Triple Film Review

Son Of The Morning Star, Joyeux Noel and Rain Man Reviews

Since it’s the Christmas holidays, I thought I might as well spend some time watching some decent films. So, I scoured the shelves jam packed with a seemingly endless array of videos and DVDs, to stumble upon Son Of The Morning Star, a three hour war film about the famous General George Armstrong Custer, and the events leading up to his last stand at the Little Bighorn River against a tribe of Native Americans.

Although the acting isn’t amazing, especially from Gary Cole as Custer himself, the film does document the events from both the Native’s and Army’s point of view, which I thought was a rather great idea. A fair deal of the story is also told by two women, one being Custer’s wife and the other a Native American. Unfortunately, I found Custer’s wife rather annoying, and she glamorised him as being a brave and noble general, which evidence suggests otherwise.

The occasional battle scenes were reasonably alright, with some being better than others, plus the final battle at Little Big Horn did drag on a tad too long for my liking. A few slow motion shots were also used towards the end, and proved surprisingly effective.

You may have to turn up the volume a bit for this second video, as it is quite quiet.

The second film I watched was a war film called Merry Christmas. I hadn’t heard of it before, so my expectations weren’t too high, but I decided to watch it anyway. The film concerns the World War 1 Christmas ceasefires, which took place along the Western Front, and various characters from the Scottish, French and German armies.

Decent acting, a worthy storyline and great visuals dominate Merry Christmas, plus an unexpected appearance from Gary Lewis as one of the main characters isn’t a bad thing. The fact that it is a French film may surprise some people, but didn’t bother me whatsoever. It was only when I finished watching it, that I realised it’s French name was Joyeux Noel, and I had heard about it before I saw the film.

It’s also rather emotional, as you can really feel a strong sense of friendship between characters even on different sides. An interesting subject provides an interesting, well made film. A couple of scenes, like the one shown in the video above really capture what it must have been like for the soldiers in the trenches at Christmas and do so superbly with a mighty sense of realism.

Both of those movies may have been good, but the third film I watched combined excellent acting, an inspiring script and totally original plot to produce outstanding results.

Charlie Babbitt, a selfish young yuppie is annoyed after he discovers that his father has died and left all his fortune to Charlie’s savant brother Raymond. Charlie subsequently kidnaps Raymond to try and reclaim some of the money he believed to be rightfully his.

Dustin Hoffman is amazing as Raymond, and plays the part utterly convincingly and with revolutionary acting skills. Cruise isn’t far behind, as he also succeeds in fulfilling his role to a high degree, subtly changing his attitude towards Raymond and improving his personality as the film progresses.

Overall:

Son Of The Morning Star: 7.5/10

Joyeux Noel: 8.25/10

Rain Man: 8.75/10

Please comment!

By Paddy Johnson

Cool Hand Luke Review

Cool Hand Luke Review

A five star film review from the Daily Mail and a 125^th best film ever position on IMDb hinted that Cool Hand Luke wasn’t your average mediocre movie. Perhaps the problem was that my expectations were too high…

When Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) gets sent to prison, he quickly gains the respect of his fellow inmates, and becomes their greatest idol. After his mother dies, Luke is appalled that he is forced to spend time in the box (an almost pitch black, narrow hut with not even enough space to lie down) in case he decides to attend her funeral. After he is released, however, Luke is determined to escape from the camp, and, with the help of friends, tries several times to do so.

Cool Hand Luke does have many great attributes, such as stunning and visually amazing cinematography (brilliant picture considering it was made in 1967!), a fair share of classic moments (e.g., the egg scene, and the Captain’s speech) and decent acting at best demonstrated towards the end.

The problem is that it didn’t feel to me like a classic film, and although enjoyable, wasn’t at all the remarkable film I expected it to be. Newman isn’t a jaw droppingly good actor, and wasn’t anything special in this.

A good film, which provides inventive entertainment, but not a masterpiece by any means.

Overall: 8/10

By Paddy Johnson

Unforgiven Review

Unforgiven Review

After viewing a fair amount of Eastwood’s previous westerns (High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, The Dollars Trilogy etc.), I had rather high hopes about this film. He not only stars in, but also directs Unforgiven to quality standards later demonstrated in classics such as Letters From Iwo Jima.

For starters, the plot is reasonably strong, the characters fully developed, and the suspense at times unbearable. A starry cast including Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris and Gene Hackman, not to mention Clint himself, propel Unforgiven into greater territory.

Following on from a brutal incident involving the knife slashing of a prostitute, a reward is offered to anyone who can track down the cowboy who committed the crime, and his partner. Aging gunslinger William Munny (Eastwood) teams up with old friend Ned Logan (Freeman) and the cocky, young Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) to kill the two men and collect the bounty.

Unfortunately for them, the town where the prostitutes are located is run by lawman “Little Bill” Dagget (Hackman) who forbids anyone to carry firearms into his town, as he has previously demonstrated by savagely beating English Bob, who previously rode in (and subsequently out) of town. Another unfortunate incident occurs near the end of the film, forcing Munny to return to his gun slinging ways for an epic, visually impressive final shootout.

All the characters are well acted and seem realistic, but I was most impressed by Richard Harris’ performance as English Bob, a rather posh and civilised character. This is an absolutely classic and thoroughly enjoyable western, with excellent portrayals of the characters, a worthy script and remarkable suspense sequences. Eastwood has clearly learnt a lot about westerns from previous years.

Overall: 8.5/10