Change Your Image
GanzEhrlich
Best Picture
1995: Se7en [David Fincher]
1996: Secrets & Lies [Mike Leigh]
1997: Good Will Hunting [Gus van Sant]
1998: The Big Lebowski [Joel Coen]
1999: Magnolia [Paul Thomas Anderson]
2000: Gladiator [Ridley Scott]
2001: The Royal Tenenbaums [Wes Anderson]
2002: City of God [Fernando Meirelles/Katia Lund]
2003: Lost in Translation [Sofia Coppola]
2004: Downfall [Oliver Hirschbiegel]
2005: A History of Violence [David Cronenberg]
2006: Children of Men [Alfonso Cuaron]
2007: There Will Be Blood [Paul Thomas Anderson]
2008: In Bruges [Martin McDonagh]
2009: The White Ribbon [Michael Haneke]
2010: Inception [Christopher Nolan]
2011: Senna [Asif Kapadia]
2012: Cloud Atlas [Wachowski's/Tom Tykwer]
2013: The Wolf of Wall Street [Martin Scorsese]
2014: Birdman [Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu]
2015: The Revenant [Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu]
Fave Lead Actor Perfs.
Bruno Ganz, Downfall
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Fave Lead Actress Perfs.
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Naomi Watts, 21 Grams
Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Colour
Irene Jacob, The Double Life of Veronique
Fave Supporting Actor Perfs.
Tom Cruise, Magnolia
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Clive Owen, Closer
Ted Levine, The Silence of the Lambs
Fave Supporting Actress Perfs.
Julianne Moore, The Hours
Adriana Barraza/Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Melora Walters, Magnolia
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Contraband (2012)
Contraband? More like Contra 'bad' !
After only reviewing movies recently which I find to be perfect, time to look at Contraband, something that in one scene, completely rips off an excellent moment from Heat, which turns out to be one of my all time favourite films.
Plotwise, this young drug smuggler gets in trouble with his boss for losing some dope, so his older brother, a retired smuggler, hatches a plan to get some fake currency from Panama City to New Orleans.
Sadly, from the get-go, this movie becomes hideously clichéd and for the most of the movie, as many other reviewers have pointed out, it's by-the-numbers from there. Thankfully you have Everest director Baltasar Kormákur to help salvage the film.
Acting is fairly average, but many are hindered by the terrible writing. Mark Wahlberg gives his all and puts in a very reliable performance, while Ben Foster, who some consider to be one of the most underrated actors of his generation, produces scene-stealing work, and without giving away a twist about his character half-way through.
J.K. Simmons produces mild comic relief, while everyone else is 'meh'. By the way, the worst job is by Giovanni Ribisi, although if he didn't try to put on an awful and unrecognizable (Southern?) accent he may well have made an effective adversary that actually belonged in the movie.
It might sound like a strange thing to say, but Contraband had potential. If the story had the same basic plot motivation, but was modified by an established screenwriter, you had way less 'shaky cam' and zooming, the editing was less frenetic in places (excellent in the action scenes, though) and there was a better director, someone in the mould of Ridley Scott, for example, this might still be talked about today, 3 years later.
Alas, I have to say, I just wasted 2 hours of my life watching this.
Der Untergang (2004)
A Masterpiece when it comes to war movies!
Downfall (Der Unterang in Germany), the story of Hitler and the other political staff in his Berlin bunker as the Soviets advance towards them, could well be described as a war movie like no other. It tends to use emotional violence, rather than physical, graphic war violence to pummel you (there are few instances of it, I'll admit that). Furthermore, instead telling the story of, say, a group of soldiers fighting for victory, there are no real heroes to root for, and plenty of unpleasant, confused politicians in their place. With realism applied, not even Bruno Ganz portraying Hitler stands out in terms of evil-mindedness (Mr. and Mrs. Goebbels are even worse). This narrative technique works in making the film as earth-shattering as it is.
On that note, congratulations Bruno Ganz, for delivering an all-time great performance as Adolf Hitler, arguably history's most iconic villain, that should have won him the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Shame Academy rules made him ineligible for even a nomination, which is a travesty. Not that the Oscars are gospel.
The Swiss-born Ganz, for the role of Hitler, gave everything into the performance, listening to the only audio recordings of Hitler as well as footage of him dictating. He simply nailed the physical mannerisms, as well as the accent and the aggressive nature of his character.
