Eyes Wide Shut

 

        Going to finish my final days of 2025 in the best way possible well, sort of. So, this year I've pretty much watched a grand total of five or six, of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. And this one, I have mixed feelings in terms of story, though truth be told this was Kubrick's final film furthermore passed away shortly before the film's postproduction. Staring starring former husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, moreover I remember this film’s release as well as looking at a VHS copy of the film and making a long story short this was a movie I remember seeing previews of but never watched because I was a kid. 

        After Dr. Bill Hartford's (Tom Cruise) wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group (nothing to do with Epstein, quote, unquote) and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he's in over his head.

        I will admit when I say this that I do in fact remember seeing numerous previews of this movie growing up and they continue to talk about this being Kubrick's final work, that was pretty much it, as well as this being marketed to be an erotic thriller with Chris Isaak's "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing" in the background. And really this was one of those movies I knew I was never going to watch but more importantly this was the first time I ever heard of Stanley Kubrick, much to less didn't know he made such iconic movies through the years. The idea of Eyes Wide Shut came around Kubrick was finishing 2001: A Space Odyssey, and after buying the rights to a book titled a Dream Story (which was published during 68), Kubrick declared this to be his next project. Although through the course of the decade it' was stacked on the shelf to gather dust until the early nineties. Having finally watched this film all the way through I still have mixed feelings about the movie though it has a lot to do with the story as well as the post-production part of the film, mainly the film was already done but again Kubrick passed away during midst of the postproduction of Eyes Wide Shut. Surprising factor is that the film was shot around October of 1996 to February of 1997, and while in principal photography Kubrick was still in the editing process around December of 1996, moreover while this film was being made a year ago in 1995, Cruise man was still working on the first Mission Impossible so, there's some good explanations in terms of that year Tom being extremely busy. Getting back to the topic at hand, which is Kubrick's passing and the fate of Eyes Wide Shut's completion, there could be some assumptions that this film was indeed not completed to the liking of either side and that goes to both Kubrick and Warner Brothers as well as Tom Cruise himself moreover Kubrick may or may not of had some fights brewing with both parties, for which to me makes a lot of sense considering there's a ton of the story's elements that just feels out of place like where was this secret society that could of been formed by Jeffery Epstein quote, unquote what are their intent or WHAT their purpose is, and I have no clue in that factor other than Tom Cruise hears about his real life wife's fantasy and drives him to an obsession wanting to plow another female encounter, either way this film feels out of place because we don't have a whole lot of explanation or common sense, and some of that has to do with the secret society being shrouded in mystery when we don't get any of the answers of what they are essentially. Garret Brown, the inventor of the actual Steadicam expresses Eyes Wide Shut being an unfinished film, stating in his own words "I think Eyes Wide Shut was snatched up by the studio when Stanley died and they just grabbed the highest number Avid edit and ran off as if that was the movie. But it was three months before the movie was released. I don't think there's a chance that it was the movie he had in mind, or the music track and a lot of other things. It's a great shame because you know it's out there, but it doesn't feel to me as if it's really his film". Even R. Lee Ermey who previously worked with Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket stated he phoned him two weeks before his passing, according to Ermey in a Radar Magazine during the phone call Kubrick "He told me it was a piece of shit, and was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to 'have him for lunch'. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him -- exactly his words used". So, deep down this film alone which was supposed to be his final bow turned into a nightmare which this film is a bad case of that especially when this should of been Kubrick's final bow but it turned to be out of control and even when you pick fights with both the Studio heads and Tom Cruise, who we all know is a huge control freak. As much as I want to say this film is better than 2001 and the Shinning, I would even consider my own words to be not true moreover it's not the worst thing I've seen out of Kubrick's filmography, in fact I would rate this film as a six out of ten, for which is pretty good but defiantly not his finest works. In terms of recommendation I would certainly recommend watching this movie just because it's one of those films that you need to experience as a cinema fan, and more importantly this is one of these films that turned out to be a tragedy film in terms of this being the death of Kubrick and never really, had the chance to express his vision of the film if he hold on just a little bit more. Though somewhere in the afterlife Kubrick is up there still editing Eyes Wide Shut, or he may be in Hell and is repeating the cycle repeatedly, for which I doubt will ever know. 

     

25th Anniversary of How the Grinch Stole Christmas

 

        Well, I hope you all had a great and exciting Christmas this year, me I personally had a great time surrounded by some cherished Christmas films including DIE HARD. Though it can't be a excellent Christmas if we don't talk about the Jim Carrey Classic, as well as its 25th Anniversary of the film’s release, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Luckily, this found itself on the Peacock subscription app, so if you have it or not this is certain Christmas film worth watching. Though this is for certain one of Jim Carrey's finest and granddaddy of a comedic performance before he lost his mind until twenty years before his comedic comeback with Sonic the Hedgehog. Though in all fairness I don't have a clue if they’re good or not, moreover I don't feel the need. 

        In this live action of the beloved children's tale by Dr. Seuss, the reclusive green Grinch (Jim Carrey) decides to ruin Christmas for the cheery citizens of Whoville. Reluctantly joined by a hapless dog, Max, the Grinch comes down from his mountaintop home and sneaks into town to swipe everything holiday-related from Whos. However, the bitter grump finds a hitch in his plans when he encounters the endearing Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) 

        Long before Dr. Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel passed away in 1991, Dr. Seuss pledged that he would never sell the film rights to his books. For which in all fairness, I would understand his viewpoints because let’s be honest three years later after this film’s release, Universal Studios released a live action movie of The Cat in the Hat staring Mike Myers and well, look if you see photos of the movie on Google, you'll understand why it looks awful hell, even I as a freshman in high school thought it was awful. Now getting back to topic, after the great doctor's passing his widow Audrey Geisel began entertaining several merchandising deals, including clothing lines, accessories, and CDs. To make a long story short, major studios had a knife fight (figuratively) to negotiate the rights for all of Dr. Seuss's book. Luckily Brain Grazer, who was representing Universal, with the help of Ron Howard made the widow an offer she couldn't refuse and with Jim Carrey at the starring helm, the rest became history. I actually remembered watching this great film especially when at the time Jim Carrey was still a thing after making so, many films in the 90's so, in all fairness they're a reason why this film was going to be a thing moreover came out on my birthday and when we went to the film at our local theater, outside was already turning into the snowy blizzard and not the Dairy Queen kind if you catch my drift. Even twenty-five years since the film’s release it's still incredible especially when you have Jim Carrey playing the title character, and I think the beauty of the film is Ron Howard trusted Carrey with his comedic talents that I would imagine he told Carrey "look just do you're thing and will follow along", and it's one of those comedic talents that I don't think you can even mimic or use as inspiration for when you want to be a comedian like sure it may be outdated but his performance in this movie you can see how creative he is when creating the Grinch it feels like he's this crazy person that's always had the opposite view of Christmas but has been deranged because of spending his entire life in a cave, for which ether way Jim Carrey is excellent no matter, how you want to analyze his performance in the movie. And it's not just Carrey's performance that's great it's also his supporting cast in the movie as well, especially Molly Shannon who does a great job playing Cindy Lou's Mom, who does a great comedic job playing a mom being obsessed with the Christmas decorating and is always competing with Christine Baranski playing Martha May whose oversexualized in this movie and she's great as well, just because the adult content she's able to get away with in this movie is funny as well as amazing because when I saw this as a young age I didn't care much about her other than she was in love with the Grinch and yet the surprising factor is that Christine Baranski later in life played Leonard's mom in The Big Bang Theory, for which I find shocking because if I met Leonard now I would later tell him his mom was kind of a hottie back in the day, just so he can be traumatized. Jeffery Tambor who has been in certain things though you'll have to look up his filmography does a great job playing the antagonist in the movie as the mayor who always judges the Grinch but he's the mayor because he always gets what he wants which again that's a reason why he does a great job in this movie. Talking about adult content in the movie besides Christine Baranski, a lot of surprising adult content is shocking as well as funny especially when you first see the Baby Grinch and he lands in the middle of a Christmas key party (basically you put your keys in a bowl and whose keys you draw you get to bang that person with the keys just something from the 40's-70's) and rewatching this movie now, I'm shocked but yet find it funny because even kids like me back then didn't get that, for which I'm surprised what other adult content you can find in other family movies, gratefully they keep it a secret because the last thing you'd want to see is porno content in a family movie. This is defiantly a great Christmas movie to watch on the Holiday season granted Christmas is sort of over. But you can defiantly watch this movie a dozen times and feel entertained from start to finish but more importantly has great messages and themes about Christmas not being about gift giving or parties and treats it's all about being with friends and loved ones, moreover is appropriate for the kids to watch because if I at a young age can ignore the adult content I'm sure kids today can't tell the adult content in this movie besides Christine Baranski. Another great Christmas movie to put in my list of best Christmas films of all time, and Jim Carrey is perfect for the role as the Grinch furthermore Ron Howard deserves a lot of credit for this movie getting made because he at least has a sense of humor of letting Carrey impersonate him in one of the scenes. So, Merry Christmas everyone hopefully you're still having a great Christmas and still having a great Christmas moving into the weekend and if you went to a Sporting event on Christmas Day, I'd want to say I feel sorry for you, though it depends on which team you we're rooting for.  

