Primal Fear (1996)

This 1996 film, directed by Gregory Hoblit, is about the defense of an alleged murderer and the trial he and his defense attorney face. The defendant, Aaron Stampler, is played by Edward Norton (in his stunning debut). His lawyer is Martin Vain, played by Richard Gere. Also included in this film, written by Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman (based on the book by William Diehl), are Laura Linney, as the prosecutor Janet Venable, and Frances McDormand, as psychiatrist Dr. Molly Arrington. And while all of these performances, as well as the writing, are strong, they are brought down by several filmmaking quirks and bad choices.

Norton and Gere are the standouts in this film as they bounce off of each other very well. You can sense a relationship developing between them that assists in twisting the story in the right direction. Gere truly believes the innocence of all of his clients and goes above and beyond for them. Whenever he thinks he's being lied to or misled, he's very quick to take it personally and remind his clients what is at risk.

Norton goes deep into character as the alleged killer. He plays Aaron as a scared man who has just kind of whirl winded himself into the worst possible situation. He's been accused of murdering a priest, a man who had saved his life, and his only life-lines are Gere and McDormand.

The problem with the film is it is shot as a film. What I mean is there are some unnecessary camera angles and music cues. This isn't a frequent problem, but a critical one, as these things happen during critical moments of the film (thankfully not the most critical moments).

As a Law & Order devotee, seeing what can basically be considered long-form episodes,
with a lot of leash to breathe and potentially demand more from viewers, is a lot of fun

Copyright 1996 Paramount Pictures

Other than that there is still the story. The time spent leading up to the trial is very well done as you try to piece together what has happened yourself. There are ideas of conspiracy and unethical business practices to take into account, and it ties into the murder itself very nicely and seamlessly. This is the prime reason the film will keep you guessing because you will doubt yourself repeatedly, and I loved that about this film. 

And I'm very upset that I have to give the VHS back to the library-- two days late. 

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Family Guy: "Forget-Me-Not" (2012)

Family Guy has been in a decline for the last couple of years. The problem is that for every original or surprisingly intelligent joke, there are several instances of them going back to the recycle bin in the worst possible way. Those ways are, at the very least, animating blood because the writers think innocent dead things are funny, and the increasing stupidity of Chris and Peter. This episode featured a mix of the good and the bad, as Peter, Joe, Quagmire, and Brian wake up, with amnesia, in a deserted Quahog.

The stupidest thing about this show right now is the plot holes because even for a show like Family Guy there is a limit to how dumb is too dumb, such as the gang not figuring out who they based on reading tweets, and no one figuring out that Peter's newspaper picture was a prop. In real life, or a better cartoon, these issues wouldn't have even been issues.

The other problem is the lack of character development. Is it wrong to want character development from a show like this? I remember the episode after Peter said he would cut back on drinking, he came out of the Clam hammered, it's ridiculous. This time we get what should be something of an important moment between Peter and Brian, but next week I'm sure Peter will kick Brian's ass in a non-cutaway. It's just a problem the writers and producers should worry about if they want to attempt to hit the 500+ episodes of "The Simpsons," or just not make people angry they decided to watch Fox on Sunday.

What didn't save this episode, but helped, was the fact that a lot of the jokes were good this week. My favorites were the return of "Surfin' Bird" and "Who Else but Quagmire," the tour of Quagmire's house, and Joe thinking he's a stripper. Other great jokes were Stewie's cutaway about the girl's best friend and the final moments of the episode after the amnesia is explained.

In all, this episode is at least worth re-watching if you can ignore the worst of what Family Guy has become. The whole series isn't terrible yet, and hopefully, before it's booed off the air, things can magically turn around for the series.

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The League and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (2011)

The FX Network is known for the slogan "FX has the movies." Well, if FX just ran their original shows, I'd be happy enough because tonight was great.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Always Sunny episode "Thunder Gun Express" was all about the gang trying to make the showtime of a new movie called Thunder Gun. Unfortunately, they are caught in a traffic jam and must go their separate ways to get there. Dennis gets left with the car, Charlie and Dee take advantage of Charlie's knowledge of the sewers, Mac attempts to use a motorcycle, and Frank steals a tour boat full of tourists.
Each segment is full of great moments, but I'd have to say my favorites were Frank telling tourists about some of the adventures he and the gang have been on (all from past episodes), Charlie's use of Thunder Gun as a verb, and the realization that Dennis is absolutely a sick man. I just have to expand on that for another minute. Dennis does have limits (no one under 18), but that's it. He is still clearly a rapist in nearly every sense of the word, except, strangely, the word itself. It just seems a little too far for comedy sometimes. In the end, the gang naturally gets screwed. What's surprising is how, and I didn't really catch it until I re-watched the episode. If you're looking for an episode that parodies 24, without actually parodying it, watch "Thunder Gun Express."

