Tyler's Reviews

There are two kinds of action heroes:
The ones Hollywood stunt co-ordinators, make-up artists and visual special effects guys create and then there are real men like Clint Eastwood, but he first had to go to Italy to get certified.
Robert Ryan could have been an action super star but most of the choices available to him were playing bad guys.
If we were to look at action stars that come from a martial arts background and are real masters of their craft and deadly off screen as well, today, the only ones would be Jet Lee, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa and Steven Seagal. Yes, Steven Seagal. He's got old and fat and sloppy looking and his latest movies may not look like much, but he is still the real deal.

Warrior (2011)



Just some quick thoughts on it: it's great. Despite being overly predictable, it's completely engaging, amazingly well acted (especially Nick Nolte) and quite emotionally moving.

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Rain Man (1988)

This could have easily been played the wrong way. Hell, initially, it was Martin Brest picture, with Dustin Hoffman in the opposite role and Bill Murray playing Raymond, with a big action sequence planned. Instead, it was directed by Barry Levinson, who turned it into a non-sentimental, sincere and moving film.

I used to honestly believe this was the greatest film of the 1980's and I loved it with all my heart. While I'm not that crazy about it anymore (it still makes the top ten best '80's films, IMO), I still do love it with all my heart, and still emotionally resonates with me. The story of Charlie Babbitt kidnapping his autistic brother Raymond, who he has never met, for a portion of his inheritance is the center of one of the greatest films ever made.

The film isn't very spectacularly shot, or fast paced, but instead, Levinson is very interested in building his two lead characters, and bring forward an understanding, and IMO, he did a fantastic job. Charlie and Raymond aren't stereotypes at all. They are endearing characters who remain believable at all times, and most of that can be attributed to the two leads.

Tom Cruise is bloody outstanding in this. He's utterly convincing as Charlie Babbitt, playing the arrogance, heartless qualities perfectly, and he really sells the character change throughout the entire film. Dustin Hoffman gets deserved recognition for his performance, but Cruise is on another level here. It's in his top 3 performances, along with his work in Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia.

This is nothing like Forrest Gump, as some seem to think. Whereas that film is lightweight and whimsical, this is very blunt, moving film that I wholeheartedly believe to be one of the greatest films ever made. Easily top 50 stuff for me.

I agree with you about this and, on another day, this would've made the cut for my top 100. Cruise should've won the Oscar that year for this.

I saw Rain Man quite a while back and remember loving Hoffman's performance but being pretty much indifferent to the movie overall. Maybe it's time for a rewatch.

Stop Making Sense (1984)



A lone man carrying a cassette player and a guitar walks out onto the stage. He sets the cassette player down, which begins to play a catchy beat, as the man begins to play the guitar. This man is David Byrne and the song he is playing is Psycho Killer, one of the best known songs of The Talking Heads, one of the greatest bands of all time. And the film starts off on a frenetic journey of The Talking Heads playing at their very best.

For those who don't know, The Talking Heads are my favourite band. Thinking music for thinking people, but also maintaining a sort of mainstream feel to the rhythm and sound of their music. They hold a special place in my heart and so does this film. Not only for technical reasons, but musical as well.

What Byrne and co. acheived here is masterful. To take the already brilliant studio versions of their songs and make them 10 times better live is astounding. But they do it here and more. Being that Stop Making Sense was my favourite album before I saw this movie, this last paragraph is probably pointless in conveying my opinion on the film itself, but the music. Oh mama, the music.

And if there was a man born to perform on a stage, it's David Byrne. He's brilliant, vocally and physically, performing with amazing energy and inspired dance moves. It's probably one of the best 'performances' I've ever seen.

It won't surprise you that I consider this to be the greatest concert film of all time, but it is. An extremely wonderful experience.

+

The January Man (1989)



Ex-cop Nick Starkey is reinstated on the force to help track down a serial killer who is murdering one woman every month. While trying solve this, Starkey must deal with his police commissioner brother who fired him, his ex-girlfriend who married his brother and his growing relationship with the Mayor's daughter.

"The January Man is an edge-of-your-seat suspense ride that'll prey on your thoughts, as well as your fears". No, it's not. I was excited to watch this, as I'm a bit of a fan of '80's suspense thrillers. With that kind of statement on the back of the damn DVD, how could I not be excited to watch it?

Well, first of all, it's not a thriller at all. There's absolutely no suspense whatsoever, and it's played like a comedy. Long before this film was over, I was so disappointed with everything about this film. The execution, the performances, the writing, everything. I'd go as far to say it's one of the most disappointing filmic experiences of my life. It's at least up there with Juno.

The best and worst thing about it is the fact that the few comedic scenes that score are the parts that engaged me the most. I don't usually mind a bit of humor sprinkled throughout the serious tone. But there was no serious tone achieved here. The scenes where it's tried are laughable.

But what I'm most angry about is that it shows promise. It could've been good. It has Alan Rickman, for Pete's sake, a man who can make any movie good. But like everything else about The January Man, his performance falls flat. Undeveloped, maddening trash.

+

Obviously that poster is more accurate than the back of the box. Have you seen anything else written by John Patrick Shanley?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

No, I think I may have seen Moonstruck years ago, but can't really remember.

Flight Of Fury (2007)



If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a Steven Seagal fan. I like quite a few of his movies, even some of his straight to DVD ones. Flight Of Fury, I borrowed from my friend a few weeks back and never got around to watching until tonight for a few reasons. One, there are better movies I should be watching than this. Two, I never thought it could be any good. And three, my friend wants his copy back. Flight Of Fury isn't a good movie; but in the confines of a straight to DVD actioner, it ain't exactly a bad one either.

