40/50x2: Platoon

This film has one of the most robust casts I have seen in a long time.

Platoon follows Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as he drops out of college and volunteers to fight in Vietnam. He is dropped near the Cambodian border and immediately is thrust into combat.

Exhaustion overcomes him one night while he is supposed to standing watch. He asks another soldier to take over for him and he falls asleep - but so does the soldier who has taken over for him. And, the enemy is able to sneak up on them and ambushes them.

Taylor is yelled at by Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), but he is taken under the wing of Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who doesn't get along with the more crazed Barnes.

The film follows Taylor through his experiences and also shows the other troops and how they are dealing with the war. Some are able to handle it, while others show the effects of war and each one deals with it in a different way.

The movie itself was decent, but not the greatest of war movies I have seen. Still, it was pretty much non-stop action, and the characters were very interesting.

It was also cool to see some of the bigger stars of the day like Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley, Kevin Dillon and Keith David - some of which were very young and had very small roles.

Overall, enjoyable. And with most war films coming in rather long, here it is just two hours, which was nice. The ending of the film was also pretty powerful - something I was not expecting, but also understood.

Grade:

Entourage

I am not even sure how it happened. For the longest time I never even had any of the HBO or Showtime channels. But, I kept hearing about this hilarious show in HBO - and I so wanted to check it out. It had everything in a show that could keep me entertained.

Well, I finally was able to watch the first season a few years ago - and I was immediately hooked. I became an Entourage fan.

The fifth season (I believe it is the fifth) started last Sunday and already I am immediately into it. My wife always seems to make the comment, "What? It's over already" after every show. And you know what, it's true - you never feel satisfied, you are always wanting more.

The show's dynamic is pretty simple. A young, talented actor makes it big in Hollywood and two of his friends, and step-brother tag along and ride on his coat tails.

Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) is the character the show revolves around, although I wouldn't actually call him the star of the show.

Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly) is Vince's best friend, and as the show has progressed, is now his manager and has a startup managing company. He is basically the brains behind Vince's talent.

Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is Vince's driver and gopher for the most part. Although he did have a small side job as a rapper's manager.

Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) is Vince's step brother, who years before was a star of a television show Viking Quest. At the start he basically relied on Vince to get him back in the game - but now has another hit show Five Towns.

Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) is Vince's agent. His character is one of the funniest on the show, especially with his one liners and interaction with his assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee).

The premise of the show has shown the ups-and-downs of Chase's film career as he became an overnight success, to an indie favorite, to a huge superhero, to where he is now: a failure.

Thanks to the craptastic Meddellin Vince finds himself on the outside looking in, as he is unable to get an A-list offer from anyone.

It's cool to see the behind-the-scenes struggle for an actor, instead of just the high times. Plus, seeing the rest of the friends have a little success and actually help take care of Vince is a nice reversal. This season is only two episodes in and I am very excited for the outcome.

It will be nice to see Vince plow through this down swing and bring himself back into the mainstream. It's also cool to see the emergence of Eric as a full-fledged manager.

If you haven't seen this show, I suggest checking it out. But make sure to start with season one. I know I would be a little lost without having seen all of the episodes. Some of them are a little less awesome than others, but I guarantee at least a few laugh out loud moments in each episode. Especially with Ari and Lloyd or Turtle and Drama - they all have great chemistry.