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MrJerry
Reviews
Road to Perdition (2002)
A very good movie,one of the better movies of 2002
As far as gangster movies go,"Road To Perdition" is not in the same league as the very top movies of that type,but it is a very good movie from the director of "American Beauty",Sam Mendes.
This movie uses a beautiful music score that helps the plot move along at a good pace and lets the scenes in the movie speak better than they would have had they been overburdened with clumsy dialogue.
It is as much a study of the relationship between Tom Hanks' character and his son and Paul Newman's character and his son as it is a gangster movie.
The use of dualities in this movie is brilliant with the pairs of fathers and sons,the town of Perdition as well as the piece played on the piano by Paul Newman and Tom Hanks,among other things.
The acting is very good by the main stars,even with a small part for one of the great actors,Paul Newman.
The last few years for movies after 1999 have been somewhat dismal in some ways,but this movie is one of the better ones this year.
My rating:9/10
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
May be the best movie ever made
Where does one begin to comment on a movie that many people say wonderful things about?
I heard about the story that when Frank Capra was asked whether "It's A Wonderful Life" was the best movie that he ever made,he said that it was the greatest movie that anyone ever made.
I first saw this movie in college after my classes were over for one day and I went to the movie theater there to see it.I immediately fell in love with this movie and have seen it many times since then.
I will say that when Frank Capra said that he felt that this movie was the greatest movie that anybody ever made-HE MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT!
Jimmy Stewart was one actor who fully deserves to be called "great".He carried off playing the many things about George Bailey's life in this movie almost effortlessly.George Bailey was a very interesting character in the movies with doing things for many people and making good in his home town of Bedford Falls and not thinking of himself first.
Although Jimmy Stewart won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Philadelphia Story","It's A Wonderful Life" was the movie that he SHOULD have won it for.
Donna Reed was nothing short of ANGELIC as George's wife Mary.3 of my favorite scenes with she and Jimmy Stewart in this movie are:
1) The sequence at the dance at the school where 2 guys open up the
swimming pool with the key to it and George and Mary fall into the water as the dance contest is winding down and others jump in the pool after that, 2) The scenes where Mary plays the record,"Buffalo Gals" and she and George are later in a romantically charged embrace by the telephone after Mary talks to Sam Wainright. 3) The scene where,after George deals with the panic involving the run at the building and loan and still has a
few dollar bills left over,George sees Mary after both that time and their wedding while chicken is spinning on a
rotisserie in the room.
One would have to be made of stone not to be emotionally moved by the last part of the movie where,after George's uncle Billy unwittingly puts $8000 into the hands of Mr. Potter (wonderful turns by Thomas Mitchell and Lionel Barrymore, respectively)that should have been deposited into the bank, George despairs,thinking that he has failed in his life and wants to end his own life.It is INCREDIBLY TOUCHING in the sequence where George's guardian angel, Clarence(a great performance by Henry Travers),after finding out about George Bailey's life up to that point,comes to show George what Bedford Falls and the people there would have been like had George not been born.It is certainly an indication of how one person's life affects the lives of many others and if that person was not there,it would leave a big hole in the lives of those other people.
This part of "It's A Wonderful Life" moves me to tears and can help many people look at their own lives in a new light,especially when one is in despair and feels that their life is worthless.
And the icing on that part of the cake is where,after George finds that he has his daughter Zuzu's petals in his coat and runs home to his family to find how much they love him,many of his friends come to his aid to help him in replacing the $8000 that went into Mr.Potter's hands before.
The last beautiful touch with this movie is where George,when hearing bells ring(when it is mentioned that an angel gets his wings)sees the message written in the Bible by Clarence saying that "No man is a failure who has friends." Very true and very touching indeed! "It's A Wonderful Life" was a movie where an outstanding cast,a great director,and an absolutely brilliant story came together seemingly like magic to make one movie that fully deserves the description,"classic".
This movie might be THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE.
I give it a rating of 10 out of 10(and could give it 10
plus signs after that 10 if there was such a rating on the IMDB).
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A fairly good movie,but overrated!
How "A Beautiful Mind" won the Best Picture Oscar for 2001 is beyond me.Still,it was good to some degree.I heard a lot about that it is not an accurate movie about John Nash.A more accurate portrayal would have been more compelling than what seems to be a movie that has its moments in the first half, but grows repetitive once it reaches the point where John Nash has his mental breakdown.
Russell Crowe did good work,but Jennifer Connelly deserved her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
The music score was okay,but nothing special.
The makeup people did a very nice job with the last part of the movie where John and Alicia Nash were older.
The movie is somewhat on the slow side but not excessively so.
Overall,it is not a bad movie,but not one of the better winners of the Oscar for Best Picture that I have seen. Let us hope that someone does a mini-series about John Nash that sticks to the facts about him,but I am not counting on it!
