Frozen II (2019)

Frozen II (2019)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Idina Menzel

Kristen Bell

Jonathan Groff

Josh Gad

Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee

This animation lacked the power and energy that Frozen (2013) had. Even though it was another fun ride into the unknown, where we meet strange things and encounter weird events, but it so much lacked the energy of fun and excitement of Frozen (2013). But the visuals are just as magical.

In simple words, if you liked Frozen (2013), then you would probably like this second part, but not as much as the first

Disney probably felt what was missing in Frozen (2013) was more songs and in the first twenty minutes we get to listen to like four. Which by the way were nothing like Let It Go or my favorite from Frozen (2013) Do You Want To Build A Snowman.

Frozen II boast of a new adventure and unlike Frozen (2013) it focuses more solely on the past and a sort of situation lock, where everyone in a place is locked out from the rest of the world. They continue to grow, have children, but cannot live the place they reside.

That place in this movie is the enchanted forest, which Disney felt they can plant the seed of interest in the forest by a five minute look in the past in the beginning of the film.

Frozen II is the 58th animated film production by Walt Disney Studios and follows another sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). Which in turn was a sequel to Wreck it Ralph (2012).

The CGI animated story starts with a glimpse of Anna and Elsa playing as children and hearing stories of the enchanted forest from their parents. Which for me didn't do enough to sow the seed of interest, but I guess that will not be the same for children so I went along with the tale.

Now that they have grown and the events of Frozen (2013) is behind us, we are greeted with a musical fantasy. We find out that in the past, there was a Northuldra tribe who are one with the four spirits. They use this gift to wield magic even though they were not magic themselves.

Elsa and Anna’s grandfather was king then and he built a dam for these people as a gift. During the celebration of the gift a fight broke out, which caused the spirits to be angry and the sealed the forest from the outside world.

Now our two heroines most find a way to solve the problem. Which problem you may ask, well Elsa is hearing a voice, and she woke the spirits and with that comes chaos and they must solve the problem.

In the end, the animation was average and I ended up liking Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) more than it.

Upgrade (2018)

Upgrade (2018)

7/10

Starring

Logan Marshall-Green

Betty Gabriel

Harrison Gilbertson

Directed by Leigh Whannell

Upgrade is that one movie you just have to see. Everything about the way the movie builds up to the very unexpected ending is just cinematic wonder. The movie to me is one of the best movies so far to be written by Leigh Whannell. If you have not heard of that name, then maybe you are not into the Saw franchise. I’m not myself, but I have seen one movie and then knew he was the man behind them all and also behind the supernatural horror franchise Insidious. Leigh in this one wrote and directed this movie and the screenplay in this movie is epic.

The movie plays to the norm of you guessing your way through, you practically can guess all that will happen like three-quarters of the way, then the movie flips on you. Then again you can guess what is going to happen next, then it flips again. But the magic is the first three-quarters of you knowing what is going to happen it still has you gripped to see it through, that is the wonderful screenplay that Whannell wrote.

Upgrade is a cyberpunk action body horror, so mind you there are some gruesome scenes. The movie plot is set in the future when everything is managed by computers and it is about a man who basically is not in tune with the times. Although he can’t help it, many things about his present day is managed by computers anything he can do with his hands he does.

We get to meet his wife and he introduces her to a client of his, as he is returning a refurbished car to the said client. When she discovers that the client is a renowned tech innovator, working for a rival company of hers.

On their way home, they were involved in an accident as their self-driving car failed to follow instructions or directions back to their home. They found themselves in a deserted area, where his wife gets killed and he was shot in the neck. He becomes a quadriplegic, under the care of his mother. His attempt at suicide failed and it was then the tech innovator, promised to give him access back to his limbs, by inserting a chip called STEM which will be inserted to the base of his skull.

The chip gave him back the ability to move his limbs, but it also made him stronger and faster. Also it talks to him and it seems to have an agenda, to help him solve his wife’s murder.

The movie was a financial success, basically because not much of CGI is used in it. The acting was simple and the movie made use of people who could deliver on the role given to them, rather than looking for a popular name.

