Movie of the Week: We Are Marshall

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/25/13-8/31/13): With the football season kicking off this week, I thought it only logical to pick a football movie. However, this football movie will not really get you pumped up like most other football movies because it tells a sad true story. This film isn't about an underdog overcoming all of the hardships, it doesn't focus on a select number of players on a team that is good or bad, and it is not about one single player trying to play for a team. No, this is an emotional film about a football program having to start from scratch because a horrific and tragic event struck the town at the end of the previous season. This is We Are Marshall.
    The film opens with the teams last game before the accident of the 1970 season and then shows the tragic plane crash very briefly that killed seventy-five members of the Marshall football team including several other people. We then see the aftermath and the story takes off. The President of Marshall University plans on not having the 1971 season but a couple players, who were not on the plane, and the students persuade him and the board otherwise. They then begin to search for a new coaching staff who then has to find new players. While all of this is going on the President tries to persuade the NCAA to let freshman play and family and friends of the people who died continue to cope with their losses. The season finally comes around as the new football team tries their best to replace what was once there.
    The first thing that makes this a good movie is the cast and it is a fantastic cast all of who did wonderful jobs. We have Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, Matthew Fox as Red Dawson, Anthony Mackie as Nate Ruffin, David Strathairn as President Dedmon, Ian McShane as Paul Griffen, Kate Mara as Annie Cantrell, January Jones as Carole Dawson, Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Sandy Lengyel, and Brian Geraghty as Tom Bogdan. I know that's a lot, but I'm not going to go through each one. But, I will say that Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, and Ian McShane all give us fantastic performances. McConaughey probably gave us his best performance of his career, but the recently released Mud surpassed that. David Strathairn and Anthony Mackie also give us great performances.
    One thing that surprised me about this movie was the direction that we get from McG, or Joseph McGinty Nichol, who does a very good job when it comes to the football scenes and emotional scenes. There are many scenes that are emotional to watch and he did a great job at directing the actors through these difficult scenes. He also did a great job at directing the football scenes which are very realistic and look great, they almost match that of Friday Night Lights. With those shots comes good cinematography, not great, which is what we have and it helps bring that 1970's feel come to life. And of course it makes the football scenes great!
    But, we don't really watch this film for the football scenes because that is not what this movie is about. This is about the drama that occurred the year after the accident and that is what makes this a great movie. It is a great drama that is a sports movie, there are only a few of those that we watch for the drama of the situation and not the sports scenes. One last thing that makes this a good movie is the score, if you don't shed a tear or two in some of the scenes with no music, you will once the music begins. The emotional score adds so much to the movie, especially at the end, that it is hard not to shed a tear. This is a good underrated film and McG's best film to date because of a good screenplay, great performances, and an emotional score. This film will not get you pumped up for the football season, but it will certainly inspire you!
3/4 Stars    
          

