An American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis.
Vignettes tell of interrelating stories happening around Los Angeles. Drugs are bought, sold and consumed, things are stolen, people get killed and stories are told.
I think what makes this so awesome is the dialogue. Every scene is full of Tarantino's eloquent writing. The long list of stars and great production help too. It's another classic crime film that so many people have written about. One amusing fact I can relate is that Amanda Plummer (Honey Bunny) also played Lydia Sinclair in The Fisher King (1991). It's fun to imagine Lydia holding a gun and screaming the F word in the diner scene. Speaking of The Fisher King and crime films, the vaudeville singer from that also played Dr. Jarvis in Thursday (1998).
I get too off-topic. This ends the "catch up" reviews. I'm going back to just writing about films I actually have something to say about.
An American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino.
A young man grows up working for the Italian mob. He marries a Jewish woman and they try to have a family while he is involved in gangster stuff.
This is a pretty classic and well known crime film. I hardly think anything that I could say about it would add to what has already been written. What I liked most were the heavy narration and juxtaposition of family normalcy with violent crimes. It makes for good contrasts when scenes switch. Name a film element and it was done well. If you haven't seen it, you must. I rate it awesome.
A British American crime film written by Anthony Burgess, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell and Patrick Magee.
A young criminal goes around causing chaos with his friends until being caught and imprisoned. From prison, he goes to a research hospital and is subjected to a new technique to "make him good". He is then released and tormented by his previous victims.
I feel like I've written about this before. Malcolm McDowell is one of the 2 best parts of this film. The other is the music of Wendy Carlos. I would strongly advise viewing my post about Caligula (1979) and that film after reading and watching this one because he plays the same role in both films. Reading the book is a little difficult. The heavy use of Nadsat language requires having the Nadsat glossary open as well as the narrative. It is nearly impossible to figure out word meanings by context. This is one of those famous classic films that everyone spouts about for good reason. You can read everyone else's spouting if that's what you want. I would rather watch it than read praise of it. I rate it best. Watch it!
A Mexican crime drama directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Adriana Barraza.
Various people and groups were present at a car accident. Their stories are shown leading up to it and afterward. A young man and his friend were into dog fighting, a model was switching husbands and a poor man has many dogs.
This is one of the movies that I saw a long time ago, have a copy of and never ended up writing about. The plot was complex, but clearly presented. It also made me care what happened next. There were lots of characters, but they were developed and most of them changed. I cared what happened to them as well. Everything sounded fine, but I was reading subtitles most of the duration anyway. They were not so quick and thick as to divert my attention from the video elements. There was a lot of handheld camera, but it looked professional, like Breaking Bad. I really liked this and got into it the first time I saw it, but rewatching after so many years did not pull me in as much. I rate it good. You should probably watch it.
A South Korean crime black comedy directed by Won Shin-Yeon, starring Lee Moon-sik and Oh Dal-su.
A professor and student get pulled over by a cop, angering the professor. He provokes the cop and then hides on a dead end side road. After trying to seduce the student, she runs away. A gang of criminals show up and engege the cop, professor and student in their violence.
Oh wow! The plot held my attention all the way through, making me want to know what happened. I didn't really care about the characters because of what was happening. They were good though. Imagine a South Korean Gummo (1997) cast, but a few years later. The video had lots of hand held shots, but this did not get in the way. It was high quality Breaking Bad style hand held camera. There was also punctuation through a train passing and the main tormentor of the scene saying "nothing happened here today". Looking at other sites, people didn't seem to like this as much as I do. I'm rating it awesome because it has style and plot. However, this is not one to repeat watch. The first time through, you want to know what happens next. Watching again would destroy that.
An American crime mystery directed by Joseph M. Newman, starring Dennis O'Keefe and Jeff Chandler.
A woman arrives in a city, looking for her missing sister, who recently had a baby. She meets a detective who helps her in her search and they find a crime ring of baby merchants.
