Movies Watched The Week of 4/20 - 4/26

Hey gang.  A smaller week than normal just due to outside circumstances.  But this was a damn good week minus a shit pile auteur jerk fest.  I'm gonna keep it short because I'm tired and have work tomorrow.  So enjoy and share with the world.  Thanks and enjoy the roundup.

Cloud Atlas (April 20th, 2014)

Directors: The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent

Well, I can't say this wasn't an ambitious movie. A 3 hour movie that is set in 6 separate timelines with the cast playing roles in each one, dealing with karma and rebirth.  Which is a good idea in theory, but there are those out there that are gonna have a shit fit when they see Tom Hanks in blackface or Halle Berry in whiteface or whites playing Asian and Asians playing whites.  It's a big and bold idea, but fuck man.  It makes it hard to defend the movie.  Because I do like the movie.  Being a three hour anthology essentially, some segments work better than the others.  The only two I didn't like was the sci fi future story and the post apocalyptic story.  Because they are shorts, the worlds that they built are short changed.  I don't understand the worlds and how they work, so in that regard the stories don't work.  It also doesn't help that in the post apocalyptic story the characters are speaking in this broken english that sounds like a special needs person wrote it.  And the sci fi world they big looks big but they don't really get into it.  It boils down to a Logans Run esque story with a messiah twist, but it rings a bit false.  But other than those two stories, the rest works pretty well.  Everybody is good when they aren't being hindered by racist makeup.  Or the coup de grace, Hugo Weaving in makeup playing a female nurse in the vein of Nurse Ratchet.  But when they aren't encumbered by the makeup, they shine.  Tom Hanks seems revitalized after a long period of doing nothing worthy after Road To Perdition.  This seems like it is what reenergized him to do Saving Mr Banks and Captain Phillips.  Halle Berry is bearable for once, doing good work for the most part.  Ben Whishaw shows the talent he has and will be a good addition to any cast down the line.  Same goes for Jim Sturgess, another talented young man with a good future if he's smart.  Now there are tons of people in this cast, but the one who benefits the most might be Hugh Grant.  He plays completely against type, playing villainous roles in each segment and its really odd how good he is.  No bumbling British cutesiness he is known for.  He actually does villainous quite well.  But to wrap this up, the movie is a big movie that doesn't hit after target it aims at.  It can be kinda laughable at points.  But it is big and ambitious, so the moments that hit land quite well.  In the end though, you may hate it.  And that's fair.  The Wachowskis don't play any other way.  

Rating: 8/10

Used Cars (April 21st, 2014)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Gerrit Graham, and Frank McRae

I wish Zemeckis would make movies like this again.  No more technical achievements that he is so desperate to pursue or Oscar bait movies like Flight.  I want to see him make a dirty, low down and surprisingly/hilarious amoral comedy like this movie.  Being his first movie, it is very rough around the edges.  The story is very flimsy, playing more like scenes strung together loosely.  But holy fuck is this movie funny.  Casting Kurt Russell against type as a slick amoral car salesman (before Carpenter truly muddied his image with Snake Plissken) is a stroke of genius.  Russell has miles and miles of charisma and he just nails the role of the sleazy shit he plays.  Jack Warden is also hilarious playing twins, owners of the dueling car dealerships.  But the best performance is the dachshund who just slayed me.  And while the story is almost non existent, there is some pointed satire in the movie.  It surprised me how angry it kinda seems, with Zemeckis just flipping off damn near everyone.  The only part of the movie I didn't like was the resolution, which kinda peters out.  But for the most part this is a surprisingly strong movie that just hit my funny bone.  Zemeckis hasn't been this hilarious or juvenile since.  He needs it after the decade of CGI.

Rating: 8.5/10

Noah (April 22nd, 2014)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, and Ray Winstone

In my end of the year review, I had a section that looked toward 2014.  Noah was on the list and I wrote that it was gonna be a love it or hate it movie.  It was so ambitious that a middle ground couldn't be found.  And I was right.  People seem to love it and other hate it.  I fall in the latter category.  It was the self indulgent mess that I thought The Fountain was gonna be.  But where that was a beautiful movie with a spiritual bent, this movie was just shit.  Arronofky lost all sight of what he wanted to do.  And I can see what he was trying to do.  The goal was noble and I could have dug a movie that was about Noah and dealing with his PTSD of killing the entire planet.  But Darren lost the thread.  It is so self indulgent but at the same time really fucking stupid.  The only thing in the movie I liked was a sequence that merges evolution with the 7 days of creation of the Universe. Everyone is lost at sea, with Crowe the only one who manages to be watchable, by sheer will and conviction.   On a technical level the movie is impeccable so those guys should get a pat on the back.  But just everything else minus Crowe isn't worth a damn.  Which is a damn shame.

Rating: 4/10

History of The World Part I (April 24th, 2014)
Director: Mel Brooks
Starring: Mel Brooks, Gregory Hines, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman

Mel Brooks has done many a movie in his day, but narrative isn't something he seems to care about.  He makes movies with a barebones plot and then just goes balls out with the funny.  He'll rip the form apart and just aim to make you laugh.  And this movie doesn't even try to have a plot.  It's literally just segments of various time periods and him just having fun.  This isn't the funniest movie he has done by a long shot.  But there are just moments where he hits the right chord and just kills me.  I really don't have much else to say.  It's a surface level movie with a decent amount of laughs to keep it moving along.

Rating: 7/10

Sorcerer (April 26th, 2014)
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou

The biggest surprise of the week was this little seen masterpiece from William Friedkin.  I had thought he basically floundered around until making To Live and Die In LA, but I started hearing this movie was an under appreciated gem.  And it certainly is.  One of the first movies killed by the golden age of Hollywood ending Star Wars, this movie has been lost to the ages.  But Friedkin has been fighting for a restored version released on Blu Ray and he won.  And we now have it and it is glorious.  Following four criminals as they have to hide away in a South American oil town, we are thrust into a dirty and masculine world.  When an oil drill blows up and starts spewing flames, it's up to these four disparate men to transport 6 crates of unstable dynamite 200 miles through the jungle to plug up the hole.  What follows is an intense journey through purgatory as these men have to fight the odds to survive and make enough money to go home.  This is a seriously epic movie that doesn't pull it's punches.  I won't say much more but to say that if he didn't make The Exorcist, this would be his best movie.  Friedkin is completely on point and gets believably rugged and worn out performances from his cast.  One of the best movies of the 70s (yep) was once lost but it is now found.  It is tense and much smarter than one would expect.  I highly suggest searching it out.

Rating: 10/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 4/13 - 4/19

Hey gang, welcome to the special Easter addition of the weekly update of my cinematic journey.  But there is nothing to do with the holiday so it isn't actually that special.  It also may be the weakest week so far, but whatever.  Shit happens man.  Anyway, I'll make this short and sweet.  So sit back, relax and let me know what you think please.  Share the wealth, and enjoy the holiday.

