Movie Review: Mystic River (2003)

I had no real reason to review this movie. It was on tv last night, and that rewatch made me wanna talk about it. So no proper reason. I mean, I could tie it into Eastwood’s new movie “The Mule”, but… nah.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Mystic River”.

After one of them suffers a horrific family tragedy, three childhood friends (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon) find their lives change in some dark, shattering ways. So now we have our crime-drama. And I loved the story here. It’s a slowly burning, somber, and contemplative drama, focusing more on showing what happens within people’s minds after they experience something horrific, rather than a typical murder mystery. This is what I meant with the somber and contemplative. Yes, you do have the murder investigation, but it’s really more of a character drama than a police procedural. And I find it all extremely engaging, gut-wrenching, and incredibly well done.

The characters in this are flawed, layered, damaged, and just overall really interesting. First up we have Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum, a former criminal turned legit businessman. He’s the man who suffered the family tragedy that kicks the plot into gear, and to see him try to deal with it, especially as a former criminal, is quite an interesting journey. And Penn is fantastic in the role. Next we have Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle, the second of the main trio. As a boy, something happened to him that changed his life forever. And recent events put some of those memories back into his mind, which really gives him some interesting character development. And Robbins is fantastic in the role. And then we have Kevin Bacon as Sean Devine, a cop and the third of the childhood friends. He’s the one investigating the death of Markum’s family member, while also kind of dealing with a personal thing in the background. He probably has the least interesting arc of all the characters, but I still find him to be quite interesting. And Bacon is great in the role. We also get supporting turns from people like Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Kevin Chapman, Spencer Treat Clark, John Doman, Tom Guiry, and more, all doing very well in their respective roles.

The score for the movie was composed by… Clint Eastwood. And I think he did a good job with it. It’s emotional, it’s a little eerie, and it just works very well within the various scenes that it can be heard. Yeah, it’s good.

Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (AKA my favorite author), this movie was directed by Clint Eastwood. And I think he did a fantastic job on that front, directing it with an emotional intimacy that brings us close to the characters, while still allowing for a sense of scale to capture every element of this sweeping tale of personal tragedy. He also brings a decent bit of suspense to it, especially at a certain point in the movie which had me fully locked to the screen.

This movie has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 88% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 84/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,0/10. The movie won two Oscars in the categories of Best actor (Penn) and best supporting actor (Robbins). It also got an additional four nominations in the categories of Best picture, best director, best supporting actress (Harden), and best adapted screenplay.

“Mystic River” is a fantastic crime-drama. It has a great plot, really good characters, fantastic performances, really good music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Mystic River” is a 9,89/10. Which of course means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Mystic River” is now completed.

Tragedy hits us all in different ways. Hug your loved ones while you can.

Movie Review: Carlito’s Way (1993)

Today’s lesson (which is a repeat of an older lesson): Crime. Don’t commit crimes. Committing crimes is bad. This has been your lesson/PSA for the day.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Carlito’s Way”.

After serving five years in prison, Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is attempting to sort of reboot his life, escape his old criminal ways and become a good citizen. But that is quite hard when he feels pressure from various people around him. So now we have our crime-drama. And I was quite engrossed by the plot here. On one hand, it subverted my expectations. When it started out, I thought it would go one way, but then it took some turns that I really didn’t expect. And it’s overall a tense and dramatic plot that I found myself quite invested in throughout the entire runtime. It’s more of a character-driven drama rather than a typical gangster-story (though there are elements of that too at times), and I found it to be a damn fine plot.

The characters in this are quite interesting. Sure, a decent amount of them don’t get the most amount of depth, but I found them all working well enough within the movie. Al Pacino plays Carlito Brigante, the man in the title who has some trouble leading a legitimate life. At first he just seems like a smug and charismatic gangster who might go back to his old ways ASAP, but those layers quickly get peeled back and we see that he really means to go legit, to be a good man. And he gets some interesting development throughout. And Pacino is great in the role. Then we have Sean Penn as David, Carlito’s sleazy lawyer. And when I say sleazy I mean that he’s a somewhat dorky, coked out, jerk. And it’s interesting to see him and his interactions with Carlito. And Penn is really good in the role. Then we have Penelope Ann Miller as Gail, an old flame of Carlito, and his love interest for the movie. She’s a highly driven dancer who is a bit split when it comes to Carlito. She is also an important part of Carlito’s arc. And Miller is really good in the role. We also get some really solid supporting turns from people like James Rebhorn, Luis Guzmán, John Leguizamo, Viggo Mortensen, John Ortiz, and more. ’tis a well acted movie.

