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543,991 | 562,732 | 94,027 | 10 | A truly inspiring film about one of the most important things that you can ever have ? an education . | Stand And Deliver deals with a lot of inner city kids who have grown up in a bad neighborhood and who all have dismal outlooks for the future . Edward James Olmos delivers the performance of his career as Jaime Esclante , the math teacher who comes to this school determined to teach these kids calculus and have them succeed in school to inspire them to improve the rest of their lives . The rest of the staff at Garfield High School has just as little faith in him and his efforts as they do in the rest of the school , and the film is also able to remain even more interesting because it deals with the lives of the kids outside of the school as well as in the classroom . Because the film presents such a realistic image of inner city life , we are completely engrossed with the atmosphere and the efforts of Mr . Escalante to teach these kids advanced mathematics , when many times they don't even want to put forth the effort themselves . There have been many films made about students with little to no potential showing that they are capable of being educated , and Stand and Deliver ran a huge risk of being repetitive when it was released , but it manages to cover new ground because it deals with so many different levels of the lives of the kids and the efforts of the teacher to teach them . The film is able to revolve not just around the kids trying to learn or the teacher trying to teach them , but around both of these things as well as around the daily lives of the students and the teacher and even the health and relationship of Mr . Escalante with his wife . We are introduced to a variety of fascinating and memorable characters in this film , particularly in Mr . Escalante , played brilliantly by Edward James Olmos , and especially Angel , played by Lou Diamond Phillips ( who , by the way , can be seen at his desk on the cover of the movie , but can't be seen on the IMDb's top billed list of cast on the Stand and Deliver page ) . The movie has the perfect amount of comic relief that is genuinely amusing but that doesn't take away from the overall appeal and seriousness of the movie . I can't say that there were no scenes within the film that were dramatized for effect , thereby illustrating the influences of Hollywood on the film , but even these scenes did not take away enough from the total value of the movie and the story that it presents to tarnish the real life accomplishments of Jaime Escalante , his calculus class , and the many students thereafter at Garfield High School that managed to pass the same test that we saw in this movie . This is wonderful entertainment for the entire family , don't miss it ! |
544,401 | 562,732 | 6,684 | 10 | Maybe Chaplin's best early comedy ? | The Fireman soon strikes me as a perfect example of just how good Chaplin's earliest films could be . So many of the Keystone and Essanay comedies are rough and simple comedies with a lot of comical punching and kicking and not much else . This one has a developed story , multiple sets , location shooting , a nice love story , even a full-sized structure fire . It's also one of the earliest and best examples of Chaplin using reverse motion in his films . Here , it is used several times , and with surprisingly convincing effect , to show people going up and down the fireman's pole and to drive the horse-drawn fire engine forwards and backwards . Charlie is in good form as he is working diligently on the fire truck , and then quickly stands at attention and salutes when the fire chief boots him on the rear while he works . He salutes each time only to be rewarded with a good thrashing , once again showing a hard working guy getting abused and mistreated by his superiors . Finally , he decides he's had enough and fights back , only to be demoted to the cook's assistant , a job at which he is satisfactorily unqualified . Lots of comic mayhem ensues . But the movie really gets good after Charlie attempts to serve dinner and soon finds the fire chief , covered in soup from head to toe , chasing him all over the station . A couple of distinguished guests arrive , and the well-dressed man tells the chief that if he allows his house to burn down so he can get the insurance money , he'll offer up his daughter's hand in marriage . What a loving father . The chief agrees , and it's an ominous sign when the daughter shows a clear interest in Charlie rather than the chief . The chief orders the men to ignore the fire alarm , showing what a responsible leader he is , so they all ignore a genuine fire call until it's almost too late . Soon they realize their error and head with all possible speed to the site of the emergency , which sure looks to me like they really set a house on fire for the movie . I'm also curious to know where exactly the exterior shots were filmed , because I come from Los Angeles and it's always fascinating to me to know where exactly shots like that were taken so I can see what it looked like more than 90 year ago . There is a healthy amount of poetic justice in the film , which is one of it's strongest points . Every action has a reaction , and all corrupt decisions are punished by fate . The corrupt man sets his house on fire , only to accidentally do so with his daughter upstairs , and not only has he asked the firemen not to respond , they are already busy with the " honest fire " anyway . He runs on foot to find them , and when he tells Charlie , the real love interest , about the fire , Charlie steals the fire truck and heads over there , leaving the rest of the team with no way to fight the real fire . The truck breaks in half on the way to the other fire , so Charlie is forced into the role of a hero . It's clear as he's climbing back down the wall on the outside of the house with the woman on his back that she's a dummy , but it's a clever effect and it works well enough . When I see things like that , and especially things like the reverse motion used in parts of the film , I always wonder how they were received when shown to the movie's original audiences . Film was still an embryonic art form , and the general public had extremely little knowledge or understanding of it . I am willing to bet that a good part of the audience was totally stunned by seeing the horses walk backwards , and not because they're stupid , just because they had never seen something like that before , and it would have been much more difficult for a layman in 1916 to imagine running a film clip in reverse than it is for us today , when it is one of the simplest special effects that we can do . Lately I've been watching a lot of Chaplin's old comedies , and I always try to view them in reference to the time in which they are made , but even so , some of them are genuinely crude and look like they were slapped together in a few hours ( which many of them were ) . But The Fireman is definitely one of the strongest of all of the early comedies that I've seen . |
543,732 | 562,732 | 95,765 | 10 | A celebration of what the movies were , are , and hopefully can be again . | From beginning to end , Cinema Paradiso is , of course , about various forms of love , but my favorite element of the story is not just the way movies are portrayed , but the way old movies are portrayed . I have a particular fondness of older films ( and a particular distaste for the shallow , exploitative and unimaginative garbage constantly cranked out by Hollywood these days ) , and one of the biggest themes of this film is the loss of purity and truth and innocence that movies once had . Obviously , I'm not talking about the glory days when kissing scenes were edited out of the projected version of a film , but the days when even a film that had the kissing and even minor , minor nudity scenes cut out of them would still draw a frantic crowd so eager to see films that they would sit for 30 minutes waiting for the second half the begin . Today , audiences would be up and asking for refunds within five minutes , and if there was no sex or explosions or car chases in the movie , many of them wouldn't be there in the first place , which is truly sad and is exactly what this movie rails against . I particularly loved the scene where Toto finally goes back home when he learns about the death of Alfredo ( which would have been a spoiler , except that you learn of Alfredo's death within the first five or ten minutes of the movie ) , and his mother tells him that just before he died , Alfredo asked her not to tell Toto , not to ask him to come back . In the next scene Toto is walking through the ruins of the Cinema Paradiso and sees how cruel time has been to it and , even worse , how cheap and derivative the movies have become that are now played there . Alfredo didn't want Toto to come back because he saw what movies were becoming , and that is a direct message to the film industry the likes of which has never been seen like this . Cinema Paradiso owns that message , and it's one of my favorite lessons about film history . |
544,580 | 562,732 | 420,286 | 10 | SUPPORT THE TROOPS , NOT THE WAR . | My brother's girlfriend has a sticker on the back of her car which reads ' If you're not completely appalled , you haven't been paying attention . ' This is a movie for those people who are not completely appalled , because if you've been paying attention then you already know most of what this movie has to say . Or maybe I've just been paying attention too much . I never for a second bought the ludicrous story of weapons of mass destruction , not from day one . I had a friend of several years in Fresno that I longer talk to because we got in such a heated discussion about Bush's upcoming war . He thought that at a time of crisis it was important that America supports it's president , I was sure , and still am , that supporting a president as he makes such a massively wrong move could only make it worse . Just because a moron made his way into the White House is no reason to show the world that we are an entire country of morons , because we are not . I like that the movie stays away from the hard line tactics of Michael Moore , placing words in people's mouths and making dangerous assertions in order to get his point across . Moore has good points and its important that people see them , but his methods are not the greatest . Uncovered : The War on Iraq is made up of the testimony of 27 government officials , most of whom were involved in the events that led to this ridiculous war in Iraq , as well as lots of archive footage of top Bush administration officials putting their feet so far in their mouths that they may need to have them surgically removed . It was mere months before Bush gave Hussein his 48 hour warning that both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice stated that Saddam had no weapons and no means of obtaining any weapons . Next thing you know he is an imminent threat who could launch WMDs within 45 minutes of giving the order . How can people be so blind ? When Fahrenheit was released , the right wing , particularly radio talk show hosts ( keep your eye out in Uncovered , by the way , for footage of Michael Savage , one of the most hate-filled and nakedly racist men ever allowed near a radio microphone in the history of the medium ) , were so shocked and frightened that they immediately denounced it as things like a ' pack of lies ' ( Rush Limbaugh ) . My question would be something like , Did Bush ever say ' Some call you the elite , I call you my base ' ? Did he ever say that or was that another of Michael Moore's lies ? In Uncovered : The War in Iraq , Director Robert Greenwald leaves no room for such hollow and weak arguments . The film is literally packed with video evidence of top Bush administration officials stating their reasons for the war , which gradually change as their faulty intelligence becomes apparent . First we went to war to rid Hussein of WMDs , then we were in Iraq to free the Iraqi people , then when that failed too we were there to make America safer , which has also failed . What's next ? Oh yeah , Saddam Hussein is a villain and the world is better off without him . Which renders very difficult to explain the footage of Donald Rumsfeld , the SITTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE , SHAKING HANDS WITH HIM . Hussein was a brutal dictator , that is not a subject of debate , but neither is the fact that Iraq and Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with . This has been staring Bush and America in the face since . Hussein was an ENEMY of Osama bin Laden . But is the world really better off without Hussein in power ? I'll be the first to say that the world may very well be better off without him , but there are two things that I can also say for certain ? Iraq is not better off without him , and America is not better off without him . Iraq has become a haven for terrorists and insurgents and is massively unsafe for everyone within the nation's borders , and Bush has demolished the image of America as a benevolent force in the eyes of the world . We are no longer a benevolent force , we are the bully that no one likes . Hussein had no weapons on mass destruction and Iraq was not a terrorist nation UNTIL America INVADED AND OCCUPIED IT . As Bush himself said in front of lots of rolling cameras , he wouldn't be happy if he were occupied either . But hey , the first rule of politics is that the man who orders the execution never drops the blade , so Bush's total lack of any kind of military combat experience will make no difference as he sends thousands of young Americans to their meaningless deaths with the flick of a pen and an arrogant smirk for the passing cameras . Bush went to war in Iraq , among other selfish reasons , to finish what his father left undone when he lost in 1992 to Bill Clinton , and the movie ends with a powerful quote from a book by George H . W . Bush himself , which stated that a ground war in Iraq would have led to an occupation that would result in countless American deaths and no end in sight . Evidently his son is so against accumulating knowledge that he doesn't even read books written by his own father . Here's something that really gets me , people attack Clinton because bin Laden was offered to him but he wanted to pursue legal means rather than reckless military action , like Bush , so bin Laden wasn't captured and later attacked us on Bush's watch . Rather than go after bin Laden to clean up what supposedly was Clinton's mess , Bush diverts the vast majority of funds and military force AWAY from the pursuit of bin Laden in order to ' use as a reason to go after Iraq ' ( Rumsfeld's words ) , attacking and removing from power a man who had absolutely nothing to do with . Way to go , Bush , because of what you've done , the insurgents planting roadside bombs in Iraq and killing our troops are acting in SELF DEFENSE . The election , which takes place a mere 8 days after the time of this writing , is the most important election in American history . Lives are at stake , and the mere act of voting Bush out of office can perform miraculous work in repairing at least some of the decades and decades of damage that he has done to this country in his four illegitimate years in office . He has destroyed America's image in the eyes of the world , and in the catastrophic event that he wins a second term ( whether by being elected for the first time , or by being wrongly appointed again ) , we will effectively show the world that we as a country agree with his illegal tactics and arrogant foreign policy . It is absolutely IMPERATIVE that this does not happen , and films like Uncovered : The War on Iraq are exactly what we need to stop it . |
544,894 | 562,732 | 47,478 | 10 | Better than The Gammage Cup , Wolves of the Calla , and A Bug's Life combined ! ! | Akira Kurosawa's ambitious Seven Samurai is a film that has been emulated and duplicated and imitated in almost every medium you can think of , probably most in books and movies , as in the cases above . It is a classic story of protection and thinly disguised revenge that has tremendous satisfactory power , but Kurosawa knows enough to avoid over-simplifying the impact of his film by introducing fault into the characters being protected . It is never really proved whether or not Kikuchio's ( Toshiro Mifune , a Kurosawa veteran ) assertion that the farmers were not nearly as poor ( and therefore unable to pay them ) as they let on is actually true , but it introduces doubt as to whether they are perfect victims . This is , of course , a movie about people , not about two dimensional characters , and any forward thinking village is going to try to save up whatever wealth or food that they can compile in order to ensure their own survival . I won't pretend to understand completely what compels samurai to do what they do , to risk their lives for such little ( if any ) reward , but I know that it is something that is almost universally accepted by samurais , and if I'm not mistaken , the samurai that abandon that code are known as Ronin , a not very enviable title . The movie is definitely something of a commitment at three and a half hours , but it flows smoothly and it takes the time to get to know its characters , which allows it to present the real world so much more clearly , and I was surprised to find that one of the most powerful scenes in the entire film took place in the last minute or two of the movie . This is an intense anti-war film that allows you to identify with three different sides in battle , the victims , the protectors , and the oppressors ( although that third not quite as much ) , and I think that one of the most important things that it does is that it provides a look into an ancient Japanese culture and makes an assertion about what may have happened that allowed for more flexibility in their culture rather than a strict adherence to established traditions , much like Chinua Achebe does in his novel Things Fall Apart , but I digress . One of the things that is introduced very early in the film is the fact that samurai are not entirely trusted by the villagers , and it is strictly forbidden that they mix with their culture , they are treated almost as subhumans , but their battlefield prowess is intensely desired . When a conflict arises about a local man's daughter becoming involved with a young samurai who is there to protect the village , he demands action and retribution , but the well-being of the rest of the village is deemed more important . There is a lot going on in the movie in terms of societal roles in Japanese culture , which affects the way things pan out in the movie ( although Kurosawa was known for rebelling against such expectations , particularly later in his career ) , and like so many of Kurosawa's films , there is so much going at so many levels that multiple viewings of the film will reveal more and more things going on that went unnoticed on the first time . Argued by many to be Kurosawa's greatest film , The Seven Samurai is certainly one among many . |
543,815 | 562,732 | 299,977 | 10 | Better than the hype would have you believe . | There are times when movies are released amidst enormous publicity and excitement and turn out to be average or even below average movies , and there are times when movies are released almost completely unnoticed and turn out to be milestones , and most rarely , there are movies that are released surrounded by great expectations and huge amounts of hype , and turn out to be even better than they were built up to be . Hero is , you might say , a close encounter of that third kind . Jet Li , whose startling martial arts capabilities have wowed audiences since Lethal Weapon 4 ( and for years previous to that , before he achieved international stardom ) has officially passed Jackie Chan , I should think , in American favor , which only a year or two ago may have seemed impossible for anyone to accomplish . Both men have released countless martial arts movies over the last decade or so , but it seems to be Jet Li who has been taking his craft more seriously . Of course , both men are incredibly skilled martial artists , but Jet Li has taken his craft in a completely different direction than Jackie Chan . While Jackie Chan's comedies are not less skillful than Jet Li's , they are certainly less dramatically moving . Jackie Chan's fighting style is much more conducive to comedy than Jet Li's , who fights with such captivating style and skill that he is much better used in hardcore action films where he's a closed off weapon , a genuine force to be reckoned with . Jackie Chan uses his skills to entertain people , and despite such flops as Romeo Must Die , Jet Li seems to want to do more with his craft . Hero , for example , is told through a series of flashbacks , as Jet Li in the present tense spends the vast majority of the movie on his knees before the king . The photography in the film is some of the most impressive I've ever seen in a movie , and embodies all of the things that I love about Japanese film-making . The lengthy shots and slow action during the scenes between Li and the king remind me of some of the best works of Kurosawa , while the stunning artistry of some of the fight scenes , many of which are given a color and display it with incredible prevalence and beauty , are so amazing that even someone who simply cannot accept zero-gravity in kung-fu movies ( I have a bit of a hard time with that myself ) can appreciate them . They take martial arts to a whole new level even beyond that seen in Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon . Posing as a messenger who has brought news to the king of an intricate plot to kill him , which he himself has stopped by dealing with the assassins personally , Li is granted unprecedented access to the throne , which no one has been able to approach closer than something like 100 paces for years . But the king is so impressed with Li's story that he rewards him by granting him permission to approach to within mere feet of the king . Gradually , it becomes apparent that Li , whose character in the movie is nameless , is one of the assassins himself , and has created this story with the help of the other assassins in it in order to win that very access to the throne . The king's realization that he has granted extraordinary royal access to an assassin is impressive indeed . But here is where the movie really gets powerful . Beyond the fight scenes , which are staggeringly remarkable both in their size , the way they are photographed and edited , and the way they are fought , the story thus far is impressive but fairly simple . But the movie has something to say about revolution , because Li has come within paces of the king , and both know that he could easily kill him , but he doesn't . He stands up and walks away , leaving a message immeasurably more powerful than if he had killed the king . Another king would have been brought in , Li would have been ultimately killed by the guards , who would arrive too late to save the king and may suffer some casualties themselves , but in the end he would be killed . The important thing is that another king would be brought in to carry on the legacy of the fallen king , this time maybe with tighter security . But because Li came close enough to kill the king but stood and walked away ( to his death , as it were ) , that king will go on ruling with Li's accomplishment in the back of his mind for the rest of his life . I could kill you right now , but I'm not going to because I've beaten you already . My job is done here . THAT is a message to an infallible dictator that is far more powerful than any measure of violence could ever be . |
544,666 | 562,732 | 102,798 | 10 | Kevin Costner's best film ever . And Morgan Freeman's . And Christian Slater's . And Sean Connery's . . . | While it's true that each of these actors has starred in films that easily rival Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves ( for example , Field of Dreams , The Shawshank Redemption , Interview With The Vampire , and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , respectively ) , this is definitely one of the best adaptations of the classic Robin Hood story ever made , and that includes the excellent Disney version ( not the best by Disney's astronomical standards , but still very good ) . The film takes place near the end of the 12th century in Jerusalem , and the effectiveness with which the time period is brought to the screen is one of the best parts of this amazingly well made film . Not only is every last character in the film , even down to the peasant extras , meticulously made to look exactly as they would be expected to have looked over 800 years ago , the settings as well as the sets were also stunningly realistic . Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman have great chemistry on screen as the mortal enemies from the classic Robin Hood tale , as do Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio , as the beloved Maid Marian . Rickman delivers a career defining performance as the hated and despised Sherriff of Nottingham who , in this film , is probably one of the best villains ever portrayed in a movie , and who far surpasses any of the Bond villains . Morgan Freeman is flawlessly cast as Ozeem , a Moorish warrior who devotes himself to Robin , vowing to remain by his side until he has returned Robin's favor of saving his life . These are just a few examples of the countless phenomenal performances in this film - everyone involved delivered a perfect performance in his or her role . There is really only one scene that falters ( the scene where Will Scarlett ( Christian Slater ) tells Robin that they are brothers ) , and that's just the result of an overly emotional scene , not bad editing on Slater's part . The Friar Tuck is a particularly memorable character , because his transformation in character from the beginning to the end of the film is one of the best examples of the intricate characterization in the movie . Another noteworthy element of this film is the breathtaking battle scenes . Not only are they amazingly well crafted , keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout , but they are also amazingly realistic and tastefully executed . There really isn't very much blood or guts , and I think that the less gore that a filmmaker manages to put in a battle while not losing any effectiveness , the better the result . However , there are a few exceptions to this general rule , such as most of Saving Private Ryan , but the huge amounts of gore in that movie were put in with good reason to evoke a specific reaction to historically accurate events . This film deserves so much praise that it is impossible to fit it all into a single review , especially a review with a 1 , 000 word cap . There is the perfect mixture of action , drama , and comedy to keep it exciting , interesting , and entertaining , while at the same time to not compromise the solid narrative structure or reduce the extent to which the film can be taken seriously , but still enjoyed on a light-hearted level . This is one of those cinematic gems that is tragically rare , and should forever be treasured . |
544,000 | 562,732 | 317,219 | 10 | Try turning right to go left ! | With as many phenomenal films on their resume as Pixar has , it is hard to believe that they can keep up the level of quality one film after another , and if you are waiting to see what will be the film that will be the first stumble from them , keep waiting because Cars is not it . Just when you think they must be running out of ideas by now , they come out with something like this and it blows me away every time . I watched Cars having never heard anything about it beyond the not very informative billboards that are plastered all over Los Angeles . The thing that I kept thinking to myself as I watched this movie is that if you took someone from , say , 1985 , and showed them this movie , they would be absolutely astounded at how far animation has come . If you took someone from 1950 and showed them this movie I don't think there is any way you could convince them that the movie is animated at all . The animation is so real that there were times when I wondered if they mixed in live action shots . I love the way the movie mixes the super-fast culture of stock car racing with the culture of a sleepy town which has become forgotten because a freeway was built nearby , taking all of the traffic away from the town and letting entropy take its course . Kind of like what happened to the Bates Motel , right ? Owen Wilson is the perfect person to voice the cocky Lightning McQueen , an up and coming stock car that is well on its way to winning a much sought after sponsorship . An unfortunate series of events , however , leaves him stuck in the charmingly named Radiator Springs , repaving their road after losing control of his throttle , so to speak , and thoroughly destroying it . He begins by thinking of them not as the little people , but as the microscopic people , not worth his time , energy , or even a thought . The process by which his views of these simple people form the plot of the film , and it is a highly entertaining ride . Larry the Cable Guy voices Mater , the town's rusty tow truck , and he steals the show from beginning to end . I got into listening to Jeff Foxworthy tapes and CDs when I was a kid living up in Diamond Springs ( near Placerville , CA ) , and from there got into the Blue Collar Comedy Tour , of which the only two that I found really funny were Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy . The guy with the mustache and goatee and the guy that was always smoking and drinking got real old real quick . My question at this point is , what else is there for Larry the Cable Guy to do in the movies ? I would love to see ( or at least hear ) more of him , but he doesn't seem to have a lot of range at this point . I think that the most important thing that makes this movie good , besides the animation and wonderful performances , is that there is depth to just about all of the characters . The amount of backstories that are smoothly provided is astonishing , and it gets you that much more into the movie . Also , in keeping with Pixar's image of not being able to curb their own overflowing creativity , the movie opens with another charming short film and , possibly my favorite part of the entire movie , ends with the characters from the movie watching excerpts from past Pixar movies , in which all of the characters are now vehicles of some sort . And one more thing , I would like to nominate the scene with the Italian-speaking Ferrari's as one of the single best scenes in any Pixar movie ! |
544,161 | 562,732 | 133,093 | 10 | HELL YEAH ! ! ! | Finally a science fiction film that cannot be immediately dismissed as either unreal or impossible . How can anyone say that this isn't exactly the way that reality is ? To try and disprove this view of reality would be like trying to disprove the existence of God . Maybe he's there , maybe he isn't , but no one can possibly prove it either way . It works the same way for The Matrix . It is possible that everything that we see is fed into our minds by machines and that we would never know it . Probably the only remotely convincing argument the other way would be that if that were true , why would the machines give us a movie like this to watch ? It would expose them ! But then again , maybe they just want to get us thinking , maybe to see how we'll react to the possibility of their existence . Maybe they are getting ready to present themselves to us . Robot rapture ! Who can say that the Wachowski brothers are not messengers ? This is by far the best science fiction film that I have ever seen . Aside from the relatively plausible story , every other element of the film was spectacular ! The special effects ( which , in my opinion , usually take more away from a film than they add ) were awesome , the fight scenes were incredibly intense , and the pace of the film itself was breathtaking . Every hole is covered up brilliantly , even down to a definition of deja-vu and a possible reason for why so many different foods taste like chicken . These little ties to reality are one of the best ways that this film was able to come off so realistically . The Matrix is absolutely not to be missed . Even people who don't like science fiction or even action films will more than likely enjoy this film . It is well presented , it is not unnecessarily excessive , and it presents the most innovative camera work in years . It has something for everyone , and will become a science fiction classic without a doubt . |
544,664 | 562,732 | 92,005 | 10 | One of the best adaptations of a Stephen King story ever . | Stand By Me is yet another one of the stories made into a movie from the author who has had more stories made into movies than any other author in history , Stephen King . Clearly , the central character here is Gordie Lachance , from whose point of view the story is told and who obviously symbolizes King himself , given many of his characteristics as well as some of the content of the film . This movie is literally filled with actors who have achieved varying degrees of success over the years , such as Jerry O'Connell , who played Vern , River Phoenix , who could have been bigger than Leonardo DiCaprio if he hadn't died , Corey Feldman , who has grown into an unenviable but visible existence , Kiefer Sutherland , who has become an excellent and very well known actor , John Cusack can be seen in a small role as Gordie's late brother , and of course , Richard Dreyfuss , who played the narrator and Gordie as an adult , has remained famous but originally achieved fame more than a decade before Stand By Me was filmed or the original story was even written . Stand By Me takes place in the summer of 1959 , the general time period that Stephen King is most skilled at presenting , and four friends set out to find the body of a kid who was killed by a train , hoping to find what they predicted would be astronomical fame . Unfortunately , the town's bullies are also out to find the body for the same reason , which leads to the films ultimate final climax . Even though this is a very clever story with which to tell a fall from innocence story , it is the brilliant characterization and the incredible acting that really make this a classic film . It is extremely rare that a film comes along that stars young kids and is so moving and powerful . Also , every one of those kids is made three dimensional in creative and smooth ways , making you feel like you really knew them by the end of the film . Vern is the fat kid who always gets picked on , Teddy and Chris both have abusive or deranged fathers , not to mention Chris's cruel brother , and Gordie is a young boy who lost his brother three months earlier in a violent accident and who has been largely ignored by his parents ever since . In one memorable scene , Gordie wonders how Teddy can be so enthusiastic about his father's alleged military achievements when the man once held his head to a stove , nearly burning his ear off . Gordie is mystified because he could care less about his own father , who hadn't laid a hand on him since he was three years old and got caught ' eating bleach under the sink . ' Stephen King pokes fun at his own craft many times in the film , such as in Gordie's vehement line , ' Fck writing . I don't want to be a writer , it's a stupid waste of time ! ' Not only that , but there are also obvious references to his other works , such as when the boys first realize that no one brought food , and Teddy says , ' This is great , what are we supposed to do , eat our feet ? ' People who actually read instead of just lazily watching the movies will recognize this as a major part of the plot of another of King's short stories , ' Survivor Type , ' from which Cast Away borrowed heavily . And why don't you people read these books ? ' The Body , ' which Stand By Me was based on , is only 148 pages long , you could read that in a couple of hours and the experience is totally different from a movie . It's even more disturbing that ' The Body ' was published in the same book ( Different Seasons ) as a couple of King's other famous stories ? ' Apt Pupil ' and , of course , ' Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption . ' Stand By Me is a story of how one event can unexpectedly change lives . It seems to be a story about friends and how important they are , but this possible theme is clearly dispelled in a line from the narration spoken at the end of the film ? ' As time went on , we saw less and less of Teddy and Vern , until eventually they became just two more faces in the halls . It happens sometimes , friends come in and out of your life like busboys at a restaurant . ' Instead , the film is about learning from a life changing experience and actually making changes or modifying your life in some way because of it , and this is heavily emphasized at the end of the film . Stand By Me is a timeless film . Stephen King's story is skillfully brought to the screen under the direction of Rob Reiner , and the 1950s are brought back to life just as successfully as King so often does in his stories and novels , with the slicked back hair , the hot rods , and in the film , and excellent 50s soundtrack . There is so much more to this film than just the superficial story ? things about the characters and the story , but also about the tremendously talented man who wrote it all . |
544,068 | 562,732 | 115,736 | 10 | The Wachowski brothers showed their talents long before The Matrix , but hardly anyone noticed because Bound is nearly direct-to-video material . | Any way you look at it , Bound is a sex thriller . The story is very engaging and the direction is absolutely incredible , but the whole lesbian thing really overshadows all of that , which severely limits the impact that this movie could have had . Gina Gershon stars as a tough woman who falls in love with Jennifer Tilly , who happens to be the girlfriend of a gangster ( Joe Pantoliano ) . The two concoct a scheme to steal $2 million from the mob , and this story is presented very skillfully and interestingly . Ironically enough , you have to look past all of the lesbian action between Tilly and Gershon in order to really experience the skill that this movie is full of . Bound is Larry and Andy Wachowskis ' writing and directing debut , proving that they had the skills from the start . The style that made The Matrix so good can be seen in nearly every shot in this film , and this style is probably the best part of the whole movie . But the excellent directing wasn't the only thing that made Bound so good . This is an great gangster film , despite a few cheesy or flawed moments . For example , it was a little weird that the mobsters who came to Pantoliano's apartment - suspicious of the murder that had recently taken place which Pantoliano was desperately trying to cover up - didn't see their own bloody footprints on the carpet , or at least feel the blood squishing up through the carpet as they walked on it . But that's okay , because where else can you see $2 million hung up in an apartment on dozens of wires , drying after having blood washed off of it ? This is good stuff . Gershon and Tilly work perfectly on screen , and not just in the sex scenes . Their unique relationship was made interesting by their skillful acting , which was best when they were beginning to distrust each other . Hey , that's what happens when you put your life into the hands of someone you just met . Gershon , in particular , delivered an excellent performance , flawlessly bringing out her masculine side to play the strong role in her relationship with Tilly . There is something to be said about a sex thriller that is as good and as engaging as Bound , because they never really are any good , you know ? Don't be put off by this element of the film , because Bound is a trashy movie that definitely deserves your attention . |
543,753 | 562,732 | 47,396 | 10 | One of Hitchcock's best . Nearly as great as Psycho . | Rear Window is Alfred Hitchcock's comment on the voyeuristic quality of society ( ' We've become a race of peeping toms ? ' ) . It is the story of a man bound to a wheelchair by a broken leg who sees what he believes to be a murder being covered up in an apartment across the courtyard from him . James Stewart delivers an excellent performance as L . B . ' Jeff ' Jeffries , the magazine photographer who is bound to a wheelchair and who finds himself spying on his neighbors , at first out of boredom but very soon out of strong suspicion . This is a very talky thriller and is limited entirely to what is seen from Jeff's large apartment window . The fact that the entire two-hour film takes place in such a small setting is a strong statement about Hitchcock's tremendous skills as a director . He makes the film interesting in countless ways , such as his excellent , meaningful use of shadows , the very thorough character development , his interesting use of symbolism ( such as Jeff's difficulty in reaching itches underneath his cast ) , not to mention the amazingly effective suspense , a Hitchcock trademark . Just before Jeff notices some suspicious events occurring across the courtyard , he is constantly complaining about not being able to find any interesting work as a photographer , and it is ironic that he soon finds something interesting right outside his own window , and while he is confined to a wheelchair , no less . The fascinating crime story of the man across the courtyard having murdered his wife is made even creepier by the fact that it is all deducted from behavior that Jeff sees out his window , and we don't even find out for sure if he is right or not until the film's exciting climax . Hitchcock fans are also likely to notice a line of dialogue that may have foreshadowed some of the events that were to later take place in Psycho , such as the insurance company nurse's speculation that the killer must have cut up his wife's body in the bathtub ( ' That's the only place he could have washed away the blood ? ' ) . Another thing that sets Rear Window aside from other thrillers ( including its own 1998 re-make which , incidentally , was far superior to the 1998 re-make of Psycho ) , was the way that it had several stories going on at the same time , which is one of the ways that it was able to remain so interesting . Jeff is an injured photographer , he is unsatisfied with his work , he is having a dilemma about marrying his sweetheart because he feels she is too perfect for him ( the flimsiest excuse on the planet , of course , but he actually makes it make a little bit of sense ) , and then he comes across these events across the courtyard from his apartment that make him think that there has been a murder over there , and the murderer ( Raymond Burr ) is trying to cover it up . Some of the things that happen in this film are not perfect , or seem uncharacteristic of Hitchcock , but the film as a whole is still spectacularly effective . For example , as a Hitchcock scholar , I found it strange that the killer strangled the dog and left it in the middle of the courtyard for all to see ( and for Jeff to make revealing conclusions about ) . Think about how much more effective this would have been if the woman who owned the dog had just stood out on her porch calling for him , and he never came . This way , the realization that the man had killed the dog would have been much more gradually realized , and may have made the suspense created by it that much more impressive . At any rate , this is an outstanding film , and Hitchcock definitely created an amazing amount of suspense with such limited means , leading up to a tremendous climax that provided a quick but satisfying ending to this classic film . |
