The back and forth between Kingsley and Winstone is so raw and powerful it actually made me half nervous. And Logan is a persistent bugger, not hesitating to terrify Gal's new cheeky friends or his lovely new wife. Gal finely gets persuaded by Logan's persistent intrusions and of course no good comes of it. But what makes the movie is not the plot but the incredible characters, especially Kingsley and Winstone. In many ways this movie is more a very dark comedy than a caper yarn as I said before, the plot is almost secondary. The movie is really all about the relationship between good and evil.
These lads from across the pond can act, don't miss it. R 93 min Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi. A futuristic Brief Encounter , this is a love story in which the romance is doomed by genetic incompatibility. CODE 46 is proof, once again, that you don't need a giant budget to produce a very viewable and interesting movie. CODE 46 falls under the Science Fiction category, but the science fiction elements while both interesting and integral to the movie, it is the story of the two main characters and their fine performances that make this movie really work.
At it's core CODE 46 is a love story that takes place in a not so distant future dystopian type setting, where mega-cities are highly guarded and outside of these mega-cities life continues to be scratched out in bleak, brown desert type Shanty Towns. The totalitarian government - The Sphinx - strictly monitors travel and no one can enter the mega-cities without a "papella,' a kind of Brave New World passport.
The peak that the film gives you into the future is rather interesting, language seems to have become somewhat globalized as a lot of people speak a sort of mish-mash of English mixed with other languages. The people who are banned from the 'cities' while having to scratch out a poor living do enjoy a freedom that city dwellers are denied. Tim Robbins plays William Geld, a family man who seems very detached as he goes about his daily job as a government investigator.
Geld is sent to the Mega-City of Shanghai to investigate a possible forged papelles ring. On his trip he meets a spry young women named Maria played wonderfully by Samantha Morton. Although he quickly surmises that Maria is an integral part of the forgery ring, he finds himself quickly falling in love with the some what shy and tender Maria, for she fills a void in his own home life and for once seems to feel very much alive when in her presence.
They experience a brief his papella is good for only 24 hours but torrid affair, and he feels pulled strongly in two directions. On the one hand Maria gives him something he knows he will never have in his current relationship but he also knows to pursue the affair is foolishness as 'big-brother' is everywhere. He does decide to return home but hides her involvement in the forgery ring.
Buy for others
Once home he spends seemingly every waking hour thinking of what it would be like to have a life with Maria but sees it as an impossibility. Then a week later he is sent back to Shanghai as the investigation is reopened. What happens next would give away the conclusion of the story. So let me just say this: He reconnects with Maria and finds himself in some real hot water with very limited options. The ending dovetails really well with the rest of the story and leaves you if not overly happy at least satisfied, which can't be said for a lot of movies today when, very often, the ending to a movie is determined by showing the movie to 'sample' audiences and determining the ending based on a questionnaire that the sample audience are asked to complete.
A method which I find rather pathetic. But a method Hollywood big wigs seem to like especially when some of these mega blockbusters are working with near million dollar budgets. The nice thing about most low budget movies is that the director and producers aren't beholden to anyone. CODE 46 was truly a pleasant surprise and the acting was so appropriate to the mood of the movie. Tim Robbins seems to have been born to play roles exactly like this - intellectually curious people whose outward behavior is often subdued as they try to deal with an oppressive government, workplace, society etc.
I highly recommend you see CODE 46 and decide on your own whether it is your cup of tea. I'd give it 8 papellas out of R min Comedy, Crime. Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. I still see people sporting "the Dude" tee shirts - I am one of them. And you can still find plenty of "Dude" apparel still available on-line. I can see rock-band tee shirts out lasting the bands, but how many movie tee shirts do you see at all?
Of course, just because a movie has it's own tee shirt does not it a great movie make. But it's probably a fair indicator.
For you folk not in the know, "The Dude" is a character Jeff Bridges made famous in one of those semi-psychodrama dark comedies they so excel out. This time around the movie is pretty much a straight, if dark comedy, and it works on every level. Great character's who you can take an interest in. Great dialog, no body can deliver lines like Buscemi, Goldman and Bridges and here you have all three as best buddies - bowling buddies at that.
And great dramatic shoots. The movie itself can be summed up pretty simply, like any good Coen brothers movie, but there is really nothing simple about it. In respect to brevity I will attempt to just give you the quickie thumbnail version: When "The Dude" Lebowski, in a serious case of mistaken identity, is mistakingly identified for a millionaire Lebowski, two toughs urinate on his rug in hopes of coercing into paying a debt "The Dude" knows nothing about.
While attempting to collect fair compensation for his ruined rug, he accepts a one time cash offer to help out the wealthy Lebowski. The Dude recruits his two best buds, Walter Goodman , a gun-toting, jewish convert, with serious anger issues and Donnie Buscemi a quiet, pathetic guy who is actually the voice of reason, if such a word can be used when referring to this three-some.
One thing leads to another and deception leads to mayhem and before you know it the Dude and his crew are up to thier backsides in violent nil-hists, porn empire tycoons and sort of ex-wives. As everything unravels for the three, everything also comes together and by the end of the movie they somehow save their own bacon - don't sat bacon around Walter. His key scene alone makes the movie worth the price of admission. This movie is insanely funny, smart, satirical and just a flat out good time.
It get's an 8 out of 10 in my book, seven days a week; all night long. Just remember Always "respect the Dude. R 97 min Drama, Romance. A boy who has experienced many losses in his life grows to manhood and enters into a love triangle with a woman and his boyhood friend. And if you are not a fan of Farrell, this movie may change your mind. Sissy Spacek is perfectly cast in the roles of Alice Glover, the mother of Jonathan Glover Dallas Roberts gives a very convincing performance.
