Movie Reviews & More
Band of Brothers Series (2001)
Now, I wrote about this movie when I saw parts 3-4 in December of last year, just before Christmas, and this is what I had to say.
When Sarah was student teaching in Seymour, her host family was the pastor at the school and church where she was at. He highly recommended this HBO series from a few years back.< We rented part one and I didn't really think much of it. All I remember was that David Schwimmer was in it. Seeing as it has been over a year since we saw part 1 & 2, parts 3 & 4 didn't make a whole lot of sense. Justin also really enjoyed the series, and that is what made me give it another try. If you like War stories, kind of in the vein of Saving Private Ryan but a little less gory, then this is your bag. With interviews with some of the cast members, this really gets into the development of the different characters and seeing the different effects war has on every solider. Last weekend Justin came down and we watched the whole series, all 10 hours. It was a daunting task, and because of the constraints, sometimes it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. You need to really watch this series in larger chunks, and you are stupid if you don't at least appreciate the story, and what the men from Easy Company 101st Airborne went through in WWII. So many characters and so many lives, and it develops each and every one of them individually and in depth. The story's strength really is in the characters and picks up so much strength after the fourth and fifth part when you really start to get attached to them. Beautiful scenery, unbelievable scenarios, and just the whole weight of everything that happened in that war are all conveyed here. With great epilogues about what the characters are doing now, and testimonials from the actual people that the story is based on, this series by Spielberg and Hanks really is an unknown classic right now that could use a little more attention. At the very least, watch half of it and appreciate what those men did for our freedom and what war means in context of what is going on in Iraq today.
Silverado (1985)
Christine let us borrow this movie with “Quick and the Dead” a couple of weekends ago. It only took four settings to watch it. I kept falling asleep.
I didn’t really like this one all that much. It has a good cast, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, and Kevin Costner all in their younger days. A typical western, Silverado is about these four guys that kind of come together under strange little town and run all of the bad guys, and I mean a ton of ornery lookin varmits, out of town in one huge gunfight.
I think maybe the fact that I kept snoozin through the movie made it a little more disjointed. I liked seeing Kevin Costner as this young hip gunslinger with no brian and no fear. Kevin Kline was cool too as a wise and fast gunman, but he didn’t have very good taste in women in this movie. But you never really learn why the town is corrupted. You hear all these mentions of past story lines and past lives with some of the main characters and some of the bad guys in town, but they never really get explained.
If you are looking for some fun gun fights and really like one of these actors, see this movie, it doesn’t fall down from bad acting. But if you want to stay interested, I would pass on this movie. Especially since it is older the cinematographer is a little dull.
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
I really enjoyed this movie. I had no expectations when Christine lent it to us, and as a matter a fact, most of the actors in this movie in particular I am indifferent to or don’t really like. I was surprised to see Russell Crowe, however, before he became a big star.
The movie revolves around a little western town that every year has a gun fighting tournament. The town is owned by Gene Hackman and he is a ruthless tyrant who over taxes his people who already live in fear that he could kill them at any time. The tournament brings the best gun fighters from all around the world, or so they would have you believe. Sharon Stone is looking for revenge, as are most against Hackman. But she in particular because Hackman killed her father and took over the town when she was just a little girl.
As I mentioned, this movie has Stone as the lone female gunslinger who enters the contest, Russell Crowe is a preacher who used to be an outlaw, and Leonardo DiCaprio is Gene Hackman’s son, one of the fastest guns in the tournament known as “The Kid”, out to win his father’s respect. Gary Sinise has a small part as Sharon Stone’s Dad.
This movie was directed by Sam Raimi, and has his over the top, exaggerated violence. There were parts of this movie that I didn’t care for when it came to gore in the shootouts. After the first few rounds the fights are to the death and get more violent. So I wouldn’t recommend this movie if you don’t at least like westerns, or if you are turned off by a little gore. But Russell Crowe has a really cool character that although is troubled, like most of his parts, isn’t so overwhelming because he is younger in this movie. Why that matters? I don’t know. Like strong female characters. Sharon Stone is great. Gene Hackman is
solid too. I don’t think that man has aged in looks since 1986. He’s scary, powerful, and believable all in one.
