HOT: Saving Private Ryan

I have never been in an actual war. I have heard tales. I have had relatives fight in the war and for our country. But, even through those you never actually grasp what war is truly like.

Saving Private Ryan, from what I hear, is the best representation of what actual war looks and feels like as we have ever had on film. And, it's as close as I will ever, or ever want to, be.

During World War II, a mother is about to find out that three of her sons have all been killed in action. She has four sons, one is still missing somewhere in the war. Commands come down the chain for Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) to put together a small crew and find Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) so that he can be sent home.

Captain Miller has just been part of the invasion of Normandy on Omaha Beach where a lot of men were killed or injured, including one of Ryan's brothers.

Miller puts together a team of Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Private Reiben (Edward Burns), Private Jackson (Barry Pepper), Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Private Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) and Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies).

Upham is a translator and typist who has never been in action until he is asked to join Miller's crew to head across the country tracking down Ryan. His fear and lack of experience ends up hurting many of the other members of the crew, at least in someway.

Though a bit hard to watch in some parts as it is so close to actual war and you find it hard to stomach what people had to go and live through, the film is brilliantly put together. A film about founding a 'needle in a haystack' probably doesn't sound that entertaining, but mixed within this war film it definitely was.

The acting is superb up and down the line. You begin to feel for all of these characters and it pulls at your heart strings if anything happens to them. Plus, the film is riddled with amazing actors in just very small parts - like Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, Dennis Farina, Dylan Bruno, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Hurst, Leland Orser and Nathan Fillion.

The film runs two hours, 49 minutes, but you can never tell. There isn't a dull moment in any of it. Even when there is a bit of time when the action has subsided and it's just the guys sitting around - the conversation and dialogue is so interesting and at times fun that you hang on every word.

Grade:

31/50x2: Rescue Dawn

When this film was first released I really wanted to see it. It was right around the time that Christian Bale was becoming (or cementing himself as) a pretty top-notch actor. Plus, for the most part, war films are usually done rather well.

Rescue Dawn stars Bale as Dieter Dengler, who is German-born but is a U.S. Navy pilot. During a mission his plane is shot down over Laos. He is captured, but given the opportunity to go free if he signs a document against the United States - he refuses so he is sent to a prisoner of war camp.

Here he meets a few other P.O.W.'s from around the world, including Americans Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) and Duane W. Martin (Steve Zahn), who have been captive for a few years now - and so they are a bit stir crazy.

The camp is pretty strict with guards with guns walking around 24/7. At night the prisoners are even locked up by their hands and feet and forced to lay on the wooden floor of their "cell".

Immediately after being taken to the camp, Dengler begins his plans for escaping, despite the concerns of the other captives who have been beaten down both physically and mentally during their time at the camp. But, the others agree to help once Dengler comes up with a plan.

Possible Spoilers Ahead

Dengler and the others eventually do escape, but a few of the other captives don't follow Dengler's plans and thus both he and Martin are forced to trek though the jungle without any shoes because one of the men didn't grab some for them.

This is sort of where things get annoying for me. I was all ready for the small group of people that escaped to work their way through the jungle and to possible safety - with of course obstacles along the way - but they all split up and Dengler and Martin head of together without anyone else.

In fact, we never hear or see from any of the other characters at all, not even at the conclusion of the film. That irritated me. I wanted to know what happened to Davies' character. Did he make it? Was he killed or recaptured? But, we got nothing.

Then comes the strange occurrence at one of the villages that the pair we do get to follow come across. The two get on their knees in hopes that the villagers will see that they are not threatening and will offer them food and shelter. But, instead, one of the villagers chops off Martin's head. At first I thought this was all a dream or mirage that one the guys was thinking about. And I got even more confused when not much time later we actually see Martin walk up and sit down next to Dengler - but no, that was the actual mirage, the dude was killed, decapitated.

And, the decapitation looked horrible and fake.