The League
Now, I don't watch The League a lot, but I should. When it's on, I'll keep it on, and I have a firm enough grasp on the characters, definitely better than my grasp of football (outside of The Jets). In this episode, "The Out of Towner," the league decides to attend a cocktail party hosted by Andre, to welcome back one of their friends Chuck, Will Forte, who has recently decided to lead a life of sobriety. Before the day of the party Jenny and Kevin decide to spend the night in to get baked, Ruxin pulls his hamstring, and Taco faces eviction. All of these stories mesh perfectly and cause a lot of laughs in the process. My favorite moments include Ruxin stealing Andre's prescription pad to get stoned, and then acting as Taco's lawyer to handle his oncoming eviction. The only problem with the episode was I had to watch it twice because there were a lot of details I seemed to have missed the first time around. I think that's due to not watching this show a lot, but I won't be making that mistake again.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and The League are on FX at 10:00 and 10:30, respectively, on the east coast.

Update: And now with widespread streaming, they shouldn't be too hard to find. Try Hulu, to start.

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Pulp Fiction (1994)

I almost bought Pulp Fiction this week. I have one space left on my shelf, and I'm trying to keep it reserved for 50/50, but it's a tough thing to do. I lucked out though, I found Pulp Fiction on a premium channel. I made sure I wouldn't miss my first real chance to see it, and it was great.

Pulp Fiction follows the stories of several different people over about 2-3 days, and it's about all the unfortunate situations these people find themselves in. Characters are played by an ensemble cast featuring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Quentin Tarantino, and Peter Greene. And everyone here is just fighting to survive in a world full of underworld type activities: fixed fights, drugs, sadism, and lots of killing. Pulp Fiction is told in a, according to my father, "disjointed" fashion. I think it works, he doesn't, but that's just a difference of opinion. The dialogue and cinematography are really where this movie shine.

One of my favorite exchanges in the movie is an early one. Travolta and Jackson are making small talk about drugs and television, and it's small stuff I found pretty interesting by itself. Then the dialogue just smoothly transitions into the story and other characters. I'm just as interested then as I was a few minutes ago, maybe more, and it's one of those things that carries me through the 150 minutes of the film. The dialogue in this film never disappoints, but it's only being captured because the camera is never in the wrong place.

I remember reading once that one team of writers/directors will storyboard their entire film first, even if it's live-action. I can definitely see Tarantino doing this. Every shot was amazing, every camera technique well used, and it makes the film that much better. This leads to wonderfully shot death scenes, and that's another issue for me. I'm guessing Pulp Fiction pushed the R-Rating at the time of its release, and I know it pushed my limits as far as tension. I just want to say that you should know what you're getting yourself into and keep children as far away as possible. This movie would scare a kid the same way Freddy Kruger or Jack Nicholson would, and I mean Nicholson in a horror movie or just walking around town because he's a scary guy.

Beyond all that Pulp Fiction seems to be the ultimate blend of a mainstream and cult film, and I can't wait to see it again.

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Super 8 (2011)

I had a tiny realization tonight. I haven't done anything on the films of this summer. That's amazing to me because this season is like a four-month-long Christmas thanks to all of the movies I see in theaters every year. The last thing I saw in theaters is Super 8, and it was actually the second time I've seen it. It's still great. 

Super 8 tells the story of a group of young teens making a movie, using an old"Super 8" camera, to compete in a local film festival. While filming, these kids witness a devastating, and amazingly shot, train crash. Less than a day after the crash, weird things start happening in the town (Lillian, Ohio). Dogs are escaping in every direction, cars are being salvaged for parts, and the electricity is going out every once in a while. What unfolds is a mystery until the very end. 

To some viewers, all of this, at times, is just the background to the character-driven story of two of the kids. Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) has recently lost his mother. He, and his father, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler), are still coping. They have lost any real connection they may have had with each other.   While filming the movie, Joe meets Alice Dainard, who is not so different from himself. The cast is filled out with Alice and Joe's friends and fellow filmmakers. All of these kids are given at least one major moment, but even when they're not doing anything important, they are still enjoyable to watch with the rest of the cast. 

