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Taxi Driver (1976)
One of Scorcese's Best Films
Taxi Driver Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese is a mind-blowing piece of art that emphasizes on human interrelations and justice use. When I saw this film, I was blown-away by Robert De Niro's performance as Travis Bickles. The character, Travis Bickles is a loner with psychic problems especially insomnia, and a personality disorder. We have also learned that he is honorably discharged Vietnam veteran. He is a night-shift taxi driver who fails to make a connection with society since everyone is impersonal and cruel to others. The people treat him as an invisible being. In addition, the streets of New York City are corrupted, dirty, and immoral. Travis mentions that he wants someone to clean up the city's corruptness, and votes for the leading candidate for president. Later in the movie, when his girl of dreams, Becky dumps him for the way he acts to her because he thought that Becky was an "angel" compare to the dirty citizens of New York and thought that no one should hurt her, but he was wrong. Therefore, he decides to takes revenge on Becky by trying to assassinate the leading candidate for president, which Becky supports largely. Travis arms himself with weapons supplied from a black market, and shaves off his hair on his head. Yet, his assassination plan fails. Thus, he tries to find another way to release his anger by becoming a vigilante. As the film progresses, we begin to learn that Travis has a loath for prostitution, and he begins protecting an underage girl, Iris (played by Jodie Foster) from her abusive lover, "Sport." When Iris repudiates Travis's help, Travis becomes infuriated, and uses his anger to attack "Sport" and the gangsters in a bloody shoot-out. Eventually, he gets shot, but prevails by killing "Sport." At that point, Travis is ultimately claimed as a hero in society when he saves Iris. It is ironic because in the beginning of the movie, he followed the laws of society and acted "invisible" to others. However, when he breaks society's laws, he becomes a hero which seems to help him to escape his miserable fate in life. That is one of the themes of the movie: glorification of violence. People start to care for him. Unfortunately, in the end of the film, one can never know if Travis actually died or lived because everyone has their own interpretations. I would say that Travis's triumph is actually a tragedy since we don't know the impossible answers to the questions. He might have died because at the end, it was almost like a dream sequence that played on an emotional level, but we still do not know. The ending is supposed to be enigmatic. Martin Scorsese ended this film that way with no real answers for the ending because the director made the audience cared for Travis Bickles. We wanted to know what really happened to him, so that teaches us a very significant lesson about life. The moral of the film in my opinion was that if humans were impersonal, unfair, and unloving to others, society would deteriorate and fall into chaos in life. Another reason I enjoyed this masterpiece for the reason that it was very gritty, and realistic to the 1970s of New York City. In general, Taxi Driver is a must-see for people who love heavy dramas.
Scarface (1983)
One of the Best Crime Movies Ever Made
Scarface, a crime-drama directed by Brian De Palma, is an artistic film that depicts a rise and fall (allegory to classic Greek fables) of a gangster who gets everything, but at the same time, loses everything in his life. This movie has amazing drama, exceptional acting, and bloody, exhilarating action. Al Pacino (The Godfather 1 and 2, Dog Day Afternoon) who plays the avaricious, antisocial Cuban immigrant Tony Montana (who has a scar on his face due to his unknown childhood trauma) who wishes to pursue the American Dream when arriving in Miami, Florida with his loyal best friend, Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer, an underrated actor). He decides to follow the dark side to exceed his prospects. Tony does a hit job on a corrupt politician (exposition) for crime boss, Frank Lopez, who has a soft spot. Thus, Tony starts to escalate. As Tony explains to Manny "first, you get the money, then the power, then the women," he becomes charmed with Frank's cocaine-addict oblivious wife, Elvira (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) and wants Frank gone, so he can take control of the cocaine empire. While Tony is working for Frank, he has an almost incestuous relationship (I dunno) with his sister, Gina Montana and is very protective of her because he doesn't want her to be corrupted. Later in the movie, Tony makes a deal with sadistic cocaine drug lord, Sosa, who tells Tony not to screw him, and argues with his Frank about the deal the he