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.

   

November Recommendation: The Fugitive

 

         There are a rare few times I ever get the chance to thank Harrison Ford for being an iconic actor throughout my childhood from loving every minute of the Star Wars Trilogy to worshiping his performance in all the Indiana Jones films (well, except the fifth film). Though sure the man after 2000's has lost his marbles when it comes to finding good parts and his movies do become lack luster after 1997. But of all movies I have to re-watch again and say he truly delivers an excellent performance, it would most certainly be his portrayal of Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive. This film became a discussion panel since August when I was talking with my sister and brother, moreover, it has been a long time since I watched this great film. So, what better way to give thanks by recommending The Fugitive as my November Recommendation. 

         Wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) escapes from the law to find her killer and clear his name. Pursing him is a team of U.S. Marshalls led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), a determined detective who will not rest until Richard is captured. As Richard leads the team through a series of intricate chases, he discovers the secrets behind his wife's death and struggles to expose the killer before it's too late.

         There's something about the wrongly accused 90's movies where you root for the protagonist every step of the way and the cops are just the worst that you look at them in disgust, and movies like "The Fugitive" and "The Negotiator" you can root for the protagonist from beginning to the very end. Although for sure Tommy Lee Jones plays a cop, on the pursuit of Harrison Ford's character but deep down he's on the neutral zone, in terms of trying to catch Ford, but soon realize that there’s something more to this, moreover he's not as dumb as the two Chicago cops played by Joseph Kosala and Ron Dean, who strangely enough is another one of those actors that's in the category of "Your that Guy" (basically actor/actress whose been in a lot of stuff but nobody remembers), basically Dean has of course been in this movie and was the coach who supported Rudy in Rudy and was one of the crooked cops in The Dark Knight. Bottom line these films like "The Fugitive" and "The Negotiator" were excellent action/suspense films in the 90's where you can root for the protagonist from beginning to the very end and yet you have personal reasons to root for the hero's every step of the way, and that's what I love about The Fugitive. Though of course what I love most about The Fugitive is of course Harrison Ford and this was one of the many Ford films, where Ford was still in his prime (till the end of 1997) and more importantly this was one of the many movies in my childhood where we would check this film out at the local video store and continue watching this movie from beginning to the final frame. Moreover, this was the first film where Harrison Ford through the first thirty minutes of the movie you see Ford in a beard, for which I remembered watching him for the first time watching the film, I was a bit confused as to why he has a beard but through the course of the movie when he shaves then I was relieved, although now when he's in his old age you don't mind but this was my childhood hero at the time and he has a beard for which, me as a kid creeped me out for a minute there though kind of confused me is a better term. Another thing, in what makes Harrison Ford great in this film is that the beginning of the film he's just experienced the death of his wife and being wrongfully accused for killing his wife and the way he portrays that feeling is almost like living a nightmare but you can't wake up and Ford portrays that perfectly, but more importantly this is a different kind of Ford movie to the extent that he's not playing an action hero, he just an ordinary man trying to prove his innocence and some of the action sequences are great in that he's not throwing a perfect punch it's more of a skirmish, and either way I love Harrison Ford's performance as well as now after watching this great film I do have to thank him because this was one of the rare few Ford movies besides Indiana Jones and Star Wars, that I grew up watching and love every minute of it. Surprisingly this was both Ford and Tommy Lee Jones only film together, for which sure these guys have different personas on acting, but I would think that these guys would be friends and yet they're not, for which I guess in all fairness these useless questions are left unanswered. Both Ford and Jones were excellent in the movie and there's a reasons why both of these actors were nominated for awards, but if I had to pick an actor that deserves some attention, it would most certainly be actor Jeroen Krabbe who plays Dr. Nichols one of the few bad guys who set's up Fords character, furthermore it's an interesting way he portrays his character from being a helpful friend not giving any details to the U.S. Marshalls and yet by end of the movie you slowly realize that he was one of the main bad guys responsible for Kimble's, Wife's murder and I personally like the slow transit reveal moreover think it's a great twist of events that, you may or may not get away with today's films. The Fugitive to me, is one of those great suspense films from the 90's that stands the test of time moreover shows how good or not so good Chicago was back in those days although that's kind of an understatement, but more importantly is one of the many Harrison Ford movies that I have to give thanks to because he shows how great of an actor he was until the man lost his mind after 1997, until we get to the late nineties to now where some of his films are hit and misses, but to me this film I give a ton of thanks to Harrison Ford because it' was always a movie I was allowed to watch moreover watched it a bunch of times and as always with this film he delivers a great performance and hopefully if you have a copy of the Fugitive, or don't I would highly recommend watching this season for giving thanks, no matter how crazy your childhood heroes are now, you always cherish the films that made these actors great. 

