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544,005 | 562,732 | 110,216 | 8 | A surprisingly clever and heart-warming family comedy . | Hey here's something interesting . If you type " Junior " in to Google , the first hit is this movie , but if you type it in to the IMDb , the first hit is George W . Bush . I just thought that was funny . So by 1994 , Schwarzenegger had just done a series of pretty hardcore action movies ? Terminator 2 , Last Action Hero ( shut up , that movie rocked ) , and True Lies ? so I'm really curious to know who came up with the idea of making a movie in which he gets pregnant and carries a baby to term . Yeah , Last Action Hero and especially Kindergarten Cop showed the world that Arnold was a big action movie star that was not above having a little fun with himself , but a pregnancy ? ? Amazingly enough , however , the movie is much better than you might think . He stars as Dr . Alex Hesse , a scientist working on a new formula that will help create successful pregnancies for women having trouble conceiving . But the problem is that they are unable to get authorization to perform necessary tests so , desperate to prove that their formula works , Hesse and his partner Dr . Larry Arbogast decide to create a pregnancy in Hesse ? the world's first pregnant man ! They do not , however have any intention of allowing the pregnancy to go on for more than a month or a month and a half , they just need to prove that their formula works . I am reminded of that scene in Terminator 2 when they are all at Miles Dyson's house and Sarah is telling Dyson that men like him through of the hydrogen bomb and they only know how to create destruction , they have no idea what it's like to feel a life growing inside you . In Junior , Hesse learns what it's like to have a life growing inside him , and tat life becomes more important to him than the science experiment that he and Arbogast were carrying out . There is a cleverly designed side story about Arbogast's ex-wife carrying a baby that resulted in a one-night stand after an Aerosmith concert , but the majority of the comedy in the movie is derived from Schwarzenegger literally not only turning into a woman , but poking fun at his real life self . When he goes to a pregnancy retreat dressed as a woman , he explains his manly performance by stating that back in " her " native Germany , she was a body-builder and excessive steroid use was considered perfectly common and acceptable . He experiences all of the ups and downs of being pregnant , but no matter how outlandish the premise is , there is no denying that the movie is definitely pretty charming . It was great to see Schwarzeneggger and Danny DeVito together again after their classic work together in Twins several years earlier . Once again , they have come together and brought us a great piece of family entertainment . |
544,795 | 562,732 | 21,165 | 8 | Art imitating life imitating art . | In an early depiction of Hitchcock's fear and mistrust of the police and the legal system , we have a very legal thriller about a murder and it's subsequent trial . We are given the facts of the case , even a sort of a limited view of the murder itself taking place , followed by the prosecution and defense presenting their cases at the trial and a detailed look at the jury's discussion of the case . Sort of Hitchcock's version of 12 Angry Men . There is a curious cast of characters involved in the film , and two of Hitch's biggest interests , the law and the arts , are on center stage . Sir John in the single character who takes the time to really look deeply into what really happened that night , even though someone's life is on the line based on the verdict that they reach , and his personal investigation is probably the best part of the film . One of the things that this movie is famous for is for being the first film where someone's thoughts are shown in a film , in the scene where he is looking at himself in the mirror , shaving . For this scene , a recording of him speaking was played off screen , since vocals could not be added to the film later . There is a scene in the film where Mr . Marlowe goes to visit Sir John at his request , and as he approaches Sir John's desk there is a close up of his feet , which sink deeply into the rug as though it were laid over a soft mattress . This is never explained , although I am willing to accept that this is a spot of symbolism the meaning of which escaped me , since so much of the rest of the film is deeply layered , literally and figuratively , as well . There is an astonishing amount of technique and content to be seen here , impossible to catch all in one viewing , which is one sign of a great film . Some editing and filming techniques I suspect were not as successful as they seemed in the writing stages , but the film is strong nonetheless . Consider , for example , the brave and highly successful technique of lingering on the empty jury room while the verdict is read offstage , and the shockingly effective technique of having the face of the victim hanging in the vision of the murderer . Incredibly , I think this is one of the single most haunting shots I have ever seen in a Hitchcock film . It has its slow moments and may be a bit longer than it's content can support , but this is a brilliant example of Hitch's early work . Also keep your eye out for Hitchcock's cameo , which is a full hour into the film . This was long before he began putting all of his cameos in the beginnings of his films , knowing that the audience would be watching for him and not wanting this to distract from the stories . |
544,768 | 562,732 | 429,487 | 9 | We still love you , Martin ! | I was a little concerned during parts of the show that it was going to be swept up by The Aviator , it seemed like just about every category was going to something from that movie . It is understandable since it is such a great film , but the competition for awards this year included an unusually high number of great films . The Aviator , Million Dollar Baby , Finding Neverland , and Ray all deserved the Best Picture Oscar , for example . And so did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , by the way . Here's an interesting little factoid ? Eternal Sunshine received six times as many votes by IMDb users for Best Picture than The Aviator ! Chris Rock delivered a completely unexciting performance as probably the most anticipated host the Academy Awards has seen in years , at least in terms of the potential for controversy . People were afraid he was going to do something obscene or vulgar , and all he did was get up there and make a lot of bland , dumb jokes like so many others before him . He had some moments , but I know that he is a much , much funnier man than the one we saw during the show . For much of the second half he seemed to disappear completely . Pierce Brosnan was the only person forced to announce an award winner alongside a wildly unamusing animated cohost , which was one of the options that the IMDb gave in a daily poll that asked what event would make you immediately turn off the show . Interestingly enough , another option was if someone referred to Million Dollar Baby as some gigantic cliché like " a knockout , " which strikes me as funny now because , in announcing the winners , the quote on the IMDb home page is " With a one , two , three punch Million Dollar Baby proved to be the one , the darling of the Academy as Clint Eastwood's boxing drama put the competition out for the count . " Clever . I was glad to see Eternal Sunshine awarded in the Best Screenplay category , although I think it deserved more . I also agreed with most of the main acting categories , which is rare , although I was surprised that Jamie Foxx won Best Actor , I was sure he was going to win Best Supporting Actor for Collateral , if only because I really think Don Cheadle deserves an Oscar for his performance in Hotel Rwanda , which was brilliant all around . But Foxx delivered an astonishing performance in Ray as well , and it was also good to see Morgan Freeman recognized for his work in Million Dollar Baby . Troy should have won costume design over The Aviator , The Passion of the Christ should have won Best Makeup over A Series of Unfortunate Events , I , Robot should have won over Spiderman 2 for Visual Effects , and I really think SuperSize Me should have won Best Documentary , although I haven't seen any of the other nominees , so what do I know . These are just a few categories that I had other opinions on , but I really had a problem with the Best Foreign Film category this year . I haven't seen any of the films in the category , so I won't say that they don't deserve to have been nominated . I'm sure they do , in fact . But here are a few films that not even recognized ? Hero , The Motorcycle Diaries , and Maria Full of Grace . What is that ? The Motorcycle Diaries certainly deserved much more than recognition than Best Original Song . Catalina Sandina Moreno was at least nominated for Best Actress , but how about Hero for Cinematography or Art Direction ? Anyone with me on this ? Oh , that's right . The Motorcycle Diaries wasn't exactly a foreign film , and Hero was originally released in 2002 . But still . Ah , nobody cares . The winners won and that's the end of it , I'm just another in an endless line of people who have to rant and rave about how it should have gone . But I should mention that while I disagreed with some of the awards this year , it's like that any year and I think that all of the winners this year deserved the Oscars that they were awarded . There were just so many other films and people that deserved so much more than they got . Just see them all , that's my solution . |
544,388 | 562,732 | 112,864 | 9 | The return of John McTiernan ! ! | I was pretty thoroughly disappointed with Die Hard 2 , but that might have made watching Die Hard 3 even better , because it was so good to see such an immediate and clear improvement over the first sequel . The movie begins in Harlem , where a terrorist has forced John McClane to go wearing a huge sign with a slogan on it that is sure to get him shot in minutes . The villain is Simon Gruber , the brother of Hans Gruber , the bad guy from the original movie , and he plays a vicious game of Simon Says with McClane , forcing him to do things that endanger his life . Gruber has detonated a bomb in a department store and asked the frantic police for McClane by name , intending to play games with him and ultimately avenge his brother's death . Things have not been going well for McClane . He's been suspended from the force , his marriage is falling apart and he's now a full-blown alcoholic . It is only Gruber's personal request for him that brings him back into use from the police force , and Gruber has him running frantically around New York with the unwilling company of store owner Zeus Carver ( a brilliant performance from Samuel L . Jackson ) , who wants nothing to do with McClane but is coerced into going along . The action is brilliant and the story lives up to the original , with McClane ultimately figuring out that the cat and mouse game that Gruber is forcing him to play is a ploy to distract him and the rest of the police force while Gruber pulls off a much greater crime . A couple of brilliant plot twists and a slew of great performances are a great sign for the Die hard series , which was headed in an unflattering direction after Die Hard 2 . See this one ! |
544,793 | 562,732 | 116,704 | 9 | Chan ? Jackie Chan . | It has been so many years since I have seen a Jackie Chan film , but after finally watching First Strike for the first time since something like 1998 I am completely hooked again . Te fight scenes are astonishing and even though the sets are bad and some of the fight situations ( underwater with sharks ) are cartoonish it is still a non-stop thrill ride . Plenty of comic relief , as always , and one unbelievable stunt after another make this one of Jackie's best films ever , I think . I think that since Jackie Chan became an international star in the middle of the series , they were made available in America out of order , but this is the kind of series that you can start watching with any of the installments . Highly recommended ! |
544,431 | 562,732 | 734,618 | 9 | Philosophy 101 - Serling style . | There are times when I start thinking about strange possibilities and different experiences of existence , such as whether people with different eye colors see the world exactly the same way . Really , if blue eyed people experienced colors one way and brown eyed people experienced them another way , we would really have no way of knowing , because everything would look normal to everyone . That's a rather childish example , but when I start feeling existential I sometimes wonder if we are all part of someone's imagination or if we are some tiny part of an unimaginably bigger world . The religious implications here are pretty obvious , but Shadow Play has nothing to do with them . The idea that we are all just figments of someone's ( or something's ? ) imagination is not a new proposal , of course , but Serling has taken the premise and turned it into a pretty entertaining half hour story . Dreams and their meanings is an almost endlessly fascinating subject , and has been explored extensively in the annals of psychology , as well as in film , television , and literature . Wes Craven blurred the lines between reality and nightmare in his Nightmare on Elm Street films , and long before that , Serling explored the causes and effects of recurring nightmares more than once here on the outskirts of the Twilight Zone . It doesn't seem that the show is really seeking any answers , but is instead just presenting a situation in which a man is having recurring nightmares in which he has been sentenced to death , and is basically trying to convince the people around him to help themselves by helping him . It is a brilliantly ironclad dilemma he is in . Imagine being on death row and trying to convince the guards and police around you that if they go through with your execution , they will all disappear . " You're all in my imagination ! If you execute me you'll cease to exist ! " The feeling of helplessness that he must be suffering is unimaginable ! Granted , I've had dreams where I sank like a rock to the bottom of the ocean or fell off a building or something , and I always wake up at the point of death , and while it's scary , it's also an enormous relief when I wake up and realize I'm safe in my bed . Still , the nightly anticipation of electrocution's gotta make it hard to get to sleep at night . Although personally , rather than trying to convince the guards to cancel my execution , I would just stick my arm through the bars of my cell and say - " Come on , pinch me ! See what happens ! " |
543,768 | 562,732 | 106,833 | 9 | A satisfactorily uncomfortable adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel . | Ethan Frome is one of those stories that is meant to be uncomfortable and unattractive , so if you were put off by either the novel or the movie , it just shows that they succeeded in what they set out to do . Personally , I am slightly ashamed to admit that the novel bored me nearly to tears , but this film version not only refreshed the story in my memory but also breathed a much needed bit of life into the literary version , which is something that I rarely say about a film version of a novel . Before I go on , however , I would like to point out that I realize how much is lost in the transition from novel to film , in that the film is not able to capture Wharton's writing style and there are scenes that are taken out and artistic liberties taken with the material , but as far as a structured story , this is a worthwhile adaptation . Liam Neeson brilliantly portrays the fated Ethan Frome , a character who is in an unhappy marriage to a wife who is more interested in the social status achieved by being married than in Ethan as a person . Zeena , his wife ( played by Joan Allen ) , is a woman who has become embittered by her life as the wife of a poor man ( as Ethan describes her at one point ) and the fact that any scrap of love or passion has leaked completely out of her marriage , which was pretty dry to begin with . When Mattie ( Patricia Arquette ) comes to live with them , things begin to fall apart much more seriously than the emotional way in which the marriage between Ethan and Zeena has long since crumbled . There are a lot of religious and social undertones throughout the film , as we struggle with Ethan and Mattie , watching them desperately falling in love with each other but each as helpless to do anything about it as the other . Ethan can't leave Zeena for religious reasons , and social reasons as well , since he will be disrespected by the community if he does that ( which is a little strange , since you would think there would be even more disapproval from the fact that Ethan and Zeena are distant cousins ) . And besides that , Ethan has moral reasons of his own for not wanting to leave Zeena , feeling that he has an obligation to her that prevents him from leaving her alone and helpless . This obligation is , of course , derived mainly from Zeena having put so much effort into caring for Ethan's mother before she passed away , an extended act of charity of which she constantly reminds him . Patricia Arquette delivers a fine performance in the role as Mattie Silver , although her iconography since making this film has completely changed the way she is seen in movies and makes her role as Mattie slightly less believable . But Liam Neeson is the actor here who deserves the most recognition , I can't even imagine someone portraying Ethan Frome more accurately as far as the way he was described in the book than what Neeson did in this film . If you're studying this book in school , it would probably be a good idea to just go ahead and read the book , because this movie is not going to inform you enough to be able to pass a test on the novel , but it certainly works as far as entertainment or as a way to complement the book . |
544,808 | 562,732 | 101,290 | 9 | Attention Parents ! ! | Butterfly Wings is a heavily symbolic film that focuses on one family as representative of the society in which they live . The film opens with a hospital scene in which a clearly frustrated grandfather receives the news that he has a new granddaughter , not a grandson . His daughter in law has yet again been unable to provide his son with an heir , reflecting the favoring of boys in the society in Spain at the time of the film . This scene sets up the stage for the rest of the film , which presents a picture of the home life of one family , which is influenced by their society . The movie is an exploration of a patriarchal society through female central characters . The daughter born at the beginning of the film is Amy , a little girl with dark hair and startling blue eyes who is neglected by her mother , Carmen , who seems to want an heir for her husband even more than he does . Carmen eventually gets pregnant again , and is upset because she is afraid that she will have another girl . It is significant here that the grandfather was introduced as the one who is strictly following the traditions of the patriarchal society in which they live , and then the mother continues this strictness even more than the father does . Indeed , the father plays a fairly minor role in the film , if only because he is so complacent about the gender of his children . Rather than being desperate to have the more socially acceptable male child , he accepts whatever gender they get as a blessing , as God's will . ( spoilers ) When the mother has the next child , however , it is a boy , and this is where all the real trouble starts . Amy's mother is so elated that she has had a boy that she gives him all of her attention , not even paying any attention to Amy even when she is literally bleeding from her head . This is the major turning point in the film , where the damage has been done to Amy by her mother , and her consciousness takes a turn for the worst , which is most clearly evident in a comparison between the butterflies that she drew and made up to this point in the film and those that she makes for the rest of the movie . There is a great dream sequence soon after the son is born where Carmen dreams that Amy picks the baby up out of the crib and drops him out the window to his death far below . There is soon a situation where Carmen finds the baby gone , Amy is out on the balcony that she dropped the baby off of in the dream , and Carmen freaks out thinking that it has come true . She starts beating Amy , who takes it silently , and then Gabriel , the father , walks in the room carrying the baby and asks what's going on . Carmen's fate is pretty much sealed at the point where Amy smothers the baby , imitating something she saw on TV , if I remember correctly . This is the point where parents should really pay attention , because Carmen's rough parenting style combined with the oppressive patriarchal society in which the family lived led to the rejection of Amy as a member of the family , her desire to escape into television , and her ultimate effort to get rid of the new baby so that she can be noticed again . Amy smothers her little brother , and Carmen begins to go insane . It is significant that the only time that we ever see Amy smile as a young girl is when her little brother squeezes her finger , right before she smothers him . She did not do this maliciously out of anger or hatred for her brother , she was too young for that , she didn't realize the gravity of what she was doing . All she knew was that this was something that her mother loved more than her , and it caused her to be ignored . She probably felt that if she got rid of it , her mother would be mad at her for a while and then things would go back to the way they were before . Amy's life is packed with tragedy from the moment we meet her , as an unwanted little girl . She has an abusive mother , was born into a society that looks down on females , she unknowingly murders her baby brother , frequently attempts suicide when she gets old enough to realize what kind of life she is stuck in , has to care for both her father ( who has been rendered paralyzed and silent ) and her mother , who is completely insane by the end of the movie . Not only that , but she has been forced into this motherly role , which is forced on women anyway in the society that she lives in , but she doesn't even have any children or even companionship of her own . She is stuck caring for her debilitated parents , and even the fact that she is pregnant , which is the only thing that symbolizes any hope for the future , is not a very bright point because she is pregnant with the baby of a rapist . But the important thing is that Amy is presented as a strong character , or at least a resourceful one . She attempts suicide several times , noted by the numerous scars on her forearms , and she manages to fail at killing herself , but she steals food when she goes grocery shopping so that she can save up the grocery money to escape the house where she was raised . Unfortunately , she took over caring for her parents before she gets a chance to leave ( or , rather , right when she DOES get a chance to leave , which she decides not to do simply because her mother calls her ' daughter , ' quite possibly for the first time in her life ) . Given the fact that Amy failed to commit suicide ( which is a failure at a dishonorable task ) , she ironically gains our respect by stealing to save money to better her own life . The mark of the intelligent mind is the ability to hold conflicting opinions about the same person or subject and still be able to function , which is something that has also been done in recent films like Insomnia and , more importantly , Monster's Ball . This film does that in several different ways as described above , particularly in the character of Amy , whose life is a picture of the oppression of the patriarchal society that she was born into . |
544,194 | 562,732 | 109,040 | 9 | Sure , this is cheeseball comedy , but Jim Carrey makes it memorable . | Ace Ventura is the kind of comedy that stems directly from a TV show , and in this case , that show was probably In Living Color , where Carrey got most of his publicity before he became famous as a movie actor . A quick look through Carrey's filmography will prove that Ace Ventura is the film that really acted as a springboard for his career . He had a few small roles in films previous to Ace Ventura , the largest of which was probably his role as one of the aliens in the awful film Earth Girls Are Easy , but after Ace Ventura , his career skyrocketed . The Mask ( hey , he's still new , give the guy a break ) , Dumb & Dumber , a sequel to Ace Ventura , Liar Liar , The Cable Guy ( oops ) , The Truman Show ( ah , better ) , Man On The Moon , Me , Myself & Irene , The Grinch , and there's no end in sight . Sure , Ace Ventura does not compare to half of these movies , and is clearly more on the side of the bone-headed comedy that he was doing on In Living Color , but his talent is unmistakable . I first saw this movie when I was in high school , and I remember that I would ditch school and go to the theater to see it and I would laugh hysterically until my sides hurt every time I saw it . There's something about seeing a slob at a tremendously rich party who just doesn't care about the etiquette of the rich people . Did anyone not laugh when he was ' testing ' the food at Ron Kamp's I'm - the - richest - man - in - the - universe party and stuck his tongue out at that poor guy next to him ? That whole scene at that party is classic ! And , of course , it only gets better with Ace's dealings with Lois Einhorn . The whole crying game idea may have gone a little too far , but it was always amusing . Jim Carrey saves Ace Ventura from sinking to the totally brainless level of more recent crapfests as the Scary Movies , and even makes this into one of the better comedies of 1994 . This is not the type of movie that is likely to win any awards , but you will remember the hilarious dialogue and Jim Carrey's immediately recognizable rubber-faced antics in this film that served as a spring board to his career , which later brought us many more excellent movies . Way to go , Jim . |
544,254 | 562,732 | 842,906 | 9 | Making the food channel cool again . | Not that it was cool at the time , but I was a huge fan of the cooking channel , as it was called then , when I was a kid , but for years and years and years I completely lost interest , but have noticed recently that the Food Network is literally overflowing with surprisingly fascinating shows , one of my favorite of which is my recently discovered Food Network Challenge , which combines one of my childhood favorites , the cooking channel , with one of my other childhood favorites , the Guinness Book of World Records . Granted , not every episode is centered around an attempt , or multiple attempts , to set a new world record , but the challenges that make up the premise of each episode are almost always fascinating ideas to test the current limits of culinary capabilities by some of the best chefs around the world . Certainly , the show is not for everyone , but anyone not interested in seeing an attempt to make the tallest structure entirely out of sugar ( and , incidentally , modeled after some famous American skyscraper ) or the highest pizza toss is someone I would wonder about . I can't really think of a practical use of being able to cook 555 pancakes in an hour or scoop 20 ice cream cones in a minute , or even to make a massive , intricate , and extremely delicate sculpture out of various types of melted sugar ( even if it was made to be eaten , which almost nothing on the Food Network Challenge is ) , even if they are made to look like Elvis or Gene Simmons , but it sure is fun to watch . |
544,127 | 562,732 | 734,645 | 9 | Honest men make unconvincing liars . . . | A man gets caught in a rain storm while on a " walking trip " in Europe , and he knocks on the first door he comes across , looking for food and shelter but finds instead , as Serling love to say , the outer edges of the twilight zone . It's interesting that the man isn't perturbed at all by the fact that the people in the house he comes to are all dressed in what can only be called biblical garb , with staffs and long robes . Maybe he was distracted by the even stranger way that they refused him and meant to send him back out into the rainy night . Not the kind of thing you would expect from a religious group . This is the most overtly religious episode of the twilight zone that I've seen , but it never becomes preachy or anything like that , which is good . It seems that these people have captured the devil and have him imprisoned in a room in that house , rendering him powerless to harm people , little more than a howling man . I was reminded of the old phrase ' the greatest thing the devil ever did was convincing the world he didn't exist ' ( which , no offense to anyone of any belief , always strikes me as a little bit of religious propaganda ) , because that's what the howling man does in the episode . The wanderer hears the man and sneaks back to his cell , and the howling man begs for his help in escaping from these lunatics who are imprisoning him . Probably the best thing that the episode does is present an idea of what would really happen were Satan ( or Jesus ) to actually appear on earth . Naturally , it's the people with the robes and staffs that seem crazy , and the poor guy suffering in the cell seems like the victim . I have always had a sneaking suspicion that if rapture did occur , Jesus may very well find himself throw into an asylum of some sort . The question that may arise from this is What asylum could possibly hold him ? But I asked the same question about the devil in this episode , and one other IMDb user mentioned that he is locked in the room using a staff of light and truth , which is the perfect explanation . Once again , the episode scores big . Of course , the devil is very convincing , and manages to escape and then , in the show's most impressive sequence , gradually transforms back into the healthy devil himself , much to the dismay of the unassuming man who just set him free . Thereafter , he makes it his life's work to capture the devil and put him back in prison where he belongs . Cut back to the beginning of the episode ( the whole show is told as a flashback ) , and you have the only big problem with it . Admittedly , it's not a huge problem , because it happens right at the very end of the episode , but he commits the same enormous mistake that the first captors did in their lax security measures . I would think that if you had Satan locked up in a room in your house , you might want to arrange his captivity in such a way so that a wanderer off the street couldn't just sneak in and have a conversation with him . Similarly , if you find yourself with Satan in captivity , especially after having set him free once already , you may not want to leave the responsibility for his captivity in the hands of your house maid . Oops . Nevertheless , this is still one of the most well-developed and interesting episodes of the twilight zone that I've seen , and is a great example of how good the show can be . |
544,663 | 562,732 | 83,658 | 9 | Dated , but still a classic . | Blade Runner is one of Ridley Scott's earlier films , which , being science fiction , takes place in the future and deals with the common theme of man vs . machine . It seems that there are cyborgs ( called ' replicants ' ) mixed in with society that resemble humans in every way ( they are , in fact , ' more human than human , ' a statement that all White Zombie fans are sure to notice ) , and , because they have turned against their makers , they need to be exterminated ? or ' retired , ' as it is eloquently called . Clearly , the influence on the Terminator films is unmistakable . Blade Runner was made in 1982 , back when Harrison Ford was working more in sci-fi than anything else , and even though the technology in the film is badly dated , the effect is still impressive . While it's setting is no longer in the distant future ( 2019 ) , the film is still effective , despite the fact that with each passing year , it becomes less and less likely that the year 2019 will look like that . Besides its obvious influence on the Terminator , Blade Runner also pays subtle homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 : A Space Odyssey , in a scene where a video phone call charge is $1 . 25 , the exact same charge as a video phone call in 2001 from the space station back to earth . ( spoilers ) One of the best features of this film , besides Ford's always-excellent performance , is the skilled direction of Ridley Scott . Also , the special effects were also very impressive , both in creating the futuristic atmosphere and in other areas , such as some very impressive and amazingly violent replicant deaths . Pris ' death , in particular , was incredibly convincing . The conflict in this film stems form the fact that Ford's character develops emotional feelings for one of the replicants , and he has to face the reality that she must be destroyed . Clearly , there are numerous scenes in this film that verify the fact that the replicants do , in fact , experience emotion , and this is not shown only by the replicant that Harrison falls for . The nazi looking replicant pushes Pris ' tongue back into her mouth with his own tongue after her violent death , which left her tongue protruding slightly . Sure , that's not a real appealing sight , but it makes a pretty strong point . Blade Runner very much deserves the classic status that it has achieved . It is a very well thought out and very involved science fiction story , and it reflects influences from earlier classic science fiction films like 2001 and even , from the distant past , Metropolis . Harrison Ford delivers a better performance than he did in any of the Star Wars films , and Ridley Scott returns from his brilliant direction of Alien to once again prove his skills as a filmmaker . |
544,457 | 562,732 | 734,668 | 9 | Houston , we have a problem . . . | In one of the simplest and yet most effective twilight zones , a passenger jet full of people unexpectedly accelerates to unheard of speeds and suddenly finds itself transported into the distant past . Time travel is one of the few endlessly entertaining storytelling premises , and although this story is presented almost entirely through dialogue , it is still one of the more vintage twilight episodes that I've seen . The first half of the episode is a little too simplistic , if only because we are trying to believe an airplane is travelling at thousands of knots , and yet there is not the slightest bit of vibration or noise in the cockpit . It looks more like they're sitting on the ground on a movie set , which they are . But when the time travel takes place , I have to think that it had some inspiration on some later time travel movies , most notably the Back to the Future films , given the acceleration to a certain speed and the rather violent shock that accompanies the , uh , temporal displacement , if you will . The payoff of the show is nothing more than a primitive go-motion dinosaur and some stock footage of the World's Fair in New York ( which gives it the feeling that the entire episode was made to fit around that aerial stock footage of the World's Fair like a raindrop around a bit of dust ) , but this is an excellent example of how a simple idea and some quality writing and performances can make for a highly entertaining half hour . Excellent ! |
544,419 | 562,732 | 54,443 | 9 | A great classic thriller , unfortunately overshadowed by the spectacular psychological thriller released the same year - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho . | Village of the Damned is a very well-made thriller that seems to have been overlooked because of the sheer magnitude of its competition - Psycho . Both of these films are testaments to the idea that low budgets are very capable of producing great films . It is not the size of the budget that matters , it is the skill of the filmmakers and the actors . Village of the Damned makes use of a variety of very easily done but also very effective special effects , such as the boundary across which all people and animals lose consciousness , the creepy eyes on those kids , and their hypnotic powers . The discussion of the exact same phenomenon happening to a few remote towns all over the world does a lot to show what these kids can do , and it increases the dramatic tension of the film as a whole . Cheaply made , but also very well made because a lot of thought was obviously put into it , Village of the Damned is a timeless thriller , even in black and white . When you watch a movie like this , if you are the kind of person who is so superficial about your movies that you refuse to watch black and white films , keep in mind that black and white photography REQUIRES good acting , to put it in the immortal words of Orson Welles . You can't have black and white photography and bad acting , the film would never work . Village of the Damned takes black and white photography and fills it with excellent acting , a fascinating story , and good direction that makes me wonder why this was the only film that Wolf Rilla ever directed . |
544,129 | 562,732 | 734,680 | 9 | I don't like what you're become . . . | In what is one of the best episodes of the Twilight Zone that I've seen so far , Brian Aherne stars as Booth Templeton , an aging Broadway play actor unhappy with what his life has become . One day , after witnessing his trophy wife flagrantly galavanting with an attractive lodger half Templeton's age , he beings lamenting about his lost past , and soon finds himself transported back to it . Anytime I see time travel stories in movies or TV shows , one of the most interesting things to me is how the actual time travel is presented . In this case , it's not presented at all , Templeton literally walks out to the door to go to work , we go to commercial , and when we come back he's dropped off more than 30 years in the past , but this episode still has more layers of meaning than any other episode of the show I've seen so far . Templeton is understandably shocked to find himself transported into his past , and succumbs to the obvious desire to get alone with his wife who , at the time we had met Templeton at the beginning of the episode , had been dead for many years but remained very much alive in his memories . In one of the show's most interesting scenes , he and his lost wife get into an argument , leading him to tell her he doesn't like what she has become . What we in the audience know , and Templeton eventually figures out , is that it's not her that has become anything , it is him who has been changed by the decades that have passed since the last time they saw each other . It's an interesting analysis of how people change over the years , both from who they were when they were younger and , unfortunately often , from the person they have chosen as their life partner . We wonder how happy Templeton and this woman would be had she lived . Watch for Sydney Pollack in an early role as an obnoxious director , of all things , and for Adhere's revelation early in the show of the fact that he has no idea how to tie a necktie . Past and present become confused at the end of the episode , but it's still one that makes you think even more than most other . . . |
544,518 | 562,732 | 290,334 | 9 | Well , they're definitely united ? | The original X-Men was a cool action movie with great special effects , excellent characters , awesome fight scenes , and , my personal favorite , some highly effective comic relief . Consider , for example , some of the stuff in the first film , such as the scene where Wolverine proves to Cyclops that he's really himself and not Mystique disguising herself as him , or when he tells Cyclops that someone else is in the room with them and to ' keep his eye open . ' Classic stuff , and as was the case in the original movie , the comic relief in the follow-up is great , and most of it comes from Wolverine . It's interesting to consider the fact that the movie tends to try to satisfy both its evolutionist audience as well as its creationist audience ( the latter of which obviously makes up a considerably smaller portion of the audience ) . Nightcrawler is a great character , although after the opening fight scene ( arguably the best scene in the entire film ) he changes into a completely different character almost immediately . I was looking forward to seeing him as a wonderfully effective villain ( at this point I'd like to remind you that I am not familiar with the X-Men comics and so don't know a lot about the characters beyond what's in the movies ) . I even loved the sound effects that were made when he would disappear and reappear somewhere else . It was strange that he kicked so much ass in the opening scene and then turned out to be completely timid . Besides being an interesting character , Nightcrawler is the one in which the majority of the faith-based content of the movie is concentrated . It is well known that evolution is based entirely on observable facts and is totally open to change when new revelations and discoveries are made , while creationism is based entirely on faith ( and , it might as well be noted , on ignoring observable facts ) . It's interesting to watch as the movie tends to switch back and forth between the two , seeming at first to be almost a fight for screen time by screenwriters of different ideologies but turning out to be a revelation that faith and evolution are not opposites , but can work together . Evolution is a fact , we KNOW that it is true , and X-Men takes the formula and uses it to make a great action movie . The dangerous line that it walks is that is provides creationists , people who are notorious for taking evolutionary theory and mutilating and distorting it completely beyond recognition in a desperate attempt to make it look ridiculous . It is not going to be any surprise to see hordes of creationists who will latch on to something like X-Men and accuse evolutionists of thinking that X-Men is some sort of documentary-style , non-fiction account of the generally accepted current state of human ' evolution . ' I would like to take this opportunity to laugh in advance . It should be obvious that this is a movie made for entertainment purposes , even if only by the fact that not all of the ' mutants ' are , in fact , mutants . Wolverine , for example , was created by a human ( not a God , by the way ) , as was his worthy adversary near the end of the film . But as far as taking enormous liberties with evolutionary theory , it should be noted that the movie also makes extensive efforts to clarify the way that evolution really works , although it leaves out the small detail that the X-Men are a massive exaggeration . In comparison with the original movie , X2 was a hugely entertaining and well-made action film , just like X1 , but it is the story that has evolved more than anything else . I loved the introduction of a new bad guy who forced the X-Men to come together , although the movie did tend to trip over itself at some points , such as with the paper-thin content of the meaning and need for the little boy with the freaky tongue . ( spoilers ) I was disappointed with the fate of Jean Grey , even if only because her ' death ' was so avoidable . It was never explained very clearly why she didn't stay on the jet and use all of her energy to lift the jet itself out of the path of the oncoming water instead of getting off and trying to levitate the jet while stopping the water at the same time . Even if exiting the jet was absolutely necessary , there is really no fathomable reason why , given the fact that she held the water back that long and was ultimately able to stop her efforts at lifting the jet , she could not let the water gradually come to her and slowly engulf her so that she could swim and wait for the jet to come back and pick her up . At any rate , if her death was necessary for furthering the story or for preparing for the next film ( the creation of a third X-Men is an absolute certainty , after all ) , then I suppose I can understand it , but making Jean's death necessary and making it believable are two of the weakest parts of the film . On the positive side , however , Hugh Jackman was given the opportunity to prove his effectiveness in performing emotionally charged scenes while playing a comic book character ( which is certainly a daunting task ) . Speaking of weak parts of the film , by the way , there is also Magneto's escape . Not only does Mystique inject a massive amount of ' iron ' into the body of one of Magneto's prison guards without killing him ( there are VERY few things that can be injected directly into the blood stream in that quantity without resulting in almost immediate death , and iron in ANY form is NOT one of them ) , but Magneto also manages to latch on to all of that iron and pull it out of the guard's body , using the nice little ball-bearings that he gets out of him to escape . However , even the most basically educated members of the audience , who realize that the iron in your blood is not exactly metal , will probably appreciate the way this was pulled off ( that is , of course , if they were able to see the screen enough while repeatedly slapping their foreheads in disbelief ) . I have never been into comic books , I don't think I've ever even seen a copy of an X-Men comic , but even coming into the films completely new like that I enjoyed both of them and I think they were both remarkably well-made . It is a sign of deserving respect when a movie or series of movies based on comics books or cartoons or old TV shows or something can entertain an audience that is not familiar with the original material ( this is not true for example , according to Roger Ebert , of the recent Scooby-Doo film , which I have yet to see or develop any interest in seeing ) . With that in mind , I think it would be appropriate to end by emphasizing the sheer broadness of the target audience . Kids will love the characters and the fighting and special effects , high school and college age kids will appreciate the same things as well as the intricacy of the story ( adults will more than likely appreciate this as well ) , and , as was the case with the first film , just about every male in the audience of any age and sexual orientation will appreciate the astronomical hotness of Mystique , which translated from the first film to this one quite well . I don't have much to say in defense of the little stunt that Magneto pulled in pulling the ' iron ' out of the guard's blood in order to escape , although even that was convincingly done . As with all movies , X2 has its faults , but it is definitely a worthy follow-up to the original , which was something of a tough act to follow . |