           

Ghost of Yotei

 

         Now we may be counting down the days of Christmas but for me it's never too late to publish my thoughts on the greatest video game of 2025. You've may or may not have been waiting for my thoughts on the Ghost of Yotei ever since I've been unleashing my Japanese samurai films weeks or months ago, maybe weeks. Now, for warn if you’re looking for a last minute gift for you loved one be warned that this game will be crack to you for the rest of your life moreover will take countess hours of your life, but by end of it all is worth every bit of your money you spend on buying this game unless you’re buying a PS5 then I still say it's worth your weight in gold.

         Sixteen years of wandering Japan, Atsu a full-fledged mercenary return to her home in Ezo and seeks revenge on six individuals called the Yotei Six, who were responsible for the massacre of her family, through the course of this journey Atsu learns more about vengeance, forgiveness as well as finding closure in a new family. 

         Granted I spent countless hours beating Doom: The Dark Ages so, that I can move on and play Ghost of Yotei, and holy crap I didn't expect the countless hours of WANTING TO PLAY, this game through and through and I would think about playing other sports games but this game just sucked me in and never let me go. Granted this is an open-world video game where you can go around the globe and do whatever you want or as Westworld would put it, "In this world, you can be whatever you want" though with this game you have the biggest open-world that combines Red Dead Redemption and Ghost of Tsushima and yet, I CAN'T STOP PLAYING IT. I mean it's both spectacular as well as unleashing a great storyline of revenge moreover gets you hooked through the course of every level as well as every upgrade of a weapon you acquire and learning that there's a HUGE version of a Katana that exists out there in the real world called the Odachi either way just granting a ton of cool looking weapons as well as wanting to learn more is also fun to play even though this game to me is like craving for crack. Now learning that you can carry a matchlock rifle is even cool but more importantly reminded me of a documentary about a Samurai series on Netflix where the Samurai used Matchlock rifles to battle is cool moreover reminded me of that series and yet was rewatching the series while being sick with the flu. I'm not going to spoil anymore details because of how amazing and probably one of the greatest video games I've ever played. I would highly recommend making this your last minute Christmas present for this year as well as state and prove that PlayStation is still a hundred times better than XBOX all because XBOX only great video games are Halo and Gears of War and haven't made a great video game since while PlayStation still stands tall with classic video games like God of War, Uncharted, and all the Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei games. Though I'm just saying this game will consume you in terms of wanting to play even more because even after beating the game I now want to replay the game again especially when you can play the game in the format of every legendary Japanese filmmaker. So, like I said before I’m not buying any video game this 2026 because I declare Ghost of Yotei, the greatest video game ever. 

   

December Recommendation: The Polar Express

 

        After multiple recommendations of two Disney versions of A Christmas Carol I decided to spice things up a bit for this upcoming Christmas. The Polar Express was one of those films since its release I in my own view avoided, mainly because back then I was a high school teen, who didn't know a whole lot about anything and so, I didn't feel the need to watch this great Christmas film. Well, as fate would have it my parents asked me to join them in watching The Polar Express and I was immediately hooked. Granted this was one of the many films that director Robert Zemeckis did for which is exceptionally great, though some of his films in my opinion are at times hit and misses.

        A young boy, who has grown skeptical of Santa Claus is shocked to see a train stop outside his window on Christmas Eve, destined for the North Pole. When he accepts the invitation from the conductor to climb on board, he embarks on a white-knuckle ride to Santa's Headquarters, where he makes fast friends and learns the invaluable lesson about the true spirit of Christmas.

        Having loved the book by Chris Van Allsburg, Tom Hanks in 1999 optioned the movie rights with the hope of both the Conductor and Santa Clause, Allsburg at first wasn't all in on selling the film rights but later agreed on the hearing of Hank's involvement. With the help of both Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. who surprisingly wrote two past Tom Hanks classics, the rest became history. Surprisingly enough this was the first ever animated film that's not produced by Disney and Pixar, hence Warner Brothers was the true hero in making this great Christmas, for which really if you’re making a Christmas movie like this Disney and Pixar would obviously make this worse though in all fairness this was way before Disney turned into a complete monster. Long before James Cameron came along with Avatar, the Polar Express was the first movie to use motion capture animation to bring this great world of Polar Express to life, so, in all fairness this movie was the first to accomplish this, moreover was listed in the 2006 Guinness Book of world records as the "first all-digital capture" film, so deep down Cameron is NOT the first to accomplish motion capture, thus SUCK IT CAMERON. Anyway getting back to the movie, what really makes the film special is that this is every kid who gets to that age and is skeptic about the belief of Santa Clause and that's always a dishearten thing because you should never lose your faith in Saint Nick, I mean if you’re going to lose faith in one mystical character you should lose your faith on the Easter Bunny because the bunny has no connection to Jesus furthermore was in roots of paganism so, yeah St. Nick is the inspiration to Santa and Easter Bunny should be mocked about having nothing to do with Jesus dying for our sins. Okay enough blabbering, with this movie you follow and care for these characters from beginning to the very end, and even watching the film for the second time I know what's going to happen but still on the edge of my seat when something drastic happens and yet by the end of it all your still over joyed on these kids being okay by the end of it. Furthermore this movie also shows off the great acting in Tom Hanks who plays close to every character in the movie, I mean obviously you know he's playing the Conductor, and yet you slowly see that he's also playing Santa Clause and the way he plays St. Nick is just awesome and more of a believable performance of Santa that I've honestly never seen in past Christmas films, mainly because you can see his presence on screen and see, how gentle he is as well as being calm when talking to the kids and the way Hanks portrays all of his characters is outstanding. Even after twenty years, since the film’s release and seeing the films rating on Rotten Tomatoes for which is at a fifty-five percent rating, in which is not bad but deep down should be at least a 99 percent moreover I still after living thirty-nine years of my life, I truly believe that critics today are nothing but trolls and have been trolls ever since the formation of movie critics and even watching this film twice I'm just bewildering on the critics, criticism and want to ask them politely "WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU P*ICKS?" I mean it’s an animated Christmas movie, what do you want? Either way, this is a lesson to never listen to movie critics for a gillion reasons, they don't know what the hell they’re talking about. Now I know that this is terrible taste, because it's a family film, but through the course of the train sequences especially when it comes to serving the kids hot chocolate, in the back of my mind all I'm thinking about is if there another dimension of some sorts where a Bill Cosby train is coming to your neighborhood, it's probably best that you don't go on that train especially when it comes to either kids or any young women getting lost on Christmas, because you never know what he puts in the pudding or jiggle Jell-O, jigglers and even I would not want to know what's in them, and even at a young age, fi you’re not sure on whether to go on the train or not the brain on the young child or woman's head should be shouting "RUN, RUN FOR DEAR LIFE", or in Dave Chappelle's words of wisdom "RUN B*TCH, RUN". So all jokes aside sorry not sorry on the Bill Cosby joke, for this Christmas week I would highly recommend watching The Polar Express, this was a great treat to watch and after living through a year with some ups and massive downs especially when it came to watching sports, The Polar Express give's the greatest gift of having more faith in Santa Clause though I'm personally have believed Santa was real, but also has the great theme of belief still having the belief in Santa no matter how bad the world is getting and not going great, the month of Christmas should always be a cherish time of believing as well as sharing love and care for one another especially those who don't have the belief or going through rough times. Now I've seen many Christmas movies in my time but if I had to make a list of my top five greatest Christmas films, I got to say that it's a close tie between The Polar Express and George C. Scott's, A Christmas Carol and in all fairness they're both in a close tie all because of their great performance in the lead actors who portray each of their characters. So, in the limited time we have before Christmas, I give you a salute and say, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! 

