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Multi-Movie Madness Project
Super Mega King 16th July 2010, 2:42 am
During the months prior to the beginning of this Summer, I was assimilating a list of movies that looked interesting, had good word of mouth, or were recommended highly to me. During the first half of June I took it upon myself to watch a movie a day and comment on it. Sadly, my Laptop's HDD failed and I've only just begun the process to get it repaired. It may not be repaired by the end of July even, but when it is, I am going to continue this project.
There will be spoilers for the movies that I am commenting on.
Master List
There will be spoilers for the movies that I am commenting on.
Master List
- Spoiler:
•12 Angry Men
•2001: A Space Odyssey
•3:10 to Yuma- 6/6/10
•500 Days of Summer- 6/5/10
•A Day in the Country
•A Serious Man– 6/7/10
•Airplane!- 6/8/10
•American History X
•American Psycho- 6/9/10
•Avatar
•Bladerunner
•Bourne Identity series
•Breathless
•Cast Away- 6/4/10
•Castle in the Sky
•Chasing Amy
•Children of Men
•Chinatown
•Citizen Kane
•Clerks
•Do the Right Thing
•Die Hard (seen first two)
•Existenz
•Goodfellas
•Hangover- 6/7/10
•Hard Candy
•In Bruges
•Indiana Jones series
•Inglourious Basterds
•Jacob’s Ladder
•JFK (Seen once before, but want to watch again)
•Last Night
•Lawrence of Arabia
•Lord of the Ring series
•Lost in Translation (saw first half, awesome movie)
•Man with No Name series
•Munich
•Naked Gun series
•Ocean’s Eleven series
•Oldboy
•Pan’s Labyrinth
•Passing Strange
•Pater Panchali
•Platoon
•Princess Mononoke
•Pulp Fiction
•Raise the Red Lantern
•Rent
•Requiem for a Dream- 6/13/10
•Road to Perdition- 6/10/10
•Roma
•Reservoir Dogs
•Saving Private Ryan
•Scarface
•Seventh Samurai
•Shutter Island
•Some Like it Hot
•Spun
•Taxi Driver
•Thank You For Smoking
•The Bicycle Thieves
•The Big Lebowski
•The Crow
•The Fifth Element
•The Fountain
•The Godfather series
•The Green Mile- 6/11/10
•The Host
•The Hurt Locker- 6/12/10
•The Last Samurai
•The Prestige
•The Searchers
•The Shining
•The Square
•The Stand
•The Usual Suspects
•Thelma and Louise
Last edited by Super Mega King on 16th July 2010, 3:14 am; edited 2 times in total
Super Mega King- Staff
- Posts : 2448
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Super Mega King 16th July 2010, 3:05 am
This is what I have done thus far. These movies were watched and commented on during the first half of June.
3:10 to Yuma
500 Days of Summer
Airplane!
American Psycho
A Serious Man
Cast Away
Requiem for a Dream
Road to Perdition
The Green Mile
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
3:10 to Yuma
- Spoiler:
Time waits for one man
Plot: A small-time rancher agrees to hold a captured outlaw who's awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher.
This movie is a remake of an old-classic by the same title. After watching this, I am seriously considering watching the 1957 original. What a movie this was. My Dad always watched westerns as I grew up and I never much cared for them. Most of them were old and boring I thought. This movie is enough to make someone want to watch more cowboys shooting other cowboys.
3:10 opens up to a small farm family. There's Dan (Christian Bale), the reasonable father and head of the ranch, there's Alice, the wife and mother of the children, there's William, the headstrong son who'd rather take things into his own hand, and there's the littlest one, Mark. The first scene shows a group of people from the nearby town of Bibsbe burning down the Evans' farm. They warn Dan that he has one week before they burn his house. Dan's solution to the problem is to go down to the town and reason with the Marshall, but Will would rather take a rifle and shoot them. This intro tells us a few things. First, that Dan is a father and husband and a farm to take care off, telling us that he's got something to fight for and something to lose. Second, William and Dan have differences in way of doing things. The second sets a trend for the rest of the movie between the father and son.
Next we meet Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his crew. During their first scene, they hijack a convoy for the railroad company being escorted by bounty hunter Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda). In this scene, the three most prominent members of the gang show: Ben Wade, Charlie Price, and a man who I will call the Sniper. Ben is the leader of the gang, Charlie is a devout follower of Ben's and a clear second-in-command, and the Sniper is a Mexican gentlemen that is, more often than not, picking off vital targets from a distance throughout the movie. Ben's crew rip off this convoy and leave no one alive except for Byron, who is left behind wounded and dying. Of course, Dan and his boys saw this whole fiasco. After Ben leaves towards Bibsbe, Dan and his boys go to help Byron. Dan's a kind soul and a grizzled war veteran. I had the feeling that Will would rather shoot Ben as he stood than wait for him to leave, but Dan obviously had better intentions.
Charlie heads to the Marshall's office and tells them about the hijacking and that he saw Ben Wade there. I'm kinda surprised that the officers didn't recognize him; I thought that Charlie was a second-in-command and a prominent outlaw. So they leave town towards the convoy and Ben's crew get settled in at the saloon. On the way to the convoy the Marshall and his men see Dan and Byron and they learn that they've been hoodwinked. Marshall of Bibsbe seems really inept to me. He later sends a small crew of people to escort the criminal and is easily hoodwinked by an accomplice.