544,729 | 562,732 | 89,218 | 10 | Steven Spielberg exercises the farthest reached of his imagination in this unforgettable tale of childhood adventures . | Every kid has imagined what it would be like to go on great and glorious adventures . Pirate ships , police chases , treasure chests full of gold and surrounded by human skeletons with patches over the eyes , the inherent excitement in the possibility of a cavernous wonder world beneath the very streets where they live . The Goonies is about a group of kids who have grown up together and are about to be torn apart because their parents are being forced to sell their homes . In the attic of one of their houses ( Mikey , played by Sean Astin ) , they find an endless supply of fascinating things - treasure maps , paintings , cryptic writings in strange languages . They find a map that sounds promising , and decide to see if it has any value , hoping to be able to find enough treasure to prevent their parents from losing their homes . Not only was The Goonies a brilliantly written , directed , and acted movie , but it was also so much FUN ! The adventures of these kids through the underground world , while being chased by the despicable villains known as the Fratellis , are fascinating to watch . The Goonies is a great cinematic experience . It has everything that anyone who was ever a kid could ever want . Even the elaborate sets are very convincing . The sense of adventure and hope that are presented in The Goonies is very uplifting and inspiring . The lovable characters are perfectly developed and endlessly entertaining . Many of them , particularly Sean Astin and Corey Feldman , delivered the best performances of their future careers right here in this early adventure film . This movie can be enjoyed by virtually anyone , which is one of its best values . It is truly timeless , and it should not be missed . |
543,923 | 562,732 | 783,233 | 10 | Brilliant . | It took me a long time to get interested in watching Atonement , even after it was so well received at the Oscars . Recently I watched the first 20 minutes or so and was immediately put off by the atmosphere and the characters ( " I've been going completely doolally up here ! " ) , for exactly the same reason that I am generally put off by books like The Great Gatsby or Faulkner's The Sun Also Rises , which feature characters of such wealth that their biggest problem seems to be what to do with all their surplus money and leisure time . Such people are difficult for me to relate to . For a couple weeks I put the movie aside and couldn't get up the interest to watch it , until finally I did and now I realize why it was one of the best pictures of 2007 . Keira Knightly , a clearly talented actor who , for some reason , almost never impresses me , plays the daughter from a wealthy family living in the beautiful English countryside just before World War II , and James MacEvoy plays the daughter of a man working for her family . He is a promising and educated young man , but the son of a housekeeper nonetheless , so clearly a romantic relationship between the two would be highly taboo . The first 30 minutes or so of the movie depict a life devoid of trouble or worries , and yet still manages to create an atmosphere of slight tension about the war that we can almost feel approaching somewhere beyond the edge of the screen . Before long , Cecilia's ( Knightly ) 13 - year-old sister sees a couple of things happening and makes some dangerous assumptions followed by some increasingly dangerous accusations , and radically alters the lives of her sister , Robbie ( MacEvoy ) , and herself . The three main characters , from this point on , have remarkably little control over their own lives , reminding me of the struggles of the main character in Kubrick's brilliant film Barry Lyndon . The unusually structure of the film allows us to explore the results of a few catastrophic days in the lives of these three people and how they affected the rest of their lives . The film covers the course of many decades , tells a stunning and moving story , and never once comes off as pretentious or cheesy or preachy , even in the closing scene , which shows Briony , Cecilia's sister , as an aged novelist giving an interview about how that one decision during her childhood has affected her life . This is a story about life and how we affect those around us , particularly those closest to us , even when we think we're doing the best thing for them . One IMDb reviewer calls it " pure poetry on film , " and it's not easy to think of a more accurate description . Note : There is a scene in the film where Robbie comes across a horribly grisly scene in the woods during his military service . The following close-up of his face is one of the best pieces of acting I have seen in many years . . . |
544,231 | 562,732 | 66,043 | 10 | And now for something completely different ? | A few days ago I watched the making-of documentary about the Flight of the Phoenix remake and was surprised at how much profanity it contained . There were several times when Director John Moore would literally scream at the top of his lungs , unleashing streams of profanity at his cast and crew ( mostly his crew , I think ) about why there weren't doing this or why this happened or what went wrong with that scene or what the hell has that guy been doing while the plane has been flying overhead all this time ? ? After watching this documentary , I start to get the feeling that maybe film-making is just much more frustrating than I had previously thought ! On the other hand , one of the things that I've always found the most interesting when watching these documentaries is to hear stories about troubles and mishaps that they run into along the way and how those events altered the course of filming or even changed scenes within the movie itself , but evidently there are times when it's such a lengthy and difficult process that it can leave people jaded and disillusioned when it's all over , even when the movie becomes an enduring classic . I think this was made for some kind of TV show just after the film was released , because it was filmed before the movie was released , before anyone knew what an important film it would be . I found it a little odd that they would have made it at all , since DVDs ( and the demand for supplemental documentaries ) were in the distant future and it seemed that so many people had substantial doubts about how the movie would be received . I am always a little put off by Making Of documentaries that spend too much time showing you footage of the movie that you just finished watching , and while this one does quite a bit of it , it doesn't do it in a way that is at all repetitive . There are interviews with Paul Newman and Robert Redford and Director George Roy Hill , but there is no video of the interviews , all we have is the audio , which is set over behind the scenes footage as well as scenes from the final film , in order to illustrate the points that were being made in the interviews . I wish they would do that more often , because while I don't like to see lengthy montages from the finished films in these documentaries , I do like when they describe how they made certain scenes and what problems they ran into and why they did it this way or that way , and then show the finished scene so we can see what they're talking about . And yes , that last line will certainly blow your hair back ! |
544,225 | 562,732 | 373,873 | 10 | Shot While Trying to Escape . | This documentary spends some time talking about what really happened , as it pertains to how things were different in the movie , but I like that it spends more time telling more of the story than the movie was able to , even in its lengthy running time . When the news of the mass escape reaches Hitler , the documentary explains , he flew into a rage and ordered that the men be killed , and it was Himmler , the head of the Gestapo , that chose the number 50 for how many should be shot . Having seen Downfall recently , it's even easier to picture Hitler flying into an uncontrollable rage and ordering people to be shot . MAN that guy was nuts . So the actual escape happened in freezing temperatures in the middle of winter , one of those things that was changed for the film ( I have a theory that it was changed because of location concerns , which are explained in one of the other outstanding featurettes on the Great Escape bonus disc , and in an interview one of the escapees expresses amazement that they weren't caught sooner , since it was so cold outside and so hot inside their tunnel that there was a column of steam rising out of it into the night . This same interviewee goes on to give an account of his escape that is heartbreaking , to say the least . The story of the 50 men being shot brings up some major questions about how to carry out justice . As one of the German guards who did some of the shooting explains , " I knew what I was told to do was wrong . I said so , and I was told to get on with it . If I had refused , someone else would have done it . If we had all refused , we would all have been shot . " How do you bring justice to a situation like that ? When the ultimate fates of the German officers who did the shooting are explained it's hard not to think that they all got what they deserved , but whatever your feeling as to who should have been punished for their crimes , I like that this documentary shows what it may very well have been like for those German soldiers as individuals . It puts a face on the stories of the people on the other side who were following orders and allows you to come to your own conclusion . James Cochran was arrested right on the Swiss border , within sight of freedom . The sister of one of the men who was shot explains that her brother was on the run for seven days and she wants to know what his life was like during that week , but never will . At the end of the documentary , one of the surviving escapees says that he doesn't think the whole thing was worth it , given how it all panned out , and while the escape was a tremendous , heroic effort , I think he was right , but not because of any fault of the men . If they had just sat in the prison , they would have been disobeying orders to consistently try to escape if captured , but it's probably most likely that they would all have lived to see the end of the war and their families again . Sadly , we'll never know . |
544,520 | 562,732 | 183,649 | 10 | Can you hear me now ? Goooooood . | The first thing that interested me about Phone Booth was the fact that the whole movie took place on such a limited physical area . A lot of people that I had talked to about it before having seen it said that they thought it would be boring because of that , but on the contrary , a limited set like the one in the movie is a VERY good sign , because you can see from older movies that ( with the exception of relatively dull ones like 1999's Deterrence ) , limited sets not only imply , but REQUIRE good acting , good direction , and most of all , a good story . All of these and more are found in Phone Booth . I admit that the overall message of the movie is a little bit preachy , with Keifer Sutherland playing the part of the God-like watcher who goes around punishing low-life New Yorkers for their crimes , but the thrill of the film is there . Colin Farrell , whose eyebrows are rivaled only by the unbeatable Freddie Prinze , Jr . , delivers a spectacular performance as the cocky public relations representative who goes through life feeding lies to everyone he meets , including those closest to him . I loved how the movie takes such a simple premise and keeps it going so well . When I first saw him enter the booth and pick up the phone and start talking to the killer , I knew that , if I learned anything about the movie from the previews , he had to stay in that booth on the phone for the rest of the movie , and I wasn't sure how they were going to manage to keep it interesting or that long , but they definitely managed it . ( spoilers ) It's true that the whole situation works out a little too perfectly for the killer's plans , since everything that he wanted to happen happened , but this is a highly entertaining thriller that entertains and delivers a great message at the same time . There is a particularly impressive interaction between Stu ( Colin Farrell ) and Captain Ed Ramey , as Stu needs to let Ramey know what's going on without letting the killer in on it , which is difficult and exciting since the killer can both see and hear everything that Stu does . It's great the way that the killer has fun with Stu , demanding that he say offensive and disgusting things to Ramey and to his own wife , especially when you realize that Ramey is beginning to realize what's really going on . This is a challenge , of course , because of the excessive oddness of the whole situation ( which Ramey sums up as soon as he arrives on the scene ? ' Let me get this straight . This guy shot that other guy and then hung around to make a phone call ? ' ) . The end of the movie is where it falters a little bit , although there is a great twist involving the pizza guy , which was pretty interesting , although if they had left it with that it would have been a letdown because Keifer Sutherland's voice it too well-known to be passed off as this other guy's . It was pretty believable though , kind of reminds me of that thing that Kevin Spacey pulled as John Doe when he dressed up as a photographer in Seven . But where the movie falters a little bit is the part where the killer wanders up to introduce himself to Stu while he's laying in the ambulance . I thought that was a great turn of events , but it's the point in the movie where it approaches , just barely , but distinctively , the point of being altogether to preachy and cheesy . This is where it introduces the suggestion that the killer is just some guy out to rid the world of injustice and clean the scum off the streets with his sniper rifle . The pimp was just another dirtbag that he purged while attempting to get through to a more complex one , and the pizza delivery guy and the walking and talking robot were both collateral damage . There was some great commentary about the capacity for stupidity of the LAPD ( Michael Moore was a little more blunt in this area toward the NYPD in his TV show The Awful Truth ) , as well as about the greed of the human race in general as the killer taunts Stu about all of the tourists pointing video cameras at him , hoping to see some shooting so they can sell their tapes . The only problem with the message of the film , about cleaning up the streets of these filthy people , is that if snipers cleaned out all of the sinners from the human population , not many people would be left . Maybe Phone Booth will someday help people to realize that sinning is part of human nature , and that 100 % of the human race sin at some point in their lives . The hope is that they can come out and admit their faults , the way Stu does at the end of the movie . Imagine the relief . |
544,208 | 562,732 | 107,822 | 10 | Sleepy and brilliant . | There is a scene in The Piano where three women are walking through the woods discussing the bizarre behavior of Ada ( Holly Hunter ) , and her incessant piano playing . Just as I was getting a little irritated that Director Jane Campion would have the sound effect of the woman peeing , a decidedly distasteful sound , the woman peeing says about Ada's piano playing , " To have a sound creep inside you is not at all pleasant . " And I realize that Campion is thoroughly in charge of every sight and sound in the film , from beginning to end . It's a slow , moody drama , to be sure , and this is probably why it took me so long to get around to watching it again . I remember seeing it with my parents when I was a kid , but I found it to be so boring that I asked if I could go into another auditorium and watch a different movie . I know now why they said yes . Holly Hunter inhabits the silent role of Ada , a mute woman who enters into an arranged , loveless marriage in 1850s New Zealand , incidentally the place where Anna Paquin , who gave the most stunning performance in this movie , grew up . Campion's New Zealand feels like a small , isolated island surrounded by a cold , dreary sea , and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh relishes the opportunities he has for cold , warm , and emotional lighting , literally painting the movie in cold or brilliant colors for us , and the results are fantastic . San Neill and Harvey Keitel play opposing roles , Neill as Alisdair Stewart , Ada's arranged husband who hopes that they will grow to love each other , and Keitel as George Baines , a man with Maori symbols tattooed on his face and who has a relationship with Ada that achieves astonishing change throughout the film . But it is Anna Paquin who steals the show entirely . Her performance is so brilliant and so unexpected that many times I forgot about the rest of the film and just tried to figure out how Jane Campion got that performance out of her . It is one of the best child performances in film history . Incidentally , I had some bizarre Sam Neill coincidences today . First I watched a terrible time travel film this afternoon called A Sound of Thunder , and one of the threads on the IMDb message boards for that movie asked what people's favorite time travel movies were , and many people mentioned The Final Conflict , which stars Sam Neill . Then while I was watching The Piano , out of nowhere I started humming to myself this old Rob Zombie song called Demon Speeding , where the chorus goes like this , " In the mouth of madness , down in the darkness , no more tomorrow , down in the hollow . . . " And I thought , " Hey , In the Mouth of Madness , I haven't even thought about that movie since high school ! " And then I looked it up on the IMDb and sure enough , Sam Neill stars in it . Sorry , I just thought I'd mention that . But more importantly , The Piano is a stunning accomplishment , another complex and engaging film from Jane Campion , who I don't think has made anything much less in her career . Bravo ! |
544,128 | 562,732 | 81,398 | 10 | Brought to you by PBR ! | Frank McCourt claims that no one in America admits that they drink Pabst . I don't know that that's true , but it does seem to have been relegated to what we called " frat beer " when I was in college . In 1941 , however , when Raging Bull takes place , it seems to have been a much bigger brand , at least that's the impression I get when seeing it as a major sponsor at major sporting events . Robert DeNiro stars as the enormously insecure Jake LaMotta , a young boxing legend who has trouble separating his boxing life with his private life . Raging Bull walks a fine line between being a boxing movie and a social drama , as we switch back and forth between LaMotta's turbulent boxing career and his steadily disintegrating personal life . The boxing scenes are magnificent even though Scorsese didn't pick up on Hitchcock's infamous chocolate syrup prop , giving us huge amounts of blood ( in typical Scorsese style ) that looks like water ( not typical Scorsese style ) . He also makes great use of super slow motion flashbulbs , which seems to be one of his recurring motifs . More than anything else , the movie is a fascinating portrayal of what fame can do to someone who doesn't deserve it , or can't handle it . At the beginning of the movie , Jake is a young boxing hero and we want to root for him . Then as the movie progresses he reveals his true self ? unpredictable , alcoholic , spontaneously violent , and generally just the kind of guy that no one in their right mind would want to be associated with . Even his own brother ( in a brilliant performance by Joe Pesci ) is uncomfortable around him because he's always doing some bizarre thing , like demanding that he punch him in the face repeatedly . Through his own uncontrollable outbursts and inability to maintain his composure , his boxing career disintegrates , leaving him a burned out has-been with no idea how to handle the money he has left over . He opens a nightclub ( can you guess what he called it ? ) and becomes a total dirtbag . All the stops have been pulled out by now , he no longer cares about anything , even the law , and he begins making stupid mistakes . He allows a 14-year-old girl to drink in his club because she's a good kisser , and ultimately lands himself in solitary . What's a 14-year-old girl doing in a nightclub anyway ? LaMotta's problems all seem to stem from his sense of invincibility . He doesn't believe anyone can beat him in the ring and taunts his opponents . He believes he is all-powerful in his personal life and ends up frightening the ones he loves and driving them away . And eventually he doesn't believe that even the police can harm him , so he flaunts his indifference to the law when an underage girl comes to his nightclub . " What're they gonna do ? " he asks . And then we cut to him in prison , where he belongs . In solitary , obviously , he hits rock bottom , and in the movie's most painful scene he has a total mental and physical breakdown , slamming his head repeatedly against the wall . When he gets out he returns to the club scene as a completely useless stand-up comedian , and when his audience boos him he responds with insults , which is exactly his problem . He is the result of being ultra-famous and yet having no showman's talent whatsoever beyond the ability to hit people really hard . In the end , we come back to the beginning of the movie , which showed an older and significantly fatter LaMotta in his dressing room preparing to go out on stage . He chants over and over again something of which he now has to convince even himself ? |
544,463 | 562,732 | 96,563 | 10 | The show that started it all ! | The first time I ever saw COPS years and years ago I was immediately and absolutely mesmerized . It is such a simple but incredibly brilliant idea , to bring a camera crew along with the police as they go about their daily duties . The cost of making a show like this is next to nothing , compared to the massive interest that it will find on mainstream television . I'm just amazed that a show like this didn't come out years or decades earlier , given that all it takes is a simple traffic stop to create a traffic jam , while everyone cranes their necks trying to see what's going on . Police activity always draws a crowd on the streets , so it's amazing to me that it took as long as it did for television producers to realize that police activity would draw a crowd on the air as well . The majority of the shows deal with small time crimes , like drugs or domestic disputes , crazy traffic violations , drunk drivers , and just basically screwed up people . Like some of the trashier talk shows , a lot of the interest in this show comes from just seeing how messed up some people are . I invariably feel like near royalty after watching an episode of COPS . But of course my favorite thing about the show is that so many of the incidents shown are so hilarious , intentionally or not . I remember one particular episode where they chased a guy down who was driving erratically , and then he jumps out of his car and runs on foot . The police chase him into the woods and finally tackle him , and on the way back to the police cars they start asking him some questions . " Have you been drinking tonight ? " one of the cops asks . " No no no , " the guy says . " I haven't been drinking tonight , officer , all I had was a 12-pack and a bottle of Southern Comfort . . . " Just tonight I saw an episode where the police were called about two women , very obviously transvestites or transsexuals , who were causing a scene at a local bar . Two officers arrive and are talking to them , and when they ask the police what the problem is , one of the cops says , " we got a call regarding the behavior of you , uh , um , uh , ladies at the bar tonight . . . " As far as I know the format of the show is pretty much exactly the same as it was when the show started , but the content is so interesting that there is no need for anything to change . It has been on for so long that usually when I see it on TV there are four or five or six episodes on in a row , sometimes more , and it is one of the only times that I ever find myself nearly glued to the TV . I guess you could say I love the show because I like seeing other people get in trouble , but in my own defense I should clarify that I only enjoy seeing that when the people deserve it . I like seeing criminals get busted , and it's even better to watch them stumble and blubber , trying to lie their way out of getting arrested , which they almost always do . It is also a great way for younger viewers to become acquainted with the cops and to learn about how badly committing crimes can mess up their lives , so the show can work as a deterrent to crime as well . It's true that it doesn't show a lot of the aftermath of the arrests , but I think the fear that people often show is enough to illustrate what comes next . I happen to have a much more in-depth knowledge of these things than the show could ever provide , and trust me , it's not fun . These people are really doing good work , and to top it all off , it's so entertaining ! |
544,844 | 562,732 | 103,939 | 10 | A spectacular portrayal of the unseen life of Charlie Chaplin . | Robert Downey Jr . , first of all , portrays Chaplin with amazing accuracy . Some parts of this performance are particularly memorable , such as his invention of the famous tramp's walk just after having feverishly picked out the outfit , the astonishingly accurate depiction of Charlie as an old man , and of course , the many parts of the film that involve parts of his life where he was working on his own films . These are clearly some of the most interesting parts of the movie , if only because these films are how we know him , but it is at least as interesting the way that the film hints towards things that happened in Chaplin's life that inspired those films . Very early in the film , we see a scene in which Charlie's mother is booed off the stage by an impatient crowd , so Charlie , who is a little boy at the time , gets on stage to do a song and dance of his own . He performs a song that is very similar to the one his mother performed , but he wins the audience's heart and they respond by tossing coins onto the stage for him . You can't help noticing how this corresponds with the constantly youthful look of the Tramp ( in Modern Times , for example , Chaplin was in his late 40s but looked like a teenager ) , and the coins tossed on stage may have played a significant role in helping him realize that this could be a good way to make money . Charlie moves to America to pursue his dream , and we see the landmark events that punctuated his dizzying rise to stardom . He goes to work briefly on stage and is then hired by Mack Sennett , a gigantic figure in film history , but is unsatisfied because of his own lack of control over his work . It should also be noted here that there is a scene where he is working with director Mabel Normand , who demands acting from him that he does not agree with , and with whom he clashes . In 1914 , Chaplin starred in a 9 ½ minute film called Mabel's Busy Day , in which he plays the uncharacteristic role of the antagonist . The Mabel in this film is a sporting event vendor who turns down Charlie's amorous advances , after which Charlie proceeds to steal all of her products and hand them out to anyone standing nearby . Then in 1920 , he starred in another short comedy called Mabel's Strange Predicament , in which Mabel is a woman who becomes locked out of her hotel room in her pajamas and ends up avoiding the drunken Charlie for the rest of the film . In both films , Charlie plays uncharacteristic roles , the most unenviable of which was in Mabel's Busy Day , which Mabel Norman directed . Later in the film we see Charlie in a small diner just after having terminated his employment with Mack Sennett , and he meets Edna Purviance in a scene that is reminiscent of his romantic endeavors in such early films as Caught In A Cabaret and , even more so , The Immigrant , one of his most famous early films . There are dozens of other references to the development of his cinematic personality - such as his sudden realization of how to make the Tramp appear rich to the blind girl in City Lights without talking , as well as the dance of the dinner rolls , which Charlie performs here at a dinner at an expensive restaurant - but there is an even more significant portrayal of Charlie's beliefs and his values in this movie that are more recognizable as well as more memorable to people not familiar with his earlier and less known work . Charlie Chaplin was one of many filmmakers ' in the earlier times of the medium that resented and disapproved of the coming of sound to the movies . His Tramp remains one of the most recognized figures in the history of the cinema , and it is widely known that the Tramp is an almost entirely silent character , so it is necessary for a film about Chaplin's life to address this in some way , and it is done perfectly here . There is a scene where Charlie's brother is trying to convince him to add spoken dialogue into his films and Charlie refuses outright , giving a hilarious example of a Russian ballet dancer and saying , ' The Tramp CAN'T talk . The minute he talks , he's dead . ' This is a brilliant way to illustrate Charlie's fondness for the silent film , as well as his knowledge that no voice given to the Tramp would fit his character right . He was too well known to be changed so profoundly . Charlie Chaplin created 81 movies in his lifetime , many of them timeless and truly memorable , and has made a significant impact on the filmmaking medium as well as on the world itself . He was a fascinating personality both onscreen and off , which is another element of his life that was necessarily and skillfully presented in this film , this time directly in the dialogue in what is probably the single most important line in the entire film ? ' If you want to understand me , watch my movies . ' Chaplin's ever-present sympathy for the underprivileged is subtly but effectively portrayed as two poor people approach him on his way out of a nice restaurant , right at the beginning of the Great Depression , asking for his autograph . The elderly Charlie notes in retrospect that , ' I wish they'd wanted my money . ' He is always aware throughout the film and throughout his life of the difficulties constantly facing poor people , and he wants to give these people not only an escape with his films , but hope for the future . There is a point in the film where Charlie has returned to Europe to see an old friend , and he learns on the train that she has died . He is then asked , ' What'll we do , Charlie ? ' And his answer , although spoken under his breath almost in a whisper , rings louder than anything else in the film . ' Smile . ' |
544,025 | 562,732 | 408,368 | 10 | These people do good work ! | I would say that we can never have too many shows like this , but that's not really true . If we have a show like this in every city it would start to look like TV networks just cashing in on the latest trend , and I think the work that the people are doing on the show is far too important to be trivialized like that . I have only seen a few episodes , but it is always uplifting to see people whose lives are centered on seeing that animals receive humane treatment in a very human world . I have a feeling sometimes that people will watch the show and see something like several educated and professional people fretting over the well-being of a 24-hour old baby rabbit and think , " doesn't the world have enough rabbits already ? " But the message of the show is that , especially in a society like America , humans are very much in control of the environment , particularly that of domesticated animals , and there are people who severely mistreat or neglect their animals and it's good to see that those animals are taken from those people , and as often as possible , the people are properly punished for their shabby behavior . I also like the way the show is structured . We see an introduction to a problem with an animal or some animals being maltreated or tortured or just living in an inhumane condition , and then the investigators go to check it out . Rather than just telling one story at a time , they introduce each story and then move on to the next , coming back to the different stories throughout the show and ultimately ending with a conclusion , which is as happy as circumstances allow . Generally the animals are treated and adopted into happier families , although there are cases where they have to be put to sleep . All my life I have had a very deep love of animals , so it's nice to see a show that is dedicated to their well being . The show is alternately heart wrenching and uplifting , and I like to think that even though there are only TV shows in a few cities , this kind of work is being done all over the country . Bravo ! |
544,244 | 562,732 | 280,778 | 10 | If one doesn't have words how does one think ? | Iris is one of those dramas that is so startlingly well acted and accurate to reality that you truly see the people on screen suffering through the story rather than the actors portraying them . And in a film that stars Judi Dench , that is a remarkable achievement . Dench and Kate Winslet are made to look so similar that when the film jumps back and forth between past and present , which it does quite often , it is never jarring no matter how abrupt it is . The young Iris , played by Winslet , is similar to the character that she played in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in many ways . She is sexually adventurous without being promiscuous , independent without being unfriendly or unattached , and dependent without being needy or reliant . She ultimately pursues a successful career as a novelist , which serves to illustrate her love and dependence on words and to enhance the effect of her deterioration later in the film . Iris is famously a study of Alzheimer's disease , which is the kind of thing that rarely makes its way into mainstream films , so it is that much more moving that a movie as brilliant as this one takes on the subject and brings it to the forefront in such a dramatic fashion . Iris goes from being a tremendously successful novelist to not understanding which side of an open door she should pass in order to get through it . As she loses touch with reality and experiences more and more difficulty in speaking and understanding , the most moving scenes are the ones that show the suffering that her husband goes through before his own deterioration . Iris has spent her life exploring things like what it is that makes people happy and what makes them realize that they are happy once they are , and then shows as she loses touch with those things without even realizing it . Her husband , John Bayley , in a brilliant performance by Jim Broadbent , is the only man who she has ever been with that has truly loved her , and he is the one that has to watch her cognitive abilities decline . He is literally watching the love of his life slip away from him without her even realizing it . The film is beautifully shot and the musical score enhances the film spectacularly and unobtrusively . It brings out the emotions in a movie about losing not only memory , but about losing the your identity , losing yourself . The gradual nature of the onset of Alzheimer's disease is one of the most brilliantly presented elements in the film . There is a conversation that Iris and her husband have in which she gives him a quote , which he responds to in a way that shows his own mental decline , and then Iris ' as well . Iris - " Between two evils always choose the one you haven't tried before . " John - " Mae West . Oh my vest ! I tore my vest again this morning ! " Iris - " You must get some new vests . " John ? " Jolly good ? " Iris ? " You must get some new vests , " then , surprised at herself , " I just said that . " This all kind of makes me wonder , because it is not very rare that I will ask someone a question that I already asked and they already answered , sometimes only a minute or two before , and when they tell me I just asked them that question I have to explain that I just wasn't sure if I had asked them out loud or just thought the question in my head . Where the answer ever went in my brain remains a mystery . It is very important that the movie spends so much time showing how much of a fiercely intelligent philosopher ( in Kate Winslet's words ) Iris Murdock was , because it emphasizes the totality with which Alzheimer's affects her ability to think . As a young woman she could talk circles around people , but when she grew older and Alzheimer's began to set in she became confused by the simplest concepts , and the difficulty that her husband found in attempting to explain things to her and hide what must have been his overwhelming emotion . I'm in the middle of reading a wonderful book by Sidney Lumet called Making Movies , and I just finished a chapter on actors , in which there is a section where he described some actors who believe so strongly in the material of a film that they will do whatever it takes to get the movie made . Many actors have taken salaries far below their usually asking prices in order to participate in a movie about which they felt very strongly , and Iris is one of those movies , although I don't know whether or not any of the actors took smaller salaries than they deserved . There is a short documentary on the DVD called ' A Look at Iris ' in which the cast and crew talk about the movie , and it is clear how strongly they feel about the film . Kate Winslet nails it on the head in one clip , where she says that she knows that people who knew the real Iris Murdock would see the movie , so it was all the more important that she get the character exactly right . I love that . In Iris's own words , " If one doesn't have words how does one think ? " That's exactly the question that this movie so touchingly explores . It is about people loving and then losing each other with torturous slowness , in one of the most moving and important films of 2001 . |
543,959 | 562,732 | 285,131 | 10 | Sure , it's almost 20 years old , but this is still some of the best stand up comedy I've ever seen . | In one of his earlier stand-up videos , Gallagher solidifies himself as one of the funniest and zaniest comedians in the world . His genius use of props as well as his trade-mark of smashing miscellaneous produce in front of the crowd with his Sledge-O-Matic ( ' . . . it is not a slicer , it is not a dicer , it is not a chopper or a hopper . What in the hell could it possibly be ? ! ' ) have set him apart from other comedy acts . This is stand up comedy of the highest quality . He is not just up there making sick jokes , he analyzes the world and makes fun of the stupid stuff , like the locks on the doors at the 7-11 that's open 24 hours a day . He makes fun of commercials , school , the government , people in relationships , banks , pretty much everything that can be frustrating in real life . You've used that bathroom cleaner to clean off mildew that says to only use it in a well-ventilated area right ? Gallagher says , ' If it was well-ventilated there wouldn't be mildew on it ! ' This guy is a genius , not only is he endlessly hilarious , he also has a very active mind that makes things funny in ways that you wouldn't have ever thought of . His comedy is surprising , it's intelligent , it makes you think , and above all , it makes you grab your sides as you fall into almost painful hysterics . Go out and look for his videos , you won't regret it . |
544,756 | 562,732 | 125,439 | 10 | The most shocking film in years . | By shocking , of course , I mean shockingly GOOD . Hugh Grant is one of those actors that I have never been able to tolerate , and I have never been a huge Julia Roberts fan either ( although I was truly impressed with Runaway Bride ) , but Notting Hill is one of the best romantic comedies that I have seen in years , easily surpassing Runaway Bride , one of my current favorites . Hugh Grant plays a normal guy who owns a travel bookstore in a tiny town called Notting Hill in London . He gives a surprisingly convincing performance in this role , and Julia Roberts is also excellent as the hugely popular Hollywood movie star because , whether you like it or not , she is a hugely popular Hollywood movie star . She plays the part of Anna Scott , the film star who happens to wander into William's ( Grant ) bookstore while in London shooting a film . One of the things that distinguishes this movie from other romantic comedies is the hesitant way that William and Anna grow to know each other . It's true that the whole oops - I'm - sorry - for - spilling - my - drink - on - you bit is not entirely original , but the good acting and directing made over-used material interesting again . By far the funniest character in the film , of course , is Spike , William's nut-case of a roommate ( or ' flatmate , ' as William calls him ) . Some of the things that he did in the film are funnier than anything I've seen in years . For example , the way that he blows smoke through his nose into the snorkeling goggles , the way he mistakes mayonnaise for yogurt , or the scene where he finds out that William turned down Anna Scott ( ' You daft prick ? ' ) . While the movie may be a little bit long for some people , and as a whole , it doesn't really present anything really new in the genre of the romantic comedy , it moves along so smoothly and is so entertaining and funny that it is more than worth the extra time . I think that the fact that I am personally not a fan of either of the main stars , and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the film , says something about the quality of the movie . An excellent date movie , for everyone from first dates to happily married couples , so don't miss it . Just be prepared to be sore from laughing so much . |