I give "A Beautiful Mind" a rating of 7/10.Good,but not great.
Terror in the Aisles (1984)
A fairly good film compilation of clips from terror movies,but could have been better.
"Terror In The Aisles" is not a definitive compilation film of clips from terror movies,but it is still good.
It contains a lot of interesting clips from movies,many of which are often famous terror movies.
The film,however,has two main difficulties.
One,the narration by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen rings flat. two,as famous as the different scenes from the movies mentioned often are,THEY ARE NOT SCARY out of the context of the original films that they are from.
Almost anyone who has seen most of or all of the movies that these film clips are from will have a lot of fun recognizing what scenes are from what movies,especially before the names of those movies are mentioned in the closing credits to this film.
Overall,"Terror In The Aisles" is a good movie,but it DOES HAVE ITS LIMITATIONS.
I give this movie a rating of 6/10.
I Am Sam (2001)
Fairly good movie but not a great one
Sean Penn,Michelle Pfeiffer,and Dakota Fanning give fairly good performances in "I Am Sam"(although I am surprised that Sean Penn received an Oscar nomination;his performance is one that Dustin Hoffman did better in "Rain Man."),but the movie is nothing special.
One wonders how Sam managed to raise his daughter up until the time that social services took her from him.The movie wraps things up too neatly at the end,showing that Sam got his daughter back without showing that the judge gave the final word on that.
Also,the score of this movie is forgettable and relies too much on remakes of Beatles songs.
I would give this movie a rating of 6 out of 10.Wait for the video.
Oh, God! Book II (1980)
Weak follow up to a wonderful original
Oh,God! Book II is more of a bad remake of the original than a sequel to it.It is not all that funny,its plot plays too much
like a rejected situation comedy pilot,and the use of the slogan "Think God" is a different variation on the idea that worked so much better in the original.John Denver had not returned for this movie and that made a BIG difference.George Burns,as
wonderful as he was playing God,does not have the same chemistry with the little girl that he did with John Denver.
I would give this movie a rating of 3 out of 10,but only for
George Burns;the rest of the cast is nothing special.
If you loved the first one,don't bother to see this one.
In the Bedroom (2001)
May be the next big winner at the Oscars
Todd Field,the star of such movies as "Ruby In Paradise" and "Eyes Wide Shut",does a wonderful job as a director with "In The Bedroom".
This movie hits hard with one's emotions without seeming like a soap opera.The scene where the parents confront each other about how they feel about what they felt about their son is as gripping as how the family came apart in 1980's Best Picture Oscar winner,"Ordinary People." Nick Stahl and Marisa Tomei do very nice work as the couple whose happiness ends all too soon,thanks to her no-good and jealous ex-husband.
The movie is nicely photographed and sets the mood of this
movie well.
There was a nice use of the opening sequence referring to lobsters being in the bedroom,which also could refer to the place where the plan to take revenge upon the son's killer was planned.
Tom Wilkinson does an excellent job playing the father who
is fairly mild-mannered until his son's murder leads him to take action against his son's killer when it appears that the courts may not.The scene where the father has his son's killer pack his suitcases as if the guy was going to jump
bail and then sees the picture in the bathroom of his son and his girlfriend is a very hard hitting one.
As to Sissy Spacek,anyone who thinks that she is one of the better actresses in the business definitely has a big example with this movie as to why those people may be right.
"In The Bedroom" may be the best movie of 2001.If this movie doesn't hit one hard with the power of its emotions, I don't know what would.
This movie has a VERY GOOD chance to win a number of Oscars for 2001.Sissy Spacek may well win her 2nd Best Actress
Oscar 21 years after her first one;Tom Wilkinson might also win a deserved first one for Best Actor.Time will tell when the nominations and the awards come around.
"In The Bedroom" is an excellent movie that may be TOUGH TO BEAT for the Best Picture Oscar for 2001.
The ending of that movie only goes as far as is necessary
and no further.The movie is VERY POWERFUL in a quiet way.
I give "In The Bedroom" a rating of 10 out of 10.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Disappointing farewell for Stanley Kubrick-a movie that was overpromoted
Stanley Kubrick was a director who was said to have made a number of masterpieces among his movies.I don't consider "Eyes Wide Shut" to be
among them.
Although Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman(who is nicely photographed in this movie,although some of the shots of her become tiresome after a while)were still married in real life when this movie was made, they appear to lack passion together in this movie.
When I first found out about this movie,I went to see it in the movies and walked out part of the way through because I found it
to be too slow and not interesting.I saw it on video,however,and although it seemed slightly less slow on tape than it did in
the theater,it is still a disappointing movie,I think,for several
other reasons.
