Munich and The Original Spaghetti Western

It's been a while since my last post as I have been busy and just hadn't really seen anything that I thought was good enough to review until 2 days ago when I watched Munich and then yesterday I watched A Fistful of Dollars so i felt compelled to prove to myself that I will be able to keep up this blog while starting school again. So here we go...

Munich
An excellent film staring Eric Bana and directed by Steven Spielberg about the 1972 Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and what the Israeli government did in secret as a response to this. A group of Jews lead by Avner (Eric Bana) a former Mossad agent, are sent to Europe to kill the 11 people responsible. The first part of the film depicts the massacre of the athletes by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September and the Israeli reaction to this. The rest of the film is Avner's search for the targets. As more of their targets are taken care of the group begin to feel the heat of the CIA, PLO and KGB on their backs and ask themselves What does it mean to be a Jew? When will the killing stop? & What about these peoples replacements?
One of the best films of 2005 and nominated for 5 Oscars this is defiantly a film to see weather you are Jewish, Arab or neither. As this film does not primarily takes sides against either faith and shows the lower points of both. Although this is a lengthly 163 minutes, the time goes by easily as this film gets deeper and deeper.
My Rating: ****

A Fistful of Dollars
The introduction to the world of the "Man with no name" (Clint Eastwood) as he rides through the Mexican border town of and the San Miguel. When he arrives he hears about the two gangs that fight across this land, the Rojo's and theBaxters, so decides to play them against each other and collect a fistful of dollars in the process. The original Spaghetti Western and one of the most famous roles Clint Eastwood has every played. The start of the Dollars trilogy although it may not be the most famous it is defiantly worth some recognition as it is a great film on it own, and is only made better by being part of such an amazing trilogy. Although all the credit can't go to Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood as the film is a westernised version of Yjimbo, a Japanese film about a Ronin instead of a wondering rider. But this does nothing to the films quality as this is a similar case to the Magnificent Seven.
My Rating: ****

Knocked Up

From the parents of the 40 Year Old Virgin (and I know that phrase is used a lot but fuck it, i like it) comes the story of Ben and Alison in Knocked Up. Alison has just received a promotion and to celebrate goes out with her sister to a club where she meets Ben, jump to 8 weeks later and Alison realises she is pregnant and it's Ben's baby. Although the pair have very little in common they decide to go though the pregnancy together. With the help of Ben's friends, Alison's sister and her Husband. And as the baby matures so do Ben and Alison.


Another hilarious film from Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan, with so many laugh out loud moments it's hard to tell what comedy of 2007 can rival it, as this is the best one I've seen all year. Rogan and the rest of the cast take their improvising flares and uses them from start to finish, which makes the film nothing but better and more realistic. This is one of the films of the year that has diefinatly lived up to the hype and I'm hoping that Superbad will be as good. Filled with classic "Apatow" jokes and "Rogan" moments this is one to see this year. From the Munich talk to the no shaving bet this film is funny inside and out.
My Rating: **** & 1/2

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne

And what a good job he has done being Bourne. It all started with The Bourne Identity where Jason Bourne was introduced and now, 5 years later it has all come to an end. Picking up from the last film (The Bourne Supremacy) The Bourne Ultimatum starts as Jason is escaping from the Russian police after a car crash involving a Russian agent. Jump to six weeks later and in London there is a reporter doing a set of stories on Bourne and his source tells him about an project code-named Blackbriar and that this project began with Jason Bourne. As the CIA and Bourne find out about this it is a race to see who will get their hands on the reporter first. Bourne learns more about Balckbriar and is reunited with an old friend as he continues his journey to find out who he really is.

