An American crime drama directed by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana and Sam Shepard.
A steel mill worker is jailed for drunk driving. When he gets out, he finds that his brother is fighting for money. The brother arranges a dangerous fight and disappears afterward. The mill worker searches for his brother.
Stupid hyper-masculinity. Also, just like every other Hollywood movie of the time. There's really nothing more to say. I rate it bad. Don't watch it.
A British Danish Belgian French German adventure directed by Lars von Trier, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Willlem Dafoe and Udo Kier.
A man finds a woman injured and lying in an alley. He takes her to his apartment where she tells him about her life.
Beyond amazing. Camera-work and editing blew me away. The plot and characters held my attention the whole 5 and a half hours to the point that I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was done. Speaking of time, make sure to watch the longer version/director's cut. It's worthwhile. This film is not for the squeamish. If graphic depictions of sex and violence make you squeam, don't watch it. Also blasphemy, racism and foul language. More genitals crossed the screen than I'm used to, but that's o.k. for a movie this good. I can't think of anything that would improve this besides better audio editing, but that could be improved in most films. I rate this best. it's a keeper. Watch it!
An American crime film directed by Abel Ferrara, starring Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento.
A pair of kidnappers are trying to use a prostitute to kidnap a scientist.
I can't take that much Walken. In the first half hour there were also multiple scenes in which women thought they could sing, but the audio proved their inability. I turned this off at 40:32 of 1:33:10 because the plot was dull and I didn't care what happened with the characters. It looked alright, but even Fie Over England (1937) looks good. That doesn't make it a good movie though. For the Walken beast, bad singing and a boring plot, I rate this shit. Do not watch!
A Brazilian drama by Hector Babenco, starring Willem Dafoe.
A man with cancer has trouble with his wife and brother. On a side note, he meets a Hindu boy in the hospital.
The title must be a joke because that boy was only in probably less than 10 minutes of the 2 hour movie. The non-linear plot threw me off and I watched it twice, thinking that I might understand it better. Nope. At least, I think it was a non-linear plot... Willem Dafoe is a great actor and can basically do no wrong, so he was doing a good job all the way through. I thought it was a little gross to see him with his shirt off though. The camera-work was brilliant and the editing was good, unless it was supposed to be a linear plot. Then the editing was the worst I've ever seen. Overall, it was pretty decent. I rate it adequate and would recommend it if you really, really like Willem Dafoe.
A Polish American war drama directed by Yurek Bogayevicz, starring Willem Dafoe and Haley Joel Osment.
A jewish boy hides in a catholic family during World War II. He has various adventures with the other children of the village.
Normally, anything that includes "During World War II" is a terrible waste. It has all been done to death like jews in a gas chamber. This was not typical of the genre. What I found to be so different about this was first, the leisurely pace gives the viewer time to process what is going on. Having the plot revolve around a group of children during that most military of times reminded me slightly of Stand By Me (1986) and It (1990). Obviously, it lacked the carefree childhood innocence of Pippi Longstocking (1969 - 1973) and Tom Sawyer (1973). The only thing that really put me off was the amount of handheld camera shots. I prefer the stability of tripods, dollies and other supports for filming. I'm rating this awesome because it made me want to watch it again.
An American crime film directed by Paul Schrader, starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe.
A trio of criminals are out of jail and try to work together on 2 jobs. The first job involves robbing a drug dealer and the second is kidnapping a baby for ransom.
I thought this was a well put together crime flick. The characters were memorable and played by good actors. The plot was not quite as great, but did the job. There were some interesting video effects with colors, lights and lack of color, but not really "special effects". The beginning is a good example of this. One of the 3 main characters is in a pink room, but there is also a blue room next to it. The plot soon reveals the reason for the pink room and it makes sense. I'm rating this good and think it's a keeper.
An American Disney sword and planet science fiction directed by Andrew Stanton, starring Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds and Willem Dafoe.
A man in the old west stumbles upon a secret cave in which he meets an Alien, shoots it and uses it's medallion to travel to Mars. There he is adopted by a civilization of aliens and meets a humanoid princess whom he must save.
Not too shabby, but I got the feeling that it was trying to be a Star Wars spinoff. This was based on A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a sword and planet "science fantasy" book published in 1912. I had stumbled upon a web page mourning the loss of good science fiction and fantasy pulp paperback novels which accompanied the end of the 1980s and this was one of the series listed there. Being a Disney production, the cinematography and special effects were amazing. With a 306.6 million dollar budget, I would expect no less. Just for perspective, the entire school district that I work at has less than an 81 million dollar annual budget and that runs 6 schools fully staffed with teachers, administration and cleaners, an administration building and a bus garage with a full fleet of buses. There was some extremely low volume dialogue in the beginning which is unacceptable considering the money involved. The rest of the audio was fine. The aliens speaking an unknown language without subtitles in the beginning was intentional, as the main character learns to understand them and they speak in English after that. I don't know how much of the sets and costumes were CG (lots), but I saw CG eyes on the female lead. In the arena scene (which took forever to get to) monsters called "wild Bants" are mentioned, but all we get are "white apes" that looked like Yetis from Drakan: The Ancients' Gates for PS2, but with 4 arms. The whole consensus anatomy of Mars except humanoids was to add arms or legs. Their riding beasts had the most, rivaling Odin's Slepnir with 8 legs. Overall, an entertaining science fiction/fantasy adventure with good special effects. I'm keeping it, but discerning movie buffs may be disappointed by the lack of tact and finesse. I would put this in the same category as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018): cheap thrills that were expensive to make. I rate this good because that's what I've been liking watching these days.