 

A little lens flare never hurt anyone | Copyright 2011 Paramount Pictures

This film's viral campaign is dependent on not revealing much more of what happens. The trailers for this film were amazing; they gave away nothing and kept me very interested, months before the movie's release. J.J Abrams and Spielberg work great together, and it makes me wish I saw Star Trek, Close Encounters, and other features by each of them. To some, that's the problem. The bare-bones plot of this movie is like E.T, and a lot of people say this movie is too much like it and other Spielberg movies I actually haven't seen. But, I still wouldn't have cared about that, even if I saw the other Spielberg films. This film is just great, it has great acting, directing, writing. It has tension, mystery, suspense, romance, humor.

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(500) Days of Summer (2009)

From When Harry Met Sally... to (500) Days of Summer, I seem to be finding the best romantic comedies. Just as a side-note The Breakup wasn't terrible either, but I don't feel like writing about it. Over 20 years between the two movies, and countless terrible movies between them, it shows that the genre isn't dead. Romantic Comedies just need two things: the courage to go off-formula and good performances.

(500) Days of Summer shows the turbulent relationship between Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) from when they meet until their relationship ends. In case you're wondering, I did not spoil the ending. Most people know, or figure out, going into the film that it ends that way. This hour and a half is all about seeing how it all happens from day one to 500, skipping a few days here and there, and backtracking every once in a while.

  

The most interesting aspect of the film is the backtracking and non-linear storyline. Almost every day is labeled before the scene and you can tell if it's going to be a good day or bad day. The movie will shift from a good day (when the movie is very funny) to a bad day (when the movie is still very interesting), and back, as a way to see the relationship deteriorates. The one problem with this is you can lose track of which day you're currently watching. It doesn't cause a lot of problems with the progress of the movie, but it can take you out of it once or twice. That's not the only thing interesting to this film, it loves to utilize a great narrator (Richard McGonagle) and split-screen to great effect.
  

The performances by the cast are phenomenal, and one thing I'm wondering about the filming is did they film the good days and bad days separately? I need to single out Gordon-Levitt. Tom is the major character of the movie. We almost only see his point of view on the ups and downs of the relationship, so I feel he had to bring a little more to each scene. One major member of the supporting cast, that stood out to me, is Chloë Moretz in a pre-Kick Ass role. She plays Tom's sister Rachel and seems to be the only person that can get through to him in times of crisis. Marc Webb directed this film amazingly, and I now have some real hope for the new Spider-Man movie. 

Update: Webb's Spider-Man movies ended up becoming one of my personal favorites, for better or worse.

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When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

I had wanted to watch this film for a long time. I've been slowly getting into Billy Crystal films, starting with Monsters Inc., and watched one pretty good Meg Ryan movie, You've Got Mail. I have watched almost all of the film in pieces on cable, but I finally found the whole thing on Netflix. I'm glad I finally got a chance to watch a romantic comedy that makes me, as a guy, not want to puke. On the opposite side of that, this is a movie that girls will fall in love with; no gross humor or "unnecessary," to some girls, vulgarity.

The story starts with these two taking an eighteen-hour trip with each other from Chicago to New York City. During the trip, they develop initially rocky chemistry by discussing how men and women can't be just friends because sex gets in the way. This is Harry's belief, and my belief, but not Sally's belief. After the trip they go they're separate ways, only to meet up again five years later, and then meet up again another five years later. This third time they become friends, just friends, and this friendship is explored. Between the ten years, a lot has happened to both of them, and it becomes a contributing factor to the dynamics of their friendship.

When Harry Met Sally's greatest strength is its dialogue and performances. Each line is perfectly sentimental, sharp, or sweet when it needs to be, and none of it feels forced or out of place. The other great thing about this film is it's the format. While we see Harry and Sally explore their relationship we are treated to video interviews of couples talking about their first meetings and relationships.

The film is a joint effort from Nora Ephron (writer) and Rob Reiner (director), and they do great work with Crystal, Ryan, and a great supporting cast that includes Carrie Fisher, as Sally's friend Marie, and Bruno Kirby, as Harry's friend Jess.

I highly recommend this movie to anybody over the age of sixteen. I say that because it's rated "R" for a damn good, funny, reason. Those who know why would agree with me, and those who don't are probably going to be very shocked if they watch this movie with their parents or partner.

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