Movie of the Week: Gettysburg

   

 

    Movie of the Week (6/30/13-7/6/13): In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg this week, July 1-3, a critical battle in the Civil War and a defining moment in the history of our nation, Gettysburg is the movie of the week. The title pretty much tells the plot of the movie, it is a visual telling of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, but this is based on a novel called The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, which is a great book!
    The film opens with a spy looking in on the Union troops and he reports back to his commander. So, once it starts it really is hard to not finish the film even though we know how it ends, we still want to continue to watch it and experience the battle for ourselves. The film opens up showing us how the armies ended up in that small town of Gettysburg instead of just jumping to right before the battle. We get a good set up as to how and why the North and South armies end up there and we are introduced to all of our main characters in the first 45 minutes of the film. It was done well for how large of a film this was on a budget that it had.

    The cast for this movie was truly wonderful, and it was all male, the only female speaking part was one line in a town in which troops were passing through. We have Tom Berenger as James Longstreet, Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, Stephen Lang as George Pickett, Richard Jordan as Lewis Armistead, Sam Elliott as John Buford, C. Thomas Howell as Thomas Chamberlain, Kevin Conway as 'Buster' Kilrain, and Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain. This is a great cast and I could go on all day about how great they all did, but I'll just say that they were wonderful and their real life counterparts, with the exception of Kilrain, would have been proud.
    What makes this a great war film is that it is one of the most accurate war movies put on film. From the first day of skirmishes of the last day of the battle, it shows in great detail through exciting battle sequences and dialogue scenes. It is not just a movie with bloody fight scenes, we get fantastic drama as well, from just soldiers sitting around camp fires talking about home, politics, or the battle itself to men telling each other their goodbyes in case they didn't make it the next day in battle. Again, what makes this movie great is the tremendous detail in the camp and the pre-battle speeches, which may give you chills when watching it for the first time.
    We are shown in great detail each day of the battle, although some things are missing because it is a film and the battle was so large they couldn't just fit everything in it. The second and third day of the battle in the movie are the most emotional, especially the last battle, which is very powerful, emotional, and just plain sad to watch at the end. With the film being so large and on a small budget we can see some things that doesn't make it quite as realistic. There are really not very many cannonball explosions on the ground as their should be, not very much blood or bodies on the ground, and some of the beards look fake, but some of the beards back then were so big that the actors just didn't have time to grow their own. But, don't let that stop you from watching this film.

    The one thing that seems to turn people away from this movie is its run time, which clocks in at about four hours and forty minutes. But, that is not a problem, you can easily watch it in two nights or if you want you can watch it in three nights, what ever makes you happy, just sit down and watch it, you will not be disappointed. This is truly one of the greatest war films ever made, my personal favorite, because it is one of the most accurate. We get wonderful performances, great direction from Ron Maxwell who had to take on the large production, good drama, some exciting battle sequences, and we also have a truly heartbreaking musical score that is both uplifting and extremely sad. If you haven't seen this film, see it, this week particularly, you can watch it in two nights if it will help you get through it. It might be long but it will be worth it, I promise!                                                                                       4/4 Stars      

Check out the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=arGg3Twqmi8

Review: World War Z

   

 