This was very much like many other films of the time. There was apparently a series of "semi-documentary" films made, which covered social issues in a dramatic manner. I know I watched the gay/transvestite one, but don't remember what it was called. Plug in late 1940s film elements here: plot, characters, audio, video. I could hear it, see it, follow the plot and knew who the characters were, so it gets a tolerable rating. I know that's stupid criteria, but I've seen stuff that missed more than 1 of those essential points. There was nothing really bad about it, but definitely nothing good. You mighht not want to watch this.
An American crime drama directed by Ramin Bahrani, starring Michael Shannon and Laura Dern.
A young man who lives with his son and mother is evicted by a real estate tycoon. He ends up working for this man and making lots of money, but is unsure whether this is the right thing to do.
I liked the middle. At the beginning, there was like 17 minutes of tachycardia sound over everything that was happening. The ending was inconclusive. In the middle, the main character is questioning the morality of the manipulative things that his new boss is having him do. He has a team of people stealing air conditioners, pool pumps and appliances from houses in order to charge people for not having them there. He also does exactly what was done to him: evicting people. Michael Shannon was cast perfectly as the evil real estate boss and the main character, Andrew Garfield looks all honest and innocent, with puppy dog eyes. The plot held my attention until the end and the characters worked. Video all looked great, but the audio was a little on the trashy side. I rate this adequate because it was interesting, but not super-great. You might want to watch it.
A German American crime mystery directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini and Peter Stormare.
A private detective is sent by a rich woman to find the origin of a snuff film.
I did not like this one bit. It was formulaic and forgettable. The only good character was the guy who worked at the porno shop and he got dismissed quickly. He had clear back-story and could have worked well with Cage to solve this case. It's not that I have moral qualms about porn or snuff films. Folks can masturbate to whatever they want. Humans kill animals all the time and think nothing of it. I don't see how humans killing humans is all that different. I don't even want to write about this because I was counting down the minutes until it was over. I rate it shit. Do not watch!
A British American crime comedy directed by Tom Schulman, starring Joe Pesci, George Hamilton and Dyan Cannon.
A mobster loses his bag of decapitated heads at an airport baggage claim. They are picked up by a young man on vacation with his girlfriend's parents. Insert standard stupid American comedy plot here.
Dumb and stale. The plot seemed like every other American comedy with a missing item I've ever seen. Like it was copied and pasted from a previous film. Joe Pesci plays a great mobster (obviously) and David Spade makes great comic relief in a Stephen Chow deadpan delivery, but with Jim Carrey absurdity. The humor(?) was not very funny, except 1 scene: Joe Pesci is sleeping in a hotel room with the heads on a table and dreams that they sing to him. Video looked exactly like every other film from 1993 to 2001 or so. Audio had dialogue I could hear and Mr. Sandman on the soundtrack. I rate this poor because it was not good, but I've seen much worse. You probably should not watch it.
An American crime film directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Roy Schneider and Ann-Margret.
Criminals record a video of a man cheating on his wife and try to blackmail him. They also catch and kill his mistress on video. He doesn't have enough money, but tries to make a deal with them. The criminals then turn against one another, trying to get a larger share of the money.
This was alright. The plot was clearly presented, but not really what I enjoy watching. The characters were cast and acted unevenly. Some of them were very convincing while others seemed contrived and forced. Video looked more '70s than '80s and there was a really long ending pull out shot, which is a very 1970s thing to do. Audio was a little biased to higher midrange, but I could hear the dialogue. There was a song in the soundtrack which I think may have been used on multiple occasions, but I'm not going back to check. I rate this o.k.
An American crime film directed by Walter Hill, strring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
Loose cannon cop, Nick Nolte rents criminal, Eddie Murphy from jail to catch other criminals.
