Pulp Fiction

Goes hand in hand with Apocalypse Now as the two greatest films ever made. There are not enough good things I can say about this movie, the characters are the greatest ever, the separate stories are incredibly compelling and are good enough to stand by themselves but instead of one you get 4, by Grabthars Hammer what a savings. It is great how all the stories connect and at what point they occur in the timeline. There are many movies that try to pull this off such as Crash, but none of them do it as well as this one I know there are many people out there, including my mother, that say, “its just violence” and that this movie is terribly violent. The fact is that this movie is not that violent, sure there are a few violent scenes but it is nothing compared to other movies like Rambo. It is just perfect, the dialogue, the violence, and the parts that are absolutely ridiculous including Z.

Vertigo

F***ing Hitchcock is how my one classmate described this movie. Vertigo is definitely a very interesting movie. Even though the plot is completely ridiculous it still wraps you in and you are wondering what happens next. I can’t even begin to describe the plot, a man hires an ex detective with vertigo to follow his fake wife who he claims is possessed by a dead relative that killed herself at 26 years of age. As you can see the plot is totally absurd but, that could be why the movie is so compelling. You can definitely see that Hitchcock is at work here crafting great suspense and some classic twists that I didn’t see coming. This is one of those movies that does not fit into any genera, it is part romance and part thriller. The only problem I had with this film was the corny music that played whenever they kissed, and James Stuart is one terrible kisser, I mean did you see how he just kind of sucked on her cheek.

The Graduate

Wow was Dustin Hoffman young in this movie. This movie was very good and once again I don’t understand why it took me so long to finally see it. This was a great film by Mike Nichols but it was not my favorite one. I enjoyed Closer and Angels in America more than the Graduate but it is still a great movie. It was an odd movie because it had the whole Hollywood love story thing at the end but then as they are sitting there on the bus they realize that they may have made a mistake. It is this point that made the movie unique and great, my only real problem was the overuse of Simon and Garfunkel, sure they had some decent songs in there but they did not have to play them 5000 times. Besides the repetitive use of some of the songs I have no real complaints about this movie. It is definitely worth watching, and the soundtrack is memorable besides the few songs.

The Bourne Ultimatum

When comparing this film to others in the genera it blows most others out of the water, excluding John Mclean though, Bruce Willis is still the ultimate. But it would be interesting to see who would win in a death match between Jason Bourne and John Mclean. You have the crazy fighting skills of Bourne but then on the other hand you have the extreme resourcefulness and downright craziness of Mclean, it would be the battle to end them all. But when looking at other action films such as some of the James Bonds or the Rambo movies, the Bourne movies seem to be leagues ahead in both their finesse and choreographed action. This movie was very technical impressive, the editing was insane and the sound was great. It won 3 Oscars for sound, and editing and they were all well deserved. This is a very well made and put together movie, maybe not the most thought provoking but it is definitely entertaining and that is the point of an action movie, to entertain.

Apocalypse Now

Simply put, this film is one, if not the best film ever made. I believe that this movie was the peak of Copola’s career, even greater than the Godfather. Sure the Godfather was great but it did not have as much substance as this film. This film has so much to it that you can watch it over and over again. It is just so weird and so crazy that it is impossible not to appreciate its greatness. Anyone who says it is terrible just has not opened there eyes wide enough to see an amazing film starring them in the face. I prefer the theatrical version to the Redux version simply for the one scene at the French house. There are other great scenes added into the Redux version but that one scene is the only problem. If the Redux did not contain that one scene then it would be superior to the original. Overall between this film and Pulp Fiction these are the two greatest films ever made. Apocalypse now achieves a perfection that no other movies achieve.

Hearts of Darkness

After watching this you figure out how Apocalypse Now turned into such a crazy and amazing movie. You really get to see how insane everyone became during the making of the movie. Some had breakdowns and heart attacks, others got into speed and many other things. According to Copola he was making a terrible movie that would never turn out, but he kept making it. During the filing they filmed something like 240 hours and that was condensed into 2 hours and 30 min. You wonder how it is possible to cut out that much and still make an amazing film. The conditions they filmed in were almost very similar to Nam, and it drove them all crazy just like Nam. One thing that puzzled me was that when they were filming the dinner scene with the French Copola stopped it and said that they should all forget they ever filmed that because he disliked it so much. But for some reason this footage was included in the redux version which made no sense to me because it was not a good scene and I can see why Copola disliked it.

The Shining

Surprisingly I had never seen this movie until we watched it in class. My one friend was always riding my ass and harassing me about not seeing it. Well his harassing was definitely worth it, this was an awesome movie. Stanly Kubrick is one of the greatest filmmakers alive; he has conquered almost every film genera. He has one of the best science fiction movies out there as well as some of the best, war, comedy, drama, and horror movies. This movie was almost perfect with its execution, pacing, and acting. The atmosphere that the hotel created was awesome and perfect. A large empty and scary place filled with rotting women, elevators filed with blood, and an axe. What I have heard about the ending in the book I prefer the ending in the movie. It seems much more fitting that the hotel is left standing to torment many more people. Definitely one of the greatest horror movies of all time and one of Jack Nicolson’s most memorable roles.