Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Rating: 95%
So I was taking my Editing Asthetics class, we eventually went on to take a look at the genre of westerns. And in the eyes of my teacher, there was little to no better western to show us then the one that is said to be the last great western before the genre was replaced by Star Wars; Once Upon a Time in the West.

Plot: A former prostitute named Jill comes to a town called Flagstone to meet her new husband and his family. But she learns that the whole family has been killed by hired gunman and thus is the owner of her husband's land. Eventually, she finds out that a railroad tycoon is behind hiring the men that killed her husband and his family and ends up allying with a bandit named Cheyenne and a mysterious gunman whom she calles 'Harmonica' to find out why he had them killed and stop them.

Okay what can I say about this movie that probably hasn't been said to death from people who've seen this movie years before I did? Even if it probably is longer then it should be by today's standards, they make all the moments where there's hardly any dialogue work with all the emotions from the actors and the music that's playing throughout the film. It has some of the known cliches in westerns such as the hero wearing white and the villain wearing black, but the actors do an excellent job in giving us reason to root for them. It's my understanding that this is the only time Henry Fonda is a villain where he's a hero in just about everything else he is in, and while I can't say I'm familiar with his career, it's clear to me that he does a great job in showing that his character is a cold-blooded killer. My teacher particularly praise Claudia Cardinale a lot for her performance as Jill, and I have to agree that she did give some very good acting moments...even when her goals and alliances seemed rather fuzzy at times. And while, this movie didn't exactly have a ton of action, it still gave us some exciting moments at the time where we did have gun fights. And finally, this movie had some great cinematography and was very well edited. Again, it may be considered too long today, but it's clear that they made it work with what scenes they had that made it so long.

And that's my review for Once Upon a Time in the West. I admit that I'm not so knowedgable about westerns to begin with that I can agree with what is commonly said about it, or about Henry Fonda, but with what my teacher explained and what I found for myself, it is a very good western that has great acting, wonderful cinematography, and good action that may justify the claim that it really is the last great western before Star Wars. If you haven't seen it, I'd say it's worth a shot to watch and get to know what many filmmakers/geeks before me love so much about it.

Magnolia (1999)

Rating: 80%
Well since I am finally finished with my Editing Asthetics class, I should hopefully have more time to review much more movies then I recently have been able to. (sorry about that.) Now there's been a couple of movies that I've watched in that class that I haven't seen before and thus would like to share my thoughts about them in my next couple of reviews. And I would like to start that with the last movie we saw in class which is also by far the most peculiar out of all the movies we watched and possibly one of the strangest movies I ever seen: Magnolia.

Plot: Magnolia contains a series of stories that are connected, roughly like in Cloud Atlas and Love Actually. The main stories have to do with a police officer who begins to fall in love with a drug addict, the addict's father who is dying of cancer, a boy who is in a game show, an old man dying who is trying to reach his son whom he left a long time ago, and his wife who married him because of his money.

