An American courtroom drama directed by Rob Reiner, starring Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods.
A lawyer brings back a case of a black civil rights leader who was killed 27 years before.
I wish I hadn't decided to watch Rob Reiner's directorial filmography. All of his films are very standard and formulaic. This is no exception to that. Anything that I would normally write about can be described with those words. I would like to add a few, just to emphasize my point: stale, boring, predictable, trite, conventional, stock, uninspired, and cliched are just a few that come to mind. The best part was the lawyer's youngest son copying his father's curse word: shit. Overall, I want the last two hours of my life back. I rate this poor for being so mediocre (there's another good word!).
An Italian American crime drama directed by Sergio Leone, starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young and Treat Williams.
A group of boys in New York City start an organized crime gang. After a conflict with a rival gang, one of them goes to jail for many years. When he gets out, he finds that he has an aversion to this type of work.
I watched the super-long four hour version and liked it. The plot held my interest and the variety of characters was good. I thought that relatively few of them showed much depth or development. The phone ringing in the beginning was maddening. There must have been some other way to do that scene. I found the rape scene in the car disturbing to watch. The version that I got had some inconsistencies in the video for some reason. It could have been a bad copy, could have been intended that way or those could be the deleted scenes edited in without color correction. The video style and acting are what impressed me the most. Everything was shown so clearly with such convincing characters that it didn't feel like watching a staged movie. Overall, exceptional. For a four hour film to hold my attention attests to it's greatness. I rate this awesome.
An American drama directed by Sofia Coppola, starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst and Danny DeVito.
Boys from school chase after a group of sisters with strict parents.
I felt like this whole film was leading up to something that never happened. It seemed like all beginning with very little middle and no ending. The plot held my interest and I kind of cared what happened with the characters. The camera-work was really good. At times, it was noticeable in a good way and at others, invisible as the story came through. The pacing seemed rather slow to me. Overall, it was really weird for such tame subject matter. I'm giving this a strange pink rating for being so far out there in such an odd way. I don't know what to think about it.
An American horror western directed by John Carpenter, starring James Woods and Daniel Baldwin.
A team of vampires hunters in New Mexico expunge a den of the undead and party afterward. During the party, most of the team is killed by other vampires and the remaining members escape with a bitten prostitute. Through communications with religious leaders, they realize that they are dealing with the original vampire who is 600 years old.
You may recognize Jack, the lead vampire hunter, from when he quit smoking in Cat's Eye. That being said, I hated him in this film. His character was a total asshole. Not like any of the other characters were great... The plot was threadbare and a little murky at some points. More dark video and fast pacing. I'll stop talking shit and just rate this bad. Worse than Elvis (1979) bad. DO NOT WATCH!
An American made for TV drama directed by Daniel Petrie, starring James Woods and backed by CBS, Warner Brothers and Hallmark corporations.
The founder of Alcoholics Anonymous has trouble quitting booze and starts a support group to help other people quit.
You may recognize James Woods from his other role as a quitter in Cat's Eye (1985). He may have been slightly type-cast in the late '80s. This film was mostly about the main character and I think that's appropriate in this case, as it is mostly biographical. The style and presentation were good, but also typical of that era. I think that the ending was a little too happy compared to how the real Bill W's life actually ended. The real one died from emphysema and pneumonia while demanding whiskey. Historical inaccuracies aside, I didn't really mind the movie and thought it was a little better than the average AA meeting. I rate it o.k.
A crime drama directed by Larry Clark, starring James Woods.An older drug dealing couple team up with a younger drug doing couple to execute some robberies.The characters and plot were good, but the pacing was off. The visual style was also not to my taste, as it relied too heavily on warm colors. There was a lot of blues and country-based music throughout the film. I'm rating it adequate because it should have been better, but as is, it wasn't bad.
