tpcomputerman

There are some movies that simply transcend the genre they're supposed to fit into. As much as I loved Iron Man, Hancock, The Hulk and Hellboy II they were unabashed comic book movies. You will often hear people say things like, "That was a good Superhero movie" or, "That was a good comedy." Only serious movies like No Country for Old men and There will be blood are considered good movies, movies that aren't just dramas or historical fiction, but movies, pure and simple movies.

The Dark Knight isn't just a great comic book movie, it's a great movie. I think that fact that it's been named The Dark Knight and not Batman: The Dark Knight speaks volumes. A title like The Dark Knight makes it a pure movie, a title like Batman: The Dark Knight makes it a comic book movie and this movie deserves to be treated with more respect than that. This could very well be the first Comic book movie to be nominated for Best Picture (I don't think it'll happen, but I think it'll be considered.) Heath Ledger could be the first Super villain to be nominated for best actor and have a good a chance to win. If you're going to see this movie see it for his performance which was just as captivating as Javier Bardem is No Country for Old men. It's rare you get a bad guy where every time he comes on the screen to wonder to yourself, what's he going to do now? And a lot of the menace was in Heath's performance, he made the Joker evil yet, funny. My goodness, there were some jokes that you couldn't help but laugh at even though the situation wasn't really all that funny. (BTW, never asked him to do the magic trick with a pencil.) There were no wasted moments in this movie, there were no bad scenes, there were no moments where you rolled your eyes. It's hard to make a perfect movie, there's always something that I don't like about a movie, even the great ones but not this one. Sure, if I see it a few more times I'm sure I'll find a flaw somewhere but right now I'm marveling at how amazing it was to watch it for the first time. How often do you see a movie that blows you away the first time you see it? As much as I loved all the movies I mentioned above none really got to my insides like The Dark Knight. I left the theater feeling I had seen something truly amazing, something I'm going to come back to watch time and time again. Heck, I want to see it in Imax now and I might look to see it in Imax next weekend! I need to see this movie again cause it's just that good. I'm still buzzing about it almost 24 hours after seeing it and I'm sure I'll be buzzing about it for a very long time.

Even if you don't like Comic Book movies I'd recommend this movie without any reservations so, everyone who reads this, if you haven't seen it yet what are you waiting for, go see it!

Every once in a while I see a movie that is really hard to explain. A movie that kind of stays with me hours, even days after I see it as I try to absorb what I just saw. No Country for Old Men is one of those movies.

Explaining the plot would be almost pointless because the movies is so much more than the plot, there were so many levels to the movie that I'm sure I missed most of them. On the surface, the movie is about a man, (Llewelyn) who, while hunting, comes across a drug deal gone bad. While investigating he finds a case filled with money, about 2 million dollars. He takes it for himself and tries his best to keep it from the people who it belongs too.

Hot on is trail is Chigurh (pronounced Sugar, or shugar) a man who, according to one character, has no sense of humor. That's almost like saying Tiger Woods can sort of play golf. Most of the movie focuses Llewelyn trying to keep one step ahead of Chigurh, but that's really not what the movie is about, that's just what you see on the surface.

Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, is one of the most evil characters I've ever seen. Every time he was on the screen with another character I wondered if that character was going to survive. The movie opens with Chigurh killing a deputy in a very ugly way, by strangling him, the look on Chigurh's face as he did it was one of pure evil. Chigurh isn't just a man, he was sometimes an unstoppable force of nature.

In one of he more intense scenes I've ever seen you have Llewelyn waiting in a darkened hotel room, he knows Chigurh's nearby looking for him and he just waits. I don't think I breathed until the scene finished playing out, the tension was just to thick and so well set up and executed I was totally drawn in.

Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging cop trying to put the pieces together and he sparkled in every scene he was in. I think this is his best performance since The Fugitive and I thought he was fantastic in that movie. If he's not nominated for best actor I'll be shocked. What I really enjoyed was how totally out of his league he really was. This wasn't a cop who was hell bent on finding or stopping a killer, he was an old cop who thought he's seen it all but, once he realizes he's up against someone as evil as Chigurh, he gets afraid. He wants to do the right thing but he just can't fathom this kind of man, this kind of evil. Of course, it's not all played out that black and white, (levels, remember, levels) it's just something I thought while watching it. You might think something else.

It's hard to talk about this movie without saying something about the end. I won't go into details because I want everyone to see it untainted like I did. For me, I was confused, then angry, then confused again, then finally I accepted what had happened and moved on. I love that the Cohen Brothers did something different, something you'd never, ever see in a Hollywood movie.

My prediction, this movie will be nominated for Best Picture, Javier Bardem will be nominated for the best actor, Tommy Lee Jones for Best Actor, Cohen's for best adapted screen play, and probably best director.

So yeah, I'd highly recommend this movie, just leave your preconceived notions of what a movie should be at the door.

I don't know why, but when I came out of the theater after watching `The Rundown' I was smiling. That was a good movie, and do you want to know why? Because of The Rock, Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken. All three were perfectly cast, all three looked like they were having fun, and all three were just great to watch on the screen! I guess I should also give credit to Peter Berg who directed the movie because after all, the director gets all the credit when things go right, right?

Anyway, the basic plot. The Rock plays Beck, a bounty hunter of sorts, he does jobs for this one guy (who's name I don't recall) because Beck owes this guy something, they never really go into details, but the guy wants one more thing before he'll let Beck go, head down to the Amazon and get his son back.

I like it when plots are simple, and this one pretty much is. When Beck gets there he find that a warlord (Walken) has pretty much enslaved the village and Travis (Scott) thinks he's found the key to saving the village, this statue that is worth millions. Beck doesn't really care, all he wants is to take Travis back, but of course it's never that easy and they get lost in the jungle and have to get back.

First, let me tell you why I liked the movie. The Rock. The only movie I've seen the Rock in so far has been the Mummy Returns, I didn't see Scorpion King so I don't know how he was in that one, but this movie he just, well he just Rocks!! He kind of reminds me of Arnold when he was in movies like Commando, and Red Scorpion, you know, the movies that really didn't have a great script but for some reason you liked? This script wasn't great, but it was fun and what made if fun was Beck. The Rock gave Beck some personality, what? Personality!

The Rock doesn't play Beck as a guy who can kick ass, he plays him a guy who doesn't want to kick ass but knows that he can. He always tries to avoid fights, he does everything he can to not fight but of course no one ever listens to him.

I'll give you an example, in the very beginning he is hired to get from a Super Bowl quarterback who is a really bad gambler his super bowl ring to help pay off the debt. Unfortunately the guy is surrounded by his linemen, really big mean guys. So, Beck goes up to the guy in a club and is really, really nice to him and asks him for the ring. Of course, the guy doesn't give it to him so Beck goes into the bathroom and makes a call. He doesn't want to hurt these guys (Mostly because they have a chance to repeat) but he's told that he needs to, so he goes out and gives the guy one more chance, he says no and Beck just kicks some butt!

The action for that fight wasn't very good, strobe lights and quick cuts made it very hard to follow and I was worried, but the later fights turned out to be really cool and more than once you heard the audience go `ow!' at something on the screen.

Oh, and it's cartoon violence, you know, the kind where they just beat the good guys and bad guys up but a few minutes later they're all walking around like nothing happen? But it fits the tone of the movie, so it's okay.

So, I guess in conclusion, The Rundown is a mindless, entertaining action adventure movie, so if you like mindless action movies where there is very little blood, lots of cartoon like violence, and you want to see the next generation of action star (The Rock will be on the same level as Arnold and Stallone very soon I think) then go see it and be sure to leave realism at the door.