Movie of the Week: Patton

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/18/13-8/24/13): One of the most famous generals of World War II was also one of the most hated by his men, by civilians, and even by the Supreme Commander of all the Allied forces during the war, Dwight Eisenhower. But, you know what? He did not care at all because he never kept his mouth shut, or his hands to himself. That man had a mind of his own that most people did not like, he wanted to do things his own way or no way at all and a lot of the time he expressed himself through physical means, which earned him the nickname "Old Blood and Guts." That man was General George S. Patton and the film Patton shows exactly what he was like and in great fashion.
    The film is a biography, but not of his life just of his exploits as a General during World War II, which we get a great detail of. It starts off with him and his army in Africa fighting tank battles, which were well done. Then he has his personal problems, including the infamous incident of slapping a soldier and his attitude toward his friends and his superior officers. Finally, we work our way towards Germany with a couple more exciting tank battles and the famous rescuing of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne.
    With an epic historical picture like this you need a good cast and a wonderful lead actor to take on the role of Patton himself, but the trouble with this film is that there are not many actors in it that are known today. There are really only two actors that most people know and those two play the two leading roles in the film. The first is obviously George C. Scott who plays Patton and gives us a captivating performance that will have you hooked on the movie the moment he steps on that stage in the opening scene. Words almost can't describe how much I loved this movie because of his acting, they truly couldn't have found anybody better for his Oscar winning performance. The other actor is Karl Malden who plays Patton's closest friend in General Omar N. Bradley. He too delivers us another unforgettable performance and the two of them were a great pairing for the movie.
    One of the best things about this film, besides Scott's performance, was the writing. The screenplay was such wonderfully written because it has powerful dialogue, in which many of the words spoken were taken from Patton's speeches or memoirs. The man behind the Godfather films wrote the screenplay, Francis Ford Coppola, who as we all know did a fantastic job with those and on this film. It was mixed with such great and even pacing throughout the film that I simply couldn't stop watching it. There is plenty of powerful drama to go around and there is a lot of fighting, although most of it is tank battles, but they are so well filmed and choreographed that it adds to the excitement of the film. It is not just a biography film filled with words, but when the words are spoken they pull you in deeper because of the tension in each scene.
    The last few things that make this a great film from 1970 is the direction, cinematography, and musical score. Franklin J. Schaffner, who is known by older audiences because of films like this one, Planet of the Apes, and Papillon, but not younger ones did a fantastic job because he worked with such a great cast and screenplay. He really kept the tension going with Patton and filmed wonderful tank battle sequences. With the filming comes the cinematography which is simply beautiful, but that is mainly because they had such beautiful landscapes to work with. Finally, we have a fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith, although there is not much music throughout the film, but when it is used it makes the film that much better, again adding either tension or excitement. This is one biography film to remember because of a great performance from its lead actor and a wonderful screenplay. There is no questioning why this epic was nominated for ten Oscars and won seven of them including Best Picture!                                          
4/4 Stars.     

Movie of the Week: The Mummy (1999)

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/11/13-8/17/13): In 1932 a classic horror picture known as The Mummy was released to the world and frightened many people. Of course that was a different time period and different movie because in 1999 the remake of that movie was released. However, this picture was not near as dark as the original in fact they turned it into more of an action adventure film from director Stephen Sommers, which it is. But, that does not mean that this new take is a terrible film because it is quite fun to watch, although it does have its flaws, like any film.
    The film focuses on an American who helps a librarian on a dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra, along with her brother and a couple other folks who are interested in the gold there. There, they run into another group of people who are also looking to dig in the city. Eventually they each end up causing trouble and read from a book that they shouldn't have and wake a mummy from the dead. From there on chaos is unleashed and they rush to put the mummy, Imhotep, back to where he came from, although Imhotep has other plans.
    The first thing I would like to discuss would be the cast, of course, which really was not that bad and overall I liked the casting. Brendan Fraser stars as Rick O'Connell, the American escort, and gives us probably his best performance, followed by the sequel, although not so much in the third unfortunately. So, I liked him in this movie and this role, I thought he was a good pick. Next is Rachel Weisz who plays the librarian, Evy Carnahan, who mainly gives us a funny performance early on, but by the end turns very serious. So, I liked her development. John Hannah plays her brother Jonathan, who is there for the comedic relief. We also have Arnold Vosloo who plays Imhotep, who gives us an "okay" performance at times, for some reason, I felt he wasn't always into his character, but other times he was great, I was mixed on him. One of my favorite characters in the film was Rick's sidekick, if you would, Ardeth Bay played by Oded Fehr. For some reason, I liked his character and we get a good performance from Bay.
    What set the film apart and what made it good and worth the watch is the visual effects, editing, and sound editing. Visually this film is great, we get all kinds of effects when it comes to the mummy scenes especially towards the end. A giant wall of sand with a face in it sets it apart along with the effects on the half dead Imhotep. The film also sounded great, you'll know the scenes I'm talking about when you see them, they are mainly the fight scenes and the scenes when the mummy uses his powers to do some weird stuff. With that weird stuff comes some very interesting sounds that got it nominated for an Oscar.
    Finally, what hurt the film a little was the screenplay, at times it felt thin and I wasn't interested in a couple of the characters because there wasn't much on them. And one is rather annoying, trust me, you'll know when you see him. Although they were minor characters when they died, I didn't care for them that much. I just felt that a little more background and development on some of the characters would have helped. But, the film was thrilling at times and we get enough development with the two main characters that it works fine overall. So, this is a good remake with good lead acting, visual effects, sound editing, and at times a weak script, but overall good development between the two leads. This is a good, not great, film!                                                                                                   3/4 Stars