Fast forward a little bit. Dan learns that he can't get an extension on his debt and Byron's been treated by the Doc. They all meet at the saloon where Ben is arrested. The congregation at the saloon start picking volunteers to escort this criminal to the 3:10 to Yuma train at a town a long ways over. Five volunteer: Byron, the Doc (he is picked by the Marshall to treat Byron along the way), the Arsonist (Marshall's man who burned down the barn), Mr. Butterfield (Railroad CEO-type who Ben ripped off), and Dan. Dan agrees to go for a price of $200 to pay off his debts. A plan is established, and they all meet at the Evans farm. At the Evans farm a couple of other men ride in a carriage in the opposite direction of the destination as a decoy and the rest stay a night at Evans' farm and head off the next morning. Will, of course, wants to come along but Dan refuses to let him. Almost immediately after, Will sneaks out. This series of events is crucial to the rest of the story; we have a definite cast of characters charged with leading this criminal towards the train which include Dan, the protagonist of the story. We also see that Will is close behind the crew, ready to join them at the right point. I like Will and dislike Will at this point. He is headstrong but stupid; he, a young teenager, wants to help escort a criminal like Ben.
Some shenanigans happen and the escort crew camp for the night. The Arsonist keeps Ben up by singing the song and is then stabbed repeatedly by Ben with a knife he liberated from the Evans house. Here is the first time we really see how crazy Ben can get. Charlie found the decoy, the Sniper picked off the driver, and the man inside serving as Ben is trapped inside a burning carriage. Charlie forces him to tell the destination of the escort and then he burns anyway. Charlie is also a favorite character of mine. He's maniacal and deviously loyal.
Needing a shortcut, Dan suggest they travel through Apache land. Ben tells them not to because these Apache shoot to kill, so to speak. They go anyway. Through the Apache land, Byron is the next to go. He insults Ben's mother and father, which provokes Ben to grab him, steal his gun, and throw him off the cliff. The remaining three (Dan, Butterfield, and the Doc) are unprepared and Ben nearly escapes. William walks up behind Ben and puts a gun to his head. Ben surrenders, and now Will is a part of the party.
On their first night on the land, Dan escorts Ben away from the campsite to take a piss. Ben finishes his business right as the Apache begin firing on Dan. Dan takes a bullet that scrapes the side of his temple and Ben takes his gun and run towards the Apache. He kills the three indians, goes back to the campsite, and informs him that he's leaving with the horses. Ben is a crazy sonofabitch. At first I thought that Ben was trying to help the escort crew and save their asses from the indians, but it becomes apparent that he's only in it for his own ass.
Ben doesn't travel long before he's captured by some white work-drivers in a Chinese mining site. The escort crew arrive at the site and a small firefight occurs to get Ben away from the work-drivers. The Doc is the only casualty. They arrive in the town which has the 3:10 to Yuma. Some men join the escort crew but they leave again after Charlie arrives with a crew and promises any townsmen some major profit for aiding in the liberation of Ben Wade. Next, Butterfield and (despite his best wishes), William are told to hide. Dan and Ben are the only ones left now. Dan's another crazy sonofabitch. Here he has a town full of loaded guns ready to shoot and he's going to escort Ben to the train single-handedly.
Along the fight to the train, Ben starts to help Dan by pointing out men helping him up when he falls. They've started to come to a mutual understanding. The train arrives and Ben is loaded onboard with bullets still flying; Dan turns toward Ben and is shot four times by Charlie. Charlie hands Ben his custom revolver and Ben seems to realize exactly what he's done. Ben kills off the rest of his own men and boards the 3:10 to Yuma. The movie ends as the train with Ben's horse running beside it leave town with Will kneeling at the body of his father.
I would like to take a moment to describe the many themes that this movie had. Revenge, situational trust, and mutual growth. We have revenge throughout the movie as characters leave other characters in the dust or use false-promises to gain information. Situational trust is shown splendidly with Ben and Dan at the end where they rely on each other to stay alive. During that scene, the folks are shooting wildly and Ben needs Dan as much as Dan needs Ben. Mutual growth is shown as the father understands the son and the son understands the father. It culiminates when the son loses the father in the impactful and incredible ending.
Whoo. I think I described this movie more than I did review it, but DAMN it was good. Action-packed and had a great story to tell. I apologize that this review is so long, but I feel as if I had more ground to cover than before. For any fan of a good story and some great action I would approve this movie. Western fans and non-western fans alike can get a kick out of it.
The ambiguous ending leaves me wanting more, but I think I can surmise what happens next. Ben escapes the train on his horse and Will heads home with a thousand dollars (a raise promised by Butterfield earlier) to pay off the debt and aid the ranch.
Great movie. I hope some of the rest of these on this grand list have some nice action and a well-blended story.
500 Days of Summer
- Spoiler:
Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't.
Plot: An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.
Above all, the big thing that sets 500 Days apart from most movies is the soundtrack. From the very first scene to the very last there always seems to be some cool song to set the mood. The movie begins with a narrator telling us about a guy who's always been looking for love, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and a woman, Summer (Zooey Deschanel), who doesn't believe in true love. The narrator goes on to say that this is a story of boy meets girl, but it isn't a love story.
The movie is told by jumping to different days since Tom met Summer. Tom is a potential architect working as a hallmark-esque card maker and Summer is his boss's assistant. We see first on (Day 300-400 or so) that Tom and Summer aren't together or are on the rocks. Next scene we see Day 1 (where Tom meets Summer) and the movie spends a while through the first 100 days showing Summer and Tom getting to know each other. At no point in the movie will Summer admit that they are dating, despite Tom wanting a little more than "just friends". I really like how the movie's story is told and how the movie is shot. During on musical scene after Tom first gets lucky with Summer, Tom is dancing to the background music and the entire city joins in for a big dance number.
