Movies Watched Week of 8/24 - 8/30

Welcome back gang to the newest addition of my weekly update.  After the pretty shit week last week, we get back on track with some good stuff.  I had to cheat a bit with a rewatch of a great flick, but it's still a good week without it.  So sit back and enjoy.  I'll see you soon.

Southern Comfort (August 24th, 2014)

Director: Walter Hill

Starring: Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, and TK Carter

Walter Hill was and still is one of the best guys to make movies about tough and rough men dealing with some hard times.  So it isn't surprising to know that he made a movie about a crew of National Guardsmen in the South being hunted by natives, and that he knocked it out of the park.  Filled with great character guys and B stars like Booth and Carradine, the movie is really down and dirty.  Hill also shows some real talent of building up tension and impending doom, having these guys really out of their element against the native Cajuns.  It's like a different take on Deliverance, but instead of having an absolutely retarded rape scene being the driving force of the movie and just ending up being a man vs nature movie, Hill makes it a man vs nature and a man vs man movie.  And it's not just the guardsmen vs the cajun.  The guardsmen start to turn on each other, not always having liked each other and those feeling coming out ten fold.  Some snap under pressure, some deny the reality of the situation, and some do whatever to survive.  It's not a spoiler to say not everyone survives.  It all culminates in one of the best sequences Hill has ever directed, and absolute nail biting scene set in a cajun town while the natives have a little ho down.  It's masterfully directed and cut and is the perfect capper for the movie.  This is a great little movie, nothing that will change the world but is perfectly calibrated to entertain and keep you on the edge of your seat.  

Rating: 9/10

Django Unchained (August 29th, 2014)
Director: Quentin Tarantino

 Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, and Leonard DiCaprio


I've already seen this and loved it.  I've seen it alot.  But I haven't watched it front to back in a long time, definitely before I started this weekly update business.  So I'm basically here to say that this movie is still perfect and one of Tarantinos masterpieces, a master class in film making and entertainment.  One of the most amazing aspects of this is that he manages to convey that slavery was awful for the slaves, and he doesn't do it with a wink in his eye or any lighthearted antics.  No, he shows the dehumanizing life of a slave.  But he also keeps it out of the misery porn genre that 12 Years a Slave delves into by making all the stuff with white folks absolutely hilarious.  All of the white folks not King Schultz are real nasty pieces of shit but absolute idiots.  And all violence against white folk is just so cartoony and over the top, you can't help but laugh and root for these scum bags to get their comeuppance.  It doesn't hurt when the main pecker wood is being portrayed by DiCaprio as Calvin Candie, an absolutely repugnant and ignorant man in a career high for Leo.  But he also shows how insidious the slave trade can be by giving us Sam Jackson as Steven, the head house nigger and poster child for Uncle Tom-hood.  Steven is the lowest of the low in Djangos eyes, a man who willing turns against his own kind to stay in the Candie families good graces.  And without bringing attention to it, we see that Stephen is a broken man.  He plays three different people essentially, is always hiding his true nature, and has an absolute hatred for Django for being his own man without cow towing to a white man.  This is the movie where Quentin decided to be some thematic heft into his work, while still giving us a hilarious bloodbath with an anachronistic soundtrack.    The cast is uniformly great, even Foxx in the less flashy role of stoic badass.  This is just pure Tarantino without any bad elements, something we haven't got since Kill Bill.  He delivered a brilliant film and it still works and will continue to work as a one of a kind monster of a movie.

Rating: 10/10

Rescue Dawn (August 30th, 2014)
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, and Jeremy Davies

I'm not always the biggest fan of biopics.  They tend to fall into this bland, going through the motions feel that I can't really get behind.  Some can over come the typical narrative, like Malcolm X.  But usually, I'm whatever.  This one manages to tip over into the interesting side of things, mainly because of Herzogs career as a documentary film maker, adding a realism to the proceedings that really helps in this kind of movie.  Dealing with Bale as a pilot around the Vietnam War as he crashes in Laos, ending up as a POW and his attempt to escape.  This could fall into real treacle or misery porn territory.  But the character Bale plays, Dieter Dengler, is such a force of positivity and faith that the movie never feels miserable.  You feel the weight of everything, but his good spirits keep the movie afloat.  That's also due to Herzog, having made a doc about Dengler and bringing his realism to a story he obviously really cares about.  Bale is great in the role, but the breakout is Zahn.  His portrayal of such a broken down husk of a man is truly heartbreaking, and eye opening because why the fuck isn't he doing more work?  All in all it's a really good flick with great performances, and the movie moves along at a good pace and an uplifting tone.

