Frightened Inmate No. 2's Reviews

Que up some De Niro dude. I am always actually jealous of people who haven't seen a lot of the films that I consider great because you still get to experience them for the first time, while I never will get that pleasure again. There is a lot of De Niro that would fall into that category. First off if you have not seen Godfather II then I assume you probably have not seen the first. Do it, there is nothing current that you will watch this year that will compare.

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Letterboxd

Yeah, I have a lot of De Niro on my wishlist. I plan on watching The Godfather pretty soon, but I have no idea when.

De Niro movies on my Criticker wishlist:
A Bronx Tale (1993)
Casino (1995)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Goodfellas (1990)
Heat (1995)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Limitless (2011)
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Untouchables (1987)

***** i just wrote up a full review of magnolia, and then i lost it all when i hit submit.

in short, i found it to be pretty uninteresting. i wish it would've done more to be somewhat entertaining, because the premise has so much potential, and they never really had any sort of climax, except for that one scene towards the end, which is a pretty bland climax, if you ask me. it's one of the better scenes, but it doesn't work as the only thing that's really ever remotely exciting. (at this point i just lost everything that i had written after this again, so it will be extra rushed) none of the stories were particularly interesting at all. the best part was the actors. this movie actually made me like tom cruise as an actor, which is something i never thought i'd say. william h. macy and john c. reilly were other highlights. everyone did really great, though.

2.9/5


4th tom cruise
rain man, mission: impossible, the firm
4th william h. macy
fargo, air force one, seabiscuit
2nd philip seymour hoffman
moneyball
6th philip baker hall
the truman show, air force one, say anything..., bruce almighty, the shaggy dog
4th john c. reilly
wreck-it ralph, step brothers, what's eating gilbert grape
2nd julianne moore
crazy, stupid love
6th alfred molina
raiders of the lost ark, rango, the da vinci code, spider man 2, the pink panther 2

and that's a brief summary of my original review

Just watched Magnolia for the first time last fall and had exact opposite reaction. This movie instantly became one of my favorites.

I demand to know how many Luis Guzman movies you've now seen, FI#2

well, if you insist, that was the first luis guzman film i've seen. i have seen him in an episode of frasier, though.

I liked this movie, though it did have it's faults, the most glaring of which was the acting of the little boy. I have seen a lot of praise given to him in almost every review I've read, and I don't get it. I'm sure it was a tough role, and I don't expect much from child actors, but he did a pretty poor job. I'm not gonna fault the actor, because he's just a kid and he clearly did the best he could do, but it really brought the movie down and I don't know why it's praised so much. It didn't help that his character was kind of annoying, but I'm not quite sure if that was more the writing or the acting. Apparently writing post-apocalyptic children is really hard, because I've never seen it done right. I know it was intentional, but this kid seemed way too soft, and it just got annoying. It almost made me yearn for Carl from The Walking Dead, who is the exact opposite, and who I usually can't stand. Also, Viggo Mortnensen and Robert Duvall were both great, and Charlize Theron was fine.

Also, the movie had very little emotional impact. I don't think it was as powerful as it was trying to be, and I think it relied a bit too much on the fact that we would find all of it inherently sad, which it was, but it wasn't enough. WIth that said, I never felt like it was forcing emotion on to me at all, and it felt kind of nice. It was almost unintentionally light-hearted in a really depressing sort of way. Even when I thought a scene should have been really sad or powerful, I just never felt anything. I did loved the gray color scheme, which was more powerful than anything else in the movie. I'm not quite sure what made me like the movie as much as I did. I guess I just found it interesting or something, but I can't even think of a time throughout the film that I felt especially interested, and none of it really felt new or original after watching The Walking Dead. It obviously wasn't "fun," but maybe I just had a good time watching it. Maybe I just liked watching their journey, even if I never really cared what happened, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. Maybe not being emotionally involved in an inherently depressing movie is a good thing. Whatever the reason is, this was a good movie.


3.9/5








7th Viggo Mortensen
LOTR trilogy, 28 Days, A History of Violence, Hidalgo
2nd Robert Duvall
Secondhand Lions
3rd Charlize Theron
Hancock, The Italian Job
3rd Guy Pearce
Memento, LA Confidential

Bill Murray is a perfect human-being. That just needed to be said. Once you accept that, this film seems even better. He doesn't even need to be hilarious to be awesome. Just watching him on-screen is a pleasure, even when he's just sitting silently in his house, doing nothing. He seems to have perfected every role he's ever played. This movie is definitely funny, but it isn't at all hilarious, and is just a pleasure to watch, even if it can seem bland on the surface. It's basically just Bill Murray reflecting on his past, where he clearly used to be good with the ladies. It's really similar to Lost in Translation, and is pretty much just an unofficial sequel, but it works on its own level. I think Lost in Translation might be slightly better, but this was awfully close. Many people have complained about the ending, but I thought it was the best part of the movie. It was the perfect way to do an ambiguous ending. The set-up was great, you never saw it coming, and it was probably the funniest part of the movie. The movie could have been a bit funnier at times, but it was still quite good.

