C Movies
Crash (2004)
Starring a whole slew of people, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, and Brendan Fraiser, this movie is slightly deceptive from its advertising, if you even saw that. A Lion Gates Film with thin exposure, this movie is all about racial situations, events happening to many different individuals over the span of a couple of days.
This movie made me think. I tired to figure out if this movie was really any deeper than just a film to give perspective on bigotry. The main reason I gave this movie over a three star, was that I didn’t know how many of the situations would end. They were very intense, guns, fires and explosions in natural settings with the law and car accidents. But you get to truly see how someone could be angry, you have empathy for just about every situation, and it shows the good in all cultures, that all cultures basically want the same thing, family, love, and happiness.
Not many people, however, would like this. It is hardly a movie you would watch many times, or is entertaining. I would recommend it to those who want to think, see something different. But don’t expect something usual in any of the roles of these actors, it will throw you for a loop.
Cinderella Man (2005)
I am the type of viewer that the big studios dream about. This movie made me cry, I got wrapped up in the heroically slanted story, the little guy vs. the big guy during the worst time in America, the whole bit.
Russell Crowe plays James Braddock, who after breaking his hand and being finished, banned from boxing, manages to rise to the top. Old and tired, Russell Crowe looked every bit the part, battered, beaten up, and just tossed around by life. But he wins three fights over boxers younger and bigger than him. Not gracefully, sometimes punch by punch, but he does it. Then in the end, he beats the big cocky, psuedo boxer of a man Max Baer, who spends more time strutting around the ring and swinging huge rights than actually dancing like a boxer should and trying to actually fight.
Everyone should see this movie. Renee Zellwegger does a decent job, but I think I am about all out on her squinty, beaten down girl part. Paul Giamatti is fantastic. He is the coach that you want in your corner, and the guy that once he started to believe in Braddock again, didn’t let him down. Don’t forget the huge brute who plays Baer, Craig Bierko, the most familiar looking giant you’ve never heard of and has never been in anything notable.
Ron Howard knew how to make this story about fighting for something bigger than yourself, and you will leave wanting more.
Club Dread (2004)
I am glad this was a free movie from the library. This was one of the stupidest movies I had ever seen. Club Dread couldn’t make up it’s mind about being a comedy, a college party, or a slasher movie. Either choice, it stunk. From the Broken Lizard film company with Bill Paxton, this is the follow up offering to Super Troopers, a movie that with the right audience could be funny.
But this movie was so terrible, and this is why. Acting that wasn’t good, and wasn’t funny at being bad, this movie goes from one bad joke about acid or sex to another. I don’t have anything else to say, no one should watch this.
A Civil Action (1998)
This movie was just as good the second time I saw it as the first.
It is ironic though, that this movie really is about lawyers and the games they play and their hardships, than it really it about the case at hand.
John Travolta is partners in a firm with William H Macy, and well, two other guys. They have this case dropped on their desk that seems like a long shot. A case that involves contaminated water that has been killing children in a small town in significant numbers. Travolta is used to sure fire wins, easy settlements outside of court, and doesn’t see how he can win. But he is quickly blinded when he realizes that they parent company of the manufacturer they are going after has a ton of money.
A painful movie, that doesn’t have a happy ending, Travolta risks it all and loses. You get a glimpse into how people can get to be when they are desperate for money and how that tears age old friendships apart. Travolta’s nemesis on the other hand is Robert Duvall, who is evil to the core, and by the end, you learn to hate him more for his character than those who are at fault for contaminating the drinking water.
A funny and poignant movie, it is hard to describe. In the footsteps of any smart lawyer movie, like The Rainmaker, this is involving to the end. I gave it four stars because I wouldn’t watch it over and over, but a great movie nonetheless.
Constantine (2005)
This being a comic book movie, I had to see it. I wasn’t too nervous about it being stupid, because I had not basis to judge it on. But, I was nervous about Keanu Reeves. But this movie was really cool.