It was also a critical success, major praise going to the wonderful story telling. A potential sequel could be made from this, because the movie ended with enough juice to develop something new or explore the same people.

Green Room (2015)

Green Room (2015)

7/10

Starring

Anton Yelchin

Imogen Poots

Alia Shawkat

Joe Cole

Callum Turner

Patrick Stewart

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

The Green room is one of those movies that is brutal, thrilling and takes you by surprise on how much you are captivated to see it through. The movie displays some fine acting and the whole cinematography comes out freaky and gruesome. The movie is amazing and although I am not a fan of movie which such gruesome acts, I found myself being a fan of this one.

The movie is directed and written by Jeremy Saulnier. I do not know much about his movie portfolio, but this was a nice addition.

The movie is about a punk/rock band who while going on tour find themselves attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads because they made some bad choices on where to perform.

The movie plot starts with an introduction to the band, which are Pat (the late Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole) and Tiger (Callum Turner). The band is named the Ain't Rights.

We see their struggle living in their supposedly tour bus and trying to make it through each day stealing fuel from other cars and doing gigs where they are paid just change.

A friend tells them about a gig at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar in the woods outside Portland which promised good money of $350. They take the offer and after their performance which was a hit performance, they get paid. While the rest of the band packs up to leave Pat goes to retrieve Sam's phone where she left it charging and sees the body of a girl named Emily lying on the floor. She had been stabbed to death in the head by a neo-Nazi.

Pat runs and calls the police, but the men at the bar hold him down, collect his phone and then pushes the whole band to a room, called the green room. There the band's phones were taken and the band held captive with a huge neo-Nazi standing guard.

Now the police did show up and the neo-Nazi made up a story to get rid of them, now they have another problem, the band. They decided they have to kill them, along with a friend of Emily named Amber who was also locked in the green room with the band.

They called their leader and formed a plan to kill the band, but things did not go easy when the band overpowered their guard and hold him hostage.

The movie did well enough to find it self on the list of many critics as one of the best films of 2016.

It also under performed at the box office, which would have been a drag for the producers, but I hope the accolades made up for it. Here is a movie you should get to see.

Attack the Block (2011)

Attack the Block (2011)

7/10

Starring

John Boyega

Jodie Whittaker

Directed by Joe Cornish

Why this movie under performed in the box office is just beyond me because the movie is fantastic. The movie starred John Boyega [who played Finn in the new Star Wars (2015 – 2019)] and Jodie Whittaker. Jodie plays the 13^th incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. At the time of this movie’s release both of them had not hit the star status they have now.

The movie was written and directed by Joe Cornish who did a fantastic work in his direction of this movie. He staged the plot so that you get to see two worlds get intertwined, the world of the hooligans in South London and that of alien invasion in South London.

Attack the Block is a British science fiction comedy horror that takes you by storm when things start to make sense. It starts with a lady nurse named Samantha (Jodie Whittaker) getting mugged by some street gang led by Moses (John Boyega). They took all she had on her and during the mugging something fell from the sky and crashed into the car which was beside them where the mugging was taking place. Samantha ran away during the commotion.

Moses and his friends instead of running away, decided to see if they can steal from the car that was crashed. Upon opening the car door and searching inside, Moses was attacked and scratched by some sort of animal.

When he was being made fun of by his crew, Moses decided to chase down the creature and kill it. They did and Moses went into the sort of small wooden cabin the creature was hiding out and he killed it. He drags the creature out to discover that it is not something they know as animal on this earth.

Moses takes the creature with him to see Hi-Hatz who lives in a block of house where Moses and his crew also lives. He keeps the creature in the weed room with the hope to see the carcass for some cash later on.

Later on we see many lights coming from the sky, more of these creatures are now in South London. Hi-Hatz tells Moses to become one of his errand boys to be selling drugs for him. Moses and his crew leave. Samantha tells the police of her mugging and they went on the street looking for her assailant. They see Moses and catch him and found the drugs on him. They were going to put him in the bus when another creature similar to the one Moses and his crew killed attacked the cops. These creature was bigger than the one Moses killed and it was more fierce.

