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Film Prophet's Movie Reviews Page 5

 

Spirited Away (2003)
Voices by Rumi Hiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Tara Strong, Bob Bergen, Yumi Tamai

Film Prophet's Review...
There comes a time when a hit Japanese box office film arrives to America and it does successfully well. Creator Hayao Miyazaki won the Oscar for his adventurous animated film. The first ten minutes begin by traveling to a new home, a young girl's parents get lost in a forest, and they go pass a tunnel which they enter. After her parents transform into pigs in a wild sequence, she finds herself trapped in a strange new world. To free her parents from the spell, she must work at the abandon theme park with spirits at night and find a cure. She is placed in a nightmare surrounding inside an Asian built culture with their working values. The concepts in it separate Japanese and Western ideals and the film sends morals waiting for the audience to grasp them. An American viewer might miss some of the story because of their culture background, though the storytelling does a great job to comprehend. The story has the typical animated child serving main character who exerts in her uncertain settings. The audience will know as much as she progressively knows about the place's operations. "It's fun to move to a new place, it's an adventure." The film is two hours, longer than the average animated story. In her struggle, she represents natural, innocence, and beauty from the human world against the ugliness of creatures who some are wicked, dead, and evil in the passageways of the bath house. She garners help and friendship easily and the characters from spirits to mysterious walking toads react differently to her. The film is not at all violent though... the world is very imaginative, especially the creation of the characters. A few have big faces and some viewers might be mildly frightened by the material and visuals, at the same time, enjoying the insolent humor. Miyazaki's animation is very detailed... the reflections and shadows, the design features, and all are fundamentally layered available with a riveting music composition and sound mixing that fit well in an excellent feature. The experience and fear from this movie will be buried into children's minds. Normal things become gross and sound disgusting, like food, than what it really is, which all plays into effect of the film's pitch. As the magnificent storytelling proceeds, humans to the most powerful spells in this world are pathetic spoiled weak beings who smell and pollute their system. The world is strange, delicately presented, but she learns how to live in an unusual setting this young of age learning that she can certainly make it out on her own through the horrors and gallops with bravery.

Final Grade: A-/B+

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester

Film Prophet's Review...
An old attorney man, Laughton, ridden with health issues planning to retire is visited by a friend seeking advice in a murder case. He becomes the defendant's attorney of an inconvenient murder case in his last big one. The defendant's supposedly wife, Dietrich, decides to testify as the witness for the prosecution. It's always been safe to say director Billy Wilder is the man who dominated the Academy drama genre in his prime. He takes a shot at courtroom drama in this movie, though, the best one came out of his era: 12 Angry Men, which also contained a far exceptional screenplay. The action takes place in the courtroom where unexpected revealing shocks stir up the court. The attorney briskly sought keys to solve the case just by conversations, after an ample first twenty minutes of sophistications and talks that dragged on more than they should with uptight men in suits and sprayed hair. They were paranoid and over-frustrated and those who wore those grayish wigs in courts are sour for today's terms. I've never seen a more nervous and talkative defendant in court than ever before. I didn't do it, I didn't kill her - it was a repetitive quote he said about thirty times. The attorney's housemaid would always remind the old man of his medicine, even during court. Almost each character had suspicious behavior, but not the type of acting and script one would imagine. The intriguing relations just aren't present as the character development is almost puny. Laughton shines over the others as the only voice for the story. It was slow sometimes and I was waiting for the actual court case to get underway. The timing of the great music scores should have occurred more often too. If the sound shut off, no viewer would understand what was going on. Flaws in a Wilder film is unheard of, yet, it's possible since it's not his script in this film. The movie is not among his most easily watched films despite the acclaims. Sometimes the story was unsatisfying for a while and besides wooing the crowd in the court, which by the way was overly crowded, it lacks suspense and other ingredients for a gripping tone normally found in Wilder's films. The fast talked dialogue is lengthy and there is no time to rest or stop to digest the key points of information, if any, while most of it is rubbish. The women can't really speak their lines clearly and it's done way too straightforward on a static level. The turn off is the dialogue - it is over the top and too complex, non-enticing on little subjects... not common under Wilder. The entertainment isn't necessarily high, and one needs big ears to listen because the issues aren't really evident or outstanding. The comical My Cousin Vinny is refining... only a few films can conquer too much dialogue in one room, such in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, which had fine acting to deliver the suspense. The ending was stressed as the most important factor... a little too important that made everything else miniature and in the ending credits, a voice message demanded viewers for it not to be leaked to anyone.

Final Grade: C+/C

Love Actually (2003)
Starring Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Billy Bob Thornton

Film Prophet's Review...
Weeks prior to Christmas, various love relationships occur in London. One to mention, a father and son element that's not worth going into and a story explanation would take up too much space and it would be long since there's many little things going on and not one big thing. The film surrounds individuals who strain viewers to watch their uninteresting characters and it is the interactions with others that the movie communicates from. After the first scene, about thirty other characters are introduced, large or small roles, and only the story knows perhaps, but the plot is not drawn up. Despite an eminent cast and some cameos, their characters were clueless and agonizing. Nevertheless, they were British stars embedded into a story that doesn't quite appeal because that plot doesn't let them. Such as the one in Titanic, as the film briefly poses at, great romance films center on two people: the male protagonist and the heroine lead, with some acquaintances playing into effect. Lately, there aren't great romance films in production anymore, unless Cold Mountain counts. The stories follow nice moments, but they cry at things viewers won't know anything about, because the plot rarely opens. There was petite charm or likeability in any of them and there were tons to select from many little predictable stories, except the film skips around with people who randomly appear and disappear unknowing when they are coming back at all, eventually losing the viewer's focus. It's a movie where anyone could miss ten minutes, come back, and won't miss anything important; it's not demanding attention. Worst of all, Bill Nighy gets a heap of screen time and he was the least likable one. Billy Bob Thornton was close as the president and the casting choice does not go so well. The dialogue was totally out of place that included many blunt statements, and the political areas were out of place too. It's British humor isn't effective or funny, rather goofy and omitted. The stories don't even connect to each other in this adult ensemble. Almost every scene probably would have been left out as those deleted scenes on a special feature disc that didn't make the movie. Not one scene stands out until the finale, and it just hurts to recall any of them. It is hard to find love in this movie. It represents plenty of what is despised about a film... shallow people, hopelessly and annoyingly with sex, poor motivations, sleazy light romance, interruptions and distractions in the story, terrible dialogue, bad film quality, and a story which shoves characters and story lines left and right without any plot consistency or development. For some reason, the film quality over did with the lighting, had the exposure adjustment too high, and it was way too bright. From a Britain standpoint, the message of the story floats from the beginning and the point was already addressed that love is all around in the world and in the end, it doesn't matter what happened in the middle of the movie. After the first minute and before the last few sequences, the film had no intensity or convincing plots and it was boring actually. Some of the material is to the offense. It makes the viewer depressed if single, though waits for the right one to come. Not every woman from America looks like Shannon Elizabeth or Denise Richards. Richard Curtis, shame on you. Fast forward to the closing refrain to show the clear angles and relation conclusions right before the most lovely voice to begin the ending credits.

Final Grade: D/C-

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo, Richard Roxburgh

Film Prophet's Review...
Nominated for best picture, Australian director Baz Luhrmann created a fantasy musical-romance setting from a nineteenth century Paris into an underground nightclub called the Moulin Rouge. Christian, McGregor, was hoping to write a love story, though, him and a beautiful courtesan named Satine, Kidman, whom a jealous duke covets, fall for each other and the evil, rich duke gives them an ultimatum towards their secret affair. I was reluctant to see this movie years ago because of the cheery preview clips. Before viewing it in its entirety, I wasn't sure to review it because it's past its freshness it once had, and it's not really a classic yet. The primary reason I went back to see it was to view the different side of Ewan McGregor, and by that... his versatile talent. Unlike his other astounding roles, this one let him sing and yes, he can sing great and it was the best feature from the film. The zesty energy into the musical numbers and spins on numerous pop culture tunes into operas makes it feel close to a live action show. There was a strange gut notion that the next scene was going to be more extravagant. As soon as the red curtain opens, the silly choreography takes place nevertheless, the vocal talents were truly the bright spots in the movie. The camera placements, shooting angles, and zooms haunts through the opening of the film to the underworld Moulin Rouge theater with its elegant sets, singing, and dancing. Besides the camera work, the technical features were quite spectacular. The crazy presentation visualizes everything in any area of setting at one time. The movie uses musical numbers to leisurely tell a minimal story - the weak link. It can become confusing to remember the character connections within the center of the film, and if some characters fake certain scenarios, but the finale clears things up. The supporting characters were odd with their talks in a fast edited motion picture, not sure if they would have any importance later on, but they do make Christian normal. Their traits are to easily be aroused, get violent, and laugh at things the audience won't at. Some of their extended song tunes went on further than expected. The only characters that really mattered in the story were Satine and Christian. Nicole was fabulous and her acting and singing takes the film up a notch over that story where I was looking forward to seeing her sing than to her speak lines. Over an exotic color blend of reds, her wild sexual ambitions and moans match her camera close ups on her gorgeous facial expressions, especially when Ewan, and his wonderful breakout performance, first sings to her alone and she smiles during the whole thing. Excluding the pop tunes, the music, singing, and instruments were outstanding. Near the end of each song, the scene usually cuts to a fantastic background behind the singers, then afterwards to Christian typewriting this story up with themes of love is like oxygen and without trust, there is no love.

Final Grade: B/B-

The Hustler (1961)
Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott

Film Prophet's Review...
Eddie Felson, Newman, is a talented pool shooter who doesn't know when to quit when he faces the legendary Minnesota Fats, Gleason. In the dark, gritty black and white cinematography, the topic weighs on a man's decision through greed and his competitive spirit. For the first thirty minutes, the movie strutted amusement from comedy during the erratic comical quotes and brilliance of the character's minds in the poolroom. When Eddie takes on Fats for big money, lengthy adrenaline is presented in a long elapse of time. The story didn't go into the past of any characters and it wasn't needed because it would just slow the film down so the characters developed during the competition of billiards. Newman and Gleason's chemistry worked so well that it made the film more enjoyable than what it could have been. Newman, a truly respected actor, was excellent in deciding his leading roles during his prime work. I never liked any of George C. Scott's characters, films, and appearances anywhere though. Later on, Newman starred in The Sting, which had more fast paced operations over a wide area of different sports. The pool game scenes are shot rapidly. After making a shot, the person moves around the table in a hurry to look swift calling shots and sinking them before chalking the cue and saying a conceited witty line to impress everyone watching. The viewer doesn't get an exact look at a score or closeness in any of the pool matches and it focuses on the judgments realistically since the plot has simplicity. The tone of the movie is very quiet where certain actions are larger at stake than words. The movie vastly lost its neat edge. When Eddie finally gets tired, the audience can get restless under the slow upcoming conversations and breaks between lines. When the first female arrives, it's almost a sporadic relationship with Eddie depraved in an already thin story. Both are alcoholics and she has some troubles, but her character isn't really fleshed out enough to care too much. Half way in, the jazzy music attempts to bring life back in the middle of the movie that dragged because it went away from it's main topic of what the movie promised in the beginning. The woman, pool, and alcohol studies were too much for Eddie and the tragic love story in the middle of his game does not throw him off... it throws the movie off as the alcohol does to him. When Eddie drinks, he loses, and the movie loses energy and speed as it nourishes off him. There isn't much entertainment outside of the pool halls and the best parts of the film happen to rest inside the pool hall. I long for this sport leisure, which is among the most under-rated activities and games today. For Eddie to sacrifice it all for this game, the film is an American classic with professionalism.

Final Grade: B/B+

The Island (2005)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi

Film Prophet's Review...
Lincoln, McGregor, is a resident of a contained, controlled facility and he hopes to be chosen to head to the island, the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. He makes a discovery that everything about his existence is a lie and that he is really a clone, a reason they exist for insurance to the real person. Together with Jordan, Johansson, they make a daring escape to the outside world they've never known. It is a futuristic film with excessive action set in the year 2019 with technological advancements. They are forbidden to have sex and the residents only drive in their lives is that some day they could move to the island and await each day's lottery announcement. The script could be very smart as director Michael Bay usually adds his own visual dimensions and forgets to include quotes with meaning that submit a clearer portrayal of the concept. Bay's main focus is the special effects during the second half rather than using a plot. He drives on the wrong path as it was very bland. There was no real suspense in any of the action. It's just as dull as Constantine with an equivalent storyline strength of Collateral and even The 6th Day did a much better job on a human cloning movie. The story starts with a faint interest of various prattling ethics fitting for just two characters towards development and it struggles the rest of the way to uncover greater dialogue and the ending had none. The best dialogue of the film was when Lincoln was complaining to have bacon instead of tofu. The villains were boring with tiny screen time. Lincoln's nightmares of rapid fast random images of water and land were unneeded. The camera never stays still for a matter of a few seconds and it always moves, shakes, zooms, and pans to something else. Sometimes the film is painful and disturbing, for instance that one eye test. Afterwards, the film doesn't use logic or appeal, and that's bad not to have either, during the visual chase spectacles or anything to arouse the viewer - The Island is a fine film to zone out to. The product of the story are the humans, but the presentation ruined it. In fact, the film was one long commercial of various advertisers, such as Chrysler, Speedo, msn, Microsoft, and Aquafina, devoid of a distinctive message to attach emotions. There is nothing wrong with the stars in the film, as it was the primary reason why it became a most wanted film of 2005. Michael Clarke Duncan gives the only chill of the movie and he's only on for a couple minutes. The best supplement in the film for a while is the presence of Scarlett Johansson... or maybe it was Djimon Hounsou who was under used. I am indecisive like the movie's aimless direction.