4/5









13th Bill Murray
Zombieland, Caddyshack, Kingpin, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation, Moonrise Kingdom, Ghostbuster, Little Shop of Horrors, Stripes, Meatballs, Scrooged

2nd Sharon Stone
Total Recall

4th Tilda Swinton
Moonrise Kingdom, Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2nd Christopher McDonald
Happy Gilmore

I haven't seen the film yet, but just for this very true statement, you get my ! He's basically one of the funniest guys ever just by being there, without even doing anything.

I'll certainly watch the film in the future, as I'm a huge fan of Bill Murray.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

I don't even know where to begin reviewing this one. It was just bizarre on so many levels. Matthew McConaughey gave a great and creepy performance as Killer Joe. Everybody in the cast did a great job, but he really stood out. The pacing and the dialogue were both pretty flawless. Every scene was important and they all were just the right length. The dialogue was smart and delivered perfectly. Initially I found the characters to be a bit too unlikable, but by the end I realized that it didn't really matter if you liked the characters or not, because it wasn't really about those characters. It was mostly about Joe and Dottie, the main character's sister. I guess a complaint I have was that the sex aspect of it was a bit overdone, but looking back on it, I don't know if it was. It definitely will make you uncomfortable, which I'm sure is completely intentional, so it accomplished what it wanted to, and I can't imagine the movie being the same without it. Another problem is with the ending. It was another ambiguous ending, but I don't think it was done as well as Broken Flowers. I still liked it, and it got the intended reaction, I think, but it felt more like a cop-out than anything, but I wouldn't say it took away anything from the movie, and I still left feeling like I just saw a great movie.

4.25/5







3rd Matthew McConaughey
Bernie, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days

I absolutely loved this movie and I loved the ending.

I just reread the review, and I made it sound like I didn't like the ending. I actually did like it, but I just have seen endings like that done better. I'm gonna edit it a bit to reflect that.

But you're right; it's one of those sudden endings that some people won't like, even if they enjoyed the rest of the movie.

This movie was bizarre, in a pretty good way. The only other Anderson film I've seen is Moonrise Kingdom, and I think I may have preferred this one, although I really need to rewatch Moonrise. Just like Moonrise, this movie certainly wasn't hilarious, but it did have quite a few laughs in it, mostly at how quirky the whole thing was. The cast is great, and they did good jobs, even though most of them didn't really get a chance to shine, especially Bill Murray. He was criminally underused. There were some really great shots in this, as usual in Anderson's films. At times it was almost distracting, and I think it may have taken away from the comedy and the story, but it made up for it with how many times it enhanced it. The humor was about as dry as it comes, but it was amazing how many times it worked, even if it wasn't as many times as I was hoping. It may have gotten a little dull at times, but there was always some impressive camera-work to look at, so I was always entertained.

4/5










2nd Gene Hackman
The Firm

2nd Angelica Huston
This is Spinal Tap

4th Luke Wilson
Blades of Glory, Anchorman, Legally Blonde

7th Owen Wilson
The Cable Guy, Drillbit Taylor, Meet the Parents, Cars, You, Me, and Dupree, Night at the Museum

10th Ben Stiller
Dodgeball, Anchorman, Happy Gilmore, The Cable Guy, Tower Heist, Meet the Parents, Madagascar 1 & 3, Night at the Museum

3rd Alec Baldwin
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, My Sister's Keeper

4th Gwyneth Paltrow
Iron Man 1 & 2, The Avengers

3rd Danny Glover
Barnyard, The Shaggy Dog

14th Bill Murray
Zombieland, Caddyshack, Kingpin, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, Moonrise Kingdom, Ghostbuster, Little Shop of Horrors, Stripes, Meatballs, Scrooged

