The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

One line review: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is a fantastic Western supported by great characters and an larger than life plot.

Movie Title: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Actors: Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Claudio Scarchilli, John Bartha

Director: Sergio Leone

Year: 1966

Genre: Western / Action

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: 97% – Arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns, this epic features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score.

My rating: *****

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is the best western I’ve ever seen and has given me new found respect for Clint Eastwood. All of the characters are three dimensional and fun to watch, but Clint Eastwood steals the show as the calm and collected bad ass who always has an ace up his sleeve. I was surprised at the Civil War background, but it served the movie very well in the end, adding to the world at large and providing an appropriate backdrop. An extremely entertaining movie that may have just made me a Clint Eastwood fan for life.

The Boondock Saints

One line review: The Boondock Saints is a dumb movie with so much style that it almost passes as good.

Movie Title: The Boondock Saints

Actors: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly, David Ferry, Brian Mahoney, Bob Marley, Richard Fitzpatrick

Director: Troy Duffy

Year: 1999

Genre: Action

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: 17% – A juvenile, ugly movie that represents the worst tendencies of directors channeling Tarantino.

My rating: **

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): This movie is absolutely stupid. The protagonists are ridiculously lucky, their enemies are idiotic, and everything seems to conveniently go there way. However this movie also has about a gallon of style and cool shots poured over it. The end results is a movie that you can somewhat enjoy with your mind turned off. I completely agree with the critics that considered this to be an ugly action movie, but it has a handful of cool moments that at least made it not a complete waste of time. I was braced for a bad action movie, and got what I expected.

Beverly Hills Cop

One line review: Beverly Hills Cop is a mix of comedic pranks and buddy cop action, and it’s average in both.

Movie Title: Beverly Hills Cop

Actors: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff, James Russo, Jonathan Banks, Stephen Elliott, Gilbert R. Hill, Art Kimbro, Joel Bailey, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser

Director: Martin Brest

Year: 1984

Genre: Action / Comedy

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: 82% – Classic ’80s Murphy vehicle; fun but foulmouthed.

My rating: ***

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): So apparently Dr. Dolittle made Action/Comedy movies before making a ton of family crap, and it didn’t impress me too much. A lot of this movie depends on your enjoying watching Eddie Murphy laugh at his own jokes and enjoying the same electronic music over and over again. The comedy was hit and miss, and I quickly got annoyed with Eddie Murphy, while the action was just slapped on at the end. This is at best an average movie, and I don’t see why it ended up being so memorable. Maybe other people appreciate Eddie Murphy’s antics more than I do.

Goldfinger

One line review: The classic Bond relies less on explosions and more on gadgets, but it’s Sean Connery that steals the show.

Movie Title: Goldfinger

Actors: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe, Shirley Eaton, Tania Mallet, Harold Sakata, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson, Cec Linder, Austin Willis, Lois Maxwell, Bill Nagy

Director: Guy Hamilton

Year: 1964

Genre: Action

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: 96% – This 1964 entry is the most enjoyable of the James Bond thrillers starring Sean Connery — perhaps because it’s the most comic and cartoony in look as well as conception.

My rating: ***

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): This is the classic vision of Bond I had before I had watched any of the movies; a wise-cracking agent with tech gadgets, over the top villains, and one-liners after each death. It definitely makes the series seem less noble and serious, but the one thing that this Bond has over all the others is Sean Connery. Something about his mannerisms and grin makes him my favorite James Bond. I suppose my ideal movie would be in the serious Daniel Craig universe but with Sean Connery giving his one-liners to lighten the mood. It’s an okay film, with an awesome star.

Casino Royale

One line review: This reboot of the Bond series changes a few details about the characters and the original book, but it’s all for the better.

Movie Title: Casino Royale

Actors: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach De Bankolé, Jesper Christensen , Ivana Milicevic

Director: Martin Campbell

Year: 2006

Genre: Action

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: 94% – Casino Royale disposes of the silliness and gadgetry that plagued recent James Bond outings, and Daniel Craig delivers what fans and critics have been waiting for: a caustic, haunted, intense reinvention of 007.

My rating: ****

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): By the time I watched this movie I had read the multiple James Bond audiobooks, including Casino Royale. Contrary to the usual situation, I think the movie is better than the book and this helped with my positive view of this movie. I think it updates James Bond, makes the character more human than in previous books and films, and adds a bit more action to the story. What I may enjoy the most about this particular interpretation of Bond is that he seems more capable of making mistakes and more emotional rather than the generic action hero. A great film.

Indiana Jones Trilogy

One line review: A fantastic trilogy of action packed movies that have helped define more genre cliches than almost any other series.

