Thirteen Days (2000)

It is unclear to me if the film Thirteen Days got any inspiration at all from the book of the same name written by one of the principals, Robert F. Kennedy. But then the scriptwriters of the film have the next best thing because they in fact included the authors of The Kennedy Tapes - Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Thirteen Days is a political thriller of a real life event, the Cuban Missile Crisis which happened in 1962. The title was derived from the time span of the crisis, from the discovery of the missiles in Cuba to its disarmament. Just to give the short version the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba; the Americans found out and didn’t like missiles so close to Florida; and suffice to say a nuclear hell almost literally broke lose.

How high is your electric...meter?

This high?

Max Payne (2008)

Max Payne is a video game inspired movie (so I read) about a cop grappling with personal ghosts prowling the streets at night in search of the murderers of his wife. On the onset it really sounded and looked like many a cop movie I have seen.

Body of Lies (2008)

Even now I cannot explain the title – Body of Lies. Maybe it refers to the nature of espionage and the web of lies inherent to it. But by the film’s end, lies were the last thing on my mind. I got more ideas mideast politics and social mores, along with America’s lack of understanding. While everybody lies in the film ironically it was not presented in a deceitful sense.

The Tudors (2007-2010)

 

Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England, was a beauty. Her life as seen through the eyes of her even more popular husband, King Henry VIII is the centerpiece in The Tudors the latest Hollywood attempt to bring to life one of the most well known couples in history. Helen of Troy may have launched a thousand ships, but Anne was the catalyst that eventually brought down the monopoly of the Catholic Church already softened by a rising Martin Luther.

This drama series, produced by Showtime, is not a love story as implied by having husband and wife as characters but it is in fact a political story wrapped in the pretense of love.