Death Rides A Horse (1967)- Lee Van Cleef (4)

Director: Giulio Petroni

Stars: Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law and Mario Brega

Genre:  Action | Western

MPAA Rating: R

Running Time: 114Mins

Tagline: " When You've Waited Fifteen Years To Find A Man... It's A Shame You Can Only Kill Him Once!"

It’s unfortunate that Lee Van Cleef didn’t become as popular as Clint Eastwood. I was watching a couple of his Spaghetti Westerns, and I must say that he had an underrated talent. Death Rides A Horse may not be the most original Western, In fact it is very straightforward and has plenty clichés. But there is definitely something about these Italian/Spaniard westerns that call my attention, they are wonderfully shot in widescreen, and at times have a decent selection of stars; some may be unknown, but, like Van Cleef, they have hidden and underrated talent.  Take for example Mario Brega; he starred in dozens of these westerns. He is perhaps best remembered for playing the second hand to Angel Eyes in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. He like many others of this genre was actually underrated actors, which had to rely on working in lower budget films.

Death Rides a Horse may be a low budget western, but it is actually a very well made one for the budget they had.   Ennio Morricone actually scored this movie, which is actually one of the best things about these westerns. Morricone always brings a provocative score that uplifts the film to a level of grandeur.  I probably mentioned this before in another review I did, but Tarrantino actually used the score of this movie and of Navajo Joe (another western scored by Morricone) for his Kill Bill films. I will leave a score of Death Rides a Horse and Kill Bill to demonstrate this.

The story, which is very generic, yet provocative, is about a young man who is seeking revenge for the death of his family. He witnesses his parent’s murder at a very young age. While the massacre is taking place, he is observing their features: one has a tattoo on his chest of playing cards, the other has a skull necklace, and the other has scars. The movie also uses a technique of shooting that would actually be implemented in the Kill Bill movies: the zooming in and changing of color palette. I understand Tarrantino is only doing homage, but I prefer always originality over imitation. Then again his style is grindhouse, and thanks to him audiences get to hear about films that have long since been forgotten. Anyways, the rest is very obvious, he goes in search of each man and finds out they have successful lives: (one is a mayor, the other a sheriff) aiding the young man is a strange mysterious man who little is known about. All we know is that he was let out from jail and he is in search of the same men that killed the young kid’s parents. The movie also adds a neat and unexpected twist, which is a nice bonus.  I own this movie in various box sets of westerns. It is actually available free to the public on YouTube. But if you wish to see the movie in its original Widescreen format, I recommend the Wild East Prod DVD; contains the original aspect ratio and has been digitally remastered.

The Change Up (2011)- Ryan Reynolds (4)

Director: David Dobkin

Stars: Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds and Olivia Wilde

Genre: Comedy

MPAA Rating:  R ( pervasive strong crude sexual content and language, some graphic nudity and drug use)

Tagline: "Who says men can't change? "

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"A comedy in which a married father accidentally switches bodies with his best friend, leading to a series of wildly complex difficulties. "

Discussion

I will admit that I am very picky when It comes to comedies. I have seen quite a few comedies in my time. But only a few have actually made me laugh hysterically. (Dumb and Dumber, Kung Pow, Freddy Got Fingered, & Anchorman) To the list I am going to also add "the change up" a movie that made me laugh uncontrollably; reminding me how great it is to relate and laugh at the things in life we sometimes take for granted.

I got the opportunity to see a special screening of this movie thanks to a ticket I got at an Italian pizza restaurant. I took the ticket, but in my mind I was positive that the movie was going to ultimately suck. Even by the time we got to the cinema me and friends where thinking of cues to say if the movie sucked. However that was not the case. The movie surprised me. No lie; it is thus far the funniest movie this year. I am positive now; that by the time it comes out August 5^th it will have a good run at the box office.

The change up is the story of two good friends who have very different lives. One is married, has 3 kids, works for a prestigious law firm and is on his way to a successful future. On the other hand, his friend (Ryan Reynolds) is an incompetent, lazy, and disorganized man who lives day by day. Yet somehow he sparks attraction with women. Now even though both have very different lives, they envy each other. On a crazy night of drinking they both decide to piss in a pond; while in the pond they make a wish to have each other’s life. Ultimately they swap bodies. Thus the horror for them commences, and the comedy for the audience increases. 

 

After swapping bodies they find out that the pond they urinated in has been take from the area it used to be. From here the movie doesn't stop delivering genuine laughs throughout. Both characters eventually must carry each hers opposite lives until they can find a solution. They also find out that they must wait a week or so until they can require the pond, making matters worse than they already were. Personally I recommend this comedy to anyone (above the age of 18). If you are looking to laugh your ass off, than this is definitely it.   Keep in mind that there are some crude and adult moments which can be objectionable for children; other than that, I see no reason why you shouldn’t pay the ticket to see this in cinemas.

