50x2: Conclusion

Let me first start this by saying - I suck.

After such a seamless first 50 list that took no time at all, I took forever watching these second set of 50 films. Now, of course there were some reasons behind why it took so long, but not why it took this long.

The first post on this second list was made on August 11, 2011. The final post on this list was posted this morning. That is an entire year to sit down and watch 50 movies then post about what I thought. That is insane.

My main conclusion for why this took so long is basically laziness on my part. I watched a ton of these movies without sitting down to write the review. And then I found myself playing catch up, and the catch up took too long. Which basically made me stop watching the films until I did catch up.

Not this time. I am promising to watch a film and write a review as soon as possible after finishing it. My main reason for doing these lists is to get myself to watch films that I should be watching, but for some reason continue to put off.

Some of the films are exactly what I think they are going to be, and some of them surprise - and this works in both ways. Some films I watched surprised me that I liked them so much, while others surprised me that I just didn't enjoy it as much as I should have.

Anyway, to wrap up the 50 films list, volume two - here are my 10 favorite characters from the movies I watched and the top 10 films. Enjoy! 50 list, volume three coming soon.

Top 10 Characters 

10) Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen)

Mortensen stars as Tom Stall in A History of Violence. Stall is a local diner operator with a wife and two kids. One evening he takes out a few diner thieves and becomes an over night hero. But, he gets discovered on television and it turns out Stall is not who he says he is.

9) Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher (Chevy Chase)

Almost everyone knows this film, but for some reason I never actually sat down to watch the movie. Chase stars as the titular Fletch, a columnist for a newspaper, who gets caught up in a bit of an issue with a man who wants Fletch to kill him.

8) Sir James Matthew Barie (Johnny Depp)

Depp stars as Barie, the man behind the magical Peter Pan, in Finding Neverland. This film shows Barie befriending a family and some children as he pens his most memorable book.

7) Aron Ralston (James Franco)

The first of two characters on this list that pretty much spend the entire film on the screen alone. Franco stars as Alston in 127 Hours, a film based on a true story where a mountain hiker falls down in between a pair of rocks and gets caught for days.

6) Floyd (Brad Pitt)

Pitt, who plays a bit of a stoner named Floyd in True Romance, doesn't have much screen time at all, but his presence is definitely felt. His character is pretty hilarious and he mistakenly tells the bad guys where to go to setup the final showdown.

5) Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Like so many others I have sort of developed a non-sexual man crush on Gordon-Levitt. This man can act, and I have loved so many of his films of late. Here he stars as Tom Hansen in (500) Days of Summer, a man that falls in love but with a woman that doesn't seem to have the ability to love in return.

4) Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds)

I will make the confession that I didn't think Reynolds had the ability to carry a film alone - I hardly felt Tom Hanks could do it. But, I was wrong. Reynolds plays Conroy in Buried, a film where he gets buried alive with only a few things available to him to help him get rescued.

3) Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale)

I could have picked a lot of characters from this film. Bale gets most of the credit in The Fighter as the struggling Eklund, but Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams were just as good in this film. But, I think Bale played most against cast so he gets the edge for me.

2) Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling)

This is sort of where I come to the realization that Gosling is going to be a talented actor for a very long time. He stars as Lars in Lars and the Real Girl, a man that had a difficult upbringing and has the inability to connect with others - so he bonds with a sex doll instead.

1) Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson)

Woody Harrelson just has this ability to stand out, at least to me. In a film a bit outside my comfort zone that I really loved - Harrelson had a lot to do with it. He was so badass and hilarious in this film. He just loves killing zombies, but all he really wants is a Twinkie.

Top 10 Films

10) Point Break

9) City of God

8) All the President's Men

7) The Town

6) Zombieland

5) (500) Days of Summer

4) Buried

3) The Fighter

2) Mystic River

1) Lars and the Real Girl

50/50x2: Blade Runner

When I get these 50 lists compiled I usually take a glance and try to leave at least one film for the very last that I think will knock my socks off.

During the first 50 list I definitely guessed correctly with Inglourious Basterds. On this list, I picked a pretty fair film, but not one that really blew me away.

Blade Runner is a film set in the 'not-so' distant future. The film was made in 1982 and the future is the year 2019. So, seeing as it is now 2012 and we are nowhere near the future this film is talking about, it was a little hard to believe. (sort of like Back to the Future II).

Anyway, in this future the human race has created replicants, or a replica for humans, that are much stronger than humans but usually have a small lifespan of about four years. These replicants have been placed on another planet away from Earth, but occasionally a few of them make it to the planet. When this happens, the police send out blade runners to track them down and retire them (or kill them).

One of the best blade runners, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), is now retired but as six replicants high jack a spaceship and make it to Earth, police chief Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) encourages him to go after the four that remain - Pris (Daryl Hannah), Leon (Brion James), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) and their leader Roy (Rutger Hauer).

Deckard goes to the main who creates these replicants, Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), to get more information and discovers that his assistant Rachael (Sean Young) is a new breed of replicant - one that does not she is because of memories inserted into her.

Once Bryant and Deckard's 'partner' Gaff (Edward James Olmos) finds out about Rachael - she is added to Deckard's list to retire - despite the fact that Deckard just may have feelings for her.

Would this film have been better in 1982? I can pretty much guarantee it. The special effects would have been amazing back then and 2019 was so far away at the time that this future may have been plausible.

Now, not so much. But, I still enjoyed the film. It just wasn't spectacular to me, like it may have been in the '80s - and like I have heard it should have been from many others.

Ford was, as usual, spectacular. I have heard the name Sean Young a ton, but honestly I don't really know her from much of anything except Ace Ventura, but she was also good as Rachael. Another standout to me was William Sanderson, who played J.F. Sebastian, a person that worked on the replicants that Pris locates to get close to Tyrell.

Finally, Hannah was pretty good as Pris, but her screen time was rather slim - Hauer, who I don't believe I had ever seen, was pretty over the top as the main bad guy. But, from an '80s film that is what we come to expect.

Grade:

49/50x2: City of God

For those that know me at all, watching a film with subtitles is a bit out of my comfort zone. I am not that huge of fan of reading books, which is why I definitely enjoy watching a film over reading a book. I like to be entertained - but every so often I do take that step out of my comfort zone.

I shouldn't need to post this - reviews will have some spoilers.

A friend of mine has been telling me how good City of God is, so I tossed it on my list so that I would force myself to watch it. And, I waited until pretty much the very end to finally throw it.

And, I actually enjoyed it. In fact, the film itself was pretty amazing to watch. Of course, my only complaint is that I had to read what was going on. I feel if I could have just watched and not had to keep looking down to see what was being said I would have liked it even more. I thought afterwards that perhaps a dubbed version would have worked - except I cannot stand when words don't match with mouths, so I am not sure if this issue could have been fixed.

The film starts with a little party being thrown by one of the crime lords of the City of God (which is located in Brazil). One of the live chickens escapes, so everyone chases after it - and the group ends up face-to-face with the police, and in the middle is a teenager with camera.

The film then jumps back a handful of years to see how they got to this point. We learn that the kid with the camera is Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), a boy that is more into school, hanging out with his friends and eventually photography than becoming a member of one of the local gangs - or as they call it hoodlums.

At the start of this mess, a trio of hoods named Shaggy (Jonathan Haagensen), Clipper (Jefechander Suplino) and Goose (Renato de Souza) like to stickup delivery men in their slums, and do other non-violent crimes. Goose also happens to be Rocket's brother.

One afternoon the trio lets a young kid named Li'l Ze' (Leandro Firmino) to join them on a robbery at a local Motel. Li'l Ze' wants to be a hoodlum really bad, but unlike the other trio he has a bit of a taste for blood.

As we begin to flash forward, Li'l Ze' and his friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen) start to take over the City of God - eventually they both become power hungry and end up taking out all of the local drug dealers, except Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele) who is friends with Benny.

Soon, though, even having Carrot out there becomes too much for Li'l Ze' and he wants to take him out as well. But, with Benny by his side talking sense into him he stays under control. Benny even convinces him to find a girl to take up some of his time.