My Soul To Take (April 13th, 2014)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, and Frank Grillo

Wes Craven is one of the masters of horror, but he can turn on a dime and make an embarrassment of a horror movie.  It's really quite odd.  He's like the Robert Rodriguez of horror, except much earlier.  I mean, this is a man who can go from New Nightmare to Vampire In Brooklyn to Scream or can go from The Hills Have Eyes Part II to A Nightmare On Elm Street.  But the only thing that runs through all his movies is that there is usually something more underneath.  He is a very smart man and tries to put some thematic heft into even the most ridiculous of movies, like Shocker, or a sequel like Scream 4.   So I guess it's just sometimes he doesn't always hit his stride or have a fire in him.  This movie is definitely a Wes Craven movie.  I won't get much into the plot since it's all very convoluted, which wasn't helped by the typical tampering his movies face at the hands of a studio (when will these company men assholes learn).  But it starts off with a bang, typical of Wes' movies.  Once the cool opening is done, we move into iffy territory.  Wes trying to make a high school drama with dialogue that could be described as Brick-esque.  Which would be fine if it wasn't written by Wes, an 70 plus year old man.  So we settle into the worst stretch of the movie, dealing with high school crap.  The kids are all good and ready to go but this seems to be lacking.  Probably due to reshoots.  But even throughout this, there is something so odd and unusual about it that I kinda enjoyed it.  It's playing to its own rhythms.  It's around the halfway mark when things really start going crazy, completely abandoning the rules of the slasher genre that by the end of the movie it has completely insane but not in a shark jumping way, kinda.  That's the movie to a T.  It kinda doesn't jump the shark.  There's two main things that make me like this movie a good bit.  One, it feels like an old slasher movie while tossing all the rules out without going meta.  Secondly, the crux of the story that I really don't feel like typing is all a metaphor for growing up/puberty.  It kinda gets lost in all the noise and the ambitious but chopped up ideas Wes was trying to convey, but there is something in this movie that is hard to hate.  At least for me.  I'm a big horror fan, even bigger of Wes so I may have a soft spot for it.  I know most will hate it, but with an open mind you may see something in the stars.  

Rating: 6/10

The Fountain (April 14th, 2014)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weiss

Aronofsky is a man who will always swing for the fences and go big.  He's not always perfect, as the word from Noah tells me (haven't seen it so I can't speak).  But before Noah, there was The Fountain.  His first big budget, sci fi religious epic.  And it certainly doesn't lack for ambition.  Tying three narrative threads together that kind of run at the same time and kind of don't, while maybe dealing with one soul throughout his reincarnation.  But maybe it's just one story with another story within that is used to heighten the themes?  Most didn't take to this movie when it came out, and while I understand why I don't agree.  It doesn't completely hit the marks, but it reaches some damn fine highs that I really respect what he does here.  Visually, the movie is superb, different than anything before.  And acting wise, the main draw is Jackman.  He does tremendous work as essentially three different men and making them similar but different enough.  Weiss does decent work but doesn't have enough to work with to make as indelible an impression that Jackman does in what is the first serious role after playing Wolverine.  This is a poetic sort of movie, with no real plot to speak of.  Sure, we see Jackman try to save his wife in one story, Spain in another, and the Tree of Life in the third (surprised it bombed?).  But narrative isn't important.  It's the moments and the buildup to a realization, the character moments.  By the end of the movie, it all comes together in that trademark ambitious Aronofsky way.  Not completely clean but hard hitting nonetheless.  I can't wait to watch it a second time so I could bask in it more and come out with more to say.  But even on first viewing, it's a damn fine film.

Rating: 8.5/10

Frankenstein (April 15th, 2014)
Director: James Whale
Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, and Boris Karloff

Having watched Dracula last week, I decided on continuing through the Universal Monster movies and watch Frankenstein.  This was a good decision, because this was an improvement on Dracula.  Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein, especially the movie because it is very different from the book.  Dr Frankenstein is obsessed with creating life, thereby creating the monster.  The monster is uncontrollable and dangerous, so he has to put it down.  It's all very simple but iconic nonetheless.  But where this movie is an improvement, the next step compared to Dracula is the ambiguity and the violence.  Ambiguity in the way that the monster was literally made that way and isn't trying to be bad, but is like a child who doesn't know what he's doing.  But should they sort of let him be a giant, impetuous child?  That's rattling around up there.  But for me, the violence shocked me.  Not because it's gruesome or anything.  But because this is a movie from the 1930s and has a scene where the monster hangs someone and throws a little girl into a lake where she drowns.  I was stunned, because you can't even kill kids in todays movies.  Just an insane moment that sort of pays off when there is a scene of the father walking down the road in town while he holds the dead girl in his arms, all in one long take.  Now that, is some haunting shit.  James Whale set out to make something great, and he did it.  Now, there is alot of talk that Whale made this movie as a metaphor for being a closet homosexual.  Knowing that and that Whale was a homosexual, it's almost kinda obvious that it is there.  I'm not gonna say the movie is great because of that, but it's an interesting thing to think about when watching.  This is a classic movie that helped change the game as the other Universal Monster movies did.  Like Dracula it is a bit rough in the story department, kinda choppy in some ways but better off than Dracula in that regard.    But it's still one of those movies sort of figuring out how to do these things.  Either way though, it has to be seen.  A classic for the ages.

Rating: 8.5/10

Reality Bites (April 17th, 2014)
Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo

I don't know how it happened and I don't know why.  But somehow, Ethan Hawke became an actor I really like now.  Before he was that guy who was good in Training Day and Assault on Precinct 13, but nothing else I'd seen him in.  Then I saw him in the atrocious Daybreakers and thought those other two movies were flukes.  But then I saw Brooklyns Finest, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, and then recently I saw the coup de gras of the Before Sunrise trilogy.  He's in that group know of guys that I will watch in almost anything.  Add that, this being Ben Stillers directorial debut and the love of Winona Ryder that every young male who saw Beetlejuice still carries with them, I had to see this movie.  And it is a damn fine little movie.  It could honestly be a Hollywood-ized companion piece to Before Sunrise, before the sequels came out.  Following a group of younguns fresh out of college as they flounder about, trying to figure out what to do.  This is not a story driven movie.  It's kind of formless, with scenes of everyone hanging out or Winona on a date or shit like that.  A love triangle breaks out between Winona, Stiller and Hawke.  But the movie doesn't become dominated with it until the end.  It's a hang out movie featuring a group of fresh faces that we all like, so it's a fun time watching.  It's funny but not gut bustingly so.  It's romantic but kinda not, in the sense that Winona picks an absolute dickhead by the end of the movie.  But I have a weakness for movies about yoots in the 90s.  So I really liked this movie.  Even with my objective hat on, it's a damn good movie that wasn't reaching for game changing levels.  It was content to entertain and it did that.  And for a movie that helped Stiller end up making Tropic Thunder, it is an important damn movie.

Rating: 8.5/10

A Bridge Too Far (April 18th, 2014)
Director: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, and Gene Hackman


I've only seen two of his movies, but I don't think Richard Attenborough is a very good director.  It's not that he's bad, but it between this and Gandhi he is very much a simple director.  Point and shoot, a gun for hire in a way.  Which is odd since Gandhi was a passion project.  He's also very boring, which shouldn't be a word mentioned in a 3 hour war movie that is 2 hours of fighting.  I won't say this is a bad movie.  But it never reaches any glorious heights of past war movies, nor does it do anything to set it apart.  The cast is a good cast, but they pretty much do the barest of minimums.  They aren't characters so much as themselves.  The action is serviceable but bland.  The story is stretched way too thin, doing what Band of Brothers did in an hour, over three hours.  It's a simple story of the many mistakes that doomed Operation Market Garden.  This isn't a bad movie, as I'm glad I saw it.  War movies are usually a good time for me.  It's just there's a level of disappointment that nags at me.

