Osterman

The Osterman Weekend [VHS]
$14.98
While some critics attacked `The Osterman Weekend' as not making any sense and having an incoherent plot, I understood it just fine. I just didn't like it.

With an impressive cast and intriguing premise `The Osterman Weekend' seems like a sure hit. However I was unable to find a single redeeming element of the film.

The plot: Rutger Hauer stars as an expose' talk show journalist planning for annual college reunion with Berkeley alumni at his estate. Enter CIA agent John Hurt whom confronts Hauer with evidence that his three best friends, Craig T Nelson, Dennis Hopper, and Chris Sarandon are KGB agents planning to kill him.

Hauer is skeptical but after Hurt stages a kidnapping of Mrs. Hauer and son and blames it on the KGB, Hauer is compelled to allow Hurt to place elaborate surveillance video and armed guards at his weekend vacation. Hurt hopes through a series of mind games to expose the Hauer's "friends" as the traitors they are.

Hence the weekend vacation becomes a soap opera from hell with the four men each suspecting and accusing while their trophy spouses bicker.

Hurt's true motives are finally revealed on Hauer's TV show as an elaborate plot to destroy CIA director Burt Lancaster whom Hurt blames for his wife's death.

None of this is interesting and the good acting cannot save the fact the 25% of the film is voyeuristic characters watching spouses make love in surprisingly graphic sex scenes. No it's not sexy if it was at least that would be something.

The music score is also horrible as it sounds like bad lounge music. An odd score for a thriller.

The director even acknowledged embarrassment in the final product putting the blame on the studio's last minute edits. I put the blame on the novel's author Robert Ludlum. Whoever is to blame for making `The Osterman Weekend' you have only yourself to blame if you see it. You have been forewarned. It has no redeeming value.

Osterman Weekend
$16.98
Lalo Schifrin is the master of the urban thriller movie score genre in Hollywood, having done the music for BULLITT and DIRTY HARRY, among others. His score for Sam Peckinpah's final film, the 1983 thriller THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND, has long needed to be re-released.This is a brilliant combination of jazzy elements, synthesizer rock, and quasi-classical flourishes, which are very appropriate to the labirynthine machinations of the film. My personal favorites are the "Osterman Weekend Theme" (though not used in the film), and the eerie "Omega". In any case, anyone looking for great movie music with a jazz-rock flavor should check out the OSTERMAN WEEKEND soundtrack, coming as it does from such a great master as Schifrin.

The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, Why They Matter
$35.00
I don't usually read business related books but I thought I would give this one a try because it looked like it might apply more to my field. Like another reviewer said, though, there was really nothing new in this book. I couldn't finish it.

DeMarini Cat Osterman Adult Batting Gloves (Navy, Large)
$12.99
DeMarini Cat Osterman Adult Batting Gloves are made with pittards sheepskin with leather gussets and neoprene wrist.