Rating: 9/10

2 Guns (August 30th, 2014)
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, and Bill Paxton

This is an ok movie.  Technically well made and has a nice pace to it.  But it's all cliche and typical action movie fare, with double crosses and conspiracies abound.  It's whatever in that sense.  What keeps this movie afloat and watchable is the cast.  Denzel and Wahlberg are great together.  The chemistry is great and they bounce off each other really well.  Their two different and distinct energies are good counterpoints.  Add Bill Paxton just chewing up scenery like a mad dog with a gloriously terrible southern accent and legendary mustache, this is a fun movie to watch for the cast.  That's it.  If you don't like most of these guys, don't watch.  But if you do, it'll be a fun time.

Rating 7/10






Best Movies

1. Django Unchained
2. Southern Comfort
3. Rescue Dawn
4. 2 Guns





Top 5 Performances

1. Leonardo DiCaprio - Django Unchained
2. Steve Zahn - Rescue Dawn
3. Samuel L. Jackson - Django Unchained
4. Powers Booth - Southern Comfort
5. Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained



Top 5 Moments

1. Candieland Bloodbath - Django Unchained
2. The Cajun Dance off - Southern Comfort
3. I Count Two Guns - Django Unchained
4. The Bags Don't Fit - Django Unchained
5. Denzel Pays Marky Mark Back - 2 Guns

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched Week of 8/17 - 8/23

Welcome back gang to a new post.  Sadly, it is one of the worst weeks, if not the worst, I've had since starting this.  Two really bad movies were seen, one of which is very disappointing.  It's a short week, my energy for cinema kind of drained from the first two.  If you wanna see me spit some vitriol, enjoy the ride.  Stay tuned for more stuff, hopefully better than this week.

The Counselor (August 17th, 2014)
Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Brad Pitt

I really wanted to like this.  I keep hoping that Ridley Scott could rebound and make something worthy of his legacy again, or even something on the level of American Gangster.  Shit, I'll take Body of Lies at this point.  And adding Cormac McCarthy as writer seemed like it could help Scott out of his funk.  But alas, it wasn't meant to be.  Getting a script that deals with all of McCarthys worst traits, this is an absolute failure of a movie.  Fassbender tries his best to elevate a script that gives him an absolutely empty vessel of a character.  He tries hard and does some decent work considering, but he's playing a rigged game.  The only other person to give a decent performance is Pitt, and he just seems to be enjoying himself.  Everyone else sucks.  Cruz is saddled with a nothing of a character, but can't do anything with it like Fassbender.  She's stuck.  Bardem is just trying to be filled with weird little ticks and shit to seem deeper than he is, but aside from being stuck with a Brian Grazer haircut, he's worthless.  But no one is as bad as Diaz.  She's always sucked, and I don't know how she's managed to stay in the game.  This may be her nadir.  She's is awful on every level, trying to be the nihilistic femme fatale but failing so miserably and laughably.   McCarthy doesn't help with the shit ass dialogue he gives her, nor does the scene where she fucks a car windshield help her cause.  I never liked her, but holy shit I never thought she could be this bad.  This could have been a good movie if McCarthy didn't always feel the need to have a cool story happening off screen with the stories he's telling.  But there's that problem, added on to the fact that the movie is so steeped in misery that nothing really matters.  You don't care for anyone, so the misery just plays as self indulgent bullshit.  This movie really sucks, and only has one good scene where Pitt gets his head cut off.  The movie sucks and has finally taken me away from Scotts side.  I no longer anticipate his movies.  Kinda similar to the next movie I saw this week.  

