The Walter White Guide to Middle Age

Being middle-aged isn't generally considered to be cool. It's usually the time when people begin contemplating how much they've changed and how close to death they now are. Of course a little latter when they become seniors those concerns become less pressing and thoughts turn to Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and Fox News.

Very few actors for example, have made a name for themselves after they turned 45. Bryan Cranston is one of those. AMC's Breaking Bad accomplished something quite remarkable - and has empowered middle-aged white men everywhere. Breaking Bad made the mid-life crisis cool. How did they manage to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat? It was Walter White of course...

The five season long series that redefined television finally concluded this month and as a tribute to that show and middle-aged men everywhere we've collected some wisdom and advice from the show's lead character on how to deal with middle age.

Walter White - White, Middle-Aged and Funky

• Tip 1 - Don't trust Social Security to provide an adequate pension for you or your family; you will need at least $9 to 14 million in ready cash.
• Tip 2 - Conflict resolution is a thing of the past - it's better to deal with problems head-on - and make them just go away (permanently).
• Tip 3 - Driving a beat up Pontiac is just fine. 
• Tip 4 - Don't let anyone ridicule your funny hats.
• Tip 5 - Share your wisdom, mentor a young person.
• Tip 6 - Don't just build a business, create an empire.
• Tip 7 - Science and Chemistry are cool. Remote control machine guns are a great hobby too.. 
• Tip 8 - Never go into business with Ayran prison gangs.
• Tip 9 - Don't wait for Obamacare to get the treatment you need.
• Tip 10 - Encourage your wife to work, laundering your excess cash.
• Tip 11 - Don't waste your money on expensive legal advice. 
• Tip 12 - Accidents happen, get over it.
• Tip 13 - Do it for the family, do it for the fun.
• Tip 14 - Product quality is just as important as distribution.
• Tip 15 - The goatee is a reflection of raw power.

One of the many tributes to middle-aged cool

We will miss you Walter White, that is unless AMC decides to bring you back in the Walking Dead or as a teen intern in Madmen.


copyright, Raving Reviews 2013

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Top Movies of 2010 that We Missed - part 2

It's the New Year but we still have finished our lists, so here is part 2 of the Best Films of 2010 we haven't seen yet but want to...

• Vincere - (which means victory in English) This is an Italian film about Mussolini but with a personal twist. The cinematography looks fantastic and this seems to be far the best foreign movie trailer we've seen for 2010. Although the film is in Italian it looks to be fascinating and perhaps enlightening as well - most of us only know Mussolini as a clownish caricature but there must have been more to him to get as far as he did (even if he did turn out to be a bit of a jerk).
  

The secret true story about Mussolini's other wife & rise to power

• Hubble 3D - If there are two things we love - it's space and IMAX movies. Now it just so happens that your editors were present at the original launch of the Hubble Space telescope back in 1990. And guess what this was narrated by Leonardo Di Caprio, who as we've noted seemed to be in the midst of a number of the most interesting projects in Hollywood last year - so this documentary has everything going for it.
  

• Zonad - This movie looks as crazy as the title but for a comedy we figure that's a good thing. We've always believed that Ireland was a happier place than most contemporary movies portray it and perhaps this is the proof that we needed - and of course what could be funnier than Irish space aliens?
  

Take me to your nearest pub earthlings....

• Princess Kaiulani - This is a bio-epic about the heir to Hawaii's thrown right as the United States was moving to take over Hawaii at the end of the 19th century. It certainly appears to be a compelling story, shot in both Hawaii and England.
  

• The Best Worst Movie -A documentary about what has been acknowledged to be the worst film ever-made, Trolls 2, which has now become a cult classic. For folks like us who love lists, this is a must see.

• Agora - From as far as we can tell this is the story of whoever it was who burned all the books in Alexandria (Egypt, not Virginia) way back whenever and some lady who tried to stop them. As far as we know there may have been a papyrus version of People magazine - well, that's all conjecture. The lovely and talented Rachel Weisz stars in this one and given her previous role in the Mummy series this seems like a theme she's developing...

• South of the Border - Oliver Stone & Hugo Chavez; G.W. & Fox News must have really hated this movie - that's probably good reason to see it in itself. But it appears as though Oliver got a chance to talk with multiple South American presidents - giving us a unique perspective into what's happening south of the border.
  

• True Grit - What can we say, we like the Cohen Brothers and really admire Jeff Bridges (although sometimes, like in this year's Tron, he let us down a bit). A lot of people have tried to make comparisons between John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn and Jeff Bridge's character - well, we think the difference is simple - The Duke was always playing some variation of himself in his Westerns (which worked out pretty well), Jeff tends to explore his characters a bit more, become them - instead of the other way around. We're looking forward to seeing how this works out in the new True Grit. BTW - it looks as though both Josh Brolin and Matt Damon went the extra mile on this one too...
  

The Old West was full of bearded, one-eyed vigilante marshals who shot straight
and spoke funny - or so we've heard tell...

Never fear - we're not done with our lists yet - next one will be the top ten movies we watched last year but wish we hadn't...


Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

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