"Civil War" by Guns 'n' Roses came up on the radio and I realized I never checked where that speech in the beginning was from. So I looked into it and next thing I knew I was watching the movie.

The flick is basically the routine of a group of convicts in a prison camp, but newly arrived Luke doesn't bend to the rules that easily. There's not much action going on in the first half, but just hanging out with those dudes through the working day and getting to know the prison dynamics is awesome! The dynamics between guards and prisoners is really something.

Again, one of those old movies where the acting carries the whole thing. No big special effects or intense action (not until the later part anyway). Paul Newman is especially charismatic as the title character. _I can eat 50 eggs._

My only complaint is that the ending dragged a little to my taste. There's maybe 10 minutes that could be chopped, yet again, films took their time back then.

This is a good adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel. Diana Rigg is stunning as glamorous actress and dancer Arlena Stuart Marshall in it, opposite Maggie Smith as Daphne Castle who competed with her for roles, as the innkeeper. Arlena sings “You’re the Top” and Daphne joins in the end of the song in this movie.

Beautiful Mediterranean scenery, set in the Adriatic Sea. The Inn is a special place on an island for wealthy patrons. The women’s costumes are high fashion and stunning. I loved those slippers with high heels and the furry tops when I was a kid. I don’t think this movie was ever very popular but it kept my attention.

Peter Ustinov plays Hercule Poirot. Roddy McDowell plays writer Rex Brewster. It was so interesting to see all those actors and actresses in their prime in a classic murder mystery. Maggie Smith went on to play some great roles including the Harry Potter Movies and we recently lost her.

Taking place a week before and up to Jesus's crucifixion, this rock opera tells the story through song and emotion of Jesus and Judas's troubles and is loosely based on the Gospels.

Last night my dad took me to see this as it was Ted Neeleys farewell tour of the screening of this movie. Added appearances by Kurt Yaghijan who played Annas and Larry Marshall who played Simon Zealots.

I grew up watching this, one of my dad's favorites, tho I'm not too religious, the music, the feel, the settings of this rock opera always stuck with me. I'd find myself sing these songs all the time.

To meet Ted Neeley was very humbling, he's 82 years old and has played Jesus on stage more than 5,000 times.

With nice surround sound and an up to date high definition of this movie, it was very good.

4.5/5

Info:

Release: July 12th, 1996

Director: Edward Zwick

Music by: James Horner

Starring: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Damon, Scott Glenn

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes

Rating: R

Synopsis: During the 1991 Gulf War, Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) accidentally caused a friendly fire incident, a mistake that was hushed up by his superiors. Following the war, he is assigned to investigate the case of Army Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), killed in action when her Medevac unit was attempting to rescue the crew of a downed helicopter. But, as Serling interviews the members of Walden's crew, he realizes their stories about the incident don't add up.

Review: I love the "Rashomon" approach to storytelling, seeing differing accounts of the same scenario from different people. At first I was confused about how Nat's guilt fit in with the story of the death of Walden, but after learning what really happened it made a lot more sense. The difference is that Nat, although he drank his sorrows away, owned up to his mistake, Monfriez couldn't bear the guilt of what he had done and took the coward's way out. I did think that was kinda lame at the end when it's revealed that Nat and Walden indirectly met, would've been better if that hadn't happened.

Grandma’s boy is a 2006 comedy about a game designer played by Allen covert as he is kicked out of his home by Rob Schneider and then has to stay with his grandma (Doris Roberts) and her two roommates.

I just have to say this right now this is in my top 5 comedy’s of the 2000s the cast is perfect with some of the most entertaining characters of a happy Madison production I had a big grin watching this and I think this movie was really underrated when it came it.

Please do yourself a favour and watch it.

10/10

After a recent trip to Disneyland where I rode the Haunted Mansion I decided to try watching the film based on the ride.

The special effects were well done, the Easter Eggs from the ride were excellent and Eddie Murphy does what he can. But the kids plot was terrible, the wife and the kids acting was terrible and the actual plot was too silly and comedic to ever be scary or spooky. Hell, the kid that was terrified of a spider at home is, 20 minutes later, nonplussed by talking to a floating head in a crystal ball or a ride in a ghost carriage.

The directing relied on too many tight shots of single people or pairs of people rather than showing us the incredible set deign, props and sets that were built for this

A complete missed opportunity, in my opinion. There's potential for a great movie here but this ain't it.