His (Moses) crew helped him escape, but then they ran into Hi-Hatz and they ran from him too. So now Hi-Hatz is after them, and some alien creatures too are after them.

All these show down is what this movie is about and the fun in watching this movie just keeps coming. You should go look for and see this movie.

Klaus (2019)

Klaus (2019)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Jason Schwartzman

J. K. Simmons

Rashida Jones

Joan Cusack

Directed by Sergio Pablos

Klaus is an animated Christmas comedy film written and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut. The movie is very fun, good and interesting. Sergio Pablos is a Spanish animator and screenwriter best known as the creator of the Despicable Me franchise.

The animation serves as a fictional origin story to the myth of Santa Claus and you can catch this nice animation on Netflix.

From the name you can guess the tale will be about Santa Claus. Then the movie starts with us getting to meet a lazy, good-for-nothing postman named Jesper, who only wants to layabout and enjoy his father’s riches.

The next twenty minutes of the movie is all about Jesper and the animation at that point can make you want to tune off. Reason being the story that followed the animation was more like a long introduction to a really annoying character.

Then we meet Klaus and the movie takes an unexpected swing from why am I watching this, to hmm I wonder how this is going to play out, and it played out well.

The animation states its claim of how self-centered Jesper was and his punishment from his father was to be posted to the North to a cold always snowing town of Smeerensburg. His father promised him he can return to his life of comfort and riches if he can get six thousand letters posted. He gets to know the challenge in that task when he gets to the town, where there were two clans, the Krums and Ellingboes. Both have hated each other for centuries.

Jesper could not get anything done and just got into more trouble than he could have expected. One his wondering to get someone to post a letter he meets an old man living a reclusive life in the woods. He goes into the man’s house since he was not home and sees all the toys the man has been making.

He gets found out and while running away he drops a drawing from a child he met, when he held the drawing hostage until the child posted a letter. It was this drawing that started the journey for the two.

So as not to give anything else away, you have to see this movie to see how this selfish postman and this reclusive toy maker became Santa Claus.

The story behind the tale of Santa Claus in this animation is more than magical it is sensational. I really found myself laughing and being so engrossed with how things were happening.

Here is a movie about one man’s selfish motive ending up pulling together a whole town and how a seed of good deed can grow and spread more good deeds in the weirdest directions.

A keeper and something you should see with the children.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

4/10

Starring

Errol Flynn

Olivia de Havilland

Basil Rathbone

Directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley

Before seeing the movie, I saw a clip from it and was worried the movie would not live up to the hype that follows it from my view. Then I saw the movie and still I cannot understand the hype that seems to follow this movie. The movie was not funny, the adventures were stretched over not a well-constructed subplot and the Robin character was an over confident brat.

There must be something else about this movie that people praise because I look at the characters and the plot and to be honest I do not like this film and wonder why some say it was the best adaptation.

I have seen many adaptations of this British folklore hero, and I even believe Mel Brooks 1993 Men in Tights was better than this. but there have been only two Robin Hood adaptations that matter from my view. One being Disney’s 1973 animation Robin Hood and the best of the them all the BBC 1984 series, Robin of Sherwood. It combined an amazing set design with real-life history, 20th century fiction, and pagan who can forget the use of witchcraft and magic.

This movie may have lacked the deep adult content of BBC’s Robin of Sherwood but it lacked more in its story telling, below is the plot.

Richard the Lionheart was being held captive by Leopold V of Austria while he was returning from the Holy Land. Richard’s treacherous brother Prince John takes the throne and proceeds to oppress the people raising their taxes to secure his own position. Taking all the gold the people have with the claim of trying to pay the ransom for his brother King Richard.

One man started an uprising against Prince John, the man named Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn). Robin later became known by the people as Robin Hood. He pulled to himself many other outlaws and outcast to form for himself his merry men. Robin and his crew only had one main objective, to take from Prince John and give it to the starving people.

His stealing and ruining of the Prince John’s plans became a problem for the Prince and his cohorts that they were ready to do anything to catch him. The love interest Lady Marian came to be when she was being escorted by Sir Guy of Gisborne (Basil Rathbone) and they were ambushed by Robin.

One thing I looked forward to in this movie was Basil Rathbone showing us some masterful swordsmanship. Rathbone is one of the best swordsman in the acting business and it was he who taught Errol Flynn. So their final battle was the only thing in this movie that mattered to me, and that only was an additional two points. It was done with masterful cinematography, at one time only their shadows could be seen battling. If not for that battle I will have given this movie a two over ten.

At the time of its release it was Warner Bros most expensive movie and their most expensive color movie project. The movie that same year went ahead to win three Academy Awards for, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score and Best Film Editing.

I stand my ground in saying I do not understand why people rated this movie all so well.

Dora and The Lost City of Gold (2019)

Dora and The Lost City of Gold (2019)

6/10

Starring

Isabela Moner

Eugenio Derbez

Michael Peña

Eva Longoria

Directed by James Bobin

I will be honest and say I did not expect myself to like this movie at all, in fact I was so surprised when I found myself laughing hysterically while watching. This movie to me was a mix of yuckiness and comedy. The two main characters that carried the comedy in this film were Isabela Moner (Dora) and Eugenio Derbez (Alejandro).

When both characters were in the jungle in search of Dora’s parents get ready to witness some really interesting comedy been thrown at you from unexpected corners. Even when you can guess something silly was about to happen, the way the two carried it will still make you laugh.

The movies starts with the annoying yuckiness that would make you think you have made a mistake to be seeing this movie. We see young Dora and young Diego in the forest pretending to be on an adventure. Dora breaks the third wall, talks to her pet monkey boots the way she does in her animations. Things get better when she is older so just bear with the movie.

The movie’s main adventure is the search for the whereabouts of Parapata a place filled with gold and jewels. Dora’s parents want to explore the location and Dora has been helping them in deciphering clues. When her parents finally figured out where the location was, they decided to send her to stay with her cousin Diego, someone she has not seen in ten years. They feared for her safety as many are also seeking the same place, to steal, also they wanted her to experience life out of the jungle. Boots her pet monkey will not be going with Dora, but stay with her parents.

Diego now leaves in America with his family, Dora and her parents spent their child raising life in the Peruvian Jungle. Dora was visiting a city as a young adult for the first time.

She showed up to the town with her positive cheer intact, making friends and foes along the way. Her biggest challenge was her cousin Diego, who was embarrassed by her presence now that she is going to school with him.

Everything in Dora’s world changed when she stopped hearing from her parents. Fear that something bad may have happened to them, Dora was stuck in the U.S. with no hope.

During a class scavenger hunt that saw Dora, Diego and two other students all in the same group, the group got kidnapped and shipped in a crate back to Peru. There they were rescued by a man named Alejandro, who alleges to be a friend of Dora’s parents. They trusted him and with his help they set out to find Dora’s parents.

This will be a great movie to see with the family.

Even though the movie did not make much money at the box office, making more than twice the budget I believe the home video sales with bring in a huge chunk. This may trigger a second Dora adventure, or the studio will play it safe and bail out, who knows.

Lady and the Tramp (2019)

Lady and the Tramp (2019)

6/10

Starring the voices of

Tessa Thompson

Justin Theroux

Sam Elliott

Ashley Jensen

Directed by Charlie Bean

Well well, the new Lady and the Tramp live-action is not that bad. As a matter of fact this Disney's fifteenth live-action remake of either their classic animation or a character from that era is much better than their last four also released this year which were Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, The Lion King, Aladdin and Dumbo.

You will love the movie's setting and the characters are just well played into the role. There were changes made in this live-action which just played so well into the movie’s narrative. You will love the movie’s setting and when the Siamese cats showed up at Lady’s home, their song which was different from that of the animation, but it was still cool.

Lady and the Tramp is a live-action adaptation of Walt Disney’s 1955 animated film of the same name and it is the first Disney remake to not receive a theatrical release. It was instead launched with the release of their streaming service Disney+. I really enjoyed the way the changed the script to make the romantic story more romantic and lovely.

