Blu-ray thumbs

[Johann]

UNFORGIVEN (1992)


"I'm here to kill you Little Bill. For what you did to Ned".


Clint Eastwood's masterpiece.
See it at all costs. It's the story of a farmer with a bad past who does one more killing job for money.
This won 4 Oscars, including best picture and director and supporting actor for Gene Hackman.
Hackman is thoroughly loathsome as Sherriff "Little Bill" Daggett.
Morgan Freeman shines as Ned, Eastwood's pal. And even the guy who plays the Schofield Kid is great.
One of the best westerns you'll ever see.

[Johann]

TAKERS (2010)



One of the best heist films you'll ever see.
A group of professional bank robbers pull off spectacular robberies- the opening one is great, the last one unbelievable.
Idris Elba is the leader, and they make a hasty plan with "Ghost", an ex-con to pull off a major heist involving C-4 and armoured trucks. Problem is Ghost involves too many people, including the russian mob. The heist gets pulled off, but not without hitches; 2 LAPD cops are on their trail and the russians are seriously pissed off, leading to a bombastic (slow-motion!) shootout at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Of note is a really exciting hot pursuit chase of Chris Brown- very well shot and edited!
Well worth your time.
I'd never heard of this film until today.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm glad you liked it. I went to it for the cast which included Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon. It didn't get particularly good reviews at the time, to put it mildly: Metascroe 45%.

[Johann]

It was great. Hayden Christensen proves he can do more than play a Jedi. Matt Dillon is the big star cop, and what happens to him at the end surprised me- the movie did not end the way I thought it would!

[Johann]

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014)



This is a marvellous comedy from the great Wes Anderson.
F. Murray Abraham stars and narrates his version of the history of the GB hotel.
Ralph Fiennes is Mr. Gustave, the effete and weird concierge (?), and we get a hilarious and quirky cavalcade of episodes he's involved in.
This film is impeccably shot, with neat camera tricks and perfect compositions- it looks like a trillion bucks on blu-ray. Wes Anderson is a singular genius, nobody makes a movie like him.
His films have the same consciousness as Kubrick had, and the editing is fast-paced. It may bowl a viewer over.
Plenty of stars here: Jude Law, Ed Norton, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum and Adrien Brody.
Can't recommend it enough.

[Johann]

CONTACT (1997)




An interesting film that fictionalizes making first contact with alien intelligence.
Jodie Foster stars as Ellie, a gifted woman who monitors radio emissions in Puerto Rico.
Her small team makes first contact and records it, which has an embedded video clip of Adolph Hitler's speech at the 1936 Berlin Games.
Matthew McConaughey is the love interest, a "Man of the Cloth without the cloth", and he serves as the moral compass, because Ellie doesn't believe in God.
Long story short, she's selected to travel light years in a gimballed machine financed by the great John Hurt.
Thought-provoking movie based on Carl Sagan's book of the same name.

[Johann]

PHANTOM THREAD (2017)



Suave masterpiece from P.T. Anderson.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Woodcock, a famous dress maker/designer in 1950's London.
He never married, and he meets his muse, Alma, who is working as a waitress.
He's got exacting standards and can be gruff and rude. He resists the love from Alma
And she ultimately poisons him. Twice.
Beautifully shot on film and impeccably acted, it proves Anderson can do anything.

[Johann]

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (2013)



The Coen bros. gave Oscar Isaac his big break.
This movie is great, but kinda bleak. It's one week in the life of Llewyn Davis, singer/songwriter in 1961.
All songs are performed live, and The Village in NYC is the place to be.
Llewyn has a record recorded, but it isn't selling. He's sleeping on friends' couches, aimlessly making his way.
The Coens admitted that the film has no plot, hence them adding scenes with the cat...
This won the Grand Prix at Cannes and I enjoyed the music.
Also starring Carey Mulligan, Adam Driver, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman.

[Chris Knipp]

OSCAR ISAAC IN THE COEN BROTHERS' INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

This was featured at the 2013 NYFF, which I covered for Filmleaf. Find it HERE. The photo above and caption are from that coverage.
It certainly did put Oscar Isaac on the map (but who really knows him now?) and it was exciting to have the Coen bros. at the press screening. But it's their most blah movie, isn't it? Imagine it winning a big prize at Cannes! The French see something I don't see. I wrote then "beware -- it's a head-scratcher and a bit of a downer, despite its mild manner." Loosely based on Dave von Ronk. But this was when Bob Dylan was living on West Fourth Street in the Village, which I've just been reading about. I'd rather see something about him.

[Johann]

You were right. It is a downer. It was criticized for deadening the liveliness of the Village back then.
It was a much happier time and place.
I agree a movie about Dylan's time there would be better.
I'm not jazzed to see it again but it was worth a one-time watch.

[Johann]

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (2017)



Excellent film with wild twists and turns from Martin McDonough.
Frances McDormand stars as a grieving mother to a daughter who was raped and murdered.
She's frustrated with the police over the lack of an arrest, and she puts up incendiary ads on 3 dilapidated billboards to express her outrage.
The police chief is Woody Harrelson, and he says the billboards are unfair, that there's been no break in the case. The townsfolk seemingly side with the Chief, who also is dying of cancer.
In a wild twist, he commits suicide and leaves notes, saying he paid for the next month for the billboards to be up. There's another angle with a corrupt cop named Jason Dixon, who changes his ways after a series of unfortunate events.
Crazy movie with totally surprising plot twists- the ending is unexpected for sure.

[Chris Knipp]

Martin McDonagh made his name originally as a playwright and I'm not as convinced by his movies, also not a fan of Frances. I felt he was out of his element here doing a story set outside the UK.

[Johann]

I would never have known he was British-seemed like a U.S. production all the way.
I loved the twists and turns. If a movie is so unpredictable that I can’t see things coming, I’m all for it.

[Chris Knipp]

But you're not American. To me it rang false. He is English-born Irish. I guess I'm an outlander. But to me his plays are far better than his films. People love IN BRUGES. I thought A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE rang false when I saw it too, due to the American setting. You can't just change cultures like turning a switch. (Maybe in absurdist drama, you can.)

He started his career in the Royal National Theatre with The Pillowman in 2003. He has since written many plays which have been produced on the West End and on Broadway. His acclaimed plays include The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996), The Cripple of Inishmaan (1996), The Lonesome West (1997), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001), A Behanding in Spokane (2010), and Hangmen (2015).

The first thing I saw was THE LIEUTENANT OF INNISHMORE in London with an English friend attuned to what's going on in the theater. THE PILLOWMAN seems a lot more serious. It's a different kind of thing.

THE PILLOWMAN is brilliant. I saw it on Broadway back then. He's had a hard time maintaining the level of his early plays in what's come later. That's my two cents. He's talented. I'll grant you that. And for me to debunk is films when he got the Oscar for best live action short film in 2004 is going against the facts.

[Johann]

I’d never heard of him.
The acting won Oscars, and his short film SIX SHOOTER is a bonus on the blu-ray.
It stars Brendan Gleason and I didn’t find it that great.