544,862 | 562,732 | 137,523 | 10 | One of the best films of 1999 . | Edward Norton returns after his earth quaking performance in American History X to play the part of Jack ( who has no last name for a reason ) , a typical white-collar guy who works in an office , makes a good salary , and spends his time trying to find that perfect furniture set or that set of the ideal matching dishes . He lives in an empty world defined by possessions and income ? a world that is empty beyond his paycheck and his high rent apartment . He realizes this on a subconscious level and begins to have trouble sleeping , so eventually he goes out and joins support groups for afflictions that he doesn't have , just for the emotional release and the feeling of belonging and of meaning . He almost immediately finds relief to his sleeping problems ( ' Babies don't sleep this good . ' ) , and makes the support groups a regular activity . Unfortunately , one day he runs into someone else who is doing the same thing , Marla , and it ruins everything for him . This woman disgusts him ( for obvious reasons ) , but he ultimately tries to reason with her so that they can both do the support group thing and not run into each other . The movie really starts moving when Jack runs into Tyler Durden while on a business trip . They meet on an airplane , and Jack is immediately impressed at what an interesting ' single-serving ' friend Tyler is . Tyler gives Jack his card , and Jack later calls him after his apartment explodes . Jack goes to stay with Tyler out of necessity , and Tyler introduces Jack to his world . Jack is fascinated . Tyler lives in a world devoid of personal possessions and responsibilities . He lives in a disgusting house , has no job ( no steady one , anyway ) , pays no bills , and would more than likely be in trouble with the IRS if he were to be audited . He lives below the poverty line , obviously , but he is free , and Jack admires his ability to reject all forms of authority . Out of the blue one day , Tyler asks Jack to hit him , and after some convincing , they get into the fist fight that sets off the chain reaction which results in the formation of the tremendously popular Fight Club , Jack's most violent but most successful support group , a club that grows exponentially despite it's own first two rules . The goal of Fight Club is to get it's members to analyze their own lives and eliminate unnecessary garbage ( ' The advertising world has us working jobs we hate , so we can buy sht we don't need . ' ) and to obtain psychological freedom through mutually agreed violence between members . Sure , this sounds a little weird , but there really is something to be said about the psychological states obtained from pain . To put it in the immortal words of Beavis & Butt-Head ( just after Butt-Head has ' smacked Beavis upside the head ' ) ? Butt-Head : ' That was cool ! ' Beavis : ' No it wasn't , that sucked ! ' Butt-Head : ' Yeah but like , after it's over , doesn't it like , feel pretty cool ? ' Beavis : ' Oh yeah , do that again ! ' This is not something that is likely to be practiced by everyday society , but a club like Fight Club would probably be successful on many levels ( one of which , of course , would not be the legal level ) . There are a few things in the film that could have done with a little bit more explaining , like why Jack is so interested in fighting William Shatner , but it doesn't matter that this is not explained . Fight Club is one of those movies that not only invites , but also REQUIRES a second viewing , and for countless reasons . Fight Club asks audiences to re-evaluate their lives , noticing the superfluous quality of the material obsessions of modern society . It is one of the most cinematically unique films to be released in years , and easily earns it's place among the greatest films of 1999 ( and possibly of the entire decade ) , alongside such other classics as The Matrix , The Sixth Sense , and American Beauty , although it has much more in common with the first two . There is an obvious correlation between Fight Club and director David Fincher's previous classic , Seven , which is another spectacular dark film from the same director . Fight Club is definitely aimed at a male audience , and it should actually be commended , in my opinion , for not sacrificing any quality just to attract a larger female audience , which is something that is almost universally seen in Jerry Bruckheimer productions like The Rock and Armageddon and Pearl Harbor . Fight Club does not pretend to be something it's not , and it comes off with tremendous success . I have heard professional film critics give Fight Club the lowest rating possible , foolishly focusing on the violent aspect of the film and entirely missing the point of the film as a whole while at the same time proving without a doubt that some critics simply cannot be trusted . Be advised that this is an almost stomach-turningly violent film at some points , but instead of condemning the film for that , it should be recognized for fitting that much violence into what is ultimately such a skilled and memorable film . It's too bad that films of this quality are so rarely seen in modern cinema . |
544,637 | 562,732 | 82,432 | 10 | One of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made becomes even more powerful more than two decades after it was made . | The thing that I really admire about war films is the way they manage to stand the test of time so well . Granted , there are counterexamples , it IS possible to make a bad war film , but for the most part , they deal with a subject that will never be far from the minds of the people in this world and especially this country , given our bloody history and our increasingly bloody future . I watched WarGames just a few days ago and was amazed at how well that movie was able to portray war as such a powerful force without ever showing any fighting or battle or blood or even the enemy . The machine that hypothesized about the possibilities of what would happen should World War III occur came up with the result that war is an interesting game . The only winning move is not to play . In a way , Gallipoli delivers a message identical to this one , although it gives a lot more detail as to why that particular fact is true . Frank and Archy , two track competitors who become close friends , are the unlikely team that deliver the message about war that so badly needs to be delivered again here in the early 21st Century . They become friends after having been competitors in a race ( at which Frank lost to Archy ) , and then travel together to Perth so that Archy can join the war and support his country the way that all the noble young men are supposed to do . Frank is not at all interested in joining , feeling that the war has nothing to do with Australia or Australians and they therefore have no obligation to go fight and potentially lose their lives . I am generally against goofy romance in action and especially war films , but there is a feminine influence in Gallipoli that is probably one of the best I've ever seen in a war film . En route to Perth , Archy and Frank stop at a house and develop an enormous crush on the same girl , each trying as hard as possible to impress her , but Archy is the only one to have much affect on her , because he is going to join the military . Both this girl and her family have a toast to him for his bravery , which is clearly the even that influences Frank to join up as well . They both join , and go through the typical smart-ass military shenanigans that are so common to see in young military personnel , but the battle scenes in the film , while relatively short and unspectacular , are incredibly powerful in delivering their message against war . There is a question of honesty as Frank is chosen to be a runner of communication between the General and the trenches , because even though Archy is the faster runner , he has come all this way strictly to be a part of the fighting and desperately does not want to give up now . Frank takes on the task with moderate reluctance , running messages back and forth when the phones go down , but ultimately ends up not able to run quite fast enough at a time when it was more important than any other time in his life to have been just a little faster . It makes you wonder what might have happened if Archy had been the runner instead of stayed in the trenches to fight like so many war-happy people have encouraged him to . One of the most potent messages delivered about war is the sheer distance between the people making the decisions when to advance and when to retreat , and the ones who are actually out there in the trenches fighting more for their lives than for their country . Following the orders of a General who is more interested in following a pre-arranged and massively flawed timeline than in the lives of the young men out there in the field , whole rows of men advance out of the trenches directly into the line of fire from a field of machine guns , which mow them down within seconds of climbing out of the trenches . The lucky ones die on the spot , the unlucky ones drag themselves back into the trenches to bleed to death . Even after being informed of what is happening to the men , the heartless General demands that they continue to advance , even with the full awareness that this will result in their deaths , and reminding us of how this is , for example , exactly what is happening in America right now . George W . Bush is taking us to war without a care in the world about all the innocent people that are going to die , and completely ignorant to the fact that in a war like this , someone has to back down , and it has to be either us or them . We can retaliate exactly like an inner-city gang , or we can back down , look at our own mistakes that caused people to hate us as much as they do , and promote peace throughout the world . The September 11th attacks were not a prank , they were done for a reason , and we have a responsibility as human beings to find that reason or those reasons and try to fix them rather than just vaporizing those people that are affected by them . In Gallipoli , the pointlessness of war is illustrated , in WarGames , it was described with shockingly accurate detail . How can this stuff be so easy to ignore ? Why is it that this stuff is so easy to explain and yet so many people simply don't get it ? Why have so many people been killed throughout history with no real change and it's still going on ? Is this the 21st Century or the 18th Century ? Have we made no progress at all ? Gallipoli shows how gruesome and destructive war is , and it makes the point powerfully and successfully , stopping literally the second that point is made . I only wish movies like this were mandatory viewing for anyone taking a political office , elected or otherwise . The world might very well be a more peaceful place . |
544,674 | 562,732 | 344,651 | 10 | Best cooking show ever ! | I credit Good Eats with my immediate addiction to the Food Network . Alton Brown manages to present a wonderful combination of cooking instruction and entertainment . I realize that there is a lot of research put into each show , but he still manages to come across as an amazingly well informed chef , which just puts you in the mood to learn from him ! It seems that they realize that unless there is something really different done with a cooking show , it will never really be anything more than another cooking show , and they have really put a lot of effort into the entertainment portion of this show , which often takes the form of outrageously complicated set pieces and skits to illustrate what is happening in the pan while you cook or in your mouth and nose when you're tasting your latest creation . I remember one particular episode where Alton stuck his head up into a giant nose to show how our olfactory senses worked . Not very appetizing , but definitely entertaining , and I can't say I've ever seen anything like that on a cooking show before ! The food looks delicious and it's one of those cooking shows that I'll still watch even if I have no intention of ever attempting to cook the dishes he makes . I love cooking , but I watch the show for the entertainment of it , and that says a lot about it , I should think . |
544,096 | 562,732 | 439,022 | 10 | The best of the three documentaries included with the Troy DVD . | Since Troy is a film that is marketed on its battle scenes , it is important that they be well made , especially since vast looks at thousands of men fighting is fast becoming a cliché . The individual fight scenes , however , are so good that it makes up for the lengthy epic battle scenes where we sit through a lot of stuff that we have seen so many times before . There is mention of the fact that the Iliad describes Hector's spear as being 5 meters long ( ! ) which brings up some logistical problems in re-creating his fight scenes . While there was much creative liberty taken with the material due to a lack of historical knowledge , this is something that may have been difficult to get around , since it would be a deliberate deviation from the source material . Then again , this seems to me to be the kind of hyperbole often attached to Greek myth , such as the story of Achilles himself . I found it interesting that they used rubber swords while shooting the film , such as in the scene where Achilles makes short work of Boagrius , one of my favorite scenes in the film . They show the original shot of that scene , before Achilles ' sword was superimposed into it , which is another pretty impressive look at the special effects done on the movie . Brad Pitt talks about how brutal the fighting was back then , but ironically they say that most of the injuries that were sustained , at least a substantial portion of them , did not kill , but allowed the person to die slowly . On second thought that's probably a lot of what Brad meant by brutal and is also why director Wolfgang Peterson wanted as much battle blood and gore as possible . They weren't trying to glorify it , just make it realistic . Amazingly enough , the soldiers in the movie were portrayed by a lot of Bulgarians and Mexicans who were trained in just three weeks , having had no training whatsoever before that . This is also the documentary that goes into detail about how just as they were about to film the fight between Hector and Achilles a hurricane came through and wiped out the indestructible wall of Troy , so they had to rebuild the entire thing . But probably the most ironic thing in all three of these documentaries is that during shooting , Brad Pitt injured his Achilles tendon ( ! ! ) . Reminds me of all of those freaky stories you hear about people dying during the making of the Exorcist or multiple people getting struck by lightning during the filming of The Passion of the Christ . There are some great juxtapositions of the choreographers choreographing the fight scene between Achilles and Hector and the actual scene from the movie . I love it when they do things like that because it gives a very clear picture of how carefully and meticulously planned out the fight was . The film stays closely on topic , giving great insight into the filming and rehearsing of the great battle scenes from the film . It is a true behind the scenes look at how some of the fights from the movie were put together , and also tells some interesting stories about problems that they ran into while shooting , such as a hurricane blowing down the wall of Troy and the intense heat that they had to work in . Like the other two documentaries , I think this one deserved to be a little but longer , but is still well worth checking out . |
544,368 | 562,732 | 259,165 | 10 | One of the best short films I have ever seen . | 405 is an extremely short action thriller that takes you on a wild adventure ride and then drops you off almost before you even realize that you've gone anywhere . The film is barely three minutes long , placing it on the level of extremely short short films , yet there is still so much accomplished in it that it is able to make a huge impression on the viewer even in that short time . In glancing through the other reviews of 405 on the IMDb , it seems that a lot of people ( or , at least , most of the six or seven people who bothered to review it ) were impressed with the special effects but saw a problem with logistics in the film . Okay , it's obvious that if a DC-10 rear-ended a Jeep Grand Cherokee , it's landing gear is not going to crumple , nor would the Jeep have the slightest chance of holding up the plane if it did . No roll bar in the world is going to enable a Jeep to withstand the gigantic weight of a full size commercial airliner . Also , to stoop to an even lower level of complaint , even the most decrepit of senior citizens is likely to notice that the guy who just flew by her and almost caused her to wreck was probably not doing it on purpose , seeing how there was a jetliner resting on top of his car . I doubt she assumed that he was towing it , so clearly the finger at the end of the film was thrown in for comic relief . Did they go too far with that ? Was that too much lowbrow comedy to allow the movie to be taken seriously ? Personally , I don't think that the amount or style of comedy put into the film was either excessive or cheesy . And even if it was , the movie is so good that it wouldn't even matter . This is a nearly perfect short action film , with the small exceptions of the very much forgivable logical flaws , and I think that it should be recognized for that . Another thing that I noticed in the other reviews on the IMDb was that the acting was criticized , particularly that of the driver of the Jeep . Well , first of all , there was such a miniscule amount of actual acting in the film that it would have been pointless to hire a more professional or more well-known actor to play the part of the driver , and besides that , I really saw nothing wrong with his acting . His facial expressions and body movements ( which collectively made up about 99 % of his total amount of acting ) perfectly showed his reactions to what he saw happening with the airliner , and the fact that he was just some guy rather than a more well known actor made it much more believable . This is just a regular guy driving down the freeway , and this amazing thing happens to him . The reason Alfred Hitchcock's movies were and continue to be so successful ( besides the tremendous directing skills of Hitchcock's himself ) were because they were so often stories of amazing things happening in normal circumstances , and that's exactly what is happening in 405 . We're not told what circumstances led up to the point where this guy is driving his Jeep along a closed freeway , wondering why there's not a single car on the road with him , but it doesn't matter because it's not significant to the story that we're watching . That's like asking what Norman Bates had for breakfast the day that Marion Crane showed up at his hotel . I can't say I wasn't shocked to read that someone was impressed with the special effects in 405 , but then called it a ' bad movie . ' What a thing to say ! This movie is incredible ! I think that the fact that Roger Ebert reviewed it says enough about its quality . Try to find another three minute movie that Ebert took the time to watch and review . I haven't done that myself , but I can't imagine that there are many . This is a famous short film for a reason , and it should not be picked apart for such insignificant flaws as the ones I pointed out above . This is a movie that nearly anyone would enjoy , and it also provides a great lesson for people who are interested in the possibilities of the filmmaking medium ( like myself ) . 405 is an extremely amateur film but the final product is amazingly impressive . Overlooking that just because the strength of a DC-10's landing gear was not parallel in the film with reality ( or because you invented some problems with the acting in the film ) would be a cinematic tragedy almost on the same level as it would have been if Kubrick had decided to throw that copy of The Shining against the wall with all the others . Enjoy 405 , and give it the respect that it deserves . |
543,822 | 562,732 | 16,220 | 10 | The darkness behind the scenes at the playhouse ? | The 1925 Phantom of the Opera , widely regarded as the best film adaptation of the story ever , starts off with the explanation that the Paris Opera House rises nobly over torture chambers and hidden dungeons , which is a great way to start a story about a disfigured man living in the torture chambers and hidden dungeons under the Paris Opera House . It not only establishes the setting as a classy playhouse built on the ruins of past torture chambers and dungeons , but also provides a level of creepiness necessary in a movie in which Erik ( the Phantom ) is able to live down there , in vast recesses which have become unknown . Lon Chaney delivers a stunning performance , one of the most famous in film history . Indeed , the scene where Christine pulls off the Phantom's mask is still scary 80 years after its release . People in 1925 must have been nearly frightened out of their seats . This film is indeed the Exorcist of the 1920s . The very simple story is presented with stunning effectiveness , especially since the now very recognizable music is not even in this version . In the cellars under the Paris Opera House lives the Phantom , who demands of the new and understandably skeptical management that the lead role in the play be given to Christine Daaé , under penalty of devastating punishment . The new owners laughed off a warning that they might hear rumors of ghosts , so it's the fact that they similarly ignore the Phantom's warning is to be expected . In this version that Phantom takes the terrified Christine into his dungeon because he loves her , " so that which is good within my , aroused by your purity , might plead for your love . " As is also stated in the film , man's hatred made him into the Phantom , and he needs her love to redeem him . The Phantom is constantly making gestures with his hands that give the appearance that he is about to pull off his mask , which is one of the brilliant ways the film adds to the suspense of Christine pulling it off . There is an impressive psychological subtlety here , as the film makes a comment on mankind's need to see and touch , our inability to leave things unseen , even when we know that they are better off unseen . Everything must be touched , experience , and , in this case , corrupted , even to theirs and our own detriment . Christine is humanity . The infamous chandelier is indeed one of the stars of the film and the story itself , as it is the Phantom's instrument of his most extensive murderous damage , but its effects are almost immediately forgotten . Even though the scene after it falls is the one where Raoul and Christine meet against the Phantom's instructions is the only one that really shows that they truly love each other , this takes place the night after presumably dozens of people were killed or injured in that very room . I would think that the Phantom would have been upset as much by the lack of remorse shown by the people that he intends to punish and frighten as he was at the reunion of Raoul and Christine . The Secret Police officer is one character that has been removed for the 2004 version , which is too bad because he added a great element of possibility to the movie , as he is initially thought to be the Phantom in disguise but ultimately reveals himself to be an officer who has been studying the Phantom for months in his attempts to capture him . The character makes for a great chase sequence of sorts late in the film , in which he and Raoul attempt to capture him in his dungeon home . In the climactic scene Raoul and the officer are in some sort of an oven-room being baked by the Phantom , who demands Christine's love in order to save them ( the 2004 version of this scene , again , is strikingly different ) , but they escape into a nearby room full of gunpowder . Nevermind the influence this must have had on National Treasure , the important thing is that this shows that the Phantom had some explosive plans . He is a character for whom we are meant to have limited sympathy . Although Chaney's powerful performance is the biggest aspect of this film production , Christine is the star of the story in this movie . She doesn't love the Phantom , obviously , but needs him to bestow upon her the talent necessary for her to achieve the stardom the she so strongly desires . Once she sees his disfigured face , she immediately calls upon Raoul to save her from him . It is important that she seeks Raoul's help only after seeing the Phantom's face , calling into question the realness of her love for him . Both men love Christine , but she loves neither of them . Her desire for fame turns to a desire to be saved from a man of whom she is terribly frightened but who is in love with her , and her only savior is a man who will similarly expect a lifetime of love and devotion from her but with whom she is certainly not in love either . The tragedy is Christine's , not the Phantom's . I was initially wondering about the point of having Christine turn a scorpion or a grasshopper to indicate her answer rather than simply saying yes or no , but it allows a great opportunity to have a deathly hazard befall the police officer and Raoul as a result of Christine's actions . The Phantom redeems himself by helping to pull them out the trapdoor , which finally brings sympathy to the fate that he ultimately suffers , which is similar to that suffered by Frankenstein's monster in James Whale's unfaithful 1931 adaptation , which was invented for that movie , as is this one . Nevertheless , the reputation that this film has as the best Phantom adaptation ever made are richly deserved . This is a milestone in film history . |
544,260 | 562,732 | 234,215 | 10 | Upgrades ! | The thing that really strikes me about The Matrix Reloaded is that the increase in quality , if it can be said that there actually is one , from the first movie is more the result of an increased budget than anything else . I loved the new movie , but the talent was there in the first one , you can just tell that in the sequel the Wachowski brothers had a virtually endless budget , which allowed them to do pretty much anything they wanted . They have a very distinct style that is clearly evident in all of their movies , even if they are not laden with special effects . The fluidity of the camera movement and the strangely dark tones of their films are only a couple of the techniques that make them recognizable . These things really come to the surface if you watch the Matrix films , some of the most recognizable films ever made , and then watch an earlier one of their movies , like the trashy 1996 thriller , Bound . That being said , I think it's safe to say that , despite the massive and seemingly unsurpassable genius of the first Matrix film , the Wachowski brothers have made another step up from their last film . It should be noted that the film is the second part in a trilogy , especially before groaning out loud at the sudden ending of the film , which built up and built up and built up and then just stopped , just like the fist Lord of the Rings film did . I won't take time here to go into what the story is about and how it continues the story from the first film , if only because plot summary in film reviews is a total waste of time for the writer as well as the reader , and also because I've only seen the movie twice , which really isn't enough to get a total grasp on the depth of the plots , so I'll just suffice it here to say that the startling complexity of the original Matrix ( a complexity which is almost unheard of in a science fiction film ) is added onto and expanded in this film , although despite being hard to follow , is never confusing . I've heard all kinds of talk about the Italian Job having an even better car chase than The Matrix Reloaded and how the chase in this film wasn't even that good at all , blah blah blah . There is a freeway chase scene in this film which recklessly promotes reckless driving ( and , even worse , reckless riding ) , but it is one of the most impressively made and fascinating car chase scenes that I've ever seen . It also contains the characteristic style of the Wachowski brothers , and is famously filmed on a freeway that was constructed strictly for the filming of this scene . I can't remember where , Australia , I think . Anyway , Morpheus and one of the agents are having a kung-fu fight on top of a semi trailer ( which the driver never seems to notice ) , the poor keymaker in struggling to stay out of the way , Trinity is flying between cars against traffic on one of the most badass motorcycles on the road ( enter the Ducati commercial ) , and Morpheus is off doing , as they say , ' his superman thing . ' The superman thing is one of the elements of the movie that bordered on being campy , as the multitude of Agent Smiths comment to themselves , ' He's still only human . ' And then in the next scene he's flying . This is one of the points where you really need to keep in mind that Neo's body is plugged into a machine , in the strikingly less appealing real world , and is basically playing a video game where he'll die in real life if killed in the game because his body will think that it has been killed for real and will shut down . During the freeway scene , there's a camera shot where the camera literally goes right through the chassis ' of a couple of semi trucks as it follows Trinity , which I think got the biggest reaction from an audience in a single scene that I've seen since that Velociraptor jumped up at the ceiling in Jurassic Park . One of the other most memorable scenes is the lengthy fight scene between Neo and the hordes of Agent Smiths , one of the most entertaining fight scenes I've ever seen . It's obvious that the vast majority of this scene is special effects ( and not only because there are hundreds of the same guy in it ) , but it is so well made and convincing and even amusing that the entertainment value of it is massive . The new villains , by the way , are some of the best new villains since the Reapers in Blade II . I've heard something about an albino interest group that's trying to sue for the way albino's are portrayed in this movie because of these guys , although I can't exactly agree that they're even albinos . These guys are so weird looking they're barely human . If the albino interest groups are trying to sue , why didn't they sue when Me , Myself , and Irene was released ? Anyway , these guys have the interesting skill of becoming transparent and therefore untouchable , with the small condition that they are also unable to attack when in this defensive mode , which makes for some great fight scenes as well as some cool tricks , like that of hopping into rapidly approaching Escalades ( oh , there are lots of Cadillac commercials here , too ) . I heard recently that Cadillac is trying to aim for a younger audience than the much older people who tend to drive their cars , and if there were ever any doubts that the rumors are true , they are completely dispelled by their heavy placement in this movie . There are certainly some scenes in this movie where it drags and seems to even border on being unnecessarily philosophical and confusing , such as in the extensive meeting with the Oracle , who tells Neo all about choices that he has made but doesn't know he's made yet , or needs to make even though fate has already determined what decision he would make , or something of that nature , where after a while we find ourselves ( or at least I did ) paying more attention to the pigeons walking around in this startlingly different atmosphere than to the deep conversation that they're having . Maybe this is why it takes me more than two viewings to get the complete story of movies like this . Blasted pigeons . There is a lot of controversy over the quality of The Matrix Reloaded , which is to be expected , since it is a movie that has garnered such a vast amount of attention , even if only because it is the follow-up to such a massively successful film . But like Terminator 3 , I personally was hugely impressed with this sequel , and am more than able to accept it as a bridge between the original and the final film in the series . It is the better part of three hours long , but goes by much faster than anticipated because it is so well made and entertaining . Never mind that totally campy scenes , like the bullet removal scene and the dance club scene , because like so many other sequels these days ( and unlike so many others ) , The Matrix Reloaded will leave you eager to see the next one . |
544,624 | 562,732 | 351,167 | 10 | A brilliant look into the world of Gothic science fiction . | Cathedral is such a simple film that it is even more amazing how powerful it is . There is not a word of dialogue and almost no plot , but there is just enough going on so that you can insert your own meaning onto it , it means whatever is most important to you . The animation is spectacular , it reminds me of Final Fantasy , from a purely technical standpoint ( this film is much , much better than Final Fantasy ) , and the music , by far my favorite part of the film , is breathtaking . There is a fascinating cross breed between techno and classical chant that fits with the material like no other kind of music ever possibly could . When the music picks up near the end of the film , it is some of the best combination of sound and sight that I have ever experienced . The movie delves into the meaning of existence and suffering in such an obscure but powerful way that it is unbelievably moving to witness the fate of a person who we do not know anything about , especially since it plays off of the meaning of cathedrals themselves in a way that pays respectful homage . It uses them as a catalyst to tell the story but does so respectfully , returning the power to them that it borrowed for its own purposes . Bravo . |
544,218 | 562,732 | 1,156,320 | 10 | What WOULD Dieter do ? | After watching this documentary I have discovered that Werner Herzog is among the best directors working today . Unfortunately , I still haven't seen Grizzly Man , which I've heard only glowing things about . When I bought Rescue Dawn , I didn't recognize his name , and I even thought he was one of those famously bad directors , more well-known for their bad taste and incompetence than anything else ( like Uwe Boll or Eli Roth or any of the idiot Wayans brothers ) . Nevertheless , I bought it because I'll watch Christian Bale do anything . I don't think he's ever done anything less than stellar acting . As far as making-of documentaries , this one is longer than many , it gives much more detail about the production and the experiences of the cast and crew , including extensive interviews with Herzog and his brilliant cinematographer . But most of all I loved the descriptions of shooting on location in Thailand and the relationships that certain cast and crew members had with each other on set . Werner Herzog , also , at one point mentions how important it was to him to have as few digital effects in the film as possible . This is one of the only times I've ever heard a director verbally acknowledge that digital effects generally take away more than they add to a film , and it was then that I knew that I need to get some more of his films and pay more attention to him . The stories that Christian Bale and Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn tell are fascinating and give a clear picture of what it was like making the movie , and all of them delivered astonishing performances . They talk about how Herzog would sometimes film them when they didn't know they were being filmed , and he captured some of the most convincing stuff in the film , because they weren't acting , they were just living in the jungle , and Herzog captured their experience . It's not often that a director as brilliant as that comes along . |
544,694 | 562,732 | 267,721 | 10 | Excellent look back . | Clearly , the most difficult thing about making supplemental documentaries about movies that were made as long ago as Bridge on the River Kwai is that there is so little to work with . With DVDs and even home video in the distant future , on set interviews were much more rare than they are today , but Director Laurent Bouzereau displays great skills in matching up interviews of cast or , more often , crew members talking about certain things that happened during the making of the film and then following them up with those particular scenes from the movie . A similar tactic was used to great success in the making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , which at least had interviews with both Paul Newman and Robert Redford , although they were audio only . This documentary follows the making of the film from the initial translation of the original novel into English ( from French ) and then into an actual screenplay , which was scrapped and then started over again from scratch , to the screening of the finished film , where some great tricks were pulled on some lazy critics . I recently saw Hotel Rwanda at a screening in Hollywood and one of the actors from the film was at the screening , and he told a story about the writers of the movie having been trying to find somebody to get interested in their script for something like five or six years , which was astounding to me because Hotel Rwanda is probably one of the two or three most powerful films I've ever seen . There is a similar story in the case of Bridge on the River Kwai , and this documentary goes into detail about the difficulties that the movie had being made . Not only was Alec Guinness near the bottom of the list of preferred actors for the lead role , but he wasn't interested much in the project himself to begin with . There are some great stories about Sessue Hayakawa , who played Col . Saito in the film . Hayakawa is a well known silent film actor who had been acting for four decades by the time he appeared in this film , but this is by far the role that he is most known for . He made dozens of movies in the 1910s , like Chaplin did , which really makes me want to see some of them . The documentary also explains the importance of the train wreck to the film as well as the difficulty in planning it . Even for blowing up a bridge and sending a full sized locomotive plummeting into the river it was a surprisingly complex plan , made even more difficult by the fact that no one really knew how powerful the explosion was going to be . Naturally , as is just the case when making movies , not everything goes according to plan , and this documentary has some great stories to tell about how a great story was made into a movie . |
544,802 | 562,732 | 959,337 | 10 | No wonder no one says " swell " anymore ! | My grandparents still consider the 1950's to be the golden age of pure , unblemished Americanism . A time when teenagers were respectful , parents were bright , smiling examples of friendly authority , sex was post-marital and marriage was a time of apple pies and cheerful strolls down the charming neighborhood lane . I don't know at the moment if my grandparents have seen Revolutionary Road , but rarely do movies come along when the opinions of our elders would almost surely prove to be enormously valuable and insightful . The movie is based on the novel by Richard Yates , which attacked the very normality and pleasant conformity of the 1950's that forms the basis of so much of the modern nostalgia about it today . There has been a lot of expectation about the movie that would bring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet together again for the first time in more than a decade , but the romance that they share in Revolutionary Road could not possibly be more different from the one they developed on the Titanic . They are Frank and April Wheeler , an outwardly charming husband and wife who live in a beautiful dream house on Revolutionary Road . They radiate an atmosphere of perfection and happiness and are loved by the neighbors . We meet them just after they've made what they promised each other was only a temporary move from Manhattan to the sprawling suburbs . The movie begins with April in an unsuccessful play , and we learn very quickly about their relationship in the car on the way home as Frank thoughtfully assures her that it's okay that she didn't become an actress , it's not her fault that the play was lousy , and then in the fight that ensues , Frank tells her that she acts " sick " when she gets mad like this . It seems that the most important thing that Frank and April embody about the traditional 1950s couple was the routine sacrificing of dreams upon the altar of conformity and fulfilling expectations . April dreams of a romantic life in Paris , and Frank has artistic ambitions as well . But he is stuck in a job that he hates despite a good salary , they have two kids already and a third accidentally on the way , and adultery's going on left and right . April suggests that they drop everything and move to Paris where , with money that she could make working combined with whatever they could get for the house , they could live comfortably until he could get on his feet artistically and they could both live the lives they have always dreamed of . They are doing what is expected of them already , but they're both deeply unhappy and they see no improvement ahead . It is one of the movie's more successful tragic moments in the way that everyone Frank and April know react to the news that they are moving . Responses range from friendly disbelief to outward remarks of irresponsibility and suggestions that such a move would be " irresponsible . " It's hard to watch Frank and April let go of their dreams when it was right in their grasp . It's not unrealistic , ladies and gentlemen . It's uncommon and unexpected , but unrealistic ? Irresponsible ? I should hope not ! It's commonly believed to be irresponsible and unrealistic , but it's not , trust me . I'm doing it myself . I left a job in Los Angeles two years ago that paid well but that I didn't like , and I've been living in China ( decidedly less romantic than Paris , I admit ) ever since . I now have a job that pays less than I made in LA , but my lifestyle is much more comfortable and I work 10 hours a week , which leaves me time to pursue my artistic endeavors . See how that works ? Granted , I don't have any kids , but I also didn't have a house to sell to put together some money to support myself while I found work . " I just think people are better off doing some kind of work that they actually like , " Frank complains . I tend to agree . But ultimately life gets in the way , as they say . A gossipy real estate agent , played perfectly by Kathy Bates , makes friends with April and nervously asks if she might bring over her son John , who has been in a mental institution and who she thinks might benefit from meeting a happy couple like April and Frank . April agrees , but when John comes over , it seems that his only mental problem is an inability to adhere to accepted models of conformity , which manifests itself mostly in the form of cutting through other peoples ' facades like warm butter and laying bare the sad , bitter reality of their lives . When he does this with April and Frank , the results are not pretty , but they are some of the best movie moments of 2008 . Kate and Leo both approach perfection in their performances . Both of them have appeared in other brilliant films in 2008 ( Kate in The Reader and Leo in Body of Lies ) , but in Revolutionary Road their performances reach such a level of pitch and depth that , when combined , they reverberate against each other and turn into something entirely different . If there were an Oscar for the best combination of two performances , there would be no need for any other nominees . Revolutionary Road is not the most uplifting film of the year ( although it's also not nearly as depressing as , say , Rachel Getting Married ) , but it is definitely among the most important . It's not so much that the movie attacks conformity , but that it attacks that little voice inside us that prevents us from doing what we really want in life because it goes against the accepted norm . Watching the movie kind of takes a bite out of you , but it takes a bite of that part of you that gets in the way of your dreams . |