Rating: 5/10

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (August 21st, 2014)
Directors: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Josh Brolin, Jessica Alba, and Joseph Gordon Levitt




I haven't been this disappointed in a long time.  Not as long as it took for Rodriguez to get off his lazy ass and make a no brainer sequel to the last successful movie he made, but it's been a while.  And I tried to defend this before hand to haters.  Yeah, Rodriguez has been slumping and slumming for a while.  Yeah, Miller lost his damn fool mind around 2001, unable to write anything interesting.  But Sin City has stories already written and fits in both of these guys wheel houses.  But they decided that Miller needed to write two new stories.  Fuck, ok.  Maybe Sin City is the only thing he can write for, being pure Miller.  Nope. The two new stories are absolutely abysmal.  Just pure nonsense, filled with the hatred and misogyny that has always filled his work but really became obnoxious in the last 15 years.  One is just half assed and goes through the motions and ends on a sigh of crap.  The other is just a long string of misery and pain, leading to an absolutely pointless ending that just wallows in hate.  The lazy is story is headlined by Alba, and she tries.  But she is saddled with another in a long line of worthless Miller women that are filled with hate and are nasty and is only complete with a man in her life.  Levitt headlines the pointless story and it sucks, because this is one of the few roles he actually was good in and fit the world.  But Miller has lost any sense of storytelling, so he is wasted.  Then there is segment that is based on an old story, so it is the best of the 4 in here, but it still is missing something.  Headline by Brolin and Eva Green, this segment could have been good.  But Rodriguez just loafs through the story and puts no energy at all into it, so the segment suffers.  Brolin is ok and tries his best, but looks really stupid when they put makeup on him to make him look like Clive Owen.  Green is the best in the movie, because she seems to realize what movie she's in and that it sucks so she just vamps and has fun.  The 4th segment is about Marv, and it's just bland.  He kills some folks and that's it.  Marv, who was great in the first movie, seems like Rourke forgot how to play him.  This movie hurt.  It looks really cheap, like a DTV sequel by some no name assholes trying to make a buck, but it's the same damn guys.  I truly think Rodriguez took the failure of Grindhouse to heart and never recovered the way Quentin did, just content to make cheap crap for no money.  The movie is boring, has no energy or soul and just wallows in misery for about 2 hours.  I've been defending Rodriguez and hoping he hit a home run again, but he's off my list.  I'm done with him until he shakes off the PTSD of making a movie that failed.  Stay away from this shit fest.

Rating: 4/10

Naked Lunch (August 23rd, 2014)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider

This movie is really weird.  It's got a narrative in a sense, but it's all a bunch of hallucinogenic nonsense.  Weller plays a pest exterminator who ends up getting roped into a conspiracy/spy story with bugs and centipedes and god dammit this is just silly to type out.  It's insane but I found myself entertained, despite this being something that I normally wouldn't like.  But I guess Cronenberg is a veteran who knew what to do.  It's not perfect, but it's watchable.  Weller is a non character, a passive non entity in his own story.  He has moments where he comes to life, but it's rare.  The strengths of the movie lie in the wild imagery Cronenberg brings to life.  It's fine enough, not his best but far from his worst.  If your interested in him or in William S Burroughs, this is a decent enough time.  

Rating: 7/10

The Fisher King (August 23rd, 2014)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, and Amanda Plummer


After the sad passing of Williams, I decided to see some of his acclaimed stuff I hadn't seen yet.  Being that I work on my own retarded schedule, it took me a while but I got to one.  This is a solid little movie, a rare down to earth flick by Gilliam.  Bridges plays a Howard Stern like shock jock, a loud mouth asshole.  One day on his show, he gives a caller some advice in his typical dick fashion.  Later that night, it turns out that caller went on a killing spree, taking his own life too.  Three years later, he is off the air and not dealing very well.  When he decides to take his own life, he meets Williams.  A homeless man with a good attitude, Bridges finds out he was at the restaurant that got shot up and his wife died.  It drove him crazy and now he's homeless.  Bridges, feeling responsible and looking to make amends, tries to help Williams get with the woman he is in love with.  It's a bit Hollywood for Gilliam, but he gives it enough grit and heart and soul to not make it an eyeroller.  Bridges and Williams are great in this, completely embodying the characters.  The movie is more dramatic than laugh out loud, but it has its moments.  And Williams brings alot of genuine emotion to the movie, breaking hearts every now and then with his immeasurable talent.  It's got some dry spots here and there, keeping it from truly great status, but it is a damn good showcase for the two main men.  Gilliam shoots it like he usually shoots a movie, it's not a game changer for him.  It can be a bit off putting for me, making a realistic for the most part movie look a little off.  It's little stuff to decrease the rating, but it can absolutely demolish some people emotionally.  A good flick and well worth seeing to honor Williams.