The way he explodes as his Hitler hears of military failings or betrayals from his comrades are terrifying (and in the process giving rise to countless memes and parodies of those scenes on the Internet). More shocking yet is the way in numerous other scenes he holds a far more subtle, more calm demeanour, suggesting, as must have been the case, that most of time Hitler didn't behave like a complete nutcase, no doubt unstable though. The genius of Ganz's performance is that in the end, he plays Hitler as a real, three-dimensional person, not a unrealistic caricature, such that it is definitively the best portrayal of the dictator put on film to date, if not for all eternity. One of THE performances of the 21st century so far.
I must also praise the Marion Cotillard-lookalike Alexandra Maria Lara for her performance as Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge, not necessarily adding the same level of depth to her character as Ganz, but still powerful nonetheless. Just about everyone else in the cast each have their moments and do a fantastic job in transferring Bernd Eichinger's impeccable screenplay to the screen, especially Ulrich Matthes and Corinna Harfouch as the Goebbels couple, who disturbingly steal most of the scenes they're in after Ganz is gone from the film.
Credit has to go to director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who, without using much violence as aforementioned, maintained a mesmerizing level of emotion and intensity, most notably in the bunker scenes. Alongside getting phenomenal acting from his ensemble, he achieved this with dizzying, claustrophobic cinematography from Rainer Klausmann and incredible editing by Hans Funck, which contributed to the fact that not once in the 145 min film did I feel bored and found myself waiting for the next scene. Although, not reaching on a technical level, the heights of Saving Private Ryan etc. Downfall still proves that you don't need a lot of technical impetus to succeed in making a impact on the audience.
I have not yet seen Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line, yet once I have watched those two great war movies (and they are great from what I gather) neither will strike the same chord which Downfall did. Hopefully a film that will be remembered in another 50, or 100 years.
Heat (1995)
Favourite Crime Movie Ever
Heat is practically a masterstroke. It is a timeless crime movie unlike any other. While the plot at first glance feels standard, writer/director Michael Mann, remaking his 1989 TV movie LA Takedown, takes the story of the pursuit between a group of professional thieves and a police unit chasing them around Los Angeles and dissects it in a near unparalleled manner.
He not only gives you a series of great, powerful scenes but these are interspersed with the stories of the personal lives of the two lead characters and just about all of the supporting ones too, bringing yet more life and diversity to the finely written story. For example, we see that Al Pacino's detective Vincent Hanna is suffering through a disintegrating third marriage with a depressed step-daughter. We also see that Robert de Niro's (very) thoughtful and slightly sociopathic crook Neil McCauley has a soft side to him, as he descends into a relationship with the beautiful and lonely Eady (Amy Brenneman).
The acting is fantastic, even if hardly any of the actors actually shed tears to add realism. Most likely the one thing that hyped up everyone up when Heat came out was that for the first time Pacino and de Niro, two all-time greats of American cinema appear in (two) scenes together. Their 5-10 minute discussion in a coffee shop is brilliant and awesome to watch. Both actors add features to their characters that make them even more likable, such that Pacino adds some comedy and de Niro adds a little warmth, so that you want to root for his character as well. Behind the two main men, just about every supporting cast member puts dedication into their character such that it is impossible to decide who did the best job. And the cast includes familiar names and faces such as Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs), Danny Trejo(!), Diane Venora, Hank Azaria, Jon Voight and a young Natalie Portman, who appears in this just a year after her unbelievable film debut in Leon.
The cinematography in Heat is simply astounding. Michael proves to be the king of urban directing and Los Angeles is filmed in a way that it feels like a main character itself. Often the shots used will leave you gasping in amazement. And since Heat is a crime movie, when the action gets going, it is some of the most memorable and dare I say, enjoyable you'll witness in a film.
There are several heist scenes, but nothing tops it like the downtown heist in the middle of the film, followed immediately by the earth- shattering shootout in the streets. It is noted that Michael Mann decided to have no music in this scene, which helps to leave you on the end of your seat unable to comprehend what you are watching. What helps is that Mann also minimised the explicitness of the violence. Although it is still surprising and sometimes momentarily disturbing, it is bloody but usually never graphic or gory. When it is, it is shown from a distance or off-screen, so that the viewer has less chance of their head spinning.