Throughout the movie their relationship (or lackthereof) progresses and we never see the straw that breaks the camel's back. We only see Summer saying that she wants them to cool off a bit. Tom doesn't take this well and spends a shitload of time in self-pity and misery. He quits his job (after a hilarious rant), starts to drink a bit more, and bitches to his sister, Rachel (Chloe Moretz aka Hit Girl from Kick-Ass). Eventually he and Summer meet on a train ride to a mutual friend's wedding and they hit it off again. At a party he's invited to, Tom notices an engagement ring on Summer's hand and runs away in a particularly awesome scene. The music and the cinematography in that scene alone can make this movie worth watching.
Fast forward a bit to the end of the movie. Summer is married and Tom sees her one last time at this spot of his where he goes to see all the architecture. They come to a mutual understanding that Tom was always the right one about his notion of love and that Summer just wasn't meant to be with him. On Day 500, Tom meets a fellow potential architect applying for the same job as him. He asks her out for coffee and the move ends with her telling him her name: Autumn.
Another great hit. This movie is hilarious, has an amazing soundtrack, and a kickass story. I recommend. It's pretty recent too; it must have flown under the radar. Do yourself a favor and check this out and then buy the soundtrack.
Airplane!
- Spoiler:
You've read the ad, now see the movie!
Plot: An airplane crew takes ill. Surely the only person capable of landing the plane is an ex-pilot afraid to fly. But don't call him Shirley.
Comedic gold. Airplane! is the best type of "stupid" humor. There wasn't any scene in Airplane! that relied on inane bathroom humor or the type of drivel that infests most "comedy" movies today. It was simply comedic gold. Very hilarious and very entertaining. This was another one of those movies that I think that everyone except for me has seen before today.
Puns. A LOT of this movie's humor derives from puns. Someone once said that puns are the lowest form of wit. I say that someone has never seen Airplane!. All the puns in this movie, even from the stupid to the extremely witty, had me entertained and in a few cases, laughing out loud. Some of the movie's humor also centrals around props (such as an inflatable automatic pilot) and leads to hilarious situations. It's hard to describe why a movie is funny, which is why I recommend anyone see it.
Airplane! is a story about an ex war pilot who made some tough calls that he can't live down and his girlfriend the stewardess who hates him living in the past. The ex-war pilot, Ted, is forced to led the plane full of sick passengers after both pilots and the navigator faint. The girlfriend, Elaine, is tasked with aiding him in ways of keeping the crew pacified and on the radio. Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielson from Naked Gun) lends some of the best jokes to the movie. He's my favorite character. He's entirely serious whenever he talks even though most of the things he says is ridiculous. If you've ever seen Naked Gun, you can imagine Dr. Rumack's character.
The plot is interesting. Here we have a guy who is afraid of flying forced to pilot down a plane full of sick passengers. Of course he does it, even if his landing "is the worst this airport has ever seen", but the events that move the story forward are enough to keep one entertained. At the end his gets his girl back and all is well.
There's not much else I can say about this movie. It's hilarious, it's punny (hahahha get it hahahha), it has an interesting plot with hilarious characters, and it's probably among the top iconic comedies of all time. Watch it, you won't be disappointed.
American Psycho
- Spoiler:
No Introduction Necessary.
Plot: A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
American Psycho is a psychological thriller starring Christian Bale as the anti-Hero, Patrick Bateman. In the movie, Bateman is a banker with no emotions (other than greed and desire) who has a thirst for blood. As the movie progresses he continues to grow more and more insane over time and climaxes with a deliciously ambiguous, thought-provoking ending. The movie is really entertaining and Bale plays a great psycho.
Bateman's character is one that is arrogant, insane, calculating, and controlling. He freaks out if one of his colleagues has a nicer apartment, business card, or what have you than him. He has a compulsion with being the best at everything and obtaining all there is to obtain. He's entirely insane. He will speak to some prostitute or a friend of his that he has visiting his apartment and moments later murder him. The ending, which I'll speak of later, makes me ask if the murders in the movie were even real or just a delusional fantasy from the sick mind of Patrick Bateman.
Each word that Bateman speaks is cool and carefully calculated. He is extremely articulate and a wonderful liar; he knows exactly what to say and who to say it to. In addition he has a compulsion to control everything; he will tell his colleagues and dates what they will eat for dinner and what they will do after. All in all, I like Bateman. He's a great anti-hero. You know that there's a good chance that he'll get caught, and even though he's going around murdering people, you want to see him get off free.
Bateman kills a colleague of his, Paul Allen, which leads to the most important "arch" of the movie. Bateman keeps getting visited by a detective asking about where he was and where Allen was on the night of his disappearance. The detective reveals that Bateman was seen with a group of friends on the night of his disappearance and is in the clear. This scene is the first to make you wonder what the hell is going on; Bateman was clearly with Allen the night of his disappearance and not with this group of people.
The climax of the movie begins with feeding a stray cat to an ATM machine. Some old lady sees him holding a cat up to the ATM machine with a gun in hand and he shoots her. Then, he shoots a bunch of cops, makes a few explosions, kills a janitor and a security guard, and phones his lawyer confessing to around forty murders. He sees his lawyer the next day and his lawyer laughs him off. Bateman tries and tries to convince his lawyer that he killed Paul Allen, and the lawyer says that that's impossible. Allen had had dinner with the lawyer in London only days ago. At Bateman's office, we see his secretary flipping through his appointment book to find crude drawings of women being murdered and tortured.
So was Allen really dead the entire movie? Did Bateman really kill anyone? It's hard to tell. One common theme throughout the movie is that characters are commonly introduced as someone else. Bateman was introduced several times as different people and the lawyer even mistook him as someone named Davis. It's possible that the lawyer simply met someone who he thought was Paul Allen and that Paul Allen WAS really dead.
