Review: Die Hard

       Die Hard is the best christmas movie ever made. Period. Some of you may laugh at this statement, asking “How can Die Hard be the best christmas movie ever when it's not even a christmas movie?” Obviously, if you think this then you have never seen Die Hard and only know about it from clips, quotes, trailers, and it's sequels. Die Hard is very much a christmas movie. Don't believe me? Here are the facts:

1. Die Hard takes place on christmas eve.
2. Hans Gruber interrupts a christmas party.
3. There are quotes like “Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho.”
4. The theme of the movie is the importance of family and togetherness, a theme prevalent in many “traditional” christmas movies.
5. There is christmas music, notably “Christmas in Hollis” by Run DMC.
   
   
   
   

Obviously, by any measure, Die Hard is a christmas movie. What separates it from other christmas movie is that it is an action movie filled with guns and terrorists. But just because some people get shot and buildings explode, doesn't mean that this can't be a christmas movie. I'm pretty sure that's in the bible, just after the part about the three wise men.

Review: The Crow

       The Crow will always be remembered as the film in which Brandon Lee was accidentally killed during filming. Brandon Lee was the son of martial arts film legend Bruce Lee, and The Crow was his first major movie in a leading role. Lee died as a result of a bullet getting lodged in the barrel of a gun, which was later loaded with blank rounds. When the blank charges were fired, the explosion caused the bullet to fire out of the gun. The manner of Lee's death is as eerie as it is ironic. Lee's character Eric Draven comes back from the dead, and cannot be killed. He is even shown being shot numerous times, only to have his wounds heal a la Wolverine. What's eerie about Lee's death is that his father's final film Game of Death predicted Brandon Lee's death 20 years earlier. In Game of Death, Bruce Lee plays an actor who is accidentally shot during filming. Putting Lee's death aside, The Crow is actually a pretty cool movie, and shows Brandon Lee's potential to be a successful action star.

Review: Philadelphia

       Winning an Oscar for best actor/actress in a leading role is the greatest achievement an actor can attain. To win an Oscar two years in a row is a very rare occurrence, and it illustrates the superiority of an actor at that time in his or her career. In the Oscars 84 year history only 3 actors have won Academy Awards two years in a row. Spencer Tracy did it in '37 and '38, Katherine Hepburn did it in '67 and '68, and most recently Tom Hanks did it in '93 and '94 for the films Forrest Gump and Philadelphia. Hanks' performance in Philadelphia is astounding. He demonstrates, the sadness and lust for life of his character Andrew Beckett, a lawyer dying of AIDS, but he also maintains the characters human qualities like his humor that keeps Beckett from being a melancholy one note character. Philadelphia is Hollywood's first big budget take on the weighty subject of HIV/AIDS. It's a powerful movie, but because it was such a groundbreaking film it plays things very safe in order to not to alienate audiences who might be uncomfortable with such a controversial subject.

Review: Dazed and Confused

       High school is a different experience for everyone. For some, it is the high point of their lives, a time when they feel like kings ruling over their domain. For others, it's a difficult time filled with awkwardness and agony. Regardless of what you're high school experience is, most people look back on it fondly with a nostalgia that block out most of the more painful moments. It's a time where we come of age, discover who we are, and step into adulthood. This is a truth understood in Dazed and Confused, where we follow different high schoolers on the last day of class and the long night that follows. Each of the characters appears to be having a great time, drinking beer and smoking weed, hanging out at various local establishments, but many of them are to focused on the various small problems in their life to truly enjoy themselves.

Review: Bernie

       Jack Black made a name for himself by being the goofy fat guy from School of Rock, who made his money by appearing in crappy kids movies like Gullivers Travels. He has received very little recognition for his acting abilities because he has spent so much time playing either versions of himself, or playing in limited roles. I've been a fan of Jack Black's musical work in Tenacious D for a long time, but he had yet to impress me with his acting skills. Here in Bernie he plays way against type. Instead of a boorish freeloader, he plays a fastidious, effeminate, Texas funeral director, and he hits it out of the park. It's the casting of Black in this role so far from what we imagine him being and his ability to do so well in that role is what makes Bernie so wonderful.

Review: Mulholland Dr.

       David Lynch is known as kind of a weirdo. His films like Eraserhead, Dune, and Inland Empire are surreal, confusing, mind-benders. Mulholland Dr. is arguably his most successful experiment in filmmaking. It's a bizarre tale about Hollywood and the way it can chew people up and spit them out. Originally, Mulholland Dr. was meant to be a TV show, and much of the footage of the film was meant to be for the pilot. Of course no network would buy a show with such a bizarre concept, so Lynch wrote an ending to the open-ended story started in the pilot, and mishmashed the two halves into one of the most brilliant, yet confusing movies of the last decade.

Review: Brick

       Rian Johnson is the talk of Hollywood right now. People are calling him the next Christopher Nolan. He recently directed the big budget blockbuster Looper, but what was Johnson's Memento, what was the movie that put him on the map. The answer, of course, is Brick, which like Looper also features Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Brick is an interesting film because at it's heart is the old noir capers of the 40s, but instead of taking place in a rainy New York City, the story is transposed to a high school in southern California. Brick is a cool movie that's fun to watch, but I'm still not quite sure that the plot makes much sense. But that's okay, because like most classic noir movies, it doesn't matter if the plot makes sense so long as the characters think it does.