downthesun's Summer of Movies

I finished my exams today so I decided having been on the site for a month or so and having a lot of free time now to create a review/movie thread.

I love reading Top 100 threads and hearing other people's opinions on movies in review threads so hopefully you guys will enjoy reading what I think of films too.

I'll try to do a review of every movie I watch but can't promise anything. Also I'm trying to watch a few of the older movies from the IMDB 250, so expect to see a lot of 4 and 5 stars.

Page 1
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Beef IV
Cass
Strangers on a Train
The Machinist
The Ox Bow Incident

Page 2
Finding Nemo
Elephant
Amores Perros
Role Models
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Miller's Crossing
Pride and Glory
The Incredible Hulk
Lucky You
Choke
Alpha Dog
Leaves of Grass
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut




Going to get this thread going with a review of a movie I've always loved and a show that I've been a fan of for the past decade or so.

Towards the end of the 90s, a whole bunch of animated cartoons made their way onto theatre screens, notably the Rugrats and Beavis and Butthead. Both films did relatively OK in cinemas due to their diehard fan bases, probably one of the reasons why a lot of people went to see South Park as well.

Where South Park differs from these two movies is that it had a legitimate case for being put on the big screen because there is no way that this movie would ever be seen on TV screens, edited or not. With more than 200 swear words in under 90 minutes, South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut takes politically incorrect to a new high, staying, rude, crude, and disrespectful the whole time, but anyone who’d even seen a clip of the TV show would expect this.

Perhaps the more conservative people out there may see South Park as nothing but toilet humour, bad language and fart jokes (OK, so Terrence and Phillip is only fart jokes) but anyone who has seen the movie will gladly tell you otherwise. Just as in the TV show, the movie mocks everyone and everything from Bill Gates to the MPAA to Canada to the Baldwin brothers. There is enough sly humour to keep everyone entertained thoroughout the movie, not to mention many many literally LOL moments.



The movie is somewhat of a musical with over half a dozen songs which are all classics in their own right. I’m sure everyone who's seen it still remembers the lyrics to songs like “Kyle’s mum’s a bitch” and “Uncle ****er.” I was told that Matt Stone almost got a nod for an Oscar nomination for the music in South Park but due to conservative groups and fears of protests he was not given the nomination which is quite sad. Oh yes and fair platy to Stone and Parker for getting on board George Clooney and Minnie driver to do cameos, I believe Chef could have had a bigger part to play in the movie as he is a legend.

Bigger Longer Uncut, however does have it’s downsides. The excessive swearing, to some people may get a bit much at times, and the scenes in hell do slow down the movie a little.

To conclude, if you’re conservative, stay away, if you are easily offended, stay away. If you’re a South Park fan, why haven't you watched it yet, and if you have an open mind, definitely check it out.

X-Men 3: The Last Stand


To begin with, if you enjoyed the first two movies or are a fan of the comics then you're pretty much bound to enjoy the third and final installment in the original X-Men trilogy. Whilst it is a step down from X2, I think this movie was better than the original X-Men. The changing of director from Singer to Bret Ratner (Rush Hour & Red Dragon)is hardly noticeable with Ratner pretty much sticking to the same formula that Singer used.

All the main characters from the previous films return, except for Nightcrawler and we are introduced to some new characters such as Beast played by Kelsey Grammer and Vinnie Jones's Juggernaut. One problem in X-Men 3 was that it arguably had too many characters with the likes of Cyclops and Rogue loosing screen time to newer characters. Wolverine yet again is the star of the show and as usual has his cheeky one liners. I still believe Halle Berry as Storm was poor casting and in this movie she seems to get more screen time than is probably necessary.

The general pacing of the movie also seems a little too rushed with too much being packed into the short running time of the film. Perhaps half an hour or fourty five minutes longer would have allowed for a bit more character development and relationships to build properly. The action sequences in this movie are quite spectacular with some brilliant special effects. I particularly enjoyed the opening scene of the movie where using special effects, Stewart and Mckellen are suddenly made to look much younger.