But the real star of the picture and the character everybody in the movie revolves around is Bobby Morrow Colin Farrell makes this movie as he plays the role of Bobby Morrow. The two boys have a very unique, if unusual relationship. And unlike many movie's these days everything about the dynamic of their relationship is not spelled out for you - yes you need to pay attention.
Are both boys straight? I soneone 'acting' gay hoping to impress the other? Are they both straight but curious about the others sexuality? One thing we do know, they share an uncommon bond that helps them get through lifes up and downs. The story starts off with the two younger boys - early on played by different actors -galavanting around their home area the suburbs of Cleveland Ohio. As they mature and experiment with the things adolescents often finds themselves doing. They meet a third partner to add to their very exclusive little group.
The run into Clare played by Robin Wright Penn a bohemian type who dyes her hair all sorts of colors and is totally enamored with the two young men taking them to New York with her to see how much they are in tune with her own lifestyle. As much as Clare thinks that she is the 'lead' dog in their little entourage it is the ever kind and sweet Bobby, who, whether he realizes it or not is the real puppet master of this quirky threesome.
The film chronicles lives of loves, hates, trials and loses as the two young boys turn into men. The real question id what will happen to this three legged tripod of a friendship if one leg is removed. Well if you want to know you will have to see the move. And the ending is not only unexpected, but unlike so many movies it's not simply contrived but will have you thinking about it long after you leave the theater.
It sounds so cliche-d when I write this review. But believe me, it is not. The movie is abound with touching moments but don't bother trying to figure out how it will end It is easily deserving of more acclaim, but then it might not have made it onto my list. This movie easily garners 8 points out of a possible After being released from prison, Billy is set to visit his parents with his wife, whom he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl and forces her to act as his wife for the visit. Billy Brown is just out of jail and doesn't have two nickel's to rub together, but he is full of BS which he puts to good use.
He wants to return to his hometown of Buffalo, NY to see his parents and show them what a success he has become evidently they never even cared enough to know that he was in jail for he past several years Billy kidnaps Ricci at her dance class and talks her into pretending to be his wife for his visit home. She agrees and Mom and Pop love her. Ben Gazzara Billy's dad at one point takes her into an extra room and seranades her and tries to grab a feel, meanwhile Billy's mom is ignoring him as the Bill's game is on the tube. Ricci informs the family that Billy is quite the businessman and they are expecting their first baby.
Things go from bad to worse as Billy's true motives for returning to Buffalo are revealed - he wants to kill ex-Bill's kicker Scott Norwood who many blame for at least 2 of their 4 consecutive Super Bowl loses. Norwood now owns a strip-club in a seedy section of Buffalo and Billy has designs on evening some bizarre personal score.
This movie is indeed art house film making at it's best, and Gallo's dialouge is both dead serious and darkly comical. It's only problem was the enormous ego of Gallo. He plays the lead, directed the movie, produced the movie and wrote and performed the music in the movie. Made on a measly when compared to other movies 1. I'm really not sure where I would rank this movie, somedays it seems like it deserves to be a top 10 of all time and yet at other times it seems to just barely sneak into the top Regardless, it is most definitely worth seeing. Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
Snatch get's an 8. Snatch has a lot of the same elements as LOCK but is a more refined movie while still being very edgy and Brad Pitt really acts his butt off in Snatch, pretty much stealing every scene that he appears in. Turkish played wonderfully by Jason Statham and his best mate Tommy Boy somehow get snookered into match fixing by the not so scrupulous but ever so Notorious Brick Top. Things start getting complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets the snot knocked out of him by Pitt, a Pikey slang for an Irish gypsy who comes into the picture when Turkish wants to buy a caravan - we Americans refer to the said vehicle as an RV - from the Irish Gypsies.
They not only decided to buy a caravan form the gypsies but attempt to get Mickey Pitt to fight for them and purposefully lose, Bad idea asking a "Pikey" to lose intentionally. In the meantime, a huge diamond lift tales place and a fistful of unsavory characters add to the mix, including: Things go from bad to worse with humor never taking a back seat, as it all comes down to the money, the guns, and the damned dogs. This movie is so exceptionally well crafted you can watch it over and over again, know the lines by rote and still laugh at then each time as they are so well delivered.
Ritchie has truly found a nitch of film making of which he is the unabashed king. Snatch deserves an 8. There are some truly great individual performances in this movie. Bradd Pitt is fantastic as the "pikey" Mickey, a character you will in all likelihood never forget. Beninci Del Toro also plays a great part as a diamond thief. And "Boris the Blade" played by Rade Serbedzija will not soon be forgotten. There are just so many funny lines Look in the dog. What do you mean "look in the dog? I mean open him up. It's not as if it's a tin of baked beans!
What do you mean "open him up"? Another is when Statham and his sidekick Tommy are discussing the purchase of a new "caravan. There is some older guy cooking up some sausages for Statham and the conversation goes something like this: Charlie, how long till them sausages are done? What's happening with them sausages, Charlie? It was two minutes five minutes ago. And the crazy dialog goes on and on but it's never trite or out of place.
What a genuinely fun, but very dark, comedy. Please don't skip over this one. When you did finally see it you'll be scratching your head over why you never saw it before. Ritchie's other two Crime Caper's are every bit as strong!!! A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.
Vanessa Lutz - played by Reese Witherspoon in one of her first starring roles - a 15 year old troubled student comes home from school one day as her mom is being arrested for prostitution and drug purchasing and her step father is being taken to the psych-ward A combination of really good weed and too much speed. Her social worker is there to intercept poor Vanessa and help her pack for her next foster home. However Vanessa has been down this road before so she handcuffs her Social Worker to the radiator and heads out the door.
A friend loans her a handgun and Vanessa heads out to go to her grany's house. Soon enough the car overheats and Vanessa is thumbing it. Little does she know that there is a serial killer on the loose who has been picking up young ladies on the same highway Vanessa is traveling. Soon enough Bob Wolverton, a counselor at a school for troubled adolescent boys gives her a lift, buys her a meal and gains her trust. Before long he has Vanessa talking about her sexual abuse at the hands of her step father. When she realizes that Bob seems to be enjoying the stories she realizes that he is the "I-5 Killer" and makes a plan to escape.
