An American crime film directed by Frank Oz, starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando.
A professional safe-cracker who runs a jazz club is contacted by a fellow criminal about a big job. The "inside man" works as a cleaner at the location and pretends to be retarded. Together, they work out a plan to get past a very complex security system and steal a priceless artifact.
This was pretty standard, "stock". The plot was typical of crime-heist genre films of the time. I thought the characters were cast well and their acting was convincing. The video was good quality and the editing was dynamic, changing pace with the on-screen action. The soundtrack was actually so good that I didn't notice it. Everything sounded correct at the right times and the club scenes featured decent jazz. Overall, not too shabby. I rate it adequate because it's "good enough" without going for any extra credit.
An American crime drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro.
The only remaining son of a defeated mafia don in Italy escapes to America where he builds his own crime syndicate. His son takes over the family business and annihilates all competition.
This was the longest, most boring thing I have ever seen. Sure, there were momentary bursts of ultra-violence that shook things up every so often, but the bulk of the films consisted of talking. A few of the highlights include a man waking up with his prize horse's amputated head bleeding all over him in bed, multiple instances of tommy guns turning men to swiss cheese and a brutal knifing on a balcony. The little ditty that I composed to accompany this goes like: "They call me the widowmaker, my name is Michael Corleone, I have men killed for sport and pleasure, but selling drugs I do not condone". Seriously, everyone is killed. Overall, this consists of waiting far too long between action scenes. I rate it poor.
An American drama directed by Jeremy Leven, starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway.
A psychologist who will soon be retiring gets a new patient. The patient says that he is Don Juan DeMarco and tells an epic life story which includes swashbuckling duels in Mexico, a visit to the middle east and numerous romantic encounters. Unfortunately, the patient's grandmother is found and says that he lived an uneventful life in New York and Arizona before being abandoned by his mother after the father's death in a car crash. The psychologist must discern fact from fiction.
Johnny Depp plays crazy yet again. His telling of stories kept me entertained for most of the duration and reminded me of Secondhand Lions (2003) and The Fall (2006). The story scenes had excellent sets and costumes. They featured more dramatic camera-work than the hospital scenes. The pacing was pretty moderate, with just enough fast to keep my attention and just enough slow to let the scenes sink in. The premise of discerning fact from fiction was not resolved, which I found slightly confusing. Overall, not bad. The cool story scenes earn this an adequate rating.
An American drama thriller by Johnny Depp with music by Iggy Pop, starring Marlon Brando.
A poor Native American man agrees to be killed for money to get his family out of the slum where they live. He is given a large amount of money and a week to live before he has to report back to his employer and have his death video taped.
The plot was very good and the characters were interesting. The style was very late '90s almost too perfect, but retained the late '80s/early '90s charm and realism. The pacing was a little slow, but you would want it that slow too if you only had a limited time to live. The camera-work was way '90s and cliche. There were some interesting questions to mention: Why are the Indians listening to Mexican music? How would it feel to have sex sitting on rocks? Why is a white man playing a Native American part? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, Johnny sure likes his screen time. Overall, I thought it was fairly well made and definitely held my interest. I rate it good. This would be one to watch.
