but we don't need he's a good actor, do we? We just need he exists!!!

The Jacket * 1/2

Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) knows little about who he is. Nor does he know why he's bound in a straitjacket and subjected to bizarre psychiatric treatments. But an even more stunning fate awaits this amnesia-stricken Gulf War veteran: the treatments thrust him into the year 2007 - where Jack learns he died in 1993. I was pretty disappointed with this movie and was tired of the directing/editing with all the shots of Adrien Brody's eye to "send him" into 2007. I'm not an Adrien Brody fan but he was tolerable in this but Keira Knightley stood out to me the most. She did a good job with her drunk character

Interestingly enough, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN was a dud in theaters, yet apparently performed gang-buster business on DVD this past week, though I assume it'll be overtaken by BATMAN BEGINS, which actually was sold of all of its units at both the local WAL-MART and TARGET stores.

I'm watching Nixon for the first time tonight or tomorrow night. One of my friend's favorite movies, so I've got high expectations. He says its Stone's best.

No, Stone's best is JFK

I need to find a copy of Nixon, which is supposedly one of the most misunderstood films of the 90's. Hopkins starring in it is also a plus.

IMO, JFK is overrated to an extent. A great film that manages to hold fascination through the whole film, but overrated.

Plus, this annoyed me when I read it months ago. 100 Errors in JFK

The Doors (1991, Stone) ***

The bio-pic of the life of Jim Morrison stars a dead-on Val Kilmer as the poet and frontman. Kilmer did a fantastic Morrion, and sang everything. This film was critised by some of those close to Morrison, saying it was a one-sided film. I believe Stone presented HIS Morrison, and succeeds.

Irish, have you actually seen NIXON?

NIXON (1995) - MASTERPIECE - *****/5

Really, Oliver Stone's career can be pointed after this film when both the critics that loved him for many years, and the public of sorts, turned against him...or Stone's thrashing he got wrongly for NATURAL BORN KILLERS probably burned him for good, since after 1995, his output like ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, U-TURN, and ALEXANDER(do we need to go there?) didn't exactly rule like PLATOON, JFK, and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY did.

Sad since Stone does go out with a bang with perhaps his most ambitious picture as a filmmaker, where he would try to paint a 3+ hour epic tragedy in the hopeful reigns of Shakespeare and CITIZEN KANE, for truely the long-time openly Hollywood liberal filmmaker Oliver Stone surprsied the hell out of me when he didn't simply damn the infamous/legendary President Richard Milhouse Nixon as most people probably expected...instead, Stone doesn't treat Nixon as a demon, but instead a sad humanistic Monster that indeed becomes truely the hideous American cancer as the late Hunter S. Thompson described him as, but not before we feel sorry for how he became such a corrupt, paranoid, egomanic of a person. "Can you imagine what this man would be like had anyone ever loved him?"

But the most touching scene that defines the film for me is after the man that was simply "Nixon", who was born into pure poverty but was able to fight his way into awesome political power with fear and hatred from his opponents, who acheived many notable foreign and domestic policy successes yet never was as loved or immortalized by the public or the press corp as his long-time rival(alive and in spirit) in Kennedy, finally fell from his thrown after an incredible tale of amazing rise to power that Tony Montana can't sniff at, when he comes upon President Kennedy's portrait at the White House and wisely quoted this:

"When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are.
"

Somehow, NIXON was left in the shuffle of 1995 when Ron Howard's APOLLO 13 and Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning/Box-Office hit BRAVEHEART took some Oscars...sad because NIXON is a superior picture in everyway compared to those two. Honestly, its not just as great as Stone's PLATOON or JFK or BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, I believe honestly that it is indeed his career-peak of pure cinematic suave and execution as a director.

DA, you're right on the money. Like Hopkin's Nixon and Kilmer's Morrison, those superb performances are simply a dramatic tale of real historical people that capture many of their true characteristics, yet its sterile dramatic overplay.

Then again, its like the Shakespeare performances of real Anglo-Saxon figures like King Richard III or Henry V and so on. The performances that we've witnessed for centuries with those roles are no way close to the real figures, but actors do certainly make them work in a great dramatic fashion.

Yup, I saw it this summer and didn't like it very much

House of Wax **

When their car breaks down on a road trip, six college friends are sidetracked into an eerie backwoods town. Curiosity gets the better of them when they are intrigued by its macabre House of Wax. They soon find out that the town is not what it seems and they must find their way out before they fall victim to its ghoulishly inventive killers. I was disappointed with this movie because I had been wanting to see it since it came out in the theaters but didn't get a chance to see it. It looked pretty good from the previews but the movie just wasn't what I thought it'd be. Plus, in some shots it just looked kinda low budget and also there was a couple of parts at the beginning that I felt like I was rewatching The Blair Witch Project. On a final note, there's not a lot of "kills" or "scares" so if you're expecting that from this movie you will be disappointed

A film is in trouble when it advertizes quite clearly that Paris Hilton gets iced....

Anyway Irishman, why am I not really surprised that you hated NIXON?

Probably because we have the complete OPPOSITE taste in movies. And I never said I hated it, but it wasn't better than JFK or Platoon.

High Noon #33 on the AFI Top 100 List ***

A retiring lawman about to leave town with his new bride seeks allies among the fearful townspeople when an outlaw he put in prison returns with his gang to take revenge in this classic western. This is definitely one of my favorite westerns. It was a lot better and more interesting than I thought it would be. SPOILERS 2 of the things that I really liked was that the movie was kinda like in "real time" and also I just liked how the movie ended. Once Will killed Frank he just took off his badge, got on the cart with his wife and that was it.END OF SPOILERS. Definitely a movie not to miss, especially for those western fans out there

À bout de souffle/Breathless
1959, Godard, Fr Nth viewing; big screen; with group discussion
In Paris, an ultra-cool car thief kills a cop and seduces the girl he loves while running from the police.
Innovatively casual piece which helped spark the French New Wave of the 60s; Godard's first film strikes the viewer as one made by a man in love with the medium, and, without having found his political ground yet, is simply having as much fun as possible.

Mick

High Noon, one of the greatest westerns.

Did you notice Lee Van Cleef (The Bad) as the silent, harmonica playing thug? One of the more memorable characters.

Ransom

The son of an Airlines Company owner is kidnapped for ransom. The father, acted by Mel Gibson turns the ransom into prize money on the kidnapper's head. Cliched plot. The script did not exploit this good idea enough.

Yeah I thought that was him. A young version of him but yeah he did look familiar. I think I'm gonna buy this movie on DVD.

The Godfather Part II ****

The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba. I don't think there's anything I need to say about this movie that hasn't already been said before except I really enjoyed both De Niro's and Pacino's performances! Truly outstanding and worth of Oscars. Although I must admit my ignorance, as many times as I've seen The Godfather Part II and as many episodes of The Soprnanos that I've seen, it didn't dawn on me until now that Dominic Chianese (Uncle Jun from The Sopranos) played Johnny Ola

Is that only a 4/5 for GFII?!?

Who said everyone uses 5 star ratings?

Good eye Don Andrew and no Mista, I use the 4 star scale, so it's 4 outta 4 stars

Domino - (Tony Scott;2005;France/USA) - ZERO
A partial true story of Domino Harvey, daughter of Laurence Harvey who went from being a Ford model to a bounty hunter.
Once again Tony Scott tries to make a stylish film and turns out to make a mind-fuck, visually speaking. The rest is pretty shallow. The liberties that he took with the film were ridiculous, like the climax. The film had some ignored ideas that could've made it better, like possibly being an allegory to the children of famous people in Hollywood being in the fast-lane. Instead it turns out to be a completely overblown action film with some laughable drama. An ok cast, a few pieces of good music, but otherwise nothing. It's plot was better then Man on Fire, but this turns out to be even worse. I'm sure it's not the worst of this year, but from what I've seen so far, it is.

Tony Scott's DOMI-K.O.

Ouch DV, I've heard similar reviews. Go read Moriarty's scathing review over at the AICN website.

Scott used a few songs used in Collateral and even used one of Michael Mann's associates in hiring an actual gang to appear in the film. Scott's visuals are overdone and painfully laughable in trying to be extreme. Mann's are beautiful to look at, done with nice subtlety, and don't destroy the cinematography.

Is it me, or is Tony Scott trying to re-invent himself as an over-stylish autuer filmmaker, as if he is trying to out-edit the younger hacks like Michael Bay and Paul W.S. Anderson?

Either way, I dread Tony Scott's planned "realist" remake of Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS...

Sleepy Hollow - (Tim Burton;1999;USA) -
Icabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of beheadings, supposedly the work of a headless Hessian mercenary.
Burton could've done better with this film, but it still comes out to be a pretty good film mostly due to the atmosphere. Burton creates a wonderful portrayal of Sleepy Hollow. At times it may feel too conventional but Burton's direction and Depp's acting make up for a lot. Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman is however, the most memorable character in this film. I'd say in fact he's one of the most memorable characters in modern horror. It reminds me of a more barbaric look to his character of Mayor Schreck in Batman Returns.

Annie Hall #31 on the AFI Top 100 List **

Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s. This was my first Woody Allen movie and I enjoyed it. A pretty face paced comedy with a good performance by Diane Keaton. My favorite part was probably the opening monalogue by Woody at the beginning of the film

You give Annie Hall 2 stars?


Wow.

Ya but Irish only gave a score of 4/5 for THE GODFATHER PART TWO.