Rating: 7.5/10

Daredevil: Directors Cut (April 19th, 2014)
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Colin Farrell


Of all the failed comic book movies, this one was the closest to being good.  Ben could have been a good Daredevil with a better director and script.  Hell, all the problems fall to the director.  Even the much talked about directors cut features the numerous problems that plagued the theatrical release.  If anything, it kind of added more.  A wildly inconsistent tone and a smattering of ridiculous scenes don't help matters.  The fucking fight scene between Matt and Elektra in the playground is one of the dumbest things in all of comic book moviedom, and I've seen Galactus turned into a fucking cloud.  Or the worst damned soundtrack in not just a comic book movie, but an action movie.  And speaking of action movies, the fight scenes and FX are bad.  There is no weight to the movements, Daredevil moving like Spiderman and the FX looking like crap.  The costume is also a damn joke, with that stupid material it's made of looking like it's more of a hindrance than anything.  Added to the movie in this cut is a subplot dealing with a trial.  Which could have been good, if it didn't add Coolio in a role with some awful attempts at humor.  It's kind of a joke. It's not like the guy got fucked by the studio.  Johnson did Ghost Rider, and that was abysmal also.  Worse than this.  So this project was always gonna be a failure.  But despite the many bad elements, it features two phenomenal elements.  Michael Clarke Duncan is amazing as The Kingpin, bringing the necessary smarts and brutality to the role.  Despite the neckbeards protests to the contrary, his color didn't take away anything.  But the best part is Colin Farrell doing a fantastic Bullseye.  He brings the cockiness and the humor to the role, as well as the physicality needed to portray him as a dead eye marksman.  He is exactly what the character is in the books, and is a breathe of fresh air everytime he was on screen.  But in the end, the movie is not good and a big misfire.  Hopefully Marvel does right by the man without fear on Netflix, because this can't be his live action legacy.

Rating: 6/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies of the week of 4/6 - 4/12

Hello folks.  Welcome back to the newest addition of the weekly update of films I watched this week.  This may have been the most wide ranging week so far, despite having two westerns.  Even the westerns were different.  The only point running through this week is all movies are over ten years old.  The oldest is 83.  Wildly different tones and genres, geography and time.  This was an interesting week.  Give it a look and I hope you enjoy.  Spread the word and let's get nuts.

My Name Is Nobody (April 6th, 2014)

Director: Tonino Valerii

Starring: Terence Hill and Henry Fonda

When you think of spaghetti westerns, Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood comes to mind.  And not without fault.  The Dollars Trilogy, The Good The Bad and The Ugly specifically, are the most famous of the genre.  But there were so many other entries into it that it's always interesting to see what they look like without Sergio's masterful eye.  And while this is a bit of a stretch, since Sergio had a hand in it and it stars Once Upon A Time In The West's Henry Fonda.  But I can say for certain, that Sergios presence is barely felt.  This movie finds Fonda as legendary gunslinger Jack Beauregard who is looking to retire to Europe.  But his brother is killed, and he runs into the mysterious Nobody (Hill).  Nobody idealizes Jack, so he basically sets up a situation where Jack can take down the gang who killed his brother and put him in the history books.  This seems like a tense movie, but it really isn't.  It's a bit of a goof on spaghetti westerns.  Nobody is a clown who takes nothing seriously and outdoes everyone.  Fonda isn't the evil gunslinger in his other western nor is he very serious.  He's tired and wants to be done with the ways of the West.  I won't say that this movie would have benefitted from Sergios touch, since this is more of a comedy and I don't know if he could have done that.  But it could have benefitted from a stronger director.  It's not the funniest movie in the world and the action in it is ok.  It could have been tighter, make it a lighter effort.  But it is fun and has a bit of an infectious spirit.  It's always a joy to see Fonda in a western.  And while he can be a bit irritating, Hill is mostly winning as Nobody.  Everything comes together in the end, elevating the movie with a solid action climax and some interesting things to say about the Western.  For those looking to see a different side of Fonda, the spaghetti western or another side of Leone (kinda), this movie is a fun affair.  Nothing game changing, but a fun time nonetheless.  

Rating: 7/10

The Score (April 7th, 2014)

Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton, Angela Basset, and Marlon Brando


Heist movies are completely predictable in their unpredictability.  So much so they don't really have any surprises anymore.  A heist movie now falls down to how the cast is and if one enjoys them.  Look at Oceans Eleven and its sequels.  A great cast, game for anything and clearly having a blast.  Then look at Now You See Me.  Kind of a who gives a shit movie.  The Score is a movie that is solidly average in that regard.  DeNiro does ok work, an early example of him sleepwalking through a role though he does come to life at the end.  Norton is great as usual so he's the highlight.  Basset is there in the worst of roles, the disapproving girlfriend. But Brando is just at his most fat fuck Brandoest.  Just there as wide as the sky, mumbling through his lines while most likely drunk and working through a sugar high after eating an entire candy factory.  It's really quite glorious. Objectively, it is an awful performance as most weight gain Brando performances were.  But he's such a weird fucking guy, a character in his own right, it kind of becomes a good role because of it.  They work together well to make the movie watchable.  Frank Oz does his best to keep the movie engaging, giving us a technically well achieved movie.  But some editing or tightening of the pace could have done wonders for the movie.  As is it kind of drags in points.  But it is for the most part entertaining.  So if you wanna watch a nice little heist movie, you can do worse.

Rating: 7.5/10

Two Mules For Sister Sara (April 8th, 2014)
Director: Don Siegel
Starring: Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine

Clint Eastwood may be my favorite actor.  I don't think he's the best or that he is very versatile.  But he brings a charisma and a certain energy that I love, and I can watch anything he's in.  So it was basically like shooting fish in a barrel when I started this movie, a western with Clint.  Clint plays Hogan, a Civil War vet who is just a mercenary for the Mexican Revolution.  He is riding through the Mexican desert when he comes across bandits attacking a woman, trying to rape her.  Hogan dispatches the men fairly easily and helps the woman clean up.  This is Sister Sara, something that surprises Hogan.  Because she is a nun and that she knows how to reach the Mexican revolutionaries, he decides to help transport her..  And their journey begins, with violence and sexual tension and secrets being revealed.  Now despite the assured enjoyment I was gonna get from this, it was also a surprisingly a good movie.  Much better than it should be, a movie lumped in between the Dollars Trilogy and the career making Dirty Harry movies.  I've seen movies he made in that period.  They were fun but not necessary movies, weaker than usual movies.  But this was as good as some of his more popular movies and it deserves more appreciation.  Clint has a good performance that isn't Blondie and has a bit of a glimmer of Harry Callahan.  MacLaine is the runaway star of the movie though, giving a great performance as the hunted nun who has a secret she doesn't want to reveal to Hogan.  Future Dirty Harry director Don Siegel does some very good work, giving some very good visuals and action scenes that are much more violent that I expected.  But this is a post The Wild Bunch movie so the effect it had started quickly.  And while fairly plotless, the movie has a nice little energy as Hogan and Sara deal with all kinds of problems on the way to the revolutionaries.  And all this is wrapped up with a nice bow by having a great little Ennio Morricone score.  It adds a nice ambience to the movie, a little dark but with some bounce to it like the movie itself.  This is a good movie to see Clints evolution to movie star.