        

Silent Night

 

         Spent a whole week getting sick with the flu and I was so, awful that I literally didn't feel like wanting to watch anything considering I was literally wanting to rush and get better before Christmas, and I don't know how you all try and get better but locking yourself as well as turning your space heater up to max is a nightmare. Anyway, I got my bearings back just in the nick of time to celebrate Christmas and I figured what better way to celebrate Christmas than watching an entertaining action film by John Woo, infamous for movies like Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2 as well as Paycheck. 

         On Christmas Eve, a man (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between waring gangs. Recovering from a wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.

         Around October of 2021, Silent Night was going to be directed by John Woo and staring Joel Kinnaman in the starring role. And if you don't know who Joel Kinnaman is, basically starred in the PG-13 version of Robocop where Michael Keaton wanted to give Robocop a black shade of armor, furthermore, starred in the lesser Suicide Squad as Colonel Flagg, as well as reprising his role in James Gunn's version. Now at the time I remember seeing a trailer to this movie, I'll admit I was intrigued with the concept of the idea basically making a silent movie but without the typical silent movie cliches from the Charlie Chaplin years. And even John Woo explained in his own words how the entire film is relying on no dialogue, for which gave the opportunity to rely on the visuals to tell the story as well. And the way he's able to accomplish that with the very limited budget, it was fun to watch moreover I thought this film from beginning to the very end was both great and I didn't need anything to understand the story when the actors were showing it for me. Now if you haven't seen a John Woo film, I truly believe you have no worries, you can enjoy this movie all the way through. That being said, if you've seen a John Woo film, you'll probably see many duster's whooshing and many dudes with guns and holding two guns at the same time, I mean this movie is all there and at first watching the first, like twenty or thirty minutes I figured "oh this is a new kind of Woo film" but then when you get to like act three, then you obviously see the many trademarks Woo does when making action movies, though on the plus side I didn't mind it at all because I was drawn into the story and the rampage Colonel Flagg goes on. In most Christmas films, there is a point where, at times I get mildly annoyed with popular Christmas movies that everyone loves, and I'll be sure to give you the many reasons why I hate Christmas Vacation and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas". But when it comes to movies like Silent Night it's like a breath of fresh air where I can have a great time to watch something from beginning to end, and more importantly it doesn't over stay it's welcome in terms of the studios being money hungry and wanting to make a sequel to this movie and that's always a great plus to these, underappreciative action films. I would highly recommend watching this great film on Christmas break or Christmas Day, especially if you’re all by yourself and all alone. Moreover, if you find this at your local Walmart, I promise you this film will be worth your money.  Either way, if your tired watching the same Christmas movies or just had a bad Christmas dinner with your family, Silent Night would definitely give you the Christmas spirit of entertainment. 

            

20th Anniversary of Kingdom of Heaven (Directors Cut)

 

          This my friends is a movie review in the making getting close to eight or ten months prior to the movies release. This was one of the first Ridley Scott films I actually watched in the movie theaters and through the course of the film’s release to DVD and Blu-Ray I was obsessed with the world and it's story for a long, long, long time and still consider this one of Ridley Scott's greatest accomplishments and Orlando Bloom's greatest performances on screen. Kingdom of Heaven is a hero's journey set in the years of the Crusades, moreover, it has magnificent storytelling about one man's struggle with faith, that which anyone can relate to and hopefully by end of this review everyone should watch this and enjoy it.

           Still in grief over his wife's sudden death, village blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom) joins his long-estranged father, Baron Godfrey (Liam Neeson), as a crusader on the road to Jerusalem. After a perilous journey to the holy city, the valiant young man enters to retinue of the leprous King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), which is rifle with dissent led by the treacherous Guy de Lusignan (Martin Csokas), who wishes to wage war against the Muslims for his own political and personal gain. 

           At the time of the film’s release on may sixth of 2005, there was a theatrical cut of the film which was the first time I watched the movie and really at the time I didn't think much of the fact that there wasn't a lot of detail that needed between scenes me, loving Gladiator as well as Black Hawk Down, I didn't think much of the less of details, I was loving a lot of the scenery and the battle sequences and more importantly the world that Sir Ridley Scott build around Kingdom of Heaven. And through the course of maybe two years since the film’s release Scott, released a Director’s Cut for which still stands as the true version of the movie itself, and there were a ton of scenes that made a lot more scenes as well as scenes I wished they included with the theatrical cut of the film moreover never understood at the time why they cut a big chunk of the film alone. And what made sense was that the producers of 20th Century Fox pressured Sir Ridley in making the film a decent two and a half hours and it's been a long time since I've seen the theatrical cut but I've seen it a bunch of times to remember a lot of scenes that they didn't included but needed to be included especially the duel between Balian and Guy by the end of the film, and even a storyline between Princess Sibylla and her son as well as her struggle with her horrible husband Guy. And most importantly we wouldn't have a surprisingly underappreciative performances in David Thewlis who plays a Hospitaller Knight who guides a tortured man in Balian through the course of his journey in what Christianity is all about as well as being a sort of guardian angel to Orlando Bloom's character, moreover I think these are one of the many things that makes the Directors Cut of Kingdom of Heaven the truer version Scott indented to be and will hopefully stand the test of time. I always said this and I will continue to say it again that this movie was and always will be Orlando Bloom's greatest performance, and after hearing him state that he wipes his performance of Troy out of his mind, I still consider him the greatest man to walk the earth. But what I love about his performance is that he's a tragic hero, a man whose tortured by the loss of his wife as well as doubting his faith in God, somehow through the course of his time in the Holy Lands rise up to be a great hero amongst the people, he protected, and like most tragic hero you also relate to his character because in all honesty, we all have a sense of loss in our faith we are at times doubting our religion as well as understanding God's will and I love the way Sir Ridley, molds his hero through the course of the movie. At the time of the movie’s release, I always had a huge crush on Natalie Portman through Star Wars films, and I remember watching Kingdom of Heaven how stunningly beautiful, Eva Green who plays the princess of Jerusalem. Moreover when you think about the chemistry from great legendary actors and actresses through the years, Bloom and Green's chemistry in the movie was one of my favorite on-screen couples, because when these two meet for the first time it's almost like a love at first sight, only it's through Eva Green's eyes and Bloom is all but being humble never expecting this woman would save this Lord of Ibelin, and when she tells him that Sibylla calls, the many times I see that scene I feel like the wish to be like Bloom, in the middle ages because even I would love to be with Sibylla during that time as well. The most shocking fact about the film as well as a underappreciative performance was Edward Norton's portrayal as King Baldwin IV, and even after the film’s release I was surprised in hearing that was Edward Norton and sure I would pegged it, to be him considering hearing his voice but at the time I didn't know it, and even Edward Norton himself didn't want to be credited through the theatrical cut of the movie, because he wanted his performance to be a mystery to the audience and now I can hear his voice and know it's Edward Norton, and what I love about his performance is that he's a gentle king that is a man of honor, moreover can be ruthless when he has too, but more importantly he gives great wisdom to Bloom's character and telling him that we never know our end, but when you stand before God you stand tall and say that your soul is in your keeping alone, and I think that's great advice that we all should use in life especially when we as mortals don't know what will happen to us, till the very end of our lives. When this film came out people criticized about the movie being inaccurate, as well as not being historically accurate, and for me I don't think that should be an actual thing to follow when it comes to telling a story especially with this one, it's not about being historically accurate it's always about telling a story as well as going on a journey with these characters to a whole new world we've never experienced as an audience, and that to me is what going to the movies is all about, and if we wanted a historically accurate movie we might as well take a history course about the crusades. Sir Ridley Scott claims that he's an atheist, and the funny thing even after this film being made was that he intended to make a movie about a hero that questions his religion and by the end of his movie found a purpose as well as gaining his faith or ah, hell I don't know there so, many questions in terms of why Scott wanted to make a movie about the crusades despite the man being a sort of atheist? Either way I'm assuming that the man wanted to make a movie that brings a realism to what the crusades were all about furthermore show how radical or fanaticism becomes a danger, especially when a massive army is coming to your doorstep, but more importantly being respectable to people of all faiths, even though you have different beliefs in terms of religion doesn't mean you should be respectful you your fellow man, and the way I see it, all men are equal in God's eyes. Which again this is one of those films like Exodus: Gods and Kings too, where even I don't know why Scott works on story's that include religion, but then again I would imagine he's always love telling stories about these epic medieval films as well as going back to the age of Gladiators furthermore when you have a great formula in story telling that Scott loves to do, you shouldn't judge a man on what he loves and what he's good at. Out of all of Sir Ridley Scott's greatest films, this is one of the many films I would recommend to anyone who’s a fan of epics to sit down and watch from beginning to the final frame. It's one of those great epics that has a great story as well as a classic hero's journey as well as epic battles that you can sit down and enjoy. I don' know if you can find the Director's Cut on any streaming service they may have it I'm not sure or haven't done a lot of research but if it does have the Directors cut on streaming then I would highly recommend watching the Director's Cut of the film and granted this film is on all streaming services but I doubt they don't have the Director's Cut. So, if you really want to watch this movie then I would highly recommend buying the movie on Blu-Ray or 4K, moreover I promise you the purchase of the film will be worthwhile as well as your purchase will be worth the wait as well. And sure, this film doesn't seem Christmas themed, but deep down if we're saying Happy Holiday's then I declare Kingdom of Heaven to be a Christmas movie to watch on this Holiday season. GOD WILLS IT!   

 

                

Movies I haven't seen in a while: Babes in Toyland

 

        You know when your brain processes forgotten memories of past Christmas movies you haven't seen in a long time and you’re absolutely shocked to find out that you've seen this movie at a very young age? Well, everyone this was one of these times where mind blown almost the same way the atomic bomb blew up in Oppenheimer. Babes in Toyland staring young Drew Barrymore and very young John Wick aka Keanu Reeves, long before he killed people with a pencil. No, matter how strange and cheaply made this movie was and don't worry well get into this movie in a little bit, there's nothing compared to the fact that Santa Clause or the Toymaster is played my Mr. Miyagi aka Pat Morita, I guess it shows that we all have a version of what Santa Clause looks like.  

        Like, the Wizard of Oz, an 11-year-old girl (Drew Barrymore) is transported to Toyland, a mystical kingdom threatened by an old and creepy Harvey Weinstein. 

        I remember seeing this movie in like, maybe the second or third grade of Elementary School. And really at the time I didn't think much of this movie, it was like every typical Christmas movie that our teachers would have us watch before Christmas break commenced. Now having watched the movie I was shocked but also confused as well as feeling appalled because they're a creepy middle aged man flirting with a teenager, as well as wanting to marry one when we go to Toyland, and I don't know if our teachers were shocked that they're allowing their students including me in watching this movie or they didn't care moreover didn't think they get we kids would get the context. Apparently this film cost five million dollars to make, for which I refused to believe this film cost five million dollars, because if you look at this film, when we get to Toyland all of the characters look like their wearing nothing but bear, mouse, duck costumes as well as frog costumes and they all look like they got them at you dollar store used old costumes from Disneyland and Disney World, though granted they shot in Germany during the eighties when the Berlin Wall was still up and they had to purchase some land to build the town, but I refuse to believe they spend five million dollars on this movie because everything else besides the town and sets are just awful in terms of costumes. They're is so many questions on how this film was able to get made as well as how NBC allowed this film to be possible, I mean sure they're able to cast some recognizable actors like Eileen Brennan long before she was the love interest to Peter Faulk in movies like Murder, By Death and the Cheap Detective as well as Pat Morita who plays Santa or Toymaster either way I'm told that Santa is in the movie and it's set on Christmas Eve, either way it's very confusing to look at the Toymaster/Santa and my 38 year old brain is thinking "I didn't know Santa is of Asian descent or Asian/American". And look if your casting Mr. Miyagi to play Toymaster/Santa in your movie, couldn't you at least have a moment where he teaches Drew Barrymore how to fight as well as using the technique wax on, wax off and sure we're making the movie worse but this film was already turning worst when your costumes look like they came out of Disneyland and Disney World. While watching this movie I begin to ask why are they a ton of Mother Goose characters? And why does this movie remind me of the Wizard of Oz? Well having dug up some information, I got a full understanding on what Babes in Toyland is about, this was a stage opera that woven all the characters from a Mother Goose nursery rhymes and yes the whole premise is about saving Christmas and the play and opera? where all contrived after the success of the Stage production to the Wizard of Oz around the early 1900's, and look the bottom line is whoever created this opera or stage production stole the same premise of The Wizard of Oz and I'm surprised there was no lawsuit's filed about copying same story premises, I mean Akira Kurosawa was smart enough to sue Sergio Leone so during the sixties. Look the more I talk about this movie the more I begin to think about sending myself to an insane Asylum, this film is one of the most confusing Christmas movies I've ever seen and I would put this in the Black Dahlia of unsolvable movies in terms of how the hell this movie got made, from the costumes to the main antagonist wanting to molest the damsel in distress, this film is almost baffling than the Star Wars: Holiday Special. So, if you’re looking for a movie that is so, confusingly bad as well as wanting to relive bad Christmas movies, your elementary school teachers would let you watch before your Christmas break begins. Then, TV Babes in Toyland is the movie for you AND it's on Tubi so, have a great time watching things even, I wouldn't let my kids watch. 

