabaly the best film he's been in, Wislon is hilarious in " Barry Monday," about a sex-a-holic who loses his balls and has to deal with a phone call from a wrectedh one night stand who informs him she is pregnant).

My zoom feature was down for this viewing - but I could tell Insidious is loaded with hidden images.  Most notable is the abstract, blue painting behind wilson when we get a flash of the demon.  Have a look at that painting again - zoom in - you'll see the answer to the greater enogmatical questions that exist in this realm.

On the the review, and this will be brief.  I enjoyed the demon - enjoyed Lin Shaye ( famous for playing the dirty land lady from "King Pin:"  "What is it about good sex that makes me have to crap?"  The Astro travelling to the Further was also unique - remember the Further Festival?  How about the band "Further" with Lesh, Weir and friends?  Now we know what their name means - a realm where tortured souls live - in hopes of entering a living vessel to possess , in hopes of living again.  This all great material.

An enjoyable film - loved the homage to "Poltergeist," when Shayes two bozo demon techs show up with their equipment to check out the house.. love it, absolutely love it.  You could tell they did not employ the use of giving us a chance to wathc the video, or the canmera footage because it would lend itslef too close to "Paranormal Activity," a film produced by the same team : Oren Peli and Co.  So that diminshed the films potentiasl and value as that would have been some great materia to observe/

The drawbacks were two-fold:  #1.  The Further tunred out to be the exact house they were living in, only with dim lighting.  It should have been a different realm completely , perhaps oroginating from the house - but it should have been expanded and existed as a larger, more complex realm itself.  We got gipped. (Uh-huh, I used that word, gipped." ;SIC" ;-) (smile).

#2.  Too few demons.  Loved the main demon,,, and loved his little cavern and the music he likes ot play, but there should have been more - much, much, much more.  Never limit a good thing is an important principle within the Gajonka Film Handbook. 


Epilogue/Wrap:  Fine casting...  fine directing and editing... some weak moments... cheap Further Zone and limited evil demons fracture this film... hoping the sequel can improve.

Score:  6.9990

THE <||R||> ERA: Finally! We Have Achieved an R Rating Renaissance! Ten Years Ago All Films Were Edited to PG-13 For $$$ Greed --> While Hollywood Fails to Invent and Innovate, it's A+ Across the Board as We Enjoy The R ERA...



Even Leatherface is ExciteD about R films making a comeback.  Pages from his journal reveal how upset he had been over the past fifteen years - all films were sawed-down to pg-13 in order to expand viewership population possibilities.


Hollywood:  A mega-rich band of insiders gifted with the ability to reflect upon box office victories and Oscars of the past [this reference excludes the Screen Actors Guild, "SAG."].  A public rot has been on display for the past six years as HW has failed to opne up its doors to new minds... and as a result, has processed products only involving re-boots, re-makes, sequels and comic books ( we exclude animation, as kids need HW and vice versa).  While fiction has always been the best basis for most films, that garden has been shunned in favor of re-making movies for new eyes ( "Footloose," "Straw Dogs," "Evil Dead", "Carrie", and soon to be released "The Never Ending Story", "Overboard", and "The Bodyguard") since it is better to make more money and not gamble with films that are intelligent, innovative, and let's face it - new, and evolving as with time.

As referenced earlier, it is getting so bad that HW is even recycling old titles - not even creative enough to come up with a title that has not been used yet... so disrespectful - I mean, c'mon, get your own title.

Alas, there is good news.  About ten years ago I complained about how all films are being processed, and produced at the PG-13 level.  I could never get my horror fix, thirst hit.  The reason is due to the fact that making an R film eliminates the potential viewership universe.  Simple math theory - if 5% of a population will watch a film - and the universe of PG-13 is 225mm, while the R universe is 125mm - this had been the thinking.

And oh, did we suffer.



It is time to bring back Michael Myers.  He;s been on the shelf way too long - time to start the movement.

 Somwhere along the line, the decision-makers shifted and we've been able to see more R everywhere.  "Paranormal Activity" comes to mind.  When you can make a horror film for $10,000 and net over $100,000,000.00  the numbers draw attraction.  So while we are seeing more of these low budget horror films like "The Purge," the hope is we can receive more quality and bring the focus back to where it belongs:  to Voorhies, Myers, and Leatherface.

Here is to "THE R ERA,"  Thank you Hollywood... keep it up - while we're young.

The Politics of Casting - Plus Film Reviews - "The Ice Man" and "Pain and Gain" both boost hopes for Hollywood.