1) It is a movie that could have been a half hour shorter and been more effective. 2) The plot is not all that strong;Cruise's sexual odyssey is not an overly big deal in that more doesn't happen with him
than does,although he is on that odyssey in reaction to what his wife DIDN'T do with the sailor.Also,the last third of the
movie rings flat,especially with the scenes where the mask that Cruise wore at the orgy is in bed next to Kidman and where
Cruise met with Sydney Pollack at the end(which was a weak "wrap up" scene,so to speak.) 3) Although the women looked fairly good and there was a lot of nudity and sex in this movie,it WAS NOT a movie that was erotic,in my opinion.I think that the promotion for this movie was in OVERKILL mode over how erotic this movie was going to be.It was a cold movie and not anything that would be that exciting,so to speak.The orgy scene was more weird than anything that would be a turn on,not to mention that the music is overbearing. 4) Finally,the ending was one of those scenes that could be described as a case of "What?".That was a weak ending to a movie that is on the ridiculous side and seems to have run out of steam before the end.
In short,this was not a terrible movie,but not the greatest of endings for Kubrick's career and a disappointing movie for both Cruise and Kidman,although they both can act very well and have done so in their movies.I give this movie a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.
One final comment on "Eyes Wide Shut",DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! well.The story was not there for them this time.
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
One of the best movies of 1999
Boys Don't Cry is a superb telling of what is sadly,a true story and is a great example of a great movie not always having the biggest names in its cast.When I saw this movie in the theater the day before the 1999 Oscars,I thought to myself afterwards,"Don't be surprised if Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar for this one."As it was,she deservedly won it.She truly looked and acted like a man in this movie. This movie did not shy away from Brandon Teena's past criminal history as Teena Brandon.When one watches this movie,one is drawn into an almost hypnotic state into where Brandon's girlfriend Lana Tisdel (superbly played by Chloe Sevigny,nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) is a woman who does not ask many questions and truly accepts who Brandon is,even after she finds out that she is a woman in a sexual identity crisis preferring her identity as a man.Peter Saarsgard and Brendon Sexton III are absolutely chilling as the killers of Brandon and 2 other people.The murder sequence that followed Brandon's rape and subsequent police report is probably one of the most chilling ending murder sequences in a movie since the ending of "Looking For Mr. Goodbar."Also turning up in this movie is one of those actresses where one wonders,"Didn't I see her before for a long time on television?"-Alicia Goranson(formerly of the TV show, "Roseanne".).
Overall,this is a superb movie about a very courageous woman who had the courage to pass as a man and sadly, paid the ultimate price once her deception was found out.One also feels for Lisa and Phillip,the 2 others murdered with Brandon.
The love sequences between Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny were also handled very well.As nice to the women as Brandon was,it is little wonder that Lana loved him so much.
I give this movie a rating of 10 out of 10.It is one of 1999's best movies in a year that had a number of very well done movies.
Oh, God! (1977)
One of the funniest movies ever!
Oh,God! is one movie I could see 1000 times and still be laughing. John Denver and George Burns were marvelous together and had a wonderful supporting cast around them.God coming to earth to give the message that He gave us the world and what is in it and that it is up to us to make it work is a wonderful message in this movie.This movie shows that the world lost A LOT when George Burns and John Denver died.This movie is funny without taking cheap shots at religion. I give it a rating of 10 out of 10. Considering that the 25th anniversary of this movie's original release will be in 2002,it would be wonderful if this movie was re-released theatrically then.
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Disappointing and uneven movie version of a classic TV series
"Twilight Zone:The Movie" is a mixed bag.The prologue inside the car is well done.The different segments,however,mostly are not up to the level of the prologue.Here are my comments about each of the 4 segments of this movie:
First segment(3 stars out of 10) A very downbeat story about a bigot sent back in time to Nazi Germany.This story is also too predictable.Sadly,this story was also more downbeat because of when Vic Morrow and two children were killed on the set after a helicopter crashed when this segment was filmed. Second segment(5 stars out of 10)A remake of the episode where nursing home residents turn into children after playing the game of Kick The Can.Okay,but not as well done as the original.Scatman Crothers was far more effective in the movie, "The Shining", as well as in other roles that he did. Third segment(5 stars out of 10)It is good to see Kathleen Quinlan in this segment where she meets a boy whose world he telepathically controls including the adults in his world.It has its moments,but is nothing special. Fourth segment(9 stars out of 10)A very scary segment and by far the best of the 4 segments.It is a remake of one of the most famous "Twilight Zone" episodes about the gremlin on the wing of an airplane that affects a neurotic passenger in midflight. John Lithgow is very good in the role in this episode that William Shatner played on the television show before he was a star. Overall,some of this movie is more worth seeing than other parts are but one is better off watching reruns of the original television show. My overall rating:51/2 out of 10.