Steve plays a pilot who is given a mission to go and find a stolen plane in Afghanistan. It's a plot that's been done a million times before, and FOF doesn't exactly do it better, but it does do it competently. The camerawork is nothing new or original, but works for the film. I'd actually consider this as a film that plays it fairly safe; nothing too wild (excluding one unneeded, but welcome lesbian scene), nothing too hard to follow (it's a Seagal film) and nothing too original. The acting is average, the action is mediocre and that's what the whole film feels like. It's perfectly mediocre.

There really is not much to say about Flight Of Fury. It's not something I'd recommend you to urgently see, or even casual viewing, but if you do come across it on tv or something, there are worse ways to spend your time.

I collect movies and have all of Seagal's movies but I wouldn't feel too bad if I didn't have Flight Of Fury. Matter of fact, some movies I wouldn't even bother reviewing and this one would definitely fit that mold.

Take it you didn't like it much? The more I think about it, it seems much more stupid and contrived in retrospect. The characters are pretty stupid, as is the dialogue. It's actually more along the lines of a +. It gets that because, for the most part, it's mildly enjoyable, the lesbian scene appeals to the horny teenager inside of me, and Seagal is just awesome in my eyes.

Don't get me wrong. I like Steven Seagal. I just thought that this particular movie sucked. Quite possibly his worst movie.

I don't know. Have you seen Against The Dark? That's all kinds of bad, especially since Seagal doesn't do anything until halfway through the movie except walking. The only reason I'd generously rate it a + is because of this scene where Steve delivers this totally macho and totally unnecessary line for no particular reason.

"We decide who lives and who dies". And dramatic music follows. It's epically bad.

Yeah, just as bad, if not worse. But Steven get's to say lines because, well because he's Steven. Sometimes I think he kind of wishes that he had that kind of ultimate power.

Yeah, almost like a Chuck Norris-type of renowned power.

I went to Chuck Norris's karate studio at Studio City with this Italian friend of mine. He was a pretty bad ass street fighter. This was about some fifteen years a go. Chuck was on the side giving some instruction to one of his black belts. My friend asked him if he could spar with Chuck's student. Chuck said, " why not? " I guess he thought his guy was going to hold a clinic or something. So they put the gloves on and my friend socked the guy in the face busting up his nose. So Chucky got all angry and asked my friend if he wanted to try him on. So my friend took off the gloves and jumped on Chucky, knocking him down and grabbing him in a gillotine. He was chocking the s...out of him. I had to pull him off. I believe he would have killed him. Anyway, everybody there got all freaked out and we had to high tail it out of there. Those are my memories of indestructible Chucky.

That was probably one of Chuck's clones. The real Chuck was probably off saving the world by giving an asteroid a swift roundhouse kick.

Yeah, his claim to fame was the movie he did with Bruce Lee ( Return Of The Dragon ) and he went on to make a slew of his own and a few tv series as well, so his fame did last more than the usual fifteen minutes. Essentially he was just a point system karate guy with a good yoko-geri ( side kick ), not that practical against a good street fighter and nowhere as dangerous as Seagal.

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)



I have a bit of a guilty affection for the romantic comedy sub-genre. For some reason, I find it nice to watch attractive people meet, fall in love, get involved in embarrassing situations, fall out of love and recover their feelings for each other before the credits roll. Crazy, Stupid, Love is a bit different than the aforementioned formula, but still has that same feeling of deja-vu, like we've seen these situations before, but better. But luckily it has a greater strength in the character development area.

Steve Carell plays Cal Weaver, a happily married family man, with a solid life; until his wife asks for a divorce. A distraught Cal then gets some help from smooth ladies man Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) about navigating the single scene. Meanwhile, Cal's son is in love with his babysitter, who is in love with Cal.

This film is very likeable, but if you're expecting some big laughs, I wouldn't recommend this film to you. It doesn't score high on the laugh factor, which can seem disappointing in a superficial way, if you can't appreciate the film's riveting element; the way it deals with its characters. They all have some less desirable qualities; Jacob's lowlife womanising, Emily's (Julianne Moore) impulsive cheating with David (Kevin Bacon), David emitting this aura of "*******" in each scene he's in, and so on, and so forth. But through the credit of the writing, and especially the acting, these characters got my sympathy where needed and never got on my nerves.

But I think the real reason this film clicked with me is the fact that out of the entire principle cast, there's not a single actor or actress I dislike. The only one who mildly gets on my nerves is Julianne Moore, and that's only because of her amazing feat of crying in nearly every single movie she's ever starred in (and she gets the waterworks going in this in a couple of scenes), but she's quite good in this, giving a sympathetic performance to a normally unsympathetic character. I also really like Steve Carell here, I was expecting him to put on his 40 Year Old Virgin routine, but I like how he's much more restrained here than normal. Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon are solid in their small roles, and Emma Stone is amazingly hot, and someone who I like seeing in films (even though I haven't seen Easy A).

The real standout for me, though, is Ryan Gosling. He's fast becoming one of my favourite actors, and here, he delivers the best performance of the group. He could've easily overdone the slimy womanizer bit, but is much more understated and smooth in his performance. I've only seen him in this and Drive (which I LOVE), but I'm jumping aboard the Gosling bandwagon right here and now.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a refreshing rom-com, being that it doesn't focus on laughs, but characters. A solid film, IMO.

+