The plot is so very similar to that of 1955 and it starts with Jim Dear (Thomas Mann) getting his beloved wife Darling (Kiersey Clemons) a gift, which was Lady, a little pup. Lady (a Cocker Spaniel is voiced by Tessa Thompson) grew to love Darling and enjoyed their walks together. At one period Lady notices that Darling was no longer giving her the attention she used to get, even Jim Dear seems to be lost in his own world and sometimes scared.

She went to look for her friend which was a dog from the next compound. As she was talking from one side of the fence to her friend she did not notice she was actually talking to the tramp (a Schnauzer-mutt voiced by Justin Theroux).

The tramp happened to be hiding at that garden from the dog catcher. He heard her narration of how Darling's stomach is getting bigger and the lack of attention she was getting. After she discovers through a hole in the fence that she was not talking to a friend but a stranger Lady want to raise an alarm. The tramp had to convince her that he could help explain her problem as long as she doesn't bark to give away where he was hiding. He tells her that a new baby is coming to the home and she will no longer be the center of attention in the home any more.

From here on out, we see how Lady tries to navigate the birth of the new child in the home and soon she and the Tramp found themselves facing a wonderful adventure.

I loved the animation and believe this movie does justice to it, it is worth seeing.

Noelle (2019)

Noelle (2019)

3/10

Starring

Anna Kendrick

Bill Hader

Directed by Marc Lawrence

Disney+ opened with many new things and others on the way for use to enjoy. One of the early release with the launch of the new streaming service (owned by Disney) is this Christmas movie, Noelle.

Noelle is a movie that tries to get you with the Christmas cheer. It tries to woe you with Santa making connection to a little girl who is deaf and all the girl wants is for her mother to get a job. It tries to woe you by making everything work out with emotional scenes. The whole underdog getting ahead in this movie is not a twist ending that you will not have figured out less than half way into the movie.

The so well misplaced ideas of how to make a fantastic Christmas movie, were pulled to make this movie and this movie sucks big time.

The movie plot starts far in the North Pole at Santa’s house. Santa has two children Noelle and Nick. Nick from the moment we joined the movie is to start being groomed to be the new Santa, while Noelle had one job, to be his personal cheerleader.

After many years all grown Nick (Bill Hader) was not getting the whole Santa thing and was struggling big time to get things right. Their father has passed and the pressure was on Nick to be ready on or before Christmas day to go share the presents. When Noelle (Anna Kendrick) saw her brother’s struggles she suggested he takes a weekend off to cool down.

Nick was gone for more than a week, in fact he ran off causing the elders to make his and Noelle’s cousin the new Santa as they prepare for Christmas.

Noelle decides she has to find her brother and after she was able to deduce where in the world he probably will be hiding, she takes the Santa sleigh with the reindeers to go find him.

Making women take the lead seems to be one thing Disney is trying to make happen in a lot of the things they are doing now. Not all of their attempt on the stupid wave of “WOKENESS” have been as crappy as this one. For one thing, I have no qualms with females taking the lead by taking over a role which is commonly attributed to men. The moment I saw Noelle I wanted the movie to be this way. I wanted a change and even twenty minutes in and I could guess where the movie was going and yet hated the crappy way it was playing out, I stayed hopeful. In the end I believe the Noelle character deserved a better movie to launch her place as a woman in a role dominated by men.

I feel this movie had the idea, but did not have the delivery power to make the needed splash it could have made.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Roman Holiday (1953)

8/10

Starring

Audrey Hepburn

Gregory Peck

Eddie Albert

Directed by William Wyler

The movie is a fun time, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did and I was blown away by the performance of Audrey Hepburn. This film comes at you like a typical romcom and plays out just the same too. You pretty much can guess where everything will end up, then it ends not the same way you have been used to Hollywood playing these things out.

What you expect from a romantic comedy between a royalty and a commoner, ended in the most realistic way you could imagine.

If you are watching this movie for the first time like me, the present English monarchy with Prince Harry marrying Meghan Markle can make you think, everybody has a chance to be a princess. But in reality it is like one in a million if not billion.

The movie plot starts with the introduction of Princess Ann, we see how she is bored of being a royal. She suffered a nervous breakdown and the doctor gave her some form of sedative.