This is the best film in the trilogy with the second following close behind. With wall to wall action and classic Bourne "I'm watching you" scenes and Matt Damon proves that the lines Paul Rudd spoke in The 40 Year Old Virgin are so true, "Y'know, I always thought that Matt Damon was like a Streisand, but he's rocking the shit in this one!". If you haven't seen any of the trilogy well then go out and get the first two watch them and then go the cinema and watch the final film and you'll understand my ranting.
My rating: ****

Killer Movies

Dog Soldiers
Set in the Scottish highlands following a group of British soldiers on a routine military exercise. But when they find a special ops commander dying and only a few "internal" remains of his unit, things start to go wrong and they are chased out of the treeline and onto the road. Here they run into zoologist Megan and she drives them to the local house. With no phone or town for miles around all they can do is sit and wait for their attackers to return and try to survive. Personally I love this film and think it is one of the best werewolf/horror film to date. From writer/director Neil Marshal (The Descent), Dog Soldiers is filled with action, suspense and black comedy. With lines like, "Little pigs, little pigs, we've come to nick ya video" and
Joe: This is bone. This is so fucking bone.
Cooper: Anything else?
Megan: Yeah. What does 'bone' mean?
Spoon: Bone; Bollocks, naff.
Joe: Not. Very. Good.
My rating: ****

Mr. Brooks
Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a successful business man with a loving wife and daughter but on the inside he has a murderous alter ego, Marshall (William Hurt). Brooks is determined to give up killing but his alter ego has other plans. When Brooks is on his final kill, after a 2 year gap, he makes a mistake and is seen by a neighbour (Mr. Smith), but when this neighbour comes to his office and asks Brooks to teach him how to kill, Brooks can not refuse and takes him under his wing. Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) is the Detective on the case of the thumbprint killer (Mr. Brooks) and is also going through a difficult divorce and a criminal know as "The Hangman" escapes as things just seem to get worse for her.
This is a great film with numerous twists and a great script. The humane serial killer is here and his name is Mr. Brooks.
My rating: *** & 1/2

Evil Dead II
Although I had heard great things about this film I had not actually seen it but yesterday that all changed as I was introduced to the Book of the Dead and Ash (Bruce Campbell), the hero of the films. Ash takes his girlfriend to a cabin in the forest and when he finds a tape player with a professor reading from the Book of the Dead on it, an evil force is called up and attacks the couple. After Ash and his girlfriend are attacked he is the only one left alive. When the professor's daughter turns up with an associate, mechanic and his girlfriend at the cabin the evil strikes again. And it is left up to Ash, (with a chainsaw arm and shotgun) and the professor's daughter to destroy the it.
A great classic horror film with action, comedy and frights, left right and center. Although this film hasn't got the best special effects it know that and Sam Rami use it to a somewhat advantage, like a classic B-movie.
My rating: ****

T.V. Movies

Recently there has been quite a few movies on TV some have been good and others not so much. From the stalkings of The Hitcher to the thrill of From Dusk Till Dawn.

The Good
Last week channel 5 had a Stephan King night showing Secret Window and Misery. Both are good films but Misery is superior and a must see for horror & thriller fans.
Secret Window is about a writer who is confronted by a strange man and accused of plagiarism. As the writer, Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), starts to learn more about this stranger he realises that he is not going to be able to just ride it out. His wife begins to get involved and the stranger tell Mort that he has ruined his story. A gripping thriller that keeps you wondering until the end.
My rating: ***
Misery, the film that won Kathy Bates a best actress Oscar and showed me that I never want to have a "number one fan". Writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan) has been in a car accident and Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) has taken him under her care, but as she read his new unpublished book and is unhappy with it we begin to see how much of a fan she really is.
My rating: ****
The Mask of Zorro, although a bit too long this is a pretty good film, with a great soundtrack to boot. Staring Antonio Banderas as the young pupil learning how to be the new and improved Zorro to avenge his brother and Anthony Hopkins teaching him as the experienced, older Zorro, who is set on getting his daughter back from Stuart Wilson. A good film and easy to watch.
My rating: ***
From Dusk Till Dawn, is the first collaboration between future directing pals (Grindhouse) Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino and it is amazing. As the Gecko brothers are on the run from the cops and they need a way to cross the border into Mexico. They then meet the Fuller family and their motor home. Using it as a way to sneak across they get to their meeting place, a bar called the Titty Twister. They are going to be met at dawn outside the bar so they decide to have a drink while they wait. But little do they know, as it gets later the bar gets more and more dangerous.
My rating: ****

The classic suspense horror film The Hitcher, about well a hitchhiker who is crazy and kills people. As Jim Halsey, the young boy (C. Thomas Howell) trying to stay up while late night driving picks up a hitcher (Rutger Hauer). But things take a drastic turn as the Hitcher begins to tell Jim how he's going to cut up his face and kill him. Jim manages to kick him out of the car and drive on. Little does he know that the hitcher was just staring out, as he begins to follow Jim and frame his for murder. With great scenes like the "stretching of Nash" and the introduction of the Hitcher this is classic film and full of suspense, one that everyone should see.
My rating: ****

