Lennon's reviews!

If you think Herzog had troubles filming this, watch his film Fitzcarraldo and the documentary about the making of the film, Burden of Dreams. Glad you liked it Lennon.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Harry, do I need to watch Fitzcarraldo before Burden of Dreams, or can I just watch BoD?

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You should probably watch Fitzcarraldo first. That'd be like watching Hearts of Darkness before Apocalypse Now.

I’ll admit it: Despite all of its acclaim, despite the fact that it stars ultra-pimp Robert DeNiro, despite Martin friggin’ Scorcese, I have only seen Goodfellas twice. To this day, I’ve seen only two of Scorcese’s hits, Casino and The Departed besides this. I enjoyed them all immensely. But, as far as Goodfellas goes, it was a bit of a letdown since my first viewing. It reminded me a bit too much of Casino (my own fault for seeing that first), and I just wasn’t amazed.

Ray Liotta (Field of Dreams) plays Henry Hill, a gangster working with his two pals, Jimmy Conway, played by Robert DeNiro (Raging Bull) with his usual mobster performance, and Tommy DeVito, played by Joe Pesci (Raging Bull), again with the usual mobster performance, as they move through the mobster hierarchy.

Their acting was good, but nothing unexpectedly astounding. I know Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci are two well-respected actors, but something about them didn’t connect as well as their other mob roles. That brings me to Ray Liotta: He’s a capable actor, but again, nothing astounding—just good enough. The one real standout role was Hill’s wife, brilliantly played by Lorraine Bracco.

Martin Scorcese helped them out a lot; he went above and beyond. I love how he stopped the images for the really important dialogue, because sometimes the moving pictures were a bit distracting. Also, the way he put specific times on every little black title card helped me get into the “true life” aspect of the film.

Nick Pileggi is probably my favorite writer. He’s not a big name usually thrown around like Charlie Kaufman or Diablo Cody when it comes to writing, and it’s a shame. He comes full-form here. I loved that we got just about everyone’s point of view, especially Karen Hill, the wife. I would’ve killed for that perspective in Casino. Another good part was the extent to which the mob went to not get pinched. Paul Cicero was such an interesting character.

Bringing it all together is James Kwei and Thelma Schoonmaker, a really great editing talent. Her editing is really unparalleled; anyone considering how to become an film editor could learn a lot from her work. Just look at Hill’s busy day with errands: It’s a brilliantly put-together scene. And you should see the rest of her work in any Scorcese movie, ever.

Overall this was kind of disappointing. it was built up to be the greatest movie friggin’ ever, but it really was just a good little movie ever.

And on another note, Ray Liotta has the most annoying laugh, ever.

I didn't really like Casino much at all, it just seemed like Scorsese was trying to make another Goodfellas.

But better?

Ha!

As widely loved as Goodfellas is I think it's still a very personal film , obviously a lot of people can relate to it though. I thought every peformance in there was pitch perfect , they meld together like a genuine family and their small italian tendencies puts the icing on the cake : as my step-mom's family is very much italian the characters in the film always remind me of someone I know.

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And just so ya know Harry, I'm sittin' on my Manhattan review, after Austruck takes a look.

This was another movie I was not looking forward to from Lime’s List. I’ve never actually wanted to see a Woody Allen film. First, he comes off as kind of a creep. Like marrying the 26 year old Soon-Yi Previn, plus his former wife adopted her, now that’s just creepy man. This film does deal with that subject line, and that’s kind of what put me off it, it’s just creepy!

Luckily, he made it moderately funny. I like comedy movies that are actually about dialogue like Kevin Smith’s films. It wasn’t the most hilarious thing ever, but it was worth it.

Woody does surround himself with talented actors and actresses. Woody does play the ‘neurotic, writing, New Yorker’ part well, Meryl Streep can be a real Bee-ya, Diane Keaton is just friggin’ hot. The one disappointment was Oscar nominee Mariel Hemingway. She just sounded so tired throughout the whole thing, I wanted to give her a pillow.

