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544,207 | 562,732 | 110,632 | 10 | A stylistic masterpiece ! | I remember being blown away when Natural Born Killers was first released , not because it was so good ( I was in high school at the time and didn't really have a good grasp on what " good " really was in a movie ) , but just by how COOL it was . As I mentioned , I was in high school at the time , so anything that glorified violence was just cool and fun to me . As I went through college I heard more and more people talk about how terrible it is , because it's all about killing and murder and bloodshed and who wants to respect a movie about those things ? But after more than ten years it has become clear that Natural Born Killers was never about violence , it is about the culture of broadcasting violence in America , about the American peoples fascination with crime , as exemplified by things like the seemingly endless O . J . Simpson trial and the L . A . riots , both of which received astonishing amounts of media coverage . Especially O . J . Simpson . My God man , I swear people at home watching TV knew more about that case than the jury . Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are perfectly cast as Mickey and Mallory Knox , America's favorite serial killers . They travel across the country on their killing spree , but after a while you begin to notice that very little time is spent showing the killings - much more is spent on the media's and , by extension , the public's reaction . Consider , for example , Robert Downey Jr . ' s character , a journalist , jumps for joy as the killings continue , because it's such a big story . Even the law enforcement involved is clearly brimming with glee at the publicity . More than anything else , Natural Born Killers is a satire about the American appetite for violence . And when I say appetite , I don't just mean how much we can swallow , I mean how much we demand . It's all an extension of things like the O . J . Simpson trial , or even shows like Cops , which is one of my favorites , where we can all sit back in the comfort of our own homes and watch someone else on TV having their lives screwed up , whether they are innocent or guilty . It doesn't matter , as long as it's someone else ! I freely admit that I enjoy watching shows like Cops for exactly that reason . I got in trouble with the police a lot in high school so I know what a gigantic pain it is to have to deal with what comes next , and it is fun to watch it happen to other people because it reminds me of my own freedom . But Director Oliver Stone goes a step further in Natural Born Killers . The movie doesn't satirize America's acceptance of punishing criminals , we accept and glorify the actual violence , symbolized by Mickey and Mallory themselves . It turns our stomachs , but we love it . . . |
544,455 | 562,732 | 734,685 | 10 | Citizen Kane in black and white ! | In one of the best episodes of the entire series , Barbara Nichols plays Liz Powell , a stripper hospitalized because of nervous fatigue , and now suffering from a horrific recurring nightmare . She is having trouble differentiating between dream and reality and , worst of all , getting anyone to believe her . A lot has been said about how this is one of the few episodes of the show filmed on videotape , although I have to say that in this case it doesn't really detract from the experience of the episode at all . One IMDb reviewer claims that it was filmed on video for budgetary reasons , which may or may not be true but either way it makes no sense at all , given that the show was enormously popular in its second season and is not exactly famous for extravagance . Where would all the money have been going ? At any rate , the show is well-written , to a certain extent , although also has its share of script blunders . At one point early in the episode , Liz's doctor ( a wonderfully subdued performance by Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space fame ) is explaining the dream to her dirtbag agent , describing how she " believes the nurse in her dream is one of our night nurses here at the hospital . " " How should I know what any of your nurses look like ? " she replies indignantly . Why does she argue ? He's only repeating her own words . It's like she's arguing with herself . On the other hand , this could just be a reflection of her fragile state of mind . The majority of the episode is purely brilliant and genuinely frightening . I developed an intense fear of hallways from watching The Shining when I was a kid , and that fear was brought back as Liz wanders down the hall , turning a corner just in time to see the elevator doors closing on a weirdly stolid nurse , standing rigid with her head in shadow , bringing to mind those two twins in the Shining . Unbelievably creepy in both cases . The way the elevator is followed using the dial on the wall is a brilliant device for creating real tension , and Arlene Martel is almost bizarrely effective as the nightmare nurse , creating truly chilling moments despite the filming format and obviously cheap sets ( seriously , did anyone believe that hallway behind her ? ) . But what I really love about the episode is the sense of powerlessness that Liz suffers from as we are taken through the dream for the second time . Her doctor suggested not reaching for the water glass , thus breaking the chain of events in the dream and hopefully changing the rest of it . The line between reality and dreamland is blurred with amazing effectiveness as we watch Liz wake up in her dream , still clearly remembering the conversation from reality and bringing it into play in her dream by resisting the glass of water and reaching for a cigarette instead . And by the way , notice that when we see a shot of the night nurse just before the beginning of the second dream sequence , the clock on the wall reads 12 : 10 . Get it ? Get it ? It's always interesting to consider the films that appear to have been inspired by twilight zone episodes , in this case possibly the disappointing Jim Carrey thriller 23 , and definitely the outstanding teen thriller Final Destination ( not necessarily the two disappointing sequels ) . One IMDb user mentions that this episode has one of the worst special effects in recent memory . I'm hoping they are referring to the bad backdrop ( which itself is clearly nothing more than a painted hallway a few feet behind the actor , but still adds to the surrealism of the dream sequences ) and not the plane exploding near the end of the episode , which was a remarkably impressive effect , given the time period . Another interesting blunder is the badly botched dubbed correction of Serling's introduction of next week's story , clearly added in years later and not even remotely matching the rest of the monologue . A bigger problem I had with the sequence was the lack of thought put into how people behave . I imagine in an effort to hasten toward ending the episode , when Liz bumps into the woman and causes her to drop her vase , which shatters across the floor , the woman turns without a word and walks away . Maybe she wasn't getting paid much and wanted to get out of there . It reminds me of movies where cars come within inches of a catastrophic collision , and immediately after slamming on their brakes , they hit the gas and continue on like nothing happened . Nevertheless , this is an exemplary episode of the show , and works on more levels than can be described in a single review . I love how it ends without really concluding the whole problem of reality vs . dreamland , making you think over the episode and what happened , that's one of the reasons that this episode will really stay with you . Bravo ! Oh , and I realize that Citizen Kane was also in black and white . Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my review ! |
543,910 | 562,732 | 284,138 | 10 | Another brilliant performance from the greatest stand-up comedian of all time . | I was able to see a performance by Gallagher at his nearly catastrophic show in Sacramento on February 8th , 2003 , and I would just like to say that Gallagher has gotten the Sledge-O-Matic down to an art . Watching these old videos really shows me how much better he has gotten at it over the years . He had a whole array of different things to smash at his show that I went to this month , and the splatter flew further than I've ever seen it go in his older videos . One of the few things that I didn't like about Gallagher : Over Your Head was the way he threw a couple of things over his shoulder rather than smashed them . Granted , I think he only did this with a couple of items ( a cantaloupe and a pineapple , if I remember correctly ) , but I just didn't see why he would do that instead of smashing them . That's what people want to see ! This show was also slowed down a little bit by The River Poem , which is certainly something that makes a great comment about the environment and shows how concerned Gallagher is with it , but I was a little put off by it simply because the comedy in the rest of the show was so side-splitting that I didn't want him to take a break from it . There was also a tap-dance routine that didn't fit too well with the rest of the show , and which was followed by Gallagher having a guest on stage to hand him items to smash with the Sledge-O-Matic , and I just prefer to see him do it all himself . I guess I've been spoiled a little by Gallagher : The Maddest , inarguably his best video ever , but even with small shortcomings like these , Gallagher : Over Your Head is another great dose of the brilliant comedy that he always delivers . |
544,536 | 562,732 | 284,139 | 10 | One of Gallagher's best . | Gallagher starts off this video talking about the differences between the 60s and the 80s , and it is some of the funniest comedy in any of his videos . He talks about how it seems that in the 70s they were trying to ' re-do the 60s but it just ain't comin ' out right , is it ? ' ' The 60s were so exciting , what's happenin ' now ? Nothin ' ! I am so bored I'm flashin ' back ! ' There is also a hilarious segment about pointing out stupidity . Like the one about the buffet ( ' I should have known something was wrong , you don't have a matre'd at a buffet , it's like a hubcap on a tractor ! ' ) or , even better , the one about having to tell the judge he was stupid ( ' ' I want to go to traffic school . ' ? Okay , but don't be late ! ' ? Judge , that's the same sht got me here ! ' ) . This kind of comedy doesn't translate into words very well , so it doesn't do it justice to give examples here . You just have to see this stuff for yourself . He comes out with his interesting inventions , his urge to point out stupidity in the world and to exercise your mind . This is intellectual comedy , which is one of the biggest values of Gallagher's comedy . He knows how to put on a good show and manages to be entertaining to a wide variety of audiences of nearly all ages . He's got to be one of the greatest stand-up comedians ever . |
544,556 | 562,732 | 50,613 | 10 | Another ambitious film from Akira Kurosawa . | Throne of Blood is , in fact , ambitious as a film as well as in its meaning . It suggests that ambition , when based on whimsical motivation , can sometimes lead to the destruction of very close relationships , and even one's own ruination . Throne of Blood begins with a series of messengers bringing news to their daimyo about an invasion of North Castle by the Fujimaki , which is led by an enemy samurai named Inui . The invasion is broken and then bravely retaliated against by two armies which are led by two samurai , Washizu and Miki . As they are returning to the daimyo , they come across a ghostly spirit in the woods , who predicts leadership positions to be attained by each of them that very day . These predictions come true to the last detail , which sets off a destructive chain of events . Miki becomes the leader of Fort One , as predicted , and Washizu becomes the leader of the North Castle , as predicted , but it is also predicted that Miki's son will rule North Castle after Washizu , which causes problems later in the film . Despite their good fortune , Miki and especially Washizu must keep their encounter with the fortune-telling spirit in the woods a secret because , if word gets out , Washizu is likely to become endangered because people will want him dead out of suspicion that he will try to kill Yoshiteru , Miki's son , to keep him from taking over Washizu's position . In an effort to prevent any of this , Washizu decides to name Yoshiteru as his heir , but Asaji , his wife , forbids this , saying that she is pregnant . It is Asaji who pressures Washizu into having Miki killed so that he can be the sole ruler of all of the provinces , but when this happens , the other castles turn against him and seek to avenge the leaders who have been killed under his orders . In the end , he is killed by his own army , which has lost all faith in him and has also turned against him . There was a very interesting use of symbolism in Throne of Blood that is worth pointing out here . From literally the beginning to the end of the film , the setting is covered in thick fog . One scene that comes to mind that quite clearly communicates the meaning of this fog is early in the film , just after Washizu and Miki saw the spirit in the woods , and had their futures revealed to them . As they are riding out of the woods and back to the castle , they begin to cross large , flat plains that are covered in this stiflingly thick fog . There is literally a couple of minutes of footage of them riding their horses into the fog , then back toward the camera , then into the fog in another direction , and then back toward the camera , and so on . This fog seems to symbolize a natural inability to see ahead , or to see the future , as it were . This technique is especially effective this early in the film because much of the two men's decisions later in the film are founded on what the spirit told them , yet the fog symbolizes a type of foreshadowing that suggests that this premonition cannot be correct . Throne of Blood is also structured in a very unique way . The film starts off showing a desolated castle , as well as its surroundings , in which there is a sizeable gravestone marking a burial site . While this is being shown , there is a song being sung by an unseen choir about a brave warrior who once ruled this now-deserted castle , but who was ' murdered by ambition . ' At the end of the film , we see this same montage , and the same song is heard , and this is where we learn that the gravestone marks Washizu's burial site . Kurosawa used different camera techniques to communicate parts of the story or to emphasize it in various ways much more than he did in other films , like Ran , Kagemusha , and High and Low . One particularly noteworthy example occurred late in the film , as Washizu is standing over his army . Washizu stands on an elevated walkway , and his army is crowded on the ground below , looking up at him . There is a low angle shot from amidst the men , and while Washizu is small in the shot itself , he is high above the other men , looking down at them , and they are all looking up at him in unison . However , it would seem that , rather than use this shot to convey a sense of superiority or of dominance , Kurosawa probably meant to emphasize his position of power , because this is the scene in which his army turns against him and he is shot with dozens of their arrows . The low angle shot would contradict Washizu's descent into madness if it was meant to show superiority , but to emphasize his position of power at this point in the film , it makes his downfall much more dramatic . This is usually not the case with Akira Kurosawa , but Throne of Blood reflects more of a formalistic style of direction . For example , his use of high and low angle shots , as well as the extensive symbolic use of the fog , suggest more formalism here than realism . Besides that , and probably more obviously , is the way that the strange spirit in the woods was presented . She was in a radiantly lit hut in the middle of the dark woods , and Washizu's encounter with several other spirits later in the film was presented among an extensive use of cutting and editing . The extensive use of very long takes and slow action seen in Ran and Kagemusha is definitely seen here , but not nearly as much . There are scenes in which these long takes are seen , but in addition to them there can be found many more short takes and highly edited sequences , which were largely absent from the previous films . But having done this with the same skill , Kurosawa has fashioned another samurai masterpiece . |
543,979 | 562,732 | 365,109 | 10 | Astounding . | I studied marine biology for a couple years in college , and this movie has some of the most amazing underwater footage I've ever seen . It's a fascinating journey into the ocean , particularly the parts that most of us will never see , like the arctic regions and the deepest reaches of the deep ocean . Some of the shots themselves are incredible just in the way the camera crew were able to immerse themselves in the biological communities that they were filming , especially the feeding scenes . Anyone with even a passing interest in the ocean and the mysteries of life on this planet should definitely not miss this . This movie is an explanation for why so many people believe that our planet should be called Oceanus rather than Earth . |
544,769 | 562,732 | 405,159 | 10 | One of the most moving films I've ever seen . | I am writing this review on the afternoon of February 27th , a couple hours before the Academy Awards begin , and I really think that the Best Picture category is going to be mostly a contest between The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby , both of which are spectacular films , as are the rest of the nominees ( Finding Neverland , Ray , and Sideways , in my order of preference ) . I caught this movie about a week ago at a theater a block from my house . The one thing that I really like about living in LA is that , especially at Oscar time , just about any movie nominated in any category is bound to still be playing somewhere , regardless of how long ago it was released . Except Best Animated Short Film , of course . I still think those never play anywhere . I have a feeling that Mystic River was passed over for the Best Picture award because of too much similarity to Clint Eastwood's outstanding 1999 film True Crime , and I had anticipated something in that general vein with Million Dollar Baby , if only because the appearance of the film is so similar . Eastwood has gone from making westerns to making one exceedingly dark film after another , and in this film he has succeeded like he never has in his storied career . Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn , the owner of a pretty run-down boxing gym where hopefuls come to work out and get some training from him . It's the kind of gym from which you don't really expect to see many people rise to boxing stardom , so Frankie concentrates hard on one man that he's training , who has a chance at a title bout . It is during this time that Maggie ( Hillary Swank ) walks into the gym and starts calling him Boss , which he does not appreciate because , as he flatly tells her , " I don't train girls . " Up to this point in the film the plot has not really revealed itself . We know we are watching a movie about boxing that's not really about boxing ( a sports movie cliché that Million Dollar Baby brilliantly sidesteps ) and that Maggie is more than likely going to turn into the brilliant boxer that Frankie has been looking for . But beyond that the movie could go in a hundred different directions , and it promptly goes exactly where you didn't think it was going to go . This could very easily have become a quickly forgettable sports film that disappeared into video store obscurity like even the good sports films like Miracle and Mystery , Alaska seem to have done , but by the end of the movie it has gone in such an original direction and given the audience such an emotional workout that , on my way out of the theater I saw people leaning against the handrail . This movie is so powerful that you have to rest after you see it . Frankly , given how violent some of these sports movies are , especially ones like this , it amazes me that no other ones have gone as far as Million Dollar Baby does . The boxing scenes are thrilling to watch , even providing good comic relief as Maggie consistently knocks girls out in the first round and then looks sheepishly over at Frankie in her corner , who has instructed her not to knock them out so fast because it's getting so no one wants to put their boxer in the ring with her . He ends up having to bribe managers . The conflict comes from the fact that Maggie is desperate for a title fight . She has come from a trailer in middle America where she worked as a waitress for something like 17 years , and she knew that she would never do anything else until she got herself out of there on her own . Her family certainly was not going to help . My God man , I could not believe those people . She was uneducated and unskilled , she didn't even know how to box but she had the determination and the motivation to learn , and learn she certainly did . The problem is that one of Frankie's past trainees who managed to get a title fight was Eddie " Scrap-Iron " Dupris ( played in the movie by Morgan Freeman ) , who not only lost the fight but also was knocked blind in one eye . By the end of the movie , by the way , I like to think that Eddie may have considered changing his nickname to Eddie " 110 " Dupris . Frankie blames himself and he doesn't want to have another fighter injured . An honorable feeling , but it clashes with Maggie's goals , for whom not getting a chance to a title fight means she'll have to go back to being a waitress , which to her is nothing more than waiting to die . The interaction between the three characters is some of the best I've seen in years . And I've seen a lot of movies in years . I am reminded of Friday Night Lights , which came out in late 2004 and was hailed as the best sports movie ever made , a bold statement that inspired me to eventually watch it . Fairly entertaining movie , but the ludicrous statement that it's the greatest sports movie ever made becomes even more ludicrous if you consider Million Dollar Baby to be a sports movie . This is one of the great films in all of film history . Do NOT miss it . And with that , it's almost 4 o'clock . I'm going to go up to Hollywood Blvd . and see if I can catch a glimpse of Clint Eastwood . |
544,073 | 562,732 | 208,092 | 10 | Better than Pulp Fiction ? | Okay , Snatch may not be better than Pulp Fiction , that's like saying ' bigger than Jesus . ' But Snatch was a pretty big surprise that kind of came out of nowhere . Besides the first rate performances , this film had some incredibly innovative photography ( second only to The Matrix ? ) , as well as some brilliant editing techniques . Some of the editing was so fast and so surprising that it's actually funny ( the plane-flight sequences , for example ) . I normally don't like it when well known actors take on roles involving false accents , and I was actually slightly disappointed when I realized that Brad Pitt's would be this type of role . But as the movie progressed , the fake accent oddly became less and less noticeable , and by the end it had actually become one of the better parts of Pitt's performance in this film . The character that he played ( ' One Punch ' Mickey ) possessed some distinct similarities to Tyler , the character that he played in Fight Club , but was a bit more redneck and less into associating with the outside world . This was a great character , too , especially coming right from Fight Club . That first fight scene was awesome , and as soon as he throws that first punch , you just want to see more . Maybe the fight scenes were a little exaggerated occasionally , but they were just so much fun to watch . ( spoilers ) Unfortunately , I have to admit that I was and am still deeply disappointed by the quick departure of Franky Four Fingers , because Benecio Del Toro stood a good chance of being one of the best actors in the film ( he definitely achieved that status in The Way of the Gun ) . Luckily , the rest of this film was so good that it overshadowed this bad choice of characterization . The presentation of the film ( of several different story lines all finally converging at the end ) is not exactly original , but at least it is utilized very effectively here . Besides that , the movie is full of the obligatory one-liners , but strangely enough , they were able to come up with one after another of these and they were all good , none of that crap that you see coming from Arnie or Van Damme or Seagal . Snatch is a British action comedy in the tradition of Trainspotting ( sort of ) and Lock , Stock , and Two Smoking Barrels , and it is a very well thought out and put together movie . It has countless respectable characteristics , such as the different but very good performances , the excellent directing and editing , as well as a charming title ( ! ! ) . Don't be put off by the fact that the charming title makes it sound like a low budget porno , this is just an excellent action / crime film . |
544,483 | 562,732 | 41,959 | 10 | Carol Reed molds a great mystery that unfolds more and more throughout the course of the film . Wonderfully photographed , acted , written , and directed . | Orson Welles is excellent as Harry Lime , a man who invites his friend Holly Martins to visit him in Vienna from his home in the United States . When Holly arrives , he learns that Harry has been killed in a car accident . When he tries to find out more about the accident that killed his friend , Holly encounters surprisingly strong opposition . The Third Man is put together amazingly well and contains some truly amazing cinematography , including several scenes on the war-torn streets of Vienna . Maybe the most unusual quality of this film is the fact that it is pulled along mostly by the quality of the story , rather than star actors or special effects ( which were , of course , much less common in 1949 than they are today ) . The story is so complex and well-told that it almost overshadows even such stars ( in true " star roles " ) as Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten . The Third Man is a classic post-war film . It is amazingly well done , and should not be missed . |
543,862 | 562,732 | 266,697 | 10 | This is not revenge . it's punishment ! ! | Spoiler Alert ! Sorry , wrong movie . Anyway , after watching Kill Bill Volume I , Quentin Tarantino's latest smashing entrance into the otherwise relatively boring modern cineplexes , I've decided on a new paint job for my truck . And by that , of course , I mean I don't own a car OR a truck , but if I did I would certainly paint it every hideous color imaginable , including a phrase on the tailgate which would quickly and efficiently negate even the slightest possibility of ever obtaining exactly that which it describes . The Shaggin ' Wagon , as I'll refer to it for the benefit of all of you under-17 IMDb readers , is one of the first of almost two full hours of similarly hilarious images , words , scenes , characters , etc , brought to us by Quentin Tarantino , one of the most effectively humorous yet characteristically violent filmmakers working today . Tarantino has a surprisingly deep understanding of the gravity of violence but he combines that with the equal depth of his understanding of his audience . Hence , the violence in the movie is nothing like violence in real life ( I'll explain this theoretical connection in a minute ) . People know this , especially his audience , which renders his films so effective . Tarantino's understanding of his audience is one of the things that has allowed him to develop such a dedicated following , which I think transcends cult-status by its sheer size , if nothing else . Kill Bill has the curious distinction of being brutally and pretty much endlessly violent , and yet you can't really say that it's too violent , given that so much of the violence is so cartoonish ( sometimes literally ) . I've heard that there was something like 100 gallons of fake blood used to make the movie . I can't remember if this refers to the total amount of blood used during filming or only that which ended up in the final cut , but animated blood , of which there are substantial amounts , are surely not included . And either way , despite the massive amounts of violence in the movie , Tarantino's unique style of direction , his various cinematic experiments ( such as flipping from color to black and white and back again , playing with lighting and color as in the fight scene on an entirely blue background where only the fighters ' silhouettes were visible , and of course , the music ) , and probably mostly of all , his sense of humor tower above the film from beginning to end . One of my favorite tricks that he pulls with the music is in the fight scene between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii . It takes place in an exquisite Japanese garden , and just as the fighting begins the flamenco music kicks in , strikingly out of place but strangely effective . Tarantino's influence is so prevalent throughout the whole movie that not only can you sense his presence in just about every scene in the movie , you can almost see the look on his face . It's important to keep in mind , however , that despite knowing how effective an unexpected mixture of violence and humor can be , Tarantino also realizes how effective real violence can be , and he knows how to make his violence effective , disturbing , even stomach-turning ( see Reservoir Dogs ) . The part of the movie where The Bride wakes up in the hospital , for example , and realizes that she has lost her baby , is not funny at all . This is not meant to be amusing or funny , this is the scene where The Bride develops a large part of the rage that drives her for the rest of the film . If it was made a joke ( and I can't really see how ever Tarantino could have made something like that even slightly amusing ) the rest of the movie would have fallen flat . The movie itself , when you think about it , is really little more than a set-up of deception and subsequent revenge . It's a pretty unusual set-up , in that the seeker of the revenge has a distinct advantage of the element of surprise , given that the people sought out for revenge shot her or saw her shot in the head , and so haven't even the slightest inclination that she might be alive , but the movie boils down to a decidedly simple and linear revenge plot . Tarantino knows this , too . You might have noticed that , first of all , The Bride carried with her a list in a little notebook of the people she means to kill ( which reminded me , in a slightly different way , of the list that Steve Buscemi's character kept in his small part in Billy Madison ) , but also that , in keeping with his style , Tarantino plays with the chronology of his plot . He's known for this , but a movie that boils down to something as simple as this one does really can't do with a plot told in chronological order . In her previous life ( the one that contained something other than blinding rage and absolute determination for revenge ) , The Bride was a member of what is curiously called The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad , the exact activities of which will not be clearly explained until Part II . Her code name was Black Mamba ( although at one point I wondered why it wasn't Yellow-Haired Warrior ) , and her real name evidently entails something so secretive that it would be bleeped out when spoken in the movie . Like most of Tarantino's movies , Kill Bill plays like a compilation of all of the things that he loves about a huge array of different kinds of movies , not the least of which , in this case , are martial arts movies and classic 70s exploitation films . The extensive homage to martial arts films plays no small part in the preceding storyline that results in The Bride being an expert with a sword . The weapons are , in fact , one of the more interesting parts of the movie , especially in a scene late in the film where she fights the teenage bodyguard of O-Ren Ishii ( Lucy Liu ) , who fights her with a medieval mace and chain . I thought this was one of the best scenes in the movie , where this young girl - by using everything from her feet to her hands to her very neck to propel that mace at The Bride - proves that she is just about as good with that mace as The Bride is with the sword , if not better . Keep your eye out for sneaky cinematic tricks that Tarantino pulls in his movies . Not necessarily things like animating a sequence that involves a little girl witnessing his parents ' murders and then a pedophilia scene involving that same girl at the age of 11 ( both of which would have earned the film an even harsher rating than the well-deserved R ) , but things like the fact that the outfit that The Bride wears is identical to the outfit that Bruce Lee wore in his last film . Or even better , Roger Ebert points out that that tune that Hannah was whistling as she walked through the halls of the hospital to provide her own bit of nursing to The Bride while she's stuck in a coma is the theme from the 1968 film Twisted Nerve . Clearly Tarantino once again placing an homage to an old favorite in one of his movies , but Ebert curiously notes that it is not meant to simply pay an homage , but to suggest that there are leaks between parallel universes in which movies reside . Pretty clever idea , if not entirely founded . On the other hand , Ebert also suggested that after Hattori Hanso made The Bride her sword ( breaking an almost 30 year old pact he had made to never again create an instrument of death ) his statement ' This my finest sword . If in your journey you should encounter God , God will be cut ' was not exactly his most modest hour , so he could also be completely off about the movie universes thing . Hanso was not bragging about how badass his sword was . He feared that God would be cut by Hanso's breaking his word . I was surprised Roger missed that one . God doesn't strike me as the kind of person to worry about getting cut by an angry woman with a sword . That's stuff for mere mortals to concern themselves with . |
544,283 | 562,732 | 167,261 | 10 | It's not quite the same earthquaking cinematic experience of the original Lord of the Rings film , but The Two Towers still comes across as one of the most powerful and entertaining fantasy action films this | The Fellowship of the Ring is one of the greatest adventure films ever made , so it's really no surprise that its successor , The Two Towers , falls just slightly short of achieving the same powerful cinematic experience , but it is certainly a worthy installment in what is growing to be a tremendously well-made trilogy . The film starts off a little bit slowly , as it picks up where the last film left on in true sequel form , following Frodo and Sam as they continue their journey that was interrupted so suddenly by the end credits of the last film . This fabulously written film , which only takes artistic liberties in clarifying points that may have grown vague from the last film ( the way the best adaptation films do ) , may go a little too deep into the amazingly intricate storyline to keep the attention of some of the younger viewers or some of those not familiar with the novels , but the experience remains just as intense and entertaining . The war for Middle Earth is officially underway , and the battle scenes are some of the most impressive that I've ever seen in a film . Generally , I think that a film with as many computer generated special effects as can be seen in The Two Towers is destined to suffer at least slightly from them , but they are so seamless and impressive here that they really do not take away from the quality of the film . The majority of the battle scenes are done almost entirely on computer , but are still incredibly entertaining and convincing . There are walking talking trees in the film , which was a little off-putting at first , but are successful adaptations from the novel and are amazingly convincing on screen . ( spoilers ) Pippin and Merry , the two characters from the original film with the insatiable appetites and the endless sources of comic relief , are back in the second film playing the same characters with very little change other than that they seem to have matured quite a bit from their original roles , quite possibly because of their increasing experience in the war for Middle Earth . They spend the majority of their screen time in the film with the walking trees , trying to get them to take them to the battle but having little success . But once they finally make it there , they make a surprisingly effective and creative contribution to their side's participation in the battle . Clearly , a black and white movie review written by some guy you've never seen or heard of ( me ) cannot do justice to the breathtaking things that happen in this film , you just have to see it for yourself . Brad Dourif , who is most famous for his role as the voice of the lovable Chucky , the doll from the Child's Play films , and for , I might add , his excellent contribution as the gas station attendant at the beginning of Urban Legend , takes on a role in The Two Towers that fits his iconography perfectly . This capable actor who has been acting mainly in B-movies for the majority of his career has made a seamless jump to a part in one of the greatest trilogies of all time . Now all we need is a part for Bruce Campbell and all of the underrated B-movie actors will be back in the spotlight ! The comic relief in this movie is one of its best features ( aside from the startlingly brutal and convincing battle scenes , of course ) , and none of it is cheesy or just thrown in to get a cheap laugh . There is a delightful scene where Aragorn ( once again played spectacularly by Viggo Mortensen , in another of the best performances of his career ) and Gimli ( the lovable but amazingly powerful dwarf played by John Rhys-Davies ) sneak around to the outside of the castle as it is being bombarded during the battle , and Gimli timidly asks Aragorn to toss him to the bridge because he can't jump over the gap himself , stopping Aragorn to ask him shyly not to tell the dwarf ( Legolas , played by Orlando Bloom ) . This is a powerful adventure film that knows when to be funny , when to be romantic , when to make you cringe , cheer , cry , and gape . It entertains even through the slow parts , even going so far as to throw in a little schizophrenia scene with the little goblin that Frodo and Sam enlist as a reluctant guide . This scene is reminiscent of Geri's Game , Pixar's exceedingly amusing animated short film that precedes A Bug's Life , but like the rest of the comic relief , it does not dampen the effect of the rest of the movie by making it laughable , but rather allows us to relax between scenes of breathtaking scenery and cringe inducing battles . For the second year in a row , The Lord of the Rings is sure to be an enormous contender in the Oscar race . |
544,773 | 562,732 | 390,221 | 10 | Everything my father tells me about Colombia seems to be true . | I spent some time in Spain last summer , making a documentary for the University of California , and my father came and traveled with me for part of the time . I told him he owed it to me for never teaching me to speak Spanish . While we were there I asked him if he ever thought about going back to Colombia to visit the old neighborhoods where he grew up . He came to American with his nine brothers and sisters and his parents more than 35 years ago and has never been back , so I figured that he must have missed it at some point since 1969 . I was genuinely surprised when he told me that he doesn't ever want to go back . He still has family living there , and they always tell him stories about the crime and the poverty and how difficult everything there is , even just in daily life . Colombia is a mess . Maria Full of Grace is a story about exactly the things that my father was talking about . I think the thing that makes the movie so powerful is that by the time Maria gets involved with the drug smugglers we have gotten to know her almost like she is family . Although that might just be because I have so many cousins who look like her . She works hard at a menial , low paying job , above which she can never hope to raise very far in her life , earning money to help support the rest of her family , including her demanding older sister who doesn't work at all because she is on maternity leave . Maria is entirely unimpressed with the life that her sister is living , which seems to have had an impact on the affect that her own pregnancy has on her life . She is very matter of fact and straight forward with her boyfriend about the pregnancy , and her responds in exactly the kind of way that girls are taught to fear during junior high and high school . She's desperate for a way out , and ultimately she meets a charming man who turns out to be interested in her only for her digestive system . Maria and her best friend Blanca see this as an opportunity to get out of their dreary lives and find something better in America , the land of opportunity . It is truly a disturbing spectacle to see Maria forcing all of those pellets down , but what really gives the movie meaning is how believable all of the events are that occurred throughout the movie . There is no glorification of any of the characters or any of the violence that occurs throughout the film , nor does anything happen for the convenience of the plot . Maria tries drug smuggling as a way to get out of her life and find something better in America , and the problem that she runs into is that she is in real life , not in a movie . She and Blanca traveled with another girl named Lucy who had acted as a mule before as a way to visit her sister in New York . The three of them are picked up by some guys in New York whose job it is to keep an eye on them while they wait for the drugs to pass through their system . One of the pellets breaks in Lucy's stomach , killing her , and they quickly cut her open to get everything useful out . Maria and Blanca escape and the only place they have to go is to Lucy's sister , who she had come to visit . Maria Full of Grace is an incredibly powerful film whether you have family from Colombia or not . It's an incredible look at the poverty in Colombia and the lengths that healthy young women will go to in order to escape it . The movie smartly avoids all of the drug movie clichés , anything that would make this a Hollywood movie and thus ruin it . This is an incredible and enlightening experience . |
544,451 | 562,732 | 118,715 | 10 | What in God's holy name are you blathering about ? ! | There's really only one good part of The Big Lebowski , but it's a REALLY good part . It's one of those scenes that you see in a movie and you tell your friends about it for years , you constantly spout off hilarious quotes from that scene that you remember laughing so hard about , you develop inside jokes about the scene with the friends who were lucky enough to be there to watch it with you , and you may even begin to regularly consume certain types of alcoholic beverages that you saw enjoyed by the main characters in that scene . The earth-quakingly memorable scene ( indeed , as I said before , the only good scene in the entire film ) is the one that begins immediately after the opening credits and ends approximately 117 minute later just before the screen fades and the end credits roll . Not laughing ? To hell with you , that's funny ! And the movie's even funnier ! Every character in The Big Lebowski is developed perfectly to serve the purpose of the story . These characters truly have personality , especially The Dude ( ' Who the fk IS this guy ? ! ' ) , Walter ( ' Donny , you're out of your league ! ' ) , and even Mr . Lebowski's geeky assistant , Brandt . They may occasionally be stereotypical characters , but they fit perfectly with the story , augmenting it even though it's already complex and interesting . This movie has an excellent plot line that is punctuated with endlessly hilarious dialogue ( ' Donny , you're outta your element ! ' ) , and peppered with well-developed and interesting characters . Jeff Bridges delivers a spectacular performance as the Dude , flawlessly capturing the slacker attitude and lazy lifestyle that that character lives . His love for White Russians has made that drink a staple at my house , and is now among my favorite alcoholic drinks . Yeah , big accomplishment , but that's the kind of thing that makes a movie like this even better . As a college student , I can see the difference between the slacker life that I lived in high school , and the extremely busy one that I live now . The Dude has chosen to perpetuate that lifestyle , living his life on the couch and at the bowling alley , constantly dirt-poor but obviously perfectly content with himself . The only time he is even the slightest bit upset is when something disrupts that lifestyle and his rug gets ruined . Clearly , a nice rug is not something that a person in The Dude's line of work ( i . e . unemployment ) can easily replace . He is even almost completely calm when the guys break into his apartment at the beginning of the movie , and doesn't really seem to be too upset until one of them ps on his rug . The interactions between The Dude , Walter ( John Goodman ) , Donny ( Steve Buscemi ) , and , eventually , the Jesus combine to make some of the most amusing moments of the film , but it is enormously entertaining from beginning to end . There cannot possibly be enough praise given to this movie to do it justice . Watch this movie , you are sure to love it . And if you don't , watch it again , because you must have missed something . A true contemporary classic of modern comedy . |
