This was a very good movie that seemed to be looked past by most people. It was the graphic, intense, and excellent tale of how the lives of a Russian Mafia “driver” and a doctor who unwittingly finds evidence on his boss intertwine. This was a very graphic movie which added to its somewhat realism. The movie was incredibly acted and probably the best I’ve seen Viggo Mortenson do. This wasn’t also just a movie with a good story and good acting, it was also a very entertaining movie. The only problem was that it was a bit short for this kind of movie, you found your self asking for more at the end. Its worth seeing, you won’t regret it. Grade: A-
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Michael Clayton
Finally, I saw Michael Clayton. Now I’ve seen every movie nominated for Best Picture and still stand to my prediction. I thought going into this movie, it being nominated for Best Picture, I was going to see a master piece, and I was a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, this was a really good movie, but it just doesn’t stand its ground against There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men. Its the well-put together story of a “janitor”, Michael Clayton who goes against a big name company with the help of Arthur who was sick of working for the company for reasons that can’t be told. The movie had powerful elements to it and it did make you wonder what was going to happen, but it didn’t do it in a way that was as entertaining as you would’ve hoped. Both Tom Wilkinson and George Clooney were great in this movie, but not nearly as good as Daniel-Day Lewis and Javier Bardem. It was a bit Hollywoody where as There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men stood on their own as their own force. This was a great, I just don’t really see it as Best Picture material, but at least it was better than Juno. Grade: A
There Will Be Blood
I’m a little ashamed at this, but this is my first time seeing Daniel-Day Lewis acting, and let me say this. After viewing this, I went right out and rented Gangs of New York and plan to rent My Left Foot soon because Daniel-Day Lewis is one of the most incredible actors I’ve ever seen. There Will Be Blood is basically a biography of a cruel man who loves at times, but hates more often, while educating you a bit on oil. Don’t take the “E” word as a bad thing, it was actually quite interesting. Let me put it this way, this extremely entertaining 2 and a half hour movie felt like an 82 minute movie. When Daniel-Day Lewis is on the screen, which is most of the time, it’s impossible to be bored. This movie was incredible, but the only problem was that Daniel-Day Lewis made it incredible, that’s why it shouldn’t get the oscar, because if the academy gave There Will Be Blood the oscar for Best Picture, your just giving Daniel-Day Lewis another award, because he basically made the movie. Give him the award for acting, he deserves it, there is no question about that, but don’t give it the Best Picture award. This is an amazing movie, go see it.Grade: A+
Atonement
Of course this movie was good, you’d have to be an idiot to think otherwise, even if you haven’t seen it you know it’ll be good because its already basically got a 50% shot at getting best picture. The reason your reading this review isn’t to find out if it was good or not, its to find out HOW good it was. The movie is a about a forbidden love and how it’s torn apart by imagination and war. The movie was visually amazing and was extremely well written, it was also very detailed, but had a few flaws like all movies do. There was a problem though, it wasn’t a problem with the movie per-say, but more of a problem with me. Through out the whole movie, it felt like it was just a movie that wanted to get awards, as opposed to No Country and Sweeney Todd felt like they were actually trying to be good movies in which they succeeded. I’m going to give this movie the grade it deserves, because it was an amazing movie, but when it comes to he best picture award at the oscars, I pray that this doesn’t win. What a perfect movie is, is when a movie is both entertaining throughout, while at the same time being a piece of art. Well, when it comes to art, Atonement surely succeeded, but when it comes to being an entertaining movie throughout, it just lags a bit behind. Don’t get me wrong this was an entertaining movie, but when it’s competing against two extremely entertaining movies like No Country For Old Men and Sweeney Todd, it doesn’t even come close to taking the cake. The reason I don’t think this movie should win is this: Movies were invented to entertain, that is a movies purpose and the Academy might give the award to Atonement over No Country and Sweeney Todd, just because it was just a bit more artistic, and a lot less entertaining, that’s bull shit. Like I said before I’m going to give this movie the grade it deserves, but what it doesn’t deserve is the Academy Award for Best Picture. Grade: A-
Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Words to describe Sweeney Todd: Dark, Gruesome, Bloody, Disturbing, and above all else, Art. Sweeney Todd was fantastic and was one of Tim Burton’s best, if not his best work. Like any other Burton movie you watch, it was dark, but it will have times with very vibrant bright colors, such as Christmas land in Nightmare Before Christmas, or the different colored houses in Edward Scissorhands. Every single actor in the movie was fantastic. The songs are entertaining and brilliant. Keep in mind that most of this movie is singing, if you really don’t like musicals, don’t see this movie. Some musicals are pretty good, some suck, this one is a masterpiece. The ending was fantastic and is opposite of what you would call a Hollywood ending. The movie was entertaining and beautiful from the opening credits (which were amazing) to the final bloody fade out. Grade: A+
Juno
Of course the movie thats getting all the hype right now, Juno. When I went to see this movie I was expecting to laugh as much as I did during Knocked Up, because its a movie with basically the same story and with an actor from one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time, Superbad. Let me tell you, when it comes to laughs I was disappointed, basically anytime I laughed in the trailer was how much I would’ve laughed during the movie if I hadn’t already seen the trailer. I am sorry to say that, but on the lighter side of things, when it comes to the movie itself I will say that I was a bit surprised. This movie actually holds its own at being quite original and where it lacks in laughs it made up for it in realism and dialogue. This movie wasn’t spectacular by any means, but it was pretty good. When and if you do see this movie, know that you won’t laugh as much as you think, but you will watch a realalistic-yet-strange dramedy. Grade: B +
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