Final Grade: D/C-

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Starring James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan, William Tracy

Film Prophet's Review...
"I took you out of your envelope and read you, read you right there." Young James Stewart plays an eligible bachelor working in a small shop in Budapest who longs for a woman through letters he hasn't met. He falls in love with their respective pen pals through mistaken identity and here's the intrigue - he does not know that the woman with whom he is exchanging love letters with happens to be his co-worker and they can't stand each other. The film was remade later as You've Got Mail, which was casted by symmetry. The combination of delicacy and gentleness in the script blends well with the acting to an extent, but it doesn't have a sparkle in the mixture. It's plain and delightful, as one of the setbacks are the still camera shots that take over a minute of conversations between a pair. It also relies heavily on the words to express the enigma since there's little movement on screen with the camera and characters. It's shot almost entirely in and around the gift shop too. James Stewart remains a special diamond in film history as the top male actor with a certain charisma. His performance in this film is proof, using a wide range of qualities in a signature role. He provides the best said lines and when he's on screen with five other people, his dialogue is anticipated to steal each scene. Sadly in the scenes without him, he is very much missed. Each character has their own little stories behind the focal point, not like they matter though. The story carries forward a small step at a time without gigantic romantic angles, scenes, and actions. It needed to extend off assured aspects more with energy and funny quotes. Seeing part of the movie about exchanging letters, those parts were kept concise and short, as there wasn't a lengthy one mentioned. The movie didn't mesh too great and didn't fully connect with me as expected, and I didn't like the surprise abrupt ending. However, it definitely triumphs over An Affair to Remember.

Final Grade: B-

Wedding Crashers (2005)
Starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Christopher Walken

Film Prophet's Review...
John, Wilson, and Jeremy, Vaughn, are a pair of divorce attorneys who score with women when they crash weddings pretending to be guests, resulting in getting drunk, fed, and laid out of every sexual gag and foul word. With Vaughn's primitive sarcasm and Wilson's infectious casual serene, the two chase single pretty women half of their age lying about their identities for almost two hours. This movie was a prolonged trailer that took the easy way out of things. Unlike Dodgeball, the material got old after a couple of wedding interruptions in the beginning with low-end humor. The viewers just don't really care to what happens to any of the characters, as sometimes it's predictable slowly getting there. The fun concepts, obtained in fast speeches by the guys, are not entertaining. When Vaughn speaks up to Wilson, his dialogue is lousy and rushed with bad execution that led to boredom. The only times Vaughn is vivid is when Isla Fisher expresses herself wild and physical to him in an Anna Faris role. The writing of the lines were quite dire with little essence using past movie formulas. There were neglected ways to setup aspects of the non-climatic story that went on for no reason, with close-ups, song tunes, and bad setting choices of Washington D.C. all fabricated with the dimwitted lines. The screwball comedy contains despicable jesting scenes after the next consisting of troublemaking and common stereotypes through uneasy situations of women being lonely and men using it to their advantage. Some women at a wedding may be embarrassed to be asked why they are still single. To add to the embarrassment, two immature men who haven't grown up yet go to weddings to hook up... the premise of two guys crashing weddings for free things and exposing vulnerabilities and instant single status. In reality, women who don't have male dates invite female friends. Men, on the other hand, can't bring men along as a date, but Vaughn and Wilson manage do it. However, the movie made an offense on homophobia, singles, sex, various ridicules, ages, and just about every idea the movie presented. There was small respect for the characters and its audience members. The story falls when John gets close with the bride's sister, McAdams, and shows that this could be a mistake where he comes up with a conclusion that love and friendship don't exist. Even so, none of it is funny. The bulk of the movie takes place during a long weekend event before a mean ugly final twenty minutes, except for Will Ferell's cameo. The lone bright spot in the film was seeing McAdams and her big smiles because Film Prophet did not smile once towards the story's principles.

Final Grade: C-/C

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Deep Roy, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee

Film Prophet's Review...
Compared to the 1971 version of the beloved children's book, Charlie is from a very poor family who lives in the same town as Wonka's chocolate factory that once closed down... until Wonka launches a worldwide contest where five lucky children seek out to discover a golden ticket inside his chocolate bars and win a guided tour of the legendary candy-making factory that no outsider has seen in fifteen years. Apparently, Roald Dahl never liked the original, even though he wrote half of the screen play, but viewers, critics, and Film Prophet certainly elevated to a high standard it deserves. He wanted a scarier looking figure in Wonka, which is relevant from Depp's makeup, his eerie interpretation, and a darker comedy tone. However, just because it's more accurate doesn't mean it will be greater. Sadly, Roald isn't here anymore to approve of a second by Tim Burton or give his judgment on it. There's a brighter display of colors blending in with a help of CGI artwork, but it's artificial and gorgeous in the original. Very few funny spots occur and the one that earned the longest laugh was with the cow. Two scenes that didn't go over so well were two entrances. Wonka's first appearance he came walking out on a cane with a bad leg and tripped and rolled up and fooled the crowd, oh wait, that was the original. Here Wonka just creeps up on the children and parents watching a display go in flames without the crowd watching. Second, the entrance to the all-edible land has a better presentation and launch with Gene Wilder than Depp. Also, Burton struggled to find a right ending, hence his Planet of the Apes remake. The original ended to the point, though this film had to extend and stretch it towards a larger family and moral value, such as bad kids are the product of bad parents, which was already declared in the middle of the story. A thing the original didn't do was use flashbacks to show the personal past of Wonka with his dad, his first sight of candy and chocolate, and the initiation of the little Oompa Loompas. Danny Elfman's constant harmony of various instruments change from happiness to dramatic scores rapidly with ease to bring out the sympathy in Charlie and his grandfather. The only melodies and songs, which used pop culture references, were provided by the Oompa Loompas, who was one person. Deep Roy as the Oompa Loompa was reproduced into the same instances of himself to create more of them. Depp, however, did not sing once and smirks a lot, unlike the fantastic Wilder, and didn't do much but say sarcastic quotes after the kid's misbehaviors or surprise stunts that he shot down in an instant. Wonka's highly opinionated views of the children's actions and words were vastly preposterous that turn the other cheek with his fast conclusions. Wilder's character understood everything and knew how to reject things and here Depp's Wonka is usually clueless and sends the film to a flashback scene. The story's theme strives off the children's main weakness as the comic grotesque parts come out of the masses of candy, but not bothersome. More joy came out of the introduction of the five kids getting the golden ticket with the news floating around. The TV boy brought his mother in the original, here he brings his father. The chewing gum girl is more competitive here with a striving mother, as they were the best pair to watch. Charlie and his grandfather's roles and lines decreased in the middle of the film a whole lot as they entered the factory. Watch the wonderful Gene Wilder first, then go see this. Knowing the plotline, the original would still be the more delightful film just to watch again and again from any point in the story with an extra charm.

Final Grade: B-

Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Starring Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper

Film Prophet's Review...
Luke is a collective stubborn independent man who attained the rank of Sergeant from the war and gets sent to a rural prison for social defiance and he doesn't want to conform. Like the film, Luke has a combination of coolness, hilarity, and confidence. His spirit is dealt and he hardly cares. Society's treatment of the individual personifies a non-conformist establishment. The foe in the film is society's regulations which overlooks a person until the individual violates a rule and it is that point the person is recognized, mainly by enforcers, for the wrong things despite past success. Mostly everything Luke does in the story, he consents with a reason that it just gives him something to do - I was just passing time, Captain. Though, there are strict rules and guards when he gets in, Luke squints his eyes and glows a semi-grin and a gaze of assurance chopping dusty weeds by the side of a highway under the hot sun like the rest of his mates in front of a boss with reflective sunglasses who never speaks. Being in a Southern prison around farm land, it gave Luke a chance to do something else with life involving his swift standpoint. Newman pulls off this role with such coolness and a smart head on his shoulders where his character has more guts than brains. Donn Pearce wrote a complete screen play that reacts with a superior acting chemistry. Every scene consistently was engaging to watch and it keeps the viewer's mind on Luke's surroundings and his chain gang from his bunk house who improve upon him. His character defined the word cool to a new meaning of how modern day uses it. The movie is profound devoid of being too climatic or troubling. Luke's laid back character and Stuart Rosenberg's perfect rate, camera views, and steadiness knowing exactly what to do was constructed plus one. In the center of the film, Luke earns respect from his mates to do almost anything in a carefree manner - Yea well, it will give me something to do. Examples of Luke's exuberant victories are boxing with gloves against a bigger mate, Dragline, which was symbolic because he won't submit to the powers that beat him, a poker game, a young attractive woman who washes her car in front of his mates doing work, and a eating contest and all impresses his convict mates and further goes at it with his escape techniques which were totally brilliant. Through his actions, he can't be doubted ever again. One of the themes are winning with nothing at hand, displaying an unforgettable wonderful human spirit and a sense of relief to do nothing. It defines every man's department of life and Luke shakes up the world to his mates. There's sad justice of being independent and the interactions with his mates a la rice scene is a mention. His quest for God is satirical because he himself reflects God to his mates. It's pretension that matches One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is enjoyable and not boring like The Bridge on the River Kwai, Deliverance, The Grand Illusion, Das Boot, and Rebel Without a Cause, as The Defiant Ones, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and The Fugitive are second-rate where The Shawshank Redemption ought to worship it. The imagery and references are entrenched and there are plenty of outstanding quotes - What we've got here is failure to communicate, which is among the best movie lines ever because irony and true meaning of the line comes later towards the utmost, thoughtful ending of them all that's full of symbols. Luke's 'where am I supposed to fit in' ending speech is uplifting and efficiently said. Kennedy as Dragline gave an Oscar winning performance and also got the most dialogue in film. Newman, a top ten best male performance as Luke, is moving, stimulating, and consumes the splendor of a man's soul and heart to stand strong.

Final Grade: A+

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Chris Sarandon, James Broderick, Charles Durning

Film Prophet's Review...
On a very hot typical busy New York City day, a narrow rectangle gift box can only mean one thing. Sonny, Pacino, and his slow-witted accomplice Sal, Cazale, picked the wrong day and immediately botched a bank robbery as it becomes a standoff and live television. No character was inclined toward the untidy outcome if robbing the small bank wasn't spoiled and ruined easily in many little ways. Sonny is trapped; he makes the choices and he is not well prepared in a timely procedure where all kinds of shocks and breakdowns go awkward. The easy going premise gets tricky after they messed up. Stanley Lumet's direction and storytelling worked miraculous in opening the film up and trapping the viewer's eyes to the film to connect to the audience. He used a bright screen play that knew what it wanted to achieve, based off a true story, and Lumet's flawless cameras and production jaunts off the talented Pacino. The film is not violent, but it makes a strong point. Plus, it isn't overly loud, outrageous, or ugly like Guy Ritchie films. The movie is a guideline to be the ultimate bank robbing movie just dealing with that one situation. I was surprised at how tremendous the script kept adding a fresh scene after another and it was able to showcase Pacino's lucid range of talent. Pacino as Sonny is the bad guy with plenty of weaknesses as the central character who was humorous, amusing, and energetic and a preview of what he was capable of for Scarface. Sonny captivates a prospective crowd from poor civilians, cops, and the news and he handles it all well with excitement. Why do you feel you have to steal for money - a shocking reason at the half way mark resolves the real reason of why he tried to rob the bank. The scenes of communications between the female hostages are original and very witty with clever lines and scene cuts, especially when Sony first starts his trouble. The execution from each performer under the film's conflicts were exceptional to the nail and astonishing on vulnerabilities in each character. Pacino's very convincing performance enhances the true events with a drama-act of a supporting cast who were bravura. A greatly deserved nomination for Chris Sarandon as detective Frank Pierson with his high activity in the film was issued as well as a nomination for best picture. John Cazale as Sal gives a memorable performance who hopes there is a way out of it. There are comical lines that have serious tones under difficult situations where the decisions are frustrating Sonny, but there is no time travel to reset it. Its judgment is placed under the roof of the small bank building with a couple of detectives trying to communicate to Sonny peacefully from outside and when Sonny comes out for his brief stints, he creates a stir using his raging voice - put those guns down! In a case, a powerful cyclic quote, Attica, rallies the crowd and he becomes a voice for the urban poor. It's among the best films that can present humor and drama at once that was a fun experience as entertainment for the media and everyone who followed it live... how do those guys get through the barrier. There's a great line every quarter of a minute and it keeps the audience's eyes glued wide open to the screen... no beer, let's keep it soft drinks alright. My favorite scene was the pizza part. There are interesting social, love, trust, and moral issues compelling to always watch without one boring scene. It often furnished the thought of - best movie ever - and that's how potent the entire film was.