544,004 | 562,732 | 466,909 | 9 | Excellent remake ! | So I briefly browsed through the postings for The Omen on the IMDb and noticed that someone had started a line of postings about strange occurrences on / 06 . I have one for you , although mine is more disappointing than strange . I go to the Marina Cinema in Marina del Rey , right by where I live , and I arrive minutes before screen time , walk around the corner and find a massive line for the ticket booth . Seconds from giving up and going home , I decide to stay in line because the whole reason I came to the movies on a Tuesday by myself after work was because I wanted the ticket stub for The Omen dated / 06 , so I stay in line . The line goes fast enough so that I get through in time enough even to stop and buy popcorn and a coke , the dietary supplement that I am by now convinced will eventually kill me , and walk into the theater . The lady tears my ticket , says " The Omen , Theater 2 , " and I'm on my way . I thoroughly enjoy the movie , and as I leave the theater with a smile on my face , I take my ticket out of my pocket , having not even looked at it since I purchased it , and as I look down to see how prominent the movie title and the date are displayed , I stop in shock as I read : Marina Unit 2418PresentingBREAK-UP-THE4 : 10PM TUE / 06Aud # 1I stop in my tracks in dismay , unfortunately in the middle of the street , and get honked at by the passing car that almost hits me . At least they got the date right ? Getting to the movie , I was surprised at how good it was , because it could so easily have been watered down , or have had the satanic element wildly exaggerated to appease the goofy teenage goth crowd that surrounded and horrendously irritated me throughout the film ( I was lucky enough to sit right in front of the one jerkoff who burst out into hysterical laughter every time Damien was on screen , an excellent way to summarily ruin the movie ) . Live Schreiber gives an outstanding performance as Robert Thorn , an up and coming young American Ambassador , surpassed perhaps only by Julia Stiles , whose portrayal of his increasingly disturbed wife is at once maternally comforting , subsequently unsettling and astonishingly accurate throughout . Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick delivers an incredible performance as the satanic title character . In some scenes he is nothing short of frightening , such as when he is making a sandwich in the middle of the night and stares motionless at his awoken and inquisitive mother . At other times , however , the grimaces that he gives bring to my mind the image of the director behind the camera telling him to make a real , real mean face . Then again , that impression could very well have been inspired by that idiot behind me , laughing in my ear . I found some of the film to be a bit talky and slow , but it maintains a creepiness throughout and has some outstanding shocks , which is one of the areas that a movie like this is most likely to screw up , because the audience walks into the auditorium expecting and watching for them , and it is so hard to come up with something original . Remember the girl getting hit by the bus in Final Destination ? That is an example of originality . If there was a screeching cat in this movie it would have been a struggle for me to resist walking out of the theater , but the scares were plenty and they were effective . I have to say that I found it a bit odd to see the Italian priest at the beginning of the film giving a lecture about what he believed signaled the coming of the Antichrist , since it was inter cut with a lot of American tragedies . But no matter , the film was well made , the performances were spot on , and it was faithful to the original without being a simple re - shooting , as was famously the case with the Psycho re-make . . It's easy to immediately condemn a re-make of any kind as teetering on the verge of insulting the integrity and sanctity of the original , but given the sheer onslaught of remakes that are pouring out of Hollywood these days , I find myself pretty thankful to see one as faithful , yet original , as this one . |
544,197 | 562,732 | 433,387 | 9 | Possibly Christian Bale's most genuinely disturbed character ever ? | It's gotta be great to have a past like Christian Bale's , man . He has the perfect past for an actor , and he has the talent to put it together into something useful . He was born in England but was raised in England , Portugal , and California . I don't know how long or at what points in his life he lived in any of those places , but it helps to explain why he can so easily and effectively pull off such wildly different roles as the wealthy British kid in Empire of the Sun , the nutcase in American Psycho , the nutcase in The Machinist ( did you see that thing ? See it ! ) , Batman , for crying out loud , and of course the nutcase in Harsh Times . I had never heard of Harsh Times when I stumbled across it in a pirated DVD store a couple weeks ago , but for 6 yuan ( about 85 cents ) I could hardly go wrong , right ? Bale plays the part of the perfectly named Jim Luther Davis , a south-central Los Angeles native with dreams of a high-ranking career with the LAPD and who couldn't possibly have a more military sounding name . He has a fiancé in Mexico that we understand that he truly loves and hopes to land a good job so he can bring her to the states . His best friend Mike is living comfortably off his girlfriend , who he supported as she went to college but who now has a successful legal career and is pressuring him to get off hit butt and get a job himself . Jim and Mike on their own seem to have real goals , they seem to really want to get their acts together and achieve their ultimate goals , but they have very different priorities on the path to their respective versions of success . Mike truly wants to find a god job . He really loves his girlfriend and he really wants to make her happy even though she's a nagging wench ( sorry , but she is ) , while Jim on the other hand feels that they're both about to get the jobs and paychecks that they deserve , so they better make the best use of their dwindling free time in the best way that they can , which generally involves weed , beer , and driving . Nice ! The movie does an amazing job of creating two characters native to the more dangerous sections of Los Angeles . I lived in LA for some years , and while I never lived in south central ( and Venice Beach hardly qualifies as one of the hard parts of LA ) , I have spent time in east LA ( and I lived in Oakland for a while as a kid ) , so I understand some of the harsh realities of urban life . Not that I've ever gotten involved in selling drugs or stolen guns or , you know , impulsive multiple murders , but there is a level of realism achieved with this movie that gives it an effect that a lesser movie could never have reached . It was written and directed by David Ayer , the same guy who wrote the screenplays for both U-571 and Training Day , so it comes from the pen of someone who knows how to generate tension and how to create complex characters . Christian Bale's Jim is a character whose complexities would have been cartoonish in a lesser movie , but with Bale's incredible performance and Ayer's capable work behind the camera , the movie comes off as a surprisingly good character drama . It will definitely be too violent and , ah , harsh for some tastes , and there is a scene about three quarters of the way through the film that is pretty difficult to sit through , but you have to remember that nothing is compromised for wide appeal or pacification . Harsh Times strikes me as the kind of gritty action drama where a few people got together and made the movie they wanted to make without any consideration for what anyone would think of it . And if more people did that these days , just imagine how much better our movies would be ? |
543,953 | 562,732 | 72,684 | 9 | So different , and yet so much the same . . . | The first thing that struck me as I started watching Barry Lyndon ( which I'll admit that I knew almost nothing about when I put it on ) was that it's a period film , something that I have definitely not come to expect from Kubrick . Granted , I'm a little behind in my detailed look at his filmography , given that more than a quarter century passed between the film's release and me finally getting around to watching it , but I very soon began to see the same Kubrick that I have come to know and love . The film is about a man named Redmond Barry , who we love and then hate and then pity and then admire for his luck and then pity , love , hate , etc . And the most interesting thing about him , of course , is the sheer magnitude of events that happen to him , given that he never for one second has even the slightest bit of control over his own life . He begins with a childish crush on his own cousin , which leads him to engage in a foolish duel , the results of which force him to flee his home without much plan of what to do with himself , other than make himself scarce until things blow over . And we witness the beginning of his truly bizarre adulthood , during which time he is robbed and forced to join the British Army basically just because he had no other choice , and then an increasingly unexpected series of circumstances and events take place that ultimately lead him to the most unexpected conclusion . The film itself is structured in an interesting way , in that it is filmed and presented with such an emotionless detachment . As Ebert pointed out , there is a narrator that gives away any important events in advance to remove any sense of tension or suspense , and he narrates as though he were talking about field mice rather than real people . As such , the film is able to come across more as an exploration of Kubrick's ideas of human nature rather than another cloying period romance . Bravo ! I have read ( and am not surprised by ) a lot of people saying that the movie is intolerably boring , which I must say is to be expected . Like so many Kubrick films , it is prohibitively long at just over three hours , and it is interesting in that it gives a feeling that nothing ever happens from beginning to end , and yet there is ALWAYS something happening . Personally I absolutely loved it . It reminded me of another unique and enormously entertaining period film , Tom Jones , with it's brilliant comic performance by Albert Finney . Recenltly I have been going back and watching all of the Kubrick movies that I haven't seen as of yet , and even at it's prodigious length and slow pace ( which is a Kubrick trademark if I've ever seen one ) , Barry Lyndon is still one of my favorites , at least of the overlooked classics . It is a bit of a commitment , but well worth it . |
544,560 | 562,732 | 332,605 | 9 | NOT the Russian One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a great movie that was based on an even greater book , but I wish people wouldn't compare this movie to that one so often . Yes , the similarities are extensive and impossible to miss , but House of Fools , as the title translates into English , is a different film that has it's own weight and it's own meanings . This is not , by any means whatsoever , another vision of Ken Kesey's classic , nor is it a remake in any way of that of Milos Forman . ( spoilers ) Yuliya Vysotskaya , who played Janna , the main character , delivers a wonderful performance of this woman who lives in a mental hospital right on the Russian border during the Chechen War ( a war about which I admittedly know absolutely nothing ) . Her ailment is never made clear ( nor are any of the others ) , except for a scene in the middle of the movie where she reveals , through dialogue , some of what are probably many more illusions ( I won't count her illusory belief that she can dance ) . As she is being abandoned by Ahmed , who she thinks is the love of her life , she tells him that she loves him , and asks him to please don't kill her . Then she tells the mud that she loves it , and please don't kill her , etc . Her mental condition is not important , although her character , while skillfully performed , is so laden with a cloying freight of symbolism that it often becomes difficult to see her as a person rather than a heavily symbolic character in a heavily symbolic movie . There is a common misconception ( supported by the movie's very own tagline ) that the doctors at the mental hospital around which the story revolved abandoned the patients , leaving them to fend for themselves during the Chechen War during which the movie takes place . I don't really understand this assertion , since the doctor returns at the end of the film , explains what happened to him when he went to find a bus to transfer the patients to a better hospital . Just the fact that he returned should have been enough to show that he didn't simply ditch them all . I wish I had a better memory for the names of the characters in the movie , because one of the other patients , the one with the wraparound glasses and the backpack full of his poetry , played a significant role in the movie . He and Janna are clearly the mother and father figures for the rest of the patients when they are left to their own devices , seeing over the rest of the cast and , periodically , offering the chance for audience members to question the validity of their respective mental instabilities . I don't know much about mental disorders , but there were certainly scenes in this movie where it seemed to me that they were being treated for more mental instability than they regularly displayed . These were balanced out , however , by scenes where they each displayed rather crippling disabilities , his the complete inability to communicate or assess situations effectively , and hers some dangerous attachment issues and the displacement of emotions onto things like inanimate objects . As far as the war goes , I won't go into detail about the meaning of the war itself in the film because , like I mentioned above , I know nothing about the war that is going on offscreen , but the movie makes some interesting points about the chaos and destructiveness of war . One of them is the almost-cliché of the man who saves another man's life , only to find himself fighting on the opposite side from him later on . Sort of a cliché by now , yes , but it adds to the movie's later concentration on the chaos and confusion surrounding war in general . There are several scenes in which the mental patients are understandably terrified and utterly lost as to what is going on around them . This is to be expected , but there are also several scenes in which the soldiers and even their commanders are pretty confused as to what is happening . One tense scene has two opposing factions facing each other ( notably making an illicit drug deal ) , when one of the soldiers carelessly stumbles on his gun , making it fire off a few rounds into the air , which leads to the two groups firing machine guns at each other for several seconds before anyone realizes that it was all just a stupid mistake . The soldier who accidentally caused it laughs it off . The references to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are everywhere . The patients are left to their own devices ( in this case because the doctor left longer than intended because he was delayed by the war , in the other case because McMurphy persuaded them all to escape for a while ) , which has a healing effect on all of them but not enough to make any of them want to leave the hospital , their home , at the end of the film . There's an interesting element of the movie involving Bryan Adams , who literally colors Janna's life with his music , even though she has a completely delusional relationship with him , which would seem to have a detrimental effect on her mental health . What I see by his occasional entrances into the movie are not some weak effort to provide recognizance by inserting an American pop star , but a layered effect of meaning that reflects the many other layers of meaning in the film . Bryan Adams , while he is not meant to have had a real relationship with this woman who thinks that she is engaged to him , lights up her life with his music ( notice how the color fills the screen when it's playing ) , while she attempts to do the same for the rest of the patients with her own accordion playing . She doesn't always succeed with all of them , but she certainly does much more than she does with the soldiers , who she also plays for on more than one occasion , and is laughed at each time ( which may very well signify some kind of juvenile cynicism among the lower ranks of military forces ) . I don't pretend to understand every level of symbolism that is portrayed in this movie , but it's important to notice that they're there . It's amazing how much more meaning and importance some little movie from Russia like this has than the typical multi-million dollar blockbuster released here in America , and I really wish that people would pay at least a tiny bit more attention to the few movies released ( dare I say the majority of which come from other countries ? ) that actually mean something . There are a lot of things in this movie that are difficult to comprehend , indeed , many which seem to be in the movie as examples of pure artistic expression , but the movie as a whole , like it's main character , is so laden with meaning and symbolism that it is virtually impossible to see it all on just one viewing . The movie deserves at LEAST that much . |
544,816 | 562,732 | 97,607 | 9 | A very different kind of war movie . | Jacknife is a war movie that is just about as far removed from the war as war movies get . It can hardly be classified as a war film , because the only way that any war has an effect on the story or the characters is in their memories of it , and even these we are hardly ever shown . It poses very interesting questions about life , especially in the way that the movie's tagline says that only one of them is really alive ( and by the way , even though the tagline refers only to Dave ( Ed Harris ) and Megs ( Robert DeNiro ) , it is talking about all three of the characters in the film ) . Dave and Megs were friends in the Vietnam war , and Megs has returned to take Dave out on a fishing trip that they have been planning for a lot longer than you might have guessed . DeNiro provides a perfect performance of the character of Megs , who we are not really sure if we should like or if he really is as nuts as Martha thinks he is . Dave reminds Martha several times that Megs is not his friend , just someone he knows . There is a great scene early in the film where Megs has gone out to grab a six pack of beer from his car for breakfast , and he is just around the corner of the room when Dave says this . Megs pauses for a moment and then proceeds into the room with a smile and a huge greeting . It isn't until later that you realize how Megs must have felt when he heard that , having been the one to remember what they had planned to do on this day . It reminds me of the fakeness of the old , ' Sure , let's do that , ' thing that people so often say to each other , never having any plans to do any such thing . Ed Harris delivers a wonderful performance as Dave , who never got over the effects that the war had on him . Even so many years later he has not managed to get over the death of a friend during the war , blaming himself to this day for it and thus drowning his life in alcohol , cigarettes , and loneliness . All he wants , he says , is for people to leave him alone . This is not a man who is living his life the way he wants , whether people actually leave him alone or not , he is a man trying to forget that he's alive , to detach himself from the world of the living as much as possible . His sister Martha reminds me of myself , at least in terms of my roommates . I have two roommates who are 21 and 24 years old , and both act like they still live with their mothers , expecting their messes to just go away when they leave the room for a while . One on particular ( the older one , sadly enough ) , has absolutely no clue how to care for himself , I'm surprised I don't have to wipe his chin while he eats . Martha has to do much the same for her brother , who she waits on hand and foot while he staggers through life from one hangover to the next . Martha and Dave are stuck in a stagnant life and neither of them can get out of it until something major changes , and Dave is the one that needs to do the changing . I tend to complain about romance in movies where it just doesn't belong about as much as Roger Ebert complains about those pathetic little tension devices , the red digital readout . But in this case , I don't think that the romance that develops between Megs and Martha had any adverse affect on the rest of the movie . On the contrary , it made it that much more interesting , because it was not predictable . The problem with the romantic subplots in Bruckheimer movies and whatnot is that they are so predictable that you just wait for the obvious end to come and hope that something interesting happens along the way . In this case , however , it's not as obvious that something is going to happen between Megs and Martha because we don't know enough about Megs . Martha could be right about him , that he's one of Dave's crazy war buddies and that he's not the kind of man that she should be dating . Dave certainly encourages this idea . ( spoilers ) A couple years after this movie , DeNiro did Cape Fear , where he plays a deranged criminal out for revenge against the lawyer that landed him in prison , a character that , in retrospect , makes it pretty easy to think that maybe at the end of Jacknife Martha realizes her mistake , gets rid of Megs , and she and Dave make up because he saved her from a horrible relationship and then he decides to clean up his act because he has done something good for her . I was half expecting this to happen , so I was pleasantly surprised when Martha and Megs wound up together and even more pleasantly surprised when Megs asks Dave all the questions about what they had planned to do after the war was over . At times this is a slow moving drama , but Jacknife is entertaining along the way and has a huge payoff at the end , which amazingly manages to be sappy without being cheesy . There is an almost excess of emotion at the end of the film that scarcely fits with the rest of the movie , but it is so good that it doesn't dumb down anything that the movie has accomplished up to that point . Everyone involved gives a wonderful performance , and it is one of those rare films that just about makes you want to stand up and shake your fists victoriously in the air . |
544,428 | 562,732 | 493,464 | 9 | Hey wait a minute , what HAVE I done lately ? | I wasn't excited to see Wanted . I'm back in America for the summer and I was going to the movies with a friend , and she has what can only be called an unhealthy obsession with Angelina Jolie , so of course this was at the top of the list of movies to see . Personally I don't understand a lot of the hype about her as an actor , but I have to admit she looks good with a gun so I decided to check out the movie . In perusing some of the reviews on the IMDb , it seems that people either loved it or hated it . I liked it a lot , although you have to understand that it's what I call an over-the-top action movie , where everything is taken to the extreme ( see " Shoot ' Em Up " ) . With movies like this the goal is spectacle , not realism . Hence all of these piddly complaints about the physics involved in bending bullets are rendered meaningless . Why would you complain about realistic stunts when cars can flip through the air with precision and then accelerate off the side of a bus ? Or when super-assassins can throw bullet curveballs ? Is it not obvious what that this is not exactly cinema verite ? I have to agree that some of the plot devices are a little witless ( a magic loom that weaves fate ? Come on . . . ) , but the action is outstanding to say the least . Angelina has clearly been working on her war face , every time she fired her gun and showed that grimace I could only imagine her in her cavernous mansion practicing for hours on end in front of a mirror , but especially in comparison to a lot of the garbage sent to theaters these days , the entertainment is high . The movie is loud , fast , and explosive , but not exactly a cognitive workout . It's great as an hour and a half of action entertainment , and it's also fun to pick out the scenes that feed off of other films , the most obvious to me being Office Space , one of my favorite comedies . I have only recently become aware of James McAvoy , after seeing The Last King of Scotland and Atonement ( which , in a single shot , features , by McAvoy , one of the finest pieces of acting I've ever seen in a movie - see my Atonement review . . . ) , and while he doesn't exactly knock my socks off here with his performance , he's perfect for the role and pulls off a disillusioned blue-collar American perfectly . Add him to the list of British actors so talented that many moviegoers didn't even know he was British . To a greater extent than McAvoy , obviously , the great Morgan Freeman is also clearly just having a good time here . The material is distantly below his talents , as it is for McAvoy , but at the same time , I see no reason why actors of his caliber shouldn't do a movie like this every once in a while . Shoot ' Em Up , as well , is also distantly below the talents of Clive Owen , but MAN he was good in it ! Angelina Jolie , however , fits right in here , because this is the kind of movie that she is best in . I am thrilled , by the way , to have read that she has been ordered to gain weight for her next role , partly so she will be attractive again , and partly so she won't faint on set , like she did while making this movie . At any rate , I won't say to ignore all of the bad press about the movie , because it's true that a lot of people won't like it , but it seems a perfect example of a movie that , if you go in with the right state of mind , it can be great fun . The cleverness of the highly choreographed stunts , for me , often outweighed my lack of belief . Enjoy ! |
544,116 | 562,732 | 4,518 | 9 | More complex than it looks . | Chaplin's early short films are common targets for complaints about their simplicity and lack of real story or plot , but I think it is important to remember that the films were made at time when huge audiences wanted to see films exactly like this . Chaplin had no great directors of the past to look to for inspiration , and film itself was an emerging medium , so really the only thing he had available to him was to see what worked and what didn't work by trial and error . Bricks and punches and kicks and everyone falling into the lake made people laugh , so that's what Chaplin gave them , and it helped him to achieve the success that allowed him to bring us the truly great films of his later career , so I think it's unfair to judge these films by the same standards as what Chaplin achieved later , and it also prevents you from really enjoying these films for what they are . Audiences in 1914 , for example , would have been fascinated by something as simple as one frame showing a person throwing a brick off screen , and then the next shot showing the brick flying into the screen . It is such a simple technique , but this is how movies started , and something this simple would have nearly knocked people over , because what they were looking at was really a moving picture , and one which really came to life because it moved so effortlessly around the park or the stage or the set or wherever the film took place . The important thing back then was not a moving story , but a moving picture . And if you could throw in a few punches and a few cops getting hit with bricks , so much the better . Also , if you think that it is a joke to say that a film like this was " Written and Directed by Charlie Chaplin " since there is clearly no writing or direction involved , I would argue that you have simply never considered what is involved in making a short film . Yes , Chaplin has said on numerous occasions that in those days all he needed was a cop , a pretty woman , and a park and he had the ingredients for a short film , but he didn't mean that he could get away with throwing together something that simple , he meant that that was all he needed to satisfy his audience , and any entertainer's number one concern is to give the people what they want . Since Chaplin began his career acting on stage , he was thinking about the immediate appeal to his audience , not about critics or how history would see his films . He wanted people to laugh while sitting in their seats in the theater in 1914 , not in 90 years when they were watching DVD compilations of his early work . The film even seems to have been randomly titled , since " Recreation " really has absolutely nothing to do with what happens on the screen . It could even refer more to the film itself being made by Chaplin and a couple of friends just for fun than the story that unfolds on the screen . There are a couple of classic Chaplin moments in the film , such as when he tries to put both of his feet up on a fence rail , and when a police officer sees him just as he is about the throw a brick , but for the most part the film is just a raucous slapstick romp involving a girl who wanders away from her boyfriend , who falls asleep while sitting with her on a park bench , and then a fight ensues over her affections and ultimately involves a couple of cops who want to find out who's throwing bricks around . As some reviewers have noted , it seems to be a good example of what Chaplin was talking about when he said that in the old days all he needed was a cop , a girl , and a park bench and he could make a film , but I think this is a little misleading , because the film is more complex than it looks . Yes , of course the comedy is very , very simple , but it's a mistake to say there is no direction or story or plot . Scripts for silent films were very different than talking films , and while a lot of the comedy is clearly improvised , there is still more planning involved in putting something like this together than you might think . I made a few 6 or 8 minute films for film classes when I was in college , and at the time I was so proud of them I almost couldn't stand it , but looking back , it's amazing how flawed and simplistic they are , despite the hours and hours of work I put into planning and shooting and editing them . I think that in order to really enjoy Chaplin's early films for what they are ( and they are certainly still enjoyable , despite the physical decay and the lack of depth or story ) , you have to have either made your own short films or be willing to be open minded about something that was made in a very different time for very different audiences and with very different technology . If you consider the other films that were coming out at the time , these were some of the best . |
544,753 | 562,732 | 118,749 | 9 | Confessions of a porn industry ? | Boogie Nights is a surprisingly good drama that deals with one man's rise and fall in the adult film industry . Mark Wahlberg delivers one of the best performances of his career as Eddie Adams , the young man who is spotted at his job as a busboy by porn filmmaker Jack Horner ( Burt Reynolds ) , and who changes his name to Dirk Diggler , the newest and temporarily most popular porn star in the business . Wahlberg even managed to make the screaming , emotional scene very convincing , which is the type of scene that is almost always screwed up ( see about 90 % of Chasing Amy ) . Evidently , Horner's dream is to make an adult film that has a good story , and literally sucks the audience into it . Maybe there should have been some debate about whether or not that was possible , or necessary ( who goes to see a porno for the story ? ) , but it doesn't matter that there wasn't . The 1970s are very realistically created , in every way from the outfits to the disco soundtrack to the god-awful interior decorating . Heather Graham is also very convincing as Rollergirl , the high school girl who flunks out of school and works in the adult film industry as well . This , by the way , is one of the roles that makes her performance in Lost In Space totally unconvincing and impossible to take seriously . Poor William H . Macy plays one of his traditional , unenviable roles . Why does this guy always get awful parts in his movies ? This poor guy's wife is constantly cheating on him ( in some cases , in the middle of a circle of gaping , nearly comatose people ) , and she clearly has no respect for him . And to make matters worse , being in the porn industry , no one seems to understand what his conflict is . ( spoilers ) The majority of the film deals with the business aspect of adult films ? everything from the hiring to the shooting to the big money and drugs and the awards ceremonies . While this aspect of the film was very well done , as was Dirk's eventual fall from celebrity status , there were a lot of things about the movie that were either very badly presented or just didn't make any sense . For example , near the end , when the donut shop gets robbed , the robber walks in with a gun and pays all of his attention to the black guy in the nice white suit while he's robbing the store , completely ignoring the rough looking redneck with the hunting magazine that was sitting in a nearby booth . And then , after all of them have ingeniously shot each other to death , Cheadle's character grabs the paper bag full of money off the floor and runs . Evidently , he didn't see the recent film A Lesson Before Dying ( in which he starred ) , which was about a black guy in the 1940s who did that exact same thing and then faced murder charges in a heavily racist society . And then there is the scene where Dirk and a couple of his buddies go out to sell a large quantity of fake drugs to a big time drug dealer with the intent of robbing him ( in a scene , by the way , where Sister Christian is playing , which is Marilyn Manson's favorite song ) . What the hell was going on in that scene ? ! There was some half naked Chinese kid walking around and casually lighting off dozens of fireworks in the freakin ' house ! This was one of the things about this movie that made no sense whatsoever and just should not have been there . Overall , despite numerous weaknesses , Boogie Nights is a very good film that is miraculously able to live up to all of the expected notoriety that it developed , given such facts as that Heather Graham gets naked in the movie and , of course , that infamous , groan inducing final scene . Ironically , I think that the film deserves extra praise because they had enough nerve to make a film about a topic that is not generally accepted by society . The thing that really makes Boogie Nights succeed is that it is based on reality . It's not attempting to use the nudity or the subject matter to pull along a weak script . All of the big porn stars eventually fall from stardom , and return to small and unappealing occupations . And the occasional pedophile winds up exactly where he belongs ? in prison getting slapped around and treated like a bitch by a huge black man . Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed a film about the porn industry , which is one of the most hated industries in the world , and the film that resulted is not only informative about the workings of that industry , but also very entertaining . |
544,499 | 562,732 | 472,550 | 9 | Like Dianne's , this one really adds to the story . | Of the three short plot hole videos included on the Shaun of the Dead DVD , Dianne's and Ed's add something new and unexpected to the story , while Shaun's simply illustrates what we already knew , while at the same time coming off as amusing and fun . Nick Frost narrates the brief and believable story of how he managed to , ah , survive the incoming onslaught of zombies from which Shaun and Liz barely escape . Granted , this is a zombie film , so the term " believable " has to be used in an entirely different way , but what I mean is that what happens in this little video fits with the rest of the story . And as with Dianne's story , there's a clever little joke in there at the end . Pretty fun stuff . |
544,500 | 562,732 | 472,552 | 9 | Contrary to recent theories , the living dead are actually very slow moving ? | This is the first time I've ever seen a movie make an effort like this to clear up so-called plot holes in the story . The plot holes here are really not plot holes at all , but strike me instead as just being some things that they wanted to tell a little more about , probably because they had such a good time making the movie . We don't need to know exact details of what happened when Shaun led the zombies away , and it's reasonable to assume that Dianne was killed by the zombies after she went after David , who was dismembered before our eyes . How Ed became a zombie-pet for Shaun is indeed curious , but it strikes me more as one last joke than an important plot point . Nevertheless , these short animated comic-book style stories serve as a fun supplement to the rest of the movie , and I hope to see other movies take this example in the future . Simon Pegg narrates with the same comedic tone as the movie , mentioning how sometimes he had to sit and wait for the slow-moving zombies to catch up with him , so he could continue to lead them away from the Winchester . Nice work ! |
544,191 | 562,732 | 6,414 | 9 | Excellent short comedy in which Charlie Chaplin satirizes his own craft . | Chaplin plays the part of David , the lowly assistant to the oafish stage hand Goliath , and as is to be expected , everything goes wrong in the most hilarious ways . Being an early short Chaplin comedy , a good portion of the comedy is slapstick , with such elaborately acted scenes as the one with the stage pillar prop that just would not seem to stand up . Poor David works like a slave for the lazy Goliath , but at first , he just keeps messing things up - he just can't seem to do anything right . But later , when he starts working really hard and doing things right , his boss always walks in just as he sits down to rest , and he gets into trouble for loafing on the job , and Goliath , who spends most of his time sleeping , gets all of the credit for David's work . Not only does this film satirize the falsity of film and stage , but it also goes into actual filming , in the surprisingly effective pie throwing scene . Eventually , all of the workers go on strike , leaving only David and Goliath on stage and , as is common in Chaplin's films , he ends up the victor as a result of some inadvertent events concerning a trap door and a lot of guys fighting . The ending of this film is unusually violent for a generally light Chaplin comedy , but the comedic value is never diminished . |
544,693 | 562,732 | 386,423 | 9 | Dana Brown brings to the screen another adventure that so many would otherwise never see . | Dana Brown follows up his spectacular surfing documentary Step Into Liquid with the spectacular race documentary Dust to Glory . I just read the unemployed critic's review in which he asserts that Dana Brown had some kind of ulterior motive in imposing meaning onto the race itself which was never there to begin with and doesn't fit with the material anyway , which is outstandingly wrong . Then again , he also called Step Into Liquid " lukewarm , " so the fact that Brown's next film blew over his head as well is hardly lightning out of a clear sky for unexpectedness . Brown highlights the human aspect of the Baja 1000 , a grueling , 24 hour race down the length of Baja California , but the movie is only peppered with scenes about the race , because it's not about winning , it's about being out there with so many other like-minded people , and the people you meet and the adventures you have along the way . It's amazing to see people in million dollar trucks racing on the same course as people driving un-modified Volkswagen Beetles , and the film manages to overcome the tendency to identify other drivers as cars rather then people . Brown's narration is just as effective as it was in Step Into Liquid , and it is clear in both films that he is fascinated with the subject material and is not simply reporting it . Interestingly , he describes the Baja 1000 at one point as the longest nonstop endurance race in the world , which is not even remotely true . The Race Across America has taken place every year since 1982 , and is a 3000 mile transcontinental endurance race on BICYCLES , no less . Let's put it this way . By the time the Baja 1000 is over , most riders have not taken a single break from riding in the Race Across America . They generally ride for about the first 40-50 hours literally without getting off the bicycle , then they stop and sleep for 90 minutes , then get up and get back on the bike and ride 22 hours a day until they get to the East Coast . The Baja 1000 is truly an impressive event , but as an endurance race it doesn't even compare to Race Across America . Nonetheless , Brown again displays his skill in bringing the wonder and excitement of such an unusual event to the screen , telling the story thoroughly and entertainingly , and certainly leaving me wondering what marvels he'll focus on next . |
