Celluloid Heroes

We first meet Arden (Toni Collette) in the opening section, titled simply The Stranger, as she struggles to care for her abusive mother in what appears to be a rather run-down home. As Arden takes a walk, she comes across something rather unexpected in the field - the body of a young woman. For reasons known only to her, she takes the necklace the girl is wearing, and on returning home, she calls the police.

For a completely unexplained reason - perhaps because her mother wants to continue abusing her all by her lonesome - when she finds out that the police have come, Arden's mother is furious with her. I'm not sure exactly what Arden was supposed to do. Perhaps she should have just left the body in the field to rot and continue to be abused by her mother. I don't think it was really explained, and we are just left to figure out why her mother is so hateful. Maybe you can explain it if you have seen it, but I certainly didn't get it.

In any case, this sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Read All of "The Dead Girl (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on May 19, 2007 in Drama

Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) may be the best trial lawyer you ever meet. He's never lost a case. So when he manages to win one where he just knows the guy is guilty, he attracts some unexpected attention.

He gets an invitation from a fancy New York City law firm to come up and visit, all expenses paid, to pick a jury. And what's more is that he gets to bring his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) along for the ride. It's too good to be true.

Read All of "The Devil's Advocate (1997) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on May 6, 2007 in Drama

The small African nation of Sierra Leone is situated next to Liberia, and while Liberia produces billions of dollars of diamonds annually, Sierra Leone produces virtually none. The reason for this, at least according to this movie, is that the diamonds within Sierra Leone are taken by rebel forces and then sold to fund their rebellion.

In the process, countless families are broken up, with the lucky ones killed off immediately, but many others left maimed, physically or emotionally (or in many cases both). The healthy men are used for mining these diamonds, while the youth can be taken to replenish the forces that are killed in the process of doing so. It's not a pretty sight.

Read All of "Blood Diamond (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 22, 2007 in Drama

As Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) arrives in the Amazon jungle, she is met by a number of natives, and the focus of her trip - Dr. Robert Campbell (Sean Connery).

It seems that Dr. Campbell has for some time been operating on his own, without following typical company procedure, such as filing progress reports, and now that his contact has retired, the duty of figuring out just what he is up to down here has fallen to her. She isn't exactly pleased. But then, neither is he.

Read All of "Medicine Man (1992) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 13, 2007 in Drama

Will Randall (the incomparable Jack Nicholson) is on his way home from a business trip when he strikes a wolf. Who would have thought? A wolf? In this day and age? But still, he hits a wolf. When he gets out to check it, it bites him. What is this world coming to?

Over the next few days, the bite starts to take hold of him, but it's not all bad - at least, not at first. The wolf seems to have imparted some of its qualities to Will, and he finds that his senses are sharper, and for the first time in a while, he feels more awake (though he had to sleep for twenty hours first). Then he can see without his glasses, hear every little thing that happens and his libido awakens with a vengeance. But that's just the start.

Read All of "Wolf (1994) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 10, 2007 in Drama

Edward Norton stars in this film, where he is billed only as The Narrator. We don't actually ever get to hear his name, which is interesting, but strangely, you don't find yourself missing out on that fact (or at least, I didn't).

When we meet him, he is simply a body in motion, moving through airports, living a life that most of us can associate with, finding some measure of satisfaction through filling out his apartment with items in the IKEA catalog, slowly making where he lives into a reflection of what you see on each page.

And then on one of these trips, he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). That's when everything changes.

Read All of "Fight Club (1999) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 30, 2007 in Drama

On January 20, 1960, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) arrived at Alcatraz to become prisoner #AZ1441. As with many other inmates of the prison, he was sent there because he had a tendency to escape other prisons, and Alcatraz was built to keep people from escaping.

However, according to most records, Morris almost immediately began planning his exit from The Rock. While it may or may not be completely true, on the arrival of two of his former associates, John and Clarence Anglin, Morris accelerated his plans, and on the night of June 11, 1962, they were gone, never to be heard from again.

The events surrounding the event are of course lost, so the details are dramatized for the movie. But that doesn't mean that it's not a good one to sit through.

Read All of "Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 18, 2007 in Drama

To say that Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and directed) is past his prime is putting it mildly. Adrian is gone - she passed a few years ago from "women's cancer", and now each year on her birthday Rocky visits sites where they shared a few special moments. We see her here only in Rocky's memories and in the name of Rocky's restaurant, Adrian's.

But when a television computer projects that Rocky in his prime could beat the current heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon, something in Rocky's "basement" (down in his gut) starts to stir. He wonders what it would be like to fight again. Nothing big, but just a few local fights. So he applies to get re-licensed.