544,072 | 562,732 | 202,677 | 10 | HELL YEAH ! ! | I normally don't like Ryan Philippe . I hated I Know What You Did Last Summer , he struck me as totally pretentious in the otherwise entertaining Cruel Intentions , and I have yet to watch Little Boy Blue , but needless to say , my expectations are fairly low . I decided to take the time to watch The Way of the Gun mainly because I thought the preview looked good ( thanks , in no small part , to Benecio Del Toro ) , and I loved every second of it . I've heard some slightly negative things about it , but on the other hand , I've also seen professional film critics give Fight Club the lowest rating possible , proving that some critics just can't be trusted . The Way of the Gun is just about as good as a crime thriller can get . There wasn't a whole lot of competition , but Benecio Del Toro stole the show , hands down . He delivered one of the most entertaining and quality performances that I've seen in years . Juliette Lewis also did a great job in this film . Who would have expected that the woman who was Mallory Knox could so effectively portray a scared pregnant woman ? Luckily , she was able to let her wild side a little loose near the end during the birthing process , when she reminded us of the size of her mouth and the sheer strength of her voice ! James Caan seemed to have been a bit exploited in his role as a ' bag man , ' but he still filled the role very effectively . The beginning of the film , where we are introduced to Mr . Longbaugh ( Del Toro ) and Parker ( Philippe ) , is probably one of the best parts of the film . Not only the hilarious fight scene at the nightclub , but also the next few scenes , particularly the interviews for the semen donations ( ' No one's ever mentioned sex with dead people ! ' ' Did you ever ask ? ' ' No ! ' ' You should ? ' ) . ( spoilers ) One of the main things that made The Way of the Gun such a great movie was that there was just so much going on . The plot is so complex and the presentation of the film is so entertaining that it invites and almost requires more than one viewing . Besides that , the movie also contains what is , in my opinion , one of the best car chases ever filmed . Sure it's slow at times , but there was actually TECHNIQUE . There was little to no destruction done in that particular scene ( something that is generally mandatory for a car chase to be effective ) , but it was so well executed that none was needed . The vast majority of high-speed chases seen in movies are pretty much the same ? reckless , fast , destructive , and generally thoughtless . Look , for example , at the stereotypical car chases in The Rock , Gone In 60 Seconds , and , in an extreme case , Blues Brothers 2000 . In The Way of the Gun , one of the things that Mr . Longbaugh and Parker did was they stopped their truck and got out , letting it roll , so that their pursuers would get out of their car and follow . As the truck rolled along , they all followed , engaging in a very effective gun fight , and then when some distance had been covered , Longbaugh and Parker would jump back into the truck and take off , gaining a significant lead as their pursuers run back to their own car , which had been left behind during the gunfight . This may not have the destructive satisfaction of many other chases , but it was by far more realistic , which is another quality that this film possesses . Immediately following that chase , Longbaugh goes to steal another car so that they can ditch the truck , and he hits the window ( painfully , from the looks of it ) with his elbow three times before it breaks . There's no reason to do something like that in a movie other than to make it more realistic , and the more realistic a movie is , the better , particularly when it is unnecessary for it to be unrealistic . The kidnap plot that drives the film is also very unique and well presented . Juliette Lewis plays a woman who has been hired by a wealthy couple as a surrogate mother . Therefore , the child that she is carrying is extremely valuable , so Longbaugh and Parker kidnap her ( and the child ) in hopes of getting their hands on the money . This story is done very well , and it just gets better and more complicated from there . There are so many things about this movie that are totally original , too , right down to the sound of the gunshots . Also , there are interesting and unique scenes . For example , there is one scene where Longbaugh walks into a convenience store and proceeds to help himself to various items , making little effort to keep the female clerk from noticing . After a cut away to Parker in the van with Robin ( Juliette Lewis ) , we go back inside , and Longbaugh and this girl behind the counter are smoking cigarettes and watching the ultrasound tape of the kidnapped baby . Did he just charm this girl into letting him smoke in the store while he used her VCR ? Did she not care that he had been stealing from the store ? As far as the rest of the film , this particular scene did not require any explanation , and therefore none was given . Normally , this would be a problem , but the rest of the movie works so well that these things don't really matter . The Way of the Gun is what you get when you take an overblown action crime thriller and add a bit of realism to it . The final gunfight sequence is extremely well done , and it ends the film very ambiguously but also in a very entertaining way . The Way of the Gun is a great film , with good acting and directing , as well as a brilliant script . See it . |
543,776 | 562,732 | 120,324 | 10 | One of the best thrillers in years . | ( spoilers ) A Simple Plan , while the foundation of the plot seemed rather unoriginal , was surprisingly realistic and convincing . The overall meaning of this movie deals with the consequences of a few regular people running into a very large amount of money , especially when they have to bend the law in order to keep it . I think it also deals with the importance of obeying the law , because throughout the movie , the three guys , Hank , Doug , and Lou , seemed to be a bit like a rolling snowball as far as what they had to do to keep the money a secret . It demonstrates the startling ease with which the common man can be driven to commit unspeakable atrocities , such as shooting his own brother despite the utter absence of any direct conflict between them , just to keep his hands on a large sum of illegally obtained cash . I think that there is also an underlying theme dealing with the closeness between brothers , much like the closeness felt between sisters in other films like Hillary and Jackie . I think that the relationship of Hank and Doug , the two brothers in A Simple Plan , is much more realistic than Hillary and Jackie's . Although they do get along , they have what appeared to me to be a common occurrence of disagreements . For example , they disagreed on chasing the animal into the woods at the very beginning of the movie , as well as whether or not they should keep the money they found . The fact that neither of them were the ? beautiful people ' usually found in Hollywood films ( particularly Billy Bob Thornton's character ! ) made their roles even more convincing . I think that cinematics played an unusually important role in A Simple Plan . The very first thing that really stands out is in the very beginning of the movie . When the three men finally reached the decision to keep the money , there was a very high angle shot of the three of them , as if the camera was sitting in the trees above them , and in the foreground was a black crow . Black crows are often associated with bad luck , and just by showing this crow in the foreground the audience knows that the three men have just made a bad mistake , almost as if it was said out loud . I think that the snow was also very important to the presentation of the film . The fact that the three men were bundled up in coats pretty heavily seemed to give them a look of vulnerability . It made them look helpless against the cold , calling attention to their mortality , and thus subconsciously enhancing the suspense later in the film . Also , the snow provides a kind of a muted atmosphere . It is very overwhelming of everything so it creates a great sense of isolation for the town where the story takes place , and I think that this adds to the theme about three regular guys . I don't think this film would have been nearly as effective if it had happened to three guys in New York City . There is also a lot of foreshadowing in this film . One example is when Hank is in the sheriff's office with the sheriff and the pseudo-FBI agent . The sheriff keys into his gun cabinet , and then there is a quick cut to Hank's face as he watches where the key is placed , and then a close shot of the sheriff's hand placing the key under his memo pin on his desk . I think that by showing Hank's face looking at the key being hidden on the desk hints that he is going to try to get into the gun cabinet soon and , sure enough , he did . I also think that this knowledge adds to the suspense because the viewer knows that guns are soon going to be involved . A Simple Plan is a very original and very effective thriller that is very inviting but surprises you because it turns out to be much more intense and much more moving that you would expect . It's about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances , and the resulting message is powerful and unmistakable . The skill in this film is not only heavily present in the acting and directing , but also in the cinematography and editing departments as well . Don't miss this one . |
544,603 | 562,732 | 295,297 | 10 | The Harry Potter series returns with a powerful sequel that adds to the depth of the story introduced in the original film and even throws in a few new characters , all of whom fit perfectly into the Harry Po | The second installment in what is proposed to be the seven-part Harry Potter series delivers the same intensely imaginative and visually stunning wonders of the original , and is widely considered to be much darker , literally and figuratively , than the original . It is refreshing to see that this sequel did not take the treacherous path of trying to cash in on the success of the original ( an unfortunate tendency that is occasionally successful , as in the case of Ace Ventura and Blade , but almost always results in a bitterly disappointing sequel , as was the case with sequels to Austin Powers , Men In Black , Halloween , Mission Impossible , The Exorcist , etc . ) , and the film is wisely just as faithful to the novel as the first film . I have heard and read many complaints suggesting that director Chris Columbus was not creative enough to add in his own vision to the film , changing it enough here and there to make it his , but this is completely unnecessary . Books are only adapted to film if they are at least moderately successful in their literary versions , and the more successful the book is , the less reason there should be to change anything in it . The Harry Potter novels from J . K . Rowling have been justifiably described as ' publishing phenomenons , ' in which case I can't see any reason why anything should be changed in the film version . The books have developed a tremendous fan base , and what these people want to see in a film version of the books is a cinematic experience that is as imaginative and fantastic as the one that runs through their heads as they read the novel . I read both of the first two Harry Potter novels after having seen the films , and both times was amazed at how faithful the films are to the source material , a little detail which has led to tremendously satisfying adaptation films in the past , such as The Green Mile , The Shawshank Redemption , Stand By Me , and Great Expectations , which was a great film despite the fact that it falters slightly in the last act . The Chamber of Secrets is an adaptation film that follows closely on the heels of a tremendously successful predecessor , and still manages to hold its own . The younger audience is sure to delight to no end in the way that our three heroes , Harry Potter , Ron Weasley , and Hermione Granger , take on the task of solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets ( I'm surprised that this was never used by Franklin Dixon ( whose real name escapes me at the moment ) as one of the titles of one of his thousands and thousands of Hardy Boys novels ) , entirely on their own . This is an adventure tale of the highest order , which pits these three pre-adolescent wizardry students against an ancient mystery that the rest of their schoolmates and even the most seasoned staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are rather apprehensive about looking into . As the Harry Potter series continues , it becomes more and more apparent that J . K . Rowling had the entire series in mind when she began writing , as much of the action and the story in The Chamber of Secrets involves and expands on material from the first film . The lovable Hagrid , for example , was mysteriously expelled from Hogwarts fifty years earlier , for reasons that he never liked to discuss , and through a story told by probably the most innovative diary in fantasy / adventure movie history , Potter is taken back in time to see exactly why he was expelled , which reveals Hagrid as the prime suspect in the film's mystery and helps to keep the audience guessing until the very end . Aside from bringing back all of the original characters , the movie also sets up the third installment by giving us a detached but fairly clear introduction to the wizard prison Azkaban , in that we hear a lot about it and see Hagrid taken off to spend some time there , which only wets our appetites to see it more clearly , which is sure to happen in the third film . One of the more interesting extensions on the original story is the introduction of Draco Malfoy's equally antagonistic father , played with precision by Jason Isaacs , who adds perfectly to the rivalry between Draco and Ron ( whose families famously have remarkably opposite financial situations ) by pitting Ron's father almost head to head against Draco's father . The good vs . evil plots in the Harry Potter films have so far been just about as ultimately shallow as the ones in the Star Wars films , but as was also the case with those , The Harry Potters are so imaginative and come across as such stunning visual experiences that it makes up for the basic storytelling technique . Even more than in the first film , Harry and his friends are faced with solving a tremendous mystery without any outside help , which usually comes from the lovable Hagrid , who has unfortunately been wrongfully accused and thrown into prison , leaving them entirely on their own even among a variety of helpful professors , particularly Albus Dumbledore , who also runs into some serious hardships that it's up to our heroes to fix . The plot revolves around a mysterious creature that seems to have escaped from the Chamber of Secrets ( which does or does not exist , depending on who you ask and what they're too afraid to admit ) which is running around the school occasionally petrifying students , crimes for which Harry Potter himself is gradually blamed . The rivalry between Potter and the vicious Draco Malfoy is just as fresh and appealing as ever , with Malfoy never seeming to let go of his hatred for Potter , a hatred which he holds for good reason and which expands upon his character's personal history , as well as Potter's . The mystery escalates to a point where the entire school is on lockdown , and the very future of Hogwarts is considered doomed , even by the head masters , McGonagall and Dumbledore . Harry Potter and his friends embark on a wonderful and tense adventure in this powerful adventure film . My only complaint about the Harry Potter films so far is that the endings tend to be a little bit too clean and tidy , almost to the point of being Scooby-Doo type endings , but the adventure is so genuine and so exciting that it more than makes up for polished endings . The Harry Potter saga is off to a powerful start , and the success of the novels certainly suggests that this will continue . |
544,435 | 562,732 | 112,691 | 10 | Caught bang to rights , you were ! | You can't really go wrong with Wallace and Gromit , and A Close Shave is no exception . The hilariously traditional Yorkshire duo are running a window-washing business that one day leads them to a wool shop run by a bizarre-looking British woman who immediately wins Wallace's heart , despite a deep sadness behind her eyes and a vicious-looking dog . It should be noted , by the way , that the makers of this short movie have succeeded in giving a claymation character deeply sad eyes . This alone might have been reason enough for why it won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film . While Wallace follows his helplessly stolen heart , Gromit finds himself framed for a mysterious sheep-stealing and killing scheme and is thrown in prison . An adventure follows that could only exist in a Wallace and Gromit film and includes , among other things , a hilarious truck / motorcycle chase with the help of an incredibly coordinated flock of helpful sheep . Enjoy ! |
543,856 | 562,732 | 338,013 | 10 | Life is but a memory . | One of the things that has really surprised me about the movies that are coming out at the time of this writing is which ones are turning out to be good and which ones are turning out to be not so great . I haven't seen all of them yet , but it's pretty odd to me that the latest movie starring Jim Carrey - an actor who not long ago seemed doomed to never rise above rubber-faced , low-brow slapstick comedy - is one of the best movies in theaters , and if that weren't enough , the latest remake of a classic horror film , Dawn of the Dead , is getting better reviews than the newest Tom Hanks movie . Luckily , the 2004 Dawn of the Dead is spectacular , so getting better reviews than The Ladykillers doesn't speak badly of Tom Hanks ' latest effort . In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Carrey once again raises the bar of his own performance . This is probably the most evolved actor working today , having gone from the late-night television crap of In Living Color ( bad ) to Ace Ventura ( goofy but funny ) to The Cable Guy ( which fell flat because the script was dumb , and Carrey's iconography was just not ready for such a dramatic character ) to The Truman Show ( good ) to Man on the Moon ( very good ) to The Majestic ( VERY good ) to Bruce Almighty ( goofy but also very good ) and finally to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , arguably the most in depth and developed character he has ever played and by far his greatest film so far . Jim Carrey plays Joel Barish , a man with difficulty not only in his relationships , but also in his overall interaction with other people . He lives such a lonely life that , by his own admission , he has a tendency to fall in love with any woman who shows him even the slightest bit of attention . Strangely enough , he happens to stumble into some sort of relationship with Clementine Kruczyinski ( Kate Winslet ) , a woman who fits with someone like Joel about as well as Kate Winslet fits with a last name like Kruczyinski . Actually , I probably shouldn't say that , since there is something of a discrepancy between my own last name and my appearance . But the point is that Joel and Clementine could not really be more opposite . Joel is introverted and shy , while Clementine is outgoing enough to pursue a friendship with him despite his behavior , which initially shows something of a fear of even talking to her . ( spoilers ) While it's true that they do not fit together in almost any way , it's a lot of what makes their relationship endearing ( and it also provides a lot of what makes the early souring of that relationship more believable ) . The first downturn of their relationship is first suggested as Joel goes to visit Clementine and she ' acts ' like she had never even met him , and then it turns out that she has had him erased from her mind by this strange company that specializes in erasing painful or unwanted memories . Sure , this is not exactly the most jarring twist ( you already knew what the movie was about , right ? ) , but it's pretty clever how effective the twist is , at least in its simplicity and smallness , as well as the way it is first introduced in the plot . She has had him erased from her mind before the audience is told anything about this memory erasing company . Really the only thing turned upside down ( besides Joel's and Clementine's respective grasps on reality ) is that she wasn't ACTING like she didn't know him . She wasn't acting at all . When Joel figures out what's going on , he decides to have Clementine erased from his own memory . I have a theory that he does this almost entirely for revenge against her , which may be part of the reason that he so desperately tries to call the whole thing off right in the middle of it . The larger reason being , however , that he has a better relationship with her in the cyberspace of his mind than he did in real life . Their interaction when they are physically together is much less pleasant than it is in Joel's mind , which was also more than likely true before either of them ever went to have their memories erased . Joel has fallen in love with Clementine , and the fact that they turn out to be completely incompatible does not change his dedication to her or his determination to keep her . She , on the other hand , does not fall for every person who shows her any attention . Director Michel Gondry pays extraordinary attention to detail in his movie , probably the main thing that makes the psychological aspect of it so effective . He goes to great lengths to portray the cognitive experiences of memories and dreams as closely as possible to reality in the movie . Consider having a dream where you're in the future and reading the newspaper . You may or may not have had a dream like this ( I have ) , but what would happen is very clearly reflected by events in the movie . I dreamed once that I was reading a newspaper about the presidential election results in November 2004 . There was a picture of the winner , a huge headline announcing who the American president would be for the next four years , and a lengthy story detailing the events of the election process . As I looked at the newspaper , I remember staring at it intently , unable to focus on the photographs or quite concentrate enough on the words to read the story . No matter how hard I looked , I couldn't make out a single word or photograph . This , in my theory , is my mind trying to fill in a part of my knowledge that I simply don't know yet , which is why I couldn't make out the words . People around me were also discussing the election results , but their words were a jumble because my mind doesn't know what to put there . All the information was right there in front of me in the newspaper , but my mind couldn't focus on it because , since the event has not happened yet , I simply don't know it . There are scenes in the movie that flawlessly reflect this . People's faces are blurred and distorted because they have been erased from memory , and their voices have been reduced to meaningless noises . They are right there , but Joel can't focus on them because his brain no longer has the file detailing what they look like . While I admit that this kind of mental experience may not be universal , it is extremely rare that I see a movie that so brilliantly reflects a common experience like this . Bravo . The movie twists and turns and messes with chronological time so much that it is almost impossible to describe a chronological plot , but the primary focus of the film is on the workings of the human mind , as well as the vast importance that memories , both good and bad , have in our lives . Without memories , our lives are exactly like Joel finds his journal , just blank . It is a fascinating journey to watch Joel and Clementine racing through the labyrinth of his mind trying to outrun the company that is erasing the very world surrounding him . The movie is similar to the greatest film released in 2003 , Big Fish , in that so much of it takes place inside the mind , so anything is possible . The restrictions of reality do not necessarily apply to what Director Michel Gondry can put in the movie . Joel and Clementine are both a little crazy , so anything could happen . I love it when movies are outrageous , but completely justifiably so , which doesn't happen often . As if the movie wasn't outstanding enough , check THIS out . As you may or may not know , Jim Carrey is now one of the most famous actors currently working , and several years ago was honored with a gold star engraved in the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard . And can you guess what he and his daughter inscribed with their own fingers in the wet cement below his name , in front of a huge crowd of fans and television cameras ? ' Merrily merrily merrily . ' |
544,755 | 562,732 | 120,382 | 10 | With what is definitely one of Jim Carrey's best performance , The Truman Show presents a fascinating story , told from numerous perspectives . | The Truman Show is a television show about the real life of Truman Burbank , who has lived his entire life in a giant soundstage and who has no idea that his life has been broadcast to the world since his birth . Clearly , this is not a realist film , but if the production of something like The Truman Show were possible , literally and legally , this is probably about what it would look like . However , given the relatively exciting reality of everyday life ( exactly what the movies are there to help us escape from ) , I doubt that the show would be quite so widely followed , or that it would have such an obsessive fan base . This is a very challenging type of movie to make , and the effectiveness of it reflects the skill of the films creators . As was the case with the Back To The Future series , all of the obvious problems with such a concept are dealt with and the ways that they are solved are explained in the film . You have people trying to let Truman know that his whole life is televised , you have his deathly fear of water ( stemming from his father's ' drowning ' and explaining his failure to leave his happy home even once during his entire life ) , and you have things like Truman hearing people on his car radio as they follow his every move , lights falling from the ceiling of the soundstage , etc . All of the ? close calls ' that you would expect to happen when keeping someone unknowingly trapped in a confined space are presented , and when Truman starts to catch on to the whole thing , the movie really takes off and starts getting really exciting . The Truman Show allows Jim Carrey to engage in several different kinds of acting , even , although briefly , the goofy comedy that he is best known for . But here , he introduces a new kind of comedic acting ( at least new for himself ) , in which he goes along with strange things and pretends not to be weirded out , such as when his wife shows him what she bought at the supermarket , explaining all of its qualities exactly like a TV commercial ( ' Wow . That's amazing ! ' ) , which is intentional because the product placement is the only way to have any kind of commercial in The Truman Show , which runs 24 hours a day . This is tied in with his suspicions about what is really going on when it happens one time in the kitchen of his home , and his wife is talking like a commercial again . This time , Truman comes out and finally speaks what has been on his mind for so long , in a bit of hilarious dialogue that is very effective in the near-thriller story that follows ( ' What the hell are you talking about ? Who are you talking to ? ! ' ) . When Truman seems to lose it and attack his wife , she screams ' Do something ! ! ' and Truman's suspicion's are confirmed . This is a significant scene because not only is Jim Carrey not giving us goofball comedy , but he actually appears menacing , which is totally unexpected given his iconography . Laura Linney plays the role of his intolerably tolerable wife with the incessant smile , and Ed Harris fills in the role of the producer of The Truman Show , in an uncharacteristic but very effective performance . This film is a great example of how an impossible story can be made to work and be fun . Peter Weir lends his direction skills to this unique story , and with great success . |
544,126 | 562,732 | 734,568 | 10 | One of the best and most recognizable episodes of the series . | It was not long ago that I started watching the original Twilight Zone series on DVD . Before that I had nothing more than a basic , passing knowledge of it , but this episode must have been one that I saw when I was really young , because I recognized the characters instantly . The story , of course , is based on the subjective perception of beauty , and it plays with the audience's expectations in the most unexpected way , which is probably why it is so often selected as a representative episode of the series . This is the twilight zone at its best . There is a curious political element in the show , as a woman named Janet Tyler is undergoing what I believe was her 23rd surgery , sponsored by " the state , " to try to make her look normal , so that she can have a normal life . My expectation was that she had suffered some kind of injury , maybe a crash or something , and that the surgery was reconstructive . A good reason is never given , and for good reason . Probably the best thing that the episode manages to do is to concentrate on Tyler's covered face , without you really noticing that you never see any of the faces of the nurses or doctors . The twist at the end is so good that it is one of the few genuine jaw-dropping moments that I've ever seen in a TV show . This is the kind of quality that transcends time and stays with you forever . I don't know who designed the make-up , but the faces are brilliantly frightening , and the second you see them , it causes some wonderful introspection about modern society's expectations about beauty and normality , and also conformity . Unlike many of the twilight zone episodes , this is one that deals with a topic that will never get old . It's as fresh today as when it was released . |
543,965 | 562,732 | 61,402 | 10 | Rather disturbing short from director Martin Scorsese that acquires new meaning if you look closely . | There's no dialogue in The Big Shave , and the entire film takes place in a bathroom . Even short films don't get much simpler than this , but Scorsese's skillful direction is able to give this extremely simple story some meaning besides what is seen as you just watch it . Some white guy ( and this is noteworthy because of the proliferation of films about the Italian condition that Scorsese was making at the time ) walks into the bathroom , having obviously just woken up , and proceeds to give himself a disturbingly brutal shave . If you have a weak stomach , you may be bothered by the striking amount of blood in the film , but this blood does have meaning . I've made several films myself at the junior college level that were all more technically complex than The Big Shave is , but you have to take into account the film's meaning before dismissing it as just a picture of a stomach turning shave . This white guy walks into an immaculately clean bathroom and shaves , and then he puts more shaving cream on his face and shaves again , this time cutting himself up pretty badly . The things to consider here are the cleanliness of the bathroom when he walked in , as well as the fact that he didn't even really need to shave in the first place . I've even heard that The Big Shave is representative of America's reckless involvement in the Vietnam War , particularly our self-destructiveness . That may be a little bit of a stretch , or at least seem to be actually imposing meaning on the film rather than deriving meaning from it ( that is , of course , if it wasn't for that alternate title , which may clear up any misunderstanding ) , but the possibility is very distinct . Martin Scorsese made this film long before he became famous or well known , and his skill is evident in the film's simplicity , which is contrasted by the extensive meaning that it entails . Clearly , not many people have ever seen or heard of this film , and many would not care to , but as an insight into the filmmaking characteristics of Scorsese as well as a look at his early cinematic productions , it is a curiosity piece that is a must see . |
544,187 | 562,732 | 4,546 | 10 | Pity the weak women . . . | Chaplin once again plays a drunk , but this time the result is much better because he plays alongside Fatty Arbuckle , another , ah , giant of the silent comedy . Charlie plays a drunk guy who goes home drunk to his wife , his life's " big mistake . " At the same time , Charlie's neighbor across the hall goes home drunk to his wife , and of course , each couple gets into hilarious arguments . Charlie's wife sends him over to the room across the hall , thinking that with all the commotion , someone must be getting murdered over there . When he gets there , he finds a similar situation to his own , and after much confusion , the women wind up arguing with each other , and Charlie and the other man wind up stealing money from the other man's wife and going out to drink more . The following scene , at the restaurant where they go to drink , is one of the funnier scenes in the movie , as each man pulls off a table cloth and uses it for a blanket while he goes to sleep , " making themselves at home . " Charlie busies himself lighting matches off of a bad man's head and fighting with the restaurant's employees . Eventually , their wives find them , and they wind up fleeing for their drunken freedom , ultimately stealing a canoe and pushing off with it , falling asleep side by side in it as it slowly sinks . An uncharacteristic ending , but at least it was different , and with the speed with which they cranked out these films in 1914 , a little variety goes a long way . |
544,453 | 562,732 | 248,808 | 10 | Yes , yes , it's all true ! | For The Birds is the side-splittingly hilarious short animated film that preceded the rather unimpressive Monsters , Inc , and all this hype that you may have read about For The Birds in the comments index here on the IMDb is pretty accurate , with the exception of the occasional grump who calls it forgettable or just amusing or some other such nonsense . Pixar is becoming more and more famous for the hilarity of their films ( especially the short ones , if only because they are virtually uniformly hilarious ) , and For The Birds is definitely no exception . What you have here is a story that is about as simple as they come - a bunch of tiny egg-shaped birds on a telephone wire who are approached by a big goofy bird , and they are all contemptuous toward her and do everything they can to get rid of her . It's the conspiracy that these little birds come up with to get rid of this ostrich-looking bird ( yes , I know it's not an ostrich , by the way ) and the fact that Pixar is able to communicate it to the audience without a single piece of dialogue other than these hilarious cheeps and grunts that the birds make that makes the film so impressive and funny and , yes , MEMORABLE . The Academy Award that For The Birds won for Best Animated Short Film for 2001 was even less of a surprise than the one that Shrek won for Best Animated feature ! It was a given ! For The Birds is not the kind of short film that you watch before a rather short animated film and serves no other purpose than to make you feel like you got your money's worth because the feature film is rather short . This is not just something to keep you in your seats for a little longer ( how much of a difference would three minutes really make in that case ? ) , this is something that Pixar throws into the mix because they're so good at what they do that they can deliver pure entertainment even with such a short film . The old Roger Rabbit short films are the kind that are mildly amusing on a more childish level and that can be forgotten rather quickly , but For The Birds is something else entirely . Like all the Pixar shorts - not the least of which is Geri's Game ( which should not be confused with Gerald's Game , which is a strikingly different story ! ) , one of my personal favorites - For The Birds is the kind of short film that you enjoy for only a few minutes but remember for years . My only hope is that Pixar will someday come out with a special DVD just for all of their short films . Bravo ! |
544,765 | 562,732 | 734,587 | 10 | These are the days of miracle and wonder , this is the long distance call . . . | At the time of this writing there is only one other IMDb reviewer who has commented on this episode , and he makes a lot of good points about how strangely effective this episode is in approaching very deep and emotionally powerful elements of human life . The show is mostly about the relationship between a young boy and his grandmother , who is aging and knows that any day now she will pass away . She is staying with her son and his wife , and the parents attempt to shield the boy from directly acknowledging the fact that grandma is going to die soon , but the grandmother knows it will happen and , because the boy fills her with happiness and a sense of lifelong fulfillment , she wants to acknowledge her own passing before it happens so that no one in the family afterwards suffers from that awful feeling of never having been able to say goodbye . After watching this show , you may find it arguable whether it is better to never have been able to say goodbye , or to actually come right out and acknowledge impending death and say your goodbyes to a loved one who is just about to pass . This has never happened to me , but I can't imagine a more emotionally torturous situation than having to say goodbye to someone like that . I have to say that the performance of Bill Mumy as the young Billy stole the show , the kid was brilliant . The show approaches the very complex issues that married couples deal with in modern America , such as conflicting views of how to raise a child , the relationships with in-laws , and of course , death . But most of all , there is an amazingly palpable presence of the grandmother , even after she has died , and not just because Billy spends so much of the second half of the show on the phone with her . His near death experience gives a surprisingly convincing feeling of her waiting just on the other side , desperate to take her biggest source of happiness with her to the twilight zone and beyond , but ultimately deciding to leave him behind to have a full life . Serious but entertaining , this one has the pleasant effect of leaving you with an urge to really appreciate the ones you love . . . |
544,347 | 562,732 | 30,341 | 10 | One of the best of Hitchcock's earlier thrillers . | The Lady Vanishes is the last of a string of six thrillers that Hitchcock released in the 1930 , associating him with the thriller genre for the rest of his career . The film starts off with a panning shot of a less than convincing model of a town , portraying the avalanche that has trapped a whole train full of passengers in a remote hotel until the tracks can be cleared . We see a conglomeration of the typical types of people all thrown into the same place , eventually getting onto a train together after the audience has had a chance to get to know them and the situations that are to make up the rest of the film . Two businessmen ( you may recognize them as the ones that oddly showed up in my review of The 39 Steps ) are on the train and are entirely too concerned about a cricket match that they stand to miss if the train is delayed too much . They have been cut off from communications with London , and have been rendered virtually helpless because of it . A woman named Iris who is entirely too concerned with getting married runs into a spectacularly obnoxious musician who she can't seem to get away from from the moment she meets him . It's interesting to consider some of the messages that Hitchcock passes in this film through his traditional brand of cynical humor , such as the fact that a musician is introduced as horribly aggravating but ultimately turns out to be one of the heroes in the film , as well as such things like a man who serenades early in the film is strangled soon thereafter , as well as the fact that marriage is presented very early on as something that should only be done after everything else in life has already been done . ( spoilers ) Just before everyone boards the train in the morning , there is an important attempt on an old woman's life that results instead in the young brunette looking to get married getting hit on the head by a falling planter . This scene is important because it shows that there is someone out to get this old lady , and it also provides the excuse given to Iris ( the brunette ) later in the film as she tries to investigate the disappearance of the woman , who becomes her friend on the train . You would think that someone with such important information as this lady is carrying would not be such a social butterfly with a stranger on a train , but either way , the knock that Iris took on the head just before getting on the plane provides a perfect way to get her to believe that she imagined Froy ( the old woman ) when she disappears . One thing that I was a little bothered by during Iris's initial investigation was the fact that she never even thought to look on the window where Froy had written her name with her finger . They were going through a tunnel when they were introducing themselves , and the train became too noisy for Iris to be able to hear Froy's name , so Froy wrote it on the window with her finger . Because it would have been so much more normal to just wait a few seconds for the train to quiet down rather than writing on the windows , you would think that this little quirk of Froy's would have struck Iris as something to check for later when everyone is telling her that she imagined the old woman and that she was never there in the first place . At any rate , Iris takes a nap early in the film and wakes up to find Froy gone , and a freaky lady across from her who looks like the Bride of freaking Frankenstein says that there was never an old woman there , and the search begins . The investigation that Iris conducts in search of her friend provides the body of much of this fascinating film , and Iris's musician friend from the hotel joins her for a good portion of it , becoming the second of the two ordinary people involved in extraordinary events in this film . The two businessmen on the train ( again , you know them from my review of The 39 Steps , I watched these movies too close together ! ) provide much of the comic relief during the film as they are constantly concerned with getting back to London in time for a cricket match , despite even the most deadly conditions aboard the train , and the musician from early in the film provides a rather unwelcome partner in investigating Froy's disappearance . There are several interesting montages in this film . Editing is one of the most powerful tools that Hitchcock put to use in many of his early films , and it is used to great extent here , although not always with clear meaning . I am curious about the extensive montages that are shown of the exterior of the train as it begins moving , as well as between scenes on the moving train . But there are also montages that are very clever and very effective , such as the one in the middle of the movie in which Iris looks at all of the people sharing the cabin on the train with her and realizes that they all bear some physical resemblance to Froy , suggesting that maybe she really did imagine her as so many people have been telling her . That was , after all , a pretty nasty bump on the head . Late in the film there is the necessary addition of the blurring of the lines between the good and the bad guys . The neurologist who travels around performing miraculous brain surgery turns out to be not such a great guy , and the nun wearing suspicious high heels also turns out to be not quite as suspicious as she is initially portrayed . We are left unaware of who can be trusted and who is telling the truth , constantly questioning which side each person is on , even the musician and the two businessmen . In the shootout scene at the end of the film , we get the most tense and most amusing scene in the entire film . There is a lengthy shootout involving a shortage of ammunition and nowhere to run , during which the businessmen , who are themselves participating in the shooting , casually mention things like how they'll never make it on time for the match NOW , and when they are told what is happening , they don't believe it . They express one of the widespread public opinions that allows Hitchcock to be so successful with films about ordinary people in extraordinary situations ? ' Things like that just don't happen . ' There is also , I might mention , a curious duality in the title of the film . I read an interview of Hitchcock somewhere where he was explaining that the title refers to both the disappearance of Froy as well as the subsequent disappearance of the ' lady ' that Iris is at the start of the film and the emergence of the investigator that she becomes . This is a duality that is reflected in many other areas of the film , not the least of which is the fact that , like many other Hitchcock films , The Lady Vanishes contains an unusual but surprisingly effective juxtaposition of comedy and tension , resulting in an entertaining thriller that can make you laugh just as much as it can make you nervous . |
544,809 | 562,732 | 285,742 | 10 | Yeah Puff ! | Wow , I never thought I'd say that . Puff Daddy should have gone straight to acting in the first place and saved himself the embarrassment of his rap career . He does a wonderful job in this wonderful movie portraying a death row inmate named Tyrell Musgrove , the husband of Leticia , played by Halle Berry . The film starts off dealing with the relationship between Hank ( Billy Bob Thornton ) and his son Sonny ( Heath Ledger ) and Sonny's learning the ropes of becoming a prison guard like his dear old dad . Tyrell is a complicated character because we automatically sympathize with the enormity of his situation , trying to explain to his son in front of a prison guard why he's not going to be around anymore , but at the same time he accepts his fate because he has brought it upon himself . It is significant that this is a man who has committed a crime and doesn't fight against the system when the punishment is imposed , because he deserves it . In one of the most potent lines in the entire film , he tells his son , ' I'm a bad man , you're the best of me . ' Hank is also a very complicated character . This is an enormously racist man who chases a couple of young black kids off his property by shooting a shotgun into the air , even when the kids only came over to play with his son . He knew that they meant no harm , and he still fired into the air to scare him away . This is the movie's protagonist , and there is soon a scene with the father of those two boys where you want nothing more than to see Hank get dragged out of his car and smacked around for a little while . But the movie amazingly develops his character enough so that we are able to look deeper into who exactly he is and what kind of past he has had , and to forgive him for who he is and accept him as the protagonist . ( spoilers ) Several of the characters are portrayed in this way , with very conflicting characteristics that challenge you to develop a straightforward opinion of any of them ( except for Hank's father , who is such a heavily racist redneck that there is no question from the very beginning that he's going to be nothing but trouble ) . The movie reminds us that the mark of an intelligent mind is the ability to hold conflicting opinions of the same thing and still be able to function , and we are able to do this because we get to know Hank so much better . His racism is a result of the way his father raised him , and even the way he handled ( and , indeed , caused ) the death of his son can be seen as having been caused by having been raised by a man who has implanted the idea that those who cannot be racist are ' weak . ' Halle Berry gives a powerful role as Leticia , whose life is spinning completely out of control . Her husband has been executed ( which is a huge shock to her even though she is obviously so emotionally detached from him ) , she has lost her job , her landlord is evicting her by force of the law , and her son is hopelessly overweight . The majority of the narrative story comes from the interaction between Hank and Leticia , who are both going against their morals and beliefs , to a varied extent , in associating with each other , and each of their eventual realizations of who the other person is . It is significant that Hank learns that Leticia is the widow of the man he had recently put to death ( and who's death indirectly lead to his own son's suicide ) and that he reacts by trying to keep her from finding out that he had helped kill her husband . Their interaction with each other provides the redemption of each of their sins up to that point , especially his . He has overcome his racism to genuinely care about this woman , and he wants to hide who he is from her for her own protection and also because he is afraid to lose her . The movie reminds me a little bit of those old Babar books . You know , the ones with the big talking elephant from the jungle . In Babar books , characters actually die . This is a rarity in children's literature . Babar's own mother was shot by a poacher , but you always turn the page and move on with the story , which is a great metaphor for life . In Monster's Ball , there are plenty of tragic events , and the execution of Tyrell and Leticia getting fired and evicted are not even the worst of them . But as is evident in the closing scene in the film ( which I didn't like at all until I stopped to think about it ) , she is moving on from her troubles , albeit with an unlikely companion , but at least one who seems more than willing to move on with her . He has defected from his racist past by putting his verbally abusive father into a retirement home , and has turned all of his efforts to Leticia in hopes of finding a better life with her . The movie ends rather suddenly , but it ends with the promise of better times to come . |