As much as I would love to actually love this movie. As much as I enjoyed the acting and all of the main actors. I just could not get past some of these things at the end of the film. It's two hours long and almost immediately are dropped into this camp and get to know the prisoners there - but no closure is given on more than half of them. That truly bugged me.

Bale, Davies and Zahn gave top-notch performances, but the overall film left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I can't hate it completely, but it drops my grade because of it.

Grade:

LWITM: Twister

Every so often, when I have no other things to write about, I look into older-type films for a high quality cast. Not just those at the top billing, but diving a little deeper to see actors, who at the time weren't as well known, but now have become a little more well known.

I have done a pair of these in the past with Can't Hardly Wait and Remember the Titans.

This time, however, the casting is not quite up to par as those I have done before it, but still a lot of actors that are known (just not maybe as well known).

So, for the third LWITM (Look Who's In That Movie) I have selected Twister.

The movies top actors at the time were Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

Hunt was riding pretty high with the success of her television show Mad About You. She has been pretty under the radar since then, with just a few top-tier movies since the end of Mad About You.

Paxton, however, has continued making large-scale movies, albeit in usually a secondary role. But, he has also hit it big with his Showtime hit Big Love.

Diving a little deeper I have found the following actors in Twister some of which I didn't even realize were there.

• Cary Elwes: In the film plays Dr. Jonas Miller, a rival storm chaser who is 'in it for the money' according to Paxton's character. Elwes was known pretty well before Twister as Westley in The Princess Bride and Robin of Locksley in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. But, he hadn't exactly been getting A-list material until a film entitled Saw hit it big.
• Jami Gertz: Gertz was Paxton's future bride, Dr. Melissa Reeves, until she realizes that Paxton still has the hots for his former brider, Hunt. Gertz's biggest role before Twister was as Star in The Lost Boys. She had a pretty successful show called Still Standing for a few years, and has been pretty quiet the past two years.
• Alan Ruck: 'Rabbit' Nurick, a fellow storm chaser on Hunt's team. Ruck will always be known as Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He has also been a star on the hit show Spin City as Stuart. Since then, he has been pretty busy with smaller roles in movies and guest spots on tv shows.
• Joey Slotnick: Joey, also a storm chaser. Although not particularly well-known his face certainly is. He has had a recurring role on the television series Nip/Tuck and has kept busy with bit parts and guest spots on tv shows.
• Jeremy Davies: Laurence, yet another storm chaser. Davies had a big part in the movie Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks. He has been pretty busy with movies since then, but has really made a name for himself again this past year with his portrayel as Daniel Faraday on the hit show Lost.
• Anthony Rapp: Rapp played Tony. You may recognize Rapp as Tony from Dazed & Confused. He also had a role in Road Trip and has become rather large again with success of the broadway show and movie Rent.
• Abraham Benrubi: Berubi played Bubba. Not a really recognizable name, but his face and rather large body easily make him recognizable. For years Benrubi played Jerry Markovic on the hit show ER. He has also played Dennis in Without a Paddle and most recently been on the show Men in Trees.
• Jake Busey: Busey was a mobile lab tech in the film. Best known for being Gary Busey's son, Jake has been pretty busy as well in both film and television.
• Alexa Vega: Vega played a young Helen Hunt in the opening sequence of the film. Vega has grown up pretty well on camera, as she starred in the trilogy Spy Kids and has remained in films pretty consistently ever since.

The biggest name, however, to come out of the Twister film is Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman played Dustin Davis, a pretty out there hippie, who loved the rush of storm chasing. He probably had the funniest character in the film, channeling his inner-Jack Black (before Black became Black). Since, Twister, Hoffman has become an A-list actor with such films as Charlie Wilson's War, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead and Mission Impossible III. Not to mention an Oscar winning performance in the movie Capote.

So, there you have it, my third film in a string of "Look Who's In That Movie", not as big as some of those high school/college movies have become, but still a lot of well-known actors - including one being thrown into Oscar winning roles.

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