Requiem for a Dream

My favorite movie of all time! I must have seen it over a hundred times. A definite must see film!Get more detail about Requiem for a Dream.

Redwoods Review

I thought this was a great movie. Yeah, it had it's fumbling moments. I was totally engaged in these two men. I cannot address the betrayal on Everett's part, other than....his queen, anal, "everything must be clean" persona would have sent me into the forest. I loved the interaction, the Father and Mother's interaction/concern and acceptance and perception of what their very unique and beautiful son had experienced when this writer rolled into the redwoods. I must say this....and listen director/writer. When they finally "got down"....it was WAY too fast........the groping, pants unbuttoning...etc. It reinvorced and cheapend the whole relationship. It could have been done much more slowly and erotically......reminded me of the almost rape scene in "Brokeback Mountain".......all that to say. I loved this film. Kudos to the writers and actors. .....and to Humboldt County. peace out, BruceGet more detail about Redwoods.

Chinatown Top Quality

This film is excellent, and made in the 70's around LA, specifically East LA where I grew up. Great murder mystery and excellent music.Get more detail about Chinatown.

L.A. Confidential Immediately

I've been watching movies for almost 60 years, and "L.A. Confidential" is one of the most wildly entertaining films I've ever seen. It was so much fun, I didn't want it to end. (It's anything but a comedy -- but it's fun.)

The story borrows elements commonly found in "hard-boiled" detective fiction: loose dames, prostitution and pornography, homosexuality, police corruption, murdered partners, etc, etc, etc. It is, at least superficially, a broad re-imagining of "The Big Sleep", with an idealistic (but ambitious and hard-nosed) police officer (roughly) standing in for Sam Spade. Of course, given the nature of such novels, these similarities are to be expected. (There is no murdered chauffeur, however.)

The director wanted to stay away from "noir" tone and cliché, and he succeeds. Though set in 1953, "L.A. Confidential" seems modern. The performances -- from actors largely unknown at the time -- are perfect. One could not even imagine better.

The Blu-ray is a beautiful transfer, well-capturing the varied visual moods of LA and surroundings (as discussed in one of the excellent supplements). Some moments, though, appear to have been badly underexposed (as suggested by gray, rather than black backgrounds). Whether this was intentional is not clear, and it doesn't really detract.

Unless you're offended by the violence or subject matter, unreservedly recommended.

There is one rather surprising error -- "When Worlds Collide" was released in 1951, not 1953.Get more detail about L.A. Confidential.

The Breakfast Club Best Quality

Saw it on Netflix,although a bit long and overdramatic at times, it is the quintessential 80's movie and a must see. It still relates to High School and modern school cliques and how everyone goes with their own whether it be class,color or social.Just to see Molly she is beautiful, I love redheads,But I am A bigger Fan of Brunettes and found the quiet girl turned beautiful cliche even better than molly. Yes the movie is long,the dance sequence is looked aside by me but it's a good movie.Get more detail about The Breakfast Club.

Night Watch (NOCHNOI DOZOR) Get it now!

Eez like dayvatch but eez night instead! Not great but not bad either. Some good effects. You buy it you buy it! LOLGet more detail about Night Watch (NOCHNOI DOZOR).

Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated) Buy Now

The thing I love about the Die Hard films is their complete lack of pretentiousness. They are big, dumb, stupid action films, but they know perfectly well that they're big, dumb, stupid action films and don't pretend to be anything else. No heavy-handed moralising or social commentary, no token attempts to be "deep", no multi-layered political plot filled with challenging twists. McClane is the Good Guy, his opponents are Bad Guys, Good Guy fights Bad Guys, Good Guy wins. Sure, it's cliched and predictable, but so what? It's great fun. And in the post-9/11 world, where every Hollywood action/thriller is full of "Are we really the bad guys?" navel gazing, the black-and-white morality of 'Live Free Or Die Hard' is actualy quite refreshing.

The plot is perhaps the one token attempt to be modern, involving cyber-hackers shutting down essentail infrastructure systems across the East Coast, bringing the US to a stand-still. But from here, you know exactly how this works. While the FBI and other experts just stand around frowning and looking worried, McClane dispatches the army of baddies almost single handedly, all the while coming up with a smart wisecrack to nail every moment. It is an older and more world-weary McClane in this installment, which of course just allows more room for jokes about his age, hair, fitness, and lack of technological nous.

This movie is unashamedly stupid. Turn off everything even remotely resembling a brain cell before watching this, and please don't bother trying to understand how McClane can survive 100 metre falls, car pile-ups, massive explosions, and hundreds of bullets. And as for why the baddies fire everything from a machine-gun to a missile at McClane without causing a scratch, while McClane can let off two bullets from a pistol and hit them between the eyes.....you know better than to ask that, don't you?

By now, Bruce Willis can play McClane in his sleep, and there are some surprisingly strong supporting roles. Justin Tong nails it as the nervy hacker Farrell, and I also loved Mary Elizabeth Winstead as McClane's daughter Lucy (who shares the same no-nonsense attributes as her father). Cliff Curtis gives Bowman unexpected intelligence and depth as the capable-but-hamstrung FBI head Bowman, and I wish there'd been more of Maggie Q as the very cool Mai, since Timothy Olyphant wasn't that menacing as the main villain.

You know exacly what you're going to get from a Die Hard movie, and the fourth installment delivers everything you want in spades. Brainless popcorn stupidity was never so much fun.Get more detail about Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated).