Movies Watched The Week of 12/21 - 12/27

Happy holidays you filthy animals, welcome back.  The week is time of holly and cheer, christmas time has come folks.  The holidays kept the pickings a bit slim, but it was a nice little variety.  To an underseen gem, a rare failure from a great, a surprising DTV actioneer, and a true classic.  Wide variety in genre and quality, just in time for the new year.  Stay tuned, next weeks should be a big one.  Thanks and enjoy the holiday reading.

Duck, You Sucker (December 21st, 2014)
Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Rod Steiger and James Coburn

This was the only Sergio movie I hadn't seen, for no other reason than it wasn't as easy to see as his other stuff.  But now that I've seen it, I'm upset it took so long because this is an amazing movie.  Despite the appearance of a western, this is more of a war movie than anything.  It's set in the early 1900's during the Mexican Uprising.  It follows two men.  One is the amoral bandit Juan (Steiger).  The other is fugitive IRA explosive expert John (Coburn).  Their paths cross, at first antagonistically than slowly build a friendship out of shared tragedy.  John essentially tricks Juan into fighting in the revolution, becoming a hero in the process.  It's a really explosive, entertaining movie that uses the real life war as a way to explore these two men.  The two performances are great as well.  Steiger is like Eli Wallach in GBU, a Jewish white guy playing a mexican.  But he does it so well and brings the guy to life, that you don't even notice.  He sells the awful, greedy side of the man but manages to make his noble acts seem natural.  A lesser actor would have made this seem unnatural.  And Coburn brings a lot of soul to John.  He's a fighter, taking up any cause he deems noble and going for it.  But there's real pain to him, the past haunting him the entire time.  This fits into Leones style of taking real men, morally gray characters and throwing them into crazy situations.  The craziest thing about this is that he made this after The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West.  That's quite a run, not mention the other movies in the Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon A Time In America.  Leone is a master craftsman, so it's a bit redundant to say the movie is gorgeous.  That this isn't his best movie goes to show what a talent he was.  A great damn picture and well worth watching.  

Rating: 9.5/10

Punch-Drunk Love (December 23rd, 2014)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luiz Gusman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Much like the last entry, this was the only movie in this directors filmography that I didn't see.  And after seeing Inherent Vice, I had to finish it up.  But unlike the last entry, this movie was not worth any time.  Man, this was so disappointing.  I had expected something of worth from PTA, but this had almost nothing.  Aside from Hoffman's brief screentime, this did nothing for me.  Following Barry Egan (Sandler) as he deals with being a weirdo and falling for Watson.  It's just a grating movie.  Sandler is not good, doing what he is asked but what is asked is not interesting at all.  He's just a mumbling goofus who gets mad when its convenient for the movie.  He's an empty character, which is what everybody is.  They're cyphers that aren't interesting to watch.  Hoffman at least appears to be having fun.  But the movie is trying to be a dramedy, but nothing is funny or dramatically interesting.  The movie is really inert and not as quirky as it thinks it is.  Technical merits are fine but just creatively, a dud.  The one failure in PTA's filmography.  A shame.  Stay away.

Rating: 5/10

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (December 26th, 2014)
Director: John Hyams
Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Corey Johnson, and Dolph Lundgren

This is a movie that shouldn't work at all.  It's the 4th movie in the Universal Soldier series, a series which had no good entries beforehand.  It's direct to video, usually a bad sign.  And it brings the return of Van Damme, who disappeared after the mediocre original.  But miracles sometimes happen, and this movie is actually pretty good.  And that is mainly due to Hyams.  He directs the ever loving shit out of this movie.  The action scenes are all top notch, wringing every dollar out of its budget.  And it also has a relatively simple story.  A terrorist group threatens to blow up a reactor in Chernobyl to form a massive radiation cloud unless political prisoners are released.  His group has a newer model of a Universal Soldier (Arlovski) and is in a good position to succeed.  So the US resurrects some old models and sends them in.  One of them is Van Damme, the best of the bunch.  Simple enough to be easy to watch, but there is enough twists and sci fi elements to make it not a bland exercise.  This isn't a groundbreaking narrative, but it helps to heighten the extremely well done action.  Someone needs to get Hyams a big budget job immediately.  For anyone who wants to see a good, well shot action movie this is a good bet.