To tell you anymore would give away the meatiest part of the story, but suffice it to say Vanessa can take care of herself and Bob is the one in for a rough time. Weiss as her step-dad and Dan Hedaya as the detective, this is one gem of a dark comedy that keeps you guessing one moment and laughing out loud the next. This is a genuinely unique movie that actually pulls off what it is trying to accomplish and one I have enjoyed several times over the years. It's one of those movies that if you lend it out you may wait a long time to get it back.
Do yourself a favor and buy this one for your collection or by two if you plan on loaning one out! An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. Young, white Dan Dunne, is the coach of the girl's basketball team and a history teacher at an inner city Brooklyn public school where the majority of students are black and Hispanic youths. To his superiors vexation, Dan goes against the grain of the stated curriculum.
In place of simply teaching historical events accurtelly, he instead focuses on the philosophical reasoning behind such events. He wants desperately to engage the minds of his young students and not for them to simply memorize dates, people and times. Using his unconventional methods and his ability to relate to younger people he ends up capturing both their hearts and minds and gains their trust. In school everything is going swingingly for Dan and even his co workers are beginning to notice - and in some instances - respect him for his devotion to his students.
But outside of school Dan'is life is in shambles.
While he has a cordial relationship with his family it's very distant and he continues to struggle with illegal drug use. Something that started with a former girlfriend who had gone to rehab and was now clean, but Dan just didn't see rehab working for him. So here we have a young man who seems on top of the world to the outside but is internally in constant combat with inner demons.
He even has trouble treating women with any dignity or respect. Drey is a thirteen year old young lady who is both in Dan's history class and plays basketball for the team Dan coaches. Drey's home life isn't exactly a dream life itself, she comes from a split up household where her father is never around and totally irresponsible, her one brother Mike took the fall for a drug dealer Mike who tries to look out for Drey. Meanwhile Drey's mother works seemingly all the time to keep food on the table and to give Drey a better life.
One day Drey quite by accident catches Dan in a bathroom stall high as a kite on crack and that's when the story really takes off. Dan is gyilt ridden and wants to protect Drey. Drey would like to save Dan but feels, once again, betrayed. And the essence of the story comes down to two people from different places culturally, financially and ethnically trying to save the other when maybe they should be more concerned with saving themselves. I though the acting of Ryan Gosling and the very underrated Anthony Mackie along with Sarreka Epps made the movie work.
The story sounds like old, rehashed material but it is anything but in the hands of this trio of superb actors. For my money Anthony Mackie deserves to start getting Denzel Washington type roles and Ryan Gosling is quickly becoming a superstar in his own right. This may sound like a simple, hum drum movie I repeat, it's not. I'd give it 8 out of 10, easy and will be watching it again and again over the next few years. PG min Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy.
I went into the experience not expecting much. You would think I would know better having seen all of Gilliam's previous efforts. It's very watchable and yet has the usual high octane surrealism and symbolism that Gilliam is known for. The film is nothing short of pure fun and fanciful entertainment. In London, the traveling sideshow troupe - which consists of his daughter Valentina, her admirer the impish young lad Anton, their dwarf driver of the dilapidated, horse drawn sideshow wagon and jack of all trades, Anton.
And of course the Amazing Dr. Parnassus - the leader of this group of vagabonds - who claims to have lived for over tortured years. For a pound or two Dr. Parnassus will promise the audience a journey to the "Imaginarium", an imaginary world commanded by the mind of Doctor Parnassus, where dreams come true. One problem with the performances are half the time the good Doctor is a bit in the drink and at others times the crowds are awfully meager.
Over the years Dr. Parnassus has told his lifetime story - his one thousand year long lifetime story to his precious daughter Valentina, along with Anton and Percy the midget. It would seem that after these many long years the Doctor fell in love with a mortal woman; however to enjoy his new love he made a deal with the Devil Mr. Nick in which he traded his immortality for youth. As part of the deal he promised Mr. Nick - who was shooting blanks - his first born son or daughter on their sixteenth birthday. Valentina is now almost to the doomed age and Doctor Parnassus makes a new bet with Mr.
Nick, whoever seduces five souls in the Imaginarium will have Valentina as a prize. In the meantime the troupe rescues Tony, a young man that was hanged on a bridge by the Russians. Tony was chased until he finds and joins the group. He turns out to be a real charmer and has eyes for Valentina much to Anton's displeasure Originally Heath Ledger was signed to play Tony and completed about half the picture. The ending I will leave for you to watch for yourself. I will say it is quite satisfactory and fits right in with the rest of the movie.
If you are a fan of Terry Gilliam, or a fan of adult fantasy flicks or just a kid at heart who wants to be entertained without yawning. Than this is the movie you can't afford to miss. It is well worth receiving 8 stars out of R min Action, Biography, Drama. During the Japanese invasion of , when a wealthy martial artist is forced to leave his home and work to support his family, he reluctantly agrees to train others in the art of Wing Chun for self-defense.
I just watched IP MAN last night and wasn't really sure what to expect having seen very few Chinese imports. One thing I know I'll be doing after seeing this movie - I'll definitely be watching out for more tittles from the far east - China, Japan ans South Korea in particular.
Yip Man was the name of a real Kung Fu master who was the first martial arts instructor to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. He also happened to be the teacher and mentor of the iconic legend Bruce Lee. The movie revolves around the benevolent, reserved and under spoken Yip Man shortly after the Japanese invasion of Japan, but before they have reached his small hometown which is known for it's many highly advanced Chinese martial arts schools.
