Little Big Soldier

A few days have passed since I saw this and I keep thinking about it.  Right after it ended, I was not really moved to much, but afterwards, yeah, it was okay.  More to the point, "Hey, that was Jackie Chan?!"  In this role he still had some of the goofy stuff that has paid great dividends for him here in the States, but there was much more. 

The acting was really good, the cinematography great, the directing was good and the script...hell, I have no idea, it was Chinese so for all I know, they could have been using the script from "Dumb and Dumber."  The only goofer would have to be the sub titles were sometimes a bit tough to read and also, there were scenes with a lot of action and dialogue so I probably missed some stuff here and there.  All good though.  As for the soundtrack, no issues with it.  I didn't even notice it and when that happens, it means the music actually supported the film well.

I can't recommend the film with all sorts of excitement and raves, but it was a good dealio.

The Last American Hero

This was a rewatch from about 1976 for me and for the rest of you....SEEEE THISSSS!  Jeff Bridges has always been a favorite actor of mine and this flick was one of his first 5 or so.  Awesome.  This is a dealio that has definitely aged well.  If you are a fan of NASCAR or just a good story, this is a killer film to see.   The acting is awesome, the directing is great, the cinematography has it going on, the script is good and the soundtrack is good period stuff as well.

You name it; father/son drama, brother/brother drama, dude coming of age drama, the dude who doesn't fit in to the rules of the game but changes them and wins, all of those story lines get it going in here.  Glad I saw this one again!

Clash

Nyah.  Nothing new, nothing catchy.  Same story line of a dude way deeper undercover than maybe he should be who falls for a girl who is one of the bad guys (I mean people...sorry PC crowd) who is there only becuase she is trying to do the right thing.  One person in the group of baddies is a Benedict Arnold turncoat who plays both sides etc.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  To get this story, just see Ronin (1998) or Point Break (1991) or something else and save yourself from having to goof subtitles.  Acting okay, directing okay, cinematography okay, script...not sure, all Vietnamese, and music: BAD.

Take Shelter

See it.  Okay, before the straight dope on this, I have to get something funny off the chest.  Right before this film I saw "Barry Munday" (2010) and in it was a supporting actor named Shea Whigham.  Hadn't seen the dude in much of anything and then pow, here is here but in a totally different (but again) supporting role...the dude has chops.  Speaking of acting chops, Michael Shannon ROCKS!  He is a dude who, just because of his expression, looks, and size you hope isn't going psycho because, well, it would be bad.

Okay, only Curtis (Michael Shannon) can see and here things that are just outta place; he also has some majorly spooky dreams as well and a mother who has been committed for being a psycho.  "Curtis, the cards are stacked against you!"  This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and for me (who watches a ton of movies, that is about a month) it is close to being one to watch a second time.  It was that good.  The acting led by Shannon is awesome and so are the supporting roles as well.  The directing was great, the writing awesome, the cinematography great, and what you don't get often is a killer soundtrack.  The music was an element that just really pushed this thing way up there!  SEE THIS ONE!

Barry Munday

This movie was 3 years too late but maybe that is just about right.  "Knocked Up (2007)" was the first version of this.  It is a movie that is really a meeting place of 3 actor categories:

• Those who are on their way to more prominent roles,
• Those who once had prominent roles and are on the way down to obscurity
• Those who have been stuck in this sorta purgatory dealio and have been waiting to pass through the Golden Gates of the MGM studio

There are really no lovable/likable folks but you have to dig Patrick Wilson's "Barry Munday" as he turns from the slacker slouch to responsible dude.  The acting is good, really good, the directing is good and the script is pretty funny.  One dude who just nails it is Shea Whigham who plays Barry's best friend Donald.  He rips!  The only music I can remember is from the "Beaver Tree" but that is that.  Cinematography was all good.

I have no real recommendation either way, but for the most part, it beat the crap out of a ton of movies I have seen of late, so if you are looking for something, this one streams via the red envelope senders so not much effort needed to get the limited value.

London Boulevard

Nice!  Colin Farrell is the best I have ever seen him.  This movie rocked yet is smacked a ton of "Layer Cake" (2004).  These British crime films are such a mental contradiction: how can people with such proper accents be so nasty?  Whatever.  So the story line is the same: crime dude is honorable but wasting his honor in a non honorable profession and he wants out.  However, the kingpin likes his style and wants him to stay and promises the world.  Can he get out? 

If you liked "Layer Cake," you will like this, but don't see them too close together because it will be kind of like seeing the same movie twice except one will have subtitles.  The acting was awesome, the directing was great, the script rocked and the cinematography was good too.  Only goofer was the music that flared whenever Farrell and Knightley started doing the clutching prelude to other stuff stuff.

Monsters

Eh, it was okay.  A satellite goes into outer space to get some samples from somewhere and upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, it blows up and spreads its cargo in the area between the US and Mexico.  Now you have an infested area of big, I mean BIG aliens cruising the area and doing battle against the military forces of Mexico and the US all in an effort to just survive.  In the middle, a photo journalist must escort the daughter of his media mogul boss through the zone to safety in the US.

I am so sick of movies with kids of the rich slumming.  Call me pessimistic, but even when I hear about this sorta thing in real life, I don't buy it.  The girl annoyed me.  The dude was okay, but he ticked me because of being a dad who wasn't in his son' life.  Okay, now that I have destroyed (or at least found no reason to appreciate) the leads, well, it wasn't something that I would click past if I saw it on TV.  In better hands, this movie could have really kicked.

The score is something that I have to draw attention to becuase I don't even remember it.  When that happens, I am of the mind that it must have been good; it didn't detract so it must have added.  The acting was kind of like an uninspired Costner grade.  The directing, not bad, but still it could have been better.  As for the cinematography, it was good.  Script, it was okay.  If you are left with nothing else, you could do far worse than this.