Displaying Review 6 - 9 of 9 in total

• When a legal movie meets comedy :) — for My Cousin Vinny
  Written by JakeBlues on 15.06.2012

  WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

  Unfortunately, this movie is mainly famous or, more suitably, infamous, for the fact that Marisa Tomei won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in My Cousin Vinny.
  Many people, moviegoers and critics found this to be a great mistake, one of the biggest in the entire story of the Academy.
  Marisa Tomei in fact is not generally considered to be a great actress (and maybe she is not one of the greates indeed).
  Judy Davis was also nominated, the same year, for her role in the movie Husbands and Wives, and what's for sure is that Judy Davis IS a greater actress than Marisa Tomei, as well as greater is her performance in Husbands and Wives, compared to Marisa Tomei's role in My Cousin Vinny.
  This being sad, my personal opinion is that Tomei's performance in My Cousin Vinny is underrated and a very good one: she is fun, credible and convincing as Mona Lisa Vito, the leading character's fiancee.

  The movie, however, is indeed centered on the lead character, Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci), as an atypical and unskilled lawyer, trying to save his cousin and friend from the severe penal law system of Alabama for a case of mistaken identity.
  Joe Pesci delivers a performance that is absolutely delightful, proving that he is not only an exceptional dramatic actor (i.e. compare his performance in Goodfellas, etc.), but he can also be incredibly funny.
  Few actors are able to deliver both dramatic and comic great performances, Joe Pesci is definitely one of them.

  The plot develops around the differences and comic consequences from the contacts and contrasts between two New Yorkers (more than New Yorkers, Brooklyners!), Vinny and Mona Lisa, and the state and people from Alabama, in the deep south of the USA: two distant universe colliding, and the collision is utterly funny... :)

  The court scenes and fights between lawyer Gambini and Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne, also delivering a shining performance) are just hylarious, as well as Vinny and Mona Lisa's discoveries of southern food delicatessen, etc.

  Then, there are the fantastic nigt scenes: for a series of unfortunate events, Vinny is unable to really completely rest and sleep for an entire night, during his stay in Alabama, and the viewers get an unlimited amount of enjoyment and laughs out of this situation.

  Appropriate apparel for court is another movie highlight, as Vinny slowly discovers that Brooklyn and Alabama are REALLY different, even regarding dress codes... :)

  A final mention goes to Ralph Macchio as Bill Gambini, Vinny's younger cousin: it's a minor role, but the kid is likeable and emphatic as always.

  If you haven't seen this movie, do it as soon as you can: you'll have a great time... And you'll maybe be able to learn how to properly cook grits, a real Southern specialty! :)

• A poetical masterpiece against all wars — for The Thin Red Line
  Written by JakeBlues on 22.06.2012

  WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

  Terrence Malick's cinema is not for everyone.
  His slow rhythms, long shots and culturally elevated themes, the rarefied atmospheres of his movies can be boring for many viewers.
  Somehow, a Terrence Malick movie is like reading a poem: if you're only used to read bestsellers and popular fiction, you might quickly fall asleep while watching one of his films.

  On the other hand, if your taste is sophisticated and you like a deep, lyrical scan of the human nature, you'll love this movie, as all Terrence Malick's movies.

  The Thin Red Rine, an adaptation of a James Jones novel, took ten years in the making.
  This is normal to Malick, whose filmography is very short because of the biblical time always needed to complete each one of his movies.
  The incredible amount of work, by the way, is easily traceable once the viewer gets to sit down and enjoy one of his genial works.

  War, and war's effects to mankind, are the main themes of the movie, and it seemed a perfect choice for Malick to choose the Pacific Ocean's fights of War World II for his movie.
  Those places are in fact a paradise on earth, therefore the contrast between the incredibly beautiful and pristine naturalistic settings and the horrors of war is the recurring topic in The Thin Red Line.
  As known, Malick is an absolute master in depicting and filming naturalistic landscapes, and the magic tropical islands of the South Pacific allow the director to offer to his viewers some great shots.
  The first part of the movie presents a utopic society, a sort of Melanesian garden of Eden, where one of the main characters, Pvt. Witt (Jim Caiviezel), almost looses himself to.
  Everything of course changes when the rest of the U.S. Army enters in the equation, forcing Witt back to the crude reality of war.