544,378 | 562,732 | 259,182 | 10 | Call me the American nightmare / Call me the American dream / Call me your soul corrupted / Call me everything you need . . . | You know , you really see movies differently when you hear the directors talking about what the movie meant to them or what they were trying to do with it . I really should watch more of those featurettes that come on the DVDs . I don't think I'll ever have the patience for audio commentaries , but the extra features on DVDs quite often have stuff like what you find in this outstanding documentary . Hearing the creators talk about their work really puts everything into a completely different perspective . I was especially surprised to see how affected most of them were by the Vietnam war , like Tom Savini , who served in the war and now does horror movie makeup , witnessed horrible atrocities and awful , bloody deaths , and then went on to incorporate those things into his movies . Kind of morbid , really , to think that he was an American soldier who , by his own words , would see dead bodies and would just detach himself from the immediacy and finality of it , and instead think more about how he could recreate something like that in a movie . Until I saw this documentary , I never once considered the idea of trying to recreate war deaths , at least by a soldier who is standing right there . Even directors who did not actually go to Vietnam were affected by the war , and it's amazing to see this powerful time in this country come across in what could easily be written off as just scary , gory horror movies . Good horror movies , but still nothing more than horror movies . In some of the clips that were shown , such as scenes from one of Wes Craven's first films , The Last House on the Left , I was amazed at how intense the horror is . I've been watching a lot of horror movies lately , things like the Friday the 13th movies , Nightmare on Elm Streets , Halloween , Child's Play , Texas Chainsaw , etc , and have started to think that I had just outgrown that sick feeling of fear and almost nausea that I would get as a kid just from walking around in the horror section , like the real raw horror movies turned into campy gore-fests by the time I got to the age I am now , but man , I must be going to the wrong video stores . There are some scenes shown in this movie that remind you what the real horror movies were like , back when they were meant to scare , not make tons of money . Back before the Japanese had to come in and show us how it's done , because we have obviously forgotten . Rob Zombie came out with House of 1000 Corpses last year , an underrated horror film that didn't set any box office records because it wasn't meant to . Like the directors in The American Nightmare , he is a lifelong horror fan and remembers what the real horror films were like . House of 1000 Corpses was his reminder to the world , now all these other directors are doing the same . While I loved hearing the directors talk about their movies and I loved watching all of the clips from their films , all the while trying to compile a mental list of movies that I need to rent , I have to say that I found the legitimacy of these horror films in the context of the society in which they were created to be the most interesting part . You don't really think about horror movies having too much social value or meaning , but these movies , as they say , are clearly a product of their environment . I found myself wondering at many points if we are going to see a new breed of horror directors eventually come home from Iraq ? |
544,917 | 562,732 | 90,605 | 10 | Aliens have returned in spectacular fashion ! | Aliens avoids the all-too common fate of sequels , to live forever in the shadow of their predecessors , and usually for good reason . It is especially common for sequels of enormously successful movies to fall flat , particularly in the horror and science fiction genres ( remember The Exorcist II ? ) . The first sequel to Ridley Scott's spectacular 1979 film , which set the standard for science fiction for years to come , is placed into the capable hands of James Cameron , who clearly takes some knowledge from Halloween director John Carpenter . Once this movie gets going , it goes full speed and doesn't let you rest for two and a half hours . The movie starts off exactly at the same point where the first movie left off . Well , 57 or so years later , but otherwise the same . Ripley has been in deep sleep and drifting aimlessly in space , and was discovered , as one man describes it to her , by dumb luck . She wakes up to a series of significant and inevitable shocks . Her daughter , whom she had promised that she would be home from her mission , the one from the last movie , has grown up and died an old woman . It's a strange scene to see Ripley looking at a picture of her daughter , now decades older than her own mother . It's not long before Ripley learns that the planet on which they found the strange craft with the alien eggs in it is now inhabited by an entire subculture of families , living on the planet in order to cultivate the atmosphere so that it will be breathable for more people to go live there . Needless to say , she's not entirely impressed with the idea of families living on the planet where the aliens came from , but these people have a lot of money invested in populating that planet , so no one's going to call off the whole project based on the ramblings of some woman who has been floating in space for five decades . And there you have the premise for the movie , already having justified its existence and separated itself from its predecessor enough so that it owns the rest of its own plot . Many good sequels still only tell another story under the same basic plot outline or involving the same characters . In this one , only one character remains from the original story , and the rest of it is simply a continuation of the original story . James Cameron later went on to develop something of a reputation for making good sequels . Alien fans can rejoice because they made another movie but did not sell out . There's a big risk in successful movies being followed up with a sequel just for the money , you see it all the time ? Predator , Texas Chainsaw , Darkman ( Durant survived that helicopter crash ? ? ? ) etc . Aliens starts right off knowing that it's not wise to throw in another alien and film it chasing and killing people . The movie starts out with Ripley facing serious consequences for official misconduct for that expensive ship that she destroys . She has to convince the board that she had no other choice at the same time as she has to credibly explain the deaths of her entire crew and convince them that those families living on that planet , LV-426 , are in grave danger . Not only are they skeptical of her story , she's a suspect in a criminal investigation . Suddenly , all contact is lost with LV-426 , and Ripley's story begins to take on a little merit . They offer her a clean slate if she'll accompany their military forces to the planet to check out the situation . She agrees as long as they are going there to destroy the alien , not capture and study it . There is an interesting new crew in the movie , except in this case Ripley has to convince them of her reason for being there . She's not combat trained like they are , but she knows what they're up against , and it's not until they learn about that that they begin to realize how important she is to their mission . My favorite is Bill Paxton's character , Pvt . Hudson , a tough-talking , loudmouth showoff who is reduced to a whining baby , just about wetting himself with fear when the group is confronted with the alien . He was the toughest talker and the loudest mouth going into the mission , but the first to give up hope on himself and the entire crew . This is one of the ways that the story develops unique personalities , people that we can identify , if not identify WITH , just enough to care about what happens to them . And in a movie like Aliens , it's very important that the audience cares what happens to the characters . When they get to the island , it's not long before they encounter a young girl named Newt , who has survived when the rest of the planet was decimated by the aliens , and doubts the crews ability to fight a growing number of aliens with such a small force , and Ripley takes her under her arm . Ripley becomes the mother that Newt no longer has , and Newt becomes the daughter that Ripley no longer has , and it sets an interesting tone for the rest of the movie . The aliens are trying to protect their offspring , and Ripley is essentially trying to do exactly the same thing . One of the things that makes the Alien movies so successfully tense is the setting . They are enclosed within a ship in outer space , trapped with a much more powerful creature . If both sides were unarmed , the aliens would do away with the humans in minutes . Cameron uses this setting to its full potential , employing motion sensors to heighten tension and using spaces in the ship , like the space above the ceiling , to allow the aliens to get extremely close to the humans , even while the humans are watching their movement on their monitors and wondering why the monitor shows them in the very room but they can't see them yet . In another lesson that Cameron seems to have taken from John Carpenter , he keeps the aliens mostly out of sight during the movie , feeling that the less we see them the more menacing they become and remain . He's exactly right about this , too . It maintains a sense of mystery and danger surrounding the aliens that transcends simply their viciousness and obvious physical superiority , and always keeps the viewer straining to see more . But like the crew , we know very little about these creatures other than how deadly they are . Oh , and if you want to see what happens when a director doesn't understand the need to keep the killer in the shadows , watch Halloween II . This is , unfortunately , the last movie in the quadrilogy before it makes a precipitous creative turn downward with the sub-par second and third sequels , but Alien and Aliens are spectacular enough that they fill the void left by their two predecessors . Two such powerful movies may make it even more difficult to take that the good ones seem to be over , but these two remain landmarks . Also keep your eye out for ( among several other Cameron regulars ) Jenette Goldstein , a lesser known actress whose impressive versatility becomes clear when comparing her character in Aliens with her character , say , in Titanic ! |
544,243 | 562,732 | 251,821 | 10 | Finally a making of documentary that deserves to be seen with the movie that it's based on ! | The thing that I loved about The Making of Jaws was not the fact that the Special Edition DVD featured a shorter version of the documentary than the Special Edition VHS ( both of which I own because I'm just a geek like that ) but the fact that it covers every aspect of production from Peter Benchley's original conception of the story of Jaws all the way to the public reception of the completed film at the test viewings . Even the interviews are edited together smoothly , which is something that these making-of documentaries are notoriously bad at . It also goes into great detail about a wide variety of different topics , bringing back a surprising number of the original cast members . Even the girl who got eaten at the beginning of the film shows up here for an interview . I tend to find it tiring when these supplemental features on DVDs spend a lot of time playing clips of the movie that you just finished watching , so it was nice that this documentary showed so much behind the scenes footage and outtakes , as well as explanations for why certain scenes were not put into the movie . Steven Spielberg gives some great insights into his methods of directing , and everyone has some great stories to tell about the problems that were encountered during production , particularly with the shark hardly ever working . There's a part in this documentary where Spielberg talks about a time when he was genuinely concerned that the studio was going to send someone in to take over the project because he was taking so long during production , which really gives a lot of insight into how difficult film-making can be sometimes . Oh and you get to hear him cuss , too . I'd never seen that before . One of the most popular things that this movie spawned was not only the endless repetition of phrases like " Don't go in the water " and " You're going to need a bigger boat " is a tendency for people to make fun of the movie because the shark looked fake . But when you watch this documentary and see how much work went into making the shark look as real or fake as it did , it really makes you appreciate the movie more . Save your criticisms for the horrendous sequels . One of the other things that I really liked about this documentary was that it showed footage of some of Steven Spielberg's home movies , evidently shot with a home video camera on the sets during production . It was pretty interesting to see footage that he shot that looks like it could have been shot by anyone . Strange to see that one of the greatest filmmakers alive shoots video just like anyone else . A few days ago I watched a supplemental documentary for The Day the Earth Stood Still called Making the Earth Stand Still and I was disappointed not only that it had nothing to do with making the Earth stand still but that it was such a poorly made documentary to accompany one of the best science fiction films ever made , so it was nice to see that the re-release of Jaws was fitted with a fitting documentary . |
544,339 | 562,732 | 368,597 | 10 | Who wants to believe that life is a tale told by an idiot ? | Between Two Worlds gives the impression of being a documentary about the history of supernatural experiences and about the validity of the more compelling ghost sightings that have been reported , but is more of a psychological examination of what may very well be an actual need that humans have to believe in ghosts . M . Night Shyamalan tells about how civilizations and cultures have had ghosts stories for thousands of years all over the world , and goes on to point out that in his own research on the subject , children who have claimed to have seen ghosts almost invariably come from homes broken by divorce , NOT from experiencing deaths in the family . This makes sense , really , because everyone experiences a death in the family eventually , it's one of the sad realities of human life . On the other hand , my own parents divorced when I was four and I never saw any ghosts , I'm just afraid of the dark , even now , more than 20 years later . Make your psychological evaluations at will . William Peter Blatty , the author of The Exorcist , makes an appearance in this documentary and tells some very compelling stories about his own experiences with ghost sightings . He has never seen one himself , but he tells a story about his infant son that is pretty hard to argue with . One day his son looked off into a corner and smiled and said , " Ghost . " When Blatty asked him about it later , he asked if it was a man , no , was it a woman , no , then what was it ? " Happy . " This is a theme that seeps over into The Sixth Sense , although not in exactly that way . The ghosts in The Sixth Sense are not happy , but they are not malevolent . They don't want to hurt people or even scare people , they just want help . Spielberg took the same approach in Close Encounters of the Third Kind , approaching the possibility of extra-terrestrial life not only from a point of view of pure fascination , but with the idea that not only is there other life out there , but that we don't have to fear it . Bruce Joel Rubin , the director of Ghost and Jacob's Ladder , makes a powerful point about the differences in the ways that adults and children see the world , another favorite theme of Spielberg's , who used it to great effect not only in Close Encounters ( where Richard Dreyfuss's character recovered some of that lost childhood purity and was able to begin to believe ) and , even more famously , in E . T . Rubin explains that children have that purity of vision that we lose as we grow up and that adults are desperate to recover . It's amazing how right he is . The film makes some powerful religious assertions , such as the one that if you are with someone at the moment of their death , you can feel a presence in the room , you are definitely not alone , it's a powerful religious experience . I've never been with someone at the moment of their death , but I can put more stock into that idea than I can in the majority of religious references , which play a very small part in my life , if any at all . But that is the point that this documentary is trying to make , that you don't have to be a religious person to take ghost stories like these seriously , even if only for entertainment value . Between Two Worlds is designed to explain one of the reasons that The Sixth Sense was so successful , even in a time when the usual real life things that create interest in horror movies ? depression , war , political strife , etc . - do not exist . The Sixth Sense , according to this documentary , was successful because it taps into something that just about every person has in the back of their mind but that no one talks about , the possibility of the existence of ghosts that are around us at all times . Shyamalan did not make a ghost story like the ones we are used to , which are exploitative films that are meant to scare us , but one which goes to great lengths to create a real world , with child psychologists and worried mothers and schoolyard bullies , and he puts ghosts into it . This is a movie about real ghosts in the real world , not scary monsters meant to scare you so badly that you drop your popcorn . Watching The Sixth Sense , you forget the popcorn is even in your lap . In this documentary , we see several other filmmakers , as well as Shyamalan himself , talking about experiences that they've had in their lives that led them to create the stories and movies that they did , as well as to tell about their own beliefs in ghosts , which their films are so famous for bringing to forefront of our minds . This documentary makes it more and more difficult not to believe in ghosts in some way , but most importantly ( and this is one of the most important things about The Sixth Sense as well ) , it makes you want to believe . |
544,033 | 562,732 | 469,494 | 10 | Violence begets violence ? | In watching There Will Be Blood , I was a little worried to consider the old saying , like begets like , because it makes me realize that violence has always been too much of a prevalent part of American history . I am sad to realize that we might be one of the most violent countries in the world , in a way , at least because American history is peppered with intensely violent episodes , starting with the very first settlers who arrived here in the 18th century . There Will Be Blood takes place in turn of the 20th century America in the classic American frontier . Expansion is taking place everywhere , and we meet an ambitious prospector curiously named Daniel Plainview . Daniel Day-Lewis is clearly one of the most talented actors working today , and is a giant among even the greats of film history . There is a lot of talk about how he created the unique voice for his character , and it has an introduction that Orson Welles would have appreciated , in that there is not a word spoken in the movie until 15 minutes into it . It is curious the way music is used in the movie , as we get some suspense music at many points of the movie , perfectly relating the sense of unease and uncertainty that must have permeated through those times . We never learn anything much about Plainview . We don't know where he comes from , only that he has no friends and no family except a man who shows up midway through the movie claiming to be his long lost brother and an adopted son , who Plainview seems to take under his wing out of an inability to leave him for dead after his father was killed in a mining accident , but later it becomes clear that the boy can be put to good use for business purposes . When he grows up and wants to go into business for himself , Plainview's view of their relationship becomes clear . This is the ruthless business that was taking place in the early American oil industry . Plainview , a wily businessman if ever there was one , soon becomes immensely wealthy through his drilling ventures , so much so that he is able to effectively compete with the oil giant Standard Oil , throwing million dollar offers back in their face at a time when a million dollars was a truly astronomical amount of money . Standard Oil has been casing an area around the Sunday family ranch , until one of the Sunday sons , Paul ( Paul Dano ) introduces himself to Plainview and offers to tell him of a place where there is surely a huge oil deposit for payment of a few hundred dollars . Plainview is suspicious but pays him with a vicious threat if the tip turns out to be false . Upon arriving , he basically cons the Sunday father into giving him drilling rights for next to nothing , making a permanent enemy out of the other Sunday son , Paul's twin brother Eli , an evangelical nutcase . Paul Dano has made a jump that I didn't predict in his acting career . He was so good in Little Miss Sunshine that I didn't see him making such a big jump into such a completely different role , and even though his character was a little too over-the-top for me once or twice , it's clear that his acting career is progressing much faster than I would have anticipated . There is also , by the way , an interesting dichotomy in Eli's character . His only motivation throughout the movie is the propagation of his church and religion , which drives him to constantly try to wrest money from Plainview from his drilling profits , which reminds me of the constant relationship between organized religions and the never ending requests for donations from church members . According to the movie , religion is as much a business as oil drilling . We even see a variety of early " photo-ops , " one of which Plainview publicly throws back in Eli's face . He has nothing but contempt for religion , as he does for most people . The movie is loosely based on Upton Sinlair's novel Oil ! , which I understand tells a remarkably different story , but nonetheless this is a fascinating story about the formation of the American oil industry . Daniel Day-Lewis gives a performance that is alone worth watching the movie for , and while the film is not without it's imperfections , the effectiveness with which it recreates the American past is nothing less than stunning . I can't wait for a film adaptation of Sinclair's The Jungle ! |
544,064 | 562,732 | 18,773 | 10 | Bring on the funny man ! | I've been spending a lot of time lately going through and watching all of Chaplin's oldest short comedies that he made for Keystone and Essanay , and with only a few left before I get into the 1920s I decided to jump ahead and watch this one , which is reportedly the last true silent film that Chaplin made , since there were elements of City Lights and especially Modern Times that were clearly moving toward the sound era . The first thing the struck my is how much better looking the film is , and the second thing that struck me is that , other than the length and thickness of the plot and story , it is remarkably similar to his earlier films . In a good way , of course . By now , Chaplin had reached a point in his career where he was a major film star , so of course this movie is much bigger , much more ambitious than the 10 or 20 minute films he was churning out a decade before . He plays the same person , the little tramp out of the job , out of money and out of love . Maybe this is just me , but I really think that the parts of Chaplin's films where we see the tramp before the story has started going are generally some of the best parts , because we get quick looks at the tramp's personality ? what he does with himself when nothing's going on . He's usually just hanging out , spinning his cane or browsing casually without a care in the world . I sometimes wonder what Rowan Atkinson would be doing if there had been no Chaplin to inspire his own famous character . There is a very clever opening to the movie , as Chaplin twice finds himself the victim of pick-pocketing , once when another man's wallet is slipped into his pocket , and another time when that wallet is stolen from him before he realizes he has it . Luckily , a police officer sees the second thief and returns the stolen wallet to the thoroughly astonished tramp . When he goes to spend some of his new money , the real owner catches him and , as can only happen in a Chaplin movie , the ensuing chase makes him a star . I especially love how much more complex the movie is the its shorter predecessors . It is clearly a big-budget 1928 Hollywood movie , with high-flying stunts and even special effects ( yeah , special effects in a Chaplin movie ! ! ) . There are plenty of charming and effective sight gags , including his famous tight rope scene with the monkeys , and a sweet love story that calls to mind the similar love story , and how it played out , from The Tramp , back in 1916 . If the oldest two-reelers are too rough or uninteresting to you , this would be a great film to see to check out Chaplin's early work . It's similar in countless ways , but is cleaner and has a much more engaging plot . Excellent show ! Note : The IMDb trvia page mentions that this is the only one of Chaplin's feature films not mentioned in his autobiography , because of " problems with the film , not the film itself . " I understand that his studio burned down during production and that he suffered a nervous breakdown during filming because of personal problems , but do any of his dissatisfactions have anything to do with the actual film ? If you know please email me , this movie is definitely something that I would think he would be proud of ! |
544,452 | 562,732 | 131,409 | 10 | Yet another classic short film from Pixar . | Pixar , especially now that Monsters , Inc . ( preceded by the endlessly amusing For The Birds ) has been released , is quickly becoming more and more famous for the tremendous quality of the short short animated films that precede their feature films . Geri's Game , which can be seen before A Bug's Life , is one of my favorite of all of Pizar's short animated films . It's a testament to the quality of the film that the punchline ( that Geri is playing chess against himself ) is not only revealed in the film's tagline , but is also clearly revealed right at the beginning of the film , and yet it still retains the surprising and amusing affect . The editing in this film is so well-done that , as the chess game switches back and forth between Geri and his alter ego , you almost forget that you already saw that he is alone in the park and is therefore playing against himself in this heated game . I just learned from one of the other IMDb reviewers that Pixar dedicated enormous resources just for such a minor detail as to get Geri's coat to crease just right , and that is exactly the kind of thing that makes a good film , especially a short one . That is a tiny detail , but Pixar is so determined for their films to look just right that it is no surprise that they are now winning Oscars left and right for those films . Pixar spends all of the money that they put into their films in just the right places , and this can clearly be seen in the final product . The purpose of these short film is clearly just to add to the huge amount of entertainment that is almost invariably involved in watching a Pixar film , because they can obviously not serve any other purpose , being so short . It's obvious that they are not put in to increase the viewing time of the sometimes rather short films that Pixar puts out , but rather just to increase the enjoyment derived from their films . When you go to see a Pixar film , you get more than your money's worth , and not because the films take up more of your time , but because the quality is so high . If anything , people should be grateful that the people at Pixar are able to create such huge amounts of entertainment in relatively short periods of time , unless you have nothing better to do than spend your days in a movie theater . While that is definitely how I would personally LIKE to spend my days , I just don't have the time , and I am grateful that Pixar is so good at what they do that they are able to provide entertainment of such high quality and not take up two and a half hours of my time . Bravo ! |
544,679 | 562,732 | 49,406 | 10 | Ain't fair . Ain't fair . | The first thing that struck me about The Killing is that the narration really doesn't seem to fit , which explains why Kubrick was so unhappy about being obliged to include it . My initial reaction upon learning this was to wonder why Kubrick would put up with someone forcing him to do something in one of his films that he didn't like , but then I remembered that this was very early in his career , and no one really knew who he was yet . Right away we meet an obviously unhappy couple , Sherry and George , and quickly learn why they are unhappy . Sherry has no respect for George because he had promised her a good life and a lot of money and has as of yet failed to do that . She belittles him and manipulates him , treating him like an irritating servant rather than as a husband . It is painfully obvious that he should drop her like a bad habit , but he is so in love with her that he takes it and continues to make her promises , even knowing that in order to fulfill them he will have to take a dangerous trip to the wrong side of the law . The build-up of the scheme to rob the race track is one of the film's greatest achievements , and Sherry manages to manipulate George into telling her about it , and then she immediately goes off to tell her lover about it as well . It is an interesting love triangle described here . Sherry is having an affair with a handsome stud but married to a whiny pansy who reminds me of Piglet from the Winnie the Pooh cartoons . George is desperately in love with Sherry , who has no respect for him , but is in turn in love with Val , a handsome man who clearly is only interested in her physically . At least until she mentions George's scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars . Then he's interested in her financially , too . We know Sherry plans to betray George , and we can sense that Val intends to betray Sherry , which makes for some great dramatic tension later in the film . George is so intent on getting to trust his promise that things will get better that he doesn't think for a second that she would ever betray him , even when she is so clearly uninterested in him beyond the possibility that he may bring some money into her life . At one point he tells her , " I know I've made a lot of promises in the past , but this time it's not just talk . We're gonna be rich , and soon ! " This may have been emulated in a classic Simpsons episode , where Homer says almost exactly the same thing ? " After years of failing at get-rich-quick schemes , I KNOW I'm gonna get rich with THIS scheme . And quick ! " Kubrick has explored an astonishing variety of genres in his career , ranging from the beginning of time to the distant future and from sports films to science fiction . This one , I think , is his only film noir , and it is film noir by the strictest definition . I often notice that , with surprising regularity , it is women , or a woman , the generates much of the conflict in the movies , but here is a very clearly defined femme fatale that leads to the downfall of a doting man . ( spoilers ) There is a scene that suggests an ugly hint of racism , as the man hired to shoot one of the horses during the race ( and thus create the necessary distraction ) tells a polite black parking lot attendant to get lost in the ugliest way possible . I was a little disappointed to hear this kind of language in a Kubrick film , although it does fit in perfectly with the story and , more importantly , these are the last words the man ever says . Serves him right . This is Kubrick making social commentary in his own brilliant way . Very soon , he does it again , skewering corrupt or inept police and biased news outlets , which claim that the man was shot as he " attempted to shoot his way out of the parking lot . " As can be expected , everything does not turn out to plan , and Kubrick has created a brilliant ending that is both disappointing and hugely satisfying . Disappointing because the tension was created throughout by causing us to wonder whether or not the robbery would be successful , and satisfying because , even though we didn't really even notice it until now , none of the characters are very likable . Except maybe for that parking lot attendant . After all that planning , it seems , you can't account for every contingency ? Note : The eagle-eyed viewer will notice Rodney Dangerfield as an extra during the fight scene . I may be mistaken , but it looks to me like he is the man the second from the right just after the guy fighting flips two cops forward onto their backs at once . |
544,319 | 562,732 | 119,567 | 10 | What did you expect , BETTER than Jurassic Park ? | Okay fine , it's not as great as Jurassic Park , but The Lost World still came out as a quality dinosaur film . Keep in mind that the special effects and computer graphics are still virtually unparalleled in this kind of film , and I think that they did a good job presenting the story . Luckily , Stephen Spielberg agreed to direct a sequel to the tremendously successful original , because even though I think that potential disaster did not necessarily lie with the choice of directors , if he did not want to do it the whole movie could have been screwed up . I'm not saying that Spielberg is the only guy who could have directed this film successfully - I'm sure plenty of other directors could have done it - but Spielberg has such an undying fascination and love for dinosaurs , and I think that it shows in these films . If you listen to him talk about how he got into the whole Jurassic Park scenario and why he chose to do the films and why he likes dinosaurs so much , the guy sounds like a little kid because he gets so excited , and on top of that , he's a spectacular director . Those , not to mention a huge budget , good actors , and a quality special effects team , are the ingredients of a good dinosaur movie . On the screen , however , it's Jeff Goldblum who steals the whole show , just like he did in Jurassic Park . He is back as the ingenious and highly entertaining Ian Malcolm , the " chaotician " who is around to point out the dangers in harnessing live dinosaurs in a park , no matter how isolated . Probably one of the only things that The Lost World doesn't do as well as Jurassic Park is surprise the audience . ( spoilers ? ) When you watch The Lost World for the first time , you KNOW that there are going to be dinosaur attacks and people getting killed , etc . In short , you basically know within the first 20 minutes of the movie that Malcolm will be exactly right about his predictions of what will happen on the " new " island . So in this case , the fun part of the movie is seeing what they came up with to put into the sequel to the great Jurassic Park . I think that most of the credit should probably go to Michael Crichton for the quality novel that he wrote as a sequel to Jurassic Park , because this was by far the most important part of this movie . We already know that they can make the dinosaurs real , now the challenge is to make a second movie that is as engaging as the first , while using mostly the same technology . And obviously , this requires a seriously impressive story . Luckily , they left enough of a loophole in Jurassic Park so that a whole second island could be snuck in ? the island on which all of the dinosaurs were hatched and raised for the early part of their lives BEFORE being transported to Jurassic Park . The conflicting interests about what to do with the dinosaurs provides for the majority of the story here . You have foolish bounty hunters who want a freakin ' Tyrannosaur ALIVE , you have ignorant scientists trying to study the dinosaurs like everyday predators , you have the great Vince Vaughn ( shut up , he rocks ) there as a ' plan B ' in case anything gets out of hand , and of course , you have Ian Malcolm there telling everyone that they are wrong and should leave as soon as possible , which everyone in the audience knows , but it's okay that we all already know that . What you get with all of this is a film that does not live up to the stunning success of its predecessor , but that is still able to stand easily on its own . Stephen Spielberg provided just as much skill in his direction as in the original , and the acting all around , even from the unknown actors , was very good . All of this combines with Michael Crichton's excellent story , just the right amount of comic relief , and plenty of gory action to make another superior dinosaur film . |
544,385 | 562,732 | 75,148 | 10 | The Forrest Gump of the 1970s . | In watching Rocky I'm reminded that every once in a while a movie comes along that just seems to fit together so perfectly that it seems perfectly natural that someone had to have made exactly that movie at some point . Other times I am pleasantly surprised at how good a movie is , or irritated at how bad , or just amazed that someone would think to make something so bizarre or cheesy . But with Rocky , everything is exactly what it should be , the movie knows exactly where it belongs and exactly what it wants to say , and so it comes across as a perfectly natural piece of storytelling . The way that Rocky was directed not only indicates skillful direction but also very skillful acting . The film is composed of unusually long takes . There is very little cutting during scenes , which is difficult to do because the actors have to act for such a long time without stopping . This type of cinematography requires much more planning and meticulous rehearsal to get right , and there is much more dialogue for the actors to know all at once . There is something to be said about the actors because they were able to do this and still avoid making the dialogue sound even a little bit rehearsed . There have been thousands of movies made about an underdog getting the chance of a lifetime and rising to the challenge , but not only is Rocky barely about that fight , it also goes deeper and gives a reason for it . The world heavyweight champion , Apollo Creed , is planning a fight on the 4th of July that is to be a major , major event . All other professional fighters are booked on other events or , if he says so himself , afraid to fight him . This necessity inspires Creed to come up with a marketing ploy where he will broadcast an opportunity for an amateur fighter to fight the greatest fighter in the world on America's 200th birthday . But not just any fighter , it has to be someone significant , someone that will give meaning to the date that the event is to take place , and of course someone who will make Creed look symbolic and meaningful as he's knocking him out . And what better way to celebrate America's birthday and how far we've come than for a black man to beat an Italian in a major fighting event ! ( you see , Creed mistakenly believed that Christopher Columbus , an Italian , had discovered America , unaware that Columbus never set foot in North America and thought he was in India anyway , and regardless , the Chinese had landed on American's east coast more than 70 years before Columbus ever set sail ! ) . But what really wins Rocky's way into our hearts is how regular he is . Like it or not , he's a big , dumb oaf , but he's honest , he's hard-working ( his job as a collector for a bookie is not exactly high-brow professionalism , but he knows it's a bum job but he also knows that it's really the only thing he's any good at ) , he has a genuine love for someone who clearly needs it , and he cares for small animals and there's nothing quite as charming as a huge man who loves his turtles . Besides that , he believes in himself , even when it seems ludicrous to even consider that he might have a chance against the greatest fighter in the world . What gives the movie real drama is that to Apollo , the entire fight is just for show , but Rocky doesn't know that . He thinks it's meant to be a real chance for an unknown fighter to challenge the heavyweight champion . Apollo plans to knock him out whenever he's ready , but still that he's doing some kind of humanitarian thing by putting an unknown fighter's name and face up there on that poster next to his own . The fight between Rocky and Apollo at the end of the film is one of the true classic moments in the history of film-making . It proves that it's not about winning or losing , and it's not even about how you play the game , it's about giving it everything you've got when you have an opportunity . Rocky had a chance to do something that seemed impossible , and he did everything he possibly could do to make it happen . Bravo ! |
544,598 | 562,732 | 331,560 | 10 | Hilarious ! | I've read some pretty bad reviews of this little parody , mostly from people who thought it was simply bad taste . But Lord of the Piercing is not the title that you give to something that you expect to be entered into the Short Film Hall of Fame . Sure , it was mostly childish humor , but if there is a place for bad humor , this is it . Before you condemn this little comedy for being tasteless , keep in mind that they make full length feature films out of this same kind of humor and then charge 8 or 9 dollars to see it at the theaters . Lord of the Piercing is a good-natured parody of The Fellowship of the Ring that has it's place as an intro skit at the Academy Awards ceremony and as a little extra tidbit on the DVD . It is nothing more than that and it knows that , and that commands some respect in itself . Besides that , it was hilarious ! Jack Black continues to grow as one of the funniest men working in the movies today ( which is good , considering having performed several unenviable roles , such as that in Cable Guy and , even more , The Jackal ) . No one has seen him in Run Ronnie Run yet , because at the time I'm writing this review , that movie has yet to be released because of it's extremely vulgar content ( much of which involves a song performance by Jack Black ) , but I seriously hope they get moving on that . I saw it at an advance screening almost two years ago and just about fell out of my chair laughing . Jack Black proves himself more and more with every performance that he delivers , and even the wooden and virtually talentless Sarah Michelle Gellar had some good moments in the Lord of the Piercing . They made excellent use of original footage from the film to enhance the quality of their parody , making the story that they installed that much more impressive . Bravo . |
