Gangster Squad

Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone, & Ryan Gosling

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

This film has received many bad reviews, but not because it's a bad movie. The truth is it's just not what people expected it to be. When you hear about a mafia movie, you expect an epic, inside look like with Goodfellas or Casino, but Gangster Squad is from the cops point of view and more like The Untouchables. Gangster Squad is based on a novel and is about an off the books LAPD operation aimed at bringing down Micky Cohen. In the 1940s, LA had a growing mafia problem on it's hands, and Mickey Cohen was set to become the next Al Capone. Unbeknownst for decades, the LAPD sent a group of cops, who didn't play by the book, after Cohen and by going after his business interests, they attempt to destroy his growing empire. The story is a great one, well deserving of a film adaptation, but what people didn't like was how it turned into an action film. This story has all the makings of an epic mafia drama, an you will be hard pressed to find a better performance than the one Sean Penn gives as Mickey Cohen. It was somewhat disappointing that they didn't get more into Cohen and his operation, but for what it was, it was a great film. As for the cast, it features some of Hollywood's best an brightest as old school meets the up and coming stars of the big screen. Every one from the stars to the ancillary characters give Oscar worthy performances that will be sadly overlooked. because of the nature of the film. If you're looking for a classic mob drama, you're going to be disappointed, but if you want to see an action packed cop movie with a mob element, then Gangster Squad is the film for you.

The Thirteenth Floor

Starring: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, & Vincent D'Onofrio

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Thirteenth Floor was Columbia Pictures answer to the Matrix and is based on the award winning 1964 Sci-Fi novel, Simulacron 3 by Daniel Galouye. I have known about this movie for a long time, but was always hesitant to see it, because when something like this appears in theaters 6 months after a groundbreaking film like the Matrix, you fully expect it to be a complete rip off. I was sitting at home flipping through the channels and saw the Matrix on, but I didn't wanna see it for the millionth time and decided to see if the Thirteenth Floor was streaming and sure it enough it was, and what a terrific story it turned out to be! In the year 2000, scientists have found a way to transfer a persons consciousness into a fully interactive computer program which has the potential to replace video games. The creator however has discovered a major problem with the system and is found dead. The second in charge of the project soon learns the answer to this brutal murder appears in the simulator, which is a replica of 1937. The story is absolutely ingenious and I loved how the film jumps between present day and the 1930s, it was like watching two stories at once that you knew would eventually come together. Craig Bierko stars in what turns out to be one of his few leading roles and he's just terrific. I remember him as the bad guy in the Long Kiss Goodnight and I thought he was great then, and he's great now. To make the cast even stronger, they take the intense Bierko and pair him with Law & Order's Vincent D'Onofrio, who is quite possibly the most intense actor in Hollywood. To top the whole thing off, this movie has a huge twist in the end, a twist that will make a lot of people wonder about the true nature of their own reality. The Thirteenth Floor is a fresh story with an amazing cast that will make you think, movies like this don't come along as often as they should!

This is our 400th Review!!!

Altered

Starring: Brad Henke, Adam Kaufman, & James Gammon

Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

If Seinfeld is the show about nothing, Altered is the movie about nothing. These four friends were abducted by aliens fifteen years earlier, so these geniuses decide to get revenge by kidnapping one of the aliens. They accomplish their goal, but once they do, they don't know what to do with it and lock it in the garage. After that it becomes a slasher film where nothing significant really happens. Honestly, they kidnapped this thing and then don't know what to do with it, so then what's the point? To make things worse, we never see the abduction or find out what exactly happened to them up there. It's just an extremely dark and confusing hunting scene, which believe it or not features a harpoon, and then there is nothing else. As for the acting it is just as inconsistent as the story! One minute their going crazy, trying to kill each other and the next they're crying about old times, it's ridiculous! James Gammon is the only name in this thing, playing the sheriff in one of his last roles. The guys are so intimidated by the sheriff and when we finally see him, we find out he's this little eighty year old guy, are you kidding me? This movie is a complete disaster and an utter waste of time. Being that it's from the writer/director of The Blair Witch Project, I was expecting something as groundbreaking as that was, unfortunately, Altered isn't it and there is a good reason why you've probably never heard of it.

