Pharmaceutical representative Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes a player in the big game of male-performance-enhancement-drug sales and, along the way, finds unexpected romance with a woman (Anne Hathaway) suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Based on the real-life Jamie Reidy’s memoir, Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, this satirical look inside the culture of Big Pharm is directed by Edward Zwick.

I thought this movie was well written and acted. This film is a comedy complete with boner jokes. It also has drama, romance and social commentary. Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway were outstanding and very believable as a couple.

The buzz of this film was Anne Hathaway’s nude scenes. They were very necessary to advance the story. To see a young, beautiful and vibrant woman with a debilitating disease is tragic.

I know I am going to take flak for this but I was moved by this movie. Jake Gyllenhaal wants to take care of Anne Hathaway but she loves him so much she doesn’t want him wasting his life on her. You can understand where both characters are coming from. They have great onscreen chemistry here and did the comedy and drama well. I am giving this one 4 stars.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Jailed for immoral behavior in Brazil, flamboyant homosexual Luis Molina (William Hurt, who netted a Best Actor Oscar) passes the time by detailing scenes of his favorite romantic movie to fellow inmate Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia), a hard-edged political activist. Slowly, the two forge a bond based on mutual understanding and respect and their relationship evolves. Director Hector Babenco’s character study earned an Oscar nod for Best Picture.

Netflix recommended this movie to me as I liked both “Body Heat” (starring William Hurt) and Cidade de Deus (City of God). I rated them both 5 stars and do recommend them. Cidade de Deus only had English subtitles for me (a true foreign film for me) but still is a great movie.

William Hurt received Best Actor for his performance. I think he overplayed “flamboyant.” I was reminded a lot of the Jack McFarland character from the show “Will and Grace.” I know when this movie was made stereotyping was more acceptable. I think in today’s culture women and gays might be more offended by this as they were implied as being weak and helpless.

Raul Julia was terrific here. I liked his performance over William Hurt’s. I wish we had more time with this character.

I would classify this movie as avant-garde. It is an interesting character study and we do see decent character development. Two men with different backgrounds killing time as the William Hurt character recounts scenes from a really bad movie. We do get to the see the movie acted out visually. I thought the movie within the movie was clever as it does some foreshadowing. It felt that both William Hurt and Raul Julia were putting on a clinic for acting. I am giving this one 3.4 stars.

I am glad to have seen this movie once. I doubt very much if I will see it again. I thought the movie was good but not great. It was a little over 2 hours and prison movies tend to depress me. I should warn that same sex relationships are discussed which may make some viewers uncomfortable.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Suspecting her husband, David (Liam Neeson), of infidelity, doctor Catherine (Julianne Moore) hires sexy escort Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce him and test his faithfulness. But as Catherine checks in on Chloe’s encounters with David, Chloe’s reports become increasingly lurid. Soon, the relationships between all three intensify in unexpected ways. Renowned filmmaker Atom Egoyan directs this psychological drama.

I am going to start with the fun stuff first. Julianne Moore does have two topless scenes in this movie and they do look especially perky. I loved her in the shower. Her woman on woman loves scenes were hot and I did need to take a cold shower afterwards. People who have a crush on Ms. Moore may enjoy this movie with the sound off and listening to something else.

I have to say as a man who does have a little crush on Julianne Moore the movie industry needs to do a better job in telling us when her character dies early. Shame on you “Children of Men” as her character dies 20 minutes into it. I had to get that out. Her character is still alive in the beginning and ending of this film (sorry for the spoilers).

That was fun to get out and I will now post my serious movie critic comments. This is a woman’s film. Julianne Moore’s character gets excited hearing about details of her husband’s infidelity. I find this difficult to comprehend. I have had a couple girlfriends in my life and I always found it difficult to look at old pictures of them with someone else. It is difficult. This is just me.

I did not like this film. I did not understand Chloe’s motivation. The Chloe character started off well but soon it fizzled. The ending was way too convenient.

I am giving this dud two stars. As far as psychological dramas go, I think “Play Misty for Me” and “Fatal Attraction” are much better films. I do not think actress Amanda Seyfried will be in the same company as Jessica Walter and Glenn Close at Awards shows.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Most Trusted Person On The Web!
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

I promote a few affiliate programs which I consider to be really good. NPN is one of them. One of my requirements is that is has to be global. Below is a message from Geoff, founder of the company. I have found him to be accessible.

Things are really starting to develop around our new website.

