Movie Reviews & More
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Who’s in it
Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, and a bunch of other unknowns
What was good
The whole thing was good, suspense and drama, great acting, and just enough of a haunting event to keep you watching, morbidly curious to know what happens.
What sucked
It was a little slow at times. But it is a great story. There is just a lot of script and acting and not that much action.
Who should go see this
Everyone. It isn’t violent, there is very little language, and if you ever read the book, you may or may not like the movie. But this is a rare instance where I have done both, and think it was a great translation. Oh, and curious what this is about? It’s a small town where a bus full of children die in a horrible accident.
The Firm (1993)
Who’s in it
Everyone under the sun. Tom Cruise, Paul Sorvino, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ed Harris, Gary Busey, and Holly Hunter
What was good
Everything. Sarah says the book is better. I always say that is rubbish, they are two different mediums, only compare them in relatively terms not line for line. Twisting, turning, sadistic humor at times, this is a thriller without the elemental. Tom Cruis is an idealist lawyer that holds out for the best offer out of college. Little does he know that he’ll be working for the mob.
What sucked
Nothing. Acting was good, if I had to say anything, it would be that it looks as old as it is. It’s over 13 years old now, but everyone is at their best and this is not a predictable plot at the time.
Who should go see this
Everyone. It’s not violent, there is some language, but it is a great movie by a great writer (John Grisham), there is something for everyone. The good guy wins in the end, Tom Cruise’s appeal, it’s a thinking thriller, it’s engaging, and it’s a movie you could watch over and over.
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Who’s in it
Billy Bob Thorton, Garrett Hedlund (Four Brothers), Lucas Black, Jay Hernandez
What was good
The individual stories of the football players. Each of them had different backgrounds that they brought to the table, different circumstances that motivated them, from an abuse father, to a way out of the town, to their whole future riding on this game. Plus, the good guys don’t win in the end.
What sucked
It was a sad movie in a lot of ways, and wasn’t what I would call a fun movie-esque football game, where everything is overdramatized and in slow mo, making things fun like Varsity Blues. It was a touch more on the thinking side, and showed again the pressure’s of a small town football mentality that I have a hard time sometimes believing, even though I know they must exist.
Who should go see this
People who love football. This movie is somewhere between a touching Disney movie and Any Given Sunday. It has the violence to the football players and their bodies, but really shows how these kids are all affected by the game. There are handful of really powerful stories, just don’t rent this and expect it to focus on the football, because I don’t think it does.
Final Cut (2004)
An truly original concept. What if we could put implants in our mind that would record our life and they could be accessed on death like a computer. How would we be remembered and who would determine that?
Starring Robin Williams, Jim Caviezel, and Mira Sorvino this movie left me wanting more. The movie is fairly compact and is highly engaging, but the end leaves you with questions that I say were too many in number. I want to put some things together, but the questions for me were mostly things that didn’t make sense.
Robin Williams is a “cutter” who views people’s lives in footage. He specializes in those characters who have led less than honorable lives, he is able to make them look like saints, and to remove all of those dark secrets. But so many interesting ideas. Who should determine what people remember? Shouldn’t people remember you for what they want, and not what they are told? Who do the memories belong to? How would you live if you knew your whole life was being recorder?
Williams is haunted by an experience in his childhood that makes him the individual he is today. But the Why? that is there, why is he able to do this just because he believes he let a little boy die in his childhood? The connection isn’t really ever made. There are groups of “hippies” who protest the implants called “Zoe Chips” and have tattoed their faces with electrical implants to disrupt the recordings. But this group has turned into activists led by an ex-cutter (Caviezel). They are out to get footer from a high ranking official the pioneering technology firm after he dies. They stop at nothing to get it, even killing Williams after the original chip is destroyed because he is living proof the footage. He had a Zoe Chip installed and his memories now has the other man’s on tape. Caviezel believes Williams is a matyr of sorts, giving his life meaning in bringing down the technology.
The general consensus is that William’s life is being wasted, that it has no meaning. I didn’t make that connection, he just has a job to do, I don’t know why it is so different just because it isn’t the easiest. Williams dies and that is pretty much the end of the movie, and you want answers.
So, if you like Williams or Sci-Fi, this is agreat movie for you. Williams does a great job, and it is such an interesting concept. I just don’t think that it was translated as well as some may have hoped to the masses to understand.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
I love this movie. This is as perfect of a movie as it comes for me. Humor, emotion, action, and relatibility. I owned this movie the day it came out, and I still cry in the end of the movie when Robin Williams looks at Matt Damon and says “It’s not your fault” over and over.
So, like I just mentioned, this movie has a who’s who list of actors. Williams, Damon and Ben Affleck before they were huge, Minnie Driver, Cole Hauser, and Casey Affleck. Damon and Affleck wrote this movie from what I have heard, and I wonder how long they worked on it. Whether the realistic and sensible story just came out of them, or if they went over and over it, trying to be original at every turn.