Rating: 8/10






Best Movies

1. The Fisher King
2. Naked Lunch
3. The Counselor
4. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For




Top 5 Moments

1. Parry tells Lydia how he feels - The Fisher King
2. Brad Pitt Gets Decapitated - The Counselor
3. Parry Wakes Up - The Fisher King
4. Parry Saves Jack - The Fisher King
5. Eva Green Being Naked - Sin City: A Dame To Kill For




Top 5 Performances

1. Jeff Bridges - The Fisher King
2. Robin Williams - The Fisher King
3. Eva Green - Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
4. Michael Fassbender - The Counselor 
5. Brad Pitt - The Counselor

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched Week of 8/10 - 8/16

Hello gang.  Still sick (fucking tonsillitis), so it'll be another quick one.  Some decent stuff this week, but then we got a disappointment.  Not the worst week I've had, but not the best.  Still, theres some good stuff to be had.  So sit back and enjoy.  

The Hustler (August 10th, 2014)

Director: Robert Rossen

Starring: Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, and Jackie Gleason

Leave it to me to watch the first Eddie Felson movie after the second.  It doesn't really matter, as the narrative of this doesn't spill into the other.   But it does inform who and where Eddie is in his life.  Here, Eddie is like the Tom Cruise character in the sequel.  He's a cocksure kid who thinks he knows everything and doesn't really know how bad he's making things for himself.  The only difference is that Eddie didn't have someone to mentor him like Cruise did.  Here, he's a pool shark looking to beat the best, Minnesota Fats (Gleason).  But he ends up blowing it all and has to build himself back up.  This is all good and interesting, seeing Eddie as a young and stupid kid.  It's also nice to see someone who is kind of addicted to losing try to break that pattern and better himself. But I really could have done without the girlfriend story.  It does nothing for me and comes across as very cliche.  She is just another woman who has to die to make the man motivated and it doesn't work.  It also pads out the run time, making the movie slow to a crawl.  The rest of the cast is great and makes the movie work as well as it does.  Newman shows us a star in the making, Scott shows a real toughness, and Gleason brings his lived in charisma to the proceedings.  It's a good movie, just brought down by a misguided side story.  Still worth watching though.  

Rating: 8/10

Christine (August 11th, 2014)
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Robert Prosky, and Harry Dean Stanton


This movie shows how talented and on point Carpenter was in the 80s.  This is based on a Stephen King book, and not one of the realistic ones that sound easy to adapt.  No, this one is about a killer car that possesses a young man.  So, it stands to reason that a movie like this could be an absolute joke and look real silly.  But Carpenter was on fire at this point and knew exactly what he was doing, he makes this movie seem completely normal and not silly at all.  Right of the bat, the tone of the movie is totally Carpenter.  And as per usual, the movie looks really good and is shot with his typically great eye for composition.  The main cast is real good, selling the premise really well and keeping the story grounded.  Some of the secondary characters/extras aren't so hot but they don't completely kill the movie.  They just stand out a little bit.  The biggest criticism to be leveled at the movie is that the third act comes off a little rushed.  Nothing too bad and it makes sense in a way within the story, but afterwards leaves you feeling it wasn't as naturally flowing as it could have been.  But either way, you leave the movie really surprised and impressed at the work Carpenter did.  The fact that this isn't even close to his best work from the 80s should say something about his output. A damn fine film and worthy of a look.

Rating: 9/10

The Expendables 3 (August 14th, 2014)
Director: Patrick Hughes
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jason Statham, and Mel Gibson

They really should have went R rated.  PG 13 action movies can sometimes be ok, but they'll never pack the wallop and pain, or even humor, an R rated movie can give you.  Humor to the violence is what the first two in this series gave us.  So over the top that it's funny.  And it has to be over the top bloody, when the whole premise is getting a bunch of 80s action stars into a film and causing mayhem.  And if there is one thing the 80s action movies did, it was over the top mayhem.  So that seriously takes the movie down a notch.  It doesn't help that it seems like it was edited down to be PG 13, because the action is kind of incoherent and not really anything special.   What saves this movie is that the cast is game.  There are three that need to be shouted out.  The first is Antonio Banderas, showing how absolutely hilarious he actually is while at the same time showing off his action acumen.  He is a shot of legitimate humor into the movie.  Second is Harrison Ford.  Despite obviously having shot all of his stuff separately and put into the movie, he seems to actually be enjoying himself and not just grumbling through the movie.  He hasn't been this alive since he saw Marion in Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.  And thirdly, Mel Gibson shows how god damned good he really is.   He is so legitimately invested into the role, he seems to be in a different movie all together.  There is one scene between him and Stallone where he seems like he is aiming for an Oscar, and I'll be damned if I wasn't enraptured in the scene.  Now, the movie itself is big dumb fun.  Most won't enjoy it, but if you enjoy dumb action flicks it is for you.  Just sadly could have been much better than it is.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: Assault on Arkham (August 16th, 2014)
Director: Jay Oliva and Ethan Spaulding
Starring: Kevin Conroy, Neal McDonaugh, Troy Baker, and CCH Pounder