Rating: 8/10

Dracula (April 9th, 2014)
Director: Tod Browning
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan

If you like horror movies in any way, this movie is a must see.  It is basically a blueprint for horror movies in the future.  Not as specifically ripped off like Halloween was, this is just as important.  It is an early movie, made in 1931.  So it is a very rough around the edges movie.  The story is very choppy, kind of going from scene to scene with no real sense of purpose.  Dracula moves from Transylvania to England, keeps killing people, draws the attention of Van Helsing and is killed.  As funny as it is to say, the plot of the movie is exactly like Dracula: Dead and Loving It.   But the plot isn't what makes this so influential.  It's the film making on hand, the use of the camera and the use of sound.  Using the camera in a way to make things that shouldn't be there appear.  Moving the camera back and forth, revealing that Dracula suddenly appeared or turned into a bat.  The heavy shadows to make the castle more creepy than it would it light.  And the use of sound may be more important.  Or I should say lack of sound, as there is no score.  So there are scenes that are just completely silent as Dracula stalks his prey.  Many movies since have done that, drop out music to heighten tension.  And like many influential movies, it only happened on accident.  The producers thought people would be confused by music on the screen if it was diagetic (has a source in the scene).  So while as a movie it is a bit rough (and very short), the movie is important to cinema and needs to be seen.

Rating: 8/10

Battle Royale (April 10th, 2014)
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto and Takeshi Kitano

I'm gonna say it.  The Hunger Games movies are better.  And I don't think those are even that great.  But they haven't been the monotonous drag of repetitive murder that this was.  I didn't hate the movie, but the absolute love this movie has around it confused me.  The only thing it has going for it is it kills kids on screen graphically.  That's it.  And it really doesn't have any power as these kids are not characters.  They are cardboard cutouts of typical movie teen personalities.  And it gets even more boring seeing kids get shot or stabbed after the 30th kid murder.  Now, I don't need Kurosawa levels of character development to watch and enjoy a violent movie.  The Raid is literally a movie that is just a fight reel that sets up a larger story for the sequel with no real characters outside of Rama.  But here it plays in such a way that we are supposed to feel for these kids, and I don't.  I don't know most of them, and the three or four we get to know have typical backstories that are just easy ways to say "AREN"T I SYMPATHETIC!?".  And the action is very bland.  There isn't even an adrenal reason to watch the movie.  But it is a movie about a game that is people killing each other, a genre that includes the previously mentioned Hunger Games and Stephen Kings The Long Walk.  I enjoy stories like that, so this did keep me interested to see how they would do it.  And despite my problems with the movie, it is entertaining enough and well made enough to keep watching.  But it also has a surprisingly easy, cop out ending to the story.  And really, the backstory for the reasoning of the game is just beyond retarded.  It's just "hey, kids are being bad.  Let's make a game where they kill each other.  And it's randomly picked, so some of the good ones can be in it too which doesn't really help our cause.  yeah, this will show them".  And it doesn't, because these damn kids act like they didn't even know what was happening.  I don't know man.  I know it sounds like I hated the movie, but I didn't.  I just really can't see the love that it gets when it is such a flimsy movie.  I enjoy it for what it is, but with a caveat.  Maybe you will like it more.

Rating: 7/10

The Bridge On The River Kwai (April 12th, 2014)
Director: David Lean
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins


Many times, a movie wins Best Picture that doesn't deserve it.  Dances With Wolves, Ordinary People, and The Kings Speech come to mind.  Sometimes, a movie wins that deserves it.  12 Years A Slave, Braveheart, and Unforgiven come to mind in that way.  But sometimes, there is a race so damn close that it's just a mindfuck to choose one.  Hell, there was a year when Forrest Gump beat out The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction.  Another year saw One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest go against Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville.  And so it was in the year of 1957 when River Kwai went up against 12 Angry Men.  A week ago I woulda said 12 Angry Men easily.  But now?  Fuck, I can't decide.  River Kwai is an amazing piece of cinema about the folly of war and the price it pays to not question the rules and to stick to a code.  Guiness play Colonel Nicholson, the leader of the new group of POWs brought to a camp in Burma to build a railway for the Japs in WWII.  He is a man of honor and believes in the rules and honor to a T.  So much so that when the Japs say the officers have to help in manual labor, he refuses because it's in the Geneva convention.  By the end of the film, the man is completely in the wrong, helping the Japs build a great bridge because the men need to feel pride in their work.  He is completely collaborating with the enemy, because of the honor of doing good work and his code.  I honestly can't do the movie justice but to say that it is a riveting, timeless look at war and the changes it unleashes upon those suffering.  David Lean crafts his first epic here and pretty much solidifies his stature, while also letting the world know he'd be a force to reckon with.  And he was.  His next movie was the masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia.  Which makes it ok that this isn't his best movie.

Rating: 9/10

-Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 3/30 - 4/6

A new week, a new batch of movies.  Welcome back gang to the new installment in my weekly experiment of sorts to try to watch a movie a day.  I didn't choose any themes this week, but two kinda popped up.  One is amoral characters in a few movie, the other is sins of the past coming back for a vengeance.  But despite my subconscious just handing over some thematic elements this week, I purposefully tried to be varied in my choices.  So enjoy the quickish read, give some feedback if you'd like and thanks for the views.  Stay tuned soon for another list from the crew, another list I delayed doing and a massive review on a single film.  Till then, enjoy.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (March 30th, 2014)

Director: Frank Oz

Starring: Michael Caine, Steve Martin and Glenne Headly

Sometimes, you just wanna laugh.  Simply put, that was the sole reason I picked this movie on this day.  Two actors I dig, one of whom not known for comedies (Caine) in an interesting sounding premise.  Caine is a master con man, conning rich women out of money with his seductive charms.  But when he runs into low level con, as played by Martin, a rivalry sparks up.  They make a contest to see who is best, being who could get 50 grand out of a woman of their choosing first.  They decide on Headly, and a good time ensues.  What's surprising about this movie is that our main guys are not good men.  Caine has some honor, but these are thieves who don't mind ripping people off and using whatever means they can to win.  So, the fact they we like these guys and don't think too much about the shitty things they are doing is all on the shoulders of Martin and Caine.  They are both bringing their A games, Caine being as charming as he has ever been and Martin just being that typical Martin asshole.  The movie is funny, but it could have been a little funnier.  Maybe go a little darker with the humor, since the movie is kinda dark to begin with.  The movie isn't bad by any means, with an ending that doesn't cop out on the goal.  It's a fun ending that twists the movie on its head.  It's one of Martins better efforts and it's nice to see Caine unwind.  But there's always gonna be something missing.  It coulda been funnier.  Either way, I'm not upset I watched it. 