543,854 | 562,732 | 321,353 | 9 | I should have watched this a long time ago . | It was Quentin Tarantino's famous interest in the old 1970s blaxploitation films , as well as Pam Grier , that first got me interested in the genre , but not knowing what the genre was really about , or at least not knowing the history behind it's formation , its themes , even its actors , made me not enjoy the first handful of the films that I watched , like Coffy , Foxy Brown , Black Mama , White Mama , and Sheba , Baby . Granted , I don't think any amount of documentaries could make me enjoy Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song , but I suppose I can certainly understand the society in which it was made . What I loved about this documentary is the way it gives a look not only at the blaxploitation films of the 19670s , but also gives the historical context under which they were made , including their level of popularity in places like Los Angeles , where I live , and Hollywood's response . There are a number of debatable claims made in the documentary , such as blaxloitation saving Hollywood or Hollywood killing the blaxploitation genre , but what I really appreciated were the interviews from some of the original actors as well as brief looks at several of the more prominent blaxploitatoin films , some of which I enjoyed , like Black Caesar , and some of which remain not really my favorites , like Sweet Sweetback and Super Fly . The cast give very revealing interviews , both about their experience in being involved in the blaxpoitation genre , as well as giving their insights into the meaning and fate of the genre . I was glad to see that Quentin Tarantino appears to talk about blaxploitation's influence on him and his films because he is obviously so heavily inspired by them , but there were some other heavyweights that are far too conspicuously absent , most notably the tremendously successful Spike Lee . Odd , since this documentary was released in 2002 , far too early for them to have already been mad at Spike for She Hate Me . Gloria Hendry tells the story about getting her first role in Black Caesar and becoming instantly famous , and others talk about their involvement and experience with the genre , such as Samuel L . Jackson and even Ameni Shakur , Tupac's mother , who was a member of the Black Panther party . Pam Grier gives a brilliant interview , revealing a depth of character and a studied intelligence that far surpasses anything that she has ever been able to reveal in any of her films . She speaks so intelligently that this interview alone almost makes it look like she has been accepting roles far beneath her ability for the majority of her career . And she's good , too , I'd like to see a lot more of her in the future . I really think she has adapted well to the changes that have taken place in her life and in the film industry since the end of blaxploitation . Fred Williamson , one of the most famous actors from the genre , gives a rather sour , disillusioned interview , focusing on pretty negative subjects and ideas . The one that stuck out to me the most was that he said something like no one ever wanted black film , their was never any real desire or need for it , people just wanted to see black people on film . Something like that , at any rate , he claimed that no one ever really wanted blaxploitation , it happened for other , more superficial reasons , which I don't agree with at all . The people that packed those theaters sure wanted it . Blaxploitation is something of an offbeat subgenre in cultural film history , but I think that it is one that needs some explanation before a lot of people will really enjoy , and some people won't enjoy it even then . Sort of like how some supplemental documentaries included with DVDs will make you enjoy certain movies more than you otherwise would have , this documentary is an excellent way to get a basic introduction to the genre , and make sure to have a pen and paper handy when you watch it , because you'll want to write down some of the movies that it talks about so you can remember to watch them ! |
544,763 | 562,732 | 734,541 | 9 | Ah , to have had penicillin in the old west . . . | A family traveling west in hopes of striking it rich in a mysterious paradise that they've heard about called California suffers more and more every day , until they can think of nothing but the heat and thirst and sickness that they deal with on a daily basis . Serling gives us a pretty obvious story where he imagines what would have happened if one of those people traveling west all those years ago were to have been able to experience modern convenience for just one afternoon during that torturous journey . It's not the wildest stretch of the imagination as far as a story idea , but the entertainment is high and the performances are some of the best I've seen so far in the series . The couple in the diner hit the nail right on the head with their subdued reactions to the strange stranger's story , not sure to react with shock or to hide their surprise from someone who must be a little crazy . There's a cute twist at the end and an interesting paradox that calls your attention of the episode thus far into question , the time travel is not presented as anything more than simply walking over a sand bank , and the 100-years-in-the-future theme is done again the following week , but this is an excellent example of how good the twilight zone can be . |
543,980 | 562,732 | 39,017 | 9 | The lady vanishes . . . | I'm not sure if , at the time this movie takes place , it would have been as pointless to steal one of the world's great treasures as it would be today ( what are they going to do , put it up for sale in the London Times ? ) , but whatever the case , this classic Sherlock Holmes case keeps you guessing even though you already know you're going to be kept guessing . I think it's the mark of a great mystery when it can pull the hood over your eyes even while you're watching all the while for it to happen . I have to say that I'm not quite sure where the title Terror By Night came from , since nothing scary or terrible happens in the movie , but it's a classic mystery still just as satisfying as it must have been in 1946 . |
544,462 | 562,732 | 734,564 | 9 | Serling gets serious . . . | Dust is one of the episodes of the twilight zone that deals with the very real and very scary subject of a person taking another life while operating a vehicle while drunk . It takes place in the interesting setting of the old west , rather than modern , early 1960s America ( when , incidentally , Dick Cheney was first arrested for drunk driving . His second arrest was fully a year later ) . A humble Mexican man has accidentally taken the life of a young girl while driving his wagon through town , and is slated to be hanged in front of the angry townspeople . A sleazy self-labeled businessman ( also a drunk , interestingly enough ) , shows up at the jail and taunts the condemned man , berating him for his crime and taunting him about his impending death . The convicted man sits silently , clearly suffering desperate grief for what he has done . What I love the most about the episode is that it shows all sides of the case , but still never really calls any of them right or wrong . We see the desperate fear and grief of the condemned , the unbearable suffering of the parents who have lost their child , the anger of the townspeople , represented mostly by the sleazy businessman but also by a local father who has brought the whole family to watch the execution in order to teach the children something about the real world , the horrified father of the condemned , begging for his son's life , and even the disillusioned sheriff , disappointed that all he can to do prevent crime is to inflict more violence for a killing that he couldn't stop . The father of the condemned man gives the only real performance in the episode as he begs for his son's life in front of the crowd just before the hanging is about to take place , but the most important scene in the show is at the very end , in which we witness an unexpected bit of character change . The strangeness of the ordinary subject matter of the twilight zone is replaced by what it seems to suggest as the human heart's wonderful capacity for forgiveness . The man committed a crime , but in this case it seems that something other than death is the best punishment . The show suggests , correctly , that someone who has inadvertently taken a life by drunken driving will suffer for the rest of their life , imprisoned or not , and they don't need further punishment , at least in the form of execution . This is one of the more serious episodes of the twilight zone that I've seen and one that deals not with anything paranormal , but briefly ( and possibly not at all ) only with something as little as superstition . A case of what we now would call double jeopardy leads to the possibility that there is magic in the air or , more likely , a just punishment is inflicted , despite it not being the one intended . Excellent show . |
544,508 | 562,732 | 93,409 | 9 | This is the classic action film that introduces one of the best action duos ever to come to the big screen . | Lethal Weapon is a nearly perfectly structured action movie . The acting , the story , the script , the directing , even the IDEA of the movie all combine to make up a fascinating and thrill-packed police film . The cross-cutting at the beginning of the film was particularly effective , in my opinion , as Martin Riggs ( Mel Gibson ) and Roger Murtaugh ( Danny Glover ) are introduced . The startling difference between their separate lives provides for tons of fun to be had later in the movie . Roger starts his day off as the family man reluctantly celebrating his 50th birthday party with his numerous children and his loving wife in the big family house , while Riggs is shown waking up naked in his trashy trailer and beginning his day with a healthy breakfast of a cigarette and a beer . The fact that both Roger and Riggs hated that they had to work together was especially effective in creating a touching atmosphere as they grew to be closer and closer friends . They worked so well together in this movie ; it was a symbiotic relationship . It was almost like they fed off of each other , and kept each other in line and out of trouble . I also liked the way that they showed that Riggs was deeply angered when he learned that the bad guys had taken Murtaugh's daughter . Things like this , when done right , can really get you to sit up and really get into the movie , and it was definitely done right here . Riggs was also very amusing in his anxiousness about being a cop ( ' Why don't you let me go to sleep ? ' ' No , come on , we gotta get up and catch bad guys ! ' ) , and Gary Busey delivers an excellent performance as the lead bad guy . This is the type of role that he plays best ( see " Under Siege " ) . Although the violence was painfully present in some parts ( the torture scenes were short but extremely difficult to watch ) , the film never relied on violence to pull it along or keep the audience's attention . The story was sufficient enough so that there was no overindulgence necessary in anything like that . In this film you see the first of the now traditional Lethal Weapon scenes in which Riggs and Murtaugh stagger away from a smoking crime scene , seeming to hold each other up . The final fight scene between Riggs and Mr . Joshua ( Busey ) was a little excessive , and there were a few scenes which were a bit faulty ( how did the guy on the building ledge expect to kill himself when there was such a huge air bag inflated on the ground directly below him ? ) , but overall this was a spectacular crime thriller . The movie rushes along at a feverish pace , and particularly Gibson's and Glover's success working together on screen make this a timeless action film that is not to be missed . |
544,299 | 562,732 | 106,918 | 9 | An excellent legal thriller . One of Tom Cruise's best performances . | In The Firm , Tom Cruise plays an extremely intelligent young lawyer who takes a job with a tremendous firm , having been seduced by their huge financial offerings . " The Firm " begins to sound very creepy very early in the film , when it becomes known that ' the firm ' has never had a divorce , ' the firm ' encourages children , ' ' the firm ' is a big , happy , 41 member family . Unfortunately , it seems that another interesting little side note is that no one has ever left ' the firm ' and lived . Mitch McDeere ( Cruise ) is hired by ' the firm , ' and at first , everything is great . The firm loves him enough to pay back all of his student loans all at once , and he is completely taken in by everything , even down to the way that the firm furnished his new house , in his beautiful new neighborhood ( ' To make you feel at home . Hope you don't mind . ' ) . The lives of Mitch and his wife Abby ( Jeanne Triplehorn ) are completely and drastically changed when he is hired by the firm , setting up a disorienting atmosphere , especially when strange things start happening , people getting killed by boat bombs and whatnot . Gary Busey plays a small , seedy role , and it works really well because he's best at playing seedy characters . Ed Harris also delivers a good performance as an FBI agent trying to coerce McDeere into helping them investigate the big bad firm . It seems that McDeere has been helping the firm in its illegal activities , making him guilty without him even knowing about it . If he doesn't help the FBI , he'll go to jail with the other 40 members of that big , happy family . The Firm really gets going once McDeere starts trying to investigate , making copies of incriminating files , etc . Some things may have gone a little too far , like the conveniently placed pillow truck , but as a whole , The Firm is a great thriller . It may not be quite as good as other John Grisham adaptations , The Rainmaker , in particular , but The Firm's complex and fascinating plot , as well as good direction and acting , makes it way above average . |
544,568 | 562,732 | 258,100 | 9 | Brilliant ! The funniest comedy since Dumb & Dumber ! | Run , Ronnie , Run is a comedy with the rare distinction of having an excellently written script , especially since it was meant to sound dumb . Ronnie Dobbs is your typical beer guzzling redneck who can't seem to avoid getting himself arrested , and who always seems to have his elaborate arrests caught on film and broadcast on television . Some dumb guy is discovered through his unenviable skill of getting embarrassingly arrested , has a TV show created around his arrests , and becomes an instant star . Clearly , this is not Oscar material . In fact , a plot outline like that leads you to believe that it will be just another bonehead comedy in the moronic tradition of American Pie and Road Trip and Big Momma's House . However , Run , Ronnie , Run proves to be much more than any of those movies . Not only is it packed full of sidesplitting comedy , it is also presented in numerous unique ways . The film opens with an introduction by an elderly man whose vulgar speech prepares the audience for the sheer hilarity that is to follow . The rest of the movie is sparsely narrated by Clay , one of Ronnie's accident-prone friends who is the funniest redneck I've seen in a movie in years , besides Ronnie himself . David Cross delivers a hilarious performance in this film , and hopefully this movie will allow people to forgive him for his part in the pathetic Scary Movie 2 . As is necessary in a comedy like this , the dialogue is full of great comedy , but the thing that makes this movie unique is that it is not only hilarious but it's very well written . There are lots of very simple but very effective speech gags , like Ronnie's dim-witted comment to a police officer who was being excessively angry with a young kid ( who happened to be the officer's son ) , as well as his charming response to his stripper girlfriend ( one of the many products of his instant fame ) when her very presence doesn't manage to create the response that he hopes for in his ex . And by the way , it's just not the same to read all this in a review , you have to see this stuff for yourself . Not only is it more effective to see it all for yourself , but there is so much uproarious comedy in this movie that it is impossible to list it all in one review . Every character in this film is significant and well presented , and the movie never gets boring or slow . There are a couple of things that could have been left out , such as the Mary Poppins spoof about giving your woman a good old kick in the cnt , as well as the eventual fate of Clay , but even this childish and sometimes crude and grotesque humor is not enough to bring down the movie as a whole . This is a great comedy in the tradition of Dumb & Dumber , although I can't say that the movie actually manages to pass that one up as far as sheer quality . Even though there were a few things that were a little excessive or did not need to be in the movie , Run , Ronnie , Run is still a tremendously amusing and entertaining film . Every character in the film will have you cheering , and there is even one noteworthy scene where the town Mayor's fat , video game addicted son gets ped off and does something that will make every jaw in the audience drop . That's one of the best scenes in the film , and the irony is one of the things that made it such a good scene . I assure you that I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best comedies to come along in years . It is so rare to see a comedy that is driven by the mishaps and misfortune of the uneducated ( and inbred ? ) that is able to overcome the simplicity of its content and come off as such a fulfilling and entertaining comedy . Definitely do not miss this one . |
543,952 | 562,732 | 112,641 | 9 | One of Scorsese's best and most disturbing films ever . . . | I just watched Casino again for the first time since around 1998 . The thing that I remember most vividly from seeing it that last time is being thoroughly upset by the scene in the cornfield at the end of the film . Most of the rest of the movie was overshadowed by the memory of that one scene , so I wanted to watch it again because I love Scorsese's films so much that not knowing about Casino was just acceptable . So I watched it again and I loved it again and my respect and amazement at the quality of the movie and the acting and the story and everything else was renewed , and nothing was that bad during the whole movie , so when the cornfield scene was coming up I thought , come on , there's only maybe 8 minutes left in the movie , how bad could this scene really be ? Still , my heart was pounding in my chest . It was bad , man . It was real bad . Now , when I say it was bad , I should clarify that it wasn't bad film-making , it was brilliant film-making . But it was too brilliant . It was so brilliant that it affects me as though I was watching what took place in that scene before me eyes in real life . Scorsese gets a lot of bad press about his films being too violent ( from my mom , anyway ) , and Casino is no exception . In fact , it's probably the flagship of violent Scorsese films . I've been an avid horror fan for more than a decade now , so violence doesn't really bother me , but Scorsese's violence has a grittiness and realism that sets it apart from most other types of film violence . It is graphic and sudden and has a gravity and an on-screen affect that makes it look like a documentary depiction of it . Spielberg achieved this same effect in some of the murders in the not so well received Munich in 2004 . Now , as I watch the end of Casino , I wonder what it's like watching the dailies with Scorsese , as he sees for the first time what they've captured on film . Do he and the other cinematographers that work with him jump up and clap each other on the back and pump their fists and yell , " YES ! ! We got it , that's the PERFECT shot ! ! " Or does Scorsese turn his head from the screen in disgust and whisper , " That's the one . Print it . " I'm guessing ( hoping ) it's some combination of the two . ( spoilers ) Odd , by the way , that the cringe induced by the final scene should be caused by seeing what happens to Nicky ( Joe Pesci ) , who is by far the film's most violent and out of control character . The brutality of his character is as thorough as can be , but Joe Pesci is just so COOL . He plays almost the same character as he was in Goodfellas ( an infinitely more watchable and , in my opinion , even better film overall ) , and he just does it so well . Makes me wonder what he's really like in real life . He can't really be like that , but he can't be that different , you know what I mean ? Sadly , no matter how good this movie is , I just can't watch that cornfield scene . I learned this afternoon that I don't ever want to see it again , just like I don't ever want to see that cop get his ear cut off in Reservoir Dogs . I think those are the only two scenes in any film I've ever seen that I really don't ever want to see again . Brilliant film-making though . I haven't said anything about the myriad of brilliant performances yet , so I'll just say that Sharon Stone plays your typical hysterical woman , always shrieking for her money , her drugs , and her jewelry , her jewelry , her jewelry , for crying out loud , and DeNiro is brilliant as well ( and as always ) . But Pesci steals the show in every scene though , including that last one . Now I need to go watch Home Alone to get that image of him out of my head . . . |
544,215 | 562,732 | 780,571 | 9 | I'm just trying ' to be a better person . My name is Earl . . . | I have a feeling that Mr . Brooks is going to be difficult for the more narrow-minded moviegoers to accept . Sadly , Kevin Costner is one of those actors who carries an iconography that makes it difficult for a great many people to accept him in certain roles , similar to people like John Travolta or even Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt . But the thing is , all of them are tremendously talented actors , and the constant bickering that I associate with their names stems from the guys I used to work in the video store with for a year or so after I finished high school . I never understood their immediate condemnation of the new Pitt of DiCaprio movies , which most often I watched myself and loved ( with the exception of The Beach , of course ) . I had immediate reservations about accepting Costner as a serial killer myself ( not the least reason for which is that I just watched Dances with Wolves again a couple weeks ago and haven't seen A Perfect World in maybe 15 years ) , but I watched the trailer and decided to give it a chance . Having done so , it's easy to understand the criticisms , but sad that these people were so focused on anything negative they could find , because it made them miss out on what is undeniably a taught , fascinating and brilliantly written and acted thriller . Yes , the relationship between Costner's Mr . Brooks and William Hurt's character , and the very existence of Hurt's character in the film , is some pretty thin cinematic ice , as is the concept of treating killing as an addiction , like alcohol or drugs . But the reason this works is because Costner and Hurt have genuine on screen chemistry and for many people , killing is done for a thrill . Mr . Brooks is just a guy who no longer wants that thrill , just like people who no longer want to drink , even though it makes them feel so good . Killing as an addiction is an extremely difficult concept to sell and the movie never really pulls it off completely , so instead it relies on high entertainment , outstanding performances and a simply brilliant script , and you know what ? That's just fine with me . Personally , I found it harder to believe that the one time Mr . Brooks made a mistake , he ended up getting photographed by an amateur photographer who just happens to share his lust for blood . RIGHT . ( spoilers ) There are definite weak moments in the film , it's far from perfect , but after re-thinking the entire movie , the only moment that really takes away from the film is not Demi Moore ( OR her character's divorce ) , it's not Brooks ' daughter committing murder herself ( she DID do it , or at least was certainly criminally involved ) , and it's not Hurt as the physical manifestation of Mr . Brooks ' rationalizing ego . The only thing that just doesn't fit is that bizarre techno shootout near the end , which looks like it would be more at home in a music video . It just came out of nowhere and went nowhere . And by the way , some have complained that we're supposed to " feel sorry " for Demi Moore's Detective Atwood for having to give up one or two million dollars when she is worth more than $60 million . Her conflict is not the money . This is made obvious by the fact that , as it is mentioned directly through dialogue , she doesn't do her job for the money . Her conflict is that her husband is a total dirtbag and she doesn't want to give him a dime . I would feel exactly the same . In many parts it's hard not to crack jokes , or at least think of cracking jokes ( " Hello , my name is Earl and I'm a killaholic . . . " ) , but to write this movie off because of it's weak , if numerous , shortcomings is a terrible mistake . It is inarguably one of the most original thrillers to come along in a good number of years and it's a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved . Bravo ! |
544,657 | 562,732 | 212,338 | 9 | Ben Stiller in a good movie ? ! There's a first time for everything . | Meet The Parents is an excellent comedy , despite the fact that the casting director was not the most brilliant person in the world . A lot of the material in the film was clichéd or simply not creative , such as the fact that Greg's ( Stiller ) luggage obviously got lost , but the film as a whole is an excellent and very entertaining comedy . Robert DeNiro is horribly miscast as the overprotective father , but he is such a good actor that he makes his performance in the role work very effectively . He didn't get to really be the startlingly effective tough guy that he is so famous for , but at least he was introduced in a domineering low angle shot , as he looks down at Greg and Pam from his bedroom window ( a very smart move by the film's director ) . Ben Stiller plays the part of the charmingly named Greg Focker , who wants to marry his girlfriend but has to earn the approval of her parents first . His name is bad enough , but he has to constantly explain his job as a nurse , a profession which provides him little to no respect from Pam's family . The majority of the film relates the events of the weekend spent at Pam's parents house , and everything imaginable goes wrong for him . The thing that makes this movie so funny is the well-written script and the way that some of the actors deliver their lines , particularly Robert DeNiro . The casting director deserves little to no credit for DeNiro's quality performance , but he just did such a good job in an uncharacteristic performance that he really steals the show . Some of the situations and especially the dialogue in this movie are destined to become classic lines ? ' Not many men in your profession , are there , Greg ? ' ' I have nipples , could you milk me ? ' And , of course , there is the hilarious way that DeNiro constantly calls Greg ' Focker ' or , in at least one instance , ' Greg R . N . ' Meet The Parents is a film that a surprisingly wide variety of people can enjoy . Meeting the parents is a part of relationships that the vast majority of men go through , and this can either be a smooth or devastating experience , so they can relate to what goes on in this film . Also , the point of view of the woman whose parents are being met is thoroughly presented , so the female audience will not feel left out at all . Even parents can enjoy this movie , because what parents don't worry about their kids and their dating experiences ? Some of the situations may go a little too far , I mean , it's not very often that an eligible bachelor meets his girlfriend's parents and nearly burns their house to the ground , and it's a little excessive that EVERYthing goes wrong , not just a lot of things , but the comedy is so good that these excessive things are okay . Ben Stiller is actually a good choice to play the role of Greg Focker , because he is such an annoying actor that it is very effective in the way that he gets all of Pam's family and friends to hate him . He makes a good scapegoat , and his unfortunate luck produces a good portion of the comedy in this film . But it is DeNiro , above all , who makes this such a good movie . He is cast strongly against type , but Meet The Parents is still a very well-made comedy that is just a lot of fun . |
544,473 | 562,732 | 120,363 | 9 | A strong follow-up to the tremendous 1995 hit , Toy Story , but the sequel is not quite up to the same standards as the original . | First of all , it should be noted that when I say that Toy Story 2 is not up to the standards of its predecessor , I do not mean the computer animation , which is just as spectacular as it was in 1995 , if not better . One of the things that the 1995 version really tried to do ( to some extent ) was to avoid actually showing human faces . We never see the faces of adults particularly , and the faces of the children that we saw ( such as Andy , the vicious Sid , and his pathetic little sister ) are obviously animated and do not fit in with the level of reality achieved by the rest of the film . In Toy Story 2 , we see a lot more faces , and while they're still never done quite right , it's good to see that they have made a significant improvement in this area . In the original Toy Story , we were so fascinated to see a presentation of the real life that we all imagined that our toys had when we were away that that was enough to make a great story for a great film , while in the sequel we are taken a lot deeper into the lives of our toys , which possess a lot more than even the extensive amount of emotion seen in the first film . The toys seem to possess a much deeper sense of neglect than was made clear by their competition over who is the favorite toy in the first movie , and we are even treated to an overly emotional and altogether unnecessary song called ' When She Loved Me , ' which really only serves to sadden the entire film and slow it down . There is an entirely new antagonist presented in the character of Big Al , the toy baron who desperately seeks Woody as the last toy to complete a classic collector set which he is planning on selling for some huge amount of money . We learn about Woody's past in this way , and he is faced with the conflict of staying with his friends ( Andy's toys , as well as Andy himself ) , or returning to what I guess would be called his family , with the unfortunate addition that if he decides to do that , he will remain in a box and be looked at the rest of his existence , never to be played with or loved by a child again . The characters , thankfully , have all returned for the second movie , and we are again treated to a great show of hilarious adventure with them all , including a wonderful scene in which Buzz Lightyear finally encounters the evil Emperor Zurg , which results in a great toy battle scene that plays respectfully ( note that , Kevin Smith , RESPECTFULLY ) off of the battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back . The movie is yet another marvel of animation from the people at Pixar , and it does not fail in the least to generate laughs ( see , for example , the ultimate result of the battle between Zurg and Buzz ) . Where the movie goes wrong ( and , it should be noted , it goes VERY slightly wrong ) is where it tries to insert too much emotion and sadness where it really doesn't belong . It was enough in the first film to see that Woody was so heartbroken as he watched Andy's interest in him begin to fade , but the sequel erroneously thinks that the audience should have tears brought to their eyes , which is just not true . But despite being overly emotional , Toy Story 2 captures the wonderful level of adventure and entertainment that made the original film so memorable , and it solidly earns itself a place as one of the great animated films . Fans of the original film are sure to love it , just beware of an excessive amount of emotion presented in the film . It's a comedy with a little too much heart , which makes it a little lop-sided , but the adventure is undeniably strong . |
544,253 | 562,732 | 330,267 | 9 | A phenomenal piece of historical film-making . | It will be hard for some viewers to look past assumptions that this is a documentary made by a Hollywood director trying to cash in on the success of Titanic by making documentaries like Expeidition : Bismarck , Ghosts of the Abyss , and Aliens of the Deep , but from his past as the director of Titanic and Thhe Abyss , I think it becomes genuinely clear that he just has a true , child-like fascination with the unreachable depths of the ocean , and he has achieved a level of success that allows him financially to travel miles down into the deep and show us parts of the world that no human being has ever seen before and may otherwise never have seen at all . Granted , I understand that Cameron is not solely responsible for our ventures to the bottom of the ocean , but his efforts have given us images and memories and knowledge about the wreck of the Bismarck , one of the most controversial shipwrecks of World War II , and has made a tremendous contribution to science and to history . This documentary goes into astonishing detail about the political climate of the world at the time the Bismarck was built by Nazi Germany and the jaw-dropping statistics that she boasted , both physically , from her deck guns at over 100 feet long able to fire thousand pound pieces of metal thousands of yards with frightening accuracy , to the tremendous number of ships that she was able to sink before was finally sank herself during a battle with British ships . The controversy comes in over who is to take credit for the actual , physical sinking of the Bismarck , as the British claim to have sunk her while the Germans claim that her crew destroyed her in a last effort to have some control over their own fate . The film features astonishing research and a detailed look at the history of the ship and the battle that sank her , as well as some incredible computer generated recreations of the actual sinking of the ship , edited together masterfully with the new footage of the 61 year old wreck . The addition of two of the survivors from the Bismarck , as well as the fact that old enemies now look back on the battle and the war and the lives lost with mutual sadness and regret add a poignant human element to the story , which was always there but which is easy to forget in the face of the sheer magnitude of the ship , her power , and the wrenching inhumanity of that war . This is a powerful documentary that only suffers from a goofy , highly over-dramatic narration that reminds me of the similarly goofy narration of the atrocious documentary Gunner Palace , which generated high expectations and satisfied none . This documentary is the exact opposite , and whether or not James Cameron is cashing in on any kind of success , if he keeps them this good , I say keep them coming . |
543,779 | 562,732 | 120,780 | 9 | The interesting story and the quality performances ( mostly from George Clooney and Ving Rhames ) save Out of Sight from being a run-of-the-mill action film . | ( SPOILERS ) In an excellent opening sequence , George Clooney walks out of a large building , roughly yanks his tie off , and throws it to the ground with all his might in a way that only George can . This guy is one of the best actors working right now , and his characteristic performance in Out of Sight is clearly no exception . The unique bank robbery that follow the tie scene is both innovative and surprising , because you just don't expect George to get caught just because his crappy car won't start , especially after such a flawlessly executed robbery . The thing that sets Out of Sight apart from other action romance films is that it's got a sufficiently original love story that is propelled by a uniquely presented storyline . The way that time is twisted around in the presentation of the film makes it more interesting , because it gives the audience a way to go back and see what happens before that hilarious opening sequence . Jennifer Lopez provides the only downfall of the film , horribly miscast in her role but luckily the quality of the rest of the cast makes up for the terrible black mark that she causes . She's just too cutesy and too obviously put in the movie for no other reason than to have a good looking celebrity in her role in the film , despite the fact that she clearly doesn't belong . Casting her in this film parallels the absolute stupidity of casting Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World Is Not Enough , the 19th Bond film which , sadly , was otherwise too weak to survive her laughable performance . Out of Sight not only presents excellent character development but also a very complex plot , which is one of the best parts of the film . The diamond heist that makes up the majority of the latter part of the film is particularly well done , even if the criminals were a little blown out of proportion . But at least the group of criminals presented is fairly diverse . You have a leader , a squirrelly know-it-all guy from whom the entire heist is nearly stolen , and they even threw in a clumsy fat guy who was more interested in the big steaks in the fridge of the house they had broken into than he was in stealing the diamonds . It was particularly amusing the way that that guy died , by shooting himself in the head after tripping on his way up the stairs to get George , who he had at gunpoint ( which is weird , because I could have sworn that that scene was in Suicide Kings ) . At any rate , the thing that really made the romantic element of the film work ( the tired theme of the law officer falling for the con ) was that it was more realistically presented than they usually are . In general , you have the law officer pulling some strings or breaking the law in his or her own clever way to win the con's freedom , legally or not , but this was not the case in Out of Sight , and it's a good thing , too . Instead , in one of the best endings of any film in years , George is given a ride back to jail ( after having been captured by Lopez after the botched diamond heist ) in the back of a van with Samuel L . Jackson , who just happens to be a famous break out artist . It's not long before their brief conversation reveals to George the opportunity that Lopez put in front of him by pairing him up with Sam , and this sure as hell beats a riding-off-into-the-sunset ending . It leaves a huge hole for a sequel , but as much as I loved this film , I hope that they don't make a sequel . First of all , it would have to be DAMN good to do this movie justice , and second of all , a sequel just isn't necessary . Out of Sight leaves you with a smile on your face , because of what you can foresee about George's future as well as the cleverness of the entire film , and there's really no reason to go any further . Enjoy the film as it is , because quality cinema like this doesn't come along very often . |
543,767 | 562,732 | 101,025 | 9 | Heavily symbolic film about Spain's struggle to escape from the oppressive regime of Franco . | ( spoilers ) One of the things that I really like about this film is that its message can be delivered whether you know the situation in Spain at the time or not . The nationalists win violently at the end of the film , and you know the meaning of this without even having to know many historical details about the oppression of the Franco regime at the time that the movie takes place , which is important in making this movie internationally comprehensible . Carmela is a maternal figure both for her husband Paulino as well as for the young mute boy that they have taken into their care . They are entertainers seeking to escape the violence of the war , which is coming closer and closer to their home , but ultimately end up trying to entertain the Nationalist army and thereby win their freedom . There is a great scene at the beginning of the movie where Carmela and Paulino and Gustavete are performing for the rugged , less organized Republican army ( sort of the roughnecks who have to defend themselves against the offenses of the Nationalists ) . This is a delightful performance that hugely entertains the audience , but it stops in its tracks as the sound of planes is heard overhead , and everyone in the room goes completely silent , waiting to hear the sound of bombs dropping . In this early scene , we see exactly what is going on in the film without having to have it delivered flatly through dialogue . We see the winners AND the losers in this film . The movie opens up with the performance for the Republicans , where everyone is having a good time including the performers , but by the end of the film , Carmela and Paulino and Gustavete have been captured and are nervously performing for the stolid Nationalist army , all the while terrified that they may say something wrong and offend the diminutive Franco in the front row ( who reminds me of Lord Farquaad from Shrek ) and be thrown back into prison or killed . The difference between the two armies is striking . The Republicans are clearly less organized , less trained , have less equipment , weapons , training , financial backing , etc , and most importantly , are very clearly there to defend themselves rather than wage war against the Nationalists . These are the peaceful people who are forced into a war situation by a regime that is about to attack them . The Nationalists , however , are a much more organized and well trained and funded group . They are , in fact , so organized , that the suits in the audience at the end of the film are literally color coded . The majority of the symbolism in the film is centered around Paulino , Carmela , and Gustavete . Carmela represents Spain , obviously , and her death at the end of the film represents the expiration of freedom and possibly the death of Spain itself . She tries to save everyone , worrying about the suffering of all people and therefore putting herself in danger in an effort to help them , while Paulino is much more realistic , concerned mostly with their own problems and saving themselves . He is not portrayed as selfish or as a coward , but as a realist . He knows that trying to fight against the Nationalists is simply not realistic and is a stupid way to get himself killed . Carmela died at the end of the film because she stood up against people that she had absolutely no power over . When Carmela is shot , Gustavete finally managed to get some sound out of his throat , representing a hope for the future . Carmela was killed , but Gustavete represents a new youth , and he has been given a voice by the display of violence put on by the Nationalist army , embodied in the one man who pulled the trigger . There is , however the fact that the Nationalists erupt into total confusion when things get rough at the end of the film , as well as the stunned look on the soldier's face when he realizes that he has killed Carmela , which shows that the movie is not about bad people , but about a bad ideology . The Nationalists are not portrayed as evil people , just people who made bad choices and got involved with a bad cause that did not turn out to be what they thought it was . This movie reminds me in a way of Life Is Beautiful ( as does José Luis Cuerda's Butterfly ) , except that both the tragedy as well as the comedy are each reduced in each film . This is not a film about the power of stupid people in large groups , but rather the effect that a large idea can have on impressionable people . It warns against the dangers of being weak willed and simply going with the flow , the extremes that this kind of conformity can lead to . Clearly , this is a worst case scenario , but the film had a message that crosses time , culture , and international boundaries . |