It's almost annoying having to do this every time, but DC animated is just great.  They are so above and beyond anybody else it's ridiculous.  This time they are moving out of the New 52 timeline the movies have taken on and are jumping into the world of the Arkham videogames.  And while Batman is in the title, the movie isn't really focused on him.  This movie is focused on the Suicide Squad, and more specifically it focuses on Deadshot.  It adds a nice wrinkle to the proceedings, as we follow villains instead of the normal heroes.  It takes on the form of a heist movie and just goes bigger and crazier from their.  The movie looks great and is voice acted to perfection.  The story is really fun and takes some nice twists and turns to keep you guessing.  It really is a fun, entertaining breeze of a movie.  Only thing I wish was that the movie was a little longer. Maybe get into depth a little more with the squad.  Its a minor nitpick but its a common problem with them, making the movie short but sweet.  It's a good problem to have, leave em wanting more.  The movie isn't really for kids, as it is bloody and violent as hell, with a fair amount of foul language.  It's nice to see DC aiming higher than 5 year olds with their stuff.  Another win for them, the best thing they've done since Flashpoint.

Rating: 9/10




Best Movies

1. Christine
2. Batman: Assault on Arkham
3. The Hustler
4. The Expendables 3




Top 5 Performances

1. Mel Gibson - The Expendables 3
2. Paul Newman - The Hustler
3. Keith Gordon - Christine
4. George C. Scott - The Hustler
5. Kevin Conroy - Batman: Assault on Arkham



Top 5 Moments

1. Why didn't his bomb go off? - Batman: Assault On Arkham
2. Christine Is Aflame - Christine
3. Conrad in The Truck - The Expendables 3
4. Eddie Loses To Minnesota Fats - The Hustler
5. Christine Puts Herself Back Together - Christine

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched 8/3 - 8/9

Welcome back gang.  Still sick, so I keep it quick.  A lot of movies, but quick write ups.  Just like this is.  Enjoy and come back soon.

Made (August 3rd, 2014)

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Famke Janssen, and Peter Falk

I don't think a movie like this would be the movie I'd think of being the debut directorial job of the man who essentially is responsible for kickstarting the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Not to say it's a bad movie or anything.  I do think it's the better of the two Favreau/Vaughn team up movies.  And it has a better sense of what it wants to be.  It's a more streamlined movie, that just suffers a bit from Favreau being unable to reign Vaughn in.  Vaughn goes a little to far into annoying dickhead mode.  It makes you wish he'd get killed.  And the movie being a light crime film, it isn't out of the realm of possibility.  The worst thing about the movie is that it is light.  It's a crime film and everything has no real weight to it until the end when the knives come out, but when a single gun is pulled everything stops.  One real scene in the whole movie kinda makes the movie a bit off putting.  It's a choice that irritates me a bit, another shot of Favreau trying to be Tarantino.  But what Tarantino understood was that when his guys were in the thick of something, there was a tension.  Favreau isn't good enough a filmmaker to play that many different tones.  That's why his two Iron Mans look quaint now that Shane Black knocked it out of the park with the third one.  Back to his movie though.  It's a fun enough movie that never really reaches the heights Favreau so desperately wants it to reach.  

Rating: 8/10

Joe (August 3rd, 2014)
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan


I wasn't particularly upset that Green was "slumming", as some say, in the stoner comedy realm for a while.  Yeah, this is a man who made a movie that ended up in the Criterion collection.  But I really enjoyed his comedies.  So I was kind of disappointed when he went back to serious auteur mode with Prince Avalanche.  The movie sounded like typical indie movie fare that I had no interest in.  But then he comes back with another serious movie, this time a movie that could be compared as Mud with Nicolas Cage, I was intrigued.  And that interest paid off, as this movie is a powerhouse.  It is like the nastier, brutal version of Mud.  But it has enough difference from Mud to not just be a knockoff.  The only real thing it takes is Tye Sheridan, the kid in both.  Cage shows again that he still has talent, he just needs to pay off a lot of debt with terrible movies.  But give him something worthy, he will knock it out of the park like he does here.  Sheridan is good again, a little rougher than his role in Mud called for.  Green stocked the rest of the cast with locals, and it pays off.  The movie has a real, down south gritty feel.  It's a real nasty movie and will not be for everyone.  It doesn't pull punches, and Green shows how talented he is yet again by doing something he's never done before.  This is a damn fine film that didn't get as much love as it should have, but I believe will have a long life on home video.