Rating: 8/10

Lord of War (March 31st, 2014)
Director: Andrew Nicchol
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, and Ethan Hawke


Now, this is a movie that took me completely by surprise.  I heard good things, that it was one of Cages last good movies before becoming a walking internet meme.  But I didn't expect to see a movie this damn good, nor did I expect a movie that is a biopic the likes of Goodfellas or The Wolf Of Wall Street wherein the main character is such a piece of shit but we are in his POV so things don't seem so awful until they get really awful.  Cage is fantastic as Yuri Orlov, a Ukranian born American raised gun runner.  We watch as he goes from a young kid to the biggest illegal gun runner in the world.  He brings his young brother Vitaly along (Leto in an early showing of the talent that would get him an Oscar).  The movie is a blackly comic look at the completely amoral landscape of gun running, at men who know they are selling weapons to depots and warlords who are going to murder innocents by the droves.  And the whole time, Yuri doesn't care because he distances himself from it.  It's when he starts to see the devastation that he begins to have crisis of conscience.  But the beauty of the movie is, he doesn't stop.  He knows he's an amoral scumbag, so he doesn't alter a thing.  He ruins everything else in his life to stay the best in a certain field, the field in this case being illegal.  The cast is good at rounding the world out, but this is the Cage show.  The only thing that holds this back is Nicchol is not as polished a director as something as big and bold and unique as this needed.  It could have used a Scorsese or a PTA to smooth over some of the rough edges and elevate it to classic.  But as it stands, this is still a great fucking movie that will take you by surprise, a movie that doesn't pull any punches and reminds us why it's so sad that Cage can't do anything good anymore.

Rating: 9/10

Sabotage (April 1st, 2014)
Director: David Ayer
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams, and Mireille Enos


A movie made by David Ayer and starring Arnold could have gone two ways.  A really good look at the lives of a certain kind of cop (Training Day, End of Watch) or an enjoyable if pretty stupid action movie (Street Kings, Harsh Times).  But apparently this movie decided to make a third option and go for both, while adding in the wrinkle of being a movie about Arnolds career in a way.  It's almost the Unforgiven of his career, not so much in quality but in themes.  But where Unforgiven was Clint doing a summation of his mythic western figures, this is Arnold looking back at the human badasses who mowed down anyone in his path to get to his goals.  So kind of a mixture of Unforgiven and Gran Torino.  Here he plays "Breacher", the head of a DEA undercover squad that is the best in the business.  But the only problem is they have been at it so long and are so good, they have started to think and act like the men they chase.  They are violently and crass and very macho.  It's a constant dick measuring contest, with Enos somehow beating almost everyone else, including the giant husk of a man Joe Manganiello.  But Arnold out machos everyone, with the same charisma he had in his eyes back in the heyday of movies like Commando and Predator.  Except the facade comes down when he is alone, as the weight and consequences of all the violence in his life weigh him down.  But he isn't a good man for the most part.  He is just as violent and deranged in his own way as everyone else.  Things go south in the beginning when this group steals ten million dollars from a cartel.  But when the cash goes missing and bodies start dropping,  tensions arise.  Is it the cartel or a member of the crew?  That carries the movie throughout.  Now, the movie is unbelievably violent and dirty.  If one can't handle that sort of stuff, stay away.  The violence is brutal, in your face and not fun to watch.  The language is coarse throughout, which added with the violence and macho posturing sells the world we are watching.  David Ayer brings some good directorial skills to the table, but here his writing isn't as strong as it's been in most of his prior films.  Some of the plot is muddled and character motivations aren't always clear.  We really only know Arnold and Williams throughout.  And from the crew, the only three that stand out are Manganiello, Worthington and Enos.  I barely remembered that Terrence Howard was in the movie on the team, and he has an Oscar nomination.  This is due to the mystery as to what is going on, but it still hurts the movie a bit.  But for the most part, the acting is really good.  Worthington has never been this natural and good before, giving me some hope for him in the future.  But the standout might be Enos, who has never been this loose and wild before in projects like The Killing and World War Z.  But while the movie is a bit sloppy, it comes down to Arnold.  And he delivers.  Arnold gives his best performance since True Lies.  And by the end of the movie, he gets one of the most iconic scenes in his career, a "Deserves got nothing to do with it" moment.  So while the movie gets stuck in some parts, it delivers if you are a fan of Arnold.  I'd be ok if this was his last movie.  This, or a third Conan movie with him as the old king from the end of the first movie.

Rating: 7.5/10
8.5/10 As An Arnold Movie

The King Of Comedy (April 2nd, 2014)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard, and Jerry Lewis


The 80s was a weird time for Scorsese.  After peaking with Raging Bull in 1980, he didn't so much flounder or anything as he just didn't hit the highs of his big hits.  Aside from the controversy for The Last Temptation of Christ, he made moderate movies that aren't usually talked about in talks about him.  That's a shame, because this was in that time and it is a very unique movie.  Frequent collaborator DeNiro plays aspiring stand up comedian Rupert Pupkin who helps Jerry Lewis' popular talk show host Jerry Langford, then uses the opportunity to badger him for a chance to prove himself.  What follows is a look at the life of this madman, a flip side to Travis Bickle.  Where Travis was really intense and off putting, Rupert is like an overgrown child that doesn't understand what the hell he's doing.  And as a whole the movie itself works as a flip side to Taxi Driver, the black comedy version of that movie without the ultra violence.  DeNiro is his usually brilliant self, making Rupert this absolute creepy sumbitch without falling into the Travis Bickle side of things, making Rupert seem incapable of violence.  The two women in the movie are ok, just kinda there.  Bernhard has more to do as Langfords stalker, but she really isn't very good enough to do anything but look crazy and yell.  Abbott is just there to give Rupert an unreciprocating love interest, kinda like Cybill Shepherd in Taxi Driver.  But Jerry Lewis is great as Langford, a man who is funny but is just over the constant badgering he gets from the public.  He is constantly hounded and just wants to be left alone, but you can see the guy who used to enjoy it and why he became so big.  Lewis is kind of a marvel in the movie, and it's a shame that DeNiro and him don't share more scenes together.  The movie has its oddly funny moments, moments where Rupert just ignores social norms or is having elaborate conversations with himself.  But for me, this felt like a dry run to what would become Taxi Driver.  It's weird, because Casino feels like the dry run to Goodfellas, yet both movies came out after the other two.  To me, the movie felt a little unpolished compared to his earlier movies.  You would think coming off Raging Bull, he could get a decent sized budget to make exactly what he wanted to. But no, and you can see the rough edges on the movie.  Or maybe not.  Maybe it's just me.  But where Taxi Driver was rough, that was on purpose.  I don't feel any of the film making was hindered.  But here, something seemed off.  Maybe almost dying and putting everything he had into Bull took something out of him.  But either way, I still really dug the movie.  I just had to put that on the table.  A revisit down the road is def in the cards, with hopefully a greater appreciation coming with it.

