The Fugitive Turns 30

The movie The Fugitive turns 30-years old this week. Must admit that I was taken by surprise by the remake of the David Jansen TV series. Loved it at the theater and can't help but watch it to the end if I catch it playing anywhere. It is much like Prates of the Caribbean in this regard (even though this one was made after a theme park ride not a hit show).

Thread Reader has an undertesting post on The Fugitive turning 30 including these nuggets:

• Walter Hill once wrote a screenplay based upon the TV series
• The dam jump scene was originally supposed to take place at Niagara Falls
• Filming started in February with an August release date scheduled. This is normally how a B movie is made.
• Most of the dialog and funny lines were improvised. The benefits of having great actors!
• Richard Jordan was originally supposed to play Dr. Charles Nichols but was diagnosed with a brain tumor

To me the movie is similar to Dune where I loved the first installment but never bothered with any of the sequels (sorry Tommy Lee Jones). Time to rewatch the original!

Top 5 - Harrison Ford Movies

Holy crap! Today is Harrison Ford's 75th birthday. Here are what I consider his top 5 movies:

1. Indiana Jones
2. Blade Runner
3. Witness
4. The Fugitive
5. Presumed Innocent

Just missing the cut were Air Force One, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

Just as an FYI - the Star Wars movies didn't make the list because Harrison wasn't the principal star in any of those.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

If they made this Ryan Braun saga into a movie - would Harrison Ford be too old to play Bud Selig?... 25 Photos of Mitt Romney looking perfectly normal. Call me a sap but I think these are cool... Just saying but if I was to go to the trouble to tamper with Ryan Braun's urine sample - I probably would have leaked the positive test results to ESPN too. It would be amusing if someone went to a lot of trouble to frame Ryan Braun but some Mr. Bean courier and his son screwed things up by being incompetent... Walter Arlington Latham (the Freshest Man on Earth) - they really did have much better nicknames back in the old days... I still think that if a player in any sport fails a drug test - the team should lose that roster spot for the entire length of the suspension. For example - if Braun was suspended for 50 games then the Brewers would lose a spot on their 25-man roster until Braun came back. I think that would end much of the cheating if the team had to share in the punishment... No conspiracy - Ron Paul and his people just don't like Rick Santorum... Ryan Braun may have a suit against MLB under HIPAA Privacy laws. The leaking of personal health information and the resultant damage that caused I'm guessing is very actionable. I wouldn't doubt if that is the potential legal action Braun was referring to yesterday... Flying owl filmed at 1000 frames per second - very cool... Nick Punto is the second player to wear number 5 since Nomar Garciaparra left town and both players wore the number in homage to Nomar (who they first checked with to make sure it was OK). Since Wade Boggs left town - 11 players have worn number 26 and none of them were honoring Boggs. Think of that the next time some uninformed sportswriter writes about retiring Boggs' number. The Red Sox aren't interested and neither are the fans... Kenny Fucking Powers!...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Was not a fan of Erik Bedard but with the news that Clay Buchholz has a stress fracture and will be out for season it becomes very clear that Red Sox had to obtain a starter. There are worse things than getting a guy with a career 3.69 ERA to be your 4th starter... Stealthy Bastards. I would so drive around like that for hours at a time... Excellent run down of the prospects involved from the Red Sox perspective. The key to understand is that there was no room on the Red Sox 40-man roster for the guys they traded. There was a good chance the players could have been lost with no return in the Rule 5 draft anyway... Best protest sign at the Capitol... Of the players the Red Sox traded away - catcher Tim Federowicz had the best chance to actually be in the Red Sox long term plans. However, with Jarrod Saltalamaccia blossoming and Ryan Lavarnway being a total monster at AAA Pawtucket (.352 BA, .428 OBP, 1.113 OPS with 13 HR) there just wasn't room for him... I've seen a number of people who wonder why the Rockies were so willing to part with Ubaldo Jimenez as if that created a buyer beware situation. But couldn't the same be said of the Indians and their prospects? Why would the Indians part with stud pitching prospects? Maybe Jimenez really is "just" a #2 starter but how many top prospects ever even develop to that level?... Heh heh - Forty Fords. I can identify about half... Macro-economists have successfully predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions... Love stuff like this - Americanisms... Speaking of Harrison Ford movies - yesterday I realized that the actress who played the IRA girl in Patriot Games - Polly Walker - went on to be Attia of the Julii in Rome. I will never be able to watch Patriot Games the same ever again... Very cool timelapse video of the fog in a San Francisco neighborhood... One final Trade Deadline note - how funny is it that Baseball-reference.com lists Ubaldo Jimenez as the most similar pitcher to Erik Bedard? This about that for a while.