Overall this is a good movie and was a fitting finale to the trilogy. Whilst it left a small door open for the possibility of a 4th movie I think they will decide to continue with the Origins series and doubt we'll be seeing a 4th X-Men movie anytime soon. Ratner does a good job at entertaining the audience and Last Stand delivers what is expected from it. Whilst the movie does have it's downsides, the action and fight scenes are spectacular enough to make up for them.

Beef IV


Beef - DEFINITION: "an informal complaint, an argument, a dispute... To grumble... To express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness."

This is the fourth installment in the Beef series higlighting some of the biggest fueds in the rap and hip hop industry. The first few Beef movies covered everything from Tupac to Biggie to G-Unit against The Game. Beef IV looks closer into some more beefs over the past 20 or so years but also moves outside the rap industry to look into beef between actors and skateboarders. It attempts to find out who or what started the beef through interviews with such big names as The Game and Young Jeezy.

Some of the feuds featured are a waste of time such as The Queen of the South battle but others like Roc-A-Fella breakup were quite interesting. It esentially showcases how rappers use feuds to create public awarness of their music and how people like The Game pretty much wake up in the morning decide they aren't going to like someone and then create a problem with them. On a movie related Beef, I really enjoyed watching the section relating to the problems between LL Cool J and Jamie Foxx on the set of Any Given Sunday and how these two alpha males just couldn't work together in harmony.

The movie is quite poor as a whole with relatively amateur production and Charlie Murphy as the narrator doesn't really work for me. Whilst they have got some reputable names to come on and be interviewed , the majority of the stories seem one sided due to usually only one of the two ore more people involved talking about the beef. A lot of the beefs as I've mentioned are quite boring and insignificant.

My main critism of Beef IV is the fact that it doesn't have the rights to play any of the songs that are hyped up and discussed during the course of the movie. This leads to the movie lacking punch and perhaps having these songs would have made the movie a bit better.

The one section I really enjoyed was the tribute to Proof, an ex-member of D12 and best friend of the one and only Eminem who was shot and killed in 2006. Hearing people's opinions about his work and respect for what he'd done for the Detroit rap scene actually brought a tear to my eye. Losing such a talented and well loved individual truly is a sad thing.



R.I.P Proof

Did not like Last Stand.

They ruined characters and just crammed them in there for the sake of having more mutants. Cause you know, it's an X-men film so why not.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Yeah I found the same thing, in X2 they actually had some character development and focused on certain mutants but in this one they just tried to do too much and didn't have enough screen time to do it.

yeh totally agree with that the last stand was shite and i went and saw it twice at the cinemas *slaps forehead*

__________________
"Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper."

Cass



Where Cass differs from other football hooligan movies is that it is a fictionilses account of the real life story of Cass Pennent, who is arguably the most famous football hooligan ever. Pennant has now left the life behind and is one of the UK's best selling black male authors having written more than 7 books.

The movie follows him from his childhood growing up with his adoptive parents in a predominantly white neighbourhood and suffering from racist abuse and gives us an insight into why people choose a life of football violence. To gain respect he begins fighting with fellow West Ham fans against other clubs firms, and quickly gains a reputation as being on the hardest men on any football terrace.

Cass and his friends end up becoming the new breed of football hooligans and set up the ICF or Inter City Firm, a group of hooligans notorious all over England for being some of the most violent men around. The movie then follows him through prison and the problems he has when his past catches up to him.

Nonso Anozie who potrays Cass does a very good job effortlessly moving between a chilled out family man to a crazed football hooligan running purely on adrenaline. Tamer Hassan seems to make his way onto any cockney related movie that is released and yet again puts in a standard performance. Whilst I didn't like Natalie Press's acting and her style of delivering her dialogue I can appreciate that she is a good actress and invests a lot into this role. In fact, all the actors in this movie put in decent perfomances.

Where I found the movie lacking was in the directorial department. In his debut feauture Jon S Baird who was an assosicate producer on Green Street, shows us nothing to seperate him from any run of the mill director. The pacing is horrible and the dialogue is poor as well other than a couple of glimpes of hope such as Pennant's rant during a TV interview about how hooligans don't hurt innocents and don't drain taxpayers money like drug addicts and criminals. The movie also has a distinct lack of character development.