Finally, the ending. Regarding the way the plot unfolds, it is a near-perfect way to finish off the near 3-hour epic, although I found it so heartbreaking, combined with the soundtrack God Moving Over the Face of the Waters by Moby, I almost cried the first time I saw it.
Overall, Heat is a very well written, acted, shot film that makes you wonder how it didn't win a single major award, yet regarding its status today it should have been a contender for Best Film at the Oscars, especially since it came out during the awards season. A multi-layered crime saga with the complexity and genius of a Christopher Nolan film of today (despite not being non-linear in any way). Definitely a movie you must watch before you die.
10/10
Interstellar (2014)
Amazing Sci-fi
The premise looked great. The music used for the later trailers (Final Frontier by Thomas Bergersen) was the most awesome ever. And the film delivered.
Christopher Nolan continues to create the most brilliant twist- filled stories and this was no exception. We have Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a widowed former pilot living on a barren Earth, climate change causing dust storms that have wiped out all crops bar corn. When his bright daughter Murph is convinced that a ghost has sent coordinates to an unknown location, the two discover a project, to launch a spacecraft though a wormhole near Saturn, that will lead to other worlds and galaxies, some that could be infinitely far from our own. So along with Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi and Wes Bentley, the four astronauts travel through the wormhole on their mission to find a new alternate home other than the dying Earth.
The story was yes, a little clichéd but still fantastic to watch although what you predicted would happen after watching the trailer happened in the film. The deliberately rough sound-mixing was frustrating but I accepted it since Nolan was trying to add realism. The plot thickened so much in the middle that my head was spinning and in the scene where the airlock exploded I suddenly found that I was grasping my head in my hands like in a plane during an emergency landing, it was that shocking!
The film is a little long, but at no point was I bored watching because every scene had something that drew me in, whether it was the dialogue or the action, or the great score, once again, by Hans Zimmer. I don't have a favourite scene in Interstellar, because there were so many. When a film is like that and at no points am I waiting for the next scene to come along, I usually give it 10/10.
The performances were all top-notch as you'd expect, yet out of all of them, Mackenzie Foy as the younger version of Murph was the most eye-catching, regarding her inexperience. Before Intersteller, Mackenzie had played Edward and Bella's daughter in the hideous Twilight: Breaking Dawn movies and had a smaller role in the Conjuring. Just 12 when this was shot, with such an important role to play, Mackenzie's performance was very good for a child actor. It obviously wasn't quite Oscar-worthy, not as highly acclaimed as say, Haley Joel Osment's Oscar-nominated triumph in the Sixth Sense, but her emotional diversity was impressive. Watch out for this young and beautiful actress in years to come, for she might have a great future ahead. Some are convinced that she could be a great Ellie in a Last of Us movie.
I am writing this just after the Oscar nominations have been released and it is sad that, despite 5 nominations, there none for Christopher Nolan himself, for Original Screenplay, Directing and Best Film, which many thought was a certainty. Although not as perfect as everyone imagined, Interstellar IS a classic sci-fi movie, with a lot going on in a lot of time (nearly 3 hours), but a ride you'll never forget.
Babel (2006)
Beautiful film
Two pre-teen brothers essentially playing with a new rifle in the Moroccan desert stupidly decide to fire at a bus tour. The bullet then hits Californian tourist Susan Jones in the shoulder and she and her husband Richard struggle to find help in an unfamiliar world. Across the Atlantic, a nanny looking after the Jones' children, takes them to her son's wedding in Mexico unable to find anyone else to look after the kids and gets into trouble. In Japan, police want to talk to Yasujiro Wataya, who originally owned the rifle that he gave in Morocco. This is how a single careless gunshot can create ripples around the world. This is Babel.
Babel is a film about humanity and its troubles in nature and writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu has written an amazing story to tell it, which covers a lot of depressing situations through a range of characters, all with problems in their lives. Richard Jones wanted to go to Morocco with his wife to be alone. Yasujiro's daughter Chieko is deaf-mute and is also sexually frustrated, causing a lot of incidents for herself and others, most notably with the police officer in her apartment. Nanny Amelia is irresponsible at times, leaving the Jones children in the desert with the high chance of them dying.