However, we're never shown if Bateman comes out alive. Considering that he killed a bunch of cops and some people in an insane homocidal spree, I find it hard to believe he could still make his lunch appointment the next day unless the events didn't happen.
One favorite scene of mine is one in which Bateman is screwing some hookers and all he looks at his himself in the mirror. He keeps flexing and checking himself out rather than the prostitutes. Really hilarious scene.
Final verdict: It's a great movie with some killer action and a nice, thought-provoking ending that's deliciously ambiguous. Bale plays a great psycho and was utterly convincing of the fact. It had some nice dark humor in it too that kept me chuckling and entertained. No reason why you should miss this movie.
A Serious Man
- Spoiler:
Plot: A black comedy drama centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel through multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking for meaning and answers he seems to stay stalled.
I'll admit that I was lost after I finished this movie. The protagonist's life takes a turn for the worst in every scene. After some thinking about the movie and an extensive conversation about it and its themes with Treble, I believe I have a grasp on the story that this movie was trying to tell. Keep in mind, this film is loosely based around the Book of Job.
I'm sure the directors meant for the intro to the movie to mean something special or set the tone for the rest of the film, but it seemed pretty pointless. Here we have a husband telling his wife that he ran into a stranger at the market during the storm. The wife says this stranger had died three years ago and must be a dybbuk (dybbuks, in Jewish culture, are an evil possession) and that they are cursed. The stranger comes into the home and the wife accuses him of being a dybbuk and refutes every claim she has. She stabs him in the chest and no blood is drawn. He asks the husband, "Who is really possessed? Me, or your wife?". Blood forms around the wound after a quip with the wife and he leaves he house. The most I can draw from this intro is that this movie is very Hebrew in nature. I found the movie funny and interesting, but I feel like I missed some of the jokes and I didn't understand some of the terminology being thrown around. Some of it was, for lack of a better phrase, too Jewish for everyone to grasp.
Next we see a Physics professor getting some x-rays and a student getting his money and radio-player taken away. From here the movie follows a formula that the professor, Larry, always has his life turn to shit while his son, Danny, keeps trying to get some money to pay off a guy he bought records from.
Larry's life gets more and more complicated as time goes on. First, he has a troubled student who failed a test that resorts to bribery and threatening a lawsuit against him if Larry doesn't give him a passing grade. Next, we have his wife who wants to separate so that she can marry a man described as a serious man (haha), Sy. Sy dies about halfway through the movie and Larry is stuck with the funeral bill, even furthering adding to his list of dilemmas. Larry's brother who may or may not be a brilliant homosexual repressed gambler, gets in trouble with the law for sodomy and tacks a large lawyer fee to Larry.
To top it all off, Larry spends the entire movie trying to find answers in God to all his problems and comes up short. He speaks to two rabbis in the movie who both give him their own vision on life. The first rabbi tells Larry to enjoy the little things in life and see God everywhere; the second rabbi tells Larry that there are mysteries in life and that God doesn't owe us an answer. Our protagonist doesn't accept any of these answers and tries and tries for an audience with the wisest rabbi around. He finally heads to the sage rabbi's office for an audience and is turned around without earning even a simple word to the wise.
Larry. Oh, Larry. At the end of the movie he makes his first choice in the entire film. He had no say in anything up until this point, no one asked his opinion,and he couldn't do diddly to solve his issues. He looks at his gradebook and makes the choice to change the failing student's grade to a C-. Immediately after he makes this choice, he gets a call from the doctor who, presumably has grave news. His son on the other hand has finally gotten the money and is ready to hand it off when a tornado warning hits the district. The movie ends as the teacher fumbles for his keys and a tornado is seen in the distance.
The ending. It ends right there. We don't know anything about Larry after he learned that the doc had bad news and we don't see what comes of the tornado. At first, I was pissed. This movie ended a scene too early, I thought. Really though, it ended at the exact right time. This ending is the epitome of everything the movie had to tell us.
Theme is very important here. The theme of this movie is that there are things in our life that are out of our control and that there are questions we don't have answers to. It's about discovering that, even if Larry had found some cosmic answer to his questions, he wouldn't have a different outcome. If he had found out why God had been giving him bad luck, it wouldn't change anything. Some things are out of our control.
The ending is exactly that. At the end we see trouble on the horizon in the form of a possibly fatal test result and a tornado. There is no rhyme or reason why these things have happened; they just did. This is the lowest point of the movie, and, as Treble told me, to show what happens next would "would go against the grain of pretty much everything the film had been doing up to that point."
I doubt I could have put it better myself. This movie is all about a man who's life is a cycle of difficulties up until the very end. I would not be surprised if this were a true story. The man's emotions and questions throughout his crises are very realistic and true-to-life so to speak. If you are Hebrew, you may "get" this movie more than others, but I say this movie is deserving of a watch.
Cast Away
- Spoiler:
At the edge of the world, his journey begins.
Plot: A FedEx executive must transform himself physically and emotionally to survive a crash landing on a deserted island.
It's hard to describe an iconic movie such as Cast Away in words. I feel that it's a movie that, before tonight, every except for me has seen. The movie begins at a nice pace with the introduction. We're given Tom Hanks playing Chuck, a man devoted to his work and a woman he's dating. On Christmas night, Chuck is paged and has to take an urgent trip going to wherever. Before embarking on his plane, he gives his girlfriend, Kelly, a present wrapped in the shape of a box containing a wedding ring. Chuck whisks away on the plane, telling Kelly not to open it until New Years Eve. I really liked this intro. It told me that here we have a man with something to lose and a reason to live.
