The Others (2001)

MIMDB score: 7.0
Current IMDB score: 7.6
Director: Alexjandro Amenabar
Main Actors you care about: Nicole Kidman

Why I liked it: It's one of the very few horror movies that I've really liked.  Most things make sense.  Very eerie sense most of the time.  It's like a better The Shining in my opinion.  The Shining is too far out there in left field to be really good in my opinion.  I understand The Shining has a lot of meaning it but it fails in the normality scale to make it a great movie.  This movie is closer to being great.  It's the most eerie movie that I've seen.

What stands out:  Nicole Kidman does as well as you'd expect from her.  She plays the very over protective and proper mother perfectly.  I love the plot twist.  I saw this before the Sixth Sense so this is more mind blowing for me.  This was one of the first movies that had a plot twist that made me want to watch it again to see if the movie makes sense before the twist.  From what I can tell it does.

What I would change:  I've never like the too quiet and then loud for a cheap scare horror effect.  It needs to be taken out because I want to hold this movie to a higher standard than most horror movies.  Maybe the too quiet and then loud is what makes the horror movie a horror movie though.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene: It's just so well done.  After rewatching everything lines up with the plot.  The diction, the characters, the weather, and the music all line up marvelously.  Because of this I don't overly have a favorite scene or line.  Here is a few good ones though.

"Now children, are you sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin" is a wonderfully eerie line to start this particular movie.

Anne: I don't believe that the Holy Spirit is a dove.
Nicholas: I don't believe that either.
Anne: Doves are anything but holy.
Nicholas: They poo on the window.
The only funny lines in the movie.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: The Shining, Identity, and Saw 1 only

"Side" note: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin."  This is how the BBC radio show "Listen with Mother" started it broadcast.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

MIMDB score: 8.0
Current IMDB score: 7.9
Director: Michael Arndt
Main Actors you care about: Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin

Why I liked it: It's real and good . . . it's really good.  The movie understands the quality of being alive.  It makes you happy just seeing the poster above even though it's not the happiest movie.  This is perfectly how you should describe life to someone from another planet that doesn't understand humans.

What stands out:  Everyone does well.  Story is great.  Details are great.  The van not being in tip top shape but works just like their family is one of those cool things that is going on in the movie.

What I would change:  I don't know if the grandpa needed to die.  That kind of set the humor a little over the top I think.  A little "Weekend at Berinie's" I think is too much for this movie to have in it.

I know the ending is pretty amazing for most people but I feel like it could have been even better somehow.  I can't come up with anything better but I think something else could have been done that would have been even better.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
The scene on the dock about suffering.  Some of the most interesting people are the people that have suffered the most.  It's sad but mostly true.  People that don't suffer are generally boring.  There is a general consensuses that I'm a sad person.  I generally am not smiling and not easily excited.  That's not because I'm sad inside.  That's because I'm generally thinking about something that is sad.  Those are more interesting things to think about.  Why is that person happy as compared to why is that person sad for instance is more interesting.  It might be more enjoyable to think about why that person is happy but you don't really learn anything.  There's not much to think through.  Oh that person is happy because they just got a promotion or is eating ice cream or gets joy in finding someone's personality in they way they walk down a street.  Those are good things but not much to learn from at all.  Those are passing thoughts.  It takes longer to think about ways to make sad or bad things better than basking in happiness.  It's the pursuit of happiness that makes me happy and not happiness itself.  This idea is already explained in The Pursuit of Happynes movie review.

Also "Do what you love and fuck the rest."

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Juno?  As Good As It Gets, Garden State, and Away We Go are all close but this movie is fairly unique.

"Side" note: Earmuffs!  The scenes where they make the daughter listen to headphones while the other characters cuss was actually kind of true.  The prop people made sure music was playing in the headphones in the scene so that the child actor wouldn't hear the cussing.

Another interesting thing was the drugs used in the movie were actually crushed up vitamin B.

The End of the Tour (2015)

MIMDB score: 8.0
Current IMDB score: 7.9
Director: James Ponsoldt
Main Actors you care about: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Joan Cusack

Why I liked it: I haven't read any books by David Foster Wallace.  I've listened to a few of his interviews and his commencement speech which I've all liked.  I've always thought from those that he was a smart guy.  From the movie I got that he was amazing person.  Unfortunately if he knew he was amazing then he no longer would be.  He's a really interesting guy.  He's another character to live up to but in this case he was (at least one time) a real person.  That makes it that much better of a character.  Jason Segel did as good as you would have want him to.

What stands out:  The conversations.  It kind of gets at what the book Infinite Jest (D.F. Wallace's book) talks about.  It gets into that but I found him as a person is what stood out.  He's a solid guy who's smart,  normal, and alive.  As one of the ending point gets at, the movie makes you feel not alone in the world.  Wallace seemed to be really good at saying what was in his mind.  Anytime you can do that and not be too weird it's pretty amazing.  People really respond to real people.

