MB_West_Lafayette Reviews

Our Kind of Traitor (2016)

Pleasantly surprised

[9/10 · 3 December 2023]

This is a relevant movie given the significance that Russian oligarchs have gained over the past year and a half, and how they seem to fall from windows.

I finished reading the book yesterday and watched the film today. At the beginning of the movie I was getting dissapointed, I thought it was cut too short, but it turns out that the cuts that had to be made are compensated by a great ending, as far as le Carre goes. The movie starts to pick pace soon enough and it keeps going to the end without losing its grip. However, I wish it would have been half hour longer to put in more detail and take a little breather.

This is Skarsgard's movie and McGregor bounces off him with skill. Both performances are realistic and charismatic. Lewis also does a great job as Hector, Smiley's 21st century succesor. The rest of the cast are all up to par. The participation of le Carre was reassuring. I wonder what he thinks about the extension at the end. I think it was needed. Probably he put it himself.

Spy Game (2001)

Robert Redford

[8/10 · 24 November 2023]

This is one of those movies that was written for Robert Redford and which he performs with his charisma and talent to perfection. If you like Redford you will like this movie, and who doesn't.

I didn't give it a 10 because the spy game became so heavy and depressing at one point that I had to take a walk for five minutes. That didn't stop me from watching it to the end.

The other actors are excelent to begin with and seem to ride in Redford's halo and hit above their weight. I even liked Brad Pitt who bounces off Redford rather well. Too bad he couldn't keep it up during the rest of his career.

Finally, I couldn't miss the similarity between the last scenes and the Bin Laden op. This made me think that the movie is a little bit far fetched, but it is ok because it is entertainment, not reality. There is also the old Porsche, which I think he also used in Three Days of the Condor. It made me wonder why I never bought an old Porsche. Oh, well...

The Candidate (1972)

Ahead of its time, behind ours

[8/10 · 15 July 2023]

Excellent movie that shows campaign politics fifty years ago. Redford jumped into character with gusto and made the movie worth watching all by himself. He is one of very few actors that could turn on the charm to JFK levels. Peter Boyle played the campaign manager in a way that must have been a revelation in its day. Don Porter played a Reagan era oponent competently, and that is the catch. Move forward fifty years and all the cynicism of Porter, and Redford too, turns quaint. In such a short time the whole political business has turned upside down, from cynic to grotesque. This movie could be remade and it could turn into a great movie; there is so much new material.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Epic

[10/10 · 1 June 2023]

D-Day and the Battle of Normandy are the most Glorious event in War History. Not just the motivation but the process. An Army of Free Men landing in front of the German War Machine and knocking it down... unbelievable.

Spielberg brings the Battle down to the human scale in a way that only he can. The battle scenes are the best on film and there are plenty of them. This is an action movie with capital A, but the human side is still there. No generals giving orders to other generals, just eight different guys showing us the Enormity of the Thing. The characters are perfect. Tom Hanks is a National Treasure.

Epic.

The Italian Job (2003)

A good remake.

[8/10 · 18 May 2023]

Heist movies are made for the action and there is plenty of it. Mark Wahlberg is good because Edward Norton is bad so the script was changed to throw in the bad guy. The actors work well together. There is plenty of humor. The Minis are the same which is good. The movie begins cleverly in Italy but soon movies to LA so it's got the American imprint. It's well done for what it is.

The only gripe I have is that I am a car guy. It turns out the gang hires a car mechanic to beef the cars to carry 2300 lbs of gold. So he soups up the engines but doesn't reinforce the frames? Those Minies are pulling these incredible stunts while carrying that load? C'mon, give me a break! I took off two points for that.

