Showing posts with label criminal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label criminal. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2011

The Falcon and the Snowman - 1985



"They're just as paranoid and dangerous as we are. I don't know why I ever thought any differently."

Don't let the quirky trailer fool you, this is a really great film that tells the true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

As a CIA employee in charge of guarding top secret documents, all-American Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) becomes disillusioned with his country and decides to make a deal with the Soviet Union. Boyce drags his childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) into the arrangement, but the drug-addicted Lee's reasons for committing espionage are strictly monetary. John Schlesinger directs this provocative and sometimes humorous account.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Pulp Fiction - 1994



Quentin Tarantino lives in another world and this is, by far, one of it's best imports. An all star cast and a lot of fun this film marks the comeback of John Travolta in a big way.

This film garnered Tarantino and the cast multiple nominations for The Academy Awards, The Golden Globe Awards, The Independent Spirit Awards, and BAFTA placing in on TIME's ALL TIME 100 Movies List.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #94 Greatest Movie of All Time.

Ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Gangster" in June 2008.

Ranked #1 movie in Entertainment Weekly's "The New Classics: Movies" (issue #1000, July 4, 2008).

Voted #9 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008).

A burger-loving hit man (John Travolta), his philosophical partner (Samuel L. Jackson), a drug-addled gangster's moll (Uma Thurman) and a washed-up boxer (Bruce Willis) converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper fueled by director and co-writer Quentin Tarantino's whip-smart dialogue. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time, resulting in one of the most audacious and imitated films of the 1990s.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Man on the Train - (L'homme du Train) - 2002



Hollywood's recent remake of this film reminded me of the original French film from 2002. Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort are quite good as two men who find themselves intrigued with each other's life.

A poet. A thief. Two strangers with nothing in common are about to trade their lives for a chance to cheat their destinies.

A weathered old gangster (Johnny Hallyday) arrives by train at a small French town to rob the local bank. But he soon discovers there's no room at the local inn in which he'd hoped to stay while he plans his crime. Taking up the kind offer of an elderly teacher (Jean Rochefort) to stay in his mansion, the two men soon discover that they each might have been better suited for the other man's way of life.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Der Untergang (Downfall) - 2004

Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German/Italian/Austrian epic war film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's life in his Berlin bunker and Nazi Germany in 1945.

The film was written by Bernd Eichinger, and based upon the books Inside Hitler's Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; Until the Final Hour, the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries; portions of Albert Speer's memoirs Inside the Third Reich; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account, by Gerhardt Boldt; Das Notlazarett Unter Der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt Erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin (memoirs) by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949 (memoirs) by Siegfried Knappe. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1942, a group of German secretaries are escorted to Adolf Hitler's (Bruno Ganz) compound at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. After dictating to her for a moment and despite multiple mistakes, Hitler selects Traudl Humps (Alexandra Maria Lara) to be one of his personal secretaries.

The scene shifts to Hitler's 56th birthday on April 20, 1945. Secretary Traudl Humps (now Traudl Junge) is awakened in the Führerbunker by the sound of Soviet artillery. Later, Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf and Karl Koller confirm to a surprised Hitler that the Red Army is just 12 kilometres from the city centre. Later, at his birthday reception, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) and his SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann) plead with Hitler to allow himself to be evacuated from the city. Instead, Hitler declares, "I will defeat them in Berlin, or face my downfall." Himmler leaves Berlin with the intention of negotiating surrender terms with the Western Allies behind Hitler's back.

In another part of the city, a group of Hitler Youth members continue to build up defenses for the defense of Berlin. Peter, a boy in the group, is vainly urged by his father to desert and flee the city. Later, Peter's unit is part of a group which is awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler.