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25th Hour (2002)
25th Hour (2002)
In an effort to bring light to what I feel is an one of the more underrated films from Spike Lee, director of Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and other fine pieces of work. Adapted from the novel by the author, David Benioff translated this character study. A drug dealer changes his life in 24 hours, realizing his past mistakes, seeking a self-redemption.
Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton), an Irish kid from Bay Ridge went to an academy on scholarship, where he began dealing pot to kids in the high school. A dream to live well, and own courtside seats at Madison Square Garden pushed Monty deeper into his criminal dealings. Caught in act by the DEA, Monty is sentenced to seven years.
The film opens with Monty saving an injured, burned dog. Here in his last 24 hours, we learn that saving that dog is one of the only truly good things that Monty did in his spiral downward. In the present day, Monty takes a walk through those people important to him, his Father (Brian Cox), his girlfriend Naturalle (Rosario Dawson), and friends, English Teacher Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and hot shot Wall-Street player Frank Slattery (Barry Pepper).
True in Spike Lee's style, there's a big story underneath the skin of this film. His theme in Do the Right Thing, was race relations between the left over Italians in a now predominately black community. 25th Hour is Lee's ode to the city, post-9/11. It is such a subtle tribute, that it is not in your face, but you can see, the people have changed because of the tragedy. In a memorable scene, the camera cranes slightly above Hoffman and Pepper, revealing the clean-up of Ground Zero below, and the icing on the cake, the magnificent score by Terence Blanchard.
The film is polished, and to paraphrase a quote Spike Lee used himself in an interview for his upcoming Inside Man, Kurosawa, at 85, said there was still a lot he needed to learn about making films. Spike Lee, like all other great directors, is always growing.
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Decent adult fun
This new offering in adult comedy is a decent show, provided you enjoy Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Some people love the Holiday season, some may love the crisp air of Fall, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) love wedding season. They do their research into upcoming weddings, come up with their game plan and backstory for each, and show up.
With so many strangers showing up to a wedding, these two zany gentleman can show up, and no ones the wiser. After a great (lengthy) montage into crashing, we move into the real story, the crash of all crashes. Crashing the wedding of the daughter of Secretary Cleary (Christopher Walken), someone John Beckwith has admired for quite a long time.
They arrive at the wedding, two venture capitalists, the son of an Aunt, and they begin working their charm. Their goal, to have a great time, party, and sleep with women. Beckwith upon sight of one of the bridesmaids Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams), falls for her beauty instantly. Which I guarantee so will you the audience.
Invited for a weekend at the Cleary household, hilarity ensues, especially between Jeremy and his clingy bridesmaid, Gloria (Isla Fisher). In the second half of the movie, the story shifts, Vaughn becoming more the supporting role, and Wilson's love story taking center stage.
Performances here are decent for this type of comedy. There is great chemistry between these two actors, Vaughn playing the sleazier of two roles, and Wilson the straight (yet not completely straight) man falling head over heels in love. There are people who aren't huge fans of these two actors, but if you are, look for a fun time.
Black Narcissus (1947)
Another amazing film from Michael Powell
Black Narcissus, is one of over fifteen collaborations between Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. At the end of this film I had the exact same thought I did when I first introduced myself to Powell with Peeping Tom here is a man who was ahead of his time.
In the opening of Black Narcissus, Sister Clodagh is given the task of establishing a school, hospital, and school for women in the Himalayas. A stern, yet young woman, she is told by the Reverend Sister of her Covenant that she "does not believe she will succeed." It's much like being given a scholarship to go to Harvard, and while having your hand shook having some "hoity-toity" trustee tell you, "Son, we're giving you this money, but nobody believes in you." Clearly Sister Clodagh sets out with the other Sisters assigned to her with the goal to prove that she can do her job.
They are invited to take space in a castle by the General of the "primitive" community, who pays the villagers to go to the school and hospital. Mr. Dean (David Farrar), the only Englishman is a bit of a brute, but plays a strong role in the changes that occur in the Sisters. Their mission of sorts is surrounded by a group of people they barely understand, and the culture, and limitless views cause each of the Sisters to see and think of things they never thought they would. Dreams and desires in them that they let go long ago when they joined their order.
Herein lies what was so ahead of its time in Black Narcissus, a so called sanctity of religious order. You have devotees, these poor nun's questioning their devotion. Black Narcissus is an amazing execution of this battle. The other star of this amazing film is Powell & Pressburgers glorious use of Technicolor. The acting and color combined with the spectacular music and art direction complete this masterpiece of film-making.