Just about everyone did an amazing job. Brad Pitt was outstanding, the supposedly inexperienced Moroccans were touching, as was Adriana Barraza (Oscar-nominated for her performance), while Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal and Kôji Yakusho did good jobs to fit in. But Pacific Rim star Rinko Kikuchi had the most demanding role as the deaf-mute Chieko, her character being so fragile, specific and emotional. Kikuchi has so convincing, she fully deserved the Oscar- nomination she was given. Although I am yet to see any of the other nominees performances, Kikuchi would have been a worthy winner.
The film's visuals and cinematography were astounding, again right to be nominated by the Academy. The images of broad deserts and city-scapes kept my eyes wide open. Iñárritu used appropriate camera angles, low and calm during normal conversation or quiet scene, shaky and rushed during scenes of panic and chaos e.g. Susan getting shot in the shoulder. I also thought Iñárritu's decision to have a few shots from Chieko's perspective, with the sound completely muted to give the audience the feeling of being deaf, was also impeccable.
The only thing I didn't like about Babel was that it was too long, it dragged particularly in the middle when Amelia and the kids are in the desert or in the village where Susan recovers. But otherwise, a great art-house film, with so many powerful, remarkable scenes, such as when the boy who fired at the bus surrenders to the police to admit responsibility. Although there were other films in 2006 that have had more of an impact on culture than Babel and have received more popularity, this film fully deserved to be nominated for Best Film at the Oscars. A mesmerizing tour-de-force.
After seeing a film by Iñárritu now I am looking forward to seeing Birdman even more when it comes out.
Pocoyo (2005)
One of the best kids programs EVER
Pocoyo is a product of the Spaniards and English and it is so awesome, easily one of the greatest TV shows for children in the post-9/11 era. It really is themed for infants, but anyone, even grown-ups, can get hooked on Pocoyo. An episode is usually about 6-7 minutes long and in the episode the title character, a 4-year old dressed in blue plays with his animal friends, each episode about a certain aspect of life. It is done in a happy, sometimes sad, but always hilarious way.
The supporting characters are all amazing and so lovable. They may be animals, but they have human-like feelings and emotions and that adds to the warmth. First you have Pato the Duck. Pato is easily the most surreal character. Despite being a duck he wears a hat, you can comically dislodge his eyes, his beak spins around his head such that he can become a helicopter (!) and he has very elastic limbs. He also has a short temper and can get angry very easily. The pink Elly the Elephant is a very girly character. She also gets annoyed with ease, because she usually likes dancing and playing with her doll. Symbolizing innocence is Loula, the brown/orange puppy. She will do anything to make Pocoyo happy and like all dogs can't resist a juicy bone. My personal favourite character is the obese Sleepy Bird/Pajaroto. Sleepy Bird just snoozes in her nest all day and when disturbed by noise etc., gets cross, but then nods off again! Her giant cartoon eyes and traits make her even funnier. She also has a son, Baby Bird/Pajarito who sleeps too but far less often than his mother, he has fun playing with Pocoyo and co. Then you have Caterpillar/Valentina, the dim but energetic friend of Baby Bird, the singing octopus Fred/Pulpo (really he should be called a quadapus because he only has 4 tentacles), the gargantuan Whale, Baby Spider and even aliens of many different types come for a visit from time to time.
Pocoyo is so light-hearted, so energetic, so funny you will never be tired of it. In Britain it is narrated by actor Stephen Fry. Fry has a key role in making the program irresistible with his very gentlemanly voice. It deserves to be a classic for years to come and if I were to have children one day, I would definitely show it to them, along with stuff such as Digimon and Thunderbirds. A real pleasure.
American Beauty (1999)
I Rule!
Lester Burnham (Spacey) is 42 years old living in archetypal suburban America. He has a typical office job that he hates, an obsessive, controlling wife (Annette Bening) and a robotic teenage daughter (Thora Birch) who sees absolutely nothing positive in him as a father.
Then Lester meets daughter Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) at a cheerleading event and is smitten, resulting in all those rose petal-themed fantasies that have become incredibly iconic. Then, Lester chooses to escape his slave-like life. He quits his job, trades his car for his dream automobile (a Pontiac Firebird) and starts working out to impress the blonde-haired girl he is becoming weirdly attracted to (not that Angela minds that much). Of course, things get quite tricky for others around him and this builds to a slow, but powerful and tragic ending.