Overall, if you want to watch a good football hooligan movie check out The Football Factory or even The Firm which I hear is a quality flick. Cass has it's good points and perhaps with a good director it could have been a good movie unfortunatly having Baird at the healm means it's very average.

Review of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train will be coming soon, hoping to watch Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel soon too.

I liked 21 grams. Hope you do too.

That's some heavy duty, emotional films you have coming up dts.... Or, man that's some boring crap you're about to watch. It all depends on your pov.

Also, with you review of Cass, most, if not all, of the 'hooligan' films are fictional accounts taken from the books of one former hooligan or another. Said former hooligan usually works with the director as a technical adviser too.

Have you seen Rise Of The Footsoldier? In a similar vein to the hooligan films and also based on a the book. Not great, but quite interesting, especially if you liked Football Factory.

I guess that's true, most of the movies do have some sort of truth behind their stories.

I watched Rise of the Footsoldier a year or so ago, quite liked it because to be honest I do enjoy British gangster and hooligan movies. Thought Ricci Harnett did a good job as Carlton Leech, he is on scary SOB. It's a pretty brutal movie, doesn't really hold back too much. The scenes when his gang get tortured are quite horrible.

You've probably seen it but there's a movie called Essex Boys with Sean Bean that's also about the Rettendon murders.

I have, but I can't say I liked it that much. Probably as much to do with my dislike of Sean Bean as anything else. Were it not for Alex Kingston being in it, I probably wouldn't have bothered with it.

Strangers on a Train


When people talk about Hitchcock classics the first few titles that come to mind are Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho. One of the movies that is usually overlooked is Strangers on a Train, if I'm being honest I didn't even know it was a Hitchcock movie until a few weeks before I watched it.

The story revolves around tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and deranged socialite Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) who as far as Guy is concerned “jokingly” agree to swap murders while talking to each other on a train journey. Haines pretty much forgets the encounter until an incident involving his wife reignites his memory. Anthony then stalks him and gets into his inner circle trying to convince Guy to murder his father. It is then that Guy realises that Anthony is all too serious about both of them sticking to the deal they had.

The movie contains some brilliant shots and scenes like the tension filled tennis match, Bruno standing motionless in a tennis crowd and of course the reflection in a woman's eyeglasses of a brutal crime.



The acting overall is solid all around especially Walker's performance as Bruno, he switches between an angry killer and a friendly socialite effortlessly and even seems to have that evil glint in his eye during many scenes in the movie. The script is direct and to the point although there still is an air of abiguity in it.

In conclusion, this is Hitchcock doing what he does best, putting an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. It is a short but effective thriller and I'm glad the movie is starting to get the recognition it should.

That's a good review dts. It actually makes me think about watching the film.

The Machinist

I’ll start by saying, if Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Renee Zellweger got so much critical acclaim for changing their bodies and becoming physically ugly, then Christian Bale definitely should have the same acclaim, from what I’ve read he lost 60 pounds for the role, going on a diet of a can of tuna and an apple a day. He wanted to go down to 100 pounds but doctors stopped him from doing so. Talk about being committed to a role. Bale’s almost anorexic appearance, changes his role from a strong one to a memorable one.

The Machinist or El Maquinista is about an unstable insomniac, who has a dark hidden secret which haunts him. Christian Bale puts in a brilliant performance, which makes the movie somewhat like a bad dream. Similarities with another movie are undeniable and comparisons can definitely be made. Although not as good as movies like Memento, the movie will appeal to an audience who like this sort of story.

Bale plays a factory worker named Trevor Reznik, who leads a working class tedious life. He’s spent a whole year without sleeping a wink and spends his nights either with the exact same waitress at the airport or with his prostitute, Stevie played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Something weird is happening to Trevor, a strange character named Ivan constantly haunts him, and he keeps having extremely weird visions. The main question in this movie is whether he is imagining these things or if it is all part of a big conspiracy to make him go crazy.

Suspense in the film is built by its brilliant style. The camerawork and claustrophobic atmosphere in the factory show the viewer the darkness in Reznik’s life and help to replicate what is going through his mind. The colour scheme of the movie is also very dark and is very close to being monochromatic. One of the best scenes in the movie is one with an impending storm, which I believe is perfect with its composition and presentation.