Two and a Half Men (2003–2015)

Great Show, Great Charly

[10/10 · 3 January 2023]

I binged watched the entire show over the end of 2022 holidays. I loved it. The show pivots around Charly who basically portrays himself. Kudos to Jon Cryer, Conchata, Angus, Holland Taylor (my favorite), Melanie Lynski and the rest. The characters were perfect, the actors clicked along, nobody played out of tune and the writers kept feeding them good lines, but after 8 years the good material was drying up and the show was becoming more vulgar so Charly left/was fired at the right time.

I live in Indiana and it is striking how all the cultural issues addressed in the show are striking here only now. California is ten to twenty years ahead of us.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Not the Godfather

[6/10 · 1 June 2022]

The first half is very good. The young actors are excellent and the staging is superb. The second half is so so. The shot by De Niro at Marlon Brando is obvious but it doesn't work because the end of the movie is absurd, and also because it is not original like the Godfather. Good acting is not enough. Where the Godfather was epic, this story comes short. There are also some unnecessary vulgar scenes that are there because the movie was shot in the 80s. Again, the Godfather uses vulgarity with less frequency and more art.

Servant of the People (2015–2019)

Reality imitates Art

[8/10 · 1 May 2022]

I was impressed after binge-watching Season 1. It paints a picture of Ukraine, so I can now relate to a culture I knew nothing about. Furthermore, given Zelensky's rise to the Presidency and the current events on top, it is worth watching just for that.

The series is well made with very modest resorces and it is fresh. The actors, for example, who are not well known and look pretty common, do a good job. The plot line is consistent and sometimes very original. The jokes are funny. So go ahead, get entertained and informed at the same time.

Beirut (2018)

Great movie

[9/10 · 13 March 2022]

Excellent modern noir. Lamm hits it off the field with the help of a strong supportive cast. I imagine the script could have been explained a little better to today's dumbed down audiences. I just hope Hollywood keeps making some movies for whatever intelligent life remains in this Planet.

Designated Survivor (2016–2019)

Good and Relevant

[8/10 · 6 February 2022]

I binge watched Season 1. They hooked me with the plot to stage a coup by attacking the Capitol. Little did they know... I can't speak for the whole series, but I found Season 1 good and relevant. It touches many sensitive buttons with some depth. It's a little vainglorious but forgivably so. Most of all I enjoyed the insights about rebuilding government after a great tragedy. I hope they can bring the series back with new inputs from the last couple of years.

The Laundromat (I) (2019)

mumbo jumbo

[4/10 · 17 January 2022]

So what is it? Money laundering? Fraud? Tax evasion? Who are the criminals? Shysters? Dictators? Politicians? Corporations? Drug lords? Who are the operators? Delaware? Panama? Nevis? Seychelles? Who is behind it? America? Britain? Nobody? And then there is a reference to campaign finance. Too many threads without clarity that culminate in a rambling speech in the end don't add up. An indictement on everything is an indictement on nothing.

The only valuable thing is the actors that manage to entertain, more or less.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Rambunctious

[9/10 · 27 December 2021]

This fast satire has so many threads, so many twists, so much hollywood, that it needs to be watched more than once.

The old adage is at work here: if you are going to tell the truth, make them laugh. The director, conscious of the challenge to bring sense within the current cultural dissonance, tries/hopes to ellicit a response to the climate crisis using the killer comet metaphore and a lot of satire. Monty Python comes to mind.

I personally enjoyed the part by Meryl Streep. She really gets her talent juices going to parody YouKnowWho, who once called her untalented. She who laughs last, laughs best.

The movie is good, it is fun and it surprises.

Official Secrets (2019)

A woman of courage

[10/10 · 18 December 2021]

The writers and the actors did an excellent job. The real-time news videos are spot on. I remember them but now, in the perspective of the events depicted in the movie, they acquire a new meaning. Oh, how they lied to us! The story is compelling even without considering the significance of these events.

It is difficult to understand the turmoil and loneliness Katharine went through, even though the movie tries to portray it. It must have been very hard to confront the entire British State by her lonesome, with all those busy cops and lawyers trying to climb the greasy pole at the expense of her life and freedom. However, it speaks well of Britain that she was able to find such a good solicitor in a country where the Rule of Law matters.