    My apologizes for getting this up late as well, by this time I'm sure a lot of you have already feasted your eyes on this film about "Zombies." Yes, we have another movie about "Zombies." You might be wondering why I used quotation marks with the word "Zombie." Well, that is because in the film they are never really termed "Zombies" and are more likely infected with some kind of disease that doesn't technically kill them. So, now that we have cleared that up early on let's take a look at this new Brad Pitt picture that was among the list of most anticipated movies of the year, World War Z.
    If you have seen any trailer for this film then you know how it opens, Brad Pitt's character, Gerry Lane and his family have breakfast and are getting ready to go on vacation. Next, they are stuck in a traffic jam where, you guessed it, the city and the world are all of a sudden attacked by people who have somehow attracted a disease that make them attack humans. These "Zombies" are not the slow moving kind you see in The Walking Dead, no, they are the kind that move fast and can climb on top of each other very fast in order to get somewhere. Which makes the movie that much more thrilling.
    This was a good movie, not great, but good and let me tell you why. First thing I thought needed to be fixed was the opening, although I liked how it was done, only told from the family's point of view, it was too short! Once the attack sequence begins there is not much destruction, a lot of aerial views of it , but not much up close and personal views that would have made the film more shocking to watch, of course it is PG-13. The other thing that I was a little disappointed in was the ending, the climax was good, although not quite what I thought it would be, it was a little slow, but still very intense because Gerry is trying to get something in a lab full of these creatures. But, the end was a little of a let down because we don't get much of an explanation about what has happened, although we get some, but not enough for me. Of course it sets it up perfectly for the sequel, which is already in the works.
    Now, that was what bothered me about it, although it didn't bother me very much because the sequel will answer more questions, here is what I loved about the movie. The first thing was Brad Pitt's performance. He was great in it, it might not be his best, but it is definitely up there, I mean it has to compete with Moneyball and Inglourious Basterds. But nevertheless, he was great in it, I loved what he did with his character, the way he interacted with his wife and daughters and how he turned back into the old Gerry Lane when he needed to go out facing the "Zombies." He was almost two different characters and a I loved it.
    The other thing I loved about the movie was the visual effects, which were great, from seeing the destruction of cities, to the "Zombies" running fast in the aerial views, to a walled in safe zone being overrun, and an airplane being attacked. Thanks to the visual effects, they made the movie more exciting and thrilling to watch. There were several scenes that were very nerve racking and I loved it, that is what a movie is suppose to do to you. My favorite scenes were the safe zone being overrun and the airplane scene, which were the most thrilling in the whole movie. The climax was pretty intense too, especially by the end because you were hoping what Gerry did worked.
    World War Z is not a great movie, but it will certainly make you hold on to you armrest for dear life in certain scenes, which is why it is a good movie. We get another great performance from Brad Pitt and the visuals are great. Marc Forster gave us a great thriller to keep us on the edge of our seat at times. The ending may be a let down for some people because it doesn't explain very much and they (Spoiler alert!) don't find a cure for the disease, but find another way to survive for now, which sets up the sequel perfectly. And I'm excited for that! I don't know if it does the book justice because I haven't read it, I simply watched it as a movie, but I hear that some fans of the book might not like it. I couldn't tell you! But, if you want to see a good thriller with great acting, visuals, and intense scenes this go see this movie! I also heard that the Blu-ray is going to have more stuff added to it that the theatrical did not have in it, which makes me even more excited to see that version. But, for now:                                                                                                          3/4 Stars     
       

Movie of the Week: The Last Castle

   

 

    Movie of the Week (6/23/13-6/29/13): In honor of the passing of the late James Gandolfini last week, I have decided to do a movie that is my personal favorite of his which he has a leading role in. That movie is The Last Castle, which is about a three star General being sent to a military prison for disobeying an order he thought was wrong. Once in the prison he begins to see how it is ran, which is with an 'iron fist' by a Colonel. The General does not approve of this method, so he soon rallies up the inmates, which was not hard because they all respect him, and rages a war on the Colonel to teach him a lesson.
    There are not very many known actors in this film, but the few we know are great ones, one is a legend and one made himself a legend on T.V. Robert Redford plays General Irwin who is sent to the prison and like every other Redford performance, he does a great job, I mean he's Robert Redford! But the actor who stole the screen the best, at least to me, was the late James Gandolfini who plays Colonel Winter, the officer in charge of the prison. This was he best movie role to me, and he nailed it, by the time the climax arrives I really hated his character, which we were suppose to. James Gandolfini gave us a great performance as the villain here. We also have Mark Ruffalo who plays an inmate who soon becomes Irwin's right hand man and Delroy Lindo as a friend of Irwin who can see that something is a miss in the prison.
    What is great about this film is the development between the characters, which was nicely written through dialogue and actions. The dialogue is very good, it has to be because there is a lot of it and this is mainly a drama, at least until the climax. I also liked the strategy that Irwin and the inmates used throughout the film and the climax, it was very creative, which was also a reason it was exciting to watch, you wanted to see how it would turn out. The director, Rod Lurie, also did a good job because he filmed it as a drama and not as a thriller or action film. Even during the climax there are no real fast cuts in the scenes, which made it seem more realistic. Almost like that Michael Mann feel from his film, Heat.
    Once the climax finally gets there, we are happy to see some action taking place, at least that is what some people might think because it might be a little slow for some. Although that was probably the main problem with the film it didn't affect it that much because of the great performances from Redford and Gandolfini. Once the film ends however, which is almost right after the climax, some people might find it anti-climatic, but is was still a good ending because it had good symbolism in it. We find out the true meaning of Irwin's plan and we respect him more in the end. This is a good, underrated drama with some great dialogue and performances.                                                         
3/4 Stars.   
    