When the papers pick up on it, Dixon's camp gets wind of it and decides it could be the payday that he's been waiting for all these years.

Read All of "Rocky Balboa (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 4, 2007 in Drama

On November 14, 1970, as the Marshall Thundering Herd was returning from a football game at East Carolina University, and the chartered plane they were on clipped the trees just short of the runway and crashed, killing 75 people aboard, including most of the football team, the coach, the athletic director, and a number of prominent boosters from Huntington, West Virginia.

Couping this with being kicked out of their conference the year before due to a massive number of rule violations (a fact not exactly mentioned in the movie), school president Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considers indefinitely suspending the football program at Marshall. Some students convince him otherwise.

Read All of "We Are Marshall (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 24, 2007 in Drama

Life is generally going well for Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford). He's been running the computer system at his bank for a while now, and it looks like things are on track for the merger to go through, meaning that the small 26-bank operation is about to become part of a much larger company.

The only bad part about that is that it means that he won't be a part of the day-to-day operations any longer. But it does mean that he can slow down and take some time with his family, and no one will be sad about that. It's too bad that some other people have other plans for him - and his family - before this can all go through.

It seems that Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) has decided to make a play for some of the bank's money, and he's targeted Jack in order to get at it. After all, why go directly to the money, when you can go after the man who protects the money instead?

Read All of "Firewall (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 10, 2007 in Drama

Anothony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) has joined the marines. He admits that this may not have been the best decision that he has ever made.

When he arrives for training, he witnesses another marine being branded, and before he can even get his equipment into his locker, they come after him. There's only so much that you can do when you've got a dozen guys on you, and they heat the torch and roll up his pants leg as the heated metal nears his body. He passes out.

When he wakes, there's no sign of a brand, and one of the other marines tells him that it's just something that they do to new recruits. You have to earn your brand. Scary.

Read All of "Jarhead (2005) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 3, 2007 in Drama

As Jack (Thomas Haden Church) approaches his wedding date, he has just one plan: To spend a week in wine country with his friend Miles (Paul Giamatti).

There they will, of course, drink wine. They will play golf. And there the plans diverge. That's about all that Miles has planned, except perhaps for a few good meals. But Jack also plans to make sure he has a few last rolls in the hay, to get it out of his system before he gets married. Miles probably wouldn't approve.

Read All of "Sideways (2004) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 3, 2007 in Drama

We first meet Arden (Toni Collette) in the opening section, titled simply The Stranger, as she struggles to care for her abusive mother in what appears to be a rather run-down home. As Arden takes a walk, she comes across something rather unexpected in the field - the body of a young woman. For reasons known only to her, she takes the necklace the girl is wearing, and on returning home, she calls the police.

For a completely unexplained reason - perhaps because her mother wants to continue abusing her all by her lonesome - when she finds out that the police have come, Arden's mother is furious with her. I'm not sure exactly what Arden was supposed to do. Perhaps she should have just left the body in the field to rot and continue to be abused by her mother. I don't think it was really explained, and we are just left to figure out why her mother is so hateful. Maybe you can explain it if you have seen it, but I certainly didn't get it.

In any case, this sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Read All of "The Dead Girl (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on May 19, 2007 in Drama

Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) may be the best trial lawyer you ever meet. He's never lost a case. So when he manages to win one where he just knows the guy is guilty, he attracts some unexpected attention.

He gets an invitation from a fancy New York City law firm to come up and visit, all expenses paid, to pick a jury. And what's more is that he gets to bring his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) along for the ride. It's too good to be true.

Read All of "The Devil's Advocate (1997) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on May 6, 2007 in Drama

The small African nation of Sierra Leone is situated next to Liberia, and while Liberia produces billions of dollars of diamonds annually, Sierra Leone produces virtually none. The reason for this, at least according to this movie, is that the diamonds within Sierra Leone are taken by rebel forces and then sold to fund their rebellion.

In the process, countless families are broken up, with the lucky ones killed off immediately, but many others left maimed, physically or emotionally (or in many cases both). The healthy men are used for mining these diamonds, while the youth can be taken to replenish the forces that are killed in the process of doing so. It's not a pretty sight.

Read All of "Blood Diamond (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 22, 2007 in Drama

As Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) arrives in the Amazon jungle, she is met by a number of natives, and the focus of her trip - Dr. Robert Campbell (Sean Connery).

It seems that Dr. Campbell has for some time been operating on his own, without following typical company procedure, such as filing progress reports, and now that his contact has retired, the duty of figuring out just what he is up to down here has fallen to her. She isn't exactly pleased. But then, neither is he.