Her effort didn't stop the War because the will of the US President made it inevitable, such is His power, but it helped prevent the endorsement of the UN. The irony is that Katharine was the only one that spent a night in jail and a year in the gutter for her efforts to prevent an illegal War while nobody else did, neither in Britain nor in the US.

The Coldest Game (2019)

It's good

[9/10 · 11 December 2021]

The plot is good. You have to believe the Russian chess player is not so good, which is unthinkable if you have any idea about chess. I took a point off for that, but once you get past it the movie grabs you. It is different, it surprises and it entertains. At a different time I would have been more critical, but nowadays it is this or Marvel.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

My name is Carroll Shelby and I build race cars

[10/10 · 6 September 2021]

If you are a car enthusiast it doesn't get better than this. The cars are just spectacular, in an age when car magic still happened. And then there are the racing legends. Christian Bale is one of the two top character actors today so he turns into Ken Miles or a close replica, like the cars. The funny thing is what happens with Matt Damon who is really good at playing Matt Damon. It turns out that Carroll Shelby fits right in. The rest of the movie is the best Hollywood has to offer. So yes, if you like car racing, this movie is for you.

Richard Sorge. Master Spy (2019)

It looks real

[9/10 · 21 July 2021]

I was surprised by the quality of the production and acting. It is not Hollywood but it is more than good enough. The portrayal of Sorge in particular looks real. The story is riveting, of course, since Sorge was a larger than life character to begin with. The series conveys the charisma and recklessness of the man. The portrayal of the Nazis is pretty good too. The Japanese... so-so so far (I have only watched the first four episodes). I didn't know Russian TV had improved so much.

Now for the trivia. It is a little funny to hear Germans and Japanese speaking Russian, but I watch it with my son who is learning Russian so it's a bonus. The BMW motorcycle Sorge drives is a gem. The Ninja assistant is a cool touch.

First Man (2018)

Great and boring at the same time

[7/10 · 14 July 2021]

I am an engineer so I loved the technical parts. The X-15 bounce, the Gemini 8 twirl and the moon landing are excellent if you understand what is going on. For me that made the movie worth it and I was willing to put up with the slow boring stuff. The sixties were so different., I just don't think the director gets the zeitgeist right. For example, Neil Armstrong had a warm wonderful smile and he smiled often. Gosling hardly ever smiles, and Claire Foy keeps up with him. If the technical scenes were removed the movie would be a 3 at most, unless you are in love with Gosling or Foy.

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Charlie Wilson of Afghanistan

[9/10 · 24 March 2021]

The movie portrays the late part of the Cold War from the American side. If Charlie Wilson is improbable, Joanne Herring is surreal, and yet that is exactly what happened. The movie is well written, well directed, well acted and the music score is good. First class Hollywood all around. The movie has a happy ending with a hindsight foreboding. The real ending is still in progress and it is not good. Too bad Charlie Wilson didn't read about Lawrence of Arabia, or he would have realized how difficult it is to win the Peace in Muslim countries. We never learn.

Henry's Crime (2010)

Henry gets a life

[8/10 · 9 January 2021]

Henry has a really boring life. It is so boring that he doesn't care if he goes to jail. The story is how he gets a life. The writing is very good. This is an actor's movie and the acting is very good too. Keneau Reeves is not the best actor but he is good as Henry, who is quiet and detached. The music is great. The photography and the director are good. Worth watching.

Battle of Britain (1969)

Great War Movie

[10/10 · 11 December 2020]

The user comments are excellent so there is little I can add. I will write specifically about the RAF Fighter Command then. This was the invention of Hugh Dowding and it is well depicted in the movie. Radar, of course, was the key to it but there was more. It enabled the British pilots to punch more times than the Germans, and that evened the odds but it put enormous pressure on those young men. It wasn't just courage but also imagination that won the Battle of Britain. The German Command, on the other hand, showed poor understanding of what the British were up to and little imagination to boot.

