Taps (Harold becker, 1981) -- Military cadets take extreme measures to insure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.The biggest kick one can get nowadays from this movie is seeing very young versions of Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise, these last two were relative unknowns, and the same could almost be said about Hutton, except he had received the Oscar the previous year, when he was an unknown. Still, it's a great and believable performance by everyone involved and one of those movies I always wanted to watch again.
The point of watching this movie 30 years later is that perhaps in '81 it was made to generate sympathy for traditions and honor in light of the current materialism of society, yet I watch the movie now and feel nothing but pity for the characters, perhaps because of their narrow-sightendness as seeing the bigger picture of life. In this case the consequences of their actions caused a downward spiral chain of events that took an uncontrollable life of their own. Yet it's still amazing how the years have changed my understanding and perspective of movies such as this one. 7.5/10
Zatôichi (a.k.a.
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) (Takeshi Kitano, 2003) -- A blind masseur/swordsman comes to a town in control of warring gangs, and while bunking with a farming family, he meets two women with their own agenda.The story of a blind swordsman is very well known in Japanese movies, and Zatoichi itself is the perfect example; I was quite intrigued as to how Kitano would remake this classic, and the movie turned out to be very well done. Beautiful sceneries and amazing soundtrack bring it to life and the action sequences, despite the too-liquid animation for the blood, are greatly orchestrated. The greatest enemy of this movie is its plot, which remains too simplistic, but with many unexplained twists and turns in it, which make it a bt unsettling. There's also many flashbacks in the movie which were hard to determine if it was indeed a flashback or part of the "current" event. There's also a point of this movie being a somewhat musical event, and though at times it fitted greatly, moreso in the beginning scenes, towards the end it got a bit tedious, especially when the movie concluded and there was nothing else to tell, the ending seemed to never come because there was a 5-minute musical number playing along. In a movie with such a simplistic plot, which had already been dragging on for 2 hours, a musical number out of nowhere seemed, well, out of nowhere. 5.5/10
Ne le dis à Personne (a.k.a.
Tell No One) (Guillaume Canet, 2006) -- The pediatrician Alexandre Beck misses his beloved wife Margot Beck, who was brutally murdered eight years ago when he was the prime suspect. When two bodies are found near where the corpse of Margot was dumped, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes suspect again. The mystery increases when Alex receives an e-mail showing Margot older and alive. This is exactly how a thriller should be! Eught years after his wife is killed, he receives an email from her, showing her alive and well.
Running at 131 minutes, this is the sort of intricate and fast-paced movie I like, where even 10 minutes before teh end, despite so much having happened, you're not sure how it's going to end, and Guillaume Canet handles it excellently with a story that has you hooked from the beginning, and as the plot thickens more and more while the chatacter uncovers the truth, it gets much more interesting, making it breathtaking when it all opens. This movie had me at everything; a great script, well played cast (inclusing Kristin Scott Thomas), a strong and mesmerizing soundtrack, including Otis Redding, Jeff Buckley and U2, very stunning cinematography and the complexity of the subplots is enough to keep you further glued, yet not become too confusing or distracting. Definitely one of the most enjoyable and intelligent thrillers I've seen lately. 10/10
I'd give it 5 if it had a sense of humor.
