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Reviews
Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
Does Spike Lee know anything about History?
After 40 minutes, I couldn't watch anymore of this film. It is that bad and that historically inaccurate.
The Buffalo soldiers in this movie came across as borderline idiots, with little to no training. From the very first points of action, it appeared that the Army had sent African American Soldiers to Italy with no training whatsoever.
Having met several Tuskegee Airmen and Buffalo Soldiers, not one of them talked with the same slang that is some prevalent in today's African American community. Several early conversations between fellow American Buffalo soldiers sound absolutely nothing like the men from 60 years ago.
The scene were DB Sweeney is introduced with his commanding general is not even remotely accurate, a General does not berate and talk like that to his subordinate officers, and not with the decorum and attitude that the script has, at least not any officer I've ever met from WWII.
In a scene where Nazi soldiers are being told to hunt down an Italian partisan, a lower German officer mentions his reluctance to shoot an Italian on the basis of the Geneva Convention.
The Geneva convention didn't address civilians treatment during war until 1949, and the thought of any Nazi officer actually being concerned about any such notions is a joke.
Don't waste your time.
Appaloosa (2008)
This movie has absolutely no story, and after 2 hours, makes no sense (minor spoilers)
So I sat for almost 2 hours and watched this movie. You would think that with an all-star cast, an Ed Harris playing in another movie that he directed that it would soar and be a great flick. CNN.com said it was one of the best movies of 2008.
Trust me, after watching this movie, if you spent $20 on you and another person you are going to want a refund.
The positives are that the scenery is gorgeous, the set is fairly accurate, and the actors are first rate.
Unfortunately the story is weak. Without giving away too much in the way of spoilers, Ed Harris' character apparently wants revenge for the murder of a fellow colleague. And yet he is willing to be with a woman who apparently will sleep with anyone who comes across as the Alpha Male in any group. She flirts with everyone, sleeps with several men, and gives no reasoning as to why she behaves in this self destructive way.
The plot surrounding Ed Harris revenge is very weak. The gun fights are over too quickly, and there is too much drivel in this story. I realize that gun fights accurately aren't going to be that long, but there is no build up in any of the action sequences. There's no explanation as to why Ed Harris would care so much as to why one particular college's death would matter so much to him; especially when he seems to eager and nonchalant about killing others.
Viggo Mortensen plays the reserved, quiet, but educated partner. And yet for some reason, despite having sat through the entire movie never even raising his voice, he decides to have a gun battle with the protagonist in this movie, and rides off into the sunset.
I gave the movie a 2, because at least the actors are top rate big names, and the photography is decent. But the bottom line is, you will regret paying much to watch this movie. I would wait until it is in the cheap section and you have watched all the other movies this fall and winter and are desperate for something else. Ed Harris really needs to go back to the drawing board with this one.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Just when you think there might be a story, Poof! It's Gone!
This review may contain a spoilers, I'm not giving a summation of the movie plot here, but be forewarned, for your own information, that I might make references and/or hints to the storyline in this review.
This movie isn't so much as a movie as it is an anecdote. It's like watching some dismal abyss of a film, with no plot, no real ending, and just a depressing story that basically comes down to no discernible resolve.
The actor's are spot on, Tommy Lee Jones is as good an actor as anyone, he's always suited as the strong, masculine, and wise individual salted with the experience of ten men's lives. It is a role that he is very suited for, and in the last 15 years or so, from the role he plays in the various US Marshals series to the beyond his expectations of years in Rules of Engagement, etc; he is very much the tired old veteran who feels he has lived beyond the expectation of his life, and much of the movie you feel that reflection in his acting. Javier Bardem is clearly the self absorbed evil character that so many movies have, and yet he never has any closure. We never get a sense that justice has reacted to his narrow misses with death.
Josh Brolin plays a convincing role at times, but I take issue with certain points in the movie. !!SPOILER!!WARNING!!SPOILER!! For example, at one point Brolin appears in the wild to be a successful and talented tracker. He portrays someone who is not so much intelligent as he is wise to his surroundings and the fragile nature of life. And yet he misses a deer he's hunting (why is he in the desert in the first place is beyond me). Then when he revisits the scene of the various trucks scattered upon a drug deal gone awry, he doesn't bring his rifle nor his binoculars? Why would you approach a situation where Drug money is clearly involved without a long range rifle, and more importantly no ability to defend yourself? How smart do you have to be to dump a bag full of money for a new bag? Have none of these people considered that there might be some kind of tracking device? Brolin saw the locater earlier. What did he think it was for, Radio Control Cars??? I kind of feel like this is one of those movies that got cut too many times before the film reached the studios, and as a result we're left with a story that doesn't have a plot line. We're left with no explanation really of who orchestrated the Heroin deal, why it went bad, more so at first it appears that Woody Harelson is some photographic memory genius and then gets ambushed by Bardem. How did Javier track him? Spidey sense? Sixth Sense? Did he invoke the Great Spirit from beyond? Come on.... at least give some kind of detail on how and why Woody is even involved? Why would Woody even leave the money untouched? Six out of ten is gracious, only because the acting is so good, but next time, if the movie needs to be thirty minutes longer to get a story across, do it. Because this movie is a mess. I think this must be how everyone at the season ending of Entourage felt when they screened Vinnie's cluster-you-know-what of a movie....
Great acting, Great actors, but a story that is about like watching Happy Gilmore take a swing at the puck....