The score for the movie was composed by Patrick Doyle, and it was really good. What we have here is an emotional, tense, and just overall well composed. It’s a score that fits the movie very well, and often helps elevate a lot of scenes throughout. Not saying that the scenes were bad in general, just that the music added something extra to them. There were also a couple licensed tracks used throughout, and they worked well within their respective scenes.

This movie was directed by Brian De Palma, and he of course did a great job (what else did you expect?). His directing here is tight and intimate while also making it feel a bit bigger than it is. However, compared to “Scarface”, the other De Palma/Pacino crime movie, it’s quite subdued in it’s approach. There is certainly a little bit of action in this, but it’s not quite as extreme as in “Scarface”. Yeah, it’s violent, but it isn’t quite as insane as the stuff in “Scarface”, relying more on pure tension rather than the coked out insanity of that other movie. Speaking of which, De Palma manages to bring out a lot of tension throughout this movie, making you actually kind of fear for Carlito and what might happen.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 80% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it doesn’t even exist. Roger Ebert gave it 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,9/10.

“Carlito’s Way” is a great crime drama. It has a great plot, good characters, great performances, really good music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Carlito’s Way” is a 9,82/10. Which means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Carlito’s Way” is now completed.

Oye como va mi ritmo
Bueno pa’ gozar, mulata

Movie Review: State of Grace (1990)

Don’t get involved with mobsters… EVER! It just brings trouble. Understood? Good.

Ladies and gentlemen… “State of Grace”.

Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) is an undercover cop who has returned to his old home of Hell’s Kitchen, New York, after being away for a certain amount of years. And soon he gets in touch with his old friend Jackie (Gary Oldman) who gets Terry involved with the Irish mob, led by Jackie’s brother, Frankie (Ed Harris). And soon Terry gets involved in some pretyt intense stuff. From this we get a surprisingly investing and very well told mob story. There are a few surprises strewn throughout the plot that really helped keep my interest. I’m not saying that they’re mindblowing twists, but they were most defiiinitely a little surprising. So yeah, the plot here is really solid.

I admit, the characters in thsi movie aren’t the most original when it comes to what type of character they all are. But I was definitely interested in all of them. Sean Penn is great as Terry, he perfectly plays this conflicted undercover cop. Ed Harris is great as the mob boss, but you knew that already… it’s Ed fucking Harris. Gary Oldman in this movie is fantastic, playing this very unhinged man. Really, he’s a blast to watch. Robin Wright plays the sister of Harris/Oldman that gets romantically involved with Terry, and she’s great in the role. Then we also get some really good supporting performances from people like John Turturro and John C. Reilly. A solid cast giving great performances… me likey.

The score for the movie was composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone, and he delivered some pretty great tunes, like he always does. The music is dramatic, tense, and it worked very well for the movie. And it just overall sounds great, because Ennio Morricone can do no wrong.

The movie was directed by Phil Joanou and Michael Lee Baron and they did a really solid job. Scenes flow smoothly and everything is just overall well handled. I of course also have to mention that the cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth looks great. But what else should one expect from the man who did the cinematography for “Blade Runner”. One final thing I also want to mention is that this movie contains one of the coolest shootouts that I have ever seen. It’s very late in the movie, but the wait is so worth it. The mix of visuals and sound is really great. It’s also really violent, so if you are squeamish you might not be the biggest fan.

This movie has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 84% positive rating. On Metacritic it doesn’t exist. Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,3/10.

“State of Grace” is a really solid gangster movie. It has a really good plot, good characters, great performances, great music, great directing, and great cinematography. Time for my final score. *Bang*. My final score for “State of Grace” is a 9,79/10. So it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “State of Grace” is now completed.

Early 90s Gary Oldman would make a great Deadpool… just a thought.