Keanu Reeves is Constantine, a man who can see demons, and basically uses that to banish them to hell. Then, by fate he runs into Rachel Weisz who is looking for answers into the mysterious death of her twin sister. The story escalates and we find that Weisz is a psychic who has repressed her ability to see demons and it takes Reeves converting back to find answers into the apparent suicide of her sister.
This movie is cool for a couple of reasons. I don’t watch what I would call “thrillers” all that often, but even thrillers usually deal with something evil, but it isn’t labeled explicitly “Hell”, instead labeled broadly as “Evil”. In this movie, coming from a faith background, it was interesting to see the interpretations of demons, hell, exorcism, and angels.
We get to see some horrifying imagery of what Hell may really be like. We get to see Gabriel with her majestic angel wings, and we get to see all sort of things of the “Occult” from going between the different planes, the tools to capture and exercise demons, and interesting interpretations of the physical forms of demons in bugs and just freaky monsters. Oh, and Satan is a perfect interpretation in human form.
This movie did not stray away from the bible either, with Reeves reading different sections of it, and other theories on a bible of Hell and lost scripture verses.
If nothing else, the two things about this movie that I loved. Reeves is believable as this character. You almost forget it is him in his mannerisms and speech.
Also, the theory of this movie is that the son of Satan cannot cross over into Earth in physical form unless he has the “Spear of Destiny”, with the blood of Christ from the cross. Gabriel helps Satan’s Son find it, because she is angry that God would forgive his flock so easy and get into heaven. Sin permeating a human mind and perception, very interesting.
Not for everyone, especially those un open minded Christians. But you may fear Hell more after seeing this, and there is plenty of action. Keanu Reeves is cocky, but by no means invincible like a Matrix movie. This movie really breaks ground visually on some of these age old concepts.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001)
We got this free from the library, and man am I glad.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale, and Penelope Cruz, this movie is set in Greece in World War II. A love story across two very different cultures, Cage comes with his fellow Italian brigade to peacefully occupy Greece. Cage and Cruz fall in love, and then all hell breaks loose.
Cage is a man of peace, happiness, and singing. He sings with his men, and beautifully plays his mandolin for most of the movie. But then the Germans occupy this little town, and he starts to realize that his time has come. The climax of the movie being when his whole squad is instantly, without warning, executed by and firing squad.
This movie feels a lot longer than two hours. Cage does a good job acting, but I wouldn’t even recommend this as a good love story. The movie seems a little convoluted, and ends in a sudden sort of way. I didn’t feel attached to the characters in this story, or empathize at all with them, and that is so important in a good love story. I would definitely pass on this one.
Coach Carter(2005)
I was nervous about this movie, thinking it was by Disney. But instead it was an MTV movie, and I don’t think there have been too many of those that I haven’t liked.
Samuel Jackson is a business owner, former basketball star of this town in California. He is offered to run the basketball program at a rough high school, and he accepts. With an iron fist, he brings attitude and discipline to a program that has none, and teaches these kids how to focus and how to win.
That is the happy go lucky stuff. The part of the movie that really resonated with me, was Jackson’s perseverance to have the kids reach academic excellence. He asked for updates from all of their teachers, visited them in their classes, and would track them down in the halls. When they were failing, he locked them out of the court because education was more important than basketball. In the end, he quit, broken by a system that was training the kids to fail by dismal benchmarks and terrible standards.
He stood up to parents that are stereotypical lazy in today’s society, and I thought that was awesome.
So, like Samuel Jackson? There are plenty of saying that are all his in this movie. Like sports, action, and attitude, this might be a good one to see with a Disney -esq story at the core. My main gripe with the movie was the slow motion to “increase” a dramatic effect, which I think is highly unoriginal and was overused. Can’t relate to a bunch of kids from the streets, then maybe this isn’t for you.
But it is a great story, one that most people could empathize in some facet.