His plane crashes. While flying towards wherever, the crew encounter turbulence and head off-course to miss a storm. For some ambiguous reason, there's an explosion on the plane and by the end of the scene Chuck is the only one alive. This scene is, I feel, the first major hook of the movie. It's a suspenseful scene that made me eager to watch some more. On the island Chuck has various misadventures before the movie flashes forward four years. By now, Chuck has made friends out of a volleyball that he found in a FedEx package. I'm impressed that the movie focused on Chuck throughout this entire time. It doesn't fade away to show Kelly's reaction to Chuck's plane crash or anything like that; viewers are simply left to wonder what's going on in real civilization.
Chuck fashions a raft out of logs and hand-made rope and sails off towards civilization. He drifted 500 miles away from his island before he lost his volleyball friend, Wilson. The scene where he cries out after his only friend since he landed on Wilson is the most quoted and emotional scenes of the movie. Chuck is left all alone. As luck would have it, a ship sailed by and rescued him. Fast forward another four weeks. Chuck is being received at a hero's welcome for him and he meets Kelly's husband. She really didn't have a choice other than to move on. She has a family now.
That night Chuck finally gets to see her. They have another emotional scene where they both proclaim their love for each other but mutually understand that they can't be together. The movie ends after a monologue by Chuck and he delivers a package that he found on the island.
I really liked the ending to the movie. It's ambiguous in all the right ways. He stands there at an intersection and he has no idea where he wants to go. The movie ends as he looks into the direction that a woman had explained led to nowhere and smiles. I liked how he was cast away (haha) from society and, even though he lived in spite of the odds, he still lost what he was hoping for.
The only thing that I can nitpick about is that, from the time he is found and the time that he meets Kelly there is a passage of four weeks. I would figure that he would see her earlier than four weeks after he came back from not seeing her for four years.
All in all, a great movie. I approve.
Requiem for a Dream
- Spoiler:
From the director of [Pi]
Plot: The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control.
This is a powerful movie about the dangers that addiction can cause. It starts off simple and peaceful with a foreshadowing of bad events to come and ends with a powerful climax off deprivation and depression. In the movie, four people with their own dreams and ambitions face tragedy through the use of drugs.
The soundtrack is great. It cooperates with the mood of the scene and accents what the scene is trying to show. I'm tempted to go out and buy it after watching this movie. The cinematography is also grand. There are scenes with perfect screen distortion and intentional tearing that wreak havoc on the senses. It's something that can't be very well explain with words and just has to be seen.
Sara Goldfarb, Harry Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone are the four people who face tragedy. Sara is Harry's mother and Marion is Harry's serious girlfriend, Tyrone is a friend of Harry and Marion. Sara is a TV-junky and watches the same game show/self-help show throughout the film. She gets a call and a letter saying that she will be on TV, but she's too overweight to fit into her favorite dress. She takes diet pills that help her lose weight; Harry warns her that they'll lead to nothing but her downfall. Sara begins taking more than the medicated amount of the pills over and throughout the movie and experiences hallucinations. She has a mental breakdown and ends up in a mental home at the end of the movie where she has to have electroshock therapy. Her tragedy is one of loneliness and wanting to be loved. She wants to be on TV so that millions of people will see her and love her; she is all alone at her house. When the call to be on TV doesn't come, she breaks down.
Harry, Marion, and Tyrone's fates are all intertwined. Their story starts in the Summer where the going is good for heroin and they're all relatively well-adjusted people with drug problems. The three begin to look to selling drugs and they're fairly profitable by the end of Summer. Harry and Marion hope to start a designer fashion store with Marion's gift and Tyrone hopes to one day escape the streets and finally make it as someone, as he once promised his mom. When Fall comes, Tyrone is the witness to a drug dealer's assassination and drug dealers all across the city are being shot and killed. Drugs start to be harder and harder to come by. They fall into deprivation and let their drug abuse get the best of them. Harry starts developing a weird problem on his arm due to improper injection techniques; Tyrone gets more and more desperate for drugs; Marion sleeps with her psychiatrist for some cash.
Harry and Marion split. Their serious relationship with large hopes and dreams splits because of their drug abuse, Harry's failure to procure drugs, and Marion's prostitution with her psychiatrist. Harry and Tyrone decide to head to Florida to start their lives over, and Marion calls someone who'll give her drugs for sex. On the way down state, Harry's arm grows more and more painful and he and Tyrone stop at a hospital. They're arrested for drug abuse; Tyrone goes to prison while Harry goes to a prison hospital. Harry's end is laying in a hospital bed, crying for Marion, after his infected arm has been amputated. Tyrone's end is lying in a prison bed and realizing that he failed his Mom and didn't make it big. Marion's end is a degrading orgy with men throwing cash everywhere and no end in sight to her addiction. All three of these people's hopes and dreams were dashed when they let their drug abuse get the best of them. Marion's a prostitute, Harry's missing an arm, and Tyrone's spending however long in prison. It's shocking to see their hopes and dreams dashed so greatly when they had such high ambitions.
Perhaps the only saving grace to the ending of the movie is that Tyrone and Harry are bound to get clean in prison. Otherwise it's entirely depressing. It's a wonderful ending to a wonderful movie; the entire movie, from beginning to end, is entirely realistic and life-like. These are real people with their real deterioration because of real drug abuse. This movie is one of the best I've seen. Do not pass it up.
Road to Perdition
- Spoiler:
Pray for Michael Sullivan
Plot: Bonds of loyalty are put to the test when a hitman's son witnesses what his father does for a living.