Movie Review: Gangster Squad (2013)

Gangsters, not sure what to say about them. They do bad shit, I guess that’s all I can say for now. Moving on.

Ladies and gents… “Gangster Squad”.

Los Angeles, late 1940s. Crime is everywhere, and the town is more or less run by the biggest criminal of them all: Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). This isn’t liked by those officers of the law who haven’t been corrupted yet. So police sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) forms a certain team that is willing to do whatever it takes to take Cohen down. And the plot in itself is… pretty good. The biggest problem with it is how it goes on for a while with a very straighforward story, but then opens a door leading to the theme of morals and such. They touch on that theme, but they don’t explore it. So it kind of bugged me a bit afterwards. At first it was basically just a gangster-based popcorn flick, but then it tried to be deep for two minutes and left the door open without using that little thing to it’s advantage to tell a compelling plot… so I have to take a little bit away from it. Don’t lightly touch upon a subject like that and then do nothing with it! (Advice for aspiring writers).

The characters in the movie are not the most interesting, but they aren’t bad. Josh Brolin is awesome as John O’Mara, playing a real badass with a clear goal/agenda. Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen, he’s really good. Ryan Gosling plays a young cop who easily snaps and he’s good in the movie. We also get really good performances from people like Emma Stone, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, and Nick Nolte. Yeah, the it’s a very well acted movie.

The score was composed by Steve Jablonsky, and I think he did a pretty good job here. Sure, the score is kind of generic and I probably won’t remember it anytime in the near future, but it was pretty good and it fit the movie pretty well. There were also a lot of older licensed tracks throughout the movie that were really good and actually fit very well in the scenes.

This movie was directed by Ruben Fleischer and this is where I am a bit split. Because the movie is very well directed with scenes flowing pretty well, but the problem is that there are some tonal inconsistencies throughout. But that’s also kind of the risk when you take a director primarily known for comedy and then put him on a serious movie. But to make up for it, this movie looks fucking gorgeous, with some really good cinematography and a bit of stylish editing. This of course makes for some pretty cool and tense action scenes. Speaking of action, this movie is really fucking violent. I didn’t mind it too much, but I can tell that some people will have some problems with it.

This movie has not been too well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 31% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 40/10. Roger Ebert gave the movie 2/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,7/10.

“Gangster Squad” is an entertaining movie that wasted some of the potential that it had. The plot is okay, the characters are okay, the acting is great, the music is okay, and the directing/cinematography is terrific. Though it is bogged down by some narrative flaws, characters not being that interesting, and also some tonal inconsistencies. Time for my final score. *Bang*. My final score for “Gangster Squad” is a 7,99/10. So it’s far from from perfect, but it’s definitely worth a rental.

My review of “Gangster Squad” is now completed.

This feels like what would happen if Zack Snyder would’ve directed “The Untouchables”.

 

Movie Review: Into the Wild (2007)

Have you ever felt like going out on an adventure? And I don’t simply mean going for a walk in the woods, but a real adventure where you travel far, beat obstacles, and just kind of “find yourself”. I know I have. Not often since I’m a very lazy individual, but the thought has definitely crossed my mind.

Disclaimer: I know this thing is based on a true story, but I will not base my review on how perfectly accurate to the real situation it may or may not be, but I will instead judge it as a movie… which it is. Disclaimer over.

Ladies and gentlemen, will you please journey with me… “Into the Wild”!

Everything seems to look bright for young Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). He has a loving family, he has a decent amount of money to his name, and he just graduated from Emory University. His future sure looks bright and full of opportunities. But then he decides to give most of his money to charity and then leave his life behind to go and live in the Alaskan wilderness. The plot jumps back and forth between his life in the Alaskan wilderness and his journey to get there. And how is the plot in the movie holding up? Pretty damn well. It’s an interesting tale, told in a very serious and honest way that just makes it all feel so real. As I was watching the movie, I got really sucked into it and almost  forgot that I was watching a movie. Yeah, I was impressed.

