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Cast Away (2000)
Cast Away (2000)
2000 | Action, Drama
Tom Hanks (0 more)
Dialog, or lack thereof (1 more)
Seafood Buffets
It's a good time for a Fed Ex sponsored vacation to a remote island.
Still a great film, and really well done. Tom Hanks is amazing, and Helen Hunt does a great job with her small part.

Here's an alternate movie poster....
  
Moana (2016)
Moana (2016)
2016 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy
a strong believable female lead. (1 more)
the love and depiction of the physical environment
the chicken (0 more)
Really enjoyed this one. A truly great modern Disney film.
I fell in love with this film, and I waited to see it. I saved it for my flight to Hawaii and I'm glad I did.... Here's an amazing movie poster fom Tom Whalen, one of my favorite alternate movie poster designers.
  
Robin Hood (Disney) (1973)
Robin Hood (Disney) (1973)
1973 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy
The soundtrack is killer (0 more)
A grand adventure that is fitting of the time, and great animation as well
I loved this one as a kid, and it still brings a smile to my face. here's a great alternate movie poster from Tom Whalen as well.
  
The Shining (1980)
The Shining (1980)
1980 | Horror
the visual tricks to keep you feeling unsettled (1 more)
So much nightmare worthy material
I don't think it's a very good story. (0 more)
The Shining is a masterpiece is a lot of ways, Stanly Kubrick is Amazing
an Iconic Film. A must for the Horror fan. I highly recommend seeing the documentary on the visual tricks the film used, like the layout of the building and how it's impossible to actually be the way it is. Plus here's a alternate movie poster from Tom Whalen, one of my favorite movie poster creators.
  
Life Of Pi (2012)
Life Of Pi (2012)
2012 | Adventure, Drama
Visuals (0 more)
Visually amazing, but the book is much better.
Internal dialog is something that can't be shown in a movie, so it's always a crappy voiceover. Read the book. do yourself that favor even if you've seen the movie, it won't really be a spoiler. I've forgotten almost the entire movie anyway. Here's a alternate movie poster from Tom Whalen
  
Robo Vampire (1988)
Robo Vampire (1988)
1988 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
6
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
Drug baron Mr Young is fed up with Narcotics agent Tom Wilde interfering with his plans so he hires a Taoist monk to train a vampire to kill him. After his death Tom is rebuilt as an Android Robot and sent on a mission to help rescue a captured officer.
The cover/poster art would have us believe that this is a Robocop vs vampire movie and I suppose that it is in the looses possible sense. First off this is low budget Hong Kong Jiangshi (rotting corpse) movie with added cyborg (Sorry Android Robot) so the vampires are of the hopping type not the western 'gentleman'.
I've given this film a 6 on the basis that it's so bad it's good. Most of the vampires are ok and look like the standard hopping type but the lead vampire seems to be wearing a gorilla mask to make it look rotten. No one bleeds when shot and it's obvious when dummies are used instead of stun doubles . Even taking this into account I would have given Robo Vampire a higher rating but it gets hard to follow. There are two story-lines to follow, the rescue of Sophie, an undercover agent that has been kidnapped and the Tom-robot vs the vampire's and ghost. And this is the first confusing part of the plot. Tom's creators say that he is to be sent on the rescue mission but he is never with the rescue party. Instead he goes off to fight the vampire. So the film switches between the rescue and Tom vs the vampires. Even this wouldn't be a problem except that the story-lines seem to continue even when we're not watching. For example, the rescue party are heading towards the camp with baddies jumping out at them from all directions. The we switch to Robo and when we switch back to the rescue two of the party are swimming in a lake with no sign of any of the others and end up getting captured, then back to Robo, then back the rest of the rescue party who don't even acknowledged that two of their party are missing but aren't surprised when they see them as prisoners. This sort of thing happens a lot, it's almost as if some one just cut out random scenes. Characters also just seem to appear with no introduction and switch sides with no seeming reason.
  
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
2015 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Charlize Theron (4 more)
Tom Hardy
The Sets and the Crazy Cars
This wild conjured apocalyptic world they created.
Driving thru hell and back.
An Adrenaline ride filled with nitrous oxide, and greasepaint galone...
My wife hates this film, but I loved it.... she normally has great taste. This time I respectfully disagree...

   I didn't expect much of this film and it completely blew me ou of the water, I was amazed and I'm not the only one: In a Cannes press conference for the movie, Tom Hardy apologized to George Miller for the reportedly complicated relationship between the star and the director during filming. He stated: "There was no way, I mean, I have to apologize to you because I got frustrated. There was no way George could have explained what he could see in the sand when we were out there. Because of the due diligence that was required to make everything safe and so simple, what I saw was a relentless barrage of complexities, simplified for this fairly linear story. I knew he was brilliant, but I didn't know how brilliant until I saw it. So, my first reaction was 'Oh my god, I owe George an apology for being so myopic'." Charlize Theron mentioned similar experiences where she had no idea what she was filming, up to the point where she would ask the director what the hell he was doing. In the end, seeing the finished film greatly exceeded her expectations as well.


  Give it a shot... it won an Oscar for gawds sake...


  plus an alternate movie poster for your enjoyment.
  
Top Gun (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
1986 | Action, Drama
Karaoke scenes (5 more)
Insisting on a shower
Taking me to bed before you lose me forever
Having goose talk to you....
Val Kilmer is awesome, despite not wanting to even be in it, had to for contractual reasons... it's one of his all time best.
The "Danger Zone" soundtrack
A Modern Classic, and Tom Cruise's best work.
this is an 80's classic, a movies movie. Cinema perfection. It embodies a time with no excuses, and really delivers on every level. want to know how quotable this movie is: The real Top Gun School imposes a five dollar fine to anyone in the staff that quotes the movie.