Rating: 8/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier  (April 3rd, 2014)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson, Sebastian Stan, and Robert Redford

I'm not a Captain America guy.  Don't get me wrong, I like the star spangled boy scout just fine.  I read his comics and the avengers books he's in.  But in all of comics, let alone Marvel, he isn't a highlight for me.  And his first movie was the worst of Marvels phase one, which is odd to think about when the much maligned Iron Man 2 and the forgotten Incredible Hulk and the looking back mediocre Thor came out in that phase.  All this is saying that this movie, while looking awesome, didn't get me too excited before it's release.  But upon seeing it, the movie is now an instant comic book classic.  And while I think Iron Man 3 is the best solo movie of Marvel, this gives it a run for it's money.  Based in part of The Winter Solider storyline from a decade or so ago, the movie is just a rollicking good time.  Half conspiracy thriller from the 70s and half bombastic action movie, Marvel just throws everything they can to make Captain relevant.  Evans finally grows into the role, getting something to actually do after having nothing interesting in the first movie and being overshadowed by everyone else in The Avengers.  Sam Jackson gets to show why Fury is the baddest dude in the room, while Johannson continues at doing better than needed work as Black Widow.  But the true coup is somehow getting noted blockbuster hater Robert Redford into this.  By getting a man who not only hates the kind of movie it is, but specialized in 70s thrillers of the same ilk, and get him to actually perform is the biggest achievement they have done yet.  The move visually feels like an ancestor of those movies, while feeling like a blockbuster when it needs to.  The Russos do an admirable job here by setting it apart from the other Marvel movies while keeping it reasonably within the same universe.  They also handle the action well enough, with no background in it at all from prior work.  Mainly coming from tv, they do a great job.  Almost as well as the more qualified Alan Taylor from Thor 2/Game of Thrones.  And while the action was big and bombastic, it didn't work for me as much as the last 3 Marvel movies prior to this (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, The Avengers).  I think to me it went a little bit too big for me for only three people to take part in, especially when things get really hard in a world where a Norse God and a green rage monster exist to call for backup.  It's the same problem comics fall into sometimes.  The world is so big, why is nobody else helping an enhanced human to stop a plot to take over the world?  Iron Man couldn't because this takes place at the same time as three, but Thor and Hulk exist.  Not to mention/spoil a big name drop in the movie.  And honestly, I just saw The Raid 2.  It's not fair to judge a PG13 action movie to the R rated masterpiece.  But I have seen the promised land, where action is shot well and hits hard.  In my mind I know Caps action was good.  But compared to The Raid and Marvels other entries, it seemed a little off.  I'll chalk it up to The Raid afterglow.  This is still a great fucking movie. For many this will be the best solo movie, but Iron Man 3 is mine for three reasons.   One, Shane Black is a leagues better filmmaker than the Russos.  Two, I enjoyed Stark's development and PTSD from the events of The Avengers.  Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, is that Iron Man 3 threw me for a fucking loop.  I did not see some of that shit coming and I gotta give major props to Black for doing that in a comic book movie these days.  Cap is fairly predictable.  Enjoying nonetheless, but predictable.  I'm rambling, mainly because I can talk about comic books/comic book movies all day.  In the end, this is a fantastic action movie that solidifies Marvel as a force to be reckoned with, with a big improvement on the Cap series and a status quo changing outcome to be seen in The Avengers 2.

Rating:  9/10

Crazy Heart (April 5th, 2014)
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall


I don't have much to say about this movie.  I know that's a bit silly to say for a budding writer, but it's true.  This movie is all about Jeff Bridges.  If you like him, you'll like the movie.  If not, well theres a whole universe of other movies to watch.  Jeff plays Bad Blake, a washed up alcoholic country singer struggling with life.  This movie is just about him dealing with his loser ways and trying to get his career back on track.  This isn't a big movie, no over the top nonsense.  It's a slice of life, blue collar movie.  Colin Farrell shows up for a bit to prove yet again he's better than the early 2000s made him seem.  Since it's a low key, indie sort of movie Maggie Gyllenhaal shows up as the love interest obviously.  And what Southern set movie is worth a damn if Robert Duvall doesn't appear as the coolest motherfucker in the room without even trying.  This is a solidly average movie all around, getting Bridges a much delayed Oscar.  He was really good, but he deserved it for The Big Lebowski and True Grit a year later.  But either way, it's not an offensive movie so nobody will get mad watching it.  I dug it, I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad I own it.

Rating: 8/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Top Twenty Opening Scenes

Opening scenes.  They can be tricky.  You wanna do something that hooks people right in, but you don't wanna blow your load too early.  Theres many different ways to hook people with an opening.  From big action scenes, to heartbreaking losses or montages to build up the world.  So me, Mike Natale and Josh Paige wanted to compile lists of the best opening scenes. And since I had a lot of free time during the compilation of this list, I couldn't stop at ten.  So here's 20.  And just to reiterate, these are our lists of personal preferences.  They will be overlaps, but entries unique to our lists that show how our tastes differ.  Click on their names to go to their pages.  But for now, sit back and give this list a whirl.  I enjoyed making it, I hope you guys enjoy reading it.  

20. Narc

Director: Joe Carnahan

Starring: Jason Patric and Ray Liotta

Joe Carnahan was out to make a movie that was completely drenched in a gritty, grim atmosphere that was an morally gray canvas.  And what better way to convey that than by starting the movie off with Jason Patric chasing down a perp, who is stabbing people to slow Patric down.  And when Patric catches up, the perp grabs a little girl as a shield.  But there is no hesitation.  He open fire and takes the perp down.  Only, someone else goes down too.  The little girls mother, who gets gut shot.  To make matters even worse? She's pregnant.  Welcome to Narc, where things only get worse from here.  

19. The Road Warrior

Director: George Miller

Starring: Mel Gibson

The opening to this movie sets the tone for the rest of the running time.  By setting up the world and flashing back to the events of the first movie, we know the stakes.  But it also does something else.  In this movie, Max is the mysterious gunslinger who wanders into town.  We as an audience know him, but no one else does.  So by the end of the movie, he is the mythic figure that the narrator calls him.  We are being told an old campfire tale with the survivors of the apocalypse.  A great opening to an even better film.  

18. Dazed and Confused

Director: Richard Linklater

Starring: Jason London, Sasha Jensen, Rory Cochrane, and Matthew McConaughey  

How do you open a movie like Dazed and Confused? It's a movie set during one day, the last day of the school year as we see the juniors prepare for their last year in school and the middle schoolers about to make the jump to high school.  This isn't a cinematic movie with gun fights, explosions or insane camera angles.  It's a simple day in the life story, a story Linklater has perfected.  Well, the only way to start it is to start the day off, set to the tunes of Aerosmiths Sweet Emotion.  We see all the kids heading to the last day and see the various groups.  The first, realistic glimpse into the life of a high school filled with realistic touches.  

17. The Devils Rejects

Director: Rob Zombie

Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sherri Moon Zombie, and William Forsythe

A completely insane movie that follows a family of redneck serial killers on the lam, this is not an easy film to lure people into.  But Zombie is firing on all cylinders, so he manages to do it.  We look through the house of the Firefly family, all asleep. The place is disgusting, a real shit hole straight out of a deep south nightmare.  And that's before we get to the corpses laying around or the one that Otis is sleeping with.  And the peaceful depravity is disturbed when a platoon of cops arrive, led by vengeful Forsythe.  Then, it's a shootout between the two sides with the Fireflys showing their smarts at escaping.  And from here on out, we get a taste for what's at hand.  Nasty, smart serial killers with no regard for like being hunted down by a vicious Cop with a mean streak in him.  