OK, so for "The Ice Man," which used the wrong source material (choosing to base the film on Anthony Bruno's book rather than Philip Carlo's) we have an interesting set of actors - all given different parts - which each of them could have played just fine (outside of giving the title character to Shannon, who performed great = even, perfecting Kuklinski's distinct speech and expression).  The use of make-up employed by the Director and Producers permitted them to give the parts to people they wanted to.  As we observe how the parts were allocated, we can see the politics come to light.
Here we go:
Stephen Dorff ( from "The Gate" fame as a kid actor), "Blade".
Robert Davi ( the villain in the Timothy Dalton bond flick), "Kill The Irishman."
Chris Evans (The Human Torch in FF films, and "Captain America")
Ray Liotta : I grimace every time I see him cast in a film I want to see - his performance in Goodfellas has yielded three infinites: 1. He will always audition for gangster films, 2. He will always get hired for gangster films, and 3. He is annoying.
Michael Shannon:  Coming a long way from the cameo in "Groundhog Day," Shannon earned a well deserved Oscar for five minutes of film time in "Revolutionary Road," he was great in "The Runaways," and many others... and he was the perfect choice to play General Zod AND The Ice Man.
David Schwimmer: Yes, from Friends
James Franco: Yes, the gay actor who is the closest living thing to Heath Ledger, outside of D. Day Lewis.

Now, we know that John Travolta is now taking roles where he is uncredited, simply because his involvement is off-putting to cah paying sets of eyes.  This is nothing new for Travolta.  Even when he was hot, he went uncredited - remember Malick's "The Thin Red Line"?  He played the general who issued hard orders to Nick Nolte on the battleship.  Most recenlty, Travolta went uncredited in Oliver Stones sub-par fantasy "Savages."  Travolats has been facing litigation lately - being sued by male massage professionals for trying to rape them.  The thing is with these actors, and we see it with DeNiro, they do not have a choice - there is a mental defect where they always have to contantly keep working. 

Take Nic Cage, for example, he has child support, and other debst that force him to dilute his effectiveness bby accepting every film script that corsses his desk.  Sometimes he does well - I enjoyed "Season of the Witch," even though the title was ripped off Moustapha Akkad's Halloween Part III film, and Cage also was fun in "The Sorcerer;s Apprentice."
Then, there are actors who will play a cameo as a favor to a producer or director, or even actor, as we've seen with Mickey Rourke being forced to play "Tool" in Expendables I after Stallone gave him roles in other films.  Stallone even convinced Chris Nolan to get Eric Roberts in "Dark Knight Rises," cementing Stallone as a player in Hollywood.  Note: Roberts and Rourke both starred in "The Pope of Greenwich Village," and Stallone played opposite Roberts in "The Specialist."  Stallone had to sacrifice his son to keep his power, unfortunately.  As the writer of the Rocky films, Stallone is no slouch - he is talented.

O.K. here we go - "The Ice Man" relied upon intnese use of make-up, fake beards and hair to cover-up the identity of many of its actors - in order to avoide a negative response from the eyes that pay for tickets.

Chris Evans as "Mr. SOftee/Freezie," the maniac killer of the exotic kind who drove around a Mr. Softee ice cream truck.  Evans was covered in make-up - making him completely in disuise.  This role could have gone to Franco, but it appears that Franco just wanted to put in a cameo. His role in the film lasts two minutes.  Dorff could have played this rol as well, since his own character, Joe Kuklinski was also plastered with a beard and made indistinguishable.  I could not even call him out - had to check wiki to learn about this.  So, why did Evans get the big role?

Rovert Davi and Ray Liotta - each of them could have played Roy DeMeo.  DeMeo, in reali life, was probably one of the worst killers in Mafia history - even he and John Gotti did not get along - and they both wanted to kill each other.  DeMeo is probabaly the only mobster who Gotti di not want to have to take on - since he was sick, and trouble.  While Tommy "Karate" Pitera used to get nude and slice his victims up into six pieces and bury them in bird reserves and parks, DeMeo was less creative.  DeMeo would drain them in his tub - above the social club he called home.  Stories describe about 1,000 bodies having run through DeMeo's drain factory. A funny-looking, goofy type gangster, DeMEo was found dead in the back of his cadillac.  Carlo;s book "The Ice Man," even includes a confession from Kuklinski that he was involved.  Kuklinksi also stated he was involved in the hit on Hoffa, Carmine Galante, and Paul Castellano at Sparks.

Known as "The Polacl," Kuklinksi was a contract killer for all five families.  His pirce began at 30 then went up to 80k when he was in his prime.  He used to take a knife, and stab a tire of the soon-to-be victim.  Then, when the victim realized he had a flat, by bedning down to check out the tire, The Ice man would emerge and use a wrench or knife to clock the guy and take him away.  He would use the mountains in PA to tie victims up , slice them to draw blood, and watch the rats come to eat them alive.  He also froze his victims, for years, so that the police could not pinpoint a date of death.

So they gave Davi the role of Leo Marks- I guess because Davi's appearance has seen better days.  He played a similar small role in "Kill The Irishman" with Walken and Stevenson- another low budget, low box office film.



I applause the film for not using so many pyramids, the black and white illuminati scene ( every film has one that includes a black and white set, shirt, or club) comes when Shannon is outside at a pay phone making a call.  Behind him is a piano style wall.  In "Pain and Gain" it is the themse of the Gold Strip Club.

The Ice Man score:  6.3952  :  Knowing the story, I was disappointed at the execution.  The only thing that saved trhis film was Shannon's acting. He is great.

Pain and Gain:  Score:   7.599
The Rock is hilarious in this film, another true story.  I read the source material fdor this film, too ( Pete Collins' articles bearing the same name in the Miami Herald).  Funny stuff.