  There's a particular scene that is somehow representative of the entire movie and its message.
  When the soldiers first land on the island of Guadalcanal, marching on their way to the battle zone, they meet a native islander who is walking on the opposite direction, passing by the soldiers.
  Everyone in the scene is part of the human race, but the cultural, ethnic differences between the soldiers and the local man are so wide, that it seems like two different, parallel universes meet in that specific place, with no comprehensible contact possible between the two.
  The islander in fact simply passes by, without even looking or caring about the soldiers and their war.
  To me, that is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed in the history of cinema, representing how the evolution of human society not only brought human kind to great achievements and improvements, but also to a moral decadence, perfectly represented by the capacity to wage war on a global scale, bringing destruction everywhere, including remote, pristine and virgin places like the South Pacific islands.

  Besides the direction (every Terrence Malick movie is a Terrence Malick movie first, and everything else is peripheral to that), under the acting point of view, The Thin Red Line is a choral movie.
  It's rare to find a similar amount of great actors in a single movie: everybody is in fact always enthusiastic about the possibility to work with this great director.
  In addition to the already mentioned Jim Caviezel, we find performances by actors like Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, George Clooney, John Travolta, Adrien Brody and John C. Reilly.
  Every single one of them has a different approach to war, a different story to tell to the viewer, a different impact on the plot and on the declaration against war that the movie is about.
  Every performance is shiny and convincing, in my opinion Caviezel, Penn and Nolte depicting the most memorable characters in this movie.

  Almost three hours long, this epic piece of cinema will hit you in the heart and stay with you forever.

  When I think about the horrors, the nonsense of war, my first thought always goes to the (initially) bucolic, windy hill of the main battle of the movie, and that fantastic, silent and brilliantly green tall grass: a paradise soon to be turned into hell by mankind.

  Again, to summarize the entire review in one single word: The thin red line is a true masterpiece.

• How long can a night last (if you don't sleep)? — for Into the Night
  Written by JakeBlues on 26.06.2012

  WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

  Into The Night, directed by John Landis in 1985, has a plot that's entirely developed in one single day, the night part being by far the center of the story.
  Everything in fact, from the movie beginning to the end, happens during approximately 24 hours.
  And, trust me on this if you still haven't seen the film, A LOT happens during those 24 hours… :)
  Normally, when somebody reaches the end of a day and gets to bed, he spends the night sleeping, without nothing happening until the morning after.
  The difference here is that the main movie character, Ed Okin (Jeff Goldblum) suffers from a severe case of insomnia.
  His nights are therefore almost endless, as he cannot fall asleep.
  His insomnia is the primary cause of all his troubles in the movie and this particular, crazy night will change his entire life forever.
  Unexpectedly coming home from work one day because of his terrible status after another sleepless night, he happens to discover that his wife is cheating on him.
  He is too tired to react aggressively, so he simply leaves home, the following night, starting to wander, driving around Los Angeles.
  He'll end up at the airport, where he will have his first, daring meeting with the second main movie character: Diana (Michelle Pfeiffer).
  She is exactly the opposite kind, her life is packed with action and thrill, as she is apparently trying to escape from some Middle East villains that are trying to kill her.
  Ed almost casually saves her life, and since that moment the apparently unlikely, improbable couple is formed, and their story together is the center of this enjoyable comedy.
  To make a long story short, after many adventures, ups and downs and hazards, Ed will be born again at the end of the movie: he will find the ability to finally sleep again and he'll have the possibility to turn his boring, useless life upside down.

  Both Jeff Goldblum and Michell Pfeiffer were at the beginning of their career as actors when they starred in Into The Night, and both performances are great and surely contributed to turn them quickly to proper movie stars.

  Jeff Goldblum is simply perfect as the perpetual insomniac!
  His character goes through all the story with a constant sleepy attitude which is at the same time incredibly funny and totally convincing.
  His reactions are always slow, he never gives the idea of fully understanding what's happening around him, and this compared to the frenzy of many action scenes is one of the most comical elements of the movie.

  Michelle Pfeiffer is, first and foremost, gorgeous here.
  She is 25 years old in Into The Night, her beauty and class are already very evident, her icon status already in full power.
  She is also perfect portraying a young woman that is using her charm to get the best possible life, but that puts her in great trouble and danger as well.

  The couple works just perfectly together, imho.

  Then, there's John Landis unique direction.
  Some scenes, for example the one on the movie set where Diana is working, are his trademark.
  It is in fact never fully clear what is true and what is false, if a location is real or if it's a movie set: pure John Landis! :)
  His supporting actor role as one of the villains is also great.
  Another of his trademarks is being able to have other famous movie directors appearing as actors in his movies.
  Into the night gets a lot of them: directors like David Cronenberg, Jonathan Demme, Lawrence Kasdan, Paul Mazursky, Don Siegel, Roger Vadim and many others all have cameo roles in the movie.

