Jimmy Hoffa: “I heard you paint houses.”
Frank Sheeran: “Yes, I do.”
It’s a great day when you get to see a new Martin Scorsese movie, but a new gangster movie staring some of one of the greatest actors that have ever bless cinema, now that’s killing two birds with one bullet. I’ve said this many times before, but whenever Scorsese releases a new movie - I’m there, as I have 100% faith he will deliver something so crafted in style where his passion to create a fresh new experience for audience to slip right back into loving movies. And Scorsese has made another masterpiece.
‘The Irishman’ is an old school masterpiece. A sweeping epic that’s so rich and timely through it’s presentation that I was reminded of the likes of Coppola and Leone. Everything from the razor sharp back and forward conversations with characters, long takes, and the fantastic use of music that helps create the setting and time period.
Now let me talk about the visual effects in the movie - something that everyone including Scorsese himself was worried about. While at first it was a bit uncanny to see fresh faces from De Niro, Pacino and Pesci. The movie has a difficult task, because the entire runtime takes place in the past and occasionally it will cut back to a present day/older De Niro, aka what he looks like now, so it’s so easy to judge on the cgi wizardry. I can safely say you really get use to it after awhile and doesn’t distract from the amazing performances, as I could still feel the emotion from their faces. I bought into it and the evolution of the technical is absolutely astonishment.
Robert De Niro plays a cold, yet charismatic gangster, Frank Sheeran - a friend of Jimmy Hoffa. He follows orders to kill and dose it without a sweat. His children are afraid of him and have seen both sides of him, which would later hit him harder than a million ton of bricks. He doesn’t need to say or do anything to express the characters thoughts and feelings. Fantastic as usual.
Al Pacino plays a loud month Jimmy Hoffa that’s a huge ball of energy and reeks of desperation, which Pacino portrays beautifully. From ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, to this, it’s amazing how Pacino never lost that fiery energy that makes him so captivating to watch. The fact he’s never been in a Scorsese movie baffles me, but am loving his comeback recently.
Joe Pesci plays Russell Bufalino, a silent and collective man who sniffs out trouble and takes care of “business”. If you expect to see the nut job Pesci, then think again. He’s brilliant in the movie. It’s great seeing Pesci back after disappearing from the spotlight for a couple of years, and it’s almost like he never left at all.
With the run time of 3 hours and 29 minutes, not a single frame felt pointless. At times the length was felt, but I was never bored. Thelma Schoonmaker, the editor of Scorsese movies is a legend and needs no introduction. Without spoiling anything, but there’s an incredible scene involving a woman terrified to turn the car engine on as the camera lingers on a shot of keys hanging in the ignition waiting to be turned. When she dose there’s a sharp cut to an exploding vehicle (not hers) with the engine roaring as the sound affect. The most tense scene in the entire movie.
And the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto was excellent with the use of color that made it visually striking.
Martin Scorsese, the man who revived the gangster genre for what it is and now he’s the one to bury it. The shot outs are often unexpected and messy - basically violence in general. Almost similar to ‘Once Upon a Time In Hollywood’, because there’s an underlining message of age and the modern generation slipping through as the old ways ain't the same anymore. You are taken through a journey of a mobster from youth to old age.
Overall rating: Cinema at its finest. I’m just in awe of the thought we got a movie like this where no other studio wouldn’t dare to touch it for some reason. What an experience.
There are a lot of qualities that make The Thing work so well as a horror film. It has been rightly lauded for its set-piece moments and striking practical effects, but what keeps this timeless are the same elements that can be found in a similar classic film of the time, Ridley Scott's Alien - the beautiful yet harsh outdoor locations photographed to stunning effect, creating a sense of scale and isolation that remind the viewer how cut-off the characters are and contrasting sharply with the claustrophobic interiors ; the minimalist score from Morricone that adds to the tension ; the great production design that ensure the setting feels like a realistic working environment ; the memorable characters, notably of course Kurt Russell's Macready ; the efficient script that introduces the personalities of the main group quickly and the camaraderie between the characters that ensure the audience believe in the group as a working community and care about their survival. But this is no mere retread of another film - the alien presence here working from within to split the group apart rather than bringing them together. Unlike Alien, the central villain is harder to define and from the opening moments, Carpenter creates a sense of unease and paranoia that permeates the whole film right through to the final frame, ensuring the audience like the characters themselves are never quite sure who to trust. The effects may have dated to a modern audience (though the tangible feel to the practical work is creepier than anything that could be created in CGI) but it's the quieter set-piece moments of tension and mistrust that remain just as strong as ever and make this Carpenter's best film.
scorsese deliberately packaged the final scene as an ambiguous ending, and the key word is "packaged" because it was only made to seem like you could even choose between two endings.....but nope, there's only one true ending and the brilliant storytelling just leaves no argument on that case.
how Shutter Island managed to put me directly in Teddy/Andrew's exact state of mind at that moment of realization was really smart and frightening and I could feel what a delusional mental patient would have felt like right until the ending. it made me doubt my real life for a minute because I realized that it could be happening to me too, I could be unknowingly living a life of lies, and it's because Leo perfectly portrayed Andrew's fear and emotions realistically.
the uncomfortable feeling of insanity and events which did not make sense from the middle of the film already hinted that something wasn't right at all, and it was hella uncomfortable and worrying indeed, like I didn't know if my mind was in the right place, if I was drifting further from the film. the final act completely threw me off. I was so glad it did how it did.
as much as I wished that Andrew could eventually be cured, the poignant result of how he chose his own end tied up Shutter Island with a perfect bow.
Blade Runner is one of the more gaping holes in the list of films I haven’t seen (or at least, don’t remember well enough to talk about). Yesterday’s viewing of The Martian got me thinking about Ridley Scott’s past work so here I am.
I really should have done this sooner.
L.A. 2019, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a ‘Blade Runner’ - a policeman whose sole purpose is to hunt and kill replicants; machines almost indistinguishable from humans, yet banned from Earth. Four have been detected on the planet so he is called up to hunt and kill them.
Scott’s dystopian LA draws you in and holds you captive for 2 hours. This is a masterfully shot, timeless, beautiful piece of work. Every single frame is a work of art. The visual effects are not only highly effective, but incredibly creative and unique; never has anything like this been made before or since.
The plot is simple, one man chases another. However it’s driven almost entirely by its central themes; what is it to be human? Who deserves to live or die? Are we responsible for the things we create? What happens when our creations surpass us? All of these questions go unanswered, yet Scott somehow revels in the ambiguity.
Decker is a blank canvas of a character. The replicants he is chasing are complex, unique individuals. It’s no accident that Rutger Hauer plays the most human character in the film. His is the stand-out performance here, if only for the closing monologue.
Still fresh & still relevant, Blade Runner is indeed a modern masterpiece.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/10/31/bladerunner/
