All That Jazz

So I am watching something very weird and kinda sexually explicit in it's own way.
All That Jazz is about a man who won Oscars and other awards for writing/directing/choreographing.
It is obviously about musical theatre and some of the dance seems are awesome but there are a few weird scenes where you're just staring and going 'What the ****'. As soon as this happened I started to dislike the film.
There's a lot of wannabe comedy in this film that is just overdone and too long. I don't think that a film about someone's life can or should ever be classed as not very good, so i'll just settle for the word that I have already used a lot in this post-weird.
All That Jazz tries to show musical theater embracing all types of relationships but the way that they tried it was not the best.
I applaud it for trying but because it is a semi autobiography of someone's life, it's hard to tell if everything in the film was similar to this mans life or if the weird bits were just made up by the director- who by the way is the man that this film is kinda about.
I don't feel that I can fairly make a decision about this film- watch it and make up your own minds.
What i will say is that this film has a fabulous soundtrack!

Seven brides for Seven brothers

I don't remember why or how this ended up on the list but it did and i decided to watch it yesterday.
If you haven't seen this film then you aren't really missing much. A man called Adam has six brothers and he goes in to town to find himself a wife. He doesn't really want a wife, he wants a cook but anyway, he marries this woman and takes her back to his family home where his brothers also still live.
She teaches them etiquette and various things like that and they all end up getting married.

This film has a fairly terrible story line and is one of the worst musicals i have seen. The dance sequences are way to long, as is some of the singing. You can tell that a film is bad when all it's dances are too long and unnecessary.
The story isn't particularly gripping and there are times when you are sitting there asking yourself what the point is in this particular scene or even a series of scenes.
The trick to musicals is to make the dancing related to what's going on. So in the sound of music, she is taking the out in Vienna which they don't do very much if at all. The dance scene shows their journey in Vienna and has an entertaining song to go with it. In this film the dances often don't have any words with it so you need the dancing to be spectacular (which it possibly may have been for that period in time) and to be reasonably short.

I have seen worse films and worse dances and i would be wrong to say that this is a aweful film, it's just not up there with the other musicals.

Until next time...

Bonnie and Clyde

The much referenced movie has finally arrived on fooltheeyefoolthebrain film challenge.
We added it to the list to see why it was referenced so much and now i understand.
Bonnie is a woman who in the first scene appears naked at the window to watch a man (Clyde) try and steal her mothers car.
Bonnie asks Clyde what he does and so he tells her that he spent some time in prison for armed robbery. He shows her the gun and goes in to a store to prove it and everything kicks off from there.

Public enemies is the film that springs to mind when i think of this film. They have a similar story line. Bonnie and Clyde team up with a car mechanic and Clyde's brother and wife to form the gang that rob banks. They spend their time on the run and eventually some of them die or get arrested.

Yes it is rated 18. No it doesn't have any sex in it  unless i managed to miss it completely (which is very possible).  There is a lot of shooting but not much else so i can't work out why it is rated 18 but anyway- it is.

Warren Beatty does a fantastic job as Clyde (not to mention everything else that he does).
Joined by Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway they create a cast that is almost equal to Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and the team that are in public enemies.
Gene Wilder as a addition to the cast makes everything perfect and I have to say that the film is excellent. It has a decent ending and a simple enough story line with nothing unnecessary.
It may be old but it is the rock of the belief that old films can be just as good as newer ones.

I would encourage you all to watch it- especially if you watch things that constantly have bonnie and clyde references in them.

Night all!

The Untouchables

Kevin Costner and Sean Connery act opposite Robert Di Niro in what turned out to be a film of true class.
Police officers Ness (Costner) and Malone (Connery) along with two other members of his team, Andy Garcia and the accountant swear to catch Al Capone (Di Niro) whatever it may cost.

The 1987 film is pure class. Connery is breathtaking in his role and the only part i had to skip was straight after his death. There are a few moments when you think 'why don't you just shoot the guy instead'. If he had shot the guy then he wouldn't have died but then i guess it wouldn't have added to the drama in the way that it did.
Garcia and Costner are the only two that are left alive in the end but Costner comes close to dying several times purely by the amount of times her was shot at or the amount of times someone held a gun to him.

The four man team tries to find a reason to bring Capone in and they settled for Tax fraud. The film shows their travels and journey towards bringing him in and like LA confidential shows how officers of the law can be bought and can be corrupt.
One of the better films of the 1980's and worth watching if you haven't already seen it.

Get Shorty

So if I had been slightly intelligent, I would have realised that this is the prequel to Be Cool and I would've watched this one first and posted it first.

I loved this film. I loved them both. The addition of Danny DeVito is awesome and deffinately warrants the name get shorty. I love how they managed to link the two films together at the end.

Travolta's role as a loan shark that switches to producing movies is a genius role. Travolta has that look that can kill if he wants to. He makes people more gangster than him shake with fear at the sight of him. Style and elegance and linked with his character as well as a love for films that kinda reminds me of Tony Dinozzo from NCIS.
Gene Hackman manages to play one of the guys that is more mouth than brains and because Travolta is there to clean up his mess he comes out of it ok. Hackman was also great in his role, but nothing beats Rene Russo as a smart actress that can read people and understands films a lot better than Hackman's character. She ends up producing it and being Travolta's women of the film.

This film is worthy of the nominations it received. A refreshing break from serious gangster films that are more shooting than actual film, Get Shorty provides entertainment and action in just the right balance.

Be Cool... It's all about the suit.

John Travolta and Uma Thurman make one of the coolest films i've spent my Saturday evening watching.
Be cool allows John Travolta to show how it's done. We all know him from Grease where we were a bit like... catchy music, he's obviously not 17 but thinks he's totally cool. Personally I loved Travolta in the role but it's good to see him in other things. I've seen him in Ladder 49 with Joaquin Phoenix and I was impressed with both of them. I'm not used to seeing him without a gun but boy was i impressed with him!
Travolta is superb in this film an I can't wait to watch Get Shorty which is the next one up!
Uma Thurman also surprises me because so far the only thing I have seen her in is Kill Bill (which was superb). Seeing her without a samurai sword killing loads of people is a nice change. Her fluid transition from killer to beautiful woman working along side Travolta is pleasing to the eyes. I love it when I get to see actors trying a different thing, style and genre of film.
Vince Vaughn again is different, playing the white man that thinks he isn't white. He is laughable and somewhat impressive in how he manages to pull it off. I enjoy watching him play this character more than watching Chris Tucker in any film!
I take my hat off to all of them for making a really cool film that isn't super gangster-y and challenges all of them.

I am trying to make these reviews more like real reviews and so i haven't included the synopsis but i'm sure that you can find it on IMDB or Wikipedia.
I would recommend this film to anyone. I think that anyone can enjoy watching this film and i'm really glad that it was put on the list by Esther because some of the films on this list have been disappointing and very much not worth watching, but this is a nice change and perfect for a Saturday night.

It's also nice to know that Travolta made a decent film before he made Hairspray. There comes a point when actors reach their prime ( some sooner than others) and you start to think that they wont make a good film again, but Travolta is keeping up with the pressure of making good films.