What I would change: I might come back to this and change this section.  I've only seen this currently once in theaters since it just came out.  A lot of the fans of David Foster Wallace said this movie shouldn't come out.  It goes against what David Foster Wallace wanted or stood for.  Based on the movie I disagree.  He would want it to come out but maybe not do well.  He wants people to understand his point of view.  He's just a really humble guy and didn't want to make a big fuss over it.  Just watch it, understand it, and take from what you need in order to live your life better is what I would think he would have wanted for it.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
Even though it's a odd feeling scene, I like the scene where David Foster Wallace tells David Lipsky to "just be a good guy."  I feel like I do that all the time to people.  It doesn't really do anything because people feel like they are being a good guy. I feel like I'm a good guy but I'm not.  I thought I was a honest person until I watched this movie.  David Foster Wallace seemed soooooo much more honest than I've ever been really.  Maybe I should not worry about what people will think of my honesty and just be even more honest.  As I've said, people respond to that way more than the fake part of conversation.  I try and not have fake conversations but I should probably be trying harder.

As David Lipsky is leaving and you realize the movie is drawing to an end you get kind of sad that it's the movie is going to end soon as well.  Well done by the movie to give you the same feeling I'm sure David Lipsky was feeling when he had to leave David Foster Wallace.

The scene were Wallace talks about the jumping from a burning building.  I used to think suicide didn't make sense.  If you think of it like a person jumping from a burning building as the last real thing a person can do then it makes much more sense I feel like.  Instead of it being a crazy or selfish idea I think it becomes an act of final desperation.  It's much more understandable that way.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight series.  Dinner with Andre.  It's mostly a conversation movie.

"Side" note: His commencement speech should make you re-evaluate your life if you haven't heard it.  That plus the movie will probably make me end up reading Infinite Jest.

If I could have asked him one question during one of his book signings it would have been: "Why are you so hard on yourself?"

Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

MIMDB score: 7.5
Current IMDB score: 7.7
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Main Actors you care about: Guy Pearce, Jim Caviezel, Luis Guzman

Why I liked it: It's a really good story.  Good thoughts to think through in life.  Not only about revenge but about love, perseverance, integrity, and being naive.  I haven't thought it all through yet but I think there's a lot of imagery in the story.

What stands out: The Count is the best character in the movie (besides maybe Jacopo).  He's the best of the qualities mentioned above except for probably revenge.  He's naive in the beginning which makes him likable.  By the time he becomes somewhat mean you're already on his side.

What I would change: By the end of movie the Count figures out that his ex-fiance isn't to blame for anything.  I feel like he should have seen that sooner.  She wasn't in a place to get him out of jail even if she believed he was alive.  I wouldn't have been upset with her at all.  Maybe he crazily thought she was in on it since she married Mondego but it makes perfect sense that she didn't have anything else to do in life but marry the only other man that wanted to marry her.  This is the 1800's we are talking about here.  This is where he's too blinded by revenge in my opinion.  He does need to seek some revenge on people like Mondego but his ex-fiance?  Did he really think she didn't love him?

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"Kings to you."  I love the back and forth of the king chess piece.  That's a cool little motif to have.

The birthday toast scene is pretty well done.  The father is suppose to give the speech to a son on his birthday.  Mondego is unable to so the Count does who is actually his father.  Just a really good web that was woven there.

Edmond: "Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!"

It's a really good quote.  It really easy to be a good person when you have a good life.  It's easy to do the right thing when life is good.  What really matters, because not a lot of people can do it, is how you act when you are at low points in life.  For instance if you are relatively well off it is really easy not to steal.  When you have very little, how hard will it be not to steal the bread right in front of you?  What makes you a "man" or a better indication of ones integrity is restraining yourself from acting poorly when it is hard to do so.  How you act in that moment isn't necessarily your true self but it's a better indication of whether or not you have integrity.

Jacopo: "Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?"

Oh Jacopo.  Indeed good sir, indeed.

Luigi: We shall call him... Zatarra.
Edmond: Sounds fearsome.
Luigi: It means, "driftwood."

Pretty funny as the movie doesn't have much humor.  It all comes from the pirates.

I have to mentioned the prison scenes.  I love them.  I've always wanted to go to prison for a little bit just to see what it's like.  To experience that part of life.  Maybe I'll fake rob a bank someday.  I'm sure it's awful and all that but for a lot of people I think it would be good.  You get a lot of time to think out your life and even improve your life by doing whatever activity you really want to (that you can do in prison).  The Count kind of grows out of his naivety, how to sword fight, and pretty much gets an education.  It was really beneficial for him as a person.  Not that it would be the same for me but I think it would give me a lot of extra time to maybe focus on more important things than you know . . . . work.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: V for Vendetta and Man in the Iron Mask.