544,505 | 562,732 | 21,749 | 10 | You can't go wrong with Charlie Chaplin , but City Lights is even better than Chaplin's films usually are . | Chaplin takes himself a little more seriously in City Lights , and the results are spectacular . The musical score which Chaplin composed for the film was one of the many highlights , and even though Charlie's performance is much more dramatic than usual in some scenes , the hilarious comedy for which he is known and loved is still abundant . City Lights is so well made that it is one of the very few movies in which the obvious flaws can be gladly overlooked . Yes , you can clearly see the string holding Chaplin up in the sidesplittingly funny boxing scene , but who cares ? That is such classic slapstick that little things like that really don't matter . Besides , let's keep in mind that this movie was made seventy years ago . Chaplin does a phenomenal job in his traditional role of the tramp , and develops a perfectly convincing romantic relationship with the blind flower girl on the sidewalk . His friendship with the drunken rich guy is hilarious , but it also makes a significant comment about the problems of alcohol . This is truly a great film , which should not be forgotten . |
544,535 | 562,732 | 281,875 | 10 | Gallagher is back with yet another masterpiece of stand-up comedy . | While The Bookkeeper doesn't quite meet the standards of The Maddest ( let's face it , Gallagher's portrayal of the discovery of America in The Maddest is not likely to ever be surpassed ) , this is still a very worthy addition to Gallagher's unfortunately short list of excellent videos . In all of Gallagher's videos , he bases a good portion of his act on the title of the video ( Stuck in the 60s is an excellent example ) , but there is also a substantial portion in which he goes off on his traditional style of comedy that doesn't fit with the theme of the video but is always welcome because of it's comedic value . There is almost always , for example , a segment dealing with sex and the differences between the sexes . In The Bookkeeper , the segment dealing with the theme is a hilarious political bout of Gallagher's ideas about saving a lot of money by not paying the national debt , and an amusing way to expand the size of the United States ( ' We loaned the same amount of money to Tanzania last year as they paid in property values , it wouldn't cost us any more to own ? em ! ' ) . There is also a less amusing but as creative as always skit involving invisible elephants , but the value of the video itself is in the overall comedy appeal . Gallagher is just a funny guy , and it really comes across in these videos . The Sledge-O-Matic segment is also just as fun as always as well . This is yet another of Gallagher's intellectual and highly entertaining comedy acts that is sure to be loved by his fans and should not be missed . |
544,634 | 562,732 | 110,912 | 10 | Another shockingly good film from Quentin Tarantino . | SPOILERSTarantino has one of the most recognizable styles of any director working today , and Pulp Fiction is considered by many to be his greatest work yet . It is a conglomeration of Tarantino's own infatuation with the movies , as it is more about movie life than real life . One of the few little factoids that I know about Tarantino is that , like myself , he spent some time working in a video store and , like myself , spent a lot of his time watching old action films and horror films and pulp fiction films . Pulp Fiction is about the things that are in movies like that rather than real life . We have a lot of people put into extraordinary situations that do not have a lot of parallels with reality , but they are so well written and presented that we are more than willing to overlook this . One of my favorite things about Pulp Fiction is the way it presents several different storylines and mixes up the chronology of the film , which enormously increases the re-watch value . The film starts off with Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer playing a married couple who decide to rob a diner in broad daylight . The opening credits begin just as they stand up and bring out their guns , and we don't go back to this diner until more than an hour later in the film , when Vincent and Jules ( John Travolta and Samuel L . Jackson , both in possibly the greatest roles of their entire careers ) finally show up after going through some serious situations of their own . Bruce Willis stars as a boxer who was supposed to go down in a big fight but killed his opponent instead , and now the bookies are after him . His absolutely adorable girlfriend , played by Maria de Medeiros , plays the part of the significant other who just doesn't understand Butch's ( Willis ) urgent need to leave , like right this second . This leads to some interesting situations where Butch is stuck trying to hurry her out of the house and calm her down at the same time , and we as the audience are stuck wishing that she would shut up and get the hell out of the house while at the same time wishing there was some way she could be made to feel better . One of the biggest strengths of the film is the way the stories are all tied together . Vince and Jules , for example , after paying a visit to some guys who screwed their employer , take one of them hostage , only to have Vince accidentally shoot him in the face while asking him a casual question in the car . They take the bloodied car to their friend Jimmie's ( Tarantino ) house , and go through one of the more amusing scenes in the film trying to get the car clean before Jimmie's wife comes home , finds a bunch a gangsters in her house doing a bunch of gangster sht , and divorces Jimmie . Tarantino , as has become a tradition of his , plays one of the best roles ( although also one of the smallest , which is also common ) in the film , as a normal guy who just wants to live a normal life without people showing up at his house at 8 in the morning with a bloody car and a dead body . Harvey Keitel shows up playing the role of The Wolf , and does his job of cleaning up messes like the one Vince and Jules have on their hands ( and their clothes , and their car ) . Here is a guy that knows exactly what he's doing , and he works quickly and efficiently and hates to be slowed down by people who prefer politeness ( ' Pretty please , with sugar on top , clean the fkin ' car . ' ) . Eventually it gets clean , the mess is solved , and in order to clear their minds ( and so Jules can continue to contemplate the miracle that saved them from being shot by a guy who burst out of a closet and emptied his gun into the wall behind them at point blank range ) , they go to a diner to get some breakfast - the same diner that Ringo and Yolanda were robbing in the opening scene of the film . Everything that has taken place up to this point in the movie , except for the robbery itself , took place before the robbery , and now we're right back where we started . ( spoilers ) It takes a few viewings to really get this movie straight because it is so complex and intricate , but I'm pretty sure there are something like four or five different stories operating at the same time , and it becomes even harder to get straight because some of them mix in with other ones . Butch has to make a desperate trip back to his apartment to retrieve a wristwatch that has more than a little bit of sentimental value , and when he gets there , he finds Vincent there , once more taking on a job that's just a little over his head . Not only is this guy not able to travel with someone in the back seat without shooting him in the face , but he also seems to have a hard time staking out someone's apartment without using the bathroom and leaving his machine gun on the kitchen counter . Not the smartest character , but certainly one of the most likable that Travolta has ever played . In Pulp Fiction , the characters are not given dialogue that is meant only to further the plot . In many instances , it is there literally for no other reason than to show them having casual dialogue which often has absolutely nothing to do with the story . Jules and Vincent discuss at length the names of burgers at McDonalds ' in France , the definition of a miracle , and the acceptable difference between a woman's foot and her holiest of holies . Granted , at least two of these have direct meaning to the plot , but when you see how deeply into the subjects Vince and Jules go , it becomes more and more clear that they are talking just to be talking . But the thing that really brings out the quality of the script is that no matter how long anyone goes on about one subject , it never once gets boring . All of the actors involved deliver some of the best performances of their careers , and much of the reason for this is because the roles fit them perfectly and the script is written so well . It's full of drugs , violence , blood , crime , murder , sex , and guns , but never once even approaches anything gratuitous . Things like this are very often condemned by our society , and with good reason , if they are thrown into a movie just to advance a weak story , but in Pulp Fiction there is nothing thrown in without reason and nothing that is put in to make up for weakness anywhere else . But while it does have good reason to have everything in it that's there , the film is certainly not for everyone , because even the most logically placed violence and blood and killing is going to be hard for some viewers to take , so you should be forewarned . But the rest of you , as they say , are going to love it . |
543,811 | 562,732 | 1,010,048 | 10 | Mumbai Teen Amazed to Discover Corrupt TV Show . | There are two completely different story-lines taking place in Slumdog Millionaire , and they take place simultaneously and involve mostly all of the same people . Director Danny Boyle Has woven the stories together with such precision , such seamless skill that it presents an almost impossibly clear picture of this kid's life up to the point where he is a contestant on the Indian version of " Who Wants To Be A Millionaire . " Jamal Malik grew up in a Mumbai slum and has lived a life of of devastating poverty and drastic heartbreak . As a child , he and his brother Salim formed a close friendship with a young girl named Latika , but the happy times they had together ended with a tragic separation that continued for many years . As an 18-year-old young man , Jamal found his way onto the Millionaire program , and a chaotic reunion with his brother and Latika ensued . The sequence of events that led to Jamal's participation on the program and the reasons that he sought to be a contestant in the first place are major plot points that I don't want to reveal , but it seems a little unnecessary to do that anyway . t's nearly impossible to do justice to a movie like this by explaining plot points , so suffice it to say that Slumdog Millionaire is the intricate work of a master director at the top of his form . He has created a story of ordinary people living in terrible poverty and extraordinary situations . There are no caricatures in the movie , every character is developed with such clarity that it's almost impossible to determine who the good guys and bad guys are because we understand how every character has come to be the person that he or she is . The movie is told in a wildly unchronological order . The timelines are so mixed and blended that it is a spectacular feat in itself that Boyle has managed to craft such a compelling story and that it never becomes confusing . Many people were confused by Christopher Nolan's brilliant film Memento for much the same reason , and while I can't understand much criticism of that movie , I don't think Slumdog Millionaire will receive many of those kinds of complaints . Jumps back and forth in time and from one simultaneous story to another with such ease that it all feels completely natural . It has been said that Danny Boyle has reinvented the crowdpleaser with Slumdog Millionaire , which is a pretty apt statement . It never once panders to anyone , it never compromises its integrity with weak , sugary plot developments , it doesn't even appear to have any influence whatsoever of the Hollywood machine . There is terrific payoff at various times , intertwined with heartbreaking disappointment and struggles . But probably best of all , it provides astonishing insight into the lives of the Indian people . Jamal's young life took place in an slum of such complete destitution that the people almost seemed not to realize it was happening . The people are filthy poor , but its all they've ever known , and the way the kids play with such glee , it makes us understand that they don't view their lifestyle with the same understanding audience that those of us on the outside would . For the full effect , Boyle juxtaposes this level of existence with the polished world of a successful television show , hosted by a man who is so incapable of accepting that a kid who came from this background could possibly know the answers to his questions . In fact , possibly the film's only real weakness , the thing that will be difficult for us to believe , is that every question asked by the show happens to coincide with remarkable accuracy to some traumatic incident in Jamal's life . But that is a good part of the movie's message , as well . About 70 % of India's population , which I believe is nearly 1 . 2 billion people , live in small , poor villages , probably not terribly unlike the one where Jamal and Samir and Latika grew up . Slumdog Millionaire is the story of one kid from one of those villages for whom , after a childhood of unbroken poverty and beggary , all of the stars finally aligned . |
544,649 | 562,732 | 134,618 | 10 | Wow ! It really IS the Rocky of hockey ! | Mystery , Alaska is kind of like The Mighty Ducks , except that it's intended for an older , more intelligent audience . The characterization as well as the narrative structure is much more mature , and the players , thankfully , are not little kids but people with a wide range of ages that have played hockey their entire lives as a result of having always lived in such brutally cold weather . There seems to be an underlying theme about the damaging effects of sudden fame , or even the possibility of sudden and even temporary fame , as the town of Mystery goes to great lengths to build onto their town ( particularly the pond ) , so that they will be ready when the New York Rangers arrive . The biggest strength that the Mystery team had was playing on a pond as opposed to in a rink , and building this rink in their town cancelled out that advantage , making their chances of winning against the professional Rangers much smaller . ( spoilers ) Like in Rocky , the point here is not to win the game , because they lost to the Rangers , but the Mystery team went that distance and played a good game against a professional team . They played against all odds and they held their own , and literally came within inches of winning the game against a team that had tremendous advantages against them . After that last shot bounced off of the goal , barely missing , the audience is left trying to figure out a way that the game will have to continue long enough for the home team to win , but when Burt Reynolds ( in an excellent performance as the town judge as well as the father f one of the payers ) starts clapping , it is clear that the game is over and that they have lost . However , the applause that follows , especially that that came from the Rangers , bouncing their sticks on the ice as a show of respect , indicates that they succeeded despite having lost the game . Mystery , Alaska is an excellent film that gives the sports genre a much needed boost , showing an untraditional but refreshing and very effective conclusion that seems bittersweet but leaves you cheering . Russell Crowe further proves his amazing versatility as an actor , and all others involved also performed beautifully . The location is perfectly presented , almost making the audience feel cold just because the setting is so realistic , and the team really does look like a team of small town guys who have known each other and played hockey together all of their lives . You might be able to say that Mystery , Alaska pans out a little too similar to the way that Rocky did , but this is still a great film that just makes you feel good . |
544,282 | 562,732 | 85,809 | 10 | Kind of like 2001 : A Space Odyssey , but without the constant barrage of dialogue . . . | Koyaanisqatis is an extremely unusual film , and by far one of the most unusual I have ever seen . It takes on the daunting task of portraying the history of the world until modern times ( or the early 80s , at least ) entirely without dialogue . It is a documentary of sorts , in that it is amazingly informative , but it is filmed like a Hollywood film . Expertly framed shots and flawlessly smooth camera movement and shot composition . There is an unbelievable amount of talent behind this film , both in the fascinating images that are presented and the mesmerizing score by Philip Glass . It is a very slow moving film , but it manages to keep your attention because , in many cases , it is just so interesting to see the things that are portrayed and the way that they are shown . This is the only film , for example , where you can see a shot of a 737 approaches directly toward the camera over a hot runway in a shot that is possibly over a minute long with no movement other than the sluggish lumbering of the massive plain . Godfrey Reggio takes Glass's score and places images over it that add to the sound and create an experience that is far greater than , as they say , the sum of its parts . The shots contain camera movement or lack movement , are sped up or slowed down , and have live sound or no live sound depending on the desired effect , and the end result is absolutely hypnotic . This is a wonderful cinematic experience for people of all ages , and possibly my favorite thing about this film and it's successors is that , because they have no dialogue , they can be shown in any country in the world and not have to worry about subtitles or even altered meanings . This is a film for humanity . |
544,360 | 562,732 | 126,029 | 10 | In my past life , I was a fat btard ! | SPOILERS SPOILERS Shrek sure did exceed the expectations . I was expecting some immature comedy that vainly tried to re-capture the stunning success of Toy Story , but it was much more than that . The computer animation is breath taking , I would even say that it is better than Toy Story's , at least in some elements . The humans ' faces , for example , was something that Toy Story never got quite right , but they look great here . The animals are amazingly realistic , too . They even managed to make a female dragon look sexy ! Now THAT'S an accomplishment in animation science ! ( spoilers ) There are a lot of themes presented in Shrek , the most prevalent of which is that of being yourself , loving yourself for who you are , and there's probably a bit of the old one about there being someone out there for everyone ( Hey , if SHREK can find true love . ) . Sure , these are all clichés ( and , technically , therefore can't officially be themes , I guess , but who's grading this ? No one ! ) , but they are presented in a hilarious and entertaining way , if not exactly original or even entirely inventive . The plot is fairly simple , a bunch of fairy tale creatures are being banished by a prince for some reason , and they all wind up on the swamp property of Shrek , a fearful ogre who lives in the woods and feels too ugly to have contact with any other beings ( much like Frankenstein's poor monster ) . Shrek goes to the prince to get the fairy tale creatures off of his land , who agrees as long as Shrek will travel to a far away kingdom and rescue a princess and bring her back so the prince can marry her . That's about the size of it , but what an adventure ! There is also the excellent addition of a talking donkey ( who is voiced by Eddie Murphy but looks like Chris Rock ) who is Shrek's sidekick and friend throughout the movie . The fairy tale creatures are some of the best parts of the movie , there's something here from EVERYONE'S childhood . We see everything from the talking gingerbread man ( ' Do you know the muffin man . ? ' ) to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to the talking string puppet who thinks he's a real boy . This is great stuff ! There is even a great scene where they parodied ( to spectacular effect ) some of the shots from The Matrix , and this turns out to be one of the best scenes in the film . You almost want to get up and cheer at the way the princess kicks the asses of all of Robin Hood's men ( how's THAT for irony ! ) . Shrek and the donkey are stunned into hilarious silence . The only scene that didn't seem to have a lot of thought put into it was where the princess is talking to the donkey after having turned into the hideous beast that she transforms into after sunset every night , and she is afraid of what Shrek will think if he finds out that she turns ugly every night . Has she not seen Shrek ? He's an ogre ! He's the loneliest ogre in the world , and she's worried because she turns into one of his species every night . Come on , princess , wake up and smell the pheromones ! You'd think it would be obvious to her that he would be thrilled to learn of her nightly transformation . There is definitely no shortage of hilarious puns regarding the short stature of the prince . Besides that , James Bond could definitely take some serious knowledge from the effectiveness of the one-liners that seem to appear in Mike Meyers ' movies ( remember the succession of hilarious one liners in the head scene in Austin Powers ? ) . I'm still not sure why it was so funny that the prince was such a little squirt , but there seemed to be no end to the laughs . However , the most effective and memorable element of the film is the romance that develops between the princess and Shrek . This romance would be obviously manipulative of the audience and therefore insulting if she had just fallen in love with her rescuer despite his abhorrent appearance , but her nightly transformations make the pair work very well . After Shrek has made it to hers and the prince's wedding just in time to stop her form marrying him , we are entreated to a charming scene ( which includes the donkey riding the dragon and hilariously threatening the crowd with it as though it were a weapon - ' I've got a dragon and I'm not afraid to use it ! ' ) which ends with the princess revealing her condition to Shrek for the first time . As she kisses Shrek , her true love , she lifts into the air , and the spell is lifted from her , as previously explained . I remember sitting there and thinking that the movie was about to be ruined because she would turn into a beautiful princess and Shrek would suddenly become her charming prince , and it was such a relief that this didn't happen ! If they had both turned into beautiful people , the message of the entire film would have been cancelled out , and we would be left with the feeling that poor Shrek could never find true love if he were an ugly ogre , and that no one can truly be happy unless they are beautiful humans . That would have really pied me off . She asks Shrek if he'll love her even if she's not beautiful , and he says , ' You are beautiful . ' There is no way that this movie could have had a more uplifting and satisfactory ending than that , unless of course , it closed with the donkey and all of the fairy tale creatures singing ' I'm a believer ' in an excellent outdoor concert . This is a truly memorable film . It's got its share of childishness , but there can be no mistake about its quality . There is something here for everyone , and the message that it delivers is important in the society that we live in , which is disturbingly concerned with superficiality ( hence the quality and success of American Beauty ) . Bring the kids , the parents , the grandparents , everyone . |
544,245 | 562,732 | 418,753 | 10 | A surprisingly informative and professional look at pornography as a cultural issue . | The movie's poster does absolutely nothing for it as far as presenting it as a legitimate documentary about a real part of the American culture , but Inside Deep Throat is a well-made and highly informative look at the release of Deep Throat in the early 1970s and the tremendous impact that it had on American society , which was thrown into a massive uproar over the release of a micro-budget pornographic film . Produced by legendary producer Brian Grazer , the documentary features countless television clips from the 1970s which show how well-known it was . Whether or not people were offended by the material , it seemed that Deep Throat had become a household name , and everyone from Johnny Carson and Bob Hope to Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt provide their thoughts in this documentary . I particularly enjoyed how the term Deep Throat was worked into late night comedy shows and sitcoms back in the 70s , as well as the interview with Wes Craven , one of my favorite horror directors . Be advised that there is a graphic scene from Deep Throat included in this film , but other than that it takes itself very seriously . It is not pornography at all , it is only ABOUT pornography , and its level of insight illustrates how large the difference is between the two . |
543,728 | 562,732 | 427,132 | 10 | Incredible trip back . | Having recently seen Romero's new Land of the Dead I decided to go back and check out some of the extra features included on the massive Ultimate DVD collection of Dawn of the Dead , which I didn't like . I remember being amazed at the sickness of Dawn of the Dead , which I consider to be by far the goriest of the trilogy . I remember being hugely unimpressed by the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead ( and surprisingly impressed by the 2004 remake ) , so it was great to see the cast and crew talking about making the movie in this wonderful documentary . One of my favorite individual moments in this documentary was when Tom Savini talked about how he had planned to put make-up on all of the zombies to make them look gray but that it turned out to be a bad idea because they came out so many different colors ? green , blue , etc , and just didn't look right . This was , if I remember correctly , one of the things that most bothered me about the 1978 Dawn because , being the first film in the trilogy to be filmed in color , the ineffective make-up was a big problem for me . For a movie that was made nearly three decades ago , I was really surprised at how much detail they were able to get into this documentary , as well as how many of the original cast , many of them almost obscure zombies from the film , they were able to get together for interviews to talk about their experiences in making the movie . It was great to see how the town of Pittsburgh really came together to help make the movie , having been so impressed by the original film , and how much of a fun fiasco the making of the movie was for so many of the extras and for the cast . This entire DVD collection is a wonderful compilation of information about the making of the movie and the movie itself , and even if you didn't love the film itself , as I didn't , this is definitely something to check out . I have often noticed that documentaries and other supplemental materials included with DVDs can vastly improve your opinion of a movie , and this one is no exception . Don't miss this one . |
544,369 | 562,732 | 120,737 | 10 | Relax ! ! It's a trilogy ! | ( spoilers ) I was pretty surprised to see the end credits of The Lord of the Rings start as soon as Frodo and Sam walked up on those rocks and got their first look at Mordor ( although I was still chuckling at the thought that that may have been the point when they began to wish they had brought shoes ! ) . For a second I was shocked that they would end the movie at the point where it really seems to begin , but then I remembered that I had already been watching it for three hours , and any more would probably be overkill . The thing that you have to keep in mind at the end of the film is that this is a TRUE trilogy , meaning that each succeeding film will take up where the last one left off . It is , in fact , a testament to the quality of the film that people will still be disappointed to see the end credits after three hours , even though that disappointment may come as a result of the feeling that we were left hanging after all that time . Personally , I was so impressed with the film that I think it has earned enough respect to be able to end any way it wants to , even if it seems to leave too many loose ends . Relax , people , they're releasing one every year until Christmas 2003 , and even if you're upset that they've already filmed all three movies but we still have to wait a year between each one and you just have to know what happens next now now now , go out and read the books . Harry Potter , the other fantasy juggernaut released in the latter half of 2001 , had a much neater ending , but The Lord of the Rings is the much more mature of the two films . It's so rare that a movie comes along that generates a gigantic amount of hype and then actually lives up to all of the expectations created by it . Titanic didn't do it , Pearl Harbor didn't do it , Armageddon didn't do it , and The Phantom Menace didn't even come close . The Lord of the Rings is one of the few movies that comes along that generates a huge amount of hype and then lives up to it , and this is even more impressive given the fact that the movie is not just meant to be fun entertainment , the way that movies like Harry Potter or Independence Day or Men In Black ( all of which lived up to the hype ) are . This was made from a classic novel by J . R . R . Tolkien , and the movie was miraculously able to re-create the quality of Tolkien's story . There is nothing superfluous or gratuitous in The Lord of the Rings , and the film itself is tremendously well made . There are stunningly convincing set designs and costumes , the special effects are neither excessive nor lacking , and the pace of the story provides an engaging way to enjoy the fantastic adventure . One of my favorite things about it was the way that natural settings were manipulated just to the point that you know that nothing like it could really exist in the real world . In most cases , this is done simply with accenting or muting the colors of the atmosphere or , in other cases , through the addition of such things as tremendous waterfalls and beautifully twisted trees in the mysterious woods . There are some fantastic battle scenes that are reminiscent of the battle scenes in Braveheart ( although also manipulated to attain an otherworldly effect ) , the film's score has clearly been influenced by the best parts of Schindler's List , 2001 : A Space Odyssey , and even the Back to the Future films . The film does have its shortcomings , such as the unfortunate fact that the wizard's duel was terribly clichéd ( although still well presented ) , but the rest of the movie more than makes up for things like that . The casting in the film is excellent as well , despite the problems that almost always follow with any kind of casting . I loved seeing Cate Blanchett ( who I will always remember as the greatest Queen Elizabeth ever , followed very closely Judy Dench ) , and I was amazed at how well Elijah Wood portrayed Frodo because I had serious doubts about that role , much like I do about Toby McGuire playing Spiderman . I also loved all of the relatively smaller characters , such as Hugo Weaving's character Lord Elrond ( although for the entire movie I kept waiting for him to say in his monotonous voice , ' One of these jobs has a future , Mr . Anderson , and one of them does not . ' ) . I was very impressed with Sean Astin's character and performance , although he will still never pass up his role as Mikey in The Goonies ( definitely among the most fun movies ever made ? right up there with the Back to the Future series ) . The first installment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy has proved to be a gigantic cinematic event . I guess I don't really need to mention that , seeing how you people have all voted it past The Godfather on the IMDb Top 250 ( hmm , I'm not sure if it was THAT good ! ) , but I think it's worth mentioning anyway . Peter Jackson , the director , is surely in good spirits by now , given the mediocre ( at best ) career that he has led up to the point where he signed on to direct all three Lord of the Rings films , and surely if he keeps up the same good work that he delivered with The Fellowship of the Ring , the rest of us are going to be kept pretty happy as well . |
544,122 | 562,732 | 4,189 | 10 | Chaplin introduces himself to the world . | There is some disagreement over whether or not this is really the first film in which Chaplin performed as the beloved Tramp , since apparently Mabel's Strange Predicament was filmed a month earlier ( although released two days later ) , but the interest of the film as the first time that audiences saw his famous character , as well as the fact that he was clearly still learning about it himself , remains clear . This was long before the times of screenplays and film scripts , and it is clear from watching the film that it is completely ad-libbed , but what is also clear is not only the talent but also the symbolism and the foreshadowing of Chaplin's later career , which Chaplin could not even have known he was doing himself . A lot of people have made the mistake of judging this film based on the quality of Chaplin's later work , which is ridiculous not only because the film was made during such an embryonic period of film history , but also because less than a half a year before it was made , Chaplin was acting on stage in England and knew absolutely nothing about film-making . Only a few years before this film was made , a film that depicted a group of people simply walking past the camera or people jumping into a lake was considered successful . The very thought of a " moving picture " had itself not lost its sense of being a novelty , so this film , if anything , was ahead of its time . What is also worth noting is that , in the world's first look at Chaplin's most famous character , we get such a clear sense of his love of the crowd and his desire to be in front of the camera . It is very important when watching these early films to keep in mind the historical context in which they were made , and not only the films made by Chaplin but from anyone else who was making them during this period . This is the very beginning of film-making in Los Angeles , a rare look at one of the cinema's biggest talents literally learning his talent on camera in a young Hollywood . To write the film off because of simple comedy or time-damaged quality is absurd . First of all , I am immediately fascinated by the film because of the fact that it was filmed in Venice , California , where I lived until about two months ago . Nothing is recognizable , since it was filmed 90 years ago and most of the setting is covered by crowds of people , but it should also be noted that Chaplin is literally trying on the costume which would soon make him one of the most famous people in the world , and in this six-minute comedy he is wandering around in a film learning his own act . That people today immediately demand high-budget quality from a film like this is ludicrous , to say the least . It's also interesting to consider the fact that , while the film is very , very simple and the improvised comedy is not complex in any way , it is also very real and fits perfectly as an introduction to Chaplin as an actor and the Tramp as an everyday character . Watch any live , on-location news broadcast today and look at what any jerk standing behind the camera is trying to do , and the realism of some guy at the auto races , the Tramp , wandering in front of the camera and mugging makes even more sense . It's also interesting to see the people in the background , curious about this new film thing , obviously staring directly at the camera and watching the filming . Chaplin , as he did in Making A Living , his first film , plays a bit of an unlikable character , but only unlikable as compared to what the Tramp would later become . He was a cheat and a swindler in Making A Living , while here he is just an annoying passer-by who won't go away . The film is book-ended by odd clippings of a note to " his best girl , " and it is unclear why he " made tracks for the track , " but for whatever reason , he was there and made it his mission to be in front of the camera of an increasingly irritated cameraman as much as possible . The cameraman that Charlie is constantly blocking is played by Henry Lehrman , who directed the first few of Chaplin's comedies and with whom Chaplin never had a very positive relationship , either on screen or off . So many people are immediately put off by the technical crudity or stylistic simplicity or physical decay of films like this , but I think that they are even more fascinating for reasons like this . Filmed more than 90 years ago , it is still a clear look at Chaplin's budding career , both on and off the screen . Only a few months later , he would begin directing his own films and his nearly unmatched career in film-making would be launched . Anyone with even a mild interest in film history or silent films should not miss this one , as it is a major landmark in cinematic history and the career of one of its biggest stars . For those of you that demand complex plots and polished film-making , maybe you should stick to watching modern film . |
544,077 | 562,732 | 105,236 | 10 | Quentin Tarantino begins his directing career with the first of several chronologically mixed , disturbingly violent , and incredibly powerful films . | Reservoir Dogs is a testament to the idea that " less is more . " This doesn't apply to the violence , the film is extremely violent from beginning to end , but the details of the botched diamond heist , which the entire film is based on , are conveyed only in the dialogue , except for one scene where Mr . Pink ( Steve Buscemi ) recalls his escape . The whole film takes place after the failed robbery is over , and the mystery that unfolds among the criminal participants is amazing to watch . This is not a normal crime film . The thing that really sets Reservoir Dogs apart from all of the others is that it is PURE . When you look at the screen , you're looking at reality . There are no Hollywood actors , there's no make-up to make them look pretty , there's little to no comic relief , and most important of all , there's no goofy romantic subplot clumsily thrown in , a detrimental trademark of so many action films , as well as virtually all Jerry Bruckheimer films . Instead of all of that garbage , Tarantino decided to just present the film as simply and straightforwardly as possible , and by doing that he makes it seem that you're really looking at a bunch of criminals trying to figure out what to do after a suspiciously failed robbery . Even though most of the actors were known at the time this film was made , the film was delivered in such a way that you don't see the actors at all , you only see the brutal characters that they portray . It is genuinely frightening to imagine being in the same room with any of them , and this is a quality that is rarely achieved in any kind of film . Make no mistake , Reservoir Dogs is among the most violent films ever made , and some scenes are really painful to watch , but the way that reality is captured is something that justifies the violent excesses in this film . The violence is never glorified , nor is the criminal lifestyle . When films are overly violent , they usually get branded as such , but despite the extreme violence , Reservoir Dogs still manages to deliver an important overall message about the consequences of your actions . It remains high on the growing list of Tarantino's classic films , and it will not be soon forgotten . |
544,678 | 562,732 | 120,663 | 10 | So ? shall we ? | I have a feeling that Kubrick's stunningly masterful visual exploration of human sexuality will be overshadowed by the major amount of nudity in it , and the graphic sex scenes . It seems that the movie is more well-known because Nicole Kidman is fully nude in it ( and Tom Cruise , conspicuously , is heavily covered , even his hands , throughout ) , despite the fact that she was fully nude in Billy Bathgate back in 1991 but no one cares much about that . Maybe she wasn't famous enough back then . At any rate , she is nude within literally about the first 5 seconds of the film , when we meet her and her husband Dr . Bill Harford . They have been invited to a classy dinner party which illustrates their place in society , and we meet them as they are getting ready to go out . Clearly , they live a very good life , seemingly much more than even a doctor could afford , given that they live in New York in a sizable mansion . They have been married and faithful to each other for 9 years , have a beautiful 7 - year-old daughter , and a very comfortable home . Life is secure , but even in this opening scene , there is an undercurrent of something missing , almost as though they are just going through the motions of their marriage . Alice ( Kidman ) laments that Bill blandly tells her she looks great without even looking at her , and Bill isn't too excited about the party at all . But the real problem with their marriage is presented in a way that only Kubrick could come up with . Cruise and Kidman are beautiful people , so it's easy to accept a classy older man being extremely direct with his interest in a romp with Alice ( " then and there , " as she explains later ) , and that two stunningly beautiful women will attempt to seduce Bill , all at about the same time . Neither is unfaithful , but this event sets off a chain reaction that leads them down an alarming road . Later , when Alice asks Bill if he had sex with those two women ( in much more colorful language than I am allowed here ) , he sort of laughs it off and assures her that he did not . What he doesn't notice at first is that she doesn't seem the least bit upset or worried when she asks him this , she seems blithely interested , even curious , as though part of her hopes that he did , which would allow her to form some kind of justification in her own mind about being unfaithful herself , something that she has clearly thought about . When she hears that he didn't , she's not very happy , and she lashes out at him with a story that creeps into his mind and turns his life upside down . She has always been faithful to him , but she tells him a story of something that happened that might have been even worse . A lot of people criticize the movie for how slow it is in a sad misunderstanding of one of the movie's greatest strengths . It has a strange , dream-like quality that derives from its pacing , and this is not an accident , nor is it meant just to make the movie run as long as it is . And it is not about sex , either . This should be obvious , I think . Sex happens in the movie , but it's not about sex , but sexuality . The difference is bigger than you think . It's about the fact that humans are essentially animals with very primal physical needs , but we lift ourselves above beasts by controlling those desires and channeling them into meaningful relationships . This , the movie seems to suggest , is one of the reasons why an unfaithful spouse is such a crippling blow to someone . The most moral and sacred pact of the marriage has been broken . More specifically , it seems to suggest a human desire ( amidst both males and females ) for anonymous sex , in the sequence where Bill manages to get into the mansion and witness this taking place , and the vicious threats that he receives when he is discovered . A lot of people have called this a dream sequence , which doesn't make a lot of sense to me , since it is so clearly not . It's bizarre , yes , but I didn't notice anything that would suggest very strongly that it's a dream , outside of the allowance for this possibility . It may have just been left open to that possibility to provoke discussion , but it works better as a real experience than as a dream . Later , Alice confesses a real dream , which is disturbingly close to what Bill saw at that house , and it is a tremendous blow to him . It should be noted that the movie goes to great lengths to explore the trust in a marriage , and both parties are desperately hurt by what the other has said or done , yet neither of them were ever unfaithful to the other . The performances are phenomenal throughout , and made better by an astonishingly well-written script . You may notice , as the movies nears the end , that remarkably little actually happens in it , and yet the movie says so much . It makes a striking comment about the role of sex in a relationship , and yet never exploits it . Sadly , a lot of moviegoers are too shortsighted or narrow-minded to understand the film , which is why you get people saying it's the worst thing that Kubrick has ever come out with . It is very normal for a person to condemn as ridiculous something that they can't understand , and this will happen with this movie . But make no mistake , the movie is brilliant , and more than a worthy addition to Kubrick's short but powerful iconography |