The earliest scenes in the movie simply give you an inkling of who and what Yip Man is. He rarely displays anger and only occasionally duels with close associates behind closed doors as not to embarrass his adversaries. Fairly early on we see Yip Man at his best when a group of tough hooligans who think they have the best Kung Fu in China arrive in town challenging, and beating all the Masters instucters - this area is evidently a hotbed for martial arts schools. Despite his lack of consistent 'fighting', when he needs to be, he is still at the very top of his craft.
When the hooligans hear about Yip Man they go to his house for a challenge. After repeatedly telling the hooligans that he doesn't want to fight, his wife gives him the green light and Yip Man takes on the bad boys top fighter and destroys him with incredible speed and some truly amazing moves. After dispatching of the hooligans Yip Man goes back to his tranquil life until the Japanese Army shows up.
Quickly food becomes scarce and Yip Man is forced to take on a hard labor job that pays little and is physically exhausting. As the situation with the occupation unfolds the Japanese army offers a 'sack of rice' to anyone who can beat the Japanese general and his impressive "Japanese Kung Fu" Yip Man tries to avoid fighting bu the situation he finds himself in all but forces him to eventually fight.
He challenges the Japanese Army to a fight and wants to take on ten men at a time. Of course, as in all these type of movies, Yip Man defeats the gang of ten pretty handily and then goes into hiding with plans to get his wife and son out of China to go to Hong Kong. But Yip Man's pride won't allow it so he challenges the General to a duel.
The general, a bigger man who oozes confidence and cruelty feels obligated to accept Yip Man's offer and when a subordinate suggests he shot Yip Man if the general loses the General glares back and tells the man he the general can not lose - though you get the feeling that even the General does not have total confidence. And to ensure fairness the duel will be held in the town square in front of a multitude of Chinese peasants and Japanese soldiers. Yip Man shows up in his usual calm demeanor and stands with great dignity across from The General bowing graciously but there is a glimmer in his eyes which is an indication of his tremendous focus and a foreshadowing of what is about to take place.
The fight is beautifully choreographed and superbly acted and as imposing a figure as the general makes Yip Man, in his dignified but perfect form, not only defeats the General but for once goes a step further and humiliates him as I way to defend the honor of the Chinese people.
IP MAN is a great martial arts movie and I don't consider myself a connoisseur of martial art films by any stretch of the imagination , buts it is really quite a bit more than that. It is a movie about humility, decency and knowing when the moment is appropriate to stand up for your beliefs irregardless of the potential consequences.
IP MAN is a movie that deserved to be viewed. The dubbed version is not really all that bad, in that it is very hard to dub far eastern films into English due to the difference in the mouth movements, but with that being said it's not a terrible effort, though I much prefer the subtitled version as the dubbed version can give the wrong mood to some scenes.
If you have avoided movies of this ilk, it's time to stop such nonsense. A mob enforcer's son witnesses a murder, forcing him and his father to take to the road, and his father down a path of redemption and revenge. Road to Perditiontion is probably the last great movie Paul Newman ever made and a true winner it is. It's a criminal, gangster Optus that is packed with high tension and surprises around every corner, circa the late 's. Back when slick, well dressed gangsters were being, wrongly, looked up to like mythological heroes. But the humanity in this film despite it's being about criminal thugs there is enough humanity mixed in with this cruel and often bloody film that it still has some surprising tender moments.
To start watching this picture means, I guarantee you now, you'll stay up till the final credits are rolling. Then you'll want to watch it again. The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons. Gene Hackman is supeb and Wes Anderson has crafted a brilliant move,, perhaps his finest effort. After watching a Wes Anderson film you come away with a sense of joy. You realize you just observed something of exceptional talent.
Gene Hackman is the man of the house and quite the man he is, an irresponsible fun loving husband of Agelica Huston and a gang of kids all slightly neurotic to say the least. The Tenebaum's are the very definition of dysfunctional to the extreme and Royal Hackman is the spoon that stirs the dysfunctional soup and boy does he stir it. Anderson's movies take a very twisted look at everyday life and while a bit over the top much of it rings true. The children are all prodigious still livivg at home with mom all with neuroses that make life quite interesting, and Royal has left and been gone for years.
But he returns to the home to make things right. Chaos insues with his return and it's a laugh a minute as Royal is all about having fun. To fairly explain the plot would make this a very long review. Suffice it to say if you enjoy the off beat this movie will be a joy. Give it a try. I think you'll find it most entertaining. I give a very solid 8 out of A botched card game in London triggers four friends, thugs, weed-growers, hard gangsters, loan sharks and debt collectors to collide with each other in a series of unexpected events, all for the sake of weed, cash and two antique shotguns.
It's this movie that really put Jason Stathman's name out there in movieland. The story revolves around 4 English gents, who find thenselves in deep to "Brick Top" for a large amount of cash. The darkness of this movie shows itself early when "Bricktop" takes the lads for a tour of his pig farm all the while explaining how good pigs are for eating human tissue and flesh. He gives the four lads something like two weeks to come up with his money.
From this part forward it is non stop action as well as a large dolop of black humor. Bead Pitt has a great role in this movie as well playing a gypsy who lives with a bunch of other gypsies. Just seeeing Brad Pitt play the role so well is enough to make you laugh. Makes sure you get to the movie on time because there is a great scene right at the vey beginning. Statham, whose name is Turkish, in the movie is playing a little three card monte set up on a card bord box and his banter is spot right on. He's holding up 'gold necklases" and offering them at a great price, his banter of " buy one for your wife and stash one for your girl friend," or "Step right up, have no fear, the man with the gold is standing right here.
I could go on and on but it would take far too much time to tell you more. Don't miss this one. PG min Drama. After his happy life spins out of control, a preacher from Texas changes his name, goes to Louisiana and starts preaching on the radio. A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: FRAILTY is an intelligent horror film, something I can't say about too many movies as most horror movies to me are retreads of previously overdone material and are quite simply boring.