Movie of the Week: The Terminator

   

 

    Movie of the Week (6/16/13-6/22/13): Again, I'm a little late this week with my Movie of the Week because of Father's Day, but don't panic! We do have a movie for this week and that movie is the Sci-fi classic, The Terminator. This is the movie that launched writer/director James Cameron''s career, he's the guy who brought us Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar. He's the man who helped change visual effects in movies and brought us the new and improved CGI effects, he is also a Sci-fi man. When this movie came out in 1984 it help spawn a new age of effects and Sci-fi horror. It was a landmark change for cinema.
    This film follows a waitress named Sarah Conner, played by Linda Hamilton, who is being pursued by a man/machine known as a Terminator, who is of course played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This "Terminator" was sent from the future by machines to kill her before she has a son named John Conner, who will lead a rebellion against the machines in the future. But, something else was sent from the future to help her, a human named Kyle Reese, who is played by Michael Biehn.
    All three of these actors probably had their breakout in film with these roles they portrayed. Arnold is the best known now and this would become one of his most iconic roles because he does a great job in the film. He would reprise this role two more times, maybe more in the future. We truly believe he is an evil machine out to kill a woman just by his movements and his need and want of killing her and by killing other people with her same name. Linda Hamilton also gave us a very good performance, some times cheesy, but overall she really looks scared out of her mind. Michael Biehn is one of those actors who is very underrated and should be doing more Theatrical stuff because everything he is in he shines, you can tell he loves his roles because he knows how to embrace himself in them, another great performance from him.
    Now, like I said this movie change cinema with its effects, although two other films by James Cameron would progress CGI even further in the next seven years after this came out. But, this has very good effects, mainly from the Terminator because nobody could imagine in the time this came out that something like that could be done. The effects on the Terminator were very well done and kept the audience interested and sometimes a little sick to their stomachs because it was so surreal. The only thing, to me, that hurt the film was that it was a little ahead of its time and by that I mean the effects it called for cost so much that a couple times it is hard to tell if it's a machine for a minute or Arnold playing it, but that's really alright.
    In the end what we have here is a great Sci-fi horror movie with some great action scenes, effects, acting, and musical score. We all know that iconic score that made the movie haunting and then turned right around and gave us some relief. This was James Cameron's second movie he directed and he did a fantastic job and he only got better after this. This isn't the best Terminator movie in the franchise, we all know which one that is, but it is the one that started it all. It is a dark Sci-fi movie that will be remembered for its star, complex story, score, and director who helped change the course of cinema with his groundbreaking film.                                                                        
3.5/4 Stars     

Review: Man of Steel

  

 