16. Inglourious Basterds

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, and Christoph Waltz

Quentin has always been great at opening scenes.  The only one that didn't have a good one was Death Proof, and that movie was very flawed from the word go (anything without Kurt Russell).  But none of them have managed to be as funny and tense as the opening to this movie.  Here, he sets up the Tarantino version of WWII while setting up the heroine (the less interesting than the Basterds Shoshanna Dreyfuss) but more importantly, the formidable foe Hans Landa (Waltz).  A completely charming, smart and amoral Nazi, Landa is the best character that Quentin has unleashed so far in a career of amazing characters.  But seeing him essentially play with the poor French farmer for information on a Jewish family, this scene is just dripping with tension.  And it is here that we are thrust into the movie that plays with the same kind of tension throughout.  

15. 28 Weeks Later

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo 

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, and Imogen Poots

The beginning to the (in my opinion) best of the 28 Later series, is in and of itself a brilliantly tense and brutal short movie.  In a holed up cabin in the still zombie ravaged Britain, we see as Carlyle and his wife have holed up with a group of other survivors.  We see the way they have adapted to the awful new conditions they have to live in, keeping care to not attract any unwanted attention to the rage infected assholes outside.  But when trouble comes a knocking, it blows up there semi comfortable life for good.  Being a zombie movie, lives are lost in gruesome fashion and there is heartbreak.  We see terrible choices made and the guilt from the acts.  While the movie only reaches the heights of this scene once (the outbreak scene a little later), it sets the stage for the horror to be unleashed later by expanding the scope from 28 Days Later and going bigger from there.  

14. Man Of Steel

Director: Zack Snyder

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, and Russell Crowe

Man of Steel needed to set itself apart from the Superman movies of the past, and right out the gate it does that.  While Superman: The Movie began on Krypton, it couldn't have been further than we got here.  We see Kal El born, as Jor El (a brilliant Crowe) looks on in fatherly pride.  Then we see him debate with politicians about Kryptons imminent destruction when General Zod shows up.  We see that a military coup has broken out and Jor El has to brave his way to his sons side so he can save him by sending him to Earth.  A mini movie in and of itself that shows more heart, action and emotion than the entirety of Avatar, this is where Snyder and co lay out the movie for us.  We are going to get a giant, Sci Fi epic about ones place in the world as told through the prism of Superman.  One of the best openings to a comic book movie, and a Sci Fi movie.

13. Casino Royale

Director: Martin Campbell

Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, and Judi Dench

After Die Another Day, Bond needed another fresh start.  By bringing back Martin Campbell (who did that job once with Goldeneye) was more than up to task, as evidenced by this brilliant and explosive beginning.  We see Bond interrogate an MI6 traitor, while cutting back and forth between that and a fight in a bathroom with the traitors contact.  Filmed in stark black and white, it signaled the complete do over that Bond needed.  I'm gonna cheat and say the opening continues into the next scene, a chase scene through Morocco that is a classic action scene that once again shows the changes to Bond.  Bond is young and learning how to become the Bond we know and love.  The movie ends with that moment.  And while Quantum of Solace fucked that up, Skyfall came in and said "hey forget Solace, I'm the real sequel that has Bond be Bond like the ending said he became".  

12. Manhattan 

Director: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, and Michael Murphy

Woody Allen is New York.  Or I should say, he is a certain part of New York that is completely different from Scorseses New York.  But any geographical differences from hailing the Upper West Side or Little Italy don't matter with this opening scene.  With a narration by Woody about his love for the city, we are treated to images of the city in Black and White while George Gershwins Rhapsody In Blue plays.  Really, it's just a NY thing.  Watch it and let the best damn city wash over over you.  It's certainly better than letting Taxi Driver wash over ya.  

11. Children Of Men

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Starring: Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

The opening to this dystopian future where women can't conceive anymore starts out, as any good opening should do, with initiating us into this world.  We are in a coffee house as we watch a group of people looking at the tv.  The news is telling them that the youngest person in the world has died.  Sadness is painted on everyones face.  So immediately, we know the world isn't ours and that things are not very good in this world.  But we follow Clive Owen as he leaves the shop, stop to adjust his coffee when the coffee shop blows up.  This is all in one take.  The world has been teased and done so in virtuoso fashion.  The ride begins here, and it's something else.  

10. Once Upon A Time In The West

Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Claudia Cardinale, and Henry Fonda

Sergio Leone is a master.  Simply put, he is in a league of his own, still being copied today.  And the opening to this movie is one of his finest moments.  It is a prolonged opening, taking it's sweet ass time to get to the point.  We just follow three men, obviously bad dudes, as they wait around a train station.  That's it.  It's about ten minutes long as they wait around for a train.  The tension is palpable, swarming off the screen.  Then the train comes, and who steps off but Charlie Bronson.  And then everything snaps into place.  They are awaiting this movies mysterious gunslinger.  It's three on one though.  This can't be fair can it?  Just check in on this masterpiece and find out for yourself.  

9. The Dark Knight

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, and Heath Ledger

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the beginning of The Dark Knight made it on this list.  Not only is it the opening to the best comic book based movie ever, but it also features the best bank heist put on film.  A recurring format that Nolan has been using since this movie, the beginning of this movie acts as a prologue.  We follow a crew that is about to knock over a bank in completely well oiled fashion, on the orders of the Joker.  Everything is going smoothly until they don't.  The crew starts knocking each other off thanks to Jokers orders.  The bank manager starts shooting at them with a shotgun.  But everything calms down until the last two guys are standing.  Then one of them pulls a gun on the other and things seem to go one way, but they go another.  A creepy voice emanates from the mask of the one with a gun aimed at him.  A bus plows through the bank and kills the armed clown.  The driver and the last man standing load the money in the bus and the driver gets shot.  The bank manager starts talking shit.  So the remaining thug walks over to him, puts a grenade in his mouth and the mask comes off.  We finally meet the clown prince of crime, The Joker himself.  This isn't your grand daddys Joker.  He is nasty, grimy, unbelievably ingenius and more than willing to get his hands dirty for the hell of it.  In less than 10 minutes, we are introduced to the villain of villains thats about to take on the Dark Knight for Gothams soul.  And what we see here, it's not going to be an easy ride.  

8. Goodfellas

Director: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci

This is probably the shortest segment on the entire list.  It's a quick little scene that completely envelops you into the world you are about to enter.  The three main guys are driving in a car when they hear a noise coming from the car.  Liotta thinks he hit something.  He wakes up DeNiro and Pesci to ask them what it could be.  Then something dawns on them.  They pull over and go to the trunk.  Slowly, Liotta opens up the trunk.  Inside?  A bleeding, mortally wounded man trying as hard but as meekly as he can to call for help.  Pesci stabs him a handful of times, then DeNiro blasts him with a revolver.  Liotta takes it in, then closes the trunk.  "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster" is voiced over the trunk closing.  Welcome to the world of the mafia, a bunch of guys who don't even think twice about murder and think of it as easy and matter of factly as throwing out the garbage.  The descent into the awful world these men live in only grows worse, as we see it through their eyes from the highs and lows.  