The movie open when a young man, Fenton Meiks played by a very young Matthew McConaughey , is sitting in FBI agents Wesley Doyle's office telling him about the horrific story about how his father's delusions to have a divine mission as an avenging angel required him and his brother Adam to become his 'demon-slaying' murder accomplices. And how hard and dangerously revolting the possibilities are for Special Agent Doyle to even comprehend.
When Meiks agrees to show Agent Doyle the proof they go for a ride and the movie flashes back to the beginning when Meiks father first told his son'e about their God Chosen Mission. How he told the boy's he could see demons among them and God would provide the tools and the way to rid these dangerous demons from the world. As Doyle is finally taken back to the actual burial sites there are some unexpected twist and turns that you really don't anticipate comming.
Bil Paxton as both first time director is dead on never overplaying the gore but always keeping you on the edge of your seat for what just might come next and he is equally as frightening as the seemingly kind hearted but deadly serious father Dad Meiks of the two boys who he takes down this horrifying path.
McConaughey hits the perfect mood to play the young and deeply disturbed Fenton Meils. And the ending is a surprise in a good way. If you like horror pics that aren't your run of the mill slice and dice, poorly acted junk. You will not be disappointed. I rate it 1 solid 7 to 7. R 84 min Drama, Horror, Mystery. A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature. A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel. It's a future where parents can choose the genetic traits they want their children to have.
From eye color to hair color, from IQ to height and body type and of course all the bad traits or genetic medical issues are easily eliminated. No high blood pressure. Breaking the Maverick Code was written to help people around the world learn how to live a free, joyful, healthy and happy life they are all meant to live.
It is not a novel or a story to be told, also, there is no superior group of people that the contents of this book are only intended for. I had you in mind when I decided to put these writings together. Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Product details File Size: October 18, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.
Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Breaking the Maverick Code: Lead By Example Leading by example is one of those things we know and remember to do on our way to do something else. The problem is that it requires a lot more inner work than we are willing to put in, but it leverages our leadership more than any other thing we can do. Developing Diamonds in the Rough.
You will read all you can. You will do whatever you have to do to increase your leadership input, because you know as well as I do that it will make you better. Leaders must invite the same type of cross training into their leadership development regimen. The more varied the environments in which you exercise your leadership gift, the stronger that gift will become. Lead something besides your main thing.
You will become a far more effective leader. Powerful Leadership Proverbs by Bill Hybels. The Four Rules of Influence.
- Der vergessene Tote: Ein Inspector-Wexford-Roman (German Edition).
- No customer reviews.
- Cold Sea Stories.
- .
- Henry Bauchau: Sous léclat de la Sibylle (ESSAIS LITTERAI) (French Edition);
A Fable to Internalize. Learning Leadership the Hard Way. In Leadership, Context Is Everything. Good Followers Make the Best Leaders. Are Leaders Born or Made? Qualities of Leadership Found in Wordsworth. Your Leadership Brand According to Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, leaders must live the image they want to portray to their customers followers and investors. That is their leadership brand. The Impending Leadership Vacuum. More foolish is the person that takes offense when it was intended.
But ultimately, leadership development begins with self-knowledge and the development of a disciplined mind and character. It is specific to our varied own backgrounds and situations. There are hundreds of great tools to help you get there, but he only one that can begin the journey, is you. He sometimes becomes immune to the intangible but powerful human impulses that lie beneath the surface of his discipline.
Fortunately, that is accessible to everyone who makes the effort. Measure of a Leader. Kevin Eikenberry maintains a blog on his web site and on the Remarkable Leadership web site. The final part will be posted on Friday. The Kevin Eikenberry Interview Part 1. Developing a Respectful Mind.
Six Essential Practices to Grow Your Leadership
Ignition Points How do you lead in a situation where you are not in control? The answer is a qualified no. Thompson defines seven ignition points—functions or tools you can develop and use to create unique value to your organization. The Acid Test of Leadership. The Courage to Initiate Relying on a single person to lead the charge reflects a dysfunctional concept of leadership. No one person can do everything. No wise leader would.
Leadership is a group activity. There is an implied interdependency. Everyone has the capacity for leadership. Often what most people lack is the courage—the courage to initiate. Initiative means moving outside your comfort zone. It means seeking out opportunities and being willing to act. Nearly everyone can see a need or see where changes need to be made.
What is uncommon though, are people who are willing to take the initiative; to do something about it. Leadership is not always seen in the brightest or the most talented, but it is always found in the courageous. The CEO mindset involves taking the time to think about the forces that are shaping the future of both you and your organization. Managing yourself in this way is important not only to the organization but also to your own personal development. Looking for Leaders Recently someone was lamenting to me the lack of new leaders in their organization.
Maybe they were looking for leaders in all the wrong places. We commonly look for what looks like leadership. We look for people who stand out self-promoters. We look for clones people who are just like us. We look for the smartest person in the room technically competent. We look for people who did a good job for us promote as a reward.
All too often I see people being chosen for leadership jobs on the basis of superficial personal traits and characteristics. I just feel in my gut he can do the job. How she ever boiled down all that data onto the PowerPoints is beyond me. She certainly had the committee in the palm of her hand. Such a morale builder and motivator! We need to look deeper. It seems there are more responsibilities and pressures than ever before. Of course, hardships and stress always accompany accomplishment.
Successful people have exceptionally high levels of tenacity and persistence and a general hardiness. Kouzes and Posner find hardiness an important ingredient for leadership success: Increasing your hardiness has a lot to do with your context setting agility. As Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs explain, Context setting agility includes scanning your environment, anticipating important changes, deciding what initiatives to take, scoping each initiative, and determining your desired outcomes. At the same time, increasing your agility level can increase your capacity for dealing with stress.