"Side" note: The book has a mixed view.  A lot of people really like it.  I personally think it's slow and boring.  I've read the first few chapters and it was slow and boring.  Although books in general are slow and boring compared to movies in my opinion.  Books give you a more enriched looked the story but there's a million stories to understand.  Going through them slowly can maybe only be achieved by having a lot of time on your hands.  Maybe if I ever do go to prison. . . .

There's also other movie editions as hopefully you are aware this is a fairly old story.  The version from 1934 is in V for Vendetta.  That version has a 7.7 on IMDB as well so it could be just as good.

Pay it Foward (2000)

MIMDB score: 7.0
Current IMDB score: 7.1
Director: Mimi Leder
Main Actors you care about: Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, and Helen Hunt

Why I liked it: When I watched it when it came out it sort of changed my life.  I know the phrase is used lightly and maybe it didn't really change my life but it made me feel better about doing good things.  Since then I have done a lot of things only in light of helping others because the idea of paying it forward.  Helping others in hopes of making the world that much better for them.  If I watched a movie like this today I would probably find the movie cheesy.  Because of that it should only be watched once really which is why it's a 7.0.

What stands out: Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment both do really well.  A lot of good scenes between them two.  Teacher-student relationships seem to be thought provoking in movies.  It's an pretty inspirational story.

What I would change: I think him dying at the end is over the top and cliche.  It happens to often in kids movies I feel like.  I know that deaths like this happen in life but I feel they are being a little pushy with the feeling.  It doesn't add much for the people that like the movie.  It pushes people who aren't really into it into not liking it more.  I would have done something else with the climax of the movie.  That being said, the final scene is so sad and good.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
The scene where Haley Joel Osment ask Spacey why his face is like in the school parking lot.  It kind of makes me really happy.  Spacey thinks Haley Joel Osment is just asking to go joke around with the other kids about it.  In reality he really is concerned and cares about what happened to Spacey though.  Spacey has to worry about his face every time he looks at it or remembers that it's like that. So when another person in the many persons he's come across asks him about it he is sure it's just another joke on him deal.  When Haley walks past the kids he realizes there are genuinely people that care about him.  Those moments of realization are an awesome part of life.

Eugene: I know what I'm talking about, Arlene! My father got down on his knees and begged my mother. And my mother,s he always took him back. I never understood it. she'd cover up the bruises and the cuts and she'd take him back. Because he begged and he cried. And now you ask me, you ask me what happened after he came back.
Arley: I...
Eugene: No! Go on! You said you wanted to know what happened to me, now ask me!
Arley: I don't like this...
Eugene: Did he hurt you, Eugene? Ask me!
Arley: Did he hurt you?
Eugene: [shakes his head] Not for long. By 13 I was gone. i ran away. But I missed her so... I had to go back and see her. So one night I did. Now, ask me what happened. What happened that night you came back, Eugene?
Arley: What happened?
Eugene: He was there. Drunk. As usual. Only this time I wasn't the same. I was 16 years old and I was no longer afraid of him. And when I looked him in the eyes and told him if he ever touched her again I would kill him, he knew. He knew that he would never exist for me again. And I'm standing in front of the house. I'm yelling, screaming for her to come out. I'm telling her she doesn't have to take it anymore. She really doesn't. She can come with me now. I don't even see it. He hits me in the side of the head with a two-by-four and I'm bleeding from my ear. And then he's dragging me. He's dragging me behind the house into the garage. And then he's gone. A minute... five minutes... I don't know. And then he's back. And he's wetting me down. He's wetting me down and I don't understand. I don't understand why water... should smell so bad. I don't understand. And then I see it. I see... this... this gas can. This red gas can from his truck.
[Crying]
Eugene: And he looks at me one last time... and he lights a match. And the last thing I remember, I'll never forget it, were his eyes. His eyes because they were filled with this immense... satisfaction.
Arley: [Crying] I'm so sorry...
Eugene: Don't! Don't! Don't tell me how sorry you are for me! Tell me how you're going to stop that happening to Trevor!
Arley: Ricky would never do that!
Eugene: Oh, Jesus, Arlene! He doesn't have to. All he has to do is not love him.

It's a powerful scene.  I hope a lot of people in abusive relationships connected with and listen to what he's saying.  GET THE FUCK OUT! NO EXCUSES!  There's a way better life out there than the one with your abusive spouse/significant other.

The end scene is pretty heartbreaking.  The song is beautiful.  I used to listen to it on repeat when this came out.  When they zoom out of the house and there's just car lights and car lights for days it's makes you feel so happy in a way.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Amélie: "It's better to help people than garden gnomes." All the kids movies where someone dies at the end: My Girl, Bridge to Terabithia, Simon Birch, and Walk to Remember,  There's probably more as this is a too common of an ending/climax in movies.

