Movie Reviews- Old School Edition

No, not the Vince Vaughn/ Will Ferrell movie of a few years ago.
I recently had a fit of nostalgia and added a bunch of 80's movies to my Netflix Queue. Some were as good as I remembered, some were not.
Murder By Decree- Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper. 1880's London. Foggy streets. Very atmospheric. Christopher Plummer was an excellent Sherlock Holmes, and James Mason was well-cast as Watson. Unfortunately, I felt the movie as a whole was somewhat overlong and I found the plot to be just a bit more confusing and convoluted than it needed to be.
Scanners- Yes, this is that movie with the "exploding head". The premise is simple...there are people in the world with strong telepathic powers (the titular "Scanners"). Some are good. Some are bad. Stephen Lack, who played the "good guy" scanner turns in a fairly wooden performance. Michael Ironside, as the bad scanner, was excellent (this is the role that really established his career). The film does drag a bit in the middle. The scanner versus scanner telepathic battle at the end is still cool, though.
Time After Time- Another Jack the Ripper movie. This time he goes up against the legendary writer H.G. Wells. it seems that "Jack" steals the time machine that Wells had actually built and flees from 1880's London to present-day San Francisco. Wells follows him, and then the fun begins. The acting is excellent and the movie itself is very entertaining...funny, suspenseful and romantic. Watch this if you get a chance.
Rumble Fish- Very stylish, very arty. In black and white except for the "rumble fish" of the title. Sometimes a bit too stylish and too arty, but damn if it doesn't still work. Matt Dillon and Diane Lane are very young in this. You can also see Mickey Rourke before the onset of bloated self-parody, as well as pre-stardom Nicholas Cage and Laurence Fishburne. The score, by Stewart Copeland of The Police, is still edgy and cool.

Bad Advice

I was just talking to a candidate for a position I'm trying to fill. In the course of asking her questions about her experience, several things came to light that weren't on her resume. Several things that made her a vastly better fit for the job than I had first thought.
I asked her why she didn't have these things on her resume. She told me that someone had advised her to cut her resume down to one page. Wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The one-page rule is fine when you're an inexperienced or entry-level person who doesn't have alot to brag about. When you get to the point when you've had more than a job or two, when you've had a series of accomplishments and experiences....guess what? You can go over a page. When you have something to brag about, brag about it. The aforementioned candidate might not have had a shot at a pretty good job, all because of some very bad advice.
The fundamental thing to remember (and what I always preach) is when you're job-hunting, you're marketing yourself. Your resume is an advertisement for you. When you don't list all of your accomplishments just for the sake of keeping your resume to one page, you're selling yourself short.

Everyday Heroes

Being essentially a geek at heart, I love watching superhero movies and TV shows with my kids. It's not just the superpowers, great battles or morphing Power Rangers that I like, though. There's something about seeing heroes in action that stirs my spirit.
What is a hero, really?
It's not the ability to fly, turn invisible or pilot a giant robot that makes one heroic. I actually see heroes around me everyday. To me, the essence of heroism is being stronger than your circumstances, sometimes maybe bending but never breaking and at least trying to beat the odds.
Here are some of my heroes...
-A gentleman of my acquaintance who has faced the gravest sort of professional and personal disappointment, yet he and his wife continue to be the very models of strength and faith.
-I have one freind who is in the midst of changing her entire life from top to bottom, yet still has the time and energy to be a great mom to her son and a good freind to me.
-Another freind who is a single mom who more or less is either working or with her kids twenty-four hours a day. Somehow she maintains a positive attitude, is successfully raising two great kids and manages to keep her life running smoothly.

There are many more examples out there...sorry if I left you out.