Movie of the Week: The Hangover

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/4/13-8/10/13): I'm beginning to make a habit of this late thing, but I was in Gatlinburg this weekend, so I think that is a good excuse for being late this time. With summer slowly coming to a close and school beginning to start back up, I thought a movie about a party gone wrong would be a good fit. Although I don't believe most people will stop partying for those reasons and I hope your party doesn't turn out like it does in this film. Four friends go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and are slipped drugs, then one thing leads to another and they lose the groom, the next morning three of them wake up and must retrace their steps to find out where he is in The Hangover. 
    What is good about this film is that it is very original when it comes to the writing from screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Throughout the film the three main characters are faced with many serious, but very funny challenges that will make you laugh for a while after the movie is over with. They have to face things like a stripper who married one of the guys without him knowing it, an unknown baby, a couple funny police officers, a powerful, yet small, man named Mr. Chow, a tiger, and Mike Tyson himself. All of these encounters are well written and original, which is why they turn out to be extremely funny, along with a great cast that couldn't have been better.
    The cast is extremely good in this film with Bradley Cooper as Phil, Ed Helms as Stu, Justin Bartha as Doug, Zach Galifianakis as Alan, Heather Graham as Jade, Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow, and Mike Tyson as Mike Tyson. When you put this funny cast into one movie you know it's going to be hilarious. This movie was also the coming out party for Zach Galifianakis, who is very funny, and has done other roles since then and looks to be very promising. Everybody else is superb in their roles as they embraced them, especially Bradley Cooper, who will win an Oscar one day, and Ed Helms who give us the best performances in the movie.
    With the film being set in Las Vegas it of course looks great and it has great cinematography, but that is not why we watch comedies, but of course that is still important. When it comes to comedies we mainly look at the originality of the film, like I have already mentioned, which is powered by the writing. But, we also look closely at the direction, editing, and score because all three of these are very important for comedies, although they are also important for other films too obviously, but comedies are different, they are hard to make. The director, Todd Phillips, does a great job at directing the cast to give us hilarious performances and making each scene serious and funny at the same time. The scene where Stu sings "The Tiger Song" is probably one of the funniest in the movie. The director is also helped with the editing and score, both of which are very good and help bring humor and tension in each scene.
    This film is the first of a trilogy, the last part of which was released early this summer, and they started it off with a bang. I haven't met very many people who did not like this movie. What makes this movie a good comedy is that it is not a stupid comedy, like most people think comedies should be, no it is funny situations happening in a serious setting. That is what makes this movie a great original comedy, I know I keep saying that but it is true and why it is so good. It fits in the ranks of comedies form directors such as Mel Brooks and David Zucker, his earlier films that is. It is hard to make comedies these days and Todd Phillips proved everybody wrong when this film came out, it is one of the best, if not the best, comedies in the last five of ten years.                                           3.5/4 Stars

Movie of the Week: Transformers

   

 