543,744 | 562,732 | 373,169 | 10 | The Sixth Sense could not have been made without storyboarding . | M . Night Shyamalan reveals that storyboarding is his favorite part of the film-making process because of the level of control that he has while storyboarding , which is interesting because so many directors hate it . It's one of the processes that I've always almost feared because I want to pursue a career in film-making , but I can't draw at all . But one of the things that I liked about this short documentary was that it showed how important the process is and erased a lot of my apprehension of the process because Shyamalan works with a man who specializes in storyboarding , and it is clearly an invaluable part of the film-making process . Shyamalan points out that while you're on set , you just don't have time to ponder different angles or different ways to frame each shot , because you have 250 extras standing around , the stars waiting in their trailers , etc . The money is being spent at a tremendous rate in that situation , and the more decisions you can have already made , the better . The idea is to draw out every shot in the scene , to make a shooting script that is literally the very images that will be seen in the film . This is , of course , nothing new , but the documentary starts out with a few wonderful dissolves from the storyboard to the corresponding scene in the film . It's not hard to understand the importance of storyboarding , because it allows a way to map out the entire movie before you have anyone standing around on the payroll ; it clearly makes the shooting process , the most expensive process in film-making , go a lot faster . At one point Shyamalan talks about how , during storyboarding , if they decide that a certain shot looks cool , they throw it out because they are not just going for a cool looking movie , they want more than that . Shallow focus , for example , is a beautiful thing to look at , but if they were to use it there had to be more reason to use it than just because of aesthetic appeal . When it is used in the film , it is used as what he calls a very specific human moment , which fits with their intention to make the movie as realistic as possible as far as the real world that Cole lives in . Speaking of which , while he is explaining this he mentions that he's thinking of a specific director who makes movies in a way that when you watch them , you're really just watching acrobatics . Anyone have any thoughts about who that director might be ? At any rate , this short documentary can be found on the Vista Series edition of The Sixth Sense , along with two other wonderful documentaries ( Reflections from the Set and Between Two Worlds ) , all three of which have received astoundingly low user ratings on the IMDb , which I continue to be perplexed by . At the time of this writing , voters have limited their opinions to voting numerically and not writing reviews , so no explanation is given for such low votes , but my current theory is a simple lack of reason for backing them up because , along with the other short videos found on the original Sixth Sense DVD ( with the exception of the two TV spots , which are foolishly scored by a Marilyn Manson cover of I Put A Spell On You . I'm the biggest Marilyn Manson fan you'll find , but the song was completely wrong for the movie ) , all of these documentaries give wonderful insight into the movie . If you manage to get your hands on the Vista Series , don't miss them . |
544,748 | 562,732 | 105,265 | 10 | Historical accuracy is one of the things that makes this such a good drama . | ( spoilers ) A River Runs Through It is an excellent story of the lives of one family , from the time the two sons were young boys to the time when one of them is an old man , and everyone else has died . Brad Pitt delivers yet another great performance as the younger and wilder son Paul , and the unappealing looking Craig Sheffer stars as Paul's older brother Norman , from whose point of view the entire film is told . The early 20th century is beautifully and accurately presented , and there is even a reference to former President Calvin Coolidge . When Paul grows up , he becomes a reporter , and gets an interview with the President as he is fly fishing in Montana , the state where the film takes place . Not only is this historically accurate as far as the time period , but we also all remember Calvin Coolidge as the president who seemed to be more interested in fishing than working in the White House . Maybe he had the same opinion that George W . Bush has , that ' presidenting is hard . ' At any rate , it was never a secret that Coolidge wanted to be the ' least president possible . ' A River Runs Through It is a very thorough and meaningful drama that presents a long period of time in a thoughtful and clear way . The film as a whole is structured in a way that is very similar to the way that Saving Private Ryan is structured , by being told from the point of view of one of the characters when he is a very old man . The theme of the whole film can be summarized in one of Norman's lines near the end of the film ? ' Life is not a work of art . ' The film suggests that even though life is not perfect , even in the most beautiful surroundings , you can , and should , find something that makes you happy and do that as much as possible . For the Maclean family , that activity was fishing , and Norman continues that activity until he is an old man . It's true that the end of the film may have gotten a little too philosophical and ended up sounding a little bit like gibberish ( such as the closing line , ' I am haunted by waters . ' ) , but the film as a whole is both entertaining and heartwarming . Everyone involved delivered excellent performances that were appropriate for the subject matter , and the character development was intelligent and thorough . This is one of those rare films that , even though it doesn't have the happiest ending , it just makes you feel good . |
544,022 | 562,732 | 439 | 10 | Historic action / crime thriller . A must-see for all film buffs . | The Great Train Robbery was filmed only a couple of years into the 20th century , and when you watch it , its age is quite obvious . However , when you watch movies like this , you need to transport yourself back to the time period in which it was created and kind of watch the film through eyes that haven't been subjected to spectacularly visual films like The Matrix or Terminator 2 . Edwin Porter made a ground-breaking film with The Great Train Robbery . Sure , the scenes were very simple and the film is so blurry that you can't make out a single face ( this is also a result of the total lack of close-up shots ) , but in 1903 people watched this film and were stunned . It was hugely successful because it was one of the first films in the world to be made that actually told a story . Previously , films were made mainly to show off the technology of the " moving picture , " and the public loved them because they had never seen such a thing before . But when Porter came along with The Great Train Robbery , the path of motion pictures changed dramatically because people began to realize that these films could tell stories just as well as they could show water lapping on the beach or factory workers getting off of work or people jumping into a lake . These were the type of films that were made in the 1890s and early 1900s . The Great Train Robbery is an extremely short film , but it is an interesting story that is made even more fascinating because of the fact that everything that happens on the screen happened nearly 100 years ago . It's like looking at a piece of history . |
544,577 | 562,732 | 91,455 | 10 | Definitely one of Pixar's greatest short animated films . | Because I am so loathe to put one over the other , I just want to say that Geri's Game , For The Birds , and Luxo Jr . are the three greatest short animated films that have come from Pixar so far . What you have here is an extremely well made film that creates live characters without the use of dialogue or facial expressions or even bodies , and all this tremendously realistic animation was done in the 80s , before computers themselves had had much of an impact on the movies , especially as compared to today ! Luxo Jr . is an absolutely ingenius creation of animation , Pixar managed to come straight out and begin their career with a flawless animation film . There is , however , also the notable exception of any humans in the film , which should be mentioned here because that is the thing that Pixar's films have had the greatest difficulty with . The baby in Tin Toy was absolutely monstrous and hideous , and even in the full length Toy Story , the human faces were never made to look quite right . The emphasis , however , was placed on the toys in the film , which was one of the many reasons that it was such a great film . In Luxo Jr . , Pixar seems to be making a simple statement about what they can do with computer animation , and they have been tremendously successful . This film is absolutely flawless as far as characterization , simplicity , amusement , and , probably most of all , the amazingly realistic sound effects that served to help bring the hopping lamps to life . This is some of the simplest stuff that can be brought to the screen and still have meaning ( simple , that is , as far as content , not creation ) , but Pixar has managed to make this three minute film a truly memorable cinematic experience . |
544,525 | 562,732 | 120,689 | 10 | The Green Mile proved that Stephen King can create amazing stories beyond the graphic horror he is so well-known for . | If you are a true Stephen King fan , and read the book before you saw the movie , I feel that it is safe to say that you are one of the 44 . 4 % ( at the time of this review , anyway ) of voters who gave the Green Mile 10 stars . I have seen virtually every single one of Stephen King's films and have read roughly 30 of his novels , and I think that The Green Mile was by far the best screen adaptation of any of his books , as well as one of the most intellectual and thought provoking stories . Tom Hanks is an incredible actor , and he played a very convincing supervisory prison guard . The fact that the film was so long gave the audience an excellent opportunity to see what kinds of people the characters are . By the end of the film , you KNOW those guys , and that is one of the most important aspects of filmmaking as a whole . The audience needs to feel a connection with the characters , they need to care about them . It is heartbreaking to see Tom Hanks ' character Paul Edgecomb in such pain because of his urinary infection , and when John Coffey cures it , you feel so grateful for it that it may as well have been your own infection . That is the kind of thing that makes a film like this so great . It appealed to the King fans because of the relatively brief but satisfactory violence , but it also appealed to the kinds of people who want to see a good story unfold when they watch a movie . The Green Mile is not a film to be overlooked . Stephen King is now officially proving that although the majority of his films fit firmly in the genre of horror ( with the exception of other great films like Dolores Claiborne and The Shawshank Redemption ) , he is more than capable of creating a truly touching and entertaining movie without relying even a little bit on gratuitous sex or violence or profanity or gore or blood or monsters . . . |
544,220 | 562,732 | 996,463 | 10 | Inspiring . | I feel like any movie based on someone's life story should have a short video like this included on the DVD . It starts with scenes from the set where Will Smith celebrated his birthday and introduced the real Chris Gardner , the truly remarkable man on whom the film is based . It tells a lot about his involvement in the production of the movie and what it was like for him to relive his greatest suffering and some of his greatest successes . Like the movie , it's moving and inspiring , and my favorite is that it reveals something about the end of the film that I hadn't noticed but that shows hew truly impressive and wonderful it really is . |
544,221 | 562,732 | 996,461 | 10 | Better than most . . . | This is an unusually informative and unique documentary about the making of The Pursuit of Happiness . Most of it centers on the experiences of Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino as he directs one of America's biggest movie stars in a film about the American dream . There is tons of great behind the scenes footage and lots of interesting interviews with Muccino and some of the cast , although it's strange that in some of Will Smith's interview scenes he's out of the costume he's in in the movie and he's wearing this shirt and hat that makes him look exactly like the Fresh Prince . He looks like a punk kid , it's bizarre . At any rate , we also learn about the technical and location challenges in making the movie , and why Smith wanted to have Muccino , who had never directed a film in America , direct this one . It seems he made a good choice ! It was also interesting to me , as it was watching the movie , to see so many fabulously wealthy people talking about this story of a man struggling on the verge of homelessness . Because of a certain job I had in Los Angeles a couple years ago I'm lucky enough to have been to Will Smith's unbelievable mansion in Calabasas and Producer James Lassiter's slightly less astonishing but still beautiful mansion near downtown LA , and it seems hard for me to believe that they really have the necessary perspective to pull off a story like this . Nonetheless , I think the movie is incredibly moving and successful in it's intentions , maybe because , as director Muccino mentions , Americans don't really understand the American dream . You need to be a foreigner to really understand it . Whether or not that's exactly true , they have really done something special here . |
544,823 | 562,732 | 180,073 | 10 | The first rule of politics : The man who orders the execution NEVER DROPS THE BLADE . | Quills is the modernized story of the Marquis de Sade , whose steamy writings whipped France into a sexual fury in the late 18th Century . And by modernized I mean that it has been told through the experiences of a lot of French people who speak English and with British accents . But no matter , I'm willing to accept that everyone in France in 1800 spoke perfect British even if only because of Geoffrey Rush's brilliant performance . With every movie that he comes out with I become more and more convinced that there is nothing he can't do . In order to know virtue , as the Marquis explains , one must first understand vice . In Philip Kaufman's Quills , the focus is on the Marquis de Sade after his writing has taken him beyond the artistic freedom generally accepted in the 18th and 19th centuries , even to elite aristocracy like himself . It is a detailed exploration of the events that led from him being a social elitist to living almost three decades in prison , writing things that caused his keepers to make it so difficult for him to write that he ultimately uses his own blood and excrement for ink , and his clothing , the walls of his cell , and his own skin as parchment . Luckily for the Marquis , at first anyway , is that there is something of an understanding priest in the Abbe du Coulmier , another wonderful performance from Joaquin Phoenix . An intensely religious man , Coulmier believes that the Marquis should be allowed to write , if only to purge himself of the sadism with which his head is filled and which would later be named after him . Kate Winslet plays Madeleine , a laundry maid who smuggles the Marquis ' writing out of the asylum so that it can be published , for which many people are not happy , but many others are . The Marquis dips into the extensive world of the forbidden sexual taboos of the 18th and 19th centuries , writing extensively about them without a care in the world for propriety . One may wonder to what extent the Marquis ' writings were such a hit because they were forbidden , or because of their lewd content , which may euphemistically be described as guilty pleasures for the masses . Indeed , Larry Flynt was not working , so graphic pornography was something of a rarity . There is a curious relationship between the Marquis and a physician named Royer-Collard , played by Michael Caine , who is assigned to law down the law with the Marquis and prevent him from writing anymore . The glee with which the Marquis mocks and taunts him are some of the best parts of this outstanding film . There is a great parallel between the two characters , as well . Royer-Collard pretends to be a moral role model , at the same time taking a wife who is young enough to be his daughter , possibly even his granddaughter , and treats the Marquis with exactly the same sadistic ( if I can again use the term for the behavior for which the Marquis would later be named ) behavior that he condemns that Marquis for writing about . Both men engage in many of the same practices , it's just that the Marquis makes no attempt and has no interest in hiding his interests in the pleasures of the flesh . I think that the most important thing to remember about this movie is that it is able to deal with a person who's beliefs are , I like to think , below the moral compasses of most of the people who will watch the movie , but it's not about what he was writing , it's about the fact that he was writing at all . It's about his defiance in the face of a corrupt moral authority , his insistence on maintaining an artistic expression that was not well received but that was certainly therapeutic to him . Sure , his sanity is in question , to say the least , but as they say , genius is often associated with madness . What a great coincidence , too , because so is Geoffrey Rush . |
543,844 | 562,732 | 120,586 | 10 | Edward Norton delivers a staggering performance as an extremely intelligent white supremacist who realizes the wrongness of his views and must then try to prevent his younger brother form going down the same | American History X is one of the most powerful movies released in years . Not since Schindler's List has the subject of racism been so potently presented . The use of black and white cinematography to portray painful flashbacks is amazing , and the settings , while not necessarily pretty , fit the story flawlessly . Derek Vineyard's ( Edward Norton ) transition from a white supremacy leader's protege to a gang leader himself to a changed man is shown mainly through a series of flashbacks to the time before he was sent to prison . The character development and story are amazingly well done , and this is largely a factor of the high quality of the acting . Edward Norton especially , but also Edward Furlong , Beverly D'Angelo , and all of the rest of the cast down to Avery Brooks as Bob Sweeney , the African American high school teacher who comes up with the term American History X , and Stacy Keach as the wonderfully hateable Cameron Alexander . Keach , by the way , would have been the perfect choice to play Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter , the film the precedes The Silence of the Lambs , but oh well . Unfortunately , despite the fact that American History X is one of the best films in years , it is horribly underrated . Much like Norton's last film , Primal Fear , which was also a great movie , this movie did not get nearly the recognition that it deserves . |
543,876 | 562,732 | 68,473 | 10 | ' Whar you goin ' , city boy ! ' | SPOILERS SPOILERS Packed with memorable moments ( such as the quote above , immortalized by Primus ) , Deliverance tells the story of four guys who take a trip to the wild woods to go white water rafting and get away from the big city for a while only to find that their fun soon takes a bad turn . This is not a Hollywood film . There are virtually no special effects whatsoever , the setting is extremely realistic , and nothing at all is sugarcoated or made pretty . The city boys look like city boys , and even the tough guy Louis , portrayed with precision by Burt Reynolds , is clearly at the mercy of the wild on this trip . This is a perfect example of a what-if film . What if a few friends went river rafting in an area of the woods that none of them were familiar with , and ended up desperately trying to avoid being tried and convicted for murders that they were forced to commit to save their own lives ? There is clearly a very strong element of the film that deals with societal and class structure and the relationship ( or lack thereof ) between rural and urban peoples . When the four guys arrive in the woods early in the film , they clearly do not quite know how to interact with the people who live out there , and they speak to them as though they are unsure whether they will understand or be able to communicate . This communication block is most memorably illustrated in the dueling banjoes scene , in which they are trying to gas up the car and truck and get someone to drive the vehicles downriver for them . While Drew and the obviously inbred and probably mentally deficient boy on the porch are dueling with their guitar and banjo ( one of the best scenes in the film ) , Louis is having some difficulty buying the gas , and Bobby makes a comment about genetic deficiencies and how pathetic it all is . When the boy turns away from Drew , who had offered to shake his hand after their stupendous jam session , Bobby tells him to give the kid a couple bucks , knowing that none of them are quite sure how to react . This is the kind of thing that we see in Deliverance that sets up so much of the tension that is to follow . This great scene where a lot of fun was had ( including the funniest ' redneck dancing ' scene until O Brother , Where Art Thou ? ) ended with everyone awkwardly unsure what to do around each other . These people are apples and oranges , and they live by completely different rules of life . The people that Louis , Bobby , Drew and Ed encounter in the hills grew up separated from modern society and modern laws , and live by the rules of nature , which do not include thou shalt not kill . Confused by their awkward behavior , the four friends set out on the river , hoping for the weirdness to end and for the adventure to begin . ( spoilers ) When they are briefly separated from each other and Ed and Bobby run into the hillbillies beside the river who quickly turn unpleasant , the uncertainty about the way that these people live - which was established by the scene above - comes into play to create the most tension during the scene . I think that a good sign of a quality thriller like this is that the tragic element of the film , namely the assaults and actual murders , takes up a very small amount of screen time but remain some of the most memorable parts of the film . There is no gratuitous violence here , it's all there for an obvious purpose and it achieves a startlingly powerful effect . The move is about the violent clash of two very different kinds of people , and what can happen when they inadvertently find themselves at war with each other . The trip down the rest of the river after the assault , which takes up the majority of the film , delivers some spectacularly effective tension , and keeps you on the edge of your seat while not bombarding you with so much happening that you become numb . It is surprisingly effective when we find out that Ed may very well have killed the wrong man up there on the cliff , and the tension in the film doesn't even let up when the three surviving members of the team reach the bottom of the river , because they deliver a questionable explanation to the police about what happened up there on the river and why the deputy's brother-in-law is missing . This is a very disturbing film , which is a testament to its success , because it's pretty obvious that a film like this is meant to shake people up a little bit . The hillbillies are the human ( i . e . more realistic ) version of the sub-human rednecks seen in childish but fairly similar films like Gator Bait and Gator Bait 2 , neither of which could possibly ever be compared to a timeless film like Deliverance . When we follow these four men through their fateful weekend in the woods , the natural element is so real and we get to know the men so well and in such a subtle fashion that it's almost like we , as individuals of the audience , are really a fifth member of the team . It's not often that a film is able to come across that way . |
544,247 | 562,732 | 108,550 | 10 | A change of pace for almost everyone involved results in spectacular success . | I recently stumbled upon the last half of one of those Top 50 Child Stars TV shows , which had a segment on Leonardo DiCaprio , showing interviews with him when he first started acting and would make jokes about how famous and rich he was , having had no way of knowing how astronomically rich and famous he would go on to be . Anyway , the show described his performance in What's Eating Gilbert Grape as one of his most charming , which turned out to be a tremendous understatement . The film takes place in the motionless town of Endora , Iowa , and concerns the world of Gilbert Grape , whose life is in a constant state of turmoil . He works for a tiny local general store that has come under the competitive strain of a massive supermarket which has opened just outside of town . Needless to say , the store is a major topic of conversation among the local townspeople , because a big store in a town like Endora is big news . I think the real charm of the movie lies in the fact that it is able to portray what you normally might consider to be a highly dysfunctional family and make them charming and , in the context of the town and world they live in , lovable . All of the problems that the family suffers on a daily basis are right at the forefront throughout the film , but no one ever really seems unhappy , except for the mother , and we get the feeling that her unhappiness is both the cause and the result of her morbid obesity . We get a brief explanation of how she came to be so heavy , but not really much more than , " I wasn't always like this . " Gilbert is about 21 and seems to be the only one mature ( and mentally and physically able ) enough to hold the family together , and the majority of the movie focuses on his struggles to do that in normal life . He is in charge of his mentally retarded brother Arnie ( DiCaprio ) , has to periodically subdue his intolerably obnoxious sister , who looks like she belongs in a different family and a different society ( and she believes that , too ) , while at the same time getting to work on time , hanging out at coffee shops with his similarly offbeat friends talking about the undertaking business . In between all of this , a local desperate housewife periodically orders groceries for delivery from the general store where he works , and she tends to be a little less desperate after he leaves . It seems that all of this normality , charming in both its daily routine and its total difference from the daily monotony that the majority of us are used to , is presented to us so that we can get to know Gilbert , his daily life , and his family , as they are before the cataclysmic arrival of Becky ( Juliette Lewis ) . Becky is on a vacation of sorts with her mother and stops in Endora long enough for her and Gilbert to develop a romantic interest in each other , and she thereby breaks the series of monotonies which the first part of the movie introduced us to . Monotonies which may have continued forever had she not arrived . There are a series of events that take place after Becky arrives as Gilbert tries to assimilate her into his well-established life , testing the waters and taking new risks that he would never have even considered before , and learning something about himself from the results , as we all do . The Grapes are a family that would very likely knock you off your feet if you were to run into almost any of them in person , but the movie is so good at treating them as humans that they are not a spectacle at all , even when Arnie is repeatedly climbing the local water tower , much to the chagrin of the local police force , who have been promised repeatedly that this is the last time . It never is , and when we see Arnie up there on the tower , we cheer for him , and the reason we cheer for him is the same reason why the movie is so effective . We don't cheer for him because we identify with his struggle against a couple of grumpy cops , but as though he has made an accomplishment , because in his mind , he has . |
544,173 | 562,732 | 213,847 | 10 | Hell hath no fury like relentless gossip . | Malena is a film that gives the impression that there are no innocent parties . The men are guilty of dirty , lustful thoughts ( and some of more than just thoughts ) , the women are guilty of gossip , violence and probably more than a little envy , and Malena is guilty of being a homewrecker . But in looking back at the movie it seems that what caused the problems were two things ? gossip and something like insecurity . Roger Ebert wrote probably the most idiotic review I've ever seen him come out with about this movie . He missed the point of this movie even more than he missed the point of Memento , and his review of that movie was like a blind man describing a shooting star . He describes Malena as a schoolteacher " of at least average intelligence , who must be aware of her effect on the collective local male libido , but seems blissfully oblivious . " Roger , seriously , are you joking ? BLISSFULLY ? ? Did you sleep through this movie ? She almost never speaks at all and never displays even the slightest hint of a smile . Given the extent of her depression and stifling sadness , it is astounding to me that anyone in their right mind could attach the word " blissfully " to any element of her character . I know what that's like though , because sometimes I completely miss something about a movie and I think that something else is the stupidest thing in the world because of it , at least until someone explains what I missed and then it all makes sense . Watch Malena , for example , walking through the central square in town at any point in the movie . If you think she keeps her eyes on the ground directly in front of her because she is in a state of pure , ignorant bliss , then trust me . You are missing something . I don't know if Malena was actually unaware of the effect that she had on the townspeople , but I find it nearly impossible to believe that she did . That thought actually never even occurred to me until I read Roger Ebert's gem of a review . Her behavior struck me much more like someone who had been dealing with such behavior from the men around for her whole life . I doubt very much that she doesn't understand the concepts of human physical attraction . Moving on . Set against the backdrop of World War II reminded me of Life is Beautiful , especially given the uncertain mix of comedy and tragedy . It wasn't as powerful on both sides here as in Life is Beautiful , but it was truly heartbreaking to see Malena suffering and trying to ignore the increasing tension that was being generated around her . It's hard to say that she was a victim of her own beauty , but it was really what drove all of the conflict in the story . The women at first seemed to be upset with their husbands because of their stares , and things got worse and worse because of the endless gossip which seemed to monopolize the talk of the entire town . If anyone was talking about anything , it had something to do with the latest sexual escapades of Malena . Women would not sell her good food at the town market , so she had to get it from men who expected things in return . There was a scene where an officer was at her home , but I don't think there was any indication that they had sex . It was clear that he was more interested than she was , and later it was her that wound up in court for having an amorous relationship with a married man in uniform . The courtroom performance of Malena's lawyer , by the way , is one of the highlights of the movie . I'm not really sure how to feel about the women involved in the climax of their collective hatred of Malena , because surely Malena did not sleep with the husband of every woman involved , and of those whose husbands committed no crime other than looking at a beautiful woman , what did they then think of their wives , who would do such a thing out of pure jealousy and envy ? I'm a man myself ; so I can't speak from a woman's point of view , but if your husband cheats on you , take it out on him . Don't go and beat up the subject of his affections , especially if it is nothing more than a beautiful woman that he looked at . Imagine all of the attractive women beaten up without knowing why . Weaving his way throughout all of this chaos is Renato , a 12-year-old boy who has conceptualized Malena as the ideal woman in all ways . He sees himself as her protector , desperate to save her from the tension that he sees growing around her , the unfair antagonism that is being leveled at her , for really no fault of her own . His identification of Malena as the subject of his developing sexuality reminded me of another great film , The Hairdresser's Husband . If you liked this , see that one , too . Oh and if you're Roger Ebert , maybe watch this one again . And stay awake this time . |
544,533 | 562,732 | 180,093 | 10 | Do not watch while under the influence of ANYTHING . | SPOILERSDrugs , alcohol , painkillers , don't even watch this if you've taken ASPIRIN within the last 24 hours . Requiem For A Dream is extremely moving and powerful and REAL and it could only bring out the worst of any type of mind-altering substance . I watched this film stone sober and in the middle of the night , and when it was over I was almost afraid that the sun wasn't going to come up in the morning . This is one of the most powerful anti-drug movies to have been released in years . And the thing that really sets this film apart is that it is not a crash course in all of the bad side effects of drugs . There are numerous characters in several different storylines that all converge and deliver a unique message . This is one of the things that made movies like American Beauty so good , there is just so much going on . The film is a spiraling downfall for all of the characters involved , but it manages to have an unusually strong impact because of its realism , which is ironic because one of the film's strong points is its striking use of editing . There is a constant use of creative and disorienting editing and cinematography , which gives the film a feeling of being a little off at all times , but it manages to remain realistic enough not to lose any impact . As far as editing , I was particularly impressed with the creative use of the split screen . The film starts off with a scene in which Harry ( Jared Leto ) borrows his mother's television set , and she is so upset that she locks herself in the other room . In the split screen , we see Harry from two different angles , and on one side , we see broken shots , while the other side shows continuous action . This is done with multiple cameras , so it's not the sheer difficulty that I noticed as much as the creativeness . And of course , being a drug film , it is full of interesting and sometimes disturbing editing and cinematography . Jared Leto is excellent as Harry Goldfarb , a junkie who wants to sell enough drugs to really support himself , his girlfriend , his partner in trafficking ( Tyrone ) , and most importantly , his mother . The relationship between Harry and his mother Sarah is the one from which the majority of the emotion in the film is derived , as well as from his girlfriend Marion's descent into drug-induced prostitution . Ellen Burstyn is stunningly effective as Sarah Goldfarb , Harry's mother , who lives exactly the existence that you spend your entire youth hoping to never have to live . She is alone , she's overweight and unattractive , and she's so obsessed with getting onto a stupid TV show just one time that she goes on such an intense crash diet that she literally drives herself insane . The antagonistic refrigerator , by the way , is one of the more interesting things about the film , and should also be noted for its originality . What was the last respectable film you saw in which an inanimate object like a refrigerator was made to have such a successfully menacing presence ? Jennifer Connelly has changed dramatically from the cute actress that we saw in older movies like Labyrinth and Career Opportunities and The Rocketeer . In Requiem For A Dream , she delivers a spectacular performance , proving her skill as an actor . But it is the performance from Marlon Wayans that is by far the most surprising and noteworthy . He plays the part of Tyrone with such amazing skill that it is almost impossible to believe that this is the same idiot that we saw in the god-awful Scary Movies . Way to go , Marlon , but stick with the movies that can be enjoyed by people with more than one brain cell in operation , like Requiem For A Dream . ( spoilers ) Another thing that this movie does on more than one occasion is give an example of How People Get Like That . Every time I see or hear about a homeless person or a mental patient ( which is not often , I admit ) or a woman so strung out on drugs that she would sell her body to get her fix , I always wonder what must have happened in that person's life for them to have wound up like that . Requiem For A Dream provides a perfectly plausible story in which a nice but rather pathetic woman becomes obsessed with her chance to appear on television and winds up getting electro-shock therapy against her will in a mental hospital , and then we see that Marion winds up engaging in lesbian shows for crowds of drunken jerk-offs , and Harry shoots up so much in the same arm that he has to have it amputated . These are the kinds of things that make you wonder how they got like that , and in this movie we see how it happened and its believable . Requiem for a Dream is not one of the most cheery movies I've ever seen , in fact , it is downright disturbing at many points , but it is powerful and effective and should be noted for that . The film is photographed and edited in creative and interesting ways , which not only makes it fascinating to watch but also enhances the drug element of the film , which was also a technique used with huge success in the must more well known film Traffic . There is a lot of difficult to watch material in this movie , but it is a very well thought out film . Not for the weak of heart , but this is an excellent piece of cinematography . |
543,821 | 562,732 | 12,945 | 10 | Some great sight gags that are very reminiscent of Chaplin's early works . | By the time The Blacksmith was released Chaplin was making the change from short comedies like this one to full length films , but his influence on Buster Keaton's work is unmistakable , as in this case . Keaton plays an apprentice to a blacksmith who ends up getting arrested after a fiasco involving a giant magnet placed over the door to his shop . This is some of the funniest stuff in the movie , which started being funny within seconds of beginning . Even the image of Keaton standing under a tall palm tree is a great sight gag , for some reason . After his boss has been arrested , Keaton finds himself in charge of the shop , and he runs it with lovable incompetence , inventing hilarious solutions to problems that people bring in with their horses and cars . One lady , for some reason , decides to go to a blacksmith when her horseback riding has begun hurting her back , so he gives her a horseback suspension system . Another man brings in a shiny white car , which Keaton proceeds to unwittingly destroy . By far my favorite gag is the one where Keaton manages to hold up a car with a kid's balloon , prompting the kid to shoot the balloon with a pea-shooter . It's impossible to ignore the similarities between Keaton and Chaplin's tramp ( the scene where Keaton cooks his food over the fire in the shop , only to begin pounding it with the hammer when his boss sees him is exactly the kind of thing Chaplin was famous for at the time ) , but they are both lovably and wonderful characters on their own . This film has an interesting conclusion involving a hasty ( to say the least ) marriage to one of his clients which leads to another of the film's many great sight gags ( not to mention the train , which probably created momentary but genuine tension among the film's original audiences ) , showing a certain way in which many a honeymoon quite often ended . Just when you think the movie might approach tragedy , it makes you laugh again . |
543,784 | 562,732 | 58,946 | 10 | The Birth of an Algerian Nation . | The Battle of Algiers is a very unique war film . It is a documentary-style depiction of an uprising in Algiers against the French , and has the rare distinction of being told partly from the point of view of the radicals who , in this case , were terrorists . The film is very informative because , unlike most war films , it is told alternately from multiple points of view . This switching back and forth between several different perspectives provides a unique experience in watching the suffering that went on in Algeria during that nation's struggle for independence . ( spoilers ) This is a startlingly realistic and often painful depiction of Algeria's struggle ; it does not make the subject matter easy to swallow , which is one of it's better points , in my opinion . I think that in films , especially war films , realism is the most important aspect of the entire picture . You could have amazing acting and spectacular directing and cinematography , but if anything is obviously falsified or exaggerated , that one thing can ruin the movie on its own . The Battle of Algiers does not go out of its way to provide a happy ending , although independence is eventually achieved by the Algerian nation . The goal of the Algerian people is reached , but the extensive cost of human lives is clearly and explicitly presented . |
544,101 | 562,732 | 70,379 | 10 | A Scorsese original . | One of the things that I love the most about watching the old classics is when you can so clearly see the beginnings of what later became such trademarks of a director , actor , even a genre . Martin Scorsese begins a long line of films about the gangs of New York with Mean Streets , a gritty look at the underside of New York City that foreshadowed much of the same stark realism portrayed in Taxi Driver a few years later . It reminds me of the minimalist realism of films like Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing , another urban classic . Robert DeNiro plays Johnny Boy , the fast talking kid who owes money all over town and never seems to care to pay anyone back . We meet other characters who owe people money , and their apologies at not being able to pay are genuine , they realize that they're not going to get late fees added to their debt or Last Notices , they're putting their lives on the line . There is genuine fear on their side and genuine malice on the side of the people they owe money to , but Johnny Boy just doesn't seem to care . Harvey Keitel plays Charlie Cappa , who is constantly trying to get Johnny Boy to shape up and pay off what he owes , knowing the danger that he is in and frustrated at Johnny's lack of interest or care in the fact that he owes so many people so much money . Johnny and Charlie live in the same environment but completely different worlds . Johnny holds himself in and laughs everything off , occasionally venting his frustration in quick bursts of violence , Charlie is much more contained but is tormented spiritually . While Johnny gets himself into endless debt with people that collect by any means necessary , Charlie goes to confession and holds his fingers over flames to remind himself of the dangers of the afterlife should he mess up in this one . Catholicism is a major character in this film . The movie is set in New York City in the late 1960s , where Scorsese grew up in presumably something of a similar environment . Something must have gone differently , since he ended up one of the most famous directors in the world rather than dead like so many characters in his movies do , but he creates this environment in Mean Streets that gives an incredible view into the dangers of the life that so many people lived and continue to live there . I've never even been to New York , but having seen so many of Scorsese's films I think I can understand why the environment could have had such an impact on him that it dominated most of his career as a filmmaker . There are some classic scenes in this movie that would have been much more widely quoted were it not for the even more quotable lines from Taxi Driver . Mean Streets , for example , is where you find the classic speech by Robert DeNiro , I'll call it the " I borrow money from everybody so I owe everybody money so I can't borrow money no more so I borrow money from you because you're the only jerkoff around here that I can borrow money without paying back ! " speech . I love that one , especially the expression on his face , he's having such a great time . But considering the world that he lives in , it's almost understandable the way he cares so little about placing himself in danger . In a life as bleak and unpromising as the one that is portrayed in this movie , it is to be expected that someone will display passive suicidal behavior . Johnny knows he's never going to go to college , he's never going to be a doctor or a businessman or drive a nice car , he's going to grow up working menial jobs and live an obscure and meaningless life , in his eyes , and that's what the movie's about . Charlie seems to have similar feelings , looking to the Catholic Church not only as a means of salvation and spiritual fulfillment but for meaning as well . Granted , that is a very common goal for people getting involved with religion of any kind , but even more in Charlie's case . He is certainly the level-headed one between him and Johnny , but his future is not a whole lot brighter . Regardless of how much more responsible Charlie is than Johnny or how hard he tries to get Johnny to straighten out and pay off his debts , they both live in the same world , and so do their debtors . It is a world that is described in the lyrics of one of the songs in the movie ? " Have you ever had a wish sandwich ? It's the kind where you take two pieces of bread and wish you had some meat . " |
544,300 | 562,732 | 120,630 | 10 | Excellent claymation . | I was really surprised by Chicken Run . I was expecting some dumb kids movie that tried in vain to be as good as other animated classics like Toy Story , but this was a really good film . The story involves a bunch of heavily accented chickens who are trying desperately to learn how to fly so that they can escape the chicken farm where they live , and therefore escape being butchered and made into chicken pot pies . One of the best things about this movie is the great laughs that it delivers , particularly from the dialogue as this diverse group of chickens communicates with each other about their predicament ( ' Chickens go in , pies come out ! ' ' Oooohh ! ! What kind ? a pies ? ' ) . Mel Gibson is great as the voice of Rocky the Rooster , who inadvertently landed himself in the pen with the other desperate chickens , therefore accidentally convincing them that he can fly . ( spoilers ) Rocky and the rest of the chickens work desperately to escape the evil Mrs . Tweedy and her pie-making machine , as well as Rocky's dishonesty with the other chickens , particularly Ginger , with whom he develops a heartwarming romance . The chickens ' eventual escape is ridiculously unrealistic , but it doesn't matter , because it doesn't have to be realistic . The main characters of the film are talking chickens , I think that a flying machine built and flown by chickens is not going too far , given the type of film that this is . The makers of Wallace and Gromit have come up with another winner , and it's good for the whole family . |