Phone Booth (2002)
This movie’s premise is fairly simple. Starring Colin Farrell as a New York publicist that doesn’t give a hoot about anyone, it’s a movie about the deep secrets and evils people hold in, and what truly motivates a person.
Farrell has a cell phone, but he goes everyday to this one remaining phone booth to make a call to a girl that he wants to have an affair with. While in the booth he gets a call and things quickly swirl out of hand. It seems that there is a sniper that knows a good deal about Farrell and his discretions and starts giving him orders on guard of his life.
The whole movie is very high tension, and you never know where or what is going to happen. I wasn’t personally crazy about how the movie was shot, or the director who I just loathe, Joel Schumaker. If you like Colin, this role is a little bit out of the ordinary for him, because he is extremely humbled and forced to confess his deepest secrets in front of the world. But if you like movies that are different, and can ignore the incessant language from the hookers and Farrell, this one may be right up your alley.
Collateral Damage(2002)
This movie must have come out at a funny time. A year after the 9/11 attacks, this is a movie all about terrorist attacks.
Arnold stars as a fireman who has just lost his wife and child to a Columbian terrorist attack. Driven over the edge, he starts
to research how to get into the country and kill those who have taken his loved ones. He miraculously makes it into the guerilla run country and then penetrates the fortress of the terrorist where not even the USA could find him.
In the end of the movie he ends up back in America, trying to stop a bomb. There is a twist and he finds out who the real terrorist mastermind is.
There are a lot of parts I find hard to believe in this movie, and there is some under acting by Arnold. It may be an action film, but you never really feel the loss of his family. Plus the very ending, the villain survives this amazing explosion that would be totally impossible.
The cool thing about this movie is that Arnold doesn’t kill reams of people like a Conan movie or something, actually they are very few. It is a solid action movie and if you are just amazed at how massive Arnold is, then I would check this out. It isn’t particularly violent so for those of you who are put off by the R rating, that won’t be a problem. But don’t come looking for this movie to do anything more then take 2 hours of your life to relax and tune everything else out for some German flavored do-gooding.
Empire (2002)
Starring John Leguizamo and Peter Sarsgaad, yeah I have never heard of the second guy either, this movie revolves around Money, plain and simple. John is a drug lord in the Bronx who tries to get into big business with a Wall Street Jockey, investing in property developments.
This movie was not at all what I was expecting. The movie centered a lot around territory and respect, and less around what should have been the main story, John getting taken for a ride and scammed out of almost two million dollars.
It does point out a good lesson though, as John got more involved with the new people he thought were his friends, he had less time and cared for less those who had supported him and had his back all along. Then when the time came, a line was drawn in the sand and some stayed and some left all over money and its pursuit.
I think that you kind of have to like John Leguizamo. So if you like his movies, this should be up your alley. But is really heavy on the language, and does get to be a little long. But like I said, it has some good lessons on how money can destroy your life, and how you can never escape your past and the things you did.
Wimbledon (2004)
It’s a girlie movie, but it had Kirsten Dunst, who can be aggressive than giglish and it also had some of the filmography effects that are used in the popular CSI shows which made the fact that it was about tennis a little more interesting.
Paul Bettany is the male lead, star from Russell Crowe movies “Beautiful Mind” and “Master and Commander”, and is funny as much as the next English guy who uses all of their unusual slang, like “Bugga” or “Wanka”. He does a nice job in the lead role though and carries this movie enough. He really does show what the reaction is from the media to go from being unknown to being the underdog that does all the way to the top. He also does a really nice job of giving you a view into a competitors mind and all of the things they do to keep themselves in a game. All of the self massaging and self doubts that swirl around in an athlete’s head.
Paul falls in love with Kirsten, and in the beginning she is hot stuff and he is not quite. By the end, the tables have turned, and that makes loving each other complicated. But they work it out and have babies. Yeah tennis.
If you like the slow more shots, and the intertwining of objects in the scene shots that are similar to CSI then check this movie out. If you like British comedy like Monty Python, well this isn’t the same but is entertaining for British demeanor and language, then this might be worthwhile. But if you think that no amount of dramatization could make tennis interesting, then you might pass because especially near the end, there are some longer scenes of tennis that you really have to like the sport a little to care. Which I happen to like the sport quite a bit, so that wasn’t a quandary for me eh?
