Welcome to my Movie Page
Click on a title below or to the right to read my short review with a link to IMDB reviews.
I love movies; in fact a few of my friends would call me a bit of a movie buff.
One of said friends even posted the pic above on Facebook on my last birthday. One thing that really bugs me about movies though is so called Movie Critics.
Who are these people?
What planet do they live on?
I don’t know about the rest of the world but here in the UK they are usually middle/upper class twits who speak a completely different language to the rest of us. I’m far from stupid but I need to have a dictionary close to hand when listening to their reviews as most of the words they come out with are completely new to me.
How come when you ask a movie critic what their favourite movie is, it’s always some arty- farty film that you’ve never heard of and has been seen by less than 20 people on the entire planet. You then watch their favourite movie, you have no idea what you’ve just been subjected to, only to be informed that you have to watch the movie 43 times before you can even begin to understand it.
Anyway, I’m going to be giving my views on a bunch of movies that I think are well worth a watch for a different variety of reasons. It may be that the entire movie is excellent; it may be that a particular scene stands out; it may be that someone has been cheated out of an ‘Oscar’ etc.
I won’t be giving a detailed review of the movies either as after listening or reading reviews of movies from certain critics, it wasn’t worth watching the film then as it felt like I’d already seen it.
You’ve probably all heard of most of these movies, even seen them already but maybe I can point you in
the right direction to one or two that you haven’t seen yet. The list will be in no particular order but I’m
going to start off with the film voted Number 1 on the all-time list on IMDB and even though I don’t agree
with it, over a million voters do.
Just saying… ;)
Voted number 1 on the all-time list by IMDB, this is the tale of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) an innocent man wrongly sent to a maximum security prison for murder in the late 1940’s. In a prison run by a corrupt warden (brilliantly played by Bob Gunton) and a vicious and brutal guard (Clancy Brown) Andy is well out of his depth. He manages to survive with the guidance and friendship of another prisoner ‘Red’ (Morgan Freeman) eventually winning the respect of his fellow prisoners and most of the prison guards, all the while maintaining his innocence and harbouring a deep desire for freedom. This is an inspiring film about the human spirit, hope and one man’s struggle for redemption.
Set in a small village in Iran this film tells the shocking true story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò) a loyal wife and mother embedded in an unhappy arranged marriage. Husband Ali (Navid Negahban) wants a divorce and when Soraya refuses due to financial worries, Ali conspires with the local Mullah (Ali Pourtash) and together they succeed in plotting the demise of Soraya. The film is told in flashbacks by Soraya’s aunt Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) to a visiting journalist (Jim Caviezel) whose only reason for being there was that his car had broken down. I have chosen this film in my list of must-see movies mainly for the performance of Navid Negahban who surely portrays one of the nastiest ‘bad guy’ roles of any movie. This film is haunting and mesmerising with stunning performances by all the leads, especially Shohreh Aghdashloo and as the title suggests, the film is brutal and is not for the faint hearted. Although subtitled this film could be viewed without any dialogue at all and the viewer wouldn’t miss a beat. This film should be seen by all if only to remind us that although some days we think we have it bad, in certain parts of the world women really do have it bad.
This is the powerful true story of the Irish mother and journalist Veronica Guerin who became a national heroine when she almost single-handedly took on the powerful drug barons of Dublin in the late 1990’s. I have mainly chosen this film for the performance of Gerard McSorley particularly for one scene where, when I first watched this film I paused and rewound 3 or 4 times to be sure that what I had just witnessed actually happened. Cate Blanchett is ably backed up by Ciarán Hinds, Brenda Fricker and in a cameo role, Colin Farrell.
With an exceptional cast including Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Danny De Vito and James Cromwell, this 1940's based movie deals with sex, scandal, betrayal, and corruption involving the police, the press and the political system. Nominated for 9 Academy Awards and unjustly winning only 2 which were for best screenplay and a richly deserved Kim Basinger for best supporting actress. This dark and gritty tale is film noir at it's finest. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. Hush Hush!
My favourite movie of all time, based on the true story of Henry Hill an aspiring mob gangster in New York in the 50's. From the acting, to the music, to the production and the directing, this movie is outstanding. Robert De Niro as paranoid Jimmy Conway, Joe Pesci as insane Tommy DeVito, Ray Liotta as Henry Hill and Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill all play their parts expertly in this often violent movie. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards and 5 Golden Globes from which only 1 award was won (Pesci won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). At least the BAFTA's got it right where the movie won 5 awards from 7 nominations. Must-See-Movie !!
Just saying...