Final Grade: A

Glory (1989)
Starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher

Film Prophet's Review...
Robert Gould Shaw leads an all-black company fighting prejudice and the gritty American Civil War at the same time. It's an historical drama, where Colonel Shaw, Broderick, raises a colored division of soldiers for service in the Union army. From their major turn out, their use is limited at first because they don't have the discipline yet. The film displays horrifying results in the eyes of Shaw from the first scene and he can't undo his experience so he needs to get his men ready for next time. He gives the same expression noticing his men are not being fully prepared yet and in total control of his troops. Although, his training ways, along with Elwes' character, and techniques were stressed from fierce white to feeble black, which offers the finest from the script. The straightforward story focuses on the character's lives and it would like to have more commanding adversities for an unique desire of attention for the first half. The tone was soft settle and polite, revealed from Broderick's narration. Intensity and sympathy are pieces that make a movie demanding to watch and there wasn't enough flow, for a while, to another sequence, such presented in Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, to make it an exciting second watch. The technical elements and the acting are the two best qualities from the film. Denzel won an Oscar for his role as Private Trip, the one with the most rage and attitude among them... and probably the most earnest character. His predominant scenes include a rally and the manly beating he suffers. It was then he became a well-known actor. Freeman is the best supporting actor at revealing his quest compassion with a calm understanding in various scenes. Their performances forgets this movie needed any kind of female impact too. The ground settings and costumes were rational as the sound and visual effects were captivating. James Horner's music compliments the film, and the dialogue wasn't slow or fast as the editing kept cutting to fresh shots every few seconds. The film confines the subject of race to the table through gripping and enlighten recognition with issues of slavery, freedom, equality, and sacrifice that they are there along side each other maybe not for the same cause however. The audience will appreciate and sorrow dignity for this group and give them respect that they deserve. The movie steadily produces fallouts consistently and relies on emotions to convey its messages on humanity hardly ever mentioning historical data. The stand out ending battle sequence is magnificent and a total tear jerker that raised the movie to a prevailing sentiment, which makes the final battle in The Last Samurai as a shameful mimic.

Final Grade: B+/A-

Touch of Evil (1958)
Starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia

Film Prophet's Review...
Orson Welles and his directorial marvel in this film has a wild squalid tale of murder and police corruption. As a plump cop, Welles, may be involved in a Mexican border-town murder. He faces an opposition from a narcotics officer, Heston, whose wife, Leigh, is abducted and held as a pawn in a struggle with Heston's quest for truth before he goes on his honeymoon. The figurative style of speech can be somewhat funny, and the rough, raw quotes aren't often an intellect to the story. It is an unordinary crime-drama film that can be an exciting experience or not. Sadly, the best part of the film where most of its appraisal comes from is the first three minute long shot with a camera movement that is unique in opening the film with a spontaneous aerial view of the town and people, which was primarily for art and show. Indeed, Welles has a technical achievement in Citizen Kane. However, Film Prophet criticizes this film as insensitive and defiant. The lighting is a bit shadowy and too dark. The atmosphere is very thick and crime filled. The central character is an obsessed, nervous, and lousy cop. Orson Welles did get fat and his character stands out because of his size and uncaring attitude. The other characters aren't crowd pleasers as they mesh together and decay. Heston is over-charming as a neglectful husband who lets his wife wander the town about with a bunch of strangers, which is begging for trouble. Instead of the main cast carrying the film, they share and open themselves along with supporting, stereotypical characters who overact their minor roles and take up space. Many characters around the main trio are a problem because they don't bring out details and steadiness to weave any of the others. The biggest fault of the movie is not having a portioned film. It didn't know what it wanted to be. The scenes kept changing its appeal from surreal, weird, slow, humorous, or fun scenes that moved around unnaturally and they were forced going out of plot. Most of the audience won't know what Welles was trying to get at and it lacks intensity. After an hour, the film got boring and drops the crazy appear. Its main concept was the study in camera choreography, which carried most of the film's weight, and the actual murder suspicion in the story is always just secondary. The story gets lost under minor incidents and characters where the finished product sat on a seesaw unevenly. It is nothing more than what it was acclaimed to be - a great ambiguous movie.

Final Grade: B-/C+

Sabrina (1954)
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Walter Hampden

Film Prophet's Review...
Two popular leading men join Audrey Hepburn right after her big role in Roman Holiday where all three of them have won an Oscar. Hepburn's roles, like as Sabrina, at a younger age are more entertaining and imaginative in her first decade as an actress. She is Sabrina, the daughter of a chauffeur to a rich family next door. She is a young, typical woman with decision making between two men at her life, who are brothers of the family her father chauffeurs. First, she starts as a shy young daughter who hopelessly admires an older, richer man. The crossroad at her life is being shipped off to a cooking school in Paris, where she matures and improves her mind into a full-fledged woman. Director Billy Wilder certainly conquers his stories into superb direction, using witty dialogue. Sometimes, a big age difference with two people in a film is a bit peculiar, but Wilder guides the relationship that is budding and carefree, along with a well-composed musical score towards the romantic-comedy genre. His films always have an ease to capture the appeal of the story, atmosphere, and characters. The amusing chemistry between the three stars didn't need long developments in the story and they seamlessly moved from one scene to the next in a trouble-free way so there's no flaws. Although, this is out of Wilder's top five films for sure. The plot isn't deep, as the story moves wonderfully for the first half without complication or confusion, and the second hour has both of those. After Sabrina returns from Paris, there are no pinnacles in the story that lift it back up to where it was enchanting before. The picture concentrates on the post-transformed Sabrina and her reactions and faults. There's simplicity in the script, which is natural, but bit by bit. The acting has charisma, and Hepburn's new appearance stuns older son, Holden, who didn't even know she existed despite living next door. The reductions of the movie are the scenes with slow dancing, dress up parties, and the repercussions, which tend to slow down the growth of a plot. The plain second half gets into a gradual romantic evening after an exciting first half, and the witty dialogue becomes so-so. The two son characters get jealous involving their personal lives and Sabrina cries for a dozen of minutes in their arms. The parent's roles aren't closely linked even though they get screen time. The subsequent is wearisome and overstressed into a displeasure after a rewarding start.

Final Grade: B-

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins

Film Prophet's Review...
Eminent for Peter O'Toole's star making performance, the biopic is a factual autobiographical account of Lawrence's Arabian adventure looking inwards to his life. It is masterful to evoke such a passion to the admirers of the film who stand by Lawrence through his conflicts. Told in a flashback, it exploits an eccentric, ambitious man who aids the Arabs against the Turks from a military stationed in North Africa during the first World War. He quests on the desert for the Allies' mid-eastern campaign and draws up plans to aid the Arabs in their rebellion. There's been criticism of casting just all men in the movie, so it studies men's tendencies forced upon that entice the man. The movie gathers a gist of confusion over sexual identity because men are surrounded by men everywhere... and the landscapes of sand. The desert reduces man to an inferior being on an extended desert land. It defeats the purpose to possibly say Lawrence could have used aircraft instead of walking and riding camels, as the movie did show planes were in existent. The introduction to his character is an original and basic portrayal of a regular man who falls to turmoil. Director David Lean's Doctor Zhivago has a much more captivating story and a better title character. Zhivago differs where each scene commanded attention with a clear main cast. Lawrence was built up as if he were a god, but he ended up a few scenes as a weak link without really have a major role in the first half as the titled character. His character is somewhat confusing. At times he was violent and not, went mad, or was brilliant, as T.E. Lawrence is a man beyond knowing. The viewer would expect to know something about him though. His anecdote is shown from his humane struggles of coping with death and duties. Although, the film is tolerable to watch because of the different opinions on his character virtues. Lean covers a textbook example of long storytelling, editing, and dialogue and spends time developing the one-dimensional, forgettable supporting group which didn't help to speed things up to emphasize a faster approach. What they did for fun joking around is not amusing for the viewers. When the few battle scenes emerged, they come from no where with characters on one side that weren't fleshed out. Almost four hours long, the overacted drama has a mediocre plot without much profundity, actions, heroic moves, or turning points, sticking to its true telling. Examples of similar tales that can explore more productively are All Quiet on the Western Front, Titanic, Ben-Hur, The Seven Samurai, Troy, and The Lord of the Rings. The best qualities of the film are its camera techniques, color, music, cinematography, and imagery, which not necessary makes a great movie. Yet, those qualities capture the same old huge landscape shots with close-ups of actors who have nothing interesting to say to each other. This is part of the dialogue expressed by mild voice tones - I've been waiting for you, how did you know I was coming, I knew someone was coming. Men who just walk around on the desert with miserable lines is not entertainment. The diplomatic talks are sometimes ineffective and the scenes are very repetitive. The talks usually resemble the same needs against an indistinctive opponent of the Turks, except for the sun rising, though those Arabs realistically did wear a lot of clothing layers in the heat. The sun partially makes the characters tiresome, literally, and they chill out by the sources of dirty water. The story is not very stirring or moving. If the movie's best ability is to look at the shots of camels and horses riding and what kind of lens is being used, then get on with the headway. Most of the film consists of the camera moving over sand dunes. The movie doesn't have a destination and the end is sudden and abrupt that won't appear to be an ending if it weren't for the The End screen. It doesn't have a certain point in the film that stands out most because most of the scenes, mainly unnecessary ones, blend in with each other. This is how most of the movie went - some guys talk to each other slowly on a scenic desert and the next scene shows them riding their camels as depleted travelers no where to go with the same music escorting it which soon cuts to the sun over and over. Those cut scenes of camels walking gives the story a slower pace, but Lean tried to achieve a relationship between the characters and the desert, which he did. There's a scene where a stranger on a camel from almost a mile away approaches a couple of men in their point of view and Lean takes his precise time as to how long it would actually take him to get there. The stranger is Omar Sharif's character, who makes a spectacular on screen entrance in a shimmering mirage. Then again, the movie needed more than just man to uplift this to a greater Film Prophet standing.

Final Grade: B/B-

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Starring Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Cameron Diaz, Ellen Barkin

Film Prophet's Review...
A journalist, Depp, and a friend, Del Toro, go on a road adventure of drugs and carnival when all the journalist needed was a magazine story about exposing people for irrationality and he can't begin it. The strange and unpredictable Terry Gilliam directs very different films all the time. He presents an unusual kind of humor that can't relate to the story, unless the viewer is stoned. Though, the acting gets the movie moving towards a whacked and exaggerated story that has no plot. The conflict is trying to discount the drugs and that's about it, and it only grossed around ten million in the theaters. Recommended movies with drugs that arouse clever consistent attention are Maria Full of Grace, City of God, and Traffic. Given the young talent in the cast, which was wasted like everything else in the film, they did do a fine job using body language being so antsy and paranoid. However, the movie itself was quite bad. Besides the amazing performances from Depp and Del Toro, their characters are beasts, silly, and shallow to an extent where the viewer could hardly care what will happen to the two irresponsible guys. Next, the story lacks an argument. Depp is the reason the film's narration is on too much freedom because it comes straight from a novel's point of view and the visuals for movie purposes are offensive and improper. Gilliam over used imagination without conveying a swaying implication that served no tasks or stirring heights. The concept in the script has no big value and it uses simplistic drug humor that is too desperate for laughs. The unfunny antics which tries to be funny doesn't have a real sense of humor that can be comical for any time and it scored zero laughs from Film Prophet. Few movies depict drug use in this way in a non-evolving story. It is too bland and it relies on its star power through redundant issues of an introspective, casinos, hotel rooms, and dazing off. The two guys are constantly smoking or drinking alcohol wasting time and the journalist loses his sight on his story. Their behavior is unbearable to watch and sometimes there is a queer tone, as Diaz manages to undo it in her short cameo. It was difficult to make out the dialogue and the shaky camera and hallucinations were terrible. Drugs are the enemy most of the time and it's the only source of miserable entertainment the film has. When the hitchhiker bailed out of the convertible early in the film as a sign that the movie was going to be dreadful, it was the smartest and most intelligent choice made by any character in the story.

Final Grade: C-/C

War of the Worlds (2005)
Starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto

Film Prophet's Review...
Life ends in a flash. Based on H.G. Wells' novel and directed by Steven Spielberg tells a well-known alien invasion story through human experiences with reluctant forced procedures. The story follows Cruise's character and no one else except for the people who he comes in contact with. His mission is to go to Boston from lower Manhattan while saving himself and his son and daughter from being decomposed. The plot follows the bickering family just on survival together without a strategy. The situation was not only a timed thing by the aliens, but as well for the father to prove himself to his children, who aren't at ease with him. The abundant scenes where it pictures Cruise's reaction from his hiding spaces when he views the many of other people devolving by mammoth tripods creates the panic. Many of the sinister scenes has to do with the re-appearance of one or more tripods in front of a crowd of lost people to gaze up with dumbfounded expressions on their faces and eventually get slaughtered ending their lives without an identity in the story - how miserable. All the extras in the film were victims of invasion. Whatever they do in despair, it gives another chance for the audience to look at the remarkable design and function of the tripods. There are times when the movie can enrich sociology and then there's both the nice and ugly in many of the humans. The center of the conflicts under terror and nerves have some people angry, brutal, and impolite and all people are pointless objects to make other people's lives even worse. For instance, the scene when Cruise and his family are driving in a car and they get rallied and gang beaten from a mob of people. Sometimes it makes the worst enemy the people when they go against each other and not the metal monsters. There are some disturbing images of dead bodies floating, people evaporating, missing people signs, and plane crashed parts. Parts of New York City is always the primary target for destruction films, as seen in The Day after Tomorrow. The film draws mostly to the special effects that's the best feature of the film. The candy eye effects are visually sound, though there are numerous holes in the plot, such as where everything usually goes to the family's favor with cars working and clear paths, untouched areas near by when there's dozen of those metal monsters around, clothes flying from the sky, electricity turning off, and so on. For this movie, foul pieces will slip by because the plot is not the focus in the movie. The point is to electrify and elevate the intensity to the crowd through unusual effects the world has never seen before, despite the faults. Spielberg, an expert at evoking fright, doesn't inform and reason with the audience and moves on to the next exhilarating scene. He is a filmmaker showing a tiny story behind a massive incident. Sometimes the story alludes to comical references far from the serious tone. The script is mostly filled with details in the destruction sequences than the use of dialogue. It's a movie where actions speak louder than words. An unanswered resolution happens that just suddenly ends without a theme, other than the one I stated in the first line of this review... learning no lessons except to make sure to keep a fresh food storage nearby. It serves its purpose to terrify and entertain as a summer blockbuster with logic-less prey and enormous technical executions of thunderous dreadful metal monsters.

