8/10 - A great blend of comedy, intrigue, and comedy action, Hot Fuzz is a fun film by director Edgar Wright that continues to show his talents as an auteur. Brilliantly directed and scripted, the film features great performances from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and features a plot that is incredibly interesting to follow. The characters are all really well done, but above all, the film is a ton of fun. As with all Edgar Wright films, they are well made and well written, so they meet those requirements for a good film and then they are entertaining, so you get to watch something that is really well put together and is fun to watch. A win-win, really. The action is as over the top as it should be in this one, as it is intended to be comedic and boy is it ever. The comedy is sometimes quite overt and sometimes a bit more subtle, which I really enjoy, as it adds a sharpness and wittiness that many comedy films ignore. Overall, Hot Fuzz is a really good film that entertains throughout and is a perfect display of Wright's directing ability.



7/10 - Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a film that establishes director David Lowery as a man to keep an eye on, as he displays incredible talent here in this romantic western drama. Not only is it gorgeously shot and brilliantly put together, but it features great performances from Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, and Ben Foster. Very similar to Terrence Malick's films Badlands and Days of Heaven, both stylistically and story-wise, Ain't Them Bodies Saints is nowhere near as good as either of those in terms of pure film quality, but in terms of entertainment, it blows them out of the water. Far more entertaining, though still quite slow and tedious along the way, the film succeeds largely on its mise en scene and acting. The story is a bit weak, though it was told well, but it is never quite compelling as it could be and for an hour and a half, it does plod along a good bit. Not as weak or slow as a Malick film, but still. All the same, this one is a film that shows the potential of its director and showcases the talents of its brilliant cast.



7/10 - Manhattan is a film that definitely stands the test of time. With great cinematography, great writing, and terrific performances from Diane Keaton and Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan is already ahead of most films of this kind. However, the reason that I did not love it to the level I expected that I would be due to a few things. For one, Woody Allen's character is whiny to the point of pure annoyance in this one. I do not remember him being this damn whiny in Annie Hall, which turned me off immediately. Second, it was neither as funny or as romantic as one would expect from a film of this kind. It was romantic and funny at times, but never to the level that it should have been. Finally, the plot is so damn creepy. A 42 year old man dating a 17 year old girl? Jesus, Woody Allen let's be a little more subtle please. Regardless, as I said, the writing, imagery, and acting, are all impeccable, which really alleviate most of my concerns, and the direction from Woody Allen is very good as well as it perfectly paced and told very well. Overall, Manhattan is a very good film that does not feel as though it came out in 1979.



7/10 - Dark and moody thanks to brilliant cinematography from Roger Deakins and a great score from the late James Horner, House of Sand and Fog is a pretty good film all-around that manages to be quite thrilling and entertaining given the subject matter. Thanks to the eerie mood set by Deakins and Horner, the threat of something bad coming around the corner is ever present throughout and, again, Deakins' cinematography is great, exemplified by the shots of fog consuming the home. Man is this thing gorgeous. The acting, in particular from Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley, is really good. The direction is solid and the film is pretty well-written. By the end, it is tough to decide who all to feel bad for, but one thing is certain; everybody loses. Nobody wins in this film and everybody winds up losing quite big. On the negative here, House of Sand and Fog does feature some unnecessary plot points that could have been cut and left the film pretty much unchanged, in particular certain concerns held by some characters that just never come up again and seem to dissipate amongst the larger concerns that arise. Yet, overall, House of Sand and Fog is a good film that features some powerful performances set along a beautiful backdrop in a film that is entirely heartbreaking.



2/10 - Natural Born Killers is example of a film that I "get" but still hate. Director Oliver Stone may not believe this to be possible, but it is. The film is certainly a successful satire of the media and America's love affair with violence, yet the film still winds up being terrible. The only shining star here is Woody Harrelson with a great performance. Otherwise, everybody else leaves much to be desired in annoying and distracting over the top performances. Horrifically shot that is as nauseating as it is headache inducing, the cinematography is some of the worst I have ever encountered in a film. It is almost as if they decided to make the film unwatchable. In addition, though the violence is the point, it really beats you over the head with that criticism of the media and the violence itself is entirely mind numbing. The film thinks it is far more profound than it really is and winds up falling flat even though it proves its pretty low-ball point. If you enjoy pseudo-intellectual films that have been cited as one of the most controversial ever released (due to its influence on mass murderers worldwide), this is the one for you.



9/10 - Wow is all I have to say. After laboring through the other films by Terrence Malick and seeing the potential for a great film if he could ever figure out how to write a damn film, this one brings it all together. Featuring his trademark brilliant cinematography, The Thin Red Line is brilliantly written and beautifully acted turning this one into one of the best war films ever released and one of the strongest films of the 1990s. A character driven film, The Thin Red Line relies upon love, brotherhood, and other true human feelings and emotions rather than blood and carnage to tell the tale of its many characters. The script is beautifully poetic with so many moving lines they are impossible to count. The cast is huge and features many past and current stars in great turns, such as Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Elias Koteas, Ben Chaplin, Nick Nolte, Dash Mihok, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, John Travolta, George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, Larry Romano, and many, many more. This is one of the best examples of a film in which every seen features somebody you know and have seen in many different films and it really puts them together for a phenomenal cast. The score to the film is also beautiful and is the last touch to what is really one of the most poetic and brilliant war films ever. Though it gets lost in the shuffle of 1998 due to the release of Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line is fantastic in its own right.