made. Frank explains to Tony that Sosa is a snake and not trust-worthy. Tony doesn't believe this and starts fooling around with Frank's wife. Frank's assassins attack Tony in a luxury club, but he escapes luckily and confronts Frank. Tony kills him for his betrayal and takes over the empire. Tony gets everything, but slowly goes insane when he keeps doing cocaine. His relationship with Elvira falls apart after marrying her. Also, he has problems with the FBI force. Manny secretly dates Tony's sister without telling him. Then, Tony makes another deal with Sosa that they would both solve each other's problems by doing favors for each other. During the climax, Tony has to whack a journalist that could enervate Sosa's business by putting him in jail, but Tony has a sense of morality when he doesn't want to kill the journalist's family when they are in the car with the journalist, so Tony decides not to. Tony fueled by cocaine, later, founds out that Manny was having sex with his sister at his sister's house, and kills Manny cold-blooded. Back at his huge mansion, Tony goes infuriated when Sosa angrily calls him about the failed job. After snorting so much cocaine, Tony has lost a sense of reality, while Sosa's men sneak in the mansion to kill Tony. Tony's sister is killed, so Tony grabs a gun to shoot at the doors of his luxurious office and says the most famous line in the movie, "Say hello to my little friend" and blasts the doors open. He starts killing people madly while they are shooting at him. One of the Sosa's top assassins sneaks in the window of Tony's office and shoots Tony in the back. Tony, now dead, falls down into the water fountain on the main floor. There is blood everywhere. The music starts playing as Tony's empire is annihilated. The action in this movie is pretty spectacular because it was influenced by John Woo's action films. There are a few shootouts in the movie: one in an apartment, one in a night club, and lastly, one in the mansion at the end. The moral of Scarface is that people shouldn't take advantage of the American Dream by taking short cuts. Also, the movie also has a message that you shouldn't do drugs since they will corrupt you, just like committing crimes.
Oscars it should have been nominated: Art direction Best actor Best score Best director Best picture
Lat sau san taam (1992)
One of the best action movies ever made....
This movie is a hard-core action film by John Woo about a dirty harry type cop, tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) who's partner is killed in action during the exposition, and has a vendetta by taking down the Chinese mob with help from one of the mob's highest ranking assassins who is secretly a troubled undercover cop. The action scenes really blew my mind away, I mean completely. Especially the teahouse and the hospital scenes. It's gun-fu basically. This movie has a very high body count due to the lengthy action scenes. The hospital action scene actually lasts more than a half hour. This is not JUST your typical action movie. This movie truly is a epitome of bloodshed and glorification of violence. The action scenes are actually the main emphasis of the film because the action is pure art. The story is pretty generic and straightforward, but performances by the actors are actually very good because you sympathize with the characters and their problems in life. In general, this is one of the best action films ever made and deserves equal recognition with movies, such as face/off and die hard.
Moneyball (2011)
"Boringball"
"Boringball" seems to be the perfect title for this movie. When I watched this biopic with my dad one night, I felt dragged by the tedious drama and I was not emotionally touched by it. The reason is because Brad Pitt's character did not really support his "hand-picked" team. He wasn't there for them at the game during one of the final scenes in the movie. That threw me off a bit because it made me pondered about support and obligation. Conversely, Jonah Hill's character was at least a bit more interesting than the main lead. Overall, this movie is hugely overrated and does not deserve ANY academy awards. I mean come on? Best Picture? No way.
The Avengers (2012)
One of the year's best movies!!
One of the best movies of 2012! It's also one of the best superheroes films ever besides batman begins, the dark knight, and iron man. One of the most intriguing elements of the movie is that you got combination of superheroes fighting together. There are innovative visual effects that demonstrate how realistic the film is to comic book fans and movie-goers. In addition to that, you got good humor that's sure to make you laugh, good acting, and a good build-up with an awesome climax. This movie is an amazing experience and definitely worth seeing it twice in theaters. Also, buy the Blu-ray! You will be delighted. Trust me.