Todd Jacobucci

I was watching an interview on You Tube today with Robert De Niro.   This was from back in 1981.  He was discussing the upcoming Oscars of which he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Raging Bull.   He seemed quite awkward.   However, as we know, he did win that year.  It got me thinking - De Niro started in the 1970s and is still making movies today.   Long career for sure.  I started thinking about other actors that started in the 1970s and are still making movies today.  Is anyone better than De Niro?   One in particular I found to be a terrible actor.  My next thought was could I go decade to decade and find a best and worst actor from each decade?  The caveat being the actor must have started his movie career in the decade mentioned and he must have made movies in every subsequent decade up to today.    This is what I came up with: 1960s Best:  Jack Nicholson Worst:  Burt Reynolds ...

I was surfing channels yesterday and came upon a film from 1997, "Good Will Hunting".   This was a critically lauded movie.  I hadn't seen it in years.  I happened to catch it just when the scene begins that Robin Williams' (Dr. Sean Maguire) character initially meets Matt Damon's character (Will Hunting).  Williams steals the scene - he's outstanding.  I was inspired  to finish the film.  Unquestionably a very good movie - however, to me, Robin Williams performance stands out. I was aware that he won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance.    I thought, I wonder if I can find another Best Supporting Actor victory in the decade of the 1990s that tops his.  I could not.  I decided to go back to the 1970s and do a decade by decade study of Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners all the way up to the 2010s.   Could I come up with one performance from each decade that stood out above the rest?  I...

Yes, I am 53 years old and yes I still work out.  I do some form of exercise every single day of my life.  I've been involved in some kind of exercise program since I was 16.   This isn't particularly relevant, what I do think is relevant though and may be helpful to other individuals out there that are physically fitness minded as myself, are the changes that need to be made as you get older. You must change your routine as you get older, its as simple as that - if you dont, you will end up hurting yourself.  I have found I can basically do all of the same things I did as a young man - the only difference is Ive changed how I do it.  So, I will explain the differences. Weightlifting:  As a young man I lifted weights every other day.  I lifted year round.  As the year would go on I would increase the amount of weight I was lifting.   I did many different types of weightlifting exercises (all for upper body strength), always going for 3 se...

Isn't that an interesting question??  Its an especially interesting question if you are from Generation X as I am.    Why?  Well, because if you are from Generation X , Pamela Smart is a contemporary - someone that you are going to be able to relate to much more because you are from the same age group.   And there's much more.   I don't know if most people remember but neither the OJ case nor the Menendez Brothers case was the first nationally televised trial that turned into a media circus - the very first and original circus was the Pamela Smart case.   It was a big time story in that place in time, the early 1990s.  It was the first introduction to Court TV.   And certainly, it was fascinating.   Pamela, a married Media Coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in New Hampshire faces off against a bunch of teenagers that killed her husband and blamed her for it.  Who was right?   Who was wrong?   ...

I'm pondering this question while watching and listening to Beatles videos on You Tube.   I guess you could also add "could they have reunited" to this equation.   Lets deal with that question first. Yes I believe The Beatles could have reunited.  This is based on the fact that if you look at 1973 and 1974, they were all playing together - just not all 4 at the same time, which indicates that the rancor of the early 70s had subsided quite a bit.    And I hate to say this but I believe its true - if John Lennon stays with May Pang they would have reunited.   It was Lennon's intention to join McCartney during the "Venus and Mars" sessions.    Ringo had remained friends with all of them - and I believe, probably with a little pushing, George Harrison would've jumped on the bandwagon as well.    1974 or 1975 would have been the time to do it.  Unfortunately, Lennon went back with Yoko Ono and any momentum for...

There are certainly a lot of people who are fans of true crime.  So many cases to look at and study.  It is of interest to me as well - however  there are only 5 cases that I spent a lot of time studying.   These are cases I've spent hours and hours studying.  What I enjoy doing is trying to put all the pieces together.  No matter what happened in real life in terms of the legal outcomes,  I try to make all the details of a crime fit so that I can come up with a sensible rationale as to what happened.   Having said that - here are the 5 cases I studied.  In each I will post my conclusion: 1. Pamela Smart Conclusion:  She manipulated that young boy into murdering her husband.  She denies it but I don't believe her.  Only question in that case is whether her punishment (life without parole) is too severe.  IMO,  yes it is. 2. OJ Simpson Conclusion:  He killed Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown and he killed ...

I was thinking this morning about music.  Having been born in 1965  I've been exposed to so much of it.  I was a baby but still have faint memories of The Beatles when they were active in the 1960s.   Grew up and became a teenager in the 1970s.   Was part of the MTV generation in the 1980s.  Was young and at my peak for the grunge movement of the early to mid 90s.   By the late 90s started losing interest in new music.  So, I'm thinking today,  was losing interest in new music simply because of getting older?  Or was it that the music of the last 20 years simply hasn't been that good?  It's really up to personal interpretation.    Here is mine: 1960s -  There is some good stuff here and there but by and large, The Beatles were way ahead of everyone else. Their music has aged well. 1970s - To me, this is the decade that produced the best music by far.  There is just so much great music that came out of th...