Embedding is disabled, so just click the video below twice to watch it at YouTube. It’s in the 80% range of Rotten Tomatoes, but many critics are going apeshit for this movie.
Page 1
more
more
more
Standard
middle men. [trailer park.]
The 90’s version of the epic crime drama. At least, it looks like that’s what it becomes when everything goes to shit.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this marks the triumphant return of Luke Wilson.
more
more
Standard
western #14, 'hang 'em high.' [another day, another movie.]
With a title like Hang ’em High
Instead, it was far more ambiguous and intelligent than that. A wonderful film to watch after suffering through True Grit.
It was a great rumination on the relationship and differences between justice and vengeance, and most of the characters were a realistic mixture of good and bad. It was strong across the board, and there isn’t much more to say than that.
This was also the first film I’ve seen featuring the stunningly beautiful and heartbreakingly tragic Inger Stevens.
more
Standard
western #13, 'true grit.' [another day, another movie.]
Wow. Just… wow. I don’t know how to say this nicely, so I won’t. This movie was fucking terrible.
Acting. Directing. Writing. Across the board, just awful. It felt more like a late 60’s television show more than a late 60’s movie. Wayne won an Oscar… ugh.
I’m not giving any more commentary than that. This movie has wasted quite enough of my time, thank you very much.
I can’t wait until the Coen boys redeem it for me later this year, as I wholly anticipate they will.
more
Standard
never let me go. [trailer park.]
This book has been sitting on my ‘To Read’ shelf for months, it is time to take it off and read it right away.
more
Standard
western #12, 'shane.' [another day, another movie.]
Another classic of the genre that I’d never seen before.
I was so impressed with how good it was. Such a great story, well directed and acted. Jack Palance was great in his small role as the gunslinger for hire, and Alan Ladd was fantastic, all 5’6″ of him.
It was so great. I was stunned by the emotional nuance and complexity, as well as how charged some scenes were. I really wasn’t expecting much going into it, and early on I was a little worried. But it really was a fantastic film. Tragic and beautiful.
It’s pretty rare, even in 2010, to find a film that leaves questions open for the viewer to decide. Yet, in 1953 Shane engages questions of violence, conflict, love, the value of human life and morality with subtlety and ambiguity. All that can’t be debated in the film’s message is that we make choices, and there are consequences, and usually life isn’t fair.
The climax of the film is so quiet and unassuming.
Ah, so good. For me this was the biggest surprise so far. I expected a generic Western. Instead I found genuinely moving storytelling.
more
Standard
western #11, 'unforgiven.' [another day, another movie.]
This is the first of the Westerns we have watched so far that I actually owned, so, obviously I liked this one going into it.
Eastwood responds to the Western genre that helped make his career. Even going so far as to say it basically encapsulates everything he feels about the genre.
It is slow and taut, filled with great characters played brilliantly by gifted actors.
If Cooperstown was for actors instead of baseball players, Gene Hackman would only have to screen The Royal Tenenbaums and Unforgiven back to back and he would have my vote to get in without any further conversation.
It doesn’t deal with the Native American issues, but it pulls back the curtain a bit on the rest of what lies implicit in the Western genre.
As is the case with much of Eastwood’s directorial work, the story turns the myth of redemptive violence on its head. There is always a cost.
Great movie, all around.
more