I'm pretty sure I'm not enough of a film buff to really appreciate this movie to its full potential, especially considering this is the first Kubrick movie I've ever seen, but I really liked it. I'm not someone who usually looks for great visuals in their movies, but I didn't really see any stunning visuals like I had been lead to believe there might be (I've got nothin' against those naked lady visuals, but that's hardly cinematic brilliance). I was probably missing something, though, but I still enjoyed it anyway. I think Tom Cruise was fairly underrated in this role, which is something I never thought I'd say until I saw Magnolia, which made me like him. The dialogue wasn't the best, but it was hardly ever distracting, and it surprisingly didn't seem to really hurt Tom Cruise's performance. Nicole Kidman definitely gave the better performance, though. I was surprised at how suspenseful the movie could be at times. There isn't much action, but in several scenes you're hanging on their every word, and are practically on the edge of your seat. It works quite well as a thriller, even if that clearly wasn't the focus. The ending was a tad unfulfilling, I think. It doesn't answer very many questions, and the questions it does answer were answered in fairly contrived ways, not to mention that the last couple scenes were just really dull. It may have left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth after it ended, but it's mostly just nitpicking in the grand scheme of things, so I just had to remember all of the great scenes and the excitement of the rest of the movie.

4.25/5









5th Tom Cruise
Rain Man, Mission: Impossible, The Firm, Magnolia

3rd Nicole Kidman
Batman Forever, Bewitched

3rd Sydney Pollack
Changing Lanes, The Firm

I don't quite know why I didn't love this movie. I loved Eternal Sunshine, and this movie had all the elements to be great, but it was never more than just "good." Part of the reason might have been that Netflix advertised it as a comedy, which it is not. It had slightly amusing humor at times, but it was far from a comedy, so I don't think I came into this with the right mind-set. By the end, though, I don't think it had much impact on my views, because it got pretty good and exciting by the end. I was almost ready to turn it off at around the 15-minute mark because it was kind of dull and annoying in the beginning, and I didn't see much potential, but luckily I pretty much never turn off movies after I start them. I think the movie started succeeding once Charlie Kaufman was made into a more relatable and interesting character. Not that I didn't like him in the beginning, but the whole movie kind of depended on him, in a sense. As soon as he became interesting, the movie became interesting, and he became very interesting. The last few scenes may have been a bit far-fetched, but they were incredibly entertaining and very well-done. I don't care for Nicholas Cage, but he did a pretty good job. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper both did great as well. Still a pretty good movie, even if I don't think it achieved it's full potential.

3.75/5








5th Nicholas Cage
The Ant Bully, Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona, National Treasure 2

4th Meryl Streep
A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Ant Bully, The Devil Wears Prada

4th Chris Cooper
Seabiscuit, The Bourne Identity, The Patriot

4th Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Dark Knight, Stranger than Fiction, Monster House

5th Tilda Swinton
Broken Flowers, Moonrise Kingdom, Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This movie was literally all conversation. There was absolutely no twists, no twists, no action, no excitement, no big-name actors, no unnatural humor. It is probably the dullest concept I've ever seen in a movie... and it was great. It was nearly flawless. It was easily the most realistic movie I've ever seen, and by far the best dialogue. It actually felt like real life all the way through. The only thing that didn't feel exactly like real life was that the conversations were a bit more philosophical than I imagine the average couple has, but that's easily forgiven because of how essential each conversation was to the movie. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke actually seemed like a real couple, and you can feel their love. It was believable and consistent all the way through. Wonderful movie.


4.7/5



2nd Richard Linklater
Bernie

2nd Julie Delpy
Broken Flowers

The last scenes were supposed to be far-fetched as the story ended exactly the way he didn't want it to end in the first place. It was Kaufman's way to ridicule the classic action movie plots AND at the same time the pretentious film makers who ridicule them (even himself). It's pretty ingenious when you think about it.
I also thought it was pretty obviously a comedy, but sometimes a rather dark one, I admit. For now I rate it pretty much the same as you did, but after another watch, I might give it a 4. It all depends on how well it holds up.

I'm a big fan of Eyes Wide Shut and I'm glad you liked that one. Before Sunrise is also a very decent film. Be sure to check out its sequels!
I also liked The Royal Tenenbaums.

I watched Before Sunrise this year as well and loved it. I didn't however love Before Sunset so I will be interested to see how you feel about it. I think that where Sunrise was romantic and philosophical, Sunset is preachy and the character motivations irritated me. I hope you get to review it soon.

I much preferred Before Sunrise to Before Sunset, too. Though, as I've said before, I've only seen it once (such was the disappointment) and I'd been waiting 9 years for Before Sunset, so my expectations were a little high, to say the least.

I'm so pleased to see how many people here are seeing, and loving, Before Sunrise. I think it's been criminally overlooked.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.