543,817 | 562,732 | 43,456 | 10 | Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration ? | It's odd to think that fifty years from now there may only be a handful of movies released in 2004 that will be remembered at all . I don't care to venture any guesses as to what they may be , but it's easy to see why The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the ones from 1951 that remains a classic , while so many others sank into obscurity . The movie deals with a theme that was at the forefront of so many peoples ' minds in the early 1950s , in America and the rest of the world , and that is the conflicts between many different nations , and more generally the tendency for humans to fight each other . It was released at the time of the Red Scare and so soon after World War II that international tensions were still high . Also odd is that if you switch the last two words in the title , why , it's not very frightening at all ! Okay , that made no sense , but I couldn't resist . My respect for the movie dimmed sharply when I saw that the alien was not only a man , but a good looking man who spoke perfect English , but then won back my respect completely when it took the time to explain that his culture had learned about humans through intercepting radio transmissions over many years . Unlikely , but it's an explanation , which is more than most science fiction films provide . Granted , not much time should be wasted on the science of science fiction , but in this case something had to be said . The alien didn't give may details as to his physical condition , but scientists hypothesized that since he so closely resembles a human , he must have a similar environment to our own on his planet . Speaking of which , there is one thing about the science that I'm also curious about . At what stage were astronomical studies in the early 1950s ? I'm wondering how far into space scientists were looking , because Carpenter , the alien , states with some grandeur that he has traveled 250 million miles to get to earth , which in astronomical terms is a tiny , tiny distance . Considering that the sun is 93 million miles from earth , this would mean that his planet is within our own solar system . And here's another little factoid ? Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun every year , as you know . Pluto , on the other hand , takes something like 248 years to revolve around the sun . That has nothing to do with the movie , but is an interesting digression , I should think . I found the political backdrop to be one of the most interesting things about the movie , and not only because of what the political landscape was like at the time . It was interesting to watch a movie about aliens that so quickly and completely dissolved into a close examination of volatile human relations , and without ever becoming preachy or devolving into peace propaganda ( oxymoron intended ) . I actually think that a large part of what made up for the lack of aliens in this alien movie was the validity that its argument has . When Carpenter ( who they stopped just short of simply naming Jesus ) was greeted with the response that a meeting with all of the worlds leaders was impossible because of tensions between nations , he was genuinely surprised and saddened . He gives as his reason for visiting earth the fact that his civilization has noticed satellites being launched around the Earth's atmosphere and , since humans clearly are unable to get along , he was sent here to tell us to join them and live in peace or face our present course and face obliteration . Most importantly , if we chose the latter , they would be there to ensure that we would not export our violence to peaceful civilizations in space . The descending nature with which he speaks is truly revealing , it makes humans look childish because of our constant battling with one another . This is also where the movie coincides with some of the themes that Jonathan Swift presented in Utopia , his novel upon which several failed civilizations have been attempted . They have created robots , which we seen in the Iron Man , to prevent the rise of violence in their society . The robots have tremendous power , which cannot be revoked , and at the first sign of violence they react swiftly against the aggressor , which results in a peaceful society . I'm also reminded of Gulliver's Travels , also by Jonathan Swift , particularly the section where Gulliver lives among the Houynymns which , interestingly enough , are talking horses with a remarkable ability to live at peace . When at one point Gulliver describes lying , which does not exist to the Houynymns , one of them responds incredulously with something like , " Why on Earth would one say something that isn't so ? " Carpenter displays exactly the same shocked surprise when he learns of some of the awful characteristics of human beings , which seems to suggest that before we look for other civilized worlds in the galaxy , maybe we should work a little more on civilizing our own world . The famous quote that I've quoted in my summary line is one of the many delights that this film presents , and Evil Dead fans will be thrilled to see the origins of those strange words that Ash had such a hard time speaking in Army of Darkness . The genre of science fiction has a much larger than average ratio of bad films to good ones , and I think the best ones are the ones that have a concrete connection to the real world , as The Day the Earth Stood Still obviously does . Given the political atmosphere here in the first month of 2005 , it's obvious that humans have not taken much advice from this movie , but then again , as Arnold stated in Terminator 2 , " It's in your nature to destroy yourselves . " Scary . |
544,432 | 562,732 | 468,569 | 10 | How about a magic trick ? | It's been a long time since I've been wildly excited about going to see a new movie in the theaters . I normally wait until the crowds die down , and see the big movies at least a week or two after they are released , if I don't just wait for the DVD . But the previews and reviews of The Dark Knight were so uniformly excellent that I was counting the days , and I was definitely not disappointed . I have heard speculation that a lot of the positive reviews are based in no small part out of respect for Heath Ledger's tragic and untimely death , but now that I've seen the movie I know that that is most certainly not the case . His performance as The Joker is one of the most consistently outstanding film performances I've ever seen . Brilliant ! ! I've never been a huge fan of Ledger's , although I find his performances usually pretty good . But I've rarely seen an actor do something as brilliant as what he did for this movie . As for Christian Bale , I'll watch him do anything ( you probably saw the preview before this movie for Terminator Salvation , and in my opinion , it's Bale that is the savior of that franchise , as he is of Batman ) . This is one of out most enormously talented and wonderful actors , and he fills the role of Batman perfectly . What I love the most about the movie , however , is not about the performances or the special effects or even the action , but the way it delves so deeply into the psychology of all of the main characters . There is an astonishing amount of introspection given into the minds of The Joker , Batman , Two-Face , and others , and this psychological analyses give insight into the minds of the characters and gives reasons for their actions . Or , in the case of The Joker , the absence of reasons for their actions ( " I just . . . DO things . . . " ) . In a lesser film , the villain explaining that there are no real reasons behind his actions , like there are for normal people , that he is just basically flailing wildly and there is no explanation for his villainousness , would come off as weak screen writing , a weak excuse to present an evil character with no moral boundaries . But The Joker is written and performed so well that , when he gives this explanation , you almost want to cheer for him . His brutal honesty counteracts his evil tendencies and makes him enormously watchable . Like Mickey and Mallory , writers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan ( also responsible for the purely brilliant Memento ) understand that a good villain must have plenty of public appeal . All of the previous Batman films have dealt pretty simply with the hero Batman trying to save Gotham City from the evil villains , and this is changed completely in The Dark Knight . The citizens of Gotham are calling for Batman's unmasking , the revelation of his identity , and for him to face the consequences of laws that he has broken and other problems that he has caused , such as being a vigilante and even causing the deaths of police officers . There is a major identity struggle as Wayne watches in dismay the news reports of public masses calling for him to show himself , as The Joker has vowed to kill people every day that Batman keeps himself hidden . Wayne's options get slimmer and slimmer . Seemingly in an attempt to undermine everything that Batman has come to represent , The Joker concocts brilliant schemes which force Batman to make a decision between two choices , each of which forces him to make a terrible ethical or moral mistake . He is forced to choose someone at the expense of another , to do something he would never normally do , each time lengthening his rap sheet , so to speak . You may begin to notice that , as in real life , when he starts doing these terrible things because he has no choice , his guilt is written in stone . No one cares that he was forced into anything , or that he made the best possible choice he could . The goal , of course , is to humiliate Batman and destroy his public image , and it's a little frightening how easy that is . The transformation that the characters undergo is hugely unexpected , and it is not at all disheartening that the movie ends with virtually the promise of more sequels . I personally expect to see again Commissioner Gordon ( Gary Oldman ) , Lucius Fox ( Morgan Freeman ) , Two-Face , Gordon's son ( that little blonde kid that Two-Face almost killed ) , and probably Salvatore Maroni . He has a relatively small role , but it's interesting that Batman dropped him off a building and shattered both of his legs , and then he was walking around again a few scenes later . He's gotta have powers of some kind . It's not often that a movie comes along with this much hype and expectation and speculation , and not only lives up to the hype , but surpasses it . I have noticed that The Dark Knight has unseated both The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption and has taken the # 1 spot on the IMDb's Top 250 list . This is the first time in the ten years I've been using the IMDb that I have ever seen any movie other than those two at # 1 or # 2 , and the movie definitely deserves it . Christopher Nolan's second Batman film has not only elevated the Batman franchise , but it has both elevated and broadened the entire sub-genre of the comic book movie . While so many extra sequels these days come off as another movie tacked on to a successful franchise just to cash in on the popularity ( Hear that , Jones ? ) , the Nolan brothers have taken us deeper into the story and completely changed the direction . I am eagerly waiting to see what comes next ! |
543,981 | 562,732 | 399,146 | 10 | You can't take it with you but you can't just walk away ? | I never saw this movie in the theaters because something about the title struck me as being more academic than something I would be interested in paying $9 to see . I made the same mistake about American History X ( and didn't learn from it , apparently ) back in 1998 , and while the movie is not about some sort of evolution of violence , as I assumed , there is an interesting paradox about violence that is approached . There is a short special feature on the DVD that shows a couple of scenes of violence that were different in the international version from the US version , because the blood had to be reduced for the US version . This struck me as quite odd because in the hour long documentary included on the DVD , Viggo Mortensen says that violence is sort of celebrated in America . Why is violence so celebrated in the same place where it is so heavily censored ? At any rate , you know those crime movies and gangster movies where someone wants to get out of that life , do this one last job to make enough money to get out , and invariably someone tells them that they can't just leave ? They can't just walk away ? That's what this movie is about , it shows why you can't just walk away , because no matter how hard you try you can't change who you are . Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stall , an unassuming café owner in a small , charming town , who lives a happy , simple life with his family , but which is entirely shattered when a couple of traveling criminals attempt to rob his store just before it closes one night . This leads on to a mysterious case of mistaken identity that gradually may or may not be mistaken , turning into an almost Hitchcockian thriller . ( spoilers ) Even when you learn what is really happening in the movie with the character of Tom Stall , it is clear that throughout the film he is always just trying to get back to the normal life he has been living in the small town of Millbrook . The movie makes a powerful statement about how hard it is to escape a life of crime , especially when you happen to be really good at it . Also of important note is the heavily meaningful ending , which I won't go into too much detail about because I don't fully understand it , but it is one of the most powerful scenes in the film , performance-wise , and it's amazing how much emotion it contains , given that not a word is spoken in the closing scene . Unusually powerful for such a violent thriller . |
544,044 | 562,732 | 85,075 | 10 | Ah , the memories ? | I should admit that I haven't seen Reading Rainbow for probably 15 years , but it is such a milestone in my development that I have to say something about it . I only stumbled on the series on the IMDb when I was looking up a mediocre thriller starring Hillary Swank , and even after all these years just the title of the show brought a smile to my face . I remember being enraptured with all the new books and stories and illustrations and everything , and while I don't watch the show anymore , I have become a voracious reader in my adult life , probably in no small part because of this show . I don't think we have shows as healthy and fun and well made as this one much anymore , this one seems to continue to be the only major broadcast show that encourages kids to read , which is really sad . Then again , I watch so little TV that there could be others that I don't know about . Either way , I doubt very much that many modern shows have the same kind of appeal to the young and old alike as the Reading Rainbow , which makes me wish there was some kind of TV forum like this geared more towards maturer readers . I have a feeling that there are plenty of authors who would bring a pretty big audience were they to give interviews and talk about their books the way they are discussed on this show . Bravo ! ! |
543,963 | 562,732 | 169,547 | 10 | Another example of an excellent but largely misunderstood movie . | American Beauty is another one of those movies that everyone seems to vote for as the Best Picture of the last ten years or so that did not deserve a Best Picture Oscar ( yeah , you've seen the polls ? ) . This is a perfect example of a widespread misunderstanding of the quality of the film . American Beauty is not a satire of the typical American family , as I've often heard it called . Nor is it a childish comedy on the level with Road Trip or American Pie , as I've also been shocked to hear it compared to . It is a film about America's obsession with superficial beauty and , perhaps even more , the complications and problems that come as a result of trying too hard to conform to the norms of modern society ? associating happiness with financial success and whatnot . Lester Burnham ( Kevin Spacey ) is one of these people who has gotten the supposed cushy office job , he lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood , has a beautiful and wealthy wife , and appears to be an all-around successful man . When we see closer into his life , however , we see that even though everything looks stable from the outside , his entire life is meaningless and falling apart . His wife does not respect him , she cheats on him , and their sex life is non-existent , his daughter is embarrassed by him , he realizes that he has a pointless job at which he is wasting his life away , and he knows that if he doesn't do something about all of this , he'll die with a healthy bank account and an empty soul . Lester decides to throw away all of the meaningless crap that he has accumulated in his life and have fun . He quits his office job , which he hates , and gets a job at a fast food restaurant , which he surprisingly enjoys , he smokes pot with the neighbor's son , and he fantasizes about his daughter's friend , curiously named Angela . Is any of this wrong ? Clearly , there is some debate about whether or not a 40-year-old man can , in good conscience , fantasize about a high school girl , more than any other of the questionable occurrences in the film . Personally , I think that this moral diversion comes as a result of his poor choices earlier in life which led to his current unhappiness and deviating thoughts . This is just another point that the movie is trying to get across . This is a guy who tried for his whole life to be socially and financially accepted , and look at how miserable and pathetic he is . You can complain all you want about this curious relationship , but keep in mind that at the end of the film , he gets a grip on himself and realizes what he is doing . Clearly , the film revolves around Lester's struggles with himself and his life , but there are several other characters that are not as central but also play significant roles in the film . Lester's neighbor is an ex-marine experiencing anger management problems and difficulty with his sexual orientation , and this man's son Ricky is a strangely observant kid who lives in a difficult household but maintains a clear view of the important thingsin life . Lester's daughter can't stand her family and is struggling with an attraction to Ricky that she initially doesn't understand and doesn't particularly like , and her friend Angela is the blonde cheerleader type who wants nothing more than to be accepted and respected , and she seeks these things through her huge efforts to be sexually attractive . This is a complicated character structure , and it is topped off by the striking character development that takes place in every single character in the movie by the end , and this is really one of the film's strongest points . In American Beauty , we don't see the life of a person as it is changed and affected by the world around him or her , we see the lives of a whole group of people as they interact with each other and change while following the rules set for them by the society that they grew up in . This makes the film much more effective and the message much clearer . ( spoilers ) Clearly , this is something of a worst-case scenario , but nothing in the film is impossible . Everyone ( at least those of us in America , I suppose ) is capable of following the rules of society too closely and ending up miserable like Lester Burnham and his family and friends and neighbors , so watch out . Even Lester's terrible ending is not necessarily tragic . He knew when he quit his job and started working at a fast food restaurant , along with all of his other seemingly reckless behaviors , that he was endangering his future , but he was enjoying himself . He was feeling better than he had in years and years , and that mattered - as it should to all of us , to an extent - more than anything else . The only person left unhappy was the neighbor , who killed Lester because he still doesn't understand himself and is ashamed about something that he has discovered . Each character in the film represents a different lesson that can be learned by everyone . They're not all working together to deliver one big message , they're all giving something of their own , adding to the richness and superiority of the film as a whole . Make no mistake , all you poll voters , American Beauty WAS the Best Picture of 1999 . |
544,279 | 562,732 | 342,965 | 10 | Hilarious ! | Like many of it's animated colleagues , Ice Age starts off with a wonderful short film , this time one which was even better known than the rest of the film before it was released . You may remember seeing previews for Ice Age that were made up entirely of footage from Scrat's Missing Adventure , which is probably the most entertaining and amusing short animated film I've ever seen . There is something to be said when a movie like Drop Zone or even a James Bond film like Moonraker can so badly screw up the concept of skydiving , and then a short children's film like this makes the effort to portray it so accurately ( with the obvious exception of all that nut gathering business , of course ) . I have heard that Scrat was originally meant to play a much larger role in the film , which was to be centered around him as the main character , but other characters were brought in under the demand for a more large scale motion picture . Thankfully , Scrat makes several much-welcome appearances throughout the film , but this opening sequence still stands as probably the best four minutes of the entire film . |
544,658 | 562,732 | 62,622 | 10 | Stanley Kubrick's ambiguous science fiction epic continues to baffle audiences around the world , even more than three decades after it was filmed . | The obvious question that someone is going to ask after watching 2001 : A Space Odyssey is , ' What was the meaning of that damn monolith ? ' Well , as is the case with the majority of great movies , 2001 spawns thinking and discussion . A movie that answers all of its questions neatly and in a timely manner can rarely be anything more than something to watch to kill a couple of hours . But 2001 is so creative and so mysterious that you really have to think about it and even watch it a few times over before you can begin to come up with a coherent meaning from it . This is a science fiction film for the thinking audience , as opposed to the fast food schlock that is cranked out by Hollywood ( Mission To Mars , Pitch Black , Supernova , Armageddon , and other such nonsense ) , but with the obvious exception of the excellent Apollo 13 . Kubrick's superior directing skills are a large part of what makes this movie such a classic . The circular space station provides him with an opportunity to film some unique versions of his traditional tracking shots , and there is also something to be said about the way that he was able to make a menacing character out of a computer that had no features other than a monotonous voice and that unblinking red eye . The award winning special effects easily surpass the vast majority of the computer generated special effects used in science fiction films today , flawlessly creating a world of zero gravity and isolation . There were several different methods that were successfully utilized in order to create a convincing outer space setting , such as near constant tilted frames , amazingly effective rotating sets , ever present humming sounds from the machinery , among other strange sounds , as well as the slowness of everything , which is present throughout the entire film , at least the entire film after that world famous jump cut . Speaking of which , I think that the cut from the bone flying through the air to the space ship floating through space was not done as well as it could have been . I think that the cut should have come a few frames sooner , when the bone had just started moving downward , so that the cut would be smoother , with the slow moving space ship . The story that follows also poses the question of how the monolith got to the moon , and even whether or not it is the same monolith as the Neanderthals found in the powerful Dawn of Man sequence . Was it really put there by an extraterrestrial species ? Was it capable of moving on its own ? What exactly was the effect that it had on individuals who came into contact with it ? In the Dawn of Man sequence , it seemed that it gave at least one of the Neanderthals the intelligence burst of learning how to use something as a tool ( or a weapon , in this case ) . But later in the film , it seems to have not only an intelligence ( as it screams just before being photographed ) , but it has a less readily identifiable effect on humans ? in particular , on Dave Bowman . Dave is in space near Jupiter , he goes through some sort of warp , and suddenly he is in a strange mansion , and soon there are a number of editing tricks in which Dave sees his older self , and then becomes that older self . Soon , he is so old that he is barely alive , and the monolith appears in the huge bedroom in which he lies . He slowly reaches out to it , and then turns into that famous mystical fetus that this film has come to be famous for . Does this mean that the monolith is some sort of evolution stimulant ? Did Dave evolve beyond present human kind to a state above the inconveniences of these vulnerable human bodies that we all possess ? Who knows ? Maybe Stanley Kubrick doesn't even know , but that's really not the point here . The point is that the movie really makes you think ? and not just about the meaning of the monolith , but also about the underlying theme about man vs . machine . 2001 : A Space Odyssey is famous for a lot of things . It's famous because it was directed by Stanley Kubrick , of course , but also for a lot of other things - the opening sequence , that jump cut , the mysterious monolith , the realness of it all , even for the look of the Jupiter spaceship , which bears a strange resemblance to the Even Horizon . The sequel , 2010 , clears up some of the mystery of this film , but even though that film is very good ( although not as good as this one ) , that tying up of loose ends is not necessary for 2001 to remain one of the best and most fascinating science fiction films ever made . |
544,896 | 562,732 | 360,717 | 10 | Peter Jackson proves himself for good . | There was a time when I thought that Peter Jackson may have been using the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to kind of throw any kind of movie he wanted out there , knowing that it would make money , and a remake of one of his childhood favorites did nothing to dispel these possibilities in my mind . But when I saw King Kong the other night I was absolutely blown away . I have heard so much about how convincing the ape is , which is a huge achievement given that he is completely CGI , but I had no idea that it was this good . 1930s New York is flawlessly re-created , challenging the similarly impressive scenery in movies like Gangs of New York , so it was fascinating to watch even the almost full hour that led up to the confrontation with Kong , smoothed along even more by outstanding performances from Jack Black , Naomi Watts , and Adrien Brody , among so many others . The performances are wonderful , the sets and set design is brilliant , and , by far the most important thing about this movie , King Kong is never , ever , ever , even for a single second , a movie monster . Never . It would have been so easy for them to have gone completely overboard with King Kong and make this movie into nothing more than a goofy , overblown comic book comedy , like they did with the Hulk . Hulk could have been so much better , but they couldn't resist making him about 12 times as big as he ever was in the TV show , which just turned the movie into farce . King Kong , on the other hand , is a wild animal . He is big , but he never stops being anything more than an ape in this movie , even when he's slapping biplanes out of the sky from the Empire State Building , which may as well be bugs from where's he's from , which aren't much smaller than biplanes . He acts like real apes act , snorting and chuffing and barking , roaring not for effect but only when upset or threatened . There is a much more personal story between Anne Darrow and Kong in this film than there was in the original , mainly in that Anne now sees something in Kong beyond a big scary beast , which Fay Wray's Anne Darrow never did . Kong has always been fascinated with Darrow , but her view toward him is significantly changed in the new film . I like to think that Darrow's involvement with Kong explains everyone else's desire to capture him while they seemed unimpressed or uninterested in the plethora of dinosaurs that also populated the island . There are also a lot of additions made as far as the other creatures that live on the island , particularly a lot more dinosaurs and some serious , serious bugs . There is , in fact , one scene involving bugs of such size and such quantity that it's difficult to believe that so many of the human characters escaped from them unharmed . One of the things that I respect the most about this movie is that it could so easily sell out by minimizing violence in order to widen the target audience , but instead it resists that temptation and is therefore not afraid to kill people . On the other hand , we have scenes like the one described above , in which Adrien Brody's character , for example , is covered in bugs the size of large dogs , which are shot off with a shotgun by a helpful buddy , only to come away without a single scratch . Then there's the stampede of brontosaurus's down the alley , with terrified humans running between their feet trying not to get squashed like grapes , with an astounding survival rate . A thrilling scene , to be sure , but you have to know that not a single person would have survived something like that , even without the velociraptors also dodging brontosaurus feet and trying to eat the humans . And if we're asked to believe that so many of them made it , should we really have to see one guy doing a flying karate kick to the head of a fallen velociraptors amidst such chaos ? But in the end the important thing is that Peter Jackson set out to remake one of his favorite classic films , one which introduced a story that had so many possibilities , most of them beyond the special effects capabilities of the time , and that's exactly what he did . There is so much more to the relationship between Anne Darrow and King Kong in the new film , and it has so much more of a valuable lesson to present . There is a lot of symbolism represented in the movie , much of it about mankind's ( American ? ) response to the discovery of an anomaly of nature that is at first marketable and then threatening . It's interesting to note how our need to be entertained and our need to overcome nature is expressed in this movie , not to mention one thrilling scene after another . The scene where Kong fights the dinosaurs to protect Anne , for example , is not only a thrilling spectacle to behold , as it was always meant to be , but is shocking in how primal and realistic it is . Yes the movie may be a little too long , but do not miss it . This is by far one of the best films this year . |
544,544 | 562,732 | 319,061 | 10 | Story of the story of the year ! ! | Did I ever tell you about the time I went out and watched the Best Picture of 2003 ? Tim Burton , obviously very aware of the old saying , ' The older I get , the faster I was , ' has fashioned a masterpiece about his own craft , piecing together an intricate story of stories and oddly managing to remain true to his distinctive style while at the same time creating a film different from anything he's ever done before . The extension of the title is only learned through internal dialogue in the film itself ( something about a big fish in a small pond ) , and it has a variety of meanings throughout the story ( depending on to whom it is referring at any given time ) . As I watch the primaries for the presidential election coming up in 2004 , it's strange how much the race of the Democrats seems to reflect Big Fish on its road to the Oscars . All I'll say is that Howard Dean was in a comfortable front-running position until Iowa , where he was rendered a disappointing third place . Big Fish , similarly ( at least in my own opinion ) , sort of plays the part of John Kerry ? somewhere in the distance until he became noticed , and was suddenly catapulted to first place . Howard Dean for me was The Return of the King , the final Lord of the Rings installment that I was sure would win the Best Picture Oscar until I saw Big Fish . Now , however , Big Fish is not even on the list of nominees , which gives me the urge to roll up my sleeves and scream . The really sad part is knowing that Big Fish can't win , so it'll be interesting to me to see how Big Fish ( Kerry ) does in November . Surely he has a better chance of winning than his cinematic counterpart does . Anyway ? Every once in a while I see a movie and I read through some other reviews , on the IMDb and otherwise , and it is absolutely amazing to me how many people are able to completely miss the boat on so many truly great films . Roger Ebert completely missed the point of this film even more than he missed the point of Memento , which is incredible to me . One of the most disturbing things that I read was by one reviewer on the IMDb who mentioned that it was stupid to have had Jessica Lange and Albert Finney play a married couple . This reviewer was particularly bothered by the fully clothed bathtub scene in which Lange crawls into the tub with her husband and cuddles up to him . I find it really sad that today's audiences are put off of a movie as great as Big Fish for something as trivial and stupid as that . Are people really that shallow these days ? It's the same as a complaint about Kim Basinger playing Eminem's mother in 8 Mile . People said she was just too beautiful to play someone so poor and trashy , to which Roger Ebert cleverly responded that , given how many ugly people are filthy rich today , there can really be no complaint about beautiful people with no money . Big Fish is a perfect example of the old adage , the whole is greater than the sum of its parts , although I think it would be more appropriate to say that the whole is completely different from the sum of its parts . Take any individual scene at random , almost any SHOT at random , and it is clearly the work of Tim Burton , yet the film as a whole is completely different from anything he's ever done before . Movies require a certain suspension of disbelief , regardless of their director , story , genre , etc . , but in Big Fish that suspension is displaced by the identity of the storyteller . Most of the film is told through the stories of the aging Edward Bloom , whose stories we learn very early on are heavily exaggerated if not totally fictional . Tim Burton uses that almost as an excuse to craft this adventurous tale involving giants and midgets and jumping spiders and leaning houses and gigantic fishes and wedding rings and Siamese twins that look more like a two-headed woman and a magical town called Spectre that might be ( is ) Heaven where the streets are paved with luscious grass and everyone walks around barefoot and loves it all so much that no one ever leaves . It doesn't matter whether or not you believe that a young Ed Bloom really parachuted accidentally onto a stage being watched by hundreds of armed Vietnamese soldiers and then escaped because his endless charm overcame the two-headed performer and got her / them to help him . It doesn't matter if you believe that young Ed Bloom worked for years without pay at a freaky circus in order to learn the identity of a woman he saw only a single time across a crowded circus ring and then went on to marry her . It doesn't matter if you believe in werewolves , in magic , in fish that eat wedding rings , and it certainly doesn't matter if you believe that someone who looks like Jessica Lange could ever love and be happily married to a man who looks like Albert Finney . Big Fish is the character study of Edward Bloom and his son , Will , who didn't speak for years after Will's wedding when he heard his father's story about the day he was born for the last time that he could stand . ( spoilers ) Think about the character change in this movie . Will has been bored to tears by that story for his entire life , growing increasingly disgusted at how little his own part is in the story of the day he was born , and it is not until he is in his 30s that he learns the value of the storytelling of his father . The most moving scene is not the scene where Will tells his dying father the story of how he ' goes , ' it's the final scene of Edward's funeral . There's no dialogue , but we see who has shown up . The giant from Edward's stories in there , as is Amos Calloway , the eccentric circus ringleader . The two-headed woman from Vietnam is there , except we learn here that in real life she is two women , identical but certainly separate . Citizens from the town of Spectre are there , as is Jenny , Edward's almost love affair and supposedly the wicked witch that terrified Ed as a child ( I'm still working on the chronology of that one ? ) . What we learn in the funeral scene , even though we can't hear anyone talking , is that Ed's stories were not all fictional . They were certainly exaggerated , which is revealed all along the way and not the least example of which is the fact that the two-headed woman is two completely separate twins . Edward Bloom is a man who aggrandized the past through his remarkable storytelling skills , and Tim Burton delivered this to us with his remarkable filmmaking skills . Writers will tell you that they write about what they know about , and Tim Burton has made a movie about what he knows about ? telling stories . Burton realizes the importance of the role of storytelling in our lives , and has made a film about that importance and the effect it can have on us . Stories told verbally perpetuate lives , cultures , families , and loves . Edward Bloom was a master storyteller , and you can see his influence on the vast number of people that he knew and were fortunate enough to know him in the closing shot of the film . We see of the people that we met throughout the film , older but clearly happier as they stand around , telling each other stories in memory of their friend . I say bravo , Mr Burton . Bravo . |
543,900 | 562,732 | 104,691 | 10 | A stunning war picture with amazing performances from all of the hundreds of actors involved , The Last of the Mohicans is a near flawless presentation of war-life in the 1700s . | The Last of the Mohicans is an epic portrayal of the conflicting interests of the French , the British , and the Native Americans in colonial America . The French and the Native Americans are allies , but the film throws in some completely unexpected and surprisingly effective plot twists toward the end , something that is relatively uncommon in period films . Mixed in with the adventurous atmosphere of war is a powerful romance that develops between Hawkeye ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) and Cora Munro ( Madeleine Stowe ) , who play two characters very unlikely to fall in love . Hawkeye was adopted by the Mohicans as an infant , and was raised by them for his entire life since then . Cora is the daughter of a British Colonel , and their romance is strikingly effective , and made even better by the settings . I think that the romance is especially notable here because usually , and especially in action or adventure films , whenever there is a significant romantic subplot , it usually seems to have been thrown in relatively clumsily and with the obvious objective of making the film appeal to a larger audience . However , in The Last of the Mohicans , the romance is so well developed and so well acted that this is clearly not the case . Every part of the story in this film , including the romantic subplot , fit together flawlessly , resulting in a top-notch historical action drama . Even better than the incredible performances and the fascinating story is the breathtaking cinematography and on-location settings . The film is literally packed full of amazing shots of the endless and stunningly beautiful colonial American countryside . This is one of the ways that the film is able to flawlessly bring the 1700s back to life with incredible reality . The film is beautifully shot by director Michael Mann , whose films seem to be getting better and better . Another thing that was done noticeably well in this film was the editing , particularly in the fast-paced and excellently executed battle scenes , which were brutal but rightfully so . I've always thought that the only excuse for excessive violence is if it's true , and this is the kind of thing that went on when this country was founded . The notable thing here is not how much violence there was , but how spectacular the presentation of history is , and in such a convincingly realistic way . ( spoilers ) The Last of the Mohicans is a look at a certain point in history as one point in a huge timeline . This is the revelation that makes the ending to the film one of the best endings in any film in years . The closing line , ' Once , we were here , ' is an acquiescent observation that no matter how hard they fight , the Mohicans will be gone someday , as will be the frontier itself , and a different people will someday inhabit the land . Such is the way that the world goes , things change , nothing lasts forever , but there are some who are willing to accept that and be proud of whatever mark they have made . THIS is how great films are made . |
544,746 | 562,732 | 39,631 | 10 | Funny looking bird , isn't he ? | I seem to remember back when I was in college when I first started studying film I became very interested in Chaplin after seeing Modern Times and The Gold Rush , so I watched a documentary about him and his line " These things have to be done " in Monsieur Verdoux was the first time I had ever heard his voice , except for his song at the end of Modern Times . Of course , he sounded very different from how I imagined him while watching all of those old short comedies that he made for Essanay and Keystone , etc , which is probably why Chaplin so strongly resisted the coming of sound to the cinematic medium and , failing to stop it , knew that he would have to let the little tramp rest rather than move him into sound film . There is a lot of talk about how this film was not released in the United States for almost 20 years after he made it because Chaplin was accused of being Communist . It is so bizarre to me , living here in the heart of Communist China , to think back to a time when a Chaplin film would be barred from release in the U . S . because of something like that . Then again , that was a very different time . But it does seem to me that this is the kind of thing that people should look back on and try to take some lessons from . We resisted releasing some masterful film from one of the cinema's greatest artists because of political differences . It seems to me that , just like the 2008 Olympics , there are certain things that just should not be affected by politics . Chaplin stars as the smooth talking Monsieur Verdoux , a startlingly different character than we have ever seen . He worked as an honest French bank clerk for 35 years , he says late in the movie , but then found that his services weren't needed anymore ( thanks to the Great Depression ) , so he turned to a life of crime , in the most incredible way . It's well known that he occupied himself by marrying wealthy women and then killing them and stealing their money , but what is even stranger than that is that he is able to maintain half a dozen or so marriages simultaneously , and some of them he remains in for a decade or more . Monsieur Verdoux starts off with one of his ' victim's ' families , as they worry about the wife / daughter / sister missing with that funny little man , and they are sure that something terrible has happened because they haven't seen or heard from her in three months . Immediately Chaplin pokes fun at himself , as the family looks at his picture ? " He must be a pretty good salesman to sell anything with a face like that ! " Much of the film is composed of Verdoux going from one wife to the next , explaining how tough business is and how he unfortunately has to leave again right away , but in just a couple years or so things should be better and he'll be able to spend more time with his lonely wife ( i . e . wives ) . The movie gets a lot of bad press for being misogynistic , but it seems to me that this is a bit of an over-reaction . It's a black comedy , and Chaplin is satirizing a peculiar life of crime . In order for it to be genuinely misogynistic I feel like it would have to glorify violence or crime directed at women , and the movie definitely doesn't do that . I feel like it should be noted that , first of all , he embarked on this life of crime to support his real wife and son . He would charm and then marry wealthy women and then murder them and clean them out . It's hard to explain how murder can be funny ( which is probably why the original title , A Comedy of Murders , didn't work out so well ) , but if it can be , Chaplin can do it , and he does it here . Besides , for all of the marriages he was in , it is significant that he apparently didn't have any sexual intimacy with any of them . One of the wives in particular , Annabella , stands out from the rest , if only because of her brash , vulgar performance . Each of his wives seems to have a different tone to her personality ( such as the thin , bespectacled suspicious one , who reminds me of Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach ) , and Annabella is the mouthy wife with new money ( she won the lottery ) , who clearly doesn't belong among the high society with whom she now likes to rub shoulders . She's not very smart , and can't tell when people are obviously ripping her off . This causes much stress for Verdoux , who can only sit by and watch her money getting thrown away before he can steal it from her ( " Glass , you silly ass . Glass ! " ) . The irony is fantastic . The Great Dictator was criticized for becoming preachy at the end of the movie , and something similar happens here , but I don't really think that either movie should be criticized much for that . It's true that the speeches he makes toward the ends of these two movies seem a little incongruous with the rest of the film , but I read one critic who asserted that Chaplin's politics " ruined " his two black comedies of the 1940s . This is absolutely going too far . The movie is also packed full of memorable quotes , many of which almost seem to describe the entire movie in themselves , or some big part of Chaplin's message , not just in this movie but in his entire career . The first line that Monsieur Verdoux speaks when we meet him at the beginning of the movie , for example , seems to carry some deep meaning that permeates not only the movie but himself and his most famous character ? " You'll be stepped on , little fellow , if you're not careful ? " |
