My Favorite Movies

The best movie of all time. A great array of fantastic characters, and amazing Francis Ford Coppola direction guide the movie to greatness. An absolutely amazing film that's done perfectly. Everyone needs to see this movie.

This is Spielberg's best movie if you ask me. It's got some eye opening battle sequences that many others have tried to copy or emulate since, and only a few of them have touched spielberg's sequences. By touched I mean barely getting close to getting the same feel for their battle sequences. Not to mention the movie has some great writing and you pretty much care about all of the characters on the U.S. side. A tremendous achievment.

An awesome action sci-fi flick that is probably one of the best movies period of all time.

A great modern classic that absolutely deserved every award it won. An incredible film.

One of my all time favorites. An amazing sci-fi action movie that manages to be a gut wrenching drama, a nail biting thriller, and an unpredictable character driven plot. An unusual but an incredible combination of genre's that works, to the utmost. It also manages to pull off some amazing technical feat's including two, unbroken, 10 minute shots. An amazing film.

A monumental film that will be watched for years, possibly even centuries to come. An incredibly depressing, but an extremely well done movie that brings to life the holocaust with vivid, horrifying detail. An amazing film.

Another great David Fincher movie. Pitt gives a fantastic, darkly funny performance while Norton is equally good in his more low key role. A colorful alignment of characters and some interesting plot twists move this movie from from good to great.

This is a very odd movie that works to the utmost. Carrey gives a great performance, even in the dramatic scenes. His character works very well. Kate Winslett was perfect for her part as well, and there are many other great actors that fit perfectly into their roles, even if their roles are small. Some great writing from the always odd Charlie Kaufman, and some fantastic, off put, direction from Michael Gondry bring this movie to greatness. A really cool, new age, dramedy. Definetely one to see.

An amazing film that is unbelievably engrossing through its incredible performances and its interesting mystery that is different from anything I've ever seen before. An absolute must see, an incredible film.

Probably the most enjoyable action movie of all time. The movie that made Bruce Willis a star was definetely for a good reason. A great, thrilling, exciting, and a thouroughly enjoyable romp through a sky scraper where one man gets to kill a butt load of bad guys. It's done fantastically and if you haven't seen it, you need to go and watch it, right now. An awesome, amazing, exciting action movie for the record books.

It's three hours of mostly people talking and this movie manages to pull it off! The quick editing is probably what makes it entertaining, but it also offers up some great acting from a great cast which includes, Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, and Kevin Bacon, as well as many others. A masterpiece, one of the best of all time.

I was first interested in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Let's call it "Assassination" for short) since I saw the first teaser trailer over a year ago in some random summer 2006 movie... Then the movie was delayed for almost a full year, and I hadn't really thought about it much until I read a couple early reviews for it back about a month and a half ago that where both extremely positive. That's what brought it back into the back of my head as movies that I was pretty interested in seeing. About three weeks after reading those reviews, I stumbled upon a new batch of trailers that had been released for the movie and I figured I'd watch them since I hadn't really seen anything besides a 1 minute teaser for the movie and that was it. After seeing that first full length trailer I was absolutely dying to see the movie. And so, I did, I saw it while it was still in very limited release (5 theaters in the country) and I'm glad I did. Here's my review of "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford".

Director Andrew Dominik is a fairly unknown director. The only other movie I've seen of his was a very peculiar film, that was also a "bio-pic" about a notourious person in crime called "Chopper". "Chopper" is totally, abosolutely, utterly different than this film, however if you analyze the way the violence is done in this film and look at the way it's done in "Chopper" it's not to hard to see atleast a similarity in style. That movie is pulpy, and more of a dark comedy than anything else, where as "Assassination" is one of the darkest, deepest, most depressing movies I've ever seen. It delves into our human obssessions with fame, the horrible cost that comes with fame, and the power of jealousy, hatred, and paranoia. The film itself is well made in every right and Dominik was a perfect choice to direct and I dont doubt that he'll be getting more work soon. The slow pacing of the movie will definitely bug some people, but it really didnt bother me much, however it did get a bit tedious to sit through for about 20 or 30 mins before the title of the film is carried out. Other than that time I wasn't bored at all. The film needed to be as slow as it was. The first half isn't really slow at all. It starts off with a fifteen minute or so introduction to all the characters and then "The Train Robbery" sequence ensues which is a pretty amazing thing to put near the front of any movie. It's unlike any action scene I've ever seen before because it's really more just beautiful and tense than it is actually violent, which is really an interesting technique that is used through a lot of the movie. This scene really sets the stage for the rest of the movie, and what's interesting about the beginning is that it actually marks the end of Jesse James's career as a major outlaw, so this is the only "James" robbery we see in the entire film.