    

Love Actually

 

           To all the ladies out there who may read this review or don't read my reviews either way I doubt all the ladies are reading my reviews in all fairness. Anyway, to all the ladies out there I want to apologize (quote, unquote) for considering your favorite Christmas, romantic comedy overrated. This is my first time sitting down and watching this popular romantic comedy Love Actually, and in all fairness, I did watch this movie with an open mind thinking "I've never seen this, maybe this might be good, what can't go wrong. Then through the course of the movie I begin to have conflicts about whether to continue watching the movie or just stop the movie out of sense of boredom, though I will just get into Love Actually right now. 

           Nine intertwined journeys examine the complexities of the one emotion that connects all individuals, love? Which I'm confident about the movie being about finding love. Look, bottom line it's about nine storylines trying to find love during a two-hour long movie. 

            Like I said before, I really did, I literally saw this streaming on Peacock and I've never seen this movie before so, I thought "well why not it's your typical Christmas movie, what can go wrong?" Though the problem is, is that this film has one too many characters to follow as well as wanting to care about these characters also. Like if this film had at least six characters and two out of the four characters found love or fell out of love and the rest found love, great I can by this being a great romantic comedy to watch at Christmas. But, this film has one too many characters as well as nine storylines to follow and a good portion of the characters are unlikeable, especially the Walking Dead sheriff aka Andrew Lincoln whose in love with Keira Knightly and you don't know that until she finds her wedding video and all it is, is Keira Knightly being pretty and you slowly realized that all he did was filmed her and nothing else. Now, first off that's creepy, secondly as a fellow wedding videographer, I also found that the most unprofessional way because if I did that and sure they're were a lot of pretty brides I helped film over the years but they weren't up my alley of ever getting a chance with them because they're getting married, but more importantly if I filmed just them, I would get fired as well as probably put on the list of creepy guys to avoid. And some of these storylines like Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson being a married couple though Rickman is flirting with the secretary and me I was like "well, Emma you should know better than to marry Hans Gruber". But then you have a guy who decides to go on a back backing trip to America to get laid (also this film is British) because his accent can get ladies, for which I guess then I should go to Europe to pick up some ladies because they find my American accent sexy, hell, I can't do that in the Middle East I'd probably get shot. And the storyline with Liam Neeson and his son played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, that could of been its own Christmas film, and the same with Hugh Grant's storyline as well as Colin Firth's storyline, for which I wouldn't mind watching those movies all together considering I did make some jokes about the actress playing Hugh Grants love interests by stating "listen honey, you're too good for Hugh Grant and you should probably run because he's going to cheat on you with a one out of ten hooker", and again Grant's storyline is was great to watch hell, I would watch a ninety minute movie about his story, but then again this film consist of one to many characters that are both unnecessary as well as unlikeable and that really was what took me out of this film in terms of liking it. Granted this film is not the worst I've ever seen hell it's still Christmas Vacation in my number one list of most hated Christmas movies of all time, though this film is for certain the most overrated Christmas movie I will say, and it's not the most hated movie I would say, because I never had steam coming out of my head while watching this movie, I was basically not sure whether to turn the movie off or continue on, but in the end I finished the movie so, at least that's an accomplishment. So, look ladies if this is your favorite Christmas movie of all time, I applaud you in loving the film, but this is not my cup of tea and I see a lot of Christmas/Romantic comedies that have only two couples to focus on and not one to many characters, even one couple that's shooting a fake porno that consist of not even doing each other if you know what I mean, I'll hopefully be here all week, through the month of December. 

             

Almost Christmas

 

          Getting more into the Christmas spirit, I decided to dig deeper through some movies I've watched during the good old days of cable TV. And some of these movies are right on Peacock, especially an underappreciative Christmas movie that holds a great understanding of being with family no matter how dysfunctional your families are now. Danny Glover takes the leading role along with Mo'Nique, along with Gabrelle Union (Nebraska native), Omar Epps and Jessie T. Usher aka A-Train from The Boys, for which shows you when it comes to acting alongside a legend like Danny Glover you'll gain great success.

           Walter Meyer (Danny Glover) is a retired mechanic who lost the love of his life one year earlier. Now that the holiday season is here, he invites daughters Cheryl (Kimberly Else), Rachel (Gabrielle Union) and sons Christian (Romany Malco) and Evan (Jessie T. Usher) to his house for a traditional celebration. Poor Walter soon realizes that if his bickering children and the rest of the family can spend five days together under the same roof, it would be a truly Christmas miracle. 

           This film is close to ten years old, and I remember seeing this for the first time on the internet and I begin to think to myself that "okay this is of course one of these movies that make me realize why I'm not a big fan of family Christmas films", Furthermore didn't see this film in the theater just because it reminds me of my family being dysfunctional as well as bickering with my brother and sister. Though through the years of cable TV when this movie at the time, the film arrived when I could watch it (granted parts of it), I slowly begin to see that there's something more to this movie than reliving the monstrosity that is films like Christmas Vacation. Many great examples both family members have their own personal grief that they're personally trying to deal with, furthermore they all have their own personal feuds that through the course of the movie they each make amends as well as important subplots that have closure by the end of the movie. Most importantly what makes this film great, is that Danny Glover playing the Dad in the movie which brings great warmth as well as getting tired of his kids fighting for which you can relate to that along the journey him and his family have but more importantly you understand things that mean a lot to him but also having to deal with the loss of his own wife. Mo'Nique even does a great job in the film as the comic relief as well and she does in the best way that gives you a laugh but more importantly has great chemistry with Danny Glover in terms of relating to each other as well as standing up for one another. The sister dynamic between Gabrielle Union and Kimberly Elise are excellent, as well as being able to relate to them in terms of reminiscing to the many times I've argued with my sister and with this I relate to Union the most because I'm the youngest out of my brother and sister, moreover it's a great sense of relating to your own siblings and the most important you also have a sense of closure as well as forgiveness that you never get when it comes to Yellowstone. I would highly recommend watching Almost Christmas, especially if you have a Peacock account, furthermore I relate to this family Christmas movie more than Christmas Vacation for many GOOD reasons, this film at least have some comedic value that's actually funny than Chevy Chase never learning a lesson as well as not understanding the aspect of never trusting you’re a**hole of a boss. More importantly and this shows why it's better than Christmas Vacation, it as the Christmas chaos that you can relate to and at least has that sense of believing this family members can make amends as well as the hope to love one another by end of the film. Hands down I would defiantly put this in my top ten best Christmas movies of all time. 

      

Jack Frost

 

          Getting into the Christmas spirit at times takes a while to get into and especially since we're already into the Christmas season. Though there are movies in a strange, strange way, gets you ready for the Christmas spirit and this is one of those films that is sort of funny but also feels really, pathetic and especially when your main antagonist is a sort of Styrofoam, snowman killer? Either way the surprising factor is that this is American Pie alum, Shannon Elizabeth's first acting role. 

          As notorious killer Jack Frost (yes, his name is Jack Frost) is being driven to his execution, the truck carrying the murderer encounters a bizarre accident that transforms him into a mutant, Styrofoam, SNOWMAN.