The story revolves around Damon’s character, who is an orphan that was beat up as a child. He is a super genious and works by day as a janitor at Harvard, but by night solves complex math theory on chalkboards. The math professor finds him out, and takes him under his wing, saving him from jail, in homes of opening his eyes to a better life. But it is only with an agreement that he seeks psychiatric help. Only after four other shrinks do we meet Williams. Williams has a similar background to Damon, and through perseverence and empathy he is able to reach Damon, and with a little luck and help from Damon’s gang of three other friends, Damon turns his life around.
The swearing in this movie is tightly woven with the setting and characters. For most people I know, that would not be the case. If you can’t handle all of the cussing, you will never enjoy this movie. It is a great movie, every adult should see it. But it is really vulgar at times in the humor and the anger. But Damon is more real than he has been since this movie, and Williams won an award for his role. Williams is such an under appreciated actor and is only second to Damon. Minnie Driver comes third for me. A little offbeat, she is Damon’s girlfriend who is trying to reach out to him, but doesn’t know how and gets burned. I feel bad for her, and the first time I saw this, I cried when Damon told her “I don’t love you”.
You’ll laugh a ton if you like guy humor, and you’ll cry. This movie will turn your day upside down if you have never seen it.
Derailed (2005)
Starring Jennifer Anniston, Clive Owen, Vincent Cassel and Melissa George, it’s a movie of lust, blackmail, and revenge.
I may have seen one preview for this movie, tops. I saw Jennifer Anniston in a dramatic role, and Clive Owen is ok, I knew that I would probably try to see this. But I didn’t enjoy the movie as much when I was actually watching it, as I did after I went home and thought about it.
I am sure this concept has been done before. I just know that I didn’t guess what was going to happen, and was surprised at every turn. Jennifer Anniston is evil. She seduces these stupid men looking for the “Greener Grass” and then just as they are about to have their time in a dumpy hotel, a man breaks in, beats the hell out of the man, and what looks like a rape for Anniston.
Soon, the rapist / blackmailer (Vincent Cassel who was equally devious in Oceans 12) starts calling Owen’s house, making money demands. Owen tries to protect his family, his little girl who has serious diabetes, and Anniston who he thinks was raped. His life starts to spiral our of control, his friend is killed, his job is in jeopardy, and he is loosing all of his money.
After the final drop off of money, he finds out Anniston was involved. But, this is what I thought was strange, Anniston and Cassel stick around the city for more victims. Owen follows Anniston and has a plot to get revenge and to stop them. At this point I was cheering him on, so scared and angry that something like this could happen to a semi-decent man (if you forget the cheating). He is involved in a shoot out at the hotel that kills Cassel’s associate in X-ibit, and Anniston.
You think that everything is finished there, but soon we cut to a scene with Owen teaching in a prison rehab center. He has lost his job at the advertising agency, and you aren’t sure where it is going, and how the different opening all ties together. He receives a workbook that has the whole story among many other notebooks with the criminals assignments. Cassel is waiting for him as Owen ventures into the back, where the laundry is done. But Owen walks out alive, all along he had planned on seeing Cassel again. The audience thinks he is dead in the shoot out scene, but he survives at the loss of an eye. Owen knew this, and knew what he had to do to finish it.
I may watch this movie another time, I don’t know. I was caught off guard, and it wasn’t what I expected. It ended good, the regular Joe wins, but it is hard to watch at times, and is pretty brutal and in your face with the violence. If you can handle some violence and like twists, this movie is for you. Sarah actually liked it for the most part, it kept her attention. But I wouldn’t recommend this to my mom, nor to most of my friends. I gave it high markings for an original idea and good acting, so if you like what I rate, you may want to see it just once.
Liar Liar (1997)
Starring Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, and Cary Elwes, whether you like Jim Carrey or not, this movie is a classic comedy that is almost ten years old now.
The idea is simple. Jim Carrey is an obnoxious, compulsive liar who is, here’s a stretch, a lawyer. His job is his life, and even though he loves his son, he can never seperate his life from his career. Then one day is called into his bosses office to pitch a client on an idea. The boss is so turned on, she jumps Carrey, and this leads him to lie why he can’t make it to his son’s birthday party. At that party his son wishes that for just one day, Carrey can’t lie. The hilarity of the movie ensues, and everything and everyone he had avoided telling the truth now get and earful.
A role probably written specifically for Carrey, it is over the top, exaggerated, and a perfect fit. I always laugh myself silly when I watch this movie, and we watched it with my wife’s parents. Sarah only started laughing out loud at sitcoms two years after we were married. Her parents rarely laugh outloud at movies from what I have experienced, and even they enjoyed this.
If you don’t prefer Carrey or his humor, this is him in context, his crazy antics are fitting for the role, and it is highly enjoyable. I think everyone should see this movie, there is some language and sexual innuendo, but it is good for most audiences and maybe even to watch with you children. The short out takes at the end expand on the movie, and what a dimension Carrey added to this role. Rent it now if you haven’t ever seen it.