What really makes this movie so enjoyable are the stories and the characters. While I was preferring some more then others, there is no denying that almost each and every one of them does a great job at getting you hooked and wanting to see more of the story and what happens to these characters. That's not to say some stories/characters could've had more work then what they gave us. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character Phil for example debatably didn't have a whole lot of clear motivation to help Earl find his son, and this young African American kid ESPECIALLY gave a mixed message as to what his goals where and how he achieved what we partially think those goals are from what little we saw from him. (at least in the view of me and my fellow classmates who have only seen the movie once as of now.) Anyway, the acting in this movie is terrific. This film has a great cast, with actors like Julianne Moore, Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (as I've already mentioned) and even Tom Cruise who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. In fact, a good portion of the editing has a lot of moments where they mostly don't cut at all whenever an actor or a pair of actors give a very deep and emotional performance and the editor was right to do that. The most notable performances to me seem to be Julianne Moore and Tom Cruise. With Moore, she probably had the most time in the film to express how tortured her character is about how she feel about her husband dying and how she takes a look back at all the years she's been married to him. This also suggests for me that there's just much more to this actress then what I already know from Crazy, Stupid, Love and her brief role in 30 Rock. So maybe I'll look more into her career to see how much more. Now Tom Cruise...probably gave the best performance that I've ever seen him do. And that's saying a lot. Now that's not to say I haven't seen him give some good performances before, but I guess with this movie, I feel I got to see him go all out and really, truly act in possibly the best way that he can. All the different kind of emotions and body movement he did, he gave his all at and it was very enjoyable to see that...even if the beginning of his breakdown later in the film kind of made him sound like a panting dog. *audience boos* I'm really sorry but he did. He was still great and all, but that was still a little distracting. Anyway, with all this said and done, this makes the film very enjoyable...but then we have the problems that make it very strange. Without giving too much away, the movie takes a completely different turn rather then gives us a genuine climax and after that turn, they kind of just give us the ending of the stories. Even before that, the first 5-7 ish minutes tells us these stories that have little to do with any of the characters throughout the rest of the film. I know I'm not entirely saying a lot about what happens, but these certain things become a problem because when you think about what the movie is trying to do on the grand scale of things is not very clear. My professor and classmates have their own opinions like  the film was just 'trying to be symbolic' or that it was 'like Love Actually but with no message' or as my professor bluntly put it, 'life sucks, and then you die'. So it varies as to what you may see in this movie in what it was trying to do as a whole.

And that's my review for Magnolia. You may have trouble with it with what the meaning of it was and might not really like it as a whole, but what makes it enjoyable despite the confusion is the great acting and interesting stories that it's giving you throughout most of the movie. It's not a great film, but for the kind of certain entertainment it gives, it's worth a try if anything.

The Frozen Ground (2013)

Rating: 60%
So a couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends Candra found this movie and recommended that I go watch it. So after I got home from class, I took a look and here's how it turned out.

Plot: Based on true events, Sgt. Halcombe has been working on a case trying to catch a serial killer named Robert Hansen. He has trouble trying to arrest him until he comes across a 17-year-old prostitute named Cindy Paulson who managed to escape from Hansen and agrees to try to help Halcombe bring Hansen to justice.

Now where the film sadly falls flat is the fact that it is for the most part predictable. It hits many familiar beats and you have an idea how things will work out for the most part. But what really draws you into this movie is the fact that it's actually based on a true story unlike most mystery and suspense movies that roughly fall into this plot line. So because of that, the story becomes more interesting and you begin to care more for what happens to the characters and it helps you becomes better aware of the terrible fact that there are horrible people like Hansen who do these things. And the acting is surprisingly very good. John Cusack does an excellent job in bringing us this psychotic killer underneath a man who is publicly appearing as a model citizen. Some say that this film was a big improvement for Nicolas Cage in terms of acting and...I don't feel capable of believing that. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't annoying or anything, but I personally have yet to truly get a good idea of what makes a truly good performance from him outside of what I know from his performances in Raising Arizona and Kick-Ass. Guess this leaves all the more reason to watch Leaving Las Vegas sometime soon considering how the won an oscar for his role in that. But the most impressive performance to me was Vanessa Hudges. Considering I only know her from all three High School Musicals, this was an impressive change of pace with her acting. No happy singing along bullcrap, just a performance of a tormented and frightened young woman that is done extremely well. So it was very nice to see her show how great of an actress she can be and here's hoping we can see more performances like that in the future.

And that's my review for The Frozen Ground. It's hardly the most original mystery and suspense film, but it's worth giving a try with the events based on a true story, and the great performances from the main cast.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

Rating: 80%
I know this movie is also a while ago, but I haven't had the chance to really review it because of school and work. So here at last is my review for Kick-Ass 2

Plot: Dave and Mindy has long retired from being Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, but has inspired other ordinary people to become other superheros and help people. But when Red Mist returns and builds an army of supervillains under the named of the MotherF*cker (yes that's really his villain name). It's up to Dave and Mindy to put their masks back on and stop them before they destroy the city.

One of the things that I liked so much about the first Kick-Ass movie that I eventually bought it on blue-ray was how they changed things from the graphic novel. What made many people who loved the comic love the movie even more was how they made changes that made Kick-Ass contain adventure, fun, and comedy whereas the book is more dark and just gives a much more negative look at the genre of superheroes. I can see what they were trying to do when they write these books, but there were a lot of points where they were contained things that went too far just to try to give us their message. And that's where my expectations for this film came in. When I read the graphic novel for Kick-Ass 2 I had a less then pleasant time considering how they went even more too far then the first book with things like the Mother F*cker gunning down little children and things like that. So while I knew this movie wasn't going to be as good as the first one (not that I really wanted it to anyway), I still expected changes that made it more fun action, adventure and comedy unlike the book that still made it a very enjoyable movie to watch. And I'm happy to say that, that's exactly what I got. Not only did they make these changes while still being loyal to the book of Kick-Ass 2, but they also gave us some parts from the book Hit-Girl - which is a book that went between the events of Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2 - and they also gave us less dark moments from those parts from the book and just focused on how Hit-Girl is having a hard time trying to adapt to normal life. The action was awesome, the comedy gave us some pretty cute moments, the different directions they gave us - while questionable at some areas that even created some plot holes - where great, and we got some very fun performances from the MotherF*cker, Kick-Ass, Jim Carry as Colonel Stars and of coarse, Hit-Girl. So with all the things there are that make me consider maybe buying it when it comes out on Blue-Ray and DVD, you could imagine my shock over how it currently has a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, I did not expect it to be better then the first movie but... 30%? Seriously? I've brought this up to one or two of my friends and they all felt the same way. The most reasons that the critics would give seems to be just how they find it witless and doesn't grasp the beauty of violence or...somewhere around that. I guess with them, it's just a matter of different points of view. As for other people who gave their two cents at it, the worst they said was that it just wasn't as original and creative as the first and focused too much and Hit-Girl's drama on trying to adapt to normal life. And that much I can partially agree with. After all, it is a little hard to beat the first one as far goes as killing bad guys with something more crazy and over-the-top then a jetpack with Gatling guns and a bazooka. And while I don't think the Hit-Girl drama went that terribly long, I can see where people would think it went too long.  

And that's my review for Kick-Ass 2. It has the adventure and comedy that may not be as great as the first movie but still gave the right amount that left me especially satisfied with what they did compared to the book. There is no denying that it has its flaws, but I think it's very easy for me to say that giving it such negativity as ranking it a 30% at RT is going very too far. It's not better then the first Kick-Ass movie, but similar to how a lot of us feel about The Dark Knight Rises compared to The Dark Knight or even The Legend of Korra compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it isn't something that I wanted to be better then the first to begin with. I wanted it to be a sequel that did a lot of things right and was enjoyable to watch and that's just what I wanted. You may have your own reasons for liking, disliking or feeling mixed about this movie, but for me, I think it's an underrated movie and I'm still thinking about buying it on Blue-Ray & DVD combo someday.

The Wolverine (2013)

Rating: 70%
Okay  this will be the second to last been-in-theaters-for-a-while movie to review since I have also seen Kick-Ass 2 but also have not come around to reviewing it with school starting and things like that. But anyways, some of you have read my X-men reviews building up to this film more or less, so let's finally get on with my own review for The Wolverine.

Plot: Set after the events of The Last Stand, The Wolverine has gone into hiding and has been summoned to visit Yashida whom he rescued years ago and is currently dying of cancer. Yashida offers  Wolverine a chance to give his healing abilities to him so he can finally eventually die of old age and have a normal life while Yashida lives forever. Before he considers that offer, Yashida dies and his granddaughter Mariko has been put into a hit list and so Wolverine has to protect her while finding out who is trying to kill her.