2013 Academy Award Nominations!

Nominees For The 85th Annual Academy Awards!!!

 

Best Picture

"Argo"
"Amour"
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
"Les Miserables"
"Lincoln"
"Zero Dark Thirty"
"Life of Pi"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Django Unchained"

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis -- "Lincoln"
Bradley Cooper -- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Joaquin Phoenix -- "The Master"
Denzel Washington -- "Flight"
Hugh Jackman -- "Les Miserables"

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain -- "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence -- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva -- "Amour"
Quvenzhane Wallis -- "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Naomi Watts -- "The Impossible"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Philip Seymour Hoffman -- "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones -- "Lincoln"
Robert De Niro -- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Alan Arkin -- "Argo"
Christoph Waltz -- "Django Unchained"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams -- "The Master"
Anne Hathaway -- "Les Miserables"
Sally Field -- "Lincoln"
Helen Hunt -- "The Sessions"
Jacki Weaver -- "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best Director

Michael Haneke -- "Amour"
Steven Spielberg -- "Lincoln"
David O. Russell -- "Silver Linings Playbook"
Ang Lee -- "Life of Pi"
Benh Zeitlin -- "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature

"Brave"
"Frankenweenie"
"Wreck-It Ralph"
"ParaNorman"
"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"

Best Animated Short Film

"Adam and Dog"
"Combustible"
"The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare"
"Paperman"
"Tram"

Best Cinematography

Seamus McGarvey -- "Anna Karenina"
Claudio Miranda -- "Life of Pi"
Roger Deakins -- "Skyfall"
Robert Richardson -- "Django Unchained"
Janusz Kaminski -- "Lincoln"

Best Costume Design

Jacqueline Durran -- "Anna Karenina"
Paco Delgado -- "Les Miserables"
Joanna Johnston -- "Lincoln"
Eiko Ishioka -- "Mirror Mirror"
Colleen Atwood -- "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature

"The Gatekeepers"
"How to Survive a Plague"
"The Invisible War"
"Searching for Sugar Man"
"5 Broken Cameras"

Best Documentary Short

"Mondays at Racine"
"Inocente"
"Kings Point"
"Open Heart"
"Redemption"

Best Film Editing

William Goldberg -- "Argo"
Michael Kahn -- "Lincoln"
Tim Squyres -- "Life of Pi"
Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg -- "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers -- "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best Foreign Language Film

"Amour"
"Kon-Tiki"
"No"
"A Royal Affair"
"War Witch"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
"Les Miserables"
"Hitchcock"

Best Original Score

Alexandre Desplat -- "Argo"
Dario Marianelli -- "Anna Karenina"
Mychael Danna -- "Life of Pi"
John Williams-- "Lincoln"
Thomas Newman -- "Skyfall"

Best Original Song

"Before My Time" -- J. Ralph "Chasing Ice"
"Suddenly" -- Claude-Michel Schönberg from "Les Miserables"
"Skyfall" -- Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth from "Skyfall"
"Pi's Lullaby" -- Mychael Danna from "Life of Pi"
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend" -- Walter Murphy from "Ted"

Best Production Design

Sarah Greenwood -- "Anna Karenina"
David Gropman -- "Life of Pi"
Rick Carter, Jim Erickson and Peter T. Frank -- "Lincoln"
Eve Stewart -- "Les Miserables"
Dan Hennah and Ra Vincent -- "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

Best Sound Editing

"Argo"
"Life of Pi"
"Skyfall"
"Django Unchained"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Sound Mixing

"Argo"
"Les Miserables"
"Skyfall"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"

Best Visual Effects

"Marvel's The Avengers"
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
"Life of Pi"
"Prometheus"
"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Adapted Screenplay

Tony Kushner -- "Lincoln"
Chris Terrio -- "Argo"
David O. Russell -- "Silver Linings Playbook"
David Magee -- "Life of Pi"
Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar -- "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay

Mark Boal -- "Zero Dark Thirty"
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola -- "Moonrise Kingdom"
Michael Hakeke -- "Amour"
Quentin Tarentino -- "Django Unchained"
John Gatins -- "Flight"

The Air I Breathe

Starring: Andy Garcia, Brendan Fraser, & Sarah Michelle Gellar

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I really didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did, after all several critics had refereed to is as a tame re-packaging of Pulp Fiction. The film is broken up into four parts that are out of order, and the characters all do eventually interact, there is also a mafia angle to the film, but overall besides the way things were laid out, I didn't really draw much of a comparison to Pulp Fiction. The stories all involve these peoples interactions with the mob, but they're all for different reasons and all have different outcomes. Andy Garcia is the boss, of course, always the perfect choice for a gangster or ruthless leader, and you get from him what's expected. What isn't expected is the tremendous performance of Brendan Fraser. I am not a fan and have never really considered him anything but a mediocre comedic actor, but after seeing The Air I Breathe, my opinion of him was definitely swayed. While watching the pieces, I knew they would somehow come together, but the way it was done was completely unpredictable and really something to watch. The film had a huge cast, with a ton of cameos, and just as many twists and turns. What I was expecting was far different from what I saw and I was more than happy with the way the film was done. I think if the film had been done in the traditional model of storytelling, it wouldn't have had as big of an impact.

A Bronx Tale

Starring: Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, & Lillo Brancato

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

For a long time, A Bronx Tale had distribution problems, was out of print, and was widely unavailable. For those reasons, I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. Watching it again years later, not only did I realize just how good a movie it is, but I also found that I took a lot more out of it. While being widely considered as one of the best mafia movies of all time, A Bronx Tale actually has a deeper meaning, which is not to waste the talent you have in the time you are given. I was also surprised to learn that this story is in fact the true story of Chazz Palminteri's childhood, with Chazz being a nickname for Calogero. For those of you who don't know the story, it's about the son of a bus driver, who grows up in the Bronx, right down the block from a mafia hangout. While this boy learns different things from his real family and his mafia family, who are always at odds, they actually both want the same things for this kid. A Bronx Tale isn't just another gangster movie, there is some of that, but it's really an inspirational coming of age tale that I found to be very eye opening. The cast is of course fantastic, featuring Robert De Niro, who directs and stars in the film, along with Palminteri, who wrote the film. The true irony of A Bronx Tale is surrounded by the true story of Lillo Brancato, the boy who plays Calogero. As I said the story is about discovering right from wrong and not wasting your talent, something Brancato did when he was convicted of an armed robbery, which led to the death of an off-duty police officer. There are many sides to that, but I felt it necessary to mention how ironic it is that the message of the film is actually lost on one it's stars. In closing, A Bronx Tale really is a lost gem, that lives up to all the hype, and I hope that now that's streaming on Netflix, a whole new generation will be exposed to the message it puts out there for them to hear.

I Sell The Dead

Starring: Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, & Daniel Manche

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

In this dark, 18th century comedy, Dominic Monaghan stars as a grave robber and accused murderer, who by his own admission, is not a great guy. The plot of this film is absolutely brilliant and they could have done so much with it, but quickly it turned from the improbably to the ridiculously stupid. In the beginning, Arthur Blake (Monaghan), sits down with a priest to tell his story and give a voice his last words. Blake starts to tell his story about how at a young age, his mother forced him into this line of work. That part of the movie is great, and if they would have continued along those lines, this film would have been amazing, unfortunately, Blake grows up, and that's when things start getting weird. First, they find a zombie, a twist in the story I suspected might be coming. It was pretty lame, but was done in a humorous way, which made it a little easier to swallow. From that point on, the film gets ridiculous, as the pair has run-ins with rival gangs of grave robbers and even aliens. What started out as a very imaginative film turned into a big confusing mess. The story just goes off in so many different directions and gets so far away from the original plot, that it quickly becomes almost unwatchable. Monaghan is terrific and continues to be an extremely underrated actor. We all know him from Lost and Lord of The Rings, but only as an ancillary character, but in I Sell The Dead, Monaghan shows that he is far too good to spend his career as a sidekick. I loved the idea and I really wanted to like this film, but the truth is I didn't. After the first half-hour, there really isn't anything worth watching.