jonathanstephenson
http://www.flixster.com/user/jonathanstephenson
| Name | Jonathan Stephenson |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| I'm From | New Hampshire |
| Member For | 523 days |
| Last Login | Fri. Jul 25 |
| Profile Views | 2321 |
| MCT Score |
| Movie: | Lord of The Rings, all three, Hair, Alien, Aliens |
|---|---|
| Actor: | Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, |
| Director: | Spielberg, Coppala, Kubrick, Spike Lee, Clint Eastwood |
| Quote: | I don't want to go to heaven if there are no dogs there! |
| I Love Animals, People, Food, Fun, God, Joy, Good Movies, and Family and Friends, I hate racism, sexism, lying, cheating, hating, bullying! |
Jonathan's Recent Reviews
No new reviews. Rate some more movies.
Jonathan's Favorite Movies
2.
The Lion in Winter
PG
One of the all time greatest movies from the score, to the direction, the screenplay to the cinematography just about perfect, the cast is flawless as an ensemble, and the sets are perfect, everyone should put this movie on their must see list!
Jonathan's Movie Scrapbook
Jonathan's Talk
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I recommend you see...
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
by scottposted 4 hours ago -
i aint stopped sellin my body haha i wanna tho, no i walked owt :)
how r u?posted 8 hours ago -
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I recommend you see...
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (The X Files 2)
by ♥ Rita ♥ I have to admit I was really looking forward to seeing this movie and was really disappointed. Mulder was his usual self, but I wasnt impressed with Scully in this movie. I guess I was actually expecting to see aliens.....
Flixster - Share Moviesposted 13 hours ago -
I recommend you see...
The Constant Gardener
by Alexander''Leave this Justin. Go home.''
''I can't go home. Tessa was my home. ''
A widower is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife's murder, big business, and corporate corruption.
Ralph Fiennes: Justin Quayle
Rachel Weisz: Tessa Quayle
Powerful, emotional and political Constant Gardner is hard for me to watch due to it's material yet i couldn't look away. It had me crying and hurting inside and all from the journey of one man trying desperately to find an answer to his wife's demise. I mean it's a nightmare and a love story that sadly is severed but you still feel through flashbacks that there is a connection.
Brilliant acting from its two lead roles Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, two of the best of my heart and this country.
Ralph's performance and accent as Justin is top standards while Weisz as Tessa shines like she did in Fountain and shows a performance worthy of the Oscar she plucked from her emotionally charged portrayal told sadly but effectively in past tense.
The romantic portion of the film was immortalized by the two characters Justin and Tessa, (Ralph & Rachel). Their first meeting was dynamically presented as Tessa was a social activist heckling Justin as he was making a political speech. When the hall was cleared, however, it was Justin who was actually comforting Tessa after her outburst. The juxtaposition of the placid, passive Justin versus the fervent, hyper-kinetic Tessa was brilliantly established in that opening scene.
The strands of thriller and social realism are inextricably tied together in the film. As a whodunit, The Constant Gardener seeks to uncover what actually happened to Justin and Tessa on their African journey. At the same time, the main culprit that emerges is the heavy hand of greed as the pharmaceutical companies exploit helpless victims of tuberculosis for the purpose of testing and marketing an experimental drug. At one point in the film, it is disclosed to Justin that the pharmaceutical industry is no different than arms dealers.
This film truly rewards its audience as it works on so many levels. Like Crash you won't be able to stop pondering over every thing you've just seen. The politics here are engaging and bound to stir up even the most complacent viewer. What's even more amazing is that all of the timely political discourse and subsequent thriller aspects of the film,courtesy of the source material, John Le Carre's novel, are wrapped up in an immortal romance. We the audience join Fiennes on his journey across Africa, and we rediscover the love story between he and his wife that ties the film in a poetic realism usually reserved for movies with much less on their minds.
To top it off, it's all delivered in the maddeningly genius Meirelles style that took critics and audiences by storm in his debut masterpiece City of God. We have the shaky hand-held camera darting through vibrant and colorful third-world locales juxtaposed with jaw-droppingly gorgeous aerial photography of Africa in all its glory. Meirelles again shows us he is a true artist and visionary willing to show both the shocking beauty and abject horror of the people and places that populate his films. Again he delivers a message that people are doing horrible things to each other, everywhere.
With City of God he seemed to be saying the only hope is to document and record it. The Constant Gardener makes that argument again and takes it one brilliant step forward. We may not be able to stop a war or a huge global injustice, but we do have the power to help one person at a time. It takes a courageous film to make such a statement, and a brilliant film-maker to deliver it, and that's just what The Constant Gardener achieves.
Fine performances that reside in Constant Gardner not only come from it's two leads but come from Bill Nighy who manages not to be funny, Danny Houston who's in loads of good films recently, and Hubert Kounde who proves it's the quiet ones you got to watch.
Constant Gardner hurts to watch, performances yes it's five stars, but i think it's a movie that is all to real, and for me that hits to close to the mark, to life.
Losing a loved one is a very hard thing for me and to watch another man go through that, it hurts so much and sets me off, until I'm a quivering mess.
The hopelessness, the injustice and that sometimes your enemy, the ones you were fighting are right back at home. In this regard CG is very clever and it's message hits home with a bitter aftertaste and a sharp pain tearing point.
Don't think i could watch this too often due to its realistic and then rather sad finish but it's a masterpiece nonetheless.
Like that last gun shot and blackness, Constant Gardner has one shot, and by heck it takes it!Don't like watching this too often but I think it was necessary in light of being necessary.
A Masterful film from the man who made City Of God.