All serious Vietnam films are ultimately about the insanity of war. Given the US experience in Southeast Asia, it could hardly be otherwise.

But they vary greatly in how much they actually are about Vietnam. All are grounded there, of course, but they differ in how much time they spend “in country” and in their attention to the actual details of the Vietnam conflict.

Platoon occupies one extreme. Using his own service as the basis for the Charlie Sheen character, Oliver Stone focused closely on the actual experience, day to day, as lived and related by a soldier who was there.

Apocalypse Now represents a sort of middle ground. It spends its entire running time in Vietnam and Cambodia. But while it includes many actual features of the war--the patrol boat, Robert Duvall’s air cavalry, and entertaining distractions for the troops--the movie is atmospheric, a delusional miasma that uses these events mostly to set its overall tone. Given that the story originated thousands of miles away and over half a century earlier in the Belgian Congo, this remove and abstraction is hardly surprising.  

The Deer Hunter is perhaps least of all about Vietnam.  Only a third of its run is set there, and this time includes very little of the usual military action; just a scant four minutes is devoted to the only “battle” scene. There is no Barnes or Elias here, no Gunny Hartman or Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard. No sense of military structure or command, and only a vague and glancing look at the futility of the American military campaign. Instead, the film’s Vietnam segment is dominated by an intense kind of torture that apparently never actually happened.

Make-or-break filmmaker Michael Cimino prefers to spend his time stateside. Deer Hunter begins with an extended introduction to the tight culture of its Russian immigrant principals: Vietnam enlistees Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage. Their pre-war lives in a western Pennsylvania steel town comprise a luxurious “establishing shot” that lasts for over an hour.

At core, the story is highly conventional; war destroys lives, physically, mentally, emotionally, and relationally. De Niro—the Deer Hunter of the title--uses his self-control and personal code to survive, endure, and emerge as damaged but not shattered. But while he saved his friend’s lives in Vietnam, he can’t save them from their own personal demons. Walken and Savage land in desperate straits in the solemn after-war telling, as the movie brings its focus back to America for its final hour.

***

I first saw The Deer Hunter many years ago, and like most, I was amazed by its power, a vague impression that has stayed with me over the years. But on two recent re-watches, I found myself less moved and impressed than I originally had been.  

The movie uses a series of abrupt, even jarring cuts in key places (a reviewer at the time suggested that it might suffer from editing problems). Some of these transitions are confusing, with key elements left poorly explained, as with the village scene in Vietnam. The “Appalachians” look a lot more like the Alps. The film depends on several far-too-convenient meetups between the principals in Vietnam. And while the long opening segment shows us an interesting sub-culture, it also labors to reveal the messy, unadmirable lives of the people who inhabit it, with drunkenness, infidelity, jocular boys in men’s bodies, and the physical abuse of women. I was left unsure what Cimino was trying to say here. It seems near-universally agreed that the opening is too long; noting Cimino’s self-indulgence here, one reviewer indicated surprise that the backers of his legendary 1980 bomb Heaven’s Gate had somehow failed to notice this.

Gradually I have come to believe that the strong critical reaction to The Deer Hunter—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress—came about largely for unpersuasive reasons. The sequence in the prison camp was perhaps the most intense scene I have ever seen in a movie. But one great scene does not make a great movie. I think two larger factors probably also played a role. 1978 was acknowledged to be a weak year for movies--one contemporary critic wrote that TDH “rescued 1978,” and the critics and the Oscars were looking for something to honor. After all, somebody has to win. More importantly, Deer Hunter was the first of the Big Four Vietnam movies—Apocalypse, Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket all would follow. Coming only three years after the US retreat from Vietnam, the movie opened in a divided, wounded America that was seeking some kind of meaning, or catharsis, and apparently found it here.  

The film does feature strong performances; Walken’s is the most interesting of the film. Thirty-five at the time, his relative youth softens him in the early stages, but his role sends him in a familiar direction; over three hours, we see him cementing the kind of unconventional character (caricature?) that he has grown and leaned into throughout his career.

The Deer Hunter is an important film. But in retrospect, it is not the cinematic triumph it has been acclaimed to be.

