Sunday, April 13, 2008

Movie 22 of 2008: Donny Brasco




Movie Description:

In the late 1970s, FBI agent Joe Pistone (Depp) is assigned to infiltrate a New York City mafia family. Calling himself Donnie Brasco, and posing as a diamond expert, he befriends Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a low-level mob hit man whose personal life is in tatters, and Dominick Napolitano (Michael Madsen). Lefty can't seem to make any money, his son is a junkie, and he is continually passed over for promotion to a higher position within the Family. He continually reminds Brasco of his growing disillusionment about having spent 30 years in the mafia (and killing 26 people), with little to show for it. In Donnie, however, Lefty sees a young protégé who might be able to succeed where he had failed. He takes Donnie under his wing, and under Lefty's tutelage Donnie quickly becomes accepted by the other Family members, although he is never elevated above the rank of "associate" member (the lowest mafia rank). But the longer Pistone plays the role of a gangster, the more he finds himself actually becoming Donnie Brasco during his rare off duty hours. His change in personality drives a wedge between him and his wife (played by Anne Heche) and three children. Over time, Pistone comes to realize that the slightest mistake in his performance as a mobster could result in the death of him and his family. In addition, Joe Pistone has come to regard Lefty as a close and trusted friend. He knows that when the day finally comes that the FBI arrests his mob associates, he will be ending Lefty's life as surely as if he himself had killed him.

Movie Trailer:







My Opinion
:

This was one of the few Johnny Depp movies I hadn't seen yet, but I now have. It's definitely not one of my fave Depp movies, but I did enjoy it. Al Pacino is also a fabulous actor (especially in THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE) so that helped make the movie a winner as well. I'll probably re-watch this one someday though as I was kinda drifting in and out towards the end.

Movie 21 of 2008: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street



Movie Description:

Sweeney Todd is a villain/anti-hero appearing in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century as a barber and an early example of a serial killer. His weapon is a cut-throat razor (or "straight razor" in American English), with which he slits his victims' throats. In some versions of the story, Mrs. Lovett, who is his partner in crime and variously his friend or lover (and whose first name is variously Marjorie, Sarah, Nellie, Shirley or Claudette) hides the crimes by butchering the corpses of Todd's victims, baking their flesh into meat pies, and selling them to unknowing customers. His wife, Lucy Barker, is a woman so contested that it caused him to be exiled for life and fuel his vengeance. He is also assisted by an unwitting apprentice lad named Tobias Ragg, who later aids in unmasking his crimes. In most recent versions of the story, Sweeney either helps or hinders (sometimes both) the love affair of a young woman, Johanna Barker, and a sailor named Mark Ingesterie or more commonly known as Anthony Hope. In the musical stage production and 2007 film, Johanna is Todd's daughter Johanna Barker.

Movie Trailer:








My Opinion:

This was actually my 2nd viewing of this movie as I originally saw this at the theater back in December the week it came out. I enjoyed this movie a lot! Granted... I'm a bit biased as I'm a fairly huge fan of both Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and when they work together on a film the outcome is always amazing! The songs in this movie are fabulous and I ended up ordering the soundtrack the day after I saw this movie the first time. I don't know if I should've laughed so much during this movie considering the theme, but I found several things about the movie to be quite amusing... even the way the blood splattered. LOL!!! Maybe I'm a bit sick & twisted... who knows!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Movie 20 of 2008: L.A. Confidential



Movie Description:

L.A. Confidential is a 1997 feature film based on the 1990 crime fiction novel of the same title by James Ellroy, the third in his L.A. Quartet novel cycle. Both book and film tell the story about a group of Los Angeles police in the 1950s, and police corruption bumping up against Hollywood celebrity. The film adaptation was produced and directed by Curtis Hanson and co-written by Brian Helgeland and Hanson. At the time, both Australian actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were relative unknowns in North America and one of the film’s backers, Arnon Milchan was worried about the lack of movie stars in the lead roles. However, he supported Hanson’s casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey. When Hanson gave Spacey the script, he told him to think of Dean Martin while in the role.

Movie Trailer:







My Opinion:

I honestly didn’t focus on this movie as much as I probably should’ve when watching it so I can’t give a full opinion of this. I did enjoy it, but I didn’t keep up with the movie enough to get a true idea of what all happened in it. LOL!!! Maybe I’ll watch it again one day.