In Bruges stars Collin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.  It is about  two hitmen who botch a job and then have to wait for their fate in Bruges.

This was a very well-done and witty movie.  It was a little too over the top, but was still very enjoyable.  I wasn’t crazy about Ralph Fiennes as the boss man.  I felt his character, in general, weakened the picture.  The ending was decent and the murder of the boy in the church gave the rest of the film a very interesting perspective.  The movie had originality as when Ken goes to kill Ray but ends up preventing his suicide.  Overall, I liked it quite well.

“You’re an inanimate object!”

8/10

Black Swan was directed by Darren Aronofsky and had five Academy Award nominations.  Natalie Portman won Best Actress for her performance.  The film is about a fragile mentally-ill ballerina and her performance in the biggest moment of her career.

This movie was interesting and so tensely captivating.  Overall, I found it to be somewhat confusing, but ultimately enjoyable.  Obviously it has to not be so straight forward because our protagonist has a crippling mental illness of some kind.  The characters float around and we are not sure what is reality and what is projection from the ballerina’s mind.  I think the mother is dead and her character is a hallucination entirely.  I liked the film’s openness to be interpreted and the way it makes you think and feel.  The were some somewhat detractions, such as the “swanning” of her legs and the constant look on Portman’s face for the first half of the movie.  Is that really all it takes to get an Academy Award?  Mila Kunis partially redeemed herself in my book after her absolute hack job in Book of Eli.  I am a fan of Aronofsky and this did not disappoint.

“I felt it.  Perfect.  I was perfect.”

8/10

Reservoir Dogs is a Quentin Tarantino film.  It revolves around a botched diamond heist with plenty of violence and dialogue like all Tarantinos.

This movie was very good.  It had the feel of a play on the screen.  I thought it was very quirky and highly captivating.  The movie had a very real glimpse into the sort of bizarre yet very intriguing situational scenes.  I was constantly asking myself, “Huh, what would I do here?”  Very provoking.   The dialogue between all the crooks was very good and the acting was so solid.  There were several hokey moments like everyone shooting each other at the same time.  Larry’s betrayal was also a bit unbelievable.  It was still a great crime action movie that had me totally stuck to it.

“If you wanna know something and he won’t tell you, cut off one of his fingers. The little one. Then tell him his thumb’s next. After that he’ll tell you if he wears ladies underwear.”

8/10

The Salton Sea is a thriller type drug movie starring Val Kilmer.  It follows a meth junkie snitch that tries to set up a huge drug deal.

I stumbled onto this movie late one night on HBO.  It left me feeling liked I had watched a pretty solid movie, but it was so late that anything could have probably been good.  Upon rewatching it several times, it has not disappointed.  I like Kilmer’s performance and I don’t always care for him.  I thought it had a lot of good gritty elements and there was emotion to it as well.  The story stuck together and I ultimately enjoyed it.

“So who is this guy? Tell you the truth, I still don’t know. But I like his chances.”

8/10

Crash won the Academy Award for best picture in 2006.  It has an extensive cast including, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Ludacris, Ryan Phillippe, Thandie Newton, Jennnifer Esposito, Matt Dillon, Terrence Howard, and Don Cheadle.

This was a very good movie.  Everything was pieced together well and the acting was good.  It was just so damn sappy, overdramatic, forced, and heavy handed.  I enjoyed the movie overall, but why did it have to go all mushy preachy on us.  Every character is forced to have a revelation.  The crash scenes, by that I mean when our characters “crash “together did not feel very genuine.  I have no idea how they did this on 6.5 million dollars, especially with that cast.  I guess the parts were small enough since there were quite a few characters.  What I liked about the movie was the multitude of powerful scenes.  A lot of those scenes had great emotional movement.  They were blatant setups countered though by solid acting.  Good movie, but a little too much moral cheese.

“I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”

7/10

The Fighter stars Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.  It is based of the real-life story of professional fighter Micky Ward.

This movie was very well-acted.  Christian Bale, Amy Adams. and Melissa Leo are outstanding.  The plot is a little ho hum, but it didn’t lose my interest.  It of course has to fall into an enormous vat of cliches since it is a sports movie and I guess there is just no getting around that.  The acting was very strong.  Christian Bale’s body transformations are unreal.  From the Machinist to Batman to this.  His dedication to a role always comes through.  What the movie lacks in originality, although I can’t recall crack addiction being subject matter in an underdog boxing story, is made up for by the emotion of the actors.

“What about my brother?  He’s taught me everything I know.  I can’t do it without him.”

7/10

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is based on a book of the same name.  It is the story of a young man being eaten by his lack of a life in poor Middle America.

I liked this movie.  The acting was pretty good.  DiCaprio does a really good job as the mentally handicapped little brother.  This movie had a great story.  You feel for Gilbert, because he could have much more, but he is held captive by his family.  He has to care for his brother and mother.  He could leave with the woman he had an affair with and be wealthy.  Or he could follow his heart and travel the states with the girl he loves.  The movie is well done and heartfelt.  All the emotions are well portrayed by the actors.  It was a sort of feel good movie that wasn’t too overdone.

“We don’t really move.  I mean, we’d like to, but my mom is sort of attached to the house.  Attached is, I guess, not the right word.  She’s pretty much wedged in.”

8/10

36 Hours (1965)

Major Jefferson Pike (James Garner)knows the plans for D-Day, he  is sent to Lisbon to check with a German double agent he has recruited. In Lisbon Pike is drugged and captured by the Germans.  They fly him to a special camp in Germany to question him. The German’s work to convince Pike that it’s years later and the war is over as a way to trick him out of his information. Eva Marie Saint plays his nurse and Rod Taylor the fake doctor working to get the secrets out of Pike.

Really enjoy this one, the story held my attention. Rod Taylor does a great job as the doctor working to get the secrets out of  Pike. The movie does a wonderful job of being believable right up till the last 30 minutes , then the story gets a little weak and predictable.

I’ve used up all my tears!

Interesting story and good acting make this worth seeing—–07/10

The 25th Hour (1967)

Johann Moritz(Anthony Quinn) lives in a small village in Romania with his loving wife. Local police sergeant has Moritz sent to a work camp as a Jew, so he can try and sleep with his wife. After a couple of years he escapes with a group of Jews to Hungry. They go on to America, but he has to stay because he’s not Jewish. Then he arrested and sent to a German work camp, in the camp he is deemed part of the Aryan race and enlisted as an Waffen SS soldier. After helping the prisoners escape, he is placed in an America prison camp and prosecuted as a war criminal.

Moritz has nothing but trouble in his life, yet he always seems to find the bright side. He’s simple yet, he always finds a way to cope with all his misfortune. The movie started a little slow, but soon had me fully invested. No warn fuzzy here, just man mistreating man.

Based on true events, worth a watch———-07/10

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Working in a remote village in the Himalayas, scientist John Rollason (Peter Cushing) and his wife Helen (Maureen Connell),  study rare mountain plants. But his real desire is to find the Yeti, his opportunity comes with the arrival of an American named Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker). Friend leads an expedition to find the elusive Yeti and enlists Rollason  to help over his wife’s objections. Friend’s  motives are questionable and it leads to problems on the mountain.

The movie’s special effects are not strong, as a mater of fact they are laughable at times, but the story is solid.  The film points out just what man should really fear and in this case it’s not the Yeti

“They are in danger, all of them, from their own actions.”

Enjoyed this film as a teen, but it’s not scary by today’s standards—-07/10

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