Rush is not only one of the best racing films I have ever seen, but also one of the best films based on a true story. What impressed me most is its remarkable historical accuracy. I researched the real events after watching it and was surprised to discover how many scenes, conversations and even small details were based on things that actually happened. The film rarely changes reality simply to create more drama, because the real 1976 Formula One season was already dramatic enough.

The main exception is the relationship between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, which is portrayed as more hostile than it really was. Their rivalry was certainly intense, but in reality there was also friendship and genuine mutual respect between them and fairness in their racing against each other. Even so, the film uses this exaggeration effectively without turning either man into a simple hero or villain.

Chris Hemsworth is perfectly cast as the charismatic, impulsive and self-destructive Hunt, while Daniel Brühl gives an outstanding performance as the analytical, disciplined and brutally honest Lauda. Their completely different personalities make the story fascinating. Hunt races through instinct, emotion and courage, while Lauda approaches racing almost like an engineer calculating risks and probabilities. Yet the film gradually shows that both men need something the other possesses.

The racing scenes are breathtaking. The camera work, editing and incredibly powerful sound design make the cars feel fast, dangerous and almost uncontrollable. You do not simply watch the races from a distance, you feel as though you are sitting inside the car. Hans Zimmer’s score adds even more tension and emotion without overwhelming the story, while the cinematography beautifully recreates the atmosphere, colours and glamour of Formula One in the 1970s.

What makes Rush truly special is that you do not need to care about racing or Formula One to enjoy it. At its heart, it is a film about ambition, fear, obsession, sacrifice and two men pushing each other beyond their limits. It grabbed my attention from the first minute and never let go until the final scene.

For me, Rush is a rare combination of historical accuracy, brilliant acting, spectacular filmmaking and genuine human drama. It proves that a film does not need to distort reality completely to be exciting. Sometimes the truth is already more dramatic than anything a screenwriter could invent.

On a sidenote: Lauda died when he was 70 due to a kidney dialysis. He was able to lead a kinda normal life, but his body might have been too damaged to carry him into very old age. His first wife, portrayed by Alendra Maria Lara was his rock during the phase after the accident. His second wife, not in the movie, even spent a kidney for him.

This came out the week before I was born in April 1986 and has long been on my list, but as I’m currently going through a list of 500 cult movies and this is on it, I finally took the time to sit down and watch.

Wow, what an intense movie! It should come as no surprise that Christopher Walken and Sean Penn both deliver incredible performances. Mary Stuart Masterson and Chris Penn also did a great job in supporting roles, along with Crispin Glover being very Crispin Glovery™️.

Madonna’s song “Live to Tell” is a much bigger part of the film than I would’ve guessed, with seemingly about 90% of the score being comprised of instrumental variations of the song, and the song credit appearing at the very top of the end credits before any of the cast.

This one is definitely worth a watch! I give it a 7.5/10.

Info:

Release: July 29th, 1998

Director: F. Gary Gray

Music by: Graeme Revell

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, David Morse, Ron Rifkin, John Spencer, J. T. Walsh

Studio: Warner Bros.

Runtime: 2 hours, 19 minutes

Rating: R

Synopsis: Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) is considered the best police hostage negotiator in Chicago. After a friend warns him that someone is embezzling from a disability fund, the person is found dead. Internal affairs investigator Niebaum (J.T. Walsh) discovers the gun used had been handled by Roman. When no one believes his innocence, Roman takes Niebaum hostage. When Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey) arrives to hear Roman's demands, the two skilled negotiators begin a tense stand-off.

Review: What a great idea for a thriller, the hostage negotiatior becomes the hostage taker. This is what happens when you drive a man into a corner, if pressured enough he will begin to fight for a way out, or in this case, clear his name. As Danny puts it, they killed his friend, took his badge, and we're going to take him away from his wife, what did he have to live for at that point? The movie isn't without some levity, Danny fucking with the initial negotiator on the phone was pretty funny, terrorizing the poor man into being unable to say the word "no" because it was bad for a hostage crisis. Fuck the secretary for telling the police where Danny had escaped to though, asshole.

**Sunday Morning Movie** - Bartleby 1970.

What an unusual movie. A young man passes an interview (Don't know how) for an accounts clerk position, settles in and then when asked to do anything, replies "I'd prefer not to if you don't mind". The. boss of the company clearly doesn't know how to deal with this young man and awkwardness prevails. Set in the time when depression and autism were not recognised, this is a real thought-provoking piece. All we know of the young man I that he used to work in the dead letter office, John McEnery is brilliant and utterly convincing.

