The Ray Pletcher Blog

  The NCIS franchise which originally spun off of JAG 18 years ago in 2003, has spawned multiple spin-offs the latest being NCIS: Hawaii which has just cast its series lead in Vanessa Lachey. As reported by Variety, Vanessa Lachey will play Jane Tennant, the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS: Hawaii. Her character is described as essentially both a master politician and crime scene investigator at the same time, while she also is a single mother balancing her family life with her responsibilities running NCIS. This will mark the first time a woman has led an NCIS show, which currently sees Mark Harmon, Chris O'Donnell and Scott Bakula at the forefront of their respective NCIS shows at the moment. The Tennant character sounds like a dynamic character who will certainly shake things up in the murder mystery genre and with her sensibilities as a politician it will be a nice bit of juxtaposition to the Gibbs character of the mothership NCIS which sees his character as the an...

    In the age of a pandemic changing the world as we know it, the film I Am Legend (2007), starring Will Smith, seems more relevant than ever. Upon my recent first-time viewing of this motion picture, I was intrigued to see how many parallels there were between the events that unfolded in the story and real-life events over the course of the last year. Based on the 1954 novel of the same name, I Am Legend starts in an alternate timeline where a doctor announces to the world that she has in fact cured cancer. This revelation comes with a startling chill though as the introductory scene is followed by a 3-year time jump in which we find the island of Manhattan to be a wasteland, an all but abandoned time capsule as if the world had just suddenly been shut down abruptly. This opening image is very reminiscent of the events in 2020 when following the start of COVID quarantine measures were put in place which literally emptied the streets, including the streets of Manhattan. Howev...

  There's no doubt that one of the greatest actors of the 20th and 21st Century is Harrison Ford, an actor who has played a wide range of roles over the last several decades. As a performer he brings a level of humanity to all his roles that really grounds his characters in reality and makes you want to root for him in his movies. I’m sure everybody has their opinion of what Harrison Ford’s best movies are but here is my list of what in my mind are Harrison Ford’s top 5 movies.             5. Six Days, Seven Nights (1998)       Coming in at number 5 on my list Six, Days Seven Nights follows the story of Ford’s character Quinn Harris who is a semi-retired pilot living on a hut in a tropical island who comes into conflict with a gossip executive played by Anne Heche who takes a vacation on the island with her finance played by none other than David Schwimmer right in the middle of Friends’ run. Heche’s character Robin is forced ...

    It’s only logical for Indiana Jones to follow in James Bond’s shadow as the series has already taken so much inspiration from the legendary series already and to great effect with Indy’s father Sean Connery in the Last Crusade, and the adventure DNA of the series overall. So it's only logical that they continue that trend by casting none other than former Bond villain star Mads Mikkelsen as the villain in Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones swan song due out in theaters next summer. For those of you who don’t remember Mads Mikkelsen played the iconic Bond villain Le Chiffre who went up against Bond during his first mission as 007 in Casino Royale. Known for his steely and dangerous grace on screen, Mads Mikkelsen will no doubt be a formidable foe against Harrison Ford as Indy.  This casting announcement follows a slew of recent developments for the film with actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge onboard as the leading female co-star alongside Harrison Ford. Waller-Bridge is a well-a...

  Who doesn’t like a good throwback 80s/90s action adventure movie? Well that's basically what Young Rock delivers in “Johnson and Hopkins”, as future presidential candidate, The Rock, narrates the tale of how he learned the value of trust when he teamed up with his co-worker Hopkins in early 90s Miami to pull off a nearly impossible feat. The setup for the story goes that Young Rock was failing in his grades in 1991 at Miami University so his football coach insisted that he show his dedication to the school by working campus security, in the order of phone repair. Young Rock gets paired with a student named Hopkins who tells him that the phones always work and never need repaired so they are free to participate in the greatest college scam ever by watching movies during their shift before clocking out signing off on the phones working when they actually haven’t checked them. Young Rock isn’t thrilled at the idea about messing up his football career over getting caught with this, b...