At a local party, Li'l Ze' approaches a girl who has caught his eye - but she is apparently with Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge). Instead of just accepting this, Li'l Ze' takes it as a slap in the face and tries to embarrass Ned by stripping him of his clothes. While this is happening and the party begins to use a strobe light - a member of Carrot's gang tries to take out Li'l Ze', but accidentally kills Benny instead.

With Benny no longer by Li'l Ze's side - the war will officially begin. Li'l Ze' still feeling wronged by Ned and his girlfriend - knocks Ned out and rapes his girlfriend. Thinking later that he should have killed Ned, he goes back to his house and eventually kills Ned's brother and uncle.

Ned joins Carrot's gang and begins to sign up people for the inevitable war that would come between the two sides.

What does Rocket have to do with any of this? Well, he always seems to find himself in the middle of everything. He gets himself a job as a delivery boy at the local paper and befriends one of the guys in the lab and the photographer. Li'l Ze' even asks him to take photos of him and his gang - as he gets them developed a woman finds them and publishes them in the paper. Fearing for his life, he stays away from Li'l Ze' and the slums - not knowing that Li'l Ze' actually loves the photo.

Sneaking around the slums during the day to get photos for the paper, Rocket finds himself in the middle of Li'l Ze's game and the police. Which is where the film begins.

As I said, a great film even if I had to read what was going on. I can't really comment on the acting much because I don't know the language - but from what I could tell they all did very well. I really enjoyed the action and the relationships formed throughout the film. Even a big time crime lord has a soft spot for his best friend.

Grade:

48/50x2: Slumdog Millionaire

I honestly had no idea what this movie would eventually be about, but I have to admit the way that they put this movie together was definitely interesting and original.

Jamal (Dev Patel) is a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. This isn't the Regis Philbin, now Meredith Vieira, one that we are used to, but one hosted by Prem (Anil Kapoor) in Mumbai, India.

Jamal (who is also played by a number of different kids in flashbacks) uses what he has learned growing up in the Juhu slum and touring the country on trains with his brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), to advance pretty far on the show - so much so that people begin to believe he is cheating.

The film uses questions that Prem asks Jamal on the game show to flashback to different portions of Jamal's life, which I felt was very unique and interesting.

A third child, Latika (Freida Pinto) is introduced during the Bombay Riots, which is where Jamal and Salim lose there mother. They join a small group of other kids without parents, who are trained by Maman (Ankur Vikal) to become beggars. Soon, the children learn that Maman is blinding children to help them in the begging and the three take off towards the train station. Jamal and Salim are able to escape, but Latika is unable to make it on the train and gets scooped back up by Maman.

This sticks with Jamal for years, and soon he talks Salim into going back and rescuing her from Maman. It is here that Salim makes a turn into a gangster lifestyle - using a gun for the first time, and eventually kicking Jamal out a hotel room so he could take Latika's virginity.

Jamal has always been in love with Latika, and he tries to do everything he can to get her out of the lifestyle that she is currently stuck in.

During a break in the bathroom, Prem finds out that Jamal does not know the answer to a question - so he writes the answer on the bathroom mirror. Jamal doesn't trust the answer, and after using his 50/50, he selects the opposite answer, which proves to be correct. Prem then has him arrested for cheating - and he spends the night in jail talking to the police and explaining how he knew the answers to the questions.

Obviously, these are a lot of knew actors for me. The only one I have seen before is Patel - and that is because he is now on the show Newsroom. But, I thought the acting was very good. Even the children gave great performances.

As I said, I have heard great things about this movie - and I really enjoyed it. The thing I liked the most is this unique way of storytelling. Flashbacks are used a ton in movies, but this was a very interesting way to use this game show in order to tell the back story.

Grade:

47/50x2: The Untouchables

It's funny, I never really knew what this film was about. I always saw the DVD (maybe even a VHS) cover in stores and when I worked at video stores, and it always stood out to me for some reason.

Plus, now I know where that famous line came from that I have heard many, many times over the years. And, that scene that was famously parodied (maybe many times) in The Naked Gun.

The Untouchables is a film about Prohibition-era Chicago, and the major hold that Al Capone (Robert De Niro) had over everything during this time.

Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is a Bureau of Prohibition agent who is summoned to take down Capone and all of the crime happening in Chicago as people continue to peddle alcohol despite it being against the law.

Ness appears to be taking over an impossible task, but soon he meets up with Jim Malone (Sean Connery), a beat cop that Ness takes a liking to and moves him into his task force. Ness also recruits the accountant the company sends over for him into the group.

Finally, Ness and Malone head to the Academy to find the best shot - and best man - to complete their quartet. They take a shining to George Stone (Andy Garcia) and he joins the group that begins to finally make a difference in cracking down on the selling of alcohol.

Despite all of the arrests and seizure of alcohol, Capone continued to stay in the wind - above everything with no real connection to him and the crimes.

Eventually, Malone learns of Capone's accountant, and hopes to use his books to link Capone to everything. Malone finds the accountant's place and gets the information to Ness - who, along with Stone, partake in a shootout at a train station and are able to take the accountant into custody, and put him on the stand to testify against Capone.

This was a pretty interesting film. I like almost all of the actors in the film, and Connery, Garcia and Costner were pretty great. De Niro, despite being the notorious Capone, wasn't really in it as much but was still an overpowering figure.

Of course, the line I was talking about was uttered by Malone, "Brings a knife to a gun fight." Which has been used in many different ways in a lot of movies (and in casual conversation). Good to finally see the film with this iconic quote, and that one iconic scene as well. I liked it, but it wasn't mind blowing.

Grade:

46/50x2: Ray

Ray Charles was obviously a talented musician, but there aren't too many of his songs that really jumped out at me. I am sure I like a few of them, but I was never a huge fan of his music.

But, the same can pretty much be said of Johnny Cash before I watched Walk the Line and I definitely came away from that movie enjoying more of Cash's music.

So, Ray is a biopic about the life of Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx). We learn through flashbacks in the film that Ray wasn't born blind, and that he had a brother. While playing one afternoon in a very poor neighborhood, Ray's brother slipped and fell into his mother's laundry bucket and, while Ray watched, he couldn't get out and ended up drowning.

Not long after Ray developed some sort of eye disease which slowly ate away his sight. Soon, he was completely blind and his mother stayed away from helping him as he started to develop a reliance on his other senses - which would help him later in life.

Before his brother's death, Ray snuck into a local store where a man was playing the piano in the back - the man notices Ray watching him and soon begins to show him how to play the piano - which would obviously become a trademark for him.

The rest of the film shows his rise - fall - and eventual rise again to one of the best musicians in the world of music, especially incorporating gospel into his music.

The story was definitely interesting. As I had not really been a huge fan of Charles' music, I was not really aware of his life story.

The few things I did know about Charles before watching this film: his performance of American the Beautiful, him being in The Blues Brothers, and his Diet Pepsi commercials (You Got the Right One, Baby!).

Well, Charles fell in love with a young women named Della Bea (Kerry Washington), with whom he married and he had a couple of kids with. But, he also had a bit of a side relationship with Margie Hendricks (Regina King), who he also had a child with.

Wanting to be one of the guys, and not just he blind piano player, Ray also joined a couple of his band mates before he set out on his own and started using drugs. Something that he continued to do for years, and something that his wife found out about. He, of course, felt he wasn't addicted - but eventually he went down hill fast and went to rehab, which was the start of his resurgence.

One thing is for sure, this movie had a ton of talented actors playing some great parts. The one that obviously sticks out the most is Foxx's portrayal of Charles. He really committed to the role and pretty much became Ray Charles through the entire film.

Washington was very good as his wife and King also stood out as his mistress. I always enjoy seeing David Krumholtz in films, and he does another bang up job here. Two others that I thought were excellent were Curtis Armstrong and Richard Schiff - who played record producers that first began to produce Charles on his own and may be the ones responsible for him finding his sound.

A great biopic that really helped me learn more about Charles' life and struggles - and how he became such a talented musician. Not gonna run out and grab his music still, though. I enjoyed the film, but it didn't grab me as much as Walk the Line, if I were going to compare it to something.

Grade:

45/50x2: Bronson

This will be a pretty quick review. I honestly have no idea what I just watched.