The thing I had to do was to try to relax. Winston Churchill certainly had it. Focused and On Track. The Study of Leadership In a keynote address in Tokyo, Peter Drucker made the following observation about an aspect of leadership—management: There are management tools and techniques. There are management concepts and principles. There is a common language of management. And there may be even a universal "discipline" of management. Certainly there is a worldwide generic function which we call management and which serves the same purpose in any and all developed societies.
But management is also a culture and a system of values and beliefs. It is also the means through which a given society makes productive its own values and beliefs. Management must, indeed, become the instrument through which cultural diversity can be made to serve the common purposes of mankind. At the same time, management increasingly is not being practiced within the confines of one national culture, law, or sovereignty but "multinationally. Of course, along the same lines, leadership encompasses far more than the business or political environment we typically confine it to.
From being the act of a few, it has become a personal responsibility. The issues we face today require a multidimensional understanding of leadership that is broader than most academic studies would give it. Many times leaders are promoted because of a strong record of achievement, only to derail later because of their inability to adapt. For example, an individual may be good at demanding high performance from his or her followers, or have strong technical ability.
However, those strengths are not sufficient when, for example, big-picture thinking or relationship building are also essential to success. To prepare yourself and others for growing challenges, you need the clarity of thought and flexibility to understand your own weaknesses and develop new talents. The survey shows that business leaders fail across the board at setting clear objectives, motivating staff and weeding out poor performers.
He suggests that you repeatedly practice making judgments of other people and reflect on why you might have missed in some cases. Did the individual have the potential you saw in them? How good are your judgments compared to others judgments on the same individual? They consistently deliver ambitious results. They continuously demonstrate growth, adaptability, and learning better and faster than their excellently performing peers. They seize the opportunity for challenging, bigger assignments, thereby expanding capability and capacity and improving judgment. They have the ability to think through the business and take leaps of imagination to grow the business.
They are driven to take things to the next level. They come to the point succinctly, are clear thinkers, and have the courage to state a point-of-view even though listeners may react adversely. They ask incisive questions that open minds and incite the imagination. They perceptively judge their own direct reports, have the courage to give them honest feedback so the direct reports grow; they dig into cause and effect if a direct report is failing. They know the non-negotiable criteria of the job of heir direct reports and match the job with the person; of there is a mismatch they deal with it promptly.
What differentiates a connected leader is the way in which they impact and influence those around them and this is largely determined by the way in which they view good leadership. More than even our individual skill-set, how we see the role of leadership greatly determines the impact we have on others and the success we will have as leaders. Our impact is the result of a number of factors. Using the iceberg metaphor, above the waterline for all to see, are skills and knowledge. On their own, they do not differentiate between average and superior performance….
But it is below the waterline that the real differentiators lie. Performance will differ depending on how people see their role. If doctors believe that their primary role is solving problems, their behavior is likely to be different from that of surgeons who see their roles as healers. Often we see the "smartest person in the room" or " the leader of all leaders" mind-set to thinking about leadership.
Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog: Leadership Development Archives
With this mentality we won't have the necessary ability to work well with other leaders and developing community. As Jean Lipman-Blumen wrote in Connective Leadership , "leaders cannot just issue orders; instead, they have to join forces, persuade, and negotiate to resolve conflicts. The Go Point Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.
Leadership Agility What is leadership agility? Like agile organizations—organizations that anticipate and respond to rapidly changing conditions by leveraging highly effective internal and external relationships—leadership agility is the ability to take wise and effective action amid complex, rapidly changing conditions. Without a framework, leaders often handicap themselves in a number of significant ways. Leaders tend to operate from intuition and experience. While both can serve a leader well, neither is infallible: Leaders tend to become leaders because they are technically competent.
Being good at something singles them out for promotion. But what makes people effective at one level can make them ineffective at another. Leaders tend to operate with the skills that were most useful two levels below their current level. In part because of the way they were chosen for the leadership track, they tend to maintain the mind-set of the level where they last felt real mastery.
Few leaders are taught to lead. Because most leaders learn intuitively from experience, that experience is seldom analyzed with any depth, consistency, or systematic feedback. A few leaders have the good fortune of being taught informally by a particularly effective boss or mentor, but such teachers are rare. Even fewer leaders are taught formally; academic institutions focus on the organization of work more than on the application of leadership.
Many corporations offer inhouse programs, but few combine strong teaching with the kind of in-depth coaching that guarantees its application. Leaders tend to stop learning in midlife. By the time people hit their forties, many rely on their previous knowledge and have only a shallow commitment to ongoing self-education and self development. Few leaders lead from a clear sense of purpose. Even fewer lead from a clear sense of noble purpose.
Few leaders know how to pass on what they know. Not having been taught, they have little idea how to help others develop their leadership skills. Bell writes, "To overcome these obstacles, leaders need some guidelines; they need a framework for understanding and exercising great leadership. Leaders stand or fall not so much by their talent or lack of it as by their understanding or misunderstanding of what great leadership is.
He demonstrates how these three dimensions, when properly integrated and applied, will greatly enhance the quality of your leadership. Essentially, it is a blueprint for leadership development. He has created a leadership pyramid founded on basics such as a desire to be in charge, and the corresponding ability, strength, and character that all leaders—especially the great ones—must possess. From there he divides leadership characteristics between analytical reptilian leadership characteristics and those of the nurturing, engaged mammal.
While we generally have a tendency to lean one way or the other, we must develop a capacity to deal effectively with both the reptilian economic and performance issues and the mammalian soft or people issues. Both are vital and most people are, of course a complex mix of the two. We need task-oriented, no-nonsense Reptiles to ensure the work gets done and done well.
We need people-oriented, nurturing Mammals to maintain the human community through which work gets done. The authors have put together an online Nature of Your Leadership Self-Assessment that will help you to determine your preference—mammalian or reptilian—and thus the kind of functions you naturally gravitate to. The scoring is automated. The corresponding web site for the book graphically explains the Leadership Pyramid as well. You can read Chapter 1 online: I wouldn't say anyone is born a leader. There have been some studies that indicate people who have been exposed to psychologically traumatic experiences are better leaders.