544,336 | 562,732 | 419,925 | 10 | Look man , I'm a huge Bill Murray fan . I really am . The guy's hilarious . But I liked Simon & Garfunkel's version better . | While it may at first seem that this is a careless documentary that was thrown together quickly because of its unpolished feel and lack of sit-down interviews , that is one of the things that I liked the most about it . As the title implies , this is an on location documentary , it's a look behind the scenes , not a documentary about the making of Lost in Translation , although you get some of that , too . Whenever I watch these supplemental features that sometimes accompany movies on their DVDs , I am always mindful of the title of the documentaries because I think the title should be indicative of what is in the documentary itself , and in this case the title promises exactly what is delivered . Take , for example , the documentary that accompanies the science fiction classic The Day The Earth Stood Still , which is called " Making the Earth Stand Still and yet has absolutely nothing to do with how the movie was made . It was a mediocre documentary at best even without considering the unsuitable title , especially considering that it was made for the DVD release of such a landmark film , so I was glad to see that what might even be called a crudely made documentary offered exactly what you expect , giving wonderful insight into the experiences that the cast and crew had on location in Tokyo making Lost in Translation . This is what behind the scenes really means , it is someone running around during filming and production with a video camera , shooting basic footage of what goes on during the making of the movie and getting various , impromptu interviews with cast and crew about what they are doing that day and their thoughts about the filming process . It's unscripted , unpolished , and rough , but it's real . And that's what I like . There's a great scene where they all go to an upstairs Starbucks in downtown Tokyo and pretend that they're ordering lattes so they can get a point of view shot from the window . That's the kind of tricks you have to pull to get a relatively low budget film made on a location like that , and I found it very interesting that that was how they captured a lot of their on location footage . There is another good shot of a sequence that is filmed in the subway , with Scarlet Johnassen getting on a real subway in a real subway station with real people going to or from work . This is a very difficult way to film , especially as far as getting people not to look at the camera . Another of the interesting problems that they ran into was a typhoon , which was reportedly the biggest typhoon to hit Japan since World War II , and it was on course to go right through the heart of Tokyo right in the middle of production . The encounter was so close that they were concerned about people being able to get back to their hotels after the day's shooting was finished . I just finished reading Sidney Lumet's wonderful book " Making Movies , " and he talks about all kinds of things like this happening during the filming of some of his movies . Whenever I watch these documentaries I always try to learn something not just about how a specific movie was made , but about film-making in general , and this one is a nuts and bolts tour of at least some parts of the film-making process . There is also a hilarious scene with Bill Murray practicing his Japanese with a book called Making Out in Japanese ( pun intended ? ) , where he calls various crew members over to the table where he is giving his interview , asks them a question , and when they respond he says to them " Who do you think you're talking to ? " in Japanese . You know this guy is just a blast to work with , and it's even funnier when he says it to crew members who can understand what he's saying . I think that one of the things that I really liked about this documentary was the way that it was made , with just some video footage taken on set very simply but effectively edited together , especially because it is something that I could very easily have made myself , and have made similar documentaries before . This entire thing could have been made on the very computer on which I am writing this review . Besides that , I have some good friends who have been getting very involved with drift racing and I'm the official videographer . Recently they were invited to participate in what is called a Touge Showdown , in which two of the best drivers from Japan come to America to race four or five cars against each other and then rate them , so I've been editing a lot of Japanese footage . Not that that matters , but the video that I made was a lot like this , because it was me running around with one of my video cameras shooting the making of the very professional videos that they make for broadcast in Japan . I had one camera , these guys had about 90 , each probably worth as much as my car . It does not come out looking like a Hollywood film , but I really think that this is the most realistic and effective way to look behind the scenes of a movie . |
544,650 | 562,732 | 140,352 | 10 | Excellent legal drama ? | In The Insider , Russell Crowe once again proves his versatility as an actor . It's amazing how different he looks in this film from his other roles , particularly Mystery , Alaska and Gladiator . Here , he plays the part of Jeffrey Wigand , a man who is torn between his responsibility to uphold his agreement to keep his mouth shut about happenings with a gigantic tobacco company and his duty to inform the public of potentially harmful products . He was fired from his position as the head of research and development , and as he gingerly begins to speak to Lowell Bergman ( Al Pacino ) , a spokesman from 60 Minutes , he begins receiving death threats aimed at himself and his family . Crowe delivers yet another outstanding performance , as does Al Pacino , who flawlessly creates the type of character that his role calls for . Not only is this a very interesting story , but it also gives a very good look at how big business corporations work , with both the massive cigarette companies as well as the respected television show , 60 Minutes , being presented in a new light . The casting was perfect for this film , everyone delivered excellent performances . The legal thriller is an almost endlessly interesting genre , but The Insider puts a new twist on the almost overdone subject , resulting in an excellent film that should not be missed . |
543,803 | 562,732 | 340,855 | 10 | ' I was raised in America , and America hates me for what I am . I am YOUR sh , you should be ashamed of what you have eaten . ' | My compliments to the musical tastes of anyone who can place that quote . Hey , you wanna know what I'm getting sick and tired of ? I'm sick and tired of hearing the phrase ' America's First Serial Killer , ' if only because it's generally a phrase used to promote Monster , the stunningly well-made and effective movie about Aileen Wuornos , who was not in any way a serial killer . Serial killers kill people because of the order that their names appear in the phone book ( the Terminator did , anyway ) , because of their addresses , certain physical or even behavioral characteristics , whatever . Basically they are targeted based upon a quite often arbitrary set of circumstances . Aileen Wuornos killed people because she was so psychologically damaged by the experiences she suffered in her life and because of her desperate attempt to earn ( if you could call it earning ) something real and pure and happy for herself and her newfound love . If nothing else , the fact that she is motivated by her desire for a better life and to be a better person separates her from the classification of ' serial killers . ' Besides that , she was hardly killing off the best people that society had to offer . Charlize Theron's performance is probably the most famous performance of 2003 , although not entirely because of the positive chatter that it generated . The way that she captures and becomes Aileen Wuornos is astonishing , even if you go into the movie looking for Theron under the make-up from the very beginning . It's as if she does not try to justify the amount of work needed to transform her stunning appearance into that of a hardened prostitute , but rather was transformed into that person , through the make-up as well as her own physical transformation . There's nothing more pathetic than people who complain that Theron didn't act , it was the make-up delivering her performance in this movie . PLEASE . On second thought , there are things more pathetic than that , and several of them get killed off in this movie . The movie does a pretty impressive job of walking the tightrope of the line between depicting how sickening these people are that Aileen kills without leaning toward the appearance of justifying her murders . But the thing that the movie wisely focuses on is the way that Aileen's life led her to what she became , straight from childhood , and the way she tried so hard to become something good and worthwhile . She tried so hard , in fact , that they made a movie about her . It is an important fact that Aileen's first murder was in self-defense , and that afterwards she found herself with a car and a few dollars in her pocket . It was presumably the only thing she had ever done other than what really can be called nothing but rape or sexual torture from which she profited in any way . And like the first time Charlie Chaplin saw people tossing coins and cheering at him after he ran onstage and sang a song when he was just a little kid , Aileen saw that this was something that she could make enough money from not only to earn a living ( as was Chaplin's epiphany ) , but to get away from prostitution forever . Prostitution has destroyed her sexually , and given her experiences with the first guy she kills , it's not hard to see why she hates it so much . Interestingly , it is not immediately clear in this situation who is the victim of whom . Christina Ricci delivers a flawless performance of the naïve 18-year-old lesbian who falls in love with Aileen and ultimately wins Aileen's love as well , despite their tense first meeting . Ricci's shy demeanor and disarming cuteness are exactly what are needed to portray a kid getting into something that she really doesn't understand , all the while not noticing ( it's hard to pinpoint when exactly she knows what's going on and when exactly she allows herself to believe it ) what Aileen is doing in order to get them the life that they are both dreaming about . I would be curious to know what ever became of Selby Wall . The movie doesn't explain that much at the end other than to say that she and Aileen never spoke again . Sad but not entirely surprising . Multiple murders tend to put a damper on short-lived relationships really based mainly on lust and mutual , superficial needs . And by the way , this is probably just me , but Ricci looks exactly like Edward Furlong in this movie . They could be twins . Except for all that crap about ' America's First Serial Killer , ' Monster doesn't take Aileen's story and turn it into an excuse to make a big Hollywood movie , but rather presents a different way to look at someone who has committed the crimes that Aileen has . The movie is about what a capitalist society , and even the very people charged with seeing after the safety of the people in that society ( ' The police used to watch over the people , now they're WATCHIN ' the people , ' my compliments again to the musical tastes of anyone who can place THAT quote ) , can do to create what Aileen Wuornos became . And the important thing to notice is that the movie is able to do that without offering any excuses for her murders . It's not a film about how someone was sentenced to death who didn't really deserve it because what she was wasn't really her fault , it's about what kinds of things can lead a person to such a life . Have you ever heard a story about some heinous crime and wondered how people get like that ? Here are some ideas . Dismissing such people as monsters and executing them is a great way to get them off the street and stop their killing , but it's not really going to get us anywhere as far as preventing that behavior from surfacing in someone else . |
543,835 | 562,732 | 107,290 | 10 | Steven Spielberg comes forth with yet another classic . Jurassic Park will not be forgotten . | This is the best dinosaur movie that has ever been made . Maybe a better one will be released sometime in the future , but so far , Jurassic Park is unparalleled . The story involves the re-creation of actual living dinosaurs from their own DNA which was recovered from dinosaur blood remaining inside a prehistoric mosquito which , millions of years ago , was unlucky enough to get caught in the soon solidified sap of a tree . Even all of the scientific elements of the story are explained in a way that even the youngest viewers could understand . Jurassic Park , However , is not just about making dinosaurs and then getting eaten by them , it is about what happens when humans play with life and try to re-make and contain it in ways that were never meant to be . Dinosaurs once " ruled the earth , " but the earth is now ruled by humans , and the two species , separated by millions of years of evolution , cannot coexist . Neither can contain the other , one is sure to overcome . The spectacular visuals and amazingly convincing special effects and make-up provide an absolutely incredible cinematic experience . Never have dinosaurs been so convincingly made on screen . The fact that the dinosaurs were so real allowed for the film to really keep the audience on the edge of their seats . Particularly memorable moments include a velociraptor jumping up and almost out of the screen as it tries to get Alexis ( Adriana Murphy ) as she climbs up into the ceiling to escape , and also a scene with a Tyranosaurus in the rear-view mirror of the fleeing humans ' Jeep ( imitated hilariously in the great Toy Story 2 ) . However , even though the special effects have the rare combination of being both overpowering and amazingly convincing , Jurassic Park had a good number of important messages to deliver . There were a lot of things that could be learned from this film , and many of them were put right into the dialogue , mostly that of Dr . Ian Malcolm , played wonderfully by Jeff Goldblum . Michael Crichton needs to be recognized for his brilliant creation of such a man as Ian Malcolm , talking understandably about chaos theory and scientific responsibility and the extremely important fact that " life finds a way . " Sam Neill also delivers one of the highlight performances of his career as the wonderfully convincing Dr . Alan Grant , alongside Laura Dern as Ellie Satler , and both of them , along with the rest of the cast , were perfectly faithful to the original novel . That , in my opinion , is an extremely important element of films that were adapted from books , and Jurassic Park is rivaled in its literary faith only by other great films like The Green Mile . Jurassic Park is not a film about a dinosaur amusement park . That is the premise , but the message of the film has a lot to say about the vulnerability of the human race , and it is a testament to the skills of Steven Spielberg and the other filmmakers involved that they were able to make a movie with such an important thing like that to say ( among others ) , while at the same time making the whole experience so much fun . |
544,249 | 562,732 | 475,276 | 10 | Do we have any communication with the President at all ? | I have yet to see any of the films that have been coming out lately about the attacks , and I had deep reservations about this movie , simply because I had a hard time imagining how they could make a movie about what happened that day and really do justice to the events that took place and the people that were involved . I guess I just couldn't imagine how they could make a movie about and keep politics out of it , but director Paul Greengrass has done just that , and with spectacular success . I think that the only line in the entire movie which might have carried some political message is the one I put in my summary line above , but even this would only be a political statement if it were forced to be . In reality , no they didn't have any communication with the President , but that was because he was sitting in that classroom in Florida . He was making a public appearance and was simply not available for standard contact , I guess you would say . Bush largely escapes criticism in Greengrass's film , which I must say is something of a relief . I think we have seen plenty of films that bash Bush for his response to and behavior during the attacks , regardless of how relevant they are . Greengrass understands that we don't need to see that anymore . The government itself , however , receives the full blow of harsh criticism , spearheaded by such scenes as the air traffic controllers trying to get permission to act against the hijacked planes before they reach major metropolitan areas . They are still struggling to get this permission more than an hour after the second plane has hit the World Trade Center , and if I remember correctly , up until that time they were only given something like two or three jets . Unarmed ones . Most importantly , the film tells the powerful story of the people aboard the flight that took control of the airplane from the hijackers and disrupted what may very well have been the destruction of the White House . Regardless of the lives lost ( the White House had been evacuated long before the plane would have hit ) , to have lost the White House would have done catastrophic psychological damage to the country . In a different way than the loss of life in New York had , but if the White House had been hit , people would barely have noticed the Pentagon . The film succeeds not only as a humanitarian story about the incredible bravery that took place on board United 93 , but also as a telling of the events as they happened . It succeeds as a crackling thriller as good as any of Tom Clancy's " Ryan " films , with the added bonus that everything that takes place is real . It works as a thriller without even needing to resort to fiction or contrived situations . The tension that you feel is so real that it's almost like you're watching the news . As I said , I haven't seen World Trade Center , and I'm a little nervous about it , mostly because Nicholas Cage is starring , but if they can make movies this good about the attacks , leave the politics at the door , and tell the story so powerfully and with so much respect for those lost , then it will settle my reservations about films about . Whether this can be done with the second Iraq war , however , remains a mystery . |
543,990 | 562,732 | 93,779 | 10 | A great adventure film in somewhat the same style as other great fantasy adventures like The Neverending Story , The Princess Bride takes us on a wonderful trip along with fascinating and enormously amusing c | I'm not exactly sure what exactly it is that makes The Princess Bride such a spectacular film . Or , at the very least , I just can't pinpoint a single characteristic about it that really rises above all others as the main reason that no one should miss it . Indeed , it has a title that should prove to be remarkably uninteresting to the typical action adventure fan ( okay , MALE action adventure fan ) , but even the most die-hard Die Hard fan would love this film . It is extremely important not to judge this film just because it has such a flowery and dangerously ( at the risk of sounding shallow ) girly name , because it is full of wonderful adventure and even some good killing and violence . Does this belong in this kind of romantic comedy ? Absolutely ! The cover box of the film looks like that of a cheesy romance novel , but the film is truly great from start to finish . And , indeed , the film is very aware of the superficial impression that it leaves , and it even presents it directly through Fred Savage's initial response to his grandfather reading him the story . But as the film goes on , we begin to have the same reaction that Fred has . We can't get enough . Cary Elwes delivers by far the most outstanding performance of his career as Westley , the love-struck servant to Buttercup , a beautiful blonde woman living in a misty romantic fantasy world . Sadly , Elwes ' later career has been punctuated by roles that do not serve him well , especially after such a stunning performance in this role . Liar Liar and Twister come immediately to mind . Robin Wright also gives one of the best performances of her career in her film debut here as Princess Buttercup , but the real quality of the performances that makes the movie so great is the fact that they were able to pack the film full of comic relief ( it was nearly nonstop from start to finish ) without taking anything away from the tension or the overall respectability of the film . It is interesting to consider the polar opposite effect of the comic relief on the vast majority of the James Bond films . Wallace Shawn is absolutely hilarious as Vizzini , the bonehead villain who is completely convinced that he has the whole world figured out , Andre the Giant delivers a lumbering but highly impressive performance as Vizzini's enormous , idiot sidekick , and by far my favorite of all , Mandy Patinkin creates one of the most entertaining and likeable characters created in a film in the entire decade of the 1980s ( ' My name is Inigo Montoya . You killed my father . Prepare to die ! ' ) . This is great stuff . Told as a story read from a book , just like The Neverending Story , The Princess Bride provides a magical mix of romance and fantasy and action and comedy to provide an enormously entertaining film for moviegoers of all ages . The Princess Bride is an absolutely wonderful film that is truly not to be missed . |
543,917 | 562,732 | 804,522 | 10 | A much needed wake-up call ? | Extraordinary Rendition is a frightening practice authorized , surprisingly , under Clinton , that allows the U . S . government to seize and hold anyone suspected , seemingly for any reason , of being a terrorist against the United States . This is a touchy issue , especially after , because supporters of the practice will always criticize the opposition as withholding vital power from the U . S . that it needs to effectively fight terror . Fanatic supporters will label the opposition as terrorists in themselves . But like a recent film that lent a similar level of humanity to the death penalty , The Life of David Gale , Rendition shows us a story of the misuse of extraordinary rendition , or at least the ease with which it can be exploited and falsely applied . The story involves Anwar El - Abrahimi , an American chemical engineer born in Egypt who is seized on his way back to America from giving a lecture in Egypt . The cause given is that he made phone calls to a known terrorist . No proof is ever given ( or needed ) that it was Anwar that made the calls , that his phone was never lost of stolen . Meanwhile , Anwar's extremely pregnant wife , Isabella , is back in the states frantically trying to find her husband , who got onto a plane to Chicago but apparently never got off . The flimsy explanation that he was never there evaporates when she discovers that he made an in-flight purchase using his credit card . Lately I have been researching modern Chinese history , particularly that of the astonishingly selfish and brutal dictatorship set up by Mao Tse-tung , and it is more than a little frightening to see the similarities between extraordinary rendition and some of Mao's brutal scare tactics , including his public executions ( which the people were forced to watch ) , and extensive use of torture specifically used to extract " confessions . " It is pretty disturbing to notice that Mao specifically did these things to create an environment of fear in order to achieve obedience from the Chinese people . To say that the Bush administration has not created an environment of fear and continues to milk it for everything it's worth would be naïve in the extreme , and although extraordinary rendition was not created under Bush , it is clear that it does more harm than good . Adding to the thickness of the film is Douglas Freeman ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) , who works behind a desk for the CIA and has little field experience , until his boss is assassinated and he suddenly finds himself supervising the torture of a man that he quickly comes to doubt has anything to reveal . Fatima's ( Freeman's boss ) daughter also plays a pivotal role , as does a senatorial aide played by Peter Sarsgaard , who might have the most satisfying role in the movie . Meryl Streep is also suitably cold and clinical as a chilly senator with a dogmatic support of the necessity and practice of rendition . As a political thriller , the movie is remarkably well-crafted and paced . But the scariest thing about it is that this is all real . The movie's goal is to get people to really think about the things done in America's name , especially when they claim to be done to prevent those same things . Conducting terror in the name of preventing terror will win no sympathy for us , nor will extracting confessions through brutal torture , which is the basest form of criminal investigation . Unfortunately , we are gradually heading in that direction , of doing these things more rather than less . The frightening question is what is the event that is going to take place at some point in the future to convince us to stop and head the other way , toward civilization and peace , or will we just keep heading toward a military dictatorship until we finally get there ? |
544,306 | 562,732 | 307,385 | 10 | Slowly fascinating . | I admit that for the first 20 minutes or so of this film I wasn't entirely sure I was going to sit through the whole thing . Like many other people , I found it pretty boring , and I wasn't entirely looking forward to an hour and a half of watching this guy bite icicles and stick them together . However , if you sit through the creation of his first work long enough to see the finished product , you get an idea of how impressive the rest of the film is . I really think it's sad that so many people found this impossibly boring or a retread of ideas done by other artists . Rivers and Tides is a quiet study of some of the artwork and methods of Andy Goldsworthy , who makes his art entirely out of things in nature , generally resulting in pieces that will be consumed by nature through the normal process of entropy . It is slow moving and unglamorous , but I think that a lot of the point of the movie is to show that Goldsworthy's art does not need any accompaniment in order for it to be appreciated . I've even heard people complain about how he is always talking throughout the movie , rather than just letting nature and his artwork speak for themselves , which I just think is madness . On the other hand , lots of people complain about CDs coming with the lyrics written out inside them . A lot of musicians as well think their music should mean whatever the listener wants it to mean without the musician showing the exact lyrics , I guess I'm just the kind of person that believes that I'd like to know what the artist was trying to accomplish with his or her artwork . I can still take it how I want to even if I know what it was meant to do . I can understand not wanting to hear him talk through the movie . He does , after all , lose his train of thought and find himself unable to explain some of his work at more than one occasion , but if you don't want Goldsworthy talk about his art while you're watching the film , feel free to turn the sound off . That's like not reading the lyrics if you don't want to know what a musician is singing and would rather interpret the words yourself . I think that Andy Goldsworthy's work , which I had no idea existed before I watched this movie , is incredibly impressive , and I'm glad that this film was made in order to showcase it . Indeed , since his work is generally not the kind that can be transported into a studio , photography is the only medium other than film that can express it , and I really appreciated being able to see the work that goes into his art , and the way that only things from nature are used . Whether or not you appreciate certain aspects of how this film is presented , Goldsworthy's work is moving enough to overlook that , because the film is not the star , Goldsworthy's art is . And given the lack of any music or even the smallest special effects and the slow-moving nature of the film , it seems to me that director Thomas Riedelsheimer knows that . |
543,903 | 562,732 | 70,047 | 10 | The Exorcist stands firmly among the greatest films ever made . | The Exorcist is widely regarded to be the scariest movie of all time . Personally , I would put it a little differently . Instead of calling it the scariest movie of all time , I think that it would be more accurate to say that it's the best horror movie of all time . These may be just two different ways of saying the same thing , but I think that there is a notable difference . I just watched The Exorcist again , and I experienced the nervousness and tension and fear that it was meant to cause and I jumped a few times , but I've watched several other horror movies that have caused those same feelings ? The Shining , Pet Sematary , The Sixth Sense to a certain extent , even the remake of The House on Haunted Hill had a few quality scares . But I think that the thing that sets The Exorcist apart is that everything was just done right . The acting was great , the story was unique and well presented , the gruesome special effects were skillfully crafted , even the gore and the sickening profanity were put into the film with good reason and with good results . It's so rare to see a horror movie come along ( and it gets rarer and rarer as time goes on ) that is actually worth watching , and when one comes along that is absolutely ground-breaking , like The Exorcist , then it's a huge cinematic event . The Exorcist is just as timeless as horror films get , and it should be noted for its style and its effectiveness . There have been so many imitations of this film that have popped up over the years ( which is to be expected , because it created so many possibilities ) , but none of them , not even any of the sequels , even come close to the greatness of the original . Not only is it original and unique , but it also contained some stunning performances , particularly on the part of Linda Blair as Regan , the 12-year-old girl who was the subject of the exorcism . There were some frankly shocking things that she did for the film , and the brilliant special effects and make-up added to that to make Regan's possession amazingly realistic , which is probably the most remarkable thing about the film . Another thing that was done especially well in The Exorcist was the sound effects . Probably one of the main reasons that the movie is so scary is because it is so unexpected and therefore so unsettling to hear some of those noises come from a little girl . William Friedkin's skillful but relentless directing style clearly played a large part in the convincingness of the final outcome , which stands as one of the definitive films in cinematic history . |
544,747 | 562,732 | 14,624 | 10 | Time makes strangers of intimate friends ? | A Woman of Paris is probably best known , ironically , by the fact that it is a Chaplin film that Chaplin does not appear in . It opens with a title card in which Chaplin himself wishes to clear up any misunderstanding by mentioning that he does not appear in the film , but my understanding is that it was a popular and critical failure at the time of its release . He does appear in the film , but walks on and off screen so fast and looks so little like himself that there is really no reason for him to be there . The film's popular failure seems to have been something that plagued him through the rest of his career , since he returned to the film and re-scored it at the age of 87 . It was the last work he ever did as a filmmaker , and the result was that people finally recognized the film for the master work that it is . We meet a young woman whose father keeps her in the house under lock and key , but who nevertheless escapes at night to visit her lover , whom she plans to marry . One night , her father sees her leaving , and then locks her out . He then proceeds over-react to the point where he won't allow her in the house , so she is forced to try to go find a place to stay at her boyfriend's house . It is a curious illustration of 1920s society that his parents want to kick her out of the house as though she were a diseased rodent . They are committing an unpardonable sin by being together at night outside of marriage . It's easy to sympathize with their desperate situation . Soon , tragedy strikes , which leads to a tragic misunderstanding which , I have to say , is not presented very well in the movie . This is , however , probably the film's only weak point . I had to wonder why this even allowed for a level of misunderstanding that enabled her to move to Paris and join high society without ever talking to the man for long enough for him to explain what happened . It's also a little strange that they both appear to be in their mid-30s or so and are yet not only unmarried but still live with their parents . Nevertheless , she joins a wealthy social circle and becomes involved in their wealthy and loveless life , surrounded by rich people in constant leisure , smoking cigars , drinking champagne , and eating truffles ( " a delicacy for pigs and gentlemen ? " ) . It is inevitable that they will meet again at some point , and when they do , time has , indeed , made strangers of them , but his love is still alive . He has become an accomplished artist and she hires him to paint her portrait , which again intertwines their lives . It is interesting that he is still mourning the death of his father , even years later . But he comes from a world where relationships are extremely important , whether romantic or family , and she , on the other hand , has entered a world of money where relationships are startlingly meaningless . She drags her feet at talking about the history between them , saying that she doesn't want to dig up the past , while he interestingly looks directly at the camera and explains that he is still badly hurt by what has happened . Soon , she is forced to choose between a life of love or a life of luxury , and it is notable that the rich man that she was in a " relationship " is pointedly indifferent when she leaves him , explaining that he'll never see her again . " Okay , phone me sometime , " he says as he casually walks out the door , leaving her to do as she will . Soon , things seem to be looking up for their mutual happiness , but another tragic misunderstanding ( or at least badly timed conversation ) , throws everything into chaos again . When she leaves , Jean , her boyfriend , becomes desperate . The ending of the film is deeply symbolic , and involved a long road , like the ending of some of Chaplin's better known short comedies . The film's message , that time heals and the secret of happiness is in service to others , doesn't need to be delivered as directly as it is , but it also doesn't hurt the movie that this happens . It's a deeply moving story that illustrates an unfortunate aspect of a certain level of society , a level about which Chaplin was certainly no stranger . It is definitely , as the title says , a drama of fate , and makes a strong comment about what is important in life . It's interesting to consider Chaplin's personal life at the time that the movie was made , but I think it's more important to let the film stand on it's own . This is a brilliant piece of film-making . |
544,240 | 562,732 | 82,971 | 10 | Even the MPAA ratings board loved it ? | I bring up the ratings board because , like the two films that followed it , Raiders of the Lost Ark seems to have been granted almost unprecedented leniency in the rating . People get shot , stabbed , poisoned , murdered , blended up by airplane propellers , a head explodes , another head has the skin melted off of it like candle wax , there are corpses and all manner of other horrible things , and yet the movie gets a PG rating . I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark , The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade one after the other yesterday , and early on found myself wondering what it was about The Last Crusade that earned it a PG-13 rating when both movies before it were shockingly violent and bloody for PG films . Our introduction to Indiana Jones is much like most of the time that we spend with him , a nonstop roller coaster ride of adventure , where one thrilling situation leads right into the next . He is sort of what every kid fantasizes that adult life is really like , a constant adventure punctuated only by the times when he has to teach class , pretending to be a normal working adult and hiding the fact that he's a world-traveler who constantly risks life and limb in order to get precious artifacts into museums where they belong . This is the kind of thing that makes you want to be an archaeologist . The movies all take us to exotic locations and immerse us completely in thrilling adventure , as Jones gets himself into one dangerous situation after another in search of ancient historical artifacts . It's surprising that it wasn't until the third film that he goes after the Holy Grail , but each film starts off with scenes of adventure that rival even the best opening action sequences from any of the James Bond films . The Ark of the Covenant represents everything that Jones got into archeology for in the first place , as he mentions early in the film , and he has to race against time in order to obtain it before it falls into the hands of the Nazis . The film displays exactly the right amount of comic relief to counteract the viciousness of Jones ' pursuers who , as we know , are not above torturing and killing in order to get what they want . The characters in the movie are wonderful , with Karen Allen portraying Marion Ravenwood , Jones ' ex-girlfriend who ends up his partner on his quest for the Ark and , my favorite , John Rhys-Davies as another helper along the way . Some of the best scenes in the movie involve Rhys-Davies when they're all in the desert , at the site in which the Ark supposedly rests . Speaking of the best scenes , some of them are not the ones that take place when Jones first arrives in Nepal . The fight scenes that take place when he and Marion get separated in the marketplace are heavily over-rehearsed and completely unconvincing , but I'm still willing to accept them because the scene as a whole is so much fun . The scene where Jones casually shoots the swordsman in front of the crowd has been one of my favorite scenes in the movie since I was a kid , although when I watched it yesterday I noticed that every single extra in the scene reacts wrongly except for a single person . One person immediately turns and runs terrified into the crowd away from the shooting , while everyone else throws their hands into the air and dances around as though they're celebrating . I hope someone found that one extra and offered sufficient congratulations . The movie is set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany under the control of Hitler , who wants the Ark recovered for himself at all costs , so it's Indiana Jones and his two partners trying to recover the Ark and survive the onslaught of all of Germany's military might . The movie is put together in the same manner as the old Saturday adventure serials , this time with bigger adventure and more danger . ( spoilers for all three films ahead ! ) What I especially respect about the movies is that they avoid going too far . It's a difficult line that they walk , too , because you can't have a movie like this that delves too deep into the meaning and existence of a lot of the things that Jones searches for without risking failure . Many adventure films seek certain things that , if they are shown , will immediately look fake ( like the aliens in Mission to Mars ) , and if they're not shown they risk failure by giving the feeling of leading the audience on without payoff at the end . All three ( thus far ) Indiana Jones films ultimately end up with Jones ' failure to obtain the artifacts that he is seeking , but he has still been successful in his missions . It's not an easy thing to accomplish in any story , but these movies are more concerned with the thrill of the chase and the knowledge of when success has truly been achieved rather than getting too close to the objects at hand . Bravo . |
544,315 | 562,732 | 91,763 | 10 | The Saving Private Ryan of the Vietnam War . | Similar in many ways to another quality war film , Casualties of War , Platoon is a story that takes place during the Vietnam War and is about a platoon torn basically between good and evil . Oliver Stone relies heavily on personal experience in the war in his writing of the film , in which the above-mentioned platoon is divided by the brutal activities that take place in the overtaking of a village in Vietnam . Charlie Sheen plays the role that parallels the role played by Michael J . Fox in Casualties of War . He is the narrator who tells the story of his disillusion with the camaraderie that develops between men during service in the war , which he left a fairly cushy lifestyle to volunteer for . I've never served in the military , much less been in battle , but it is clear that nothing is sugar-coated in this film , which leads me to willingly believe that what you see on the screen is exactly what it was like in Vietnam , especially given the fact that Oliver Stone served in that war himself . The war drama is made even more realistic by the fact that so many of the actors were , at the time at least , relatively unknown , which is one of the things that has always bothered me about Saving Private Ryan . In Platoon , these are just regular guys from everywhere and anywhere and nowhere , and they are all stuck in the same situation risking ( and in many cases losing ) their lives in battle . The Vietnamese were portrayed as savages to some extent , but that's because they are obviously the antagonists from the point of view that the story is told , which is Private Chris Taylor's ( Charlie Sheen ) point of view . On the other hand , this portrayal can be forgiven because their tactics in many of the battle scenes are fairly clear , it's obvious how intelligently they fought the war . I think that one of the things that makes Platoon so good is some of the many memorable scenes in the film , particularly those involving Sergeant Elias , played brilliantly by William Dafoe . The view from the helicopter of him being chased ( unarmed and suffering from gunshot wounds inflicted by someone on his own side ) by dozens of rifle wielding Vietnamese soldiers is an absolutely terrible thing to witness , and is one of the many ways that the sheer brutality of this war is presented in this film . Of the countless war films that are made , every once in a while a truly great one comes along , and Platoon is one of the great ones . It doesn't try to sugar coat anything , but presents the viciousness and violence of the Vietnam War as straightforwardly as possible , which is one of the many things that makes it so good . It is not only a startlingly realistic piece of entertainment , but also a good place to learn a little bit about the kinds of things that went on in the Vietnam War , and what go on in any war . This is great cinema . |
543,797 | 562,732 | 78,748 | 10 | Whose idea was it to bring a cat in the first place ? | I'm a little confused as to why there was a cat on board in the first place . Needless to say , given that there was an entire crew on board the Nostromo , a merchant vessel carrying , if I remember correctly , something like 20 , 000 , 000 tons of mineral ore , there was hardly a lack of companionship . At any rate , I can easily brush aside my curiosity about the effort that went into designing the life support system that would have been needed to keep the cat alive along with the rest of the humans as they traveled for months on end in deep sleep . It doesn't matter , because the cat was involved in most of the scariest scenes . That being said , I think that one of the things that really makes Alien great is that it explains all the twists and turns of its plot in great detail , which is almost unheard of in science fiction and horror films . No one displays ludicrous behavior to allow for the construction of bloody , gory death scenes , the alien , masterfully designed , isn't rushing across the screen in every scene to allow for maximum payoff of the costume design , we don't even see it until well past the halfway point in the movie . Like Jaws , Alien takes its time to allow the characters to gradually grasp the enormity of their situation . The Nostromo is a merchant ship , which allows for a non-military crew to be faced with a mortal enemy that they do not understand . The ship intercepts a strange transmission that must be from an intelligent source since it repeats itself every twelve seconds , and so it wakes up the crew to investigate . The subtlety of the way the conflict is introduced is very important . The transmission didn't just appear , the ship awoke the crew months ahead of schedule , because it was programmed to do so should anything like that happen . And to the chagrin of a couple of the money financial-minded crew members , it is also in their contracts to investigate any such occurrence . The movie is covering its tracks very thoroughly and to great effect . When they reach the planet from which the transmission originated , they find the spectacular discovery of what appears to be a crashed alien spaceship , complete with a dead alien pilot still in his chair . A brief look at the body suggests that the pilot may have exploded from the inside , creating curiosity about his death that the movie never satisfies but doesn't need to . One of the crew members discovers what look like dozens of leathery eggs , gets attacked , and is brought back on board the ship . Significantly , protocol is broken to get him and the alien life form back on board for medical attention . When they discover that the alien has blood that melts through the hull of the ship like thermite , a new and particularly difficult challenge arises . How do they kill a deadly enemy without making it bleed ? And to make matters worse , the very ship is programmed to work against them . They are in the most hostile environment imaginable , worse than anywhere on earth . They are being stalked by an unknown creature that they can't injure for fear of damaging the hull of the spaceship , and the ship itself has placed the survival of the alien life form above their own survival . They have to trick the alien into submission without letting the ship know what's going on . Even HAL wasn't THIS creepy . Released at a time when science fiction was probably at the most popular that it had ever been ( and possibly ever will be ) thanks to the recent release of Star Wars and the soon to follow first sequel , Alien came along and capitalized in an area of science fiction that people evidently were very eager for , the darker , more sinister and dangerous side . The side of science fiction with the bloody deaths rather than light sabers and heroes . In fact , by looking at the way people probably saw Alien in 1979 and the way they see it now , you can learn a lot about how science fiction and horror have evolved over the years . Back then , this was horror / science fiction . Today , it's science fiction / horror . But while it was more horrible in 1979 than it is today , it is significant that , while other films that have come along over the years have overshadowed Alien as far as the intensity of the horror , the movie has lost none of its powerful effect . Rather than reinventing the science fiction genre by adding horror to it , it is now maintaining the life of the science fiction genre by reminding us of how good it can be when it's done right . |
