sidewinder572's Reviews

The Departed (2006)

9/10

14 February 2007

The Departed is a consistently engaging crime thriller from director Martin Scorsese. It's also the Scorsese film that I've been waiting for since Goodfellas, and I'm sure others feel the same way too. This film is a remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, however this review will make no comparisons to that movie. Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon play two moles. Dicaprio plays Billy Costigan, a rookie cop who goes deep undercover to take down mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, the man working for the state police as Costello's mole. The film also features Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. Wahlberg gives the best performance of his career and nobody can play the sinister bad guy like Jack Nicholson.

Martin Scorsese is the master of the crime drama, as he as proved time and time again. His previous two films (not counting the Bob Dylan documentary Nor Direction Home) The Aviator and Gangs of New York had their merits, but they were missing something that the classic Scorsese films contained. Aviator was an interesting bio pic. while Gangs was defined by an Oscar worthy performance from Daniel Day Lewis. The Departed however is a return to form. Its main strength lies in the story telling, Throughout the film and especially in relation to the Damon and Dicaprio characters. You don't exactly know who's good or who's bad. It constantly keeps you guessing as any great Drama should.

The Departed is definitely Scorsese's best film since Goodfellas and dare I say it's better then that. Actually I won't say that, quite yet. Time will decide that factor. I won't go the full 10 yet. More like a very high 9 1/2. That in mind The Departed is an excellent crime drama from the master of the genre and one of our greatest filmmakers.

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Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

10/10

El Laberinto del Fauno

29 January 2007

Warning: Spoilers

A supposed twenty plus minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, already in the top one hundred at the Internet Movie Data Base, every major film critic and their mothers are giving this film the highest possible praise. Naturally I went in hoping for the best and at same time expecting the worst. How can a film with this much praise possibly live up to the hype? Well it does, and then some.

El Laberinto del Fauno is the latest film by director Guerillmo Del Toro. It is easily his best work to date. Although I am basing this view having only seen two of his other films (Blade 2 and Hellboy). Those films were entertaining popcorn films. This however is something else all together. El Laberinto del Fauno tells the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is goes with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to live with step-father (Sergi López) who is a Captain fighting with the Nationalists at the time of the Spanish Civil War. The film takes place immediately after the war, when small pockets of Loyalists continue fighting the Nationalists. (For more info on the Spanish Civil War read a book) El Laberinto del Fauno however is not a film about the Spanish Civil War. It is a fairy tale and a dark one at that. Where this movie succeeds is that the lines between fantasy and reality are completely blurred and never once to the things happening in the fantasy world contradict those things going on in reality. Ofelia escapes into a fairy tale in order to escape the horrors around her. There are fairies, monsters, and a faun (Doug Jones) that sends her on various tasks. I won't get into those here as I like to avoid spoilers.

I waited until my second viewing in order to write this review. It is not that I did not like it the first time. I feel that this movie warrants multiple viewings in order to really sink in. The film works pretty much works on every level. The acting is top notch especially by Sergi López and Ivana Baquero. Ivana Baquero gives one of the best performances by a child actor in recent memory and López plays the villain to perfection. The special effects are never distracting, the storyline is innovative and above all else the film never drags. I'm reviewing this movie after my second viewing. The most important element of any film is its ability to hold up under multiple viewings. Will my opinion stay the same after several viewings? Only time will tell. For now however El Laberitno del Fauno remains a visionary masterpiece and one of the best films of recent memory

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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

10/10

Sick, Depraved and Utterly Brilliant

3 October 2006

"It starts off slow, but when it happens you'll know." Those were more or less the words that a friend of mine once told me as warning about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My first exposure to this movie was watching it alone at night and being utterly disturbed by it. A lot of times a horror movie will come along and people will say that it scared them as a kid. This movie scared me when I was eighteen. The first night I watched it, I could hardly sleep. It was and is quite unlike other horror films in that it has a very realistic almost documentary style to it.

Now I consider myself to be somewhat of a horror movie buff. Before I had seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I had seen all the classics. Friday The 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead. Other horror movies I had seen were not necessarily scary in the lose sleep sense, they were scary in the intense feeling in the pit of your stomach sense.