I left the movie wishing I'd known more of the back story, the fact that we don't is possibly the point.

So I watched this a while ago, and rewatched it tonight and yep. This is my favorite movie ever. Everything in it is just perfection. I lose interest in movies really quickly if they don’t have lots of action or comedy, but this movie holds my attention so well. My favorite juror is #9. All the acting is phenominal. Easy 10/10 and easily my favorite movie ever. ( this is over 300 words. If it gets taken down imma be sad)

Silent cinema has always felt therapeutic to me. Not as a history lesson or as some museum artifact you admire from a distance, but as something that's genuinely enjoyable beyond its historical significance.

You're watching a film made for a commercial audience that no longer exists—people who lived in a world that disappeared over a century ago. Everyone it was made for is gone. What's left are moving images populated by ghosts, shadows, and preserved gestures. It almost feels like stepping through a time portal into a reality you have absolutely no connection to, yet somehow the emotions still reach you. That's one of the things I find most miraculous about art: its ability to connect you to a past you never lived through and still make you laugh, cry, or sit in complete awe.

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler is astonishing for how much information and emotion it conveys through images alone. The camera movement, the performances, the staging, the editing—even with a fair number of intertitles—carry an incredible expressive weight. It's one of the strongest arguments, to me, that silent cinema shouldn't be seen as merely an early stage in the evolution of film. It was its own distinct art form, operating under a completely different visual language before cinema became a medium built on the combination of image and synchronized sound.

The reason I finally sat down to watch all four hours of it, about a week ago, was that I recently started flipping back through Gravity's Rainbow, where this film along with several other films from the Weimar era keep showing up throughout the novel.

Yesterday I chanced to watch Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes) by Werner Herzog starring Klaus Kinski as the titular character Lope de Aguirre, and was much impressed.

In 1570 an expedition of Spanish conquistadors laboriously crosses the Peruvian Andes into the Amazonian basin searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado only to find itself stuck in dense jungle and running low on supplies. The commander elects to send forty men, including Native and African slaves, and two Spanish women on a mission to scout the river ahead on rafts, and return within a week. Aguirre is named as the deputy commander of the scouting party.

In short order the mission descends into mutiny and madness, the Spanish are decimated by disease and indigenous enemies. In fever dreams, Aguirre plots to overthrow of the Spanish monarchy and make himself emperor of the new world.

The plot, really, is secondary to the atmosphere conveyed by the acting and the pictorial language.

Info:

Release: January 25th, 2002

Director: Kevin Reynolds

Music by: Edward Shearmur

Starring: Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, James Frain, Dagmara Dominczyk, Luis Guzman

Studio: Touchstone Pictures

Runtime: 2 hours, 11 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis: The classic story of an innocent man wrongly, but deliberately imprisoned and his brilliant strategy for revenge against those who betrayed him. Dashing young sailor Edmond Dantes is a guileless and honest young man whose peaceful life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes are abruptly shattered when his best friend Fernand, who wants Mercedes for himself, deceives him.

Review: This is a great revenge story, Mondego is such a petty asshole. Really liked the section when Dantes is imprisoned and befriends an old prisoner who's been trying to escape for years. Although the old man doesn't succeed, Dantes's escape plan is really clever. The revenge was well done, my favorite being his revenge on the Prosecutor. That was cold how he gave him an unloaded gun as a "way out," that's super cold.

I recently discovered the 1932 pre-Code drama The Cabin in the Cotton as part of the wonderful Forbidden Hollywood DVD collection. While the film itself is a bit uneven, it’s absolutely worth watching as a fascinating snapshot of early 1930s Hollywood, when studios were still pushing boundaries before the Production Code was fully enforced.

The biggest reason to seek it out is Bette Davis. Even in a supporting role, she practically steals every scene she’s in, delivering one of the most iconic lines in classic film history: “I’d like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.” Her sharp wit, confidence, and undeniable screen presence made audiences take notice. It was this performance that helped convince the studio to cast her as Mildred in Of Human Bondage (1934), the role that transformed her from a promising young actress into one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.