     

Doom: The Dark Ages

 

           I finally finished a video game this year that I literally liked from start to finish, and there's no if, ands, or buts about it. Doom: The Dark Ages, is one of the few first person shooters of modern day video gaming that I can actually sit down and play to beginning to the very end and holy crap if you want to find a video game to shop for this Black Friday then this would most certainly be the video game to play from start to finish along with the Madden games as well. I'm also going to say this, and I hope everyone else is offended but the Doom series is still the greatest first-person shooter game of all time. 

           Basically, your typical prequel to the first-two Doom games from the PS4 era as well as PS5 generation. Only this time is it set in the Dark Ages in what may be a Medieval time? Oh, hell it doesn't matter we got a shield, look like a Viking, moreover, kill every demon we come across, and we have a Dragon to fly around moreover kill more demons than the Targaryen's did in Game of Thrones. But more importantly we can drive a big transformer or Jaeger to fight bigger demons.

           When I look back at the many times I've played Call of Duty and Battlefield on the PlayStation 3 and 4, they were all great games and had great times playing them from beginning to the very end but then when we pushed to PlayStation 5 and all of the Call of Duty games are trying to invent themselves with more tactical strategy, as well as stealth mode at times, moreover just trying to me more of a special operative on the field and sure it's at times fun but when you do the same thing for the next games and focus more on the multiplayer, it just becomes less fun for the gamers who are older like me and despise the fact of a twelve year old kid beating you as well as not wanting to accept their better than you. But almost nineteen years ago when ID Software reinvented the franchise with Doom, this was like a breath of fresh air and scary at the same time because all those demons were coming after you moreover, Hell was invading Mars? Which again feels bewildering but deep down this was a mindless action movie where you can have a great time playing and replaying again because all they ever did was just go back to basics and just tell the gamers to just play the game and shoot demons that's all. Now with some of these recent Battlefield and Call of Duty games, they care way to much of the multiplayer experience and me at my old age I just can't continue on with that whole aspect especially with games like Fortnite, where it's only multiplayer and yet again, I don't want to play with against obnoxious twelve year old's that play the games all the time, and yet discussing my hatred of the recent Call of Duty and Battlefield games are good reasons why I don't play any of the recent games because how much I hate multiplayer moreover I tried it once and don't ever want to play multiplayer ever again. So, doom despite all its gore and scariness, it's still fresh to me and now that I downloaded all the past Doom games as well as having the last two Doom games I do want to go back and re-play them again and have a great time playing them. For good reasons, whenever I had to deal with pre-Madonna's and obnoxious family members, I always come home and pull out Doom: The Dark Ages and have a great time playing the game as well as relief a ton of stress and that's always the beauty to the Doom series as well as the classic Doom series, basically explains why Mortal Kombat and Doom are my favorite video game franchises of all time because they stay true to what they truly are as video games and why most fans play them even to now. So, parents or adults if you’re having Thanksgiving or Holiday stress disorders, then I would highly recommend spending your hard earn money on Doom: The Dark Ages and have your kids play Doom so, if you ever want to get them out of awfulness that is Call of Duty and Battlefield.

     

        

         

20th Anniversary of Sin City

 

          

        Ladies and gentlemen, this is movie that in all honesty is hard to explain but, back then twenty years ago was one of those movies that I was excited to see. Obviously, the film is directed by Robert Rodriguez, most infamous for children’s films Spy Kids, Shark Boy and Lava Girl. Though loved his earlier movies like Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and when I heard about Sin City, I was of course excited because it has a great list of actors in this one action movie set in a comic book world. And in all fairness, this film introduced me to the world of graphic novels and comics by great Frank Miller.