543,907 | 562,732 | 87,751 | 9 | True , it's a true story , but HOW true ? | I can't say that I am entirely familiar with the events portrayed in Mrs . Soffel beyond what I read about it in William Coles ' novel , ' Another Kind of Monday ' ( except that it was based on a book called ' The Biddle Boys and Mrs . Soffel , ' by a man named Arthur Forrest , who wrote for small , trashy magazines around the turn of the century , similar to The National Enquirer , magazines which were not very accurate but were packed with information ) , so I'm not entirely sure how much of the film is a presentation of true events and how much was glamorized for the pulp magazines and glamorized again for the movie . What I do know is that the movie is based on true events , and as a loose adaptation of reality , I think it succeeds pretty well . Mrs . Soffel is the wife of a prison warden who is supervising the sensational case of the Biddle boys , two disarmingly attractive and charming boys who are sentenced to hang for a murder that they claim to have never committed and that the movie never tells us for sure whether they did or not . Since she takes on the task of being the divine counsel of the boys while on Death Row ( meaning she reads certain Bible verses to them to keep them calm ) , she is in close contact with them for an extended period of time and , as is to be expected with a criminal good looking enough to be portrayed by Mel Gibson , she falls in love with one of them . This is the foundation of the whole premise of the movie , but if you're already wondering how a God-loving wife of a prison warden could possibly fall in love with a convicted murderer on Death Row , let me just transcribe here a poem that he wrote for her while in prison : ' Just a little violet from across the wayCame to cheer a prisoner gimmeattahere in his cell one day . Just a little gimmeattahere flower sent be a loving hand , As a kindly meaning that true hearts gimmeattahere understand . God has smiled gimmeattahere upon it and the sender gimmeattahere fair , And soon that little gimmeattahere token , wrapped in hand so gimmeattahere neat , Rests quietly in the gimmeattahere grave , For which a heart that's true gimmeattahere does beat . ' Very sweet , and since it's Mel Gibson , this honest woman doesn't realize or even consider the possibility that he wrote the poem during a sudden abundance of free time in an effort to get close to her and inspire her to help them escape . I have a particular fondness for movies that show people cleverly escaping from prison ( and / or bravely enduring it , both of which Paul Newman does in Cool Hand Luke and , even better , Papillon ) , so I though the idea of sawing through the prison bars and holding them in place with candle wax was brilliant , and the escape was wonderfully pulled off . There are a lot of people who criticize the film for doing little more than making a comment on women's roles at the turn of the century ( and as many others who criticize it for almost making such a comment and then not making a real commitment to any specific point of view ) . I don't really think that something like this should be held against the movie , because it makes you THINK about women's roles at the turn of the century . There is a very distinct value to movies that make just enough of a statement about something in order to get you to think about it and come to your own conclusion . Kate Soffel , the title character , is stuck in a marriage to a man with whom she is not necessarily unhappy as much as she just disagrees with his moral character , convinced that he does not take the content of his profession seriously enough beyond just the fulfillment of his duties . She knows that she is a subordinate to him , which is why , after she protests the hanging of the Biddle Boys ( this is just a little nickname that I made up for them ? ) he suggests that she go away for a while to clear her head , to which she responds , ' Go ahead and write to Elsie , or your mother , or wherever you want to send me . ' Later , there is a fire in Ed Biddle's cell ( the one she falls in love with ) , and Mrs . Soffel screams for the guards to come , and they drag him out of his cell barely saving his life . As they are dragging him away to the infirmary , Ed chokes to Mrs . Soffel , ' You should have let me die , ' to which she responds , ' I won't . ' She's already made up her mind about what she's going to do . The escape itself is wonderfully entertaining , even though clearly contrived . It's more than a little convenient that the prison is absolutely silent ( apparently the Biddle Boys are the only prisoners in the entire place ) , and there is a nice booming sound anytime an approaching guard enters for a periodic walkthrough , slamming a heavy steel door on his way in and on his way out . They might as well have had a bell for the guard to ring to warn them anytime he was coming . He also runs his nightstick across the bars as he passes through one time ( interrupting Ed's and Jack's frantic sawing ) , foreshadowing a discovery of their plan , although such a discovery never happens . But things like this do not take away much from the movie as a whole , because the important scenes work so well . ( spoilers ) Just before the escape , Ed suggests to Mrs . Soffel that it might be helpful to them if they had guns , and she gets angry , refusing immediately to the request and , as she says , ' You think you can sweet-talk me into anything ! ' forgetting that she is saying this to a prisoner through bars that he and his brother have been able to saw through , using saws that she provided for each of them . Evidently he CAN sweet-talk her into anything ! It is also a wonderful scene when the warden is faced with the task of explaining where his wife is at a press conference concerning the escape of the Biddles . Again , back to the fact that the movie doesn't take an immediately discernable standpoint on women's issues , it at the very least does not present flat characters . There is a scene after the escape where the movie introduces the possibility that she doesn't after all , want to go with them . Ed jumps off the train that they have hitched a ride on , and Mrs . Soffel is hesitant , first telling Jack to go first ( hinting that she may just stay on the train and be rid of them forever once he jumps ) , but ultimately she goes with them , accepting her fate as she leaps from the moving train . If the movie does not make a specific comment on women's role at the turn of the century , it most certainly does make a strong comment about the flaws of law enforcement . The film , as is to be expected , ends with the Biddles lying in snow soaked in their own blood and Mrs . Soffel in prison , but as the Biddles lie there dying , one of the men goes to fire the final shot to kill Ed but is stopped by a fellow officer , who puts his hand on the man's arm and says , ' Leave him be , he can't hurt nobody no more . ' Given the fact that the Biddles are likely innocent , the slow-motion panning shot of all of the heavily armed men who just gunned down a couple of young brothers fleeing for their freedom and their very lives makes you wonder who is really hurting who . As a side note , I would also like to mention that this is one of those extremely valuable films that Mel Gibson made before the Lethal Weapon series turned him into a Rambo-style Hollywood badass , doomed to make one goofy action film after another , which vainly tries to capture the success of the excellent Lethal Weapon movies ( which was , as all series ' are , a diminishing one from the first film , although the rate of descent was not as precipitous as many other series I've seen , like Austin Powers ) and , to a lesser extent , the Mad Max films . Another of his meaningful early films to check out is the staggering anti-war film Gallipoli , which stands with Mrs . Soffel as one of the most effective dramas he's ever made . Bravo . |
544,411 | 562,732 | 219,699 | 9 | Much creepier than I expected ! | The Gift comes on the heels of The Watcher , another relatively lesser known thriller in which Keanu Reeves plays a bad guy surprisingly well . The Gift is the much better of the two , and for obvious reasons , given the astonishing level of talent involved . Everyone is in this movie ! Cate Blanchette , Giovanni Ribisi , one of our most versatile actors , Reeves , Greg Kinnear , Hillary Swank , Michael Jeter ? and it's directed by Sam Raimi ! It amazes me that this movie is not more famous , because this is one of the best teams I've seen assembled all at once in years . This movie , despite the surpernatural content , has a much more realistic approach than The Watcher , which was really just your standard by the numbers thriller . Granted , there is not much subtlety in the characterization ( especially with Donnie ! ) , but Sam Raini has never really been known for his subtlety . Reeves plays the role of Donnie Barksdale , the abusive husband of Valerie Barksdale ( Hillary Swank ) , who comes under suspicion when a dead body is dredged up in the pond behind his house . This is the makings for a boring murder mystery , but the tangled web that is weaved among the striking number of three dimensional characters is brilliant in its complexity and ( as is usually the case when a murder mystery goes for this level of complexity and depth ) , none of the scenes or occurrences or revelations of evidence ever seem contrived or tacked on . For a movie with such a supernatural element , it has an amazingly real world feel . Cate Blanchette plays Annie Wilson , a local mystic who makes a meager income telling fortunes , or whatever you would like to call it , mostly to local friends , many of whom receive her tellings for free . Wilson's husband had been killed some time before , casting doubt on her true ability to see the fortunes or misfortunes of others before they happen . Soon she has a vision of a woman's murdered body Jessica King , played by Katie Holmes ) having been dumped in a lake , which turns out to be the lake behind Donnie's house . The movie spends a lot of the first half establishing how viciously abusive Donnie is to his wife . She shows up at Wilson's house asking for help , but refuses to leave Donnie . She's afraid , as abused women so often are , to leave him , because she is sure that he'll kill her . And judging by the extent of her bruises and injuries , it doesn't seem like a stretch . Needless to say , Donnie forbids Valerie from seeing Wilson because he's sure she's involved in some kind of witchcraft . Similarly , his defense attorney has a field day with her story about her vision of Jessica's body in his lake . She becomes the one weak link in an otherwise airtight prosecution . Interestingly , there is something to be said about human nature , as it is difficult not to sympathize with Donnie , even after all of the terrible things that he said and did during the film , when he is on the stand , admitting that he is an abusive husband and acknowledging how wrong it is . The entire courtroom scene is outstanding , you can literally feel the tension in the air . Imagine how terrified Valerie must have been ! ! It's good to see such a well-made courtroom scene , since it's the most important part of the movie . Then again , the rest of the law enforcement content of the movie is botched pretty badly . Donnie gut-punches Annie Wilson right in front of the Sheriff when they're searching his lake . No one seems to mind , even though everyone had a right to be there , even the police , yet they do nothing . There is also the unexpected addition of the fact that Valerie WANTS To forgive Donnie , because he had been having an affair with Jessica King , and she thinks she deserved what she got . It's an interesting analysis of the bizarre mentality that some abused women have . I can never understand why women stay with abusive husbands . It always seems to me that they would be embarrassed to still be married to a man who beats them , but apparently their fear outweighs that . Here , she forgives Donnie for cheating , but not the woman he cheated with , even if he was the one that killed her . The story involving Buddy Cole ( Ribisi ) is wonderfully acted , as always , and satisfying in that we get to see something that , I think , we sometimes wish more people could experience , the abused son getting back at his father as an adult . I think this almost never happens , because while abused children tend to hang on to that anger for the rest of their lives , they also hang onto their fear , so revenge stories like this are remarkably hard to come by . I'm no expert , of course . Just thinking out loud . The end of the film is great , even though it ends with the hint of a small cliché about the senselessness of violence ( You think you know someone ? ) , but can I just say one thing ? The music that comes on when Cole rescues Wilson at the end of the movie at the lake , for the first second or two , sounds almost exactly like the beginning of the Back to the Future overture . Maybe it was just me . The movie also , by the way , contains what might be the creepiest fiddle playing I've ever seen . At any rate , this in an outstanding accomplishment for everyone involved . Highly recommended ! |
544,757 | 562,732 | 128,445 | 9 | This is weird ? a school comedy with some thought put into it . | ( spoilers ) The film Rushmore had a lot to say about relationships and loyalty . It dealt both with romantic relationships as well as friendships , and the importance of honesty in those relationships . Even more than that however , the film was about the depths that people will sink to when they feel cheated out of a romantic relationship , and the massive retaliation that may come to the person who benefited from that person's broken heart . Max Fischer , who was the subject that was deprived of a coveted partner , illustrates this idea with the noteworthy quote , ' War does funny things to men . ' Rushmore is the story of an extremely geeky high school kid who develops an unusually strong crush on a new teacher named Rosemary Cross at Rushmore Academy , the school that he attends . He begins to go to extraordinary lengths to achieve Ms . Cross's attention and to impress her despite their significant age difference , and after a while he begins to become preoccupied with these efforts . He wants to build a huge aquarium on school campus in her honor , and one of his sponsors is a rich businessman named Herman Blume . Unfortunately , Max's infatuation is not returned to him by Ms . Cross , who feels that they are obviously not right for each other . When she begins dating Blume after having denied Max's romantic advances , Max declares war on him . When Ms . Cross and Herman began dating , he had recently had a rough break-up , and is more than likely a little lovesick about it , and possibly feels like a victim . As a result , he seems to want to project his pain onto someone else , and Max is the one that this anger falls on . It seems as though his relationship with Ms . Cross is as much a way for him to lash out at someone else as it is a romantic endeavor . One way that this is shown is when Herman was walking through a playground where a few young kids are playing basketball . One of them shoots the ball for the basket , and for no other apparent reason than just because he was there , Herman blocks the kid's shot . This crudely symbolizes his efforts to block Max's efforts towards Ms . Cross , and also displays Herman's side of the war that love has provoked between himself and Max , who until now had no problem with one another . The other side of this war is Max's retaliation from having the object of his affection taken from him by another man . This is a major turning point in the film , where it switches from containing elements of a romantic comedy to much darker situations of anger and contempt between two people fighting over the same woman . Neither Max nor Herman does anything serious at first that could alter the other person's life ; Herman runs over Max's bicycle with his car , Max delivers bees into Herman's room at one point , etc . However , Max does go as far as to tell Herman's wife that he is involved with this other woman , which may have been overstepping his bounds a little bit . Being younger , Max is not as wary of the consequences of an act like this , he just wants to do anything possible to hurt the person who hurt him . This is an example of the funny things that war does to men . All of the characters in Rushmore do a lot of very effective acting with their faces and body language , and there are also a lot of scenes in which there is little to no dialogue . Max is always dressed very sharply , unless he is dressed up in costume for one of his plays . Also , for a fifteen-year-old boy , Max speaks with surprising maturity . Even though he is a terrible student , he is obviously talented , and seems to feel superior to a lot of the older people around him . One good example is , of course , Herman . It seems that Max feels that he is superior to Herman and this intensifies his anger when Ms . Cross denies his amorous advances and instead dates Herman . The play that Max directed which was shown near the end of the film seems to almost summarize the entire film . The play was about a military war which Max himself had a leading role in , and it represented the war between himself and Herman Blume . At the end of the play , after countless casualties ( i . e . Herman's marriage , any chance Max may ever have had with Ms . Cross , etc ) , Max's character is faced with a woman from the opposing army , and they are pointing rifles at each other . They make a verbal truce with each other , almost romantically . Offstage , this girl seems to be the person that Max may be starting to have feelings for , showing that he has overcome his obsession with Ms . Cross . He has found someone within his reach and looks like he has finally found a way to be happy ? a good ending to a great film . |
544,641 | 562,732 | 120,815 | 9 | Absolutely among the greatest war films ever made , with just a few unforgivable mistakes . | As a die-hard Steven Spielberg fan , I find it difficult to give such a tremendously powerful film like Saving Private Ryan anything less than a 10 , but there were a couple of things in the film that caused huge problems for me , mainly because they could have been avoided so easily . For example , whose brilliant idea was it to cast a teenage heartthrob like Matt Damon ( and yes , I realize that he is not a teen himself , but he is extremely popular among junior high school girls ) in the role of a private in a World War II film ? ! Tom Hanks was perfect , but only because he is one of the best actors working right now , and he can do a great job in virtually any role . Furthermore , Ted Danson literally stops the film in its tracks . However , Saving Private Ryan , despite these superficial problems , is a truly timeless film , and is an extremely powerful depiction of the brutality of World War II . Besides being hugely entertaining , a lot can be learned from this film . It is a landmark in filmmaking history and should not be missed . |
544,740 | 562,732 | 83,907 | 9 | A modern horror milestone . | We have a tendency to look back and glorify the old , great horror films , like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Living Dead , etc , automatically hailing them and lamenting the depressing thought that films like that will probably never be made again . Rob Zombie recently eased that fear a little bit , but in Sam Raimi's early career , he was making gritty , grimy horror films that reminded us that the old days of horror can still be brought back to life . For every I Know What You Did Last Summer or Hostel or other idiot teen slasher I think back to the days of Raimi's early horror films and just wonder what happened . Here's something interesting , in modern times , there are more and more high budget horror movies coming out , with a noticeable decline in quality as the money gets bigger . I wish someone would notice that one of the best things about The Evil Dead is that it was made on a shoe-string budget . Like Chaplin's favorite part of his career , the early years when he would just go to the park with a bench and a girl and a big oafish guy and just bang out a film , Evil Dead gives the feeling of being just a bunch of friends who went out to the woods and cut themselves off from society for a while to see what they could come up with . And they came out with a classic ! The plot , of course , focuses on ( you guessed it ) a group of friends who go out to the woods to camp . The opening of the movie , the drive through the creepy woods , is one of the best examples of mood-setting that I can think of . You can almost feel the trees closing in around you as the hapless friends drive through the woods , teasing each other about the scary woods . There are several scenes in the movie that will immediately put off a lot of viewers , such as the infamous tree love scene ( not my favorite either ) , but the fact that the movie doesn't try to please anyone is what allows it to cut loose and just be a real horror movie . Trying to please a wide audience is the worst thing that any horror film can do , because that's what gives you those stupid sophomoric teen thrillers . Bruce Campbell , in the first performance of his best role , Ash , is surprisingly geeky in the first Evil Dead movie , at least compared to the hardened badass that he was to become in the two sequels , and considering the fact that he is generally remembered as being the coolest horror hero imaginable . But I think that may be what makes the trilogy work so well . A good story should show character change , and through the course of the trilogy Ash becomes something completely different from what he was when we met him in 1981 , and Campbell fits the geek and the hero exceptionally well . Raimi understands the cartoonishly excessive blood and gore will reduce the real scariness of the movie and make it almost into a bloody comedy , so he uses that idea to its maximum potential , causing us to laugh and squirm all throughout the movie , although the real scares are few and far between . The sound effects , camera work , costumes , and vile liquids spraying forth across the screen , however , are horrible enough , and it's clear that Raimi and the cast and crew are having a lot of fun with the material , which is one of the many reasons that it's so easy for the audience to have fun with it , too . It should be noted that , because of the shoestring budget , they had to be truly creative in their effects and filming . Much of the camera work is done using very crude techniques , and the creativity involved creates a feel that the biggest budget could never approach . There are dollies and slides and other devices that are handmade from things like pieces of wood and duct tape in order to get the necessary shots , and the effect is brilliant . Can you imagine ? They actually used duct tape to film this movie ! Outstanding ! Strangely , Raimi took a four year break from directing after the Evil Dead , before finally following the movie up with the astonishingly bad Crimewave , the badness of which just strikes me as a real mystery , given the talent involved in making it . Luckily , he almost immediately followed this disaster up with the first sequel to Evil Dead , which plays like a sequel and a remake at the same time . It serves as a testament to the success of this early effort that it was basically remade Evil Dead II , and now is set to be remade again in 2009 . Let's just hope that , now that he's a Hollywood director , Raimi can still capture the same attitude and gritty goriness of his early career ! |
544,264 | 562,732 | 87,800 | 9 | Oh , you KNOW they're gonna make a sequel ! | For the first third or so of the original Nightmare of Elm Street , I was trying to figure out exactly what Freddy Krueger's motive was , since he seemed to just be some boogeyman that was haunting the dreams of a few high school kids , and later on it turns out that his motive is to get revenge against the people ( and their kids ) that killed him . So Freddy was a child molester , and after having been released on a technicality , the citizens decide to take matters into their own hands to get rid of him . I actually like that he's back to exact his revenge for what I believe to have been a justified death , because it makes you even more interested in seeing his demise . As if molesting kids wasn't enough , now we get to see him killed for what he does to these teenagers , too . I think that what sets A Nightmare on Elm Street apart from other slasher movies is that it has found a way around the fact that movies like this are only scary if you're really young or just really high strung . While the movie itself is not scary in the slightest , it does know about that line between consciousness and sleep and it utilizes it very effectively . You never really notice the point at which you fall asleep , you just suddenly find yourself dreaming , and this is why you never really know when Freddy could show up in the movie . This reminds me of all those times in high school that I would dream that I had gotten up and taken a shower and eaten breakfast and gone to school , and then I wake up still at home halfway through third period . The scares may have grown completely obsolete , but the movie remains interesting because it's not as predictable as so many other movies of its kind . The whole theme of teenagers being slashed by relentless killers ( often seemingly in response to them having sex with each other ) is not new at all , but A Nightmare on Elm Street takes that theme and adds in the clever addition that the killer resides in their dreams and can kill them through them . The movie has no memorable score at all besides an old nursery rhyme , but it is a testament to the quality of the rest of the movie that it remains memorable even without something like Halloween's infectious film score . It may not be scary anymore , but A Nightmare on Elm Street is still a signpost of the more interesting horror films made in the 80s . |
544,858 | 562,732 | 227,445 | 9 | The Score takes the age-old one-last-heist premise and makes it good again . | Edward Norton is one of the best actors working today , and Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando are among the best film actors in history , so it is to be expected that a good film would result from a combined effort from all three of them . DeNiro plays Nick , a veteran break-in artist who is forced to do one last score before his plan to fade into blissfully obscure retirement with his clichéd girlfriend , and who doesn't like the entire set-up from the beginning . Norton plays the characters of Jack ( the man who investigated and set-up the heist from the beginning ) and Brian ( the man who works as a janitor at the building where the priceless scepter is kept , and who pretends to be mentally challenged to avoid drawing attention to himself ) . You can't help comparing these performances to his similar roles as Aaron and Roy in Primal Fear , which was Norton's second best performance ever , second only to his role as Derek Vineyard in American History X and followed closely by his Jack in Fight Club . Marlon Brando is back to remind the world of what a gigantic , gigantic man he has become . He plays the role of Max , the aging crime lord who has become wealthy and powerful enough so that he can preside over break-ins and take a cut of the final profit without doing any of the actual breaking and entering . The film follows the set-up and the execution of the heist , in which the three men plot to steal a French national treasure , and the plot becomes necessarily thicker as the movie goes on . It is a sign of skillful filmmaking when a two-hour film spends the vast majority of its screen time setting up a heist that we don't see until very late into the film , and it still manages to move along briskly and keep the audience's attention . ( spoilers ) The heist itself is particularly well done , with several new difficulties coming up even as the heist is in progress ( they've already had to deal with the sudden addition of motion detectors and cameras in the basement , after it was finally discovered how valuable that thing is that they found in the leg of the termite-infested piano ) , including new revelations about the characters themselves . There is a scene where Jack leaves Nick hanging upside down from the ceiling in the basement , and there is really no apparent reason for him to have done this other than to let us know that Nick seems to have some questionable intentions . The heist itself is obviously the most exciting portion of the film , and the tension escalates more and more with every passing minute . First we are on the edge of our seat because Jack is downstairs , turning cameras on and off for Nick , while we know that his janitor friend Danny is waiting for him upstairs , growing increasingly suspicious . Then Danny comes looking for him , and Jack locks him in a basement room , leaving the rest of the night crew to grow suspicious about both of them . The point of no return was passed a long time ago , and it seems at several points that something is going to go horribly wrong and force them to abort the entire thing , but we know that it's too late for them to be able to do that . The film's finale is truly respectable in that it avoids the traditional high action and manipulative shootouts , and we get a great twist involving Jack and Nick . Nick assumingly goes off into the sunset with his girlfriend , who is played by the under-used Angela Bassett , and everyone lives happily ever after except for Jack , now the subject of a massive manhunt , and Max , who presumably gets nothing from the whole deal . We know that this is a focused action film , even if only from the fact that no one in the film has a last name , but it manages to have an interesting and involved plot with several colorful characters , and an ending that is not exactly original but is made to work very well . Good action , good performances , good direction , and an excellent script make this an action film to remember . |
544,021 | 562,732 | 209,958 | 9 | Every once in a while a film comes along that stands apart from all others made in years . The Matrix did it last year , and The Cell has done it in 2000 . | The last film that provided a vivid and disturbing look at what insanity is probably like was In Dreams . In that movie , you didn't see insanity , you were THERE . Now The Cell comes along with an updated and much more disturbing portrayal of the inside of the mind of a psychotic killer . The opening scene takes you into the seemingly innocent mind of a comatose little boy , and the things that Catherine Deane ( Jennifer Lopez ) sees are first fascinating and then terrifying . The things that she later sees in the mind of Vincent Stargher ( Vincent D'Onofrio ) are amazingly imaginative and fascinating , most of this stuff has never been seen in film before . The story of The Cell is not exactly something that is really groundbreaking . In fact , it is basically the same as the story in The Silence of the Lambs . You have a killer in custody and these people have to enter his mind to find a female victim who is currently in danger of losing her life . The only real difference between the foundation of the plots is that in The Silence of the Lambs , you have to enter the mind of a killer to find a different killer as well as his current victim , while in The Cell , you have to enter the mind of a killer to find his own victim . However , despite the unfortunately weak story , The Cell completely revolutionizes the genre of the psychological thriller . None that have ever been made even come close to it . Also , the film had good direction and was extremely well acted . Vince Vaughn delivers another of his characteristically excellent performances ( he was even good as Norman Bates in the pathetic 1998 re-make of Psycho ) , and even Jennifer Lopez puts forth the second good effort of her career ( the other being the great Out of Sight ) . Nothing can be said of the cinematography in The Cell to give it sufficient credit , it was imaginative and fascinatingly done and is unparalleled by anything ever seen in cinematic history . The Cell is an incredibly well-made film , and it deserves to be recognized . |
544,224 | 562,732 | 4,194 | 9 | Vertigo's got nothing on this rooftop sequence ! ! | That's not really true , of course , but the level of action and the quality and style of editing in this film is leaps and bounds above a lot of the kinds of films that were coming out at the time , even the ones that Chaplin himself was directing . The first 15 minutes of the film , the build-up to the boxing match , are noticeably slow and almost eventless , but the last ten minutes are so action packed and so frantically fast paced that it almost feels like a full length film . Fatty Arbuckle stars in this tale of a fixed boxing match gone horribly wrong , and it has slapstick violence , Charlie Chaplin as a referee who doesn't seem to know that he's not supposed to get involved with the fight , gunfights , police chases , and Arbuckle dragging the whole precinct of officers attached to a rope into the ocean off of a pier . There's intrigue , betrayal , romance , crime , comedy , and illegal gambling . There is so much going on in this film that it's amazing how short it is . Chaplin didn't write or direct this film , and in reality was only a co-star , but this is one of the best films I've seen in the Chaplin collection I have . Chaplin at the time was a very inexperienced filmmaker , and he wasn't really turning out anything better than this at the time that it was made . He became much better than this later in his career , obviously , but any Chaplin fan should not miss this one . |
544,566 | 562,732 | 120,716 | 9 | Robin Williams should really stick to more serious roles like this . | I was completely stunned at how well Robin Williams pulled off more serious dramatic roles , since he's much more well-known for high-energy comedy . But his roles as the bad guy in movies like Insomnia or , even better , One Hour Photo display the extent of his acting abilities , since he is able to pull off such different characters so well . In Jakob the Liar , his comedic talents are restricted just enough so that he is able to function properly within the atmosphere of the movie , but is still allowed a scene or two in which his ability to get laughs can come out . He plays Jakob , a Jewish shopkeeper in a Nazi ghetto who tells a friend that he has a radio in order to prevent that friend from committing suicide . Things do not appear to be going well within the ghetto , the war seems like it will never end , and morale among the imprisoned Jews is steadily waning , resulting in suicides left and right . As Jakob finds a friend of his doing something that will certainly get him killed by the Nazis ( this particular friend decided to make a ham-handed attempt at escape rather than overtly kill himself ) , Jakob runs to him and tells him that he heard on the radio that the Russians were closing in and would liberate them any day . His skeptical friend doubts him , so Jakob quickly tells him that he has a radio so that he will believe the Russians will be there to save them all soon , and his friend's suicide is prevented . By the next morning , literally everyone in the ghetto knows that Jakob Heym has a radio , and so he is venerated like a God and constantly hounded about what the newest news is , and thus enters the main conflict of the movie . And speaking of which , one of the things that I really liked about the movie was the complexity of its conflict . It's a conflict that you sit there knowing what needs to happen for a happy ending and so you sit there and hope for that , because every option has terrible consequences . Jakob , first and foremost , is absolutely terrified that word will reach the Nazis who will execute him if they discover he has a radio ( whether he really has it or not ) , yet at the same time he can't let it get out within the ghetto that he DOESN'T have a radio , because since the whole rumor began the rampant suicides have completely ceased . What he has to do , then , is walk the fine line between delivering lots of fictitious good news to the whole ghetto without letting the Nazis find out about it . There is definitely something that needs to be said about the importance of a movie like this . Obviously , holocaust movies are nothing new , and different depictions of the holocaust have been especially in the spotlight since Roberto Benigni made a holocaust movie called Life Is Beautiful in 1997 , at least half of which was a comedy . A lot of people felt that it was distasteful to present something as serious and tragic as the holocaust in such a light . And not just average moviegoers like me , either . Spielberg thought it was too lighthearted for such weighty subject matter , and from a certain point of view , he's right . On the other hand , however , the fact that you laughed during the film does not change the meaning of the war that it focuses on . The Nazis killed funny people , too . I read a review on the title page for Jakob the Liar here on the IMDb , where a reviewer who completely missed the boat on this movie criticized it for things like the comedic content , the behavior and presentation of the Jews of the ghetto , and the choice of Robin Williams for the role of Jakob Heym . To be perfectly honest , I can never understand people like that . The way I see it , as long as a movie takes the holocaust seriously then it should not be criticized for being a holocaust film that's not in the right format or that had an actor who has done too many comedy roles . This same reviewer , by the way , praised Life Is Beautiful , a spectacular film , as is Jakob the Liar . I can certainly understand that there are people who are touchy about the holocaust . It is inarguably one of the most tragic events in all of recorded human history , made even more tragic by the fact that it was perpetrated by humans against other humans . It's sickening . But there are no jokes about the holocaust in Jakob the Liar . The Jews do not act like victims . It is historically accurate and does not compromise the truth of what happened for the sake of entertainment . It presents a story of a ghetto full of captive Jews who have had their lives stolen from them and are desperate for some hope , and one man tries to help and inadvertently finds himself in a position to provide massive amounts of hope to them , but at massive risk to his own safety . So if you don't like to see Robin Williams playing serious , dramatic roles ( roles at which he is increasingly displaying his massive talent ) , don't watch the movie ! It is neither a secret that Williams is in the movie , nor that it's a serious role . One look at the cover box will tell you that . But if it's the holocaust being taken seriously that troubles you , maybe you should be more concerned about the fact that there are people , alive TODAY , here in the 21st Century , and presumably relatively educated American citizens , who DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE HOLOCAUST EVER EVEN HAPPENED . So like I said , if you're that concerned about the portrayal of the holocaust , maybe focus your efforts on these nutcases who have convinced themselves that the holocaust itself is just a fable . Maybe a myth that mothers started telling their kids to make them scared of Germans or some other such nonsense . Jakob the Liar has no illusions , it takes a tragedy in human history and tells a story of a man who did what he could to help those suffering around him , and Robin Williams should obviously be commended for the power of his performance , as should the rest of the cast . The thing to keep in mind is that there is no certain perspective from which to view things like the holocaust . Everyone has different thoughts and feelings about it , and in the movies these different perspectives can be provided in different ways without compromising the severity and finality of the event itself . Jakob the Liar does not at all trivialize the holocaust in any way , what it does is honor the loss of its victims , who came from all walks of life . |
544,790 | 562,732 | 9,018 | 9 | The Little Tramp as a little tramp . | A Dog's Life has more layers than the usual Chaplin films , taking the character slightly more literally than he usually does . The overall appeal of Chaplin's Little Fellow is that he is such an everyman that he can be thrust into an almost endless multitude of situations , and Chaplin uses his limitless talent to mold it into brilliant , humanitarian farce . In this film , the little tramp is more of a homeless fellow than usual ( I think he's usually just poor and struggling ) , and in the process he be-friends another homeless and struggling tramp . There are some great scenes in the film , although even at only 40 minutes it is a bit too long for the material to support . One scene in particular , where Charlie knocks a bully unconscious , is going to be the most memorable one in the movie , along with a scene where he outsmarts some police officers . There is a charming romance that is neither cloying nor overly involving , just the right amount for a short , light-hearted comedy . This probably would have worked even better as a two reel film , but as it is it stands as one of Chaplin's better three reelers . |
544,621 | 562,732 | 340,071 | 9 | Sorry , I thought I was someone else . | It's a little difficult to say exactly what This Charming Man is about , if only because there is so clearly so much going on beneath the surface . On the surface it is a charming romantic comedy , but there are times where the very serious issue of racism is brought up in a very serious way , but the movie has a remarkable ability to switch back and forth between comedy and drama that allows it to utilize each genre to its maximum potential each time it is brought up . Lars is trying to find a job , just about any job . He's desperate . One day he meets a girl that he used to know in school who was sort of the girl that everyone picked on because of her weight , and he was certainly no exception . He is shocked at her appearance , she has lost a lot of weight and , simply put , is beautiful . He soon realizes that she is also very successful and not desperate for any job she can possibly find , like he is , and he quickly falls in love with her . Evidently racism is quite rampant in Denmark , or at least that is how it is portrayed in this film . The guys go out to the bars and tell jokes like an atomic bomb exploded in Pakistan and guess how many people died , none because they are all here on the dole ! Very clever . Since I grew up mostly in California , I have heard plenty of similar jokes about Mexicans , but this movie takes a very real approach at the prejudice that immigrants suffer in Denmark , because employers are quite open about the fact that they don't want to hire someone who is an immigrant . There is something of an open dislike or distrust of them that makes their lives extremely difficult . Having come from a family of Colombian immigrants , I know almost first-hand what it is like for those people . I have never experienced racial prejudice myself , since my mother in white ( Danish , actually , as it were ) and my father Colombian and I got my light brown hair and blue eyes from my mother's side , but while I was growing up I saw my father struggling from one menial job to the next , trying to learn to speak English at the same time as he is trying to help support his sizable , unskilled and uneducated family in a new country . It's rough , you really have to appreciate what these people go through , and while this movie spends a significant amount of time making you laugh , I think it does give you a clear picture of the plight of the immigrant , which is obviously not limited to Denmark or America . Interestingly , there is a point where Lars , the main character ( under cover as El Hassan ) does not get a job , and Ida , the woman Lars has fallen in love with , jokes that he can't find a job " Just because you're not blonde and you're name's not Hansen ! " I just found that to be pretty funny , because my mother's maiden name is Hansen . At any rate , the movie works very well as a romantic comedy . The love-struck Lars reminds me of the hopeless romantic Shaun in Shaun of the Dead , another outstanding , if a bit unorthodox , romantic comedy . This one takes on some pretty serious issues , but it does so with a clear understanding of the gravity of the subject matter that it was dealing with , and with wonderful success in the final film . Seek this one out . |