In the introduction for the film one of the most important things to remember is that the narrator says that because all of the James gang except Jesse and one of his brothers had been thrown in jail or killed they where forced to use petty thieves and low lives in their crew. You will not like anyone in this movie. There isn't a single actually genuinely likeable character, there is no clear cut good guy, there is no bad guy really. Jesse James is not a nice man, and Robert Ford is not evil. They are both extremely unlikeable but in different ways. All of the other side characters are just nasty people and you don't really care when they are killed off. This may seem like a bad thing, but its not at all. It actually makes this movie very similar to "Unforgiven" because it shows this absolute nasty, and totally unglamourous side of the old west. Not to mention it makes a myth like man (Jesse James) and shows him as he was, a flawed, paranoid man who lead the life of a criminal, and it treats none of the other characters any nicer. The best word to describe this movie would have to just be "honest" because that's exactly what it is. It shows people as they where. Nothing less, nothing more, and in general these people are really slimy nasty people.

Roger Deakins does an amazing job with the cinematography for the film and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this movie wins the "Academy Award" for "Best Cinematography". Some of the scenes in this film are breathtaking, and he always does a great job at using lighting to help creat mood. This is a handsome film, no doubt about it.

Nick Cave also does a great job on the music in the film. However it almost seems like Dominik replayed two of the songs Cave composed way too many times because by the end you felt like some of the music gets repetitive, but still this isn't Cave's fault so I'm not going to blame him for that. During the darker scenes his music shines brightly, and it definitely helps to create the slow, brooding mood of the film.

The acting in the film is nothing but top notch. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck could both potentially be up for "Oscar's" this fall too. Pitt for "Best Actor" and Affleck for "Best Supporting Actor". Sam Rockwell also does a very good job and probably has the third biggest role in the film. He might actually be the most likeable character of them all as "Charlie Ford", Robert's older, dumb brother. You actually probably feel most sorry for Robert Ford by the end of the movie, and we understand his motivations for killing Jesse James somewhere in the middle. He's just a confused young kid who is always made fun of and he just wants to be recognized as a respectable man who is remembered by history as a hero. He's very upset to see and hear so many people calling him a coward. The man who kills Ford actually was let out of prison later on because of how poorly society looked on him at this point, and because of how well they looked on James. The truth of it is James wasn't that good and Ford wasn't that bad, and these characters are handled expertly by Pitt and Affleck.

The thing that I've been hearing most is that the film is way too long and way too slow. As I said before it does get a bit tedious, in one part inparticular, but this is a minor complaint considering how well made this film is as a whole, and the fact that it's message is so timeless, and that it resonates so well today. This movie would be interesting if it wasn't based on a true story, but because it is, it's even more interesting. Whenever there is violence Dominik does a good job of simply showing it. He doesn't glorify it, it's not over the top, it's not entertaining, it's actually generally very disturbing, and another thing that's noticeable is that gun shots are louder than they are in most films which definitely makes you feel more uncomfortable during these scenes. This works extremely well considering what this film is trying to get at, as well as the nasty characters that fill this one to the brim.

Overall "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is an interesting study of human nature and it's message is very much alive today. The history in it is interesting, and it's pretty amazing to see such a legend or even a mythical being like "Jesse James" whose name has still been heard by nearly everyone alive today even, reduced to a regular old criminal... It's incredibly interesting to see this on the screen, as well as the history that's covered in detail during the amount of time this movie covers. I loved this movie, and I've never seen anything quite like it. A masterpiece in the western genre, and I think it will be a huge DVD hit and will likely be looked back on later in this century as one of the more interesting films to be released during this time period.

10/10

It's definetely De Palma's best movie because it's in my opinion the best gangster movie of all time. An amazing feet, engrossing, disturbing, real, and entertaining all at once. A fantastic combination. This is one that you can't go on without seeing. An amazing film.

This is probably the best, post seventies 30's gangster movie. Hanks is absolutely fantastic and deserved a nomination. Law works extremely well as the bad guy, and Newman is great as the old crime boss. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig also has a moderetly big part and this was one of his first american movies. The great cast guides the movie along, as well as the great direction from Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and some amazing, dark cinematography. A great film that no one should miss.

One of the weirdest, but most poigniantly depressing films of all time. It's hard to watch at times, but its always interesting, and relentlessly engaging. Watch it if you're prepared to do so.

