Reviews

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood. Just saying the name of the movie already makes you think that there is going to be blood spilt. Well, why you are correct, it’s much more of the Earth’s blood than anything else. Paul Thomas Anderson directs this American tale of oil prospector, Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day-Lewis) and his son and partner, H.W. Plainview(Dillion Freasier) as they attempt to make money off of said oil.

The movie starts off with the trial and tribulations of Daniel Plainview and his attempt to strike it rich on oil. In the process he goes through hell but slowly but surely he manages a group and does strike it rich. After that, Daniel is approached by a man claiming to know of a place in California that is rich with oil.

This is where the movie gets really interesting. Daniel and his son, H.W. arrive in Little Boston, California to see a small town. It is here where they meet the Sunday family and the young preacher Eli Sunday(Paul Dano). Eli and Daniel have their scuffles and the problems they cause are played out onto themselves.

Daniel Day-Lewis is powerful in his role. The way he manipulates the small town into letting him buy their land so he can become rich is astounding. He is also menacing and as the character states himself, “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.” There lies the problem between him and Paul Dano’s Eli.

Under most circumstances movies that rely on character studies get rather tedious and boring after awhile but Paul Thomas Anderson along with Daniel Day-Lewis and crew manage to keep you on your toes and interested. Paul Dano deserves a nod for his work as the preacher Eli Sunday but he still has many years to perfect his craft. I have no gripe with this movie and the ending of it does not take away from it at all. Instead it left me satisfied, something No Country For Old Men couldn’t do.

All in all, this movie was my favorite of 2007 and until I see any others from 2007, this is the daddy of that year. Not only that, but 2007 seemed to be the year of the western and that makes me happy. So I encourage all of you to find this movie and watch it or I will drink you milkshake.

4.6/5

Fight Club
“I know this because Tyler knows this.”

That wall is such a liar.

Fight Club, release in 1999, that means this movie is nearly a decade old and the fact that it seems timeless is a testament of the quality of it. It stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter and is directed by David Fincher. To say this movie is the definitive guy movie may be an overstatement to some people but in all reality it’s as equal as all other great guy movies.

The story follows the Narrator(Edward Norton) as he suffers from insomnia from his job at one of the big three automotive companies investigating car accidents. To cure his insomnia he finds going to meetings for testicular cancer and other diseases very relaxing. But then enter Marla Singer(Helena Bonham Carter) and once again Narrator is back down insomnia lane. While on a plane ride back he meets soap salesman by the name of Tyler Durden(Brad Pitt) and that is when the fun begins.

The cinematography of this movie really makes it that much better. Because as we are getting this glimpse into a dark world, we see it as gritty and dirty and if were to see it any other way this movie would be any good at all. David Fincher made Se7en the same way and it shows that the style of the movie works as long as the story is the same style.

Of course, as many already know, things are not what they seem and things go haywire and the ending is among the best ever. But I’m not going to ruin anybody’s viewing pleasure. Edward Norton plays the Narrator well because you can slowly see the build of anger, frustration, and jealously slowly overwhelm him as seen by Angel Face(Jared Leto) getting totally demolished.

But Norton isn’t the only one who puts on a good performance. You got Brad Pitt putting out the one of his best performances as the cocky and confident Durden, pretty much the opposite of Norton’s role. And of course Helena Bonham Carter is pretty much going to hit her strides in every movie and in this she does dick not disappoint serving as the catalyst for the Narrator to meet Tyler Durden. Also pulling in great performances is Meatloaf as Robert Paulson and Holt McCallany.

To conclude, this movie is a classic and the fact it wasn’t nominated for any kind of Oscar except Best Effects, sound effects editing at that, is a shame. Any movie that can be gritty, dark, and depressing and still be an upbeat one all at the same time should be commended. Obviously, people didn’t listen to the first rule.

“Big guy, big reach. Skinny guys fight ’til they’re burger.”

Back To The Future
“Time circuits on. Engine running. Flux Capacitor… fluxxing. All right!”