They've had to overcome trials and tribulations. So they're more inclined to be challenging and look deep within themselves for what they believe in. Leaders like that learn to be clear about the story they're telling about where they have come from and where they're going. Teaching people to control risk is much easier than teaching people to create it. And it's essential for companies to draw the distinction between leadership and management.
It's just wrong to use them interchangeably. Managers tend to react. Leaders tend to seek out opportunities. Managers follow the rules. Leaders change the rules. Managers seek and follow direction. These are profound differences. Of course you need both. But organizations fail to recognize the difference. Organizations start to fail when they start to produce too many managers and not enough leaders. Or too many leaders of a certain type. The lesson in the corporate world, how can you simulate that [traumatic experience] in the corporate world without destroying people.
How can you learn from it without becoming a casualty. This might be called imposing context. This is not just a cursory overview but an understanding of what we really think on issues we would rather not think about. Like a nighttime traveler attuned to every sound in the forest, the leader must be aware of all possibilities lurking in the shadows. For we can neither challenge not transform what we cannot see.
What you believe about human nature influences your leadership style. If you believe people are fundamentally good—good meaning that they're trying to do their best, they're self-motivated, they want to perform—then your fundamental leadership style will be one way. It will be empowering them, getting obstacles out of the way, and setting high goals while maintaining standards. If you believe people are fundamentally bad—if you believe people are constantly looking to get over and get by and won't do anything unless they're watched—then you'll tend to lead with a very transactional management style that's built primarily around rewards and punishments.
Tight supervision, a controlling type of leadership style characterized by a great deal of social distance between leaders and led. The better we understand ourselves, the more authentic the contribution we can make— shed the image and do the job. The Fred Factor for Kids Too I'd thought I'd pass this along for the Father's Day weekend. Additionally, the absence of a dad from so many homes plays a direct role in a number of social ills.
Kids in father-deprived homes are more likely to be abused, poor, prone to drug abuse, prone to poor scholastic achievement, and prone to emotional and behavior problems including suicide and crime. A study if violent criminals in U. Looking for Leaders Where to find good leaders has always been an issue. In our search we unfortunately find it easiest to gravitate to the role players —. The best leadership examples are found in the home by parents who are involved in their communities.
People can do small things, like build a community park in their neighborhood, or big things like run for public office or join community groups. Be a leader in your family. Their examples profoundly affect the kind of leaders they become. Additionally, leadership needs to be modeled by the parents. It helps if you view all of this in the long-term. The big picture view assists in smoothing out the immature peaks and valleys and helps keep your goals on track. Here are some not comprehensive ideas to think on: Take time to know your child. For example, an assertive, outgoing personality is a great trait in a leader, but without self-control it can be seen as overly aggressive and controlling.
Product details
Powered by Movable Type 3. Leading Blog Main Page Leading Matters is about the journey. The stories he tells here are revolve around the ten elements that shaped his journey and how he relied on these traits in pivotal moments. The elements are relevant to any leader at any level. As he observes, the higher up you go the crises just get bigger and come faster. He begins by discussing the foundational elements: He then links them together with courage. Finally, he shows how collaboration, innovation, intellectual curiosity, storytelling, and creating change that lasts, helped him reach his goals.
Here are some of his thoughts on each element extracted from his stories: Arrogance sees only strengths, ignores our weaknesses, and overlooks the strengths of others, therefore leaving us vulnerable to catastrophic mistakes. Authenticity and Trust Authenticity is essential to building trust. Consider the wisdom popularly attributed to Socrates: So this is part of the practice: If you take a leadership role as a step toward a personal goal of gathering ever-greater titles, awards, and salaries, you will never see true success in that role.
Recognize the service of others. As a leader it is easy to get wrapped up in big projects and ambitious initiatives, and, in the process, to forget the smaller, but no less important, individual acts of service taking place all around you. Much of that service supports and enables the widely celebrated success of others. Empathy Empathy should always be a factor in making decisions and setting goals.
Empathy represents a crucial check on action—placing a deep understanding of and concern for the human condition next to data can lead to decisions that support the wellbeing of all. Empathy usually implies compassion and perhaps charity, but we are looking for more than that: Courage, on the other hand, compels a leader to take that right action. While many people can discern what is right and true, acting on that discernment is more difficult. Even if risk-taking is against your nature, for the good of your organization, you must find the courage to practice it. Collaboration and Teamwork Most significant endeavors will be accomplished by a team.
Certain ground rules circumvented interteam rivalries. First of all, I reminded everyone of our shared goal: Further, to support innovative, cross-disciplinary thinking, I set a second ground rule: To this, I added a third ground rule: This led to my final ground rule: Innovation presents great opportunities for smart entrepreneurs, not the other way around. Intellectual Curiosity Beyond personal enjoyment, though, this lifelong curiosity has served me well in my career.
It has enabled me to engage in meaningful dialog about the world and its future. In challenging moments, great leaders show their true character. Storytelling If you really want to inspire a team to action, best to engage them with a story. Once they become receptive—once they can imagine themselves as part of your vision—you can back your story up with facts and figures.
When you turn that dream into a vivid story, you make it so attractive and so real that people will want to share it with you by joining your team. When it came time to respond to change, these companies moved quickly and efficiently, because every employee already understood the company identity and therefore knew how to respond without direct coaching.
In every profession and career, as we climb to higher leadership positions, the role of facts and data decreases. Legacy means the institution serves people more effectively now than it did when you arrived. The context of leadership has changed, but the fundamentals of leadership have not. It is still working with people. And that has never changed. It is organized around six practices. The six practices are practical and provide a useful guide taking responsibility to lead and improve your effectiveness.