Now at the end of the day, this is a good Wolverine movie. And a giant improvement from Wolverine Origins. While that film focused on the action and giving us a story everyone who's seen X2 already knows, this one gives us a story that only the comic book readers would know and focused so much more on that and the characters then with all the action, but still give us a good amount of action for us to enjoy. And many Wolverine and/or X-Men fans couldn't be happier after Origins. This is specifically based on a limited series titled Wolverine where basically everything that happened there happens in this film. And while I cannot say I have read it for myself, I know a couple of people who have and they have said that for the most part it was bringing the entire comic to life which is always a good thing when it comes to adaptations. And most importantly the story is good. Just like with what they more or less did with The Dark Knight Rises and Iron Man 3, this film went a little into the different between the hero and the powers when Logan questions whether or not to give up his abilities. Plus like some other Marvel film nowadays, it has a scene during the middle of the credits and I can assure you that you do NOT want to miss it. But as good as all the things that have been said are, everything else was just...mediocre. Aside from Wolverine himself, not to many of the characters really stood out - not that any of them where really bad, but they didn't leave a mark. One characters that comes to mind as an example is the villain Viper. For the most part she played her part well enough to actually be the Viper as some of us know from the comics. But when you compare her to many other villains that have hit the silver screen, she wasn't anything unique. At the end of the day, she was kind of just there just so that Viper has made a theatrical film appearance and that was kind of it. And when we come down to the question as to how The Wolverine stands out from the other Marvel films or superhero films in general, I would have the say that it doesn't do much. It will definitely be a film to treasure for years to come for Wolverine/X-Men fans or people in general who want something better then Origins, but after a while when looking back at what an impact it had for me and probably others, it only has a very small part for Marvel's phase 2 with slightly building up for X-Men Days of Future Past, which when I think of it that way, it may not make such as impact as we would like for years to come. But I certainly hope I'm wrong, because I would like to think this movie will hold up as at least fairly memeorable.


And that's my review for The Wolverine. It's mostly mediocre as a film by itself and possibly not that memorable when you look at the grand scheme of things with what Marvel is doing, but it's still a big improvement for origins with it's more story heavy setting and it's fair amount of action and further development to Wolverine itself while building up to the next X-Men film that makes it a nice film to watch and definitely one to check out as we wait for Days of Future Past. (man I hope that one turns out awesome!)

Pacific Rim (2013)

Rating: 65%
I know this was about a month ago and most of you guys have probably forgotten about it, but I've seen it myself and I want to give my two cents about it. So here's my review for The Transformers vs. Cloverfield. *audience boos* Okay fine! Pacific Rim!

Plot: The world is being attacked by these giant alien creatures called Kaijus and their only defense has been by creating giant robots that have to be piloted by two people called Jaegers. The story mainly focuses on a pilot named Raleigh who lost his brother during a Kaiju and Jaeger fight and is recruited by his commanding officer, Pentecost to come back and find another pilot to assist him as they make their final stand. So Raleigh tries to get back in the game while he tries to have Pentecost's assistant Mako to be his co-pilot.