The film does not just follow the Lester-Angela relationship. Burnham gets on well with adolescent Ricky Fits (Wes Bentley), an eccentric, troubled new neighbour, who in turn gets into a relationship with Jane. First she dislikes him, but gets closer and soon she shows interest in his bizarre hobby, Ricky filming just about anything with his camcorder that catches his attention. The plastic bag floating in the wind was apparently the inspiration for scriptwriter Alan Ball. Meanwhile Mrs. Burnham, lacking excitement in her life as well, starts an affair with a rival house seller. And Ricky's father, Col. Fits (Chris Cooper) is a violent man, who goes too far upon believing that his son is gay. In a nutshell, there are a lot of dynamic, unusual characters.
For Cambridge-educated, British director Sam Mendes, this was his first feature length movie. His work, using cool camera techniques including the extensive use of camcorders won him an Oscar and Mendes would go on to direct movies such as Skyfall.
His film defiantly states that being free from the boundaries of life is important and as shown on Fits' camera, there is so much beauty to see if you look closer, as is the film's tagline. It doesn't just exist in Jane and Angela, who are both rather spectacular to look at. American Beauty deserved the Oscar for Best Film as did Kevin Spacey for Best Leading Actor. Along with the other two groundbreaking movies of '99, the Matrix and Fight Club (now I have seen all three!), it gives a quality message to us people: break free.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Just watched it for the first time today
I started university this week and when I wandered around the campus I saw a market-style DVD stall. I purchased two DVDs, one The Dark Knight (I am yet to see as of writing) and the other Pulp Fiction.
And while I struggled to appreciate the movie when watching it, within a few hours I found that I enjoyed it and it was worth buying for repetitive viewing.
Pulp Fiction is indeed one of the greatest movies ever (take that AFI's top 100!) for many a reason. Firstly, the dialogue. It is often irrelevant to the situation when it is spoken, but Quentin Tarantino covers a variety of interesting topics, so many in fact that I struggle to recall them all.
Secondly, the way it is done is so captivating. Tarantino uses techniques found in films from many decades before. For example, when Vincent reads the note Mia left him, rather than a brief glimpse of it, we get to read it in detail, while Uma Thurman voices over what her character wrote. Also in scene transfers rather than a split-second cut, the screen gradually fades to black and then back to colour. It all adds style.
Then of course there the iconic shots/images. Again there are too many to recall. How this movie won only 1 Oscar from 7 nominations is beyond me. At least it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
My only real problem was that the movie, which is about two-and-a- half hours long, felt slow in a few places, especially in the final scene in the diner but then again it must have been like that for a valid reason.
The cast all did a superb job. None of the characters, maybe with the exception of John Travolta, appeared throughout the entirety of the movie. They had their stretches of time and all were memorable. Even writer and director Tarantino's Jimmie was impressive. Apart from the pawn shop characters, who are meant to be the nastiest (is what I said actually true?), I didn't dislike any of them, although everyone in Pulp Fiction, an intense crime movie, is meant to be bad, overaggressive or stupid in some significant way.
I wondered if the money I spent on the Pulp Fiction DVD could have been better spent before I watched the film but now I regret NOTHING.
Die Hard (1988)
I'd still pick Vengeance over this for some reason... But the original is better!
Some define Die Hard as the greatest action movie of the 1980s. They are perfectly correct, although others run it close.
Die Hard is a powerful, if very ludicrous hostage movie where German terrorists, led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) take citizens partying inside the upper floors of the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve hostage as they try to seize $640 million in bearer bonds (giant $100k bank notes, in effect).
But they probably didn't expect ace NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis), visiting his estranged wife for the holidays, to incapacitate or kill each of Gruber's supporting minions, one by one and unravel his plan.
Alan Rickman was great as Hans Gruber. His German accent was decent enough and he made for a very evil character. But the cake has to go to Willis for his performance as the hardcore McClane. Before Die Hard, Bruce was in this TV show called Moonlighting and there was no way people would think he could rival Schwarzenegger in the action man stakes. How wrong they all were.
Willis plays his role to perfection. His dialogue, humour, intelligence and busted up physique were just completely seamless. He hardly feels pain, but the fact that he has a sense of fear makes him feel a lot more vulnerable than some of Schwarzenegger's characters. His humanity is incredible. In no way was he going to win an Oscar, but either way it is an injustice he wasn't nominated for a major award in some shape or form, such as a Saturn. Maybe I'm overrating him but he felt so real.