The Island (2005)
Great fun!
The Island marks Michael Bay's sixth foray into studio cinema, and in my humble opinion, his most successful yet. Let's take a look into the Bay catalog, his name is synonomous with big budget eye candy, fast cuts, and sugar candy stories. Bad Boys, all right, nothing spectacular, The Rock, a great action flick, Armageddon blah (a guilty pleasure I admit), Pearl Harbor I didn't hate as much as the rest of the world but again it was lacking heart.
Now, to The Island. Imagine if you've got a lot of money, and would like to live forever. The solution is as simple as a few million dollars. A clone of yourself, at your age is created, and installed into a controlled facility, where they are under complete control, educated to the age of about a fifteen year old. The clones are told that there was a contamination on the earth, and that the island is the only pure, uncontaminated spot on the Earth. So they wait in this special facility till they win the "lottery," and are transported to the island. Back in the real world, your liver starts to kick the bed? Your clone then wins the lottery, where in reality, your organ is harvested, the clone killed.
Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) stumbles upon the truth, and along with Jordan Two-Delta, are on the run, pursued by Laurent (Djimon Hounsou). Bay has the right ingredients here, great actors, a great premise, all mixed in with his flashy eye candy.
The only cons? Wall to wall product placement, but once your past that, it's a great ride.
After Hours (1985)
Scorsese does Comedy
After Hours, originally a Columbia thesis script by Joseph Minion tells the story of Paul Hackett's crazy adventure in Soho.
A friend described After Hours as a movie he always saw the cover for at the video store back in the day, and always thought it was a silly 80s comedy. It wasn't till years later he realized it was a Scorsese movie.
The movie came in the WB Box Set released with Goodfellas, Mean Streets, and a few other of the filmmakers lesser known, earlier films. I was happy when I finally popped After Hours into the DVD player, it is a darkly funny, well written downtown New York Adventure.
Hackett meets Marcy in a café, who passes her number off to him. Clearly a bored word processor seeking adventure, Hackett calls Marcy, who invites him over, he peers at his watch, 11:30pm, and his night has just begun. So begin's his crazy adventure, meeting peculiar character after peculiar character. The theme of the movie is that the whole world is different after midnight, from the people who inhabit it, to the rules which govern it.
Hackett has lost his money, and is so far from his home uptown, that he is virtually stuck in Soho. It's a fun movie, and worth seeing, if just for what Scorsese was up to between Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ.
A Portrait of Arshile (1995)
Interesting
As a avid "Atom Egoyan fan," I was delighted to see this short on the DVD for his latest film "Ararat."
A Portrait of Arshile is a film that seems to have been a personal short film made solely for the purpose of celebrating his son, Arshile. The film is mostly a shot of Arshile looking into the camera, with Armenian and English narration. It's made aiming the narration explaining to Arshile where his name comes from, and the history behind who he is named after, Arshile Gorky, famed Armenian-American painter and Genocide survivor.
A cute film, well done.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
Stunning
After hearing quite a lot about this movie, I decided to get my hands on the first copy I could find. I was lucky enough to find a copy on DVD.
Unfortunately, the organ music on the DVD I found has been done on a synthesiser, but once I got passed that I found myself learning more about visuals cinematography then I have in my past two years at film school.
CGI has never impressed me, granted here and there I find myself amazed at what people can do with computers these days, but what D.W. Griffith was able to do in 1916 with REAL people blew me away. The gorgeous shots of Babylon, the battles. The Art Direction was amazing.
If you want to learn something about visual and art direction, as well as how to make a good epic, Intolerance stands at one of the highest pillars as one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. Check it out.
Signs (2002)
"The Birds" with Aliens
M. Night Shyamalan's film "Signs" is a well done spooky piece on crop circles, aliens and all such things. Shyamalan has proved that he is a talented individual, molding a story around the strange phenomenon of crop circles. When I first heard of the film, I was wondering what could you possibly make about crop circles, because you really don't know very much about them. Shyamalan took crop circles, mixed it in the batter with elements from War of the Worlds, and The Birds, and out came "Signs."
Superb art direction, sound, as well as acting from Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. The kids Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin also were great, showing also that Shyamalan, like Spielberg, is good at directing kids.