If you haven’t looked at it, there are some new videos I have put up, including some great member testimonials that I’ve already gotten great comments about.. This site is designed to sell and all of my testing has resulted in very good conversion rates — even without any sort of ‘pre-sell’. I’d recommend that you start firing some qualified traffic at it to see for yourself.

I have added a new capture page to your selection of capture pages in the same style as the website, which tested well also. This is connected to the ‘free report’ that has been responsible for thousands of NPN signups since it was first introduced. You will find your affiliate URL to this new page under ‘capture pages’ in the left menu in your backoffice. There will be more capture pages created as we go along..

Also..

There are brand new plug-n-play banners for promoting your GlobalNPN business in your backoffice (finally, I know:)! There are the standard size banners, plus some ‘blog ready’ sized banners for you to use right away. Also on the banners page there are some really cool looking ‘membership cards’ that you can use as banners as well. As always, I’d recommend sending your banner traffic to a capture page first — preferrably the new one!

Below are two of the new banners. There is a couple more.





All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Two teens try to destroy a suburban family in director Robert Altman’s risqué comedy, which follows misfits O.C. Ogilvie (Daniel Jenkins) and Mark Stiggs (Neill Barry), who see red when an insurance salesman cancels the policy of O.C.’s grampa (Ray Walston). Bent on revenge, the youngsters carry out a vendetta against the loutish salesman (Paul Dooley). The high-powered cast includes Jane Curtin, Martin Mull, Dennis Hopper and Louis Nye.

I was first introduced to O.C. and Stiggs in the early 1980’s reading my brother’s National Lampoon Magazines. I admit I thought they were cool as they never worried about consequences. Although they had no redeeming social qualities, I did think they were pretty funny. My favorite was when they played Huck Finn tubing down a river. Click here for a brief history of them (caution the background music is loud so you may want to turn down your speakers).

Robert Altman was a famous director. He is probably best known for 1970’s MASH starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt. His technique is having multiple things happening at once. This worked well in MASH, not so much for any other film he has directed.

I have no idea why a studio would combine these two together. This movie is horrible. It makes Mad Magazine’s “Up the Academy” look like “The Godfather II.” I almost turned it off as it was that dreadful (I wished I followed my gut instinct). It tries to be offensive but it just wasn’t funny. It did not capture the feel of the original characters that was introduced in National Lampoon Magazine.

There are only two things I liked (I’m being kind). One was seeing a young Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City) in this. I always liked her. The second was seeing Jane Curtain’s character constantly sneaking in booze (my favorite is the head of lettuce).

Robert Altman in an extra on the DVD admitted this was not a good movie and that no one was happy with the final product. He further said the best part was actually Cynthia Nixon. I am agreeing with his sentiments.

This movie is so horrendous I did not bother searching for a clip. I am giving this bomb 0.0678 stars.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue (I do not recommend this one). This movie again is awful, horrible, dreadful, vile and horrendous.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

After ace counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe) murders the partner of Secret Service agent Richard Chance (William Petersen), the gumshoe will stop at nothing to even the score. Big problem, though: Masters is, well, a master at the game and outfoxes Chance at every turn. Can Chance outwit him? William Friedkin directs this suspenseful, violent thriller with the City of Angels (a misnomer in this case) as the alluring backdrop.

I believe it is the Los Angeles backdrop that makes this movie work. It was a hoot to relive 1985 again with the music, cars and white pants. Hey where are my white pants and can I still fit in them?

This movie is about revenge and how far the lead character will go to get even. This plot is in many movies however it plays out very differently here. I found the last ten minutes very shocking.

To Live and Die in LA does have a 1980’s Miami Vice feel to it and in reading the trivia found out there was actually a lawsuit against this movie for it. It was tossed out of court and I agree with that decision. Unlike Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice (two guys too cool for school) things do not work out so smoothly for our heroes.

I think actor Willem Dafoe is really good at playing a bad guy. Rick Masters is one of the better villains I have seen in movies. I am giving this one 3.4 stars. It isn’t the best movie ever but worth seeing every 20 years. I did see back in the 80’s and as I said back in the beginning it was fun reliving 1985.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

A prominent New York City gang leader named Cyrus (Roger Hill) wants to wage an all-out battle against the police, and as part of his strategy he calls upon Gotham’s gangs to set aside their turf wars and come together at a summit. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus’ death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors’ trail.