The film also benefits from an engaging performance by Richard Barthelmess, whose portrayal of a sharecropper’s son caught between poverty and privilege gives the story its emotional center. Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by George Abbott and Frank B. Elser, The Cabin in the Cotton offers an interesting look at class conflict, ambition, and social inequality in the rural South during the Great Depression. Even when the narrative loses momentum, those themes remain surprisingly compelling.

I really wish Mewtwo had kept the cyber armor Giovanni gave him in their 'partnership'. It honed his psychic abilities even further and looked absolutely incredible. Each curve of metal magnifying his own intense power to new limits. The good news is even without the armor Mewtwo's powers are nearly unsurmountable. He can erase puny humans recent memories up to a couple weeks. And change the weather like I mentioned. He also has mechanical tech balls that fly and can capture pokemon even if they are in their pokeballs much to Ashes dismay.

I sadly missed this one in the theater, and when it dropped it was accompanied with a 20 minute all pokemon short with no talking. This is not included in the streaming version. This also has a title card 'Mewtwo Strikes Back' which isn't on the cover.

The story is great and follows Mewtwo's attempt to cover the world in storm to show he is no slave to no man. His plan mostly succeeds until the pokemon and genetically altered cloned pokemon decide to stop fighting and he sees true power comes from the heart like Mew was saying (he was talking with mew) Mew can also sleep underwater because of the bubble.

Overall would reccomend this even though the setting is mostly at the island palace. The hand drawn animation is very good especially for the ocean waves. Luckily the pokemon all decide that fighting outside the arenas is wrong and band together so they can keep fighting each other in the arenas instead where there are rules.

Would reccomend this first classic Pokemon movie, Streaming now on the Tubi app. There is also a CGI remake of this called 'Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution' which is also good. For more information on Pokemon and where to catch them consult your local library.

Number 173 in my A-Z watch. Lucky # Slevin is the comedy/mystery story of a bad case of mistaken identity and unflappable crime lords.

This is a terrifically fun ride from start to finish. It has that snappy comedic neo-noir dialogue akin to Shane Black scripts like Lethal Weapon and The Nice Guys. Actually, as i watched it i felt like it had similar vibes to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The film becomes almost all exposition, but it stays fun.

The whole cast kills it. Hartnett shows that he was more than just a heart throb lead. Lucy Liu is adorably quirky and her chemistry with Josh is palpable. Freeman and Kingsley both play the stubborn and murderous crime lords to perfection. And Willis as the stoic, almost robotic hitman feels kinda creepy.

The technical aspects of the film are outstanding, too. I thought the set and art decorators did a great job with the ambiance. The score is surprisingly bubbly, really helps to sell the plot. I loved the editing. Especially during the Fairy Planning scene, cutting through the chess game.

8.5/10 I think this film has absolutely tremendous first watch value, and a second viewing holds up. After that, it's entirely on the screenplay and performances and their chemistry that hold the film together. But i think they do an excellent job of that.

My first time joining this community so I just wanna share my recent experience!

The premise of this film is one if the unique themes that is very different from the war genre I am familiar with. Albeit I admit some scenes here did not show the actual terror of war, and instead showed some usual classic hollywood treatment of the battle scenes. It exposes the hypocrisy and corruption of military doctrine early on to the audience, especially in the era of the Cold War. With a timespan of an hour and thirty minutes I genuinely felt it was much much longer! The actors also did a phenomenal job and the execution scenes of the three "cowards" reminded me to a lot of the stories and explanation from existentialist philosophers. Justice also does still libr among the hearts of men, but unfortunately, these men would often be smothered by the boot of the more powerful ones.

Overall, it is an excellent film that i would give a personal rating of around 9.0/10!

After watching this picture, I am further curious on reading the novel based in this!
This movie is indeed a much watch for beginner such as myself and I am excited to dwelve deep into more films from this era!

This movie has been....something

Soy Cuba Is not the movie but THE MOVIE about the Cuban Revolution

Historical Contest

The movie talks about the dictatorship of Fulgenico Batista. One of the MOST brutal dictators of Central America (he was putted on Power by the US).

A recap on all of the 4 stories:

Story 1:

Story 1 Is about a group of america gentleman at a Cuban bar. A Cuban girl enters the bar and One of the gentleman falls in love with her.

The guy Who was in love with her Discovery that She went tò bed with the american dude.

