Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Secret Window

Looking back, this movie was ridiculous. It kept you on the edge of your seat until the end when you realize Johnny Depp's character, Mort Rainey, is just a psycho killing machine. The Secret Window gives you odd perspectives out of Rainey's life and has a twist that will leave you mortified.

Rainey, a published writer, is one day encountered by a man (John Turtorro) who claims Rainey stole his writing. John Shooter is a farmer from Mississippi who tells Rainey that he has three days to finish his piece or prove that Rainey wrote it first. But if Mort went to the cops, people would start to disappear out of his life. Mort remembers the exact date he published his writing but has to call on his cheating ex-wife (Maria Bello) to get ahold of the piece. That night, Rainey believes he hears something outside his window (not the secret one) and goes to look and finds his dogs dead body laying there. The movie goes through a whole plot on how his wife's house burns down and two of his best friends are murdered in a car.

The pieces start to come together with about twenty minutes left in the movie when Rainey begins talking to himself and realizes that he created the character of John Shooter who truly did not exist. He killed is dog, burned the house down, and brutally murdered his friends. But, just as Shooter had told him, the end was not finished. Enter cheating ex-wife and man that stole her away. Amy Rainey drives up to Mort's cabin but meets her fate in the garden of which was to become her grave. Her lover soon joined her. The madness does not end here. Rainey becomes "sane" again now that his paper is complete. The last scene we see is the sheriff telling Rainey that everyone knows and will prove it somehow. Rainey is eating corn...from the garden of which he buried his ex and her lover.

See, I told you it is ridiculous. This movie is not for the faint of heart or who absolutely love corn. I gave this movie a 6 out of 10 because I thought the plot was good until I found out Depp was a psycho. I think a different ending could have helped.

Unforgiven

In the movie, Unforgiven, William Munny (Clint Eastwood), is an old retired murderer but gets brought back into "business" when a prostitute is cut in the brothel by a cowboy. The Schofield Kid, Jaimz Woolvett, seeks out Munny in hopes of killing all of the men involved and splitting the reward money. Munny agrees but keeps his promise to his dead wife, making the children behind and not cussing.

On the way to the town where the cutting took place, Munny rounds up his old partner-in-crime, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), who leaves his Native American wife and joins in the ranks. Kid, Logan, and Munny eventually make it to the town where they get kicked out by Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman). They make their way west and run into the troublemakers. Kid, by this time we know cannot see very far, takes about five shots to kill a man and Munny shoots him once to finally kill the cowboy. Logan becomes discouraged and leaves Munny and Kid for home. He does not make it.

The next scene we view is Ned Logan being whipped and eventually dying with his body being put out on display on the local bars front porch. Munny hears of this and returns to the bar, guns in hand. We next view a shoot out and of course Munny wins. Munny takes Logan's body and buries it himself. Munny returns home and back to his normal life.

If you cannot tell by my short and very bland writing, I did not like watching this film at all. I thought it was the most non-thrilling movie and completely boring. I understand that Clint Eastwood's character had not forgiven himself from his wife's death and had "changed his ways" but who cares? We all know that Eastwood's character would not die because he is Clint Eastwood. I gave this movie a 1 out of 10 and if you want to know why, read the above.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

DC Films- V for Vendetta and Dark Knight

"Remember, Remember the 5th of November, the gun powder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gun powder should ever be forgot".
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people".
"Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."

These three quotes represent the plot behind two popular films. V for Vendetta and Dark Knight have very similar plots. "V" and the Joker have the same underlying cause... disrupt the citizens of their cities routines and make them see who they really are. "V" had to blow up the totalitarian government that was ruining the city of Great Britain to showing how easily it can be ruined when one decides they want change. The Joker, in an extremely strange way, showed the city of Gotham how easily its citizens would stray from their own rules to save themselves. Both characters had to make a large presentation to make their point...in their mind. The point was made in both films. "V", in his mind, did not kill anyone that did not intentionally deserve it. He went straight for the middle and took the government down, leader by leader. The Joker, on the other hand, warned Batman that until he revealed himself, he would kill people. He did.

I'm not saying that killing anyone is the best way to make a point but desperate times call for desperate measures.