The supporting cast is also superb. I really like the cop who discusses problems with McClane over the radio, but as for the terrorists, I wasn't focusing on any of them that much. It was funny that all of the gutless 'good guys' e.g. much more linear and arrogant police officers, horrible news reporters (Holly punching the journalist in the face at the end felt sooooo justified) got some comeuppance for their behaviour.
Every few minutes there is a scene of action that builds on the previous one, culminating in that giant explosion on the roof. Over time the tower (and McClane's appearance) deteriorate to the point where it is almost a smouldering ruin. Overall, Die Hard blew away all other contenders at the time and was a template for following action movies (I think Taken referenced a few moments and themes in Die Hard, for example).
Yet unusually if had to choose one Die Hard movie, I'd probably take Die Hard with A Vengeance instead of the original... I guess because the setting and supporting cast is more recognized.
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Part II
After the success of the radical first Matrix film, a sequel was inevitable, as Agent Smith would call it. The Matrix Reloaded starts to cover the events prophesied in the first movie, which are concluded in Revolutions.
Neo, the man who will save mankind from extinction, seems set to fulfill his destiny when Sentinel robots drill underground towards the main (last?) human city, Zion and wipe out all the inhabitants.
To make sure humanity survives, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find their way to the Keymaker, a computer program that could lead to the salvation of Zion. Of course, they have to fight endless obstacles, leading to several fantastic action sequences, which obviously couldn't be crammed into the plot of the first movie.
The scenes make up for most of the excitement of this movie. There are more fights, but they can easily be engaging, especially the Château sequence, Rob Dougan's namesake soundtrack perfect for the situation. Then you have the freeway chase scene which will hypnotize you.
But the film is flawed. The movie doesn't delve into themes from the first movie that much. Some scenes, including the freeway chase feel like they're too long. Plus the CGI looks old and dull despite the Wachowski's best attempts in using it to add to the spectacle.
The characters are well developed. We get to see more of the romance between Neo and Trinity. Alongside the amazing Morpheus and Agent Smith, newer supporting characters like Link and the Keymaker are cool, but Niobe and the Kid appear to have been shoehorned. However, it is the dead-pan Architect and his scene near the climax that kill for me. Also Monica Bellucci is great as knock-out chick Persephone.
Reloaded almost feels like any old action movie and a slightly sub- standard version of the Matrix. But for what it is, it tries to be different, is still a brilliant sequel, doesn't feel unnecessary and is still awesome to watch.
Formula 1's 60th Anniversary: Plus Ça Change (2011)
History of F1 in 60 Awesome Minutes
Even if you're no fan of F1 and just happen to stumble across the program, its very appealing, it sums up Formula 1's history in a simple but beautiful documentary feature. 60 Years/Plus ca change follows the stories of almost all the surviving world champions of F1 as they meet in Bahrain to celebrate 60 years of Formula 1, on the eve of the inaugural race of the new season.
60 Years not only takes views of the sport from the champions and other key figures in F1 e.g. Jean Todt, designer Gordon Murray but also reflects on some of the sport's key events through examples of safety breakthroughs, rivalries and important championship victories. However, it might take several views to get everything in.
A calm yet thorough narration, endless nostalgic archive footage and a tranquil, fitting soundtrack make this a powerful experience, suitable for anyone with a vague or passionate interest in motorsport or speed.
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Awesome Sequel
Its set in New York, pre 9/11. It has Jeremy Irons and Samuel L. Jackson too. There's a lot of action, including numerous explosions. Die Hard with a Vengeance is an epic film. I have not seen the original Die Hard but this is great anyway.
Simply, Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons), the brother of German terrorist Hans Gruber, who was killed by John McClane at the end of the first movie, is out for revenge (hence the title, I presume?) and has planted a series of bombs in New York to distract the police, while simultaneously Simon and his men rob the main gold reserve in Manhattan. John McClane (Bruce Willis), enduring a hangover and "a bad ******* headache" and an unfortunate electrician named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) are out to stop them.
Of course the film's content is ludicrous. There are loads of action scenes that should have killed McClane and Zeus, but the film has so many moments that don't feel that stupid and ruin the film for you. Yes, the ending is a bit anti-climatic but the rest of the film really makes up for that. Having SLJ and Irons on-board really helps as well. I like how John McClane is teamed up with someone in the film, especially someone with emotion.