"Side" note: A popular wrestler at the time Goldberg, is in a poster in the kids room.  He's my favorite wrestler as well! . . . . I'm lying.  I'm pretty sure Andre the Giant is my favorite wrestler.  I feel like he's a good guy in person even though he played the villain in a lot of his matches.  I've actually seen him perform when I was like six. It was kind of awesome.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

MIMDB score: 7.8
Current IMDB score: 7.2
Director: Mark Romanek
Main Actors you care about: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly, Andrew Garfield

Why I liked it: The ending.  It's always nice to hear to live life to the fullest.  Yea it's been said to you a thousands of times and it gets boring to hear.  This movie does it in a way you wouldn't normally expect it.  I think it really shows you that you don't have much time on this earth and you need to freaking enjoy the crap out of the time you have.

What stands out: All three main characters do well.  This movie made me start to like Carey Mulligan a lot.  I think she stands out a bit in the movie.  Most people say her break-out role was An Education but for me it was this film. She was also in Pride & Prejudice but as kind of a minor role.

What I would change: I don't think they should tell you in the beginning what makes the characters "special".  I think they should have kept it a mystery in the beginning.  Kind of like in Seven Pounds when they show you that he's going to kill himself.  That should be a mystery I feel like.  Something to figure out.  Maybe they should make like a hard-mode version of movies on Blu-ray.  It would be much more interesting.

Not that I would change this but I hate people like Ruth in real life.  What a witch of a person.  I wish Tommy would have been stronger and seen Kathy H. was his actual love earlier in life.  Unfortunately so it goes sometimes in life.  At least they had time together.  Some people don't even get that in their short lives.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
Kathy: "It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed. If I'd known, maybe I'd have kept tighter hold of them and not let unseen tides pull us apart."
It's hard when you are in the moment of high school, college,  or any moment to believe there will come a day when the feeling of constant friendship will go away.  I guess I understand why people grow apart but I don't really like it.  People get bored and want to move on and want to do different things in life.  That leads to people not being as close in the long term.  Really though just because you talked to some one everyday and don't anymore, doesn't mean you aren't close with them.  It's kind of how I deal with loneliness.  I think of the people I've been close with or are close with and what they are doing when I'm feeling alone.  In that way I don't feel alone because I imagine them doing the things that make them who they are to me.  It can usually make me smile as I go along my day.

The ending scene is pretty fantastic.  It's where the revelation of the characters you have invested become just like the viewer.  During the movie you kind of feel bad for them and keep lightly thinking "at least I'm not them".  At the end you figure out just because they live shorter lives doesn't mean they don't have the same problems as people that live a "full" or "normal" life.  Use your time in life wisely.  The message has been said many times and many ways.  I believe the movie has a very thought provoking way of doing it.


Similar Movies/TV Shows: Remember Me.  I don't know if Remember Me is a similar movie but it makes me think of both these movies when I try and come up with the title to Never Let Me Go.  About Time is similar though.

"Side" note: I'm going to talk about why I like Carey Mulligan so much.  Apparently she read the novel  "Never Let Me Go" as a child and really wanted and hoped she would one day play Kathy H when a filmed was made (which she believed it would made into a film one day).  Also she used to be pen pals with the lead singer from Mumford and Sons when she was a child, Marcus Mumford.  They stopped writing each other and later when they worked on the same movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, they got together and then married.  Such a good story of how you met the love of your life.  I hope they last.

Atonement (2007)

MIMDB score: 7.0
Current IMDB score: 7.8
Director: Joe Wright
Main Actors you care about: Keira Knightly, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch

Why I liked it: The scene.  Most of the movie is a 6.7ish probably as it's not super great.  The scene though. . . .  I think it's worth watching just for the scene so I have it at a flat 7.

What stands out: The scene

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
The only reason to review this movie is the beach scene.  "It's like something out of the bible."  This maybe the best scene ever done in a movie.   If you didn't watch it you need to watch it before I go on.

I'll assume you watched it.  Notice the scene is all in one take.  No cuts.  Just beauty for five minutes straight.  The music.  It makes me want to cry when they pan across the soldiers singing the hymn.  The music coupled with the hymn with the visual of the ferris wheel near a beach is a spectacular scene.  Notice the solider hanging on to the ferris wheel as it goes around.  There's so many things to look for in this scene.  There's so many metaphors and eloquent beauty in this scene.

My favorite metaphor I"ll point out is that the whole scene is in my belief suppose to be purgatory.  All of the soldiers are waiting for where to go next.  They are soldiers so they have probably killed other people but they did it in the name of goodness.  So they would be candidates for purgatory I would think.  The main character really dies in the movie so he could really be in purgatory.  "It's a scene out of the bible." I just think it's really beautiful.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: The Fountain's walking scene.

"Side" note: The beach scene was all filmed in one day as a tracking shot.