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Take the Money and Run (1969)
Funny piece of cinema for it's time
My first impression was that I couldn't believe that this was made in 1969. Having seen Annie Hall and not knowing this was made before had really surprised me. Woody Allen comes clean and gives us a fresh comedy, which now days, speaking 21st century makes something like Date Movie seem like it doesn't exist at all. TTMAR, stars Woody Allen as Virgil, a man with no hopes and hardly any positive life experiences, from his early days such as the scene where the bullies step on his glasses to the later days when in he is in court and ironically the judge steps on his glasses, Virgil simply has no luck in life. This movie is just taking the p iss, every situation from robbing banks, to escaping the prison, to lying to his girlfriend and later wife is just hilarious. TTMAR is an example of the pure comedy genius he is. It's a relaxer a mood uplifter and literally makes you feel better about yourself, because I don't think anybody could be as unlucky as him. Heads up to Janet Margolin, she shone with innocence and her beauty posed as a juxtaposition between the two characters.
Garden State (2004)
The best Indie Gem
I first came across Garden State in 2006. I wasn't into movies as much as I am now, so I didn't appreciate it to a full extent. Two years later (and now a devoted film lover, of not only mainstream films, but indie and avant garde) I re-watched this indie gem with a mature outlook and fell in love with it instantly.
At first I was surprised that Zach Braff from Scrubs had not only acted in it, but directed and wrote it. I must say I'm not a fan of the show and find the humor boring and unintelligent, so I wasn't expecting Garden State to be a masterpiece. However, I was wrong.
So why did Garden State, a film with a budget of only 2.5 million dollars soar into my top ten films of all time list? Well the film had heart, it is a beautiful love story with themes of homecoming and letting go.
The story follows Andrew Largeman (Braff) who is a struggling actor living in the rat race of LA. He receives a phone call from his estranged father, informing him of his mother's death. After ten or so years away from home, he returns to suburban New Jersey to find that the life he left hadn't changed that much at all. His friends are still partying and he still faces the guilt of being responsible for his mothers handicap. On medication, Largeman is unable to feel the emotions of love, anger, sadness and can't seem to forgive himself of the wrongdoings of the past, that is until he meets the love of his life.
The cast is absolutely stellar, Zach Braff plays his role well. I really enjoyed his distance from human emotion in the first half of the film and how he slowly lets go of life's unfair burdens and is able to feel himself again. His body language changes admirably, showing the audience his great acting skills. What's even more amazing about the acting in this film is Natalie Portman who plays the cute and lovely Sam. She practically awakens Andrew and the two fall in love. Portman truly steals the show and establishes the magic of the film. Minor characters such as Andrew's father, played by Ian Holm and Peter Sarsgaard who plays Mark, also add an amazing touch into the story.
The script is well written, mixing comedy into drama is quite hard to do, but Braff manages to nail it spot on. He delivers dry humor into a more emotional script. What I personally loved was the characterization. Each character feels so real, especially Sam (Portman) who plays that unique person that everyone has come across once in their life. Although, this film can be viewed by anyone I recommend it for mature people as they would feel connected towards the events and themes. On my second viewing I just wanted to watch this again as I felt like a little bit of me was portrayed in Andrew. This film is guaranteed to leave any audience feeling connected in some way, whether it is the love they've experienced, finding that special someone, coming home for the first time in ages, seeing old friends and finding it awkward or it may even be the letting go of the frustrating moments life gives you and moving on.
Oh and did I mention the soundtrack? It's absolutely fantastic, featuring bands such as The Shins, Coldplay, Nick Drake, Iron & Wine and Frou Frou. I loved how each song that is played connects with the scene somehow. Like on the scene were he screams on top of the yellow boat and "The only living boy in New York" by Simon & Garfunkel is playing in the background each lyric matching the emotions of Largeman. It was truly one of the greatest scenes I've seen in a long time. Braff's directing is outstanding and this is one indie gem that will put a tear in your eye, a smile on your face and leave you questioning your journey in life so far. Absolutely beautiful, I recommended it to everyone!
Amores perros (2000)
Superb Drama story and acting bring the director to create a classic
Regardless of the Spanish subtitles, the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has climbed into my favourite directors of all time list with this wonderful dramatic masterpiece. A friend mentioned his work in Babel (2006) and how great that was. I hadn't seen his earlier films including this one which is now nine years old. As I went back to Amores Perros, It caught my eyes as a work of art. From the moment it started, Alejandro uses many film techniques which intervene the characters and certain parts of the plot with each other. I personally love the alternative film making in some films and this is shown well with Amores Perros.
As part of the death trilogy now. Alejandro's first film truly shines out to be the best of the three. The film traces three different characters who really have nothing to do with each other until the end, where a car crash takes place and we see the different characters reactions and relation somehow to the accident. As the plot unfolds so do the characters such as Octavio, who changes due to love. The overall understanding of what Amores Perros stands for could in fact be the English title; Love's a Bitch. Which is quite accurate when considering the symbolism in this film. Dogs are used throughout, which somehow resembles the bitch in the title. The overall title meaning could certainly link the relationship of dogs and people together and that how unjustly it may seem, that people show emotions in everything they do. In Amores Perros, we could consider, the tragedy of a close friend, the fight with the brother, love of the sister in law and even the companion between life of a dog and human beings. The overall message is that life is sometimes cruel when dealing with any relationship in life.
The overall review comes down to whether you like a strong drama, and if you haven't seen this film. My word would be to rent out the three films of the trilogy together: Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. All three films are brilliant and have similar film styles, but different stories. It's great to see such a director make his debut film a classic. Well done Alejandro. And a good praise to the main star Gael García Bernal for giving a remarkable performance.
Go see this film!
Sex Drive (2008)
How far would you go to go all the way? .... Not that far!
Sex Drive falls short from being its own film. By this I mean, that it's trying too hard to be like films such as American Pie, Euro Trip and Superbad. The things that make the other films unique are the simplicity of the storyline and plot. Sex Drive seems to take bits and pieces from other films and sticks it into their own. Having a character like Rex, resembles the original Stifler character, therefore Sex Drive reminds you of a dull and copycat version of American Pie which sadly fails to live up to any of the classics.
The film has a storyline which has already been used a million times before, however teenagers will continue to see these films regardless of the story, as with all teenage films; sex has to be involved in it somehow.
Its the story of an 18 year old guy called Ian who meets a girl on the internet, he then takes his best friends Lance and Felicia with him on his journey from Chicago to Knoxville to meet her. Along the way they encounter many situations similar to that of Road Trip.
The film was an average comedy, not as good as American Pie, Superbad or the classics such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The acting wasn't so good and many times the conflicts were ridiculously hilarious and the 'love' moments were very cheesy.
As a whole, the film had some 'original' moments which were good to see, but the constant borrowing from other films, made Sex Drive fail to be its own film as mentioned before. Well if your a horny teenager who is still a virgin or if you remember when you were younger that you were obsessed with sex and never got laid until you were 18, then by all means see this film.
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Sequel to Casino Royale has taken a step back.
What made Casino Royale stand out from the previous generation Bond films? Was it the action? Was it the story? Correct it was both. Bond is back, but he's not better then ever. The hype circulated under Quantum of Solace for some time and it has even been in competition with The Dark Knight for the best action film of 2008. Indeed it had a lot of action but the plot however didn't redeem to that of what it was worth in the previous Bond.
While Quantum of Solace was suppose to continue from Casino Royale, the writers made it seem like they went off course a little bit during times. In some moments, there had been relentless action, bringing sophisticated entertainment, which indeed was awesome in that sense. Very unrealistic, however, he's Bond. He's strong and he's a hero. The ending had been rushed and was too quick, if time had been taken, the ending would've tied in with the rest of the plot and maybe shined a little over the edgy climax. If by all means your an action fan see this film, like with The Dark Knight, both films compare in being darker than their predecessors.
What I loved about the film was simple, it had been the acting. A few lines were cheesy, but I guess in the current generation a few lines of humor won't wreck a serious film. Judi Dench is yet again M and she does it marvelously. Daniel Craig the blonde bond is by far the best bond ever, he proved this so with Casino Royale. It was great to see character conflict and not just pure violence. Loved the conflict between M and Bond in Qunatum, it was a great addition towards the film, to give it a vibe to the people who love a movie for its quality, in all areas.
If I were to compare and contrast this to Casino royale there would be many similarities and differences. Quantum has many flaws, one being it's structure. What I loved about Casino Royale had been the way it was organized, while the villain had been around causing trouble. Bond had his girls and his close death call by his side, which was finally good to see him come close to death in a Bond film. The violence was controlled and worked/flowed well with it's great plot. The villains weren't too evil and this continued in Quantum were the villain was the biggest loser ever, it was weird. The shots were too fast in my opinion on some scenes, I couldn't tell who was beating up who or who had killed who, some of it was crazy. The directing had had a big downfall. I noticed straight away while watching it, that the directing was different, since it wasn't the same director who directed Casino. To continue a great trilogy in which the blonde bond trilogy is being made, you must have one director for the whole trilogy or else it's not going to work well as it would have. I mean look at The Godfather and Lord of the Rings the whole trilogy had been a masterpiece because only one director directed it.
Overall though, Bond has taken a step back from Casino Royale. And I hope this is recovered in the third one, because there were a few noticeable flaws. Like I said if you love action or if your a fan of Bond see it. If your not, well maybe your night out to see it, is not such a good idea. This film had its moments and is an average action, which doesn't compare to the structure of this years best action The Dark Knight.