Now what really makes this movie is in fact the action and what they come up with for the aliens and at least some of the robots. When it comes to the cinematography, the choreography in the fighting, and with the creativity that they did with some of the features that the robots and mainly the aliens had, Pacific Rim stands as something Michael Bay and Hasbro can learn from for if they ever wanted to actually try to make a Transformers movie that works to go with good story and character development. (That’s the only time in this review that I’m bringing in my personal feelings about how The Transformers has been majorly raped. I promise.)  The movements were slow to show how big and massive the robots and aliens were, the camera movement was very still, you can basically see every single thing that was happening. And I really liked what they did with the aliens - especially with how they gave some of them some different abilities. There was one especially that had three different abilities and how they surprised you with its third was is probably the bestpart of the movie in terms of having a very good sense of timing and illusion. I actually saw this movie again with one of my best friends only in IMAX 3D and it came out as one of the VERY few movies like Avatar and Titanic 3D where the 3D really made it a very fun experience. On top of that, it actually had some funny moments. That’s not to say that any joke that was made was beyond hysterical or anything, but it did manage to have a few jokes – usually the ones pulled by Charlie Day - that actually did come out a little funny. I was not really interested in the idea of comedy relief in this movie, but for what they had, it was actually nice. But what really drags this movie are the main characters and the subplots and dialogue that goes with them. Granted, not every single thing about them was a complete cliché, but a lot of what they did was very cheesy and frankly ridiculous in some areas.  The first time I saw this movie was with my dad and my youngest brother and the first thing that my dad said after the movie ended that he even put up on Facebook was “Please, oh please, film makers, stop trying to put dialogue in action movies!!!”  Now that’s not to say that there aren’t action films that have genuinely good dialogue and characters. I know there are good films that have good dialogue. But sadly, they didn't create characters that were different from the kind of characters you've heard of before and some of the things they say and do you can just predict without a care. I mean Pentecost made this big speech that was just so cliched that it particularly left my brother snickering. All around, they need to actually have truly creative, and memorable characters and dialogue to go with them, or otherwise people who make films like these need to bear in mind my dad's request and close to never bother with them at all.

And that's my review for Pacific Rim. It's by no means memorable with its characters, but it proved to have very smart action, the right kind of cinematography, actual comedy here and there, and some fairly well thought of creativity with creating the design and features of the Jaegers and especially the Kaijus that make it a nice film worth watching at least once or twice.

Love Actually (2003)

Rating: 90%
Hello everyone. It's H.A.K.  Sorry It's been over a month since my Godfather part II review, but I've been very busy with two jobs and just enjoying what was left of my summer. But I'm back for hopefully more reviews, and I would like to start off with a film that was shown to me on the first day of my Editing Aesthetics class at film school: Love Actually.

Plot: This film consists of nine different stories all set in Britain that are being told during the weeks before Christmas that all have to do with love. First one is about a rock and roll legend Billy Mack trying to make a comeback with his manager. The second is about  Mark who secretly has feelings for his best friend's newlywed wife. Then we have a stepfather who has just lost his wife  trying to help his stepson get a girl he's in love with to notice him, a managing director having trouble between his wife and his secretary, a server who just wants to find a woman to be with, and...screw it, there's just so many, it's probably better not to name them all.

Now for quite some time, I've believed that there really are only three romantic comedies int he 21st century that are not only original (for the most part in some areas), but ACTUALLY ROMANTIC AND FUNNY!!! Those three being Once, Easy A, and Crazy Stupid Love. In my point of view up till now, these three seemed to be the only ones that actually were well thought off and lived up to their genre during the past 13 years - part of why Easy A and Crazy Stupid Love are one of my favorite films. So I thought there weren't anything else...at least until I saw this move. Not only does this film have some enjoyable acting from a completely British star class, but it has very clever writing with some funny jokes, well thought of characters, and a series of good stories that they give us that all focus on giving us the same message about love. And since this was seen in a class about editing, I will say that I agree with my teacher that the editor does his job very well with giving us all these stories with some very good transactions through cuts and even music at times, and just giving a good amount of balance between them. This is almost 35 minutes shorter then Cloud Atlas and is tackling more stories then that film did, and that makes all the more impressive that way. Granted it's not perfect as how one of my fellow students thought that some stories should've been cut, and I would agree that some of them are rather thin and you seem to forget some of them very quickly. But whenever some of them are seem to be forgotten, it's rarely for too long and they make it so that you can instantly remember them once they're brought back.

And that's my review for Love Actually, it's a well written film that actually succeeds in being a genuine romantic comedy with it's clever jokes an stories that are all connected to state its message about love. You may be lost at some point and forget/dislike some stories depending on your particular experience, but it is otherwise a great romantic comedy, another of the very few I've seen in this century, and is a film from that genre that I would recommend.