Final Grade: B/B-

8 1/2 (1963)
Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo, Rossella Falk

Film Prophet's Review...
Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical movie is a hidden treasure for America by an Italian cinema that should be kept stored away. The story has a filmmaker who loses his inspiration to make a new movie through his conscience and memories and suffers an artistic crisis. In a storyline that is yet undemanding, it demands strict notice to the film's ostentatious character who looks like Jeff Goldblum. He fantasies and recalls to connect back to reality and it is the first big film that goes around the exploration of mind and the madness trying to escape the problem of fixing his film. The Italian movie is highly regarded as a huge achievement. The impact of the movie intends to daze the viewer and the filmmaker simultaneously. The movie is saturated in his responsibilities and his process of creating the film. His memories come frequent later in the film, where his childhood ones are the least relevant. The movie conventions uses tons of visual patterns of black and white imagery, but none of it conveys a purpose. The Big Lebowski and Adaptation. usually returned back to its ground which was clear when presence altered. This film offers uncertainty. Symbolism is difficult to use in film and it must be handled carefully or else it just wouldn't mean anything. The biggest problem with the picture is the women, who try to be too pretty and there are just too many of them to keep up with where neither are important. Anything they say is irrelevant to take men away from their work and ambition. There is not one woman who counts, even his wife. The women's roles in the film is just to keep their figures, stylist hair, and makeup on to say some lines that don't truly add merit to the story. There are numerous women who require too much attention from their men and it takes away from the film. All of this is a distraction to man and his filmmaking and it's not going any quicker... much like this movie. The viewer might have to ignore the chitchat they spill, but it's just everywhere and the film is a mess. Therefore, after a quarter of the film, the filmmaker tries to escape such impediments that slow him down, but it is his memories that slow everything and the film goes nowhere. It ends with the most bizarre futile celebration finale. There are uneven views on the church and the entertainment value slips away after an hour or so where more pointless women appear and continue to giggle and try to act imperative. The art is a disappointment that is too pretentious. Though Fellini's talent is there, not everyone will understand the incognito movie. There is nothing much to understand and it's too abstract fooling around to be unenlightening. A high grade was welcomed for this until it proceeded to get worse making no sense. It wasn't even pledged to a simple story as it is out-stretched with boring scenes. It tries to be slick without an expression that turns into silly jokes and his women affairs. It appears Federico Fellini may have made this self-indulgent movie for just himself towards a character director who couldn't complete a movie. His exhaustive writing is tiresome at points and leaves ambiguity in the plot that can't communicate because the lines are not on a substantial fascinating fulfilling involvement, which was in need of a couple strong conversations or scenes that aren't in the memory sequences. Even some of those didn't help out or play a comprehensible function to the film. The dialogue is subtle and general without profundity and the movie floats around to each element in the story that doesn't break the seal.

Final Grade: B-/C+

Ran (1985)
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada

Film Prophet's Review...
At last, I've completed Akira Kurosawa's most prestigious directed seven films with this being the last one on my list. Ran is also the latest of that collection that turns out to be my desired masterpiece of his. The film is just under three hours and the more mature and older Akira slightly moves away from the full-edged samurai theme into a Japanese feudal era using an interpretation on Shakespeare's King Lear, only changing what is necessary to Japan's age. Nevertheless, he still uses a tap of his samurai legend anecdote as he develops past the meaning of it where Toshiro Mifune typically played the drifting obsolete samurai in his other films. In this story, an aging warlord decides to transfer his powers of his kingdom between his three sons after a premonition. Each son acquires their own taste on the situation and other two turn against him. Everything the warlord owns soon crumbles on behalf of his sons with complex conflicts. The pace of the story is restrained and not rushed re-working an old story. The film contains the best musical work from his films, such in the beginning with an eerie one string tune that switches to soft beat drums. There are plenty of significant characters in the film that play a sufficient role in the story. Kurosawa writes it with an excellent and provoking aptitude and gives each character an outstanding contribution to the colossal story. First most, there is plenty of high regards to the warlord and his family, who are the main pieces of the film. The first thirty minutes is entertaining while the story shows the inheritance by the sons. A great scene during that time is when the lord gives his son an arrow to break that was easy, but with three arrows together, it isn't and it symbolizes the structure of the plot and the unity of the three sons. It is reaffirming where later the movie opens the character's depths by means of mercy, humanity, and misery to the audience compelling a true altered theme. It's also an outstanding written script with lines that surface betrayal, loyalty, and sorrow. The best performance was from Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the warlord and gives an elite powerful act. Every second he is on screen, the delivery and actions will have the audience's complete attention. Not only does he have a stellar performance, he is sincerely convincing during his decision making. Each scene ends and transfers to the next almost to the point of infatuation where some of the scenes are so daunting to sink the viewer fully in. Akira's artistic direction is detailed and solid especially in the areas during still camera views when Tatsuya is on and let's the sound do the work, which surpasses the best digital aspect part of the film using nature , arrows flying, shotguns, and wind noises. The first battle scene is witnessed through the lord seeing his affection die to opposing arrows and the music occupying it takes the sequence to the highest par of any movie battle. It is dramatic, grueling, shocking, sad, and it's Akira's most brilliant battle scene. 'We are lost, prepare yourselves, farewell my lord' is as heartrending as a quote can get. The battle is unlike traditional American ones. In those, audiences tend to know what happens because of the publicity in the media and the word leaks out because that's all the film had to offer. This battle scene is very striking and surprising, visually stunning that resembles The Thin Red Line and Platoon, but not confusing and crazy in Hero. The traumatic effects and gloomy frustrations occur in the second portion, which is slowed down maybe too sensible, though Akira takes his time telling the story in a splendid way.

Final Grade: A-/A

An Affair to Remember (1957)
Starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson

Film Prophet's Review...
A popular painter, Grant, and a music teacher, Kerr, are strangers who meet on a ship and they can't resist each other despite their engagements to others. Eventually, they test their endurance agreeing to split up and then meet in six months atop the Empire State Building. It is the same plot which inspires Sleepless in Seattle. Although, the dialogue is quite a bore here for romantic-dramas. Outside of the romance angle, the story doesn't offer anything more and it wasn't alluring enough. The writing was careless and it didn't have the depth in its own setup. I didn't like how sometimes the two ignored each other on the ship just to keep their relationship private. Numerous yawns occurred because the first half was too slow and several times, I banged the back of my head against the pillow to get the flow in my body moving again. The story builds up the little details on the ship that the viewers will forget. I can't stand monotony... that was quote from the film. Some romantic movies have the fascinating circumstances the main two face, but the combination of a dull script and two boring people don't bring enthusiasm to the movie. It is frustrating to see a movie fall with Grant as the leading man. Kerr has to be the worst leading woman to be paired up with him. She is tiresome and her lines are nothing interesting. Grant's comical and charming ways are non-existent. I never had the sense of ambition between the two. The one-dimensional storyline fails to make the characters romantic. They are empty and hypnotic and the story is just unbearable. The backdrops were lousy and rusty and the supporting characters of either kids or old ladies are just irritating. The kids in the movie are annoying and pointless, and when they sing together, put the volume on mute. The worst scene however is the extensive one that dealt with the two meeting an old lady with the piano who was totally off topic and irrelevant. By the time the two got off the ship, my mind was off the movie because not one thing exciting happened and I just didn't care whether the two will achieve success. The ordeal is they are engaged and the chemistry between their significant ones are low key and dreadful to watch. When Grant gets off the ship, he wanders around dejected and self-collected. The rest of the characters were emotionless. Instead of coming up with some of the worst musical numbers in cinema history, having some sub-plots and scenes filmed on locations not shot on a movie set can go a long way. Except, the movie decreases the enjoyment and just makes the movie longer intended for an affair to forget.

Final Grade: C-/D

Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay

Film Prophet's Review...
The movie is an elite sweeping romantic-historical drama that's deeply sad and has been referred to in other film material, which means this is a memorable quality film. Over three hours in length indeed and each scene has an importance to listen and hear. After the overture, the movie leads into a story when a general has a chat with a niece who she doesn't know much about her family history in present time. The general then goes on to tell the story about his brother Zhivago, a poetic doctor during the revolutionary Russia. It immediately establishes a mood of sadness with a burial at Zhivago's childhood. Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize winning novel writes a story about physician Yuri Zhivago and his two female loves of his life: a luxurious mistress Lara who is vied by two other men before him and Yuri is married to his childhood sweetheart Tanya. "A husband is a very sticky commodity, my dear." People were desperate in need for each other during a period of time contrasting men's bearing control to women and envisions of the brutality of war. I was surprised by the disrespect to the ranks and leaders of the armies but hey, it was a revolution for the working class and they just lost a world war. Just about every scene within the long duration is moderately flawless with superb direction allowing entertainment and grasping concentration. This is done by the beautiful camera visions that captures both pain and beauty which creates several genuine chilling scenes. I was very impressed by the style of ease in the screen writing and the affecting storytelling with every fine moment excelling in the love and hate of life. It works superbly when the dialogue is used and it is never crammed all in one scene as it's spaced out so the characters aren't bothersome. It allows time for the quiet moments, even between the characters, which is presented rationally. These characters are very human with typical weaknesses. They are very realistic and the settings have amazing detail up front and in the background.  In particular, the winter scenery in addition to the changes of the seasons are pleasant to the eye. The certain charm in the characters is another tool that makes this movie greater than others. The naturalistic sound, tremendous score, and music editing are captivating along with the tone of Russian voices. The acting was brilliant and the audience senses their experiences in the expression of their eyes. The poetic doctor will choose the medium through he will share his view on Russia and each step he makes is a vital part of the others around him which blends in well. Guinness' narrative is excellent and each character is unique. It's hard to single out an example of a few scenes though. The second half of the movie changes within the progression of the characters during a society stricken by warfare. There are numerous great scenes like the massacre in the street and the dragging a woman in from a riding train. Each scene is balanced that ties in events through the main cast. The endearing script is based on addicting material which is purely crafted and not predictable. The mere weak spot in the film came during the last minute. Yuri's acquaintances transpire when he struggles to find a place to live and to find constant happiness and when Lara says, 'Oh Yuri this is an awful time to be alive,' it points out the perception of life and the human condition for warmth of another being too. Some important key factors in the story are the need for a doctor, long distance communications, separation of love, optimistic liberty, and the cold fever of love on a quest of inspiration.

Final Grade: A/A-

Laura (1944)
Starring Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson

Film Prophet's Review...
The fear of love comes into act with the wrong man. "Love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout history. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death." A straight and simple story... a police detective is intrigued with the woman whose murder he is investigating. The cinematography was alright and the dress wear is all fairly typical and suitable for the film-noir genre, Film Prophet's favorite era of one genre, a period without superficial celebrity image and hype. Nothing is overdone and films aren't like this anymore. It's also the same year when Double Indemnity came out and proved to be the center of the greats. Though, it is a general movie about the genre, it is just out of the strong tier. The movie at times can be sneaky and haunting and the music was correct when it's around. I love when the character gets their space singled out and it's when they are alone that shows the real sentiment. It opens when Laura is already announced dead, which puts investigator McPherson at hand questioning people who knew her so he can put the pieces of the puzzle of Laura's life and death together. The title character is dead and yet the whole story is involved around her. It's also incredible for basically just using five total performers with lines. Each of those are interrogated and bothered with the sense they are accused. The audience gets to know more about Laura with some flashbacks. With only five big characters, it needed a bit more depth and some fine definition. It was more on the detective side implying statements and there isn't much detail on Laura's side even though it's about her. The story waits and halts until it reveals something into a disappointment or surprise. The murder mystery ponders what the motive is and who did it and will the person strike again that leads up to the only eventful scene in the movie in the last five minutes. In the meantime, the flashbacks also aid the truth to Laura. Much of the story is told this way. In those sequences, the first impressions on screen are lackluster. The audience is unsure about the two men who love Laura expressing false feelings or if they are really interested in her, but they keep forecasting future plans. It isn't clear which of the two men she is more enthralled by either. Both men weren't impressive to her, but jealous and flamboyant. The movie misses what the genre can do, which is to have engaging conversations, superb camera angles, and interesting, suspenseful traits. Laura is too poised without an amount of magnetism.

