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kevinagillihan
Reviews
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Lo there do I see my father. Lo there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brothers
To say that this is one of my favorite movies is an understatement. I have watched this movie more times than I can remember. Each time is a wonderful experience. The movie is backwards and forwards everything I want in a movie. A sweeping epic tale of warriors, danger, the unknown, battles, fear, pain, sadness, victory, death, happiness, different cultures, love, hopelessness, beauty and everything that makes a person human. A simple man from a completely different way of life is thrust into what would become his worst nightmare.
Antonio Banderas might not pass for an Eastern-born character but he plays his part masterfully. He is taken from his life of care-free luxury and transplanted into a world of war and death. The legendary Viking warriors have little time for someone who is not a fighter. They scoff at Ahmed and see him as no more than a child in their world. His transformation from an outcast to a warrior at the end is no less than breathtaking. Through hardship and trial Ahmed proves himself as capable as any of Buliwyf's fellow Vikings.
The cinematography is equally stunning as are all the performances in this film. It shows a brutal landscape with equally brutal people living in them. The score for the film is fantastic as well. Jerry Goldsmith masterfully weaves epic battles into moments of unease and then to triumph. It is a sad thing that the production of this movie failed it so completely. The director and the writer both could not come together as to what story they wanted to make and combined with the advertisement and setbacks it undid whatever success this movie could have achieved. I for one love this movie and am grateful to be able to experience it each and every time.
Suicide Squad (2016)
A big money-grubbing middle finger to all comic fans!
It's not often that a movie I had such low expectations for actually exceeds or fails (depending on your outlook) to even live up to those. This movie barely even qualifies AS a movie. It's THAT ridiculous. I consider it basically a music video for teenagers to ogle Harley Quinn who is made so cringe-worthy by Robbie. There are hardly any movies I could think of at this level of budget that banked harder on a single characters' sex appeal selling out seats. It's so over-the-top in the trailers it makes me feel sorry for her and the production company for making such an obvious attempt to trade boners for ticket sales.
Apart from all that, the characters are terrible. Will Smith who has a mountain of charisma somehow had zero in this film. I won't blame him. The rest of the crew are so terrible they don't even warrant a mention. Except for the Joker. He technically isn't PART of their crew but he is in there. Lord above who decided on THAT way to portray the Joker? Instead of a laughing and unpredictable madman we get some poor Halloween pimp/gangster. Seriously? Nothing about this movie was good. It only slightly entertained me in that it was terrible and that entertained me.
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
This movie is actually about Africa and gets a lower score than Black Panther....
Came to write this review because the recent hoopla around the Black Panther movie made me think of this. Our society truly is clueless when a superhero movie that isn't even a "movement" or even about Africa gets a vaulted review over gems like this. This movie here has depth, emotion, substance, heart and power behind it. All things that Black Panther does not have. One of my most favorite movies of all time and one of my go-to's when I talk about powerful movies.
Black Panther (2018)
I remember when a movie was just a movie
I was so excited when Black Panther came into the Marvel universe and the character was done very well by Boseman. The costume was over the top awesome and my favorite part of "Civil War" was Black Panther fighting Capt and Winter Soldier. I've always thought T'Challa was a great character with an interesting background and an interesting plot line. The land of Wakanda and the King and it's people all had struggles of their own and it seemed like a great starting for a full-length feature about the Black Panther's world.
Unfortunately the magic that I had hoped for was lost along the way. The story line was acceptable but the character of Killmonger was flat and not interesting at all. The acting overall was decent but some of the support cast wasn't up to par. As this is a superhero movie I would have rather it stayed away from being preachy even in the slightest. This isn't a sweeping historical drama, this is an action movie. Or so it should have been. The CGI was good in some parts but not in others. The fight at the end between T'Challa and Killmonger when they both had on their suits looked like they were made of rubber. I do not care for political correctness being in superhero movies and wish they could have just let it be a fun and entertaining movie solely. Ultimately disappointing.