Rating: 9/10

Nashville (August 7th, 2014)
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, and Ronee Blakley

I don't know if Robert Altman is for me.  Not to say he's bad, I certainly respect what he does.  But much like Kubrick and Hitchcock, the stuff I've seen of his has left me cold.  This movie is the closest to connecting with me, but theres still a distance I feel that keeps it out of grasp.  It isn't so much a movie as it is a 3 hour slice of life of a bunch of asshole country singers as they fuck around in Nashville.  Everyone here is all very good at the roles they got.  The movie is shot very well and Altman does a good job directing the actors and the DP.  But there is something missing for me.  I think it's that we don't spend enough time with everybody.  It jumps around too much so I don't care about anyone.  Especially at the end, which is just really ridiculous to me, I just felt no emotion.  It could have been something really special, and I respect the movie enough.  I just feel like it's a miss in some respects.

Rating: 8/10

Overboard (August 8th, 2014)
Director: Gary Marshall
Starring: Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Edward Herrmann, and Roddy McDowall

This is not a good movie.  Right up front, it's quite terrible.  It is an 80s movie to a T, with terrible jokes and an ugly look and terrible logic.  The only thing going for it is Kurt Russell.  He is the only damn reason why this movie is being given the rating it has.  Because if it had anyone lesser than Snake Plissken, the movie where a guy date rapes a woman to teach her a lesson would not be given any positive credit.  I don't have much else to say except Kurt Russell is so gifted and watchable that he can make anything watchable, and this is proof of that.

Rating: 7/10

Hoosiers (August 8th, 2014)
Director: David Anspaugh
Starring: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper


As time goes on, I'm coming to realize I don't care for movies based on true stories.  Or more specifically, true sports stories or music biopics.  There tends to be a lack of drama inherent to these movies and they tend to get mediocre film makers attached to them.  There will be one or two good performances and the rest serviceable.  And usually the final stretch is the big event, a comeback concert or the championship game.  Well, Hoosiers falls right into that camp.  Nothing here is surprising or outright exciting to watch.  It's a lackadaisical narrative with a bland visual look and mediocre basketball scenes.  Hackman is his typical good self, and Hopper does what he can in the few scenes he gets.  And Hoppers stuff is under written like crazy, just glossing over stuff to get to other moments.  That's the worst thing about this movie.  It skips ahead and misses some real juicy parts.  There's nothing offensive or so bad that it's a pain to watch.  It's just too much like all the others in the genre that I can't really get excited about it.  Sports fans will like it.  Film fans though may be left out to sea.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Long Riders (August 9th, 2014)
Director: Walter Hill
Starring: James Keach, Stacey Keach, David Carradine, and Keith Carradine


I'm a big Walter Hill fan and this movie always sounded real interesting to me, but has escaped me for a while.  But I finally got to it and it was worth the wait.  While it is not on the level of The Assassination of Jesse James, it is a damn fine Jesse James movie.  It has the cool casting gimmick of having real life brothers play brothers in the movie.  So the Carradines play the Youngers, the Keachs play the James', and the Quaids play the Millers.  It adds a little reality to the proceedings, getting actual brotherly connections between the men.  Hill has always played at a low key level, never being an obnoxious film maker and he keeps that going here, but he does allow some big elements.  The violence is almost Peckinpah level of bloody and the gunshots tend to knock guys off their feet.  But he keeps himself tethered to the ground and stays down and dirty.  He never got the credit, but he knows how to frame a movie, and it's nice to see his eye in a western.  It's no surprise why David Milch drafted him for the pilot of Deadwood.  This isn't the best movie he's done, and doesn't reach the glorious highs he has been capable of.  But it seems like a lot of editing was done to the movie, and I'd love to see a longer directors cut at some point, although that probably will never happen.  As is, it is an enjoyable western by one of the under rated greats.