Final Grade: B-

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Edward Herrmann

Film Prophet's Review...
Woody Allen appearing in a leading role in his own movies make them special and he isn't acting in this one. So it was completely different to watch a Woody movie without him in it. In the Depression area, a waitress named Cecilia is married to a bestial and uncommitted husband who finds her only escape at the movies in a fantasy-comedy with a bit of sadness. The installment of the cinema as a new way of enjoyment and entertainment became big in that era for money and inspiration The humorous lines are a smile for the first quarter of the film and afterwards, it is inconsistent after a promising thirty minutes and moves away from the delightful attitude. Daniels was entertaining, again for only the times he was on during the first quarter and that's when his character was on screen at the theater. When Cecilia watches the same movie, the title of this film actually, many times as the only thing that cheers her up because the other things in her life treat her lousy, for some reason no matter how many times the movie goes back to it, it never got tiring. It's about characters prolonging memories, except there's rarely a great scene for the audience to remember after the first quarter. Woody's direction was still sharp, though, there aren't any new characters who enter the film later who are likable, something that worked in two of Woody's past classics. When the story mixes realism and fiction, the movie gets a bit confusing with what the story wants to do. Think of how Last Action Hero worked with its plot. It then borders between the real world and the fiction movie and the logic fails for this movie. Those attempts were evident, but those were unsuccessful. After the interaction happens with Tom Baxter and Gil Shepherd, the two characters Daniels plays, the random laughs, in this case, were a few. Both his fictional and actor characters come off arrogant sometimes. When they mingle with Cecilia, it is hard to tell which one is with her as they each hit on her during different scenes. They wore the same outfits almost, where Schwarzenegger in Last Action Hero differed his. As a result, the plot was thin and doesn't settle the dispute it had when people started caring. Daniels had a better act later in Pleasantville with fantasy interaction movies. Although, Woody's movie is an inventive take, it ends with grief.

Final Grade: B-/C+

Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver

Film Prophet's Review...
Joe Buck, Voight, is a Texas dishwasher who goes to New York City by bus to become a sexual hustler and he finds out parts of the city is filth and his fortunes turn out to be upsetting. In the process, he meets and befriends Ratso, Hoffman, a homeless man who apparently lives in a bad shaped building. The drifters bond together in a tale with bold adult content, which was shocking for its time of release. The movie had an X rating, depicting lowlifes in an American city. It was the first true explicit film as the rules consisting of what it was being too strict dared it and the rules have changed. It won best picture, director John Schlesigner, and for its screenplay, despite the rating. The two characters have the intellect to barely get around the city. Sometimes, a funny line adds a spin and benefits its poignant storyline, but it is the story that had its drawbacks. The story slowly develops with the occasional worthless scene. In a mix review of the movie, the cinematography was fine on what the streets looked like then, freezing its time so present can view it. An area of concern was the outdated song selections, where the song, Everybody's Talkin, repeats the same pieces over and gets annoying to hear. The flashbacks were somewhat out of the ordinary from the flow of the storyline to vision Joe's cruel and harsh past, which they become more frightening as the movie proceeds. Schlesigner puts more thought in creating the images of the lost souls in his past than in the present time. At any rate, Joe left the great state of Texas to New York City in search for women and money. This is a man without any plan who faces a cultural change and he is the odd one out of the crowd with his hat. The women are there for the asking on the street when he arrives. There are appealing women in Texas, but in the city, they have large numbers and most are single because in that city, it is hard to raise a family. The dialogue was not in use too much in the beginning when he stalks the city, as he smiles and chews away. He has odd interactions to meet ladies that catch his eye, who could be the right woman instantly to have love with. Other times, either person takes them for the wrong person, and he is unprepared for the outcome. Later in the movie, the cameras get perplexing of what is trying to portray, especially in the bizarre bar scene where the story more so loses its touch and concept. The story didn't dig up anything engaging, but it centers on the chemistry of the two characters surviving in a cold city. Joe has an excited look that eventually winds down to personal dilemmas without any hope - there is no hope for this story. There are many low points and moments that don't come as it is the friendship between the two that grows. The message is that society pays little attention to the homeless and the audience becomes like the society for a bit. The audience senses their loneliness and challenges they aren't ready for. They are lost under their ways with no destination, except for their strong bond. For example, the classic scene is when the two were walking across a pedestrian crossing and a disrespectful cab driver almost hits them and Hoffman yells, "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" Hoffman delivered it excellently and definitely has the most versatile voice for any actor. Voight's performance was alright... he always has that cocky expression and his eyes never blinks with his careless facial look. The movie is about desperation and false hopes which turns depressing because the movie concerns the hopeless and nothing happens in favor for them.

Final Grade: B/B-

Batman Begins (2005)
Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy

Film Prophet's Review...
Batman begins with an early act of Bruce Wayne's empathy before he turns into a caped crusader in Gotham City. The story endures a physical and emotional process of Bruce's past and the emergence of his transformation into the crime fighting Batman. Stimulating a playboy part to fool the public, he inherits his parent's power and wealth and becomes a businessman and a hero. Bale as Batman balances his two identities and changes his tone of voices, along with confrontations with society, but he shows a weakness that he is still a human. Director Christopher Nolan made sure every scene had a bearing, chilling vibe that helped build up the Batman character and Bruce's past into one. The storytelling goes out of sequences with some flashbacks to reveal his parents and himself entering and staying in a gritty Asian prison camp where Ducard finds him and trains Bruce stealth and justice as if he was acquired with it. Here, the movie takes over kung fu traits involving the style of martial arts and revenge. The opportunity to avenge his parent's deaths is taken away from him by fate. Condemned and frightened by the bats, Bruce moves closely to his fear. The movie is provided by the dark riveting music by Hans Zimmer, which adds a super impression and changes to an eerie mood when aroused. The audience gets perception on Gotham City and how Bruce evolved in his attire, revealing his armor, equipment, suit, and the batmobile, which are all legendary icons. His first crime saving scene as Batman had tremendous pacing and timing of action and suspense with meaning and finished with a funny and serious end. Afterwards, his trademark appears to the cops and the audience gets the treatment that Batman has finally arrived to a high degree. This is not a prequel or a sequel. It has nothing to do with the previous Batman films really. It is a refreshing restart and has a more mysterious, darker Batman story, which covers areas of the original Batman, but goes much further in depth. There's less popular culture, digital effects, and sharp villains here. The Scarecrow Crane and an unknown third party are the key villains to watch for. The great scenery is not overly done and Batman is smart and humorous as ever. The violence is not excessive which had proficient sequences leading up to unclear fighting action as well where little special effects were used. It sent out messages of respect, humanity, and determination. In addition, the fighting scenes didn't come up too frequently and relied on the writing and acting with a reason behind it for the most part. The material in the story enhances the content to eliminate the less animated appearances Batman films had before. Thankfully, there is no Catwoman, Batgirl, or Robin to deliver silly phrases and utterance. That's where Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Cain as Alfred enter for support and comic. Michael Caine is perfect as Alfred the butler and should be considered as a nominated supporting actor here. It's safe to say the movie lives up to its hype with its grand acting talents. The latest look has an entire new cast and forms what probably could be the best acted adaptation from a comic. Bale reinvents Bruce Wayne who is convincing to sell it. Holmes as Rachel gets under the skin of the sophisticated criminals with questionings. Murphy's portrayal as Doctor Crane was excellent. Neeson, who was robbed from a nomination in Kinsey, still gains support from Film Prophet. He fits in his role and resembles his Qui-Gon Jinn character in Star Wars by teaching the wise arts to young Bruce in the beginning, but he is much better here to aid his apprentice. The story also steadies the screen time of the duties in the city with the cops, as Oldman is the cop on Batman's side, reporters, the rich, criminals, civilians, and the Arkhan Insane Asylum. "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." For Batman fans, this is the real deal.

Final Grade: A-

Barry Lyndon (1975)
Starring Ryan O'Neal, Leonard Rossiter, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leon Vitali

Film Prophet's Review...
During the Seven Years War featuring Britian and France, over three hours of a cheerless storyline expresses the rise and fall of Barry Lyndon's fortunes. The story barely peeks enlightening moments during Barry's life, growing up in Britian in a very slow movie. The story didn't devote within its character's past or capabilities. Rather, the story just placed them in occasions during the time of dimness. Movies using period pieces often take up time to make because of all the makeup and the costume designs, which is a problem in particular to this film because they put in the authentic effort and the end result didn't match one bit. A technical movie does not mean it's a stirring experience. There is no stamina in these characters, thus the likeability factor isn't there. Unlike Stanley Kubrick's other movies that had a rhythm and a message to human life, people least bring up this one when mentioning him because of the unlikely performers. He never really used stars in his films, but each performer in this film won't win over the viewers because they all are tedious and each one often carries an absurdity, so there is no sympathy for anyone. For example, the central character is Barry who is a trouble maker who actively schemes and fights his way through life. Plus, redcoats are often noted as the villains in other films. Not only did the performers with terrible accents bombed, the story was not interesting. There's a long drought before the story makes any adjustments and the storyline was basically unchanging during its non-adventures. The drama was neutral on behalf of either side and nothing stood out. It's even more dull than Eyes Wide Shut and Kubrick is well above this movie and it should never be among his trademark films. The beginning of the story got off to a rocky start without a thick storyline, and they didn't talk much and just gave stares. After thirty minutes, I really wanted to enjoy this movie. However, there was never a sign of suspense, laughs, or tension and I just wanted this movie to finally end, which ended in a lackluster way. It dragged out a long storyline that didn't have the quality to involve during the scenes. No exciting action took place and for the battle scenes, they were kept short all the time and the audience won't know who the participating men were.... and then reoccurred the same way in an insignificant approach. There were plenty of other reoccurring scenes such as playing cards and one on one talks under a tent with a candlelight. The romantic angle was a terrible setup, like the instrumental scores, and it's not worth discussing it because nothing memorable happens. The movie is quite possibly the worst Oscar nominated movie ever made. Even if the seventies was the worst decade of films, with the exceptions of a few big ones people should automatically know, it was similar to the boring scale of How Green Was My Valley. After the years of production in this movie, there had to be plenty of film. Though, the editing needed to cut down a lot of those long camera views of the faces and the pointless shootouts and fights just to entertain the characters and not the audience. There's a sudden pause after every lifeless line said. The editing also uses long gaps between the exchangement of these lines. The dialogue's pacing was bad where they try to grumble and get what they want and there is no satisfying wellbeing interest. Part of Kubrick's message is that humans are pawns and even if a person can change over time, unless an act occurs or something is said, the film itself was dreadful. If I knew nothing about the movie's background, my guesses at a director would be no where close of picking Kubrick. There was a voice-over narration, which he never uses and it doesn't add much insight. If it weren't for the credibility of the director, this movie shall fall in shreds after collapsing.

Final Grade: D/F

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington

Film Prophet's Review...
Two married, professional assassins scrabble around for the first hour of the movie and five or six years of a yielding marriage to figure out who they exactly are. For that long, they've known nothing about each other as they don't know each other's true careers and the movie slips away week's worth of time within the story. The movie shoves action and celebrity endurance together, teasing viewers that this movie might actually be fine. Ignoring the countless explosions and the charming, charismatic Pitt and Jolie, the importance of the storyline didn't have changing dramatic events. The action became old and played out. John and Jane Smith are a suburban couple with the same careers under different agencies and the only thing they can discuss is dinner. They kid around while trying to kill each other later without fear like they know they can't be killed. They have offense struggles on each other, but not on dozens of other attackers. They were more than just human; they were unreal. Where great movies construct unreal moments into genuine valid scenes that are believable and stand out, nothing in this movie is special. The acting did however help out the one-liners if that. The premise is miserable; why a marriage built on lies becomes flat and uninteresting is not perceptive or stimulating. It's also hard to support and cheer on assassins even if it is an action movie. There's a scene where they are invited to a neighborhood party and they couldn't really interact or socialize with other people well because they live on a life of secrets and they are too hollow outside of their jobs and sexual activities. The movie was indecisive when it didn't know what parts of comedy, sincerity, or action to go with. Since it's an action film, it tends to have a comedy relief character, but Vaughn was not funny. There was no laughter in this movie. The silly action stuff was brainless and exhausted afterwards by inane dialogue with no long sentences followed by steamy love scenes with no fortitude. The entire movie was exaggerated and crude, with abrupt conclusions, and it came across more plot holes than any other movie in recent time. Just re-thinking back on them and writing them out would be a squander and elongated like the movie was. They never tried to kill each other when they had a clear chance, it didn't show how Jane escaped in the desert when John shoots her dwelling with a big rocket launcher, no convincing reason behind these assassins, the bosses hide and thus the film has an unrecognizable villain, and the writers managed to wreck a fun plot with two or three popular performers to make an unfunny blockbuster film. There was more joy in After the Sunset with Brosnan and Hayek. The themes of action, marriage failing, and trying to kill each other were all quite depressing and it outweighs the fun factor that was too plain. The thought of having violence within the marriage is uncomfortable, especially when they were boring people with nothing engaging to declare who didn't have talents other than their looks and the skill to possess a weapon. A marriage needs more than just sexual chemistry and a movie needs more than people getting caught up in the stars.

Final Grade: C-/D

Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Starring Johnny Depp, Dianne West, Winona Ryder, Kathy Baker, Anthony Michael Hall

Film Prophet's Review...
An old inventor who has all the right parts for a body, with an exception of a pair of hands, assembled a synthetic young man named Edward Scissorhands with multiple scissors as his hands. He is an outsider who could be a horror icon, except director Tim Burton decides not to use the character like that. He is found by a mother in a dark castle in a cool, gothic style placed in a suburban area, and brings him to her home where she plans to help him with his complexion and his sharp fingers. The beauty of having a home in a nice neighborhood is pleasantly a great sense, including the nosy, over-caring, bullies, or helpful people. The movie put both Tim Burton, as a gifted director, and Johnny Depp on the map, creating a warming sensation. Depp has compassion for his character using a gentle soul presuming tragic, misfortune, and innocence in a change of living. His creepy striking appearance and the makeup was very effective on him. The film sometimes relies on the heavy visual scenery and doesn't have a true plot until Edward's frailties happen, like something he can't get because of his hands such as picking up food or putting clothes on, and viewers see he is unable to do some things people take for granted, with a sad, great moral. Some people in the story will like him and other people will be unkind and mock him because he is different and Burton shows this through examples within two hourly time frames that all people are different in a way if not physically. Edward is incapable of some things, but not incapable of trying to blend in. Other than that, nothing else goes towards the plot for an hour. The first hour was about him becoming popular with his special, mechanical talents through his hands. The viewers get to see this by means of gardening, cutting hair, slicing, and trimming. The second half has a sincere inner person spirit that's special. Burton has a bunch of traditional themes that can be guessed using predictability in the characters, who show more love than hate in the first half. It has its flaws; embodied too much in Edward where the ones around him are normal and conventional, the boyfriend's motive of hate, inventor's reason behind the scissors, and some other blemishes can be seen. However, the magic behind the movie is Danny Elfman's ability to compose one breathtaking theme tune, similar to the one in The Polar Express by Alan Silvestri, with the music portraying the tragedy, sadness, and clever action within the final sequences. The best moments are when Edward's love slowly wins over Winona's character's heart. When she asks him to hold her and he says he can't, it is sensitively powerful, releasing Depp's talents, and at long last, the society was not truly ready for Edward.

