William Friedkin has received a lot of love from me on the site. He is the man and I continually enjoy everything I see by him. I noticed recently that a crop of his movies have appeared on Netflix instant, so I watched them... and gave a brief run down with my ratings... because that's what I do here at WFR!
(1977) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: 4 men with checkered pasts are hired to transport highly volatile dynamite through a Nicaraguan forest.
This film is a definite pleaser in my book. Whoever the guy is that's in charge of the explosions in Sorcerer should be given an Oscar. Also the score-- it's incredible. There was a little lag towards the beginning and it took some time for the story to gain momentum, but when it gets going it rules. The truck building scene was awesome, I feel like I could build one now.
There's tons of suspense as the crew travels through the jungle. Two stand out moments for me were... the truck driving across the Temple of Doom bridge and the jerry-rigging of the C4 to blow up the tree.
(1987) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: A delusional young man goes on a killing spree. He's taken to court and tries to get off on insanity.
This film's main problem is... it's boring as shit. Seriously... it was so slow and really hard to finish. It stars Michael Biehn from The Terminator, he was probably the best actor of the lot. I don't know what else to say here.... this is definitely a pass.
Snooze city.
(1994) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: Nick Nolte is a college basket ball coach looking to build a winning team.
Nick Nolte plays a pretty typical coach, or at least what I think one should act like, so I guess that's good. There's a lot of poor acting from all the players and a few believability issues. When Nolte goes to visit Shaq for the first time, he takes a boat, travels through a swamp, then hikes through a field. When he arrives to the town Shaq lives in, it has a street running right through it... why didn't Nolte just drive there? Blue Chips is a pretty average sports drama, not horrible, but not great either.
(2000) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: Tommy Lee Jones defends Samuel L Jackson after he gives orders to attack a group of Yemen protesters.
I was prepared to be disappointed after seeing the ratings score for this film, but it wasn't that bad. There were a few predictable moments but all the performance and pacing were good enough to give it a pass.
The scene where Samuel L Jackson kills the Viet Cong guy was pretty rad and the surge on the US embassy was pretty gripping.
This was a nice blend of a court room drama and war flick, absolutely a decent time waster.
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: Benicio Del Toro is a crazed ex military assassin and his mentor (Tommy Lee Jones) is brought in to track him down.
This movie could have been so much cooler. It started off and had a sort of Rambo meets Deerhunter vibe going for it, but somewhere along the way it derailed a little. It wasn't awful or anything, just kinda bland.
Two things. The opening scene with the wild wolf caught in a snare and TLJ just walks up and frees it... it's absurd. Also... at the end when Del Toro is being chased by a shit ton of FBI, he finds the time to stop and forge a blade out of iron and fire???? It might have been one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a serious movie.
(2006) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]
Synopsis: Two people with a lot of baggage hook up and then start to believe the government has bugged them?
Bug is a weird film. It feels dirty, kind of like Killer Joe did. There's some really cool camera work and sound design throughout this. As always, Michael Shannon plays a great crazy person. The film takes awhile to roll out, but when it does, it unfold very quickly. The last 20 minutes are bananas.
No comments:
Post a Comment