When they left her to rest she runs away, but then the sedative kicked in and she found herself sleeping on the street.

A journalist named Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) saw her and wanted to help her, but she was not making any sense so he took her to his place and left her there to go to work the next morning. When at work he was told about the visiting princess to Italy and upon seeing her picture he knew who he had in his bedroom. He promised his boss a scoop, an expose on the princess based on a one on on interview. He called his friend Irving (Eddie Albert) a photographer to come join him.

e goes home helps her to get dressed and she asked him for some money so she can go explore the streets. Soon he and his photographer friend tagged along, not informing her that they are journalists and were taking pictures of her as she was on her adventures.

The whole holiday experience of the lead, Princess Ann was a treat to watch. The movie then captures the adventures in such succinct ways. You are not bored as she ventures on one adventure and before you know it, it has ended and the next one begins. You will also enjoy the way she is not completely aloof to how the outside world works.

The movie was a huge commercial success at the box office that many even the studio wanted a second part, but that never happened. Hepburn’s magnificent performance in this movie earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won Best Actress in the BAFTA and the Golden Globe Awards. The movie also won two Academy awards which included an Award for Writing.

The fun you get from watching this movie made it earn the American Film Institute inclusion as number 4 in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions, and also fourth in the romantic comedy category in its AFI's 10 Top 10.

If you have not seen this movie, the you are surely missing out.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

8/10

Starring

William Holden

Gloria Swanson

Erich von Stroheim

Nancy Olson

Directed by Billy Wilder

One thing major stands out in this thriller when you sit through the movie Sunset Boulevard and that is Gloria Swanson as she plays the character Norma Desmond. She plays this character so well with so much intense and passion that you are just left lost in pity of her person and the idea of a human who has gone over the bend. The character Norma Desmond so suites Gloria in the way she portrays it that I have to wonder if part of her personal life went into it. Gloria was in reality a silent-film era star before the time of the talkies. In her life she moved with the times and was not stuck in the past like Norma, the character she plays.

The movie plot starts with us getting a look into the life of Joe Gills (William Holden) as he gives us a flashback into what had led him to the point which we find him at the beginning of the film.

Joe was down on his luck as a screenwriter, he has not gotten a job in a long while and his finances were down in the dust. He was owing on his rent and on his car and they were coming to reclaim his car. He tries to raise three hundred dollars in an effort to keep his car, but all his attempts failed.

While fleeing from the repossession men, he gets a flat and drives into an old abandoned mansion. He hides his car there then he hears a voice, the voice of a woman (Norma) who calls him to come upstairs, he went. He was let into the house by a man named Max (Erich von Stroheim) and soon understood that he was mistook to be a coffin maker.

He meets Norma and soon gets the idea that she was living in her own fantasy world. Norma used to be a leading actress in the silent-film era, there she made all her fortune and now lives a reclusive life as the talkies began. A life where she has carved out a time for herself and has refused to age beyond the time when she was still popular. In her world she is still a film star, getting thousands of letters every week from fans asking her to make a comeback.

She was truly rich, and her riches along with Max’s love for her was what Max used to fund her fantasy world. She also learns that Joe was a screenwriter and ask him to read her screenplay, she was going to use that screenplay to make a comeback. Joe reads it and sees an opportunity to make money and tells her the screenplay (which was a waste of paper) needs a re-write. He gets her to hire him as a ghost writer.

He is forced to move into the mansion with her and she develops feelings for him, she starts to care for him take care of him all in the hope that they are writing a movie together.

It was when reality hit, that this movie takes a turn and only by you seeing it can you fully appreciate the turn it takes.

The movie's appeal is it's energy. The movie has this scary ghoulish feeling like there is something dark and amiss about what was happening and as you watch you will get to see it. The movie has a good score and it has two popular movie lines, which had been remixed much. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." and "I am big, it's the pictures that got small!"

Sunset Boulevard received Golden Globe awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Motion Picture Actress (Swanson), Best Motion Picture Director and Best Motion Picture Score. Sunset Boulevard also received 11 Academy Award nominations and won three, which include Best Screenplay and Best Musical Score.

