The Bucket List

The Bucket List is a story about two men who meet in a hospital room. Carter (Morgan Freeman) and Edward (Jack Nicholson) play off each other very well in this movie. Two of the greatest actors in one movie.

Carter and Edward have something in common, Cancer. Carter is a father of three, married, and has been working as a mechanic for most of his life. Edward on the other hand is single, owns a large company that privatizes hospitals, and has more money than he will ever be able to spend.

While the two men are going through treatment they become friends. On morning Edward stumbles on a crumpled piece of paper on the floor near Carters bed. What he finds is Carter's bucket list, which is all the things he wants to do before he kicks the bucket.

Both men are not winning their battle against cancer, so Edward convinces Carter to actually travel the world and cross items off the list. This movie will tug on your heart strings.

The movie is largely based around Freeman's and Nicholson's characters, with a quirky assistant to Nicholson's character played by Sean Hayes of 'Will and Grace' fame. Overall the movie is just great. Two great actors sharing the screen and not trying to out act the other makes for a great film.

The movie, even though listed as a comedy, really does give some important messages.

Favourite line: "Here's something to remember when you're older Thomas - never pass up a bathroom, never waste a hard-on, and never trust a fart."

Why should you see this movie? Two legendary actors, great story, great locations, and I did shed a single tear at the end.

The Last King of Scotland

One of the best movies I have seen. It stars Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy. The story is centred around the relationship of Amin (Whitaker) and Dr. Garrigan (McAvoy).
Garrigan is fresh out of medical school and decides he wants to get away from home and runs off to Uganda, Africa. He works with a small mission until one day he meets Idi Amin.

Amin is the charismatic leader of Uganda, and appoints Garrigan as his personal physician and considers him his closest advisor(sometimes).

Things go bad, real bad. (there are quick scenes of extreme gore)

This film really shows Whitaker's ability as an actor. Throughout the film he must change emotions at the drop of a hat. Whitaker didn't win an Oscar for this role for nothing.

The storyline is great with very few holes and easy to follow. The visuals are outstanding. And the supporting cast are all great.

Why should you see this movie?
Because Forest Whitaker is the fucking man(and it won 34 awards and 21 nominations)

The Wrestler

I will preface everything with this: You will either love this movie or hate it. The movie is NOT about pro wrestling.

The movie is about Randy "Ram" Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke. This is was Rourke's best performance yet, even beating out his character Marv in Sin City. He completely embodied the character.

Now, I said this movie is not about pro wrestling, which is about 90% true. Ram Robinson used to be at the top of pro wrestling in his time but is now relegated down to the less than reputable semi-pro circuit. He plays high school gyms and small even centers for very little money. He is beaten up, bruised, and just generally on the down and out.

The story takes a turn for the worst when he has a heart attack after a match. This is really where the movie and main story begins. With his brush with death he attempts to rekindle his relationship with his estranged daughter. There is also a romantic interest in the movie played by Marisa Tomei. And for the guys out there, she is a stripper, and yep there are a few topless scenes with her (her character has nipple piercings, A+ Marisa).

Like I said earlier, this was Mickey Rourke's best performance. He really took the character to another level and really makes you feel that his character was a real person. He had to do a lot of training for this role, and he isn't a young guy anymore, but everything he did was believable.
The other cast did a great job as well, but this movie really is about Rourke's character and he is mainly what you are seeing.

With this movie, whether you like pro wrestling or not, you will feel like you are an invisible person following these characters around due to the way the movie was filmed. A lot of steady cam work, which actually adds an interesting point of view throughout the entire movie.

Again, you will either love it or hate it, but don't let the fact that this movie's main character is a pro wrestler deter you from seeing it.

Why should you see this movie?
Great story, great character, all around great movie.
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 30 wins & 18 nominations

Man On Fire

OK....This is one of my all-time favorite movies. As said in my entry about The Count of Monte Cristo, I am a sucker for revenge flicks. This is the ultimate.

It is about John Creasy, who was possibly an ex-assassin, spy, or something else, it is never really talked about. All we know is that he used to kill, and what he has done has haunted him every day. In a spur of the moment decision he goes to visit a buddy from his black-op days in Mexico. His friend (Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken), gets him a job as a body guard for a young girl (played by Dakota Fanning). The girl gets kidnapped and Creasy goes on a vendetta to find out who was responsible.

At first glance it seems like this movie is just another action, save the captive, thriller. But it is not. The movie does start out slow by action movie standards, but it does pick up, and it picks up fast.
The cinematography in this movie is truly special. It is something that has been emulated since the film came out. The music throughout the movie is also very good (even though one of the tracks was used in Gladiator).

Overall, this is a kick ass movie. He really gets the bad guys in interesting ways. But besides the all the ass kicking, there is alot of character growth through this movie. You get to witness the change in Creasy. This level of character development doesn't really exist in normal movies anymore.

Why should you see this movie?
1 line: "A man can be an artist in anything,painting, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasey's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece."

And its true, his vendetta against the bad guys is epic.

The Count of Monte Cristo

This movie is one of my favorites. I am a sucker for both jailbreak movies and revenge movies. This one has them both.