The Bad
Biker boys is just a really bad version of the Fast and the Furious which isn't that great to start with. The slight difference between them begin that the latter has car and well you can figure it out. A terrible film that should never be watched or shown ever again. That's all I can say.
My rating: *
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Cradle of Life, is the second in the Tomb Raider series and just like Biker Boys is terrible. The first was ok, nothing special but this one just makes me wonder. I was a fan of the games so looked forward to these films but was highly disappointed, I really should have know better there are hardly ever any films that come from games that are any good. With the exceptions of Resident Evil and Street Fighter, although I think I only like that because I know it's oh so bad, he he.
My rating: *

Friday Night Frights at the Somerset House...

Starting last Thursday, with the UK premier of Knocked Up, Somerset House and Film4 have been showing films on a massive screen to hundreds of people.
Last night was the double bill of The Descent and John Carpenters' The Thing and I was lucky enough to be there. As a fan of horror films this was a great night for me.
Rating for night out: *****

The Descent
A British horror about a group of climbers, Holly, Sam, Rebecca, Juno, Sarah & Beth, who go to America to do some exploring in a cave near by. Although when they find out that they, all apart from Juno who arranged the trip, are not in the cave they expected to be in, things start to go horribly wrong. Part of the cave collapses, Sarah believes she see something else in the cave and Holly breaks her leg. As the girls try to survive things just seem to get worse as the Creatures being to appear.
From the writer and director of Dog Soldiers come this great British horror, about survival, friendship and freaky monsters living in caves.One of the best British horrors in a long time.
My rating: ****

John Carpenter's The Thing
A classic horror movie and classic John Carpenter film. In the Antarctic an American research station is infiltrated by and alien that can imitate any living organism. As the crew begins to lose trust in one and other the Thing begins to take over some of the crew and it is up to R. J. MacReady (Kurt Russel) to take control. As the crew come to realise that if it reaches the outside world, the whole world will be infected within years they can no longer wait for spring but they must destroy it and keep it away from the outside world. Another great film from both John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Whatever your favourite horror or John Carpenter film is everyone knows that this film rocks.
My rating: ****

More Than Meets the Eye...

That's the Transformers themselves and the film itself. Although not a massive fan of the toys or the cartoon, not to say I didn't watch it from time to time it's just I don't think I was still watching it after about the age of 6 or 7. Never the less I was still excited about see the new film, that came out last Friday.
The film is set in the present day as the Decepticons ( Megatron, Starscream, Brawl, Bonecrusher, Barricade, Scorponok, Frenzy and Blackout "the bad guys") and the Autobots (Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee, Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide "the good robots") are about to go to war, on our planet no less. Both are looking for the Allspark, a creation that could say the fate of the human race. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is a teenager about to get his first car but what he doesn't realise but the later perfectly phrases is that "I got a car, turned out to be an alien robot. Who knew?". With the help of Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) "The Girl" he gets to know more about the arrival of the Autobots, that are aided by Bumblebee (the Autobot that is Sam's car). Both armies know how to get the Allspark but it is a race against time for both. And with the help of Sam and Mikaela the Autobots have the upper hand. As well as this in the Middle East the Decepticons attack a U.S. base and the survivors of this attack have to get as much info about the new attackers to protect the rest of the world.

Even though Director Micheal Bay has received some uncomplimentary comments about this film as he has changed a few elements, I really enjoyed this film. Maybe because I didn't have the childhood connection to the Transformers but some of the complaints were ridiculous, like "oh my god he added flames to the side of Optimus Prime!!! He ruined my childhood!!!". It's not that much of a change that the character is going to be completely different. I mean it's even the same voice as the original movie in 1986.

This film is action packed and you don't have to be a Transformers fan to understand and really love it. It's the best film of the summer and it could even be the best film of the year.
My rating: ****

Photos, from top to bottom: The cast and their director (Shia LeBeouf, Michael Bay, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel) at the London Premier, Mikaela (Fox) working under Bumblebee's hood and one of the many promo posters.