Real Movie Review-Movie Reviews, Movie Quotes, Movie Trivia

Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels,
James Earl Jones

Director: George Lucas

I don’t want to overstate this by being overly generous in my praise of this well-known Lucas effort, so I will restrain myself and just say that it one of the greatest movies of all time and it re-defined the science fiction genre and has influenced adventure movies ever since.
Lucas chose the simple story of an evil empire trying to stamp out the final resistance to their rule of a solar system far, far away and a young farmer (Hamill), hungry for adventure, who finds himself involved through his desire to rescue a beautiful princess (Fisher). He is aided by a mysterious mentor (Guiness) and a charismatic smuggler (Ford), as well as couple of personable robots, known as droids. This group has to overcome legions of enemy troops, a space station with frightening powers, and Darth Vader, one of the most well-known, and imitated, movie villains there is.
If you haven’t see this movie, then congratulations on finally making parole; now go rent it! One of the classic cinematic efforts of the last fifty years, but, of course, I don’t want to gush like a cheerleader, so I will show restraint in my praise.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer

Quentin Tarantino has become the most influential filmmaker of his age and it is largely on the strength of this masterpiece. Amazing dialogue, that can be so mundane and shockingly causal, delivered by interesting and well-developed characters that are anything but mundane, is Tarantino’s greatest strength and he uses it to great effect in this feature. His direction is smooth and subtly innovative and the actors are uniformly excellent.

Tarantino tells several interconnected stories in a non-linear fashion which include John Travolta as a hood just returning from a three year European hiatus, Bruce Willis as a fighter hired to throw a bout and Samuel L. Jackson as a smooth killer experiencing a “moment of clarity”. The stories are good, but the characters and dialogue are what we are really watching here and they are both well worth it.

One of my all-time favorite movies and its falls on that list for many people, but its language and disturbing violent scenes make unsuitable for some viewers. My own rule with objectionable material in cinema is that it is ok as long as it is in the context of the story and not used to replace the story (exploitive). If somehow you have not seen Pulp Fiction, and are not avoiding it on the basis of moral objections, you should see it today and see it again tomorrow. You are way behind.

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen,
Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee.

Director: Peter Jackson

This is a watershed movie that reset the standards by which fantasy movies are judged. Before Peter Jackson brought his vision of Tolkien’s trilogy to the silver screen, such sword and sorcery films were hampered by small budgets and worried producers. Jackson created a masterpiece and it made a fortune, and not just a little people like us kind of fortune either, but a CEO, Enron kind of fortune. Not only can we thank Jackson for his wonderful trilogy, he deserves thanks for all the quality fantasy films that may now have a chance to be made and made properly. Although Fellowship does lag in spots under its occasionally, heavy story, this is offset by amazing, and innovative, visual splendor.

The story starts in the shire, where Frodo (Elijah Wood) inherits a magical ring that soon turns out to be the key to an evil tyrant’s plans to enslave the world in darkness. Provided with noble companions and accompanied by friends, he sets out to destroy the ring. Along the way, he has to battle terrifying black riders, orcs and other strange creatures, as well as his own fear. The movie might have become too dark and ponderous, but Jackson foresaw this and turned Merry and Pippin into amusing characters who are far more interesting than Tolkien’s creations, and who manage to lighten the mood, as well..

The story will not appeal equally to everyone, but no one can deny the quality and craft that went into this work. If an award were given for the best directing effort of all time, Peter Jackson would be on my list of nominations.

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen,
Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett,
John Noble, John Rhys-Davies.

Director: Peter Jackson

The final chapter of this classic fantasy trilogy is better than the second. It wasn’t good enough to deserve the Best Picture Oscar, but Jackson’s accomplishment, artistically, economically, and logistically earned him the respect of the entire movie world which culminated in this win.
This is the climax of Tolkien’s tale. There is a giant, desperate battle at Minas Tirith, romantic decisions for Aragorn, a gruesome scoring competition between Gimli and Legolas, some serious dramatic moments for jesters, Merry and Pippen and, best of all, the impossible voyage for Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they sneak through Sauron’s back yard, culminating in a very good ending.
This is a wonderful payoff for loyalty to the series and, thankfully, no olliphants were harmed during the making of this film. Get some rest, pack plenty of food and water and set out with grim, steely determination to watch this movie.

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen,
Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett.

Director: Peter Jackson

The second installment of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy is the weakest length, but is still excellent. The superb visuals are back with larger battles and new strange characters, but some the action scenes go on too long in this chapter and they prove to be a slight drag on the story. As well, there are more departures from the text to add romance than I would have liked, and other changes that I won’t mention in case the reader has somehow still not seen this film. These are minor complaints, however. The film only suffers in comparison with the other two.
In this part of the story, Frodo and Sam are on their own, but are soon joined by the amazing computer generated character of Gollum, who is a wonderfully dangerous and intriguing conflicted character. Meanwhile the rest of the remaining fellowship find their own adventures in the larger scale battles of the expanding war, while encountering the tree herding ents as well as new and old friends and enemies. Gimli and Legolas have larger roles here and their characters are much more developed.
Once again, I found the sets, scenery and characters to be striking, and far above almost any other films, but I did find this one to be long (particularly the extended version). Still is part of one of the greatest stories ever told on film.