You may be asking, if the movie bothered you so much why such a high rating? Well, quite simply it set out to shock and disturb and it succeeded brilliantly. Comedies are suppose to make you laugh, sad movies are suppose to make you cry and horror movies are suppose to scare you. Texas Chainsaw Massacre did what it was suppose to do therefore it receives the rating it's getting.

On final note. Last year I saw this movie at midnight screening. Skeptical that todays audiences wouldn't be affected by a thirty horror movie I prepared for the worst. People were literally jumping out of their chairs and screaming in terror. It's a testament to the films power.

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The Devil's Rejects (2005)

10/10

A depraved, sick and brutal film.

22 July 2005

Alright, I never bothered with "House of 1,000 Corpses." Mainly due to the poor reviews and the fact it looked like a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" rip off. As a matter of fact I wasn't that interested in this movie at first. But the early buzz raised my interest and I went out and saw it.

"The Devil's Rejects" is a sick, ruthless, grab you by the throat and don't let go horror movie. Which is exactly what it sets out to do and it succeeds brilliantly. While the movie is sadistic and violent, the characters are extremely well developed and the movie is extremely well written. I've always felt that Rob Zombie would make a good horror director and while "Corpses" wasn't so well received it was only his first film. This is something else altogether.

A genre masterpiece and the best movie I've seen all year. If Zombie keeps this up he will become a force to be reckoned with in the horror genre

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Audition (1999)

10/10

Quite possibly the greatest film of the decade

27 September 2004

Alright you've probably read this a million times before. It is absolutely essential that you go into this movie with as little knowledge as possible. Do not read any reviews, do not read the back of the DVD case. Just make sure there will be no disturbances, lock the doors and turn out the lights and enjoy.

This review will contain no spoilers about the film. As a matter of fact it will contain very little information about the film itself. The film starts out as your typical love story. Man loses wife and then auditions girls for a part in a film. The audition is not for a movie it's actually to find this man a new wife.

It is the movie equivalent of taking a Sunday afternoon drive that suddenly turns into a horrific car accident. It is one of the truly great all time horror movie. Though not in the conventional sense. It has more in common with David Lynch than Tobe Hooper. This is one of those rare films that can truly creep you out.

Part of its genius is its pacing. This is a very slow film. It builds and builds to the shocking climax. Essentially it is about an hour and half of not much happening and about fifteen minutes of gruesome terror. As cliché as it sounds. This film is not for the weak at heart. It is very unsettling. This is not fantasy horror with people getting hacked to pieces and blood spraying everywhere. This is "this could happen to you" horror.

Audition is right up there with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist and Nightmare on Elm Street as one of the essential Horror films. It is the best horror film of the decade by far and is one of the best films of the decade period.

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Battle Royale II (2003)

4/10

A sequel nowhere near the original

24 February 2004

Well here's yet another sequel that doesn't live up to the original. The same can be said of a lot of sequels. This however isn't even in the same league. The film takes place a few years after the events of the first film. The main character Shuya is now the leader of a terrorist organization that is waging war on the adults. He and his group of rebels have secured themselves on a deserted Island. His group is responsible for many terrorist acts throughout the years.

Now there is a new type of Battle Royale game. Instead of forcing to kids to fight each other to the death, they now have to infiltrate the island and assassinate Shuya. Those who refuse will meet an untimely end. Not only that they are now working in pairs and when one dies the other does too. Due to an explosive collar. See the first movie to see what I mean.

The first question I asked myself was. If Shuya is on an island and the adults want him dead why not just bomb the island? It can't be that simple now can it? Well the movie ends up being a full on war of the kids versus the adults with long preaching dialogue in-between. What is lacks is the sense of suspense or adventure the first film had. It also lacks any real memorable villians. The teacher from the first film and the silent kid who signed up for fun were great.

All in all an unworthy seqel that lacks the characters, suspense, innovative death scenes and a real sense of friendship that made the first one great. Instead it's a full on war film and this kind of movie has been done many times before.

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