The Night of the Hunter

 

                             

                 

          I have my dad to thank for this latest movie I decided to sit down and enjoy. The Night of the Hunter has been a film noir classic, that's been torturing me into watch though there were so many distractions in my life where I just delayed the opportunity to finally sit down and watch the movie from beginning to the final frame. And there are those certain film noir classics that literally put you on the edge of your seat till the very end, likewise the last film noir classic, that gave me the chills was Marylin Monroe performance in Don't Bother to Knock. Now after watching Robert Mitchum's performance in this movie as a scary fanatic preacher man, I'd say if you put him and Marylin Monroe's Nell in the same room together, I'd say you have a bunch of crazies in a nut house.

           The Rev. Harry Powel (Robert Mitchum) is a religious fanatic and a serial killer who targets women who use their sexuality to attract men. Serving time in prison for a car theft, he meets a condemned murderer Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who confesses hiding ten grand. Released from prison, Powell obsessed with the money stalks and marries into Harper's family. But little Harper (Billy Chaplin) sees through Powell's lies and deceit.

           The film itself is a complex genre of both film noir blend with thriller aspects along with fairy tale elements, the major element consisting of Mother Goose. And really one of the few film noir elements that really keeps it more gripping and more terrifying, is simply that kids are involved in the story, which reminds me again how terrified I was with Marylin Monroe's performance in the film Don't Bother to Knock in which she's almost close to killing a young girl. Furthermore, with this movie, it's a serial killer in the form of Robert Mitchum and he's literally going after a young boy and a young girl all because he wants the money their caring and even in scenes where he's literally going after these kids one scene in which he's going after them in a wide-angle lens is just terrifying. Though apologies for spoiling too much information but again just showing how great a film is, this is from beginning to the very end. The other thing in what makes this film amazing is that it blends a lot of the catholic aspects from fanaticism to following the true aspects of God and you have a great blend of both good and evil so, when you can have a discussion on what is right and what is wrong this movie does have that great blend of conversations that you can have with your family members, moreover something good to show to the hardcore Baptists because I would basically describe them as more fanaticism. There's really not a whole lot to say in terms of how great Mitchum's performance was because like I said again he play a great antagonist who preys on this small family and is so abusive and terrifying at the same time that you just have to hope for some reason he dies a horrible death but with the story it gives you a great reason to root for the kids at the very end, all because Mitchum is such a terrifying killing machine that there's no escape from him moreover your simply on the edge of your seat till the final show down.  Charles Laughton the director of the film deserves a ton of credit for the film being memorable, because he does a ton of great shots that leaves you memorized through the course of the movie from Mitchum being a creeper to him riding on a horse, I mean every shot looks almost like a haunting portrait that you can find at your local American Art museum and it's just incredible to see a first time director showing off his greatness despite this being his only movie. Speaking of being his only movie, the film I'm shocked to learn that this didn't do so well at the box office and Charles Laughton, who was depressed by the film's reception, didn't make another film again. Though I personally find it applauding the fact that this movie didn't do well at the box office, for which granted their times I question people’s logic when it comes to people thinking Mission Impossible 1,000 is great or Fast 20 is a great entertainment and doesn’t get me started on people still loving Adam Sandler. But people back in 1955 didn't think this movie was GREAT moreover didn't support this movie, though for granted now we look at this movie as one of the greatest movies ever made almost the time when Caddyshack didn't do so well and yet it's aged like fine wine. But I still don't see why people weren't compelled into seeing The Night of the Hunter, I just don't find any rational explanation of why this didn't do so, well almost like people preferring to watch the musical Oklahoma over this movie and I will put my foot down and say that The Night of the Hunter is a billion times better than Oklahoma, but then again this goes back to humanity not knowing what a good movie is so, no use in beating myself up over this I guess. I highly recommend watching this amazing great and scary thriller, for anyone to see, for a million reasons it has one of Robert Mitchum's greatest performance as well as the perfect boogie man. But more importantly this film inspired a lot of legendary filmmakers from Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers and Guillermo del Toro, that this film needs to be seen with open eyes, moreover, experience something that's a blend of both religion and people using religion to the extreme. Furthermore, the film is streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi, both great streaming services I would certainly recommend to any fan of cinema. 

          

July Recommendation: The Terminator

 

              In terms of the summer movie seasons, we at the strongest sense it's always released with the Action film genre. May we have the Western genre that includes tones of action. June, we had the post-apocalyptic genre with amazing action sequences. Now we have the Science Fiction genre with an iconic action star at the center of it. The Terminator has been another movie on my radar for monthly recommendations ever since I realized that I forgot about its 40th Anniversary last year. When I think about the Terminator genre as a kid growing up I always see scenes of the second installment as well as the merchandise. But never quite seen a lot in terms of the first ever Terminator film, which came out in 1984, upon which I wasn't alive at that time but can't always get what we want in life. Though The Terminator is a great example of blending a perfect Sci-Fi concept but setting it in modern day times.

             Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) travels from the future to present 1984 to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton). Also sent to present 1984, to protect Sarah Connor, is resistance soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who divulges the coming of Skynet, an Artificial Intelligence system that will spark nuclear holocaust. Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead the fight against the machines. With the Virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, Sarah and Kyle attempt to prevent the future before it happens. 

