One Word Review - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

One Word: Pivotal

Year: 1980
Director: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Rating: PG

American History X

American History X is a severely underrated film, especially from critics. American History X is a movie about Derek Vinyard, a neo-Nazi who is imprisoned and becomes more accepting of other races during his tenure in prison, who's new mission is to stop his younger brother, Danny, from becoming as evil as he once was. Edward Norton, who plays Derek, does an exceptional acting job in this movie. His character knows power, shame, pain, and humiliation and Norton does a wonderful job portraying these sides of his character and he makes Derek Vinyard into a believable, often hated and misunderstood, person. In fact, the entire cast of this film do a great job with their roles and they all help create an atmosphere of tension and drama. American History X comprises of flashbacks, shown in black and white, and present day scenes, shown in color. While the actual film can be quite gruesome and graphic at times, this is one of the few films where I actually believe that without it, the same message and power couldn't be as easily portrayed. Usually I'm not one for gratuitous violence or inappropriate themes but it perfectly fits this movie. Speaking of its message, this film has quite a powerful one. While I'm sure you would think it is simple, American History X tells us to accept one another and that hate is just baggage; it will only bring you down. At the same time though, the film tells us that some people can change and some cannot, it is not necessarily up to us to change others, but that they need to realize that change is necessary. The score is dramatic and occasionally haunting, especially during some of the darker moments of the film. At times, American History X can be difficult to watch but I believe that it is well worth your time. In a way, while this sounds cheesy, this film sort of changed my outlook on life and how we should treat one another. I think it would be apropos to end this review with a quote: "Hate is baggage. Life is too short to be pissed off all the time."

Bottom Line: Buy It/Rent It

Score: 8/10

Year: 1998
Director: Tony Kaye (Detachment, Black Water Transit, Snowblind)
Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien)
Rating: R

My Top 5 - Science Fiction

5. Donnie Darko (Dir: Richard Kelly)

4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Dir: Nicholas Meyer)

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)

2. Alien (Dir: Ridley Scott)

1. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Dir: Irvin Kershner)

Fun Facts - Requiem for a Dream

- Most movies contain 600 to 700 cuts. Requiem contains over 2,000

-Director Darren Aronofsky asked Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans to avoid sex and sugar for a period of 30 days in order to better understand craving.

- Just like in The Godfather, oranges are used as a sign of disaster in this film.

-The word "heroin" is never once said by any of the characters in the film.

-Dave Chappelle was offered the role of Tyrone but turned it down.

-The prop refrigerator for the hallucination scenes melted from the inside due to the lighting elements within.

-Jared Leto lost 25 lbs. and befriended real heroin junkies from Brooklyn to prepare for his role as Harry Goldfarb.

-The overhead shot of Marion in the bathtub followed by her screaming underwater was an exact replica of a scene in the Japanese animated thriller, Perfect Blue. Darren Aronofsky bought the remake rights to the film just for that one sequence.

Sequelitis - Alien vs. Aliens

I wrote my essay to be excused from English classes in college on the original Alien film and I completely love that movie. Alien is a much better and way more put together film than its sequel, Aliens. James Cameron completely altered the series and what it stood for. The Alien series went from being a paranoia-driven horror franchise, to an action movie where the characters just shoot and blow up everything in sight. The special effects of Alien hold up, even to this day, where the more ambitious special effects of Aliens look incredibly dated and terrible in comparison. If you were to watch one of these films, make sure it's the original. Many people think Aliens is amazing or better than the original, but, they're wrong.

One Word Review - Fight Club

So here begins the special posts. I shall be doing one a day every weekday (Monday-Friday). I skipped Monday this week but I'll do it next week. Here's the first one word review.

One word: HYPE

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Just to make this clear, this a review of the original Dawn of the Dead, not the terrible 2004 remake with Ving Rhames. In truth, George Romero's original, anti-consumerism vision is just a much better movie and is a much better conveyor for his message than the dried-up remake. Dawn of the Dead is a zombie film. Of course you know that or figured it out by now, but it's not just a zombie film. Romero's film is an allegory about how consumerism is destroying the modern world and that all who succumb to it become "zombies" despite that word never being used once in this film. The film takes place in, ironically, a mall. Each of the characters represent certain standout traits in society. Scenes are shown where characters are looting the abandoned stores and using this apocalypse to help themselves more than others. Ken Foree's character does act as the voice of reason throughout the film. On the topic of acting, usually the acting is less than golden, but at a few key points in the film the actors display a stunning amount of realism. For its era, the "special effects" are actually quite good and would've been considered good throughout even the 1980's. These effects actually helped the film earn an NC-17 rating and Romero was adamant about maintaining the gore. The haunting, electronic score (typical for horror films of this era) greatly adds to the atmosphere of pure doom and paranoia. The cinematography is actually passable: this is where most horror films fall flat. Many different angles are used, especially establishing or wide shots that provide a good view of the setting. To this day, the original Dawn of the Dead is considered a cult classic and films such as Shaun of the Dead draw a lot of inspiration from this 70's horror hidden gem. Largely overlooked, this film is a horror film I would actually be proud to show my peers and friends. The gore and language are certainly more than present so I would highly recommend discretion to those younger viewers.

Bottom Line: Buy It/Rent It (mostly due to its length, watching it repeatedly can get tiresome)

Score: 8/10

Year: 1978
Director: George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, The Crazies)
Cast: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Rating: NC-17

Leon: The Professional

Leon: The Professional is a very interesting film, to say the least. Leon revolves around an assassin named Leon, played by Jean Reno, who one day after getting groceries, meets a young girl, played by a young Natalie Portman, who lives in the same apartment building. Later that day, mobsters show up at the girl's apartment and kill her entire family while she is out. She comes back to witness this and goes to Leon's apartment and he lets her in for her safety. The girl decides she wants to exact revenge on the people who killed her family (more so her younger brother, she even says she could care less about the rest of her family), and wants Leon to train her to become an assassin. The story is very interesting and deals with a very odd, forbidden love sub-plot which seems very strange, especially due to the age differences between Reno's character and Portman's character. The cinematography of the film is also somewhat interesting at points. Montages are used sometimes, which for once look good in this film, filming through keyholes and the use of fisheye lenses occur multiple times, and more. Also, the performances by the actors/actresses are very believable and it seems as if the actors really stepped into their roles. Reno portrays the tall, silent hitman type quite well and his awkwardness is brought up multiple times. Portman plays a once innocent girl who becomes angered and vindictive. Gary Oldman does a great job portraying a ruthless mafia man who seems to have no feelings of remorse or empathy. The score is very dramatic and adds a lot of depth to the film and especially to the dramatic scenes. Despite being a mostly dramatic film, there are a few, shall I say, awesome fighting scenes/shootouts that might even impress a modern film viewer. All in all, I didn't expect much of Leon, but I truly enjoyed myself and I think you will to.

Bottom Line: Buy It/Rent It

Score: 8/10

Year: 1994
Director: Luc Besson (Taken, The Fifth Element, Transporter 2)
Cast: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello
Rating: R

Update

So I'm probably not going to be able to do a post every day, my regular reviews I think I'll do on a more sporatic schedule just because of time constraints and how difficult it sometimes is to write a thoughtful review but I think I might start doing some every day things that will be easier such as one word reviews, nerdgasm type things for films I really love, etc.

13 Assassins

So here it is, my first foreign film. Being that I love Japan and Japanese culture, I of course chose a Japanese samurai film. And it was on Netflix...don't judge. 13 Assassins is a film about a group of both samurai and disgraced samurai band together to help take out an evil lord who massacres villages and basically tortures and kills people (including women and children) for fun. Sadly, I cannot comment to heavily on the quality of the actors chosen due to it being a foreign language film and my unfamiliarity with these actors and their previous works. However, they managed to portray the typical samurai film characters quite well compared to movies like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Action and/or fighting films are usually not my first pick when it comes to choosing movies to watch, but Asian dramas are generally disinteresting and too mushy for me. The cinematography and music score are very stereotypical for the most part but they both manage to not be bland. Takashi Miike, the director, took the typical aspects of a samurai film, trimmed the excess fat, and brought 13 Assassins down to what most people want to see in a samurai/action film. The special effects and action scenes are done very well and minimal CGI is used to maintain an air of realism. This is especially important when portraying feudal Japan. While 13 Assassins didn't receive a release in the United States, I feel that despite being subtitled, the film would actually perform decently in the American box offices. There are some disturbing sequences in the film, such as the scene where a woman who had her tongue and limbs removed meets with the main character, Shizaemon, to request help in defeating the evil lord. There are also many scenes with excess blood and violence, especially the stereotypical spurting blood shown when characters are murdered in samurai films. Overall, I would highly recommend this film if you are interested in viewing a Japanese film that isn't Seven Samurai or another Akira Kurosawa film.

Bottom Line: Rent It

Score: 8/10

Year: 2010
Director: Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer, Three...Extremes)
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki
Rating: R

The Thing

A recent prequel to this film, also titled The Thing, was released this year, but it was generally viewed as not nearly as good as the John Carpenter version, The Thing. This 1982 film is actually a remake of a film from the 1950's known as, The Thing From Another Planet. Many people agree that this version of the film is the truest form when interpreting the original story. The Thing is a film where scientists travel to Antarctica and find what appears to be a crashed spaceship. After returning to the base, it is discovered that something is not quite right, and that one of the huskie dogs that are kept on base is actually a shape-shifting alien. The scientist, played by Wilford Brimley, finds that the alien DNA copies another specimen's DNA and assimilates it into its own. From this point on the film turns into a paranoia-fest where all the crew members become suspicious of one another being "the thing" and start killing one another. Kurt Russell plays the lead in this film, who physically reminds me of Jeff Bridges, but Russell does not possess the same acting prowess. Some people say that this film is just a typical horror film from this era but I believe that The Thing draws the same paranoia and suspense from earlier films like Alien and Dark Star. This movie is definitely John Carpenter at his best. Some believe Halloween takes that honor, but personally I'm not too big into slasher films or film series that apparently require a million sequels that star the same actors...I'm talking about you Jamie Lee Curtis. But anyway, back to the point. The Thing creates a wonderful atmosphere of despair and paranoia due to its eerie soundtrack and realistic and paranoid acting. The cinematography was definitely above-average for a horror film, especially for one made in the 1980's during the era of cookie-cutter slasher films. If you are a fan of thriller or horror movies, this has to be on your IMDb watchlist. This is one of the few horror movies that I would be willing to watch more than once.

Bottom Line: Buy It/Rent It

 Score: 8/10

Year: 1982
Director: John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York, They Live)
Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon
Rating: R

Prometheus

Oh, Prometheus. Being the huge Alien fan that I am, this film in parts made me very happy and also very upset. During the making of this film, director Ridley Scott started out saying that the film was originally intended as a prequel to Alien but then later decided that Prometheus would no longer be a direct prequel but would occur before the events of Alien and take place in the same universe. It's hard to voice a lot of my anger with this film without revealing spoilers so this may be somewhat difficult for me. The first half of the movie follows Scott's changed attitude towards this film, but the second half reflects his earlier attitude despite his change. This is one major aspect of the film that made me upset. So the plot of Prometheus is that scientists discovered clues on Earth that lead to a planet that may hold the secret to the beginning of the human race. Once they arrive there, many alien related mishaps happen and the mission is slowly pushed closer to failure. Michael Fassbender, who played the android, David, was perhaps the best actor in this entire film, despite playing a generally emotionless character, but he made the character interesting. Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, and Noomi Rapace were generally unimpressive, sadly. Actually, to be honest, it seemed that Elba was robbed of his possibility for greatness by being cast in a generally unimportant role. The actual filming and cinematography of the film seemed like an updated form of Alien, as if the original movie had been done this year. The score for Prometheus, however, was very much unlike the aforementioned film mostly due to the direction that Hollywood is taking with its film scores. The original Alien had a very dark and minimalistic soundtrack but Prometheus used a more modern, classical-influenced score. If you ever watch this movie and the original Alien from end to end, you can understand the true anger I felt once the film got closer to the end. It's not a bad film overall, but it seemed hyped way too much for what it ended up being. Ugh...

Bottom Line: Rent It (once it comes out)

Score: 7/10

Year: 2012
Director: Ridley Scott (Alien, Kingdom of Heaven, Blade Runner)
Cast: Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender
Rating: R

A Clockwork Orange

This is one of the few films that I've actually read the book as well, which typically doesn't fare well for the film version and this, sadly, is no exception. A Clockwork Orange was said to be "un-adaptable" to film due to the surrealistic nature of some scenes and the amount of violence and suggestive imagery. Like the first film I reviewed, I stress now, DO NOT let children or people with certain sensitivities, see this film. It can be quite offensive or lewd at times. So, without any further ado, here's the actual review for this film. Basically, the rule goes, if Kubrick directs, it's going to be amazing. For a film made in the 1970's, it actually seems quite progressive and perhaps not "modern" but it seems more applicable to recent decades. While Kubrick did not capture literally every important detail from Anthony Burgess' original novel, he managed to adapt it quite well and maintained a very similar atmosphere. Malcolm McDowell stars as Alex DeLarge; a charismatic delinquent who dabbles in a bit of ultra-violence and, oddly, Beethoven. When Alex is caught and jailed, he opts into a program that supposedly "rehabilitates" criminals and their sentence is reduced. However, Alex finds out that this new conditioning has some serious negative effects, both physical and social. McDowell does a great job replicating the character of Alex and his change from heartless monster to timid and despairing young adult. Kubrick's choice of actors was apparently done very carefully as the actors in the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange seemed very similar to how the characters are portrayed in the novel. While the novel reigns supreme in the areas of plot development and the overall atmosphere, the film version does a more than acceptable job of recreating Burgess' novel. The actual cinematography is very interesting and at times can seem downright odd, mostly due to the surrealism that Kubrick is trying to create. This is a film that, if you truly appreciate the art of film and movie-making, needs to be seen. Once you step past the suggestive imagery, the true positive meaning behind A Clockwork Orange can be seen seeping out.

Bottom Line: Buy It/Rent It

Score: 8/10

Year: 1971
Director: Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining)
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Rating: R