Bronson is a film about Charles Bronson, no not the film star but the notorious prisoner. Bronson's real name is Michael Peterson (Tom Hardy), but was renamed to something a little more badass by his fight promoter.

The film was, honestly, all over the place. I could not really understand what was happening for the most part. Hardy as Bronson introduces himself and talks to us through the camera - he also appears to be telling a story to an audience, which we see from time-to-time.

Though it is a biopic, it is a fictionalized biopic so some of what is shown is not exactly true. Bronson pretty much has an anger management problem and wants to make a name for himself - and the only way he knows how to do that is by kicking some serious ass in prison, whether that be other prisoners or guards.

The only reason I kept with this film was because it was on this 50 list and because of Hardy. He has earned some respect with some of the films he has come out with of late. I am sure he played this just the way he was supposed to - and he definitely was crazy, but even that couldn't save this film for me.

The last third of the film is still not great, but is better than the other parts, which is why it gets a little better grade than the worst I can give.

Grade:

44/50x2: Schindler's List

This film was not exactly what I was expecting. I can't believe such an epic film from so many years ago I hadn't really known what it was exactly about.

Schindler's List stars some amazing and talented actors. Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley as Itshak Stern and Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth.

Schindler and Goeth are both part of the Nazi party. Schindler's main concern, however, is finding a way to get richer during the war, while Goeth actually enjoys the killing of Jews.

Schindler comes up with an idea to start a business for pots and pans, fronted by some Jewish businessmen (because Jews at the time couldn't own a business) and led by Stern as the bookkeeper.

Schindler is first alone in Poland when coming up with this idea and grabs Jewish workers from the Krakow Ghetto where they are all being forced to live.

Goeth comes in later to set up a new concentration camp and ends up poaching a few of Schindler's workers, but soon Schindler bribes Goeth into allowing a sub-camp and is able to keep his workers and continue earning money. Stern, meanwhile, is the eyes and ears for Schindler and as he hears Goeth may execute some people, Schindler asks to use them at his camp - pretty much saving their lives.

Soon, Goeth receives orders to destroy all of the remains of the dead and ship everyone, including Schindler's workers, to Auschwitz.

Schindler, though, uses a lot of the money he has gained throughout the war in order to save his workers. In fact, Schindler and Stern draw up a list of over 1,000 Jews that he wants to keep for his new factory in his hometown of Czechoslovakia.

Though his original intent during this war was to become rich, Schindler's heart is changed and he becomes friends with his workers, especially Stern.

Much like Brian's Song, I feel the story that this film was based on is historic and what Schindler ended up doing for these people was amazing. The film itself wasn't as great as I was expecting. The main three actors are amazing, but I just felt it was far too long and really didn't get going quick enough for me.

I had to switch DVDs when watching this film, which is odd nowadays and shows how long this film is. The best part of the film for me was on DVD No. 2. When Schindler began to realize that all of his workers and people has grown to care about could be taken from him and murdered, he did all he could to act to save them - including giving up most of his fortune. And, in the end he felt he hadn't done enough.

One cool thing for me though, I didn't really notice that the film was in black and white. I am not a huge black and white fan, but this film really did work very well in that aspect - so much so that I hardly even noticed.

Grade:

43/50x2: Brian's Song

As a sports enthusiast and a football fan, I feel it was sacrilegious that I had not seen this film before. But, I pretty much knew everything about it even though I hadn't.

Brian's Song is the story of the friendship between two Chicago Bears rookies, Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams).

Both players are coming in as running backs, but come to the team in completely different ways. Piccolo will need to work as hard as possible to even make the team, while Sayers is the team's new work-house back.

Two completely different players, Piccolo has a hard time shutting up and is white while Sayers doesn't talk much and is black. But, both players form an odd friendship and become the first mixed-raced roommates for the Bears.

After an injury to Sayers, Piccolo takes over as the featured back and shows off his talents. But, he remains close with Sayers and does all he can to get him to regain his strength to get him back on the team. When Sayers comes back he retakes his position, but the team keeps Piccolo on the field as fullback.