544,296 | 562,732 | 120,738 | 9 | HELL yeah . This is some excellent sci-fi . | Contains spoilers Lost In Space is a tremendously upgraded adaptation of the old campy TV show , in which the Robinson family is , of course , lost in space . The film has an excellent opening battle sequence that nearly rivals anything that George Lucas has ever done and comes close to being as exciting as the opening of any of the James Bond films . It is particularly noteworthy that Matt LeBlanc was able to deliver such a convincing performance as a tremendously skilled fighter pilot , given his popularity from Friends . Lost In Space presents a pretty dismal prediction of the future . The movie takes place ( initially ) in the year 2058 , and John Robinson , the father in the famous Robinson family , has been working for years on a mission to Alpha Prime , a planet which is capable of supporting human life . It seems that in another two decades , Earth will no longer be capable of supporting human life . The wooden performance of William Hurt in the role of John Robinson takes a little getting used to , but overall , he pulls it off very well . Probably the best character in the film is Dr . Zachary Smith , the self proclaimed ' monster ' of a man that was hired to sabotage the Robinson's mission , played with flawless precision by the brilliant Gary Oldman . It turns out that he is double-crossed himself , and he winds up on the ship with the Robinsons , along with the robot that Smith re-programmed to destroy the family as well as the ship's navigation systems . Science fiction films generally have very weak and simple plots , and it was great to see that this one got interesting so fast . The thing that really causes the family to get lost in space is that they accidentally get caught in the sun's gravitational pull , and because they don't have enough power to escape it , they have to open up the stargate ( meant to traverse the tremendous distance between Earth and Alpha Prime instantaneously ) and go THROUGH the sun , thus delivering them into an unknown part of space . Lost . The trip through was a little much , but it definitely was cool , and the resulting setting that they find themselves in is just fascinating . And as if a trip to unknown space wasn't enough , they throw in a great time travel element to the story , making it that much more interesting . Almost immediately after shooting though the stargate and finding themselves lost in space , the Robinsons come across a spaceship from Earth , and in the captain's log they find a recording of an old man who says that he ' refuses to give up ' in his search for the Robinsons . Even though they had only been lost for a matter of hours , this ship had been searching for them for YEARS . While there was some highly entertaining acting in this film , not all of the characters were as well presented and acted as John Robinson and Dr . Smith and Major Don West ( LeBlanc ) . Mimi Rogers provided an effective and believable mother in the family , as well as the life sciences expert , but the high pitched Lacey Chabert , the pedophile's dream , got real annoying real quick , and Heather Graham was horribly miscast as Judy Robinson . After several of her previous roles , it would be best if she would avoid taking on a role that is to be taken seriously for quite a while . And there were a few things in the film that didn't make sense . There is the obvious problem ( that all Back To The Future fans will notice right away ) with the older Will's plan to travel back to the day they left and stop the ship from taking off - you already know that won't happen , because when they left at the beginning of the movie , Will would have shown up and told them not to leave . And how about the scene where Dr . Smith tricks Will into using his voice-print ID on his gun to ' enable for all users , ' only to have Smith turn it on him ? Wouldn't it have been just as easy for Will to use the voice ID to turn the gun off while it was pointed at him ? Seems that such a smart kid would have realized that all he had to do was talk to the gun in order to eliminate all danger . Lost In Space is also famous for its ludicrous amount of special effects and , surprisingly enough , they were very well done and very effective . Obviously , special effects are mandatory for a space movie , but they are most often screwed up so badly that they ruin the movie ( see : Mission To Mars ) . In this movie , though , the special effects have the unique distinction of being both way overdone and very effective - with the exception of that damn alien monkey that doesn't look real in a single frame in the entire film and is also totally unnecessary . The only thing that really took a lot away from the film was the transformed Dr . Smith at the end of the film . Sure , it was a cool idea that he got transformed into one of the spiders in true vampire form after having been scratched by one , but the cartoonish creature that he turned into was just too far , even for this otherwise high-quality science fiction movie . A lot of things are never clarified , like how Will ( who sure grew up to be an ugly guy ) comes up with the tools necessary to build time traveling warp zones and whatnot , but it doesn't really matter that this isn't explained . This is usually not good , but Lost In Space is an unusually well made science fiction thriller that is fun for all ages , so it can get away with a lot of stuff like that . The tremendous gap at the end of this film makes it pretty obvious that at least one sequel is inevitable , and we can only hope that any sequels live up to the original . |
544,331 | 562,732 | 479,884 | 9 | Don't try this at home , kids ! | It's no accident that Crank is named after a hardcore narcotic , and while I don't happen to have any personal experience with it myself , I imagine that if the experience were made into a cinematic version it would look something like this movie . It feels like a fast-paced action movie boiled down to it's basest elements , with pesky things like character and plot development mostly tossed out the window . Or out of the helicopter , whichever looks better with a death metal soundtrack . A lesser movie , however , would have made such a simplified approach feel exploitative and cheap , but Crank gives the feeling that such baggage would only slow things down , which is just contrary to the whole idea . I can respect that . There is no set-up , we are immediately thrown into a life-threatening situation where Jason Statham's character Chev Chelios stumbles out of a daze and finds a video left for him by a Hispanic gangster , who gleefully explains that he has injected a " Beijing cocktail " of synthetic something or other . The details are not important , what matters is that he now has an estimated hour or so to live until the drugs cause his heart to stop . The only way to survive , of course , is to keep his heart pounding and the adrenaline pumping through his veins . It's sort of like Speed , except it's his body that can't slow down , not a bus . And basically that's about all there is to the story . The premise is mostly an excuse for Jason Statham to run screaming through the streets ( and hospitals , as it were ) of Los Angeles with a level of disregard for the law that by itself is enough reason to watch the movie . There is a part of the movie where Chelios is speeding down the street on a stolen LAPD motorcycle wearing nothing but a hospital gown and a gun . Try to imagine a situation which would lead to something like that , and you'll have some idea of what your frame of mind will be like while watching the movie . My only real problem with the movie is Amy Smart's character , who is written stupendously wrong . Chev Chelios is given some minute background as a contract killer for a widespread crime syndicate , sort of like Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in True Lies but without quite so much government backing , and his girlfriend is this air-headed blonde who thinks he's a video game programmer . Chelios is collected and focused even while drugged and on the verge of death . He concentrates a hard-edged anger on his enemies , and his girlfriend hiccups and grins like an imbecile when he tries to get her to get dressed and get out of the house before he drops dead on the spot . " Are we going on a trip ? " she blurts . You get the idea . Their relationship is so wrong and so ineffective that it probably would have made more sense if she had been cast as his daughter instead . Then again , that would mess up their scene in Chinatown , but I'll leave that for you to find out about . The main villain , a punk gangster curiously named Verona ( and yes , he does invoke Shakespeare's name early in the movie ) , is also wildly overacted for most of the movie , but that's in fitting with the rest of the film . If he had delivered a subdued performance he would have looked totally out of place , like the girlfriend , who really serves no purpose other than to enter the film in her underwear and , you know , the Chinatown thing . There is , of course , some great humor in the movie , which is to be expected in this kind of over-the-top action comedy . It's brutally violent but knows when to slow down for a few laughs , and many of the laughs are real . There is a great periodic interaction between Chelios and his shady doctor buddy , played by Dwight Yoakam , who is out of town and can only help over the phone but who calmly explains while on crowded planes and such that the fire in his chest and his steely erection are perfectly normal for what he's suffering from , but that if he doesn't keep his adrenaline pumping he's gonna die . But for the most part , Crank is a hard boiled action movie that is specifically designed to give directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor free reign to bombard your senses with every little trick they can imagine , which includes split screens , animated views of the pounding hearts of humans and pigeons alike , car chases , gun fights , dazed point of view shots , subtitles viewed from both sides , and even a couple of shots where people that Chelios is speaking to on the phone appear on screen ? once projected onto a nearby wall and once , briefly , in a side-view mirror as Chelios speeds down the street . Crank was made with a very specific audience in mind , and for what that audience wants to see , the movie definitely delivers . There will , of course , be plenty of people who will attack the movie for being shallow or exploitative or too violent or for having an ending that didn't wrap everything up in a nice little package or whatever , but the fact that there is a Crank 2 coming up seems to answer the one big question that many people have had about the ending . Personally I didn't see how there was any mystery . The end of the movie fits perfectly with the rest of it . It's totally outlandish and preposterous , but if you don't get a thrill from the last half second of this movie , you missed something . |
544,760 | 562,732 | 409,221 | 9 | Outstanding ! | I rode this ride on my first visit to Universal Studios Hollywood in about 15 years , so I had no idea what to expect . When we all loaded onto the giant 16-passenger jeeps I expected it was going to just be one of those tour type rides that just drive you around and show you a cool set , which is probably part of the reason why I was so blown away the first time I rode it . The way the jeep jumps around creates an amazing feeling of driving through rough and dense jungle , and there are several times when I was sure that the thing was going to go flying over the side , as it leans outwards on hard turns . This has to be one of the most fun attractions I've ever seen at Universal , it was absolutely a blast . Even the line was fun , once you get inside , anyway . It's like an elaborate tomb set and there is always plenty to look at , including a short introductory film , which some IMDb users claim that this page is actually meant to represent . Personally , I feel like it's a good thing that people are talking more about the ride here than about the video that you watch while waiting for it . Oh , and I'll tell you something strange about me . I have always wanted to visit a ride like this when it is closed , walk around inside while all the lights are on and see what the nuts and bolts of it all looks like . Whenever I ride a ride like this I always snap a few flash pictures of the inside to see what's going on . For some reason I've always been more interested in how it all works than really succumbing to the illusion . But either way this is great fun ! |
544,653 | 562,732 | 151,804 | 9 | As is sure to be the saying by now , anyone who has ever worked in an office should get a pretty good kick out of this one . | Every aggravating thing about working in an office , from the traffic on the way to work to that damn copier , is in this movie , and dealt with in ways that we've all wanted to , at some point or another . Well , except for the traffic , of course . The traffic remains undefeated . Besides telling a highly amusing story about office workers who are just fed up with it all , Office Space is full of other little comments on society , such as the way the film points out the sheer goofiness of geeky white guys who listen to hardcore rap music . The film presents a heavily exaggerated version of the typical office , but underneath that exaggeration , the depiction is very accurate . You have the fairly timid but passive aggressive superior , Bill Lumbergh , portrayed hilariously by Gary Cole , the repressive office cubicles , the mumbly guy that kind of weirds everyone out , and of course , the disillusioned office employee who just doesn't care anymore . Ron Livingston fulfills this last role very well , being very open about his dislike of his job and his intentions to do as little as possible for as long as he still gets paid , but it is the weird guy that really gets laughs consistently , whose name , in this case , is Milton . This guy's hilarious situation involves having been laid off years before without knowing because no one told him , because he still receives a paycheck due to a glitch in the payroll system , and whose primary concerns seem to be the location of his cubicle , his red stapler , and the fact that last year , he didn't receive a piece of cake at the office party . The way that this guy's situation gets consistently worse and the way that he is pushed further and further toward the edge of sanity is one of the funniest things about this movie . And we can't forget the Indian guy , Samir , whose grammatically flawed exclamations also provide for an endless source of comedic entertainment . Jennifer Aniston plays a small role as Peter Gibbons ' ( Livingston ) love interest , as well as that of a waitress who is also sick and tired of the ridiculousness of her job ( such as a specified minimum of pieces of ' flair ' that employees must wear to work ) . Ron's home life is another thing that is parodied in this high quality comedy , as the shortcomings of living in an average apartment are clearly and side-splittingly portrayed . Clearly , the office scenes are by far the funniest of the film , and the eventual criminal plot to embezzle a huge sum of money from the company and take up a lifestyle of not really doing anything , despite the fact that it is also very well done , can be largely overlooked because of the sheer hilarity of the rest of the film . This is excellent stuff from the famous creator of the endlessly amusing Beavis & Butt-Head who , with Office Space , has further proved that he is just the type of guy who knows what's funny . |
544,881 | 562,732 | 887,320 | 9 | One of the very few looks below the surface . . . | ( spoiler ! ) So we learned right at the end of season 6 that Sara and Gil were living together ( or sleeping together ) , as she walked into the room in a bathrobe at the end of the season finale . I've always noticed from the beginning of the series that occasionally there are very brief hints into their personal lives , but nothing ever seems to be really revealed . We've known for a few years that Sara is interested in Grissom romantically , Nick's personal life is almost entirely secret still ( except for a fling or two early in the series ) , Warrick popped up married out of the blue one day and Catherine was clearly disappointed to have lost an opportunity , but it has always seemed like any revelations like this were thrown in using just a few seconds of screen time , and then back to the cases . I like that the show doesn't turn into a soap opera because I would lose interest in a hurry , but this is one of the few episodes that tells us more about what's going on . Very little more , but still more . I loved the cases that they dealt with . A new homicide leads the team to an old and supposedly closed case of a double murder . Catherine goes off on her own to meet the guy they put in prison for it , and finds a foul-mouthed dirtbag that claims he's innocent . In order to get him to cooperate and answer some more questions about the crime that he's already been imprisoned for , she promises to unbutton a button on her shirt for each question that he answers satisfactorily . As it turns out , he was apparently coerced by the police into giving a confession for the double murder , badgering him during questioning and claiming that they already had enough evidence for a conviction , and if he didn't confess he'd get the death penalty . Catherine was pretty angry with the local cop for coercing a confession , but wasn't that blouse-unbuttoning a bit of coersion too ? At least it was more enjoyable than the first time , I suppose . Anyway , the two cases taken together highlight the CSI team's skills compared to the bungling foolishness of other police forces . Once the local cops had coerced their confession , they actually stopped investigating , even though they knew there were more bullets buried at the residence where the murders took place . Nice work ! The local cops also left a massive plot hole in the story , something uncommon in a CSI episode . There was a little boy at the residence who was hiding , but apparently they never asked him any questions about what happened . When our team comes in , Nick and Catherine ask him his version , and he gives one that doesn't reveal anything that they didn't already know , but for some reason they seem to feel that they have gotten some valuable information . The boy was hiding under the sink when the killer knocked on the door , forced his way inside and then stabbed and killed his mother and sister , then he walked outside into the backyard . Then , he says , the killer came back in the front door and called the police . I don't know why anyone was interested in this news , because they already knew the sequence of events leading to the boy's mother and sister's deaths . There is , of course , no way of knowing if the man who came through the front door and called the police was the same man who had just walked out the back door . Why would he leave through the back and come in through the front ? Anyway , the hiding under the sink was funny to me , because when I was five or six , I used to hide under the sink drinking maple syrup while my mom was at work , then when she came home I'd run up to her and say , " I wasn't drinking the syrup ! " I was a terrible liar . Gil leaves on sabbatical at the end of the episode and is supposedly gone when he gets a large box from the miniature killer , which is good because the conclusion to that 3-episode case was a little disappointing . In a huge change of character , he tells Sara on the way out the door that he'll miss her . . . |
544,752 | 562,732 | 118,301 | 9 | Don't pass this one up just because Mark-Paul Gosselaar is in it ! | Ironically enough , Mark-Paul Gosselaar gave a hilarious performance in Dead Man On Campus ! This is strange not because he is necessarily a bad actor , but because the only seemingly out of work TV actor who is less likely to make a comeback than Gosselaar is Rick Schroeder ? I didn't expect to ever see either of them again , and I STILL don't expect to see Schroeder any time soon . Gosselaar excellently portrays Cooper , a college kid from a rich past who has no interest in studying ( having been kicked out of several colleges already , only to have his way paid into other ones by his father , a successful businessman ) , and only wants to party all day every day . I think that the idea to cast Gosselaar in this role was an excellent decision , because not only is it a unique casting choice ( as well as fairly risky , given his heavily type-case iconography ) , but also because he just fit the character so well . Playing the other half of the odd couple presented in this film is Tom Everett Scott , who is not exactly a tremendously appealing actor either . He is Cooper's primarily unwilling roommate Josh , who is seriously intent on keeping up on his studies so that he can keep a prestigious and hugely important scholarship . Josh is the straightforward student here , the Jack Lemmon of the two guys , if you will . After having discovered the joys of partying , Josh scoffs at the hard-core studying life , parties a little too much , fails his midterms , and discovers that there is no possible way that he can ever get a high enough grade on his finals in order to keep his scholarship . Evidently , at their University , it seems that there is a rule written somewhere in the back of the school's charter that if a student commits suicide , that students roommate's will receive straight A's , as they are not expected to be able to keep up with their studies with all of the anguish that they must be going through . The majority of the film is spent watching the Josh and Cooper search the campus for people who look like unstable , and then try to get that person to move in with them before they kill themselves , therefore saving Josh and Cooper's grades . Clearly , the story here is nothing brilliant . The film is literally full of cheesy jokes and goofy situations , but it is still funny because it doesn't pretend to be something that it's not . There are even hilarious bits of dialogue that almost seem to be actively trying to remind the audience of the type of mindless comedy that this was meant to be ( ' I can hear my heartbeat through my penis ! ' ) . Besides that , we are given a side-splitting performance by Lochlyn Munro , an endlessly amusing actor who seems to have been born to play the nutcase that he played in Dead Man On Campus . This guy flawlessly gives some of the funniest lines that I've heard in a movie in years ? ' They wanted to kick me out for not obeying quiet hours ? Well , they can just suck my quiet COCK ! ' Sophistication ? Class ? Definitely not . Tear-inducing hilarity ? Absolutely . This is some funny stuff . ( spoilers ) The film also redeems its childishness at the end of the film , in which Josh and Cooper's plans to manipulate their way into getting good grades are discarded and a healthier course of action is taken . It's amazing that a film that is dominated by this questionable plan to get straight A's is able to turn around and actually deliver something resembling a good message , and it is yet another quality of this great comedy . Dead Man On Campus has some of the same stupid characteristics of idiotic college comedies as American Pie and Road Trip , but it works on many other levels , and it doesn't sacrifice its dignity to get a few laughs . It's a low-brow comedy that respects itself , and that's a rare quality . |
544,562 | 562,732 | 334,405 | 9 | Outstanding , O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G , outstanding . | Spellbound tells the story of the national spelling bee , showing things that you don't really think of when you think of a contest like that , if you ever do at all . A lot of people think of spelling bees as contests for nerdy introverts with little to no friends and who spend entirely too much time with a dictionary . Well , this movie disproves some preconceptions but also solidifies some other ones , but either way , it tells a fascinating story of eight kids on their way to the national spelling contest . I was a pretty successful spelling bee contestant myself when I was about 11 years old ; nothing near the level seen in this movie , but enough to partly relate to what these kids were going through . The thing that you have to keep in mind is that in the national contest , every single word , seemingly in almost any language , is fair game in this contest . This is what would have killed me . I have an uncanny ability to spell , sometimes even words that I've never heard of ( growing up and going to elementary school , high school , and college , I discovered an odd ability to be able to spell words that I'd never heard and couldn't define ) , but things in other languages , especially with spelling oddities like French , and medical terms will always kill me . That's the thing that impressed me the most about these kids , that they were able to spell words not only that could easily be spelled in several different ways ( given the many sounds of letters like a , e , u , etc . ) , but also words that were scientific or medical terms . At some points , it almost seemed cruel the words that these poor kids were asked to spell . Even more cruel , however , was the way at least one kids parents treated him to prepare him for the upcoming spelling bee . Sure , it's one thing for them to want their kids to be successful , but there is a point where you are pushing too hard and going too far . This poor kid ( the Indian kid , I can't remember his name ) was forced by his father to spell literally thousands of words in preparation for the upcoming spelling bee , literally doing almost nothing else . I can understand a desire to win , even if the grand prize wasn't a cool $10 , 000 , but there comes a point where you are pushing too hard , possibly setting the poor kid up for failure if he / she doesn't win . Every time this kid walked up to the microphone to spell a word , they showed his father in the audience , hands together praying , and maybe it's just me , but I got a feeling , probably from the way he had treated his son like a machine while preparing for the competition , that he was praying for success and not for his son . Sad . I liked the profiles of all the players in preparation for the spelling bee . By taking only eight of the contestants and telling a more complete story of who they are ( there is some debate about how they chose such a small group and managed to get the winner in there ) , because it brings this enormous competition down to a more understandable level , so that we can get an idea for what it's like to compete . When I was a kid , I was the only kid in I think three schools or three counties who never misspelled a word , and I was certainly humbled by these kids competing on a much more massive scale and spelling words that I had then and have no now chance of ever spelling correctly . I would never be able to make it as far as they did . Watching the movie in the state of mind of having been successful in a spelling bee myself , I was expecting to be able to immediately ramble out the spellings that these kids got since I'm older and presumably a better speller , but stopped when I realized that I would have gotten that little ding on just about every word ! Why the one kid was stumbling with something as easy as ' wheedle , ' however , I can't imagine . Is there more than one way to spell that word ? You'd think that sports fans would enjoy a movie like this since it's all about competition , but don't be too sure of it . I have something of a blockhead of a roommate who literally watches sports ( ANY kind of sports ) for 5-6 hours a day , a nauseating amount in my opinion , but refused to even be in the room while this movie was on . Poor guy . This may not be true of all sports fans , but my roommate is a hardcore sports fanatic , claims to love anything that is about competition and proving yourself better than someone else , but apparently not if the competition has any sort of cognitive content . I guess if you have to use your brain the competition is disqualified , as it were . Sad . ( spoilers ) Fans of Spellbound can't really claim that this movie has some edge-of-your-seat suspense , but I think it definitely will have you trying to guess who the winner is and then throwing up your arms when that person spells out . It's a hugely entertaining competition , you just have to accept it on a different level . There are no injuries , no instant replays , and no highlights , but the contestants all take their respective losses remarkably well ( even that Indian kid's jerk father smiled and congratulated his son when he lost , hopefully still acknowledging his son's astronomical accomplishment even after the cameras stopped rolling ) and , while all of the kids were successful , in my opinion , it's still pretty tense watching the numbers dwindle as the kids become increasingly scared as they go up to the microphone . This is probably not for everyone , but it presents a look into an aspect of life that not a lot of people know about , and I think that that is the most important function of a documentary . |
544,721 | 562,732 | 6,177 | 9 | Maybe Chaplin's most famous early short comedy . | Of course , Chaplin's early career is over-flowing with famous short comedies , but The Tramp is probably one of the most well-known of the early two-reelers , especially since it is one of the most direct studies of the famous character after whom the film is named . A lot of the Keystone and Essanay films have dated pretty badly , and The Tramp is no exception . Many people may find a lot of the plot confusing or pointless , just random slapstick comedy , although I have a feeling that some of it was not meant to be much more than that . It starts out with the tramp wandering down a dusty road , soon knocked over by the gusts of wind created by two speeding cars , only to pick himself up and dusts his wildly over-sized pants off with the handy little brush that he carries with him , apparently for just such an occasion . There are some clever an amusing sight gags involving things like a pitchfork and huge bags of flour and lot of mallets to the head , but not much in the slapstick department that is entirely memorable . What the film is more famous for is certain elements of the tramp's personality that we learn here , such as his efforts to be proper and presentable despite being broke and wearing pants big enough for two or three of him , along with a jacket that's too small . We also see him protecting a young woman from the bullies of several oafish men , each of whom could easily have brained the little fellow ( as Chaplin later lovingly called him ) , except that he is too smart for them . The film is most memorable for the closing shot , however . Things don't go as planned , we are not given a happily ever after ending , and the movie closes with the tramp again wandering alone down a dusty road , at first seemingly depressed , until after a second or two , he perks up and all but dances down the road . He didn't get what he wanted and he's still poor and lonely , but he faces his life with a smile and seems like he's off to make the best of it . In a lot of ways , that sums up one of the recurring themes that Chaplin espoused throughout his lengthy career . Smile . |
544,172 | 562,732 | 349,710 | 9 | Not just another Backdraft . | I only mention Backdraft because the reason I never saw Ladder 49 in the theater was because Backdraft was one of those movies that I absolutely loved as a kid and I didn't think , that there was anything that a firefighting movie could do beyond that . If you think about it , there are not a lot of plot structures that are conducive to a firefighting film . Firefighting movies are essentially about the firefighters and the dangers that they face at work every day , but this one focuses more than usual on the family element . Backdraft was about firefighters losing family members in fires more than anything else , Ladder 49 is more about the people at home . Kind of like We Were Soldiers . The thing that I appreciated the most about the movie was the way it was structured . Jack Morrison walks into a burning building with the rest of his team at the beginning of the movie , and then it cuts back and forth between that fire and the more than a decade that passed between when he joined the firehouse and when he walked into that building . It builds up the story and the tension and our knowledge of the characters in a way that stretches his involvement in that fire out so that we can learn about him and his family while he is fighting that one fire . It's hard to explain more without spoiling anything . Joaquin Phoenix , who I am so used to seeing play pretty unenviable roles , or at least playing characters that don't have the best luck ( see To Die For , 8MM , Gladiator , Clay Pigeons and , probably most of all , Return to Paradise ) , plays something a little different here . I enjoyed seeing him play such a contented character in this movie , even though he's very good at playing dirtbags and losers . He was happy with his work and he found a wonderful wife and they had a wonderful family , and the initial conflict arose from his wife , who was understandably upset at the very high chance that he could be killed at work . The guy is just a tremendous actor . But the biggest difference that it has from Backdraft is that it is not an action film , it's a drama . It's not about heroes rushing into towering infernos and pulling out helpless children and pets ( or mannequins , as it were ) , it's about what it is about firemen that makes them want to do what they do . I can't tell you how many times during the movie when I thought about how easy it would have been to change jobs had it been me in Jack Morrison's shoes , but I guess that means I don't have the same drive that these firemen have . I like to think that I have heart and am a good person , I guess I just would have put my family first in such a situation . But there are men and women that are so dedicated to helping other people and saving lives that they will put themselves and their families second , and those are the real heroes that this movie is meant to recognize . The characters in the movie are not standard movie firemen or action heroes , they are real people with real thoughts who make real decisions that affect the progress of the plot more than the progress of the plot affects them . Consider the character played by Robert Patrick . There is a point in the movie where you are sure he is going to be the one hardass fireman that gets in the way of Jack Morrison , the hero , and he does . But at that point he can either stay a hero and slink away defeated at the end or he can realize what a great man Jack is and come to his side at the end . Well , what actually happens is certainly more one than the other , but it happens in such a way that presents his character as a person , not a movie villain or even a movie character , and that's true of everyone in the film . They are all people , not characters , and that's what makes this movie real . |
544,376 | 562,732 | 120,661 | 9 | It's not the whole story , but that wasn't its job . | A lot of times I browse through other reviews when contemplating what I want to say about a movie , and never have I been more disturbed than by reading people's reviews of this film . One IMDb reviewer placed a post on the page for Everest ( 2005 ) in which he attacked Jon Krakauer , author of the spectacular novel Into Thin Air , not only of selfishly misrepresenting the actions of people on the mountain , but also of sleeping away in his tent while people were stuck outside freezing . Bruce Kirkland , writing for Jam ! Movies , stupidly claims that Araceli Sgarra was in the movie simply as sex appeal and , even worse , that ' members of at least one climbing team just crawled back in their tents and ignored the crisis . ' Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal . So a bunch of boneheads completely missed the point and clearly have no idea about what really happened on the mountain , and are just writing reviews pretending like they have some right to criticize events and actions that they don't understand , right ? Wrong . First of all , Mr . Kirkland displays a prodigious capacity for ignorance , apparently having managed to sit through this entire film and still not realize that no climber on earth could make it to the top of Everest without massive climbing skills . So much for that ridiculous little ' sex appeal ' theory . The first Spanish woman ever to reach the summit of Everest , and this moron can do nothing but call her sex appeal . Please . Second , there is nothing worse than people making accusations when they clearly have not read Krakauer's book . The IMAX expedition simply coincided with the tragic events that unfolded on Mt . Everest in May of 1996 , it is not a documentary of those events . This is why the movie does not go into detail about what happens besides Liam Neeson describing them briefly in the voice-over , and is also why we now have so many people posting scathing reviews about a tragedy that they know nothing about . I would love to see the expression on one of these people's faces if they were asked why May 1996 was the deadliest month in the history of Everest , and yet given the statistics , actually had less deaths than the average year . The people that ' just crawled back in their tents and ignored the crisis , ' a group of people which included Jon Krakauer himself , did so for three reasons . First , because they were literally freezing to death . Frostbite had long since begun to set in , they were in the middle of a high-altitude storm , and the wind-chill was such that it would make short work of warm-blooded humans stuck in it . Second , because they were so exhausted that they could barely move . Please remember that these people , at that altitude , could only take a few steps before having to lean over their ice-axes , panting for breath in the dangerously thin air . It does not require a cognitive workout to realize that for people who can hardly stand up to attempt a rescue effort would do nothing but add themselves to the death toll . Third , and most importantly , they didn't even know that there was a tragedy unfolding outside . It is more than a little difficult , Mr . Kirkland , to ' ignore ' events that you don't even know are occurring . In Into Thin Air , tragedy does not begin to unfold until almost 300 pages into the book , the IMAX movie passes that point in less than 15 minutes . The point was not to document the tragedies that unfolded , but to give viewers an unparalleled look at Mt . Everest itself , a monumental task at which it is hugely successful . I just wish there was more stock footage and less re-enactments , because there were scenes immediately recognizable from the book that were clearly not shot on location or during the actual events , like the conversation with the stranded Rob Hall . I have no illusions . I'll probably never even set foot in Nepal , and would never make it to the top of Mt . Everest even I did . Director David Breashears not only went to the top , but brought along an IMAX camera so the rest of us could see it , too . In a startling act of heroism , when he and his team learned of the tragic events occurring at higher altitudes , as they were on their way up , they immediately abandoned their $5 . 5 million IMAX project to participate in the rescue effort , providing their more than 300 pounds of oxygen canisters to whoever needed them . It was not until the rescue effort had saved as many lives as they could that the IMAX team regrouped to decide whether they should still try to salvage their film project . While I was not able to see Everest at an IMAX theater , I was still impressed with it on the small screen , probably because I had read Into Thin Air literally the day before I watched this film , and was able appreciate what these people went through on their expeditions . There are a lot of reviewers on the IMDb who say the movie is pointless to watch on a small screen , but it is only pointless if your imagination is so small that a smaller presentation is not enough for you to understand the sheer magnitude of the event . I could have done without the Jurassic Park music throughout the film , because it only tries to add to the greatness of the mountain , the expeditions , and the people involved , when no augmentation was necessary . It is not because the screen is small that the music seems trite , but because it's not necessary . Everest's soundtrack could have been nothing but wind across the microphone and it would have been more than sufficient . Since I had read the book so soon before I watched the movie , I had an unfair expectation to see more coverage of the events that I had read about , because Jon Krakauer goes into stunning detail , covering every aspect of the expedition . It was not until I read some reviews of Everest , particularly on the IMDb , when I really appreciated the quality of the film and was startled by the idiocy of the people writing about it . The film is marketed by its connection with Into Thin Air , but unfortunately its association with that book only detracts from the movie because of its separation from it . Associating it with the book gives the impression that it will cover some of the same events , which it does with unfortunate brevity , and worst of all , the association of the film with Krakauer's book gives some viewers the impression that they know what happened on the mountain just because they have seen this film . No one who has not read Into Thin Air has any right whatsoever to criticize anything that happened on Mt . Everest in May 1996 . |
544,732 | 562,732 | 120,660 | 9 | One of the fastest moving action films to come out in years , Enemy of the State grabs the audience and holds on until the end . | Enemy of the State is the unlikely story of Robert Clayton Dean ( Will Smith ) who is the unknowing recipient of a tape showing the politically motivated murder of an uncooperative Senator . Even though the premise is a little bit farfetched , the movie as a whole is so relentlessly entertaining an fun that it is possible to overlook things like that . Will Smith is excellent in his role , and the extensive supporting cast also does a very good job . However , I think that the best quality of this film is the way that it was made . The extensive use of surveillance camera cinematography make the spectacular chase even more paranoid and intense , and the technology displayed in the film is also very impressive . Enemy of the State should be noted especially for the fact that it was able to take a very unlikely premise and turn it into a great action thriller . The way the film was put together allowed for the audience's attention to be entirely consumed while the visually intense film whipped through the story of a man being chased by people he doesn't know so that they can get a tape that he doesn't even know he has . Luckily , Dean is a defiant man , otherwise the agents who came to his door early in the film would have had a quick look through his purchases , found the tape , and everyone would have lived happily ever after ( except for the Senator who was killed , of course ) . Enemy of the State is just a good action / thriller . It is well made , well-acted , and very interesting and fun to watch . It presents a chase scenario beaten only by the legendary Fugitive , and later rivaled by the excellent Arlington Road . Definitely a must-see for any action fan . |