I don't watch Die Hard 3 that often, but it is definitely one of my favourite action films. Sheer entertainment.
Schindler's List (1993)
Moving
I am probably still too young to understand the real reasons why SL is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. It was mostly shot in black and white while virtually all other movies in the decades before and since are in colour, adding even more of a sense of realism to the film. Schindler's List is a story of a man's change of heart and attitude alongside themes of survival, hope, brutality (mostly served by Ralph Fiennes' murderous Amon Goth)and countless other situations for hundreds of Jews. In black and white, the bloody, graphic summary executions of Jews throughout the film were overwhelming, the images freezing me in my seat and imprinting themselves in my mind to this day, but they justifiably implied to you the horrors of the Holocaust like no other movie. The girl in the red coat seems to symbolise, as her fate suggests, that there is no escape from the dominant force. The acting is spotless. Liam Neeson should have won an Oscar for portraying Schindler (I must admit, I am yet to see Tom Hanks in Philadelphia) with an emotional tone, the performance launching him into super-stardom once and for all. Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes also played their parts with the right touch, especially Fiennes whose character also seems to change within, halfway through the film, but only slightly, his insanity still alive as in one scene he randomly snipes numerous Jewish workers from his bedroom. But the star is director Steven Spielberg, who in 1993 made maybe not his most famous movie, other projects such as E.T., Saving Private Ryan, CEOTTK, the Indiana Jones saga also rising forward. But without question, maybe with the exception of Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List is Spielberg's finest work.
Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets (2004)
Simply Beautiful
When I look back at sci-fi documentaries of the last decade, I often think of this BBC-produced two-parter from 2004, about a cluster of astronauts setting off on, in their universe, the greatest exploration mission in human history, a trip to the edge of the solar system on the mile-long, nuclear-powered Pegasus. They encounter the infinite wonders of out region of space, landing on Mars and Venus, inspecting the rings of Saturn. The astronauts even go to the surface of Pluto (VTTP was made before it was demoted from planet status)! The journey gets inevitably sad in some places, with the loss of several probes and one of the astronauts to lymphoma.
But what makes the program so special is that it tries to be as realistic as possible, with endlessly fascinating info being exchanged with the viewers along the way and manages to add the dangers of space travel e.g. debris, radiation sickness, yet without making the whole thing feel so depressing.
The CGI used by the BBC plus the narration of David Suchet aka. Poirot can only add to the outstanding quality of VTTP and the John Williams-esque music, especially that used for the intro, is mindblowing to listen to against the images of the planets. In some people it will shed tears. So will this documentary. An underrated masterpiece of science- fiction that would leave Arthur C Clarke grinning from ear to ear if he were here to see it.
Die Another Day (2002)
A pathetic, even if entertaining Bond movie
Violence aside, I seriously enjoyed Die Another Day when I first watched this as a boy. But now I am double that age and just hours before writing this review I saw it again and this time, after merely half an hour I was starting to get a little bemused by it. This Bond film, celebrated upon its release as the 20th Bond film, the 40th anniversary film, was acting like a tribute to the greatest spy film saga in history. But it was unsuccessful and despite smashing James Bond records in the box-office the film itself was the opposite of smashing in terms of quality.
First, the plot. A mission James (Pierce Brosnan) is on in N. Korea, to intercept a key military figure backfires and leads to him being held prisoner after the colonel is seemingly killed. When he is released, MI6 (temporarily) declare that Bond is 'no more use to us'. Bond, recruited by the Chinese, tracks down Zao, a terrorist who was sent to Korea in exchange for his release and ultimately encounters Gustav Graves, a posh, talented and wealthy Englishman played by Toby Stephens. Graves invites Bond to Iceland, where he demonstrates his latest piece of kit, which turns out to be a powerful instrument of destruction.
Die Another Day, instead of commemorating the Bond franchise, seems to rip-off other famous moments, such as the laser torture scene from Goldfinger, the mirror-filled room from the Man with the Golden Gun, the space laser from Diamonds are Forever and of course the bikini-clad woman rising from the ocean, in Dr. No. The film even included a discount Oddjob!