Val Kilmer is amazing: When the guys, as students, were first being spoken to by Charlie in the hanger, Maverick explains that he gave "the bird" to a MiG. She asks how he saw the MiG up close, and he says he was flying inverted. Right then, Ice coughs "bullshit" and the guys laughed. The "bullshit" line was ad libbed by Val Kilmer, and everyone's reactions are genuine.


Also a little known fat.No one had ever "buzzed the tower" at Miramar before. The Navy pilots, who were flying the scenes for the film, drew straws to see who would get to do it. It went to Lieutenant Commander Lloyd "Bozo" Abel. Michael Ironside just happened to be at the hangar that day, and the plane flew low enough to where he could actually see into the cockpit as it flew by. He said it was one of the most spectacular things he'd ever seen.


  As is this movie good sir... as is this movie....


Also here is an awesome alternate movie poster for your enjoyment. I hope it holds you over until Top Gun 2 comes out.
  
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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) in Movies

Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Jul 9, 2020)  
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Drama, Western
First up, the latest Coen Brothers effort, the slightly offputtingly titled The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. I mean, it sounds like a working title at best, and doesn’t exactly draw you in. Oh, and it’s a Western, and Tim Blake Nelson sings in it – those Coen’s never did much care about box office, huh? And what’s more it is an anthology film; five or six short vignettes vaguely set in the same dusty landscape of pre industrial America.

I didn’t even know it was an anthology from the trailer, or poster. I thought the entire thing was about the crooning Blake Nelson, and as much as I love the Coen’s back catalogue, I wasn’t overly keen. Then the reviews, and a few Oscar nominations made me sit up a bit, feeling a bit silly that I had ever doubted the partnership that has offered the most consistently interesting off-kilter films of the last 40 years.

Immediately, I was struck by two things: a sense of a whimsical mood, and a breathtaking cinematography capturing a landscape. This was definitely a Coen film. I found myself enjoying the humour and inventiveness effortlessly. And then being surprised to find we were moving on to another story before even 15 minutes had passed!

A bit with James Franco and an unfortunate lynch mob / hanging situation; a wry piece about Tom Waits panning for gold and protecting his find; a more serious (and mood breakingly longer) piece about an unlikely love between a worldly wagon trainer and a naive young woman; and finally something like a Western ghost story as strangers talk inside a carriage heading to a mysterious location. And with a somewhat anti-climactic end… we were out. Did I miss something? Then it must have been forgettable.

I liked all the sections to degrees, and admired how they were all unique but dovetailed together well. There is certainly plenty to enjoy and even love in this strange experiment of a film. The Tom Waits section was my favourite, and the long wagon train section my least favourite, in simple terms.

However the overall impression is that it somehow isn’t quite fully there… something doesn’t hold it together as a complete film. It is hard to put your finger on it, but it is something to do with the story arc in terms of energy. It would maybe have been better served with a more upbeat climax. But who am I to question these guys?

Would I watch it again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to everyone? With caution, yeah sure. Will I be adding it to any best of lists any time soon? Capagorically not. Enjoy it for what it is. Even watch each piece in isolation maybe. Look in wonder at how Joel and Ethan can still frame an image or capture a detail. And then let it fly away, as inconsequential as a dream.
  
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Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Bronson (2009) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019 (Updated Jun 20, 2019)  
Bronson (2009)
Bronson (2009)
2009 | Action, Drama
Michael Peterson has always wanted to be famous, but didn't really have any potential to be much of anything. So he robbed a post office and received a seven year sentence. That seven years soon became over thirty and the majority of it was spent in solitary confinement. It was during this time that Michael Peterson let his alter-ego, Charles Bronson, take over. During his multi-year prison sentence, Peterson became violent and unpredictable. To this day, he's still considered to be Britain's most famous prisoner. Michael Peterson was no more and Charles Bronson was all that remained.

Bronson is one of the more interesting films I've had the pleasure of sitting through as of late. In the trailer (and movie poster), a quote can be seen where a reviewer called the film, "A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century." That quote is really spot-on. There is a big Clockwork Orange influence in this film. While Michael Peterson narrates the entire film, the film jumps between what actually happened and Peterson performing in front of an audience in a rather large theater. The make-up, the setting, and Hardy's performance are all very Clockwork Orange-esque. Another film that came to mind was Snatch. The action sequences and a lot of the humor gave off the same kind of vibe Guy Ritchie's film did. Bronson is very much its own film, but shares the same beloved qualities of the films mentioned.

Bronson is what it is because of Tom Hardy's performance. He's guiding you through his life, his dreams, and his goals while you're with him the duration of the film, so it's only logical that he steals the show since he gets the most screen time. The fact that he doesn't waste any of it is something to be proud of though. He makes what would be a rather dismal story entertaining, exciting, and worth sitting through. Hardy's performance is the highlight of the film. There's really no questioning that.

Bronson was really a sleeper hit for me since its premise didn't interest me at all, but it wound up luring me in with its trailer. It's a very unorthodox type of film that isn't like many other films out there. Films like Bronson think outside the box of normal cinema and is the type of gem you'd hope to find whenever you journey out to your favorite theater. If you're looking for a film that is a knock-down-drag-out, eccentric, thrill-ride with a strong lead actor performance, then look no further. Bronson is exactly what you're looking for.