Jack's Reviews

Hadn't even heard of this. I will add it to the year's watchlist.

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Letterboxd

As you liked The Two Faces Of January, may I recommend Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I'm confident you'll like both.




BTW, Di Caprio has always been a really good actor.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check both of those out.

Just realised I've done fifty reviews for this thread already. I need to get a life.

I'd also recommend The Talented Mr Ripley; great film. That's also why I'm very interested to see this film. When I started seeing adverts and trailers for the film I was instantly reminded of Ripley and then discovered that both stories are indeed from the same author.

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Gravity (2013)



Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Cast overview: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Running time: 91 minutes

Gravity has received immense praise, and after watching it you can see why. Firstly, the visuals are breathtaking. I can't praise them enough - they're stunning, authentic, and completely scintillating. It's easy to forget you're watching a film rather than viewing earth from space. The film won several Oscars for the technical, visual, and cinematic effects, and they were fully and wholeheartedly deserved. I didn't see this in 3D, but it must have been incredible. It was fantastic enough on a laptop screen. I'm not familiar with Cuaron as a director, but here he excels.

The only two characters seen in the film, played by Clooney and Bullock, are both decent enough, though this was never going to be - and never intended to be - a complex character study. The actors do what they need to do and give their characters the appropriate measures of realism and credibility. The amount of tension you feel when watching the film is enough to realise that you are engaged in Bullock's character and what happens to her.

Let's be fair, the plot is perhaps cliched and unoriginal, but that doesn't mean to say it's a bad film. It was never going to be - given the idea - anything completely original, as space disaster movies aren't exactly unheard of, but it succeeds in being an entertaining adventure / science-fiction flick that grips and engages you through its running time. The visuals alone make this worth watching, and the struggle-for-survival plot cements this film's place as one of the best of recent years. Recommended.



Quotes
Matt Kowalski: I get it. It's nice up here. You can just shut down all the systems, turn out all the lights, and just close your eyes and tune out everyone. There's nobody up here that can hurt you. It's safe. I mean, what's the point of going on? What's the point of living? Your kid died. Doesn't get any rougher than that. But still, it's a matter of what you do now. If you decide to go, then you gotta just get on with it. Sit back, enjoy the ride. You gotta plant both your feet on the ground and start livin' life. Hey, Ryan? It's time to go home.

Ryan Stone: ****!
Matt Kowalski: Copy that.

Matt Kowalski: You've got to learn to let go.

Trivia
The film's cascade of debris is a very real possibility. This scenario is known as the Kessler syndrome, named after N.A.S.A. scientist Donald J. Kessler who first proposed the theory in 1978. A cascading Kessler syndrome involving an object the size of the International Space Station would trigger a catastrophic chain-reaction of debris. The orbiting debris field would make it impossible to launch space exploration missions or satellites for many decades.

The opening scene, from the establishing view of Earth to Dr. Stone detaching from the structure, is a single, continuous shot lasting about twelve and a half minutes.

Various mechanical sounds made by the spacecraft are heard on the sound-track as a result of conduction through the astronauts' bodies while they are in contact with the station. For example, when Ryan Stone is frantically trying to grab the handles as she flies by the station, the sounds of the station are heard while she is holding a handle, and they cease when she lets go. On the actual Lunar missions, the sounds of astronauts hitting their hammers on core sample tubes were conducted through their bodies and transmitted through their microphones.

Trailer

My favorite movie of last year, but I watched it in IMAX-3D. I can't imagine the movie having the same impact by watching it on a laptop.

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It wasn't. At least, it wasn't in my experience.

I have a theory that I'll like it a lot more in 2D. Y'know, when you can actually see it and the picture's really sharp.

Did you forget to put your 3D glasses on, honeykid?

No, not that it matters too much. The light reduction was horrendous.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)



Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast overview: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill
Running time: 180 minutes

This is Scorsese's latest film, and it's one of the best I've seen from him. Taking its inspiration from former stockbroker Jordan Belfort's personal memoirs of his decade of excess that led him to a 22-month prison sentence, it's both a look at the sleaze and dirty glamour of the finance industry on Wall Street, and also an entertaining thrill ride through much of Belfort's life. It tells of his rags-to-riches story, going from working-class to making more money than he knew what to do with in a matter of years. I believe that's one of the things to admire about Belfort - his work ethic and determination to succeed; of course, the actual defrauding isn't something to be applauded.

DiCaprio's performance as Belfort is charismatic, captivating, and engaging, not to mention offensive, and he's one of the reasons that this film is what it is. Without his presence, the film likely wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is. Every film I've seen recently has seemed to have DiCaprio in - this, Django Unchained, Shutter Island - but he's a very adept actor so that's no bad thing. Jonah Hill proves a solid understudy as Danny Porush, and there are other notable names forming the supporting cast, including director Rob Reiner as Belfort's father, Joanna Lumley as his wife's mother, and Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna.

Scorsese's direction is very good, the soundtrack is absolutely superb, featuring as it does some of my favourite songs, including Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge", and Terence Winter's script feels completely natural and realistic. I was also amused to learn that the film contains the most uses of "****" in a mainstream film, with 569 instances. I can completely believe that.

Overall, Scorsese here has created his best film in a few years, I'd say, with a fairly in-depth look at the sleaze and extravagance associated with Wall Street and all its offshoots. DiCaprio and the rest of the cast play their characters in an authentic and believable manner, and the end-result is a very good film that is one of the best of 2013.



Quotes
Jordan Belfort: Let me tell you something. There's no nobility in poverty. I've been a poor man, and I've been a rich man. And I choose rich every ****ing time.

[from trailer]
Jordan Belfort: My name is Jordan Belfort. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.

Jordan Belfort: On a daily basis I consume enough drugs to sedate Manhattan, Long Island, and Queens for a month. I take Quaaludes 10-15 times a day for my "back pain", Adderall to stay focused, Xanax to take the edge off, pot to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine... Well, because it's awesome.

Trivia
Matthew McConaughey's scenes were shot on the second week of filming. The chest beating and humming performed by him was improvised and actually a warming up ritual that he performs before acting. When Leonardo DiCaprio saw it while filming, the brief shot of him looking away uneasily from the camera was actually him looking at Martin Scorsese for approval. DiCaprio encouraged them to include it in their scene and later claimed it "set the tone" for the rest of the film.

Real-life Jordan Belfort appears in a brief role in the film's final scene, introducing his cinema stand-in Leonardo DiCaprio. As accurately portrayed, Belfort is now a motivational speaker who previously served 22 months in federal prison for stock fraud.

The scene where Brad punches Donnie is real, in fact Jon Bernthal hit Jonah Hill so hard that the prosthetic teeth he was wearing split and flew out of his mouth. Martin Scorsese then proceeded to film Hill's face swelling in real time.

Trailer

An instant favorite of mine, although I liked it slightly less with my 2nd viewing. I normally love Scorsese's soundtracks but didn't like this one. Just a different taste in music.

Sorcerer (1977)



Director: William Friedkin
Cast overview: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer
Running time: 121 minutes

People talk about football being a game of two halves. This was certainly, for me, a film of two halves, for reasons which I'll discuss further on in the review. This was recommended to me by cricket and Daniel M, so I thought I might as well give it a watch. It's supposedly a remake of the 1953 French film, The Wages of Fear. The basic premise - four men from differing parts of the globe descend on a South American village and agree to transport nitroglycerin in a truck - is fairly straightforward, and intriguing enough, reminding me at first glance as being similar to Fitzcarraldo and Deliverance. The presence of Scheider was also something positive.

I have mixed feelings about the film as a whole, unfortunately. My main issue was the pacing. The film takes a whole hour to get going, with the first hour being spent doing seemingly not very much, with little dialogue, little character development, little of anything. I liked the four split sequences at the beginning that introduced the characters, but too much time was spent in the first hour getting into the story, and I felt this could have been trimmed dramatically. For the first hour I felt nothing but apathy towards the characters, and my overall understanding was minimal.

The second hour sees events become far more interesting, as the main plot seems to spring into being and things start to happen. It's a shame it takes so long for this to happen. The second half is engrossing, exciting, and suspenseful. Tangerine Dream's synth-filled score is appropriate, the cinematography is excellent, and the film takes on an altogether more interesting aspect. It's also quite frightening in an unorthodox way. The bridge scene, in particular - for which the film is mostly known, is extremely tense, forming the best scene in the film by some distance for me.

Overall, this wasn't a bad film by any means, given that the second hour for me was enjoyable, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping and expecting. Not the fault of cricket or Daniel M - most seem to have enjoyed this but I just felt that the first hour dragged it down further than I'd have expected. Dull first half, exciting second half, for me. Reasonable.



Quotes
Corlette: [Corlette is observing Scanlon's truck-driving technique] Teamsters?
Scanlon: Greyhound.

Scanlon: Where am I going?
Vinnie: All I can say is it's a good place to lay low.
Scanlon: Why?
Vinnie: It's the kind of place nobody wants to go looking.

Scanlon: You read about this place in the travel brochures?
"Serrano": I heard it had a healthy climate.
Scanlon: Not what you expected though?
"Serrano": It was exactly what I expected!

