The Hateful Eight

I didn’t have high expectations for Hateful Eight. After Django, which had a lot of strengths, dont get me wrong, I was worried that Tarantino was delving into self-indulgence a little too much. Now I realize that’s like saying Scrooge McDuck may have had a little too much money, but that’s how I felt. And […]

Film Club Review – Once Upon a Time in the West

Sergio Leone looooves his music. And its very important to his style of film-making. He is an expert in drawing out tension from scenes and hitting just the right amount of importance for certain moments with the right notes of music. Once Upon a Time in the West has a lot of that, which makes […]

Django Unchained

Django Unchained is probably Quentin Tarantino’s most straight forward film, yet it is also perhaps his most indulgent. This story of a slave who is freed, becomes a bounty hunter, and tries to rescue his wife has a clear-cut arc. But within that arc we get a lot of Tarantino’s stylized direction. The strongest aspect […]

AFI Recap: #91 – #100

91. My Fair Lady (1964) – I will say I enjoyed the linguistic aspect of this movie and found it quite interesting.  I also found both Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrington to be very charming in their roles.  However, there are way, way, way too many songs and it is overlong by about an hour.  […]

True Grit

I’m not big on westerns, but this one won me over. At least, as much as a western can win me over. It did take a while for me to warm up to it though. it did start off rather slow and meandering (in other words, normal Western pace). But what holds this film apart […]

Film Club Review – Unforgiven

Unforgiven Unforgiven takes all of the mythology, legend and cliches of Westerns and presents them in a down-to-earth, sophisticated, and authentic manner. It took me a while to warm up to this movie, but it eventually won me over and I really enjoyed it and I understand why it gets the praise that it does. […]