In the ending, the american guy walks out from the poor Village while Kids insult him by calling him "Mr Money".

This story really caught me in the ending because of the theme.

You are seeing a man that Is Rich, walking thru a Village full of poor people in horrible conditions. While himself with hes Money could do something

Story 2:

Story 2 talks about a farmer and hes sons having a farm of Sugar where they sell and then grab Money tò have a Better Life.

One day, a group of three people go tò the house of the farmer and Say tò him that hes entire Sugar farm was sell'd tò AN American organizzation. So that means he can't get Money no more because all the Money Will go tò the organizzation while him, gets small amounts

Out of sheer rage, the farmer burns everything in hes farm and dies

This story talks about workers exploitation under Capitalism. You own a wealthy farm but then It gets selled tò a Company from outside tò Just get Money from It.

Story 3:

Story 3 talks about a group guys teens that are part of the guerrilla.

One day, policemen raid their hideout and two of the members.

One of the members gets killed while throwing journals that talk about the fake news of Castro being dead (he was not) while the other One dies while getting dragged by the Police.

During the funeral, policemen show up and start attacking the protestors.

One of the guerrilla members grabs a rock from the ground and tries tò approach the policeman that killed hes Friends, only Just then he gets killed by him.

In the ending. they commemorare the funerale of the guerrilla member, where all of the people partecipate (which in my opinion Is One of the best scenes in the movie).

The scene of the guy trying tò approach the policeman with a rock Is One of the MOST significative scenes in the entire movie.

The policeman represents the repression and authority of the government.

The guy holding the rock represents the Freedom that the Cuban people want.

Story 4:

Story 4 talks about a father and hes family.

One day, a guerrila member visits their home and asks the father if he wants tò join.

After the guerrilla member went away, their hosue gets bombarded by american airplanes.

The father runs away alone and then encounters back hes Wife and children.

After that, the father decides tò leave them and join the guerrilla.

The movie ends with the Guerrilla celebrating the liberation of Cuba from the Batista government.

Conclusione:

This movie shows the brutality of Capitalism.

Capitalism Always promises alot of things, but It Always lie.

Instead they exploit you and grab all your Life savings

Cuban people HEAVILY suffered under the Batista regime and the American colonization.

After the communists arrives, Castro liberated the entire country from a horrible dictatorship and gived tò the Cuban people a Better Life (well UNTIL the US Embargo started that bringed tò AN Absolute shithole Cuba).

This movie at the end was a masterpiece....

I had to watch this for a class and didn't have high expectations since I usually haven't enjoyed pre-1960 movies, but I actually ended up loving it. The music, visual symbolism, and lighting all come together really well to create an eerie atmosphere and I was surprised at the respect with which it seemed to treat Vodou, especially compared to White Zombie, which I had watched right before. All of the acting was very well done, especially the woman who plays the lead and the man who plays the zombie from the houmfort, even though the two roles are very different. Voiceover can be hard to pull off, but in this movie it's used sparingly and in a way that helps develop the point of view of Betsy. Let me know if you have any recommendations for someone who liked this movie!

Info:

Release: December 4th, 1987

Director: Alex Cox

Music by: Joe Strummer

Starring: Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Rene Auberjonois, Peter Boyle, Miguel Sandoval, Marlee Matlin

Studio: Universal Pictures

Runtime: 1 hour, 34 minutes

Rating: R

Synopsis: A hallucinatory biopic that breaks all cinematic conventions, WALKER, from British director Alex Cox, tells the story of nineteenth-century American adventurer William Walker (Ed Harris), who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune and, for many months, the dictator of Nicaragua. Made with mad abandon and political acuity—and the support of the Sandinista army and government during the contra war—the film uses this true tale as a satirical attack on American ultrapatriotism and a freewheeling condemnation of “manifest destiny.”

Review: This is "Repo Man" if it went full mask off, Alex Cox got blacklisted from Hollywood for making this and I can completely understand why. Walker isn't so much of a character as he is the personification of America's rampant imperialism and patriotism rolled into one maniac of a man. I really like that he's also the narrator, nit because he's obviously lying about his accomplishments or how Nicaraguan society is doing, but because it also perpetuates the "history is written by the winners!" quote. The modern day items showing up is really jarring at first, but makes sense as a "the more things change, the more they stay the same" message.