The people in this movie are all infiinitely interesting even though most of them get pretty limited screen time. Of course we have the character of Christopher who gets a lot of screen time, because it’s his movie. We really get to see how he evolves as a character, how he learns from his traveling. And Emile Hirsch knocks it out of the fucking park in his role. He is absolutely fantastic in this movie, perfectly capturing every emotion that would be needed for this type of character. The supporting cast is pretty great too, with impressive supporting performances from people like Mustach- I mean William Hurt, Marcia Gay harden, Vince Vaughn, and Hal Holbrook. Even Kristen Stewart is in this movie for a short while, and she was fine in her role. I don’t think any of the actors did a bad job in this movie… I’d say most of them were pretty great.

The music in the movie is an interesting thing. Some parts of the original score was composed by Michael Brook and Kaki King. But then we also have a whole bunch of tracks written and performed by Eddie Vedder, singer of the band Pearl Jam. Then we also have a few other random tracks throughout from various artists/bands. But the ones we should keep attention to are Brook/King/Vedder. And what do I have to say about it? I fuckin’ love it, that’s what I have to say. It’s such an interesting choice of music for a movie, but it somehow still works pretty damn well. Honestly, this is one of the best soundtracks for a movie that I have ever heard. Sure, I had heard parts of it prior to seeing the film, but I didn’t give it a full shot until I saw it. As music overall, it is fantastic. And as film music it is just as great.

This movie was directed by Sean Penn (Yeah, THAT Sean Penn). And he does a fantastic job with the direction of the film. He makes it all seem so real, almost like a documentary in some ways. He never shies away from showing some of the less… clean parts of the journey. It never feels fake or Hollywoodized. Also, the choice to jump back and forth between Alaska and Not-Alaska never felt forced or poorly done, Penn did a great job with the direction too. Also, the writing is really good too, with a lot of thought-provoking quotes and genuinely funny lines every now-and-then. Also, we get some absolutely stunning shots of the wilderness in this movie.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 82% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 73/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,2/10 and is ranked #167 on the “Top 250” list. It was also nominated for 2 Oscars in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Holbrook) and Best Film Editing.

“Into the Wild” is a very inspiring film. Yes, our main character goes through a lot of tough situations throughout his journey, but somehow he always manages to inspire by getting through ’em in one way or another. The story is very well told, the characters are interesting and very well acted, the music is fantastic, and the directing is great. Time for my final score. OWOOOOO! My final score for “Into the Wild” is a 9,90/10 which of course means it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Into the Wild” has now come to an end.

Society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Society, crazy indeed
I hope you’re not lonely without me

Movie Review: The Game (1997)

As you probably know, I am a bit of a David Fincher fanboy. I love his movies, they are all (and by all I mean those that I have seen) really well done and really entertaining in some way. Hell, if you look at my top 10 movies of all time you notice that two of the movies on there are Fincher films. Anyway, time to review another one of his films and this time it is an early one.

Ladies and gents, time to play… “The Game”.

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a straight up asshole… and a businessman. One day his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gives him a gift of what could essentially be called a gift card for something called “CRS”. It’s according to Conrad a company that will make your life more “fun”. So when Nicholas finally signs the contract and does a few evaluations… the game is on. And from that his life takes a turn for the worse. The story for this movie is fantastic. It is suspenseful as all hell, it is well-crafted and it is very well paced. However I do have a problem with it that pulls it down a bit. My issue with the story (and movie in general) is the ending, I’m not gonna spoil it but I will say that it didn’t really work for this movie. Fun fact: director David Fincher didn’t like the ending either and felt that maybe he wasn’t the right director for this movie, and I respect him for that. Anyway, despite a lackluster ending, the story is really good.

The character of Nicholas Van Orton is interesting. Like I said, he is an asshole… but he is an interesting asshole, especially further along the movie. And Michael Douglas plays the role perfectly. Especially in parts where “The Game” itself has started, then he is just fantastic. He gives an intense and vulnerable performance in the movie and I think this might be the best I have ever seen him. Sean Penn is also great in the movie despite his limited screentime. Every actor in the movie in fact gives great performances… but Michael Douglas is the best.