543,860 | 562,732 | 378,194 | 10 | They must have used up all the fake blood in Volume 1 . | SPOILERS SPOILERS When you have a movie as hugely popular as Kill Bill Vol . 1 , it is to be expected that it's sequel , or in this case it's other half , generates a huge amount of expectation and attention , especially when it also involves a director as hugely ( and deservedly ) popular as Quentin Tarantino . Combine this with the depth of Tarantino's films and the amount of subject matter that he wisely leaves up to individual interpretation , and you have a virtual blank canvas upon which just about anyone can insert almost any meaning that they want the movie to have . This makes for some pretty interesting film criticism read , on the IMDb and elsewhere , but the reason I bring this up is because I just read an article in the April 26 , 2004 issue of Time magazine in which Richard Corliss claims that Kill Bill II has ' enough blood to appease the Passion of the Christ crowd . ' Is it just me or is this a display of a massive misunderstanding of the Passion of the Christ and it's intended audience ? Anyway , back what is arguably the less violent of the two movies under discussion . Kill Bill II is not a sequel and it's not a prequel , but while it is simply the other half one the same story , it has elements of both sequel and prequel . It's part II but it also tells about the story before part I began but it also picks up directly in the middle of a story , in the middle of which Part I also ended . We learn about what exactly was going on at the fateful ' wedding party ' where the first film began , we learn about the past of The Bride , why Bill tried to kill her , why she was getting married , and why she is so heavily trained in martial arts ( hint : it's not just because she's starring in a movie directed by a life-long lover of kung-fu movies ) . ( spoilers ) There is a memorable scene where The Bride , whose real name turns out to be Beatrix , is enduring some of her early training from an old kung-fu wizard who , when he stands up and fights , reveals that he is not as old as he looks from far away , but rather about as old as he looks close-up . No that the make-up was bad . In fact , that endless beard managed to earn itself a spot as one of the best sources of comic relief in this movie which , being a Tarantino film , is literally brimming with comic relief . Like Part I , however , Tarantino is very aware of which scenes should have a comedic edge , and which scenes would destroy the movie if they were made amusing . The scene where Beatrix is buried alive , for example , is like the scene in Part I where she realizes that she is no longer pregnant . Neither should be funny , and neither are . In this case , it comes dangerously close , as Budd ( one of Beatrix's targets ) and one of his Texas hillbilly friends are looking down at the restrained Bride , and said hillbilly , in his miniscule amount of screen time , presents himself as a staggeringly backwards and idiotic inbred moron , such a clod of a man that you almost have to laugh in pity . There really are people like that in the world , it's tragic . Volume II has been called a character study , and I have to agree . The movie is essentially , and importantly , about the vague and blank spots in Volume I . Specifically , the other characters in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad . While it's true that much of the suspense is killed by the little factoid that it's not hard to guess that these former partners of Beatrix are going to meet an unpleasant end at some point in the movie , the ultimate face-off with Bill could not have been less expected . At least one of the characters , Michael Madsen's Budd , believes that Beatrix deserves her revenge , but none of them , himself included , are planning on allowing her to achieve what she deserves . I was initially pretty surprised at how talky Volume II is , mostly because I expected it to be even more violent given the fact that is necessarily includes the climax of the overall story . On the other hand , after a movie like Kill Bill Vol . 1 , Quentin really had a lot of explaining to do . The dialogue in the movie is unnervingly thoughtful , much of it , especially in the scene with Bill , even psychological , which is another of Tarantino's signature film tricks . He can make brutally violent characters speak like philosophers and you don't even really realize it until you write a movie review about it later and think to yourself , Hey , who talks like that in real life ? Or maybe that's just me . My favorite example is most of the dialogue between Vincent and Jules in Pulp Fiction . The females in Kill Bill are famously much deadlier than the men ( Budd , for example , has graduated in life to a dingy trailer in the middle of the Texas desert and earned himself the highly skilled job as a bouncer at a topless bar ) , which is good , because our hero is a woman and what would be the fun of her just running around and exacting her revenge on a lot of men ? Compare Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver to Madsen's Budd ( and the way she calmly killed him ) and you'll know what I mean . Speaking of which , here's an interesting scene . Elle Driver comes to Budd's house because he's called her to inform her that he has buried alive their highest value target , and he wants to sell her priceless Hattori Hanso sword to Elle for a measly million bucks . Elle shows up , gives Budd the money as he stumbles around the trailer in true redneck form , spilling his drink everywhere ( doesn't matter , he's rich now , he won't be living there much longer anyway ) , and as he sits down and starts greedily pulling out wads of $100 bills , he uncovers a black mamba snake , for which Beatrix was code named . I assume Elle used a black mamba both for symbolism reasons , as well as to punish him appropriately for burying Beatrix alive before she was able to have her way with her first . At any rate it provides an excellent opportunity for Elle to provide the toxicological contents of the black mamba's venom as it seeps into Budd's bloodstream from all of the bite wounds to his face . Animal Planet was never this muc fun ! What makes no sense about the scene is that after the snake delivers a series of fatal bites to Budd's face , it disappears and Elle walks calmly around the trailer , even stooping to the floor to gather the pile of now-loose $100 bills back into the suitcase , never once worried that the snake might still be around to deliver another fatal dose a venom . I doubt if black mamba snakes take sides in such a conflict as these people are engaged in . And besides that , how did she get it in there in the first place ? Sure , there are some holes here , but I like to think that despite such inconsistencies and loose points like these , the movie doesn't even falter . Indeed , it is surely a testament to both the popularity and skill of Quentin Tarantino that he is able to so smoothly get away with a scene like this , where literally the only thing that makes sense is that the snake would be in a biting mood after being stuffed in a suitcase packed with wads of $100 bills . I've read articles here and there about Quentin talking about putting together a Kill Bill Vol . III sometime in the distant future ( after part 1 I had a theory that Vernita Green's daughter would come back in Vol . II to get her revenge against her mother's killer the way O-Ren Ishii did for her parents ' killer , but then I realized that she would still be a little girl in Vol . II ) , as well as an animated prequel in the same style as the animated sequence in Vol . I . Tarantino is , however famous for leaving projects on the back burner for years and years , if not indefinitely , so while a Vol . III would not be released for years anyway , there may be little use in holding your breath waiting for more of the Bill saga to come from the Tarantino camp . I can't believe I just said that . I hate it when people talk about this camp or that camp . Anyway , Kill Bill as a whole is an intricate and self-sustained movie that is not in need of any other movies to supplement it , but it is also clever in that it leaves tons of room for at least one more or two more movies . And given the popularity and quality of the two parts so far , I don't imagine there would be a lot of complaints about more . |
544,087 | 562,732 | 241,527 | 10 | Lord of the Stone ! | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released in close proximity to the great Lord of the Rings , and while this has happened many times before with the general result that one of the two films is widely , although not always correctly , considered inferior to the other ( Independence Day and The Arrival , Armageddon and Deep Impact , etc . ) , this has surprisingly not been the case with these films . Clearly , The Lord of the Rings is a much more mature and bold film , but the first installment in the Harry Potter series is much more than a childish adventure tale . One of the things that really makes it a great film is that the film is so faithful to the book . The writers and director Chris Columbus wisely decided not to take any creative liberties with the material that they had to work with . I am glad to see this , because literary faithfulness is almost always associated with better adapted films , and it's good to know that no one involved with the making of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone felt the need to improve upon a book that has been justifiably described as a ' publishing phenomenon . ' J . K Rowling has created a brilliant adventure masterpiece with her first novel , which she reportedly began writing in some café in England back when she was a struggling single mother , and Chris Columbus has successfully taken on the daunting task of bringing it to the screen . One of the things that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has in common with The Lord of the Rings is that they both bring the audience to entirely new worlds , with the added bonus in Harry Potter that we actually start out in the real world ( to some extent ) and travel to the world of witches and wizards with the equally amazed Harry Potter . On a structural level , Harry Potter takes an age-old underdog winning formula and reformulates it to make it interesting again . We get a surprisingly simple version of the good vs . bad structure that Star Wars exemplifies so well as Harry faces off with his pals in Griffindor against the obviously malicious Draco Malfoy ( what a name ! ) and the rest of Slytherin . There is a surprising amount of characterization going on in this film even at the level of their actual names , to such extent that a couple of Draco's loyal goons have names like Crabbe and Goyle . Real charmers , I'm sure . Obviously , in a film with this much fantasy and adventure , there is a definite need for some amount of computer-generated special effects . You just can't have a fight with a fully-grown mountain troll or a game of Quidditch played on broomsticks or a lot of the magic that took place in the movie without them , but thankfully they were wise enough not to take the special effects too far , a mistake the ease of which to make George Lucas is happily proving . The problem with computer-generated images these days is that no matter how huge the budget is or how high tech the images are , they NEVER look completely real . Chris Columbus seems to realize this , as can be seen , for example , in the Quidditch game , in which all of the players zooming around on their brooms are generally shown from a distance , so that the only way that we can tell that they aren't real , with a few exceptions , is that we've never seen someone in real life riding a flying broom . Given the fact that a game played entirely on flying brooms was made to look at least moderately convincing , we're more than willing to forgive the relatively few scenes in which the level of reality slips a little bit ( such as the scene where the mountain troll is hanging Harry by his foot , swinging at him with his club ) . The casting in the film , as well , could not possibly have been better . 12 year-old Daniel Radcliffe perfectly captures the unique character of Harry Potter , and his young friends in the film are portrayed by a series of preteen newcomers as well . The surprising thing here is not only that most of the children with lead roles in the film are very new to film acting , but that Chris Columbus managed to coax such convincing performances out of all of them ( obviously , being fans of wonderful adventure tales such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , we all remember director Richard Donner mentioning in the director's commentary on The Goonies DVD that working with children made him contemplate suicide on a daily basis ) . Robbie Coltrane delivers the performance of his career as the lovable Hagrid , the gigantic Gamekeeper with the heart of gold and the clumsily loose tongue , while Richard Harris and Maggie Smith fit so well in their roles that they seem to have been written specifically for them ( each easily reaching the incredible level of precision with which Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee each fit into their respective roles in The Lord of the Rings ) . And , of course , I can't forget Alan Rickman , who is so perfectly cast as Severus Snape that the role could not have been filled half as well by any other actor . Rickman has been unfortunately typecast since his absolutely brilliant performance in Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves , and his role here as Snape is hardly a notch or two below that one . Clearly , Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is aimed at a relatively younger audience , since the books are aimed at a young adult audience , but the film manages to entertain children and adults alike , just as the books are easily enjoyable by any adult who is at least slightly in touch with his or her inner child . It is not often that a book or series of books as fascinating as the Harry Potter books comes along , and it's great to see that , just like The Lord of the Rings , the series is off to a smashing good start . I wish they would make movies out of some of the other adventure books that are just as fun to read as the Harry Potter books , such as The Phantom Tollbooth or The Chronicles of Narnia ( someone's sitting on a gold mine with that one ! ! ) , but for now , I am personally more than content to sit back and watch a new Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings film for the next couple years , and hope that this trend of quality adventure will continue in the future . |
544,213 | 562,732 | 57,012 | 10 | Peace is Our Profession . | Dr . Strangelove is widely considered to be one of Stanley Kubrick's best films , if not THE best , and it's easy to see why . I remember watching it several years ago and not really getting into it , but as I rewatched it a couple nights ago I realized quickly what I had missed back then . It is a remarkably simple film , an actor's film , obviously , but the crackling dialogue and the stunning performances ( most notably from Peter Sellers and George C . Scott , of course ) , are what really make the movie work so well . That is , of course , a pretty powerful statement , to give so much credit to the actors , since the story itself is a compellingly realistic and plausible what-if tale that was released to the public in an atmosphere of frightening tension between the U . S . and Russia . So realistic , in fact , that they felt it necessary to including a disclaimer at the beginning of the film , in which the Air Force would like to assure the public that it has systems in place which would prevent such a thing from ever happening . The film begins with something that was news to me , that America kept a given number of B-52 bombers airborne 24 hours a day , 7 days a week , in the event that their destructive services might be suddenly needed , which itself is a sign of what the times were like back then . The story concerns a General who loses his mind and orders all airborne bombers to attack Russia , unprovoked . The men on board the planes are dumbstruck , of course , because they realize the meaning of this order . A brilliant Slim Pickens is in charge on board one of the planes , and there is a rumor that during the performance , he wasn't told that the film was a comedy , which may be one of the reasons his comic performance is so brilliant , because this is exactly the kind of comedy that Kubrick loves and excels with . As Roger Ebert once noted , a man wearing a funny hat is not funny . But a man who doesn't KNOW he's wearing a funny hat . . . I have three favorite interactions in the film . The first is the isolated interaction between the crazy general and one of Sellers ' performances , Colonel Mandrake , who is stuck with the general and forced to listen with increasing agitation and disbelief to the general's explanations for why it is so imperative to strike the Russians immediately ( " A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual ! " ) . This is funny to me because I have a close friend who's wife is absolutely convinced that the American government is doing this to its own citizens right now as I write this , in early 2008 . She should watch this film . The second performance I love is Sellers ' portrayal of Dr . Strangelove , although I'll admit that I remain a little confused as to why the film ended with his sudden exclamation that he can walk . I know there is something going on there that I'm missing but I just can't think of it . And last but not least , George C . Scott as the fanatical General Buck Turgidson . Scott's performance is so brilliant and in such deep detail that it's impossible to see it all in one viewing . I rewound all of his scenes two or three times and there is always something new . I think his might be the best performance in the movie . Watch , of course , for a young James Earl Jones on board the airplane , and of course Pickens ' exit from the airplane and the movie , which is one of the most famous moments in film history . And of course , since in China I especially appreciated this - listen for Mandrake's hilarious comment about his experience being tortured by the Japanese ! Only Peter Sellers could make something as real and disturbing as Japanese torture this funny ! |
544,887 | 562,732 | 534,695 | 10 | ( best episodes ever ) | I don't know why I first developed an intense love of CSI Las Vegas , given that so many of the episodes follow the same basic format , but this is the first time that that format has been completely thrown away and the show went in a completely different direction . We can thank Quentin Tarantino , of course , for that change , since he was given the opportunity to write and direct these two episodes in his own way . It's interesting to consider that he made these shows a year after making Kill Bill , in which Uma Thurman's character is also buried alive . Nick Stokes ' kidnapping and live burial is not necessarily an homage to Kill Bill , but it seems that Tarantino has noticed the effectiveness of a live burial , particularly one in which the person is unconscious when buried and then wakes up underground . Can you imagine ? I was particularly affected by these two episodes , because being buried alive is one of my own worst fears , along with drowning , spiders , and Global Thermonuclear War ( an intense fear that I developed in 1983 after watching an early Matthew Broderick movie ) . I had hoped that Tarantino might take it upon himself to write and direct more for the show , but as of now that has yet to happen , and it looks like it's not going to . Other than these two episodes , all of the rest of the series looks surprisingly homogenized . . . Note : my summary is in all lower case letters and parentheses because in my first attempt to post this comment , I had it all in capital letters to emphasize how impressive these two CSI episodes are , but then when I tried to post it , the IMDb told me DO NOT SHOUT in my summary . So it's a whisper . Happy now ? |
543,989 | 562,732 | 80,684 | 10 | Even though he wasn't at the director's helm this time , George Lucas has done it again . | In a film like The Empire Strikes Back , especially a few years on the heels of such a mind-bogglingly great film like the original Star Wars , there is something that comes immediately to mind that would at first seem to count against the film , but instead only winds up increasing the respect that it commands . In the 1977 Star Wars , there is a clear reliance on simplicity in some parts . Obviously , it is much more than a simply made science fiction film , but like I said in my review of it , there was a lot of highly effective reliance on things that were not put on screen , such as Obi Wan's description of The Force to Luke . In The Empire Strike Back , the first thing that we are treated to is the traditional scrolling text along a background of stars , depicting what has happened between the last film and this one , and reminding us of the things that were mentioned in the last film but never explained . At first , this would almost seem to be a way to save money to get more information across to the audience without having to actually put it on screen , but this is really an ingenious way of furthering the story . The very fact that we are so willing to read all this information and forgive our inability to actually see it is a testament to the quality of the series , even at this early stage in its presentation , and we know the story so well from the first film that we are glad to see such a large change in what's happening in the films , not for a second lamenting the fact that we have obviously missed so much action . And besides that , if and when George Lucas runs out of new prequels to release , and maybe if he someday begins to run low on how many hundreds of millions of dollars he has , he could go right back and make these in-between scenes into full length films . What would he call these , if he did that ? Introquels ? Who cares ! The names themselves would be interesting enough , and if you go back and read the stuff that introduces this film , it's obvious that there's an entire film there just waiting to be made . I guess the question of actors would be a formidable one , though . The Empire Strikes Back is the film where we are first introduced to the great Jedi master Yoda ( ' Away put your weapon ! ' ) , as well as some of the most thrilling battle sequences of the entire Star Wars series , and that includes the prequels . The battle scene where the rebels fight the Imperial Walkers on the ice planet is an incredibly well-made battle scene , not only in the way that it was put together so convincingly using models , but that the machines themselves are so creatively made . Indeed , the Imperial Walkers are some of the most recognizable machines from the entire Star Wars saga , right up there with the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star . I have just watched this film again , having already seen Episode I and Episode II , and not having seen any of the original Star Wars films for maybe 10 years ( except for the original 1977 Star Wars , which I saw and reviewed a few days ago - and these aren't even the Special Edition versions ! ) . When I first saw Yoda when watching The Empire Strikes Back again , I was really struck by how different he looked from in the newer movies . Obviously , he's completely computer generated in the new films , but here in Episode V he looks like a muppet ! Even so , I would like to express my opinion that Yoda is more realistic and more interesting here as a puppet than in the newer films as a computer generated image . At least here in the older films you know that he's actually THERE , and that he's not just added into the film later . Oh yeah , speaking of Yoda , can I just complain for a minute ? What the hell was up with the Jedi training ? Yes , I realize that I'm just a lowly IMDb reviewer , while The Empire Strikes Back is a part of the greatest science fiction series of all time , but would it have killed George Lucas to write in a little more creative training for Luke ? The thing that struck me first about the Star Wars films when I first started watching them was how incredibly imaginative they were , but then Luke started his training . You know , when I was in high school I played football . I was a wide receiver / tight end and I hardly ever got to play because I was too tall and too skinny , but part of my workout was to carry the linemen up and down the stairs to the weight room . Some of these guys weighed 100 pounds more than me , and I still almost never saw the field , and here's Luke Skywalker . He carries Yoda around this boggy swamp and he gets to be a Jedi ! What the hell ! There is also the addition of a surprisingly fitting love story . First of all , anyone who has ever read my review of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie will know that I am not the biggest fan of cramming a love story into a movie where it doesn't belong . I can't seem to write anything about Bruckheimer movies without complaining about the idiot love story , and now it's even worse because here's this movie that was made so long before , from which Bruckheimer could obviously have at least learned a LITTLE bit about how to do it right . Han Solo and Princess Leia maintain the personalities that they developed in the first Star Wars film and there is now a sort of love / hate relationship between the two of them , where neither one of them wants to admit their feelings for the other . This romantic subplot is characterized perfectly in the scene just before Solo is carbon frozen , when Leia risks approaching a cheesy romantic moment by saying ' I love you ' just before Han is lowered into the freezing chamber , and he saves the moment by responding , ' I know . ' Han Solo . Smart-ass to the last drop . Before I end I would like to point out that the goofs that can be found on the IMDb for this film are some of the most blatant that I've ever seen in a film . The scene where you can see someone giving a woman at the tactical maps a cue to deliver her lines is amazingly obvious , and some of the other ones , such as the stage hand swinging the light saber prop briefly into view as he switches it for an ' off ' prop with Luke just after he knocks Darth Vader over backwards , are just as much fun to look for . I have one question about the goofs , though . There's one where Luke looks off into the fog just after R2-D2 is eaten by the sea monster , and you can CLEARLY see a person running to the right a little ways off in the fog . Is that meant to be Luke ? It seems that it's supposed to be him running in his search for R2 , because you can even hear the FOOTSTEPS of the person running . I can't even IMAGINE how they could have missed THAT ! ! It is , however , a testament to the quality of a film when such tremendous oversights in editing do nothing to take away from the overall quality of the film . The Empire Strikes Back remains an extremely powerful and well-made installment in the Star Wars series , not taking even a single step backwards in the sheer breathtaking adventure of the original film . It's not often that a film as good as Star Wars can be released and then followed up with a sequel that is just as great , as is clearly the case here . Star Wars was a gigantic film upon its release , and with The Empire Strikes Back , Lucas has begun the formation of one of the greatest film series ' in cinematic history . |
543,909 | 562,732 | 119,822 | 10 | Best Picture of 1997 . By far . | 1998 was one of the most controversial years ever as far as the Best Picture Oscar winner , but I think that this is only because Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love , the two front-runners for the award , were both such tremendously spectacular movies . There was a similar situation the year before , in 1997 , with the rivalry between Titanic and As Good As It Gets , it's just too bad that the Academy chose to give the award to Titanic's ticket sales rather than the sheer earthquaking quality of As Good As It Gets and the fabulous talent within it . Thankfully , the Best Actor and Best Female Actor awards were given to the stars of As Good As It Gets , clearly showing that the Academy realizes that the content was in As Good As It Gets , but chose instead to award the financial purging and pretty pictures and sparkly oohs and aahs that were in Titanic . The Oscars , it becomes clearer and clearer , are entirely a commercial event and have little to nothing to do with furthering film as an artistic medium . 1998 , then , may be seen as something of an apology , where the Academy tries to show that they know about good film beyond goofy romantic set pieces like the joke that Titanic has turned out to be , but unfortunately in 1998 they awarded a worthy film but had to also turn down another equally worthy film . Like I always say , though , movies are not a stratified medium that releases one great film every year and a lot of pretty good movies every year so that the Oscars can be neatly distributed and we can all go home smiling , which is why I don't involve myself too much in who gets what Oscar , but rather watch the Academy Awards for entertainment purposes and , most of all , to develop a list of the quality films that I missed during the year . I wish people wouldn't get so freaked out about it and just enjoy the show , because it is quite often these same people that go out and pay full ticket prices for crap like Big Momma's House and Gone In 60 Seconds and the Scary Movies and whatnot . We have a consumer responsibility people ! These trashy movies keep getting made because someone keeps buying tickets to see them ! Who are these people ? ? But I digress . As Good As It Gets , as the title refers , is just about as good as human interest dramas get . I have read reviews complaining that Melvin ( the mentally flawed character played flawlessly by Jack Nicholson ) is a man who it is impossible to like or love , whose compulsive , antisocial behavior is sad and disturbing , neither cute nor funny , to put it in the words of one of these unsatisfied reviewers , Christopher Brown , my colleague and good friend . Quite the contrary , however , Melvin Udall is a man who suffers from obsessive compulsion , severe antisocial tendencies , and whose interaction with the world , like Vincent Gallo's Billy in Buffalo ' 66 , is limited to harsh insults intended to harm . I think it's true that the character is presented in such a way that he doesn't seem to realize how hurtful his statements can be ( such as in the diner scene when he makes a touchy comment to Carol ( Helen Hunt ) about her son . The major flaw of the film is that the plot boils down to a fairly familiar formula , in which the man who hates everyone he comes into contact on a daily basis softens and ultimately grows to accept everyone from women and children to his gay neighbor's dog . Given the fact that the film is peppered with high priced Hollywood movie stars ( Jack Nicholson , Helen Hunt , Greg Kinnear , Cuba Gooding , Jr . , etc . ) , it's obvious that it's not a cheap production , so the crowds have to be pleased to some extent , but even the rather conventional path that it follows to the end is made into a tremendously enjoyable ride because of the quality of the performances . You can clearly see the difference between where the money goes in a movie like this and a movie like Titanic . You can either have enormous special effects and fancy cinematic trickery dumbed down by wooden performances , as was the case in Titanic , or you can have a movie that takes place in a familiar setting and is bursting with Oscar worthy performances from top to bottom , as in As Good As It Gets . That being said , I am willing to forgive a little bit of bending to the crowd-pleasing formula , which is something that I generally hate more than anything else because it is so rarely done right . Most producers ( Jerry Bruckheimer ) try so hard to please so many different people that they end up pleasing no one at all . In this film , the conventional formula is the price that we have to pay to see the quality of the performances and the story . Clearly , no one but Jack Nicholson could play a character like Melvin and still be liked by the audience , so his character is a success despite the callousness of him as a person . I can understand that there are a lot of people who may have been put off by a purely superficial look at the movie , maybe they couldn't look past Melvin's insults or maybe they weren't satisfied by the ending , which left very open the possibility that the future would hold more trouble like we had already seen up to that point in the movie ( I felt this way myself , to a certain extent ) , but there can be no denying the enormous quality of the film and it's inarguable superiority to Titanic . As Good As It Gets is such a fun movie that it's almost hard to see how anyone could not like it , unless maybe they were in bad mood when they watched it . If you are one of these people , I would advise you to watch it again and pay close attention to Melvin's character throughout the film . You may be able to profit from his lessons . |
544,373 | 562,732 | 67,992 | 10 | Timeless . | Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a truly magnificent piece of filmmaking and remains one of the most fascinating and wonderful adventure films ever made . One of the things that makes this film so intriguing is that it could have been made at any time . I mean , just from watching it , you can't really tell when it was made . It has been one of my favorite films for almost 20 years now , and it wasn't until today that I actually realized when it was made . Watching it again last night , I had convinced myself that it was made sometime in the early to mid 80s , and I was shocked to find out that this year is the movie's 30 year anniversary . Until now , pretty much the only movie I associate with 1971 is A Clockwork Orange , and it's just strange for some reason to find out that this classic movie was made so long ago . At any rate , Willy Wonka is a tremendously imaginative and inspiring film . It's a family film , but one of the most important aspects of a family film is that it has to be enjoyable for a variety of ages . This is what makes movies like Toy Story and Shrek such huge successes - the adults will love it just as much as the kids are sure to . Hence : ' family ' film . On the other hand , this is also the downfall of such other movies that are strictly for a much younger audience , like Cats & Dogs . The makers of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory understood this very well , and you can see that just by the way that the cast is divided . Here are all of these kids ( funny how it was only kids who found those golden tickets ? ) who were at this candy factory , and they had each elected to bring one of their parents with them as the one admissible member of their family who was allowed by Wonka to accompany them to the factory . One of the best elements of this film is the excellently written script and , even more , the songs . These are some of the best songs in any movie ever made , rivaling even the best of the songs from Disney's films ( hey , some of them are really good ? ) . There are , of course , some exceptions , such as ' Cheer up , Charlie , ' which I have been fast-forwarding through for as long as I can remember , but for the most part , the songs are fun to listen to and they pertain to life outside the movie . They are not just songs about the candy-making genius of Willy Wonka or the excitement of being able to tour his mysterious factory , but they are about life in the real world . They're about believing in yourself and being motivated in life ( ' Anything you want to , do it . Want to change the world , there's nothing to it ? ' ) , but there are also some that have to do mostly with the movie but are still just as enjoyable , such as the classic song that Wonka sings in the tunnel on board his boat ( curiously named ' Wonkatania ' ) , which was creepily covered by Marilyn Manson a couple of decades later . The dialogue in the film contains some of the most interesting little tidbits in the entire movie . Wonka's lines , in particular , are wonderfully strange and amusing ( ' A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men . ' ) . He is a truly eccentric and fascinating man , and Gene Wilder captures the character flawlessly , as he delivers the lines from the brilliantly written script . Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of those rare movies that comes along and completely changes the way that fantasy films are made . It's all about having fun in life and being hopeful against all odds and , most of all , being able to have fun in life . There are times when you have to let things go for a while and just act like a kid . Eat candy , run around and play , steal fizzy lifting drinks and bump into the ceiling that now has to be washed and sterilized , it doesn't matter as long as no one's looking . That's such a trivial little quirk of Wonka's ( who sterilizes their ceiling ? ) that it becomes obvious that the movie is trying to say that it's okay to break the rules every once in a while . Have fun in life . Besides being absolutely mouth-watering ( to this day , I still fantasize about sinking my teeth into one of those gigantic gummy bears ) , the movie is an uplifting adventure that warms the heart and sends people of all ages away with fairy tale candies dancing in their heads and wonderful songs just behind their lips . It is an always-welcome vacation from reality for people of all ages , and it should always be remembered and loved for that . This movie will ALWAYS be a must-see . |
544,600 | 562,732 | 124,595 | 10 | Incredibly intense drama . | Return to Paradise is probably the most intense drama that I've ever seen . Three friends , Danny , Lewis , and Tony , travel to Malaysia for a vacation , taking a trip that will change all of their lives forever . When one of them decides to stay there at the end of the trip to help the wildlife , it starts a chain reaction that brings the other two back to Malaysia hoping to save their friend's life . There is a curious subplot here involving the all too common thought among Americans that we are so high on the international food chain that we can simply leave the country and then all laws do not apply to us . As is made very clear to these three friends , even the most foreign of foreign countries have their own laws , and even the great United States cannot always help you when you break them . The year after Return to Paradise was released , there was another film released called Brokedown Palace that borrowed so heavily from it that it was almost a remake with females . But even though that film made every possible effort to capture the intensity and power of Return to Paradise , it just could not achieve the same effect . This is not only because Brokedown Palace was released after Return to Paradise or even because it is such a rehash of the same idea , but simply because Return to Paradise is one of those movies that has such a powerful effect that any succeeding film that approaches the same idea cannot re-create the same experience . There is an amazing atmosphere that permeates the entire film , from the beginning part with the three friends ' vacation in Malaysia to the scenes in New York . Downtown New York was presented just as well as the Malaysian prison , making each of them that much more effective as far as communicating the horrific experience that Lewis McBride ( yet another brilliant but traditionally unenviable role played by Joaquin Phoenix ) suffers through for two years before Sherriff and Tony learn what has happened and are suddenly faced with a decision that will change their lives forever . ( spoilers ) One of the many things that is truly admirable about Return to Paradise is the ending . Rather than trying vainly and failing spectacularly to force a smile onto unhappy material ( as was the case in Brokedown Palace ) , we see an east Asian country stand up for its laws and enforce them in their own way . This film delivers a powerful message that the United States is not all-powerful . We cannot simply travel to a distant country and think that we can do whatever we want because we're out of America and clearly this country where no one even speaks English can have their own rules much less be able to enforce them . Lewis suffered a horrible fate , which most people in America would think was extremely harsh for the relatively harmless crime they had committed , but Malaysia has their own beliefs about that crime , their own punishment for it , and their own reasons for not relenting simply because this was an American kid . Of course , they're never going to achieve a successful democracy over there in Malaysia if they keep killing off their potheads . Who would be president ? ? |
544,832 | 562,732 | 268,995 | 10 | Jim Carrey's best performance ever . | The Majestic is probably one of the most complex and satisfying romantic dramas to come along in years . It tells a very complex story that is fascinating from beginning to end , however unlikely it is in reality . Obviously , it's not likely that a man is going to stumble into a small town after an accident and be mistaken for someone else by that town's Mayor and all of its citizen's including the man's former fiancée and even his FATHER . No matter how vaguely you look at him , Peter Appleton does not look like Luke Trimble and he most certainly does not talk like Matt Damon . However , once you suspend disbelief enough to accept that this has happened , you get a great story about a man trying to figure things out , as he put it . Jim Carrey delivers a stunningly convincing performance as Peter Appleton , the struggling screenwriter whose career is threatened because he is suspected to be a communist at the height of the Red Scare . Needless to say , we grow to like Appleton enormously over the course of the movie even though he doesn't even know who he is and for a lot of the time we're not even really sure either . When we see that his career threatened to be destroyed by these groundless suspicions ( not to mention when we see a lot of men that we hate from the moment we see them ? one of which keeps a fly swatter in his office within easy reach on his desk . How's THAT for symbolism ? ) , it becomes clear that the movie has a lot to say about how the government handles things like this . But more important than that , the movie says a lot about the public , particularly the moviegoing public ( yeah , that's you ) . The movie portrays the public as a group of people who are ready and willing to follow along with whatever they hear in the newspapers and condemn the movies written by a man who is suspected by the government to be a communist . Here's a completely innocent man whose life was about to be ruined because of the gullibility of the American public . I can't say I was entirely thrilled with a lot of the small details in the movie , such as the fact that Appleton was a screenwriter but was a bad speller ( people who write for a living did not get to that position by being bad spellers ? professional writers who can't spell do not exist ) or the fact that after the car crash the director felt the need to have Appleton smack his head on the cement pillar ( was falling off the bridge and landing in the river upside down not enough ? ) or even the fact that he walked into the town of Lawson and looked ' familiar ' to everyone he saw . Could NO one place him ? Oh , and remember what happened after the crash ? Appleton washed up on the beach along with his CAR . What the hell ? ! Was it made of styrofoam ? Besides that , the landscaping in the movie could use a little work . There was hardly a single backdrop in the entire film that didn't look fake , but the story is so good that it vastly overshadows things like this . Jim Carrey once again proves himself as an extremely capable actor , and that he is not just some slapstick comedian goofball . His reactions are perfect as people begin to realize who they think he is . This is a nearly perfect performance , it keeps you entertained from beginning to end , and never gives away too much to allow you to predict the ending . The only problem is that when the end does arrive it seems to be sort of a copout , a little TOO much of a happy ending , but not all that improbable either , especially when compared to the rest of the situations in the movie . The movie has a lot to say about the government and about America and about war ( it looks WAY down on war ) and leaves us feeling that no one in the movie was cheated even though Appleton's career was unfairly put into danger , a whole town was brought to their feet by someone who wasn't who they thought he was , and Luke Trimble was just as dead as the town of Lawson had been thinking that he was for 9 ½ years . The trial before the House Un-American Activities Committee was one of the best climactic scenes I've seen in a movie in years . Jim Carrey's performance is at it's peak here as he clearly shows that Appleton is trying to decide if he should go ahead and take the risk of standing up to the committee , and he does it so well that it makes you want to stand up and cheer for him . I'm an aspiring director , and this is exactly the kind of movie that I want to make . |
544,079 | 562,732 | 24,184 | 10 | A true classic . This is a historic action thriller that is not to be missed . | What a great show this was . Claude Rains plays Jack Griffin , a scientist who discovers a formula with which he renders himself invisible . The only side effect of the drug is that it also slowly drives the subject insane . The special effects are terrible , in many cases it's laughably obvious how they were created , but you need to remember that this film is almost 70 years old ! For special effects like those in The Invisible Man to have been created in the early 1930s , when even SOUND was still fairly new , is extremely impressive . Even though the structure of The Invisible Man was fairly simple , there were elements of the story that showed how well thought out the movie was . Griffin points out that dirt on his feet , snow on his shoulders , and even dirt under his fingernails would be enough to give him away . He needs to wait a certain amount of time after he eats because until his food is fully digested , it is still visible ( THAT would have been interesting to see ) . With The Invisible Man , James Whale has delivered yet another masterpiece , and I think that this is among the better ones . The film has definitely dated ; the black and white photography is gritty , the camera movements are often jumpy , and the dialogue has that " old movie " scratchy sound to it , but none of these things should discourage anyone from watching this excellent film . It is one of the establishing films of horror / thriller history , and it should not be missed . |