Ralph Fiennes & Rachel Weisz are incredible.
Love never dies. It lives on inside us, that's the magic of Constant Gardner.
Sorry for going on and on,
Have a good weekend friends :) !posted 18 hours ago -
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I recommend you see...
Kate & Leopold
by Fabio"Kate & Leopold" is not a top quality film, but has some seriously funny and entertaining moments.
The best part of this movie by far is Hugh Jackman.Hey, you should really see this!
posted 1 day ago -
Hey - try this quiz and see how we compare
Do U know Miranda Cosgrove and Jamie Lynn Spears????posted 1 day ago -
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I recommend you see...
The Dark Knight
by Alexander
''You just couldn't let me go could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.'' Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.
Christian Bale: Bruce Wayne / Batman
Heath Ledger: The Joker
The Dark Knight basically begins from where Batman Begins left us last time. Things have changed and a new maniacal nemesis is at large. Cleverly we are instantly thrown into a ensuing bank robbery with some sharp modern music. The first segments of Dark Knight already firmly establish this is going to be a piece of unrivaled greatness.
When we get onto Batman and his antics we find that he has been imitated by others and his old friend Scarecrow is still up to no good, with shifty dealings. What follows are some brilliant action pieces blended with superb acting, with Actors of class under Nolan's direction being used to perfection.
Christian Bale as the dual identity Bruce & Batman, really shows us he's settled into the role. Giving a deep growling Batman with beast like grating tones and a seemingly unlimited strength and fury. As Bruce Wayne, on the outside to Gotham he's still that rich, complacent playboy who's living the life of luxury and at the same time burdening responsibilities and dark secrets.
Maggie Gyllenhall as Rachel Dawes was for me one of the disappointments of Dark Knight. I'm sorry but she may be a fine actress but she just wasn't attractive enough, her acting isn't question, it was alright, hardly memorable. I reckon they should of stayed with Katie Holmes for this sequel, for then even the people that didn't like her in the role would be happy, considering the outcome at least. I on the one hand wasn't phased when push came to shove and said character was gone from play, in my mind she did start to slow down the film.
Now Heath Ledger playing Joker, what can I say? Partly the huge success and interest has been due to this great Actor's performance being witnessed. After all this is Heath's last film he finished. Going on to his performance as Joker I have to say he is perfection, everytime he's on screen he's mesmerizing, every little thing he does which ranges from the sick depraved to the downright mad. Heath Ledger was a chameleon, a method actor, who had the ability to change, to shape himself into any part he played. Dark Knight is one of the finest examples of this, truly blasting Jack Nicholson's version apart and I guarantee an Oscar for him, or for his memory and in honour of this talent. I loved how immersed Heath had become in the Joker even giving us details to how his face had gotten into it's current state and his abusive childhood and father. Whenever we have a villain there is always a reason to how he got to that point and Nolan uses Heath to get this across effortlessly.
Joker never seized to make me laugh in appreciation despite what could be considered sick antics, I considered genius.
Who else could do a pen trick with someone's head? Dress as a nurse with a silencer in hand and his clownish face glistening? Hide in a body-bag to infiltrate a mob boss's joint? Who else could immortalize Batman's most famous nemesis Joker? Without a doubt Heath Ledger bar none.Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face was a really interesting character. He played this politician extremely well, with all his good intentions and honourable ways, Harvey hides a dark side too. References to his coin are used regularly and help us understand the reasons for his later fascination with chance and luck deciding fate. I think Harvey Dent was covered nicely in this, getting across the whole growing hate he supposedly receives from Batman after he saves him and unfortunately Rachel isn't so lucky. Two-face, Harvey's alter-ego to my mind wasn't really that developed which is understandable given the amount of detail here to cram in and what with the Joker unleashed Nolan still does a top notch job. The effects on his face were breath-taking although I was starting to worry that Dark Knight maybe becoming unrealistic and veering towards more cartoony details in it's villains. But same with Batman Begins the Scarecrow was slightly more comic like and I found the whole realism in both Begins and Dark Knight to be a major achievement to me.
Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon really excelled in his role this time. Not only does Gordon have more to do but he's in this awesome trio of Harvey, Bats and himself working together to save and help Gotham. I'm really pleased Gary Oldman & Heath Ledger got to do a scene together too, not to mention Bale too. The chemistry they all share and the talent rocketed through anything and everything. Nolan cleverly keeps the aspect of Gordon's family being important to him and later we remember this, and it helps us relate to his character when things unravel.
Morgan Freeman & Michael Caine seem to have less to do this time round. With Caine taking most of the first half of the movie while Freeman takes the 2nd half to his chest.
The Dark Knight was everything I expected it to be and it's certainly the dark masterpiece I predicted, but I do get the feeling that it's been overly hyped for what it consists of. See it not just for Heath's performance which is a defining and immortalized, but also see it because Dark Knight is the greatest comic book/graphic novel to movie ever. DC comics & Warner Bros. must be beaming right now with this piece of gold.
Dark Knight really does have the last laugh. An astonishing achievement that really does follow up a masterpiece. Let's face it, a sequel is coming, without the need to get Two-Face to call it for us, we know it's coming Nolan.
Perfection.
Heath Ledger is getting an Oscar in his memory for this! What a performance!! Dark Knight truly is the shining beacon of DC and the best Batman yet.
Christian Bale was an angry beast of a Batman once again while Aaron Eckhart & Gary Oldman give star quality acting.
Maggie Gyllenhall only did one thing right.
(So unattractive, seriously...-sigh-)
Besides that hiccup...Masterpiece!posted 1 day ago -
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