        The movie Sin City is based on the Graphic Novels by Frank Miller set in an almost Film Noir or Neo Noir world where in an entire city is one corrupt city and the police department is so corrupt it's like living in New York City. The film center's around in aging cop (Bruce Willis), and ex-convict (Mickey Rourke) and a P.I. (Clive Owen). 

        For many good reasons as to why I was excited to see this movie because, it was directed by Robert Rodriguez, a man at the time I was looking for inspirations back in high school because I was inspired by the fact that he made a movie for 7,000 dollars almost like Christopher Nolan making Following for six grand. Moreover out of all of the directors I look up to the most its most certainly Robert Rodriguez mainly because if you want to talk about making movies and finding ways to get your film put out moreover get noticed, he's most certainly the man you want to have a conversation with because when he always talks on the DVD or Blu-Ray commentary it's always fascinating as well as some of his bonus features that he does as well. Twenty years ago, I will admit watching this for the first time I didn't know what I was expecting, especially from the over-the-top action sequences as well as Mickey Rourke getting run over a couple of times, as well as the infamous Bruce Willis yanking a guy’s junk out, LITERALLY yanking a guy’s manhood. And at the time twenty years ago it all seemed funny and one of these things that you never ever expected hell, something even I never ever in a million years expected to see. And watching this in the theater for the first time all you can do is laugh so hard because at times they were literally funny to see for the first time. And then, when I first realized that all of Frank Miller's graphic novels and you read through the pages, you slowly realize "OOOOOOOOH, I see what they were going", and basically when your adapting a comic book series or superhero character, you basically want to stay truthful to the characters or transition a famous comic book like Watchmen, you want to see a full transition to the whole movie, basically creating a real life feel to the movie. And sure, at times comic book fans can always be a pain in the a** about not staying truthful but with this movie they literally transition each pages of Miller's book series and they're all in this movie granted some scenes they had to tone down but if you watch this movie and then read the book, you slowly understand what Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller were making. Granted after watching this film I slowly became obsessed with Frank Miller's work and mostly bought all of his work and now that I have all of his collection of Sin City I can go back and read all of them but now when watching the film again, at times it does feel comical and hilarious but then at times I do feel like I would rather read the books, for many reasons when you get older reliving movies that you use to love back in high school moreover thought they were the greatest things you've ever seen. But when you watch this at the age of 38 years of ages the logic becomes more involved than your teenage brain can, furthermore I think the cartoonish ideas become okay but at times not that great, and sure there are some great moments in the movie but again you slowly began to realize that the books are much better than the movie. I mean this movie does have a great list of actors and they help you feel for the characters especially Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis characters and since this was Frank Miller's whole love and tribute to the film noir or neo noir movies he loved growing up, and strangely enough this was my first introduction to that particular genre, because at my young age I never understood why these protagonists always fall in the end or take the blame and the bad guys always get away with it so, to the films credit this was no doubt my first introduction to the world of film noir and neo noir films. You can obviously tell this movie is a fantasy when you see hookers that look like a ten out of ten and are walking around half naked carrying guns, although this was coming from Frank Miller's world because long before he turned his series into a movie, basically after putting up with Marvel and DC comics, he decided that he wanted to make a comic book where he loved drawing the most and that was tough guys in trench coats, beautiful babes carrying guns as well as drawing cars from the 1940's and 50's, and with this film you can slowly have a sense of humor in seeing all the women are ten out of ten, when in real life most hookers look like 2.5 out of 10. So, in all fairness this film is a hundred percent fantasy. I will admit some of Frank Miller's early works from Daredevil to Sin City, those are his best works but his works after Sin City it does look off as well as so, bizarre because when at I heard that he was making a comic book adaption to The Spirit by Will Eisner it look so, bad moreover was a bad ripoff to Sin City where he did nothing but transition a character to a PG-13 world of Sin City, and yet you slowly realize through the years that he has this bizarre obsession with Nazism for which, I don't know why he has that throughout his book and I really don't want to know because the more I know the more I'm never going to forgive myself. I admit that this was a good watch from start to finish and had some good moments and great performances from Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and even Benicio del Toro as well as Powers Boothe and the late great Rutger Hauer. If you love stylized action movies this movie would most certainly be for you although I would highly recommend reading the books first before you watch this movie and more importantly you can forget the sequel because that movie was trying to be a faithful sequel but sadly it loses it's flair from the original film but look bottom line Sin City is a way better movie than its successor, moreover you never really needed a sequel to this film, because in all honesty this film doesn't even need a sequel so, you can just re-watch this movie and feel closure once the credits role for good reasons they all have endings that makes more sense than the sequel. Also, the sequel is just okay-ish but once you see it, you really need to through that movie into the closet of forgetfulness. But if you want to dive into Rodriguez’s filmography, I will highly recommend the El Mariachi trilogy from the first El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico as well as, Sin City and Alita: Battle Angel. That’s if you truly want to watch more of Robert Rodriguez’s films although those films are the only films I would recommend watching while the other films you can simply skip and forget they exist.  