The Rock (1996)- Sean Connery (4)

Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Ed Harris

Genre: Action/Adventure/Crime

MPAA Rating: R (strong violence, language and a sex scene)

Running Time: 132Mins

Tagline: "Get ready to rock!"
 

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"A renegade general and his group of U.S. Marines take over Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco Bay with biological weapons. A chemical weapons specialist and the only man to have ever escaped from the Rock attempt to prevent chaos."

Discussion

It is curious, even funny you might say, how all of Michael Bay’s movies are similar in style. The recipe for a Michael Bay movie is the following: Big Explosions, 360 degree shots over the protagnist as he gets up from an explosion, quick edits, fast cuts from important dialogue into shots of city landscapes….in all, these ingredients gives the audience the perfect recipe for a Michael Bay Trailer…ahem I mean Movie Trailer... I’m sorry, it’s that his movies at the end of the day are just a big fat 2 hour and 30 min trailer. Which brings me to another point, why are Bay’s movies always over the 2hr marker; like Bad Boys 2 ran for a total of 147 min...WTF? Anyway, To the point…The Rock is number 1 of the 3 only good Michael Bay films (the other’s being Bad Boys 1 and Armageddon) The Rock , even if it has most of the ridiculous music video edits and flashy car chase scenes, it is still perhaps one of the better action films of the 1990’s

After being discharged from the service, General Hummel (Ed Harris) decides to unite a group of soldiers and steal a deadly gas named VX Gas. A gas that when enters the nervous system, it turns it into shit. According to Nicolas Cage’s character, he describes the gas like this: “cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within thirty seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you'll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system,Your muscles freeze, you can't breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that's after your skin melts off” In other words, you turn into shit, that simple.  The general and his men take the island of Alcatraz hostage, in the island are civilians visiting the park on tour, now they are inmates for the day (yes, that was a joke, you may laugh) The FBI decides to get its top men in biochemists: Stanley Goodspeed, an eccentric guy who works for the government diffusing bombs and other biological weapons. Assigned to the project is also Commander Charles Anderson (Michael Beihn)  who is the leader of the men who wil be sent into the island to attack the renegade soldiers/mercenaries in the island. But, there is still one guy missing: Sean Connery, the convict who escaped the prison before, he knows the island better than anyone else, so they will need his assistance, clever no?

In between the gunfire and explosions thought the flick, we find out there is an ulterior motive to the attack: money, the general talks about patriotism, defending his nation, and that he saw men die in war and not getting proper burials. But in the end it is about getting paid mula.

So what exactly makes this movie work? Well i have to say that aside the action, it is defiantly a combination of a smart plot (rare thing in a Bay film) and perfect casting; Sean Connery as the Convict who once escaped the prison and the nerdy biochemist played by Cage. I think this movie and Face Off are perhaps one of the better action packed films of the 90’s. I would also add Con Air, but haven’t seen that one yet, i have heard from many that it has the same recipe for mayhem..And that to me is just perfect. Anyone interested in showing this off on your HD-TV, read below, this is for you.  

 I have own The Rock on DVD only once, there are two versions of it on DVD. The standard non-anamorphic DVD (which I owned) and the Criterion DVD, which i believe is out of print. But no worries, most of the features on that edition are on this blu ray.

Here is a list of the special features 

Audio Commentary

The Rock world premiere

Navy SEALs on the Range

Hollywood: Humphries & Teague

Special effects for dive

Action Effects: Movie Magic

Outtakes

Secrets of Alcatraz

Jerry Bruckheimer interview

Theatrical trailers

TV spots

Video

The video presentation on this blu ray is fucking epic; the quality of the 1080p surpasses the DVD counterpart by light-years. First of all, like I said earlier, the DVD i own was non anamorphic, meaning that it looked atrocious on an HD-TV. The only way to view it on the plasma screen was to use the zoom button, which caused the actors to look out of focus, and with little to no detail. Thankfully, to the advent of blu ray, we can now see The Rock as it was intended. The transfer I must say is spot on perfect; for a movie that is 15 years old it looks spanking brand new. You can thank that to Bay’s extensive use of lighting and flashy edits and strange camera angles.  The only complaint I had with the blu ray was the darker scenes, they tended to have some artifacts here and there, but nothing too distracting. Overall this is defiantly a demo disc to show off to friends.

Audio

The sound is just as good, presented in an uncompressed 5.1 PCM Surround Sound; this mix freaking blows the roof top. I had the sound at about 45, the gunfire sounded authentic and in pristine clarity. The only issue is that in some cases the gunfire overshadows the music, in some instances that is. But aside that, the sound quality goes hand in hand with the video, epic.

 Bottom Line

Buy it, don’t hesitate, this is a winner. The best choice you will make for a blu ray movie. I got this one when it first came out, so it was a bit pricey, now it goes for as little as 10 bucks on special days in places like best buy or FYE