544,741 | 562,732 | 367,478 | 9 | No fluff , just revenge ! | All too often in Van Damme movies ( or any action movie , for that matter ) , the action is dumbed down or spread out along a goofy story that is clearly only an excuse for gunfights and car chases . Wake of Death has a moderately clever story and is moderately delivered , but much more emphasis is put on the action . It's gritty and unapologetic with its violence , clearly trying to effectively capture the mob world in which it takes place , and also features what might be Van Damme's best actual acting performance of his entire career . There's an emotional scene in the movie that is so intense it's almost difficult to watch , so I don't want to hear any more from these people who are constantly whining that Van Damme can't act . I'd like to see any of YOU show me anything close to what he did in this movie ! Van Damme stars as Ben Archer , an aging mobster who wants to get out and have a normal life with his family . Of course , his family doesn't know what he really does for a living , as far as they know , he is in the " bar " business . Claiming to be tired of the noise and the smoke and the drinking , he tells his incredulous superior that he wants out , and then heads home . Having seen this set-up a dozen times or more , we know that nothing good can come of this . Ben's wife , Cynthia , is a social worker , and soon finds herself with the problem of a boatload of Chinese refugees , all of whom must be detained and shipped back to China . Strangely , though , they are refugees from Hong Kong . I didn't know there were many refugees coming out of Hong Kong in the early 21st century . In fact , I can't think of a time in modern Chinese history when there were refugees coming from Hong Kong . Clearly , this is unimportant to writers Mick Davis and Laurent Fellous , who seem to be just going on the assumption that , because of Mao Tse-tung's brutal , murderous regime , there have pretty much always been refugees coming from China . The ones in the movie definitely look like mainland Chinese and not people from Hong Kong , except for the little girl , who looks Korean and is even named Kim . I can tell you one thing , out of almost 1 . 4 billion people in mainland China , not one of them is named Kim ! Anyway , Cynthia sees this young girl and decides she's too cute to be shipped back to the horrors of Hong Kong , so she risks her job and reputation to take the girl under her wing . Unfortunately , she is the daughter of Sun Quan , a Chinese mobster of the triad variety ( you remember them from the Infernal Affairs movies ) . Quan , clearly , is not happy about his daughter living with some white people ( " foreign devils , " as they were called back when people really were trying to flee from China ) , so he sets out to find her , killing anyone who gets in his way . At this point , the movie becomes astonishingly violent , even for a Van Damme film . The movie violence is serious here , like in serious gangster movies . The profanity is thick and the movie is not afraid to shoot older women in the face , showing us her exploding head . I had never seen anything like that in any of Van Damme's movies . Quan kills Cynthia , and Ben's grieving her loss is one of the best scenes in the movie , and one of the best examples of Van Damme's acting ability from his entire career . The soundtrack is suitably depressing when it needs to be , such as in the opening credits , which features one of those god-awful moody soap-opera-ish love songs , like the worst of the Bond themes . There is a major slip-up as the little girl doesn't speak a word of English and then , in the same second that Cynthia starts speaking Chinese ( she explains that her grandparents are Chinese , as if language was hereditary ) , Kim busts out with her perfect American English . Nice . I've been teaching English at a University in central China for two years now , and let me tell you , it is almost impossible to teach them to speak English with any accent other than a Chinese one . For that you have to have been raised in America ( or Canada , as it were ) . The movie is not a cognitive workout , of course , but it is definitely a solid action movie that deserves more recognition than it got . Sadly , like the great Bruce Campbell , Van Damme is a little bit of what they call " box office poison , " although I would like to suggest that the reason for this is because of the bad press that he gets from people who jump on the bandwagon , uniformly criticizing his acting and his movies without even really knowing what they're talking about . No , he's not Orson Welles , but he stands for important things and , for all of the shallowness that we've seen in his films , occasionally he takes it upon himself to prove to us that yes , he can act . The problem is that all too often his target audience doesn't require him to , we just want to see his kick the hell out of some bad guys . Wake of Death is the most violent movie he has ever made , and is proof that he is better than most people think he is . I hope one day he really gets the respect that he deserves ! |
543,792 | 562,732 | 268,380 | 9 | A great film for children and adults , but they needed more of that squirrel ! | Ice Age is a visually stunning animated feature that takes after Shrek in that it is wisely aimed toward adults just as much as children - an important detail the oversight of which just about single-handedly caused the failure of Cats & Dogs . It is structured unfortunately like a birthday cake , in that the candy frosting is at the very beginning and then the actual body of the film , the cake , bears much less of an immediate appeal but is still willingly consumed . The spectacular opening sequence in the film is probably the most recognizable part of the film since it is what makes up the majority of the theatrical trailers . By far the most entertaining part of the film , it introduces a lowly squirrel ( lowly in that it is one of the few animals in the film that doesn't speak ) that makes occasional and very welcome appearances throughout the rest of the film . After this opening sequence ( which easily surpasses the opening sequence of any James Bond film ) , we are quickly introduced to an accident prone sloth named Sid , who is saved from a couple of angry rhinos by a caring mammoth ( Manfred ) who would just as soon save his life and never be seen with him again . They become a grudging partnership when they come across a human baby , as their care of life itself overcomes Manfred's dislike of Sid and his desire to be left alone . I was a little disappointed that this was going to be yet another animated movie with talking animals ( seriously , do we not already have enough of these ? ) the way I was with Dinosaur in 2000 , but for the most part , Ice Age manages to avoid being a routine animated talking animal movie . There is a curious interaction between animals that clearly do not belong together , given their random places on the food chain . Sid sticks with Manfred because Manfred is huge and scary and able to protect Sid from the threat of predators if he can only convince him to let him tag along . Sid does this , even though this is obviously not a symbiotic relationship , and then ultimately they are joined by a sabertooth tiger , of all things , who they trust only because he claims to know a shorter way to get to the humans and return the baby , and also because he alone is not much of a threat to Manfred . ( spoilers ) The place where this film graciously strays from the routine talking animal movie is where the subject of good and evil in the film is concerned . It is no secret that Diego ( the sabertooth , voiced brilliantly by Denis Leary ) is a vicious predator with little on his mind other than obtaining this baby for his pack for revenge purposes and , as an added bonus , tricking Manfred into walking into a trap and feeding his whole pack of tigers with his abundance of meat . This develops a wonderful situation in that we never know what is going to happen and who to trust , and even this involving story is intercut with things like the thrilling ice-slide scene ( which mirrors the sheer thrills created by the door factory scene in Monster , Inc . , arguably the best scene in the film ) , and blanketed by the breathtaking animation first introduced in a mainstream film with Toy Story in 1995 . There is , however , a rather unfortunate quality to the mixing of the characters here , in that it so effectively portrays the carnivores as the bad guys , the evil part of the necessary good and evil ingredients in order to have a story . Also like Cats & Dogs ( which chose to impose the characteristic of evil onto one of the two breeds of rivals seemingly at random ) , this film chooses to present the carnivores as the evil ones , but at least the reasoning is apparent here . The sabertooth tigers are meat-eaters , they kill other animals for food ( and talking animals at that ! ) , so clearly they have to be presented as the antagonists . Never mind the fact that humans are much more vicious and violent predators than sabertooth tigers , right ? Newsflash , vegetarians , if you only want to eat things that were never alive , I hope you can get used to a diet of sand and rocks , because that is just about all that's going to be on the menu . Just kidding , I actually applaud people who make restrictions in their diets because of the things that go on in slaughterhouses . Killing animals for human food is one of the least supervised industries in the world by the animal rights groups , and these practices sicken me to no end ( although have little to no impact on my own gleeful consumption of meat ) , but I hardly think this is an adequate reason to portray sabertooth tigers , who are doing nothing more than following their natural instincts , as evil because of their longing for such a large quantity of meat as Manfred would provide them . The end of Ice Age is the point where the movie comes dangerously close to being overly sentimental and cheesy , given the tearful antics that go on when the baby is returned to the humans . Sid and Manfred give their teary goodbyes just as Diego staggers over the horizon ( assuring us that he is not really dead ) , to do a little peek-a-boo at the baby and then give a little wave . This is cheesy crap , but the rest of the movie is good enough to allow for a little over-sentimentality like this . The best things about Ice Age were things like the rearrangement of the food chain in the partnership that develops throughout the film , the sheer comedy involved in the squirrel's unending efforts to stow away acorns for a winter that is already here , and the new idea of where the English language may have come from ( humans don't speak ! ! ) . Despite the ham-handed message of vegetarianism that permeates the film from beginning to end ( which I dislike more for its blatant ham-handedness than its presence at all ) , Ice Age proudly carries the distinction of being one for the whole family and not just one that the producers want you to BELIEVE is one for the whole family , as was the case with Cats & Dogs . Enjoy it , and don't sit too close to the TV . |
544,631 | 562,732 | 264,464 | 9 | Note to self : Make a lot of fake checks , buy James Bond suit , work for FBI . | The latest film from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks is much more than a vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio , who is granted the most screen time by far , it is a massively entertaining film about the true life adventures ( and I should think that the word ? adventures ' should apply here in all possible meanings ) of Frank Abagnale Jr . , a brilliant young man who's con artist abilities are revealed in a thrilling early scene where he impersonates a substitute teacher , going so far as to turn away the real substitute when she shows up to teach class . We are not shown how he is caught after committing this relatively small-time offense , because the last thing we want in our minds about this character is how he gets caught at something . Instead , we see his parents sitting in the principal's office , where the principal reveals to them that their son has been teaching class for the last week , assigning homework , having parent / teacher conferences , and was even planning a field trip . His mother is furious , as most mothers would be , being , I think , the real rulers of the house , while his father was proud of his son's sneakiness as , I also think , many fathers would be ( except for the uptight ones , of course ) . I know MY father would have loved it if I managed something like that in high school . ( spoilers ) It seems that Frank has a brilliant mind that he applies to not the mot legal avenues , and his home life is less than wonderful . He comes home one day to discover his mother having an affair with one of his father's friends , and when he eventually finds out , instead of writing a name on that little form to choose which parent he wanted to live with , he jumps out the window and runs away , beginning the adventure that we learn about during the rest of the movie . Granted , Catch Me If You Can is one of those films where the plot from beginning to end is revealed in the preview ( kind of like Pleasantville ) , but it is still a thrilling ride , which is a testament to the talent involved with it . One of the most interesting elements of the movie is the way it is structured . It knows that it is a predictable film , not only because it starts at the end but because it is a true story and true stories that end tragically are not made into movies ( at least not by Spielberg ) , so the chronology is mixed up at several points during the film . We start at the end , go back to the beginning for a while , go back to just before the end , a little past the end , back to the middle , etc . Not necessarily in that order , but the way the chronological order of events is skewed in the film makes it refreshing even if we already know what it going to happen . The only problem that I had with the movie was that , despite its ending , there were several things about the movie that were just too convenient . As only a single example , there is a scene late in the film when Frank is being transported back home from France to go to prison in America , and after finding out that his father fell down the stairs and died , he runs into the bathroom , escapes from the plane Commando-style in broad daylight , and runs on foot all the way back to his house . I realize that the movie takes place before cell-phones and even in the early days of two way radios , but you would think that it would not take the FBI the ENTIRE DAY to get to his house , the most obvious place that he was headed . In real life , there would have been squad cars waiting for him long before he jogged back , which makes me wonder how this particular detail played out in real life , if it did at all . Either way , it is clear that this scene is , as they say , dramatized for effect , which makes you wonder how much of the rest of the story is as well . There is also one other scene that sticks out for this reason like a bright red flag . About two thirds of the way through the film , virtually the entire staff of the FBI are at the Miami airport , because this is the only airport that Abagnale will use ( the only reason given for this , by the way , is because this is the airport where Hanratty , the agent assigned to capture Abagnale , has set up his stake-out ) . They are looking everywhere for Abagnale to show up , and after his girlfriend sets him up , he goes to local universities signing up a whole crew of flight attendants for a two-month flight attendant training tour throughout Europe . We are never told how he managed to get PanAm to let these fraudulent attendants on the plane when they show up at the airport , or where their uniforms came from , or whether they were all on the same flight or PanAm was nice enough to spread them throughout their entire airline corporation , but the gimmick is that Abagnale is able to walk through the entire airport surrounded by gorgeous young women , and all the police officers and FBI agents their to capture him would be so distracted by all the hotties that they wouldn't even notice him . So here's problem # 1 : Abagnale is going for the art of invisibility , and there are few things less invisible than a lot of beautiful young women wearing matching pink uniforms . Very few things , in fact , would attract MORE attention to his little group of followers . Problem # 2 : If you see a whole group of beautiful young women wearing matching pink uniforms walking in a grinning little group with only a single male within the group , that male attracts at least as much attention as the women . Meaning , if you see that many women walking and giggling together and they are only with a single man , not many people wouldn't be scrambling to see who that man is . In both cases , Abagnale might as well hold up a blinking sign with his name on it . Of course , as with many other scenes within the movie that are just entirely too convenient , Hanratty is on the phone and facing away just as Abagnale walks by with his big pink group of buddies , but has the brilliant foresight to have a look-alike waiting outside with a big sign with Hanratty's name on it , another little detail more than likely added to the story for our amusement in the film version . Like I said , a lot of this stuff is not very likely to have happened , at least not exactly as we see it in the movie , in real life , but it's also not entirely without effect and not entirely unappreciated . Spielberg is America's most popular director , and in this movie he proves that he knows how to present a chase . A good chase film has to be structured with a series of close calls and more comfortable moments . You remember this in The Fugitive , for example , when Richard Kimble is cornered by Sam Gerard in the tunnel on the dam , only to escape by jumping off right in front of him . There is a wonderful scene in Catch Me If You Can where Hanratty finds Abagnale's hotel room and bursts in with a gun , at which point we are sure there's no escape , but Frank manages to impersonate a CIA officer right in front of Hanratty , an agent for the FBI , and narrowly escapes , to the audience's great delight . Again , not exactly the most believable stuff in the world , but it sure is fun . Leonardo DiCaprio has made a tremendous leap both in his choice of roles to play and in his acting skills as a whole . He has certainly come a long way from his chokingly awful performance in Titanic , to play a role in Catch Me If You Can that he seems born to play . The only problem with him in this role is that he is a 28-year-old actor who happens to be able to pass for a 16-year-old kid , when what the part needs is a 16-year-old actor who can , when necessary , pass for a 28-year-old man . Tom Hanks , on the other hand , is absolutely flawless in his role as the driven FBI agent determined to capture Abagnale , even if he asks him nicely to leave him alone . And I don't want to hear any complaints about Hanks ' accent , because he captured it beautifully . If you really want to whine and moan about a well-known actor doing a fake accent , watch Thirteen Days . Overall , Catch Me If You Can has some flaws , it has a few scenes that go beyond the expected suspension of disbelief , but these scenes seem to have just been too ambitious in a movie that maybe was turning out even better than expected . In that sense , these scenes are little more than a slight excursion over the top , while the movie as a whole shines and entertains , even for the slightly lengthy running time . It was a sad and moving scene when Frank's father's death was revealed , and his mother strangely disappeared in the movie into the oblivion of her marriage to her father's friend ( the one she had been having the affair with ) , but as a whole the movie is wonderful entertainment for the whole family . |
544,495 | 562,732 | 89,755 | 9 | When the Gods want to punish you , they answer your prayers . | Barbara Kingsolver's astonishingly vivid Poisonwood Bible was my first and remains my most detailed image of Africa . It is not a pleasant atmosphere that is presented in the book , but the beauty of that unique natural environment is presented in Out of Africa more in than in it's dangerous potential . Of course , some of the most important and moving scenes in the film involve near-death experiences involving some African wildlife , but I have a feeling that the breathtaking expanses of open wilderness will be remembered more than these close encounters . It is precisely the experience of reading the Poisonwood Bible ( and the characters ' experiences in living in Africa ) that has made Out of Africa have a unique impression on me . The film takes place around World War I , when large numbers of European settlers were leaving the unsatisfying life in Europe and seeking greener pastures , as it were , in East Africa . Certain elevations and locations were known to have fewer insects and dangerous animals , and could be good for farming . The story focuses on the life of the Baroness Karen Blixen , who plunges headlong into a marriage to her lover's brother in order to avoid a life of loneliness , only to gradually watch that marriage fall apart . The damage to her relationship with her husband is extensive but also gratifying , because she has a determination and healthy spirit that he doesn't seem to share , and clearly lacks the respect that she deserves . Her husband is wildly unfaithful to her , even managing to bring syphilis home to her , eventually asking him to move out . Thus begins the curious romance between her and a big game hunter named Denys ( Robert Redford ) . There is a clever and highly satisfying exchange between Denys and Bror ( Blixen's husband ) , after Bror discovers their romance . " You should have asked permission , " he tells Denys . " I did , " he replies . " She said yes . " I have read that the relationship between Baroness Blixen is very different than in the real Baronness Blixen's books , in which the Africans are of great importance to her . Because this movie is an epic romance , it focuses more exclusively on the romance between Blixen and Denys , as well as the juxtaposition of the failed romance with her husband and her genuine hope for something better and more real with Denys . Out of Africa seems to run the risk of having too many well-known Americans movie stars in a story that takes place just after turn-of-the century Africa , but because Director Sydney Pollack understands how to mold their star power to the story and to the passion created within the story , we are able to focus on the characters rather than the actors , and envision a time past in a part of the world that is unknown to so many in the audience . Bravo ! |
543,864 | 562,732 | 63,350 | 9 | The one that started it all , etc , etc , etc ? . | It was interesting to see Night of the Living Dead turn into such a cult classic , and I think that one of the biggest reasons that that happened was because of its simplicity . You might notice a trend in the horror genre , the less extravagant they are the better , and this is a perfect example of the less extravagant category . Shot in black and white several decades after color became normal in mainstream film , Night of the Living Dead scares through some of the same tactics later used by other classic horror films , notable Halloween , with the slow but relentless Michael Meyers stalking constantly . He's slow , but like the zombies in this movie , he is virtually unstoppable . Granted , the zombies can be killed with a shot to the head or some other way of separating the brain from the rest of the body ( pleasant , isn't it ! ) , but their sheer numbers compensates for this weakness . Because we don't see the events that lead up to what is famously referred to as ' an epidemic of mass murder being committed by a virtual army of unidentified assassins ' ( White Zombies fans are sure to prick up their ears at this radio broadcast ) , it's reasonable to assume that the vast majority of the human population has fallen victim to the walking dead , and the people we see barricading themselves in the house are the few remaining survivors . One of the strange things about Night of the Living Dead is the way it is structured , or I should say the time that it takes place . A lesser director might have concentrated on the widespread attacking and panic that lead to most people being turned into zombies , but not only would that not have been possible with this movie's famously miniscule budget , but it's not really the point . That timeline would fall flat because it would force the movie to focus on a few select people , who would just happen to be the ones that survived long enough to become characters with names and personalities ( well maybe just names , let's not go crazy here , this IS a horror movie ? ) . It would kind of kill the suspense . While it may seem that the movie started right on the middle of things and that we've already missed all the good stuff , I think it's important to keep in mind that , given the movie's budget and intentions , George Romero wanted it to be as simple as possible . It has a little bit of a character study , featuring characters in an extreme crisis situation who can do nothing but quarrel amongst themselves like blithering idiots who can't stand to see anyone else in power ( as well as a blonde woman who periodically can't even speak ) . The movie is about a bunch of people thrown into this situation and how they deal with the situation and each other in order to survive the night . It's telling , for example , that throughout the entire trilogy we're never given a real reason for why people were turning into zombies in the first place , because it doesn't matter . From a technical standpoint , the movie is brilliant because of Romero's sheer ability to get so much out of so little . The movie is crudely shot , but I think that actually adds to the effect because it gives it something of a documentary feel , not the polished look of so many modern horror movies whose special effects do nothing more than remind the audience constantly that they are movies . Night of the Living Dead really couldn't afford to look so fake . The acting is terrible throughout , but the important part is that the zombies looked at least halfway like zombies . Consider the abysmal sequel ( which was recently remade into one of the best horror modernizations ever created ) , in which the zombies look like nothing more than masses of extras with cheesy blue make-up all over their faces . In this movie , it's not hard to see that the make-up is crude , but the crudeness of the film stock as well as the shooting itself gets past that . Ironically , it's more effective because you can't really see it so clearly . Night of the Living Dead has become a cult classic because of how daring it was ( in such ways as the horribly ironic ending ) and how frightening it managed to be despite its miniscule budget . Granted , even this titan of a horror classic has been subdued to the point where it tends to generate more respect than fear ( as is the case with most older horror films which are actually well made ) , but it's position in film history is unmistakable , even today , when it's sequel has been massively improve by a recent remake . It is black and white and seems ancient , but Night of the Living Dead remains a movie for current aspiring horror filmmakers to study and emulate . |
544,123 | 562,732 | 4,288 | 9 | Chaplin bursts onto the scene ! | I have read a lot of negative reviews of Chaplin's first screen appearance , written by people who can't seem to get past the fact that the Tramp has not been discovered yet and Chaplin plays a character wildly different from the one that we know and love and with whom he is most associated with . It is a curious look at his early career , since Chaplin was acting on stage barely six months before this film was shot , and although his character , dubiously named Edgar English , is something of a swindling jerk , it is hard to imagine any actor putting on a charming performance with such a hideous mustache ! Many of Charlie's mannerisms are already very recognizable , and it is interesting to consider how similar his stage acting was to his film acting , since his style is already so clear . Consider his behavior upon noticing the Help Wanted sign , as well as the extensive fight scenes , which are even more breathless here than usual , since the pace of the film is so much faster than many of his short comedies of the time , given the primitive filming equipment . Making A Living is a very unique film in Chaplin's filmography , not only because it is his first screen appearance , but also because it represents a real testing period in which he was truly unsure of himself as a screen actor . One cannot deny that it is interesting to consider how Chaplin looked back on this film in forming his persona , and what he thought worked here and what he should change . Also of note is the film's final shot , which features a stunt gag , something that would be very common in his later short comedies of this period . Some have said that this is a film only for Chaplin fans and that casual fans of silent film should skip it , but I disagree . Chaplin is considered by many to be the greatest screen comedian of all time , but if you keep in mind that this is his first screen appearance and therefore not one of the greatest silent comedies of all time , I should think that any viewer with even a mild interest in silent film should find it interesting and entertaining . |
544,229 | 562,732 | 321,032 | 9 | Cool supplemental documentary that gives insight into a great movie . | This quick documentary gives some pretty interesting insights into the making of Bullitt , which I found to be especially interesting because so much of the film was shot not only on location , but on very difficult locations . Steve McQueen is something of a stuntman in real life , given his extensive interests in motorcycle and car racing , so naturally he wanted to do as many of his own stunts as possible , and I think that kind of dedication really comes across in the film . When stuntmen are used in movies there are so many times when you can just tell , even if you can't really see their faces , and I think it takes away from the movies as a whole . There is also a lot of interesting footage of the cast and crew working on location , behind the scenes , and this DVD includes some pretty interesting information about the research that some actors did in preparation for their roles , such as riding along with SFPD officers to learn how they worked , as well as using real doctors and nurses in the hospital scenes . Overall an interesting documentary , and definitely worth the ten minutes it will take to watch it ! |
544,683 | 562,732 | 120,623 | 9 | Another wonderful family adventure from Pixar ! | Lately I have been watching a lot of Tom Hanks films and old Chaplin films and even some of Rowan Atkinson's early Bean performances , and it seems that all of them have their own unique charm that permeates throughout their work , something that allows them to identify with audience members of all ages , in a way that just makes you feel good . A Bug's Life has that same charm , it has a connection with real life that allows us to easily suspend disbelief and accept a lot of talking insects , because even though they talk , they still ACT just like real bugs . It's like the team that made the movie found a way to bring us into the mind of a child and allow us to think like them , to imagine bugs the way a young mind does . Honey , I Shrunk The Kids was one of my favorite films when I was younger , and to me , A Bug's Life is like a more realistic version of that movie , if only because the animation is so breathtaking and this style of story-telling just opens up so many more narrative possibilities . I try not to compare it to something like Toy Story ( which I still maintain is the best computer animated film ever made ) , because the story of A Bug's Life is not quite as good as Toy Story's , but then again , almost nothing is . The important thing is that it is still wonderful fun . The story concerns a colony of hard working bugs who have an impressively developed society , mostly geared around building a harvest of food , most of which will go to the tyrannical grasshoppers , vastly superior in strength and general meanness , and hopefully still leave enough left over for the bugs to make it through the winter . We are treated to some visits from the grasshoppers , who make it clear that if the bugs provide an unsatisfactory quantity of food , the consequences will be dire . And incidentally , the similarities between this crippling level of food extraction is strikingly similar to Mao Tse-tung's vicious forcing of food from his own people during the " Great Leap Forward ? " The fun and excitement begins when Flik , the main character , sets off on a quest to find a gang of appropriate warrior bugs to come back and help defend the colony against the grasshoppers . You see , he spilled all of the amassed food and placed everyone in great danger , so he feels it's his responsibility , but he inadvertently ends up hiring a struggling group of insect circus performers . Great for the audience , not so great for the safety of the clan . The movie was released back in the late 90s , when so many films seemed to have been coming out in twos , like Armageddon and Deep Impact , Independence Day and The Arrival , A Bug's Life and Antz , etc . Comparisons between A Bug's Life and Antz are inevitable , although it seems clear to me that A Bug's Life is by far the superior film , and not only because it doesn't star Woody Allen stuttering and whining through the lead role . This is great family fun ! |
544,882 | 562,732 | 852,755 | 9 | CSI gets religious AND political ! | There is a point early in this episode where it seems that it's going to be painfully predictable , but luckily it's not nearly as predictable as you might think . A girl is killed and crucified inside a Catholic church , of all places , and her twin sister is shot and killed in an otherwise apparently unrelated killing a couple of hours apart . As far as the structure of the case , I think this is one of the more clever episodes I've seen recently . There are constantly more layers being revealed , and leads that seem promising but lead nowhere . The sisters don't know each other , the mother gave them up for adoption as babies , there are complicated love interests ( one involving a priest ) , and a mysterious adopted sister who lived a lonely life and developed an obsession when she learned that she had a half sister . One of the suspects is revealed to have a motive about some doctored award-winning photos of the troops in Iraq , which gives Grissom a great opportunity to make a more powerful political statement than I have come to expect from your typical CSI episode . Even with a surplus of suspects it's hard to see where the story is going . Excellent performances throughout as well ! Oh and here's a great quote - " I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion . " - Henry David Thoreau . Me too , Henry . Me too . . . |
544,186 | 562,732 | 4,311 | 9 | Well well . . . | In The Masquerader , Chaplin sort of breaks the fourth wall , in that he appears in the film as himself , sort of , and then changes into the costume of the Tramp a few minutes into the movie . Similar to his work in Film Johnnie , Caplin creates mayhem on set during shooting and promptly gets himself fired . Just before he leaves , he throws his suitcase at his boss and some hilarious mayhem ensues . The next day , Charlie returns dressed as a woman named Senorita Chapelino ( " . . . a fairy floated into the studio . . . " ) . He is disturbingly convincing as a female , and of course all of the men at the studio come forward with aggressive amorous advances . Eventually , of course , Charlie is discovered , and this is followed by some of the best of those hilarious fight scenes of nearly all of Chaplin's early comedies . As with all of these old comedies , this one is deteriorated pretty badly , but there is still some pretty good editing at the end of the film . One thing about films made during that time is that they move so fast , and this fast motion makes some of the shorter shots go by so fast that some of them are almost incomprehensible , and the editing of these films seems to have suffered from this . But at the end of The Masquerader , there is some editing that is better than usual in these early comedies , particularly in the scene where he falls into the well . Fatty Arbuckle also appears early in the film as a fellow actor , which might be the most interesting scene in the film since Chaplin and Arbuckle play themselves , basically , as they get ready to go to work . I think The Masquerader is a bit of a milestone , as Chaplin is clearly developing the character of the Tramp as a down and out everyman just trying to turn his luck , rather than resorting to drunkenness or so much punching and kicking as in so many of his earlier films . |
544,806 | 562,732 | 108,598 | 9 | Hitchcock would have been proud . | I have to imagine that fellow-Brit Alfred Hitchcock would have been absolutely delighted by this little claymation comedy about a mysterious lodger . Hitchcock began his career with a film about a Lodger ( recently made into a Luke-warm remake ) , so surely he would have gotten a kick out of Wallace & Gromit's run-in with a mysterious lodger of their own . Wallace has been perfecting his work on a pair of robotic trousers that he plans to use to take Gromit for walks so he doesn't have to , until he notices that his expenses are running a little high and he and Gromit will have to take in a lodger to help make ends meet . They take in the first one they meet , who turns out to be a curiously Far Side-looking penguin who seems to prefer Gromit's room . They really need the money , so the penguin moves into Gromit ' room and Gromit moves into the doghouse in the backyard . Wallace and the penguin develop a close friendship ( made even closer by Wallace's delight that he's getting money out of him ) , while Gromit sits outside in the rain stewing . Something doesn't seem right about the penguin , but he's not sure what it is . One day , Wallace is woken up by his automatic bed , which this time drops him into a pair of modified robotic trousers and he becomes the perpetrator of a major diamond theft . The animation is roundly superb , as always , and the attention to detail is as wonderful as ever . There are plenty of cool gadgets around the house that make for some wonderful sight gags , but the real jewel of the movie is not the stolen diamond but the thrilling train chase at the end , which is just as well-planned and executed as the most thrilling Hollywood action movie . The final ten minutes of the movie are a spectacular achievement alone , but with the rest of the movie it all comes together as a short animated film that should be treasured . Don't miss this one ! |
544,382 | 562,732 | 93,748 | 9 | Everyone loves Thanksgiving ? | I watched this movie having heard it mentioned in a fascinating book called Metal Cowboy , which is essentially a sort of journal that this guy named Joe Kurmaskie wrote about his adventures as a touring cyclist . I've gotten very interested in the subject lately , as my increasingly long bicycle adventures have led to an interest in seeing the country from the saddle of a bicycle , and Kurmaskie references Planes , Trains and Automobiles to emphasize a point he makes about the freaky things that can happen to you while traveling , particularly by bus . Steve Martin and John Candy play well off of each other , and it's interesting to note how many weak gimmicks are in the movie and yet how well it pulls it off . You have the traditional odd couple , they run into each other constantly among millions of people , for the sake of the plot , of course , and are such polar opposites that it's impossible not to see the inspiration that the movie took from the classic Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau film , The Odd Couple . But just when you begin to think that the movie is following an easily predicted formula , you get something thrown in that really catches you off guard , like the scene where Neal ( Steve Martin ) finally jumps out of bed , fed up with Del's ( John Candy ) inability to lie still and sleep , and yells at him extensively about every single little thing that he hates about him . It's strange that this can be such a hilarious scene for Martin , similar to Chevy Chase's temper tantrum over his Christmas bonus in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation , and yet we get cutaways to Del's face that are truly moving . He listens silently to Neal's endless stream of harsh criticisms , and he just watches , his face registering his inability to argue with any of it , and leaving the audience to wonder why we're laughing so hard at this guy who is obviously being hurt . And it's not even that the movie makes you look back at yourself with scenes like this , but that the characters are made so effectively three-dimensional . ( spoilers ) Del is an overly outgoing character who is sociable to a fault . He just wants to make conversation and make friends but ends up annoying instead . Kind of like that line in The Cable Guy , ' I just wanted to be your friend , Steven , but I screwed it up . ' Carrey had won the audience's heart with that one line , but sadly , the remainder of the movie allowed the character to rescind any sympathy . This guy doesn't need a friend , he needs a criminal psychiatrist . Del , on the other hand , badly needs a friend , as we find out later in the movie . As a whole , the movie is about the strenuous things that happen during the holidays . Rather than focus on the difficulties in dealing with the extended family , as was the case in Christmas Vacation , this one focuses on traveling hazards . Three years later writer and Director John Hughes wrote Home Alone , in which John Candy reappears in a similar situation and plays almost exactly the same character . Here , Neal's inability to get on a single plane flight leads to a two-day nightmare involving planes , trains , automobiles and Del Griffith . As is to be expected , this odd couple grows on each other , as they always do , but the movie manages to escape being just another odd couple movie for a variety of reasons . First , there is not resentment and dislike coming from both sides , only an irrational one coming from Neal's side . He has already judged this guy long before he knew him , and it is only Del that is willing to make conversation and simply get along , despite their differences and the difficulty of their situation . I especially loved that the movie did not cop out at the end , which it could very easily have done . It takes two people who could hardly have been more different , puts them together for a matter of days in an extremely stressful situation , and then brings them together at the end without compromising the validity of their characters . It is certainly a bittersweet ending , but one that leaves you with a smile . |
543,795 | 562,732 | 217,505 | 9 | The earth turns but we don't feel it move ? | When I hear people talk about how America is the greatest country in the world , which is increasingly common from all political standpoints as we approach the 2004 election , it has always struck me how staggeringly wrong that statement is ( at least since I traveled in Europe and learned firsthand about other countries ) . I'm sure I've already angered plenty of the few Americans who may read this review , so I should clarify . America really is a great country , I've lived here for my entire life and plan to live here for the rest of it , but it is simply not the greatest country in the world . That is , in fact , the summation in a single sentence of the common arrogance for which so much of the rest of the world looks at us with disdain . America is not the greatest , but A GREAT country , in a world with MANY OTHER great countries . Martin Scorsese , in keeping with his expanding collection of startlingly realistic gangster movies , has taken the best step that he could possibly have taken at this point in his career , in my opinion . He has gone into the 19th Century to make a film about the origins of the very genre that he knows so well to finally make a film that he had wanted to make for more than two decades . The first thing that struck me about Gangs of New York was the stunningly impressive re-creation of mid-19th Century New York . You can almost smell the horses and dirty people , the gunpowder , the wide-eyed immigrants as they step out of the immigration ship and onto the military to go out and fight for ' their country . ' The film immediately makes a harsh criticism of the American tendency toward military violence . Immigrants are shown one document that makes them citizens and another that enlists them in the army , and they are armed and sent to war before they even understand what is happening . The issue of gangs comes up in regards to America as a nation as well as the gangs rivaling each other within the cities . Many people compare current American military action as all too similar to the reaction of an inner city gang ? You hit me , we hit you ? and Scorsese shows that this is not new at all , it used to be even a desired impression . At one point a character notes , ' True Americans call themselves a gang , but all they do is stand around damning England . ' Odd that England should now be our # 1 ally in a massively controversial war . It's important to note that the movie is not entirely about the gangs of New York , but sort of a gang mentality that seems to have been disturbingly prevalent since the earliest days of the nation . Criminal gangs run the streets , corrupt politicians meet in smoky rooms to create laws and regulations that make them huge amounts of money and are promptly ignored by the common people , and the government itself bullies immigrants and the poor into the military . Enlist in the military and you go off to fight for a country that you don't even know and only have begun to belong to , but you get paid . Don't enlist , and they'll draft you , and if you get drafted you get no pay . Needless to say , the draft didn't have a lot of fans . That's a serious gamble for someone to take when facing such a monumental struggle as entering another country and hoping to scrape out a living at the same time . It's like playing the lottery with your life . It is indeed an unsettling scene to see bewildered immigrants boarding a ship as coffins are unloaded above them . Although for natives and immigrants alike , a mere $300 , a massive amount of money at the time , could buy your ' freedom ' from military service . This is another thing that has not changed much to this day . And notice what happens when the poor are forced into military service and the rich buy their way out ! Riots ! ! There are surprising things brought up in the film as well , such as the widespread disgust at Lincoln's having freed the slaves , which today stands as one of the great moments in American history , but the greatest thing that the movie does is show the roots of much of today's unrest in America . The gangs run rampant in the streets , unhindered by such trivialities as the police forces , which are too busy fighting each other to perform much enforcement of the law . Even fire departments fight each other . As is noted early on in the film , New York was not a city , it was more like a furnace . The movie focuses on the life of Amsterdam Vallon ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) , whose father , Priest Vallon , played by Liam Neeson , is killed in a gangland massacre at the start of the film . The respect that gangsters had for each other is shown when Bill ' the Butcher ' Cutting , the rival gangster ( and a staggering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis ) , protects his body from the post-mortem assaults of his men , asks that his son gets a good education , and even keeps a portrait of him until almost two decades later when he and Amsterdam's fates bring them together again . Cutting is quickly established as a vicious and cruel gangster , but whose chinks are ultimately exposed , although very subtly , because as his largest weapon , like so many dictators today , is fear . He relies on committing fearsome acts in order to preserve the order of things , to keep people afraid and therefore keep himself in a position of power . The knife-throwing scene , for example , is VERY good . It's interesting to see the young New York split by gangs at every level of society , each side claiming their own territory , each side praying to the same God , convinced that God is on their side . At the end of the film there is a heavy lesson to be learned . Vallon and Cutting find themselves laying side-by-side in the street , each badly wounded , and even Cutting , the malicious fear-monger , looks around at the chaos in the street , seemingly shamed to see what he had helped create . ' Friend or foe , didn't make no difference now . ' It really makes you think about living your life by the way of the gun when the gravestones start to show up at the end of the film , and then the skyscrapers show up around those . Vallon and Cutting had each created positions of power and influence in New York , but after their violence erupted and destroyed their spheres of influence , ' they build the city back up , and for the rest of time , it's like no one ever knew we was here . ' |
544,206 | 562,732 | 338,564 | 9 | Some of the best of Chinese gangster cinema . | By now the story is famous , thanks in America to Scorsese's adaptation , The Departed . The premise is so simple and so effective that it's amazing that they haven't been making movies like this for years . Or maybe they have . But definitely none have been as well done as this . The story involves a brilliant mirror image in the crime and law enforcement world - the police force assigns a promising new recruit to enter the crime world and live there for years as a mole , meanwhile a crime boss has assigned a young gangster to join the police academy and become a legitimate cop , living inside the force for years as a mole . I watched Infernal Affairs at the same time as I was reading a thick biography of Chairman Mao and while living in China , so I've been reading a lot about undercover moles and their seemingly endless use throughout modern Chinese history , and this movie gives a brilliant on screen example . The development of the plot and story are by far the most interesting thing about the movie . Lau is the mobster living as a police officer , and Chan is the police recruit living undercover as a criminal . Lau is flourishing as a policeman , while Chan is growing increasingly desperate as a criminal , since as the years pass he finds that he is more and more simply becoming the role he is playing , and he grows increasingly desperate to get out . Unfortunately , the force has invested years in him as a criminal , so they refuse to let him out . Before long , a mole is suspected in the force , and sure enough , Lau , the mole himself , is assigned to find it . This puts him in a curious position . He can either continue to fail to find the mole , or he can frame one of his colleagues . Soon both characters are aware of each other , but not each other's identity , and there is a lengthy use of cell-phones to create a complex web of tension , as each is on the verge of discovering the identity of the other , or get discovered himself . A more thorough and effective recipe for genuine tension is difficult to come by ! Then there is the issue of each man playing a different identity for so long . There is a deeper emotional and moral complexity to this film than most crime films , American , Chinese or otherwise . It's a brilliant composition of dichotomies and contradictions , mirror images and switches personalities , and makes for a hell of a ride . |
544,233 | 562,732 | 417,938 | 9 | If only it was longer ! | This quick documentary is about as good as a making0of documentary can be at a diminutive 7 minute running time , but even though it's barely the length of the Cyndi Lauper song that underlies it , it still gives some great insights into the making of the film , which is a gigantic milestone in my childhood , I must say . It starts out with an interview of Steven Spielberg on the set talking about the movie , and it's pretty funny because he goes right into sort of a disclaimer about the film , as though people are expecting another Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Jaws or E . T . or something . He says something like , " Nothing extraordinary happens in this movie , " which is funny because it became such an enduring classic . I recently watched the documentary that came with the remake of Flight of the Phoenix , where it becomes clear what an emotional man Director John Moore is , and the stress and frustration that Richard Donner suffered through working with all the kids in this movie is pretty similar , giving a pretty good insight into how difficult directing a film can be . The documentary has some pretty good on set footage of the shooting process , although as is almost always the case I wish they weren't edited so heavily . As soon as you start to see what's going on and remember the scene from the film it cuts to something else . There is an interview with Robert Davi , Joe Pantoliano , and Anne Ramsey ( collectively the Fratellis ) that I wish they would have shown more of , as well as some scenes where he's scolding the actors , everyone from the kids to the adults . There's some funny stuff of Richard Donner getting a little frustrated with most of the kids , and one memorable shot where he criticizes Robert Davi pretty heavily , tells him that everything he's seen him do so far is not even acting . That's pretty harsh ! Overall this is a great documentary , it's just too bad it's so short , but then again at the time it was made they may very well not have planned on the thing being anything more than a quick snippet to show on TV at some point , since DVDs were so far in the future , The DVD does include the Cyndi Lauper music video of Goonies are Good Enough , although it's this huge , lumbering storyline version of the video that was remade for the movie . I wish they would have included the original video that they showed clips of in the movie , I've never been really impressed by music videos on DVDs that are nothing but a lot of footage of the movie that the song is featured in , but oh well . Still pretty entertaining , and while the music video was too long and the documentary too short , they are still both worth checking out . |
544,322 | 562,732 | 146,882 | 9 | This one really shocked me . I don't even like John Cusack , but I loved High Fidelity . | Why was High Fidelity so good ? That's the question that has been going through my mind ever since I saw it . There really wasn't anyone spectacular involved with it . I mean , it's not like Tom Hanks was in it or Steven Spielberg directed it . But somehow , it ended up being just a great comedy . High Fidelity just had a really entertaining story , and it was extremely well acted by everyone involved . This is what I have come up with in my mission to find out what it was about High Fidelity that made me like it so much . Sure , there's not a whole lot to the story ? a guy gets dumped and goes back and recounts his relationships and break-ups with his top five girlfriends , but it was presented in such a clever way that it made bland material a lot of fun . One of the things that was really good about High Fidelity was the way the ' top five girlfriends ' premise was complemented by Rob Gordon ( Cusack ) and his music geek friends coming up with countless top five lists . Top five dream jobs , top five first songs on music albums , top five this , top five that . Anyone who is into top five lists or top ten lists will probably love High Fidelity just for that small part of it . Speaking of Gordon's music geek friends , the person who really stole the show was Jack Black , as Barry , one of Gordon's employees at the record store that he owns in the film . This is particularly notable given the variety of unenviable roles that Black has played , such as those in Cable Guy and , more recently , The Jackal . The hilarious music discussion scenes that take place in the record store are probably the best scenes in the film , and Black steals nearly every one of them . Almost as amusing as Black was Todd Louiso , playing the part of Dick , another employee at Gordon's record store . Dick is a very soft-spoken music fanatic who is probably so entertaining because we've known someone like him . In fact , that's what is so appealing about Gordon and Barry , too . They are a cross-section of music fans in the urban world and they provide many more laughs because of their familiarity . A number of well-known actors also played relatively small roles in High Fidelity , such as Catherine Zeta-Jones , Natasha Gregson Wagner , Joan Cusack , and , of course , Tim Robbins as the antagonistic ? new boyfriend . ' One of the really good things about High Fidelity is that it eventually delivers a good message about stepping up and actually doing something with your life . It warns of the dangers of getting too comfortable doing one thing , and of giving in to the temptation of hopping from relationship to brief relationship . At the end , Rob begins to realize the mistakes that he made in his relationship with Laura , and these are mistakes that I think a lot of people have made and continue to make . High Fidelity is just good comedy . It's fun , it's entertaining , and above all , it's refreshing because of it's relative originality . There are plenty of memorable scenes in the film , many because of their sheer , if illogical , hilarity . Some of the customers who come into the record store are treated much worse than they would ever be treated in real life , but the laughs are delivered . Don't miss this one . |
543,880 | 562,732 | 212,985 | 9 | Of COURSE it wasn't as good as the sequel , what did you expect ? | Obviously , as the sequel to a stunning Best Picture winner , Hannibal has a lot to live up to . In it's defense , the movie takes up that task with fervor and skill . Anthony Hopkins , as is to have been expecting , delivers another spectacular performance in one of his most memorable roles , Gary Oldman portrays Mason Verger , the film's unfortunate protagonist , with appreciable malice and non-appeal , and even Julianne Moore manages to successfully fill the shoes of Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling . The Silence of the Lambs is one of the greatest thrillers ever made , in my opinion , so I was dedicated to that film's performers when I walked in to see Hannibal , and I was still impressed with how well Julianne Moore performed for the role . The magnitude Anthony Hopkins's performance , as a matter of fact , is accented by the character of Hannibal as he is seen throughout the three films in which the character can be found . In Manhunter ( the mediocre film based on Thomas Harris's spectacular novel , Red Dragon ) , Hannibal is little more than an interesting extra with a few spoken lines . He helps Will Graham along periodically in his efforts to catch the troubled ' Tooth Fairy , ' but he is little more than a side character in the film . In The Silence of the Lambs , Dr . Lecter plays much the same role , helping Clarice Starling this time as she hunts down a man who kills large women and takes their skins . There can be no mistake about Hannibal's magnified presence in The Silence of the Lambs as compared to Manhunter , and then this year they come out with a film based entirely on his character , and they do , in fact , name the film after him . Do you think Harris would have written a novel based on the character if Brian Cox had played Dr . Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs ? I can't help doubting it . The story of Hannibal follows the now-disgraced Starling ( due to a publicized FBI raid that was easily manipulated to make Starling look bad ) , as she travels Europe in pursuit of the evasive Dr . Lecter . After his escape in The Silence of the Lambs , he traveled to Italy to hide , but even more , so that he could pursue his vastly intellectual interests . Hannibal is unmistakably gorier than The Silence of the Lambs , but that's clearly because the film follows Hannibal Lecter as its main character . In previous films , we mainly only heard stories through the dialogue of Dr . Lecter's crimes , but here we actually see them . You can't really hold this against the film as gratuitous violence , because it is a movie about the character that was so popular back in 1991 . They're just giving us more of what we want and I , for one , thank them for it . One of the most important things about movies that are made from novels is how faithful it remains to the original work . Movies like The Green Mile and Stand By Me are incredibly faithful , and with excellent results , and Hannibal also remains faithful to the original novel in the most important places . The story is necessarily condensed for the film version , but the film does not take giant liberties from the text , which is something that is sometimes done and almost always deteriorates the quality of the story . This type of destructive behavior can be seen in Manhunter , for one example , and also in classics ( who would think they had any right to change these ? ) like Jonathan Swift's ' Gulliver's Travels ' and Mary Shelley's ' Frankenstein . ' The one part where Hannibal deviated from the novel most noticeably was the ending . Many people ( including myself ) were disappointed that the film ended in almost exactly the same way that The Silence of the Lambs ended , but you should have seen the ridiculous ending that Thomas Harris put in the book ! What a mess ! The movie may not have had the best ending in the world , but it's all uphill from the pitfall that can be found at the end of Harris's novel . For the most part , Thomas Harris has brought us an interesting story for Hannibal , and the film succeeds on most levels in delivering it to ( unfortunately ) the vast majority of the public ? meaning the people who will never bother to read the book . It's amazing how well they managed to switch the roles of protagonist and antagonist here . We find ourselves rooting for the ? bad ' guy ( Hannibal , who has horribly murdered several people ) , and hoping that he will kill the ? good ' guy , who is one of Hannibal's previous victims , but who now plans to viciously murder Hannibal for revenge . Sure , the movie may have seemed excessively gory or unpleasant at times , but that's what kind of movie it is , all of that stuff fits with the story and the characters . We're dealing with a pure sociopath as the film's protagonist , so obviously there is going to be some violence . It is no secret that Hannibal is not on the same level with The Silence of the Lambs , but that is to be expected . But despite all of the astronomical expectations and other odds against it , Hannibal manages to be a very good thriller . |
544,310 | 562,732 | 107,302 | 9 | One of Brad Pitt's most memorable roles . | In the same vein as Natural Born Killers , another movie that was not so popular with critics because of its excessive violence but that I also loved , Kalifornia is a movie that clearly glamorizes violence , but I like to think that it turns that around in the final act . Kind of like how The Basketball Diaries glamorizes drugs at first , but shows the bad side by the end of the movie , which is far worse than the good side is good . David Duchovny plays Brian Kessler , an artistic yuppie with an even more artistically yuppie girlfriend , who is into that violent sexy black and white photography generally reserved for , I don't know where , places where nudity passes for art . Maybe it really does and I just don't understand it . At any rate , Brian and Carrie ( Duchovny and Michelle Forbes , who fits the role flawlessly ) , make the perfect couple to go on a documentary tour of famous murder sites . Brian , the writer , will write the book , Carrie can take the pictures . Being artistic types , Brian and Carrie are not quite financially prepared for such a trip , so they put out an ad for someone to share gas and travel expenses , and are contacted by Early Grace and Adele Corners ( Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis ) . Early is on parole and assigned to janitorial work at the local university by his parole officer , sees the ad on a bulletin board , and decides to leave the state for a while , violating his parole but also leaving the scene of his landlord's murder so he won't have to deal with a pesky murder investigation . Two birds with one stone , you know . The movie has a curious ability to portray two stereotypes , the artsy yuppies and the greasy trailer trash , without resorting to clichés or even ending up with caricatures of either type . Brian and Carrie are artsy liberals , but while Carrie catches on to Early and Adele , Brian is fascinated with Early's status as an outlaw , as seen in the scene where Brian shoots Early's gun . Never having fired a gun before , he's as fascinated as a little kid . While Adele and Carrie are back at a hotel and Adele reveals such things in her childlike way as the fact that Early " broke her " of smoking and that she's not allowed to drink ( Early doesn't think women should ) , Early and Brian are out at the local bar . Brian reacts nervously to a drunk trying to start a fight with him , and Early first gives advice to Brian on what to do and then steps in and dishes out a quick lesson for the guy . " Hit him , Bri , it's comin ' . " This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie , partly because it's so funny what Early gleefully says as the guy's friends drag him away , bloodied and battered , but also because as it is intercut with the girls back at the hotel , we learn so much all at once about the two couples , their differences , and the conflicts that are likely to come up because of them . And besides that , because Brian benefited from Early's actions and Carrie is appalled by what she hears from Adele , it also illustrates the different way that Carrie and Brian react to Early and Adele . Clearly , by now , you can tell that this is not your typical odd couple type of thriller , where the city folk run into the country folk and all sorts of stereotypical mayhem ensues . On one hand it seems a little too convenient that Brian and Carrie go on a tour of murder sites and just happen to be accompanied by a real life murderer , but on the other hand it's a great way to counteract the glorifying of murder that is inherent within a cross-country trip designed to bring fame to murderers and their crimes . While studying the actions of past murderers , Brian and Carrie ultimately find themselves face to face with the very material that they are studying , and realize that murder is not as pretty or morbidly fascinating when it's in your face as it is through disconnected studies of murders past . I am constantly amazed at Brad Pitt's versatility as an actor . Consider , for example , his roles in movies like Kalifornia , 12 Monkeys , Fight Club , and Ocean's 11 and 12 . Pitt is like Tom Hanks in that he can change his appearance drastically or just enough to fit a given character , and is completely believable . Incidentally , I tried in vain to be Early Grace for Halloween this year , but just couldn't get the hair and beard right . I even got the hat right , which initially I thought would be the hardest part . It's easy to understand why a lot of people disliked Kalifornia or why they think that it glorifies violence and murder , but I think that whatever glorifying it does is done with the intention of clarifying the audience's understanding of its subject matter . A film that didn't glorify violence , at least initially , could never be as effective as Kalifornia , but the movie structures it perfectly . The glorification is all embodied in Brian's and Carrie's fascination with the idea of murder and the auras of the places in which is happened , but their realization , and ours , is embodied in the real thing , which they encounter with Early and Adele . The movie's very purpose is to describe that difference between idealizing violence and seeing the horror of it up close and for real . |
544,006 | 562,732 | 100,802 | 9 | One of Arnie's genuine best performances ever . | I remember when I was about 12 years old I used to watch this movie a lot and it had a strange effect on me because it is so bizarre and so violent , but I couldn't tear my eyes away . Also , that woman with three boobs was enough for me to sit through the rest of the movie just to see again ! It takes place in a dismal future where colonies have long since arisen and decayed on other planets and mutations are as rampant as corruption . Schwarzenegger plays a construction worker named Douglas Quaid who has recurring dreams about a trip to Mars and a mysterious brunette there . His hottie wife ( Sharon Stone ) is unimpressed by this brunette who keeps turning up in her husband's dreams , but mostly he just can't get over this strange need to go to Mars . I have to say , however , that based on his dream , which we see at the beginning of the movie in which he falls down a hill and breaks his face mask and then his eyes pop out of his head , doesn't exactly seem like the kind of thing that would make me want to go to that place , but no matter . The movie really gets going as soon as Quaid goes to a company called Rekall that sells implanted memories , so basically you can travel anywhere you want to go in the world and be anyone you want . There's no danger because you never leave the Rekall offices , but there's always the chance of an accidental lobotomy . Almost immediately after hooking him up to their machines , he wakes up a completely different person , convinced that he is no longer a happily married construction worker but a secret agent on the run from an evil dictator of Mars named Cohaagen . At this point all hell breaks loose and the movie gets really good . It's a little confusing , but for the thickness of the plot it's amazing how well presented it is . Quaid is suddenly unsure who he really is , and when at one point he is receiving instructions from his other self , the self on the other side of the Rekall implantation , about how to remove a tracking device from his nose ( in one of the movie's most memorable moments ) , it doesn't make things any easier for him to understand . There are tons of great characters , impressive sets , amazing special effects and brilliant performances despite the occasional cheese moment ( such as that bizarre mutant at the end chanting " Open your miiiiiind ? . . " over and over ) . Read Volume 2 of my 50 Amazing Movie Facts on Hollywire and you'll know what I really mean . The movie has the same brutal feeling as RoboCop , and director Paul Verhoeven has really shown that he knows how to do action sci-fi . This is definitely one of the genre's best ! |
543,746 | 562,732 | 4,936 | 9 | One of Chaplin's better short comedies , which again focuses on his common theme of the rich vs . the poor . | Once again as the loveable tramp , Chaplin again plays the part of the working man , which is particularly amusingly clarified in the opening scene . Charlie walks up to a huge vault door , twists knobs to open the combination locks , and after getting through several doors , he enters the impressive vault and comes out with a mop and bucket . The simple story in this film is overshadowed by the hilarious slapstick comedy , such as the commonplace , fast paced fight scenes . In one scene , Charlie actually hands a guy his coat and hat to hold and then he gives him one of his characteristic punches , sending him rolling over backwards . There is another noteworthy scene in which one guy is looking at himself in a mirror , combing his hair and whatnot , and Charlie uproariously mocks him for prettying himself up like that . ( spoilers ) While the slapstick comedy is probably the best element of this film , there is also a well-done love story presented that foreshadows that seen in the great City Lights . There is very good emotion in the scene where Edna , Charlie's love interest , tears up his love letter . The Bank is an example of Charlie's tendency to really keep you guessing , because although he almost always plays the protagonist , his films don't always end in his favor ( the same is true for Caught In A Cabaret , another of his early short comedies ) . Ultimately , Charlie ends up getting the girl and saving the day , but then it turns out that it was all a dream , and he is alone . It's a good thing that he did this , too , because one of the things that made his tremendous amount of early short films remain interesting was that he mixed things around like that . And The Bank is among the best of those early films . |
543,872 | 562,732 | 449,059 | 9 | Portrait of an American Family ? | For about the first three quarters of Little Miss Sunshine I expected that it was going to be another highly overrated sleeper like Almost Famous or The Royal Tenenbaums , but by the time the movie ended I was about ready to stand up and cheer . Steve Carell has a highly subdued role as a suicidal intellectual , and Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette take on roles of a highly dysfunctional married couple with a couple of kooky kids . ( spoilers ahead ) Kinnear's character is struggling to sell a 9-step self help book , which may have failed partly because he can't even help himself , let alone his family , and at the last minute their daughter is granted a place in the Little Miss Sunshine competition in beautiful Hermosa Beach , California . It's clear that she could never win such a superfluous and superficial competition , but her excitement is infectious so the family drops everything and piles into their old , beat-up VW bus ( really , is there any other kind of VW bus other than old and beat up ? ) to drive in close quarters across a few states together . The ultimate dysfunctional road trip . Along the way they suffer every hardship imaginable , some hilarious and some just disturbing ( although even those ultimately hilarious ) , but the movie really gets going once the family gets to the beauty competition . I am reminded of David Guest's outstanding film Best in Show , which brilliantly lampoons dog grooming competitions , or whatever they're called , and the nutty people that participate in them . Remember Shirley Temple in her 1934 short film War Babies ? Well , probably not since you haven't seen it , but it is a parody of the stereotypical romantic war film , in which 4-year-old Shirley plays a bar girl of some sort , cavorting around the bar set in a diaper and shaking her hips in ways that would make the grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine blush . Most of the girls participating in the beauty competition in this movie give performances that are at least as disturbingly sexual as Shirley did 70 years earlier , and it is no less sad now that their parents are sitting in the crowd cheering them on , and those are exactly the people that are so brilliantly lambasted by the film . I have to admit that I have never been to any kind of beauty competition , human or otherwise , but I do know that there are people that completely devote themselves to these high-superficiality contests , putting external appearance on a pedestal and either unaware or completely indifferent to the very existence of personality or intellect , so I really think it's great to see such a cleverly made film whose main purpose is to point out how nutty these people are ! Whether you are interested in beauty contests at all , I should think that this movie should make you feel that they should be made illegal , at least the ones for kids , and will keep you entertained all along as well . |
544,081 | 562,732 | 111,161 | 9 | Every once in a long while a truly inspiring film comes along that is a must see for virtually everyone . The Shawshank Redemption is one of these films . | Every single scene in The Shawshank Redemption , every bit of dialogue , everything that happens all beautifully serves the purpose of intensifying the impact of the story itself . The muted colors and the relaxed cinematography do a spectacular job of taking us back in time , and the message of the film is inspiring , to say the least . What you have in the Shawshank Redemption is a film that is extremely well thought-out and put together in such a way that it is able to hold your attention even for well over two hours . The movie is about holding on to hope in even the worst circumstances , even under tremendous stress , and even when you are in that situation unjustly . However , even though Andy Dufresne is clearly the protagonist , Red is actually a more important person as far as the message of the film . He seems to embody the lessons learned in the film , and this is shown in the way that his life is transformed by his friendship with Andy . However , there were a few things about this film that I didn't like that I think took a lot away from it . For example , even though I admit that it didn't reduce the potency of the film itself , everything worked out a little too perfectly for Andy in prison . Sure , he got beaten up and sexually assaulted , but look at the aftermath of those attacks . When the " Sisters " beat him within an inch of his life , did he get his nose broken ? Was he left with any scars ? Were any of his limbs casted ? Did he even develop a limp ? No , what happened was he spent a month in the infirmary and got out with his hair messed up . That's a pretty small price to pay for almost being beaten to death . I also find it hard to believe that every single guard in the prison , including the warden , would allow a prisoner to do their taxes . Sure , he's got expertise in the banking field , but he's also been convicted of murder . I would think that the warden in particular , with all of his , ahem , activities , would want to kind of keep to himself as far as his finances . Another problem was the timeline . We see events that take place over long periods of time , but we are largely left to speculate about what goes on in the years that are skipped over . The film comes together as a great story , but you have to keep in mind that in between scenes that seem to run together , YEARS have gone by . The aging process wasn't done very well either . All of the characters involved looked almost exactly the same at the beginning of the movie as they did at the end . When that many years have passed , something needs to be done to try to make the actors look at least a little bit older . Aside from these minor deficiencies , as well as a confusing title , The Shawshank Redemption is an absolutely incredible film . The setbacks can be overlooked because of the fact that the film as a whole communicates such an important and powerful message , and the film is not boring even for a second . It's intense , it's beautifully made , and it will not soon be forgotten . |
543,780 | 562,732 | 96,244 | 9 | A modern day film noir . | Michelle Pfeiffer , Mel Gibson , and Kurt Russell are the three corners of the love triangle that makes up a significant part of the plot in this tense thriller . Gibson plays Mac , a legendary drug dealer who is trying to get out of the drug business but finds that no one wants him to leave , not even the police . Russell plays the part of the detective who is hot on Mac's trail but is reluctant to capture and charge him because the two men were childhood friends , and Pfeiffer is the beautiful restaurant owner who is torn by her feelings for the two men . The thing that really causes this otherwise unoriginal story to keep up a brisk pace is the question of what everyone's individual intentions are , who knows what , and who told what to whom . Tequila Sunrise is full of effective plot twists that sometimes twist right back to the way they were , even at the strangest times ( such as in the boat near the end of the film ) . ( spoilers ) Jerry Bruckheimer and Company could take a serious lesson in making romantic subplots work in action films from Tequila Sunrise , in which Gibson and Pfeiffer eventually develop a very effective relationship with each other . The most moving scene involving this element of the film takes place when Mac is telling her about his reasons for teaching his lawyer ( who is also her lawyer ) to sell drugs . This has a lot to do with both of their skills as actors , because I've already seen Mel do this several times in the hardcore action Lethal Weapon series , and Michelle is so beautiful that she can do anything she wants . Tequila Sunrise is a heavily atmospheric film reminiscent of other modern classic films noir , such as the stiflingly atmospheric Body Heat , and much of the effect is the same . Kurt Russell is the stereotypical male in a film noir , with the slicked back hair , the nice suit , and the ever-present cigarette . Michelle Pfeiffer would fulfill the traditional femme fatale role very nicely , especially given her attractiveness as well as her overall physical fit of the description of the femme fatale , except that she doesn't really drag anyone down . Films noir usually end in death , for the femme fatale as well as the male victim , but Tequila Sunrise doesn't do that . This is one of the ways that the story was made to work so well , because even though you pretty much know that Mac will get the girl ( if only because he's Mel Gibson ) , it twists many other expectations around . This is a thinking person's action film , and it's a shame that these are so uncommon . |
544,263 | 562,732 | 315,327 | 9 | Wait , you mean all I have to do is become God to solve all my problems ? Why didn't I think of that before ? ? ? | Jim Carrey is back to much the same role that he played in The Mask , a timid guy who is trying to get ahead in the world but who seems to be plagued with bad luck . Even when he tries to help a homeless guy from being harassed by a bunch of hoodlums ( and of course they have to be Mexican , obviously ) , his good will towards his fellow man backfires . In that case , it wasn't too hard to predict that he was about to have a handful of angry hoodlums , but I like that the movie suggests that things like that shouldn't be ignored . I'm reminded of the episode of Michael Moore's brilliant The Awful Truth , when they had a man lay down on the sidewalk and pretend to be dead and see who would actually stop and make sure he was okay . The results were not very promising , so it's nice to see someone in the movies setting a good example . Jim Carrey plays the part of Bruce Nolan , the nice guy mentioned above whose entire life seems to be falling apart . Or even better , it seems to be breaking up by the blows of bad luck like an asteroid entering the atmosphere ( a little metaphor that comes up when Bruce miraculously finds himself a gigantic news story later in the film ) . Bruce is nearly 40 years old and all he has to show for it is a position as a news reporter of the sort that reports on such exciting news as the local bakery that's seeking to bake the world's biggest cookie . He's desperate to obtain the job of head anchor at the TV station , but he loses his cool on live TV when he hears that the job went to his rival colleague . You have to love how they time the revelation of this news to him seconds before his first live report . Needless to say , he loses his temper on live TV in one of the funniest scenes of the entire film . Morgan Freeman delivers a fantastic performance as the Man himself , displaying a God whose infinite wisdom is somewhat reflected through Freeman's massive talent as an actor . He is the kind of God who takes his job very seriously , but in such a way as to advise his followers ( as well as the viewers of this movie ) that there are times when you need to slow down and do some manual labor in life . I love his line that some of the happiest people in the world come home smelling to high heaven at the end of the day . There are a lot of people in the world ( maybe more than our share in America ) who are so absorbed by their money and their possessions and their jobs and everything that they completely lost touch with the natural side of themselves as humans . One of the biggest strengths is that the movie is able to provide great advice to people in general about improving their lives , and this message is clear and acceptable regardless of the viewer's religion . I , for example , tend to reject organized religion in all forms and I see God and Satan to be metaphors for different aspects of nature and human psychology rather than actual figures who ever lived or continue to live . But despite the fact that I don't believe that God exists as an entity overseeing the universe or as a janitor dressed all in white who mops the floors of his downtown office in his spare time , I was able to appreciate the messages that were delivered in this movie . Jim Carrey's movies display this fantastic evolution that ties them all together and makes the newer ones look even better just because you can see how far he's come . If you compare Bruce Almighty with movies like Ace Ventura ( both of which I loved , by the way ) or a lot of what he did before he got into film , it's amazing how far he's come . He has moved from cheesy TV comedy to cheesy comedic films to comedies that are truly intelligent and meaningful like this film as well as others like The Truman Show , Man on the Moon , and The Majestic ( easily one of his greatest films ever ) . Jim Carrey has unmistakably moved from the cheesy comedy of his past to become one of the most important comic actors working today . Jennifer Aniston also once again provides an excellent addition to the movie ( as she did in the side-splitting Office Space ) as Bruce's girlfriend , who becomes increasingly exasperated by Bruce's growing stress about his life as well as his negligence to ask her to marry him . There is definitely some low-brow comedy in the film that doesn't really fit with the importance of the film's meaning or the quality of the delivery , such as the dog reading the newspaper on the toilet and the whole monkey scene , but it was definitely pretty nice to see Ace Ventura's friend Spike make a cameo appearance . As Stephen King very well knows , it's always nice to see familiar characters . It's almost like seeing family again . Bruce is endowed with the powers of God for a given period of time so that he can understand life a bit better , and he says a lot about himself when he uses the powers only for his own purposes rather than to help all of the people who pray to him . The thing I love about this is that , like I said before , religion is absent from my life , but I was able to watch this and learn a lot about myself as well by thinking about what kinds of things I would have done had I been endowed with such powers . The movie allows us to learn vicariously this way , which empowers the message even more . The scenes that involve the news station are easily the funniest in the entire film , such as the scene when Bruce loses his temper about the anchor position , the Jimmy Hoffa scene ( who was conveniently buried with an original birth certificate and a complete set of dental records ) , the scene where Bruce's rival colleague is made to go nuts on camera , and my favorites , the ones at the beginning and the end involving the local bakery's cooking . The movie has plenty of time for Carrey to deliver some excellent jokes , such as when he says to God ( who reveals that he's the janitor , the proprietor , the electrician , etc ) that his Christmas parties must be real bashes , and to be careful about drinking , because on of him might need a ride home ! I also loved the end when he says that behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes . A little too true , and as Gallagher would add , behind every great man is also an amazed mother-in-law . Bruce Almighty is one of the more memorable comedies to have come out for quite a while , and is probably the only directly religious that I can remember seeing that I am anxious to buy on DVD to add to my personal collection . It is a comedy written and performed in good taste , but with enough relatively low-brow humor to keep the kids entertained . This is a meaningful comedy for the whole family , which is becoming rarer and rarer these days . In a world that is about to be flogged with yet another American Pie film AND another Scary Movie ( which are only scary because of their sheer barbarous idiocy ) , it's nice to see that there are still people making comedies worth watching . Don't miss this one . |
543,962 | 562,732 | 126,886 | 9 | Election is an excellent movie that amazingly avoids being just another stupid high school comedy . | ( spoilers ) While it was definitely a shame to see that Ferris Bueller has grown to be exactly the kind of person that he hated back in the good old days when he decided to take the day off , it was still good to see a refreshing version of the much-depreciated teen comedy . Matthew Broderick is strikingly effective as the unattractive high school teacher Jim McAllister , a man who is unsatisfied with his work , drives a ridiculous car , and can't seem to get his wife pregnant . The film as a whole follows Jim most of all , and his descent to the lowest point possible , which he reaches through nearly constant bad choices . Reese Witherspoon is especially noteworthy in this film , because she fulfills her role so well . She plays the part of Tracy Flick , the aggravatingly perky overachiever who is originally the sole candidate in the race for class president , but whose evil and manipulative side is revealed when the infinitely good-natured Paul Metzler ( Chris Klein ) enters the race , thanks in no small part to the persuasion of Jim . The reason that Witherspoon pulls this role off so well is because she's such an annoying actress . Her high pitched , nerve shattering voice gives this movie an entirely new level of realism , and makes her eventual ( although temporary ) demise very satisfying . I probably got the greatest of many laughs when she stood up confidently as the winner of the election was announced , only to realize that her name was not called . It was also good to see Chris Klein in a role that wasn't as dumb as his roles in such bonehead films as American Pie and Here On Earth ? he was definitely one of the better actors in this movie . One of the many things that really caused Election to move along at a fast pace was the subtle rivalry between Jim and Tracy , which is what really keeps you entertained . She's such an aggravating person that you just love to see Jim pull out those two votes and throw them into the trash , thus erasing Tracy's victory , although nothing in the film even remotely parallels the sheer , unfiltered stupidity of leaving those ballots in that trash can for the janitor to find . That one dumbass move alone made it possible to sincerely enjoy this otherwise enjoyable character's eventual downfall . Besides that , there can be no mistake about how this film predicted the heavily flawed Presidential Election of 2000 ? the election that was screwed up so badly that we eventually watched the inauguration of the candidate with less votes . If only there was a trash can somewhere in Florida where a janitor found some kind of concrete proof that the wrong guy is in the White House right now . The main message that Election delivers has to do with making bad choices . From the beginning to the end of the movie , Jim McAllister makes every bad choice imaginable . He cheats on his wife , he recklessly alters the outcome of the election , etc . And as a result , everything imaginable goes wrong . The woman that he cheated with tells his wife about it and then says she was just lonely and that Jim ' took advantage ' ( which is crap , of course . We , as the all-seeing audience , know how badly she really wanted it ) , it is quickly discovered that he threw away Tracy's two critical votes , he loses his wife , his job , everything . He even gets a freakin ' bee sting on his EYE ! What the hell else could possibly go wrong ? ( That was the point of the bee sting , by the way , in case you missed it ) Well , he should feel pretty dumb because one of his former colleagues lost everything because he was having sex with Tracy . This guy had sex with a student and lost everything , Jim had sex with some other woman and manipulated the future of a student and lost everything . However , it's ironic that Jim is the character that the audience initially identifies with the most , but he is also the one who eventually suffers the most , and yet the film as a whole is still so satisfying , especially since it seemed that that damn Tracy Flick would go on to eventually become the nation's first female president . Election twists stuff around like that , and results in an excellent comedy . Don't miss it . |
544,188 | 562,732 | 5,044 | 9 | Very simple , obviously , but definitely one of Chaplin's more endearing short comedies . | By The Sea is one of Charlie Chaplin's very early short comedy skits , and while the plot is necessarily simple , the comedy is effective and the message is clear and fairly heartwarming . The film concerns some guy on the beach who gets into a hilarious scuffle with another guy on the beach ( Chaplin ) , because they both drop their hats ( which , for some reason , are tied to themselves with pieces of string ) and subsequently become entangled with one another as they try to get their hats back . Needless to say , they very soon start fighting , in the traditionally comical brawls that are commonplace in nearly all of Chaplin's films . The plot actually thickens when a woman walks by and Charlie tries to act like he hasn't been fighting , holding his unconscious adversary up while he amusingly tips his hat ( like no one else can ) by pressing it against the pole that he is leaning on . This type of childishly charming acting is what Chaplin is most famous for and what he is best at , and it works very well here , too . Chaplin has come to be known for his presentations of different class levels in his films , but in By The Sea , one of the themes that is more prevalent is his dislike of authority figures ( a standpoint that is shared by Alfred Hitchcock , who had a deathly fear of police officers ) . When he is fighting with the man on the beach , an officer comes up to break up the fight , accidentally gets knocked unconscious , and Charlie steps on him as he and the other man walk away , soon to agree to a truce . Eventually , Charlie and the other guy become friends with each other , going out for ice cream . But it seems all the while that they are on the verge of breaking out into another fight ? it is clear that they don't trust each other . Even while they are eating their ice cream ( which , it turns out , neither is able to pay for ) , they are knocking each other down and exchanging blows . Throughout the film , there is a subplot involving Charlie's amorous advances toward two different girls . One is involved with a huge brute of a man that we see in a quick shot early in the film , and one is involved with the man with whom Charlie spends the majority of the film fighting with . The film ends with all five of them sitting on a bench on the beach as Charlie woos one of them after another , not knowing that the two men are right beside him , and they all begin to fight , causing all of them to fall over backward on the bench . While it's true that Charlie encountered numerous hardships during this film , and that the ending wasn't necessarily happy for him , it is still an amusing comedy that serves the purpose that it was meant to serve . Films that are barely nine minutes long can only do so much , and By The Sea really accomplishes a lot . |
544,529 | 562,732 | 57,076 | 9 | Another great Bond film from Sean Connery . | Connery succeeds the great film Dr . No with another exciting action epic with From Russia With Love . The now traditional opening scene consisted of a training exercise that is far superior to that in The Man With The Golden Gun , which also opened with a training exercise . The plot consists of SPECTRE's plan to steal a Russian encryption decoding machine , and while this installment in the Bond series is not quite as good as Goldfinger , the film that follows it , the action and the story are still much higher quality than the belligerent action messes that Pierce Brosnan starred in as the James Bond of the 1990s . The Austin Powers influence is also fairly heavy in From Russia With Love . The hideous henchwoman # 3 is clearly the influence of Frau Farbissina , and luckily Mike Myers decided to leave out the ridiculous coke-bottle glasses that # 3 wore in From Russia With Love . Also , we can see the origin of Dr . Evil's little death buttons on his desk in this film , as well as a probable source of Mr . Bigglesworth , Dr . Evil's cat , and Dr . Evil's insistence that he will ' not tolerate failure . ' From a technical perspective , From Russia With Love is one of the best Bond films of them all . There was some excellent editing on sound involving that prehistoric tape recorder , and the entire scene on the train near the end of the film , especially the fight scene , is some of the best stuff in any Bond film before or since . The story is also very interesting , much more so than is common or maybe even required . There is an unusual prevalence of the question of who is on whose side and who can be trusted , and at one point , Bond is almost forced to decide between the decoding device which he has sought after all along and the girl , who he is not entirely sure if he can trust . Despite being much better than most of the other Bond films , there were a lot of mistakes in From Russia With Love , or at least several scenes that didn't seem to have been given the high degree of thought that was given to the film as a whole . For example , when Bond and the girl are on the train , he says that it is almost six o'clock , but then when they arrive at the station , it is clearly several hours later ( it is nighttime now ) , and the clock says that it's about 5 : 30 . Besides that , we all remember the scene earlier where the man vehemently insisted that Russian clocks are always right . Also , it wasn't very creative the way that Robert Shaw's character , one of the villains in the film , was chosen by a quick walk-round and a good punch in the gut . And then , of course , we have that mysterious scene where Bond is somehow able to watch the goings on at a secret conference of the bad guys with the inexplicable use of a periscope from beneath the building . You'd think that someone would notice a periscope sticking up through the floor in the corner of the room . From Russia With Love definitely has its share of faults , but it remains a high quality Bond film . It continues the tradition started by Dr . No of ending in with James and the Bond girl in a boat , it has the usual god-awful theme song ( though not quite as bad as some of the others , like The Man With The Golden Gun and Never Say Never Again ) , and it even employs brief use of the same awkward day-for-night photography that we saw in Dr . No , but it is still one of the best of the Bond series . |
544,628 | 562,732 | 43,274 | 9 | A wonderful Disney adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novels . | I was a little worried when I went to watch the film version of Alice In Wonderland , because I just read the novel and Disney has a tendency to dumb down the material that they make into their films with goofball romantic nonsense and cutesy talking animals . While I did get more than the traditional share of talking animals with this film ( as well as a variety of other inanimate objects ) , the film stayed more faithful to the original story than is generally expected from a Disney film . On the other hand , this WAS made in 1951 , which makes me wonder what a more modern adaptation would look like . I read Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass for English 180 ( Children's Literature ) at the University of California , Davis , so needless to say , I read it with more of a literary appreciation than is generally applied to children's books . I was pleased to see so many of the characters from the second novel in this version of Alice In Wonderland ( such as the Cheshire Cat , the talking flowers in the garden , and Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum ) , although I must admit that I was slightly disappointed to see that Through The Looking Glass has been assimilated into this version of Alice In Wonderland rather than adapted into its own film , which I think is an honor that it certainly deserves . As far as being a full length feature ( although rather short at roughly 75 minutes ) , however , I think that this movie does justice to both stories , converting them into a single story rather smoothly , and only leaving out things that will only really be missed by people who know the novels enough to be disappointed that certain things were not included . I , for example , would have loved to see the whole chess story in Through The Looking Glass included in the film ( there certainly was time for it ) , where Alice travels through Wonderland on her quest to become a Queen herself , but I am more than happy with how this film turned out . One of the only things that I noticed about this film that did not match up to the quality of the novels is that the books have so much more in them for adults than the movie does . There are so many tricks with language pulled in the books , such as in the conversations with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum as well as several other characters , that it really makes you think about the English language as a game with which an endless variety of tricks can be played . In the film , this is hugely downplayed , even if only because it is done visually and the language tricks pass by so fast that kids are almost certain to miss them and even the most attentive of adults will have a hard time keeping up with them . As a whole , however , Alice In Wonderland is so wildly entertaining that the loss of some of the literary substance does not detract from it as a terrific tale of adventure and discovery , certain to be enjoyed by people of all ages . I have heard plenty of rumors that Lewis Carroll was on any of a variety of drugs while he wrote the novels ( and plenty of rumors that he wasn't on any drugs at all ) , but there are certainly some things in the books and in the movie that could have only been conjured up by the most , um , eccentric of imaginations . We may never know for sure , but at least we have some wonderful entertainment . Read the books to your kids . |
544,466 | 562,732 | 171,580 | 9 | A unique crime thriller interspersed with a woman's delusional fantasy come to life . | Renee Zellweger plays the part of Betty , a woman who lives an unexciting life stuck with a dirtbag husband , stuck in a monotonous day-to-day existence and with nothing really to look forward to or up to . When Charlie ( Morgan Freeman ) and Wesley ( Chris Rock ) show up to collect from her bonehead husband on a bad drug deal , they wind up killing him and throwing Betty's life into complete turmoil . Just as Ellen Burstyn's Sara Goldfarb was sickeningly obsessed with being on television in the stomach turning but surprisingly impressive Requiem For A Dream , Betty is obsessed with soap operas , particularly ' A Reason To Love , ' starring her hero , Dr . David Ravell , played by Greg Kinnear . It seems that Betty has been tottering on the edge of reality for some time , and her husband's death ( or , more likely , the fact that she actually witnessed it ) is the event that really sent her over the edge of reality , and made her believe that she had once had a romantic relationship with Dr . Ravell , and now that her husband is dead , she is free to seek him out to start that relationship up again . Charlie and Wesley pursue her as she travels to Los Angeles to find Dr . Ravell , at first seeking only the drugs that she unknowingly has in her car , and Charlie gradually begins to identify with her and fancy her on entirely different levels . It's not immediately clear what we are to think of Charlie after he kills Betty's husband , Del , because Del is the kind of person that we're not exactly sad to see dead , and also because his murder was , I guess , a mercy killing of sorts , since Wesley had already scalped him . This presents Wesley as the more brutal of the two , which is probably why the comical Chris Rock was not exactly the best person to play the role . The guy's just too well known as a comedian to satisfactorily play someone so vicious , and he just doesn't have the caliber that a great actor like Joe Pesci has . Pesci can easily go back and forth between comedy and violence , Rock can't . At any rate , Wesley and Charlie are clearly meant to be something of an odd couple . There is obviously meant to be more than a little bit of comedy to be taken from their adventures , but it's a strange combination to see someone like Charlie undergo the fantastic change that he experiences throughout the film . It is , on the other hand , rather interesting to see two people who differ strongly in their violent content , clearly a very important personality trait in their line of work , as one of them transforms and their mutual goals begin to blur and change . There are several plots going on in this film , and the thing that really makes it strong is that they never get confused and none ever really overshadows any of the others . Wesley and Charlie are chasing Betty because she has their drugs and she has witnessed their crime , Charlie is becoming more interested in Betty than in the drugs or in her knowledge as a witness , Betty is pursuing this soap opera celebrity who she can't even distinguish from the character that he plays on the show , and Betty and Charlie and each in similar situations , in that they are both fantasizing about people that they can't have . There are spectacular performances left and right in the film ( Morgan Freeman , obviously , Renee Zellweger , Greg Kinnear , etc . ) , and the story is one of those rare gems that entertains without really revealing how you should feel about what goes on in the film . Nurse Betty is a movie that manages to be hugely entertaining while at the same time leaving the vast majority of the response up to individual interpretation , which is exactly what makes a movie like this so smart and sets it apart from other black comedies . This movie is not easy to figure out right away , but it is definitely easy to enjoy . |
544,720 | 562,732 | 5,074 | 9 | Chaplin in a movie about punching people . What else do you need ? | It seems natural that at the very start of Chaplin's career he should make a movie in which he plays a grossly unqualified boxer who succeeds by sneaking horse shoes into his gloves . I only wonder why it didn't happen even earlier . He passes a sign saying that sparring partners are wanted , people who know how to take a punch , and heads in . We see him grow increasingly concerned as one guy after another , all bigger and stronger than him , get up to fight and return in a state of dazed semi-consciousness . A lot of times when I watch these early comedies from Chaplin , I get the feeling that he is often trying to create at least a mildly engaging story throughout which he can throw in a lot of kicking and punching scenes , but in this movie it's the kicking and punching the drives the plot , giving the film an unusually honest feel . High-energy physical slap-stick is what Chaplin did best at that time , and smacking around a huge mountain of a man while he dances carelessly around as only he can is certainly a treat to watch . And the climactic battle between Charlie and the meaty Bob Uppercut ( or Young Hippo , depending on which cannibalized version you may see ) is well-acted and fun . Mack Sennett like his comedies to be fast paced and high energy , without too much time wasted on things like characterization or even story . But in The Champion , Chaplin proves that we can have well-developed characters , an easily discernible story , and still have enough action and solid slap-stick to keep the shorter attention spanned audience members entertained . This is definitely one of the best short comedies that Chaplin had made up to that point . |
544,845 | 562,732 | 64,757 | 9 | The most unique Bond film of the entire series . | Why was George Lazenby only in one Bond film ? Sure , Lazenby is no Sean Connery ( yeah , but NONE of them are , remember ? ) , but he still did an excellent job in his only effort as the great James Bond . Of course , probably the main thing that made Lazenby so effective in the role is that he resembled Connery in so many ways . They were built the same , they had the same hair , the same eyes , they even talked a lot alike . And there can be no doubt , by the way , that this had a significant role in securing the part for Lazenby . One of the things that is unique about On Her Majesty's Secret Service , besides being the only installment that starred the man who was only in one of the films , is the excellent editing . In the opening sequence , for example , during the spectacular fight scene on the beach , there is some of the fastest and most effective editing that is seen in the entire series . And it's a good thing , too , because the opening sequence was otherwise over dramatized . For example , Bond saves a woman from drowning herself in the ocean , and after grabbing her as she waded slowly and calmly into the water , he carries her back to the beach and lays her down on the sand , inexplicably unconscious . What happened there , did she hit her head on Bond's shoulder and knock herself out ? Luckily , this pathetic discrepancy is quickly forgotten as the remainder of the scene secures itself as probably the best opening scene so far . There are dozens of unique qualities of On Her Majesty's Secret Service that really set it apart from the other Bond films . For one thing , there are no words in the theme song , which is unusual because most of them are written specifically for the respective films ( and most are absolutely awful , as well ) . And thank God , too , those theme songs are killing me . The endless flirting with Moneypenny actually proceeds to the point of a kiss here , which I believe takes place just after James resigns from the secret service , another peculiarity of this film . I could go on and on about these things that are totally uncharacteristic of a James Bond movie . There are about ten Bond girls , instead of the usual one . After having resigned , James goes through his old gadgets , some of which are recognizable from previous films , and also note the song that plays during this scene ? ' Underneath the Mango Tree , ' the same song that was playing when we were first introduced to the Beautiful Honey Ryder in Dr . No . James Bond utters the words ' I love you ' as well as ' Will you marry me . ' There are dozens of things that are different from the rest of the series . The skiing scene was actually done well , as was the car chase on the racetrack . And at one point in the film , Bond actually impersonates a man who doesn't like women ! ( spoilers ) And yes , you heard right , Bond got MARRIED ! While this may have been the one step too far in coming up with original material ( a married Bond would spell disaster for later films ) , the almost immediate death of his new bride not only creates pretty impressive emotion ( when did that ever happen in a Bond film ? ! ) , but it also begins to legitimize the promiscuity that Bond has always displayed . It made his womanizing behavior seem less adolescent and exploitive . The story of On Her Majesty's Secret Service is also fairly unique to a certain extent , but it's really still the same old thing about some super villain holding the world hostage and it's all up to Bond to save the day . But in this case , rather than the usual nuclear weapons hijack , the villain is threatening the world with bacterial warfare , or an outbreak of foot and mouth disease , to be exact . While this is indirectly destructive toward humans ( it threatens the economy rather than directly endangers peoples ' lives ) , it is still good to see something a little bit different once in a while . As this essentially normal Bond plot unfolds , we see lots of impressive stuff . Notice that the main Bond girl ( after the one-after-the-other romp with lots of them early in the film ) strangely resembles Shirley Manson , the singer for Garbage and the performer of the excellent theme song for The World Is Not Enough 30 years later , and that movie's title originates in THIS film . Weird , huh ? On Her Majesty's Secret Service is clearly one of the Bond films that really has a lot of stuff to look for , particularly if you are familiar with the other Bond films . The story itself is not exactly a point of interest by this point in the series , but the action is still very impressive and it is made even better by the amazingly well done editing . The fast paced luge scene at the end of the film is a good action sequence , as is the very convincing avalanche , but when Bond crash lands at the end of the luge scene , a big slobbery dog immediately runs up and starts licking his face , which is just entirely too convenient . They may as well have had him land in a big easy chair . Luckily , the film did not end here , but rather with the tragic death of Bond's new wife which , rather than hamper interest in Bond films to follow ( which would be the case , had he remained married ) , makes you want to rush out and watch the next one to see the killers brought to justice , Bond style ! There can be no mistake about On Her Majesty's Secret Service . This is definitely one of the best Bond films , regardless of who played the starring role . Any fan of James Bond or just quality action films is sure to love this one . |
544,725 | 562,732 | 5,077 | 9 | Ain't love grand ? | One of Chaplin's longest films up to that point , Burlesque on Carmen is a clever and surprisingly complex parody of what was then " Prosper Merimee's " well-known story about " Carmen . " I was a little confused about the difference between the IMDb's listing of the 1915 Burlesque on Carmen and the 1916 version . Based on the running time I assume that it was the 1915 version that I saw , since the 1916 one is a good 20 minutes longer , and from what I've read , those are 20 unnecessary and unimpressive minutes . From the very beginning , it's clear that Burlesque on Carmen is one of Chaplin's most complex and ambitious efforts to date , starting off with a long back story , told through inter-titles , about the tragic love story of Carmen . Carmen is sent by a band of gypsies ( " A band who put the GYP in gypsy . " ) , to seduce a Spanish officer so they can pull off their smuggling operation . It's a clever , Chaplinesque band of criminals , the leader of whom , Lillas Pastia , has " spent 50 years learning to steal , thinking he might be offered a job in politics . " On a side note , I've seen some almost misogynistic messages and jokes in some of Chaplin's earlier work , but probably none quite as overt as in this one . Near the beginning of the movie , as the band of gypsies are traveling , there is a scene where the mules and women are loading , and an inter-title explains that " the mules are the ones with long ears . " In case you couldn't tell , I guess . Chaplin plays the part of Don Jose , the hapless officer who is to be seduced by Carmen . He is described as " a brave soldier and lover of women . " Not exactly a stretch for Chaplin who removed any doubt about his ability to play a convincing comic soldier a few years later in the brilliant Shoulder Arms . And of course , he didn't have to act about being a lover of women . What is different here , of course , is his polished military uniform and straight-backed disciplinary manner , interspersed , of course , with some of his traditional slap-stick moves . He strikes me as a little guy in a position of authority , struggling to maintain the respect of his subordinates by exerting a gruff , stolid exterior . Soon Carmen enters ( " Loved by all men under the age of 96 ? " ) , and she immediately begins flirting with Charlie . I should mention that for a good majority of the movie , it is surprisingly faithful to the original story , which was full of jealousy and tragedy . Chaplin is strangely convincing as a jealous lover , able to evoke a jealous passion that I've never seen from him . There's at least one scene where he is genuinely a little scary . Chaplin has some great sight gags in the movie , like a hilarious table dance and some classic sword fighting near the end . And his boyish charm and the role of a soldier is also definitely a winning combination , although there is another peculiar stunt involving a group of men pushing a huge door back and forth that wasn't very effective to begin with but just kept going on and on and on , probably about five times longer than it was worth . Although it was interesting that when it finally fell over it clearly was revealed as a movie prop . I always appreciate such glimpses at the old movie sets . The end of the film is it's strongest part . It bears striking resemblance to Romeo and Juliet , but just when you think that Chaplin is going to conduct a major thematic experiment by diverging distantly from his traditional style , there is a hilarious twist that is as vintage Chaplin as anything I've ever seen . Nice work ! |
543,814 | 562,732 | 102,614 | 9 | Seagal's best film ever ! | I just watched Out For Justice again for the first time in more than 15 years , and it's surprisingly different from how I remember it . I've seen a lot of Seagal's other work since then , mostly his more recent and more disappointing stuff , but mostly I'm struck by how much more abrasive and violent his character is . I mostly just remember that last fight scene with Richie and the part where he rescues the puppy that some guy dropped out of his car . But contrary to his normal fashion , Seagal's character is rough and violent and doesn't care a bit about the rules . Granted , Seagal has a tendency to play guys who don't care about rules , " go it alone cops " and whatnot , but in this movie he spends a lot of time throwing the first punches in situations where all he has to go on are suspicions . By now , Seagal has discovered that the revenge theme is something of a cash cow for a guy like him , and it shows in Out For Justice . He plays Gino Felino , a Brooklyn cop whose best friend gets shot to death in the opening minutes of the movie in broad daylight in front of his wife and kids . Complicating matters is that Bobby , his friend , was shot by Richie Madano , a brutal gangster with whom Bobby and Gino have been enemies since childhood . Gino sets out on a mission to find him and avenge his death . During his search for Bobby , he interrogates all of Bobby's crew on their own turf . Waltzing right into bars and smacking people around . Highly satisfying Seagal fare , I have to say , but a little out of character in the way he punches first and asks questions later . Or asks questions while punching , that's pretty effective too . At any rate , it doesn't help that Gino had a tough childhood , his father struggled to provide a knife and scissor sharpening service in a time when more and more people were switching to disposable knives and scissors ( although I guess those never really caught on ) , leaving Gino and his family pretty broke until a local friend of the family , Mr . Madano , gave Richie money so he could go to the amusement park with the other kids . Now , he is hunting for Mr . Madano's son and plans to kill him . Oh , what a tangled web we weave . Richie , by the way , is a brilliantly vicious and heartless performance by William Forsythe , and is arguably the best villain in any Steven Seagal film ever made . He's brutally violent and completely unhinged ( no doubt because of a tremendous crack habit ) , and clearly doesn't care if he lives or dies , making him all the more dangerous . Forsythe's performance almost overshadows even Seagal's , and that's saying a lot , given that this might be Seagal's best film ever . Out For Justice pulls no punches . It is tremendously violent ( there is a scene involving a bad guy getting shot in the leg near the end of the movie that's one of the most graphic and disturbing images I've ever seen in an action movie ) ad yet has character development and an interesting story . Seagal in his prime ! Enjoy ! |
544,553 | 562,732 | 113,189 | 9 | Yeah , Pierce ! ! | With the excellent performance that Pierce Brosnan puts into this excellent , excellent Bond film , it comes as a shock that he followed it up with two consecutive 007 crapfests . GoldenEye starts off with one of the best opening sequences of the entire Bond series . Who cares that the plane that he skydived after was way beyond saving , or that there was no possible way that he could have held himself at the bottom of that bungee cord ? This impossibility is standard with James Bond , and in my opinion , it always makes the movies impossible to take seriously at all , but there was something about all of GoldenEye that made it more fun than usual and also much better than many of the other Bond films . The opening theme song is just awful ( as usual ) , but it's probably one of the best bad ones of the series ( I'm not sure if the excellent theme song for The World Is Not Enough will ever be surpassed , by the way ) . GoldenEye also has some great action , particularly the chases . We almost immediately get a great car chase on mountain roads , although every red-blooded male ( the film's target audience ) who sees this film will groan in almost physical pain when he sees how they mistreated a Ferrari Testarossa in that chase . I almost couldn't watch . And then later there is a spectacular chase through the streets in which Bond pilots a TANK ! HELL yeah . This chase , by the way , was just awesome , although there was a dubious portion of it in which Bond drives the tank through some sort of parking garage beneath a building , literally tearing out the first floor , and not only does the poor building not collapse , but he is followed by a squadron of jeeps that are magically able to climb right over all of the huge chunks of fallen concrete left by the destruction of the tank . And I won't even mention the way that this chase was almost rendered completely ineffective by the way completely moronic things were thrown in , like this tank's unique ability to spin its tracks like a race car . Have you ever seen the skid marks left by a tank as it accelerates too fast for the tracks to grip the road ? You haven't ? You know why , right ? Oh yeah , the GoldenEye . That's some weapon located on an orbiting satellite that is able to shoot a laser to the surface of the earth and disable every electronic device within a radius of like , 30 miles or something . So there's the traditional super villain threat ( evidently operated by the Russians ) , now back to the interesting stuff . Judi Dench gives the Bond series probably more of a boost than Brosnan's excellent performance as the latest Bond ( at least in comparison to the sorry performances from Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore ) . She is the new M , and her scene in which she calls Bond a ' sexist misogynist dinosaur ' is some of the best stuff ever uttered in a Bond film . Q's traditional scene where he introduces all of Bond's newest gadgets has made a tremendous leap from License To Kill , even though the vast majority of those gadgets were hardly , if ever , used in the film , and that includes the BMW ( which effectively turned this and the next two Bond films into two-hour BMW commercials ) . ( spoilers ) And how about those villains ? Not only do we get to actually meet another double-O , but it turns out that he becomes the main villain in this installment in the 007 series . His reasons for rebelling against her majesty's secret service were not exactly very creative , though . They should have just had him say , ' Who ever heard of 006 ? ! ' That would have been funnier AND better . And then there was the laughable female villain , Xenia Onatopp ( nyuk nyuk ) , who is into some seriously rough sex and also seems to have orgasmic episodes when cutting dozens of people in half with a machine gun . Oh yeah , she likes to get people into scissor locks and squeeze them to death after sex , although I didn't even have any sympathy when she did that to Bond , because in my opinion , even the most rib-shattering scissor lock is nothing that a good punch in the head couldn't solve right quick . She did have a pretty good death scene , though , followed by Bond's usual one-liner ( ' She always did enjoy a good squeeze ? ' ) . Speaking of one-liners , they went a little overboard with them in GoldenEye , even more than usual . Even the villains had these goofy one-liners , and I still can't figure out why they keep putting them in these movies , because maybe every fifteenth one is anything but ridiculous . And , of course , how could I leave out the usual easily escapable near death-scenes for our hero 007 ? The scene where he is tied and unconscious in a helicopter in which the missiles are programmed to fire and then return to blow it up was actually a pretty good scene , but the intelligence of the villains is effectively illustrated by the fact that they didn't bother to disable the ejection seat . If they were REALLY smart , they would have disabled the parachutes and then purposely tied Bond so that he could just reach the ejection button . Evidently those boneheads don't realize that that would be an almost funny way to kill Bond . At any rate , even though the villains were a little overly obnoxious and unintelligent in this installment , the movie comes off way above average for a 007 film . The ending is excellent ( despite the ridiculous notion that 006 could have survived a fall like that ) , and that gigantic underwater satellite was a cool idea , too . The Bond girl is definitely one of the most beautiful of the entire series , and there is even a hint of meaningful direction ( which is unheard of in a Bond film ) , after the plane crash . Despite many of the usual weaknesses , GoldenEye is definitely one of the top Bond films . |
544,262 | 562,732 | 286,716 | 9 | An excellent anti-war film laced with Apple computer commercials . We can only hope for sequels ! | Whatever your personal views are about the recent military actions taken by the United States , Hulk makes a strong comment on them , even if only indirectly ( and not very indirectly , at that ) . It's been years since I've seen the original TV show ( and I was a kid when I saw it , too ) , so I don't remember too much about the show beyond the basic appearance of the Hulk in it , which was actually the source of one of my strongest reservations about the new movie . From the previews , I was a little dismayed to see that the Hulk was made so big that he was cartoonish and completely unreal , as though he had been so distorted by modern capabilities of computer effects that his original appeal as the angry side of Bruce Banner was turned into a focus on the technique rather than the result . Needless to say , Hulk is a film that entails massive amounts of special effects , the majority of them fairly impressive , although they still remove any sense of realism from the movie . While it's true that this results in more focus on the technique throughout the entire film on how it was made rather than the results , it is still highly entertaining and it delivers an extremely valuable message , especially in modern American society . As we have seen in countless other films ( such as great films like E . T . , The Iron Giant , etc . ) , the first response of the military ( and , by extension , adults ) to something out of the ordinary is to destroy it as potentially dangerous . In this case , as in the case of The Iron Giant , this is exactly what makes everything worse , and in both films , even direct advice and evidence is completely ignored . As was recently the case with Curious George , our fearless leader , military action is strengthened even when it is seen to be both futile and the fuel of the problem . I love how they attack the Hulk relentlessly even though they are making no progress and simply making everything worse . I love movies that reflect real life , even though they physically resemble it almost not at all . One of my favorite things about the movie is that it is able to deliver such a strong message while being so campy at many times . The movie is peppered with over-acting and cheesy special effects , but in a movie like this , things like that only add to the entertainment value . I had very low expectations for Hulk , but after having seen it I am anxious to add it to my collection when it is released on DVD . There are things , for example , that the Hulk is capable of doing that , when done onscreen , are so unexpected and hilarious that they make you laugh out loud , but it is a testament to the meaning of the movie that you can laugh at something like that Hulk running something like 100 mph and then literally leaping into the atmosphere and landing miles and miles away . He is literally able to RUN away from helicopters so fast that , even though they're airborne , they're unable to keep track of him . Ang Lee's 2003 version of the Hulk is probably 8-10 times the size of a human man , he is capable of grabbing a full-sized military tank by it's gun barrel and swinging and tossing it like a sack of marbles , and he is all but able to defy gravity , but the movie itself is massively entertaining and delivers a great message about the need to understand the adversary before blindly seeking to blow it up . It is extremely rare for movies these days to be bold enough to make statements like this , and even more rare for these messages to be delivered in such creative and clever packages ( Bruce Almighty is also a recent example of a film like this ) . Lee may have stepped down in seriousness from Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon , but definitely not in quality . I can't say that I would rank Hulk with Crouching Tiger , but it is definitely a movie that contains more than you might expect . Watch it , enjoy it and appreciate it , decipher the message and take it for what you will , try to resist the urge to run out and buy an iMac , and with all the special effects and CGI , can we please get someone from make-up over here to do something about Sam Elliott's mustache ? ? |
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