543,886 | 562,732 | 206,634 | 10 | Incredibly well-made and important futuristic action drama ? | London , 2027 . The world society has collapsed into widespread chaos , and as the news reports in England loudly proclaim , " Only Britain soldiers on ! " Needless to say , the British have sealed their borders and have begun forcefully exporting illegal immigrants and , for nearly two decades , no one on earth has been able to conceive a child . There is global grief expressed when a teenager , the youngest boy in the world , is killed in a fight in South America . On a purely aesthetic level , I love that futuristic London looks almost the same as it looks now , which will certainly be the case when 2027 finally does roll around , with the exception that in the movie it is a frightening police state . There are no flying cars or bizarre outfits , just normal people going about their lives in a decaying society . The most futuristic things in the movie are the video billboard ( which are here now , by the way ) and the crazy looking iMacs that people are using . The movie is basically about the approaching end of mankind , the gradual disintegration of modern humanity as we know it . There are a lot of clever political jabs inserted into the plot , such as some ham-handed ones like a bunch of anti-Bush stickers on the wall of a key character's apartment , but also more clever ones , like the revelation that suicide kits are made available to the public but marijuana remains illegal . There is global fear about the inability for anyone to conceive a child , and it provides a much more immediate threat of the end of mankind than the gradual decay of civilization . If no one can procreate , the human race is sure to die out . This is an even faster and more effective method of killing off the entire human population than the deadliest plague or virus , both of which always leave survivors . The strength of the human race is founded on our diversity , but if we can't reproduce we are certainly lost . When an African woman turns up pregnant , the government wants her and there is a frantic race to gain custody of her , complicated by massive political turmoil . Clive Owen and Julianne Moore play Theo and Julian , respectively , ex-spouses who team up to protect the miraculously pregnant woman and deliver her to a location that is safe enough so that she can give birth and restore hope in the future of mankind . The movie makes an interesting and frightening assertion that mankind will not end with a bang from an asteroid or nuclear war or an act of God , but will gradually fizzle out and destroy itself , that we will bring it about ourselves , powerless to stop it even as it is happening around us . It's a scary thought , but one that we should really allow to affect the way we lead our lives and our international relationships ? |
544,088 | 562,732 | 76,759 | 10 | A true landmark in science fiction and filmmaking . | The problem with reviewing a film like Star Wars is that it has been scrutinized and analyzed and poked and prodded for decades , which leaves little left to be said about it that has not been said already ( and , consequently , probably means that virtually no one will read my review of it ! ) . The thing that allows Star Wars to really get under your skin and have such a powerful and lasting effect on you lies in the combination of its simplicity and complexity . It is no secret that the vast majority of film plots revolve around some version of the ancient ' good vs . evil ' storytelling structure , and Episode IV is probably the most widely given example of this . The original Star Wars is a shockingly simple presentation of this structure , but it is also an immensely enlarged version of it . Lucas uses good vs . evil to structure his plot , but at the same time , he adds a story that entails such a level of complexity that it is impossible to reduce the film to a tired exercise of an age-old story structure . George Lucas's superhuman visual imagination is one of the things that plays the largest role in making the original Star Wars film such a joy to watch . Every single scene is packed with visual curiosities that fascinate the viewer time after time , making the re-watch value nearly endless . Lucas is able to walk the fine line between using visual effects to carry his story and using them to enhance it , and this is an even stronger testament to the quality of the film , because the special effects , while obviously not the most technologically advanced in the world , are far superior to the complexity of the story , at least on a structural level . The thing that really counts against the newer Star Wars films - rather ironically , as it were - is that they replace the physically creative genius of these earlier films by simply creating everything through computer generated images , making the effects slightly more lifelike but immensely less realistic . A cartoon is more lifelike than a hand-puppet , but not more realistic by any stretch of the imagination . The old Star Wars films are the happy home of Lucas ' extinct belief that less is more , and we can see this in the tremendous amount of material that is discussed but never seen on screen , because it doesn't need to be . Lucas understood how powerful an effect he could create by having Obi Wan Kenobi give the young Luke Skywalker a brief description of what the Force is , and then use it to influence the weak mind of an Imperial Storm Trooper ( ' We don't need to see his identification . These aren't the droids we're looking for . ' ) . This is great stuff , and there's not a single CGI effect in the film necessary to create it . Consider , also , the extent of creativity involved in the making of the human portion of the film . We don't just see good guys and bad guys , but entire governments created with uniforms and even wildly elaborate outfits for their dark leaders ( Darth Vader is , undoubtedly , one of the most recognizable figures in film history ) . This is an extremely well-presented hierarchy of characters , but it goes beyond just the leaders to include lower levels , all the way down to the scum of the run-down trade cities , as well as other characters such as the infantry-level Storm Troopers , who always seem to travel around in amusing little idiot packs , no doubt chanting ' We are the moron brothers ' to themselves and each other all the while . It's amazing that the Imperial Forces have managed to become so immensely powerful when their most basic watchmen are such boneheads . Didn't Lord Vader notice how pathetically weak-minded all of his troopers were ? Obi Wan sure did ! Harrison Ford fits perfectly into the film as the greedy Han Solo , a character who is so one-sided that Ford has recently revealed that he has no interest in ever playing him again , which is too bad because there are sure to be a lot of interesting things that he could contribute to Episode III . Mark Hamill delivers a brilliant performance as Luke Skywalker , who has nearly as much charisma and charm as Norman Bates , without all that stuff about his mother . Carrie Fisher is spectacular as Princess Leah , although unfortunately so spectacular that her role in the early Star Wars films has immensely overshadowed the rest of her sadly dismissible career as an actor . She and Mark Hamill were both , in fact , horribly insulted by their roles in the latest idiot film from Kevin Smith , Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back . The title makes it immediately clear that the movie is to be largely a parody of the Star Wars films ( specifically the older ones ) , and the parody that is made in that film makes it very clear that some people ( Kevin Smith ) haven't sense enough to respect such tremendously successful and brilliant movies like the old Star Wars films , but rather know only to try to feed and capitalize off of them , regardless of how low they have to sink to do it . It's sad that movies come out these days that are so insulting to old classics , and that this almost always happens in spoof films , which always have the potential to be tremendously hilarious and entertaining films , but they rarely do . I hope that someone with some power in Hollywood will notice that the spoof films that blatantly exploit the films they are parodying in order to get some cheap laughs are unequivocally the awful ones ( Jay and Silent Bob , Scary Movie 1 and especially 2 , etc . ) . I wish it wasn't so hard for them to see that films that poke fun respectably , like Spaceballs or even Wrongfully Accused , to some extent , are always the ones that generate the most satisfying laughs , and retain the most staying power . Regardless of how the spoofs deliver moronic parodies of the original Star Wars films , however , they continue to stand as some of the greatest science fiction films of all time , and they remain that way even compared to their computer aided descendents . It is a testament to any kind of movie when it can stand up to nearly endless childish parodies as well as to theoretically improved versions of itself and extensions of its story , and still remain as powerful and moving as it was on the day it was released . |
544,346 | 562,732 | 26,029 | 10 | The second of Hitchcock's string of thrillers released in the early 1930s that went on to associate him with the thriller genre for the rest of his career . | The 39 Steps is one of Hitchcock's smartest thrillers , and it displays almost all of the characteristics that later became traditions in his films . The plot concerns an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself involved in an extraordinary situation , which is common in Hitchcock's thrillers , but in this case it is especially noteworthy of the extent to which this man's involvement was completely accidental and unwitting . It could very well have happened to just about anyone who was in his position . The film starts off in a crowded theatre during the performance of a man who goes by the name of Mr . Memory . He learns 50 new facts each day and literally never forgets a thing . While the audience is questioning him to test his intellect , a shot rings out and the frightened crowd quickly disperses . Robert Donat plays the part of Richard Hannay ( as well as a variety of other identities ) . After the gunshot , Hannay leaves with Anna Smith , who turns out to be the woman who fired the shot in order to create a diversion to escape from two men who wanted to kill her . Hannay gradually catches on to Smith's strange behavior in his apartment , afraid to have the lights on and not wanting to get too close to any open windows , and at first he scoffs at her , calling it ? persecution mania . ' ( spoilers ) Clearly , Hannay is a regular guy who ran into a woman and suddenly finds himself involved in this criminal situation , much like in The Man Who Knew Too Much , the thriller that Hitchcock released just before this one . In this case , however , the unwitting involvement is even more believable , because a normal guy seems to leave a theatre with a normal woman , and the next thing you know she ends up dead and he ends up impersonating the milkman to get out of the building ( in a scene that is certainly not without its comic appeal ! ) . Soon we see the famous match cut on sound when the maid finds the woman dead and turns to the camera to scream , and her scream is drowned out by the train whistle that begins the next scene ( probably one of the most famous bits of editing that Hitchcock ever made ) . The rest of the movie takes place on the train , and we begin to see references and allusions and foreshadows to some of Hitchcock's earlier and later films , such as the way Hannay overhears people on the train discussing the murder to which he has been erroneously linked ( similar to Hitchcock's earlier film Blackmail ) , the train is crawling with police officers ( also similar to Blackmail ) , two businessmen are ( strangers on the train , you might say ) are entirely preoccupied with a cricket game even during shootouts that they are involved in ( similar to Bob Lawrence's occasional aloofness in The Man Who Knew Too Much ) , and like in just about all of Hitchcock's other films , he uses complex editing to convey an impressive amount of the plot . In fleeing from the murder , Hannay finds lodging with a poor Irish couple who live in a cabin out in the country , conveniently isolated from his pursuers . At a dinner table scene , there is an exchange of glances in which the wife sees a newspaper headline reporting a murderer on the run , then she looks at Hannay who returns her glance with one that tries to admits that the headline refers to him but that he is not really a murderer . The woman's husband sees all this and immediately concludes that they are having an affair . The scene is constructed using a complex sequence of close-ups and point of view shots . Hannay sees the newspaper article on the table and we see his eyes scanning the page , and then we see a shot of the newspaper on the table . The wife sees Hannay reading and follows his glance , sees the newspaper , and then looks up at him with a horrified expression . There is a quick bit of cross-cutting between them as they have their silent conversation in which he attempts to tell her with no words that he's not a killer , and then we see a shot of all three of them from across the table , the husband in the middle on the far side and his wife and Hannay on either side of the table and the screen , the husband's eyes are darting back and forth between them . Through nothing but close shots of facial expressions and the juxtaposition of shots we see the wife discover Hannay's secret , Hannay's attempt to explain it to her without words , and the husband's resulting suspicion that they are having an affair . The level of humor in The 39 Steps is especially effective . Humor is present in just about all of Hitchcock's films , and is often the most effective when it is inserted in places where it doesn't seem to belong , which happened in The Man Who Knew Too Much the year before The 39 Steps was released , and probably even more in this film . In some cases , the comedy is juxtaposed with scenes that are most certainly not to be laughed at , leaving you with mixed emotions about whether you should laugh or cringe . There is a scene after Hannay has left the Irish couple's cabin that her husband discovers that she has not only let Hannay escape when he planned to sell him to the police for the reward , but has also given him his good coat as protection . He advances on her and we hear him begin to beat her off screen , and then the film immediately cuts to a scene where some detectives are marveling over a hymn book that managed to stop a bullet and save Hannay's life ( joking about just how hard it really is to get through those hymns ) . Hitchcock mixes a very serious scene here that entails some social commentary with one that is genuinely amusing , especially a moment later when the detective says , ' We're not so daft in Scotland Yard as you smart Londoners think ! ' as he arrests the wrong man . Hannay later refers to some sheep as ' a whole flock of detectives , ' making an unmistakable comment on Hitchcock's opinions of the law enforcement community . From this point on , Hannay finds himself handcuffed to a woman who thinks him a murderer , and he is faced with the task of convincing her that he is not a criminal while at the same time trying to get her to flee with him so he can avoid capture . There is some interesting symbolism in this relationship as she gradually begins to believe that maybe he is telling the truth . When she finally discovers for sure that he is telling the truth , he is asleep on a bed , and she has managed to free herself from the handcuffs . Rather than run from him , she goes to him and covers him with the blankets , which is understandable since she is probably developing the obligatory romantic connection with him , but then she pulls the covers back off of him and covers herself , seemingly showing that she doesn't really care about him but is instead only interested in her own protection . In the closing scene of the film , Mr . Memory is revealed to be not the astronomically intelligent man that he was presented as earlier in the film , but rather a man who has a steel trap of a mind but who exercises little control over the information that goes into or comes out of it . It seems that he has been given secret information to prevent any kind of paper trail , and in the climax of the film , Hannay storms into the theatre during one of his performances , pursued by police and criminals alike , and demands of Mr . Memory to tell what the 39 Steps is , and Mr . Memory's expression goes blank as he recites that information that has been installed in his head . ' The 39 Steps is a collection of spies collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of ? BANG ! ! ' Poor Mr . Memory drops to the floor dying , Hannay is vindicated , and the film closes with a heartwarming if slightly cheesy close up shot of the woman holding Hannay's hand , which still has an empty cuff hanging from it . |
544,839 | 562,732 | 27,977 | 10 | Charlie Chaplin's own deeply impoverished past plays an extensive role in the theme of his film Modern Times , which is probably the most potent of his dozens of films that deal with the difficult lives of th | It is a testament to Chaplin's filmmaking skills that he is able to impose such significant meaning on what really boils down to little more than a series of comedy skits strung together on an apparently flimsy clothesline of a plot . Indeed , the cinematic value of Modern Times is unquestionable , but it is ironically noteworthy that such a simple and even blocky plot is made into such a memorable film experience and delivers such a strong , time-transcending message about poverty stricken populations . It is no secret that Charlie Chaplin was more or less dragged into the sound era against his will . In the early part of the 20th century , he had built a tremendous career as a silent film actor , and had created a character , the Tramp , that was purely a silent film character who could not be transported into the sound era . Charlie had built his career and his popularity with the Tramp , and the coming of sound to the cinema meant the end of that character ( as illustrated by Robert Downey Jr . ' s Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 film Chaplin , ' The Tram CAN'T talk . The minute he talks , he's dead . ' ) . Chaplin delivers to the world a cynical satire about modern technology as well as his own ode to the silent film with Modern Times . Charlie plays the part of a man who works a dehumanizing position in a factory in which he is little more than a component of a machine , and he is controlled like a pawn by the menacing boss , who we see mostly as a looming face on a tremendous television screen . Clearly , the most memorable scenes in the film involve something to do with the factory , such as Charlie's brief trip into the innards of the machine , as well as his warm-hearted efforts to feed lunch to a man who has inadvertently become lodged in a machine , with only his head free . However , there is a very noteworthy but fairly subtle subplot that quietly reveals Chaplin's fondness for the silent film . The first and most obvious thing is that for the most part , this is a silent film . There are intertitles , there is precious little dialogue , and the film's main character doesn't utter a sound until near the end of the film . But there are also a lot of other things that more subtly hint that silent films are better than sound films . For one thing , the only intelligible words spoken in the film are done so through some sort of barrier . There is the factory boss speaking demandingly through the television screen , and the feeding machine company speaking through the radio as they try to sell the feeding machine to the factory boss . This becomes the most obvious by the fact that anyone speaking on screen - such as the factory boss as he tells the men that the feeding machine is not practical - only does so in intertitles . We know that dialogue can be put in the film , but Chaplin chooses only to do this in a detached and mechanized way . There is also a very strong example of Chaplin's endless sympathy for poor people at several points in this film . The most significant example of this is his interactions with the Gamin , played by Paulette Goddard , as well as his nearly constant contempt toward the police . After the scene where he gorges himself at a small diner ( note that the window said ' Cafeteria : Tables For Ladies ' ) , he casually calls an officer into the diner and tells him to pay the tab , unable to pay it himself . As he is handcuffed to the officer , he gets a cigar from a nearby vendor and hands some large candy bars to a couple of small children nearby , who look to be the type of children who are never sure where their next meal is going to come from . Charlie plays a hard working , lower class man in Modern Times , and no matter how badly he just wants to get some good work and earn a living so that he can buy a house for himself and Paulette , things constantly seem to go wrong for him . It seems that this bad luck is used to suggest that poor people are not poor as a result of their own shortcomings , but because they just can't seem to work their way up to a better life , no matter how hard they try . This social commentary is intertwined with such skillful intricacy with the story about Chaplin's love of silent film that there is really no switching back and forth between the two . Modern Times strikes me as especially memorable because it is a very simple story that is punctuated by a series of comedy skits , yet it also delivers several different messages that are important to society as well as to the filmmaker himself . In this way , the movie almost seems to deliver these strong messages without the audience even being aware that they are being presented with these issues . It is a great way to mix entertainment with important societal topics , and Charlie's decision to finally have the Tramp utter vocalized speech is done so in an endlessly watch-able song and dance scene , adding to the immeasurable number of film skits for which Charlie Chaplin will be remembered and loved . |
544,355 | 562,732 | 212,720 | 10 | A . I . is a perfect example of negative criticism born from expectations based on assumption or ignorance . | That's right , Steven Spielberg is back . He has taken it upon himself to helm the story started years and years ago by the late Stanley Kubrick , and Kubrick's influence is strikingly clear , especially late in the film . A lot of people were put off by A . I . , but this is because they expected a cute kids movie , something in the tradition of E . T . I don't know , maybe it's the fact that both movies have initials in the titles that caused this association . Spielberg is no stranger to dark content . I don't think I need to take the time to explain the content of much of Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List or even pars of Jurassic Park . Before I saw A . I . , I read that Spielberg described the tone as what you would get if E . T . had been killed and dissected by the scientists , or if he had never recovered from that mysterious disease . This is a surprisingly accurate description of what you get with the film , so be warned ! Don't come out disappointed because of false expectations , as I'm sure is the case with soccer moms around the world . The other thing that people are likely to criticize A . I . for is the almost uncomfortable closeness with which the film parallels the Pinocchio story in many ways . Sure it does that , but it never pretends that it doesn't . On the other hand , you have to keep in mind that this is also a tremendously different version of the Pinocchio story . This is not the story of a puppet , made for entertainment , miraculously attaining consciousness and emotions and wanting to be a real boy , it's the story of a hugely advanced artificially intelligent robot , created to love and comfort humans , attaining consciousness and emotions and wanting to be a real boy . ( spoilers ) The thing to remember here is the extent to which reality was considered when creating a film with such a fantastical premise . Sure , this is science fiction , but one of the greatest pitfalls of the sci fi genre is the excessive dismissal of reality . In A . I . , everything that can go wrong , does go wrong , and it's a good thing , because that's life . Monica decides to keep little David ( Osment ) , but then her real son comes out of his coma , which no one expected . Needless to say , all sorts of complications come as a result . Martin ( Monica's son ) treats David with all of the inhumanity and cruelty as he would treat any lifeless toy . He has no respect for David's feelings , and while this does not seem to bother David , it does have an impact on the development of his emotions . Later on , we find out how hated these androids are by real humans , we see them destroyed , we see them rotting in dumps filled with sickening body parts , where damaged and mutilated robots wander , in search of replacement parts . This is not a perfect futuristic world , although it is a lot cleaner and more optimistic than the future presented in the majority of science fiction films . The emphasis here is not placed on making everyone happy . You won't walk away from the film with a contented smile on your face , everything does not go as planned , and no one lives happily ever after . In fact , the end of the film runs the risk of ruining the rest of it , the way the end of Mission to Mars absolutely wrecked what was otherwise a decent sci fi film . The unimaginably advanced machines of 2000 years in the future are at first frighteningly disappointing , but also strangely beautiful ( they look like machinery encased in flawless glass . . . ) and not entirely beyond reason . They may have been a little too computer animated , but they ultimately served their purpose well . Haley Joel Osment gives a stunning performance as David , he even surpasses his excellent performance in the great film The Sixth Sense . Haley Joel is on his way to big things . The special effects were spectacular , both with all of the machines as well as the scenery and also the little things , like the great character Teddy . Teddy was a much better character than Wilson in Cast Away , by the way . And Jude Law gave a strangely refreshing performance as Gigolo Joe , the lover robot who also ends up inadvertently as David's fortunate sidekick . With A . I . , Steven Spielberg has taken his uncanny ability to please huge numbers of people and mixed it with Stanley Kubrick's uncanny ability to perplex huge numbers of people , and the result is a tremendously pleasing film that unfortunately went completely misunderstood by a substantial portion of the audience . There can be no mistake about the quality of this movie , but the subject matter is something that today's spoiled audiences are not likely to swallow too easily . Modern cinema is so sugar coated and drab that people just can't take it when a little robot boy spends 2000 years in a stolen police helicopter at the bottom of the ocean , pleading to a lifeless statue to make him into a real boy . If you just can't stand not having a bright side , consider the fact that if she had made him real , he would have died . The movie ends in death , but it is a desired death . It is a rest for a robot who has searched for closure for all those years , much like what was seen in the far inferior Bicentennial Man . If you hated the movie , I'm sorry to hear it , but I can say with reasonable certainty that it's because you didn't understand it or you had unjustifiable expectations . Watch it again with an open mind , and enjoy this excellent film for what it is . Steven Spielberg was obviously not concerned with making everyone happy when he wrote the screenplay for A . I . , he was concerned with telling a good story , and that's exactly what he did . |
544,688 | 562,732 | 57,115 | 10 | Heroes underground . | I imagine it was the lengthy running time that kept me for so many years from seeing The Great Escape , although that doesn't explain why I haven't seen hordes of other movies . But I've been going back and watching all the old classics and The Great Escape is one of the best ones I've seen so far . The movie is not only wildly entertaining throughout it's nearly three hour duration , but shows some actors who went on to become famous for other roles in decades and generations to come . Granted , I am speaking from the perspective of a different generation of moviegoers , which is why I know Charles Bronson more from Death Wish than this film , or James Coburn from films like Payback and Affliction , Donald Pleasance as Dr . Sam Loomis and Richard Attenborough as John Hammond from the Jurassic Park films . I think the thing I loved the most about the movie was how open everyone was about their plans to escape . Not that they tried to escape out in the open , but they made no effort to hide the fact that they were analyzing their surroundings , trying to find a way to get out . As we soon learn , it is their sworn duty as captured officers to consistently try to escape and , failing that , to make life as confusing and frustrating as humanly possible for their captors . The story involves a lot of British officers being held captive by the Germans , at a prison where all of the most consistent escapers have been compiled for special supervision . When the prisoners arrive at the beginning of the movie , many of them , including Virgil Hilts ( Steve McQueen ) walk into the gates and then immediately walk to the fences around the outsides of the compound , looking up and down the length of the fences , studying where the guard towers are , looking in broad daylight for ways to escape . What follows is a brilliant competition between the proud British officers being held captive and the Germans guarding them , as the British make every attempt to escape and receive minimal punishment when they're caught . 20 days in the cooler for a failed escape attempt ( doubled from only 10 for mouthing off ) is pretty light compared to what I would have expected POWs to have suffered at the hands of the Nazis in World War II . Because the escapes are only hidden during their preparations , there are portions of The Great Escape that play almost like a sports movie more than a war film , because of the atmosphere of competition and , among other things , there is so much comic relief , One of my favorite scenes is the one where they first begin digging under the floor in their bunker . Danny Velinski ( Bronson ) is under the floor digging away when the Germans march in for a surprise inspection , and he jumps out , they put the cover back on the hole and smear clay around it and then pour water into it , one guy starts mopping the floor , everyone else goes back to playing cards or milling about , and Velinski hops in the shower , and the suspicious officers come in and demand to know what they're each doing . The guy mopping explains that he's mopping , Velinski says he needed a wash , and Louis Sedgwick ( Coburn ) , says about Velinski , " I'm watching him . I'm a lifeguard ! " It's also a great scene when Hilts ( McQueen ) tells Bartlett ( Attenborough ) and the other officer his plan for escape . Steve McQueen is the star of the movie but spends most of it pretty much out of the loop . He was in the cooler when the plans for the great escape were first hatched , so when he finally got out most of the camp was involved in planning this epic breakout , and Hilts comes up to Bartlett and one other officer and gleefully tells them about his and Ives ' nutty plan to burrow three feet down and dig straight out , sticking metal tubes through the ground to the surface so they can breathe . Bartlett and the other officer leave both of them out of the plans for the time being , for reasons that are explained later in the film . The movie is expertly written , with outstanding dialogue and even better performances and direction that I like to think is still inspiring filmmakers throughout the world . I learned from another reviewer on the IMDb that the music is almost competing within itself , with different instruments representing the British and the Germans , so I was watching for it when I watched the movie . Not only is the different music representative of the two opposing sides , but it does it within scenes and even within individual shots . Consider , for example , the scene where Hilts and Ives are first brought into the cooler . The music is almost reacting to what is going on on screen , like it's trying to describe where each character is within the frame . That is true film-making brilliance . The movie ends with a massive setback , a tremendous downturn in tone , but does so without turning into a tragedy or overshadowing everything else that has gone on before that and , most importantly , while remaining true to the real life story . It displays the pride and determination of British military as well as was done in The Bridge on the River Kwai , and that is a major accomplishment . Bravo . |
544,057 | 562,732 | 12,349 | 10 | A picture with a smile ? and perhaps , a tear . | Charlie Chaplin's first full length feature film , and his biggest success up to that date , is a remarkably heartwarming story , which makes the surprising connection between slapstick comedy and dramatic tragedy . It begins with a woman who's " sin was motherhood , " who gives birth to a baby she can't support at a Charity Hospital which is kept pad-locked from the inside . She is forced to abandon it in an alley , and before long Chaplin wanders by and what follows is one of the best sequences of the film , as he is casually strolling by and then , through a series of odd but entirely believable situations , he is unable to get rid of it . It is no secret that little Jackie Coogan nearly stole the show from Chaplin ( who was in top form ) playing the little boy at 5 years old . Charlie's life is thrown into turmoil by the unexpected arrival of the baby , but eventually he sort of organizes his life and when the kid gets a little older they make a nice living together , the boy breaking windows and Charlie selling replacements . Soon the police notice so they have to cut and run , because there are other conflicts approaching which will warrant screen time much more than how they make money . It is interesting to watch the film oscillate back and forth from Chaplin's traditional slapstick comedy and a much more developed , dramatic story . The film is interspersed with pure slapstick and some genuinely moving moments ( sometimes simultaneously , if you can believe that ) , but overall it is a truly heartwarming tale of friendship and family and survival , and it is never once predictable , all the way until the last frame . There is a quick scene where the kid gets into a fist fight with another little boy , and in between " rounds , " Charlie is rubbing the kid down and congratulating him on fighting so well , and giving him hints for the rest of the fight . Meanwhile , the other kid's brother shows up , a massive oaf of a man who looks more like Frankenstein's monster than anything else . What follows is a pretty funny fight that looks startlingly similar to the fight between Charlie and the town bully in Easy Street . This is a slapstick set-up that is so simple that it could have been thrown in just to take up screen time , were it not for it's direct relevance to the story . At another point , there is pure slapstick taking place in their little shack of a home , as the 1921 version of Child Protective Services shows up to tear the young boy crying from Jackie's arms . I think this is the only time in any film that I've ever seen genuine , low-brow slapstick so seamlessly combined with a truly sad and heartbreaking incident . This combination , not just here but throughout the film , is The Kid's biggest achievement . There is a dream sequence near the end of the film that I am really not sure what to think about , although my understanding is that volumes have been written about it's symbolic meaning , both within the movie and in reference to Chaplin's personal life . And speaking of which , supposedly there were some legal issues involving money and divorce for which Chaplin sped the film stock to Utah for editing . I don't know which story to believe , that it was because of Chaplin's painful divorce or because he was unhappy with his salary ( I would bet it's a little of both ) , but the film is here and I guess ultimately that's all that matters . In the five or six times that I've seen The Kid , I am always a little uncomfortable with that kiss that Charlie gives the kid when he finally rescues him from the back of that truck , if only because I am conscious that he is not the tramp's real son , either on screen or off . Then again , I am looking at it with 21st century eyes . Some of Shirley Temple's early films are also a little disturbing to me , although for not quite the same reasons . By this time , Chaplin was fully on the road to his career in full length feature films , and after 36 short comedies for Mack Sennett at Keystone Studios and a dozen or so more for Essanay and Vagabond ( along with a few assorted others ) , Charlie was fast on the way to establishing himself as one of the greatest stars in the history of the cinema . |
543,741 | 562,732 | 50,825 | 10 | Scary . | It really is a testament to the power of the story told by this film that it stars the French army and they all speak nothing but English , and yet it is still be incredibly moving and compelling . On the other hand , the movie is not really about war but about the soldiers , kind of like Full Metal Jacket . It is structured almost exactly the opposite , with the first half of the film taking place on the battlefield and the second half off . Kirk Douglas plays Col . Dax , whose platoon is ordered to take a hill called the Anthill against staggering odds , almost surely a suicide mission . As the men rush out of the trenches in an attempt to complete the mission , I was reminded of Gallipoli as they were all mowed down within feet of exiting the trenches . It becomes clear that the mission is , ahem , impossible , and is abandoned . Where the movie is truly great is in its characterizations and the complexity of their relationships with one another . Watch , for example , the roles that certain characters play at the beginning and where they end up near the end of the film , such as the General who ordered soldiers to fire on their own men and the man who abandons two of his men on a watch , resulting in one of their deaths and the subsequent court martial and trial of the other . The situations that they end up in are what make the movie powerful . Clearly , the accepted forms of punishment for failing to accomplish a mission are frightening . I have no idea how accurate they are as to French military practices at the time , but for three soldiers to be taken at random and tried and sentenced to death because their entire platoon failed in an impossible mission is scary indeed . I wonder how they would have handled a few soldiers who refused to go on a mission to deliver contaminated gasoline because the vehicles had almost no armor on them whatsoever . What is truly amazing to me is that Kubrick was able to make a movie about massive military injustice and still make the audience laugh at certain times . The cockroach scene , for example , is wonderful comic relief . You get a good laugh without losing sight of the drama and the importance of the rest of the film . It is not uncommon to read that this is the greatest anti-war film of all time , and while there are other anti-war films that I think rank right up there with Paths of Glory , this certainly is one of the greatest ever made . |
544,030 | 562,732 | 871,924 | 10 | Fascinating ! | Recently I have been learning a lot about ancient Chinese history and am completely transfixed . I read a book about the treasure fleets of Zheng He , the Grand Eunuch during the Ming Dynasty who led , at the time ( the early 1420s ) , the world's largest armada on a series of great voyages around the world , basically mapping the entire planet decades and centuries before the great European explorers . Unfortunately , because of internal strife ( and an unbelievably unlucky lightning storm ) , the government was overthrown and all records of the voyages and discoveries deliberately destroyed , followed by China turning in on itself for hundreds of years , allowing the great European explorers like Columbus and Magellan and Cook to follow in the footsteps of the great Chinese fleets , often using their maps , and then claim credit for their discoveries . I am still on the keen lookout for any TV or film representations of those great voyages , which immediately piqued my interest in seeing this BBC series about lost ancient cities . Each episode would be entertaining enough to me already , but becomes more so because each lost city is also shrouded in a seemingly unsolvable mystery , like the ancient city of Pyramesse , whose buildings were discovered nowhere near where the foundations were . How could it be in two places at once ? And why did these great cities disappear altogether anyway ? These are completely engrossing stories about ancient civilizations that will really open your eyes about how complex and developed the history of mankind is . The evolution of society certainly did not take place over anything even resembling a linear pattern . Great , powerful civilizations rose and fell and were obliterated by millennia of sand , only to be discovered and then remain clouded in mystery for decades more , while the secrets of the cities remained to be solved for decades longer . I did , I should admit , find it a little strange that , for example , the great city of Pyramesse ( considered sort of a " holy grail " among Egyptologists ) , was discovered in the form of a huge area covered with the massive pieces of buildings , completely out in the open . They could have been seen from an airplane . How did it remain lost for so long ? I am usually not a big fan of seeing the TV recreations of the time periods , because given that they are made for TV they are automatically going to be of lower quality than a film version might be , although here they are generally very well done and present a vivid picture of what those times must have looked like . The only scene in the three episodes I watched that was a little too much was one which showed Rameses in his battle gear . He is riding on a chariot and wearing this goofy , bright blue helmet that not only looks like cheap plastic but also makes him look like a spaceball . Did he really wear such a thing ? At any rate , I will definitely be on the lookout for more of these . It's fascinating and well made , and leaves you with the feeling that there is still so much about human history that remains buried beneath the sand . Highly recommended ! |
544,450 | 562,732 | 268,978 | 10 | Beautiful . A startlingly convincing portrayal of mental illness . | A Beautiful Mind is a difficult movie to review . I always think that the terrible movies are the most fun to review , because there's nothing better than slashing a movie like Scary Movie or Coyote Ugly that is obviously a belligerent mess , but it is the great films that allow for the presentation of some meaning in a review , and A Beautiful Mind presents a unique set of challenges in reviewing a great film . One way to begin to look at this film is to simply try to list the vast number of ways in which the film illuminates different elements of the human condition . There are the obvious ones , such as the problems associated with mental illness , as well as the fact that people who suffer from mental illness can be considered nothing other than victims , but are still all too often frightened and hurt by their treatment , but then there are less obvious ones , such as the fact that people truly are a product of their environment , and in the case of John Nash , that very environment lashes out at him when it is not processed correctly in his head . Whatever the extent to which these things are true , Nash's delusions are clearly a result of the stress involved in his education ( as well as the fact that , as they say , genius is often associated with madness ) , the stress involved with the type of work that his specialty leads to , and perhaps most importantly , Nash's perception of the government as cryptic and potentially dangerous , as well as his perception of the Russians as dangerous people who are constantly involved in some sort of conspiracy . Nash becomes a victim of that a government in his own mind as well as in the real world , although in the real world they are seeking to help him rather than to force him to perform work that he doesn't believe in . ( spoilers ) The first 45 minutes to an hour of A Beautiful Mind , admittedly , are hardly Oscar material , either the acting or directing or anything else , but once you realize that Nash's entire occupation with the government as well as his roommate were all in his head , then you go back and analyze the beginning of the film more closely with that knowledge . This is very much the same kind of plot twist that we saw in The Sixth Sense a couple years ago , except that it is much more applicable to real life in this case . The Sixth Sense was the portrayal of a sort of afterlife , the existence of which is very much debatable , while A Beautiful Mind is the portrayal of a man with schizophrenia , which is a very real and very incurable disease . The film is , in fact , virtually a textbook of schizophrenic symptoms and the workings of schizophrenia . One of my favorite things about In Dreams , a film that I truly enjoyed and I will stand by my assertion that it is a quality film , was the way that it presented the mental illness of Vivian Thompson ( Robert Downey Jr . ) , the rather unusual villain presented in that film . In fact , I think I said something in my review of In Dreams about how you should watch the movie if you want to know what it's like to be insane , but A Beautiful Mind is a much more mature , realistic , and convincing presentation of a more specific and more debilitating mental disease than whatever it was exactly that Vivian suffered from in In Dreams . This is not a psychological thriller , but an intensely humanitarian drama that powerfully delivers the extraordinary story of John Nash's life . There is just the right amount of humor in just the right places , Ron Howard's brilliant direction takes us through the unimaginable maze of schizophrenia , and you leave the film feeling that you have not only been entertained for two and a half hours , but that you have learned something important about one of the most devastating mental illnesses currently acknowledged and studied . There are thousands of things that you simply can't learn from reading a book , and the true nature of mental illnesses is obviously one of them . While I can't say whether or not A Beautiful Mind accurately depicted schizophrenia ( because I don't suffer from it , nor does anyone I know ) , I can say that it is an exceptional portrayal of the thing that victims of schizophrenia experience . Through his vast contributions to humanity despite being plagued by terrifying schizophrenic delusions , John Nash has entered the realm of mentally ill people who have truly done great things in spite of their illnesses , such as Kay Redfield Jamison and Sylvia Plath , both of whom have written startlingly enlightening books that illuminate their respective disorders . I've always thought that it would just be great to be as recognized and respected as Nash has become , with the condition that I would not have to suffer through all of the hardships that he went through . John Nash has more than earned his fame , both because of his illness and because of his accomplishments ( although potentially not because of either of them alone ) , and A Beautiful Mind is a fantastic film that brings it all to the screen for the public to see and to learn and benefit from . |
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