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The Shield: Family Meeting (2008)
The Best Final Act
I was a rabid fan of "Homocide: Life on the streets." I have every episode released on DVD. I still remember seeing the first episode of "The Shield" on FX and, within seconds, being totally hooked (it drew me in like the opening sequence of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). I've watched every episode since, most several times.
This final season was the crowning achievement to a wonderful series, bringing closure - if that's the word - to the story line and characters. Some will be more satisfied than others, depending on how you related to the players, but I suspect no one will be disappointed. And, incidentally, "Homicide" ran seven seasons as well. I guess great - no, seminal - cop shows are made to run seven seasons (perhaps to avoid "jumping the shark").
Michael Chiklis has left his mark on the canon of both the genre and great television with this role. My hat is off to him for an unforgettable portrait of someone who represents the ambiguity in us all.
Like "Homicide," "The Shield" is something every fan should own - in its entirety - on DVD. So, please, don't wait for the inevitable boxed set - it might never come. And, if you're a true fan, these DVDs will be well-worn if it does come out.
Breaking Bad: Half Measures (2010)
A Great Goddamn Episode to a Great Goddamn Season
"No more half measures." - Mike
Wow. Oh Wow.
There are many wonderful things about the show and Season 3. First, the character evolution is better than on almost any other show on TV. You can actually track the changes to these folks in a way that makes you realize that most other TV characters basically remain unchangeable. You see that Walt has become a crafty "bad" guy... he has truly broken bad. His wife has evolved . His son. Hank. And poor Jesse. They hardly resemble the characters we first met... and time has not been kind to any of them. And with the excellent writing, directing and acting for this particular episode... we can practically feel the guild and corruption pouring off of them.
The Shield: Pilot (2002)
The Pilot's Final Moment Will Blow You Away
When the opening shot of a TV show warns you that the show you're about to watch has graphic violence, nudity, strong language, and that it may not be appropriate for children, you know what's coming up next ain't "Picket Fenses." In the vein of tough cop's like "NYPD Blue" came the FX Channel's first original series, "The Shield," starring a leaner and meaner Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey, a Los Angeles Detective who gives the term "bad cop" a bad name.
Mackey is head of the Strike Team, a street tactical unit composed of plainclothes Detectives in the Inner City. Mackey has a firm control of his men and has a firm grasp of the politics of police work, and as long as he's producing "safe streets, arrests, and convictions" he's bulletproof from anyone who disagrees with his methods. On of those is the new Captain at Mackey's precinct, David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), a Latino cop with his eyes on a higher office and sees Mackey as his ticket to stardom. As is the case with all episodic crime drama, "The Shield" has a Case of the Week, and the pilot involves the murder of a woman and the abduction of her daughter, a 7-year old girl who is presently in the hands of a pedophile that is not talking.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Terrifyingly Overrated
Shawshank is on TNT approximately five million times a year. It is the second-highest rated film on IMDb, and it was nominated for seven Oscars. It is a movie that can make grown men cry. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins deliver great performances. Thomas Newman's original score is beautiful. It's an engaging film about perseverance, friendship, will power, and hope.
But then again, does it really belong in the same company as Godfather, Godfather II, Schindler's List, and other consensus top-ten films? Is it really one of the ten best films of all time? First off, the villain of the film, Warden Norton, is an incredibly cartoonish, two dimensional bad guy. He and Cal from Titanic could have a "pure-evil-for-the-sake-of-being-pure-evil" standoff. Aside from greed, we have no idea what made him who he was. The Warden is pure evil, and is willing to kill the prisoner who can help prove Andy's innocence in cold blood. And yet, even though Andy is the one man who could expose him and all his criminal dealings, he doesn't do the simplest thing and just kill Andy. Why not? Because Andy has to wind up hugging Red on the beach years later.
Secondly, think about the scene where Andy locks himself in a room and plays classical music over the loudspeakers to the rest of the prisoners, who stop in the courtyard and stare up in awe and wonder. Are you kidding me? The scene tries to be a powerful, emotional peak in the film, but it comes off as laughably implausible, even in the 1950's.
Finally, the movie makes it a little too easy on the audience by giving it all the answers. Is Andy guilty? Does he really escape? Will he and Red ever meet up again? Nothing is left for the audience to wonder about, no ambiguity — everything is spoon-fed to the audience in tasty, happy-ending bites, right up to the final "hug on the beach" scene. Wait
this movie ends with happy people hugging on a beach? Yes it does.
The Godfather (1972)
Utimately Great
''The Godfather'' is told entirely within a closed world. That's why we sympathize with characters who are essentially evil. The story by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola is a brilliant conjuring act, inviting us to consider the Mafia entirely on its own terms. Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) emerges as a sympathetic and even admirable character; during the entire film, this lifelong professional criminal does nothing of which we can really disapprove.
During the movie we see not a single actual civilian victim of organized crime. No women trapped into prostitution. No lives wrecked by gambling. No victims of theft, fraud or protection rackets. The only police officer with a significant speaking role is corrupt.
The story views the Mafia from the inside. That is its secret, its charm, its spell; in a way, it has shaped the public perception of the Mafia ever since. The real world is replaced by an authoritarian patriarchy where power and justice flow from the Godfather, and the only villains are traitors. There is one commandment, spoken by Michael (Al Pacino): ''Don't ever take sides against the family.'' It is significant that the first shot is inside a dark, shuttered room. It is the wedding day of Vito Corleone's daughter, and on such a day a Sicilian must grant any reasonable request. A man has come to ask for punishment for his daughter's rapist. Don Vito asks why he did not come to him immediately.
''I went to the police, like a good American,'' the man says. The Godfather's reply will underpin the entire movie: ''Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first? What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if, by chance, an honest man like yourself should make enemies . . . then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.'' As the day continues, there are two more scenes in the Godfather's darkened study, intercut with scenes from the wedding outside. By the end of the wedding sequence, most of the main characters will have been introduced, and we will know essential things about their personalities. It is a virtuoso stretch of film-making: Coppola brings his large cast onstage so artfully that we are drawn at once into the Godfather's world.
The screenplay of ''The Godfather'' follows no formulas except for the classic structure in which power passes between the generations. The writing is subtly constructed to set up events later in the film. Notice how the request by Johnny Fontane, the failing singer, pays off in the Hollywood scenes; how his tears set up the shocking moment when a mogul wakes up in bed with what is left of his racehorse. Notice how the undertaker is told ''someday, and that day may never come, I will ask a favor of you. . .'' and how when the day comes the favor is not violence (as in a conventional movie) but Don Vito's desire to spare his wife the sight of their son's maimed body. And notice how a woman's ''mistaken'' phone call sets up the trap in which Sonny (James Caan) is murdered: It's done so neatly that you have to think back through the events to figure it out.
The Departed (2006)
Extremely Intense
Martin Scorsese has made an extremely intense and well made film since his Goodfellas epic and Casino. I love everything about this film that hurts. The acting, the screenplay, the direction and everything else. This is one those unique films that I can watch over and over again, and still can't get tired of it. It should be in the 20's up in IMDb's 250 top movies. The Departed is flawless, riveting, and has lots and lots of style to go with it. It really is the best picture of 2006. Exstravangtly professional gangster film. Leonardo DiCaprio has always been better, Matt Damon is spectacular, Jack Nicholson never fails, and Mark Walhberg knocks it right out of the park! It has a lot of twists and turns that will rev up the audience and shake em' to its core, with a mind-blowing ending that you will never, ever forget. I am most certainly glad it won its four Oscars because it completely deserved them. This is an absolute instant classic. Well Martin Scorsese, you've done it again!