Rating: 8/10






Best Movies

1. Joe
2. The Long Riders
3. Made
4. Nashville
5. Hoosiers
6. Overboard




Top 5 Performances

1. Nicolas Cage - Joe
2. Kurt Russell - Overboard
3. Dennis Hopper - Hoosiers
4. Tye Sheridan - Joe
5. Keith Carradine - The Long Riders


Top 5 Moments

1. Dog Fight - Joe
2. Knife Fight - The Long Riders 
3. Final Showdown - Joe
4. Ronee Blakley Shows Some Wear and Tear - Nashville
5. Shooter and Son Reconcile - Hoosiers

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched 7/27 - 8/2

Welcome back guys to the newest update to my weekly movie viewings.  I'm keeping it short and sweet today guys.  I'm feeling under the weather so I'm gonna be in and out.  Enjoy it guys and stay tuned for more updates.

Swingers (July 27th, 2014)

Director: Doug Liman

Starring: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, and Heather Graham

Doug Liman has had his hands in a lot of things and has been around a good while now, this movie being his big break in 1996.  He's done a lot of work but has never really broke out as a big, A list director despite having helped launch a good deal of careers.  He directed The Bourne Identity, which then led to Paul Greengrass directing the next two sequels which dropped the cinematic cancer of shaky cam onto action scene for the next decade plus.  He helped Sarah Polley on Go, and she is now an acclaimed director in her own right.  The power couple of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got started on his Mr and Mrs Smith.  And here, he launched Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn.  Which is good, because Favreau and Vaughn went on to bigger and better things (Favreau longer than Vaughn).  The movie itself is a nice little movie about a guy who is still whining about his longtime girlfriend breaking up with him 6 months prior, and the friends who try to break him out of his funk.  The movie is nice and a fun little time, but the dialogue gets a little too irritating at times.  Favreau tries to be very writerly, desperate to be Tarantino.  The biggest problem is that he also isn't the best lead in a movie.  He hadn't come into his own yet, whereas Vaughn found the fast talking dickhead role he'd play the rest of his days.  There really isn't much else to the movie but seeing the starting points of men still kicking around the business today. 

Rating: 7/10

Guardians Of The Galaxy (July 31st, 2014)
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel

Finally, Marvel finally made a movie to top Iron Man 3.  The chopped up Thor: The Dark World didn't do it, with it's overuse of Loki which ruined the role of the villain in the movie.  Nor did the kind of bland spy thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Iron Man 3 was a big surprise, managing to feel fresh and keep people guessing.  It only makes sense that the movie to top it would be another movie made by a real director with a tangible sensibility.  James Gunn came in, managed to fit into the Marvel Universe and make a movie that was so off the wall odd but cute.  This is a movie where the lead of the movie (Pratt) is overshadowed by a sentient tree (Diesel) and a anthropomorphic raccoon (Cooper).  Right off the bat, the biggest difference in this movie compared to the other two non IM3 movies is it looks like a real movie.  Gunn has done this before, on significantly smaller budgets, so he knows, like Shane Black, how to use a budget to look like a movie and not a tv show (a constant MCU problem).  Next is the ease at which the humor comes without stopping the movie in its tracks, which non Iron Man movies have a problem with.  But the biggest change, the one that takes the entire movie showing, is how big it's heart is.  Don't get me wrong, it's a Gunn movie so it has some adult moments.  My favorite being a prison rape joke by the raccoon.  The cast he has here is also outstanding, not a single one being a weak link.  There's been a lot of grousing because Gamora (Saldana) isn't the best one in the movie even though she's fun and better than most big budget female characters.  Pratt does good work here, showing he is better than his goofy role in Parks and Rec, showing true leading man skills here.  Dave Bautista also does surprisingly good work as Drax, a big bruiser of an alien who doesn't get jokes or metaphors.  Saldana is great, bringing heart and pain to the super badass Gamora.  But the true heroes are Cooper and Diesel. Cooper was a controversial pick, because Rocket is supposed to either sound Cockney or Australian.  But Cooper is decidedly neither of those, and doesn't try to sound it.  Here, he does a sort of street hood voice for Rocket, bringing real scrappiness to the little mad man.  There's also some pain, as Rockets backstory is kind of heartbreaking.  But Diesel isn't surprising, as the man who made millions of men cry world wide as The Iron Giant.  He is great doing voice work, and he does great work again as Groot.  What is surprising is that he managed to do it with only one line of dialogue, I Am Groot, delivered in different ways.  It's astounding how much heart and soul he brings to Groot, and he does.  Groot is the heart of the movie.  He's gonna be huge with the kids and girls who get dragged to this by their idiot boyfriends.  There's two people who get short changed in this.  Lee Pace and Karen Gillan.  Pace is the villain, Ronan.  He looks very intimidating.  But, yet another Marvel problem, is just not interesting.  Aside from Loki and Abomination, none have stood tall.  And Ronan falls into that field.  Gillan plays Nebula, who is a very striking character.  But that's really all she offers.  She looks cool.  She's kind of Marvels female version of Darth Maul, but she doesn't have as great a fight as Maul did.  She is almost criminally wasted.  Hopefully this is righted in the sequel.  But none of that really matters since this movie is an absolute blast, mixing the right amount of humor and action.  It's been a good long while since we've had a big budget movie like this be so adept at humor and action.  The last time really may have been Galaxy Quest (I'd have to look into that though).  Endlessly entertaining and a sure shot for most fun movie of the year.  Highly recommended.