543,823 | 562,732 | 293,508 | 10 | The Phantom was a lot uglier in 1925 ? | Speaking of 1925 , I'm curious about the statement on the movie's poster , which claims that the classic musical is being brought to the big screen for the first time . I'm wondering who authored that statement and what is different about this time the classic musical is brought to the big screen and the times that it was brought to the big screen in 1916 , 1925 , 1943 , 1962 , 1989 , and 1998 , and now 2004 . I guess " The Classic Musical Is Brought to the Big Screen for the Seventh Time " just didn't sound as powerful . Then again , all of those film versions have not always been true to the source material ( in many cases wildly untrue to the source material ) , which is one of the things that irritates me more than anything when a work of literature is adapted into a film ( although this is more an adaptation of the stage play to film than the book ) . This film very competently rivals the Lon Chaney version as the best film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera ever made . I saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom a few hours after I had watched the 1925 Lon Chaney version , and of course the thing that just about knocked me out of my seat was when the orchestra kicked in as the chandelier is being raised at the beginning of the film . The 1925 version is a silent film , of course , and the music that accompanies the film is not the Phantom of the Opera music that you probably know by now . I saw a live production of Phantom at a theatre in London two years ago , which is where I primarily know the music from . It is to be expected that many people will condemn this film immediately for being directed by Joel Schumacher , who many viewers have yet to forgive for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin . Roger Ebert , however , makes a valid point that the Phantom's mask has turned from a means to cover his hideously damaged face and into a fashion accessory , while half of the Phantom's face that remains visible is about as unattractive as Brad Pitt's not-quite-hideous mug . Indeed , the first thing that struck me about the movie ( besides that music , which is tremendously powerful ) , was how good-looking the Phantom was . And in a movie about a man who has quarantined himself in the dungeons under the Paris Opera House because of his " cursed ugliness " ( as Lon Chaney's Phantom describes it ) , it is certainly unsettling for even half of his face to be so good-looking . On the other hand , Ebert also called the music " maddeningly repetitious , " which I can't help disagreeing with . But maybe I just found the sheer magnitude of the orchestra to be so moving that I could have listened to it over and over all night . Ordinarily I tend to be uninterested in musicals , I just have a hard time watching movies in which people burst into song , performing complex musical numbers as though spontaneously , even though the acceptance of the musical aspect is a given in such productions . I was initially disappointed when I realized that the majority of the movie would be sung , I guess I found it easier to accept in the stage adaptation than the film , but I soon found myself readily accepting the singing even if only for the spectacular beauty and my own growing interest in the Phantom franchise ( by now , it can indeed be referred to as none less ) . It is interesting to consider deviations from the original material , particularly in the two lead roles of the Phantom and Raoul , Christine's love interest . The Phantom has changed from a hideous creature forced to live underground because of his ferocious appearance and into an undeniable heartthrob , while Raoul has remained the somewhat dislikable but socially acceptable man seeking Christine's true love . But the important element to consider in regards to this film version is that it plays like the stage play put on film . The performances are geared for the theater rather than film , which gives it a very authentic feel . But the overarching story is the one thing that Schumacher couldn't really touch , and it's good that he didn't . The Phantom's fate is decidedly different than in the 1925 version , but Schumacher seems to have concentrated on the look of the film and the direction rather than anything about the story . The film is wonderful to look at and to listen to , but the love story falls flat . The love between Christine and the Phantom , who is the villain , is by leaps and bounds more convincing than that between Christine and Raoul , which serves really as an obstacle for the Phantom , a catalyst by which he can measure Christine's willingness to devote her love to him rather than Raoul , who she clearly can't be in love with . Nonetheless , Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera is a tremendously impressive film , despite what tends to be cynical response from indifferent critics . It's a celebration of the classic Phantom story , an effort to bring it back from the obscurity quite likely brought on in no small part by the numerous remakes which took more liberties than they had any right to . The new version makes the story bigger and louder , which modern audiences tend to respond to more than they do to pure artistry , and it is truly refreshing to see a director like Schumacher , who is a Hollywood filmmaker no matter how unpopular his two Batman films were , take on such historical and artistic material . If a stage play has ever been literally made into a film , this is it . |
544,061 | 562,732 | 7,264 | 10 | The amorous waiter of the rink ? | The Rink , one of Chaplin's most charming early short comedies , starts out with the little tramp working as a waiter , and there is a hilarious short scene where a customer calls him over for his check , and Charlie comes over and writes up the bill based on the food that the guy has spilled all over himself . It seems to me that this was the film that inspired parts of Modern Times , especially the skating and the kitchen scenes . There are some wonderful uses of the IN and OUT doors leading to the kitchen , which do not seem repetitive even after I've seen Modern Times five or six times . One of the most charming scenes in the whole movie is a short piece where Charlie goes behind the bar to mix someone a drink ( shaken , not stirred ? ) . It's one of the famous scenes from Chaplin's early career . When Charlie gets off work , he changes back into his famous outfit and heads out to the bus stop . While he is sitting on the bench next to a woman , he pulls off some truly vintage Chaplin behavior that is so spontaneous and so well acted that it makes me think of Chaplin just goofing off in real life . This is what I imagine he was really like a lot of the time . With The Rink , it is easy to see that longer , and more genuine stories are slowly evolving in his early films . It is not a deep story by a long shot , and there is still plenty of high-action physical slapstick comedy , but there is much more here than at most of his previous films . But most of all , the feature skit of the film is the skating scenes in the second half , which are outstanding . It's amazing to me how good Chaplin was on skates , and some of the skits he pulls off here ( such as the bouncing up and down on the fat woman ) are truly brilliant pieces of slapstick . I have to say that I wish I knew where exactly the film's closing shot was filmed , since it's an outdoor shot and I am always curious to know what parts of Los Angeles are being shown . Excellent show ! |
544,155 | 562,732 | 117,381 | 10 | This is an absolutely amazing film . However , it is also tragically underrated . | Primal Fear is one the best films that I have seen in years . Richard Gere portrays a glamorous attorney handling a case that has horrified the public and which seems to be a slam-dunk . He seems to be the only person who believes that young Aaron Stampler did not murder Archbishop Richard Rushman , a grisly crime which is tastefully portrayed at the beginning of the film . Edward Norton , in particular , was startlingly convincing as Stampler . This was really his chance to let the world know what a phenomenal actor he was and still is . Unfortunately , this film did not get the recognition that it deserved , which may have been a reason why Norton's next film , American History X , was also not as big as it should have been . Edward Norton was about 98 % of the reason to watch both of these films , which were both absolutely amazing and intense . Primal Fear is a film that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone . The story is so well-told and well-acted that it holds your attention firmly and does not even begin to let go for all 130 minutes . It easily achieves the level of intensity that is desired by all mysteries and thrillers , with an ending that is both shocking and disturbing . Primal Fear is destined to become a classic , regardless of how relatively unknown it may be . This can be said about an extremely small number of films , but no matter what kind of movie you enjoy , if you haven't seen Primal Fear , go out and find it . You will not be disappointed . |
544,446 | 562,732 | 209,144 | 10 | Memento is the most creatively made and brilliantly engaging film of at least the last decade . | SPOILER ALERT First of all , I would like to point out that I am a huge fan of Roger Ebert . His reviews are well written and enlightening about the movies that they focus on and often a lot of obscure movies that are related to the one in question , but his review of Memento is one of the most ignorant and just flat-out incorrect pieces of film criticism that I have ever read . Sure , there's a hole in the plot . If the last thing that Leonard remembers is his wife dying , then he should not technically remember that he can't form short term memories . Plot hole , yes . But who cares ? ! Anyone ? Anyone ? Me neither . Plot holes plague the Back to the Future series , one of the most entertaining trilogies ever made , left and right . In Part II , Marty McFly leaves 1985 to travel to the year 2015 to prevent his teenage son from robbing a bank and getting thrown in jail and starting that horrible chain reaction that destroys his entire family . In his review of that film , Ebert seems to have overlooked the MASSIVE plot hole that far overshadows the one that he points out in Memento ? if Marty leaves 1985 and travels to 2015 , there is no longer any Marty left in 1985 to grow into the 47-year-old Marty that he finds in 2015 . This little revelation suggests that Ebert is either judging films on varying and unstable criteria , or he has something against someone involved in the making of Memento . Regardless of what Ebert says , Memento is an absolutely brilliant film that engages the viewer and literally brings him or her into the mind of the main character . Ebert naively points out that the reverse plotline of the film has nothing to do with Leonard's condition , which is arguably the most foolish thing that he says in his review . Ebert has made what may be called the idiotic assumption that the reverse plotline represents the way that Leonard lives . I am finding it difficult to determine how he has managed to come to that conclusion without inserting plotlines of his own into the film , such as ones involving time travel or some other such science fiction nonsense . Memento is a dramatic thriller about a man with a severe psychological memory disorder , and the reverse plotline is there to put the audience in Leonard's shoes . He has no idea what happened before what he's doing right now , and neither do we . Are you hearing this , Roger ? I suggest you watch this movie again , because you missed a LOT . ( spoilers ) Another gigantic element of the plot that Ebert seems to have missed ( BOTH times he saw the film ) , is the fact that Leonard's wife was never raped , and never killed . There is a single shot near the end of the film ( I warn again , there are spoilers ahead ! ) that is not more than a few seconds long , that proves that she was never killed ( I suppose rape is still a possibility ) , and also eradicates the plot hole that Ebert pointed out , that Leonard should not be able to remember his ' condition ' if the last thing that he remembers is his wife being killed . The shot that I am talking about is one in which Leonard is laying in bed , and his wife is laying next to him with her head on his shoulder , running her fingers over the tattoo across his chest that says ' John G . raped and murdered my wife . ' Are you hearing THIS , Roger ? One viewing , contrary to what Ebert foolishly suggested in his review , is NOT enough for this film . Memento is one of the few films that not only invites repeat viewings , but requires them . Confusion is not the state to be in here , not by any stretch of the imagination . Repeat viewings will remove you from that state and put you in a state of blissful enlightenment as you realize the astonishing intricacy of this film . The poignant back story about Sammy Jankis and his wife is not only powerful and moving , but relates DIRECTLY to Loenard's condition , which is yet another thing that Ebert has amazingly managed to completely miss . In Ebert's defense ( because I do not intend this review of my own to be a knock against one of my otherwise favorite film critics ) , I can only say that maybe he latched onto some erroneous idea the first time he saw the film that clouded his cinematic vision the second time he saw it , or perhaps he was simply viewing it from the wrong perspective . I invite you all to read his review but also note that there are maybe half a dozen or so things that he says in that review that are simply wrong , and this can be easily seen just by watching this incredible film . Roger , I love your work , and I have all of your books , but in this case , it seems that YOU may be the one with the ? condition ! ' |
544,338 | 562,732 | 179,011 | 10 | An animated short whose brilliant animation takes second billing . | Sometimes I read reviews by other users on the IMDb as I write my own and I made the mistake of doing that for this film . Only about 15 people have written reviews at the time I am writing this , but as is generally the case , I was astounded at some of the things that people had to say about this brilliant film . Just as many people praised the quality of the animation as people who pointed it out as a way to see how far animation has come since it was released . One user even wrote that the animation was clearly dated , as though it were old and unimpressive . What is truly odd is that I think that the person who wrote that has written more reviews on the IMDb than anyone else on the site , and yet he completely missed the fact that the ragged , worn out stuffed-animal appearance of Bunny is all animated . This is not go-motion , it's pure animation and it's absolutely stunning . Even more astounding were a couple of complaints that the ending was stupid , or confusing . At the moment I'm having a hard time deciding which of these ludicrous claims is more foolish . The movie is an animated short with more of a somber feel than the typical animated short , and deals with what might happen to people when they die . This is , of course , all explained in the intro to the film , although had I not watched it I find it hard to believe that I would have been confused by an ending that featured an elderly bunny rabbit crawling into her oven and then flying into a white light , especially since she sprouts wings on the way . Director Chris Wedge describes it as sort of a fun way to look at the reality of death if , as Tigger might say , you can imaginate such a thing . The entire film is very quiet and almost depressing , even when we identify with Bunny for wanting to get rid of the pesky moth , she shuts it outside in the dark , turning off the porch light and leaving it in darkness , at which point feelings of annoyance turn instantly into feelings of sympathy . In the space of no more than a second or two we go from wanting to swat the moth to wanting to bring it back inside . This , I have to say , is absolutely brilliant screen writing ( by the way , another IMDb user made the astonishing comment that animated short films should stick entirely to comedy and cuteness , which itself is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read on this site or anywhere else . I personally take it to be the same as saying that female actors should stick to romantic comedies ) . There are lots of clever touches in the film , such as the fact that Bunny uses a walker just as any aging woman would , but she still hops along with it . It's one of those things that you wouldn't even think about but that add tremendously to her character when you see it . Bunny is , even without the hopping , probably the most complex character that you could hope to see developed in a 7 minute animated film without a syllable of dialogue . She has lost her husband , lives alone , and while we want to feel sympathy for her ( and ultimately do ) , it is unsettling that she shuts the moth out in total darkness , almost as though she were starving it , and then even more unsettling that she swats it dead , stirs it viciously into her batter and loses her temper , hurling it into the oven and slamming the door with what must be the great majority of her might . When she falls asleep just afterwards , it is , as Chris Wedge explains in the intro , her symbolic death , and the film changes drastically from a lonely old woman cooking alone in her lonely cabin and into a portrayal of her path to Heaven and reunion with her lost husband . What I especially like is that the movie never becomes preachy , it doesn't show her becoming young again and dancing in Heaven with her husband , it simply shows her growing wings on her way into the light and then , in possibly the most moving few seconds that have ever been animated , there is a dissolve to her and her husband's wedding photo and moths fly up behind them , superimposing angel's wings onto the photo . My grandfather passed away recently and , since I own an editing studio , I made a video eulogy using family pictures that spanned something like the last 30 years , and am now making DVD copies to send out to my 10 aunts and uncles and countless cousins , and I ended the video with my grandparents ' black and white wedding photo from the early 1950s in Colombia and superimposed it over a short clip of the sun shining through moving clouds . It is truly a moving video , so I can clearly understand the motivation behind Chris Wedge using it as an ending . I feel honored to have had a similar idea , and even more disturbed that anyone would call it stupid or confusing . This is finally an animated short film that is not about it's animation , unlike Scrat's Missing Adventure , Boundin ' , and even Geri's Game , which is one of the cleverest and most charming animated short films I've ever seen . All of these are wonderful and fun animated short films , but none of them approach the power of Bunny . Bravo . |
544,159 | 562,732 | 88,763 | 10 | How could anything be more fun than this ? | Back To The Future is such an inventive and exciting piece of filmmaking that it is impossible to forget about it . The casting of every character involved was absolutely perfect , and the performances were spectacular . I first saw this film when I was six years old , and it is the only movie that I know of that I don't think I could ever get sick of . One of the best things about Back To The Future is that it really makes you think . You can have in-depth conversations about the plausibility of the story-line and spend hours discussing the film . The story is awesome , it is delivered cleverly and entertainingly , and the movie as a whole is just so much FUN that it can be forgiven whatever number of time-travel discrepancies that may be found in the plot . I cannot recommend this movie enough . I have never found a movie other than this one that provides such a huge dose of great fun , and it has the desirable quality where you are able to see something new each time you see it . The only problem is that they stopped at part III . |
544,278 | 562,732 | 86,567 | 10 | A classic computer film that has stood the test of time remarkably well , considering the fact that it's a computer thriller . | Wargames is one of those young adult films that manages to span just about all ages of movie fans with its sense of adventure mixed with a chilling sense of reality . Kind of like The Goonies , it is a movie that finds a young kid in an extraordinary situation , except that rather than the Indiana Jones type adventure that the Goonies go on , David ( a young Matthew Broderick ) has inadvertently come frighteningly close to starting a massive nuclear war between the United States and Russia . We meet David early in the film after a tense missile launch training sequence ( in which the men on hand do not realize that they are only participating in a training drill ) . David is a typical high school boy , bored to death by school but fascinated to no end by computers , even the now-prehistoric dinosaur that he had operating at home . One of the things that I liked about this movie , in fact , was that it made my computer look so high tech ! Obviously , any movie that deals with computers is going to be outdated in a few years , and Wargames is certainly no exception . Consider , for example , the fact that David's girlfriend was so fascinated by the concept of a speaker that she picked it up and looked at it from all angles , completely amazed . You can see this in any number of movies , such as the similarly ancient computers in Weird Science and , probably the most amusing , the massive , brick-sized cellular telephone that Wesley Snipes used in true gangster style in New Jack City . Technology is an amusing thing , especially when it's taken so seriously in the movies and then is so completely obsolete a decade or so later . Wargames , however , despite being jam-packed with outdated machinery and computer technology , is no less potent as a military thriller , because the technology is not the point of the film . Instead , the movie tells the story of how David goes searching for video games on the 1983 version of the Internet , only to accidentally stumble upon a top-secret military database , WOPR ( endearingly referred to as ' Whopper ' ) that runs hypothetical sequences of what World War III would look like , including how the Russians would react to American reactions to their actions , and so forth . The process by which this machine can do this is one of the few things that's left relatively unclear in the movie , which is probably a good thing , because it sounds suspiciously like something that a computer even today would have a hard time doing . Imagine the staggering amount of information that would have to be entered into a computer for it to achieve that level of intelligence . At any rate , wanting nothing but some new video games and to impress a girl , David searches for video games on what appears to be the web's only search engine ( and , indeed , it's only feature at all ) , and stumbles onto such titles as Backgammon , Chess , Guerrilla Warfare and , of course , Global Thermonuclear War . Naturally , being a high school kid , he's fascinated and wants to play the biggest baddest one . Probably the most hair-raising scene in the film is when David's mother calls him downstairs and congratulates him on passing his classes ( which he had changed by hacking into the school's computer system ) , by which he is thrilled until he turns to look at the TV , where the news is reporting the war that has been set in motion because of his tinkering on the computer . Wargames requires a substantial suspension of disbelief because of such things like the United States military's inability to tell whether or not those blips coming from Russia on their screens are real weapons of mass destruction of if they're just a computer game , but the fact that the world is tottering so lightly on the edge of Global Thermonuclear War , even if only because of the very presence of these types of weapons , is the frightening concept that the movie tries to get across . It focuses on the possibility that something like that could have happened , and it rings chillingly true to this day , no matter how much more advanced our technology is . Sure , it's not likely that the governments of the United States and of Russia or any other countries are likely to launch weapons that will kill millions of people simply based on a few lights that have lighted up on their switchboard , but the weapons are there , and someone paid a lot of money for them . Wargames is an enormously entertaining thriller that poses a question about humanity , with the answer from WOPR that , like Tic Tac Toe , there is no winning move in war . We see it playing through World War III on the military intelligence screens near the end of the film ( during which it evidently has a field day messing with the lighting in the room ) showing missiles coming from every direction and destroying everything on the map . ' This is a strange game , ' it says . ' The only winning move is not to play . How about a nice game of chess ? ' |
544,872 | 562,732 | 163,988 | 10 | This is vintage Martin Scorsese in the tradition of the great Taxi Driver . Not easy to swallow , but sure to be loved by film fans . | Nicholas Cage plays an ambulance medic who develops a wide variety of personal problems as a result of a feeling of incompetence at his job , which is , of course , to save peoples ' lives . He begins to feel a personal connection to the people that die on him , whether or not it is a fault of his . This happens especially with murders , suicides , overdoses , etc . , whom he believes become spirits who are ' half-born , ' because life was taken so fast that they did not have time to develop fully . There are so many things about Bringing Out The Dead that all come together to make it such a huge accomplishment that it would be difficult to mention them all at once . This film is literally packed with messages about religion , about hope , about personal desperation and about lust and love . Not only are these things skillfully presented , but they are also weighed against each other , so that the course of the film takes us through a journey that is very subtle and thought provoking . Nicholas Cage stars as the burned-out and alcoholic ambulance driver , and he is amazingly made up to play the part , with the ghostly pale skin , the dark eyes , the constantly messy and greasy hair , and always seeming to be slightly out of breath and perspiring . Despite this sickly look that he had throughout the film , he still maintained his tradition sarcastic humor that he has come to be known and loved for ( ' Tom , where are the band-aids ? This is an AMBULANCE , isn't it ? ! ' ' This is the worst suicide attempt I've ever seen . Feel that pulse ? THAT'S where you cut ! ) ' . His interactions with his various ( and excellently acted ) partners in the ambulance show his view of the world from different angles as numerous points of views are presented . Ving Rhames presents the religious perspective , John Goodman presents the career-ladder climber , and Tom Sizemore is as effective as ever as the hyperactive guy who doesn't really care , he just wants to see some blood ( ' Someone's gonna kill themselves , I don't want to miss it ! ' ) . Some of the scenes may have been a little overdone , for example , I think there was probably an excess of blood in the ambulance after Noel , one of the many regulars at the hospital , had a run-in with Tom Walls ( Sizemore ) after having ' attempted ' suicide . However , think of what Scorsese was trying to portray in this film . As in Taxi Driver , Bringing Out The Dead presents a darkly disturbing and dangerous underbelly of the big city ( and not just New York , where the film took place ) . Nicholas Cage's Frank Pierce had numerous similarities with Robert DeNiro's Travis Bickle ( from Taxi Driver ) , but there were many more differences , which are important for this movie to avoid being branded as a ? re-make ' of sorts . For just one of many examples , Bickle was angry at the world , couldn't sleep , and wanted to drive that taxi as much as his boss would let him . On the other hand , Frank is personally troubled by the goings on at his job , has developed an alcohol ( as well as numerous other drugs available to him from his own ambulance ) problem as well as a seemingly unhealthy interest in the daughter of one of his barely alive patients , and he desperately wants out of the job . Frank Pierce is searching for redemption . He once lost a girl named Rose , because he was unable to revive her , and he sees her face virtually everywhere he looks . It seems that he subconsciously feels that if he can help Mary ( Patricia Arquette ) get through the loss of her father , then it will be like he was able to go back and help Rose . This is exactly what Malcolm Crowe ( Bruce Willis ) was trying to do with Cole in The Sixth Sense . He wanted to help Cole so that it would be like he helped Vincent Grey , a previous patient that he was unable to help and that he ultimately lost . Bringing Out The Dead is an absolutely brilliant film , but it is definitely not for all tastes . Anyone who does not have at least a basic understanding of Martin Scorsese's work will not understand it at all and will therefore not like it . But if you understand what Scorsese tries to do in his films and if you understand the media of film itself , then this is definitely a must-see . There are anomalies that really make you think ( like that white horse that was casually strolling through the streets of a terrible neighborhood while Frank and Tom were on a suicide call ) , there are fascinating uses of the color red ( playing Red Red Wine while Frank walks through an apartment on a call in which everything is red ? the curtains , the walls , the Christmas lights , the blood ) , and the way the story is presented is very unique and perfectly chosen for the kind of film that this is . Also listen for Martin Scorsese himself as the male ambulance dispatcher . Excellent and skillful direction , great acting from everyone involved , and the virtual perfection of nearly every technical aspect of the film ( the photography , make-up , lighting , high-speed camera-work , music , dialogue , everything ) all work together beautifully to make up a disturbing but thought provoking and generally great film to add to Scorsese's growing list of contemporary classics . |
543,730 | 562,732 | 121,766 | 10 | No woman no cry , man . I'm tellin ' you . | ( spoilers ) I'll be the first to admit that I'm no Star Wars expert . I love the movies and I've seen them all , but I have friends who have such detailed knowledge about the mechanics and structure of the films and their interconnected stories that they make me feel like I've never seen any of them . That being said , I don't feel too bad about the knowledge coming as something of a surprise to me how much one woman played a role in the underlying conflict on which all six films are based . Bob Marley has never been so right ( note : yes he has ) . There is getting to be more and more conflict about the special effects , in effects movies in general but especially in the new Star Wars films , because it is getting to the point where almost nothing other than the actors was really there on the set , everything was added digitally later . I tend to agree that the movies are still good despite being so reliant on special effects , partly because one of the people that I heard complaining and moaning about the special effects said that they were what drove the entire movie , there was no acting , no interesting characters , and no story . The performances I can agree with , although they were better in Episode III than in I and II , but no story ? There's no story in Star Wars , are you joking me ? Good God man , there's enough story in Episode III to make three more films ! In keeping with what has been something of an increasing bar on the light saber fights since Episode I , Episode III manages to top Yoda's light saber fight from Episode II , which in turn had topped the one between Obi Wan , Qui Gon Jinn , and Darth Maul from Episode I . What I love about the big light saber scene in Episode III ( although there are two , but I'm referring here to the first one ) , is that its effect is built upon the surprise of seeing one of the antagonists completely transform from a coughing and spluttering commander literally into a spinning and flashing machine of light saber inflicted death . Holy crap . The fight between Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker was outstanding , too . In mostly all of the light saber scenes that I've seen since Episode I , I keep thinking that they should really go faster . Thhen Yoda did it in Episode II and Obi Wan and Anakin do it here even more . Nice ! Speaking of which , how about the scene where they're out on that huge outpost sticking out over the river of lava , and lava splashes over the arm holding up the post , melting it and causing the whole thing to fall into the burning river . We get a long shot of the thing standing up on the lava , floating down the river as it slowly melts into the molten rock , and all you can see of Obi Wan and Anakin is their light sabers flashing and slicing into each other on the side of it . Doesn't there ever come a time when you stop and just start commiserating ? As far as being the only Star Wars film that has ever been rated PG-13 rather than just PG , I think that the rating was deserved but also that the extra violence was justified as well . I imagine the end of the fight scene between Obi Wan and Anakin was most of the reason that the film got the harsher rating , but you kind of have to have something like that to really show a character transform from Annie Skywalker into Darth Vader , you know ? Which , by the way , I actually liked the rise of Darth Vader better in the preview than I did in the movie ? " Lord Vader ? " " Yes , Master . " " RISE . " MAN that was good ! Ever since I knew that the trilogy of prequels was going to be made I have thought that Episode III would have the most anticipation and would be expected to accomplish more than the other two films , because it is the one that leads into the original Star Wars film , and I was really interested to know how it would be done , because obviously no one can come back from the original film and play a younger version of themselves , and who would audiences accept as a different person to play Obi Wan Kenobi or Luke Skywalker ? |
544,850 | 562,732 | 362,227 | 10 | America is closed . | When I first saw the theatrical trailer for The Terminal recently , I was initially worried about the fact that Tom Hanks takes on such a heavy accent , since his character is from Krakozia ( sp ? ) and speaks only a few words of English . This is not , in my opinion , necessarily one of the hardest things for an actor to accomplish ( because I think a lot of the road to success is paved by the audience's ability to believe an actor with a new accent ) , but rather one of the hardest things for an audience to accept . A well known actor taking on a different accent or , in this case , a completely different nationality and language , tends to call attention to the man or woman on screen talking so differently from how we are used to hearing them . Tom Hanks , nevertheless , pulls it off flawlessly , once again demonstrating the sheer vastness of his screen presence and acting skill . Spielberg once again delivers an immensely moving story about a man trying to get home , a theme that he clearly loves , since just about every movie he's ever made boils down to that theme . The reverberations and reflections of the things that are going on in the world today are impossible to miss , which is why it shocked me to read one reviewer on the IMDb refer to The Terminal as a light-hearted romp . Yes , it's a lot of fun , it's amusing , endearing and charming , but it's also extremely powerful in a very serious way . It features the second most direct and blatant impersonation of government officials working in America today , second only to the replica of Dick Cheney in The Day After Tomorrow . Stanley Tucci plays the part of an customs and immigration official , whose charge to look after national security matters at a major airport disquietingly echoes much of what is going on in America today . The little American flag that he always wears on his lapel is far too similar , in size , shape , and location , to the one that George W . Bush always wears to possibly be a coincidence . The story is remarkably simple . Tom Hanks plays the part of Viktor Navorski , a man who has traveled to New York for reasons that are revealed near the end of the movie , and while he is on the plane to New York , his country falls into a military coup and basically ceases to exist , leaving Viktor without a country and without a valid passport , and thus nowhere to go but the terminal . He can't set foot in America and he can't go back to his country until it establishes a government recognized by America . He is a perfectly innocent illegal alien who has fallen through a loophole in what is meant to be the most sophisticated national security system in the world . And since I live here , I like to think that it really is . The movie walks a very fine line between sadness and comedy , since Viktor's hardships tug the heartstrings so much but the movie itself is so funny , and these two emotions are woven together to create an unusually strong bond with the character who , like Chuck Noland in Cast Away , is basically stuck on a deserted island and left to his own resources to survive . Chuck Noland had to literally live off the land for years , Viktor Navorski now has to survive in an isolated location , surrounded by capitalism , indifferent Americans in a hurry to catch their flight or get home , and a bureaucracy that increasingly wishes he would just disappear . As Viktor proves to be capable of following the rules that were laid out for him ( and in a language that he could hardly understand ) , Frank Dixon ( Stanley Tucci ) grows increasingly impatient , which leads to the most biting criticism that the movie makes of the way the American government handles the maintenance of national security at our airports and , presumably , beyond . Viktor is stuck in a terrible situation , and Dixon does little to make it easy on him . He explains to him that he can't leave the airport until further notice , and then forgets about him until it turns out that he is doing exactly what he is told . Here you have a national security officer who is faced with a timid and exceedingly polite foreigner who he can't allow to step onto American soil , and because he is obeying all the rules set out for him , Dixon doesn't have a clue in the moon what to do . From this point on , Dixon does everything from explaining to Viktor that for a specific five minutes , a specific door into America will be left completely unguarded and available for easy escape to planning to basically pass him on someone else . Release him , but just enough so that someone else will catch him and then he'll be someone else's problem . Dixon can't arrest him unless he breaks some law , and Viktor is apparently entirely unwilling to break any law , even to pass into America unlawfully when the man in charge of the airport's security has instructed him to do so . While living in the terminal , Viktor sets up his own little living space in an area of the airport that is under construction , and he gradually becomes known throughout the airport . There is a particular scene involving a Russian man who needs to take medicine to his dying father , but Dixon insists that the prescription drugs must remain in America until the proper red tape can be processed , and Viktor diffuses the situation in a tense scene which makes him a hero throughout the entire airport . How everyone heard about it I'm not entirely sure . There are also numerous smaller stories that take place as a result of Viktor being stuck in the airport . Catherine Zeta-Jones passes through the movie on a wispy strand of a plot involving a flight attendant who is having an emotionally destructive relationship with a married man , and as she and Viktor grow closer and closer together , although not quite close enough for a whole date , she goes back to the married man that has been causing her all kinds of pain , disappearing into his arms and out of the movie . There is a charming Indian janitor named Gupta , who is unable to go back to his country for reasons that are slightly hinted at by the extent of the pleasure he gets from seeing people take nasty spills from walking across his wet floors . Then there is a food services employee who befriends Viktor in hopes that he can help him to win the heart of one of the women working at the immigration office , which seems to be the story put in to balance out the ones involving Catherine Zeta-Jones and Gupta , who suffers a rather unfortunate fate that is never shown . The Terminal is a simple story that moves along quickly and efficiently because the script and Hanks ' acting make us care so much about the character of Viktor Navorski that we really want to see how his story pans out , we really want everything to work out for him , even if some laws have to be broken along the way . Spielberg has been accused of being sappy many times , and if he is guilty of it in this movie , it is because of things like the portion of the movie that explains why Navorski was in America in the first place , but only because something that moving is not necessary in order for the audience to care enough about Viktor for the movie to be effective . Viktor had us at ' Krakozia ! ' |
544,818 | 562,732 | 27,529 | 10 | No parrots were sprayed with a firehose during the making of this film . | The Three Stooges are here the primary witnesses in a trial in which someone's life is at stake . What a great premise , put the Three Stooges in the middle of a life and death situation and try to get them to act normal ! Needless to say , there is plenty of room for their classic slapstick comedy routines , and they make the most of it . This film clearly stars Curly , as he is the only witness who is made to eventually take the stand . The scene where the bailiff tries in vain to get Moe to simultaneously take off his hat , raise his right hand and put his left hand on the Bible is a great example of some of the simple but brilliant gags that this group was so famous for . It reminded me of something that Chaplin might have done . There is also a great sequence in which the stooges perform one of their musical acts , thinking that it is a much better way to show what happened than to try to answer nonsensical questions while on the stand . I can't help thinking that Moe always comes off as so mean-spirited in the Stooges ' films , but I guess it should be seen as a testament to their wonderful ability to work together that he can pulls Curly's hair and smack Moe in the face and head and poke them both in the eyes and it's still hilarious . This is one of the first of the Three Stooges ' films that I've ever seen , and yet I know all of their tricks and sound gags and trademarks because they are some of the most famous things in film history . Larry's smacking them around , Moe's trademark laugh and odd hand gestures , etc . Certainly a must-see not only for fans of the Stoogres ' but for fans of comedy . |
544,730 | 562,732 | 109,686 | 10 | By far Jim Carrey's funniest movie , Dumb & Dumber delivers the best laughs to come to the silver screen in years . | From beginning to end , Dumb & Dumber is sheer hilarity . There is not a slow moment in the adventures of Harry and LLoyd , two great but incredibly unintelligent friends who decide to move to Aspen , Colorado to get out of their dead-end lives in Providence , Rhode Island . Jim Carrey delivers a side-splitting performance as Lloyd , the lovestruck limo driver who first suggested the trip to Aspen ( " We got no food , we got no jobs , our pets HEADS ARE FALLIN ' OFF ! ! " ) , mostly so that he can find Mary Swanson ( Lauren Holly ) , the woman he fell in love with after he drove her to the airport in Providence . Lloyd's and Harry's adventures on their trip are absolutely hilarious to watch , especially their run-ins with the criminals who are chasing them , trying to get the briefcase that Harry and Lloyd do not know is full of ransom cash . One of the best things about this film is that it never strays too far from reality . There is never anything presented that could not possibly happen in real life . Also , the original and strikingly funny comedy that was written for the film is great ! I can't remember ever laughing this hard at a movie . Dumb & Dumber takes a good story , adds some tear-inducing comedy , some endlessly hilarious dialogue ( " I guess they're right , old people , though slow and dangerous behind the wheel , can still serve a purpose . Don't you go dyin ' on me ! " ) , and needlessly good direction and molds one of the funniest films ever . Good for all ages , Dumb & Dumber is sheer unadulterated comedy and is destined to become a classic . |
543,877 | 562,732 | 80,979 | 10 | Another spectacular samurai film from Akira Kurosawa . | Kagemusha is one of Kurosawa's later films , in which he deals with such themes as vicarious existence and other personal illusions . One of the main ideas in the film is that if you deny your own personality as an individual and take on the superficial appearance of someone else , you may experience gain and even happiness , but eventually you are sure to be forced back to being yourself again , and you may find yourself worse off than before . There is a piece of dialogue in the film that very clearly backs this up . The late Lord Shingen's brother , in an emotional scene , says , ' I was once in my brother's shadow . Now that I have lost him , it is as though I am nothing . ' Kagemusha is the story of three different warlords who are all fighting for sole leadership of Japan . This premise is the foundation for the plot of the film . When one of the warlords is killed by a sniper , his clan tries to keep his death a secret so they can avoid invasion and defeat at the hands of the other two clans . In order to do that , they make use of a petty thief who bears a striking resemblance to the late Lord Shingen , and he is put in the place of Shingen so that his death is not known by the other clans . At first , this thief ( known as Kagemusha ) , revels in the luxury and comfort of being in the place of Lord Shingen . He is thrilled to be the king , and he literally becomes the leader of the clan simply because he bore such a strong resemblance to the previous leader . As his true identity gradually becomes clear , the other clans begin to investigate his death , suspecting that he is not really dead . Kagemusha's true identity is soon discovered ( although in the story , he remained in Lord Shingen's place for over two years ) , and he is coarsely cast out of the castle and into exile . Kagemusha is left to helplessly witness the subsequent overthrow and destruction of the clan , over which he understandably seems to have developed some paternal feelings . He must now live his life with the feeling that he failed all of those people and was responsible for the destruction of their clan . When we are first introduced to Kagemusha ( in the opening scene of the film ) , we find out immediately that he is a petty thief , as Lord Shingen and one of his advisors are discussing ( in his presence ) his striking and almost disturbing resemblance to Shingen . For the vast majority of the rest of the film , Kagemusha is seen in the place of Lord Shingen , and he is ironically more likeable than the late Lord . He is more humorous , he treats his mistresses better , he even gets along with the Lord's own immediate family ( especially Takemaru ) better than Shingen did , so the audience is able to develop a very positive attitude toward him . However , it is always subtly known that he is still the thief that was picked off the streets early in the film , and this is the life to which he eventually is forced to return . There is a fairly significant example of irony in Kagemusha , because of the events following Kagemusha's ? inauguration ' into the place of Lord Shingen . He is a petty thief in real life , and he is put into the place of Shingen for no other reason than that he looks so much like him , yet he turns out to be a very competent leader . His skill in making decisions led to the victory of many battles ; it even seemed that he was a more capable leader in this way than the rest of Shingen's council . It is ironic that a thief could be picked off the streets and put into a position of power , and lead as skillfully as Kagemusha does . Kurosawa utilizes extensive long takes , employing a film technique that seems to draw more attention to the story itself rather than the cinematography . As is almost a Kurosawa trademark , there are many shots in the film where the camera as well as the characters on screen are largely motionless , but they are engaged in significant an often heated conversation . Keeping in mind that Kagemusha is at least partly a war film , this particular technique suggests that Kurosawa wanted the audience to have a deep understanding of the story behind the film , and he used this muted technique to make sure that people were not distracted during important scenes . Kurosawa uses this realistic filmmaking technique to allow the characters tell the story , rather than to fill the movie with fancy camera tricks . Very unobtrusive , with incredible results . |
543,781 | 562,732 | 8,133 | 10 | Is there anything that Charlie Chaplin can't do ? | The Immigrant is one of Chaplin's early short films , with a very simple story but Chaplin makes it work . The thing that makes this early short film work so well is Chaplin's skill at slapstick comedy , it's so much fun to watch him try to deal with these endless predicaments that he gets into that you don't even pay attention to the simplicity of the story . The majority of Chaplin's early films , particularly the short films like The Immigrant , are little more than brief comedy skits . But the value here does not lie in the story of the film , it lies in seeing how well Chaplin fits the role and how entertaining it is , even by todays standards , to watch his face as he realizes that he has dropped his money , after watching a man get beaten up for being ten cents short . The Immigrant is a classic because it is a Charlie Chaplin film , and really for no other reason . Chaplin makes it work , and he does it extremely well . |
544,660 | 562,732 | 75,314 | 10 | Excellent film by Martin Scorsese that foreshadows the great Bringing Out The Dead , which he directed on almost the same subject over two decades later . | Taxi Driver deals with the perils of big city life , and the film works so well because it adds a touch of mental instability to this otherwise tired theme . It focuses on the life of a lower middle class man who lives in a city that he finds filthy and that is full of people who disgust him . Everyone has impulses to do things that they know they would never actually do , and the vast majority of people generally listen to the voice of reason . Taxi Driver deals with what happens when a man acts on those impulses , driven away from reason by the multitude of atrocities that surround him . Travis Bickle seemed to be a person who had a very lonely life . The film begins with him applying for a job as a taxi driver because he can't sleep at night , and this may be a symptom of his loneliness . He likes to spend his free time at the adult movie theater , and he even took a date there , which tends to give the impression that he is not very experienced with women . Like most introverted people , he kind of kept to himself a lot of the time , and almost always seemed to be fairly deep in thought about something . As he took in everything around him , he constantly saw terrible things ( bums , drug dealers , twelve-year-old prostitutes , etc ) that drove him closer and closer to the proverbial ? edge . ' His inability to establish healthy relationships is more than likely a result of bad experiences during childhood , which also gave him this mistrustful and overall negative perception of the world . His rescue attempt , although seemingly insignificant in such a huge city full of crime and corruption , was his personal endeavor to try to make a difference , to do something important and good which would give a specific purpose to his otherwise meaningless life . Travis Bickle seemed to gradually begin to realize his own dire intentions and at one point even seeks advice from one of his fellow cab drivers . He goes to an experienced cab driver known as the ' Wizard , ' and basically asks him for direction in life , but walks away without having received any comprehensive advice . It seems that he felt that there was something positive in the world that he was missing and that was why he had such negative feelings about it . When he found that the ? Wizard ' evidently either had no idea what he was talking about or had a very hard time explaining himself , he seemed to be discouraged . The fact that he was not reassured at all by this guidance troubled him , and it seemed to narrow his options . It made him feel that the world really did exist exactly as he saw it , and he began to feel even more strongly that something had to be done about it . Taxi Driver is a very dark film . There is a lot of narrative by Bickle , a lot of it as he writes letters , which he may or may not even have anyone to send to . Even more important that that is when he would be driving in his taxi and his thoughts would be narrated out loud for the audience . Often during these narrations the viewer would see the streets as Bickle saw them , very dark , cold , dirty , and filled with questionable and suspicious looking people . Coupled with his unhappy words , this darkness gave the city an entirely dismal look . One of the things that this film is most famous for is Bickle's mohawk . It is such a drastic change that it calls attention to his psychotic condition . The first time his mohawk is shown is while he is at one of senator Palantine's rallies . Bickle is smiling radiantly and capping enthusiastically , but he also has this crude and extreme haircut , and he is wearing an army-green trench coat through which the viewer can clearly see the bulges of the guns that he recently purchased . You know he's not there to cheer on his favorite candidate . This plan to assassinate Palantine , like his conversation with the Wizard , and his relationship with Betsy , was another failure , and this was part of the reason that he put so much more effort into being successful in helping Iris . The countless point of view shots from the taxi window looking at prostitutes , pushers , pimps , thieves , and all sorts of other sleazy people that allowed the viewer to relate to Bickle's view of the world . Robert DeNiro provided a spectacular performance as the mentally disturbed Travis Bickle , and the brilliant direction by Martin Scorsese also served to mold Taxi Driver into the timeless classic that it has become . It's not a pretty film in any way , but the skill and the style are unmistakable . |
544,062 | 562,732 | 50,083 | 10 | Prejudice always obscures the truth . | It seems that the message of 12 Angry Men ( above ) comes across as the film's only weakness . It starts with the very close of a trial that we never see and convenes immediately into the jury room , where we spend the rest of the movie . It seems an open and shut case , and by a show of hands , there are 11 jury members convinced that the defendant is guilty , and a single man who believes not that he is NOT guilty just that there is a CHANCE that he's not guilty . The film's weakness comes in because it seems that every single person who believes the kid is guilty ultimately reveals that they have some kind of personal vendetta and want to secure a conviction regardless of the sureness of the truth . The problem here is that people who believe in guilty are bad guys ( and they rarely let you forget this , as one or two of them increasingly show off as brutish jerks , while the calm , endlessly likable Henry Fonda heads up the good guy side . Maybe the movie should have been called 11 Angry Men instead . There is also a certain level of ham-handedness involved in the initial presentation of how little the case means to most of the jurors . The story is about how important such legal cases are , because the decision that they make in that room will change someone's life forever , and it is absolutely imperative that they make the right decision . But at the beginning , all of the jurors have their minds somewhere else . They're talking about sports or their jobs or some other casual subject , and it takes one brave juror to stand up to the rest and get them to pay attention and think about what they are about to do . Sidney Lumet , in his book Making Movies , gives us invaluable insight into his goals and experience making 12 Angry Men , including the positioning of the camera ( watch for the appearance of the ceiling late in the film as the tension mounts ) and his brilliant use of lighting . Late in the movie , as the jurors remain in the room until darkness falls outside , it is so gradual and so cleverly done that we don't even realize the movie is getting darker and darker until they flip the lights on , and when they do , it's not just the room that is lighting up . The performances themselves have not aged well , but it is a brilliant analysis of some facts that seemed to so obviously point to one foregone conclusion , although I have to say that the film's other weakness is that a lot of the facts that they re-analyze ( or analyze for the first time ) should have been ridiculously obvious in the original courtroom trial . The jurors question for the first time , for example , the eyesight of the case's key eyewitness , who claims to have seen the murder take place at night and through the windows of a passing elevated train . I should hope that such a situation would have been scrutinized more closely by even the most inexperienced defense attorney , but maybe that person was secretly hoping for a conviction , too . At any rate , the film is a brilliant achievement , given that it is so engaging even though it literally never leaves the room . It reminds us of the importance of certainty in trials , even when the result seems completely obvious . The end of the movie is perfect , as there is only one way that it could really end ( and I don't mean the jury's final decision ) , and yet it is not predictable . This is one of Lumet's most glowing achievements . |
544,707 | 562,732 | 365,601 | 10 | Interesting look back . | I get the feeling that this retrospective documentary was made as a TV spot in response to the tremendous success of Terminator 2 , which was released the year before this documentary was made . As is almost always the case with these making-of or retrospective documentaries that often accompany movies on DVD , this one has garnered a ridiculously and inexplicably low user rating on the IMDb . Once again , here is a documentary that is vastly superior to the rating that people have given it on this site . Whenever I rate one of these documentaries , because they vary so much in their subject matter , I always try to concentrate mostly on whether or not it succeeds in delivering what it sets out to deliver , especially according to the title . What I can't stand is when someone makes a documentary and then gives it a clever sounding title that ends up having almost nothing to do with what is actually in it ( see " Making the Earth Stand Still " ) . This one is exactly what it claims to be , a documentary about the creation of the Terminator , the distinction from " making " the Terminator being that this is not about the making of the movie as much as it is about the conceptualization of the character and some of the things that Arnold and James Cameron discussed during production as far as who the Terminator should be and how he should act . James Cameron came up with the idea of the Terminator while he was down with the sickness in a Rome hotel room , so he was able to relate to Reese and the Terminator being in a foreign environment since they were from the future . They both tell some pretty interesting stories about production , such as the fact that the hardest thing for Arnold was not any of the extensive stunt work but the few scenes where he had acid poured over him so that he would be smoking , as well as the fact that the production offices wanted more of the movie to take place at night to save money on shooting , but Cameron held out because he thought it was important for the style of the movie that it take place mostly at night . Good thing , too ! All in all this is a very interesting documentary , even though it is simply made . All it really is is a conversation between Cameron and Arnold as they talk about the movie and their experiences involved with it , with various clips from the film edited in to complement what they are talking about . I am always suspicious of supplemental documentaries that include too much footage from the movie you just finished watching , but they are provided in a very complementary way in this documentary . Arnold and Cameron are talking about the production of the concept of the movie just as much as the shooting process itself , so it's not a problem that there is no behind-the-scenes footage . Very informative and interesting . |
544,066 | 562,732 | 73,195 | 10 | The shark looked fake . | But who cares ? ! Frankly , I'm sick and tired of hearing people complain about the shark looking fake . You didn't think the shark looked real , but you were still in suspense , weren't you ? The fake-looking shark is a testament to Steven Spielberg's directing skills , because he still made Jaws into an intense and terrifying thriller . That shark may have been the reason that Spielberg only agreed to direct Jaws on the condition that the shark would not be shown until at least halfway through the film . ( spoilers ) Jaws wastes no time . The film starts off on a beach ( a scene in which the film's time period ? the mid-70s - is very clear ) , and some goofy young guy gets together with some drunk girl , and they waste no time in getting naked to go swimming . This is a confusing scene , though , because it seems to be dawn when they get to the water . Were they drunk and going swimming at dawn ? And then , in the next shot , it's dusk again , and it even switches back and forth a few times . Needless to say , the naked drunken promiscuous girl gets munched , and they find her remains on the beach the next day . Spielberg wisely chose to present a very tasteful autopsy , which was not gory at all but still effective , and it was one of the little tricks that he pulled in this film in order to keep the rating down . The shark attack spells disaster for Amity Island ( ! ! ) , a very small town dependent on its summer tourists for a substantial portion of its economy . The mayor , who proves to be not a very nice guy , wants to keep the shark attack covered up and keep the beaches open so that tourists will come , even though those very tourists would be in danger . Little does he know that an idiotic horror film - released four years later and nearly named after his town - will probably hurt the tourist economy much more than any shark could . Some of the best parts in the film come early on , as Brody ( Roy Scheider ) nervously scans the tourist crowded water for the shark , after having tried unsuccessfully to get the beaches closed . There are at least two shots in which the ocean itself looks menacing , which is significant because the ocean naturally radiates calmness and tranquility . Robert Shaw plays the part of Quinn , the hardened fisherman ( who , we later find out , was once involved in a historic naval accident , putting him in the water with sharks for an extended period of time ) who offers to go out and catch the man-eating shark terrorizing Amity Island , given the proper reward . He provides a good guide for Brody , the chief of police who doesn't handle himself very well in the water , and Hooper , the oceanography expert who doesn't seem to have as much field experience as Quinn . The final scenes with these three men at sea battling the shark are probably the scenes that this film is best known for . Obviously , this is the first time we get a good look at the shark ( oh shut up , it was plenty effective enough ) , but also , I think that the scene where Hooper goes down in the shark cage may be the most intense moment in the film , because we actually see the shark coming while in its own habitat ? underwater . Jaws is such a powerful film because it takes something out of nature , something that is real , and presents a situation in which that element of nature has become extremely dangerous and must be stopped . The film score is one of the most memorable in motion picture history , and the film also contains numerous pieces of dialogue which have quickly become universally recognizable ? ' Don't go in the water , ' ' You're going to need a bigger boat , ' etc . Steven Spielberg proved his masterful directing skills with Jaws only four years after his first full-length motion picture , leaving audiences all over the world wanting more . |
544,361 | 562,732 | 99,685 | 10 | There is something that Martin Scorsese can't do . There has to be . But evidently , that thing doesn't have anything to do with movies . | Martin Scorsese's stunning gangster film Goodfellas is the true story of Henry Hill , a man that wanted to be a gangster for as long as he can remember , and who lived as a gangster for a significant portion of his life . Scorsese seems to suggest that his tendency toward a life of crime comes as a result of an unhappy childhood , particularly the brutal beatings that he received from his father as a kid . Ray Liotta gives an excellent performance as Henry Hill , and Robert DeNiro is just a bad-ass in the film . He makes an awesome gangster , and he just looks intimidating and interesting and impressive . True , the guy is just a phenomenal actor , but he can also play extremely opposite roles , such as the one he played in Scorsese's Mean Streets in 1973 , as well as the nutcase Travis Bickle in Scorsese's Taxi Driver . Joe Pesci , also a Scorsese regular , and also a tremendously diverse actor , plays the part of the undeniably likeable but quick-tempered and highly ambitious Tommy , one of the most violent gangsters portrayed in the film ( by the way , his similarity to Edward G . Robinson's performance as Rico Bandello in Little Caesar ( 1930 ) is extensive and unmistakable ) . On a trivial note , look for Scorsese's mother playing the part of Tommy's loving mother ( almost a staple in Italian cinema ) in the film . It's interesting that for a good portion of her screen time , she is telling stories from the past , exactly as she did in Scorsese's rather short film Italianamerican , which starred his mother and father as themselves . Scorsese clearly sees something of himself in the young Henry Hill , given his fairly impoverished and physically unhealthy childhood in New York's Little Italy , where he was always fascinated by organized crime . His unique and expressive direction works perfectly to present the story of the life of Henry Hill , with the overall purpose of showing what life in the Mafia is like . The power , the money , the women , the cars , the color coordinated wardrobe , the special treatment by just about everyone , everything that comes as a benefit of being a gangster . On the other hand , the dark side of organized crime is equally presented . We see the loyalty turned to betrayal , the senseless murders , the self-aggrandizing acts that lead to one's own downfall ( especially seen in the way that Tommy kills a ' made ' man named Bask ) , the occasional crackdown by the law , etc . But even when in prison , they get extremely favorable treatment , with their quarters , their food , and pretty much everything else about their treatment . ( spoilers ) Even the extensive length of the film serves to increase the effectiveness of this presentation of gangster life , because it provides time for Scorsese to completely immerse the audience in the world of the Mafia , rather than tell about the life of some gangster with a story that is over in 90 minutes . The movie spans a time period of about three decades , from Henry Hill's first involvement with the Mafia , basically as an errand boy , until his eventual betrayal of his betrayers , leaving him stuck to live the rest of his life ' like a schnook . ' Earlier in the film , DeNiro's character , James Conway , tells the young Henry Hill that he had learned a valuable lesson from his first run-in with the police - ' Never rat on your friends , and ALWAYS keep your mouth shut . ' Henry is proud of this , and even at the end of the film , when he opens his mouth and rats on his friends , it is clear that it is not the way that he wanted it all to end . The tragedy here is that he has to spend the rest of his life living in a way that he always despised , as a ' normal ' person . Even as Henry goes to the police , Scorsese is still illustrating the practices and realities of the Mafia . Henry notes that the cops talked to him , which assured him that they were not associated with the Mafia , because ' goodfellas ' ( this is what the gangsters called each other - ' You'll like this guy , he's a goodfella . ' ) would have just killed him . He wouldn't have even heard anything . The Italian influence in the film is obviously unmistakable , both in the stereotypical ( and , in reality , generally incorrect ) involvement with the Mafia as well as everything from the way that they dress to the strong family bonds and the delicious meals . Goodfellas is an uncompromising and brutally straightforward look at the inner workings of the Mafia that makes no effort to make anything easy to swallow . I've heard people complain about gratuitous violence in the movie , such as when Henry walks up to some guy on his driveway and pistol-whips him for sexually assaulting his sister . This is crap , of course , because the guy got exactly what he deserved . I think they should implement pistol-whipping in the US court system as a common punishment for sexual assault . The violence is not put into a movie like this to impress the younger male audience that looks for that , it's put here because that's the way the Mafia works . This is realism , not audience manipulation , and the spectacularly effective result is a tremendous accomplishment . |
543,986 | 562,732 | 211,915 | 10 | An exercise in pure artistic creativity , Amelie is a beautifully made romantic comedy that succeeds hugely at the daunting task of being a freshly entertaining romantic comedy . | The dreamy atmosphere and truly creative romance of Amelie reminds me of the similarly captivating Chocolat of the year before . Both films are endlessly charming in their own original way , and both leave you with a huge smile on your face . The first fifteen minutes of Amelie consists of one of the most obscurely interesting pieces of plot development that I've ever seen . We seem to be given completely arbitrary bits of information about what's going on around the city , and it's not until the film moves on from there that we realize that we've just been completely brought into the world presented in the movie . The film deals with the heartwarming story of Amelie , a girl who has grown up in an unhappy an unaffectionate family , and now has to deal with the resulting fear and discomfort with romance and physical as well as social contact . The event that changes her life forever is when she learns that Princess Di has been killed in car crash , but only because it causes her to drop a bottle cap , which rolls into a tile on the wall along the floor , which turns out to be loose , and behind it she finds a box that a little boy hid there 40 years earlier . She determines to find the man that was once that boy , and it is her anti-social tendencies that prevent her from giving it straight to the man when she finds him . Rather , she devises an ingenious way of getting him to find it on his own , and is delighted with the pleasure that comes from bringing so much happiness and joy to this man . She decides that she will make it her life's purpose to bring happiness to other people , and the interesting and creative ways that she comes up with to do this provide much of the entertainment for the middle part of the film . ( spoilers ) During her quest to make people happy , it is not unexpected that she should run into an equally unusual and unique method to bring about her own happiness , which she ultimately finds in the eccentric Nino , a man who works in a sex novelty store and has the hobby of collecting unsatisfactory pictures from the trash can and the floor around photo booths . Audrey Tautou flawlessly captures the nervousness and anxiety of Amelie , and Mathieu Kassovitz delivers a wonderful performance as the strange Nino , who seems to be more shocked that someone is interested in him than anything else . A strikingly endearing romance begins to develop between the two , and even though this is a light romantic comedy and we already know that they will wind up together at the end , the delivery of the story itself is so original and unique and fascinating that it makes the whole thing fresh and interesting again . Besides the fact that the film is packed with eccentric little things that pop out of the woodwork ( reality is completely set aside at many points in the film , and with spectacular effect ) , there are so many different stories being told that we don't even have a chance to get bored with a budding romance the end of which we knew before the movie even began . There is the story of the glass man , there's the story of the one-armed artist who is subjected to heartbreakingly vicious verbal abuse for most of the film , the disillusioned cigarette saleswoman who finds temporary relief from loneliness in the disillusioned romance critic with the microphone at the café who is sure that all women are operating on the same master plan to deceive and destroy the hearts of men , and of course there are the various stories of the people that pop into the film only long enough to be transcended onto completely new levels of happiness because of the actions of Amelie . Amelie is not a movie concerned with the real world . It provides a fantastic bit of escapism for anyone who has anything to escape from , which is why its disregard for reality in a lot of scenes is so magically successful in having the desired impact on the audience . This is the story of a woman who has had a rough life but decides that she wants to spend most of her energy doing various things to make others happy , and the film as a whole has the exact same affect on the viewer . |
544,348 | 562,732 | 82,089 | 10 | Absolutely engrossing , in a sweaty kind of way ? | Body Heat is a resurrection of the film noir genre , which has been on some kind of back burner since the 1940s or so . This is one of the more distinct film genres , even more so than such genres as comedy or action or horror , which all have a tendency to blend into one another to some extent . Films noir are extremely characteristic pieces of filmmaking with a very rigid set of distinguishing elements , but it is a genre that has largely been left behind in the era of gangster movies before they were made into a joke by later spoofs like Dick Tracy , which is why it is sort of surprising to see the genre brought back to life so effectively by a movie like Body Heat . It's good to know that even genres that have seemingly been left behind still have some life left in them for great films . Body Heat is widely compared to one of the original , and still one of the best , films noir ever made , Double Indemnity . As is often the case in films noir , Body Heat tells the story of a very effectively portrayed romance gone horribly wrong . William Hurt and Kathleen Turner work amazingly well onscreen , and the cloyingly hot and muggy atmosphere takes a welcome turn from the typical wet streets of classic noir films and makes it work spectacularly well in enhancing the tension of the film . I've noticed that some other reviewers recommend watching Double Indemnity before viewing Body Heat , but I don't think the order matters as long as you see both at some point . Body Heat is a tremendously effective film made by the capable Lawrence Kasdan , and it borrows heavily from its 1944 counterpart . Both films are more than capable of standing on their own , but they have a complementary relationship that enhances both films without belittling one or the other . Mickey Rourke delivers an early performance as the surprisingly effective arsonist , but the real surprise in this film is Ted Danson , whose performance as Peter Lowenstein just about steals the whole movie . He is a perfect , if rather ham-handed , example of a three-dimensional character , in that he has this interest in dancing that is not linked to anything that happens in the film except to make him a more interesting character , and his performance , I will admit , far surpasses anything of which I had previously thought Mr . Danson capable . Bravo . |
544,622 | 562,732 | 325,638 | 10 | This is absolutely brilliant . | I'll Wait for the Next One sets itself up as a cute little comedy skit , and it delivers on that premise but also surprises you with an incredibly moving finale . Four minute comedies are not supposed to be as moving as this film is , it's funny , charming , and heartbreaking all at the same time , showing you your emotions in a combination that they are not generally found . I can't recommend this movie enough . By the end of the diminutive film you feel like you have known the characters for years , especially the lead man and the woman looking for love , probably because they so perfectly represent . The look on the man's face and the woman's face at the end of the film are brief moments of sheer performing brilliance rarely seen , especially in a short film , which itself is rarely seen . Seek this one out , you will laugh and you will cry , and most of all you will be moved . |
543,772 | 562,732 | 268,126 | 10 | Finally a movie with a tagline that has some meaning . | Adaptation has a rather lengthy tagline , but the thing that I like about it is that , with the exception of the last six words , it is a tagline that summarizes the movie rather than advertises it . This is a rare film that is about its own creation and all of the adaptation that goes on in the lives of the people involved . Nicholas Cage takes on one of the smartest and most complex roles he's ever done , playing the parts of Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald , both of whom are screenwriters with polarly opposite ways of living ( or not living ) life and dealing with the world . Meryl Streep plays the part of Susan Orlean , the author of the novel ' The Orchid Thief , ' which Charlie is desperately trying to adapt into a worthy film version , the hugely talented Chris Cooper takes on the toothless role of John Laroche , a man who is strangely proficient at adapting to the slings and arrows of the world around him , yet not quite that great at getting anywhere in life . He lives a rather run-down life , but escapes criticism for it because he seems so content with his situation . My favorite story here is the one dealing with Charlie and his twin brother Donald . Charlie is an introverted screenwriter who is incapable of approaching the writer of the novel that he is adapting , and he is so determined to create a great film out of a book that he enormously admires ( and is enormously confused by ) , that it nearly drives him insane . His brother , on the other hand , takes some quick , cheap screenwriting class at some adult night school just to learn the absolute basics of screenwriting , and he throws together a huge hit , based on an idea that Charlie gave him as a joke . I saw Adaptation the same day that I saw National Security , About Schmidt , and Catch Me If You Can , and National Security was playing on the biggest screen . This is a travesty of modern society and the commerciality of today's cinema . THAT is what this part of Adaptation was about , and it's a message for audiences , because we are the ones responsible for the abysmal decline of the quality of modern movies . The reason that we are flogged with ridiculous movies like National Security and American Pie and Scary Movie and Big Momma's House and Donald's ' The 3 ' is because we buy the tickets . If George Lucas filmed an old washing machine spin-cycling itself across an old wooden floor , lit only by a single naked light bulb , and he called it Episode III , people would buy tickets by the millions , it would make tons of money , and then it would become a trend seen in movies to follow . Granted , that's not going to happen , but that is what Adaptation is trying to say . The people who write good movie scripts get yelled at by the lecturers of cheap screenwriting classes , and they go insane trying to get their intelligent movies seen by the public , who are not always as intelligent or receptive to intelligence as is often assumed during the screenwriting process . ( spoilers ) The part of John Laroche also parallels this descent into barbarism that the movie points out , as it presents Laroche as a man who has suffered a lot of bad situations and circumstances in life , but who adapts to what comes his way and gets along by whatever means are available and wherever the money happens to be at any certain time . He is at one point collecting beautiful orchids , which happens to be illegal except that he's collecting them for Indians , who have rights because of their traditional heritage , and because he never touches them . Sure , it turns out that the Indians use them for drug purposes , but he later turns to online employment , creating a pornographic website and amazing himself at how much money he brings in regardless of how terrible the content may be . Both of these professions are not the most respectable , but they illustrate a transition from nature to technology and from hallucinogens extracted from flowers to technology and pornography . This is an unmistakable step downward for society , because John represents a lower class of people who are intermingling with a higher class , such as authors of intellectual novels ( such as Susan Orlean , with whom Laroche has a twisted sexual affair ) and the screenwriters who adapt them into films . We live in a melting pot society , and it is up to everyone from the top of the social scale ( however you may personally define it ) to the bottom to prevent ourselves from reversing the process of evolution . Adaptation is not an easy movie to understand . It has a lot of strange twists and it looks back at itself across the barrier between a movie and it's own creation , intertwining a lot of different storylines and even ending in a climax that seems to belong in an entirely different movie , if not even an entirely different genre . But the film has an important message to deliver , not just about what kinds of movies people watch and the results of these ticket sales , but also about the overall state of American society and the ways that some people are forced to live in it . I can certainly understand a lot of people being put off by this film , it's not easy to follow , not easy to understand at many points , and not easy to swallow , but it is surely worth the effort to recognize what it's trying to say . |
543,740 | 562,732 | 335,345 | 10 | This must have been tremendously difficult for Gibson to make . | Given how strong Mel Gibson has revealed his religious beliefs to be , it is astounding to me that he was able to make this film as graphically and powerfully as he did . " Okay , now this time when you whip him with the flog , the barbs are going to stick into his back , and then you rip it out and blood and skin will fly everywhere . " Gibson makes no effort to hide his desire to show the world the sheer extent to which Jesus suffered . Shivers run up my spine when I even think about the concept of crucifixion , and that's not even all that Jesus suffered that day . Roger Ebert made an interesting comment in his review that related to my own experience of the movie . He explains that anyone raised as a Catholic will be familiar with the stops along the way . I wasn't raised Catholic myself , religion in general was and remains a very minimal part of my life , but I watched the movie with a friend of mine who spent 12 years in Catholic school and he was yapping on and on during all the dramatic scenes in between the torture and crucifixion , explaining to me who was who and what was going on . The best part was that after the film was over , my friend said that he heard that Mel Gibson wasn't even going to bother with action films like Payback or Lethal Weapon or anything like that anymore , that he only wanted to make meaningful films like this one . I checked online and guess what the next movie was on Mel Gibson's to-do list ? Mad Max ! At first I wished he would shut up but his explanations were actually pretty helpful and it made me think that there are probably a lot of people who would watch this movie and really miss a lot . On the other hand , this is one of those rare movies that speaks its message loud and clear even if you don't know who every character in the movie is , because there are many important people who receive minimal , if any , character explanation . But this movie is about exactly what the final hours of Jesus Christ's life , as Christians believe it , it's not a sermon and it's not a film adaptation of the Bible . The movie borders on getting preachy as it intercuts between Jesus ' torture and crucifixion and flashbacks of him talking to his followers about how he is the way , the life , and the light , but it is such a powerful film that such things are forgivable . True , the movie is about Jesus and what he believed and stood for , but I tend to think that we already know that without having it shoved in our faces like that . The power of the rest of the film gives me the impression that such things are unnecessary . In this case , I think it would have been a case of less is more . I am not the one to consult on the historical accuracy of the film , but the power with which it describes the final hours of Jesus ' life will affect people regardless of their beliefs . Even more , however , I think it's a film about the disastrous cruelties that humans so willingly inflict upon each other , and more importantly , about the irrelevance and hypocrisy of the Church . I've always been fascinated with the old question , " If God is everywhere , why do you have to go to church every Sunday to talk to Him ? " The film is not about Jesus being crucified for what he believed in as much as it is about him being crucified to please the crowd . Granted , the crowd wanted him crucified for what he believed in , but consider this ? they wanted him crucified because of their fear of the Church , which wanted him crucified because he flew in the face of their establishment as the sole means of connection and communication with God . Overall , the movie is about human beings doing horrible things to each other , and the saddest part is the glee with which the people greeted Jesus ' torture and crucifixion . As I watched the film I was reminded of all of the conflicts that have occurred in human history in the name of religion , and how today , after thousands of years of bloodshed , we are not an inch closer to peace than we ever were . The Passion of the Christ is undoubtedly the most violent portrayal of Jesus ' life that has ever been put on screen , and while I am not a religious person , I genuinely appreciate the massive amount of debate that the film has created , it's one of the most important functions of the cinema . The movie is almost physically painful to watch , and I'll probably never watch it again because of that , but Mel Gibson has indeed created something powerful and meaningful . That it has been ignored by the Academy Awards is certainly telling , because this movie certainly deserves to be recognized and rewarded . |
544,512 | 562,732 | 36,775 | 10 | One of the best films noir ever , Double Indemnity communicates with amazing effectiveness the depths of depravity , greed , lust , and betrayal of the seemingly innocent and beautiful . | This is one of the best films of all time , not necessarily because of its story but because of the acting , direction , cinematography , lighting , and just the way that the story itself was told . At the time the film was released , the idea of revealing who the killer was in the opening scene was virtually unheard of , but it ended up being very effective because it allowed the audience to concentrate more on other elements of the film , which was the goal of Billy Wilder , the director . Instead of trying to figure out who the perpetrator was , there is more emphasis on how the crime was pulled off , what mistakes were made during the murder , who betrayed who , how close Barton Keyes ( the insurance investigator ) was getting to solving the case , and , probably most importantly , what kind of person Walter Neff is and whether or not sympathy should be felt toward him . Barbara Stanwyck , in one of the most remembered performances of her extensive career , represents ( with nearly flawless ease ) the cold and ruthless manipulator who has no difficulty in ruining other people's lives in various ways ( including death , if necessary ) in order to get what she wants . Known in the film community as the ' femme fatale , ' this is someone who uses her sexual prowess , seductiveness , and emotional detachment to drag an unsuspecting person ( generally an interested man ) into a scheme from which she is expected to benefit heavily and he is most likely headed for destruction . In these types of films , the man often either finds his life in ruins or ends up dead , as is often ( but not always ) also the case with the fate of the femme fatale . Barbara Stanwyck ( as Phyllis Dietrichson , the murderous femme fatale in Double Indemnity ) and Fred MacMurray ( as Walter Neff , her ? victim ' ) , have amazing chemistry on screen . Their attraction is incredibly well portrayed , and the development of their relationship with each other is so convincing that what happens between them almost seems normal . Besides that , their mutually calculated interaction , although it seems at first like it has been rehearsed endlessly and ultimately brought unconvincingly to the screen , is exactly as it was meant to be , because it represents each character's intentions , even very subtly foreshadowing their future betrayals against each other . Phyllis has gone through every word she ever says to Walter in her head . She has practiced what she wants to say when she brings up the idea of life insurance to Walter in the beginning and she knows what she wants to say whenever they interact with each other because she has been planning for quite some time the prospect of murdering her husband in order to collect his fortune . Walter , conversely , methodically makes amorous advances as though this is something that he does regularly , and then ultimately he also plans out his conversations with Phyllis because he begins to suspect her and is sure to tell her only what he wants her to hear . This seemingly stiff dialogue brilliantly represents Phyllis and Walter's precise ( and sinister ) intentions , and it's quick pace creates a feeling of urgency and restlessness . Probably the most fascinating and entertaining actor in the film , Edward G . Robinson , plays Barton Keyes , Walter's friend and employer at the insurance company where he works . Keyes is a very suspicious man who closely investigates the insurance claims which come into the company , having a striking history of accurately isolating fraudulent claims and throwing them out . His handling of Phyllis's ( and Walter's , technically ) claim and the way that he gets closer and closer to the truth create a great atmosphere of tension and drama . Double Indemnity is nearly flawless . From the shocking and unexpected beginning to the already known but still surprising end , the audience is held rapt by the excellent performances , the brilliant and imaginative direction , and the flawlessly created atmosphere . This is excellent , excellent filmmaking , and is a classic film that should not be missed . |
543,940 | 562,732 | 436,724 | 10 | Truly a wonder of nature , this urban predator , Tommy the Clown and many a story to tell . But it was a rare occasion , such as this , that he did ? | Primus fans , admittedly not exactly the target audience for this film , will immediately recognize the lyrics above and hopefully get a little kick out of it . People who don't know Primus , probably most of the people who would watch this documentary and read about it , will most likely send me angry e-mails . I am not the biggest fan of hip-hop , rap , r & b , etc . , but I decided to check out this documentary because I recently moved to LA and I appreciate seeing people who take difficult life situations and turn them into something positive , and that is exactly what happens in this movie . All of these kids living in the so called dangerous parts of Los Angeles take their frustration and their fear and channel it into a unique style of dancing , which is often quite a spectacle to behold . It starts with a man who calls himself Tommy the Clown , who entertains at children's parties much like most other types of clowns , except that he specializes in an amazing dance performance rather than magic tricks and balloon animals , and before long other dancing clown groups are popping up all over the place , mostly staffed by kids and teenagers who otherwise would more than likely get involved in a life of crime . This is an amazing look into the reality of the lives that these people live , right down to individual dance parties , some of the unwritten social rules of the people who dance together ( the styles change so quickly that they can tell who has missed even a single day of dancing ) , and tragic events that take place in their everyday lives . Even if this is not your style of music or dancing , this documentary is definitely worth a look to see how some people take something so difficult and so bad in their lives and turn it into something good . Truly inspiring . |
543,782 | 562,732 | 17,136 | 10 | Early science fiction story that presents a pessimistic prediction of a future society . | Who ever heard of an epic science fiction film ? Especially in the 1920s ? Sure , some science fiction movies are huge today , such as George Lucas ' latest goofy Star Wars movie , but in 1926 , Fritz Lang came out with a brilliant film about what the future would be like if people went on living the way they were living back then . And sure enough , we went right ahead living the way we were living , the population got bigger and more crowded , and now modern society is not a whole lot different from what was presented in Metropolis . The story is about a young rich kid without a care in the world who becomes concerned about the way that society ( Metropolis ) was run by his father , John Frederson , the master of Metropolis . He lives in a ? Pleasure Garden ' high above the level of the workers ' , and he worries about what would happen if the huge number of workers were to turn against his father , given the terrible conditions under which they live and work . Some of the best scenes in the film take place in the underground mines , showing the workers portrayed as little more than components on a gigantic , sinister looking machine . The scene where the machine overheated even contained some impressive stunts , as well as interesting cinematography as the machine transforms into a giant devil-looking monster . After countless workers are consumed by it ( no wonder this was Hitler's favorite film ) , they are immediately replaced by other workers , who go right to the same spots that the previous men left and resume their robotic movements . If some of these scenes , men can be seen being carried away on stretchers after having been injured , and the rest of the workers keep right on working , hardly even noticing . The way that the workers are portrayed as lifeless machines is one of the more potent elements of this film , as well as the most revealing about the directors intentions . When his son complains about the tragic things that go on in the mines , Frederson replies that such accidents are unavoidable , but his son still insists that they deserve credit for building the city . This is the kind of content that foreshadows some serious mutiny , and at the same time it shows what may very well happen when large groups of people feel mistreated . ' Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups ' is a saying that doesn't necessarily only apply to stupid people , as Metropolis suggests . Fritz Lang brilliantly portrays this very complex story with extremely limited dialogue , and the result is still compelling today . The special effects in this film are decades ahead of its time ? it even resembles The Fifth Element in many ways ( except that the two films can hardly be compared ) ? and the acting and especially the elaborately created sets are stunning to say the least . An excellent film , Metropolis is one of the few that should never be forgotten . |
544,364 | 562,732 | 15,864 | 10 | Charlie Chaplin at his best . | The Gold Rush is one of Chaplin's best films , as well as one of his most famous . It has been said that it is the film that he most wanted to be remembered by , and it's not hard to see why . Chaplin plays the part of the lone prospector , a young miner during the gold rush . After getting caught in a storm , he hurries to the only shelter that he can find , a wood cabin in the middle of the storm . It turns out that it is already inhabited , and by a tough criminal named Black Larson , no less , and the scene in which Charlie and Big Jim , another prospector , insist to Black Larson that they are going to stay is one of the countless memorable scenes in the film . Charlie and Big Jim are left alone and without food when Larson goes off to face the storm looking for food ( having drawn the lowest card in another amusing scene ) , and the scenes in the cabin are some of the best in the entire film . There is , of course , the boot eating scene , memorable not only because of its cleverness and effectiveness , but also because while making the film , Chaplin ate so much boot ( which was made out of licorice ) before he was satisfied with the take that he had to be taken to the hospital to have his stomach pumped . Another thing that was really well done was the special effects . I am still amazed every time I watch the film at how realistic it looks when there is a long shot from outside showing Charlie hanging from the door of the cabin , which is balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff . Also notice the fast paced and very effective music during this scene , the same song that is played in the best scene of the 1996 film Shine , with Geoffrey Rush . There is also a very noteworthy love element of The Gold Rush , a part of the story that Chaplin generally has much success with in his films . Charlie's amorous interests in Georgia , a dance hall girl , leads to the scene where he performs the famous dance of the dinner rolls , probably the most famous scene in the film , which was also performed very well by Johnny Depp in Benny & Joon . Charlie's relationship with Georgia is also the thing that leads to his presentation of his sympathy for the lower classes , when he meets her on the ship after having become a multi-millionaire . Chaplin's full length films are inherently more famous than his earlier short comedies , and The Gold Rush is one of the best of his full length features . A must see for any Chaplin fan , but The Gold Rush is also a film that anyone who is interested in quality comedy should watch . |
543,915 | 562,732 | 34,583 | 10 | The ultimate classic ? | I believe it was Mark Twain that once lamented about his works being called classics , because in his opinion a classic is something that everyone respects but no one ever reads . Or watches , in the case of movies . To a certain extent I agree , because who other than English majors reads The Waste Lands or Heart of Darkness or Hard Times ? And who really watches Citizen Kane or The Third Man or Casablanca for the entertainment value ? Well , maybe more people than I think . The Third Man is a hell of a movie . For me , the first half or so of Casablanca was remarkably uninteresting , although the atmosphere created by the war taking place off screen is incredibly well done . I just hope I'm not becoming spoiled by modern film , that's one of my biggest fears . Casablanca is the last hope for people who can't get to Lisbon to escape from Europe as it descends into war , and because all of the dregs of European society ( the people who can't afford to buy their way out ) make their way by hook or by crook there , it becomes a sort of a prison where people wait for years for their chance to escape to America . The movie is so famous and such an enduring classic that it's almost impossible to write a review of it without mentioning some of the memorable lines , which are so famous that they have become a part of modern lore , like " Here's lookin ' at you , kid , " and of course , " Of all the gin joints in the world ? " It's hard to imagine the movie-making world in which the movie was made , but equally fascinating to learn that the people making the movie had no idea that they were making what would become one of the most popular movies ever made . It was a big movie , of course , but it was made on a relatively tight budget , which is something that I wish modern filmmakers would remember . Money has never been what makes great movies . Few people know that anymore . There is an intensely romantic story in the movie , what must be the best love story in a war film ever made , and it is remarkable how convincing and unpredictable it is . During the first half of the movie , it's easy to think that you can see exactly where it's going , which is most likely the reason I found parts of the first half slow and uninteresting . But soon there comes a point where you realize that you can't predict the ending . Specifically , this happens when we learn that Ilsa's ( Ingrid Bergman ) " new " love , the man for whom her romance with Rick ( Humphrey Bogart ? one of the biggest giants in film history ) has to end , is really a good man . It's a strange love triangle between the three characters , one that many people may find morally repellent , but moving nonetheless . These are real people , not movie characters , and it seems that their amazing level of realism comes across on the screen so smoothly that it's almost by accident . Ultimately Casablanca is a story about painful sacrifice for the greater good , softened by the assertion that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world . It's fascinating to consider the reality of that statement as we hurtle through the cosmos suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . But as we try to find all the answers , it's nice to be able to look back to one of the most tumultuous times in modern history and see three people who know they have to suffer but know the reason why . So often we aren't afforded that luxury in real life . |
544,582 | 562,732 | 325,710 | 10 | After thousands of years of war , we are no closer to peace than we have ever been . | I remember being initially put off by a movie with ' Samurai ' in the title and starring Tom Cruise , but like Brad Pitt did in Troy recently , Cruise delivers a powerful performance as a Civil War veteran whose meaningless life takes a shocking turn after being sent on an assassination assignment . We meet Cruise sitting backstage , about to be called on to speak to an adoring crowd about his military experiences , and he stumbles onstage , drunk and belligerent , and winds up pulls out his rifle and firing several shots above the shocked heads of the crowd . So yeah , war had a not so good effect on him and he's not too happy with life . He takes an assignment to assassinate the samurai leader Katsumoto , and after a vicious battle , Nathan Algren ( Cruise ) is taken prisoner be captors who clearly respect / fear him because he fought a circle of men literally until he could not stand , killing the last one of them while lying flat on his back . The Americans were in the process of aiding Japan's eager transition from the Old ways to the ways of the West , the process of which provides endless opportunities for massive financial gain in areas like weapons and trade . Algren is already disgusted with the military because of a traumatic experience he had in following what he always felt was an immoral order from a superior officer , Colonel Bagley ( Tony Goldwyn ) , who he never forgives and is never faced with reason to . That particular battle is only hinted at in a series of fast and blurry flashbacks , but it is more than enough to get the idea that it involved sacking a village that Algren believed had nothing to do with their conflict , and it resulted in the deaths of the entire population , including women and children . After being taken prisoner by Katsumoto , he is returned to Katsumoto's village and kept as a prisoner , but here is the difference between the Civil War era Americans and the samurai ? the Americans want to know their enemy , the samurai want to understand their enemy , and as the rest of the movie shows , there is a huge difference between knowing your enemy and understanding your enemy , not the least of which is that the former is generally useful toward the purpose of killing them , the latter more useful in the purpose of understanding why they live and fight the way they do . Algren begins his captivity as a prisoner , albeit one with an amazing amount of freedom within the village . He is not imprisoned , but rather allowed to roam the grounds , exploring the area and people , and only reminded that he's a prisoner of war by the studying looks he receives from everyone he passes , particularly as he passes groups of warriors training for battle . Algren gets to know the people and their culture , as do we along the way , and we grow to appreciate their culture and their way of life , the cleanliness , honor , and respectability , especially when it is contrasted by Colonel Bagley's calling them savages armed only with bows and arrows . This juxtaposition of the American prejudices toward the samurai and our developed respect for the organization of their culture is indeed unsettling . I just watched Fahrenheit a few weeks ago and have since automatically seen parallels between the events in the Middle East and almost every movie I watch ( I even managed to make two connections which you can find in my review of Day of the Dead , of all movies ) , so I try not to talk too much about parallels in every movie , but the ones here are too much to overlook , especially when America is so occupied with battling what are often called insurgents or savages . Given the videotapes that these people put on the internet , I tend to agree with naming them vicious savages , but The Last Samurai is a reminder that such terms simply cannot be applied to populations or cultures in their entirety . There are savages in EVERY culture . I think this movie may have gone a little far in that the samurai were completely pure , there was no counterpart of Colonel Bagley on their side , for instance , which tends to suggest to me that the movie is more interested in promoting an understanding of cultures that so many people know nothing about . It's scary to watch this movie and see all of the good , moral people on both sides who kill each other and are killed when , as is in this case most demonstrated by Colonel Bagley , the primary reasoning behind it all is a lack of mutual understanding . After spending some time in captivity , Algren comments in a voice-over that he has slept well in this village for the first time in many years , a curious statement which highlights the irony that the only way he found peace was through his experience as a prisoner of the very culture he was sent to destroy . This has to be one of the clearest and most effective anti-war statements I've ever seen in a movie . The relationships that develops between Algren and Matsumoto is , obviously , where the majority of the film's message lies , as they grow from enemies to comrades on the battlefield . There are striking comparisons between the samurai's willing to die for honor ( which , in sharp contrast to American beliefs , can be achieved through suicide ) and what I think is a more apprehensive view of death on the American side . I believe that Americans see deaths on the battlefield as something tragic , a necessary amount of suffering in the name of something for which we as a people largely believe in ( hence the enormous importance that going into war is done for just reasons ) , while the samurai see death on the battlefield as a good death , an honorable one . The divide is sharp , but the two of them find connection in their values , not their cultures , and especially in their view of honor . Their mutual understanding of deaths in battle as honorable is the seed upon which they are able to build their relationship with each other . Despite so many seemingly uncross-able differences , this one belief leads to their understanding and respect of each other , which personally left me hoping that one day this might happen in the world on a larger scale . |
543,887 | 562,732 | 381,061 | 10 | ( best bond ever ) | So the reason my summary line is lower case and in parentheses is because initially I had it all in capital letters followed by your everyday period , but the IMDb politely told me DO NOT SHOUT in your summary line . So it's a whisper . Happy now ? Anyway , when I say that Casino Royale is the best Bond ever , I mean that it's the best film , although I would argue that Daniel Craig is also one of the best actors to play James Bond , maybe second only to Sean Connery . He fits the role of a younger 007 with such flawless precision that it's amazing to me that there is any controversy at all about his casting . I have heard that there were a lot of people that were upset that they cast a blonde guy in the role of 007 , but that just strikes be as such a shallow and ridiculous complaint that I don't bother to take it seriously . Having watched Die Another Day just before watching Casino Royale again , I am struck by how much more realistic the plot of this film is . There is nothing totally outlandish about the villain or the plot , and Bond is not presented as an infallible superspy . In fact , I think that's one of the best things about the movie . It's a prequel to all of the preceding films in the series , and Bond has just received his 00 status . Craig gives us a portrayal of James Bond that's totally different from anything we've ever seen before . He's reckless and unpredictable , he allows his emotions to control him and he makes drastic mistakes . Craig gives us a younger and less experienced 007 , showing us some of the formative experiences that made him into the character that we have come to know and love . Bond is embarking on his first mission since being granted 00 status , and his learning experience is not without difficulties . A man named Le Chiffre makes a living by bankrolling terrorists , and after losing $100 million of his terrorist investors ' money in a botched attempt to destroy a prototype plane that would revolutionize the air travel industry , he has to win back the money in a high - stakes poker game or face their wrath . I just have to say that it's amazing that a Bond film that's about 30 minutes longer than the average 007 movie can be centered around a card game and still flow so smoothly and so quickly . Despite having not the slightest interest in poker , I was never for a second bored during the card playing scenes , which should tell you something about how well-made the movie is . Le Chiffre is also one of the best villains of the series . He's scarred and has a bad eye that occasionally leaks blood ( although he assures one of his investors early in the movie , " Weeping blood is only because of a deranged tear duct , nothing sinister . " Right ! ) . He has no plans for world domination of global destruction , but is instead in the very real world position of a bank-roller of terrorist organizations . After the botched attempt to destroy a prototype airplane and thus generate a tremendous amount of money in the stock market , Le Chiffre instead loses more than $100 million , so he sets out to use his tremendous mathematical ingenuity to win back the money in the high - stakes poker game . MI6 sends Bond to participate in the game , informing him that if he loses , the British government will have directly financed terrorism . The stunningly beautiful Eva Green stars as Vesper Lynd , who must surely be the classiest and most intelligent Bond girl ever , as well as the one with the most important and unique role and impact on Bond's life . Bond's experience in knowing her is not always good but it has an effect on him that affects who he is , and no Bond girl has ever done that before , except maybe for the woman Bond married in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969 . Best one-liner : Bond : " Vodka martini . " Bartender : " Shaken or stirred ? " Bond : " Do I look like I give a damn ? " By the way , can I just ask one question ? Why doesn't anyone EVER do CPR right in the movies ? |
544,235 | 562,732 | 389,869 | 10 | If I sing a song will you sing along ? | This is the first time I've seen any performance footage of the Blue Man Group , who I previously knew only from having seen them in commercials several years ago . They are such an entertaining act that they don't even need very innovative or even very good quality music , and yet the songs that they write are fantastic . They poke fun at themselves in this concert , with a big booming voice echoing through the concert hall between songs , giving instructions on how to become rock stars . On the other hand , it's a great illustration of the differences between themselves and conventional rock stars , a surprising number of which seem to have followed the instructions to the letter . Some of the instructions the Blue Men are clearly mystified by , such as the rotating your hips to the techno music section , but others they adhere to with hilarious closeness , such as the " Alter your appearance to make you stand out from the crowd . " They have this characteristic way of looking at each other , as though they're not sure what's going on , and it is a great effect when they do it here , as though just realizing that they look different than all of the people watching them . Another of the many highlights of this concert is the section where they pay homage to all of the other rock stars that came before them , again following instructions given by the booming voice . The crowd cheers in delight as they recognize some earlier hits such as a song by one-hit-wonders Devo ( the majority of whose music is almost painful to listen to ) , and Crazy Train by Black Sabbath . The Blue Men react in hilarious fright when Ozzy's voice bursts from the speakers . The DVD also features a couple of music videos of songs which also appear in the concert , but the videos are great to watch on their own as well . There is an outstanding song called Sing Along that should certainly not be missed , since it is sung by Dave Matthews ( who does not appear in the concert ) . It is a beautiful song , and the Blue Men perform it with their characteristic mixture of humor and incredible musical skill , banging on huge octopus-looking structures of PVC pipes and vacuum cleaner hoses strung about their bodies like grotesque backpacks , pouring from them an astonishing composure of sound . I also love the effect of the guy with the whip . There is also a video of the song that the Blue Men did for Terminator 3 , although it is much less impressive than the other two music videos that appear on the DVD because Bush's Gavin Rossdale has too much of a heavy presence in it . It is his music video , the Blue Men simply make appearances , which is why it comes off as a more traditional and less interesting video , although the third video , Exhibit 13 , is incredibly simple , beautiful , and an exhibition of pure artistic skill . At the time of this writing something like 13 people have rated this concert DVD on the IMDb , and I like to think that it's just because not many people go to the IMDb to look up information about concert DVDs as much as to get information and write reviews and whatnot of more traditional movies . Whatever the case , I certainly hope that more people will make an effort to see this DVD and other work by the Blue Men , because they are certainly one of the most talented acts working today . Their unique and fascinating performance makes even the best rock acts seem to fuse together with the rest of the traditional performance world , even to the point of blandness . If you get the chance to see them in concert ( which I haven't ) , don't miss it because it is sure to be a concert experience unlike any other . |
544,680 | 562,732 | 361,862 | 10 | Brilliant moody trip through a damaged mind . | This has to be one of Christian Bale's most memorable performances . I have read that he lost nearly 70 pounds for the role , which is an astonishing amount of weight and supposedly the most that any actor has deliberately lost for any role in a movie in film history . His appearance is frightening in itself , with his protruding bones and sunken eyes , he inhabits the role of a man struggling with severe insomnia and an increasing array of other problems . He has a job as a machinist and it is not pleasant work . It's repetitive and dark and boring , and he tends not to get along with his colleagues so well . He seems a little out of place , even a little confused by his surroundings , and becomes increasingly distracted by various strange occurrences . I love that Bale's character's name is Trevor Reznik , named after Trent Reznor , the singer of Nine Inch Nails , one of my favorite bands . I hear that they were sought after to do the soundtrack but they decided not to go in that direction with the movie . It's too bad , too , because Nine Inch Nails could not possibly do anything bad to a movie like this . There is an intense scene in the film where Trevor is giving a ' hand ' to a co-worker named Miller , when he gets distracted and bumps into a power button , activating a machine which then won't stop , and Miller loses an arm at the elbow . It's a grisly , painful scene to watch , and it is a major turning point in the movie and Trevor ' life . Later , Miller is able to make feeble attempts to joke about the accident , apparently trying to make some light of the subject while at the same time barely covering his mixture of anger at Trevor's catastrophic carelessness and shock at how quickly his body and his life were forever changed . Trevor , on the other hand , is tremendously upset at the accident , and becomes increasingly irrational and angry as time goes on , as he tries to figure out what happened . There is a man named Ivan who works with Trevor , and for a variety of reasons they get to know each other . Ivan once suffered an injury at the workplace and lost some fingers , which were then replaced with some of his toes , resulting in one of the most grotesque things you may ever have seen organically attached to a human hand . It is truly disgusting . Things start to get weird for Trevor when he discovers that he is the only person who knows of any Ivan that works there . The idea of a character getting to know someone and then discovering that that person doesn't really exist is nothing new , but here it prevents us from having any idea where the movie is going . I think it's safe to assume that a lot of what is happening is happening in Trevor's head , but more importantly , it is a fascinating trip through the moody blue atmosphere of Trevor's sleep-deprived mind . For a temporary escape from his lifeless life , he looks to Stevie , a prostitute who gives him much more than sex , she gives him an understanding that he can't seem to get anywhere else . Jennifer Jason Leigh is surprisingly effective in this role , and she is able to very clearly portray Stevie's understanding of Trevor , as well as the emergence of their mutual need that goes far beyond just being physical . If there are any slow points in the movie , they are easily glossed over by the interest generated by Trevor's deteriorating condition . Something terrible has happened to him in the past , or continues happening , and the movie shows us his own efforts to figure it out , put everything back in order , and finally get some sleep . The end of the movie will disappoint some viewers , but like so many other great films , it doesn't tie everything up in a nice little bow . It leaves you thinking , and demands a second viewing . Note : According to the IMDb trivia page for the movie , Scott Kosar wrote the screenplay for this movie right out of film school , which would mean that , when he wrote the script for the 2003 Texas Chainsaw remake the year before , he was still a student . This may provide some reason for why that movie was so astonishingly bad . Director Brad Anderson , on the other hand , also wrote and directed a brilliant horror film a few years ago called Session 9 , which I also highly recommend ? |
544,379 | 562,732 | 365,748 | 10 | The mixture of British humor with Romero-style horror is indeed a winning combination . | I had Shaun of the Dead pegged as one of those straight-to-video movies that pops up every once in a while , featuring a clever lampooning of something popular in movies at the time . In the wake of a spectacular remake of Dawn of the Dead , it was not hard to come to this conclusion . But not only in Shaun of the Dead more than a straight-to-video sideshow hoping for a few minutes of attention , it's a tremendous installment in the horror genre that shows that romantic subplots can indeed have a place in scary movies . What is truly amazing is that Jerry Bruckheimer can screw up romantic subplots in movies that seem to demand romance , and yet Director Edgar Wright is able to make it work in a gory zombie movie . This is outstanding ! The best parts of the movie are the gradual evolution from a romantic comedy and into a horror film that takes place over the first third or so . The movie opens in a serious conversation between Shaun and his amazingly beautiful and adorable girlfriend Liz , in which they discuss how unhappy Liz is with the way their relationship is going . They each complain about the other's friends , all of whom are sitting right there listening . Shaun's inability to find anything else to do other than hang out at the same pub , the Winchester , and work at the same dead-end job have led to Liz issuing an ultimatum . Change things , or she's outta here . I love that the movie is so effective both as a horror film and a romantic comedy , while at the same time going significantly out of its way to make fun of those two genres . My favorite is the way the sound is manipulated early in the film . Horror films constantly manipulate sound to create scares and tension ( such as the Screeching Cat scare ) , and this movie makes fun of that tactic , giving extreme close-ups and vastly amplified sound for things like brushing teeth and spreading jam on toast . As Shaun goes through a typical day the day after his conversation with Liz , he notices things here and there that seem out of the ordinary , like lines of massive military vehicles rushing past his workplace , a man obviously terrified running past him at full speed , and a staggering man across the street who picks up a pigeon with the intention of eating it . If you think about it , most of the more well-known zombie movies start out in the middle of the crisis . They don't take the time to show normal society , they just start out focusing on a small group of people , the last survivors in what is by now an almost complete decimation of the human race , which has consumed itself , you might say . Here , everything is normal , and the movie takes the time to show what it might be like for the average person if the walking dead started eating people and turning them into walking dead as well . There are frantic news reports that offer vague theories as to what is causing ' the crisis , ' but like the military vehicles and other strange things that Shaun noticed , he always gets distracted before he catches on to what is going on , which allows room for some of the most memorable scenes in the movie , like when Shaun and his best friend Ed , one of Liz's major complaints , leave the Winchester that night , pleasantly intoxicated . In the morning , Shaun wakes up and walks across the street to the corner store , like he does every day , and doesn't notice the chaos that has erupted overnight . When he gets back , there is a hilarious scene where he and Shaun find a zombie stuck in their backyard , apparently unaware of where she is or where to go . This is a perfect example of where the movie most sharply departs from the traditional zombie movie . Shaun and Ed don't react like actors in a gore movie , they react like normal people would in such a situation . When the zombie girl turns around , they look at her shocked , and then laugh at how drunk she must be . When she falls and suffers a significant injury , only to get right back up , the looks on Shaun's and Ed's faces are absolutely priceless . From this point , the movie turns into the more traditional horror film , but it maintains its originality and romantic comedy portion by stopping occasionally to remind you that the other plot has not been forgotten . There are times throughout the movie where the characters are surrounded by zombies and stop completely to argue about their personal differences . At one point , they are literally surrounded by hundreds of zombies only a few feet away , and Ed stops to sit casually on a nearby bench and talk to someone on his cell-phone . Shaun smacks it out of his hand and essentially tells him that that's exactly the problem with him . I think that where Shaun of the Dead is most successful is in the blending of these two seemingly incompatible story lines . A lesser movie would have tried to mix together a romantic comedy and a horror movie and ended up screwing them both up , trying to please everyone and ultimately pleasing no one . Shaun of the Dead , however , tried to please everyone and succeeds because it doesn't disenfranchise anyone . It doesn't start as a romantic comedy , then turn into a horror movie that solves the romantic comedy because Liz fell back in love with Shaun , who in the course of the horror portion had become a hero . That's how you screw up a movie with a premise like this . Instead , the movie weaves this tapestry of horror and romantic comedy , each infiltrating and playing off of the other , becoming in the process a success in both areas and something truly unique . And even if it had done nothing but make a zombie movie unique , it would have been a success , but there is so much more there . Don't miss this one . |
543,948 | 562,732 | 40,522 | 10 | Why kill myself worrying when I'll end up just as dead anyway ? | Bicycle Thieves initially struck me as being much more famous than it deserves . I will admit that for a good portion of the film I found myself wondering why it is such a well known classic . Then again , I'm not exactly an expert on Italian Neorealism so that may have something to do with it . One thing that really caught my attention right away was how well the film captured the desperation of the out of work masses . I live in central eastern China at the moment , in a relatively small city of a mere 6 . 5 million people , and everywhere I look I see similar circumstances . Especially in the countryside , it's frightening to see how poor these people are . The film tells an incredibly moving story about the life of a poor family using an extremely effective but amazingly simple plot device , a stolen bicycle . In my life I have probably had half a dozen or so bicycles stolen from me , and it's such a sinking and sickening feeling , that for a while I wondered if maybe a stolen bicycle was the original inspiration for the story . Indeed , the after effects are captured flawlessly . The instant desperation , the frantic searching , the fleeting certainty that you'll be able to recover the lost bike , and the gradual and crushing realization that that is never going to happen . Even after filing a police report and doing everything possible to find it , the world is filled with millions of bicycles . As " the one who sees " explains , " Find it right away or you never will . " The story boils a man down to the singular need of that bicycle in order to provide with his family , and when it is taken from him we witness all of the above changes in him , along with the gradual increasing of his desperation until he ultimately reaches the conclusion that many of us were waiting for all along , and yet dread to see when it actually happens . All along he only wants to provide for his family , and yet ultimately he is forced to do something that he despises , and clearly isn't very good at . The helplessness and uselessness of the police is surely a statement that Hitchcock would have loved , and also says something about the plight of people in his situation . Even in a situation when he was sure he knew who had stolen his bicycle , and who had even run away from him minutes before , he was told by a police officer that he had no proof and was then ridiculed by an entire neighborhood in front of his son . Sadly , there is no real conclusion to the man's story , because there is no easy ending in his life either . It is interesting to consider the meaning behind the lack of closure . Obviously , it is a closer representation of real life this way , but there is also a point when Antonio , the main character , muses briefly but powerfully on his situation , giving the film a whole new depth - " There's a cure for everything - except death . " |
544,531 | 562,732 | 97,216 | 10 | Fight da powah ! | Okay , time has reduced the music to an embarrassing joke , at least that of Public Enemy , but Do The Right Thing still retains its meaning . Luckily Bob Marley and Spike Lee's father contribute some quality music to the film . Do The Right Thing is a tremendous achievement from Spike Lee that boldly approaches the white-hot subjects of race and class relations and leaves us with an ambiguous but hugely effective ending . The film starts off with the horrifyingly annoying newcomer Rosie Perez on a soundstage with a rotating background of what appears to be Lee's ideal neighborhood , engaging in some sort of nutty activity that must have at one time vaguely resembled dancing . ( spoilers ) The entire movie takes place over the course of one tremendously hot day in Brooklyn , in which the neighborhood's racial tensions build up and build up and ultimately explode in a riot that results in the total destruction of a beloved pizzeria and the death of one of the neighborhood youths . The film contains a surprising array of very colorful ( no pun intended ) characters , and the narrative structure moves along at a realistic pace but is able to keep your attention throughout the film . The film successfully manages several different storylines that all take place simultaneously and all add to the escalation of racial conflict that explodes at the end of the film . We see Sal , the owner of the town's pizzeria , and his sons as they interact with the residents of the inner city neighborhood in which the pizzeria operates and where they never fully feel that they belong . They are racial outsiders , but the have run a good business for years in the community which seems to be Lee's effort to prove that racially different people can live together happily . John Turturro is excellent as Pino , Sal's older son who is the less tolerant one towards the black people in the neighborhood . One of the more interesting about the movie is the title . After watching it , it seems that the right thing that the title refers to is the single act of Mookie throwing that trash can through the front window of Sal's Pizzeria at the end of the film . It seems like this is an vicious act against Sal's business , but you have to keep in mind the scene up to that point . Sal and his sons were cornered in front of the store by a mob angered by the death of Radio Raheem , one of the town's charming youths , and Mookie knows that the three of them are in danger . When he threw the can through the window , he took the mob's anger and redirected from Sal and his sons and onto the store . He probably saved their lives . There was clearly something right about that initially questionable thing that Mookie did . There is obviously going to be a lot of controversy about a movie like this because it deals with the hotly debated issue of racial relations , but you really have to analyze it before you can make any accusations , because it is a very complex film . Spike Lee manages to create a movie that starts off with almost endlessly entertaining comedy but ultimately winds up as a tremendously powerful and moving film , a technique hardly ever seen , but when it's done right , as is the case here and in other films like Life Is Beautiful , the result is that much more effective . |
544,121 | 562,732 | 3,679 | 10 | Charlie Chaplin meets the Tramp . | In Kid Auto Races at Venice , Chaplin first tried on the costume of the little Tramp , and was clearly unsure what to do with it . He wandered around and made himself seen , making it clear that he wanted to be noticed and had something to show the world , but he still wasn't sure what the personality of his character was . In Mabel's Strange Predicament , he tries something new , and finds that it went wrong . Now , in Between Showers , we have another example of the incredible , almost prophetic foreshadowing and symbolism that we saw in Kid Auto Races . Whereas in his last film , he was an obnoxious , belligerent drunk , in Between Showers he decides to try helping people . Not only that , but within the first few minutes of the film , he is literally testing out the waters . And as we would see in the years to come , the experiment worked with phenomenal success . What Chaplin also largely discovers in this film is the hyperbolic fight scene , exaggerated to cartoonish proportions for the benefit of the slightly fast motion and the absence of close-ups , which provides a comic effect sufficient to inspire years of including similar scenes in future films . The plot is simple , as they were in those days , and concerns the varying degrees of possession of an umbrella , with hilarious results , as they say . Between Showers probably marks the last major change for the Tramp that we would ever see , since Chaplin got it nearly perfect here . Let the show begin ? |
544,646 | 562,732 | 118,799 | 10 | Funny , entertaining , and amazingly intense and dramatic . | I find it sad that so many people are so narrow-minded that they will not watch a movie that is black and white or , in this case , is subtitled . I feel sorry for people who refuse to watch a movie like Life Is Beautiful just because it is a foreign film . They have no idea what a beautifully acted and directed film this is , and they'll never know what an amazing experience they are missing . Life Is Beautiful manages to walk the extremely thin line between humor , fantasy , and tragedy . Sure , the film is clearly comedic , but nevertheless it manages to very effectively communicate the tremendous losses suffered in the Nazi concentration camps and has scenes at least as intense as any scene in Schindler's List . This is one of the best films that I have ever seen . It manages to be so encompassing that you hardly notice the subtitles are even there . I proudly cast my vote of 10 . |
544,734 | 562,732 | 185,937 | 10 | Whether you love it or you hate it , you have to respect The Blair Witch Project for its uniqueness and its originality . | One of the many unique things about the Blair Witch Project is that no one liked it . Everyone who saw it either absolutely loved it or absolutely hated it , there was unusually little in between . It should be noted that no one has ever made a professional film like this before . People often joke about a movie being so bad that a student filmmaker could make a better one . Well , a student filmmaker really COULD make a movie like the Blair Witch Project , but the point is that no one has ever made a film this deliberately crude and yet attained such stunning success . The makers of the Blair Witch Project cleverly avoid the inevitable comparisons to student films by making the actual premise of the film as a student documentary . That's what makes the movie so good ! The tagline is about a bunch of kids who went into the woods , got lost , and whose video footage was found a year later . That makes the film itself realistic beyond all other horror films . The methods of production enabled the actors to present an even more convincing portrayal of a bunch of kids lost in the woods and desperate to get out . A lot of times they didn't even know what was going on with the picture , they really WERE lost and confused . Another notable element of this movie is the way that they were able to create such a tense atmosphere with a virtual absence of gore . This is proof that you do not need buckets of blood in order to make a good scary movie . So many people complained about the shaky camera work in the Blair Witch Project . They say that it was terrible filmmaking because the camera is always bouncing around , but that was done on purpose ! Don't these people realize that the home video look was the primary goal for the finished product here ? These kids didn't go out into the woods to shoot this documentary with a full-on film crew complete with caterers and everything else , they went ALONE . However , there was a little bit of botched editing in this film . It is meant to be presented as though they found their video cameras , and what you see on the screen is simply what they recorded on their cameras , with little , if any , editing . Obviously the two cameras they used needed to be edited together so that they show the same material , but there was at least one scene where Heather was seen on the opposite side of a stream crossing the log ( the one that they had come back to ) , but her voice is heard as though it is her holding the camera . Overall , the Blair Witch Project is a very original and satisfying horror movie , but you have to have an open mind . You have to be able to accept something that was made different than your traditional movie is made , and try to really understand what is different about it and what makes it good . I think that one of the best things about the story is that it leaves so much to the imagination . You never see what is actually tormenting them from out in the woods , all you see is the dark , and that makes every individual audience member imagine whatever it is that they fear the most out there in those woods . In this sense , the film is almost interactive . No other horror film has ever come close to doing anything like that , and the Blair Witch Project should be recognized for it . This is an original , entertaining , and ultimately terrifying film , and you see something new every time you see it . |
544,625 | 562,732 | 330,801 | 10 | THIS is an Oscar worthy animated short ! | Rocks is one of the best animated films I've ever seen . It not only starts off with a clever idea , but it alternates between real time and geologic time so simply but so effectively that it is almost like it is alternating between two different worlds . It gives a great idea of the difference between geologic time and the time that we experience , as two rock piles talk to each other , complaining about another ice age like it's a rainy day . The stop motion animation itself is indeed brilliant , but my favorite part is the picture that the movie paints about the path of human history . It shows us how fast we move in geologic time , illustrating the description of humans as a " flash in the pan " in the perspective of the history of the earth . Take any geology class , and one of the first things you will learn is that , if all 4 . 6 or so billion years of the earth's life were condensed into a 24 hour period , humans came into existence something like 2 seconds before midnight , and this movie knows that . The rocks are initially impressed with the development and industrialization that they see going on around them , the increase in productivity and efficiency , until suddenly it becomes a monster , growing and growing and towering over them , threatening their homes and their existence . But before anything serious happens to them , the growth that they witnessed begins to decay and break down , and they watch apathetically as it collapses back into the earth from which it grew , becoming the rolling hills that it always was . It is a very pessimistic view of the future of the human race , but more than likely true . What I really love about the film is that it can really make you look at the way you live your life without ever becoming preachy or , in a film that contains the end of humanity , political . This is truly a great film . |
543,993 | 562,732 | 112,346 | 10 | A startlingly well made political love story , The American President succeeds hugely in the tremendously difficult task of being a good love story and a good political story at the same time . | Michael Douglas , who is most well known for his enormous skill in playing stolid villains or regular men who become desperate because they manage to get themselves in way over their head , puts off these characteristics to play the part of the President of the United States , and he delivers a towering performance in this role . The story is based on the fact that President Andrew Shephard ( Douglas ) will soon be facing reelection , an election which may be compromised by the fact that he is developing a romantic interest in an envorinmental lobbyist named Sydney Ellen Wade ( played beautifully by Annette Bening ) . Matters are complicated by the fact that Shephard's wife died just before he was elected in the first place , and his cabinet members ( particularly Lewis Rothschild , played by Michael J . Fox ) are urgently trying to persuade him not to date during the election . One of the strange things about this movie is that it's kind of ironic that no one has really made a political film like this that centers around a romance involving the President . Indeed , watching a man as powerful as the U . S . President using his powers to flirt with someone that he has a crush on ( okay , that sounded pretty dumb . Maybe no one's done it before because it sounds ridiculous in writing ! ) , trying at the same time to persuade her that he really is the President . While it doesn't exactly SOUND like it would make the greatest film , this premise has resulted in the exceedingly superior romantic comedy that we see in The American President . The performances in the film are spectacular throughout , but it's actually the script that deserves even more attention than the actors ' performances , which is a rare distinction in a film . I think that the reason that The American President succeeds so well as a political film as well as a romantic comedy is that both elements are so realistically presented . I think it was Roger Ebert who praised The American President for approaching and handling real issues , such as gun control and the environment , instead of side-stepping this and trying to present a President who is not taking any certain stands on any certain issues that might cause the film's audience to like him or the movie less . The love story , one of the easiest things in the cinematic medium to completely screw up , is done brilliantly here , largely because of the occupations of the two subjects that it centers on as well as the excellent script . The movie has a nearly endless amount of comments to make about the American Presidency , the way that the public sees the office , and the restrictions that it places on its occupants . There is a pleasant irony between such things as President Shephard's ability to get Wade on the phone when she doesn't even have a phone of her own ( hey , I'm a poet and I didn't even realize it ? ) , but his complementary inability to even bring her to the house for a nice , innocent dinner . President Andrew Shephard is faced with the unfortunate task of trying to appease the American public , retain his position in the White House , convince Sydney Ellen Wade that he is who he says he is and that he is genuinely interested in her , and provide for his own romantic happiness , with the added conflict that if any one of them fails , all of the others are likely to fail as well . It's true that , this being a rather light-hearted romantic comedy , we already know how the film is going to end , but brilliant dialogue , a fascinating story , unusually interesting characters , and a tense political atmosphere prevent the material from getting boring just because we really already know how it's going to turn out in the end . Besides that , the romance in the film is so well done that that element alone makes it worth watching . There's a scene in the film when President Shephard and Wade are dancing in a crowded dinner hall , and she asks him what people are going to think about the whole situation , wondering who that woman is and why the President is dancing with her . In an example of the brilliance of the script as well as the reason that the romantic plot of the film succeeds so well , Shephard responds , ' Sydney Ellen Wade , because she said yes . ' You see , romance CAN be done right sometimes . |
543,743 | 562,732 | 372,529 | 10 | Evidently not a crowd favorite ? | At the time of this writing no one else has bothered to write anything on the IMDb about this short documentary that accompanies the Vista Series of The Sixth Sense , although fans have certainly found it in their hearts to give it a whopping 3 . 4 collective vote . Why people voted it so low I can't imagine , because it delivers exactly what it offers , reflections from the set . All of the people who played the biggest roles in the film appear in this documentary , from M . Night Shyamalan and Toni Collette to Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis . , to talk about their experiences in making the movie . In pondering what might have caused so many people to give this documentary the lowest rating on the IMDb , I thought that maybe Donnie Wahlberg's interview might have had something to do with it , because he tells some pretty odd stories . Shyamalan praises him for his dedication to a role of Vincent Gray , which would only entail about five minutes of screen time , and then Donnie Wahlberg gives a pretty extensive interview about how he went about preparing for the role . It turns out that he transformed his body in the same way Tom Hanks did for Cast Away . Not quite as extremely , but he did lose something like 25 pounds for the role , which is a tremendous amount for someone of his size . He goes on to tell a strange story about going to the park with a friend a few days before shooting his scene , and he decided that his character wouldn't be able to do that , because he had no friends , so he took off and hid in the bushes until the early hours of the morning , and then got out and walked around for even longer , " just trying to exist . " And I thought to myself , What is this guy talking about , trying to exist ? He already lost the weight , just say the lines ! And then I thought to myself , wait a minute , I don't know how to act , who in the hell am I to criticize this guy's methods ? Wahlberg delivered an outstanding performance and he deserves nothing but praise for it . Speaking of which , all of the cast heap praise on each other , such as the way Bruce Willis praises how Shyamalan makes up stories out of his head rather than remaking old movies or TV shows from the 60s or something , how he's a great storyteller and whatnot . I don't really think that this is the cast and crew praising each other in hopes of doing business together in the future or to help themselves get hired in the future , but is a really natural reaction to having worked with people on a movie . People praise each other on these documentaries even for bad movies or movies that were commercial failures , like Willard ( which I thought was a very good movie ) or Texas Chainsaw III . Whatever the case , they are really designed to give insight into the movie and , at least as importantly , to perhaps raise your opinion of the movie , even if you already loved it . It's hard to criticize a movie when you see how hard these people worked on it , and Reflections from the Set gives tremendous insight into the movie , which was already an amazing success , which is why it is so strange to me that people on the IMDb voted it so low . There was a tremendous amount of film-making talent that came together on this movie , and you can see it in this documentary just as much as in the movie . |
544,595 | 562,732 | 185,906 | 10 | Absolutely compelling . | One of my favorite episodes was number five , particularly the subway scene and the scene where the men are getting ready for the final advance and see the enormous line of soldiers falling back , having been ambushed and their numbers decimated . The subway scene is one of the best ones in the entire series that illustrates the connection between the battlefield and civilian life . Major Winters , played by Damian Lewis who later makes a huge left turn in his acting career , playing Jonesy in Stephen King's Dreamcatcher , reluctantly accepts a weekend pass to spend some time in Paris , and while on a subway train he looks around at the other passengers and each face brings him a flashback from the battlefield , one of which being the soldier that he runs into after coming over a hill and , while the man signals his helplessness , shoots dead with one shot ( okay , three shots , for effect ) . At first this might look a little cheesy , the hardened soldier getting his first look at relatively normal society after so long on the battlefield , but that is exactly what it was like for these guys ( NOTE : I have never been in battle and so have no basis for saying that last sentence ) . The thing that I liked was that he saw these people on the subway and was reminded of dramatic moments in battle involving people that looked like them . So yeah , I may never have been in battle or served any time in the military , but I love this connection between civilian life and the battlefield , because it is something that the audience of a war film often does not do until they leave the theater or turn off the film , and the effect is intensified when it is one of the actual characters in the film making that connection himself ( NOTE : I've seen tons of war films and so have plenty of basis for saying that last sentence ) . It is moments like this that really make you see the severity of what these guys went through . In the scene with the retreating soldiers , we see the ironically named Easy Company awaiting their orders to advance , with little ammunition , food , or winter clothing , and when they see this line of soldiers retreating it takes them several seconds before they think to start grabbing ammunition and rations off of these guys because of the shock of what they're seeing . I could hardly stand to see them let a single soldier walk by without taking his ammo and grenades and everything , but then again , these guys are faced with a whole line full of revelations that they're almost certainly about to walk to their deaths , so they were probably not thinking quite as clearly as I was . In casually perusing other reviews of Band of Brothers , I'm glad that not many people are simply comparing it to Saving Private Ryan , because even though Spielberg was the executive producer and Tom Hanks was a director , it is really not in the shadow of Saving Private Ryan . This is an outstanding rendering of the true stories of Easy Company during World War II , and I'm happy to see that so many people have recognized that . It's hard to follow up a movie like Saving Private Ryan that is about the same topic without being immediately compared to that movie , but since Band of Brothers has done it to a large extent , I think it's a testament to the quality of the miniseries itself . Band of Brothers has set all kinds of records for the small screen , and smartly avoids mostly all of the clichés that are seen in so many war films , even clichés of the great films like Private Ryan ( such as stereotypical characters that have stereotypical relationships with each other ) or of the bad ones , like Pearl Harbor ( such as the obligatory romances , the loved ones left behind , etc ) . Band of Brothers is a very straightforward and shockingly graphic and detailed description of the hardships that these men endured while performing their service to America , hardships which are only dulled and pushed aside by the greedy pulling of emotional heartstrings by Hollywood executives . Each episode opens with interviews with several of the actual men from Easy Company talking about some of the experiences that that episode deals with , and these interviews are fleshed out even more in a sixth DVD which should not be overlooked ! This is an outstanding achievement . Yes , it's roughly ten hours long , but that allows an even better opportunity to get to know the characters , and the episodes are designed so that you become connected to them as people , not as characters , and their experiences are presented in such starling detail and realism that it is virtually impossible not to be moved . |
544,448 | 562,732 | 138,097 | 10 | Not even really a Shakespeare adaptation , but that's what's so good about it ! | There was quite a bit of understandable controversy over the Best Picture Oscar for 1998 , because Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan were both tremendously good films , and the audience was very divided between the two . There is a definite popular influence on the workings of the Academy Awards ( no matter how good a film is , it will never win a Best Picture Oscar unless it is hugely popular like Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love . This is exactly why Memento never won a Best Picture Oscar ) , but in this case , I think that the quality of the historical element was one of the things that caused the Academy to sway more toward Shakespeare in Love than Saving Private Ryan . Obviously , both had enormous historical value , but I think that there are some notable differences between the two . First of all , Saving Private Ryan is , for the most part , a presentation of true events that occurred during World War II . It is a spectacular portrayal of true events in American history , and should definitely be recognized for that . The fact that Saving Private Ryan did not win the Oscar does not mean that it is not widely , and correctly , considered to be one of the greatest war films ever made . In my opinion , the Oscar was given to Shakespeare in Love because of the enormous effort that was put into the film's story . Private Ryan had a great fictional story as well , but it is much more complicated to come up with such an elaborate story of something that may have happened in Shakespeare's life , and to tie that story in with what little we know about that life , than it is to create a fictional and touching story that takes place during war times . Shakespeare in Love takes the unfortunately small amount of information that we have about Shakespeare's life and brings it to the screen in an amazingly realistic way . We know that this is all fiction , but the fact that it fits so well with the content of his plays and the society that he lived in makes it magical , because Shakespeare is literally brought to life for everyone to see . We get something brought to the screen that people have wondered about for centuries , so of COURSE it should win the Best Picture Oscar ! Granted , from the few portraits that survive , William Shakespeare was probably not nearly as attractive as Joseph Fiennes , but hey , Hollywood had to have its influence somewhere , right ? Fiennes delivers a brilliant performance in this staggeringly well-made drama , which provides one of the best period settings ever created on film . When you watch Shakespeare in Love , you're THERE . And we not only get what would be on its own a fabulously developed and interesting story , but also some potential facts that interact with what we know about Shakespeare , such as possible inspirations for some of the characters in his plays , the most important of which is obviously Viola ( although Shakespeare's infatuation with her does not exactly match her character in Twelfth Night ) , as well as some of the content of his plays , like Romeo and Juliet . There is also a brilliant subplot that makes Shakespeare himself the main cause of the rather mysterious death of Christopher Marlowe . One of the main problems with movies these days is that people think that just because you get two great names together ( like Spielberg and Hanks ) , then you have what should automatically be the Best Picture winner for that year . This is a hilariously erroneous way of examining the movies , especially when many of the people who think that way have not seen most of the other contenders for the Best Picture Oscar . Shakespeare in Love may not escape from that prejudice entirely , although I doubt there were many small films that matched it in quality . This is a spectacular drama , it has a remarkable score , brilliant direction , wonderful performances from everyone involved ( Judi Dench's earth-quaking performance as Queen Elizabeth should be especially noted ) , and an ingeniously written script , which explored every element of Shakespeare himself , even going so far as to give him a rather short temper ( ' God's TEETH am I to suffer this constant stream of interruption ? ! ' ) . True , we can't assume that such a great man as Shakespeare didn't have a temper ( there are already enough rumors about him , such as the one that when he was writing his plays , he ' never blotted a word . ' ) , but quick to anger is not the kind of thing that is generally associated with him . It is rather unfortunate that Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan came up against each other in the Academy Awards for 1998 , because they are both worth a Best Picture Oscar , but since only one can be given out , I think that Shakespeare in Love has the edge on Private Ryan . Just barely , but it does . Shakespeare in Love is a nearly flawless film , and just such minor things like casting a late 1990s teen heartthrob like Matt Damon as Private Ryan ( just in case you thought the movie took place anytime other than the summer of 1998 ) by itself knocked it at least a notch or two below Shakespeare in Love . The direction was spectacular , and Spielberg was rightfully given the Best Director Oscar , but when every element of the two movies are taken into account and compared , Private Ryan just has to stand aside in the Best Picture category . I stand by the Academy's decision , and I hope that , from what I have said about Shakespeare in Love , those rather misled people who think that Best Director and Best Picture automatically go together will begin to understand why that is not at all true . |
544,227 | 562,732 | 28,950 | 10 | Outstandingly slow ! | I should clarify . In what is known as the first prison break film ever made , I was initially surprised at how similar Grand Illusion was to the 1963 film The Great Escape , which is to be expected , of course , since this film probably had such a profound impact on that one ( and any respectable break-out movie that has ever come out , as it were ) . I was also surprised to see that , not only does the movie move at an alarmingly slow pace during much of the middle of it , but several of the characters come across as almost stereotypical caricatures , like they are filling in expected roles in a formula film . But then ( and here is where it really struck me how great this movie is ) , before I even realized anything was changing in my mind , it occurred to me that the combination of the slow pace and the caricatures were almost like a cinematic justification of the pace of the film and the characters that appeared in it . After more and more seemingly slow or even irrelevant scenes , you suddenly see these caricatures not only as characters rather than caricatures , but as people rather than characters . At least as important is Director Jean Renoir's desire to present it not as a movie about relationships between people of different nationalities ( an understandable conclusion , since it takes place in a time of war ) , but of HUMAN relationships , of common bonds of humanity rather than nationality . He explains this in a wonderful video introduction to the film , in which he also talks about the film's nearly miraculous survival after years of having been lost . If you get a chance to catch it on DVD , you will be watching a copy that was thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis decades ago ! |
544,302 | 562,732 | 127,536 | 10 | A startlingly realistic portrayal of the hardships that the great Queen Elizabeth struggled through in the early days of her reign . | It's too bad that they don't make more period films , because of they did , Joseph Fiennes might find more work . Joseph Fiennes was probably asked to play William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love because of his excellent performance in Elizabeth , and he was only one among a great many actors who gave incredible performances in this spectacular historical drama , in which the 16th century is flawlessly created and presented . There are many things that make Elizabeth a great film . For example , not only is it amazingly realistic , but it also portrays a very accurate depiction of the Queen . The difficult early part of her reign is not as well known as the stunning success that she later achieved as a leader , and her potent and strong-willed personality is captured very well in this film . She suffers through countless hardships during this part of her life , and the circumstances leading to her crowning of herself as The Virgin Queen are what make up the story of this excellent film . The visuals , particularly the breathtaking interiors of the tremendous castles in which much of the film takes place , are some of the most amazing things about this movie . This is an epic drama crafted with amazing skill , excellent performances , and stunning photography . See it . |
544,391 | 562,732 | 95,016 | 10 | Only John can drive somebody that crazy ! | In what has to have been the highlight of Bruce Willis's hardcore action movie career , Die hard is a nonstop adrenaline packed thrill ride that even manages to avoid the Rambo effect , where the single hero takes down the whole world around him . John McClane is just a regular cop , he's just really good at what he does and he's thrust into a situation where he can either act or be killed , or let a lot of innocent people be killed . A group of terrorists , led by Hans Gruber ( a delightfully sinister Alan Rickman ) has taken a building-full of hostages in Los Angeles and are demanding the release of prisoners in Northern Ireland , Canada , and Sri Lanka . Clearly this is a pretty lofty goal , but it's only a cover to buy time while the terrorists go after their real goal , which is to steal the$ 640 , 000 , 000 in bearer bonds in the building's safe . What makes John so convincing and so human is that he has not come here to save the world , he came because he's a New York police officer but his wife got a job in Los Angeles that he didn't think she would keep . She has become more and more comfortable , so he came all the way to LA to try to convince her to come back to New York to be with him . What follows is one of the most skillfully crafted action movies in the genre . Director JohnMcTiernan made his name with this movie , even after the similarly impressive Predator the year before . Robert Davi turns in an outstanding performance as the FBI agent assigned to take over control of the situation from the incompetent LAPD , and the movie even takes time to take a jab at the press , which nearly blows everything near the end of the movie . Note : There is a point in the movie where we see a gas station which is selling unleaded for $0 . 75 a gallon ! Makes me wonder what gas prices are going to be like in another 20 years ! I do have one question though ? why does it rain paper at the end of the movie ? White Christmas ? |
544,838 | 562,732 | 68,646 | 10 | Francis Ford Coppola takes a story written by Mario Puzo and makes it into one of the greatest films ever made . | Italian films have quite often come under some sort of controversy , in large part because of the fact that Italian immigrants have been given an undeserved reputation of being inherently violent and universally tied to some sort of organized crime . Mass media is one of the main reasons for this , which is why Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather instigated such fierce opposition and controversy when it was released in 1972 . Coppola has insisted that the film is not about Italians involved in organized crime , but that it is instead a metaphorical representation of the American government . Personally , I don't believe that at all , if only because no one is going to watch a film like that and overlook exactly what they see and make the connection between the film and the American government . However , this does not take away from the overall accomplishment that the film makes . The genius of The Godfather lies in Coppola's obvious directing skills , as well as author Mario Puzo's skill as a storyteller . The film tells the story of five tremendously powerful crime families that are at war with one another , but no one seems to be quite sure who committed the crimes that instigated the war , which makes for an interesting investigation as a subplot . Marlon Brando's performance as Don Vito Corleone is one of the best in history , and one of the major accomplishments of the film as a whole is that it is able to take this man , who is really a despicable person , and make him into an endearing character that we really care about . He is the leader of a crime family , but he is made into an antagonist . The film twists things around like that , which is one of the things that really makes it so watch-able . Aside from making Don Corleone into such a likeable character , he is also made to be tremendously respectable . Personally , I noticed this because I watched The Godfather again recently while going through and watching all of the James Bond films . Here is James Bond , who is supposed to be one of the most tasteful , refined , and high-class figures in action film , and Brando's Don Corleone effortlessly makes even Sean Connery's Bond look like a Spice Girl . The story of The Godfather is complex and involved enough to have taken up three very long films , and they are tied together brilliantly . This film ends with Vito Corleone's son Michael taking over his leadership position , in a scene that doesn't only leave room for a sequel , but demands one . The film ends with Michael Corleone in his father's office , being addressed by two of his father's assistants as Don Corleone , a title attributed only to his father until that point in the film . It would have been an unsatisfactory to end the film that way without continuing the story , and this was done two years later , with yet another Best Picture winner . The Godfather is a landmark in film history , because of the incredible story , the astronomical performances , the expert direction , and the picture perfect cinematography . The film is literally packed with memorable and famous scenes , and the performances from everyone involved are spectacular . Even at three hours , The Godfather never gets boring or slow . It is a stunningly intense ride from beginning to end . |
544,211 | 562,732 | 401,628 | 10 | Some interesting thoughts on a brilliant film . | It's really easy to mess up a making-of documentary . I haven't watched one for quite a while but probably the most common mistake that I see in them is when they have a few brief pieces of narration , thoughts on the movie from some of the cast and crew , but the vast majority of it is just clips from the film which , more often than not , you just finished watching . It's like watching a 30 minute theatrical trailer with a voice-over . But the Making of Dances with Wolves tells some good detail not only about what it was like making it but the whole back story about how the movie was basically born , which is a pretty impressive story , by the way . Kevin Costner also says near the beginning that movies are about dilemma , about not knowing what you would do in a given situation , which is exactly what I had been thinking about throughout the movie when I was watching it . The documentary ends with him wondering how he accomplished what he accomplished with Dances with Wolves , and wondering if he could ever do anything like that again , or even if he could have done a few more days of what he had been doing at the time he was making the film . Needless to say , he achieved his goals in making the movie , and so much more . Bravo . |
579,094 | 583,640 | 70,948 | 1 | Proof positive that even Sean Connery makes MISTAKES ! ! ! | I saw the movie Zardoz some twenty years ago at a university filmfest on a program including shorts , features , etc . I am a fairly patient soul who sits through just about anything and try not to judge a film too harshly early on . My expectations were not too high , but I figured that with Sean Connery in it . it would be entertaining , at the very least . I was very much mistaken . I can think of very few movies that are worse , though there are some . Let me count the ways : cheesy plot , bad dialogue , acting that runs the gamut of adequate to " I wanna be paid " , ludicrous sets and ridiculous costumes ( although I must admit the costumes are not entirely disappointing ) . The one plus is in Special Effects and even those are only good . I got in for free and felt overcharged . Pee-Wee's Big Adventure had a more belivable premise ! Further deponent saith not . |
579,340 | 583,640 | 118,979 | 1 | If there's a film worse than this one , I don't want to see it | I happened to catch this on a premium channel a while back and I've got news for you : it makes Showgirls look like Casablanca or Gone With the Wind by comparison . I'm one who happens to believe that the merits of a film are to a degree relative ; you don't judge Bikini Carwash by comparing it to , say , Schindler's List , as an example . But for the type of movie , compared to others in the same vein , it's lousy . I don't bore easily at all , but this one did that in spades . If you want something like this , look for Kira Reed in the cast and it's probably worth seeing . But this one reeks ! |
579,434 | 583,640 | 75,753 | 2 | Abandon all hope ( of being entertained ) ye who view this " movie " | It is not generally my practice to review movies that I dislike to any great degree . However , one or two times a year , I temporarily set aside my rule to only comment on things I like to give a word of warning . I find it more enjoyable to comment on something I like and boost it than I do shooting at bad movies . But some " movies " cry out for the razor . Bilitis is one of them . The cinematography isn't the only aspect that is blurry and out of focus here . An almost indiscernible plot ( certainly incoherent , if there even is one ) bad acting , cheesy script and awful pacing . Those are its major problems . Understand , I firmly believe that not all movies are created equal and films should be judged according to their category . It is not reasonable to judge , say , Beach Blanket Bingo against Gone With the Wind . I judge Bilitis against other movies in its weight class . Measured against movies like Emmanuelle or Secrets of a Chambermaid , it comes off very badly indeed . Even eye-candy has to be entertaining and Bilitis most definitely is not . |
579,345 | 583,640 | 67,610 | 3 | If Rock Hudson ever regretted making a film , it was probably this one | As a rule , I don't like making comments about films that I don't really like . But occasionally , I'll make an exception . Actually , I can't say I dislike this film so much as that I was disappointed by it because with the cast , I expected a better movie . I'd read the book and enjoyed it and looked forward to the movie . The sad truth is , apart from one or two performances , there really isn't much to this harmless bit of fluff . By the bye , it is a titillation flick , like it or not . |
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