    Movie of the Week (7/28/13-8/3/13): The director of this movie gets a lot of scrutiny for his movies because they are big action pictures with not much story and a lot of explosions. Well, part of that is true, his movies do have a lot of explosions in them, but they also have a story, and yes some are better than others. However, Michael Bay gained some attention with this film, and more than usual, because it is arguably his best film and film in a franchise that is soon going to reboot with Bay coming back to direct. Transformers focuses on a group of robots, both bad and evil, from the planet Cybertron who make there way to planet Earth in search for the Allspark, which the location to is inscripted on a pair of glasses owned by a teenage boy, Sam Witwicky.
    Now, as I said most people do not care for Michael Bay movies, especially those of the Transformers series, but I'm going to go on and tell you, I enjoy the series very much, especially this entry. This film is a good film because we get a long introduction to things, it doesn't just jump into the mess of explosions, although the opening might count as part of the explosions, but I'm talking about after that. We get a good introduction to all of the characters and the intense opening gets a good explanation thanks to the writers. Since, this is kind of an origin story we get good background information on the Autobots and Decepticons and why they are on Earth looking for the Allspark. We also get a good introduction with the human characters and good character development.
    From human characters I introduce you to the cast, like you don't already know them anyways, and tell you how good a job they did. First, we have Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, the kid who holds the key to everything, and he actually does a pretty good job and I enjoyed his performance, he was funny, emotional, and energetic, although sometimes too much, but he was having explosions going off all around him. We also have Megan Fox, who probably gives us her best performance so far of her career in this movie, and she is better than the girl who shows up in the third film. Plus she is the eye candy here too, but I believed her performance and I think she did a good job. We also have Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, the helpful military men who help save the day, who also gives us serious and sometimes funny performances. There is also John Turturro and Anthony Anderson who are there as the very funny comic relief. We also have a couple veteran actors playing two different serious and funny roles with Jon Voight as the Secretary of Defense and Kevin Dunn as Sam's father. So, the cast is really a great cast and does a great job over all.
    In a movie like this, especially with Michael Bay as director, you need some great visual effects and that is what we get. The visual effects group did a great job with the robots, explosions, and the epic fight scenes, in fact they did so good that they got nominated for an Oscar. Also, this movie has a lot of stuff going on in it, especially when the robots transform and when the fight scenes take place. Those things take a lot of work and the teams responsible for that did a fantastic job mixing and editing the sounds with the effects and editing of the film. All of that mixes perfectly together to give us a masterpiece for the eyes and ears.
    The technical aspects of the film are obviously great and I also believe that Bay himself did a good job, although his movies are not masterpieces in themselves they are fun to watch. Of course he didn't write the film, we have Alex Kurtzmen and Robert Orci who, to me, wrote a good, not great, screenplay and story to show us the origin of the Autobots, Decepticons, and human characters. They did it with seriousness and humor and it all mixed well, although sometimes it goes overboard with the humor, but it doesn't hurt the film that much. What we have here is a good first film in a franchise that is still going, a good Michael Bay film, but I could be biased to that because I like him, great visual effects, a great cast that works well together, an entertaining screenplay, and a well scored film too. I always have to mention the score because that aspect can make or break a film, music in film is always important, but of course you know that!     
3.5/4 Stars.              

Movie of the Week: The Untouchables

  

 

    Movie of the Week (7/21/13-7/27/13): As we all know the 1920's and the early 1930's were all about prohibition and smuggling in alcohol. The smuggling of booze was mainly a gangster thing, every major city had a select number of gangsters who illegally smuggled in booze anyway they knew how. The Untouchables is about just that, it follows a treasury agent who recruits a couple of trustworthy Chicago cops to help him take down Al Capone. First it was just about catching him with booze, then getting him on tax evasion, but in the end it ends up being personal.
    The first thing this film has is an A-list cast that gives us very powerful performances all around. We have Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, the agent who wants to put Al Capone away, who gives us a great performance, although probably not his best, but it is up there. We also get an electrified performance from Sean Connery as Jim Malone, who helps and becomes close friends with Ness, he also won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. There is also Andy Garcia as Agent George Stone aka Giuseppe Petri who probably is the worst in the film, but he still manages to do well because of the talent around him, and he was young at the time. Finally, we have the king of Gangster films, Robert De Niro as Al Capone himself who again gives us a wonderful performance.
    Several scenes in the film are very intense and were written and shot well. One scene includes Malone picking up a dead bad guy to make one of the live ones talk who doesn't know that his friend is dead. Malone then puts his pistol in the dead guys mouth and pulls the trigger, the live one then talks. As the late Roger Ebert said, it is a scene that is very intense which the rest of the film lacks, well I would have to disagree with the great film critic on that last part. There are a couple shootouts that are well choreographed and intense, a short elevator scene that is intense and possibly hard to watch, a scene where the bad guys gets the best of the good guys in Malone's apartment that is tough to watch, and a very intense and long climax that might make you squeeze your armrest. So, despite Ebert not caring too much for the film, it has several very intense scenes thanks to the writers.
    The film also has some very good editing and sound editing and mixing along with great costumes that match the period very well. It all mixes great together for a very good period film, especially the sound, it really is very good and sounds great with the clear cut editing. Along with it sounding great the film also looks very good, especially on Blu-ray, the backdrop in mainly 1930's Chicago so the cinematographer had a lot to work with, also of course with help from the set designer who brought the period to life very well. It all works great together as one of the better looking films set in the 1930's Chicago.
    One last thing that made this film very good was the amazing musical score that was nominated for an Oscar. The music is very fast paced in several scenes that make it extremely intense or at times frightening when it gets that slow cold feeling, and you will know it. Okay one more thing, director Brian De Palma also did a good job as well, although it is quite different from his previous Gangster film Scarface, he still did a good job at telling the story through a lot of great camera movement. Of course he had help with his great crew and cast, but he still did a good job, I just think he would not have been the best director to do it. Despite that this is still a great Gangster film that shows 1930's Chicago in great detail through costume design and set pieces, it looks and sounds great, has a wonderful intense score, and a fantastic cast who does a wonderful job. This isn't the best Gangster film, clearly, but it is ranked fairly high on the list.                                                                                                     3.5/4 Stars         