Movie Title: Raiders of the Lost of the Ark / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom / Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Actors: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Wolf Kahler, Anthony Higgins, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Roy Chiao, David Yip, Ric Young, Chua Kah Joo, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody , John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne, Kevork Malikyan, Robert Eddison, Richard Young, Alexei Sayle, Alex Hyde-White, Paul Maxwell

Director: Steven Spielberg

Year: 1981 / 1984 / 1989

Genre: Action / Adventure

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes:

Raiders of the Lost Ark – 94% – Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – 85% -If it was a sign of the times for Indiana Jones to take on more of a comic-book aspect, the film’s accomodation of darker themes and explicit imagery came as something of a shock to many.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 89% – Last Crusade is pure kicks, and I would never fault this spunky blast of quips and near-misses for trying to vanilla its way back into the hearts of millions.

My rating: *****

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): The biggest thing I’ve learned during this little experiment is just how many movie references and cliches have been ripped from previous movie series. Indiana Jones borrowed it’s fair share from things like Zorro or cowboy films, but the sheet number of films that have eithere made vauge references or just straight up copied the entire movie is amazing. The Indiana Jones Trilogy still rises above any of those other movies because it is just a constant barrage of action. These movies know exactly what they need to do to entertain their audience, and they do it well. A fantastic trilogy

Lethal Weapon

One line review: A film that works great as a buddy comedy, but hits far too many action cliches as the plot unfolds.

Movie Title: Lethal Weapon

Actors: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitch Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Jackie Swanson, Damon Hines, Ebonie Smith

Director: Richard Donner

Year: 1987

Genre: Action

Method of Viewing: TV

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: Family

Rotten Tomatoes: 90% – The most successful installment in a phenomenally successful series, Lethal Weapon helped redefine action movies for the 1980s and 1990s.

My rating: ***

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): This movie started as an absolutely fantastic buddy comedy with one of the best pairings I’ve ever seen. However, as the plot began to unfold, the overused tricks and plot holes began to show.As the movie wore on, I began to forget how much I loved the buddy cop beginning, and instead just became more and more annoyed as the plot became absolutely ridiculous. I wish this movie simply had more interaction between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover than an actual overriding plot. Perhaps if I had watched this movie in the 80s, I wouldn’t have been annoyed at the cliches.

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

One line review: Kill Bill owes all of it’s success and entertainment value to it’s incredibly stylized combat scenes.

Movie Title: Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Actors: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sonny Chiba, Chia Hui Liu, Michael Parks, Michael Bowen, Jun Kunimura, Kenji Ohba, Bo Svenson, Jeannie Epper, Stephanie L. Moore, Shana Stein, Caitlin Keats, Christopher Allen Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Year: 2003 / 2004

Genre: Drama / Action

Method of Viewing: TV

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes:
Kill Bill: Vol. 1: 85% – Kill Bill is nothing more than a highly stylized revenge flick. But what style!
Kill Bill: Vol. 2: 85% – Talkier and less action-packed than Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, nevertheless, delivers the goods for those expecting a satisfying conclusion to this two-parter.

My rating: ***

My assessment (the first 101 words at least):

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

One line review: A film that once again suffers from over an hour of plot holes and stupidity before finally getting to some decent superhero action.

Movie Title: Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Actors: Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Sarah Douglas, Margot Kidder, Jack O’Halloran, Valerie Perrine, Clifton James, E.G. Marshall, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp

Director: Richard Donner

Year:[Superman II] 1980 / [Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut] 2006

Genre: Action / Adventure

Method of Viewing: DVD

Location of Viewing: Home

Viewing with: No One

Rotten Tomatoes: [Superman II] 87% – The humor occasionally stumbles into slapstick territory, and the special effects are dated, but Superman II meets, if not exceeds, the standard set by its predecessor.

[Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut] 83% – This version of Superman II is a triumph of intention, sending the imagination soaring again over this new angle on a very old question mark.

My rating: **

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): I simply can’t understand why either of the two Superman movies I saw are considered so good. If this is considered good I can only dread what the sequels would hold in store for me. There are enough plot holes in this movie to make my mind melt, there are enough stupid actions by characters to make me wish I could smack each and every one of them up side the head. I’m now convinced that there is no live action movie that truly captures Superman, they seem too busy trying to make Superman a comedy rather than an action movie.

Avatar

One line review: A film that may have pushed the envelope in visual techniques, but does not fully live up to it’s sky high hype.

Movie Title: Avatar

Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Sean Anthony Moran

Director: James Cameron

Year: 2009

Genre: Action / Adventure

Method of Viewing: Theater

Location of Viewing: Theater

Viewing with: Family

Rotten Tomatoes: 82% – It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron’s singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking.

My rating: ****

My assessment (the first 101 words at least): This film has both been praised for it’s fantastic visuals, and lambasted for it’s basic plot. I fall somewhere in the middle. I feel that while the visuals are some of the most impressive 3D and CGI I’ve ever seen, it was still an artificial effect that felt like a gimmick. As for the plot, the basic idea may have been stolen from Dances with Wolves, but Avatar adds a few twists of it’s own to make it feel like a unique story. This film has earned it’s place in history, and I will be fascinated to see the upcoming sequels.