Trivia
Despite its look, the rope bridge was actually quite elaborate in its construction and contained numerous safety devices as well as hydraulic lifts in order for the special effects crew to manipulate it into motion. It cost $1 million to build. After it was completed the original river for the scene (in the Dominican Republic) went almost completely dry for the first time in its history, due to a drought. The bridge had to be torn down and a new location was found in Tuxtepec, Mexico. The bridge had to be rebuilt at the cost of another $1 million. However, the raging river that the bridge was built over began to dry up. The crew had to put a 24-hour guard around the bridge because the superstitious locals threatened to blow it up believing it was the bridge and the "intruders" that caused the river to become shallow. By the time filming began the water was only 18 inches deep and looked completely nonthreatening. The crew didn't have the time or the money to find another location, so William Friedkin decided to add an artificial current and rainstorm (using helicopters/wind machines and men on towers with giant hoses). The bridge itself was so rickety that, despite the safety precautions, the truck (often with an actor inside of it) slid off the side and into the shallow water five times during rehearsals and filming. The entire sequence took three months to shoot. Friedkin stated it was by far the most difficult sequence he ever filmed in his career.

Due to the subtitles at the beginning of the film many theater patrons began complaining, believing that they had unknowingly paid to see a foreign film. In order to alleviate that, special posters were quickly printed up and posted in the theater lobby which stated the following. "YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. To dramatize the diverse backgrounds of the principal characters in "Sorcerer", two of the opening sequences were filmed in the appropriate foreign languages - with subtitles in English. Other than these opening scenes, "Sorcerer" is an English-language film."

Tangerine Dream wrote the musical score using only a draft of the script given to them by director William Friedkin. At no time did they see any actual footage of the film.

Trailer

That's reasonable. Too bad you didn't like it more but at least not a total waste.

The Shining (1980)



Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast overview: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
Running time: 144 minutes

The Shining is perhaps considered to be - though there would be competition for the status - Kubrick's best film. A horror adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name, it tells the story of Jack Torrance (Nicholson), a writer who heads with his family to the isolated Overlook Hotel for the winter. An evil presence influences Torrance into violence, while his son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future. I know King himself isn't a fan of this film, perhaps because it deviates so much from his original work, but I do love this as a film.

Firstly, having Kubrick at the helm - while I don't like all of his films, and I do think he's a tad overrated - probably made this film better than it otherwise would have been. Supposedly there is subliminal messaging within every shot, as touched upon in far more detail in the very interesting documentary Room 237, though whether that is true or not I don't know. The direction is expertly done, creating the sense of isolation that was imperative to making the film work.

Many have criticised the acting, particularly that of Shelley Duvall. I'd probably disagree - Nicholson is excellent and, while he does have a tendency to play himself and overact at times, he portrays Torrance to a tee, creating one of cinema's most memorable characters in the process. Duvall as the troubled and fearful wife is more of an enigma. I've often wondered whether she's fantastic or awful in this, and I've come to the conclusion that she's somewhere in between, giving a performance that's quite haunting at some points, but that also seems feeble and comical at others. Danny Lloyd as the haunted son is terrific for such a young actor.

Overall, this is a terrific horror film that shows Kubrick's skill at understanding and translating the genre to the big screen. With some excellent performances, most notably from Jack Nicholson, the film is memorable, frightening, and bizarre. It's one of those films that sticks with you but that you never quite understand fully. Highly recommended.



Quotes
Wendy Torrance: [crying] Stay away from me.
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room!
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
Jack Torrance: You've had your whole ****ING LIFE to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?
Wendy Torrance: Please! Don't hurt me!
Jack Torrance: I'm not gonna hurt you.
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!
Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in.
[Wendy gasps]
Jack Torrance: Gonna bash 'em right the **** in! ha ha ha
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me! Don't hurt me!
Jack Torrance: [sarcastically] I'm not gonna hurt ya...
Wendy Torrance: Stay away! Stop it!
Jack Torrance: Stop swingin' the bat. Put the bat down, Wendy. Wendy? Give me the bat...

Jack Torrance: Heeere's Johnny!

Jack Torrance: [typed] All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Trivia
Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd was under the impression that the film he was making was a drama, not a horror movie. In fact, when Wendy carries Danny away while shouting at Jack in the Colorado Lounge, she is actually carrying a life-size dummy so Lloyd would not have to be in the scene. He only realized the truth several years later, when he was shown a heavily edited version of the film. He didn't see the uncut version of the film until he was 17 - eleven years after he'd made it.

Both Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall have expressed open resentment against the reception of this film, feeling that critics and audiences credited Stanley Kubrick solely for the film's success without considering the efforts of the actors, crew or the strength of Stephen King's underlying material. Both Nicholson and Duvall have said that the film was one of the hardest of their careers; in fact, Nicholson considers Duvall's performance the most difficult role he's ever seen an actor take on. Duvall also considers her performance the hardest of her life.

Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on set one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had in his youth played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule, Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with Burton. Burton only managed to win one game, but nevertheless the director thanked him, since it had been some time that he'd played against a challenging opponent.

Trailer

I haven't forgotten about this thread, don't worry. Been busy with exams and haven't had the time to watch many films. Will post a lot more after Thursday which is my final exam day.

The Comfort of Strangers (1990)



Director: Paul Schrader
Cast overview: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett
Running time: 107 minutes

This Paul Schrader-directed film attracted my attention partly because it seemed similar to Roeg's Don't Look Now given its Venice setting, but also because the synopsis gave the impression of an interesting thriller. The film is certainly unsettling, thanks in part to the setting but also thanks to the overwhelming feeling of foreboding and anticipation you get when watching it. The occasional cutaways to Walken's character's monologues give you enough to keep you interested but not too much to send you in the opposite direction.

The acting from Everett and Richardson as the English couple does seem a bit wooden at times, although perhaps that's my being overly critical. Walken, however, is superb - every role I've seen him in has been played excellently, with his sly villainous qualities coming to the fore once again here. What frustrates me most about this film is the potential it had - there were some talented names involved with this yet the end product is slightly unsatisfying. It's nevertheless a decent film, but there's the unerring feeling that it could have been so much better. It's generally slow-paced, which isn't necessarily its death knell, but it does allow tedium to set in at times where the only thing that kept me interested was Walken's character and the impending finale. There are also times when the story stretches the bounds of credibility, and that's something else that - while I'm not sure if Ian McEwan's source material included such elements - should have been considered more deeply.

This is an okay film, but - like its natural predecessor Don't Look Now - it feels lacking in several areas, which is a shame because it had undoubted potential given the host of talented names, the wonderful setting, and the emotive music that combine to create something atmospheric, even if the plot is somewhat lacking.



Quotes
Robert: Let me tell you something: My father was a very big man. And all his life he wore a black mustache. When it was no longer black, he used a small brush, such as ladies use for their eyes. Mascara.

Caroline: Are you in love?
Mary: Well, I... I do love him, I suppose. Not quite like when we first met. I trust him, really. He's my closest friend. But, what do you mean by in-love?
Caroline: I mean that you'd do absolutely anything for the other person, and you'd let them do absolutely anything to you. Anything...
Mary: Anything?

Caroline: I knew that fantasy was passing into reality. Have you ever experienced that? It's like stepping into a mirror.

Trailer

Glad you're back Jack! The Comfort of Strangers wasn't in my future but it sounds ok if there's nothing else on.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)



Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast overview: Warren Oates, Isela Vega
Running time: 112 minutes

I typed out a long review for this and then it completely disappeared - AAARRRGGGGHHH. Anyway, here goes. I enjoyed this film a lot, which I was sort of expecting to given it's Peckinpah - the first of his I've seen, incidentally, though he is highly regarded. The basic premise was fairly straightforward - indeed, the title itself - my favourite film title of all time, and one of the best - gives away the synopsis in itself. Warren Oates is the man tasked with bringing the head back, and he plays his role with skill and expertise, creating a flawed protagonist that we still vouch for. He is no hero in the conventional sense, but he's our hero all the same. Bennie is a character that has fallen on hard times, seemingly at the bottom of society, yet his drive appears to be infallible.

The film is twisted, dark, and brutal, but it doesn't seem unnecessarily so - it really does show a gritty, raw, dirty underbelly of society that - coupled with the hot, barren Mexico landscape - is effective as a backdrop for the film. It's a dark western of a kind, one in which we are engrossed with the original theme. Peckinpah shows extremely effectively the hunger of man, and this is very little different from the one-man-on-a-quest films that tend to dominate Hollywood.

Overall, I think this is an underrated seventies film, panned by critics and audiences alike upon its release, and it holds up as a thrilling release. It's a difficult film, and one that I would bargain needs more than one viewing to fully appreciate its talents, but nonetheless it's one that won't be far off my seventies list, and it may indeed make it.



Quotes
El Jefe: I will pay one million dollars. Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!

Bennie: Nobody loses all the time.

Bennie: You guys are definitely on my **** list!

Trivia
Isela Vega received a Best Actress nomination at the 1975 Ariel Awards held by the Academia Mexicana de Artesy y Ciencias Cinematograpficas. She lost to Pilar Pellicer, who won the Ariel for her role in Emilio Fernández's La choca (1974).

The only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on - all the others were re-cut by the studios.

Upon release, it was banned in Sweden, Germany and Argentina.

Trailer

A great film that I hope will make the 70s list too. One of my favourite Peckinpah films along with The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, which I'd recommend next, especially the latter as it's also 70s.

I gave it 3/5, but just like you said, I've been thinking that it's one of those that I need to watch again.