Soon, Piccolo isn't playing up to his standard and Sayers notices - but Piccolo blames it on allergies. After a trip to the doctor it is revealed that Piccolo has cancer.

As a story, this is an amazing one - and to know that it is true makes it even that much better. But, as a film this one doesn't really have all the bells and whistles. For one, I probably should have known this, but this was a made-for-tv movie, which makes the quality pretty shotty. They also use real game footage for the games, which is ok, but the voice over during it really drove me crazy.

As for the acting, superb. You can't really go wrong with iconic actors like Williams and Caan. Caan, though, really stood out for me. If I hadn't known it was him I wouldn't have recognized him at all - he transformed into Piccolo which was outstanding.

Glad I finally watched it. Again, as a story very remarkable, but the quality of the (tv) movie was just not strong, even for a film from the '70s.

Grade:

42/50x2: Mystic River

I may have stated this before, but I was never drawn to Clint Eastwood as an actor. Maybe it was because I just never enjoyed westerns (until recently), but I can barely recall many Eastwood films that I have seen.

Now, I have finally seen three Eastwood films - directed by at least. The first two starred Eastwood himself - in Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby. I have been meaning to see Mystic River forever, and I was finally able to.

The film follows a trio of friends in Boston. We start with them as kids, playing hockey on the streets when one of them decides to have all of them write their names in some wet cement to not only 'be bad' but leave their legacy in the cement.

They are caught, however, by what appears to be a cop and one of the boys is told to get into the backseat - and he goes missing for four days.

Fast forward to today, the boys are no longer friends - mostly because of what happened so many years ago. Sean (Kevin Bacon), who was once the leader and rebel of the trio, has since become a cop; Jimmy (Sean Penn), who followed what Sean did as a kid is now a store owner, but also a former (and possibly current) criminal; Dave (Tim Robbins) was the poor kid who went with the police who turned out to be pedophiles.

Dave has a young child and wife, Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden), but has a lot of demons inside of him because of what happened to him. Jimmy has a wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney) and a handful of children, including his oldest, Katie (Emmy Rossum). Sean is also married, but his wife has run out on him and he has no idea where she is - he is also partners on the police department with Whitey (Laurence Fishburne).

The guys, who were once inseparable, are now nothing more than acquaintances. Sean is the one mos distant as Jimmy and Dave are now 'related' by marriage.

One night, Jimmy's daughter Katie goes out with some friends and doesn't come home. She also doesn't show up the next day for work - or to her sister's communion that afternoon.

Sean and Whitey are called to a crime scene where it is discovered that the car belongs to Katie, and they end up finding her body in the park a little away from the car.

The rest of the film is Sean and Whitey trying to figure out who murdered this poor girl, while Jimmy and his gang, the Savages, are searching for the killer in their own way. Dave, meanwhile, continues to spiral out and he soon because a suspect in the case - and Jimmy begins to believe that he did it.

This was by far the best of the three Eastwood directed films that I have seen, and that says a lot since I enjoyed the other two as well.

The acting in this film is superb. Robbins and Bacon were amazing, and though I don't always enjoy him, Penn was outstanding.

Grade:

41/50x2: Domino

I love when Keira Knightley does movies that are not period pieces. I enjoy her, and she is one of those extremely skinny looking girls I actually think is good looking - yet, I still think she should eat a sandwich.

Anyway, here Knightley stars as Domino Harvey the titular character in Domino. She is a former model living in LA that notices an ad in the newspaper about bounty hunting - so she heads to take a class from Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke) and bail bondsman, Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo).

This is one of those films where a bunch of things happen and three different groups of people end up in the same place with guns pointing at each other.

Apparently, a DMV employee who is also the mistress of Williams, Lateesha (Mo'Nique) is trying to secure $300,000 to help her granddaughter Micah receive a surgery.

Her and two of her friends look to rob a billionaire, Drake Bishop (Dabney Coleman) of $10 million to help pay for the surgery.

The entire film is told in flashback because Domino has been arrested by the FBI and is retelling her account of the situation to FBI agent Taryn Mills (Lucy Liu).

