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

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

So, I rarely go to the movie theater and this year was the first year since 2009 that I had gone to the movie theaters more than once a year and 2011 was a theater-less year for me. Besides Prometheus, this was the only movie I've seen in theaters this year. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a revisionist history film where Abraham Lincoln's past life as a vampire hunter is detailed. The true genre for this film is an action thriller, which in all honesty don't really do it for me. The best thing about this movie besides the actual fighting scenes and special effects is that the actor, Benjamin Walker, whom they got to portray Lincoln, looked very much like the real life Abraham Lincoln, and that's saying something. The acting, from almost every actor, was incredibly overdramatic and was filled with emotional overload which became overbearing at times. The plot, was very unoriginal and I was able to predict literally every major event in the movie and I was even able to predict the gratuitous amount of jump scares. Alright, enough ripping on this movie, onto the few positives. The action/fighting scenes were actually choreographed quite well and were usually very interesting and the special effects were very fluid and well done. This movie is certainly interesting and would be worth watching with a few friends, especially if they are into supernatural films which a lot of action. The parts of the film that were intended to be dramatic almost always fell flat which really bog down the film's quality overall. For something that is produced by Tim Burton I expected better plot development and acting, but I am glad Johnny Depp wasn't in this movie. One thing I will say about this movie is that I don't think the Southern U.S. will appreciate this film seeing as the confederate army was portrayed as vampires. Just something to think about.

Bottom Line: Rent It/Skip It

Score: 6/10

Year: 2012
Director: Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch, Day Watch)
Cast: Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie
Rating: R