Pivot is a short foreign film with no dialog. It hasn’t won any awards that I am aware of. It hasn’t even made it into IMDB. Nevertheless I think it is a good short film that is worth watching. Here’s the synopsis: ‘When a man is witness to a murder and takes pictures of the killer, he has to run for his life. During the chase he is able to turn the tables and the prey becomes the hunter. All resulting in an unfortunate ending.’ Enjoy!
Pivot
Friday, April 2nd, 2010Boiler Room
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Boiler Room is the story of a young man from a successful family who tries to make his own way. He drops out of college and indeed achieves some success though all his entrepreneur efforts happen to be illegal. When a chance meeting between himself and a stock broker provides an opportunity he takes it. He finds that he is quite good at this too but questionable practices of the firm he works for, choices he has to make to be successful, and failure to obtain his father’s approval put him at a crossroads that make him choose what kind of person he truly wants to be.
One of the things I like most about the movie is the soundtrack. It is made up entirely of East Coast Hip Hop music though there is no African American male starring in the entire movie. In fact the protagonist character in the movie played by Giovanni Ribisi comments that he is embarking on the White person’s version of selling crack rock, becoming a stock broker. The movie has a cast of well known young actors including Ben Affleck, Tom Everett Scott, Jamie Kennedy, and Vin Diesel as well as Ron Rifkin as the Father and Nia Long as the love interest and only African-American member of the cast.
This movie was enjoyable all the way through and I especially loved the soundtrack. I give it a 4 out of 5 marks.
Bound
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Bound is a crime thriller written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, the same guys who wrote and directed The Matrix. This movie is no Matrix but it is a great movie nonetheless. It’s a noir kind of film and everyone in it is dirty. I say that to express that there are no innocents here. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon provide multiple scenes of girl on girl action and at first I thought that was all the movie was going to be. I might have been satisfied with that too but then the movie turned into this mob movie complete with money laundering, hitmen, blood, and Joe Pantoliano shouting and waving a gun. I had no idea how it was going to end.
The sex between Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon’s characters was intense but not outrageous. Both women played their part well and their sexuality seemed to ooze from the screen and believe it or not, without the sex, the rest of the movie wouldn’t have worked. Once it started being all about the money, the film leapt into suspense mode and never let up until the movie was all but over. It’s easy to know who to root for but since everyone in this movie is a bad guy of some sort, you just don’t know for sure until it’s over. Joe Pantoliano was at his maniacal best in this film, almost as if the role was made for him. I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end and give it an enthusiastic 4.5 out of 5 marks.
The Rainmaker
Friday, January 8th, 2010
The Rainmaker is not a brand new movie but it’s not quite old enough to be a classic. The original story is by John Grisham who has given us a great deal of novels about lawyers that have been the basis for quite a few good films. This one is no exception. Another feather in the cap of this movie’s pedegree is that the screenplay is written and the movie is directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Add to all that a few great actors including Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Claire Danes, Mickey Rourke, and a young Matt Damon playing the lead.
This film is by no means an action flick. It’s pretty straight forward. Matt Damon plays a young law student named Rudy Baylor. He is motivated by his love for the law and the possibility of doing amazing work as a lawyer. First he has to get out of law school, and find a way to earn a living. His path places him in a position to experience a lot of the ugly side of being a lawyer and into a series of legal battles in which he is way over his head. This includes a major fight against an insurance company armed with highly paid, experiences lawyers led by Jon Voight’s character.
I would have like a but more action in the film. It’s also not as much a thriller as I would have liked but I did enjoy the movie. It made me care about certain characters of the film and I felt satisfied when the movie was over. I give it a 3 and a half out of 5 marks.
Street Kings
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Street Kings is the story of a veteran cop played by Keanu Reeves. This rogue cop is definitely not a good guy but he thinks he is. The problem is his methods. He’s a bad ass and will lie, torture, murder, plant evidence and do pretty much anything else he thinks is necessary to get the bad guys. He’s good at it too and his ambitious boss, played by Forrest Whittaker, always has his back and is not above a cover-up to protect his best guy. Keanu’s character always goes too far but this time he finds his own limits as gets caught up in something bigger and deeper than he expected.
Street Kings must have been the coming out party for a bunch of TV actors. You can’t go 15 minutes in this movie without seeing some star of a TV show. It also stars a couple of well known rappers and even a comedian though little about this movie is funny. This is a man’s movie. There’ plenty of gritty action and killing and very little romance. The roles of the two women in the movie are only there to support the man. Like the title says, this is a street movie complete with drugs, thugs, and rampant crime. Keanu plays the action hero like a woken up Neo in the Matrix.
This was a surprisingly good movie. There are parts that reminded me a lot of Training Day. I had to get over my issues with Keanu playing a bad ass cop but after that I was pleasantly suprised. I didn’t go to see this in the theater because no one said anything good about it but I liked it. It had plenty of action and while the plot wasn’t entirely hard to see through, I had fun getting to the end. I give this a 4 out of 5 marks.