          Granted the only reason, this film peaked my interest was because Shannon Elizabeth is in the movie and she's of course nude while taking a shower and the killer appears, from water to snow and for strange way of picturing it is either graping Elizabeth or bashing her brains in and yet, this was Shannon Elizabeth's first acting role so, deep down I can't make jokes about her appearing in this movie because you have to get into the film business somehow, sometimes you have to make the worst before you can make a hit, though I'm guessing the writers and director or whoever was in charge with casting at Universal, though obviously a dude, saw this movie and was like "YOU'RE HIRED" and the rest became history. The thing that makes this movie funny but more importantly pathetic, is that this Snowman that is supposed to be marketed as a scary movie monster, is an actual Styrofoam snowman with absolute no life like to the thing, moreover has now movement or anything to feel like a scary monster and the only times you see liveness to the monster is from his hands, upon which is somebody using gloves or when look of white cooking gloves and more importantly the mouth of the snowman, doesn't move at all and you only see the snowman with somebody's voice as the background sound. For which all those things for sure look and sound sad and pathetic at the same time, but also the budget of the entire movie was 500 grand, for which I would imagine they would at least use that money to improve the visual effects right? But no, and this is one of those films where I was curious as to where the money went to because the actors they picked we're sure as hell not the best actors and you could of paid them minimum wage at least and spend a good portion of the movie on the snowman to make it believable, considering the film was only shot in 18 days. Either way this film is a great example of video stores back then needing to fill their shelves with many Christmas movies as possible so people in the nineties can come back and rent more Christmas films. All and all the movie for sure gave me tons of moments to laugh about furthermore is one of those films I would consider pathetic to watch and I bet Shannon Elizabeth has wiped her memory clean of this movie. I’m not an American Pie fan and if you’re a fan of cringy, overrated coming of age, sex comedies and use to have a massive crush on Shannon Elizabeth, then this is the movie for you. Though if you’re looking for some unintentional horror comedies then this is the movie for you, and the best part is that the film is on Tubi so, you don't have to feel guilty in wasting your life savings on a sh*ty movie in terms renting the movie on your phone for a price and again that's one of the many reasons why I prefer to use Tubi when it comes to bad B-movies. 

     

Yojimbo

 

        Continuing on with my addiction to Ghost of Yotei as well as the Ghost of Tsushima, I decided to explore another Samurai film from old school Japanese cinema, Yojimbo a classic Samurai film directed by legendary filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa who helped influence ton of filmmakers with his legendary Samurai film, such great directors like George Lucas who later created the greatest movie franchise of all time Star Wars. Now if you remember my May Recommendation: A Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone unofficially remade Yojimbo who Kurosawa later sued for copying the same movie. Though in the end, Kurosawa did compliment Leone and complimented him in A Fistful of Dollars as well as telling him he loved the movie.

        A nameless Ronin, or Samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name of Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the Ronin convinces both silk merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men. 

        Looking through my reviews through the years I slowly realized that I never written a review on Kurosawa's Yojimbo, for which is a big shock on my part, for good reasons is that this is for certain one of the greatest Samurai movies ever made and really paved the way for other filmmakers to use this film as inspiration. I haven't watched a whole lot of Kurosawa's films in which I need to make a point, in doing so, but for any newbie whose never seen any of Kurosawa's work, Yojimbo would for certain be one of those films I would highly recommend watching from its great cinematography to limited resources in terms of the action sequences as well as showing very little blood and limbs flying, this movie still stands the test of time as one of Kurosawa's greatest films. Moreover, the writing of Yojimbo came from numerous inspirations from classic film noir books from Dashiell Hammett and even the films too. Getting back to the whole debate on the unofficial remake between Kurosawa and Sergio Leone, whatever happened between these guys and granted the lawsuit was settled outside of court, I believe Kurosawa did the right thing in suing, though as great as A Fistful of Dollars was, if I was an up and coming filmmaker I would at least tweaked the idea a little bit to draw differences but then maybe would of been complicated, hell I don't know, though if you put these movies their both the same movie just one is a Samurai/Ronin and the other is a gunfighter. And even though these movies together, share the same plot Leone wasn't the only one, there were numerous filmmakers that used the same plot hell, apparently a Bruce Willis film in the mid-90's used the same premise only it was set in the prohibition era, for which again a little on the laziness, but at least they credited Yojimbo as being the basis for the story. For anyone who loved movies like, Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai or the latest TV series Shogun, Yojimbo is one of the greatest Samurai film I would highly recommend watching from start to finish, with the combination of great cinematography and great acting this film has everything, moreover if you’re not big in watching a movie with foreign language and English subtitles I completely understand though the interesting thing is if you work on a foreign movie like this one you can read the subtitles long before the actors are done speaking to which you can understand what their talking about, but then again if you don't want too that's completely fine on your end but old school Japanese films I've been able to get a good understanding in terms of being able to read the subtitles fast. Moreover, if you have an HBO Max subscription then you're all set in terms of watching the whole movie as well as being able to find other hidden gems like this, the same way Tubi has some great hidden gems as well. 

           

Spartacus

 

          

           Trying to find more Stanley Kubrick movies I've never seen, unfortunately this is the rare few that Stanley Kubrick claims in his words disowns as his canon of movies just because he didn't have much in terms of creative control value. Though in all fairness this film proves that Kubrick was capable of being able to shoot a grand scale epic, as is proven in his earlier films in the early seventies. Spartacus was one of the many epic movies in the fifties and early sixties that always made huge money, at the box-office although this was Kirk Douglas’ own passion project to the extent of not being the right choice for classic 1959 Best Picture winner. 

           The Rebellious Thracian Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill in the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to Southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and to return to their homes. 

           Now what I said earlier, about Kirk Douglas being his passion project is true, the process of developing Spartacus was out of failure of not getting the title role of Ben-Hur. For which sure, if I was an actor thinking I'm buff and attractive I would understand Douglas, but in terms of being a director I would want a young actor to play the title role not a 42 year old who thinks he can do all of those stunts, moreover I would probably imagine all of the directors or Kirks agents, in the early nineties and 2000 being called by Douglas saying he still wants to star in movies, and all them being so miserable and annoyed of having to explain Kirk that he's over 1,000 years old and doesn't remember where he is as well as probably told him out of frustration that he needs to go to an old folks home. If I had to rate this movie for sure I thought this was a good movie from start to finish and from a Stanley Kubrick standalone movie granted not his most memorable but still pretty good considering I would still rank this movie over the Shinning in a heartbeat. Furthermore I think my main problem with the movie is the blend of the conversation with action and when it comes to epic movies like Spartacus you need at least a fifty/fifty split of action and conversation flowing and at times I felt even in like the first act, that there was more conversation and less action, upon which caused my brain to turn mush and maybe thinking of turning the movie off, though I had to take certain breaks for sure. And important tip to all cinema fans, who haven't dived into the epics from the fifties and sixties, you need to at least take a break or two when watching this movie because of the length of the movie is and movies like these with a three-hour mark does take a toll on you. Furthermore that was another problem for me was understanding that these movies back then were almost made that way, and sure I could criticize about the length of the movie but then that would just be too unfair to criticize a movie where theaters paid for these kinds of movies for their concessions as well as break times, granted I never understood the men watching Gone with the Wind when it came out because it obviously wasn't for them, though I'm guessing they used a lot of bathroom break times when they put up with Scarlet acting like a b*tch. From my research I'm guessing Amazon Prime has taking off of its prime subscription for now, that being said if you’re feeling for an old school epic movie as well as diving into Kubrick's filmography, then I would highly recommend watching this movie along with constant breaks but I still look at this film as a way for Kubrick to prove himself and to Hollywood that he can actually do epic movies despite, Kubrick himself considering this film not in his pantheon of his best work. And yet for me after experiencing this movie I would honestly imagine Kubrick had to make this movie because he was hired by a fellow actor in Douglas and proving Hollywood that he can do these types of movies. Now, so far in my search of the best Stanley Kubrick films so far, I'd say it's for certain Dr. Strangelove because of its great comedic performances and directing and then follows with Full Metal Jacket. And number three is of course the most disturbing Kubrick film aka A Clockwork Orange in the top three best Kubrick films. Then we follow Spartacus, 2001 and the Shining as Kubrick's best films and I'm obviously going to be pushing both 2001 and Shining down the countdown soon, so don't you worry about that, but the quest continues for sure.  

         

Noirvember Recommendation: The Great Jewel Robber

        For this month of celebrating Noirvember I didn't necessarily find a film noir worth recommending so, I did my usual research and that's find what the good people at Turner Classic Movies and with the assistance of Noir expert, Eddie Muller and on his list for this year was a surprisingly great film noir, The Great Jewel Robber, a film that got me interested in like the first fifteen minutes of the movie itself and for the moment I thought this was going to be a convenient movie but, though I was wrong. Hell, it's almost like I never learned my lesson from Edger Wright's Last Night at Soho. Starring David Brian, whom I don't know a whole lot about, other than he starred alongside John Wayne, and a director who directed my mother’s favorite Christmas films Christmas in Connecticut.

        A master thief (David Brian) steals $1 million in valuables from society homes between the years of 1947-48.

        The film is based on the real-life jewel thief of Gerard Dennis who stole a sum up to $600,000 in valuables from cities such as Montreal, Hollywood, and Westchester County, New York. The man even stole from movies stars back in the days like Errol Flynn and Bettie Davis moreover made a lot of Jewel heist that he himself forgotten to count; Dennis was later arrested in July of 1949. For which leads to us to Brian Foy back in the hay day of Hollywood, producers wanted to stay away from true crime tales for obvious reasons they don't want to glorify these types of criminals, but Foy was his own man and wanted to tell Dennis story, and so, while serving his time Dennis granted Foy permission to tell his story on the big Screen. At first when watching the movie, I figured the film would be a convenient or typical film noir, where this is a protagonist surviving in America or Canada with his wife by robbing from society houses. Oh, hell no, this guy in like when reuniting with the love of his life ditches her for another for which sparked my interest even more. David Brian, whom I don't know a whole lot about other than the man later in his carrier, starred alongside John Wayne in The High and the Mighty. That being said this guy literally stole the entire movie with his deceiving role as a thief that acts like a saint but doesn't care about the people around him and uses them for pawns to get what he wants and literally terrified me through the course of the movie, mainly because there was a nice puppy dog involved and I feared more for the dogs safety than everyone else but thankfully no dog was hurt through the making of the movie. Now after watching this surprisingly great film noir, I'm making preparations in watching Christmas in Connecticut for obvious reasons director Peter Godfrey directed this movie as well as his 1945 Christmas classic, and having browsed through majority of his work it looks like Godfrey is a solid director that knows how to create a crime drawn atmospheric movie, and transition to a soft and caring romantic comedy in the next, in which some of his movies I do need to check out and see more of his style of storytelling. I'm very grateful to find this sleeper hit of a film noir and gave me some great twists that I never saw coming and intrigued me from beginning to the very end. So, if you’re a fan of the Film Noir genre then I would highly recommend watching this movie on Hulu, though be sure to watch it while it lasts because you never know when they switch out their selection of films. 

                       

Looking for Mr. GoodBar

 

        

      Hearing the death of legendary actress Diane Keaton felt a deep sadness moreover sorrow because my first Diane Keaton movie growing up was indeed Father of the Bride, and so, thinking about a movie that would pay a sort of tribute to the actress I would try and find a movie of hers that I have never seen. And of all movies I would pick, this is a movie where I would praise a great performance out of Diane Keaton though the story is a bit on the lackluster side of it. Now before I go any further, I should let you all know that we never find a Mr. Goodbar, he was never a real person moreover Looking for Mr. Goodbar is like looking for Keyser Soze. 

       Raised in a strict Catholic family, Theresa (Diane Keaton) teaches deaf children during the day and cruises singles bars and discos at night. Theresa favors rough sex with random suitors, ignoring the advances of well-meaning but nerdy social worker James (William Atherton). Instead, Theresa pursues the likes of Tony (Richard Gere), whose threatening knife and swagger excites her. Theresa indulges in increasingly dangerous encounters, putting her life at risk. 

        Looking for Mr. Goodbar is based off the novel of the same title that's surprisingly based off a real-life murder of Roseann Quinn who was later murdered in 1973, almost two years before the book was published. Though there was indeed a movie released in 77, I soon found out about the story prior to its episode in the ID murder series (Murder Porn) A Crime to Remember about the real-life Roseann Quinn who had a nice girl persona but also had a naughty girl persona as well. Throughout my childhood and adult years my first impression of Diane Keaton was always a bit of mixed emotions, considering yes, I love her performance as the caring mom in Father of the Bride and thought she was excellent in The Godfather in a complex relationship like Kate Corleone alongside Al Pacino's Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Though through the course of her movie career, her movies besides those roles, I just mentioned were excellent, her other films were a bit on the "meh" too not so great. Almost like a female version of Christopher Walken where he plays the same role repeatedly as well as playing the same dry deadpan delivery. So, going into Looking for Mr. Goodbar this was a surprising role that I never expected Keaton to portray for good reasons majority of her scenes had a lot to do with tons of random sex with Gere and Walter Peck aka William Atherton, and what I like about her performance is obviously due to an expected performance but also a side of Keaton I never expected she would portray on screen and usually doing uncomfortable sex scenes would be a difficult process And a lot of that credit goes to director Richard Brooks, and that process would be Brooks closing the set for all crew members but using the professional's and more importantly playing music for Keaton to get her comfortable in the moment. Another thing I give Brooks credit for is using a lot of imagination shots of scenario's all being inside Keaton's mind for which some scenes I was a bit shocked but then realize certain scenes are all in Keaton's mind or sexual fantasy's especially scenes where she's flirting with her imaginary self. That being said I do find the movie a bit lackluster at times for many reasons, yes I do feel for Keaton's character because she's dealing with toxic parents especially a father, whose unlikable through the course of the movie, but then through the course of an hour and thirty minutes of the film, the feeling of being sorry for Keaton's character begins to diminish as she begins to make terrible choices for if you see the episode of A Crime to Remember, I'm not going to spoil any details. This movie alone gives me another reasons as to why I was never a big fan of Richard Gere, I mean the guy through the course of the movie is literally chewing the scenery as well as his fake glow in the dark, plastic knife while wearing a jock-strap and yet it's such a mystery how women find this guy sexy, though it's the same way guys tend to go to all of Michael Bay's movies. Judging this movie whole, I would certainly praise Diane Keaton's performance for obvious reasons, it's something I never expected from her moreover thought it was a daring role to portray but then by the end of the film I personally felt that the writers and filmmakers gave up with the films ending for which I just have mixed emotions about the movie, all together. If looking for a movie to pay tribute for Diane Keaton's passing I would highly recommend watching either the first-two Godfather films or the first-two Father of the Bride films, and although I give thanks for Keaton's unexpected and great performance in the film, the film alone is has way to much lackluster as continuing on to feel for the characters from the final frame of the movie. 