But it was well shot. You can tell Allen has a very intense love for everything about New York just doing the opening scene, which has to be one of the best showings of NYC I’ve seen. Plus, he used those medium-ranged shots during conversations. I hate movies that use the close-ups and just edit a boatload of shots together. It gets annoying.

The best thing? The music. Film scores can be good, like The Dark Knight, or Psycho, and well worth listening to. But to get the feel of New York, you have to listen to a New Yorker’s music collection.

I’m not sure what else to say besides it’s probably worth a see if you want, but not much else.

If you want to see some wacko Woody Allen flicks check out his early stuff like Sleeper, Love and Death, Bananas, or Take the Money and Run. If you're looking for something along the lines of Manhattan try Annie Hall. And one of my all time favourites from him is Crimes and Misdemeanors. Of course if what you're really interested in is seeing a man fall in love with a sheep, then Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex... should not be missed.

All of the above films HL mentioned are great with perhaps the exception of Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex...But Were Afraid to Ask (probably only worthwhile for the hilarious transvestite vignette and seeing Woody play an Italian sex addict who likes to get jiggy in public).

Though what with the recent movie theme of the week Lennon I recommend you watch Play it Again Sam. Woody didn't direct, but he stars with Diane Keaton and wrote the original play/screenplay. It's an excellent place to start with his body of work as it's one of his earlier funnier films that's just as sharp today as it was back then (unlike Sleeper and Bananas which have dated somewhat and feature frequent religious gags that don't go over unless you're Jewish and highly intellectual).

A double bill of Casablanca and Play It Again, Sam sounds like Heaven. I know that most of us know that "Play it again, Sam" is never said in Casablanca, but I thought I'd mention it anyway for those who don't know.

P.S. My daughter must be a real wacko because she loves almost everything that has to do with Woody Allen. My wife thinks he's creepy, but my daughter thinks he's wonderful!

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NCFOM revisited, see old review HERE.

Ah, you crazy Coens. Why must everything you touch be so awesome? Even on first viewing, I didn’t enjoy it as much as others did when it first came out, I’m officially bumping up my rating, even a little.

Our story starts with Llewelyn Moss, played with a sense of badassness you’d need, by Josh Brolin (Goonies, Grindhouse’s Planet Terror) finding money and dead bodies. He takes the money, to which expert killer Anton Chigurh, played with as much creepiness as you’ve heard, by Javier Bardem (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Collateral) wants to have.

Putting that to paper makes this movie sound so predictable, but it’s thanks to the script by the Coen Bros, based upon Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, it’s not. Anton and Llewelyn are both smart people, and just the little things they do prove how smart they really are. But the most tragic character is defiantly Carla Moss, Llewelyn’s wife. She was just a women who got caught up in the commotion through no fault of her own, played brilliantly by Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting.) My only gripe with the script was that the dialogue at times was to poetic. I mean, people don’t talk like that and some of Anton’s dialogue bothered me.

Luckily, the Coen Bros are in top form here. Shooting the movie with their typical sense, like Fargo. It’s still awesome.

It does sound beautiful. I’m not talking about Anton’s sexy voice, which no denying that it is, I’m talking about sound quality. I watched this on the computer (thank you Instant play,) and the quality was so lifelike. Same goes for the video quality. I mean I know a lot of people don’t care about it, but people obviously worked hard on it, so I felt the need to give them a bit of credit where credit was due.

Another under-mentioned, but pulled off to perfection was whoever picked/made/whatever the hell they did to get the scenery. I loved the whole Texas look, and cheap motels have never looked so good.

Not sure what else to mention other than I really, really liked it, and think you will too.

Oh and PS, I really don't want to see anymore Allen movies. To be honest, I just don't like Woody, even if he can act.

Wuss. Get some Allen into you.

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Sorry. He just seems so friggin' creepy.

Can he act? Has he done anything in his acting career that isn't....Woody?

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Suspect's Reviews

Well But i like him I just bought my X a box set of all Woody Allen movies He loves it

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