    I got this out a little later than I had hope to, but Father's Day slowed me down, but nevertheless here is my review of one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, Man of Steel. Like everybody else, I went into this movie expecting to be swept off of my feet with the best Superman movie ever made. I expected to give this movie very high praise and a 4 Star review, but in the end I was a little let down by Zack Snyder. Now, I don't mean that this was a total bust because it wasn't, I still enjoyed the movie, but not as much as I thought I would, there were several things that let me down.
    We all pretty much know the story of Superman and his origin, and that is what this film was about, just a re-imagining of it, so I'm not going to go into details on the plot. First, I'm going to tell you what hurt the movie. So, first was the pacing, the movie is told in flashbacks several times, but you're never confused because you can tell which scenes were flashbacks. What hurt the film with the flashbacks was that some of them didn't seem to fit in place during the film when we go back in time, they hurt the pacing. A couple times in the first 45 minutes to an hour I found myself a little bored, hopping it would start to pick up. The flashbacks hurt the film the most and a I think it would have been better if it was told chronologically with maybe a couple flashbacks.
    The next things are how we find out something and how they used Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams. Again, this is an origin story and those can be hard to tell, but some thing's we find out in the first half of the movie didn't seem to make much sense. I found myself asking "how did he get there to find that particular object?" The film was a little jumpy at times when it came to those aspects. Next, is Lois Lane, I didn't think she was used very well because she just shows up in a helicopter at a location, that I'm not going to tell you, and meets Clark there and then something bad happens. After that she goes on a search to find out more about this man she met, which is just a couple minutes of short cut scenes, not much explanation. And Amy Adams overall didn't seem like a very good Lois Lane, and I like Amy Adams, but I never felt she embraced the role as good as she could have.
    However, that being said there were still things that I did enjoy about the film. The first was the acting of Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, and Michael Shannon. All of these actors really did a fantastic job, they probably saved the film from being terrible. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane both give us heartwarming performances as Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent respectively, one scene in particular that I did like involved Jonathan saving people from an oncoming tornado, which was very good. Russell Crowe gives us another very good performance as Superman's father, Jor-El, we see him several times through out the film alive and after the fact. Now he's no Marlon Brando, but I really did enjoy his take as Jor-El. Finally we have Michael Shannon as General Zod, who really stole the screen, I thought he was the best in the film and the best actor the play Zod. A great and frightening performance from Michael Shannon.
    The next thing that helped this film out was the Visual Effects and the fight scenes, which all take place in the last 45 minutes to an hour, except the opening scene. This is a beautiful film when it comes to the Visual Effect, of course that is what Zack Snyder is known for in his other movies, 300 and Watchmen. The first scene take place on Krypton, which is a new take on it and it is Visually brilliant. Once Zod attacks Earth the effects really come into play and take over the movie, but I believe for the good. Obviously the effects help with the fight scenes, which are also fun and exciting at times, maybe a little much in some parts because one keeps going and going, just tearing up building after building with a lot of camera movement. But overall, great effects and fight scenes.
    In the end this was not quite the Superman movie we wanted to see and I believe with just a little better editing it might have been better, the pacing was the big thing that hurt the film and the character development with Amy Adam's Lois Lane. I really wanted this film to join the 4 Star ranks of superhero movies such as the 1978 movie Superman: The Movie, Spiderman 2, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, if you consider Batman a Superhero, and The Avengers last year, but it failed to do that. Although it was not a complete bust, because it was a new origin story and those are hard to tell sometimes and I think Man of Steel 2 will be better. I was hesitant to give this film 2.5 Stars, I really was torn between 2.5 and 3 Stars, but it had enough of what was left to entertained me a little, so I settled on 3 Stars, which is less than what I expected to give this film in the first place. And let's face it, I missed the original Superman theme by John Williams, although Hans Zimmer's was good, just not as good.                   
3/4 Stars.    

Movie of the Week: Enemy of the State

   

 

    Movie of the Week (6/9/13-6/15/13): Just think for a minute, and tell yourself how scary would it be if your government was chasing you for reasons you don't know. This is what happens in the movie Enemy of the State, although the main character eventually figures out why he is being chased, for most of the movie he does not know. The film focuses on a lawyer, Robert Clayton Dean, played by Will Smith, who is slipped evidence of a political murder by a man he had not seen in a long time. After that a politician, part of the NSA, sends his agents out to get him and retrieve the evidence, but Mr. Dean seeks the help of a man who's a friend of an acquaintance of his.
    The film opens with the murder that is caught on tape, the piece of evidence that is slipped to Mr. Dean. Once the tape is slipped in his bag his life is turned completely upside down and the movie takes a very fast paced turn. Mr. Dean is also trying to take down a head of the mob, who eventually wants to kill him, prior to being pursued by the NSA, and he uses this to his aide in the end. Once this takes place we are taken on a thrill ride that includes car chases, foot chases, and a very intense shootout in the climax.
    The cast does a fantastic job, starting with Will Smith, who gives one of his best performances. We also have Gene Hackman, who plays Edward Lyle or Brill, the man who helps Mr. Dean, there is also Jon Voight who plays the corrupt politician that committed the murder, and Regina King as Carla Dean, Robert's wife, who also goes through a lot of panic when their bank accounts are cancelled along with everything else that goes wrong. The men who are actually chasing Mr. Dean include actors like Barry Pepper, Jake Busey, Scott Caan, Jamie Kennedy, Jack Black, and Seth Green. All of who you will love to hate because of the manner in which they pursue him, plus they always show up!
    This movie was directed the late Tony Scott, who was on a downfall with movies prior to his death, but this one is probably one of his best ones. He gives us his trademark filming techniques with short cut scenes and fast camera movements, and in a movie like this it adds to the excitement because of the intense chases, which we all love. With Scott's filming style comes great editing, this film has some of the best because of the many quick cut scenes that we have, including in the dialogue scenes. There is also a cool sounding score to go with this thanks to Trevor Rabin, again this also adds to the excitement.
    In the end this is a very fun movie, not Oscar material, except for possibly the editing, but this film serves as a mix between a good popcorn flick and a drama. We have some good action sequences to keep our attention and sometimes keep us sweating non-stop, but there is also some good drama scenes that help with the plot. It is well written, again having a good mix in it, although it is not a perfect movie it is one to remember in the action genre and less in the drama genre. This film has what most people now like, good and fun action scenes, which is what Tony Scott was all about, but not enough drama to mix in with it, Oscar worthy that is. But, nevertheless I did like this movie because it kept me sweating in many scenes and I liked Will Smith's performance, although it is not near the top of the list when it comes to the best films of 1998.                                               
3/4 Stars.  
       