This is loosely based on “Anabasis” by Xenophon. The plot is simple, nine members of “The Warriors” gang are trying to get back home safe from within enemy territory. They are following a New York Subway map and with each stop they encounter a different gang and engage in battle. There is no character development but I liked this movie. It had “A Clockwork Orange” feel to it.

If you can remember 1979 and when the band “Kiss” was really huge you may enjoy this one. The hairstyles, clothes and dialogue will take you back. I loved the battle music and the different gangs they encountered. My favorite gang had to be the “The Baseball Furies.”

This movie is violent but it had a cartoonish feel to it. This was validated when I saw the extras and the director even said this wasn’t supposed to be taken too seriously. This film was apparently controversial at the time.

There is one serious thing I take from this. I am a person who “observes and reports” and it has always irritated me when one person has to ruin everything for everyone. There is always one bad person in every crowd. This is demonstrated very early in the movie.

I am giving this one 3.4 stars. It is a quick ride which never stops.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Director David Fincher’s biographical drama chronicles the meteoric rise of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) from Harvard sophomore to Internet superstar, examining his relationships with co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Winning Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Director, the film also racked up Oscar nods in the same categories and for lead actor Eisenberg.

When I was in College at SCSU I remember a professor saying if you want to see a really good business model then see the movie “The Godfather.” I agree with that statement. I want to add “The Social Network” to that list.

I have been online and active on the web since 1992. All these guys did was take ideas that were already out there and made them better. The subject matter fascinates me.

I think this is a phenomenal movie. In the end they say 15% truth 85% exaggeration. The story on the rise of Facebook is incredible. You cannot dispute this which makes the story work.

Besides the social media aspects of this movie, I love the relationships that were examined here. Relationships are complicated, whether is just a best friend or someone we are intimate with. I have had both in my life and it is so easy to be diluted (from the movie) and not see someone outside interfere with all that. It happens way too much in this life.

This film is 2 hours long. I watched the first 50 minutes Saturday (went to bed thinking I was only giving it 3 stars) and then watched the last 70 minutes Sunday resulting in me giving it 5 stars. I didn’t care for the first 50 minutes with the Winklevoss Brothers story but when Justin Timberlake’s character is introduced the movie becomes really compelling.

I am giving this one 5 stars. On a personal note I never betrayed a friend or ever cheated on anyone I was serious with. I still have had people from the outside come in to plants seeds of doubt (Alan is not a good friend/not a good boyfriend). This reminded me how delicate and fragile relationships are. We all need to be wiser on what is going on.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Paul Mazursky’s 1969 classic puts two couples and their relationships under the unforgiving lens of society’s microscope in this unflinching examination of marriage. After one liberal group therapy session, Bob (Robert Culp) and his wife, Carol (Natalie Wood), are convinced they’re open-minded enough to embrace a no-guilt approach to fidelity. But can they convince their best friends, Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon), to do the same?

I respect the fact that this is an intelligent movie that was controversial at the time to make. It deserves to be a classic and I did laugh twice. I further respect the adult subject matter here. Having said these things let me come out and say I really didn’t care for this film. The characters were just a little too full of themselves which rubbed me the wrong way. The term “hipster doofus” comes to mind.

I did like the very end of this movie when the four of them walked out of their Las Vegas hotel and they played “What the World Needs Now is Love” sung by Jackie DeShannon. I never realized what a beautiful women the late Natalie Wood was. I found a really nice tribute video with this song to Natalie Wood. Here is the link to that video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kicr39iLXiw

I am only giving this one 2.7 stars. I just didn’t like the characters. They were too believable and I know they would never be friends with a person like me. I am not hip and I own up to it.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com

Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) is the only one strong enough and brave enough to take on the baddies who murdered his brother. What’s the former CIA agent to do? Expose a conspiracy that leads straight to the White House. Providing plenty of hilarity and sexy, slick action, Scott Sanders directs this homage to classic 1970s blaxploitation flicks. Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Arsenio Hall also star.

This movie did a fantastic job in spoofing the movies I saw on Channel 5 out of New York growing up. I am talking about both the Shaft and Bruce Li movies. We have awful editing, bad lighting, over the top acting, reused car crashes and seeing the same bad guy get killed over and over again. This movie is short and never takes itself seriously. Those of you that know and appreciate my juvenile sophomoric humor (Mel) would get a kick (no pun intended) out of this one. I am giving this one 4 stars.

Click here for the Netflix link in case you would like to add it to your queue.

All the best,

Alan
Alan Zibluk
The Internet Guy
Cell: (203) 500-3834
E-mail: al@alzibluk.com