Rating: 8/10

 

M (December 27th, 2014)
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Grundgens, and Ellen Widmann

Sometimes when one thinks of the early days of cinema, you think the movies were very clean cut.  No moral ambiguities, no stories that deal in some horrendous darkness.  But then there's times you see or remember a movie that stands out in stark contrast to the times.  This is one of those times.  Lord, this is a bleak as fuck movie. Set in a German town that is being terrorized by a child killer, we see the panic that sets in with the community.  The civilians become vigilantes, the cops starts breaking all the rules, and crooks start to look for the man.  What we see here is not that crazy, the breakdown of civilized ways.  It's deeply cynical and unafraid to show the awful side.  It also hints at something that makes the movie darker.  Kinda like Nightmare On Elm Street (which is def inspired by this movie), it tells us the villain is a child killer but hints that the killer is also a sex fiend. Makes things even more foul.  Now, being almost 83 years old, this movie isn't perfect.  And not by any fault of Lang.  This is very early in cinema history, so pacing and structure are relatively new ideas to to an industry that just introduced sound into the field.   There's alot of talking, procedural scenes of how to find the killer.  But then the killer is finally found and the movie becomes a chase scene for a while.  That's when it hits it's stride and becomes something classic.  The ending too, truly something to be seen.  Peter Lorre is fantastic here, becoming an icon for creepy killers.  This is really something special, and while it hasn't aged perfectly, it holds a lot of special elements.  Highly recommended.

Rating: 9/10






Top Movies

1. Duck, You Sucker
2. M
3. Universal Soldier: Regeneration
4. Punch Drunk Love





Top Performances

Rod Steiger - Duck, You Sucker
James Coburn - Duck, You Sucker
Peter Lorre - M
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Punch Drunk Love
Jean Claude Van Damme - Universal Soldier: Regeneration





Top Moments

1. John Meets Juan - Duck, You Sucker
2. The Ending - M
3. Juan Meets The Governor - Duck, You Sucker
4. Luc Dispatches Andrew - Universal Soldier: Regeneration
5. Hoffman Yells At Sandler - Punch Drunk Love

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched 12/14 - 12/20

Welcome back gang.  All new batch of flicks this week.  Not much, it was a slow week.  And it isn't that great a week, but nothing abysmal.  Either way, it's here.  So read it.  It's quick.  Thanks.  Bye.

Kickboxer (December 14th, 2014)

Directors: Mark DiSalle and David Worth

Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme, Who else matters really?

Right out of the way, this isn't a good movie.  It's directed with a laziness that's pretty amazing, the acting is barely enough to be qualified as such, and the writing is like a particularly stupid guys day dream of kung fu fighting.  But it manages that amazing 80's feat of being so stupid that it's entertaining.  When Van Dammes brother is crippled in a thai fight tourney, he gets really mad at the injustice of his brother losing a fight fairly so he vows revenge.  What follows is just a typical training montage and Van Damme falling for a Thai girl.  Then theres a fight and he wins, who gives a shit? The action is half assed but in an entertainingly bad way.  It's also pretty cheesy and homoerotic.  There's also some rape thrown in for good measure.  Unless you enjoy Van Damme struggle to act and make goofy faces, stay away.   There's really nothing else to it.  

Rating: 7/10

Saturday Night Fever (December 15th, 2014)
Director: John Badham
Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pescow, and Barry Miller

I've pretty much avoided this movie for a while, assuming it was just a goofy movie about dancing. But the reality is that this is a pretty grim movie about broken dreams and failed expectations.  And the people in the movie aren't the greatest people in the world.  They're all people stuck in place, regretful of decisions and their place in life.  They aren't evil or even bad, just broken.  Travolta is a guy who is shifting about, living with his parents.  The only time he comes to life is Saturday Nights, when he is the king of the club, taking over the dance floor.  He has one talent and it is dancing.  But he doesn't even think of using that ability to move on, get some work with that talent.  But events throughout start to wake him up to the life he's living, with people who don't care about bettering themselves.  Some of the elements haven't aged too well, like a fight scene or a climatic scene on the Veranzano Bridge.  But the dance scenes are the best dance scenes this side of All That Jazz.  Everybody here is someone we know or have known.  Everybody is rough around the edges and feel really human.  It's weird to say about a movie about disco dancers, but these guys feel like characters in a Springsteen song.  It's a shame that the sequel couldn't keep the character alive, failing in every way.  But at least we got this.  Damn fine flick and a high recommendation.