Building a Unifying Vision Organizational success requires a bold and compelling vision that brings people together and inspires them to achieve extraordinary results. The vision needs to be exciting, clear, and simple—and stakeholders should be involved in its creation. Developing a Strategy Implementing a strong, measurable strategy is the key to realizing a vision.
A great strategy is composed of key actionable choices about what to do, and what not to do to create distinctive value. Getting Great People on Board Smart and dedicated people help bring strategies to life. Executing strategies skillfully begins with recruiting, developing, and retaining high-performing talent. People need feedback to grow and incentives to feel recognized. Focusing on Results The experience of achieving short-term results motivates teams to strive for even more.
Setting high expectations and sharpening accountability is necessary for high performance. Sold metrics and reviews can help this process become an organized one. Innovating for the Future Balancing current performance while investing for tomorrow is a key for enduring success. By keeping an eye on the demands of the future, leaders can continually drive innovations that will reshape the company to keep up with a changing world. Leading Yourself In order for leaders to lead others, they need to know and grow themselves.
Feeling healthy, energized, and balanced also helps leaders do their best work. You shouldn't wait to be anointed a leader. Step up and take the responsibility now. Seizing the leadership opportunity and making the leadership difference in fact requires courage and also an ability to look beyond the every day and near-term tasks of basic management.
The ground is shifting under your feet. The only way to stay relevant and therefore effective is to invest in building your skills as a leader. As you take on more responsibility, the demands on you as a leader change. When conditions change, you have to change too. Complexity skills are often what got you in the door. They are about changing how you do what you do. How you approach doing the job having done so. How you think and behave so your people eagerly receive your leadership. Getting the how right is the challenge when it comes to sophistication.
Complex challenges are easier to wrap your mind around. You can measure them. Sophistication challenges are not as clear. They can be more painful as they get into more personal aspects of who you are as a person. But distinguishing between the two challenges is critical.
Responding to increased levels of sophistication demands that you do something much harder. You must fundamentally rethink how you spend time, where you focus energy, how you communicate, with whom you develop relationships, and how you look at the big picture to understand when, where, and how to act. As you rise as a leader, sophistication skills take on greater importance. What are the new capabilities on which your leadership success will depend?
More importantly, which skills that you value today should you deemphasize—or resist exercising at all? No matter how good your complexity skills are if you fail to access your sophistication skills by regularly challenging yourself as to what and how you do what you do, you risk stalling as a leader. The authors identify seven inflection points that can trigger a stall in your leadership.
You then must craft a narrative that carries your people forward on an inspirational, shared, purpose-based quest—a story that can guide their actions when you are not there to give specific direction at every new turn. Develop the ability to persuade and influence rather than control. Leading Change Stall When you struggle in your ability to explain and lead change Determine how readily employees and stakeholders receive and embrace your messages about change, and then offer new behaviors and practices for engaging people, so they grasp, welcome, and act on your initiatives.
Combine empathetic understanding with discernment, creativity, and determination. Authority Stall When your authority slips in the eyes of followers Assess your own sources of leadership authority and invest in your own self-development. Focus Stall When you fail to focus your time and energy to have the most impact Anticipate this stall by examining how you allocate your time and energy. What should you be doing and what should you let others do?
Become a leader of leaders, multiplying your own leadership success through the success of others. The authors walk you through each of these stalls to help you overcome or avoid them. Of course, self-awareness is key here—understanding the impact you have on others. Elevate your view and understand where you are and determine where you need to be. They call for a three-part approach: Every stall is an opportunity for growth.
Any one of them has the potential to derail even the best of leaders. While they may creep up on us, we can see them coming and apply the proper antidote.
And even though these seven challenges never really go away, we can create some life habits that keep them at bay. Nieuwhof writes from a been-there-done-that Christian perspective about the issues as they manifest themselves in our lives and follows up each one with a chapter on how to combat it.
These issues affect everyone and some you'll find hit close to home. The seven challenges are: Cynicism Disappointment and frustration often end in cynicism. Ask them and they know all about it.
Movies that you may have easily missed, but really deserve an audience!
It may get us in the door, but character is what determines how far we go. Technology just makes it worse. Eliminate hurry from your life. And this comment could pull any of us up short: For me, the sense that a conversation is going nowhere always carries with it an underpinning of judgment and even arrogance on my part.
Which, of course, should drive me right back to my knees in confession. Irrelevance Irrelevance happens when what you do no longer connects to the culture and the people around you. That gap is a factor of how fast things change relative to you. Change staves off irrelevance. Get radical about change. Surround yourself with younger people.
- Movies that you may have easily missed, but really deserve an audience! - IMDb.
- ?
- .
- .
Seek change to transform you. Burnout Burnout saps the meaning and wonder out of life. Signs of burnout include among other things: Getting out of this state begins by admitting it and then figuring out how to live today so you will thrive tomorrow. What does that look like? Nieuwhof recommends some concrete steps you can take to bring you back from burnout. Go deep enough and take enough time to recover so that you begin to feel gratitude for the process.
Emptiness Ironically, success often makes you feel empty. Humility will win you what pride never will: Other people naturally gravitate toward people who live for a cause beyond themselves. The practical advice found here will benefit anyone on their leadership journey. Editors Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell have collected some good essays on the subject.
The servant aspect of servant leadership is all about turning the hierarchy upside down and helping everyone throughout the organization develop great relationships, get great results, and, eventually, delight their customers. Covey says that trust is essential. They serve first and they extend trust first. Leadership is the by-product and positional authority is, at best, an afterthought.
They stay humble by turning the organizational chart upside down and serving others. They communicate to their teams the goals and values that form their culture so that everyone stays in focus. They are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses—through feedback and by following the greatest servant leader of all time [—Jesus]. And they continually strive to do the right thing.
It is not based on a series of transactions, but on the promise of being there when someone needs you most. They are setting up a transactional relationship that is likely to promote self-interest.