Rating: 9/10

Videodrome (August 1st, 2014)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, and Leslie Carlson

David Cronenberg is a weird guy.  When the least fucked up movie in your bag is A History of Violence, we know we got a weird dude on hand.  And seriously, does he have some issues with vaginas.  My god, the vag imagery on hand here is just astounding.  It all culminates with Woods pulling a gun out of the vagina in his stomach.  Yeah, its like that.  Now, the movie is weird as all hell.  But it is meant to be, like a demented dream.  Woods is great in it, the only real sort of good performance in the thing.  Most everyone else suffers from 80s B movie syndrome.  Sort of stiff and not very great.  But Cronenberg hit it right when he got Woods, the real ace in the hole needed to anchor the oddity of the movie.  Dealing with violence and sexuality and the technological advancements in society, the movie is just out there.  It's like a better version of The Ring, but instead of a trad Japansese horror movie girl trying to kill you, it's hallucinations and weird body enhancements and exploding tumors.  It's so odd, but Cronenberg managed to handle it well.  It does suffer a bit from a rickety beginning, and isn't as clear as it could be without ruining the ambiguous feel of the movie.  But it somehow comes together.  The real MVP though has to be Rick Baker, making some really impressive makeup effects that are still nasty and good looking today.  It's no shock he is one of the best there is.  This movie isn't for everyone, but if you dig really odd stuff and wanna see a unique 80s horror flick, you could do much worse.

Rating: 8/10

The Battered Bastards of Baseball (August 2nd, 2014)
Director: Chapman and Maclain Way
Starring: Bing Russell, Kurt Russell, Todd Field, and Rob Nelson

I heard about this documentary when it was making the rounds at some festivals.  I heard it was about Bing Russell, Kurt's dad, and I knew I was gonna watch it no matter what it was about.  When I heard how it was about Bing starting an independent baseball team, I was even more intrigued.  I didn't know Bing did that, nor that Kurt almost stopped acting to keep playing for the team.  But the story is so much more interesting than it already seems.  I won't get into the nitty gritty, but I will say that it is almost a real life Slap Shot but for baseball.  A team made up of the losers of baseball that said fuck you to the establishment (MLB) and became wildly successful.  It's a beautiful tale of Bings love of the game, and it's infectious.  You fall for the game, either again or for the first time.  But at the same time, you end up hating baseball because you see how shitty the MLB can be in business dealings.  This is a completely engrossing documentary and is an essential for fans of baseball, underdog stories and Kurt Russell, because you see the love he has for his father and the ingenuity he possessed.  An absolute treat and one of the best surprises of 2014.

Rating: 9/10

Best Movies

1. Guardians Of The Galaxy
2. The Battered Bastards of Baseball
3. Videodrome
4. Swingers




Top 5 Performances

1. Post Credits Scene 1 - Guardians of The Galaxy
2. The Verdict Is... - The Battered Bastards of Baseball
3. The Prison Break - Guardians of The Galaxy
4. Long Live The New Flesh - Videodrome
5. Dance Off - Guardians Of The Galaxy



Top 5 Performances

1. Bradley Cooper - Guardians Of The Galaxy
2. James Woods - Videodrome
3. Vin Diesel - Guardians Of The Galaxy
4. Chris Pratt - Guardians Of The Galaxy 
5. Vince Vaughn - Swingers

- Tom Lorenzo