Rating: 9/10

Night Moves (December 20th, 2014)
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alia Shawkat

An indie flick from an indie darling about environmentalists isn't the kind of movie I'd normally run to.  But now that Eisenberg is playing Lex Luthor, I wanna dig into his career to get a sense of his abilities.  And while he isn't playing the character, his performance shows some of the traits of Luthor. He's deadly serious and not the shaking little puppy everyone thinks he is after Zombieland or The Social Network.  Throw that in with the super intelligent douchey nature of Zuckerberg, I can see it.  Now, his performance is really good.  The performances here aren't the problem, everyone doing good work.  It's that the movie is way too slow.  It does it in a way that isn't natural, just way to slow to be slow.  It also kinda has a bland ending, typical indie movie stuff.  Also has a hilariously bad fight scene in the end.  It's well made but nothing special.  I'd only recommend for Eisenberg.

Rating: 7.5/10

Grudge Match (December 20th, 2014)
Director: Peter Sagal
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro, Jon Berenthal, and Kim Basinger

I wanted to like this movie. A boxing movie about old Rocky and Jake LaMotta fighting should be entertaining enough for me.  But sadly it isn't and is really kind of a waste of time.  The humor isn't funny.  Even in a sophomoric way, it's not funny.  The drama isn't interesting, just hackneyed.  The acting is fine, nothing special outside of Berenthal who is actually really good.  There's also some really bad CGI with bad face replacement tech, looking worse than The Social Network 4 years ago.  It's not a complete failure, just really mediocre.  That's about it.

Rating: 6/10







Top Movies

1. Saturday Night Fever
2. Night Moves
3. Kickboxer
4. Grudge Match



Top 5 Moments

1. The Opening - Saturday Night Fever
2. The Final Dance - Saturday Night Fever
3. The Boat Ride - Night Moves
4. The Final, Ridiculous Fight - Kickboxer
5. Dark Turns After The Contest - Saturday Night Fever



Top 5 Performances

1. John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever
2. Jesse Eisenberg - Night Moves
3. Jean Claude Van Damme - Kickboxer
4. Karen Lynn Gorney - Saturday Night Fever
5. Jon Berenthal - Grudge Match

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 12/7 - 12/13

Good morning/afternoon/whatever the hell time it is gang.  We got a new post, and it is a unique one. After going through three movies that all hit decent status, nothing great but nothing bad, we get to a movie that is so singular and so dense but not clear at all, I don't know how to review it.  So strap in and see whats up.  Thanks again.  

The Sacrament (December 7th, 2014)

Director: Ti West

Starring: AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Kentucker Audley, and Gene Jones

Ti West is a very particular film maker.  He works in the B movie genre, but doesn't deal in the B movie style.  Instead of going big, flashy and gory, West goes for tense, slow and unsettling.  It doesn't always work.  It kinds works in VHS 2, works to some extent in The Innkeepers.  But this movie is where it works a little more than the others.  There's still a problem with pacing with him, spending too much time setting up and not so much building character.  Even if he kept this pace, it needs to be weirder, dealing with a cult and all.  But theres enough of a tone to unsettle a bit.  Now, Bowen and Swanberg are ok, kinda just playing themselves.  It's easy work for them, especially Swanberg since he's the cameraman for most of the movie.  Oh yeah, it's found footage.  We'll get to that.  But the standout is Gene Jones as the cult leader.  He is every bit as magnetic and creepy that such a man needs to be.  It's a surprise performance because he's really never done anything like this, just kinda showing up in movies like No Country For Old Men.  Now to the found footage aspect.  It is shot well as a movie.  It looks good and isn't disorienting.  But that's because at points in the movie, it seems to forgot that there's only one camera in the entire compound and he's not around to be filming some of this crap.  It's distracting when you realize it, because it's just kinda lazy.  Now the biggest problem this movie faces is being very similar to a recently released movie.  It's unfair to compare it to it, being a short and having a completely different tone and goals, but it does not stand up to Safe Haven from VHS 2.  Even before the shit goes down, that has a tone and a creepiness sneaking in at the edges of the screen that it's even worse when the shit hits the fan.  In the end, this is a very solid little movie, definitely worth seeing.  