Movie of the Week: The Town: Extended Cut

  

 

    Movie of the Week (6/2/13-6/8/13): "Welcome to the bank robbery capital of America" is the tag line for a great heist movie from filmmaker Ben Affleck. I did not know that a suburb of Boston, Charlestown, was the bank robbery capital of America until I saw this movie. The suburb is home to thousands of criminals who rob banks, some of which never get caught. The Town: Extended Cut focuses on a bank robber, Doug MacRay, some of his friends, a girl which he met during a robbery, and a FBI agent trying to catch the bank robbers. It all combines well to give us a good suspenseful crime drama.
    The film opens with a robbery, which is a good way to get the audience attention because the robbers incorporate good strategy in getting away with it. The rest of the film contains a lot of very good character development and back stories and two more robberies. Ben Affleck stars in this film and also directs, in which he did a great job. This is a very good crime drama, it is not just an all out action movie, in fact it takes a lot of elements from the classic heist film Heat. Affleck takes us into the minds of the robbers, which we then begin to like and root for, sometimes. He and his writers spread out the drama and action very well so that it does not get boring nor is there too much shooting.
    When this was released into theaters it was released as the theatrical cut, naturally, but my movie of the week is not that version. No, it is the much better Extended Cut. This version is much better, it contains extended scenes, deleted scenes that add much more to the plot and characters in terms of dialogue and more story. This version cracks in at 150 minutes while the theatrical version is 125 minutes, but it is the better version if you want the whole experience. Of course, in order to have a good long crime drama, with all the extended scenes in this version, you have to have the right actors. And The Town has that across the board.
    We first have Ben Affleck, delivering a great performance as Doug MacRay who is the head bank robber and who develops a relationship with Claire Keesey, played by Rebecca Hall. He meets her in the first bank robbery and begins falling for her. We have Jeremy Renner as James Coughlin, who is MacRay's right hand man and the "tough guy" of the bunch. Renner delivers a wonderful Oscar nominated performance here. We also have Blake Lively as Krista Coughlin, James' brother, who plays MacRay's earlier lover, she becomes a big detail in the plot as the movie goes on, Lively also did a wonderful job here. There is also Jon Hamm as the FBI agent, Adam Frawley, trying to catch MacRay and his crew. Finally, we have Chris Cooper as Stephen MacRay, Doug's father, who only has about five to ten minutes of screen time, but that short time it very good. That particular scene is my favorite in the movie because of the dialogue, long camera shots, acting, and interesting backstory that we get. It is a very good scene, it really grabs you!      
    The last thirty minutes of the film are very intense because it is the last job, which takes place at Fenway Park, so we get a very good climax out of it. Another aspect that I enjoyed about this movie was the score, it fits great with the more dramatic scenes and it is just a simple piano rhythm, but it is fantastic and moving. This might not be the best heist movie of all time, but it is the best one in the last fifth teen years because they are so hard to make and get right. Now, it wasn't a perfect movie, but it was very close. What made it so good was the amount of drama that they gave us mixed in with some very well done shootouts and a car chase through tight city blocks. If you haven't seen this, watch it and watch the Extended Cut, it is the version that Ben Affleck wanted and if it had been released it might have gotten more than one Oscar nomination. A very good, well acted, well directed heist drama that will be hard to top by Hollywood in the next few years.                             
3.5/4 Stars