Final Grade: B+/B

Manhattan (1979)
Starring Woody Allen, Mariel Hemingway, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep

Film Prophet's Review...
The main storyline is between a forty-two year old comedy writer Issac, Allen, and a seventeen year old woman named Tracy, Hemingway, in a search for love. Allen's character is there when a character starts because without him being there, the person will seem unimportant. Through his open and close mind on certain dilemmas, his character has flaws who is controlling, but people around him like him. With the beautiful dialogue, Allen is still likable, very relatable, and has the energy and his uncompromised disagreements with people are yet agreeable on moral issues. The story has a few intellectual, complex relationships such as an age difference being one, a marriage affair, and denoting to the same sex, each of whom had mistakes. There's a scene where Issac and Tracy are chatting with another couple, Keaton and Murphy's characters, and the age difference shows with Tracy when she doesn't speak during a highly educated conversation, though she is very educated herself at her age. There's also a great shot during a symphony of Issac and his friend checking each other's moves out on their women in an uncomfortable row. They also are in an unique scene at a racquet court talking about their relationships, which has become an ideal setting for comedies. Nowadays, comedies gear towards the adolescent crowd where the adult comedies tend to sink, except Sideways. This movie is not a sequel of any kind to Annie Hall. Annie Hall is funnier and more interesting, but the shadowy cinematography is a little prettier in Manhattan. Precious New York City is pictured in black and white for the whole film with still images right at the end and beginning trying to fit all the culture it can into one story. Manhattan the city is about the difficulty of living in a city one loves without an income. It uses the feature of its setting to an effect with Gershwin's beautiful and perfect musical score, conveying a totally new meaning to the film. The acting was a phenomenon itself. Streep has a minor illustrious role as Allen's lesbian ex-wife, Wallace Shawn has his first big scene, and everyone tops romantic comedy acting here. The smart dialogue in their lines are influential, carrying a message that maturity may mean skepticism. Just one part of the film I had a problem with which was near the start where it pictured a zoomed out camera view of an apartment where the camera sits there for a couple minutes when the two people in the scene only take up no more than ten perfect of the area on the screen and this could cause the viewer to be absent from the story. "You rely too much on your brain. The brain is the most over-rated organ, I think." The best moments are when the script grasps into conversations gripped with opinion-based rundowns, exploring beliefs on life issues, socializing freedom of speech, with views on modern society like arts, television, and books. The characters create an honesty of speaking one's mind no matter what the opposing people think, with each line still capable of hilarity. Each character through fidelity has a human instinct to find someone to love no matter what the consequences are. "You're a kid, you don't know what love means. I don't know what it means, nobody out there knows what the hells going on." A great scene comes about ten minutes before the end between Issac and his friend in a classroom before a chilling ending. The themes of people are just people aging naturally and the layers of dramatic and comedy elements are a compelling mix in this story flow between the adultery affairs that's in the end about a life worth living.

Final Grade: A/A-

Annie Hall (1977)
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Shelley Duvall, Christopher Walken

Film Prophet's Review...
Hostile, quirky, neurotic, hyper unwed New York Jewish comedian Alvy Singer, Allen, falls in love with a hasty diner singer Annie Hall, Keaton, after a tennis match. Annie Hall is the titled after the female lead and not after Woody's disappointments, frustrations, and loneliness. The two get to know each other through a series of jousting, and eventually decide to live together, and they start to have problems over the course of the movie. Woody's narrative aspect is very honest and clever and his one on one work with supporting performers is also a smile and a laugh. He's a triple threat - directed, wrote, and starred. The scenarios are sudden and highly entertaining, especially when he arrives in Beverly Hills and the lines he says are completely sensational. Allen as Alvy Singer reflects on his past uncommitted relationships he has had and what went wrong, as him and Annie position themselves back in flashbacks with personal notes. The movie is hilarious from the beginning and during the whole film with fast and proper transitions, opening its characters with ease bordering perfection. Allen grabs attention with his endearing dialogue that's realistic and humorous. Like the movie, he is full of enthusiasm and energy. The screenplay is the best feature here as it's convincing, witty, funny, especially where Allen applies comic routines in a paranoid way, sweet, and romantic fitting into a complete all-around movie where every line is special. A lineup of some of the memorable lines - Don't be silly, what do we need other people for... what is this an interview, we are supposed to be making love... I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype... adult education is such junk, the professors are so phony. One of the funny parts is when Annie and Alvy are standing in a long movie line and the man behind them talks to his female companion assessing the movie with his opinion he saw that Annie and Alvy are about to see, and the camera work showing the ignorant expressions and the annoyance of it all are priceless and very truthful and relatable. The movie is made in a way that Woody Allen wants his audience to remember him for his playful personality and themes in his jokes. The movie is rich, refreshing, and original, yet familiar. It is an inspiring landmark, hence success of American Splendor or a failure of Before Sunset. The contemporary and modern film has a great sense of the time frame capturing the generation well, and it still works for any year to be seen in. The intelligent comedy that won best Oscar picture shows the fun, academy winning Diane Keaton and not the one who appeared in Reds. The acting is impressive and they say their lines with personality and create an enjoying mood. The breakthrough film for Allen didn't need popular music in the background because the dialogue was already effective like the chemistry between Keaton and Allen. The chats are excellent in the change of conversation from a comical hectic stance to a serious, smart talk. Its comical on the intellect on sports, politics, entertainment, and economics monologue with big words and phrases where Allen criticizes people's views. The consistency of the humor is attractive and paces with a great deal of viewer satisfaction. Viewers witness all kinds of experiences that viewers will care for Annie and Alvy at that. The best great love during one's entire life may only last a few moments.

Final Grade: A+/A

The Seventh Seal (1957)
Starring Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Bibi Andersson, Inga Landgre

Film Prophet's Review...
Ingmar Bergman received an honorable grade from Film Prophet for his work in Wild Strawberries, which was nothing short of brilliant, as this movie is considered his top two most high quality works. Probing human relationships and the struggle with one's self, set in the medieval times after two men come back from the Crusades during the black plague, Antonius Block, a knight, is confronted by Death himself in a Swedish black and white film with a cerebral tone. Block takes on the shadowy, hooded figure, Death, at a game of cheese. If Block wins, he gets to keep his life and survive a bit longer, for the time being. Resuming the match during the film, Block has this on-going game of chess with Death, which has become such a reference and often repeated in other films. Bergman uses this to not only personify death, but to illustrate how one person will try to avoid it. His sights are beautiful, crafted, and invested with imagery, where Hitchcock proved to be the master of suspense, Bergman is the master of symbolism through his artwork. The existence of Death, for example, is nothing more than a symbol for human weakness. The perception and imagery can be strong enough when presented with scrutiny. The music score relieved the quiet moments and the film was dark, unhurried, and has images over talk to describe the mood. Over half of the film, the audience will never see anyone really dying. There are no examples and it was too general for a while. The film's scene cuts are unanswered and disregarded as to how someone flowed to the next scene. The dialogue did hardly anything interesting during some parts. Also, certain areas of the film doesn't stick to the story with a value and moves off the subject with slow useless events that do not connect to the real story that's more relevant and hammered in Wild Strawberries with a bigger impact. Unlike that movie, there wasn't really a center important character in this, despite Block's chess match that was featured in different spots. In Block's search for answers, he meets a variety of intellectual characters, each with their own outlook on life, love, and death. Engaging in several of them, the film loosens up and goes off topic and away from the Death character. Though, Bergman is excellent at magnifying human frailties as people are nothing special in the movie, some disbelievers of God hide their failures and sins with imprudent entertainment and worthless moments and conversations in their lives.  The looming death exemplifies that life is meaningless, filled with doubts, insolence to authority, and it's not easy to surpass despair. Death is a much better player than any human and Death will win somehow in the end. People cannot escape death; it's the only thing that is certain in life.

Final Grade: B+/B

Gattaca (1997)
Starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Tony Shalhoub

Film Prophet's Review...
First came to mind was the interesting casting selections for the lead roles. Until recently, the three main leading performers faded away after this movie for a few years because the movie probably jaded themselves out.... just dry storytelling overall and needed help in most if not all of the areas of the film. It's pitiable; the viewer will be uncommitted to the plot. About it, an ordinary man uses everyday techniques to change what mankind has provided the world in a society in the future that doesn't even appear as the future. He holds a position at a corporation called Gattaca which elevates its most qualified employees for space exploration, and in the process, the movie is too dull to go along. The movie does not explain scientific technological elaborations as it shows various instruments used in genetics without a descriptive explanation and meaning behind them. Furthermore, the picture blends in the same couple of colors on screen in a subdued lighting that can be listless to visualize and also lackluster to see the same boring facial looks all the time in front of it as if everyone in the movie had the same persona. Provided with the man's narration and opinions on his own life growing up on science, he explains the social commentary on an aerospace corporation in an unexciting manner. For this movie, it was pointless to endeavor in an individual evolution with flashbacks because it forgets to breathe life into its own characters. None of the characters were likable and all of them were boring with no personality or humor. When the script does give the characters to express one's self, they get annoying when they actually speak up to each other, especially the takes between Law and Hawke which were quite queer. Hawke also has a custom to be nervous in his chemistry with female co-stars, refer to Before Sunset. Even so, the characters were underdeveloped with no continuity in the direction. The performers did little to captivate one's interest any of the time. The problem is that there was no individualism in these characters, though the movie tries to be its own self, but it just sits there motionless for a couple hours with a non-educational presentation of a theme that drags on without sharp or appealing conversations and procedures. The sound transitions were awful, the drama was absent, the writing was dehydrated to a point where the plot had no guideline at all. The story went slow riding on no energy and it never progressed into any real conflict. There aren't any fine examples of scenes to explain of an incident because the scenes had unexciting, futile events that were setup unproductively. The writers expressed a message over entertainment conducted by an inability for storytelling and there's a dubious reason for an execution of this story. The theme doesn't reach out and teach an important lesson like it pursues through its science realms. The movie had a marginal idea, but it failed to accomplish a fair entertaining style.

Final Grade: D/F

Cinderella Man (2005)
Starring Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Paddy Considine, Bruce McGill, Craig Bierko

Film Prophet's Review...
Before there was Muhammad Ali, there was Jim Braddock. Most people have no idea who Jim Braddock is until now... perhaps the most undervalued uplifting hero America has seen. The movie tells a true tale during the Depression about an aging boxer who makes a comeback and puts his family first in need of money and eventually turns heads. Boxing was the official American sport during the Depression basically and this movie makes boxing more entertaining than it is to watch live. The choreography of the fights seemed predictable in an outcome, but what sums up is what occurs during the fights where the audience feels the pain from Braddock and every swing and there's a tear jerking scene after another in the movie. American cinema has recently witnessed two great boxing films recently with Million Dollar Baby the other and this movie makes the Rocky series look like a pile of dirt. It also knockouts a favorite movie, Seabiscuit, for a Depression era film and its more stimulating than the dull Ali movie. It has a more profound supporting cast than Rocky ever had, everyone's acting is consuming, the true story's importance and incidents own more of a cause, the right scenes came at the right time, and Zellweger's role is far more compelling than Talia Shia's. She acts as the archetypal supportive wife who stays home with three kids and prays for the wellbeing. Thomas Newman also supplies a truly gifted score once again. The cinematography in New York City and at Madison Square Garden was stunning from all points of views. Targeted for a mature audience, the pacing in the beginning opens the movie with realism and superior acting that advances the script and the dialogue triumphs where it counts. Braddock fights back for his family and enriches the town's people through disappointing times. The movie reminds people of Hollywood at its finest. The time detail was sincere, where in a character behind a superb story, he was a smart prizefighter who couldn't afford heating any longer and tried to get a job at the docks every day. As an underdog, he is given a second chance and he ends up becoming quite famous in the process, eventually going up against champ Max Baer, which I might add is the greatest boxing match in a movie. Last time director Ron Howard and actor Crowe worked together in the same film, it was A Beautiful Mind which happened to do fairly well picking up best Oscar picture. This was the first movie that I came in actually liking Crowe and rooting for him to do well as I've had a history of not doing so. The scene where he begs softly through urgency and despair in an office at the garden after the down times was so extensive and heartfelt that it turned out to be the best scene in the movie. Howard uses excellent angles for different perspectives from the population and puts the audience in the affection and core of an American eager for optimism. At times, he cuts to standout Paul Giamatti near the ring as Braddock's manager who compels tense emotions to the audience by taunting and yelling with startling facial expression during Braddock's fights. He also says hilarious lines and gazes during his chemistry with Crowe. Howard also smartly switches the camera vision during the final fight from the radio, to the church, to the ring surrounding, to his family, to his manager, to the working class in a bar, to the people in the stands, providing the most powerful element in the film, the blaring crowd. When Braddock is hit, the movie leaves the viewer out in the cold to take a breath to grasp that his spirit and showmanship never fully takes him out of any match in the ring.