Great creepy film that I highly reccomend! Enjoy!
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Good Spy Action Flick
I had the opportunity to see a test screening of the Bourne Identity far back in the Summer of 2001. Overall, I didn't feel that the film merited any special sort of awards, but it is a good film none the less.
Starring Matt Damon, and directed by Doug Liman (Go, Swingers) the film is about a spy who seems to be suffering from amnesia. Meanwhile, assassins are sent to stop him before he remembers whatever information he was supposed to have forgotten. The film is based on a book by Robert Ludlum.
In comparison to this summers OTHER big spy thriller The Sum of All Fears, this is filled with my action rather then political drama. Not that political drama is a bad thing, but that sort of thing doesn't appeal to all crowds. If you like the "James Bondie" type spy thrillers The Bourne Identity is your game. Overall, a good summer action movie! Check it out!
Rating: 8 out of 10
Next of Kin (1984)
Excellent!
Atom Egoyan proves early on his talent as a story-teller in this 1984 Drama/Comedy about a man searching for an identity. The premise is a lot like that of The Graduate, a young man not sure where is future lies, although the way they go about it is completely opposite, the beginning definitely reminds me of "The Graduate"
Peter Foster is a 23 year old man still living with his controlling parents. With no ambition in his life, the Foster family visits a therapist, hoping that they can be helped. While viewing the video-recording of his therapy session, he puts in another tape of an Armenian family seeking therapy. It is revealed that this Armenian family had given up a son for adoption early on. Peter comes up with a plan where he will "pretend" (a theme which comes up often in the film) to be Bedros, the long lost son of this elderly couple. The story is told well, in the trademark Egoyan style. The film mixes comedy with drama, containing beautiful artistic elements that we can definitely associate with Atom Egoyan. The simple fact where there are no subtitles is interesting in itself, because Peter doesn't know what is being said, why should the audience? (Although this is only a few seconds here and there, it doesn't take away at all from the film) If you are a fan of Atom Egoyan I highly recommend seeing this film, enjoy!
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Stop making fun of the movie
I didn't really want to write a review about "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" It's been a while since I've written one for IMDB, but I was looking at some of the other comments written here and I felt nessesarry that I should state my opinion, and back it up.
I just saw "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and naturally I logged online, and went to give it a rating. I gave it a 9 out of 10.
The movie is about a chain gang, who escapes under the leadership of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), who has told the others chained to him Pete and Delmar (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) that he is on his way to get 1.2 million dollars of buried "treasure" the film follows their crazy antics, the range of different people they meet, to even a run-in with the KKK.
The movie has a few sideplots, Pappy O'Daniel (Charles Durning) the Governer running for re-election, and his opponent Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall). These stories intertwine with that of our gang. The politics intertwine with a song the gang recorded to make a few bucks under the name of "Soggy Bottom Boys," which unknown to the group is climbing high in popularity.
The movie is very clean, no poor tasteless jokes, you could almost call it an adventure movie. 3 adventurers and their humorous experiences. I highly recommend it, although it ends without a true resolve, it still is well written, well acted, and of course (I have to say it) well directed. I enjoyed this movie thoroughly, and reccomend it to all.
Blink 182: The Urethra Chronicles (1999)
Great, Great Deal!
If you are fan of this great band, this DVD is a MUST for you! Even if you aren't a die-hard fan, its great! Its all little home videos, interviews, and other things all put together in a great documentary. It also contains their music videos, and 2 selections from a live concert! Quite a good deal for 19.95 for die-hard fans or just regular people who like the band!
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
I grew up with this movie
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I grew up with this movie. I remember when it was all I talked about in elementary school, my classmates got sick of it, my teacher got sick of it, my parents , everyone! I wanted to be Indiana Jones! But I grew out of that phase, but this movie still remains one of my many favorites. The action, the adventure, the comedy, all great aspects of a great film. Raiders of the Lost Ark, awesome movie, Temple of Doom, awesome movie, and finally, the Last Crusade, great movie.
American Graffiti (1973)
One of the best movies of all time
I had been to Universal Studios Florida many times, and seen their setup of Mel's Diner, and never really had seen the movie till a couple months ago, after seeing it once, I fell in love with it! It is great, a movie that I can really relate to, it has a group of kids deciding where their lives are really going, and a fantastic cast of characters, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, and more. Definitely a movie that is worth the watch!