Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Movie Review: Big Jake

For having nothing much to do at home I borrowed this movie from the library. I must say I kinda liked the movie set in 1909. The movie features John Wayne in the leading role of the title character Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles, an aging rancher and near-legendary gunfighter estranged from his pretty family.

The movie starts with a ruthless gang of outlaws raiding the MacCandles ranch. The gang led by John Fain (Richard Boone), runs havoc on the ranch and murders some of the workers, wounds McCandles' eldest son (Bobby Vinton) and kidnaps the youngest member of the family for a ransom of $1 million. Martha (Wife of "Big Jake" McCandles) (Maureen O'Hara) summons Jacob through some messengers and tells him to find their grandson.

Though Jacob and his wife have been separated for nearly 10 years, they still love each other dearly. Jacob arrives by train and discuss a plan to take the ransom to the kidnappers and free the boy. Jacob warns that "Pay or not, we run the risk of never seeing the boy again". Martha has what is well known as a million dollars in a big red strongbox. Jacob is to deliver the box to the kidnappers. Jacob is packed quickly and ready to go along with his trusted "Native American" gunrunner.

The Texas Rangers led by Buck are close at hand ready to attempt a rescue, as is Jacob's son James McCandles (John Wayne's real-life son Patrick Wayne), whose initial greeting of Jake reveals a somewhat strained relationship. Michael McCandles (Christopher Mitchum) arrives by motorcycle and tells Martha that he saw the little boy alive. He suggests the Rangers can use the automobiles and set an ambush for the kidnappers. Buck (John Doucette) and the Rangers try to get Jacob to come along with them. The Rangers take off to set the trap in their new automobiles and are themselves ambushed at the very place they were planning to ambush the kidnappers.

The rest of the story is about their journey through the stunningly scenic wild west territory of South Texas and Mexico. Their gunfighting with the villains and rescuing "Little Jake" the grandson of "Big Jake". The journey and the hunt for kidnappers also serves to unite the long lost father with this sons and family.

In my opinion this is a great movie to watch. Fast paced, straight forward narrative and stunning photography. Worth every second spent watching the DVD, I'd say.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Expert Ratings and Reviews of Web Hosting Services

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I was in the same dilemma recently and after considerable amount of research on the web I found this website known as Web Hosting Geeks. The site provides ubiased user ratings of almost all the web hosting services in the market. These reviews are independent and are both cheap and expensive ones. There are services which offer Free Domain Name registration if you host with them. Personally speaking I think the free domain name service is a great advantage for me because that cuts down my costs quite a bit. I only want to host my blog on my own domain and for this I just need a domain name. And I could find such a service on Web Hosting Geeks. I believe this site has the resources to fulfill all your information needs about website hosting and related services.

I strongly feel that if anyone is interested in hosting a website or looking for a good hosting company one should consult Web Hosting Geeks and then decide upon it. This is one site where you can find all the necessary information, pitfalls and advantages about a wide range of website hosting service providers.