Dirty Harry (1971)

Scorpio deserves an Oscar

[7/10 · 1 December 2020]

The great invention of this movie is Scorpio. Without Scorpio there is no need for Harry. With Scorpio Clint Eastwood could bounce off a great performance. The music score and the cinematography are the other great performances. Other than that it is a simple action movie with a very bad guy. When I first saw it, it hit the spot. Now that I am a little older I recognize the stereotypes. It was one of the first to dial up violence, portray a degenerate, show nudity, criticize liberals... go for the red meat.

Le Mans (1971)

It's Le Mans!

[10/10 · 21 November 2020]

If you don't care about car racing, don't watch this movie. But if you love motor racing, oh what a pleasure. This movie is a time capsule into racing fifty years ago, when racing was for heroes. The cars were just as fast as the cars of today and they looked fantastic. The difference is that everything is electronic now. To me car racing was thrilling and human back then, but now it looks all the same. This is Steve McQueen's movie. He produced it. He was a very skilled driver himself, so he drove his scenes too. He just wanted to show everybody the electricity and the wonder of the World of racing at its finest. He succeeded. Finally, it is worth comparing this movie with a recent excellent racing movie, Ford vs Ferrari, which tells a great story. If you like a good story about cars, watch it instead. But if you just like cars, watch Le Mans to see the real thing. Better still, watch both.

Monk (2002–2009)

Mr Monk is the Man

[9/10 · 16 October 2020]

This show hits the spot. I am watching it for the second time and I am glad I have forgotten most of the episodes because we play a game with my son to see if we can solve the crimes. We often do but sometimes it is impossible. They are very clever. The characters are great. They click together. I like the episodes with Sharona a little better, I would give those a 10. And there are some wonderful guest actors too. The OC thing also fits in. It is the price of genius, the blessing and the curse. It gives an edge to the show. And then there is the humor and the SF scenes. All these things add up to excellent entertainment. It's a jungle out there.

Marlowe (1969)

Entertaining

[7/10 · 30 August 2020]

For those of us who like Chandler, it is an enjoyable movie. Garner and the rest of the cast are good. Carroll O'Connor makes a great LAPD detective and, of course, Bruce Lee is Bruce Lee. The 60's ambiance works and the music is cool. The director gets the style right but the script is incomplete. Chandler's novel has a complex but precise plot; however, the movie omits the murder of another gangster called Sunny Moe Stein, and half the rationale of the plot is gone, so characters like Dr Lagardie don't make sense. It was possible to write a tighter script.

The Godfather (1972)

The ultimate guys movie

[10/10 · 11 April 2020]

First of all, this is THE ultimate guys movie. Phrases like "Drop the gun, get the cannoli" have never been topped in American movie history. This is the kind of movie you want to watch with your pals while drinking beer. The story is just great. That and Brando's acting make it a 10 in entertainment. The Godfather is almost a documentary of the Mafia Progress in America (forget Pilgrim's Progress). Most of the scenes are related to some real event. Of course they are all put together into a single story-line for entertainment but it does paint an accurate picture; Vito, the old Don with humane instincts, Michael, the ruthless and efficient successor, the roots in Brooklyn, the rise in NY, the move to Vegas, everything. Then there are the characters; Brando telling Michael that he has no regrets, except that he couldn't achieve more so Michael could be a "Governor" or something, that he had never walked on anybody's string, etc. The very image of the self-made man. Michael, descending from Straight and Gentle to making an offer that Moe Green couldn't refuse. The Family, which is a composite character that pervades everything and justifies everything. And on and on... so many contrasts, so much going on. This movie could only be made in America. It shows a raw and powerful side. It is Metaphor because it reflects the rest of the country. It is cultural because it educates. And the Finale is Epic.