Rating: 8/10

Draft Day (December 9th, 2014)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Starring: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, and Chadwick Boseman

This is a nice surprise, seeing Ivan making a good movie for the first time since Ghostbusters II (yeah, I said it.  Get mad 80s babies),  It's probably just wild luck that he managed to get a script, but I'd like to think he saw his son starting to lose the thread and decided to one up him.  Set 12 hours before the NFL draft, Costner plays the GM of the Browns.  It sounds like his job is on the line if he doesn't have a god draft.  So he makes a crazy trade for the 1st pick, and starts to maybe regret it.  Its all about him deciding what's right for the team and if he should take a risk.  And somehow, it's surprisingly engrossing.  The cast helps.  Everyone is doing real solid work.  Garner is yet again left out of the group, playing a thankless role again.  But the standout isn't Costner, who does a more engaged version of his usual act.  The standout is Boseman, who completely transforms to play a down south linebacker, so very different than Jackie Robinson or James Brown.  Its a good little performance that is really surprising in a movie like this.  This is a solid flick, but it never reaches above the normal fare.  Its really cliched and isn't too surprising, but it works thanks to the cast and a solid script, not to mention Reitmans surprisingly strong direction.  I'd recommend it.

Rating: 8/10

Man of Tai Chi (December 12th, 2014)
Director: Keanu Reeves
Starring: Tiger Chen, Keanu Reeves, Karen Mok, and Iko Uwais

So, Keanu is a pretty solid director.  When it comes to making throwback kung fu movies, he works a lot better than RZA.  It also helps that this one is a lower key than the very big Man With The Iron Fists.  This is aiming for nothing for more than entertaining kung fu.  Keanu, playing the bad guy at peak Keanu-ness, is running what appears to be an underground fight league.  He recruits Tiger to fight for him, and Tiger takes a real shine to it.  Whats a nice surprise is that the movie is about watching Tiger struggle with a terrible anger inside of him and his descent into madness thanks to these fights, and then having to pull himself back out.  It all plays out very typically but is done with such love for the genre, and is played straight face that it works.  The fights are shot very well.  Either the work he's done with the many great directors over the years has rubbed off, or he just gets how to shoot a film.  I think both, since it's very good looking but also seems inspired by his work on The Matrix.  This isn't a groundbreaking film, but it is damn entertaining and should be seen by all kung fu fans.

Rating: 8/10

Inherent Vice (December 13th, 2014)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston, and Joanna Newsom

I have no idea what the fuck I watched.  I know I watched something.  I know that it is technically very well made.  I know that the acting was great.  I also know that the cast is kinda not really used for the most part, with people just showing up.  I also know that the movie is really funny.  But in the end, I don't know if the movie makes any damn sense.  I know it's not really supposed to, but does the end result work?  On a scene by scene basis, it works.  Each scene is well done and perfectly made.  It's hilarious throughout.  But the end game, fuck if I know.  This is something that I need time and another viewing to get a handle on.  This is exactly the movie Anderson wanted to make, so he succeeded on that front.  But that movie is either a masterpiece or a fucking joke.  Either way, he got masterful stuff from Phoenix and Brolin and made a movie that just makes you feel like you've been pumped with drugs.  I'll come back with another review down the road, but this is a movie that needs to be seen.

Rating: 10/10 or 2/10, IDFK At This Point






Top Movies

1. Inherent Vice
2. The Sacrament
3. Draft Day
4. Man of Tai Chi




Top 5 Moments

1. Doc's Reaction to A Picture - Inherent Vice
2. The Plan In Effect - The Sacrament
3. Bigfoot Eats a Chocolate Banana - Inherent Vice
4. Bigfoots Final Meal, Doc Lets Out Some Tears - Inherent Vice
5. The Force Unleashed - Man of Tai Chi




Top 5 Performances

1. Joaquin Phoenix - Inherent Vice
2. Josh Brolin - Inherent Vice
3. Gene Jones - The Sacrament 
4. Keanu Reeves - Man of Tai Chi
5. Chadwick Boseman - Draft Day

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 11/30 - 12/6

Welcome back gang.  Got a new post here for you and it's one of the best week's I've had all year.  A wide range of movies that range from good to great.  No wasted time here at all.  There's something for everybody, genres all over the map.  So give this all time week a read and share with the world.  Thanks and enjoy.