7. Touch of Evil

Director: Orson Welles

Starring: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Orson Welles

Orson Welles is the granddaddy of tracking shots, starting right here.  Tracking shots may have been done before, but none as flashy and as memorable as this.  Someone plants a bomb in a car in Mexico, then we follow it as it drives through the border town as it heads for the border.  Then we move over to Heston and Leigh as they walk around town, our introduction to them.  Then the car blows and the story begins.  Like all of the great tracking shots, it's well made but it also serves a purpose.  It's building tension with the bomb in the trunk, while it introduces Heston, also just showing how everything is interconnected in the town.  It's a brilliant scene, and another way of Wells just changing the game.  

6. Watchmen 

Director: Zack Snyder

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Malin Ackerman, Billy Crudup, and Jackie Earle Haley

Snyders adaptation of Watchmen was met with skepticism when it was announced, and hasn't had the greatest of reputations since its release.  But a general consensus can be reached that the beginning of the movie is perfect.  Starting with a fight between the Comedian and an unknown (to the uninitiated) assailant, this is a fight that we had in our imaginations for decades.  It was happening.  But if it was just that, the opening would be just good.  No, Snyder decided to make a sequence that would be transcendent.  Set to The Times They Are-A Changing by Bob Dylan, we are treated to a 5 minute opening credits sequence that works as a montage to build the world.  We see the earlier vigilantes as they start up, the formation of the first hero group, then the fall of the group.  From death and personal demons, we see the original group fall apart.  The Comedian is not the hero we though, as he is revealed to have killed JFK.  Sally Jupiter can save the day outside, but in her home/with personal relationships she is lost at sea.  The world is growing bleaker.  But then we see a new group rise.  Rorshach, Dr Manhattan, Ozymandias, a new Nite Owl and Silk Specter arrive on the scene.  Then a new group is formed, along with a member of the original group, The Comedian.  Maybe things are getting better?  A group of protestors picketing the Watchmen and a man tossing a molotov tell us that, no.   Things have only gotten worse.  Just a brilliant opening that sets up roughly 40 years of history, while setting up what's to come.  

5. Halloween

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, PJ Soles, and Donald Pleasance

The moment that John Carpenter changed cinema history started right here.  For one, it kicked started (in full) a career that was going to hit a streak for 15 years that is for the ages.  Secondly, he would shape the entire Horror genre in 91 minutes.  To this day, you can't escape knockoffs and wannabes of this movie.  Every horror movie is trying to be this.  All the rules of horror films talked about in Scream, pretty much got there start here.  And it all starts with this opening scene that announces it is something new and a force to be reckoned with is about to be unleashed.  A POV shot with the appearance of an unbroken take, we watch as this unknown person stalks a young girl from outside her home into her bedroom.  When he is about to attack, she screams his name Michael.  So we can assume they know each other in some way.  He kills her and walks downstairs and outside.  It's really that simple.  Like the movie itself, it's very simple.  But Carpenter is directing like his life depends on it and the scene is dripping in tension.  We don't know what the hell is happening until it happens, and it takes it's time getting to the point.  But the real capper is when the killer goes outside, the camera changes from a POV to medium shot.  The killer was a little boy.  His parents come home and we realize something horrible.  This little boy has snapped and killed his sister, all with a dead eyed stare in his head.  A monster has been unleashed in this child.  And as we learn, he can't be stopped when he doesn't want to be.  History is made with a virtuoso scene.  

4. Reservoir Dogs

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen 

Another opening that announces the arrival of a game changer.  The opening of this scene is pure Tarantino.  Opening up with a group of crooks sitting around a diner table, one of them saying Madonnas Like A Virgin is about big dicks.  It's all here.  A bunch of well spoken thugs talking about nonsense and pop culture without a modicum of a plot given.  But there is one thing that elevates this above being good to listen to.  It builds up who the important guys are.  Buscemi is a little fucking weasel who won't tip waitresses because fuck them.  Roth is a follower and a little snitch.  Chris Penn is a doofus daddys boy.  Lawrence Tierney is a no nonsense old timer.  Keitel is a man of honor and respect, while Madsen is a mercenary who enjoys violence.  It is a scene that shouldn't really work, because it's just talking about nonsense.  But it does.  You watch this scene and it hooks you for the whole ride.  Hell, the ride could mean just the movie or Tarantinos entire career.  

3. Up

Directors: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson

Starring: Ed Asner, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, and Christopher Plummer

This may very well be Pixars crowning achievement.  The movie itself could be argued as such, but there is no arguing that the opening to this movie is brilliant and iconic in the land of animation.  Much like Watchmen from earlier, it has an opening scene and montage.  The opening scene introduces us to two young kids, Carl and Ellie.  We see a friendship form.  Then the montage starts and we see them grow from friends to lovers, as they start a life together.  And like life, it hits highs and lows.  This montage is just brutal in its look at life and loss.  No big gestures, no action.  Hell, there's no dialogue to tell us what to feel.  It's all visual and the movie kicks you right in the gut.  

2. Saving Private Ryan

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Ed Burns, and Matt Damon

In a career of iconic moments and action packed spectacle, Spielberg bested everything he did in the past and set a bar that hasn't been cleared since with the opening of this movie.  This isn't even in question.  When you make a WWII battle scene, and veterans of said war get flashbacks to the war because it's so visceral, you did something right (also kinda fucked up in a way).  But it is simple.  We see an old man, a WWII vet in a cemetery.  He is with his family.  He goes to a grave and falls to his knees.  Then we flashback to a U Boat in the war, ready to storm Normandy Beach.  The power in this lies in the brutality and the destruction on display.  Men die with no problem at all.  Death is easier than life on this battlefield.  And we see the death in all its horrible ways. Limbs blow off, holes are shot into important parts, and bodies are set aflame.  Screams and bombs overpower the audio in this scene.  War has never been captured so grippingly, so realisticly, or so hauntingly.  Spielbergs crowning achievement, the best war scene ever and arguably the best opening scene of all time.  It's between this or the number 1 pick.

1. Scream

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, and Skeet Ulrich

This could very well be a controversial pick.  Not that it's on the list, but that it's the number 1 choice.  I did debate between this and Saving Private Ryan.  But this had to take the edge for me.  For one, it is literally a short slasher film at the beginning of the movie.  From the blonde victim, to the slashers MO, to the chase and eventual kill shot, this is everything a slasher movie does but executed perfectly and in a short amount of time.  Secondly, it is the intro point to the meta genius slasher opus that Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven have crafted. This is every slasher movie with a twist, where the characters know the rules.  It subverts and plays into them in genius effect, and it all builds here.  Wes has changed horror films twice before this, with The Last House on The Left and A Nightmare On Elm Street.  But neither had the power that this movie had.  This movie killed the horror genre for a good long time.  Some could even argue the genre is still on it's death bed.  And it all boils down to the best opening to a movie ever, in my opinion. 

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- Tom Lorenzo