My second Tom Hanks movie of the list is great. Before I was recommended this movie, I had never even heard of it. I recommend it for any fan of the mafia, 30s-esque action, great and involving plot full of character development, or Tom Hanks. Road to Perdition follows a hitman's journey for vengeance and protection of his son after being betrayed by the mafia family he worked for. I love the tagline of this film, "Pray for Michael Sullivan". Are we praying that Mike Sullivan is successful and wins on his quest despite all odds? Or, are we praying that Michael Jr. won't follow in his father's footsteps and will end up "seeing Heaven"? I'd like to think the latter.
Tom Hanks plays Mike Sullivan, a hitman with a wife and two children. Michael Jr. (referred to as Michael from here on), his son, follows Mike and one of his colleagues, Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig), on a visit to talk to a guy who spoke against the boss, John Rooney (Paul Newman). Something goes terribly wrong, the naysayer against the boss accused Connor of stealing from the family; what was once a visit turns to a murder as Connor kills the guy and Mike has no choice but to help him; at the door peeking under is Michael, who witnessed the entire ordeal. Mike and Connor trust him to keep a secret, but Mike has to deal with his son who is now aware of his business and the missions he carries out. This scene sets the stage for the rest of the movie. Connor is an obviously dangerous man with no hangups on killing the people he finds threatening rather than following orders. Mike is a loyal guy to the mafia family but is not necessarily a "good man"; he does kill people for a living.
John Rooney is Mike's boss. Mike had no father as a child and John elected to take care of him. As he grew up, Mike gradually came into John's business and grew up a hitman. Connor is John's biological son and is the main antagonist throughout the movie. After the mission that the son witnessed, John asks Mike to go talk to a club owner who owes them some money. Outside, Connor slips Mike a letter to the club owner from the boss that he forgot to give John. At the club, Mike hands the owner the letter and the owner tries to kill him. He's unsuccessful; Mike draws the gun first and kills him and reads the note. "KILL SULLIVAN AND ALL DEBTS ARE PAID". At home, Connor has just murdered Mike's other son and his wife. Michael just nearly gets away by not being in the house. Connor is very hostile. He's Mike's target for the rest of the movie because he murdered his wife and son. The challenge that Mike has to overcome is John's protection of his biological son.
Throughout the movie father and son develop over a period of six weeks. Father admits to the son that he doesn't blame the son for anything that happened and the son admits that he always thought that the Father didn't like him as much. They come to terms with this and, by the end of the movie, they have a close relationship. However, the Father has a thirst for vengeance to quench through the movie. Mike elicits a response from the mafia family by driving through Chicago and only taking the "dirty" money from the family. This leads to Mike meeting the accountant and, after a firefight with an assassin (Jude Law), Mike liberates documents that prove Connor is stealing cash. This serves to prove that Mike has been following the wrong lead throughout the movie. The previous naysayer was right and had no reason to die. Connor was in the wrong.
Evidence in hand he visits John who tells him to get lost, he doesn't want to turn in Connor and doesn't want to see Mike dead. Without any choice, Mike kills John and the rest of that family to break down the protective barrier surrounding Connor. Mike walks into Connor's room with no resistance and kills him. All is well. Without any choice, Mike killed his "father" in this scene. Before his death, John uttered some powerful words, "I'm glad it was you". John knew it was coming and knew Mike had no choice.
At the end, Mike and his son are at a lakehouse and all seems well...until the assassin shoots Mike. Michael, gun in hand, gets the jump on the assassin from behind. The assassin turns towards Michael, with his back to Mike, and orders him to drop the gun. A gun is fired and the assassin is dead; Mike found a gun and killed the assailant. Michael never fired a bullet. Mike dies and Michael drives to live with an elderly family that helped them earlier in the movie. This ending underlines the hope that Mike had for his son; the hope that his son wouldn't turn out like him. In the final scene, Michael tells the viewer that he never held a gun again. Mike's hope was fulfilled.
I disliked a few minor things about the movie. Some of the death and firefight scenes were bloody and some weren't at all. When Connor killed the Naysayer, he shot him in the head. There was no blood spatter or bullet wound showed. Simply a gunshot and the guy fell. At the final scene of the movie, we learn that Mike shot the assassin instead of Michael. The assassin's back was turned to Mike and Mike fires. We see no bullet wound in the back or blood spatter; there are no rips, holes, tears, etc in the assassin's clothing. It was, as if, there was a gunshot and the assassin decided to slowly drop to his knees then lay down. The only other thing I can think of is, at one point in the movie, a messenger tells Mike that he has a suitcase of $25,000 to keep Mike from bloodshed. Mike kills the messenger but doesn't take the money...this is before Mike started robbing the banks, but I would think he'd take a free twenty-five grand.
Even with the minor flaws, this movie shines out. It's a great film and worth the watch for anyone. As with every other movie (except A Serious Man) so far, I recommend this highly to anyone to watch. Tom Hanks is at his best and the supporting cast are all fluent and dynamic. Great film.
The Green Mile
- Spoiler:
Miracles do happen.
Plot: The story about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of black man accused of child murder & rape, who has the power of faith healing.
The Green Mile is in a genre called "Movies that you have to see". The movie is three hours long and I could spend twice that writing about it and how moving and wonderful it was. It's a Stephen King book adapted into a movie; if I had read the novel I would compare the two, but I have not. This movie has a similar setting to Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption; both are set in prisons and deal with prison life. However, Shawshank is about a group of prisoners while The Green Mile is about a group of guards. Overall, I can't decide if I like Green Mile or Shawshank Redemption more. Before I watched this I would say Shawshank Redemption was my favorite movie or among my favorite movie when asked. Now, The Green Mile is a top contender.