The Descent (November 30th, 2014)

Director: Neil Marshall

Starring: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, and Nora Jane Noone 

Neill Marshall has been making a big splash on television recently, Game of Thrones and Constantine the bigger examples.  But he was well known beforehand as a well known and respected film maker amongst genre fans.  While he has a few entertaining movies on his belt, this movie right here is a classic and the best damn thing he's done. Focusing on a group of girlfriends who like to go on extreme sports trips decide to trek through a cavern underground and find that things aren't what they seem.  Like all of Marshalls work, this movie is just vicious and brutal, the blood budget not being spared.  Visually, this movie is insanely claustrophobic and dark.  We are really in there with these girls at every step of the way.  The girls are great too for the most part, real women that aren't just dick taking machines like most women in movies.  There's one or two performances that aren't spectacular but don't ruin the movie, just stands out in such a well done movie.  What's also great about the movie is that things aren't spoon fed to us.  We don't really know why what's happening is happening.  But what set's this apart from other entertaining and violent movies is that it's about something and the main character has a heartbreaking arc.  No spoilers, but I'll just say it's about grief and guilt, giving the movie a good point of relation with them.  This is a great film and one of the standouts of the mid 2000s splat pack movies.  Must see.  

Rating: 9.5/10

Fruitvale Station (November 30th, 2014)
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, and Kevin Durand

This is a movie that has become sadly relevant again.  Based on the true story of the killing of Oscar Grant, this movie was a big surprise.  What could have felt like a movie of the week with an absolute bias for Grant that would make him like an angel, this film isn't interested in that game.  It's interested in showing us human beings and the grey area we all live in.  Oscar isn't an angel, but he isn't a serial killer.  He's a man who has made some mistakes in his past and is trying to change, but it isn't easy. He cheats on his girl and has a temper.  Yet other times he is helpful to others and is very warm with his daughter.  His mother seems like a decent woman, but Oscar is insistent at a point that she wasn't a good mother and she wasn't there.  Is he lying?  Or is she not the greatest person either?  Who knows, but it makes things more grey.  But the moment that elevated this movie to greatness was the shooting.  Kevin Durand plays this absolute dick head of a cop, being super tough and violent and insulting.  But when another cop accidentally shoots Oscar, he realizes the mistake that's been made.  The moment that sold me is Durand actually kneeling down with Oscar and trying to comfort him and keep him alive.  It was surprisingly heart wrenching.  A propaganda movie would have painted the cops as complete evil.  But despite the negative light we see them in, in the end they are still human.  Now, is this perfect? No.  There's some too perfect movie moments of circuity that seems a little too neat for real life.  It's a bit distracting but the power of the rest of the movie sells it, and that's thanks to the powerhouse performance of Jordan as Oscar.  He digs right into him and shows us the human that's tragically snatched off of this mortal coil.  It's a timely movie and even though there's plenty of people who'll hate a movie that sympathizes with a darkie who got shot by the infallible police (USA! USA!), those who don't have a horse in the race will be blown away.

Rating: 9.5

Redemption (December 1st, 2014)
Director: Steven Knight
Starring: Jason Statham and Agata Buzek

This was another surprise this week.  Despite being directed by the man who made the wonderful Locke, this was a Jason Statham movie he made before that.  So one could assume that it's a balls to the wall action movie.  But it isn't and is a surprisingly serious character study with a romance involved.  Statham plays a solider who is living on the streets with a drinking problem.  After a violent encounter, he decides to clean himself up and better himself.  But then he gets involved with a crime family and things go south.  That sounds like a typical action movie, but it isn't really interested in telling that story.  There's some violence, but not stylized.  It's just Statham overpowering others. We focus on his journey, trying to get over his time in the military.  He's a man with immense guilt, trying to redeem himself.  He even has a relationship with the nun who fed him when he was homeless.  The journey he goes on is surprisingly poignant and elevates the movie.  This won't be for everyone because it is slow and more concerned with character, so it all depends on how you feel about him.  I really dug it and think an open minded soul should see it.

