Reviews

The most realistic sports film that has ever been made, Any Given Sunday is an amazing drama flick. It tells the story about a back up quarterback who finally gets his start in the NFL. He begins to do exceptional, but with his new found wealth and fame his head gets bigger and his own team mates turn against him. Oliver Stone wanted to show the other side of professional sports to people, in a world of players being glorified there is drugs, fights and the greed for money and success. The story is great because it shows some players individual problems with money and family. Even the head coach played by Al Pachino has his difficulties with his family and friends, although he has all the money he needs he's not necessarily happy. The main character Jamie Foxx who plays the quarterback that has a passion and greed for fame, but can't look pass himself to realize football is not a single man sport. All of these problems brought together on a team really blows up on screen and it is spectacular to watch. Some of the best acting in this film along with the realistic football hits and highlights. Perfect film from beginning to end.

Babel is a very interesting film that is well directed. A drama, thriller film that has a least four different countries as settings. The US, Morroco, Japan, and Mexico. The director wanted to show us family relationships such as husband and wife, father/daughter, brother/sister and other relationships that are unique to this story. He shows us these relationships in different settings and with different race. These people are all different, they live different and look different, but within this story they are all connected in some way or another. The director successfully makes his point across or showing the connection between these people while showing the individual problems they have within themselves. In many different languages and landscapes to work with, what would seem like a nearly impossible film to do, this film is a great success and one of the better films I have seen. The cinematography was spectacular with the settings they were in whether it was in the dessert in Morroco or in the bright city of Japan, the shots were great.

A Bronx Tale is a gangster drama film. It shows a different side of gangster films, more heart and romance. This film takes you into the life of one kid, we watch Calogero from when he was young to when he gets a little older. Calogero grows up in the Bronx at a time when there is a lot of violence going on and at a time of racial tension. The battle this character fights is his regular life with his hardworking father and his other life as a wanna be mobster. The head of the mafia Sonny takes care of Calogero as if he were his own son. This film is great, it has a lot of action scenes that I thought were very realistic. The first time director Robert Dinero wanted to tell a story about a kid torn apart in life not knowing which way to go or where he is being pushed. A softer side of a gangster flick showing real emotions of these gangsters, it makes them look more real and true to life because gangsters have feelings too. From beginning to end the director effectively showed the racial tension and the main characters struggles through his regular family and his gangster family. A great picture for the first time director Robert Dinero.

Shattered Glass is an interesting film to see, a drama film that is centered around journalism. The main character is a writer at the New Republic and he is great at his job. His articles are too perfect, they are made up. This film is very intense, with everyone trying figure out if in fact whether the main characters articles are fake. The screenplay is unique, with the main character telling his story to a class of students making himself look like a role model even though he lost his job for false information in the magazine. While he is telling his story the film goes back and forth to what really happens to him. This is a true story and the director was trying to show journalism and the code of ethics that journalist should follow. The acting in this film was really good, I was sucked into the story the whole way through the film. Cinematography was good, nothing special, the setting was mostly inside in offices. This film is unique because it shows real journalism, and it tells a story about journalist getting into trouble with his job. Usually the journalist are the good guys trying to tell a story about the bad guys, but this time its the reverse.

The film chop shop is a nice little drama film about an orphan brother and sister living in a chop shop in queens New York. The cinematography in chop shop was done very well, and the actual story was good, but the script had to much useless lines. The worst thing in this film to me was the acting, the actors felt like first timers. The main character was a little boy who spoke loudly most of the time and acted like he was older then his older sister. I felt like they had the screenplay in there hands as the film was going on. With this film the director was trying to show people how a kid could live basically homeless but it seemed like nothing to everyone else around him. The kid didn't go to school but worked and hustled everyday. The film was slow pace, with not that much action going on, a really quiet and subtle film. When things did happen it wasn't that big or stunning to effect you that much. The visuals put the audience in the world of a poor, hardworking Spanish junk yard away from the rest of New York. Overall the film was great to see but the acting felt unrealistic.

The city of God is one of the best best films that I have ever seen. This film is about the true story of the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro aka city of God. The screenplay was well done because the film has so much stories with in it, different characters and places have their on tale to tell. The main character telling the story from his point of view and it goes back and forth through time. The story kept me interested the whole entire film, there isn't any part of the film where I felt bored or confused. In this film the director wanted to give people a little taste of what it would be like living in the city of God and he wants to show the vivid violence. Being that the story starts out with gangsters running the town and new people always taking the last gangsters place. The director wants to say that this will never end, it only repeats. This unique film had some great cinematography, and the acting was really good. In one scene where a little boy was shot in the foot for stealing in the slums, he cried so much and it looked so real as if he were really hurt. The setting was amazing, many daylight shots where people were brutally murdered in the daytime. The director successful makes this film to have an effect on people.

Road to Perdition is a drama, thriller picture. The director wanted to tell a different type of gangster picture. Adapted from the book the director does a great job showing the relationship between the father and son. Although there is violence in this film, their is also a lot of emotions from the father and son. They each have to play a different role in their lives now that the mother and younger brother were brutally murdered by the fathers own people. They come closer together and help each other out because they only have each other. The main point the director was trying to drive was, the father didn't want the son to turn to a life of crime like his father. By the end of film we learn that the son does not follow his fathers foot steps. The acting was fantastic, Tom Hanks playing the lead role of a gangster seems like it wouldn't be all that great, but when you add in the element of a father son relationship, it works out perfect. This is an old picture setting it was set in the early 1930's. The mood of the film felt dark and foggy most of the time. A unique gangster flick that had action, drama, and family. The film had great cinematography, acting and direction. This film will appeal to all audiences.