Eagle Eye (2008)
Second Half spoiled Great First
I had low expectations when I came to see this, I personally thought it was going to be a downfall, I saw it anyway because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. As I start off I absolutely want to applaud Shia LaBeouf for giving a great performance as he did in Disturbia and Transformers. He should consider choosing more mature films not teenager slick action/thrillers. He's an adult already. I know it's not meant to be realistic I realised that already but the action in it was really over done and unnecessary. I loved the idea of the woman on the cell phone but hated the conclusion. The story was weak, the dialogue was rubbish, especially at the end which was pointless. Let me discuss the ending, if I knew how crap that would have been i would have left the cinema and caught an early bus home and saved time. I really hate when modern action films are spoilt with love, it was OK along time ago and I excuse comic movie adaptions cause their based on old original plots but modern movies lack originality. Onto the positives the first half of the film was solid it kind of reminded me of Die Hard with a Venageance and Enemy of the State, it was a good idea and was kind of fun at the time then it revealed that the woman is a computer and the government is controlled by computers. It was over rated at that point. From then on I thought everything was a joke and laughed at some bits. Especially when I began analysing how crazy this film was I mean come on, he's a copy guy at a dull job and he gets so caught up in this mess and with no experience in any army training and coming from a slow developed physical disadvantage he rose to stop some crystal from exploding and got shot 3 times in the back with no protection saving the woman and the president, I mean they should have focused more on characterization before they moved on with the rest of the film.
To sum it up, the acting and half the film were great, from then the rest is weird, the unoriginality sends you off track and you may feel like your watching a completely different film from the same genre.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Heath Ledger is a ledgend!
Well here it is, one of the most anticipated movies of the year so far. How was it? It was excellent. By far the best Batman film ever made and of course it will be one of the most memorable action films for a long while.
Everyone was waiting to see how well Heath Ledger performed as The Joker in this film. He definitely deserves an Oscar in his honor. The character was so dark and creepy that it sent chills up my back. Compared to Heath's other films like '10 Things I Hate About You' and even 'Brokeback Mountain' proves that this man could actually act, doesn't matter what character, he could do it.
The film's storyline has many twists and all are rewarding, the story is developed constantly after each scene, making you wonder what's next. Excellent craft and flows well towards the conclusion.
During the film on the scene with Batman against the Joker, Bike vs Truck. People thought this was the ending. No, it kept going which was awesome, the story kept getting darker and darker, I guess that's why they called it the 'Dark' Knight as well as the relation to Batman himself.
The cast was great. With Christopher Nolan playing Batman, good performance, Heath Ledger played extremely well, Maggie was annoying at times, but still deserves to be praised. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman had minor roles which satisfied the audiences. Aaron Eckhart starts with a minor role which slowly progresses and becomes evil which is quite surprising and entertaining to watch.
Great directing made the movie enjoyable, they added more action this time which made the film feel powerful, lighting was done well especially showing Harvey/ Two Face's face in the many moods he displayed.
Great explosions made it entertaining. Made you feel great that this is finally the best action to come in a long time.
This movie deserves a 10/10 rating and credit on behalf of the great young actor Heath Ledger's life. (May he R.I.P) His performance made what this film is right now.
I recommend this film for any action fan, especially a Batman fan. Or if your even a Heath Ledger fan. Go ahead right now and see this film. It's great!
Cloverfield (2008)
Cloverfield, Felt Somewhat Real
Cloverfield was filmed in a unique way. The style of the camera was in a document first person form where the viewers (us at the theater) are able to see the film in the perspective of a character who is holding the camera and recording the action as if the events were to be happening in real life. The story focuses on a group of people whom are trying to survive as a monster begins destroying NYC. The whole view is through one camera, the 25 million dollar budget was well done on the special FX, Sound and Graphics which made the film feel real. The plot is stunning yet makes you feel at times that there could have been more towards it. At times the camera movement swayed too fast and made you look away from the screen for a short time. A lot of people loved the climax and were confused by the ending, therefore the film didn't balance out entirely to the expectations. This movie compares to other hit movies such as Godzilla, Day after tomorrow, War of the worlds and even the Blair Witch Project. The actors deserve credit and so does the film.
Many people were disappointed because they didn't understand that once the camera shuts or turns off during the film, the whole movie turns off too. This appeals at the end. If you didn't enjoy the films it compares to then maybe you should wait until it becomes available for rent. Though Altogether IMO this is a good film to check out in 08.
Beta House (2007)
American pie Beta be the last one
American Pie has gone a long distance from the first. At first i believe the actors don't have a clue what their doing and instead it's just a remake of a college party gone nuts. Story sets out as two freshman college guys (featuring the young stifler) setting out the dreams of attending college just to experience the late night parties, sex and of course the booze. The plot is stupid and comes along way away from the original pie. In fact they didn't once again feature an apple pie somewhere in the film.
Luckily i work in a video store and can rent for free. But please remember it is a waste of time unless you enjoy brainless sex films with absolute nudity and insane drinking. I'm a teen myself and i believe even Evan almighty would've been a better choice instead.