A German American drama directed by Werner Herzog, starring Willem Dafoe, Michael Shannon, Chloe Sevigny and Udo Kier.
A mentally disturbed man has just murdered his mother and the police have surrounded his house. His fiancee and the director of the play that he was in arrive and tell the back-story of how this happened.
This was pretty good. The characters were acted very well and the non-linear plot worked. I liked the main character and his crazy uncle the most. The camera-work and editing were fantastic. My favorite shot was the basketball in the tree, closely followed by prescription glasses with a light. There was a compositing shot in the park where the main character and fiancee are in real time while the background goes slow motion. I was impressed with how strange this was. Overall, nice work. I rate it good.
An American adventure comedy directed by Wes Anderson, starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Michael Gambon.
An aging documentary film maker and his crew embark upon their last adventure. He is deserted by his wife and joined by a man claiming to be his son. His frienemy has a better equipped lab than their boat, so they rob it. Then they are boarded by foreign pirates and some of their crew are taken hostage.
This was actually good. I liked the plot and setting, with lots of underwater shots and things happening on a boat. The characters caught my interest and interacted in a dramatic manner without bringing in too much romantic relationship baggage. The guitarist playing David Bowie songs in Portuguese really added a unique twist. There was a lot of compositing and video editing involved. I don't think any of the marine life footage was stock. Even if it was just color editing, every fish and crustacean was changed in some way. The soundtrack really fit the scenes, with bubbly, arpeggiated synth for underwater scenes. Overall, this is what movies should be like. I rate it a solid green rating for setting a standard of film making.
A horror directed by E. Elias Merhige, starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.A group of men are making a vampire movie when they discover that their fake vampire is real.The plot and characters were a little predictable, as they were pretending to be making a film that I've already seen. The style fit the film very well and the production value was good. Willem Dafoe did a good job as Count Orlok and I liked how John Malkovich directed his actors when they were filming scenes. However, the whole thing was a little on the boring side. I'm rating it adequate.
A romance directed by Bruno Podalydès, Paul Mayeda Berges, Gurinder Chadha, Gus Van Sant, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas, Christopher Doyle, Isabel Coixet, Nobuhiro Suwa, Sylvian Chomet, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivier Assayas, Oliver Schmitz, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Wes Craven, Tom Tykwer, Gerard Depardieu and Alexander Payne, starring Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Elijah Wood and Natalie Portman.A montage of short stories are shown happening in Paris, France, all involving love and relationships.This is something special. Blogger wouldn't accept tags for the whole list of directors. If there's going to be a romantic film that I like it had better be set in Paris, the city of love. The styles were awesome (notice styles plural here) and the production value was great, bordering on "new movie too perfect". The short scenes worked out well for this film and each seemed complete on it's own. Together, they create a masterpiece. I have to rate this best because it is to cinema as a royal feast is to food.
A biography directed by Julian Schnabel, starring David Bowie, Courtney Love, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe.The life and career of artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat is shown.I don't know where to begin. I wish that I could make this review as cool as the film, but it is impossible to capture such things in words. Jean-Michel Basquiat is a beautifully ugly character, just like his art. It's going to be hard to watch anything else after this masterpiece. Obviously, I'm rating it best.
An action film by Troy Duffy, starring Willem Dafoe.When a pair of brothers are attacked by mafia men after a bar fight, they decide to take the law into their own hands and kill evil men.Everything is good in this film. This is how to do an action movie the right way. My favorite parts are when the crime scene investigator is recounting the events with style applied liberally. This gets a best rating.
A drama directed by Paul Schrader, starring James Coburn, Willem Dafoe and Nick Nolte.A low level law enforcement official in a small town has problems with his family and job. When a hunting accident kills a tourist, the "cop" thinks that it wan't an accident and this adds to his problems.Ithink this was a definite waste of a good cast. There's the thief from The Good Thief, the forensic detective from Boondock Saints and the explosives expert from Duck You Sucker. These 3 guys should have been in something a little more exciting. I got bored, so I'm rating it poor. The only things that saved it from a bad rating have already been mentioned.
A drama directed by Paul Schrader, starring Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.A performer was abused in a concentration camp by a commander who made him act like a dog. He lives in a home with other mentally ill holocaust survivors. He finds that a dog boy has been admitted into the building and tries to help him.The main character had bottles of booze in every heating vent of the entire building and was moderately entertaining. The dog boy was slightly interesting as well. The plot was deep, but didn't do much for me. It is a decent movie, but nothing to get excited about. I'm rating it adequate.
A crime film directed by Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington and Willem Dafoe.A team of bank robbers enter a bank dressed as painters and execute a most skillful heist.The plot of this film was very good. It had sufficient twists to hold my attention. The characters left much to be desired though. For being new Hollywood bullshit with a decent plot, I'm rating it o.k.