A Scifi drama film that is very unique and interesting. This film depicts a complex subject that everyone thinks about and talks about. Eternal life, and whether it is out there for us to have. The film at first was confusing because it went back and forth constantly from past to present and then future. The filmmaker is talking about the meaning of life in this film and eternal life. He sets up the characters trying to find eternal life searching for the tree of life. Plants have a very important role in this film and in real life. This character is looking for eternal life because of his dying wife. The director uses love to drive this film. He is saying love and life go hand and hand. Throughout this whole film the filmmaker tells this story effectively and it did have an impact on me. The filmmaker sets up three different unique worlds put into one. The way the story was setup it is believable that eternal life is out there. This film is a little bit of everything. Scifi, drama, action and touches a little on religion. This film really made me think about life, God and love.

This film was a quiet thriller. The film was subtle with the action that went on through the film. The pace of the film was slow, although it started out fast and finished quick, the majority of the time it felt slow moving. The film was about a man who robbed a jewelry shop and who went about his day and job like a normal person. When this man deliver's a pizza to this one real nice home he acts like himself until he killed himself in this man's home. The film had great cinematography but did not really speak to me. The filmmaker wasn't really saying anything within this film. It was not unique in any way, the film could have went down many different roads, but it takes the path that I saw it going down the whole time. The world he tried to create was no different then everyday life(before the character kills himself). I felt like we were just watching the characters day to day life, the character didn't seem to care about anything so I didn't care about anything either. Nothing seemed to ever bother the character but then at the end of the film he takes his own life. I couldn't understand why he did it, and also I could careless that he did do it. Great camera work and acting but didn't really care for the story.

The film stuck is a very interesting thriller to watch. The story is twisted true events situation that happened in 2001. The film started off calm with this woman who works in a old folks home who is feeding people then it takes you to a party scene where she is taking drugs. On the way from the party she is driving home and she hits this man with her car and he goes through the window and thats where he stays. From the beginning of the film to the end of the film I felt like the excitement of the events were getting hire and hire, like the writers kept raising the stakes. A film should go up and down with the stakes and events, but I just felt us going up. The scenes were great and the action was nice but its as if some was turning up volume, It'll hurt your ears on the highest level. The best thing about watching this film was thinking the whole time it was a true story that happened to this woman where she hit someone and panics so much that she didn't help that person. Only some of the true story was in the film which was great but the rest of the story was OK. The film was exciting but the ending was a little shaky.

City by the sea is a great drama thriller picture. The film is a suspense roller coaster from beginning to end. The movie was about a police officer and his struggles as a regular person. It ask the questions of what if a cop had a father who was in prison? Another question it ask is what if a cop had a son who is a murderer? Questions that people would always ask and want to know the answer. In this picture Robert Dinero plays a cop who deals with such problems and through out the whole film the questions that the writer of the film gives to the audience, we wait and see how he answers the questions. Robert Dinero plays an emotional police officer with a son played by James Franco. the father and son don't really even know each other but they are so much alike. The things that the father went through with his father the son was doing with his own son. The hidden secrets in this film will catch you off guard even when you think you know whats going on in the film. It was entertaining all the way through and was realistic and believable. The acting was good and direction was good. The most outstanding thing about this film was the writing.

This drama slash comedy indie film is a great film to see. The film has to do with a real life problem that everyone has gone through or will go through. Discussing what to do with a loved one when they are of old age. The two children of the film which are Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are sister and brother who have to make a decision about there old father who was never really in their lives. The father was played by Philip Bosco. The film tackles the awkward feeling of putting a loved one in an old folks home and how the daughter and son deal with it even though they weren't close with the father. The daughter (Laura Linney) also has problems with her life which is not knowing what step to take in life. She puts herself in a meaningless sexual relationship that she knows is going nowhere and she also has problems at work. The son (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an unmarried 44 year old. While dealing with their own problems they have to deal with their old father who is dieing. All these characters are all so different and live in different places and the only thing that brings them together is blood. The films theme is about taking care of family. The film also makes a big point about old folks homes, which is saying that the way they look on the outside and all the commercials showing old people how much it is fun, it is really covering up the sad truth that people go there and die. The film shows the real old folks home and how the characters choose and deal with it.

This indie film is a great thriller to watch. It is like a nine eleven scare on the west coast. Set in LA with poisonous dust clouds. Downtown LA filled with explosions and mayhem and confusion. The story of this film seems as if it would be a hard task for an indie, to have LA the setting of a terrorist attack, but they pull it off quite well. The story set around a little amount of characters, as the main character is man who is home as the attack happens while his wife is at work. His goal is to get his wife home before the poisonous ash in the air makes her sickly then result in death. This story could have been a very big story with many different characters going through many different problems. Sometimes story's that try to cover to many characters ruin the film. The writer kept the story on these two main characters and added little characters. Even the radio became a character in the story. As the man stayed inside waiting for his wife the radio told the audience what was going on outside where the attack happened. The film entertained me and kept my attention for the whole film. The acting was good, solid performances. The length of film was average but felt much longer. As the main character was trapped in the house, I felt trapped in the house with him, which is what I think the director wanted. Right at your door is an all around good film.