Movie Reviews & More
Get Shorty (1995)
This is the second time I saw this movie, and I liked it better this time.
Kind of random, John Travolta is a Shilok, who is hunting down a target in Hollywood, when he gets into the throw of the movie business. As he meets different people trying to find his target, from Gene Hackman (B-Movie Director), Rene Russo (B-Movie Actress), to Danny Devito (Big time actor), he slowly becomes intertwined with local extortion and other shady dealings.
But it isn’t a heavy movie. It is very light and really funny with a ton of attitude. John Travolta is trying to intimidate people, and most of the time it works, but he is surrounded by people, who live in the movie capital of the world who have no cajones. Sarcastic, and a little campy, there were some extremely funny parts in this movie.
But it isn’t something I would recommend to people to watch a lot of times. There is only so much of the “Italian Gansta” type of talk that one person can take.
But to see John grab an ex-stuntman by the crotch and throw him down a flight of stairs is pretty humorous.
Guarding Tess (1994)
We wanted to see this movie after playing Scene It. I think I had seen it before, but it was a long time ago. I expected a comedy, it was closer to a drama really than a rip roaring funny movie.
Starring Nicolas Cage and Shirley MacLaine, Cage is a secret service agent who feels he has the worst job in the government security arena, guarding a old, hateful woman, the widow of a president, who day in and day out gives him hell. Cage acts tough, like he takes crap from no one, but when the president calls, he snaps too, and he is the one at the end of the whip.
There are some funny parts, and you really relate to the characters in this movie. The push and pull Cage has internally, the way that Tess becomes as bitter and old as she does, and the end when Cage is deathly scared when she is kidnapped and fears that she may be gone. I think this movie is ok, I wouldn’t ever own it other than for seeing Cage in his first of a couple breakout roles before he made it big. It isn’t a great movie to watch with a bunch of friends waiting for a ton of laughs, instead better to watch with a family. A good story and a solid movie.
The Longest Yard (2005)
I won’t pretend to be ignorant to the fact that this movie is a remake, and I won’t claim it was better, but it was really darn funny and entertaining.
Starring Adam Sandler and some of his Happy Madison crew, this movie is about a football star who is sent to prison, and there he leads a misfit bunch of enormous criminals to victory over the very good guard football team of the Texas state prison.
I am not a freak about football, but I have come to love football movies. Something about over dramatized motion and large men works really well for the big screen. This movie is extremely funny without being really goofy or raunchy, it’s got some faily convincing acting except for the couple of forced and mushy parts mid way through the movie. ( although there is a part where one of Sandler’s reoccuring buddies gets to high powered footballs to the twig and berries). Even though I wouldn’t normally recommend this to my parents, I think my dad may find this amusing. Everyone else should see this. And if you are of the belief that “Burt Reynolds was the Brad Pitt of the 70’s”, then you will be glad to know that he is in this remake of the original he starred in over 20 years ago.
Walking Tall (2004)
Starring The Rock, Johnny Knocksville, and Neal McDonough this is a remake of an older movie. The idea is that The Rock was in the armed service for eight years, and when he comes back, he finds his home town overrun with gambling, drugs, and prostitution. The law is in on it, so he decides to take the law into his own hands and set things right.
I like The Rock. He isn’t a bad actor. He’s better than Vin Diesel that is for sure. I don’t like that this is another movie where he just doesn’t use guns for some divine reason. But, he does use a huge piece of cedar to beat the crap out of everyone, so I liked that. McDonough is great, haunting eyes and the perfect corrupt business man.
There are a good many parts that will make you go, “Yeah Right” but I knew that coming in and I don’t care. It is a good popcorn movie with good action and a fallible hero with some good humor with both The Rock and Knocksville. I recommend this to most people, most of my friends, but I know that my any of my parents would not like it, and most people I know over 35.
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neelson, and Eva Green, I was kind of lost through most of this movie.
Set around 1100-1200 A.C. during the Crusades, Bloom is the bastard son of Neelson with the right to his wealth and noblesman lifestyle, which also involves protecting the king to his death. Looking for answers to faith, which is the underlying base in every aspect of this movie. The king, and the Christians, own and live in Jerusalem, but there are two warring parties amongst themselves. One wants a war with the Muslims, and one does not. The king does not and does his best to keep peace. But he is a leper, and eventually passes away.
The Christians then go to the Muslim’s, to war, and are slaghtered in the desert. This leaves Bloom, who is impartial to religion and faith, to defend the city. A born leader, he holds the city against the muslim’s for a number of days before finally negotiating terms of surrender, that allow the people to leave without harm.
Directly by Ridley Scott, this is a bloody movie. The scenery and battle scenes were very dramatic, with some news ideas, and the colors in this movie were vibrant. They sometimes made me thing of LOTR, similar in armor and machinery, different types of fighting. I didn’t really understand why Bloom didn’t care about anything but the people in the movie, it was a little anticlimatic, and you couldn’t relate to why he was so lauded. But I will say, that Bloom shines here as a strong lead male character, and looking old enough for the part, where he fell short in Troy.
Like I said, not too many modern movies that show The Crusades, but this is bloody. It was interesting to see Jerusalem, and see all of the faith related items in the movie. It just could have been a little clearer for me.
Flight of the Pheonix (2004)
This was a solid movie. Some sparsely used stylized action, an awesome sequence of a desert storm, interesting information about what it would actually be like to be stuck in a desert and trying to survive, and an awesome acting performance by Giovanni Ribisi.
Other than Giovanni, this movie has Dennis Quaid, Tyrese, and Mirando Otto (Lord of the Rings fame) and a cast of good supporting standees. The Pheonix is one huge, chrome plated airplane that has a fateful voyage across the desert. With too much weight, the pilot Quaid cannot sustain flying up and over a sand storm as the plane crashes violently. Then the crew must decide on whether to hope of spotting rescue, or an outlandish plan to rebuild the plane by Ribisi’s specs with little to no water.
So many sub conflicts happen, between characters, nomads, and other problems in building the plane that this movie keeps your interest throughout. Ribisi’s role as an engineer who designs and builds planes is really interesting, confident and cocky, and a self preservist above all else, Ribisi is spooky and enthralling all at once. Quaid does a good job as the hard nosed hunky guy, but this is just like every other role he’s played in the last five years.
In the end, they build the plane and escape, even with the revelation that Ribisi designs toy planes for a living. This is a great movie that I recommend for all, action, drama, a tiny touch of love, and most important well placed supporting special effects.
Taxi (2004)
I was worried this would be done, thankfully it was another free rental.
Starring Jimmy Fallon, Queen Latifa, Jennifer Esposito, and model Gisele Bundchen, this movie is about a need for speed female taxi driver and stupid reckless cop. They hook up, become buddies somehow, and decide through all odds to try to stop four models from robbing banks. (Bundchen)
From a stupid guy’s standpoint, it was fun to watch these sharp shooting fast driving models from Germany, but that was about it. I laughed maybe twice, and although it wasn’t SNL Fallon (giggles and twitchy) it was a different but not improved Fallon on screen (twitchy and trying to act like some cocky kindy of purposely goofy cop). Plus, Queen Latifa is like the “token” commentary on everything and you get sick of her in about five minutes.
Don’t see this. It sucked.
