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jbmaverick
Reviews
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Best Movie Ever
Yes, it is. Seriously, this movie is right up there with flicks like "Casablanca", as one of the best movies ever made and one you can enjoy watching over and over. (I DON'T generally re-watch movies, but I've probably watched "Millers Crossing" at least 7 or 8 times.)
Script - PERFECT. The 1920s/30s underworld slang is wonderfully entertaining. The script is just one witty line after another, many of them delivered perfectly by Gabriel Byrne. On the one hand, it's one of the darkest movies ever - yet it never ceases being relentlessly funny: At one point, Jon Polito's character says to Tom (Byrne) that he's only going to tell him something if Tom PROMISES not to say, "I told you so"...Tom, with a deadly serious frown on his face, gesturing with his cigarette for emphasis, assures him, "I never say that - and I don't like people who do."...Polito tells what he has to relate...there's a perfect half-second pause...and then Tom casually drawls, "I told you so." :)
Acting - EVERYBODY is awesome (outstanding Albert Finney performance)...but Byrne still manages to steal the show. I think it's easily his best movie ever - (yes, even better than his awesome performance in "The Usual Suspects"). His Irish accent is like listening to great music, and he's got so many great lines - like after he's lost $500 betting on a horse that broke its leg coming down the home stretch of the track, and the bartender asks, "Did they shoot your horse, Tom?" - Byrne growls his disgusted reply, "If there's any justice."
Cinematography/Production Design - It's a beautiful movie to watch. The alternately swanky and drab interiors are all works of art, and a late night scene in the rain is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece.
Editing/Directing - The Coen brothers have never done anything better than this. Every scene, every line, every shot is just flat out perfect.
If you haven't seen this flick, do yourself a huge favor and go grab it right now. - That's another thing that tells you how good this movie is - I've never met anybody who didn't like it - didn't LOVE it.
The Children Act (2017)
Unsympathetic
My problem with this movie is that I couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy for Emma Thompson's character. Her husband (Tucci) was SO nice, and she was such a total shit to him - that I really would've been perfectly fine with her getting hit by a very large, very rapidly moving bus. And that prevented me from fully enjoying some other aspects of the movie.
As far as the overall storyline of the movie, it had some great bits and a lot of potential, but I thought it fell short - to me, it felt like it sort of halfway explored several of the major issues. Also, the treatment of some of the religious themes was just kind of juvenile and cliche'.
I will say this: top-notch acting all round, the whole cast.
Stoker (2013)
A Potentially Great Movie Totally Ruined by a Stupid Ending
This movie had me totally captivated up until the last 15-20 minutes...when it, unfortunately, turned stone cold stupid. If you make the mistake of thinking about it for, oh, 10 seconds, the ending makes no sense whatsoever - it's just BEYOND stupid and utterly unbelievable. (A) It's not in any way believable that the main character turned out to be the way she was in the end. Let's keep in mind, they hammered home the fact that she was a "daddy's girl". (A) IF that IS the way she was (the way she acted in the end), then it makes no sense that she did what she did in the end in relation to Charlie. The only thing that would have been logically consistent with that would have been her running off with him (which is the only thing that could have made the ending any MORE stupid than it is).
Great movie up until that utterly idiotic ending, but the ending is SO bad that I felt like I'd just wasted an hour and a half of my life.
P.S. Nicole Kidman's character, although very well acted, also made no sense at all. Again, just THINK for 10 seconds - her late husband was portrayed as essentially a good guy and good father - now, if they'd hinted that HE was evil somehow, okay, I might have bought her behavior - but they DIDN'T do that, and so HER behavior is - like the ending of the movie - totally NOT believable, does not make sense in any way.
FINALLY - spoiler alert - even granting the writer/director every benefit of the doubt, there's no way in hell that you can explain away the main character - shortly after they first move in (in other words, long before she could have been charmed and seduced by Charlie) - finding a BODY in the freezer and just walking back upstairs and going on with life - as opposed to, say, screaming, or calling the police, or running out of the house, terrified...
In short, in order to buy the plot of this movie at all, you basically have to take out your brain and throw it in a trash can.
The Third Day (2020)
Interesting but stupid
This series certainly manages to pique your curiosity, and if you dig bizarre, weird, macabre, and creepy, you'll probably enjoy it.
But I just couldn't get past Jude Law's character being so criminally stupid. "Hmm, let's see...I've already been attacked and nearly killed several times, but now that I see another one of those people wearing the creepy head masks - just like the ones worn by the last people who tried to kill me - I think I'll walk right up to them and just stand there, waiting patiently till they hit me in the face with a crowbar." After that, I was like, "Dude, you DESERVE to be tortured."
Credit where credit is due - Emily Watson and Katherine Waterston both give standout performances, some really awesome acting, especially by Waterston.
Windy City (1984)
Best Movie Ever
This is my absolute favorite movie, and I think the best film Armyan Bernstein ever did. It covers everything about life - love, friendship, growing up, careers, living and dying. The acting is first-rate all around, especially Josh Mostel and John Shea - I'm not really a John Shea fan generally, but I loved him in this film. The brilliant script manages to weave several interesting sub-plots involving the supporting characters into the two main story lines - the love story between Danny (Shea) and Emily (Kate Capshaw), and the friendship between Danny and Sol (Josh Mostel) who, at the beginning of the movie is languishing in a hospital with cancer and bemoaning the fact that he and Danny and their friends never became pirates. Although the movie is poignant, even heart-wrenching at moments, there are liberal doses of great humor sprinkled throughout. Bernstein did an excellent job of putting surprising twists on some classic movie clichés. The ending is nothing short of perfect.