Anzio reminds me of being a junior in high school: I sort of knew what I wanted to do with my life, but I sort of didn't. I was at a crossroads, between being a teenager and being... an older teenager. Anzio is a lot like that. On the one hand, it wants to be a grand, epic war movie (sort of like the earlier Sands of Iwo Jima or The Longest Day or the later A Bridge Too Far and Saving Private Ryan), but seems like a smaller film (like Beach Red or The Big Red One). In most respects, it is a pretty conventional film for its era (it was released in 1968), but seems to be slightly more liberal/anti-war than other films (again, it came out in 1968, at the height of American involvement in the Vietnam War), to the extent that it is more like the rather unconventional The Dirty Dozen (released the year before) than the very conventional The Green Berets (released the same year as Anzio). The story is simple enough: during WWII, a large force of U.S. Army Rangers advancing towards Rome are wiped out and captured during the Battle of Cisterna, leaving only about half a dozen surviving, free men, including war correspondent Dick Ennis (Robert Mitchum). After the battle, the men must try to make it back to Allied lines safely. The acting here is reasonable (especially from Peter Falk), and the dialogue seems OK. The film can be a little weird at times (while many men are shot during the course of the movie, there is no blood - except for one shooting, which results in a fairly jarring spray of red from the wound). The color palette used for the film is refreshing - instead of the dull colors used in some war films, we get bright, vivid colors.
While by no means a bad movie, Anzio seems a little shabby. This is one of the few movies for which a remake seems like a pretty good idea.
Rating: 69/100
Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Django Unchained
While Pulp Fiction will always be Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece, his latest effort, Django Unchained, is certainly a close second - very, very close. It was only a matter of time before Tarantino turned his attention to the western, and, as always, Tarantino has managed to make the genre his own. More of a "Southern" than a western (after all, it does take place in the American South), Django Unchained may very well be the best western ever made.
Set in 1858, Django Unchained follows ex-slave Django (Jamie Foxx) and dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) as they attempt to track down a trio of prime targets. That is not the main plot. The main plot is their quest to buy back Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from her owner, plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) - a task easier said than done. Tarantino's hallmarks of a strong story, excellent dialogue, and spot-on casting are all evident from the get-go. With Samuel L. Jackson co-starring, and Jonah Hill, Robert Carradine, Tarantino himself, and even Franco Nero (who starred in the mostly-unrelated 1966 spaghetti western Django) all making appearances, the film has everything going for it - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the most notable things about this film is, as with all Tarantino films, the dialogue - it's eloquent, profane (although not as much as Tarantino's other films), and downright hilarious (the scene with the trackers, including Carradine and Hill, gets more laughs than many comedies have in their duration). The blood is red, and spurts out from wounds as if real squibs (as in, honest-to-God squibs using dynamite, like in the days of The Wild Bunch) were used, and not that crappy CGI blood seen in some more recent films.
Another thing I really liked about this film is Samuel L. Jackson. Now, I'm a pretty big Jackson fan, but his performance here is just something else. It reminds me heavily of Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. He hits all the right notes at the right moments, and is just a massive delight to watch. It's a shame he doesn't get as much screen time as his fellow thespians, though - his character is deliciously evil and hilarious.
Okay, review's over. Get off your lazy ass and go to the nearest theater that's showing Django Unchained. Veet, veet!
Rating: 105/100 (it broke the rating scale)
Set in 1858, Django Unchained follows ex-slave Django (Jamie Foxx) and dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) as they attempt to track down a trio of prime targets. That is not the main plot. The main plot is their quest to buy back Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from her owner, plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) - a task easier said than done. Tarantino's hallmarks of a strong story, excellent dialogue, and spot-on casting are all evident from the get-go. With Samuel L. Jackson co-starring, and Jonah Hill, Robert Carradine, Tarantino himself, and even Franco Nero (who starred in the mostly-unrelated 1966 spaghetti western Django) all making appearances, the film has everything going for it - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the most notable things about this film is, as with all Tarantino films, the dialogue - it's eloquent, profane (although not as much as Tarantino's other films), and downright hilarious (the scene with the trackers, including Carradine and Hill, gets more laughs than many comedies have in their duration). The blood is red, and spurts out from wounds as if real squibs (as in, honest-to-God squibs using dynamite, like in the days of The Wild Bunch) were used, and not that crappy CGI blood seen in some more recent films.
Another thing I really liked about this film is Samuel L. Jackson. Now, I'm a pretty big Jackson fan, but his performance here is just something else. It reminds me heavily of Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. He hits all the right notes at the right moments, and is just a massive delight to watch. It's a shame he doesn't get as much screen time as his fellow thespians, though - his character is deliciously evil and hilarious.
Okay, review's over. Get off your lazy ass and go to the nearest theater that's showing Django Unchained. Veet, veet!
Rating: 105/100 (it broke the rating scale)
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