  To me, though, the best cameo appearance in Into The Night comes from the great David Bowie, again portraying a vicious villain who almost kills Ed in a fantastic scene in the movie.

  And, music wise, a final mention must be made on the original soundtrack of the movie.
  Immense bluesman B.B. King, toghether with his famous guitar Lucille, are audible during many scenes of the film, and that heavenly music is, by itself, a good reason to watch (or watch again) Into The Night.
  Another great comedy, from the classical John Landis golden age!

  Jake Blues

• You're never really done for as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to :) — for La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano
  Written by JakeBlues on 28.06.2012

  WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

  The title of my review, one of the sentences repeated more than once in the movie, really sums up 1986's La Leggenda del Pianista sull'Oceano, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
  The plot, in fact, is what makes this a really great movie.

  The story is about the unique life of a man named Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred (Tim Roth), who was born, lived and died on a cruise ship, the fictional Virginian.

  The long, atypical main character's name needs an explanation, which is also a good way of resuming the first part of the story.
  A new born child is left abandoned on the ship at the end of a cruise.
  One of the ship's machinists, Danny Boodman, finds the baby in a cradle.
  On the cradle, he finds written "T.D. Lemon", and as the initials T.D. are the same of his name, he believes that destiny chose him as the adoptive father of the baby.
  He takes the baby and its cradle with him in the huge ship's engine room, where he works, and starts to take care of the child.
  While discussing about the name to be given to his adoptive son, he believes that "Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon" is not enough, and as he found him during the first month of the first year of a new century, he decides to add "Nineteen Hundred" (Novecento, in Italian).

  Nineteen Hundred grows on the ship, his family being the very ship's crew, everybody loves him and covers his presence to the authorities.
  Soon enough, he discovers his immense passion and talent for music, he learns to play piano and starts entertaining first the crew and then the ship's guests with his musical abilities.
  A jazz big band is soon formed around him and his piano, and his fame as a virtuoso player starts to spread around.

  Meanwhile, he meets jazz trumpeter Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who quickly becomes his best friends, together they'll spend the central and best part of their lives.
  Tooney is also the character who will recap Nineteen Hundred story in the movie, in a series of nostalgic flashbacks.

  The biggest peculiarity in Nineteen Hundred's life is the fact that he'll never leave the ship.
  He'll live is entire life cruising the ocean between Europe and the United States of America, constantly back and forth, getting to know the rest of the world only by making contact with always different guests on his ship.
  Even at the end, when the Virginian is set for destruction, in a very emotional scene he explains his best friend that he prefers to disappear with his ship, that is his entire, finite universe, than landing on a world that is too big for him.

  The story comes from Alessandro Baricco's monologue called "Novecento", a true masterpiece in my opinion, and many scenes in the movie are described with the help of fantastic voice overs from that monologue, as Max Tooney tells to the viewers the story of Nineteen Hundred.

  Giuseppe Tornatore is great in turning the genial monologue into a long movie (170 minutes), respecting the original story atmosphere, underlying the most intense moments of the story with great scenes.

  Just to remember a few of them:

  - the piano dance, when Nineteen Hundred and Max float in the huge ship's ballroom, during an ocean tempest, moving around with their piano as a safe house while the waves hit the ship;

  - the piano duel, when Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) wants to show Nineteen Hundred who is the real king of jazz, only to discover that Nineteen Hundred is really unbeatable, at least on his ship in the middle of the ocean;

  - the moment when Nineteen Hundred ALMOST gets off the ship, as he stands for a long time on the long ship's ladder, looking at the immense city of New York, with all his belongings closed in a couple of suitcases, finally turning back to his only house on earth, the comforting Virginian;

  - the nostalgic, final scene in the music shop, when the owner gives back for free the trumpet to Max Tooney, explaining this choice with this words: "a good story is worth more than an old trumpet".

  About the actors and their performances, both the actors in leading roles, Tim Roth and Pruitt Taylor Vince, deliver strong performances, with Tim Roth particularly convincing as a man different from all the others, with his levity, his wisdom, his different way to see every aspect of life.

  Finally, it's impossible not to mention an actress that, even if only briefly on scene in this movie, is incredibly beautiful and empathic: the gorgeous Melanie Thierry, playing an emigrant girl on the Virginian that will break Nineteen Hundred's heart.

  This, in the end, is a movie about music and his power to make life better: I believe this to be one of the simplest yet strongest messages that a movie can give to the audience.
  For this reason, mainly, I consider La Leggenda del Pianista sull'Oceano a fantasic movie, that I would recommend to everybody.

  Then, if you can, also find and read Alessandro Baricco's monologue: you'll find a true treasure in that small book… :)

  Jake Blues