The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

8/10

Starring

Joseph Cotten

Alida Valli

Orson Welles

Trevor Howard

Directed by Carol Reed

The musical theme of this movie is something that is well known, and the all together musical score of can best be summarized in one word, classic. The movie itself pulls at the strings of your heart and sense from different sides.

The movie in summary is about the death of Harry Lime (Orson Welles), which was weird because of the accounts of his death do not match along with one witness, who saw three men carry Harry’s body. But according to the police report based on two witness, there were only two men there.

At this time the person who discovered this inconsistency was Harry’s friend from America Holly Martin (Joseph Cotten). Holly was visiting Vienna the place where the movie is set for a job which was promised to him by Harry. Upon getting to Vienna he hears of Harry’s death and goes to the funeral. When Holly starts to investigate what had happened to his friend, his path crossed with the officer in charge of the case, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard).

Holly wants to get to the bottom of the case and see what the police was missing or hiding because the Harry he knew when growing up is not the same Harry the police are happy is dead. It is at this point you wish you had a friend like Holly on your side. That changes quick when the movie develops and later on you wish never had a friend like him. His way of trying to solve the case led to many other people getting into trouble and he just getting off unscratched, but out of breath from running for his life. Then there is Anna, the love interest of Harry. Her place in the movie is just everywhere and this thriller plays with these three characters in ways that just makes you wonder how the movie is planning to end this whole matter placed in front of you.

You keep watching to know what really happened to Harry, who are these men who carried him to the side walk when he died? Did he die immediately or did he live long enough to live a message for Holly and Anna? Was Harry as bad as the police say, or was there a cover up?

See this wonderful movie to see the answers for these questions.

The movie has some very weird angles of sight. The cinematographer shot some scenes at some angles that just makes you wonder if that was an error, but then it happens a lot of other times and you kind of like it.

Seen as one of the best movies ever, which I do agree. The acting in this movie will leave you gasping for more and hoping the movie had more planned, but it ends with your mind left to wonder how Holly and Anna will deal with the aftermath of Harry.

Broadcast News (1987)

Broadcast News (1987)

7/10

Starring

William Hurt

Albert Brooks

Holly Hunter

Directed by James L. Brooks

The movie is nice and tender. Broadcast News explores everything that needs to be done to get the news out for we the viewers to see it. You will like the challenges they faced and how many people hide behind their work and their drive.

What I liked about the movie is the way it plays so close to reality and not try to spin out something that can only be done through cinematic magic. The weird and lonely struggle to get a break, while the crafty and morally inept get ahead. In the movie nice guys do not get the girls in the end nor do crafty guys get their heart squashed. Nice guys lose the girls and crafty guys go far win awards and get even prettier girls. While the lady that tries to get a grip of her life will at the end, still try to get a grip of her life and like in this movie, we see at the end of the tunnel a glimmer of hope for her.

The writing of this movie must have taken a lot of investigation to get done. The acting also will have you at the ropes in appreciation because it appeared that not everyone could have pulled off what we saw displayed on screen.

The plot starts with the introduction of the three people to which the movie focuses on, but everything seems to revolve around Jane (Holly Hunter). Jane is a very unhappy lady whose entire life revolves round her work. She is very good at what she does and is always ready to pull out a diamond from a rock when things are tight and everyone says impossible. We see her sometimes take timeout to cry about how sad her life is and how much she wished for more. What I liked here is that, she acts out these feelings without us getting see this really addressed in words.

Her seemingly best friend and probably only fried s Aaron (Albert Brooks) she adores him so much as a friend and he seems to be the one person who gives her life the needed anchor. Aaron is a full time reporter nerd. He knows what he needs to know about a case before he gets on it and is ready to go as far as needed to get the story right. Aaron desires to one time grow to be a news anchor, but he lacks the charisma to be able to get to such a height. Then there is Tom (William Hurt) the man who gets to be anchor later on in the movie and the one person who we discover is willing to do anything to get ahead.

Written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks, this movie was a critical and commercial success and earned numerous Academy Awards nominations and also numerous movie award nominations. It did not win an Academy Award, but it won other movie awards for it’s work.

Quiet a long film, but fun to see.