     

Following

         In all my years of being a fan of Christopher Nolan's films, I haven’t seen is very first movie that started him on the path of being an amazing filmmaker and one of my personal favorites. Following is another one of these important movies that if you want to make a movie but don't have any money to hire actors, you have a camera and editing software. But more importantly writing a movie with a simplest plot as well as making the best movie with what you have as a limited budget. Following is one of those films I would highly recommend watching for inspiration, as it has been a great inspiration for me when I need something to follow in terms of not having enough money to make a movie.

        A young writer living in London follows people in the hope of using their lives in his novels, but the hobby becomes an obsession, and he soon finds himself going further than intended. 

         I’m one of those few people that want to go into the film business and want to be a filmmaker. Though life becomes a massive b*tch and paying bills as well as finding a job and paying rent slows you down on your dream and you're always not sure about making a movie or not. Especially when you want to make a movie, the last thing you want to do is make a terrible B-movie that would one day turn up on Red Letter Media’s YouTube channel. Luckily for me I've studied Videography as well as Photography but as most filmmakers’ big problem is, I don't know the right story to create though finding actors are my least concern because I have friends that I can look to as finding local theater actors. But watching Nolan's first film, Following shows me that all you really need is creating a simple story as well as learning how to work a camera and find ways to take the time to film your movie and edit your films as well. Furthermore, Chris Nolan never studied film making when going to college, his major was English Literature moreover used the certain places to shoot certain scenes at his college he attended. Another great aspect when looking at this movie is simply Nolan only had to shoot on Saturdays because his actors and crew all had full time jobs to work at moreover had to basically film only 15 minutes at times before the principal photography was completed. Another great fact is that majority of this film was shot only using handheld, camera technique and relied solely on a 15mm camera to capture the entire film. I'm not going to spoil anything about this great film because I want you all to watch this great film from the legendary career of Christopher Nolan, but this is defiantly one of those great films, where you have no budget and yet you can see what Nolan had to rely on from the camera and especially the actors he had to work with and even cast his legendary uncle John Nolan as the policeman in his first film as well as acting in the Dark Knight Trilogy too, more importantly is another one of those great neo-noir films and was the storytelling that Nolan used for his future projects moreover shows is talents on how to make a great mystery to bring to life on screen. There are times when making movies for sure, it's always a complicated factor because you want to make a great movie with little resources and movies like Kevin Smith's Clerks, Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi and importantly Christopher Nolan's Following are great examples of how to make a film with the best resources you can master. For anyone who wants to make a movie for the first time, Following is defiantly that one movie I would highly recommend watching and the great news I can give you all, is that this film isn't hard to find because this film is on the king of hidden treasures of streaming movies and shows Tubi, and so, you can subscribe to a free account and your set. I've said it before, Christopher Nolan I give a lot of thanks for creating a legendary Batman trilogy but more importantly thanking him for making a film that I can look to as inspiration for when I need, to create my first movie to start my dream in filmmaking. So, in this month of giving thanks Christopher Nolan is most certainly a man I give thanks for always giving me new and refreshing movies to be excited about as well as learning that you don't have to be in film school to be a filmmaker, you just have to learn how to use a camera and use life as an inspiration to tell a story and putting that story on screen for the world to see so, that one day they can use this film to use as a source of inspiration. 

       

 

The Running Man

 

             After watching countless slasher movies from different franchises, as well as coming into the month of November it's kind of hard at times to find a decent or good movie to start November off with. And luckily, I haven't watched many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies so, The Running Man became one of the many candidates before I crossed into Weapons and Lady Snowblood. A surprising factor is that Stephan King written The Running man for which I didn't know he written a book about a futuristic man running for dear life, in a reality TV show.

              In the year 2019, America is a totalitarian state where the favorite television program is "The Running Man" - a game show in which prisoners must run to freedom to avoid a brutal death. Having been made a scapegoat by the government, an imprisoned Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) could make it back to the outside again by being a contestant on the deadly show, although the twisted host. Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) has no intention of letting him escape. 

              Surprisingly this is one of the many movies in the eighties where the producers in Hollywood thought that 30 years into the future, we would be in a dystopian future the other movies are like Blade Runner, the first Terminator movie along with Barb Wire and I'm also going to add Terminator Salvation also. Which sure it's the eighties or nineties, back then we had no idea what the future would bring but, the main problem is thirty years from now we're still going to be a normal-ish future despite now there's no video stores and we're relying on bitcoin? And as amusing as Arnold's version being set in 2019 and the movie was released in 87, I'm still going to be around and know what 2019 looked like, I mean Jason X solved the futuristic problem by setting the year in 2455 moreover it was terrible but at least I'm not going to be around in the year 2455 hell I hope my bones will be turned to ashes by now. As many of Stephan King books I'm familiar with I actually never pegged the man writing a science fiction novel, and yet the man is using an alias name to make it look like the man is still a horror fiction legend, I mean, I guess I can't fault the guy, because King was using so much cocaine back then while writing his books so, either way the man now can't writing anything now since he's been sober off of hard drugs, though on the bright side we at least know cocaine's a hell of a drug. There's really not a whole lot to say about Arnold in this movie considering when you look at the man's entire filmography of films that are the typical eighties cliched films where the hero always win in the end but with some overrated one liners, either way we all know what Arnold's best movies are if you had to rank his top five best, but with some of the movies like this film and or Predator you can obviously tell that the big buff, steroid man is going to be the victor in the end and granted this movie isn't all bad it's basically a fun futuristic movie with some eighties flair to go along with it, a side from it being funny, the fact that in thirty years we sort of dress all in eighties fashion which again this is typical eighties action films, but with the Running Man you still have that sense of breath of fresh air that you can turn your brain off and have a good time watching it so, deep down despite this film being flawed it's still fun to watch till the very end. I believe I said this before and I'll say it again if you ever want to thank a man whose be responsible for your all-time favorite eighties and nineties movies growing up, Steven E. de Souza is the man you should be thanking for your all-time favorite childhood movies growing up or your favorite R-rated movies you secretly watch behind your parents backs. I mean this guy wrote hit after hit of great action movies like, 48hrs, another Arnold classic Commando, and even the first-two Die Hard films as well as Street Fighter and The Flintstones which I find that surprising because I remember watching that movie and Hallie Berry made me realize that I like girls and women growing up. But still Souza was a writer in Hollywood that knew what the audience wanted and that man should at least be given an award for what he brought to the audience that were starved for some over the top action movies. I'm never in a million years planning on watching the remake to the Running Man mainly because I find Glen Powell overrated as an actor especially when he's trying to act like Peyton Manning in that Football movie in Hulu. Though with Running Man as well as Steven E. de Souza I should give a lot of thanks to for the season of giving thanks because this guy sure did write a lot of my favorite action movies growing up as well as one of my favorite Christmas movies Die Hard. So, if you’re in the mood to watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Running Man is a great movie to watch on Hulu for good reasons it was ahead of its time in terms of Government corruption and reality TV shows and more importantly fake news so, deep down the Running man has it all for a movie to watch this month of giving thanks. 

         

Lady Snowblood

 

        I've recently been playing the Ghost of Yotei a great successor to its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima. Both fantastic video games on the PlayStation and if you don't have a PlayStation 5, Ghost of Yotei is a great start. Though while playing Ghost of Yotei, I've begun to see more of a female protagonist in the game and typical me, playing open world, Samurai themed video games I begin to search for some Samurai movies or Akira Kurosawa films to watch and of all films I can find is Lady Snowblood, a film that inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill film series. 

        A woman is raised from birth for one terrible and vengeful purpose - to murder those who raped her mother and left her to rot in a women's prison, where she died in childbirth. 

        When it comes to watching any Japanese films from the past I tend to get a nice breath of fresh air when it comes to some of these great films and Lady Snowblood is a great example of something new and fresh that you as an audience member have not seen in any American films, though granted when you watch any of Tarantino's Kill Bill films, sure you can get that but technically doesn't count for good reasons they're just inspirations to films from the past. What really intrigues me about the film, personally is how they were able to get away with the amount of blood they use for special effects and how gruesome it looks on screen, and granted this is the seventies a year after this film’s release The Godfather held the standard with the head of a horse in the movie producer's bedroom moreover were granted a R-rating, but with this movie sure you can tell were Tarantino got his inspiration, though this movie was made in the early seventies and with the gusher's of blood effects they used I'm surprised how they were able to get the R-rating, but in all fairness this film was made in Japan and I believe there were different rules back then especially since the film wasn't released in the States. If you’re not interested in foreign films that consist of a ton of foreign languages with a ton of subtitles then you don't have to watch this, because it's obviously not for you. Though if you’re a fan of cinema like I am then this is a great revenge movie for you and personally it's always sense of refresh fullness when watching any Japanese movies because the filmmakers in Japan along with Akira Kurosawa were ahead of their times and expressing a lot of their arts and crafts especially through martial arts and the way of the Samurai sets for amazing storytelling and when you reflect between America and Japan, America has it's Cowboys and Japan has their Samurai moreover the way they do it much better than today. Even from cinematography standpoint the imagery in Lady Snowblood is simply outstanding so that you can even look at it as beautiful poetry in film and I especially love the way they were able to use lighting and imagery to tell a simple story of revenge. So, if you’re a gamer and love playing Ghost of Yotei game then I would highly recommend taking breaks and watching any golden age Japanese films as well especially since they're on HBO Max as well as Hulu. 

   

Weapons

 

        Well, it's like this, I was in hopes that my hockey team, the St. Louis Blues would pull out a win against the Capitals unfortunately they're back to half a**ing. So, my brother pulled out this recent movie, that has recently been released three months ago? Either way back in August, because deep down when you want to go to a movie theater in the summer time you're first craving is wanting to see a supposedly scary movie, look bottom line is, this movie is the most boring thing I've ever seen and yet in the final minutes are the most entertaining minutes of all time.

        When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanishes on the same night at the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

        The movie alone is to say the least fascinating and boring at the same time, but the movie is most importantly perjury since they promote the movie to be a sort of horror movie. Although there is some truth to this movie being considered a horror movie there is a blend of creepy clowns and a deranged Nancy Pelosi performing witchcraft as well as turning people into zombies. And yes, I'm going to spoil a lot of details about this movie, for good reasons this movie is not as great as people believe it is, it's almost why I don't watch Sinners to the sense of seeing one too many vampire films and the vampires are being the most overrated monsters in Hollywood. Look point being is that this film was in the length of two hours and eight minutes, and through the course of this movie I felt a lot of emotions most of them started off with being bored as well as annoyed, because the acting reminded me to much of the film Prisoners, hence Josh Brolin is to blame for that part considering the man did star in Sicario and was directed by Denis Villeneuve. And through the first hour and a half, almost nothing was happening, just people being obnoxious to one another as well as being d*cks to each of the characters and through the course of the movie I've become so bored, that I felt like John Malkovich in Burn After Reading where he says "what the F*CK is this? Who’s a** didn't I kiss" until we get to evil Nancy Pelosi who is in fact a witch in the movie and turns a good portion of the citizens into zombies is what a get from the movie even in the ending of act 2 and then the rest becomes boring as hell to the point where this movie was pushing my limit to bad b-movies it's just crazy. But THEN! We finally get to the final minutes of the movie where the main kid in the movie finally turns all the kids against Nancy, and Nancy is outrunning seventeen kids for five minutes, and it's fantastic because she's running through houses and all the neighbors are bewildered on what's going on either way it’s the best chase scene ever because once the kids catch up to her they literally tear her apart and the fact that now the spell is broken those kids are traumatized for life. Now I wouldn't want to recommend this movie to anyone because this film is, no doubt the most boring thing but once we get to that chase scene the film goes from like four miles in hour to a hundred miles an hour, for which is still the best part of the whole movie but still boring from beginning of the movie. Though if you’re in love with over dramatized movies with a mediocre horror premise then this movie's all for you as well as being on Hulu and HBO Max.