AFI NIGHT BELONGS TO AL PACINO!

Tuesday Night was Pacino's Shining Moment at AFI!

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Our Friday Movie Suggestion Night Pick:

Tuesday night belonged to AL PACINO with the American Film Institutes "Lifetime Achievement Award". I chose the film above for "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" for several reasons. It steers clear (for now) of the organized crime dramas that dominated the 1990's. However, the sheer star power and its gritty realism one associates with a "boiler room operation" of a shady Chicago real estate office brought about acting performances of high calibre with this film. The Plot: Alec Baldwin stars as an unscrupulous Sales Director who alternately berates and dangles rewards for "the A,B,C's" of the business:"Always Be Closing". The name of the film is taken from two real estate properties each character is tasked with selling using unethical means of every imaginable variety to close a sale. The film is Directed by James Foley where First Prize is a Cadillac Eldorado; Second prize is a set of steak knives, and Third prize is unemployment! Ultimately the tension reaches a feverish pitch when a robbery is committed that has consequences for everyone involved. During filming, it is said that while some of the actors were not required on the set, they nevertheless showed up each day just to watch each other work. Rarely are seven top actors drawn together. The Cast: Al Pacino is Ricky Roma; Jack Lemmon is Shelley Levene; Alec Baldwin is the masochistic boss Blake; Alan Arkin is George Aaronow; Ed Harris is Dave Moss; Kevin Spacey is John Williamson and Jonathan Price is James Lingk; Original Music by James Newton Howard and Cinematography by Juan Ruiz Anchia.

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Pacino joined the ranks this past Tuesday night of his predecessors for the prestigious American Film Institute Life Achievement Award that includes: Sean Connery, George Lucas, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, Elizabeth Taylor, Sidney Poitier, Gregory Peck, Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Fred Astaire, James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Orson Welles, James Cagney and John Ford. Those in attendance included former AFI Life Achievement Award recipients Sean Connery and Kirk Douglas; as well as Gabrielle Anwar (a great treat was to see Pacino and Anwar performing "The Tango" from the film Scent of a Woman), Jon Avnet, George Clooney, Francis Ford Coppola, Ed Harris, Jamie Foxx, Andy Garcia, Samuel L. Jackson, George Lopez, Sidney Lumet, Michael Mann, Leelee Sobieski, Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, Oliver Stone, Winona Ryder, Robin Williams, Jeffrey Wright; the cast of OCEANS 13, Adrian Brody, Sophia Bush, Rebecca DeMornay, Hector Elizondo, Anne Heche, Cloris Leachman, Rex Lee, Garry Marshall, Joe Mantegna, Penelope Ann Miller, Richard Schiff, Mykelti Williamson and Ed Zwick. The depth of this man's work is phenomenal.

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Pacino stars in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 13 with George Clooney,Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Righteous Kill is scheduled for release this year again with DeNiro. The two will co-star as two New York detectives searching for a serial killer while resolving issues between them.

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HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!