It is about Edmund Dantes. He is a simple sailor and friend to the son of a count (Fernand Mondego) . He is betrayed by his friends after a chance encounter with Napoleon. After being labelled a traitor and sent to the prison Chateau D'If. While imprissoned he meets and old priest. Priest is an educated man and ex-solider from Napoleon's army. Skilled in combat as well as a vast amount of knowledge, he teaches Dantes and begins training him. In between the school like lectures and combat training, Dantes and Priest are digging an underground tunnel to escape. The story of his revenge starts there.

Like i said before, I love jailbreak movies and revenge movies. On the side of revenge, it doesn't get more elaborate than this. Although the movie isn't identical to the book by Dumas, it is still a good stand alone movie. The costumes and sets are great. Definitely a quality "period" film. The acting is decent throughout most of the film.

Why should you see this movie? Why the hell not....

Slumdog Millionaire

I watched this movie last night and it is without a doubt now in my Top 5 movies ive ever watched.
Its the story of Jamal who is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Thats all im saying about the plot, which you could have gotten from the image on the left.

This movie's budget was 15 million dollars. Which by Hollywood standards is dirt cheap. To date its revenue is over 300 million. The way this movie is filmed is top notch, interesting camera angles, good steady cam work, just overall outstanding filming. The acting by the relatively unknown actors in this film is also outstanding. The child actors put 99.99% of child actors, and adult actors to shame. As a very emotional movie these youngsters did fantastic.

I personally loved the soundtrack to this movie. I felt all the songs fit into each scene that was going on. The ability for a low budget film to find music that will aid in the showing of emotions is a hard thing to do without sounding like every other movie.

Onto the awards. Won 8 Oscars. Another 76 wins and 28 nominations. As a comparison to how amazing this is for a low budget film I will use Titanic as a reference. Titanic cost approximately 200 million to make and Won 11 Oscars. Another 76 wins and 48 nominations.

Why you should see this movie?
Because there is no reason not to. This movie is the total package: Acting, Plot, Cinematography, and Music. If you don't see this movie chances are I will stop talking to you.

Miracle at St. Anna

Now, I have seen many many many movies in the theatres. Even if the movie is shitty I will stay through it, or take a nap (like I did during The Good Shepard). But this was the first movie in my life that I actually walked out on.

This movie is set during WWII following around a group of Buffalo Soldiers (platoons made entirely of African Americans) The movie starts off with a guy walking into a post office and asks to buy stamps, the gentleman behind the counter never looks at him and grabs a book of stamps. Tells the customer how much they are and looks up, they both lock eyes, and then the post office worker grabs a German issue 9mm Luger from under his desk and blasts the patron in the face.

At this point I said to myself, "fuck yah, that's how you start a movie". Well sadly everything after that point is garbage. The acting from every person on the cast is complete shit. There are "Saving Private Ryan" esque actions scenes that look like a 12 year old set up the explosives and the squibs.

But onto the story line. Well actually, I have no clue what the story line is. The postal worker is a veteran from the Buffalo Soldier squad I mentioned above. He is giving the story of what happened in WWII to a reporter. The movie flashes back to the time of WWII and they never really say what this squad's mission is. That is about how far I got through this movie.

There are 3 parts in this movie that were outstanding: 1. opening murder scene, 2. a young German boy calling one of the black soldiers "Chocolate Giant" the entire time, and 3. a nice set of boobies about 2 hours in.

The bad parts? everything in between 1,2,and 3. Oh and before I forget to mention, Spike Lee thought that it would be in good taste to show a German soldier stab a baby with the bayonet attached at the end of his rifle.

Don't waste your time or money on this latest "Spike Lee Joint". If you do, it is time and money you will never get back.

Children of Men

Set in the near future (2027), all females in the world have gone infertile. They youngest person in the world is 18 years 5months.
Civilization is collapsing all around the world but England soldiers on through strict laws and expelling all immigrants. The story is based around a young female refugee who has become pregnant.
Due to being a refugee the expecting mother is being brought to a group called The Human Project so her and her baby can be properly taken care of without the English government's interference.

This movie is truly under appreciated. The acting is great, the sets and the visuals are truly stunning. But the one thing that sets this film apart from anything else i have ever seen is the cinematography. The average person at first glance is not going to notice, but there are scenes that involve hundreds of extras, explosions, full speed running through buildings and it is all done without a single cut. There is a scene in a small vehicle where the camera is able to do facial closeups on everyone in the car without a cut, while there are 100's of people throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gun fire. In an average film these kind of shoots would be no big deal because you can re-film the small mistakes and just piece it together. But what 90% of the people who i have made watch this movie don't realise is that these scenes are done in 1 take. You cannot fake a single continuous steady cam shot. One of the final scenes you feel like you are in the movie as an invisible person following everyone around. The ability to do this is a testament to the actors and actresses in this movie. And if you think they do fake it, there is about 30 seconds of one of the long "no cut" scenes with blood splatter on the camera lens (the blood is digital and disappears once they enter a building).

Why should you watch this movie?
Because it is a masterpiece of cinematography. (Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 24 nominations)