יום שני, 8 בדצמבר 2014

Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003) Quentin Tarantino

                                                      

Kill Bill Vol.1 is about the bride (Uma Thurman) a former member of  the deadly viper assasination sqaud who quit the squad for a simple life with her fiancee in Texas. She was bruatlly attacked in an attempted murder along with 8 other people who were all killed (including her fiancee) at her wedding by the other members of the sqaud. She now seeks revenge on all of  them. After she kills them she can finally kill Bill who is the head of the squad. The  film opens with a powerful short scene where the bride is seen shot in the head by Bill. From there it jumps in time to the last chronological scene in the film and from there to the almost beginning with some more flashbacks along the way. This film is a homage to the low budget gory martial arts films that Tarantino used to watch as a clerk in a video store. As expected it is very gory but the violence looks very fake. Don't get me wrong, the violence is exaggerated intentionally, I found it unique and interesting although some might disagree. The story wasn't very uniqe, but again this is a homage. Some people might say Tarantino takes the homage thing too far, I on the other hand found it interesting. Although the story is chewed out Tarantino did add a lot to the genre. The Tarantino style editing which is very stylized and so many Tarantino trademarks (feet, red apple cigarettes, corpse and trunk pov (point of view)etc...), I especially loved the black humor.  The acting was pretty good but this movie is pretty shallow on emotions and acting (the exact opposite of Kill Bill Vol.2). Again, don't get me wrong it is all intentional. The cinematography is amazing, very aesthetic and unusual angles and frame sizes (lots of close ups and extreme close ups). I liked the symetrical frames like in a lot of martial arts (especially Japanese) films. I liked the use of snow and cherry trees for aesthetics (again like in Japanese films), and the very strong use of colors too.
Rating- 5/5 stars.
 In one scentence- "A very unique and stylized film". 

יום שני, 1 בדצמבר 2014

Reviews Coming Soon

Kill Bill Vol.1



                                                                    
Kill Bill Vol.2

                                                                         
                                                                                    
Pulp Fiction

יום שני, 16 ביוני 2014


Prisoners (2013) Denis Villeneuve

Prisoners is about two families (Dover and Birch) who are friends. When the two families have Thanksgiving dinner together at the Birch family's house, the small daughters (Joy Birch and Anne Dover)  go to Anne's house to look for Anne's red whistle. The problem is that they do not come back. After some time, the police start to investigate the case. Soon after that the police find a suspect for the girl's kidnaping, the suspects name is Alex Jones. Alex lives with his aunt Holly who adopted him after his parents died in a car crash. The police soon release Alex because he has an IQ of a 10 year old. Keller (Anne's father) is sure that Alex is the killer. After Alex gets released Keller kidnaps him because he is sure that Alex knows where Anne is. From there the movie is full of twists and turns. The photography is very good but the photography and the twists can't make up for the bad dialogue. The dialogue is really bad, some of it is to flat  and some of it boring. The script writer probably thought that you will automatically empathize with the characters because their daughters/sisters got kidnapped but I couldn't empathize with hardly any of the characters because you can hardly get to know them, Keller is supposed to be some kind of anti-hero but it just doesn't work.
in one sentence: "Great twists and poor dialogue make an ok movie"
verdict:3/5    

יום ראשון, 8 ביוני 2014

Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorcese

some minor spoilers
 
Martin Scorcese is my favorite director although I don't think his films are the best. He's my favorite director  because I liked all of his films that I watched (except for one- Casino which is not bad but I was disappointed). I watched about 8 of his films and I liked almost each and every one, from the old De Niro ones to the new DiCaprio ones. Whenever I go to the cinema to watch a Scorcese movie or go to the video store (we still have some in Israel) to rent a Scorcese movie I know that I will enjoy the ride. Now let's get back to Goodfellas. First of all Goodfellas is based on a true story. Goodfellas is about a man named Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Henry says "as far as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster." The movie follows Henry's path into the mob since his teenage years. Goodfellas is my favorite Scorsese movie. Lets talk about the acting, Robert De Niro is just Amazing , Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta are both great. The only problem with this movie is the violence it didn't really bother me but if you have a problem with violence you should keep this in mind. This movie is very touching. At some points I could really sympathize with Henry (and at some I didn't but I wasn't meant to).
In one scentence: A great Scorsese classic
verdict 5/5 stars 

יום שבת, 31 במאי 2014

 

M (1931) Fritz Lang

spoilers

M is about a serial killer named Hans (Peter Lore) that kills only children. Hans terrorizes the whole city of Berlin and everybody is terrified of him. Because he continues to murder people the police put more police officers on the streets and that annoys the mob. So the mob decides that they should catch the killer themselves. They decide to hire beggars to look out for the killer each beggar got a part of a street that they need to stay in and look for the killer there. Before you know the killer's name or actually see his face you start to recognize him by his creepy whistle (he always whistles a song named "In the Hall of the Mountain King"). at the end of the movie the mob catches the killer  and have a "fair trail" with Lawyers" with "lawyers" and all (I won't tell you what hapenns at the end You'll just have to watch it), in this scene the killer makes an amazing speech, actually the most amazing in cinematic history. This speech is so powerful so thought provoking. Actually I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week. Wow, what a speech. Another great thing about this movie is the photography it is really amazing.
in one sentence: An amazing and very thought provoking.
verdict: 5/5      

יום שישי, 2 במאי 2014





Skyfall (2012) Sam Mendes

Some minor spoilers

I don't like this film, because this movie cost 150-200 million dollars to make and it doesn't have any cinematic value, actually the people who make this movie know that it will not have any cinematic value. You must ask why do they make it then? I'll tell you why because it SELLS, I have no idea why it does, but it sells. Just to prove a point The Departed (won the best picture Oscar in 2006 and is a great film, they are both from about the same time era) cost 90 million dollars to make ( about half of how much it cost to make Skyfall) and earned 200 million dollars (I already subtracted the budget) and Skyfall earned about 950 million dollars I have no idea why. The idea of James Bond is okay, so they made one, and then two okay a sequel, and then three okay a trilogy but 23 is too much.
In one scentence: Don't watch
1/5 stars

יום ראשון, 27 באפריל 2014

 

My Top 10 Movies

 
1. The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola- An astonishing film from the wedding scene to the baptism scene. Marlon Brando's acting is amazing!! He manages to play somebody older than him by about 20 years and he does it perfectly.
 
2. Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles- This movie is a real timeless classic. The photography is amazing and Orson Welles is great too (as an actor and a director).


 
3. Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese - no better mafia film has ever been made except the Godfather. Scorsese with De Niro and even Pesci what can be better then that?


 
4. Scindler's List (1993)Steven Spielberg- What a touching story, I could hardly get through this movie without crying, seriously. The acting is great and this is without a doubt the best holocaust film ever made.


 
5. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock- A thrilling movie to say the least, Hitchcock's amazing classic is still horrifying more then 50 years after it was made (especially the shower scene).



6. The Gold Rush (1925) Charlie Chaplin- Wow, what a hilarious film! A real Chaplin classic.



7. The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut- this classic (one of the pioneers of the French new wave) is very thought provoking and the direction by Truffaut is great.
.
8. M (1931) Fritz Lang- This is one of the most thought provoking films ever made (even more then The 400 Blows) and I couldn't stop thinking about it for about a week. The photography and directing are both great.



9. Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock- Another thrilling Hitchcock classic although not as good as psycho it is still a great film.



10. American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes - An amazing film and really thought provoking too. The actors are really great especially Kevin Spacey.