Jennifer Jason Leigh does not need to stretch herself for her role but puts in a solid performance as Stevie, who in some ways is a clichéd character. She is one of the few sympathetic faces in the movie, which is needed in such a dark movie.



The movie is rather confusing at first, and does not seem to be going in any particular direction, but if you have the patience, the end is rewarding and is worth waiting for. One aspect of the film, which I liked, was that Anderson, the director never cheats his audience with any sudden twists, the revelations of what is going on are gradually introduced and allow the audience to piece together everything.

The Machinist is not for the feint of heart and is very grim and at some parts gory, but if you are a fan of such movies, then you will certainly enjoy it. If not for anything else, watch this movie because of Christian Bale because he yet again proves he is one of the best actors in cinema today.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the Spanish name, it's because the movie couldn't get funding in the U.S so it was funded, shot and released in Spain.

Funny, I just watched this for the second time last night. I thought it was a pretty damn good movie. I actually prefer it a bit to Memento. The dark and gritty structure was perfect for the film, I thought Bale's performance was the best he's ever given, and the score almost sounded like an old Bernard Hermann tune. I'd give it about the same rating. Good review.

He did, though he didn't get the amount of coverage, mainly for the following reasons:

1. He's a man and, therefore, his career doesn't depend on him being ridiculously thin.

2. He was making himself thin, not fat.

3. As a man, although a certain amount of his 'appeal' is based on how he looks, making himself look 'ugly' isn't 'brave' and it doesn't take 'courage' because he's not risking his image or future roles.

Personally, I don't think any actor/actress really deserves any praise for becoming fat or thin for a part. Does it really matter that much? Do people complain when an actress plays a part in which she gets pregnant, but doesn't actually get pregnant? What about Gary Sinese in Forrest Gump? Played a man with no legs, but didn't have them amputated, what a crap actor.

Agreed honeykid, I don't think they should get praise either but Bale and Theron's performances were very good too. It shows amazing commitment to the role though. I really respect actors who are willing to put so much into their art, like Di Caprio going to South Africa for months to learn and improve his South African accent.

My next two reviews which I can hopefully do in the next couple of days will be Finding Nemo and The Ox Bow Incident, both which were watched on a 7 hour flight.

Still need to watch theAlejandro Inarritu's Death Triology, looking to watch them in the next week or so.

The Ox Bow Incident

The fact that this was one of Orson Welles's favourite movies says a lot. The Ox Bow Incident is the quintessential anti mob lynching movie. 66 years down the line the morals and lessons learnt from the movie are still just as important as they were in 1943.

The Ox Bow Incident stars Henry Fonda as Gil, a cowboy who with his friend Art enter a neighbouring town to theirs. At the bar they find out about the murder of a cattle rancher from the town. This leads to a mob being formed consisting of many of the town's hotheaded and angry residents, including Farnley and Major Tetley who assumes the role of leader in the group. Despite the pleas of Davies, the town doctor, to wait for the sheriff, the group sets out to find the men responsible for the murder. Davies, Art and Gil reluctantly join the mob hoping to convince them to wait and give the men a fair trial and also due to their fear the mob may turn on them.


They eventually find 3 men who they straight away assume to be guilty. The fact no one knows anything about the murder doesn't stop them from trying to play judge and jury. The movie then focuses on the ensuing arguments whether the men should be hung, if they should give them a fair trial or if they should wait for the sheriff. Like his character in 12 Angry Men, Fonda again plays the voice the reason alongside Dr. Davies.

Fonda's acting is so effortless that he makes the rest of the cast look amateur with their efforts to portray the characters in the movie. Frank Conroy as Major Tetley seems to overact a bit but I guess at the time the movie was made, a lot of actors did this.

Even though it's a short film, the Ox Bow Incident is powerful and the story behind it raises a lot of questions and makes you question what you'd do in that position. Whilst I think I would have waited and would have been patient I know a lot of people who would have joined in the mob mentality and would have been shouting for blood.

Overall a solid movie and a movie I believe will survive the test of time.