The technology and gadgets in D.A.D. is spectacular but just too unreal, such that it belongs in a sci-fi movie. If this film were set something like 25-30 years in the future, it wouldn't have felt like it was too far ahead of its time. The trademark Aston Martin can become invisible, although the chase scene involving it and a gorgeous Jag is appropriately good. The main baddie who is presumed dead at the beginning of the film has his DNA changed, so that he is painfully transformed into a man who appears to be of a European/Causasian background. I don't remember that kind of science being around in 2014, let alone in 2002! And when Q shattered glass with a ring that produced a high-pitch frequency to do it ("Voila!", he uttered as the pane he destroyed collapsed), I started laughing in disbelief. The space laser super-weapon, as stupid as it seems, does fit in though, a Bond movie always needs some kind of WMD in it.
The story seems plausible enough, but there are simply too many action sequences that come too quickly, even though they make up virtually all the goods in D.A.D, despite the occasionally woeful CGI. The puns come even even faster and many are miserable.
The cast is mostly respectable, Brosnan is brilliant in his final appearance as 007, Halle Berry, shortly after her Oscar-winning role in Monster's Ball, does a nice job as sexy NSA agent Jinx and Oxford- educated Rosamund Pike is equally stunning playing Miranda Frost, Bond's other love interest in the film. Other cast-members drop like a lead balloon; why the producers considered Madonna for the dreadful title song and a poor cameo appearance is beyond me. No surprise John Cleese, after portraying Q, didn't appear in James Bond again after such a terrible performance as the in-house gadget man, Desmond Llewelen having passed away in a car accident shortly after the release of The World is Not Enough.
If some Bond movies are criticised for having too little action in them, D.A.D had too much. One scene that summed Die Another Day up for me was the brutal, insane sword fight between Bond and Graves, which made me think "This is not James Bond". It didn't feel right at all. I want to watch Skyfall or Goldfinger again to get the feeling of a much more original, complete James Bond film.
5/10 for the visual spectacle, 0 for the impurity.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Spectacular Sequel that symbolises sci-fi movies of the early 1990s
One day when I was 13 I purchased a copy of T3 and watched that same evening. Inspired, I promptly bought T2 the very next day, knowing it was a massive box-office hit when it was released in cinemas back in 1991. It didn't leave much of a long-term impact on me, but at least I can say I watched one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sequels in science-fiction history.
After failing its mission in T1, another model of the T-800 class sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of resistance leader John Connor in the first film before John is even born, is this time sent to protect John, now having become a rebellious adolescent with less-than-pleasant foster parents living in 1990s LA, while Sarah is stuck in what is effectively an asylum, often found working out, preparing for the next encounter with the machines.
Another Terminator is also sent back to kill John Connor, and if you thought the T-800 from the first movie was hardcore, the T-1000 is even more of a mean machine. Not only does it possess the murderous super-strength of the T-800, but it is also made of colour-changing liquid metal, so that like X-Men's Mystique, it can transform into any adult-sized human being and assume its identity, while the T-800 is stuck (unashamedly) in Arnie mode.
The battle between the two robots from the future will ultimately, indirectly, decide the fate of humanity. While the T-1000 kills anything which stands in his way, the T-800 not only protects John (and will also protect other people, since it will only obey John's orders) but also acts like a father figure towards the boy, since John's biological father, Kyle Reese, sacrificed himself at the climax of T1, before John Connor was even born. This is one of a few ways in which this movie is revolutionary.
The CGI visual effects, for 1991, were unbelievable for audiences back then. They made the T-1000's abilities look so real, so scary, but damn cool and made the movie appear to be so far ahead of its time. Terminator 2 won 4 Academy Awards, including best Sound Effects and Visual Effects (Zero surprise there...).
As for the cast, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the perfect role for the robotic cyborg that is the T-800. The not as well known Robert Patrick is equally chilling as the T-1000, while Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and débutante Edward Furlong as Sarah's son John provide very intense performances as the human protagonists. As it turned out, for the four actors mentioned, the film would arguably mark the prime of each of their careers.
Although the film will be a harmless experience for most adults, it can become a bit too bleak. Being a squeamish fellow, some features of the movie were disturbing for me when I saw T2 aged 13 (Judgement Day has an R rating in America and a 15 rating in the UK), such as the way the T-1000 brutally murders people with his morphing liquid metal body, or the petrifying 'nuclear nightmare' scene. I spent days, if not more than that, a little haunted by what I had watched. But I watched without regret. When the T-800 stated 'I'll be back' in the first movie, he did indeed come back. With a bang, just like this film.
5 star+