The score for the movie was (like in Fincher’s previous movie “Se7en”) done by Howard Shore. And once again Shore delivers a haunting and suspenseful score that perfectly sets the mood for the movie it is used in. That is something I have noticed Shore being great at in general, setting the mood perfectly. He did it in “Se7en” and in the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies. And like I said, he perfectly nailed the desired feel here. It helps build the tension of the movie and it also helps hold the sense of dread that the movie wants to portray. And it is done perfectly.

Like I have stated a few times in this review already, this movie is directed by David Fincher (My favorite director). And here he proves that he is a fucking amazing director with fantastic control over the actors and the storytelling. The cinematography was done by Harris Savides who also did the cinematography for Fincher’s 2007 movie “Zodiac”. And he made it look fantastic in this movie.

This movie was pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 71% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 61/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com the movie has a score of 7,8/10.

“The Game” is a really good thriller with an excellent story, a fantastic lead performance from Michael Douglas, an excellent score by Howard Shore (Hey, that rhymed!) and fantastic direction by David Fincher. Sadly it is dragged down a bit by the not very good ending. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “The Game” is a 9,01/10. It is definitely worth buying.

My review of “The Game” is now completed.

Are you ready to play?

 

Movie Review: Dead Man Walking (1995)

I am a big fan of dramas. Okay, a lot of people are that, but hear me out. I am a guy who a few years back never expected to like dramas. I was a guy who thought “I am simply a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, comedy and action…nothing more”. And look at me now! 17 years old and watching movies from all genres (except horror because those movies don’t appeal to me). What am I trying to get at here you may ask? Well I am just saying that considering the movie we are taking a look at today is a drama. And that I couldn’t find anything better to write here…yeah.

Dead men and dead women…”Dead Man Walking”.

Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is a nun. One day she receives a letter from a man sitting in death row. This man is Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) who apparently killed a guy by shooting him in the back of the head (twice) and also raping, stabbing and finally shooting his girlfriend…yikes. But he says he is innocent and says his “friend” Carl Vitello (Michael Cullen) is the one who did it. Of course the higher ups (government, law-system, etc.) thinks he is bullshitting them. But when Helen decides to go visit him she discovers more about him and gets to know him more and form a sort of bond with him. And of course the parents of the dead couple is not too happy about it when they find out and all that fun shit. Now I am gonna leave it at that because this story is fan-fucking-tastic. It is not only well directed, but also incredibly tense and even has a little emotional weight. It is also based on a true story…yeah…let that sink in for a second.

The characters like the story are based on real life. But that doesn’t say much for this movie. I think they are very well-handled and their portrayals (while maybe not accurate to the real life people) are magnificent. And if you look closely, you will notice a ton of great actors who maybe weren’t the biggest actors ever back then. Of course we have the ones that are well known since earlier in the leads like Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and R. Lee Ermey…but that isn’t as fun (considering they are obvious and very prominent throughout this). You will find such actors as Jack Black, Clancy Brown, Margo Martindale and Peter Sarsgaard (before they were as famous as they are now). But in general, these characters are handled very well are portrayed incredibly well.

The soundtrack is amazing. A lot of cold songs that makes you feel that everything is wrong in this world. But then there are songs that are just kinda…feelgood…yeah, feelgood. To give an example of that, search for Eddie Vedder feat. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – The Long Road…then you’ll know what the hell I am talking about.

This movie looks great. And to my surprise, this movie was directed by Tim Robbins…yeah. Andy Dufresne from “Shawshank Redemption” directed a movie…who knew. But the camera work was still really good and I am impressed by this. This movie also at one point made me shed a tear. And when a movie does that, kudos to that. I am not saying what happened or when the scene is, just saying it happened.

The reception for “Dead Man Walking” was great. Rotten Tomatoes has a 93% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. Metacritic has a 80/100 sc0re for it. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect 4/4 star rating and called it:

“absorbing, surprising, technically superb and worth talking about for a long time afterward.”

imdb.com has a score of 7,6/1o. This movie was also nominated for 4 Oscars (Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, Best original song). It won on Best actress (Susan Sarandon).

I have spoken my words and I am ready to hand out my final score for “Dead Man Walking”. My final score for this compelling, emptional and incredibly well made movie is a 9,62/10 which makes me give it the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review for “Dead Man Walking” is done.

Dead Man Walking……OH MY GOD ZOMBIE REALIZATION!