Read All of "Medicine Man (1992) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 13, 2007 in Drama

Will Randall (the incomparable Jack Nicholson) is on his way home from a business trip when he strikes a wolf. Who would have thought? A wolf? In this day and age? But still, he hits a wolf. When he gets out to check it, it bites him. What is this world coming to?

Over the next few days, the bite starts to take hold of him, but it's not all bad - at least, not at first. The wolf seems to have imparted some of its qualities to Will, and he finds that his senses are sharper, and for the first time in a while, he feels more awake (though he had to sleep for twenty hours first). Then he can see without his glasses, hear every little thing that happens and his libido awakens with a vengeance. But that's just the start.

Read All of "Wolf (1994) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on April 10, 2007 in Drama

Edward Norton stars in this film, where he is billed only as The Narrator. We don't actually ever get to hear his name, which is interesting, but strangely, you don't find yourself missing out on that fact (or at least, I didn't).

When we meet him, he is simply a body in motion, moving through airports, living a life that most of us can associate with, finding some measure of satisfaction through filling out his apartment with items in the IKEA catalog, slowly making where he lives into a reflection of what you see on each page.

And then on one of these trips, he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). That's when everything changes.

Read All of "Fight Club (1999) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 30, 2007 in Drama

On January 20, 1960, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) arrived at Alcatraz to become prisoner #AZ1441. As with many other inmates of the prison, he was sent there because he had a tendency to escape other prisons, and Alcatraz was built to keep people from escaping.

However, according to most records, Morris almost immediately began planning his exit from The Rock. While it may or may not be completely true, on the arrival of two of his former associates, John and Clarence Anglin, Morris accelerated his plans, and on the night of June 11, 1962, they were gone, never to be heard from again.

The events surrounding the event are of course lost, so the details are dramatized for the movie. But that doesn't mean that it's not a good one to sit through.

Read All of "Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 18, 2007 in Drama

To say that Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and directed) is past his prime is putting it mildly. Adrian is gone - she passed a few years ago from "women's cancer", and now each year on her birthday Rocky visits sites where they shared a few special moments. We see her here only in Rocky's memories and in the name of Rocky's restaurant, Adrian's.

But when a television computer projects that Rocky in his prime could beat the current heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon, something in Rocky's "basement" (down in his gut) starts to stir. He wonders what it would be like to fight again. Nothing big, but just a few local fights. So he applies to get re-licensed.

When the papers pick up on it, Dixon's camp gets wind of it and decides it could be the payday that he's been waiting for all these years.

Read All of "Rocky Balboa (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on March 4, 2007 in Drama

On November 14, 1970, as the Marshall Thundering Herd was returning from a football game at East Carolina University, and the chartered plane they were on clipped the trees just short of the runway and crashed, killing 75 people aboard, including most of the football team, the coach, the athletic director, and a number of prominent boosters from Huntington, West Virginia.

Couping this with being kicked out of their conference the year before due to a massive number of rule violations (a fact not exactly mentioned in the movie), school president Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considers indefinitely suspending the football program at Marshall. Some students convince him otherwise.

Read All of "We Are Marshall (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 24, 2007 in Drama

Life is generally going well for Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford). He's been running the computer system at his bank for a while now, and it looks like things are on track for the merger to go through, meaning that the small 26-bank operation is about to become part of a much larger company.

The only bad part about that is that it means that he won't be a part of the day-to-day operations any longer. But it does mean that he can slow down and take some time with his family, and no one will be sad about that. It's too bad that some other people have other plans for him - and his family - before this can all go through.

It seems that Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) has decided to make a play for some of the bank's money, and he's targeted Jack in order to get at it. After all, why go directly to the money, when you can go after the man who protects the money instead?

Read All of "Firewall (2006) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 10, 2007 in Drama

Anothony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) has joined the marines. He admits that this may not have been the best decision that he has ever made.

When he arrives for training, he witnesses another marine being branded, and before he can even get his equipment into his locker, they come after him. There's only so much that you can do when you've got a dozen guys on you, and they heat the torch and roll up his pants leg as the heated metal nears his body. He passes out.

When he wakes, there's no sign of a brand, and one of the other marines tells him that it's just something that they do to new recruits. You have to earn your brand. Scary.

Read All of "Jarhead (2005) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 3, 2007 in Drama

As Jack (Thomas Haden Church) approaches his wedding date, he has just one plan: To spend a week in wine country with his friend Miles (Paul Giamatti).

There they will, of course, drink wine. They will play golf. And there the plans diverge. That's about all that Miles has planned, except perhaps for a few good meals. But Jack also plans to make sure he has a few last rolls in the hay, to get it out of his system before he gets married. Miles probably wouldn't approve.

Read All of "Sideways (2004) Review" »
Posted by Chad Everett on February 3, 2007 in Drama