Pre or post Parkinson’s?

This movie came out in 1985, the year I was born so naturally I didn’t have any memories of actually watching the first time but I was also told by my mom that I always asked to watched three movies as a young’n. Back To The Future was one of them. I’ve own this movie on VHS, DVD, and I owned a bunch of the merchandise. To say this movie was an influence in my life is an understatement.

The movie focuses on Marty McFly, who is played by Michael J. Fox, the 80’s teen movie star king. Marty is friends with the local insane scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown(Christopher Lloyd) who reveals to Marty he has made a time machine…in the form of a DeLorean. It’s also powered by a flux capacitor and plutonium which was stolen by Doc from a group of Libyan nationalists. Obvisouly, that’s no good.

So the Libyans shoot up Doc and McFly escapes by getting in the time machine and going to 1955. There he messes with the space time continuum and hilarty ensues. The movie is a non-stop action movie and it was rare to see that in PG movie. The movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis and runs 116 minutes.

The movie gets really good when his own mom(Lea Thompson) starts to fall in love with Marty after she runs into him in her car which incidentally she should have ran into Geore(Crispin Glover), Marty’s father. So Marty finds Doc in the past and the two have to fix not only the DeLorean but Marty’s future as well.

The main villain in this movie is the dopehead, Biff(Thomas F. Wilson), who hates every McFly ever created. He complicates the situation and in turn makes Marty’s mom falls in love with him more. The cast as whole, gives out a solid performance and in turns makes the movie better.

There would be two sequels to this movie which I both owned as well but the other two are nowhere near as good as this one even though it goes to the future where he does the exact same shtick as he did in the past. And the third, we’ll just not talk about the third.

Without this movie, we would have no other great Michael J. Fox movies. We would have no other time travel movies and we would have no great lines from Biff. Overall, this movie was influential and ground breaking and will always be a part of movie history as one of the bests.

“Make like a tree and split.”

Taxi Driver
“I’m no pusher. I never have pushed..”

This is a review I did for No Pants Provided that will be up there soon on their Top 50 Movies countdown. I hope you enjoys it.

Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese have a knack as being one of, if not, the best actor/director duo. But this was the movie that made it abundantly clear. It not only serves up a stellar all around cast with Cybill Shepherd, a young Jodi Foster, Peter Boyle, and Harvey Keitel but it also stands the test of time.

It is about, Travis Bickle(Robert DeNiro), a Vietnam veteran who works as a nightshift taxi cab driver. On his nightly drives he becomes increasingly sickened by the nasty people and vileness of the prostitution running rampant in New York. In the process he manages to befriend a preteen prostitute in the name of Iris(Jodie Foster), go utterly insane and in the end figure that everything he did was worth it.

I first saw this movie in 1995 when my dad had brought back home a yard sale box of VHS tapes. I had no clue what half of the movies were but he handed them over to me at the age of twelve. Most of these movies were the “R” rating variety. In this box I saw movies like Full Metal Jacket, Enter The Dragon, and Taxi Driver. This was the first of the movies I watched and I must say it blew me away as a child and it still blows me away every time I see Travis Bickle standing outside of the rally for Senator Palantine(Leonard Harris) and the camera scrolls up. Right there you know, even though you can sympathize with Travis, that he is an unstable man and the actions he could commit would ruin him.

But Scorsese does a nice job of giving a trip into the mind of Travis Bickle with the voiceovers but we don’t get the full sense of everything going on keeping the movie mysterious and distant. With movies like Taxi Driver the more mysterious it is the better it makes it. This is, to me, DeNiro’s finest performance I have seen and many actors have strived to be what DeNiro is in this movie. He set the tone for dramatic actors with this performance.

The last and final reason I love this movie is that after the climax you think that the movie is going to drive off into the expected but it doesn’t. Instead, it takes you down a path that really makes you enjoy this movie on the repeated viewings. It stands the test of time and Taxi Driver is a must watch for any movie buff or any casual movie goer.

“I’m waiting for the sun to shine.”