The plot follows Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) and the death row bloc he leads nicknamed The Green Mile. One day, a prisoner accused of child murder and rape who is the size of a giant is put in a cell. His name is John Coffey (like the drink but not spelled the same) and he preforms a host of miracles and healings before the movie ends. John's first healing is on Paul Edgecomb's bladder infection; John grabs Paul's crotch and after some magic, Paul is healed. John's second healing is on the mouse Mr. Jingles. Mr. Jingles is a special mouse that preforms circus tricks for a fellow inmate who is squashed by Percy, the local asshole guard. Dead and bleeding, John takes hold of Jingles and revitalizes him. His last healing is on the Warden's wife, Melinda. Earlier in the movie, Melinda had been diagnosed with a brain tumor that was inoperable. Paul and his cohorts snuck John out to the Warden's place and John miraculously cured Melinda of her tumor. At the end, Paul sees a vision that shows that John was really innocent but has no choice but to execute him. He states in the epilogue that after John's execution, he never partook in other one again. John is undoubtedly a favorite character in the film. He's not one for many words and he scares easy, but he's got a tender vibe to him that makes you question right from the start if he's guilty. Before his first healing I expected him to kill of a guard or something because I thought that his tenderness was misleading. In the end though, he appears to have no backstory and kills no one except the "bad man", Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell).
Paul Edgecomb is the narrator and captain of the green mile. He leads a small group of guards and is the closest to John. He's a good man and never goes out of his way to inconvenience a prisoner, unlike Percy. He appears as one hundred and eight years old at the beginning and end of the movie, his gift of live given to him by John. He sees his gift as a punishment for letting one of God's true miracle workers die, despite his attempts to convince John to let him break John out of prison. He struggles to come to terms with John and his miracle powers and eventual death in the movie. He accepts that, with his gift of life, he will see all his loved ones die off far before he does. Tom Hanks is at his best here.
Percy Wetmore is a dickhead. That's the best and only way to describe him. He intentionally prolongs the execution of an inmate that he dislikes and claims innocence after, he kills said inmate's pet rat, he broke that same inmate's fingers for talking cross, he yelled "dead man walkin'" over and over as John was herded into a cell, et cetera. Percy is the antagonist of the film if there ever was one.
The rest of the supporting cast are all fluid. There's the Warden (James Cromwell), a necessarily strict man who runs the prison and is a close friend of Paul and his wife. He has to deal with his dying wife and her "bad days" where she swears up a storm. The Green Mile guards are loyal to Paul and believe that John is a miracle worker. During Coffey's execution, they all tear up a little. Great cast. Many themes of faith, miracles, revenge, truth, etc. are present in these characters.
One of my favorite movies now. This is a great movie and I classify it in a genre reserved only for the best: movies that you HAVE to see, no exceptions. Any Tom Hanks fan, any Stephen King fan, any fan of anything needs to see this movie. This is definitely one of, if not the best, movie I've yet reviewed on this list. It's my favorite Tom Hanks movie.
The Hangover
- Spoiler:
Some guys just can't handle Vegas
Plot: A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.
I've never been a huge fan of movies that rely on stupid bathroom humor and extreme vulgarity to be funny. As such, I never saw Knocked Up or Superbad. Until a few minutes ago I grouped The Hangover in the same category as those. I'm pleased to say that, for the most part, I was entirely wrong.
There's not much someone can say about a comedy film without ruining the humor. If you've already seen the film you know all the best jokes and great lines and if you haven't, you owe yourself to watch it. It's hilarious. For a bachelor's party, a quartet of four amigos head off to Las Vegas. Through crazy shenanigans the groom ends up missing, leaving the other three with the task of finding him before his wedding.
I liked all the characters and their quirks, even if they were typical. In a comedy quartet, you can expect to have the neutral guy who sort of leads the operation or is brought along against his better judgment, there's always the risk-taker who's usually the balls of the group and not afraid to do what it takes, you have the token tightwad with a tightwad girlfriend who's usually the naysayer of the party, and of course there's the lovable oaf. Doug, Phil, Stu, and Alan all fill these roles, respectively.
Not that the characters being typical is bad. They were typical but I still found them interesting. Doug is missing for most of the movie and is our neutral character getting married. I would kinda hate to be him though. Stuck on a roof for a couple days only to arrive just in time to your wedding? Yeah. Sucks to be him. Phil is the risk-taker and the balls. He's the one who heads the search to find Doug and I liked his little comment at the beginning about how he hates his life contrasted to the end. He's genuinely happy to see his wife and son. It shows that he sorta keeps an act around his friends. Stu is pretty typical right down to the end. From the beginning he goes through a phase of uptight-loosening up-party animal-eventual dumping of bitch girlfriend. Stu was still lovable though and he had some great moments throughout the movie. Alan is my favorite character for a few reasons. He's the lovable oaf, but he isn't depicted as a barely functioning mentally handicapped man like I would usually expect. Instead, he's depicted as blissfully ignorant and awkward. He's like a grown up child with a heart of gold. Alan definitely takes the cake with the most memorable, quotable, and hilarious quotes.
The actual plot was pretty entertaining. It was a situation I hadn't seen before in a move, literally losing someone in Las Vegas and not remembering anything about their whereabouts. It's a pretty crazy movie right from the get-go. Doug goes missing during their party and the other three are left to find him. Phil, Stu, and Alan face troubles in the form of a tiger, a lost baby, an unwanted marriage to a stripper, Mike Tyson, an angry naked Japanese man with a crowbar, an angry clothed Japanese man with a gun, and drugs. Predictably, they find Doug (on the roof of all places) and get him back in time for his wedding right as it's ready to start. Doug is married, Phil is with his wife and kids, Stu has dumped his bitch girlfriend, and Alan is Alan. All is good.
