Next Stop Wonderland (1998)

My film & society teacher showed us this film that takes place in Boston and has to do with two people that don't believe in fate, but end up together. The movie is about a woman named Erin (Hope Davis) and Alan (Alan Gelfant) and all the trials and tribulations that they go through in their lives. Erin has been dumped by her boyfriend (a brilliant Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and is sort of content being alone, but ultimately wants to find someone. Alan is a man that is running away from what everyone believes is his destiny (Being a plumber) and wants to be a marine biologist. Erin goes through all the motions and after her mother places an ad for her in the Boston Herald personals, decides to go on these dates. Of course, all of her dates are disastrous and she never finds Mr. Right, but then she runs into a man that is really a womanizer, but is sort of pushing the right strings with her. Alan in the meantime, has to deal with owing a bookie money, stealing a balloon fish from the aquarium, and dealing with a girl (Cara Buono) he knows isn't the one he wants. Then the faithful scene happens and these two meet and they fall in love. The end. This was an okay movie, but a lot of it could have been chopped off and made into a short film. That would've been more powerful. The movie also stars Ken Cheeseman (Shutter Island) as Rick, Jose Zuniga (Twilight) as Andre, Larry Gilliard Jr. (The Waterboy) as Brett, Roger Rees (If Looks Could Kill) as Alan's professor, The brilliant Holland Taylor (Two And The Half Men) as Erin's mother, and Robert Klein (Poison Ivy) as Arty Lesser. I give this movie a C+

Tuesday March 9, 2010

Note: I forgot to post last night because sometimes life hits you hard and you tend to forget when your going to school and try to plan shoots. So, my apologies to everyone for not posting last night.

Goodfellas (1991)

When you think of gangster movies and you want that can maybe go up against a power house like The Godfather then look no further than the Martin Scorsese classic Goodfellas. This is the movie that made Ray Liotta (Observe And Report) a household name and showed how Robert DeNiro (Taxi Driver) is one of the greatest actors of all time.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

This is one 0f John Hughes's classic movies that he made during his illustrious career. I think it was the only movie that Judd Nelson (Airheads) was ever cool in and another home run for Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles). The movie is about 5 teenagers that have to spend their Saturday serving detention at their high school. These 5 teens are completely different as well with Emilio Estevez (Young Guns) being the jock Andrew, Molly Ringwald playing the popular, very prissy Claire, Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight) as the nerdy Brian, Judd Nelson as the trouble maker Bender, and Ally Sheedy (Short Circuit) as the weird Allison. The movie is great because these kids go in thinking they have nothing in common, but leave discovering something new about themselves that they didn't know. They also have to deal with the tough as nails Principal Vernon (Paul Gleason), who has touch with the generations and has completely no respect for any of them. This is a great teen movie and it also has a great soundtrack to boot. This movie gives you a real lesson in how not to teach a book by it's cover. I give it an A.

The Wrestler (2008)

This movie is a classic one because of how realistic the story is to so many former wrestlers out there that are still vying for a piece of the spotlight. The movie stars Mickey Rourke (The Pope Of Greenwich Village) as a has been wrestler named Randy "The Ram", who because of a heart attack is forced to retire from the only thing he knows how to do. He tries to create a normal life for himself by getting a job as a deli man, reconnect with his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), and try to date a stripper named Cassidy (Marissa Tomei). But in the end nothing works out for Randy and he has to make a hard decision that could cost his life and he struggles with that fact. He has the chance to wrestle a guy that because of the match, it made him famous. Should he take the match or not? The movie is powerful in a sense that because of the low attendance at the autograph sessions by certain wrestlers of yesteryear that no one cares about the sacrifice these guys put there bodies through. It shows you that when your not hot, your not important to them anymore. The movie also stars Mark Margolis (Defiance) as Lenny, Todd Barry (Beer League) as Wayne, actual WWE wrestler Ron "The Truth" Killings, and many underground wrestlers who are trying to make it themselves. I give this movie an A+.