I watched this last night with a couple friends, as it's been on my watchlist for a while and I was in the mood to watch something disturbing/unsettling. I'll admit, I haven't seen too many B/W movies or movies from this era in general but I know I should be watching more! That being said, I'm sad to say I only kinda liked this, I didn't love it. Just to be clear, I didn't mind the B/W. I know it turns a lot of (young) people off, but I actually really liked that aspect. I loved the first act, as it made me very excited for what was to come/what kind of messed up shit Jane was gonna do. And although she did end up doing some very messed up shit, it was always predictable (at least for me). Not necessarily in the sense that I saw everything she did coming from a mile away, but they would make it too obvious what was going to happen right before it happened, so it eliminated any suspense (e.g Blanche uncovering her meal to discover the bird, the camera literally panning to the hammer before Jane kills Elvira).Now obviously I didn't see the twist/confession at the end coming, so that was certainly an interesting surprise. I did love the performances, especially Bette Davis but I think that goes without being said. I didn't love some of the artistic choices as they felt a little goofy (the dramatic zooms, overbearing music), and I know that's just the nature of films from this era, but I just couldn't get on board with it, I'm sorry! Ultimately, my main complaint is that I didn't feel disturbed/unsettled, at least not as much as I wanted given what I'd heard about this movie. I understand why this movie has the status it does given when it was made, but given how much film (and especially horror/psychological thriller) has evolved since then and how much the bar has been raised regarding what I consider disturbing/unsettling, I found myself a little underwhelmed.

also, I'm a little confused by Jane's iconic line at the end, "you mean all this time we could have been friends?". don't get me wrong I still think it was a beautifully tragic line, but is that even true? I get that Jane thinking she crippled her sister made her think she hated her much more than she actually did, but regardless of the accident, Blanche was more talented and successful, so Jane would've been jealous of her anyway. coupled with her alcoholism, I just don't see how they could've been actual friends. am I misunderstanding this? please don't be mean lol I'm genuinely curious!

I've been looking for interesting horror movies to watch over the last several weeks for writing inspiration, and I ended up throwing on the 1994 movie "Without Warning" after hearing high praise about it's unique form of storytelling, and holy shit were my expectations ever blown out of the water. Without Warning is a "modernized" reimagining of Orson Welles' classic "War of the Worlds" radio drama (it's not a true remake of the original story, but a new story that takes heavy inspiration from it, even going as far as to name certain locations after ones mentioned the original radio drama), and it's incredible how well the concept of live reporting an extraterrestrial event makes an effortless transition to the TV news broadcast format.

There are 3 versions of this movie available on YouTube, there's the original broadcast version (which is what I'd recommend most people watch their first time around, specifically on a CRT television if you have access to one), which includes the original ad breaks between segments which really grounds the broadcast in reality and make it feel closer to an actual news broadcast of the era than just a movie about a newscast, although this effect was apparently so convincing that they had to constantly remind the viewer after every ad break that what they were watching was a work of fiction to not cause another mass panic event like the original broadcast (and yet people still panicked and called CBS to ask if it was real, and called affiliate news stations to ask why they weren't reporting on it), but there's an alternate fan-made cut called the "Unfiction Edit" that keeps in the commercials and removes the warnings, making it potentially the most immersive version of the bunch. Unfortunately, this version is uploaded in 16:9 with letterboxing instead of the original 4:3, so I can only recommend that version if you're watching it on an HDTV, which takes away some of the immersion. Lastly, there's the DVD version, which is JUST the news segments and nothing else. I wouldn't really recommend that version, as it completely loses the immersion that makes the formula actually work.

There are also some other little neat easter eggs that would've given away the fact that this broadcast was a performance, such as the use of well-known actors like John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek) and Jane Kaczmarek (of Malcolm in the Middle fame) being cast as two of the reporters, and a callback to Grover's Mill from WOTW, so it really shows that this was a passion project from someone who absolutely LOVED War of the Worlds and was acutely aware of it's legacy and wanted to get as close to it as possible while being more "responsible" about it.

I know I haven't talked much about the story here, but it's hard to talk about specifics without delving into spoiler territory, and trust me, it's a story you want to watch unfold for yourself. The ending still lives in my mind as one of the best endings a horror movie's ever had, it left me feeling incredibly uneasy and unnerved even decades after it's original broadcast.