             Technically the Terminator isn't James Cameron's first film, although in all fairness this is first ever writer and director debut and will get to his first directorial debut because in all honesty. This seems very interesting to hear about. So, for now we’re just going to consider this as James Cameron's first ever directorial debut. After finishing with his directorial debut, James Cameron had a dream about robots and knives moreover being carried around. Though the course of the years went by, Cameron sat down and wrote a science fiction movie with a little inspiration for John Carpenter's Halloween. Originally the first Terminator film was going to send two Terminator to the past one of the Terminator's including the T-1000, though the technology wasn't there yet and, in futures to come that idea would later be the key concept for the sequel so, deep down everything came into place. Although technology wasn't there yet so, Cameron decided to keep it simple and just write one Terminator that is sent to present day. Orion Pictures (the studio head behind Caddyshack, First Blood and Eight Men Out)doesn't get a lot of credit back then, in terms of stepping aside and letting the writers and directors express their vision and granted they've been mostly a fallout company now, but to the studio's credit they never interfered with anything that the Directors were doing in terms of stepping aside let them just make a movie. Though at times they did ask a few negotiable ideas to them but they're rule back then was always hands off, though I'm doubting that major studio heads were always nit picking at the directors vision, for which I would always say is most certainly the worst part of filmmaking because I always re-live the story about Kevin Smith getting the opportunity to write a Superman movie but was being asked a ton of requests that made the idea look bad in the end. Funny fact is Schwarzenegger was going to play Reese at the time in terms of casting choices, and the Terminator was going to be played by O.J. Simpson, and once I heard about that I laughed at first furthermore heard that Cameron didn't believe Simpson would be a believable killer. Well Cameron was proved wrong ten years later when he heard about O.J. killing his own wife as well as the Bronco chase, for which I would imagine Jim having the look of shock but then later saying "we’ll all be damn I should of casted Simpson to play the Terminator". But let's be honest with ourselves that idea would only make it worse, moreover they would have to switch the title to BroncoMan or The Glove. And in the end things worked out when Jim met with Arnold and had a good look at him and suggested that instead of playing Kyle Reese, he would make in excellent Terminator, and the rest became legendary history. Although the films budget was 6.4 Million dollars a lot of that consisting on the Visual Effects as well as creating the Terminator and the Future L.A., Cameron did in fact have to use a lot of gruella filmmaking to get the shots he wanted, a lot of that had to do with having to not deal with a ton of the acquiring permits and so, a lot of the people that you see in the movie were actually people who didn't know that they were even being filmed at all. A much of an incredible actor Arnold was in the movie, the man lifting both a Spas 12 Shotgun and an AR-18 rifle both of them look like they need to be held with two hands and watching Arnold massacre the police force in the movie, I myself was like man that guy lifted those guns like they were nothing, though more importantly before shooting Arnold took a lot of time being one with the guns he was carrying spending countless times at the shooting range, trying not to blink and I got to say even in those action sequences he truly knows what he's doing and believing that he's a perfect killing machine. What I love most about the first Terminator is that it's basically a science fiction movie, but a movie that is works in every simplest form, it's not over doing itself with a whole lot of explanation, it gets straight to the point, one man and one Terminator on a mission of their own, only one comes out alive. Mostly in the basis of a slasher movie but blended with science fiction with a ton of action sequences moreover doesn't overdo itself with a whole lot of explanation it gets straight to the point and even with a length of 90 minutes the film alone is compelling from beginning to the very end. And the amazing thing about the movie is this started James Cameron's career, for which allowed him a ton of creative freedom and great iconic films to come and even though his movies now might be overrated at times, he does deliver in the best way's imaginable and lets us not forget without The Terminator we wouldn't have his greatest accomplishment in Titanic as well as the infamous Rose and Jack love story. The other key factor about this movies greatness is the special effects guru of Stan Winston who created the iconic Terminator skeleton as well as given the full look of the machines in the near future, which also gives this a memorable key moments as well especially with the iconic stop motion chase with the Terminator skeleton, because there were moments were even I was a little scared of the skeleton almost coming close despite seeing this movie a thousand times. Though more importantly this was the first movie where we see the full potential of what Stan Winston can do, for which led him to future collaborations with Cameron as well as Steven Spielberg and even Tim Burton. So, in this year of mediocre summer movie releases, if you looking for something a bit in the nostalgia or looking for something to watch in terms of movies you haven't seen in a long time, I would highly recommend The Terminator from beginning till the final frame and after finishing the film it will get you saying "I'll be Back". 

          

20th Anniversary of Batman Begins

 

             While everyone is probably wasting their hard earn money on mediocre Superhero movies like the latest Superman film from James Gunn or the most recent Fantastic Four film that just came out today, I decided in my own right to sit down and watch one of the greatest reinventions to any Superhero movies ever created by human hands. I've may have said this many times that the Superhero movie genre is a bit on the dead side of things, but when I think of the fact that Batman Begins has just surpassed its Twentieth birthday. I think back in a time when I truly got into Batman comics and graphic novels and reminded myself that Batman was always my favorite Superhero from childhood.

             A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the far East, where he's trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League's true purpose -- the complete destruction of Gotham City -- Wayne returns to Gotham City with the intent of cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of Alfred (Michael Caine), his loyal butler, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born.

             I've always been a Batman fan ever since I was a kid, and one of my fondest memories was watching a lot of the sixties Batman TV or the Batman movie released in 66. Furthermore ever since the release of Batman Begins during either my junior or senior year in high school whenever it came in a conversation on who was the greatest Superhero, and I would always pick Batman while all of the other Bros would choose Superman because he's all powerful, furthermore I would never let that bother me, though granted if I was a little smarter I would simply say that "well Batman is at least human!" And to me that's always what made me love about the character is that you have a man in pain and angry at the world after a traumatizing experience in the death of his parents and yet he chooses to clean his city now out of vengeance or wanting to kill the bad guys but more of wanting to inspire more heroes to clean the city of Gotham. I actually do remember after the release of Batman and Robin around 1997, the whole DC comics when downhill from there and Warner Brothers pretty much stopped making any Superman or Batman movies for a long time, and at that time I was more centering on Star Wars or Indiana Jones then I was with other movies sure I did spend more movie watching on other certain films in the 2000's but I was more excited about the Star Wars Prequels than I was about anything else. In fact when Batman: Begins when was released, being still a Star Wars fan moreover wanting to still see Revenge of the Sith more than any other films I was just sceptic, even though after the first viewing of the first film by Christopher Nolan I thought it was great from beginning to end furthermore it was a different kind of Superhero film that I never seen before. But when I re-watched them on DVD and Blu-Ray I slowly became obsessed with a lot of the imagery as well as what Nolan as a filmmaker was trying to accomplish, by grounding the character to a much more realistic tone than we've ever seen in film. It was around January 2003 when Warner Bros decided to hire Christopher Nolan to take a crack at making a Batman film after his success with Insomnia, although Nolan claimed that he wasn't a comic book expert he had to hire a writer who knew a lot about comic books as well as the superheroes and David S. Goyer. Goyer who was responsible in saving the Marvel Comics franchise as well as the films brought the movie Blade to the big screen, was a huge comic book fan growing up and loved a lot of the Batman comics and so, once Nolan stated his intentions into reinventing the character into a much grounded and darker tone the looked into a lot of comics as well as some graphic novels, for which would be the inspiration behind the Dark Knight Trilogy. In one of the things that makes a great superhero movie is that you must have a list of great actors and actresses to surround the movie, and one of the inspirations Nolan took when it came to casting the movie he took a lot from Richard Donner's Superman. And the fact that you have a list of accomplished actors in Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman as well as Liam Neeson helping up and coming actor Christian Bale in bringing a new kind of Batman is just a great understanding, into making a perfecto origin story of Batman. Christian Bale at the time I wasn't familiar with in terms of age appropriate films to watch back in 2005, so, this was the first time seeing him portray Batman as well as Bruce Wayne and really, when you look back at the other Batman films from Adam West to Michael Keaton as well as the late great Val Kilmer they all were just playing Batman and sure Bruce Wayne was there but it was mostly Batman in a pure basis and we've never seen the real origin as to why would Bruce Wayne become Batman or why he chose to fight crime. And really Bale was that first person to give you both Bruce Wayne as an angry man wanting justice for his own parents as well as a much more terrifying Batman that I never seen, and in fact the first time my dad sat down and watched Batman Begins he was literally taken a back. Furthermore re-watching Batman Begins you really begin to feel Bruce Wayne from his anger as well as his pain and finding that piece of that shadow side that he needs to fix his city and Christian Bale to me will always be my Batman as well as Bruce Wayne till the day I die and I will always thank Bale for that in terms of getting me back into loving Batman. As much as Bale being a great Batman, you have to have great antagonists to challenge Batman and both Liam Neeson as well as Cillian Murphy and long before Cillian gave us a great performance in Oppenheimer, he was a great psychotic antagonist as Scarecrow aka Dr. Crane and I always love his chilling quote when he say's to Tom Wilkinson "would you like to see my mask?" and going back to his performance in the film he does a fantastic job at playing a corrupt doctor but a sinister modern day Norman Bates type character. Liam Neeson at the time of 2005 was always playing that character who sometimes gets killed off but always plays the mentor or father figure, but this was the time when you see him play a great antagonist to Bale's character. And one of the things that makes Batman Begins great, is you don't start off with traditional villains like Joker or Penguin you have some of these great bad guys that you've never heard of like Ra's Al Ghul who really reminds you as a kind of terrorist like Bin Laden. but his motivations are more we need to do something in order for humanity to survive and destroying Gotham City is that best option in order to restore the balance and that's always to me the beauty to Batman's world is that Batman has a list of baddies that resemble him in a sense but as well all know is that Batman choose to save people instead of destroying his enemies. Now, granted I can go on and on about how great reliving Batman Begins and consider it the perfecto of great origin stories to any Superhero films, but the beauty of Batman Begins as well as The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, is that there all perfect in my eyes they both have the perfect beginning of a character as well as outbalancing the risks and more importantly finding the conclusion and Batman Begins to me is the perfect beginning to any Superhero film and for the last two hours of watching the movie not once, did I turned to my cell phone and I was hooked on watching it from beginning to the very end furthermore I can never in a million years choose which is better out of the Dark Knight Trilogy, a side from The Dark Knight being Chris Nolan's greatest accomplishment to his filmmaking career, but I still can't pick which is better out of the Dark Knight Trilogy because I love them all and consider each film perfect in my own right. After Avengers: Endgame, the superhero genre to me is getting too tiring in terms of predictability and finding something new and compelling to see. Moreover is just getting literally boring because I've seen almost every superhero films to the point where I've seen them all and re-watching Batman Begins, it filled that need for emotional and compelling storytelling and hell, in about an hour into the movie we don't even see Batman, for which I was shocked and once I see Bale as Batman it just put a smile on my face, for which I was happy to see as well as seeing something that brought back a time when Superhero films could be fun again. Now I'm sure the latest Superman movie is a great movie I don't doubt it and the same goes to the new Fantastic Four film, but to me I just feel like I'm seeing the same thing and Hollywood now is not taking any risks like they did with Batman Begins or beginning the MCU films from Iron Man to Avengers Endgame and I really wish they would stop making superhero movies if they're not going to try but that's just me in my old age. So, if you’re having thoughts of wanting to see the latest Superhero movies but having doubts, well then you can always take the time and re-watch the third greatest movie trilogy in the Dark Knight trilogy as well as the greatest and perfect origin story of any Superhero or hero, and Batman Begins to me is the most perfecto of the beginning of a hero's journey. 

 

             

50th Anniversary of Jaws

 

           There are times when you just have a rough week, and nothing is going your way, moreover, feeling a bit of a slump. Sometimes re-watching a modern-day classic will help you out of that slump. I know that I talked about the greatest and perfect horror movie Jaws back in July close to two years ago in my Monthly Recommendation and sure I could just rehash my review or upload the old one but since the perfect movie about Sharks as well as the first ever major motion picture that gave a whole new meaning to the term Box-Office success has turned 50 years old well, there are just some of these movies that I cannot choose to ignore especially I missed a great opportunity with Ghostbusters 40th Anniversary.

           When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but Mayer Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist’s revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled ship captain Quint (Robert Shaw) offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs nature.

           The interesting thing about Jaws and granted I've covered a good portion of the terror of Jaws while watching the film in IMAX on my earlier review of Jaws two years ago and that is, there literally hasn't been a definitive Shark movie to surpass Jaws. And among the research I've learned, that's literally the truth I mean there's been a few movies about Sharks that reached potential but none of them ever came close to Jaws. Like there was one movie in 2016 called the Shallows which was basically Blake Lively trapped three feet of water with a killer shark, which I'm sure if I watch it again it would probably still be good but I'm smart enough to know that the film alone is nowhere nears as close to Jaws perfection, it’s like if Michael Jordan's 95-96 Bulls faced off with the 15-16 Warriors, hell Michael would beath that Warriors team with just is shooting arm tied behind his back. By 1971 author Peter Benchley had various freelance jobs to support his family, during that period Benchley was at the point in his life where he decided to make one final attempt to stay alive as a writer. During pitch meetings where he met with his agent as well as his publishers, and so he pitched two ideas one of them was a non-fiction book about pirates and the other about a man-eating shark terrorizing a community and I'm not going to spoil which idea got green lit but let's just say the rest became history. Originally the producers were going to try and get a real Great White Shark to train, but they found that idea a not-so-great idea to begin with. So, they decided to just build three versions of the Shark that give the film a realistic tone. While building the sharks which would later be called Bruce by Steven Spielberg, the studios wanted to begin production as soon as possible with the massive success of the book, Jaws. Though a lot of the guys had to tell the studio heads how complicated these sharks are and needed more time, though like most studio heads they don't listen, and so later in production it would bite them in the a** because through the shoot the sharks were not working even through the course of shooting majority of the scenes and they even had a scene from the book where they showed the shark. But Steven Spielberg decided to shoot less of the shark to create more of an Alfred Hitchcock feel to the movie where the less you see the scarier it becomes. The interesting thing I didn't realize when it comes to casting was that a lot of extras or supporting cast are all locals from the shooting location of Martha's Vineyard. Stuntwoman-turned-actress Susan Backlinie who plays Chrissie Watkins aka the first victim, and she was an excellent swimmer and was willing to skinny dip into the water, and she deserves a ton of credit because she's setting us up, to the most infamous scene of her getting eaten by the shark for which you basically are not focused on the shark you are focused on her fear as well as her reaction as to what is happening. The thing in what makes the film relevant even 50 years since the film's release is that it would make sense of a Mayer of a small community covering up these shark attacks, so that his town will be open for the fourth of July and sure sharks attacks in a realistic sense wouldn't happen the way Jaws does but it would make sense that a Mayer would be an unreasonable person that would do anything to guarantee summer dollars and, actor Murray Hamilton who plays mayor Larry Vaughn did in excellent job in playing, in our minds the real antagonist of the film, who thinks this will be the best summer until things begin to hit the fan. Like Apocalypse Now, Jaws is another great example of movies in the seventies that were important and influential films of our time, because you have directors like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and George Lucas who are pushing the art in film as well as making these kinds of movies that we can love and watch over and over again. And shooting a good portion of the ocean scenes, were all shot in open water's and in logic sense you can shoot this at a nearby tank in the Universal Studio's lot and shoot there but Steven wanted to shoot out in open waters to create the realism as well as the isolation you see in the movie. Furthermore, you look at the three actors in the movie especially when they hunt for the Great White, both Shaw, Dreyfuss and Scheider can't stand each other for which brings great acting from each of them all because they're on just one boat with open water. Even 50 years after finishing the film, Spielberg through the course of his career had nightmares about making Jaws even after finishing shooting in Martha's Vineyard he had a panic attack because of how difficult it was to get the film made and even though Jaws was behind him it just wouldn't go away from him and it haunted him a good portion of his career and at times Spielberg would sneak to the replica boat of the Orca and would have a quite time and he would burst into tears all because of making the film that would launch his career. Though more importantly Jaws was a important movie that took movies to the next stage in terms of epic and suspense as well as pop culture phenomenon. Even watching Jaws now, it’s still this amazing and suspenseful film that stands the test of time, but more importantly it's a film that you can sit down and watch over and over again and still be entertained from John Williams tremendous music score, but more importantly the actors that make Jaws work as well as Steven Spielberg's leadership and his vision of making this film one of the greatest films of all time. Now, films today aren't really making those risks anymore as caring more about making money than pushing the art of film or creating something new and different they just decide to remake movies from the past or making another Superhero film and that's the sad truth, when seventies was the best time to make movies fifty years now it's barely holding on by a thread in my opinion. This week is Shark Week the epic week for shark lovers so, if your ever looking for something to watch, Jaws is hands down the most perfect suspense film of all time but more importantly another movie to watch on Hulu or Disney +, is the National Geographic film Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, upon which I've learned a lot from the making of Jaws, but more importantly grown to appreciate the film more. So, if you’re a Shark fanatic I would highly recommend watching this amazing and only perfect shark movie, for a ton of reasons but the most important reason is that it's a film where nothing in life is working for you, you, yourself, must find a way to make it work. 

               

            

Kingpin

 

              A bowling movie that I was told to watch mainly because I haven't seen it and so, what the hell I might as well sit down and watch the movie. And this was one of those movies that explains my point months ago, when I reviewed Slammin' Salmon that sometimes when you make a hit you just need to take some time off and recoup. Kingpin is a movie that at times has some good jokes mostly coming from legendary comedic talent. But then, there were times when I just became so bored and wished the movie would end.

              Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) is a young bowler with a promising career ahead of him until a disreputable colleague, Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray), tricks him into participating in a con game that ends with Roy's bowling hand crippled for life. Years later Roy becomes a alcoholic, while discovering an Amish bowling phenom Ishmael (Randy Quaid). With the help of a Mafia girlfriend (Vanessa Angel), he plots to take Ishmael to the top of the bowling world.

               Keep in mind, I was watching this movie with an open mind. I was told that this was supposably a funny movie and granted there is, just mostly coming from Bill Murray's character and nothing else at times and there were times in the movie where I wished if Bill would ever come back and show up but no, I had to wait till the climax of the movie. There were times in some of the beginning part of the movie where I was literally disturbed, and it involves Woody doing it with a woman who, to me looked literally like a woman that's a negative ten out of ten and her facial expression disturbed me to the core to the point where I'm having flashbacks of Bradley Cooper wanting to be the Geek in Nightmare Alley. To the film's credit the film has only the one positive note which is of course Bill Murray and his greatest gift was the simplest of fact that the guy was a great improv man, and through the course of the movie he did nothing but ad-lib through the course of the filming even in the commercials to promote the movie so, every time he would read a script you would simply get a general idea of the movie and ditch the script and even Farrelly Brothers improved on that because what he said was hysterical. The film itself was released exactly two years after Dumb and Dumber was released and I will still say that Dumb and Dumber is a billion times better than Kingpin, but Kingpin was another one of those films where, when you make a great hit, you should probably take some time off and rest from comedy. For a gillion reasons comedy is a tough thing to get right in terms of what is funny and what is not funny. Moreover, you really need to take the time and see what works and what doesn't work and really this was one of those films where it's a blend of good and bad. Now the beauty of Tubi is simply great on both ends of dignity one there's some great hidden treasures and two, when you download Tubi there's no subscription charge so really when you watch a film like Kingpin, well you got a win, win deal because you didn't pay for it in terms of subscription and either way these movies are like free so Tubi is always a 50/50 split on whether or not the film was good or not.  

    

The Mechanic

 

                      Rule of thumb probably never watches the original 70's action film when the remake is so much better, although remake of that film is decently good, strategically speaking. I've watched Jason Statham's version of The Mechanic and though it was decent I mean no one can kill Statham other than himself (Crank). And so, when I found Charles Bronson's The Mechanic, I figured well, why not give this movie a chance although I somewhat feel differently in terms of what I saw and yet begin to realize that former heart throb Josh Hartnett has been living a long time and yet for some reasons we all didn't know about it. My guess is Hartnett was a Vampire but then got a cure for which turned him into a baby and that's how he was born into this world.

                       Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as his middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes one of the victims’ sons, Steve Mckenna (Jan-Michael Vincent aka Josh Hartnett), as his apprentice.

                        It's been quite a long, long time since I watched the 2011 version. And yet after watching the original film I slowly began to realize that both films are the same movie just shot and edited in a different way. I mean it's not always a bad thing because movies like these can sometimes be bad and the remake could be improved even if the film is forgotten or no one has ever heard of the original movie all because the film is just a forgotten film. Although there are times when you remake a classic and then the remake is the same as the original classic then you have problems. Luckily I quick read through the plot of Statham's Mechanic and the ending is basically the same as the original, though the problem of the ending didn't bug me or the story it was more of the action as well as the edits that I slowly began to feel confused especially scenes where it just goes from one place to another, especially when action sequences are way to choppy and way to confusing it just gave me a massive headache to the point where I had like bewildering look on my face, which at the end I slowly realized how the movie was going to end, in fact I was satisfied when the ending came I felt a great sigh of relief. Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, was in a bunch of movies that were forgetful and yet I still can't get over the fact that he looks exactly like Josh Hartnett for which is freaky because both me look exactly alike with the facial expressions to even the face whenever he turns his head or even the satisfied expression is just so, freaky in fact if you look up these two men on Google you'll for sure find a video of these two looking like their the same person that you wouldn't even notice, almost as if their twins. The movie itself is mediocre. I mean there's nothing I find special about the movie and sadly I would choose the remake of the Mechanic despite the fact it’s been ages since I watched the film, but I have a good memory about the ending, so I don't need any more detail. Granted part of me wants to like the movie because I still love watching Once Upon a Time in the West, but this movie was just no good and, in all fairness, you must experience the failures before you find a hit.  

     

The Sea Chase

 

                 

          At my sister's house taking care of her pups while she goes down south for a wedding. And I really wasn't feeling much about a movie I figured I got all my movies put together until July (this was June by the way) but then all a sudden I was browsing through HBO Max and found a John Wayne movie that I surprisingly have not seen ever, and for good reasons, I guess. Now when we think of John Wayne all we can think of his either him playing a Cowboy or playing a American Officer in World War II or a pilot, and I've been a huge fan of John Wayne's filmography ever since my father introduced me to The Son's of Katie Elder, but never in a million years did I ever imagine the Big Duke ever playing a German Captain set in beginnings of the second World War.

          Karl Ehrlich (John Wayne) is the German Captain of a freighter stationed in an Australian port. Ehrlich, a fervent opponent of Nazism, receives word that World War II has commenced in Europe, and that he must his way to Germany while avoiding the pursing Allied ships. Aboard his ship is a German spy (Lana Turner), whose safe passage he must endure. Meanwhile, a British ship -- with Cmdr. Jeff Napier (David Farrar) at its helm -- is hot on their trail. 

           Watching this film for the first time, I still find it a mystery as to who was the one producer to convince John Wayne into playing a German Captain set in the second World War, but this wasn't any producer or director amongst my research that show no evidence of anyone convincing Wayne to play a German officer set around Nazism. And I never in a million years never expected him ever playing these types of characters because when you look at John Wayne, he's the All-American iconic actor of his era he was always playing a patriot or a Cowboy and this was one of those films that I never thought he would play. Granted the Duke, turned down roles from High Noon or All the Kings Men for many reasons Wayne couldn't stand the script (in All the Kings Men) that clashed with his political views. I think the bottom line in what I would assume to be his reason, was he just wanted to something to depart himself from all the patriotic roles he's used to play, which makes sense because when John Ford came along, he gave him a role of a racist cowboy to play in The Searchers. And the Duke is playing a German that's all against Nazism so, in all fairness he's playing a patriot when you think about it. For a film alone, the suspense and the action was really outstanding like, I was really on the edge of my seat through the course of the film from the dangers that happen or when one actor goes crazy with an axe or the hope that Wayne and Lana Turner would make it out alive, like all of the suspense is still in there but then at times it does feel a little on the boring side especially the drama between Wayne's character and David Farrar's character but still is entertaining to watch, especially when we get to the climax of the film. Not the most perfect of John Wayne's movies I've seen, but I still recommend watching this movie for all fans of the Duke mainly because the film does have its moments and does show some moments of compelling action throughout the course of the film. So, if you all have Hulu or HBO Max, I would highly recommend watching John Wayne as a German Captain and the accent doesn't even bother me none because the crew or even Lana Turner have German accent's so who cares, hell Tom Cruise never had a German accent in Valkyrie. So, to all you Woke's out there, just cry me a river and grow a sense of humor in your balls sack. 

      

Get the Gringo

 

           Well, hello boys and girls, obviously it's getting hot outside as well as the rain pouring down and ruining our day whenever we want to go walk outside or play some golf aside from another 4th of July already over and done but don't worry, I feel little patriotic but will get to that soon hopefully. Speaking of feeling a little Patriotic I watched another Mel Gibson movie that proceeded with all my expectations. For sure I never thought I would imagine watching another Mel Gibson movie but this, ladies and gentlemen is one of those movies that once you watched the movie all the way through, you'd want to watch it repeatedly. 

            A youngster helps an American career criminal (Mel Gibson) learn to survive behind the walls of a brutal Mexican Prison. 

            I'm confident in saying that I watched this film a bunch of times and really the first time I watched the movie I was like "oh this is something fresh and new" but then yet again this reminds me of a certain movie back in the late nineties another Mel Gibson gem called Payback. For which yeah that's basically what this movie is, is another type of version of Payback but set in the Mexican Border and yet there's a prison where a local drug lord in running it, and yet it turns the prison into a world’s worst mall or condo center for all criminals. Now in all fairness there is some refreshing aspects about the movie especially when you have a Mel Gibson playing a sarcastic criminal whose does a great job playing a typical anti-hero with a good heart to a young kid in the movie while protecting his mom at the same time and yet he's always one step ahead of the people who try to screw with him, and in all honesty yes, it's a strait forward rehash of Payback but there's something about the movie that I haven't really quite experienced in quite a long time and the fact that we have a hilarious Mel Gibson that I honestly haven't quite experienced in quite a long time but yet it's the kind of Mel Gibson role that I actually missed him playing and sure I could always watch other Mel Gibson movies but this is one of those films with Mel that I actually liked and his performance alone is what makes this movie great from beginning till the final frame. Though the sad aspect of the film, is that this was Post-Mel Gibson rant where he goes all ballistic to his ex-wife, and I think that's the reason why Get the Gringo was sadly forgotten but, if you all think that Mel Gibson is a deranged nut bag, keep in mind that during the shot of the film, Mel learned that there was an elderly Mexican extra on the set that was suffering from cancer. And Mel got the man a visa by writing to the American Ambassador, and then personally arranged for him to be flown to an alternative cancer therapist in Arizona so, deep down the man still has a full heart, for which I have never doubted, I'm just guessing he's at the point after the controversy he was just accepting his fate and trying to live his life clean outside of Hollywood, though I can follow that into fact I don't claim myself to be the greatest detective. I would a hundred percent recommend too everyone watching Get the Gringo, for great reasons it's fun and entertaining and it also has that breath of fresh air that you'd never expect in a criminal, action crime film that I never thought I would be expecting to see in quite a long time. The film is on Tubi still being the top streaming service for me when it comes to streaming hidden gems but in case, you're tired of ads, have no fear the movie is on Amazon Prime so you can watch this great movie, ad free. And despite that there haven’t been a whole lot of recent Mel Gibson movies to watch this is one of those films after the post-voicemail rant that everyone will enjoy. 

   

F1

 

             

        Well believe it friends, the impossible has happened, for I finally took the time to go down to a local movie theater and finally watch a recent movie that's just been released. And this is one of those films that I can watch and know that there's not a whole lot to expect but there's something worth seeing without having the feeling of "okay I've obviously seen this movie before. Staring Brad's Pitts, playing a sort of John Wayne figure that goes from town-to-town racing and then just goes off into the sunset. Which is a typical racing movie or any sports movie where it's always about the underdog, no one expects you to win but in the end it's directed by Top Gun: Maverick and a writer who written all of the worst Transformers movies as well as Top Gun: Maverick so, can't be worse than the overrated Vampire movie and Mission Impossible 1,000.

        In the 1990's Sonny Hays (Brad's Pitts) was Formula 1's most promising driver until his accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, the owner of a struggling Formula 1 team convinces Sonny to return to racing and become the best in the world. Driving alongside the team’s hotshot rookie, Sonny soon learns that the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.

        Now, for sure I can go on and on about "oh, how bad movies are these days" and for sure that true, for many reasons when you see so many movies like I have, you feel like you seen them all and I'm not saying that Sinners is a pretty good movie, I'm just saying that vampires are just a boring movie monster, like who wants to live forever? Especially when the world is getting more screwed up. And the same goes with Mission Impossible 1,000 hell, I stopped watching the Mission Impossible films after the third film came out in 2006 and the only reasons, I saw the fifth film without seeing the fourth film was because I was bored and had nothing better to like any other recovering alcoholic with epilepsy. But the biggest reasons why I don't go to a whole lot a recent movies now especially when it comes to the movie theaters (for which is sad to say) is because I feel like Hollywood is insulting my intelligence and coming out with movies that I feel like I've seen over and over again moreover some of these movies they are quote, unquote Oscar contenders, are really forgettable movies and hell I even saw a movie trailer where Hollywood is coming out with a musical version of Romeo and Juliet titled Juliet and Romeo and all I can say is I feel like I've already seen it despite the fact that I know what happens but it's also a musical, hopefully I rest my case on why I don't go to so many recent movies now. But with F1 this is something where I can watch and yes it's a combination of a Rocky movie but with racing mixed in with a spoon full of Tom Gun: Maverick mixed in, though with the presence of Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem in the mix I also feel like things can be smoothed over when these guys do what they do best. Ehren Kruger who wrote the screenplay to F1, has really made a living writing nothing but bad movies to films that are just passable if we can separate Top Gun: Maverick, and his filmography speaks for itself with Transformers 3, 4 and 5, Reindeer Games and Dumbo. Now Scream 3, I can look at as a passible movie but yet for some reasons guys like him are capable to fail upwards in life and yes the movies he's written are passible at least, but they're forgettable and the only time I remember them is when I look the up and all of a sudden I begin to cringe if you catch my drift. Even though the story itself is over the top crazy and stupid at times but really what saves this movie is the action and no doubt director Joseph Kosinski does a fantastic job in putting the audience on the edge of their seats especially in scenes where you almost believe that Brad Pitt was going to die and deep down I loved the way it turned out in the end. There were a few actors and actresses I did recognized through the course of the movie even actor Tobias Menzies who I looked at his face and thought that he looked familiar as well as seeing him in something else and that was after looking him up and I found out he was Caitlyn Starks brother in Game of Thrones Edmure Tully, which explains why he would play a Benedict Arnold type character hell, he through his own uncle under the bus in Game of Thrones Ooh, did I spoil something to viewers who haven't watched Game of Thrones? Oh, geese, that's terrible! Even Kerry Condon I recognized while watching the movie especially when you can't hide from that beautiful Irish accent furthermore understood why he left Ireland in Banshee's of Inisherin he wanted to hook up with Brad's Pitts. F1 is most certain a movie to go see in the movie theaters and granted I don't say that a whole lot to the recent movies that come out this year but this one is a movie I would recommend watching at your local movie theater, though I'm probably not going to watch this film again till the next ten years but if you love movies about car racing than F1 would certainly be that racing film for you. 

     

                

Ten Year Anniversary of Mad Max: Fury Road

 

             After watching the original Mad Max, I realized that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the fourth and epic Mad Max movie in the Mad Max universe. Mad Max: Fury Road was the first movie I indulged myself into the Mad Max Universe, and at first when I watched this movie, I never quite understood the movie the first time I watched it. Then my brother sat me down and watched the original Mad Max film and watched Fury Road the second time around, I began to realize how tremendously great this movie was in 2015, to the actors involved as well as great action sequences that you'll probably never see now since well, every movie out now is completely useless garbage.

             Years after the collapse of civilization, the tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Bryne) enslaves apocalypse survivors inside the desert fortress the Citadel. When the warrior Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theoron) leads the despot's five wives in a daring escape, she forges an alliance with Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy). Fortified in the massive, armored truck the War Rig, they try to outrun the ruthless warlord and his henchmen in a deadly high-speed chase through the wasteland. 

             Around 1987, George Miller had the idea of developing a fourth installment that was "almost a continuous chase". Although Miller developed a lot of the story along with working with Storyboards artists and a lot of them were in the film as you see it on screen, unfortunately 1987 to 1998, the film itself was in a lengthy gestation period or a better word, development hell. Through the course of the 2000's Miller was still thinking about Mad Max 4 but only this time without Mel Gibson, and so, to make a long story short after years of going through constant development crisis and potential actors to play Max, well let’s just say somewhere between 2010 or 2013, Mad Max: Fury Road finally commenced into production let’s just leave it at that. Ten years after the film’s release and I still consider this a perfect action movie of the ages, from the great actors to the story and even the visual effects as well as the action sequences you see when watching this great movie it's just perfect from every part moreover even the greatest action film of the 2010's era, moreover if you want to find statistics on what makes this a great and perfect action film this movie has it all. Now granted I've never seen Mad Max 2 or Beyond the Thunderdome, but I truly believe if you separate this film from those last three films this movie is without a doubt a perfect action movie from beginning to end. Charlize Theoron is without a doubt a great actress for these kinds of action films I mean Atomic Blonde is a great example of that though I would look at her in this film as a pure definition of an action heroine. But there's something about Tom Hardy's performance in this movie that just screams how talented he was in this movie as well as the perfect Mad Max, and even before accepting the role Hardy had lunch with Mel Gibson and Gibson himself gave him his blessing, moreover, said in his own words that Hardy reminded him of his sons. Through the course of the whole movie Hardy starts off as this animalistic anti-hero who barely says anything till like thirty minutes into the movie and although he does speak but you barely hear him on what he's saying but when he finally speaks it's like he's trying to find his words and it's almost like the way when your all by yourself having no one to talk too it would make sense that you barely speak through your time in a hell hole like a Post-Apocalyptic Australia. But really what makes Hardy's performance so great is his body language through the course of the film where you see him as a caged animal and through the course of the first and second act you slowly shreds the animal instinct and becomes a reliable ally but more importantly you see he cares for these wives as well as Charlize Theoron, and even though his lines are only 52 words the greatest acting you can really do is express emotions through the face as well as the body and that's always what makes a great actor. Hugh Keays-Byrne was one of the original villains in the very first Mad Max film, and at the time I didn't know about that fact but years later into Fury Road he does a fantastic job as the main antagonist to both Hardy and Theoron's character, furthermore if you think of just great and memorable villains from Darth Vader to Hannibal Lector Keays-Byrne's portrayal of Immortan Joe is most certainly up there in the best villains category. But what separates Immortan Joe from the other's is simply that is that he stands out with that cool respirator to even his presence on screen, especially scenes when he slowly realizes he's wives have been taken it such a great shot and it explains more words than the voice, speaking of the voice, hell I don't know if that was his voice or not but the way he says his lines are even more greater especially when he tells the crowd "Do not become addicted to water!", now theoretically that's foul in terms of logical sense, but deep down it's a great and memorable line from Byrne's and doesn't have that one line he has a tone of great lines which makes him great in the movie, and that's kind of the reasons why I haven't seen the Furiosa film mainly because Byrne died in 2020, and they had to use a different actor moreover wasn't legendary as Hugh Keays-Byrne was in this movie so, really he stands out as one of the best antagonist in the Mad Max universe. Even the Wives and Nicholas Hoult who plays Nux in the movie are fantastic as well as the other henchmen, and even the War Boys in the movie are fantastic for many reasons they are defiantly committed, and they don't show that they're just in extra no they took their job seriously till the very end. As great of a director George Miller was in bringing his lost franchise back to life, his composer Junkie XL aka Tom Holkenborg does a fantastic job in composing the music and there something about playing heavy metal music combined with epic movie composing is so chilling as well as epic in terms of sitting on the edge of your seat till the final frame is just pure gold as well as great to listen to while you’re driving to work. Ten years ago, I never quite understood or knew what to expect when watching this movie for the very first time, but I still say that this was for certain a perfect action film of the 2010's era and I would highly recommend watching this movie a million times even if you haven't seen any of the original Mad Max films, though I'm looking forward in seeing the other two Mad Max films this year. 

                

June Recommendation: Mad Max

 

                

           With May we covered deep into the summer movie season with the Western Genre. Now in the month of June I have decided to dive deep into the Post Apocalyptic genre but with fast moving cars. Long before Fast and Furious films were slowly destroying the race car trend or Tom Cruise trying to bring the need for speed in NASCAR in Road of Thunder. One Australian filmmaker broke all the rules and created a shocking and nerve wrecking action movie for the ages but, more importantly launched the career of Mel Gibson who would later in life have a tremendous film career with the big ups and massive lows in life that would later prove that Mel is always unbreakable with the grace of God. 

           In a not-too-distant dystopian future, when man's most precious resource -- oil -- has been depleted and the world plunged into war, famine and financial chaos, the last vestiges of the law in Australia attempt to retrain a vicious biker gang. Max (Mel Gibson), an officer with the Main Force Patrol, launches a personal vendetta against the gang when his wife and child are hunted down and murdered, leaving him with nothing but instincts for survival and retribution.

           To really give a good history and the story behind the world of Mad Max you really must go back to the beginning between two up and coming filmmakers that would change the game for the post-Apocalyptic genre, both Byron Kennedy and George Miller. George Miller attended a film workshop at Melbourne University around 1971 where he met fellow students and future partner and crime, Byron Kennedy. During 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St. Vincent's Hospital and became a surgeon to pay the bills, and during his off time would do a ton of experimental films with Kennedy and would later form their own movie corporation. During Miller's time as a medical doctor, working in the hospital’s emergency room, he saw a lot of injuries and deaths depicted in what you see in the movie. Moreover, witnessed many car accidents growing up in rural Queensland and some of those accidents happened to three of his friends as teenagers. During the process of movie forward with the idea of making Mad Max happened, a side from the fact that each man had very limited experience in script writing, they knew they had to bring another writer into the process of making the story a reality, and James McCausland came in to flesh out the story a bit more. McCausland brought a lot more to the small budget action film and inspired us to use elements of a recent oil crisis in 1973. McCausland in an article circa 2006 from the Courier-Mail states in his own words "A couple of oil strikes that hit many pumps revealed the ferocity with which Australians would defend their right to fill their tank. Long queues formed at the stations with petrol -- and anyone who tried to sneak ahead in the queue met raw violence ... George and I wrote [Mad Max] script based on the thesis that people would do almost anything to keep vehicles moving and the assumption that nations would not consider the huge costs of providing infrastructure for alternative energy until it was too late", furthermore it shows that finding some events that occurred in your own country will help you come with a script that will be promising with up and coming director. The film was shot in twelve weeks with the budget of 350,000 upon with both Byron and George financed with their jobs, but George Miller described the movie as "guerrilla filmmaking" (which a ton of filmmakers use for low budget B-movies) and majority of the action sequences, all of the crew would close the roads without permits, not even use any walkie-talkies for many reasons they had to avoid a ton of the Police hearing in on their conversations so, a ton of those sequences you see on screen, they had to plan all of this without distant conversations and yet they created something magical when you watch the movie. Furthermore, what makes Australia great to film though I'm not sure now, but majority of the extras used in the movie were all paid in beer. Which reminds me of a fantastic joke on the Simpsons where the family is in Australia and Marge is ordering a coffee and the natives only have beer because that's what they all drink so, if you ever filming in Australia and trying to find a cheap way to pay extras, paying them in beer would probably be your best bet. I've seen the original Mad Max almost ten years ago prior to just watching the fourth Mad Max film, and even still to this day this movie is still shocking to watch with some of the scenes that would put you on the edge of your seat, but still for a movie that's budget is 350,000 dollars to make is still incredible and it goes a lot from such great films like George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead which was around 125,000 dollars to make, to even Robert Rodriguez and Christopher Nolan's first films that both were made around 6,000 and 7,000 dollars, and hearing stuff like this just brings out inspiration as well as giving these up and coming directors to get up from your couch and really make something out of it. Even to do action movies now it's almost impossible to do with this economy, but George Miller and his crew were able to pull off some of the most incredible action sequences and were able to make something unique and great to watch at the same time and sometimes Guerrilla filmmaking is always your best choice to make something special but it has to be in the hands of someone whose smart and talented and no dummy and George Miller was no dummy. Mel Gibson was a drama student when he got the part of Max Rockatansky and was only paid for 10,000 dollars and he show how great and promising actor he could be even when he lost his mind with a crazy lady, but it's not just how he was able to acted in an action movie it was more of his emotions and eyes that did a ton of the acting for him because even in scenes when you see him get drained our from his job, as well as reaching his breaking point it's his eyes that tell the story on how he's feeling on screen and Gibson does a fantastic job at that. Now I haven't seen Mad Max 2 yet and the same goes with Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome but I can honestly say that those movies are a billion no, a trillion times better than any of the Fast & Furious films as well as the later Mission Impossible films for obvious reasons, Miller of all people would say that this is how you do an action film the right way possible and never overdo it with ridicules and over the top action scenes that makes you feel like you’re in a cringe worthy family reunion. Of course I would recommend watching the original Mad Max film it's great and shocking and the action sequences are still fresh to watch from beginning to the final frame but more importantly, as shocking of a movie it was the film still follows the one rule that every director should follow in life and that's "show don't tell" and Mad Max is a great example of that one rule. So, if the movies out now are making you feel depressed, Mad Max is a great film to rejuvenate your love of film. 

                           

60th Anniversary of For A Few Dollars More

 

           Well, I at least picked a good time to watch A Fistful of Dollars, not only was it a worthy May Recommendation, but it also reminded me that its predecessor had reached its sixtieth birthday. For A Few Dollars More, the second installment in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, just so happens to be my favorite among the Dollars films. Sure, A Fistful of Dollars was an amazing Western, for a million reasons it invented the term Spaghetti Western and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly was the definition of iconic Spaghetti Western, but for me, For A Few Dollars More was a fantastic Spaghetti Western that has a great list of actors that you root for from beginning to final frame but you also have a fantastic villain that you just love to hate and despise. But most importantly you also have a fantastic story that I just love out of all the Dollars storylines.

           In the Wild West, a murderous outlaw known as El Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) and his gang are terrorizing and robbing the citizens of the region. With a bounty on El Indio's head, two bounty hunters, Monco (Clint Eastwood) and Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), come to collect the prize. Upon their first meeting, the two men view each other as rivals, but they eventually agree to become partners in their mutual pursuit of the vicious criminal.

           What I love about the movie is simply that it's about two bounty hunters tracking down a notorious killer moreover it's a simple concept that I can get by with a mix of Clint Eastwood's iconic performance but more importantly Lee Van Cleef's stellar performance and his motive as to why he's on a revenge mission against, El Indio played by Gian Maria Volonte who previously was the main antagonist in A Fistful of Dollars. After the success of the first Dollars film, Leone and his partner Alberto Grimaldi wanted to begin production for a sequel. Although Eastwood wasn't ready to sign on for a sequel, Leone and his crew had to rush in get an Italian-language version of the film out for him to see. Even though Eastwood couldn't understand the language, it was the style and action that convinced Clint to sign on for another film. With Clint Eastwood back on board, Leone had to find his co-star that could rival Eastwood's character, at first Leone wanted to cast Henry Fonda as Mortimer, but Fonda turned him down so, Sergio went in search for Charles Bronson for the second time but turned him down as well, and yet the surprising factor is both Ford and Bronson would later star in one of Leone's classic western's Once Upon a Time in the West. Lee Marvin was the next candidate though turned down because he was in the Jane Fonda film Cat Ballou, and so the Leone finally offered the role of Mortimer to Lee Van Cleef (The Man who Shot Liberty Vallance) who wasn't getting a whole line of movie work after the filming How the West was Won, though was doing some decent work in Television. Lee Van Cleef was also grateful to Leone, even though he thought at first that he was just there for a couple of scenes but later was astounded when he finally realized that he was co-staring alongside Eastwood. But Cleef was grateful for Leone because he was going through hard times due to his heavy drinking, and this film marked a resurgence in his career, for which Cleef would later star in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Gian Maria Volonte who played the previous antagonist Ramon Rojo in A Fistful of Dollars moreover does a fantastic job playing the sadistic outlaw El Indio in For A Few Dollars More, during filming was becoming angry at Leone, because Leone felt he was being a bit theatrical, used a lot of takes on Volonte, for which he was massively angry and tired, upon which Volonte stormed off set but came back anyway due to not finding a ride in the desert. Which in all honesty, that's nothing new considering Michael Mann drove Al Pacino mad when doing the scene in Heat, in which he's talking about a**'s. Like it's last film, Leone does break a lot of rules at that time in the sixties with a lot of graphic scenes including killing a horse and as well as shooting a wife and child (despite you don't see it) and although those scenes were tamed now, back then it was shockingly graphic to see on screen. Leone delivers at every level and the same goes with both duo of Eastwood and Cleef, though Ennio Morricone the composer behind majority of Sergio Leone's films does a fantastic job reinventing what movie composing as well as giving working movie composers a household name. Moreover gives a new definition to epic movie soundtracks that we can all listen to and love over and over again, and Morricone explains that he himself had to write the score during production, unlike scoring the entire movie when it's all said and done, because Morricone in his own words states that Leone wanted the music to be in important part of the movie furthermore kept some of the movie scenes longer because he didn't want the music to stop. For which leads me to the real reason why I love the film so, much is its final climax in which Cleef is squaring off with Volonte's character, which Volonte gets the drop on Cleef and has his famous pocket watch duel and you see Cleef having no shot at Indio, and feeling that he let himself down and when the music ends it soon begins and both men see Eastwood making his entrance with Cleef's identical pocket watch, and you soon realize Eastwood comes to save Mortimer and once he says "Now we Start" you have this satisfaction of Indio going to meet his end. Which to me is a well-directed scene with a tone of emotions, not knowing what is going to happen but then is relieved with the combination of Morricone's epic score, it just shows how amazing a well-directed film that I always watch numerous times because of how great the climax is. Now, granted it's been a long time since I sat down and watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but for now I still look at For a Few Dollars More and see that there's absolutely nothing I would change in that movie and would continue to watch that film from start to finish. Now, if you’re a big fan of Western's I would highly recommend watching For A Few Dollars More for its greatness as well as breaking all the rules in terms of what it great Western should be and at the time in the sixties when John Wayne was ruling the Western genre with his greatness, Sergio's A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More to me brings a breath of fresh air of not always relying on the iconic hero theme in what westerns were always approaching in America cinema back then, but more importantly makes me realize that we need more of the Anti-Hero's in a lot of the Western genre because those are great ways to tell stories in the Wild West, because it wasn't a pretty place to live in and sometimes you always need another kind of evil to cheer for. Now yet again Tubi is bringing the house down in terms of movie watching experience so, if you have a Tubi account or not I would highly recommend watching this great film on Tubi as well as Amazon Prime, just in case you’re suffering from PTSD of so many commercials.

              

Father's Day Recommendation: Animal House

 

                           

           Father’s Day is coming everyone, and it's always the time to find the right movie your father loved watching, sit down and watch it together and experience why the love the film and what makes this funny to watch. And this ladies and gentleman, without a doubt one of the most outstanding and hilarious comedies I've ever seen in my whole life and granted this was my first experience watching the film, but I've taken notes through the years of watching the cult TV show, Blue Mountain State. Animal House has always been that one movie my dad has always loved though he would never allow us kids to watch (for very good reasons) the same as my mother but through the years, I just never had the right time to watch this amazing comedy until now. Furthermore, after watching Animal House, I can now say that this was a better John Landis movie than the “Blues Brothers”. 

           When they arrive at college, socially inept freshman Larry (Thomas Hulce) and Kent (Stephan Furst) attempt to pledge the snooty Omega Theta Pi House but are summarily rejected. Lowering their standards, they try at the notoriously rowdy Delta Tau Chi House, and get in. The trouble is that the college dean (John Vernon) has it in for the Deltas. And will do whatever it takes to expel the Deltas, once and for all.

            To give a unique history on how Animal House got made you got to start on the trademark that is National Lampoon. National Lampoon was one of the most popular humor magazines on college campuses in the mid-1970's. The periodical specialized in satirizing politics and popular culture. One of the main founders of National Lampoon, Doug Kenny at the time was getting tired of the deadlines as well as stories and publications and told fellow colleagues as well as producer Matty Simmons, that he was preparing to quit and Matty, being a true friend, knew how great of talent Kenny had told him that we're going to make a movie. For which assembled two fellow Lampoon writers Chris Miller and talented comedic writer, the Late great Harold Ramis. And together they both drafted the scripted together and all three men have attended a Frat house in their own Colleges and each of them shared their experience in fraternity houses and typed it out, and to all of those up and coming comedy writers if you’re looking for inspirations I would highly recommend using that technique because it will help you develop characters as you progress. The funniest fact about the writing process of Animal House as well as inspirational, was fellow producer Ivan Reitman bought each of the writers paperback screenplays of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as a story structure and for obvious reasons both Kenny, Ramis and Miller never written a screenplay before nor went to film school so, kids if you love movies but don't have the money to go to California and study film school, one of the few or two lessons you need to follow if you want to make a movie on your own movie, is watching a ton of the greatest movies of all time moreover any movie skip the bad ones or weird movies unless it's necessary. Read a tone of screenplays so you can get a clear idea on how to write your movie, but more importantly always know how the camera works even if it means playing around with your own video camera from an old piece of junk to a new and advanced camera because you never know what you can afford, and most importantly have fun with it. Now the facts and history of Animal House let's get on with what makes Animal House fantastic, whenever you find that one perfect comedy that gives you a great breath of fresh air and the need to watch it over and over again, Animal House is most certainly that fantastic comedy that never gets old and you'd have a great time watching these characters go crazy through the course of the film. Basically, like a fine wine no matter how old the movie is or how long it's been since this movie got made the comedic humor just refreshes itself repeatedly just like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Stripes and hell, even the Naked Gun movies. Though what makes all of these comedic films great is that their sense of humor just has that feel and essence that you can relate too, as well as smile or laugh at the first time seeing it but also gives you that shock of how funny that joke was especially in one of my favorite scenes is when Pinto is about to bone the mayors daughter played by Sarah Holcomb (who was Danny's love interest in Caddyshack, aka Irish girl) tells him it's her first time because she's thirteen and you can see Pinto's reaction of "OH S**T" and then when she introduces him to her parents and adds "the one who molested me a week ago, we need to get married", upon which open my mouth as well as laughter because to me was shocking but also funny at the same time and it's like you cannot get away with that joke now, especially when Karen Allen tells her boyfriend that she's in love with retard it's just great. But it has that style of comedy that you tend to forget because you're disillusioned by all the bad comedies that are coming out now and something like Animal House comes around it's just fantastic, but more importantly I was born in 86 and a millennial like I am, these comedies after the Gen Z were always the crown jewel of comedy moreover it still feels great watching these raunchy comedies that was a pioneer of some of these other college comedies that never really hold up, not like Animal House. Both my father and mother have always showed great movies to us growing up from a comedy to a musical or science fiction/fantasy and Christian themed movies or television and through the course of finding that one movie to recommend on either Mother's Day or Father's day, I have to ask my mom on what was her favorite movie growing up, which is no crime it's always nice to ask my own mother on what her favorite movie is because there times where I don't remember or curious on her favorite movie is because she has a taste that is on the Christian themed movie and at times finding the classic movies she loved. Though when it comes to my Dad, I can really pick a movie out of his collection or my collection and he would have a tremendous time with the movie, whether it's Beerfest, the Super Troopers films, Major League or a beloved baseball film like Field of Dreams or even all John Wayne's filmography, and even a Quentin Tarantino film, though that's another story for another time but I'm not lying when I'm telling you that he does love some Quentin Tarantino movies. Though whenever it comes to finding a movie out of my mom's collection or my dad's collection it a great treat, for many reasons you never know what hidden treasure you’re going to find, but more importantly showing your Dad your collection of favorite movies (as a return the favor moment) as thank you for introducing me to his collection of favorite movies, he grew up watching. Animal House is without a doubt a fantastic College movie as well as the perfect raunchy comedy that still stands the test of time and seeing the talents of Doug Kenny and John Belushi at the peak of their comedic talent's is always a sad thing to see because both men died at the age of just 33, furthermore it's always that notion of long can guys like those two me can still make great comedic work, though in all fairness both Animal House and Caddyshack proves that these two men are immortal. And the good news is the film is streaming on Amazon Prime so, if you’re looking for that one movie to watch with your dad or haven't seen it, then I would highly recommend asking your dad in wanting to watch Animal House, this Father's Day weekend.