Mediocrity... The plot was tired and stale by the 1970s. Casting stars as the cop buddies did not help much, but I like those 2 actors. Wikipedia says it might be the first "buddy cop" movie, but I find that difficult to believe. A memorable scene involved Eddie Murphy bullying a country bar full of rednecks, pretending that he was a cop "experience my bullshit". Video looked '70s and the audio was midrange-biased, exaggerating Nick Nolte's gravelly voice. There's really not much to write about a film like this. I rate it o.k.
An American crime drama directed by Ralph Nelson, starring Jim Brown, George Kennedy and Fredric March.
A new black sheriff is elected in a southern town. He arrests a white man for drunk driving and causing an accident. The arrested man's friends and family get angry and start demanding he be set free, so the old sheriff works as a deputy to help solve the problem.
Not bad. The plot held my attention and the characters were written and acted well. I liked what some of the people said about being a sheriff, not a white or black one and the girl being killed was a girl, doesn't matter what color. The video was Panavision Metrocolor. If you've been following my posts, you know this is perfect. Even if I were to make a film now and had access to those cameras and film, I would still use that. Audio was good. I could hear all the dialogue and the 1960s folk rock soundtrack fit the setting. I rate this adequate. It's better than o.k. because it brings up discrimination issues and used awesome video recording equipment.
An American crime film directed by Demian Lichtenstein, starring Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak and David Arquette.
5 Elvis impersonators rob a casino. They fight amongst themselves until 2 are left. A single mother at a hotel with a thieving son falls in love with one and they leave. The other follows them, trying to get the money.
Starts strong and then dies. The plot held my attention for the first 34 minutes (the heist) and then became dull. The characters were predictable and uninteresting. Video looked exactly as one would expect a 2001 Hollywood film to look. I could hear all of the dialogue. There was some good Elvis music, but there was also rock music of the time, which was not so good. I rate it o.k. because it was mediocre.
A French Austrian Brazilian British crime drama directed by Fernando Meirelles, starring Jude Law, Moritz Bleibtreu, Jamel Debbouze, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Anthony Hopkins.
People are involved in sexual situations. One woman is a hooker, a man orders her, but misses the connection, a sex offender gets out of jail and is tempted by a beautiful woman at the airport...
Boring and desultory. The plot or plots did not hold my attention at all, maybe because of the audio, which I will get to. There were far too many characters. Some of them seemed to be connected in some way. The video was all great. There was a variety of shot duration and camera placement. It really looked great, natural and not forced. The audio was horrible. Most of the dialogue was whispered. When that happens, I take it as a sign that the filmmakers thought dialogue was unimportant and don't care if the viewer hears what people are saying. If the dialogue was important, we should be able to hear it, right? Given that I only heard a few words and phrases over the course of almost 2 hours, I rate this bad. It looked great, but sounded terrible. Don't watch it.
An American crime film by Rob Zombie, starring Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Richard Brake.
In a direct sequel to House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005), Otis and Baby escape from jail with their half brother, Winslow and go to Mexico.
Definitely worth watching. It makes me want to watch the 2 previous films again. This is part of Zombie's Firefly Trilogy (of 4 films?) which also includes The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009). I don't really get that part. The plot of this was as good or better than the 2 previous films in the direct timeline. I like the Otis and Baby characters and adding Richard Brake as their relative makes sense. The video was very Rob Zombie and mostly good. There were a few action scenes with editing cuts which were too fast for my taste, but everything else looked good. I could hear all of the dialogue and the soundtrack was classic rock as I have come to expect. I would really have liked to know this was a sequel before watching because I would have watched the others first. The 2003 film was mostly horror and dark, 2005 added a crime element and this was mostly a crime film with a little horror twist. If you liked the other films of the series, you should watch this. I rate it awesome.
An American crime comedy directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Michael Peña and Fred Ward.
A pool cleaner wants to have his rich father assassinated and asks his friend for help. The hitman costs $10,000 so they abduct the pizza delivery driver and attach a bomb to him, telling him to rob a bank. The pizza boy picks up his friend and they try to go through with the robbery.
Not too shabby. Cliche, predictable and stupid, but funny. The plot held my interest really well and the characters fit their roles well. Everyone did a good job of acting, but I like Jesse Eisenberg because of his role in Zombieland (2009). The video that I found was absolutely terrible. It was stretched vertically and very grainy. I would not recommend arabmoviez. The video all looked to be correct exposures and there was shot variety. Editing was mostly quick because of the numerous action scenes. Audio was surprisingly good, although that may just be the extreme compression. I could hear everything well. I'm rating this adequate because it's a fun movie that should just be taken at face value. You might want to watch it if you liked 21 & 22 Jump Street (2012 & 2014).
American crime comedies directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (on both), starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube.
An unlikely pair of cops are really bad at their job and get sent on an undercover mission. In 21, they go to high school, searching for dealers and suppliers of a drug called HFS "Holy Fucking Shit". In 22, they are sent to college and the drug is called WHYPHY "Work Hard Yes Play Hard Yes".
Very entertaining. The humor mostly mocked the genre of the film with jokes about exploding and non-exploding items or saying "something cool" when throwing a grenade. It also included the American-mandatory sex and potty humor. The plots held my attention and I cared what happened next. Same with characters, I wanted to know how these guys would solve problems. Mostly, I cared what the next joke would be. Video was not really my style with quick cut rates and closer shots. The effects were great though. In each film, the main characters ingest the drug in question and the effects are shown in an extremely visual manner. Audio was very uneven, with whispered dialogue and loud music or explosions. Despite production style disagreements with my criteria, they were fun to watch. I rate them both good and they should be watched as a set, but the first was better. You should watch this.
An American crime drama directed by Robert Luketic, starring Lawrence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey and Jacob Pitts.
A math professor at MIT recruits a student who is trying to get into Harvard for his secret club. The club learns to count cards and goes to Las Vegas in hopes of winning money. Seduced by money, glamor and popularity, the students begin making mistakes.
Not bad, but not good. The stale plot branched off in predictable ways and the characters were not developed well. The main character (Ben), the professor (Micky) and the head of security (Cole) were developed some and had back-story, but nobody else did. I'm not saying that every character needs to be developed, but if they are important enough to be in like 5 scenes, they need some back-story. Video looked good, but very predictable for the time. There was some underexposure, but it looked chosen because all films show Las Vegas casinos being unevenly lit. Audio was actually a little bit loud, but generally seemed even. I rate it o.k. because it's a mediocre movie. Watch it or skip it, whatever.
A German American crime action sequel directed by John Singleton, starring James Remar.
A racecar driver is now working with the cops and together with an old friend, they make a deal to deliver money to a crime boss. The cops are in on the plan and want to catch everyone.
Oh yeah, car racing is absolutely the most interesting thing to watch. He's driving faster, now the other guy drives faster. Clearly, the plot did not hold my attention. I thought the characters were shallow too. The video had lots of quick editing, but some creative shots like going through the back of the car into the bag of money. There was also more correct exposure than I expected. The audio had crappy music, but dialogue was all clear. It was at least mixed well. What we've got here is "just another American car chase" like I said about "just another Japanese gun fight" before. I rate it bad because it's not worth watching and should never have been made, but at least it didn't hurt to watch. Don't watch it.
An American crime drama written and directed by Gary Lennon, starring Milla Jovovich, Angus Macfadyen and Stephen Dorff.
A woman has an abusive husband and a lesbian partner/friend. Between the woman, lesbian, a social worker and one of the husband's friends, they plan to take revenge on the husband.
This had a very simple plot, but the style worked well. Between some scenes, there were interview segments with people related to the characters. The husband's mother got violent at a thanksgiving turkey she was cooking and the woman's mother got shouted at by her husband. The video all looked fine, but there were serious audio problems. It was almost all whispered dialogue. I don't feel like writing any more about this. I rate it o.k. watch it if you want.
