Saturday, September 29, 2007

Crash


Crash is a movie by Paul Haggis that came out in 2004 that got great reviews but not many people saw. The movie revolved around about 5 different main storylines that connect into one, and the writing was brilliant. it was basically about racism in LA, which sounds boring, but it was really very powerful and lots of good stuff happens to keep you interested. When the Middle Eastern man shot at the Spanish guy, and his daughter ran in front of her father to shield him, and you thought the daughter got shot, that was one of the most memorable moments in the film, and if you are an emotional type, you would burst into tears watching it. However, it turned out that the bullets were blanks. This great twist is exactly the kind of thing that this movie is about- things aren't what they seem. Every character that seems like a "bad guy" or a "good guy" in the beginning is the opposite by the end. The poor Chinaman who gets hit by Ludacris in his car is actually a slave dealer, the racist cop(Matt Dillan) who molests this black lady winds up saving her life, a young police officer who thinks he is a tolerant guy compared to Matt Dillan, winds up shooting a black man. I consider this movie to be extremely underrated. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and nobody saw it! I got it NEW, unused, not on sale, at blockbuster for 9.99! Ridiculous.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Eastern Promises: A Russian "The Godfather"


Organized crime movies don't come around that often (good ones, anyway), and they are my favorite genre of film. When i saw The Departed last year, I was blown away, even though the movie strayed away from the traditional Italian mafia storyline to a Boston Irish one. I didn't think there would be another awesome one like that out in a long time. But lately ive been seeing alot of preveiws for the new Denzel Washington movie American Gangster, which is about a black gangster, and it looks insanely good, and i am definetly seeing it when it comes out. Also, there is this movie Eastern Promises, about the Russian mob in London. i saw this movie last night, and it was truly a great one. that Russian mob, vory v zakone, is definetly brutal. the boss wanted to have a baby killed, and it was his daughter! Right from the start of the movie, you know its gonna be insane, because there are three people sitting in a barbershop, a boy, his father, and a customer (all in the mob) and out of nowhere the dad makes the son kill the customer in an extensively brutal and gory way with the scissors. Apparently, the guy who got whacked was cooperating with the police. Anyway, the movie had all the makings of a grade A mob movie- betrayal, suspense, violence, brutality, twists, etc. It was one of those movies where there is alot of plot buildup before the action scenes, so you dont exactly know when they are coming, but when they do, it takes you by complete suprise. Towards the end, Vigo Mortinson (the main character) did probably the best fight scene i've ever seen in a movie- better than that one in the Bourne Ultimatum. the only problem i had with this movie, even though it added to the brutality, was that this whole fight scene was done with Vigo Mortinson in the nude. But dont let that scare you away. Although it may not be in my top 10, it was definetly in my top 20 and it is very much worth owning when it comes out on DVD.