Movie Review: The Score (2001)

I have proclaimed my love for heist movies more than a few times on the blog. A lot of movies from “Heat” to “Fast Five” interest me because of the heist stuff. And therefore I always look forward to watching another heist movie.

Ladies and gentlemen… “The Score”.

Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) is a former thief who now runs a jazz club in Montreal. But his retirement has to be pushed back even further because of his old friend Max (Marlon Brando) teaming Nick up with young thief Jack Teller (Edward Norton) who has a plan to steal a scepter that have been found. So of course Nick unwillingly accepts Jack’s offer to try to steal the scepter. Okay, the premise is cliché as all hell, but as you know i am a person who thinks that if a cliché is done well, it doesn’t matter. And I’m gonna be quite honest, the clichés in this movie work perfectly to create a good heist story. And I was honestly surprised at some of the twists the movie had to offer. Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

The characters in this movie never stopped being entertaining (in my opinion), they were consistently well-written and entertaining. I think it also helps a lot that the actors were fucking phenomenal in their respective roles. Robert De Niro played the character of Nick Wells with a lot of confidence and even a bit of regret to have to do one more heist. Marlon Brando (despite limited screen time) was also great. And Edward Norton, once again giving us a winning performance that we can all look up to. I really mean it, he is truly great in the movie. Everybody was great in the movie, even the supporting cast.

The music was composed by none other than the masterful Howard Shore. You know, the guy who composed “Se7en” and the “Lord of the Rings” movies. And while the score for “The Score” (That is hilarious) isn’t as great as any of those, he still did a great job here to create a soundtrack that at times sounded like typical heist-movie music, but also at times create suspenseful and straight up great tracks for other scenes. And I loved it all. Again, not as much as in “Se7en” or “Lord of the Rings”, but I still loved it.

Frank Oz directed this movie and I have never seen a Frank Oz movie before. So if you know any great Frank Oz movies, please let me know. Anyway, he did a great job directing this movie. He made it look great and be very stylish which really made me appreciate it even more. Something I was surprised by was jsut how tense it could get as times. Like during the big heist itself, the hair on my arms was standing and my heart was racing during parts of the heist. And I like that, it is rare for me to find a movie with that level of tension.

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 73% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 71/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,8/10.

“The Score” is a heist movie that uses it’s clichés to it’s advantage to create an interesting take on the heist movie. It has a really well-done story, great characters and acting, great music, great direction and surprising level of suspense. Time for my final score. *Steals envelope*. My final score for “The Score” (again, hilarious) is a 9,88/10. It definitely deserves the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

“The Score” is now reviewed.

Okay, bye bye!

Movie Review: The Godfather (1972)

Oh god, now I am gonna get it… big time. Not having seen one of the most popular and best reviewed movies of all time until now. So far I have gotten through it all without getting my ass bitten, but this is sure to piss people off. For the people who might be able to accept the fact, I am sorry. But for you who are dead set on murdering me, be gentle.

My friends… “The Godfather”.

This movie follows aging mob boss Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, R.I.P) as he wants to try to hand over the empire to his reluctant son Michael (Al Pacino). We also get to see them try to take care of business and survive from the other “families” in the city. Now that is really all I can say about the plot for the few out there who haven’t seen the movie yet. But I can say that the long time that the story spans (circa 10 years) is one of the most intriguing and perfectly constructed plots I have ever laid my eyes upon. This movie is almost three hours long and I was never bored with any of it, that is evidence of a terrific and interesting story. It also features a few pretty neat twists and turns at times.

The characters are all very nuanced, unique and interesting. All of them had great writing behind them and I can safely say that there was not a single weak performance in this movie at all. Marlon Brando was fantastic as this deep, caring and humble mob boss. His performance was one of the best I have ever seen. Al Pacino was also great as his son Michael, a guy reluctant to take on the role of Godfather (Or Don as it is also called). But he also played the character with a lot of humanity and showed that the character put family above all else. It was also great seeing a bunch of other great actors such as Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and James Caan in this movie playing all these great characters. Like I said before, there were on weak performances in this movie and the writing for all of them was excellent.

The score by Nino Rota was perfect. It managed to help build a lot of suspense, even in a lot of scenes where there was a regular conversation between two characters. The music also helped bring a lot of emotion to scenes that wouldn’t have been as powerful without it even though they would still have been great. And while I did love the original score for the movie, please listen to this cover of the song “Speak Softly, Love” by David Davidson, it is beautiful.

There is a reason Francis Ford Coppola is called one of the greatest directors ever and that is hwo this movie is shot. Sure, there is nothing special at first glance when it comes to the shot composition, but that is the greatness of it all. It is simple yet so magnificent. The shots look terrific, especially on the restoration DVD that I watched. Sure, the blu-ray is probably even better, but I don’t care. The movie looks fantastic.

Like I said in the beginning, this is one of the best reviewed movies of all time. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 99% (Holy shit) positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 100/100, one of the few movies with such a score. Roger Ebert gave this movie 4/4 stars and put it in his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it has a score of 9,2/10 and is ranked #2 on the “Top 250” list (Sidenote: At #1 is “The Shawshank Redemption”). This movie also won 3 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best screenplay based on previously published material. It was also nominated for an additional 8 Oscars (Holy shit) in the categories of Best Supporting Actors (James Caan), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall), Best Supporting Actor (Al Pacino), Best Director, Best costume design, Best sound, Best film editing and best original score. 

I can’t deny it, “The Godfather” is one of the greatest movies ever made. The story is fantastic, the performances are fantastic, the score is amazing, the direction is great and the writing is terrific. The only problem I could see it having is that it would be a tad too slow for most modern audiences… but not for me! Time for my final score. Jeff, get me the envelope! No? Well how about this, I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. Yeah? Thank you! My final score for “The Godfather” is a 9,89/10. There is nothing else to say other than it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

I have finally reviewed “The Godfather”.

This movie made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And I am at least not sleeping with the fishes.