Articles

How many things can you do really well? I mean, laudable activities that are valued by yourself and others, not just armpit farts and Mario Kart? Paul Newman was one of those people who seemed to be good at everything he tried. Newman was first and foremost a solid actor, winning a best actor Oscar for his…

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Many economists point to the 1970s as the starting point to the ebb of the middle class in America. By then however, manufacturing jobs in the rust belt had already been in decline for a decade and the ability for a single-earner family to succeed had become nigh-on impossible on a line worker’s pay. That scenario…

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For those who consider auto racing to be “a man’s sport” chew on this for a moment: Shirley Muldowney wasn’t just the first woman to get an NHRA top-fuel driver’s licence ever, she was also the first person to win two, and three Top Fuel titles. Muldowney, who’s racing nickname was “Cha-Cha” played on the…

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When you think of the nations that produce the world’s greatest racing drivers Uruguay probably doesn’t make your top-10 list. That’s likely because you had never heard of Gonzalo “Gonchi” Rodriguez, a Uruguayan whose life-long dream was to race in Formula 1, but whose career was cut short just before seeing that dream realized. Gonchi tells his story…

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I’m going to come right out and say that this week’s movie, 2013’s Gangster Squad, is a steaming pile of cinematic crap. The movie never finds the right tone – it doesn’t know if it wants to be L.A. Confidential, Sin City, or Dick Tracy – and Sean Penn’s performance in it calls into question…

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Imagine if you will opening a movie the same year that Star Wars hit the silver screen. Nineteen seventy-seven was the year, and I’ll bet you can’t name a movie other than Star Wars that debuted that year. Well, here’s one that got lost in the Star Wars shuffle that you’ll want to know, William Friedkin’s…

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Have you ever noticed that Clint Eastwood’s good-guy characters are never all that good? In Thunderbolt and Lightfoot he got to play the full-on baddie, portraying a notorious bank robber and preacher impersonator nicknamed “The Thunderbolt.” The 1974 crime flick was written and directed by Michael Cimino, a former Madison Avenue TV commercial director – one…

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The trailer for the 1964 musical Viva Las Vegas claims that the film has the “most exciting road race ever filmed.” That’s a bold statement to make, and in fact the hokey ’60s back-projection effects that attempt to put star Elvis Presley behind the wheel of an Elva Mk6 racer do kind of take you…

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In the 2014 film John Wick, Keanu Reeves’ titular character loses his beloved wife to illness but takes solace in a gift she has arranged to arrive after her death – a beagle puppy named Daisy. That, and taunting death, are the only things that the retired hitman has going for him. Of course, if that were…

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You probably consider Kurt Russell to be one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, believable in anything from stone-faced dramas to rock-em sock-em action pics. That wasn’t however always the case, however. In 1963 Russell was signed to a ten-year contract with Walt Disney, and began building a career as a stereotypical Disney kid in movies like The…

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