This wasn't the greatest of films - sure a pretty decent ride, but not amazing. The funniest part of the film was when a tv crew led by Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken) follow the group of bounty hunters around for a television reality series. And the hosts of the show are former 90210 actors Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering.

Grade:

40/50x2: Platoon

This film has one of the most robust casts I have seen in a long time.

Platoon follows Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as he drops out of college and volunteers to fight in Vietnam. He is dropped near the Cambodian border and immediately is thrust into combat.

Exhaustion overcomes him one night while he is supposed to standing watch. He asks another soldier to take over for him and he falls asleep - but so does the soldier who has taken over for him. And, the enemy is able to sneak up on them and ambushes them.

Taylor is yelled at by Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), but he is taken under the wing of Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who doesn't get along with the more crazed Barnes.

The film follows Taylor through his experiences and also shows the other troops and how they are dealing with the war. Some are able to handle it, while others show the effects of war and each one deals with it in a different way.

The movie itself was decent, but not the greatest of war movies I have seen. Still, it was pretty much non-stop action, and the characters were very interesting.

It was also cool to see some of the bigger stars of the day like Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley, Kevin Dillon and Keith David - some of which were very young and had very small roles.

Overall, enjoyable. And with most war films coming in rather long, here it is just two hours, which was nice. The ending of the film was also pretty powerful - something I was not expecting, but also understood.

Grade:

39/50x2: Million Dollar Baby

I am beginning to get the Clint Eastwood treatment. There weren't many films of his I have seen, whether it be acting or directing. And, as I said before, despite my lack of love for the sport of boxing, films about them are always pretty darn interesting.

So, here we have a mixture of both. Eastwood both directed and starred in Million Dollar Baby. He takes on the role of Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer who is very talented at what he does, but lacks the champions that a successful trainer should have.

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is a waitress who has aspirations of making it as a boxer. But, Dunn tosses her aside because he doesn't train girls. She is persistent, though, and Dunn's co-trainer Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman) allows her to train in the gym and gives her an old speed bag to work with until she can afford her own.

Eventually, she begins to show some promise and, despite her age, Dunn finally agrees to take her on and train her. As things progress, she is actually a very talented boxer - or just really good at the initial charge and is able to knock out her opponent rather quickly.

There is also the fact that Maggie's family is a bunch of hillbilly freeloaders. As Maggie gets better she begins to make more money and buys a house for her mother - but instead of being thankful, she complains that now she won't get enough welfare.

I can't really talk about the film much more because it would spoil a rather large plot point, but that was also one of the least convincing things I have seen in film.

Despite that, the film was still pretty entertaining. I still don't really enjoy Eastwood as an actor, I think it's mostly his voice and delivery. And despite how annoying I usually find her, I enjoyed Swank here. And of course, Freeman was excellent as always.

Grade:

38/50x2: Cool Hand Luke

Yet another Paul Newman film on the list. Besides cartoon films and some of the old classics like Wizard of Oz and Gone w/ the Wind this is probably one of the oldest movies I have seen.

And, despite the grade at the end of this - I actually enjoyed it compared to its age. I just have a hard time truly loving older films. Sure there are the occasional ones that stand out - but for the most part, they just don't really do it for me.

Cool Hand Luke is about Lucas Jackson (Newman) who has returned from the Korean War and has not really adjusted well. He is found cutting the tops off of parking meters and drunk as a skunk - for his crimes he is tossed into a a prison camp.

Once in prison he immediately gets on the bad side of the 'leader' Dragline (George Kennedy) and when allowed out in the yard the two throw down. Luke gets his butt handed to him by the much larger Dragline, but he continues to get up despite being bloodied up. For this, he earns the respect of Dragline and the other prisoners. That night he wins a poker game with a lousy hand on a bluff - and Dragline bestows upon him the nickname Cool Hand Luke.

For the most part the rest of the film is Luke and the other prisoner's life inside of the prison. What they do to pass the time, their work duties on the roads and Luke getting in trouble with the guards multiple times. Including a handful of times he tries to escape the prison.

As I said, for an older movie I enjoyed it. It was also cool to see some actors that I have come to know like Kennedy and a much younger Dennis Hopper, who played Babalugats. Before this film I was pretty naive on the films of Newman - but he is a pretty talented actor. I look forward to the few more I will check out in the future.

