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Reviews
The Departed (2006)
Great Acting, Bad Writing,
Great acting. Jack N. is good just reading a phone book and Caprio did his best work. Writing seemed sloppy and contrived. Editing had some bad cuts. At times it seemed they were racing against a schedule to complete the film. I think Scorcese has seen too many Tarantino movies. All the shooting, blood, dead bodies and gore was a bit over the top. Departed is not one of his best works. But what the heck, I liked it, but it didn't live up to the hype. The movie is based on the career of Whitey Bulger, a Boston mobster, who got away with scores of crime because he was an FBI informant, recruited by a boyhood friend who was in the FBI. Why they gave Nicholson an Italian name is a mystery. Martin Sheen should sue the writers for his role. He did the best he could with some dialog that seemed almost ad lib.
One of the glaring omissions was the very obvious omission of the role of the media. In the real world the media would have been a major player in the movie. As usual, the photography was outstanding. Cinemaphotography has become so good that it can make up for poor writing, mediocre directing and bad casting. Sometimes its great to just sit back and marvel at the incredible camera work.
Master of the Game (2002)
Good Indie Out of Austin
See this one. It goes on your list of movies to see with someone who will have a beer with you later and talk about it for two hours. It's a visual harmonic and 3-D mental chess game. Delving into the dark reaches of the human brain it pits several highly evolved Homo sapiens in a game of survival in the middle of a war which would keep Darwin wondering about it for years. The dialogue is all in English which detracts nothing from the movie. The contest between several Nazi captors with an appropriately evil officer in charge and their lone Jewish-American prisoner is close mental combat in the valley of death. Someone will do a stage play of it, and should.
Holy Smoke (1999)
I recommend it to adults who "get it."
This Campion film will whiz right over the heads of the cheese dip and 'burb crowd. If you don't get this film reassess your humanity and walk to work. It's a dark gray comedy with acting jobs by Winslet and Kietel that will always stick in your mind (and I am sure in theirs)as American-cut jewels. The down under family is as funny as a real one and the minor roles have more throwaway funnies than a British sitcom. Alas, it will confuse the waspish critics with hearing-aids who only dig subtitles,grainy B and W., and the pleasing squeeze of a studio spinmiester but the real life lessons learned from this one will be as handy as crutch at Aspen. The film is almost as bizarrely funny as the local news.
U Turn (1997)
Oliver Leaves No Stone Unturned
If you see this pretty bad movie, rent a copy of Red Rock West with Nicholas Cage and compare the plots. RRW was made about six years before this bomb and was one of the best "unknown" films of the decade. Stone's writers lifted the plot and made a very bad movie. Shame on you, Oliver.
The Hot Spot (1990)
An Absolute Gem
Shot in and around Austin, Texas, brilliantly written and directed by Dennis Hopper and adapted from Thompson's book, Hell Hath No Fury, this is a movie buff's movie. It is probably the best performance by Don Thompson he will ever give. It's one of those movies that put everything together to achieve a "harmonic" that is very very rare. Why it didn't achieve notice and a clutch of awards is one of the mysteries of the film industry. Everything in the movie meshed perfectly, including a great score.