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Jayfranklin99
Reviews
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
Profoundly moving
Unable to speak from a non-fan's viewpoint, I want to say how moving and inspiring I found this film to be.
With almost too many highlights to mention, the crew skip from one uncomfortable situation to another on a gradual path to equilibrium. The claims of unintentional laughability are ridiculous, I read a couple of review that compared this to Spinal Tap, which I found very annoying. Anyone who laughs at this film is doing so because that's the way that some people deal with being uncomfortable. It is a funny film but only when it's intentional. A very skillfull piece of comic direction comes to mind, Hetfield talking about his crazily painted car, interspersed with clips of him driving along at a million miles an hour, "I like speed", he says and then in the next cut we see him pulled over by a policeman. One of a few comic highlights.
The documentary follows Hetfield's trip into rehab, the preceding argument with Ulrich contains one of two Ulrich highlights, "you're just acting like a dick today". Hetfield's re-emergence from re-hab is when the film really gets into gear. He becomes almost like a rock star version of Jesus, totally unaffected when confronted with a stream of abuse from Ulrich, "when I went running today, I thought about seeing you and just thought "fuck"", he sits there motionless. He talks about his emotions and goes to his daughter's ballet recital. The band seems fractured at this point but then along comes, in my opinion, the highlight of the film. Asked to record a soundbite for some radio stations they find themselves unable to do it because it is so tacky and they begin to joke around, "Enter now and we'll shove $50,000 dollars up your ass," Ulrich jokes, "One bill at a time," Hetfield retorts. In this scene, we once again feel the combined unit of Metallica against the world like the way it used to be and this is the turning point of the movie. Along the way we meet a number of interested characters, Ulrich's father with his snowy white beard for one. And we meet Dave Mustaine, who is not exactly the epitome of rock 'n roll either. The film spirals towards a denouement in a packed arena, what the band has been waiting for, the band arriving, a new unit, embracing each other like brother, waiting to go onstage, The Ecstasy Of Gold blaring in the background and then Hetfield racing on stage and shredding the first chords of Frantic. It seems that only real life produces the kind of chills that any Oscar contender could only dream of. What a film. A profoundly moving experience.
Collateral (2004)
Night Of The Wolf...(Spoilers!!!)
Like many other films of great intelligence, this film has suffered less-than-brilliant reviews because people have been viewing it as a straight-forward thriller which, by God, it is not. Just like Signs was not a film about an alien-invasion repulsion (that was Independence Day) but a preacher losing and regaining his faith, Collateral is not a film about a cabbie (goodie) triumphing over an evil hit-man (baddie). No, no, no, no! If anything, I felt more sympathy for Vincent then I did for Max. This is a story about a man, Vincent, who has a had a helluva bad childhood and has tried to come to terms with it by developing extreme Darwinistic theories whereby the whole human race is nothing and singularly even more worthless. He tries to overcome this by revolting against them, by becoming better, by killing them, it makes perfect sense doesn't it? Mann cleverly draws us in and makes us an accomplice, even though we may not know it, in the scene with the two muggers, everybody that I have talked to about this film mentions this scene and it's true, we'd all like to kill people who would do things like that to us, Mann makes his point well, the only difference between us and Vincent is that he does what he wants to. However, at the two key moments during the film, Vincent learns that he is not better than the rest of us, he is, if anything, worse. The wolves that cross in front of the car are him, he is like a wolf, hunting down his prey, pure and simple and we can see it, written across his devastated face, a wonderful, moving moment in film. The other moment being his last line "A guy dies on the MTA. Think anyone will notice?". Hauntingly poignant, this is a film about humanity, an honest film, for once. Cruise, of course, is fantastic, I think that it's my favorite of his roles. He is iconic in his grey suit with his prematurely grey square-head hair-cut and achieves a cool during the mugger scene which stands with Eastwood's "My mule don't like people laughing" scene toe-to-toe on that scale. Fox is very good as well, but it is with Max that sympathies lie. The direction is superb and the digital camera element only adds to the darkness. The film is fully entertaining on a superficial level throughout, so even the cheap thrill-seekers will enjoy it also. Please get it into the top 250, it is a blue poignant character study which achieves what other mere thrillers don't, it stays with you long after the end credits.
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Lovely stuff...
When I watch Five Easy Pieces, I always am reminded of another classic work of fiction, that of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in The Rye, I think that Jack Nicholson's character Bobby is similar to a would-be, grown-up Holden Caulfield, if Holden Caulfield was a classically trained musician that is. Aside from that, this is a moving, melancholy display of fine acting, although in the scene where Nicholson attempts to cry I am not entirely convinced, it is as slow as it needs to be and I think the script is fantastic, unlike the reviewer on the main page who seems to think that the film's greatness stems from Nicholson's performance solely. Stand-out scenes include Jack's chastisement of a "pompous celibate," including my second favourite line of dialog in the whole film, "Where the hell do you get the ass to tell anybody anything?" and the subsequent fight he gets into with his father's nurse, the Chopin scene, Jack's confrontation with his father and, of course, the classic chicken sandwich scene, "I want you to hold it between your knees!". This is one of my favourite films and I think it deserves a 10; at times it is laugh-out loud hilarious, at other times it is challenging and, most of all, it is delicately poignant and beautiful and it lingers long in the memory.