         

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance

 

       Still on the addicting quest of the Ghost of Yotei and I'm not going to like playing Ghost of Yotei is almost like crack, me just riding on my horse around 16th century Japan just going from town to town asking for "Crack, need some crack, I need to get high" hell now after playing Yotei, I'm already going back and replaying Ghost of Tsushima and that's a whole new level of crack that I can't get out of. But by playing an amazing game like Ghost of Yotei, I've continued onto the sequel of Lady Snowblood which gives massive inspiration towards The Bride or the Ghost of Yotei. And always traveling though Japanese Cinema, you begin to learn new things.

        Yuki is imprisoned and sentenced to be hanged. Before she meets her death, she is recruited into the secret police and becomes caught in a web of corruption, assassination and coercion.

         Like the first Lady Snowblood film, you still get the amazing use of fake blood splashing all over the screen and there were actually moments in some of these action sequences, there was a moment where a shotgun comes in the picture, and I was actually wishing to see a man get his head blown off with a shotgun because of the amount of times I see tons of limbs chopped off, I would imagine they would have money to have the effect of a man’s head being blown off by a shotgun, although I really did try and looked up the budget and yet I found nothing on how much the movie was made but I guess when it comes to the good people of Japan I would imagine it was in a small budget level, and I could be wrong granted, but deep down will never know. I had many conversations about the Lady Snowblood films, in the aspect of Quentin Tarantino using the first two films as inspiration though there some scenes where he does steal from these films, although I don't consider it the aspect of stealing ideas from past films and using them for the Kill Bill films for good reasons, is that nobody in the American Cinema was actually seeing Japanese films moreover there's no proof of these films being released to American Cinema in the United States, and even if they were released I strongly doubt censorship in the U.S. would allow some of the gore in these movies and especially one scene from the first movie where Yuki is training as a young girl and out of nowhere her master slashes her clothes off and she's completely naked, for which I was like WTF, when did we get to kiddy porn here? Point being I'm sure they can allow U.S. citizens watching Godzilla in the fifties, sixties or seventies on Television, but I strongly doubt they would allow people watching Lady Snowblood. Though to the filmmaker’s credit they were no doubt ahead of their time when it comes to shock and blood though there's not a whole lot of it in this movie but the crazy filmmakers in Japan should deserve a lot of credit for being the first to allow blood and gore into a movie. To be fair, this film is not as great or cinematic as the first film was but, this film does get some credit for keeping up with some of the action sequences as well as what happens to our lead character by the end of the first movie, as well as seeing what other crazy adventures she gets into, though granted they just stopped with two films so, doubt will able to see more adventures now. Again, not as great as the first movie but still entertaining from start to finish moreover you still get your money's worth in terms of subscription fees. After watching two of these crazy movies I would most certainly recommend watching these movies from beginning to the final frame, especially if you’re playing both Ghost of Tsushima or Ghost of Yotei both games I would say give a great tribute as well as giving me the hunger to watch some of these Japanese classic films especially, the Samurai movies in the sixties that were directed by Akria Kurosawa. So, for now I'm going more into Samurai gaming as well as watching Samurai films as well. 

         

Dr. Strangelove

 

       Moving onto another Stanley Kubrick movie, after being horrified by A Clockwork Orange is a political black comedy, Dr. Strangelove, a movie in Kubrick's filmography filmed in the early sixties on the threats of nuclear warfare between the United States and formally Soviet Union. Here's an interesting thing, you can pit both, Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange together and Dr. Strangelove is just a slap stick, goofy comedy about Governments wanting to not push the button but are so incompetent. While A Clockwork Orange is a great and disturbing movie, is a movie that you are just horrified and needs a lot of liquor and therapy to calm your heart, which is pounding like a sledgehammer.  

       A film about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the button -- and it played the situation for laughs. U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden) goes completely insane, and sends his bomber wing to destroy U.S.S.R. He thinks that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. 

       To all the fans out there, who've seen great political satire movies or shows like The Thick of It, In the Loop or Veep. You all should give thanks to the Late Stanley Kubrick, because he without a doubt set the standards for what political black comedies should be and still are to this day and especially give thanks to Armando Iannucci for making that satire better, though Kubrick is the golden Pioneer for bringing great political comedy a new name, and especially being hilarious when making this movie at the same time. Before I go any further, I should mention the filmmaking experience, as well as the madness and genius behind Stanley Kubrick. When it comes to making movies a lot of actors and actresses would say that working with Kubrick was a great sense of madness and more importantly miscommunication, sometimes when you’re making a movie you have to a good sense of numerous takes so, when you go to editing room you find the best take and use that for the film, and a good some of takes would usually take five to ten takes tops maybe fifteen takes and that's a big if. Though with Kubrick it would most certainly be forty takes and he wouldn't tell the actors on how they should improve the scene and numerous actors and actresses would talk about how difficult to was working with him hell, Shelley Duvall had a nervous breakdown when working on the Shinning because of how and maybe annoyed she was when making a film with Kubrick. So, when watching the film and you see George C. Scott's performance you can obviously tell that the man is literally losing his mind, from the number of times he had to perform numerous takes, and he later talked about the monstrosity it was working with Kubrick. Though by the end of the day when you watch a Kubrick film or any of his work he does deliver in a great sense, because all of his work is pure greatness, (besides 2001 and Shining) and sure you can talk about his techniques in directing and how somethings that I wouldn't do as a director, but deep down the man delivers in every way possible almost in a strange way of Bill Walsh yelling at his coach, and yet his coaches when they went on to do other gigs in the NFL used the same tactics so, deep down there's something although I doubt you can use Kubrick's tactic in today’s movies. The last time I actually watched a movie with Peter Sellers was a small comedy called Murder By, Death, upon which the British actor plays an Asian detective (LITERALLY AN ASIAN), and I was never into the Pink Panther films, I was more into the cartoon, but with this film he's literally playing three characters though I'm not going to tell you who he's playing but, for some reason they guy is playing three characters while being directed by Kubrick, and he should get a ton of praises because he's playing two characters that are interacting with one another and sure at the time you have to shoot these actors in one camera shot and use a double as well as using audio dub to make it look like they're talking to each other, and sure now you can use technology so that one actor who plays two characters or twins can act in one frame of the shot but at the time it really wasn't possible but with this movie Kubrick was able to make it work without anyone noticing which character Peter Sellers was playing. Unlike A Clockwork Orange where it's extremely dark but still the greatest film out of Kubrick’s work, despite not wanting to watch this film fifteen times and giving everyone a fair warning about what you're about to see. Dr. Strangelove is one of those films I would highly recommend watching because it's extremely funny and stellar moreover comedic performances from both Peter Sellers and George C. Scott and a lot of familiar actors like Slim Pickens before Blazing Saddles and late, great James Earl Jones furthermore other familiar actors that seem like I've seen them in movies but I don't quite remember. But more importantly movies like Dr. Strangelove are great examples of political comedy were it almost reminiscence too today’s politics as extremely dumb and incompetent, as well as a whole lot of brownnosers. And Dr. Strangelove is a great example of these comedies still standing the test of time and if you’re tired of today’s politics I would highly recommend watching this great movie so, you can feel better, because you can have a sigh of relief to know that your parents growing up in the Cold War era would know that they're struggles where not so bad, as of today's world and in my opinion we may have disagreements but then there's these movies that give us laughter and joy at the end of the day.