The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
The Blues Brothers
Trainspotting
Rain Man
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
Usually the biggest shock to people- the fact I've not seen Lord of The Rings. Well now I've seen 2 thirds of it.
It was enjoyable. I had to remind myself what was going on by wikipediaing the first film but I kinda found myself getting into it. To be honest the only storyline I was fully interested in was Frodo, Sam and Golum. The bit in the bog was cool and Golum is just a really intriguing character.
Not entirely sure what was going on with Legolas and the rest of them but when there was action is was done well. Big epic stuff that I've personally seen a few times before but from films made after LOTR. I saw Narnia when it came out for example which took a lot of inspiration from the battle scenes in LOTR so all the elf-slaying done big stylee in The Two Towers had a slightly less impact. Was awesome though, I especially liked the Ents, the trees from The Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs ride with more character.
Everyone says it's better than The Hobbit but I thought it's about the same. Spectacular stuff, just some of it I didn't particularly care about. 8 outta 10.
The Blues Brothers
What is it with long films on this list? I put the Blues Brothers on thinking it'd be shorter than some of the 'epics' on the list but nope, two and half hours. Two and a half hours well spent though.
The whole film has an odd atmosphere I've not really experienced in a film before. It's all over the top and pretty random kinda like Airplane and it contrasts with the Blues Brothers themselves who are always quite stern and serious.
The music was very catchy, recognized a lot of it from other places. I've had the 'Everybody, Needs Somebody' song in my head for days now, not helped by the fact they play it over and over again at work.
The comedy was also very much to my tastes. Every time that woman tries to kill them got the biggest laughs from me. The car chases as well were hilarious, just for being so over the top and stupid. Can understand why the chase through the shopping mall is so iconic and spawned it's own course on Mario Kart.
It left me smiling and it definitely didn't feel 2 and a half hours. Story could perhaps be improved on or made clearer in places but its not really what the films about. 8 out of 10.
Trainspotting
A nice little view into how some people actually live.
I'm not sure why but I really liked this film. I really shouldn't care about junkies being junkies but for some reason I did. It's maybe because the main character isn't quite as awful as everyone else in the film. Whenever I started to see him going in the right direction, away from it all, I felt happy for him.
The scene where hes in his bed going cold turkey is pretty bloody intense. It's strangely well done though, summing up the complete madness he must be going through under his covers. I'm guessing it's a really hard thing to fully show on screen, the intense mad thoughts going through a recovering drug addicts head when he's trying to get clean. I genuinely felt what it might feel like to be in that situation.
The Begbie character was memorable. The complete nut-case you really don't want to get in the way of. I'm glad how things turned out for him. He represents everything wrong in Mark's life so its satisfying when he's left with nothing going insane by himself.
Interesting and enjoyable [if that's the right word] to get a look into lives so radically different from my own even though people live like that so near. Makes me feel pretty good about my average middle-classness. Disclaimer, my understanding of the class system may differ from yours.
I think it's as high as a 9.
Rain Man
Kinda unsure about this one. Had high hopes about this after Kramer vs. Kramer but this was a very different performance by Dustin Hoffman. A good one, but obviously very different.
The relationship between Tom Cruise and Hoffman is quite nice with how it develops over time and such but it is a bit predictable. As Tom Cruise is introduced as a big money-loving douche at the start it wasn't a huge mystery how it was going to end.
It had its little emotional moments but nothing that really deeply effected me. Maybe it was because the dilemma was over not seeing each other again after a few days as opposed to being over love, life or death.
It was a fun enough ride though as they crossed a bit of America and I felt the frustration of Tom Cruise's character as Raymond kept wondering off or refusing to do things.
The bit when the woman kissed him in the elevator made no sense to me. Why was that there? Not sure it added anything.
Still good- 7 out of 10.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
My first ever [proper] western and as I referenced LA Noire a lot when talking about LA Confidential and stuff I'm going to reference Red Dead Redemption here. It's one of my favourite games so it was nice to see where a lot of the characters and settings were based on.
It takes its time to get going but it didn't feel like 3 hours which is always a good sign. I really liked the ever changing relationships between The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The Ugly reminded me of that chubby mexican actor who was in The Last Stand and Journey 2. Luis Guzmán if you're interested.
And how cool is Clint Eastwood? The scenes where he's close to death really compliment how badass he becomes for the second half of the film.
The finale is tense as hell and I really hoped it'd end in a situation like that. The dramatic looks to increasingly loud trumpets went on for perhaps a little too long but I really liked the ending. Especially the fact that *spoilers?* The Ugly gets to live. He was a complete cock but for some reason half likable.
I also thought the 'WYEYAYAYEEEEE' was used a little too much. But it is really iconic and the music worked well with the film.
8 out of 10. I hope other westerns are this good.
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