Final Grade: A/A-

The Longest Yard (2005)
Starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds, James Cromwell, Michael Irvin, Nelly, Steve Austin

Film Prophet's Review...
It's not easy to find a motivating comedy these years, though this movie has the stuff for it to be and it's around an exciting contest of a football game between convicts and their prison guards. One night, Paul, Sandler, a faded NFL quarterback MVP, gets arrested for drunk driving and smashing into police cars gets sent to prison specifically requested by a Texas warden, Cromwell, who knows of Paul's past football awareness so he can organize a team of inmates against his prison guards to get them ready for league play. The football picture's timing is very well when the season is not even underway and fans of the game want to see some of it. The prison has some misfits, comical characters, large men, and no female convicts. The guards are typical in prison areas of films where they're trying to be all hard and this encourages Paul to recruit for more big heated guys who dislike the guards as a reason to join his team for one game. One of the finest points of the movie is that there's an actual villain, the deceitful warden of the prison, who creates a harsher attitude towards the game each new scene he appears in releasing anger to the cons who keep their cool because the audience knows the cons will get their payback greatly. Men smacking each other around is so vicious yet awesome to watch determined from the ruthless storyline. It's not a great movie, but it has some silly entertainment with the usual scenarios of lines and laughter from Sandler and Rock. For the combination of both in one movie with celebrities like Nelly, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and all the other wrestling, rapper, and football personalities as guests control their parts to formulate enough to reach the end zone. It contains some black humor, the best part is the guy who has secrets with getting McDonald's sandwiches, and very tough violent drama, but the themes are related to the ideal matter of other football movies like The Replacements and Little Giants... that one final game... it is very hyped with speeches, rivals, new friendships, and changing moments before and within the game, with Chris Berman at commentary, as a climax itself. Through the inspiration for one to be noble and decent, it's meant to be funny and dim-witted because people don't laugh at serious films most of the time. Sandler and Rock absolutely beat the teaming of Stiller and Black in Envy and the last line in this movie ends it agreeably.

Final Grade: B-

Brazil (1985)
Starring Jonathan Pryce, Ian Holm, Katherine Helmond, Jim Broadbent, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist

Film Prophet's Review...
When De Niro movies come to mind, often people will leave this one out and thank decency on that one... this is because he appears no more than ten minutes in a forgettable role. Directed by the comedic Terry Gilliam, the interpretation of his creative style will leave a lot of people contemplating his science-fiction parody of past socialistic films in a technological medicine society. The movie's fantasy world is painful and misery that is unbelievable. The propaganda it uses is different to the average worker in society who are powerless oppressed by machines and fantasized by law enforcers. Gilliam's attempted genius surfaces the strange and surreal reach such when odd things blast when the viewers will least expect it with an amazing musical score when it's around to start the movie. Somehow, there's an actual cult base from the movie and sometimes the set decoration can be visually breathtaking and uncommon to comprehend too. It undertakes terrorism and a fear complexity that's hard to describe everything that goes on within the film verbally and visually. One may ask what Brazil is actually about. Well, it's about imagination, pursuing dreams within a dream, and victimizing it. It became a great film accomplishment to the cult retro-world of irrationality. The worst part about it is that the script diminishes the whole movie, which is probably over two-hundred pages long and with all the details, it may be more, but the dialogue is terrible on route to boredom for over two hours. The sound effects and makeup is bizarre and adds to the overall eerie presentation. If the dialogue was somewhat compelling and convincing to the ear, this maybe would have been a pleasing picture. It's too ultra-opinionated with radical views on nothing for it to make any clear sense of the story that doesn't flow in any direction at all. Sometimes I'd raise an eyebrow often from confusion about the characters and their occupations because of their sporadic screen time and meaningfulness to the story that's not apparent. It wants to be spicy, but there's not enough juice behind it and keeps at it for too long. It tries to make a valuable lesson about consumers through utterly dull pace that's not entertaining and didn't live up to the start. The movie is definitely among the weirdest films ever made. Like in the movie Reds, the mood is regularly quiet and full of nonsense. Even worse, the uncharismatic cast failed to act a lucid metaphor that strong films typically carry to communicate to the audience. The hypnotic movie is bloated, overdone, and super boring that struggles to keep interest and it's barely viewable. The entire dialogue is pointless and can be ignored as the movie continually stretches out to infinite.

Final Grade: D

Roman Holiday (1953)
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power

Film Prophet's Review...
William Wyler, who has directed many fabulous pictures, has tested each film genre as this one received an exceptional ten Academy award nominations for a comedy, a true comedy, with Hepburn winning her first and only Oscar who becomes an ultimate icon for all females. The woman in the story is a spoiled princess, but she doesn't want to be, and the man comes in her life and tries to connect her to the real fun world outside from her royal daily scheduling. The heroine is played by Audrey Hepburn, who was credibly the most famous female star in romance-fantasy films, plays a modern-day princess whose overwhelm with her little duties all the time in her hectic schedule with people treating her older than her age. When she runs away one night, the princess on the loose falls into the right arms of a reporter, Peck, looking for a big story, a typical prototype character used in most movies then. I can't say enough for the plot because not much material takes place within two nights, but its realistic lines and timing of dialogue comes at a normal pace of idealism, but middling for the average movie in the first hour where Wyler has a knack for some patient scenes who still adds the key components of both comedic and tender scenes to off-set them to make a great story. The cinematography of the artificial city of Rome hits a grand slam as well. The movie reflects the gender caste situations and allegories comparable with a pair of top stars and with the movie, It Happened One Night, Film Prophet's greatest romantic comedy movie of all-time. On a movie history scale, the movie fits right in the center of the timeline in between the old and new generations of film for the genre. It used some cliché references films had before and other films after it have imitated its schematic design as it grows into a cornerstone film. The reporter, who supposedly happens to have an interview with her, doesn't even know what she looks like and she is in the newspapers and even in his bedroom and pretends to be ignorant of her identity, and Eddie Albert plays a hilarious sidekick in this. The story sends off a subtle bittersweet reaction without viewer's having to think really hard because almost everything is inherent. It's entertaining during the humor moments where the princess experiences the outer walls of Rome in priceless memories. The tremendous exit ending is very sharp and flawless that leaves the film on its most memorable sequence... it's superlative all the way through the stirring and inducing final scene shots.

Final Grade: A-/B+

The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Starring Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Royal Dano, Shirley MacLaine

Film Prophet's Review...
The Trouble with Harry is a group of people are irresolute of what to do with Harry's dead body just laying in the woods and making sure it won't be found. In this Hitchcock movie, it won't ever be considered in his top ten creations of film. The casting did not use a well known name for the titled roles, which when his movie uses the same performers like Grant or Stewart, those are the movies that stick out the most from his collection. The setting takes place in a very small rural town during an autumn season where it has a great opening standard setup to the plot, but afterwards, the acting plummets apart when the unsavorily script has the actors talking to themselves on what they're doing when it's really unnecessary. The people in the town were the weak link who are a more older set and they're incapable of handling responsibility alone. The death stated was careless from a human error and no one knows about it. The first two people who see his dead people are not truly shocked at all, mainly because they were both old. The story doesn't have a real villain because the murder was hasty. The strange characters don't have the type of stamina and charisma that's presented in Hitchcock's other work of films. The exposition of random people of the area just walk around involuntarily completely dumbfounded with little common sense. They are goofy and just stumble upon the dead body, but don't report it and this shows how a society like this one dealt with the social circumstances... very drowsy, decentralized, and unintelligent. The old man who first came across him calls himself a captain and begins many talks with himself that are more apparent of many things in this movie that shriek from an enclave script that misses a significant purpose of why viewers would be keen to the story and characters. The music is more meant to be a silly tone than an usual suspense tone, but the jokes are often insipid and don't bring any quality kicks or even humor. The story was way too effortless avoiding any solutions and there was too much to fill in one ending. Nothing unique was delivered arranged on no path of intention. Out of focus were the characters' motivations and emotions. It was completely an impractical story with a group of folks who kept burying and digging up a dead guy and just hide behind some tree long and watch it go on. Their communications are meager for such a small dim quiet town. Through all of Hitchcock's enlightening movies, this one is on the bottom of the chart being so lifeless.

Final Grade: C-/C

Dark City (1998)
Starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien

Film Prophet's Review...
A remarkable experimental movie mixing the current science fiction genre with an odd surrealistic noir style environment, relevant by the cars, structure, and dress, that has an edgy, creepy, twisted gothic style of darkness combined with strangely modern visualization in it. The plot starts where a man wakes up and is accused of murder being forced to explore the underside of his city and realizing something is very wrong with the universe when memories don't add up. He finds out his life turns into horror - a man waking up to find out he is wanted for murder and he doesn't even know himself. He doesn't remember in this alter reality where several guys in trench coats are after him. His memory is gone and this makes the viewers also clueless during his experience of confusion and truth as to what's to come leaving the plot open to proceed. The staging presence of evil in reality is the main source of the film, besides the fear of cops and the strange incidence of never knowing which people relating around him know what happened or are there to help or lie. The evil powers are unsettling and the viewers are there along with the guy to witness evil changing and stopping the underworld in a fantasy fabrication on past memories, and the injection and switching of those memories are as inciting as it gets. It's puzzling as Requiem for a Dream in greater fashion than Blue Velvet with an adultery version of Donnie Darko and it's just a plan philosophically freaky neo-noir film. Overall the setting is very dark when the skies are black and the sun is never out during the film. The mystifying musical score is tailored very well as times of images. Connelly's character is beautiful and enduring, but sometimes was under-used, and all the performers got into their characters to make them authentic as they could hiding their cold emotions. It's almost like The Matrix without the fighting effects and it's among the best and first of movies dealing with fooling around with memories. The provoking dialogue by the doctor's part on human subsistence satisfies the story - Are we more than just the sum of our experiences...

Final Grade: B+/B

Animal Crackers (1930)
Starring Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Lillian Roth, Margaret Dumont

Film Prophet's Review...
The Marx brothers had an essence of their genius to provide spontaneous comedy. They stick to the same formula by using the short and simple plot where comedies struggle today when they get into the plot too much and it messes the comedy while there is less laughter during the weakly designed intricacy. I also like how the brothers keep their main cast, with the cast mentioned above, intact surrounding brand new hilarious ideas and the quotes from Groucho in various scenes and images are bright and marvelous. The scene that starts with the quote, 'we three would make an ideal couple,' is absolutely the best Groucho scene in the film. As always when he is on screen, he makes the whole attitude of the film much better with his presence and the ability to say a funny line where people around him don't laugh makes it better too, including to work with the foe and a memorize long dialect. Lillian Roth is very cute and it's a shame she wasn't in more big movies. In the brothers' first classic, it's a comedy about an art theft being investigated by a Captain Spaulding, played by Groucho. Some incidents in the film are relevant that the film shows its age of comedy, such as shooting a BB air powered shotgun in a public place, apologizing for jokes, dressing to a social party, and many more. At times before the end of the film, it's shown it is certainly not their best work where the singing starts and when its dialogue is not funny, its usually slow without any of the Marx brothers in them. Right in the middle it almost gets tedious and loses its touch with the crowd. Thankfully, the brothers turn that right around in the following scenes. Though, they talk about a stolen painting then and do nothing about it really, it's also not a great example to watch as their first film. The settings rarely change and it's originally from a Broadway musical so the stage ballroom remains in most scenes. Even if the film is not top three of their well known work, it's continuously fun and entertaining to watch a Marx brothers film. They will permanently be the best at creating an intelligent comedy with zany slapstick dialogue every minute with their own personality and style in it.

Final Grade: B-

House of Wax (2005)
Starring Chad Michael Murray, Elisha Cuthbert, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Robert Ri'chard

Film Prophet's Review...
Along with the gruesome human bodies in wax element, the story focuses on a group of college teens on their way to a football game who decide to camp out for the night and eventually fall prey to a couple of demented killers who like encasing their victims in wax. The movie has an usual straightforward orthodox storyline when a car breaks down which leads them to wander to a vacant town to be preyed on. In a movie era where gore and teenager thrillers run the horror genre, it's gloomy to perceive young people growing up on the mindless effects during an easy premise that's been used many times under different circumstances. Though, the dialogue does a fair job on capturing what college kids would say and do under disturbing scenarios. The acts are also reasonable, and one of the lines are, 'you are so afraid to take things seriously' in between the arguments and immaturity for the first few scenes, as these films like to start off that way. I do like the casting choices with Buffalo native Chad Michael Murray, a top favorite actress Cuthbert, Hilton's attractiveness going the distance, and the idea of having horror taken place in a Wax museum, a fun place to visit, even if it is teenage remake with a first time director, is very neat. There are some scenes of alienation that quite don't cause panic viewers would want because the scenes preceding were boring where little occurred. Other times they aren't as it gets scary when they figure out what's going on. The design of the film is to scare afterwards with acts in which will make the average person cower. It has the felons who tease them with sadism in alarming areas. There are a few eerie moments such as peeling human skin, a melting and gooey hot wax mood, super gluing lips, and just the process of waxing humans alive is forbidding to be that victim. The parts with Cuthbert and Murray rise to the occasion. I felt their amazing performances during the second half where Murray was ruthless and awesome against the killers and Cuthbert was talented. A movie to chill to that gives little chills to the viewer in certain fractions of the film... however, it tops other recent applicable films like Cabin Fever, Saw, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a stunning scene of the house burning and a surprising ending.

