Film: Sicario (2015)

 Blu-Ray

Review: This is the first film that I ever saw from the French-Canadian director, Denis Villeneuve. He transformed this genre action thriller into a work of art that combines the great acting of Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin with the beautiful cinematographer of Roger Deakins and tension-filled music of Icelandic composer, Jóhann Jóhannsson. Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent who is roped into a high-stakes cross-border mission to take on a Mexican drug cartel after she uncovers a house full of bodies in Arizona.

Quotes:
"What's our objective?"
"To dramatically overreact."

"What am I doing here?"
"What you're doing here is you're giving us the opportunity to shake the tree and create chaos. That's what this is! In the meantime, just sponge everything up you see. Learn! That's why you're here."

"Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything that we do, but in the end you will understand."

"Advisors like Matt come in, they stir the pot, they cause the criminals to react and make mistakes. That's how we build cases against the individuals that actually make a difference in this fight. It's when they're nervous, when they stop trusting their crews, when they move their money. These are all opportunities to strike. And that's the purpose of people like Matt."

"I just tried to have sex with my hitman."
"Nah, he's no assassin. He just wanted to know what you know. They're after us, not you."

"You know what the beauty is of you being so beat to a pulp? 'Cause no one's gonna notice a few more scratches."

"Medellin refers to a time when one group controlled every aspect of the drug trade, providing a measure of order that we could control. And until somebody finds a way to convince 20% of the population to stop snorting and smoking that shit, order's the best we can hope for. And what you saw up there, was Alejandro working toward returning that order."
"Alejandro works for the fucking Colombian Cartel."
"He works for the competition. Alejandro works for anyone who will point him toward the people who made him. Us. Them. Anyone who will turn him loose. So, he can get the person that cut off his wife's head, and threw his daughter into a vat of acid. Yeah. That's what we're dealing with."

"Don't ever point a gun at me again."

5 out of 5 Stars

Film: Mystery Date (1991)

DVD: Enhanced 16x9

Review: I was a sucker for these types of date movies when I was young and it still holds up.  Ethan Hawke plays Tom, a young man who has a crush on his next door neighbor but is too shy to ask her out. When his sophisticated older brother comes home from law school, he sets Tom up on the date with her and provides him with his ID so Tom can take her to a popular bar. The date quickly goes sideways when Tom finds a dead body in the trunk of his brother's car and the target of the cops and his brother's unsavory associates in a case of mistaken identity.

Quotes:

"Well, fine. Well then I'll just go over there and say, 'Hi, I'm Tom and you don't know me, but I've been spying on you for a couple of months now and I am finding you very attractive in a very real, very hormonal way.' And then she'll slap me silly."

"There are worse things in this world than getting slapped by a beautiful woman, you'll see."

"Alright, now the only problem with glasses is that they tend to fly off when a woman slaps you. Just don't flinch, you take it like a man, come off it smiling."

"You like lingerie, Tommy?"

"Well, I've really only read about it."

"We spend hours making ourselves look completely different, and then we go into some dark place where we really can't see each other anyway, and then we drink so we don't know if the other person is really interesting or just seems interesting 'cause they're pretending to be interested in the person that we're pretending to be."

"Uh, right. So I guess there's no getting around it. We're gonna have to lie to each other."

"...all because your loins led you out tonight."

"It was not my loins! I was... curious."

"Ah! In women, curiosity is an urge that springs from the loins."

"What, and not in men?"

"In men, everything is an urge that springs from the loins."

"That was awesome! We were almost killed!"

"Well, the night is still young."

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Film: The Shining (1980)

Blu-Ray

Review: I finally saw this classic movie about a caretaker in an isolated hotel in the mountains who goes crazy during the dark winter months and tries to kill his family. Since I am not a fan of horror, it took me a long time to get around to it. Like all of Stanley Kubrick's films, it looks beautiful with amazing performances by the actors, led by Jack Nicholson.

Quotes:
"I don't suppose they told you anything in Denver about the tragedy we had in the Winter of 1970."
"I don't believe they did."
"My predecessor in this job left a man named Charles Grady as the Winter caretaker. And he came up here with his wife and two little girls, I think were eight and ten. And he had a good employment record, good references, and from what I've been told he seemed like a completely normal individual. But at some point during the winter, he must have suffered some kind of a complete mental breakdown. He ran amuck and killed his family with an axe. Stacked them neatly in one of the rooms in the West wing and then he, he put both barrels of a shot gun in his mouth."