The Boondock Saints

I was looking forward to the new Boondock Saints movie, so I thought I would review this one

Pineapple Express (2008)

This has to be by far one of the best comedy movies of 2008 and probably by far one of Seth Rogen's (Knocked Up) best films. Seth stars as Dale Denton, a twenty something pot smoking loser who drives around and dresses up in different disguises to hand out papers to people that don't want them because they could be divorce papers, etc and goes out with a high school senior (Amber Heard). After visiting his friendly drug dealer and snatching up some weed called pineapple express, witnesses a guy who he is supposed to serve papers to murder someone. That guy happens to be Ted Jones (Office Space's Gary Cole), who is the head distributor of marijuana. Ted recognizes his weed and sends his henchman to the middle man named Red (Danny McBride) to find out who he had distributed the weed to. So, Dale heads back to his drug dealer Saul (James Franco), tells him what had happened and the both of them freak out and now it's a cat and mouse game for the rest of the movie. This movie has so many great moments in it and so many unforgettable scenes. I absolutely loved the movie and you have to check this out because I think Seth Rogen is a genius. The movie also stars Rosie Perez (Night On Earth) as the corrupt female cop, Joe Lo Truglio (Beer League) as Mr. Edwards, Craig Robinson (Miss March) as Matheson, Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas) as Budlofski, and Ed Begley Jr. (Greedy) as Robert. I give this movie an A

Casablanca (1942)

This is definitely one of America's beloved film starring one of the greatest American actors in Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon) as Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who owns a saloon in French occupied Morocco. Casablanca is significant because it's the port to freedom in the days of WWII. It was the one point to get to Lisbon, Portugal if you wanted to escape the Third Reich. It becomes all about fate in this movie when Rick runs into an old flame from Paris under some extreme circumstances. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) failed to tell Rick back in Paris that she was married to Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and that she thought he was dead and that's why she get mixed up with Rick. Ilsa and Victor came to Casablanca to get visa's to be able to come to America because Victor is a freedom fighter on the run from Major Strasser (The Man Who Laughs himself Conrad Veidt) who is also in Casablanca looking for Victor. Rick holds the key to their freedom and must decide to free Victor from Strasser and letting Ilsa go at the same time. Claude Rains (The Greatest Story Ever Told) does an excellent job in this movie as sort of a guy playing it close to the fences when it comes to his compassion for people and playing the role of helper for the Third Reich. He is serious about his role as Captain, but loves to mingle with the people and having swagger. The movie also stars Sydney Greenstreet (The Maltese Falcon) as Signor Ferrari, Peter Lorre (The Maltese Falcon) as Ugarte, Dooley Wilson (Night In New Orleans) as Sam, and Joy Page (Tonka) as Annina Brandel. I give this movie an A+

Road To Perdition (2002)

This was one hell of a movie and Tom Hanks maybe one of the best actors living today. Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) plays Mike Sullivan, a gangster who tries to keep his life secret from his kids until his oldest son, Michael Sullivan Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) watches his father kill someone. Sullivan and Connor Rooney (James Bond himself Daniel Craig) hear him and catch him and things go sour from then on. So, Connor's dad and leader John Rooney (The Late Paul Newman) order a hit on Sullivan and his whole family. The only problem is that they only killed his wife and his other son. So, Sullivan and his son are on the run from them and there also on the run from a ruthless assassin who likes to take pictures of dead people (Jude Law). Sullivan devises a plan to get back at them and it works because he frazzles them big time. The ending will piss you off, but it's not because it's a poorly thought ending, but because it aggravates you that it happened. I really suggest that you pick this one up because it's that damn good and it's full of caliber actors as well. It also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female) as Michael's wife, Ciaran Hinds (There Will Be Blood) as Finn, Dylan Baker (Revolutionary Road) as Alexander Rance, and Stanley Tucci (Julia & Julia) as Frank Nitti. I give this movie an A.

21 (2008)

This is a fact based movie about 6 kids from MIT that learned to card count and they took Vegas for a lot of money. It stars Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) as MIT professor Mickey Rosa, who had some knowledge of card counting as well as some experience that trains Jim Sturgess (50 Dead Men Walking) as Ben, Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) as Jill, Aaron Yoo (Friday The 13Th) as Choi, Liza Lapira (Fast & Furious) as Kianna, Jacob Pitts (Eurotrip) as Fisher, and Josh Gad (The Rocker) as Miles. Together, they run it very smoothly with signals, certain body language, and their brains to take millions from Planet Hollywood. Ben learns a lot about himself in this movie especially after he gets the girl of his dreams and then his teacher screws him. He soon loses everything, but he has a plan to get it back. He just has to be aware of Laurence Fishburn (Boyz In The Hood) who plays the security man at Planet Hollywood named Cole Williams because of some friendly back stabbing advice from someone he was onto Ben's game. This is a great movie to watch because I love true stories. It's the thrill of knowing something like this really took place. I give the movie an A- because even though we've seen plenty of gambling movies, this one is right at the top of the list.