Alan is accused of stealing $80,000 from an armed Japanese man. This setup leads to one of my two favorite scenes to the movie. Alan heads to the casino and has a rainman-esque montage of numbers and scientific calculations as he counts the cards at a blackjack table and wins $80,000. Another great scene is the one in which the gang get their tuxes. On the way home to the wedding, they don't have any time to stop to buy new tuxedos, so Alan has a friend of his deliver from a moving van to a moving car. It's random and hilarious. I love it.
There was one scene that I really hated because it was disgusting. Alan finds a used condom in the back of a car and is whimsically unaware of what it is, so he begins throwing it around and everyone freaks out. I hate that type of humor, but it's not even a major speedbump on an otherwise hilarious movie.
It's a predictable plot with typical characters, but it still remains interesting despite. It's pretty good. I doubt very many people watch these movies for the plot though. If you want a movie filled with laugh-out-loud moments (most of which from Alan), I definitely recommend this movie. I was pleasantly surprised.
The Hurt Locker
- Spoiler:
You'll know when you're in it.
Plot: Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
I'll be honest. This movie completely flew under my radar. The first time I heard of it was when it won best picture. After watching it, I'm not entirely convinced that it deserved best picture. It was a great movie for sure, but nothing I saw was entirely ground-breaking. The story is a tale of three amigos in a bomb squad diffusing bombs and trying to survive in Iraq.
It has some great cinematography. The camera angles, some of the special effects, and the overall feel of the movie are superb. I've never been to Iraq before, but I was convinced that the situations that appeared in this movie were entirely plausible and have probably happened before. It's an accurate movie. It's the first war movie on my list and, overall, it's not disappointing.
The characters are involving and fluent. William James (Jeremy Renner) is the new leader of Bravo company and, while rather unorthodox, is a great bomb diffuser and handler. Sanborn is a veteran of the bomb squad and doesn't really fear much. He kicks ass and doesn't afraid of anything. Owen Eldridge is the newer recruit and is as green as grass. He fears death and tries to cope with the situations he's in, but when the going gets tough he gets going. He's the newbie character that you feel for and, above all the others, hopes he gets it out alive but have a feeling he won't. Thankfully he does, but not without a bullet wound in the leg.
The plot follows these guys through various situations counting down to their last days in Bravo company. Some of their situations include massive car bombs, timed bombs, remote detonation oil rigs, and the final situation of the move is a suicide bomber who changes his mind and needs the military's help. James cannot break off the vest from the bomber in time and he narrowly escapes death while the bomber isn't so lucky. This is the last time we see Bravo company together. James returns home to his wife and kid and, in the final scene, heads back to Iraq with Delta company.
It's an interesting plot for sure. It's an involving and exciting movie and I believe it's one of the best of last year. However, I haven't seen all the movies last year but I have a feeling that there's one out there that's a little better than this one. Deserving of best picture? Maybe not. Deserving of a watch, regardless? I'd say so.
Super Mega King- Staff
- Posts : 2448
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Super Mega King 16th July 2010, 3:06 am
Feel free to post, comment, criticize, whatever now.
Super Mega King- Staff
- Posts : 2448
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Flasktoss55 16th July 2010, 4:01 am
I, for one, dislike every movie you like.
On principle.
On principle.
Flasktoss55- Staff
- Posts : 1036
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Super Mega King 16th July 2010, 4:05 am
Flasktoss55 wrote:I, for one, dislike every movie you like.
On principle.
I'm pretty sure you gave me a good portion of those recommendations.
Super Mega King- Staff
- Posts : 2448
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Flasktoss55 16th July 2010, 4:07 am
I gave you a good deal of knocks upside the head, in the future.
Flasktoss55- Staff
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Super Mega King- Staff
- Posts : 2448
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
DeadApe 16th July 2010, 5:30 am
Well written reviews with good commentary and summaries.
DeadApe- Master
- Posts : 6353
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
Masterofkills09 16th July 2010, 2:36 pm
American History X is a great movie, you should watch it next!
Masterofkills09- Cry Owes Me A Custom Title
- Posts : 1170
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
XUnxSt0pxabl3x 16th July 2010, 2:40 pm
Saving Private Ryan is a good movie. Really good. You should Check out Band of Brothers Series. That's awesome.
The Green Mile is a good movie too, seen it again last night for the 50th time.
The Green Mile is a good movie too, seen it again last night for the 50th time.
XUnxSt0pxabl3x- Hipshot Honcho
- Posts : 42
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
oO Coggy Oo 16th July 2010, 2:41 pm
Masterofkills09 wrote:American History X is a great movie, you should watch it next!
A great, great, great movie
oO Coggy Oo- Cry Owes Me A Custom Title
- Posts : 1406
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
mboddz751 16th July 2010, 6:04 pm
Children of Men is damn good and Pulp Fiction is just damn funny 
mboddz751- I type in my sleep
- Posts : 904
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
snake eyez 89 16th July 2010, 6:13 pm
the hangover is amazing
ITS NOT A PURSE ITS A SATCHEL
ITS NOT A PURSE ITS A SATCHEL
snake eyez 89- Hail to the King Baby.
- Posts : 336
Re: Multi-Movie Madness Project
ABigSoggy Wafle 16th July 2010, 10:11 pm
Missing Rocky Horror Picture show.
ABigSoggy Wafle- Cry Owes Me A Custom Title
- Posts : 1833
Meatshield718- Master
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