Director: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Tom Guiry,

Brian Helgeland turned Dennis Lehane’s novel into a wonderful screenplay that was taken by Clint Eastwood, cast with a trio of gifted actors and turned into a masterpiece. The story is good, but the characters are excellent, the dialog natural and engaging while Eastwood’s direction captures and conveys working class Boston. Both Penn and Robbins took home Oscars for their efforts, but in 2004, Eastwood ran into the Lord of the Rings award juggernaut as the Academy chose to celebrate Peter Jackson’s artistic and economic trilogy triumph.

Penn, Robbins, and Bacon are Jimmy, Dave and Sean, boyhood friends until an unspeakable horror takes their innocence. Penn grows up to be a tough neighbourhood businessman and Sean, a cop. Dave struggles with his past and the three see little of each other. The murder of Jimmy’s daughter brings the three of them back together and forces them to look back at the events that they had left behind and at the people that they have become.

This was far and away the best picture of its year and its loss at the Oscars was, well…it was the Oscars, right? It is an excellent drama, nonetheless, and well worth seeing and owning.

Director: Ron Howard

Starring: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan

Films don’t get much better than this edge-of-your-seat Ron Howard classic. It features outstanding understated performances by all of the principals, all of whom play characters accustomed to holding their emotions in check. This means that virtually all of the performers have to show their character’s reactions subtly. That is no easy feat. Add this to an excellent screenplay that uses less dialogue than most and moves slowly and steadily through a gripping true story that does not have an overabundance of action to work with. This tricky project requires director Ron Howard (one of my favorites, for sure) to tell the story with lingering shots and hold our attention with relentless tension that is laced with sudden bursts of energy.

Apollo 13 was a 1970 NASA launch that was intended to be the second mission to land on the moon. That is until mission commander, Jim Lovell, upon whose book the movie is based, utters the famous line “Houston, we have a problem”. Tom Hanks is fantastic (when isn’t he?) in the lead role and has great support from Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon as fellow astronauts-in-peril, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. Gary Sinise is equally impressive as Ken Mattingly, a team member who is left behind and asked to take a key role in figuring out how to get them home. Ed Harris gives a solid performance as the leader of ground control and Kathleen Quinlan does well, as the stolid, but cracking wife of Lovell. Do they make it home? Well, if you haven’t seen the movie, you will have to rent it to see. Or I guess you could quickly find out online, but that won’t be as much fun.

Have I not made myself clear enough up to this point? This is an amazing movie that should have had LAPD detectives investigating why it didn’t win Best Picture. Ok, ok, so Braveheart won. It was just a slightly better film with more action and funnier lines. Call off the investigation. This is still a great movie. If you have missed it, somehow, you should correct that oversight by Monday.

Director: Joe Wright

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Keira Knightley,

Reviewing movies like these is my greatest challenge as a critic. This is a quality product with a good story, good, but overrated acting, and some solid direction, but I still did not like it all that much. So, how do I rate it? As an excellent quality motion picture that will win more awards than Albert Einstein at a Jr. High science fair? Or shall I rate it, according to the entertainment value that it held for me? Being a simple, semi-educated selfless man, I think I will go with the latter; risking the respect of some to save the time, and money, of others. Hence, it gets three stars from me and will probably win best picture. Atonement is exasperatingly slow in several spots as director Joe Wright lingers over scenes, capturing great detail. This is nice, but can we get on with the story? The acting is good, but I disagree with some of the generous praise it has received. It will win plenty of awards since it is a British period piece and has many scenes at a country manor. These three conditions make it an automatic choice for critical acclaim and it will probably win one award for every ten people who see it. I liked Atonement, at times, wished it would end, already, at other times, and I am unlikely to ever watch it again, unless forced to do so, as part of some interrogation ritual.

About half of the film is set in an English country manor in 1935. The story centers around Briony and Cecilia Tallis (Saoirse Ronan and Keira Knightley), the 13 and 18 year old daughters of the house, and on the son of one of the housekeepers, Robert (James McAvoy), an aspiring doctor, for whom the family has taken the responsibility for educating. Briony is an aspiring writer, who has a crush on the older Robert, who is in turn interested in the older sister, Cecilia. Briony, misunderstanding circumstances, does something horrible, but I don’t want to say more than that, in case you manage to get to the theatre without seeing some overly informative review, or trailer, that blows the path of the story for you. I did like the endng.

Those of you who loved the Oscar sweeping English period pieces of the past, will probably find this one to be right up your alley. Those of you who thought that Fargo should have beat out The English Patient in 1997, and that Gosford Park should have gone straight to the bargain rental shelf in 2001 instead of being nominated for seven Oscars, this one is not for you. I found it overly self-indulgent and too slow moving through it’s beaufully shot scenes.