Final Grade: C/C+

How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood

Film Prophet's Review...
John Ford's first huge achievement it is, as it was up for numerous Oscars including a win for best picture against The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane, wow, but it might go down as the worst best picture winner. I was worried it was going to fall to this. The movie was full of an unclear narrative voice expressing a point of view on a family who grew up by a coal mine scene by scene as if it were a book cassette. It tries to reflect the period of time during the second World War of a working family at odds of faith, loyalty, education, and family where people struggle with little tasks. The story starts off slowly primordially and it never improves as it always lingers. It shows the everyday life with the setbacks and the enjoyments through the stressful community in Wales. People had to entertain themselves through singing, though they sing in a large group where the viewer can't make out the words. The sound quality is terrible and the voices are gentle and when the singing comes to an abrupt, the sound becomes out of proportion being too loud and trivial over the normal level voices. The singing just interrupts any flow to the story without a stability of conversations, drama, or a great musical score. In a film perspective outside of what the story told, it is unmoving unlike the typical American classic, maybe because the novel was adapted so defectively to the screenplay. I waited for the tale to bolster, but I didn't care for one second for any of the characters as it does not point out a feature standout. The plot is vague, nothing stirring occurs, nothing is memorable, and it was a bit indistinctive. The nostalgic storytelling was soft and less appealing than expected on a cold attempt at being poetic. The story is fairly outdated that wouldn't give anyone today a thought like great past-time movies would as the movie faded away likes it characters. Finer examples of the thematic sub-category are Blow, Giant, October Sky, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The heroine was unimportant and there were really boring conflicts to make an uninteresting movie. It was so unfortunate at a point where I almost forgot what it took for a movie to be triumphant.

Final Grade: D/C-

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Starring Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson

Film Prophet's Review...
The profitable and entertaining sci-fi adventurous film is the third chapter and final episode of the six Star Wars films, making the series finally complete. After three years of fighting in the Clone Wars, in a time where Jedis existed and soon to crumble, the Jedi Council dispatches Obi-Wan Kenobi to bring the deadly leader of the Separatist droid army to justice. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine has grown in power during his sweeping political transformation of the war into an Empire and reveals his true nature of power to Anakin Skywalker in an attempt to lure him to the dark side. The dark story's main storyline is about how young Anakin is seduced into the dark side by temptation and trust and his questionable betrayal to the Jedi and master Obi-Wan puts his marriage at venture. Throughout the movie, he releases his anger more and more to the irresistible conversion to Vader and the more powerful evil dark side of the alliance, the evil counterparts to the Jedi Republic, and it is truly the most personal Star Wars tale ever. Director and writer George Lucas vastly improved his direction from the previous two movies to cut down the long scientific and diplomatic talks, exposed in Episode II, removed the annoying little creatures it had in The Phantom Menace, shrinks the time of Jar Jar Binks, reduces instant hologram communication occasions, removes a weak beginning to a weak start, and a villain who hardly did anything in Dark Maul. Much better performances releasing tension this time around where a new generation of actors play an older set to the story, keeping John Williams and his wonderful score around. The laser guns and swords, also known as the best weapon in all of movies as the lightsaber, the weapon of Jedi knight, are in tact. For some reason, I didn't notice the unique scene transition fades and wipes it had in the other five films. Yet, in each episode, there is the notion of lines like, 'don't underestimate the force,' and with all the memorable scenes and quotes in the originals, the best quote in this movie is when Padme says, 'this is how truth dies... to thunderous applause.' The episodes launch with a quick action sequence with a minor conflict and life at stake followed by the plot being laid down, and an extensive super action finale with well-timed special effects. The choreography excels at its best with not the technological explosions, rather with lightsaber battles in tight and thin spaces such as on a beam above flowing lava and trapped and out-numbered in a small room or elevator. The individual one on one duels grips the audience for rival tautness and a new villain in the movie, General Grievous, turns out to have the most exhilarating duel contest. What the original Star Wars had that the prequels don't have are steady heroes and a central villain. That's what made them so special where fans got to see the undertake of a heroic adventure where it can also work in the dialogue department, and in this movie, some feeble lines were said. Common error the fans would want is to downgrade the special effects and science and what they will see is that the spaceships look better than the ones in the originals even though it took place before. The planets are computerized too to its advantage in an intellect burden. However, it all adds to the vibe the film presents. The drama builds before heading into light speed to the last quarter with an attack of sadness and excitement at once. Amazing plot turns and new discoveries that fans already know with intriguing character relationships and unplanned breakdowns happen, leading to character struggles where Mace Windu loses trust in Anakin and Padme is pregnant and becomes worried about her husband and the Republic, each drifting away from her. While the plot is going on, the viewer has time to look at all the work the artists did on the art decoration and setting so fans can appreciate it in a close. The visual presentation wraps everything the best it can do and won't disappoint, despite the improvement over the originals. Most of the beauty in this film lies to Anakin's tragic choice and seeing how Obi-Wan and Yoda handle it is dazzling. The audience will be in a mindset of re-thinking past and future events in the movies and how all the pieces are assembled into one finished puzzle. The transformation to one episode to the next will still be a new experience with electricity. It is important to understand the episodes ensue evolution and it is startling, and will forever be, to remember how far the progress of the story went in each episode and who was there and who wasn't with all the Jedi sacrifices in the greatest saga ever told on screen... weaving its characters through six two hour movies is just as daunting and infatuating to trace back the storyline in our heads.

Final Grade: A-

Crash (2005)
Starring Matt Dillon, Terrence Dashon Howard, Don Cheadle, Ludacris, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock

Film Prophet's Review...
A housewife and her detective husband, a Persian store owner and a locksmith, two police cops where one cop messes and screws with the innocent, a black television director and his wife, two black car-jackers, and others all live in Los Angeles and in less than two days, they will all crash. The script focuses solely on its characters performed by recognizable actors and actresses, and their relations with people around them. I enjoyed seeing Ryan Phillippe once again and Matt Dillon captivates the audience during his first few scenes and it felt like he was going to knock everyone down... that's how well he made his character to be. Though, the movie is more of a ride to the characters than it is to the audience. There's a couple minor comical lines that make sense, but when the script falls back on family values, it becomes boring and slow with slighter acting. Sometimes, there is the occasional slow scene, where a father talks to his daughter, with uncomfortable ideas of resentment and intolerance. At times the melodrama hits at its highest, they perform loudly and uncomfortably. It pities criminal's loneliness and embarrassment. Conversely, the logic of the dialogue may be too strong and people realistically probably don't speak this way. The intense racial loathing and confusion plagues the city, the story, and even the movie. It elevates racism and ignorance in the script that's better than what most people tend to watch today. It holds an in-depth exploration on the themes of prejudice and black criminal and non-criminal racism, but I doubt Los Angeles has this must racism anymore as it could be a slap to some black people. Characters, such as the one Ludacris acts out as a car theft, uses aggravation and correct or incorrect racial slurs and it is very hard to care about any one later on since they gave off the impression of being mean and offensive and later they want the audience's empathy. When they talk about things that already happen with blank facial stares and looks of concern, it befalls to monotonous while it skips around to various parts without one strong clash and the movie needed to move on more rapidly every so often.

Final Grade: B-/C+

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe

Film Prophet's Review...
"I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason." The film is among the most influential breakthrough science fiction movies of all-time in respect to the industry and humanity. A visitor from another planet arrives from a spaceship to Washington and comes to warn the people on the planet are capable of becoming dangerous in time with all their weapons that it might hurt his home planet and others and if the Earth continues to go towards bomb aggressions, the Earth will be annihilated. "... violent action, since that seems to be the only thing you people understand." The film gets right into the encounter when an object flying in outer space is traveling super fast, minus all the introducing weak characters one at a time as they live normal lives, something found in bad sci-fi films today. The visitor does not come to attack or immediately threatens the message. He rents a room and learns about their life form, living and studying their measures and homeland security while further plot explaining would spoil a perfect plot that achieves really well at numerous points and altercations in the story. It even expresses the time period in exemplar detail during the Cold War politically and socially with the weakness of pure human sentiment of uninvited and something. There are similarities between the sci-fi film and the world's own troubled times then and the film defines the era's struggle to cooperate peacefully. It shows Washington taking adjustments seriously and as a society when there are tanks on scene when the ship lands. There's concern and panic established through curiosity through it all. "Why doesn't the government do something, that's what I'd like to know - What can they do, they're only people just like us - People my foot, they're democrats!" The society around that era also had new advantages of having fast media communications through breaking news by television and radio. A few things the movie caused later in the real world were some various peace treaties signed between nations, yea, including flying saucer sightings if the movie held any truth with the idea of an outer Earth presence is out there and is much more simple, advanced, and easier than the Earth's medicine and technology while still being affluent. A comical scene has the visitor and a boy looking through a professor's house window at his chalkboard with calculus work on it, and the visitor shakes his head no and says, he doesn't know the answer. The script has great movement to the story provided with first-rate dialogue to get the audience's concentration. The audience will say wow to not only the dialogue lines, but the cinematography of the scenery back then, particularly the stunning Times Square. The legendary Bernard Herrmann assembles the musical score and he always add excitement with his flat out brass tunes with just tremendous precision. An exceptional screenplay that was brilliant, nothing below top notch. It is probably the best at entering a new concept with exceptions, holding a noir, suspicious tone mixing with science-fiction... the greatest supernatural, anti-war film ever made with such a strong, strong conveying message.

Final Grade: A/A+

Kung Fu Hustle (2005)
Starring Stephen Chow, Kwok Kuen Chan, Qiu Yuen, Wah Yuen, Hak On Fung

Film Prophet's Review...
A hapless want to-be gangster who just can't commit crimes as hard as he tries in China must overcome his inability to use a knife and demonstrate his courage in order to become a member of the notorious Axe Gang while people step up to them around a poor neighborhood run by an obnoxious landlady trying to defend themselves. Stephen Chow ties action-comedy with martial arts together in a crazy show at the hub of the characters that played like a cartoon from Looney Tunes without the blood and banal images. The jokes were mostly crude and exaggerated to the point where the viewer knows its ploys and can expect what to happen next. There are vicious adultery cruelties are meant to be funny, or a disaster to filmmaking, either way it links to an opinion from the crowd. Physical violence is super-imposed by a computer for the visuals to look silly and distracting, while the fights are outrageous and wild, it nevertheless remains true to the genre of Kung Fu. There's numerous hand weapons and the skills that party them, plenty of weak looking tough enemies who get beat up, and since there's the computer visual effect involve, sometimes comedy-action is there. Although, it's unlike any traditional American film. Nowadays with all the effects and better technology with the age of the movie, its visual arts were very creative, but it puts a less focus on the actual story. During the fights, there were two main things that scrubbed out a plot... the special effects and the loud increasing dramatic instrumental music... Film Prophet won't be fooled by that. The choreography is its most important quality and without it, the movie can't cheat and ignore the fact it's a Kung Fu version of The Matrix. It took several of its story ideas, such as an underdog rising to be that significant One no one can match and using unrealistic fighting taking punishment and pain without complaints under little rule, but it was done at a stage to entertain. Even though the characters are fresh with plenty of extras who wear black suits who eventually get kicked and punched around, sometimes the routines in the fights become reoccurring and old, and it would be bright for the movie to insert something more distinctive other than the multiple instances of the same fights with different individuals. A bit more profundity to the characters can go a long way and their random sadistic flairs don't cut it all the time.

Final Grade: C+

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Starring Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, David Thewlis

Film Prophet's Review...
Provoked into violence, a blacksmith leads Jerusalem during the crusades of the twelfth century in an unanswered motion picture finish. Director Ridley Scott is let down with a preachy script that falls way short of the success current powerful epics usually have in the twenty-first century by means of amelioration, fervor, and emotions from the grounds of a story that can be emerged from. Most of the lines were textbook plain exchanged between the characters such as 'be without fear in the face of your enemies,' as relevant from the trailer. The movie had little zest to add to the point of life and while it carries a message about forgiveness and religion, a movie needs more than just two typical themes to gratify one. It had the ability to tell a story, but the execution of it didn't move towards anything and just lays there still like a dead body. Anticipating to be stunned, the story became cyclical like all deprived movies do, about protecting the people and serving the king. Big deal... Film Prophet has seen and heard all of this before presented better in various stories similar to the likes of this one. The tidbits of action come from no where and people just start dropping to the ground on no basis other than to kill off the characters who had their chance to say something worthy to the main cast. Basically, the movie says soiled opponents are a lesser human being arriving in brash invectives in between the dull scenes with no dialogue. When someone close dies, the comrade says 'it was the end of his time' while the bad guys are not apparent. The relationships are pitiable, the drama is laughter to the ear, and the plot has no additions. Eva Green, a precious beautiful face who enters the film a quarter within, tries to wake up the male audience while the female crowd has Bloom, but even her appearance as a queen during the setting of the time doesn't make an impact with her emotional turns. There's no reflection of any comical lines that some serious films put in as it misses the key of having intense moments and alluring the viewers to care about really happens. It is this year's The Alamo, King Arthur, and Alexander, a category of inadequate rubbish. It is much worse than Gladiator, which as least had a plot going. Not a soul brought the movie to life and it didn't give its viewers something to think about to debate from an unenlightened religious film.

Final Grade: C-/D