An extremely thought provoking and disturbing drama based on real events. A very underrated film that deserved much more than it got and its probably one of Spielberg's highest achievments. A great, great film.

This is probably the best movie of 2003. Great battle sequences are perfectly placed in this two and a half hour war flick. Cruise gives a great performance as an American, hired to lead a modern Japanese army against the old style, sword in hand, samurai. The story goes from there and takes an interesting turn. This is a very well done, well executed war flick, and Cruise probably deserved a nomination, while Watanabe's nomination that he got was well deserved. A great film.

First and foremost the movie deserves all of the good reviews its gotten. Definetely the best film of the year as of march boasting a not so much star studded cast but one thats very talented with the likes of Jake Gyllenhall, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo who all lend fantastic performances to the film.

The movie is obviously about the Zodiac killings but the real story is the investigation. One of the most fact based films ever made and one of the best researched as well Zodiac will be an entertaining history class for the record books, at nearly 160 minutes I really don't know how it stayed entertaining, engaging, and suspensful the whole way through. This is Fincher's first movie that I see as being something not only critics and snobbish movie goers will like, but mainstream movie goers should also like it and I now see that Fincher is truly a filmmaker, not just some guy that knows how to make a first rate thriller, but a guy that can also handle the quiet conversations and still keep the story moving along at a nice steady pace.

The look of the movie has fincher written all over it as the guy always seems to be lighting intensive he likes to make his movies look ominous and different and he certainly succeeds with this in Zodiac. Starting with a bang... or ten... the movie shows the killings of a girl and the attempted murder of her boy friend which really sets the mood for the rest of this dark but enjoyable film. Just a side note...people of all sexes and ages, although it might be a little to scary for the really little ones in some parts, will like this movie. There's enough violence to keep younger teens interested and enough interesting discussion, and information to keep any adult happy. Some people might dislike the length but it didn't bother me in the slightest, this is a total epic when it comes to serial killer flicks. I don't think that I've ever seen a serial killer movie that pays this much attention to detail and thats done as well as Zodiac is... really good stuff...

The story which as I previously stated is about the investigations of the Zodiac murders but has several different story lines. The main one being the story line about the writer of the book Zodiac, written by Robert Graysmith which was actually the basis for this movie. One of the others being the investigations of the murders by detective Dave Tosky of the SFPD. Another which does fade before the end of the film is the story line with Robert Downey Jr. which generally sticks with the main character's story line but occasionally breaks off on its own. The last is not really a story line as it is just several scenes, which is of course the reenactments of the actual Zodiac killings, the scenes aren't really all that graphic to be completely honest but they are all still quite disturbing.

With last years Hollywoodland which was just decent and The Black Dahlia which was terrible, I can understand why people would be turned off of the unsolved case genre but this movie is quite different and actually has a conclusion thats real, not just made up to make it better, and the conclusion is satisfying enough to keep most people happy.

Overall I liked this movie... a lot. It's by far the best film of the year which doesn't say much but I think this will end up somewhere in my top ten as the end of the year comes around. So far I am relatively impressed with 2007 as we've had this film, the very good Breach, and the good Black Snake Moan come out in the downer part of the year I can't wait to see what films fall brings, the rest of March looks great as well. Go see this movie, don't see the crap fest Wild Hogs or the awful Ghost Rider, Zodiac is a quality, interesting film that everyone can at the least appreciate, but that most will think is great.

10/10

It's one of the most original movies I've ever seen. A jail house/death row drama that seems as though it will be a typical, but well done period piece that throws in a sci-fi twist that is wide open to interpretation. It's an extremely interesting, a very touching, and a sometimes disturbing movie that has fantastically colorful characters and wonderful acting from a great cast... An amazing movie...

Probably the best bio-pic of all time. An amazing movie, with amazingly rich characters all around. Fantastic...

One of the most underrated movies of all time. Starring Ethan Hawke and Jude Law before either of them where very well known, and Uma Thurman when she was a little bit less famous. This might explain why no one's heard of this great film. It's a sci-fi/drama, as odd as that may sound. It's great writing, acting, and some pretty awesome direction is definetely what makes the movie. A movie that you can't miss.

A brilliantly done action sci-fi movie. Fantastic and thrilling action sequences provide plenty of entertainment while some great writing and acting move the movie along as though it where a quality drama with engaging and amazing action scenes on the side. The science of the whole thing is well thought out but inaccurate. Still, an absolutely awesome movie. Spielberg is great.