Rating: 9/10

Hunger (December 2nd, 2014)
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, and Brian Milligan

Steve McQueen is on top of the world.  After making the deserved best picture winning 12 Years A Slave, he should be.  But he had to get his start somewhere, and that is where we find ourselves.  In 2008, he brought us this true story about Bobby Sands, an IRA member in prison who decides to start a hunger strike.  Fassbender takes on the role, beginning the fruitful collaboration between the two.  This movie is well made and should be seen by all, just to see Fassbender beginning his run as one of the best of his generation.  But there is a fumbling in the attempts to bring this story to the screen.  It doesn't feel fully explored, that it manages to feel very drawn out but not in depth.  We start the movie following two other IRA members in the prison before we even get to meet Sands.  And that takes roughly 20 minutes or so.  And then even when we do meet Sands, we barely know him.  He's just another guy.  The movie really doesn't take off until this brilliant scene between Sands and a priest (Cunningham) that is 17 minutes in one take.  We finally get to know Sands and it is great.  Fassbender is brilliant and brings rich life to this man who may be on a suicide trip.  Once that scene ends we get to the meat of the story and the horrific life Sands leads during the strike and up to his death.  It's horrific stuff and shows us the lengths these men will go.  There's also a humanity to the characters in the movie, even the prison guards that dehumanize these prisoners.  Like Fruitvale above, they show us the reality of the situation.  Now I'll recommend this, but there is problems.  Aside from the aforementioned fumbling a bit of the story, there's just some self indulgent scenes that just detract completely.  One scene that just irritated me to no end was a scene of a janitor mopping up piss for 5 minutes.  It's obnoxious and dropped the movie down .5 in my book, since a better director could have done without or edited it down.  That being said, see this movie to see McQueen get started and Fassbender begin his reign.

Rating: 8/10

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (December 6th, 2014)
Director: Dean DeBlois
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara, Gerard Butler, and Cate Blanchett

In a world where sequels reign supreme, it's surprising to see one top its original.  Even rarer, it's surprising to see one do that and seem to not get well recognized.  Thats what this movie did and it is quite the ride.  Set 5 years after the original, we follow the land of Berke as it has embraced dragons.  Hiccup (Baruchel) is on the path to taking over as ruler from his father Stoic (Butler).  But when he discovers that someone is amassing a dragon army to take over the world, he tries to prevent tragedy.  Not only that, but a figure from Hiccups past comes back into the fray and makes things more important for Hiccup.  Right off the bat, this movie is gorgeous.  Visually stunning and filled with amazing set pieces and flying scenes, this really steps it up now that Pixar is flailing about.  The story is great, simple and to the point.  It's bigger than the first, setting the characters apart for a bit so it isn't as streamlined, but it isn't convoluted and makes the proceedings a bit more epic in scope.  The voice acting is all great, as they were last time.  Blanchett is the new comer and fits right in, bringing alot of heart and weight to the role that is much needed.  But the standout has to be, surprisingly, Butler.  He goes from big and blustery leader, to worried father, to loving father and it all flows wonderfully.  The emotion he brings is astounding and not something one would expect from him.  It's a great movie and is something all ages can enjoy.

Rating: 9.5/10

American Graffiti (December 6th, 2014)
Director: George Lucas
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, and Harrison Ford

This is most definitely not the kind of movie George Lucas is known for.  You think big sci fi when his name is brought up.  Also crushing disappointment but that's beside the point.  Before he did Star Wars, he wanted to be a small scale and experimental film maker.  He only did two before changing cinema, this and THX 1138, but the goal is evident in the two.  Graffiti isn't so experimental as it is small scale, dealing with the last day before college starts for some of these characters.  It really is a spiritual precursor to Dazed and Confused, dealing with subject matter in much the same way and same structure.  To me it isn't as successful as that movie, but it certainly inspired it and works enough to be enjoyable.  The cast works well, selling that late 50s/early 60s gee whiz attitude most think of of the time while giving a bit more edge, making them more human.  These kids seem to be play acting what they think is cool and how they should act, but the real them peek out at points.  It's a poignant look at growing up and the fear we have at leaving home, going out for ourselves, or having peaked already.  It's a nice solid movie that could have been a warmup for a great director, but now stands out as an oddity in the body of work for a toy maker.

Rating: 8/10








Top Movies

1. The Descent
2. Fruitvale Station
3. How To Train Your Dragon 2
4. Redemption
5. Hunger
6. American Graffiti





Top 5 Moments

1. They Aren't Alone - The Descent
2. The Shooting - Fruitvale Station
3. Bobby and The Father's Talk - Hunger
4. Stoic's Last Stand - How To Train Your Dragon 2
5. The "Escape" - The Descent







Top 5 Performances

1. Michael B. Jordan - Fruitvale Station
2. Michael Fassbender - Hunger
3. Shauna MacDonald - The Descent
4. Gerard Butler - How To Train Your Dragon 2
5. Jason Statham - Redemption

- Tom Lorenzo