My Favorite Movies

5/2/2008 Update: I've seen my DVD about 7 times already, and I've never gotten tried of it. I'm just going to declare this as my new favorite movie.
---------------------------------------------
I enjoyed this movie far better than expected. At first, I thought "To Live and Die in L.A." was just the name of a Tupac Shakur song--I had no idea it was the name of an actual movie. But besides having a sick car chase (I LOVE car chases!) and Willem Dafoe (who I'd see in anything), my main motivation for buying this movie on Amazon was my all-time favorite TV show, "Miami Vice". In fact, the show's executive producer, Michael Mann, sued William Friedkin for plagerism (Mann lost, but they're good friends now). The similarities are there, but the movie is far grittier and darker than the series could have ever been. As far as morals go, there are literally no good characters in this movie. Everyone's either an antagonist or an anti-hero. The ending has a very good twist, which probably could have set the stage for a sequel, but looking back, it was a wise decision not to (I should also note that on the DVD, there's an alternate ending which was also wisely jettisoned, because it was horrible). The score by Wang Chung (yeah, THAT Wang Chung) is amazing, so is the always fun Willem Dafoe, setting the stage for the villainery typecasting he'd have for much of his career. But the biggest surprise I got out of TLADILA, was the new-found respect I have for William Peterson. It never dawned on me on how cool he was. It's painful to see him go from a character like Richard Chance--a reckless asshole with nothing really to live for, but is so ultra-cool, you gotta love him--to doing....C.S.I. He really should have been a box-office star!

"The Dark Knight" isn't a movie, it's a masterpiece. And I don't mean that in the confines of the comic book genre, oh no! I'm thinking as in "one of the greatest films of the decade" sense of the word. Dark Knight is all about the price Bruce Wayne pays for fighting injustice as Batman. He has only one rule, which is to never take a life, but gets driven to his limit by homicidal madman, The Joker, leaving him at his most flawed. Though he was wonderful in "Batman Begins", I wasn't quite eager to call Christian Bale the best Batman; with Dark Knight, he rightlfuly deserves it. Dark Knight not only successes it's predecessor, but it blows the previous efforts before them, pretty much out of existance (though I still love the first Tim Burton movie). Of the supporting cast, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman make a remarkable return in their respective characters, while as Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal thankfully outshines the only weak link in Batman Begins, Katie Holmes. Amazingly notable is Aaron Eckhart as Gotham City DA Harvey Dent, who becomes as much a central character as Batman or Joker. Dent embodies everything that Bruce Wayne stands for as Batman, only without wearing a mask. But unlike Wayne, Dent is far more vulnerable to his enemies and through tragedy, he would inevitably become the villainious Two-Face. Last, but certainly not least, the late Heath Ledger is the true star of Dark Knight. Of course, to rate him as Joker, you'd have to compare him with the legendary Jack Nicholson's portrayal in the Burton movie. Though there are some similarities, in the end, Nicholson gave it a good effort: Ledger IS The Joker. What makes his performance a work of art, is Ledger losing his soul into the character. He shows exactly why in the comics, The Joker is Batman's greatest and deadliest adversary, than Nicholson ever could. More nightmarish than funny, Ledger paints Joker as a psychopath, whose facial scars widen his 'smile', and wears his clown make-up as war paint. He's emotionless and devoid of all humanity, which makes him both saddistic and tragic. Lord only knows how much further Ledger would have gone, had he not been taken away so prematurely. Other familiar faces also make the rounds, including a brief apperance from Cillian Murphy, reprising Scarecrow. Running at 2 1/2 hours, The Dark Knight is never a dull moment. A flawless masterpiece, highlighted by brilliance.

Easily, the most underrated movie of 2006. A lot of people hated this movie, claiming that they couldn't follow the plot or that it was boring, when really, they're in denial over the fact that they have ADD.

Instead of becoming another "Lethal Weapon" or a "Bad Boys", Michael Mann stuck to his guns and delivered a dark, gritty, and smart crime drama, as only he can do it. As much as I love the 80's TV series, Mann was right not to turn it into a rehash of it, with the pastel suits, the Jan Hammer music, and flammingos. This is not your father's Miami Vice, for this version runs along the lines of Mann's "Heat" and "Collateral". But if you're really a fan of the show, you'd realize that Mann indeed paid homage to the series he didn't create, but nurchered as executive producer. The theme of Crockett letting a woman get the better of him and Tubbs acting as his conscience; the fact that the movie itself is a big-screen remake of the Season One episode, "Smuggler's Blues" (Trudy's trailer park rescue should have been an easy giveaway); and of course, a shootout that happens at the end of almost every episode.

Add that, along with fantastic cinematography and fine performances from the cast...I'm not saying it's a perfect film, but there's NO possible way anyone could hate it, unless they WEREN'T-PAYING-ATTENTION!!! That's what I don't understand about the American film audience: they complain about the lack of good movies, but when a good movie like "Vice" comes along, it gets ignored, while a terrible one is embraced. "Vice" was better than at least 80% of everything released commericially, last year and most people STILL hated it. Not a good look, people!