Grade:

37/50x2: Lars and the Real Girl

I never understood how Ryan Gosling became such a great actor. In fact, I just did a quick look at his resume and I had seen a grand total of two of his films before before watching this one - Remember the Titans and Murder by Numbers. Believe me, I want to check out a handful of the others, but have not been able to yet.

So, with only those two films as my guide - and he was pretty good in both, just not megastar - I was really confused on where all the fuss was coming from. Then I watched Lars and the Real Girl.

Gosling stars as Lars Lindstrom, a man who is unable to interact with others very well and is pretty much socially awkward. He lives in a converted garage on his parents land that his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) now live in after the death of his father.

Despite constant tries to help with Lars' issues, Karin is turned down at almost every opportunity - and on the rare occasion that he may accept an invite for dinner, Lars is out of there as quickly as he can. He is a regular at a local church and has a job, where a co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner) has an obvious crush on him. But, he runs from any real interaction with anyone.

One day a co-worker shows Lars a website for lifelike dolls. And, for some reason Lars orders one and names her Bianca. He introduces her to his brother and sister-in-law as a friend. He talks to her as though she is real - concerned about his health Gus and Karin talk to Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) the family physician. They convince Lars to take Bianca in for a check-up, and while she 'rests' he talks to Dagmar.

Though it is obviously odd, because the town loves Lars so much they accept Bianca as one of their own. And soon Lars says she is his girlfriend - and Bianca actually begins to have a social life. Thanks to this, Lars also begins to interact more with the people in his town.

I will not spoil this movie for anyone. It was just amazing to watch and I loved every minute of it. There is a reason revealed in the film about why Lars has become the way he is and it truly makes sense. Though the doll is creepy, because it actually does look pretty darn real - Lars never uses it for its intended purpose. It is merely there as first a friend, then a girlfriend - and he treats it with respect.

Gosling was incredible in this role and I am now beginning to see just what all of the fuss is about. I realize that around the same time he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Half Nelson. He has become a talented actor and I can't wait to start digging into some of his other work.

The other actors were also great. I have only seen Garner in a few things, but I really like what she brings to the table. In some of the things Mortimer has been in she has sometimes annoyed me, but I liked her in this role. And, Schneider - I don't know I just really consider him a poor-man's John Krasinski. I think his role on Parks and Rec had a lot to do with that image - as he was probably brought in as the 'Jim' character. I just kept picturing Krasinski as the character here, and as good as Schneider was I felt Krasinski could have been better.

A touching and well written story. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you check it out.

Grade:

36/50x2: The Ghost Writer

Well, it finally happened. Waiting way too long to write these reviews has finally caught up to me. I admit that on several occasions in writing these I had to look up certain things, but for the most part I still pretty much remembered and understood what had happened in the film.

But, The Ghost Writer is the first film where I believe there was just far too much going on in the movie for me to actually remember what it was about.

So, I will give you a very short, clift notes version of what I can remember. Ewan McGregor stars as the unnamed ghost writer. He has been tasked to help write the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) after the ghost writer before him, Mike McAra, died in an auto accident.

He travels to a small villa that Lang, his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall) are all staying at. He first stays in a hotel, but after Amelia forbids him from taking the memoirs with him to work with, he decides to take up a room there.

Like the ghost writer before him, he begins to dig up many things about the Lang administration - mostly about capturing terrorists and handing them over to the CIA for torture.

Many other things are uncovered, including a pretty large twist near the end that even I did not see coming - at least I don't think I did, but it has been far too long. Hence why I will never wait this long again or fall this far behind in writing the reviews.

Anyway, from what I do remember about the film it was - decent. I really do enjoy a film about cover-ups and uncovering secrets, but here even the uncovering was done rather - boring I guess may be the word.

I really enjoy McGregor in almost anything he has been doing, and here he was pretty darn good as well. Brosnan is also pretty top notch in the role as the Prime Minister. I guess it was just the writing - and it was just so dark and bleak all of the time. Too many clouds and too much grey.

Grade: