tháng 8 2011 ~ The Larsen Film Review

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Hum... what to say about this one. Let me start by saying that my snap judgement of 5/10 might be a little harsh, but my desire to keep it in the "avoid" category remains. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Jack Nicholson as a person, and that probably affects how much I enjoy...

I'm not sure why I was so excited about this film. Maybe because I had heard good things and the reviews haven't been bad either. I didn't look at the director or stars I guess, director Joe Wright has been batting 2 out of 3 for me to date. I liked Pride & Prejudice...

Thanks to a couple short western films I was able to sneak this one in as my last film in the war/western themed month. At almost exactly an hour and half it was a quick watch, and helped that I really liked it. I initially gave this a 7/10 but it has really stuck in my mind...

A short and simple western film that I was able to sneak in right before the end of the themed month. This film stars Gregory Peck, who is easily one of my favorite actors of the 1950's. My favorite of his films is Cape Fear, which I reviewed here. The film isn't even an hour...

This is now the 5th X-Men Live Action film, and I would argue one of the best. One might argue that the original X-Men film in 2000 helped launch the comic movie fad, but it has also been a series that I have been growing more disinterested in with every release. I gave X-Men...

The latest film from the Farrelly brothers [Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, Shallow Hal, Stuck on You, etc.] and along the same line of humor as the rest of their catalog. So let's start by saying, if you don't find those films funny, you won't like this. I for one, enjoy...

One of the newest Must See war films I still needed to see, and in the closing week of Western/War month I thought I'd knock it out. I wish I would have known from the start that this was supposed to be a comedy, but I figured it out fast enough. Alan Arkin stars as Capt. Yossarian,...

A western adventure film that I would compare to Forrest Gump . Starring Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, the film starts with an old man recanting his entire life. Raised by Indians, taken in by a town major as a teenager [and Faye Dunaway as Mrs. Pendrake, the major's...

It is easy to loose sight of the fact that there are some good films that go straight to television or straight to dvd. We get wrapped up in films that gross at the box office and become eligible for Oscars, etc. A good way to keep an eye out for these films is to check out...

I have to say I'm more familiar with Burt Lancaster in a father or bad guy role than in the leading role, and I can't say I'm a fan. Lee Marvin is pretty good though, so that did make the film enjoyable. The Professionals is a film about a couple of men who are hired by a ...

For the sake of catching up on reviews I'll keep this short. This film seemed like a good movie for a war buff. Someone that likes to know exactly what the politics were behind an attack. The exact sequence of events, the views from both sides. The film is about the Japanese...

It seems to be a toss up with the 5th screenplay nomination for the Oscars. They always seem to pick one film I never expected and one that doesn't get nominated for anything else. Lately this has either been a surprisingly good film or an average British film... strange trend....

Although this is a western, it really is a drama above all. This film an adaptation of the novel "Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey. Kirk Douglas liked this book so much that he gave it to a friend, Dalton Trumbo, to write the screenplay. Considered by himself and his son...

Every year there seems to be an immediate list of films that got, "snubbed," by the Academy when the nominations come out. With the introduction of the 10 film best picture list last year the list became questionable when you start talking about if The Town deserved that 10th...

I've been looking at this blog post all day trying to decide how to write a review. I'm not going to let it be one of those movies that persists to keep me far behind the finds I'm currently watching. The film was a meandering mess with minimal plot. Directed by Sam Peckinpah...

I'm not sure if you could call this film a biography, since I think you have to span the life of the subject to be a biography. This is the "story" of Alvin York, a decorated war hero from World War I. When York was approached about making his story into a film he insisted that...

I heard about this movie watching an interview with Ed Helms on the Daily Show. Helms got his start on the Daily Show, moved on to minor roles in film, then "The Office", then thanks to some success with The Hangover he was awarded his first starring role in this film. He...

Jack Palance is well known in Hollywood for playing a good villian. Throughout the 50's and 60's he played numerous roles as bad guys in western and war films. Interesting though that two of his most notable films he plays a hero [this one] and a good guy in a comedy [Curly...

It is not typical for me to like a Hollywood remake more than the original, but I would say that this is one instance where the remake is better. This western film is about cattle rancher, broke from a drought, who takes a job of escorting a captured outlaw to the town of Yuma...

I watched this film thanks to Roger Ebert, who is not afraid to go outside of the box when picking his top 10 of the year. I've been very hesitant to watch anything with Nicolas Cage lately, because it seems it will agree to anything that fits his schedule to pay off all the...

The vast majority of Oscar winners I was able to find with a netflix subscription several years ago, but there were a few that were nearly impossible to get ahold of. The only way I was able to find this one was to order the DVD on ebay from a Korean company that had made a...

Nominated for 12 Oscars, winner of 6 including best picture. This war based film was credited by Winston Churchill as doing more for the war effort than a fleet of ships. The title character is played by Greer Garson who won the Oscar and set the record for the longest acceptance...

I really wasn't quite sure what genre to place this film in before watching it. I thought it might fit best into drama or western, and I went ahead and watched it in western/war month. Now that I've seen it, I can definitely say that mystery is the best category for it. Which...

Western/War month has been a great for me to watch some old Oscar winners. This one is about the state I was born and raised in, and I'm really glad I watched it. Winner of three Oscars and nominated for seven this film. Starring Richard Dix an RKO Pictures star in this era,...

The first year of the Academy Awards there were two separate categories for Best Picture. Best Production and Best Unique Production, where Best Production is more of a movie for the masses... a statistic that is basically captured by box office statistics nowadays and arguably...

I've seen a few confusing films while attempting to finish all of these movie lists. The hardest of course has been the 1001 movies to see before you die book, which features a number of foreign film, avant-garde, experimental, and just plain strange films. First director that...

This is more like the western I expected. A film I'm sure I have seen parts of on television before. Clint Eastwood stars in a film about a man with no name that rides into a town and brings along some western justice. Eastwood's unnamed character strolls into town, goes to...

I'm not sure if I should bring it up now... or after 10 more westerns... but there always seems to be a theme of the age of the west and the cowboy dying out. This was John Wayne's final film. A western hero in many films his character is the culmination of all of his works...

Directed by Marc Abraham [Producer of Air Force One and Children of Men just to name a few], and starring Greg Kinnear [As Good as It Gets and Little Miss Sunshine], comes a film about a college professor and engineer/inventor who invents the intermittent windshield wiper. A...

I started Western/War Movie Month off with a very popular film on the other side of the world. Part of the ilmdb modern 250 and winner of numerous awards in Asia, this epic war film has been compared to a Korean Saving Private Ryan. The production values, sound effects, and...

It is almost offensive to me that this film is labeled as a children film and was able to get a PG rating. This animated film is not for an under 10 audience. If you weren't sure what this was about read the movie poster, directed by Gore Verbinski, the same director from the...

I've been meaning to see this one for a little while now, it actually helped me finish watching all Oscar winners of the last decade. The film is directed by and starring Ed Harris, and he was nominated for an Oscar... but the winner was Marcia Gay Harden for actress in a supporting...

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