Movie of the Week: Glory

   

 

    Movie of the Week (7/14/13-7/20/13): On July 18, 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment charged a fort on the coast of South Carolina, that fort was Fort Wagner. The first all black regiment in the United States Army suffered over fifty percent causalities, including their commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. The Union failed to take that fort for another two months after that charge. This Thursday, July 18, is the 150th anniversary of that battle so I thought the movie that showed the formation of this regiment and the charge it led would be suitable. Here is my review of Glory.
    The film opens with the bloody Battle of Antietam in September of 1862, which introduces us to two of the film's main characters, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and John Rawlins. After that we are taken into the life of Shaw as he goes home and is asked if he would be the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment, which would be the first all black regiment in the history of the United States. We then see the formation of the regiment, the training, and experience the hardships that the all black regiment acquired from both Union and Confederate troops. From the first battle scene to the last climactic battle scene we are told a great story of courage that has yet to be forgotten.
    The cast of this classic Civil War movie is fantastic with Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw, probably his best performance, Denzel Washington as Private Trip, who won an supporting Oscar for his performance, Cary Elwes as Major Forbes, Morgan Freeman as Sargent Major John Rawlins, and Andre Braugher as Corporal Thomas Searles. We get wonderful performances from all of these actors despite all there roles being fictional, with the exception of Shaw. With great acting comes great character development and that is what we have in this film. Some develop from being scared and shy to brave and heroic and some from cocky and troublesome to friendly and brave. All the characters in this film develop nicely in some way, which makes the characters that much more interesting and why we grow to love each one.
    The acting and development is great, but what also makes this a great film is the direction, battle choreography, and musical score. Edward Zwick, who gave us more recent classics such as The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and Defiance, gave us this realistic feeling war film with great camera angles during battles and showing us how rough it was for these black men in such a dividing conflict. Zwick also shot some beautiful scenes in camp during the troops pass time and directed some great dialog scenes that were very powerful and emotional to watch. The film also has one of the greatest scores for a war movie provided by the great James Horner. Most people recognize the famous rhythm when it is heard. From beginning to end, especially in the climax, the score will give you chills and make you cheer.
    This film is one of those that most everybody likes, even historians despite some of the historical inaccuracies because it is such a well done movie. It is well done because it was written very well and had the right actors to play the right parts along with the right director to bring it to life. The film is not the best war movie of all time but it is high on the list because we connect with the characters so much as the film goes on that by the end we are so emotionally distraught by what becomes of them. The ending is so powerful and emotional it is almost anti-climatic, but we know what the formation of 54th Massachusetts led too. Glory is a great acted, intense, emotional, and perfectly scored war film that will be remembered for years to come and should have won Best Picture for the 1989 Oscars.                                                                                     4/4 Stars