"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Do you like this hotel?"
"Yes, I do. I love it. Don't you?"
"I guess so."
"Good. I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay here forever... and ever... and ever."

"Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me, and it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?"
"Yeah."
"Now, we're going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me typing... or whether you DON'T hear me typing, or whatever the FUCK you hear me doing, when I'm in here, it means that I am working, THAT means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now why don't you start right now and get the fuck out of here? Hm?"

"God, I'd give anything for a drink. I'd give my goddamned soul for just a glass of beer."

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

"I just wanna go back to my room!"
"Why?"
"Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over!"
"You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?"
"Please! Don't hurt me!"
"I'm not gonna hurt you."
"Stay away from me!"
"Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in!"

"Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

"Here's Johnny!"

"Larry, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people taking care of the place. They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes."

4 out of 5 Stars

Film: Wonder Boys (2000)

 DVD: Enhanced for 16:9

Review: This well-written movie takes place over a wintery weekend in Pittsburgh as an English professor, played by Michael Douglas, struggles to finish his second novel while dealing with the end of his marriage, his girlfriend's pregnancy and a suicidal student. Robert Downey Jr. is great as his New York editor who arrives to check on the progress of his novel.

Quotes:
"Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?"
"I couldn't stop."

"Shit, James. You shot Dr. Gaskell's dog."
"I had to! Didn't I?"
"Couldn't you have just pulled him off me?"

"I wish you hadn't shot my girlfriend's dog. Even though Poe and I weren't exactly what you'd call simpatico, that's no reason he should've taken two in the chest."

"So there it was. Somewhere in the night, a Manhattan book editor was prowling the streets of Pittsburgh; best-selling author at his side, dead dog in his trunk."

"Grady, you know how in class you're always telling us that writers make choices?"
"Yeah."
"And even though you're book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it's... it's at times... it's... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. And... I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices. At all. And I was just wondering if it might not be different if... if when you wrote you weren't always... under the influence."
"Well... thank you for the thought, but shocking as it may sound, I am not the first writer to sip a little weed. Furthermore, it might surprise you to know that one book I wrote, as you say, 'under the influence,' just happened to win a little something called the Pen Award. Which, by the way, I accepted under the influence."

"Naturally you have copies."
"I have an alternate version of the first chapter."

"You didn't happen to call our house last night, did you?"
"I think I might have, yes."
"What do you think you might have said?"
"I think I might have said I was in love with you... He told you?"
"He told me."
"And what did you say?"
"I said it didn't sound like you."

4 out of 5 Stars

My Movie Ratings System

The five star system is my favorite way to rate movies. A four star system has no easy selection for an average movie and a three star system is just too simplistic for me.

5 Stars - A masterpiece of its genre. The direction, acting, music, design, special effects and story are firing on all cylinders to create a perfect film.

4 Stars - A great movie with a few minor flaws, like a weak subplot or distracting castmember. Sometimes an average movie with one genius aspect to it (thrilling plot, an award-level acting performance, or amazing chemistry between the leads, etc.) can earn it 4 stars.

3 Stars - An average movie, worth a watch, but forgettable afterwards. It still works despite flaws like a clichéd story, uneven pacing, predictible mystery or unfocused direction. Some films burdened by unfair expectations or too avant-garde at the time may need to be seen again before they can be appreciated. Films that get better with repeat viewings can move up the rankings over time and vice-versa.

2 Stars - A bad movie with enough redeeming qualities to keep me watching. It has an entertaining actor or the story has hooked me enough to get to the end despite bad acting, shoddy special effects, plot holes or weak action scenes. (This rating includes the "So Bad it is Good" films.)

1 Star - A horrible film, so bad or boring that I fall asleep, walk out or fast-forward to the end so at least I can get some closure.

(Most of the films in my collection are at least 4 or 5 stars. The only exceptions are three star films I own for nostalgia reasons. I loved them when I was younger, but they may have not aged very well. There are also a few films that make it due to one amazing scene, like the Christopher Walken/Dennis Hopper scene in "True Romance" or the Europe sidetrip in "Rules of Attraction".)