The Movie Journal

  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a beautiful, engaging feature which describes, in great detail, how greed can destroy and ravage a human soul. This is a film which has been replicated many times but never to the degree in which this film is, This classic was written and directed by John Huston, the main behind The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen and Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Huston’s own father, Walter Huston were the stars with the senior Huston winning an Oscar for his performance. This film is beautiful to look at with its gorgeous cinematography. The story itself paid off thanks to Huston’s meticulous research and his characters were three-dimensional. Huston generally worked at his best when bromances were created…or destroyed. We clearly see how gold can negatively affect a person’s life. How it can make a person paranoid to the highest degree, where he could trust absolutely no one. Where it could leave to...

  Raising Arizona (1987) In 1984, The Coen Brothers introduced themselves to the filmmaking world with their brilliant debut, Blood Simple . That film proved that the auteurs mastered the art of storytelling. Three years later, they released one of their career-best (out of many career-best, lots of subjectivity) films, Raising Arizona . This little gem proved that they mastered the art of dialogue. Sure, everyone has weird accents but that does not change the fact that the screenplay, also written by the Coen’s, is gold. This movie is the very beginning of their particular style of word usage that will come to define them over the next several decades. I know many old-school critics felt the film was shallow or were surprised at what they saw, but many consider this one of their best films. It is hilarious, has characters you will never forget, a fantastic screenplay, a wonderful score, great cinematography, and just that sense of weirdness you will come to love. It feels like one...

  Tin Men (1987) Barry Levinson’s Tin Men is not a particularly good movie. It is also not a particularly awful movie. It is just a bland film with some amusing moments and attempted humor. Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito are reliable as always, but even their combined power cannot completely save a dull, contrived script from Levinson. Fortunately, Levinson had a much better film that came out in 1987. I was a little surprised about the good reviews the movie received. Maybe I harbor some ugly hatred towards salespeople? Who really knows. The real fault lies in Levinson’s script. It is a talky, rather bland movie about two con men at war against one another. Starting with Diner , Levinson created a series of films in the 80’s and 90’s that tell the stories of everyday folks in Baltimore. “The Baltimore quadrology” Mr. Levinson called it. Interestingly enough, this is the only one out of the four films I have seen to this point. My interest is piqued enough where I want to see ...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 13 "Blaine's World" June 09, 2015 Spoilers Ahead! “Blaine’s World” is a spectacular, action-packed finale to iZombie’s first season. Some questions have been answered, but even more questions are raised and shall be discussed within the second season. The episode allows both Major and Blaine to shine before the explosion that Lieutenant Suzuki set off at the Meat Cute. We almost got a happy ending for Liv and company…but poor Evan being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the explosion. Her curse as a zombie came back to haunt her because she could not give out O-blood for obvious reasons. Really sad. But interesting storylines will be abound next season now that Blaine might have been cured from zombieism and Major is a zombie! Also, Major has some weaponry skills despite not being in control of any guns or weapons for long. Hmmmmmm. In this finale, it starts off like any old episode. It involves the Super Max drink at Max Rag...

  Angel Heart (1987) Alan Parker’s Angel Heart is a weird, creepy psychological thriller. This is my second time viewing this picture. The first time, I did not really think much of it and found it rather dull. I was young at the time and didn’t know what to expect. Years later, I do appreciate the movie just a little more. I found the pacing to be trying at certain points, but an interesting story and exemplary performances from Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro kept me captivated enough. The film did not get much love upon initial release, but it did gain a cult following as the years went on. This film reminded me of an old noir but with a supernatural twist added. It certainly had the grimy atmosphere, the slimy characters, and the mysterious settings we associate with this genre. The film’s ending is often talked about. It received mixed reactions, but I was satisfied with the ending as the movie went deep into supernatural territory. The film was directed by Alan Parker who ...

  Lethal Weapon (1987) Lethal Weapon is often considered to be one of the greatest buddy cop films of all time. It is an assessment I would not disagree with. It spawned three legitimate sequels and a decent television reboot. Some say Beverly Hills Cop started this type of movie, but most agree that this hardwired action extravaganza began the boom of action-packed cop films that dominated the 1980’s and the 1990’s. This film is absolutely bonkers…in a good way. Director Richard Donner sends one action sequence after another and he does not dare step on the brakes. That could have been boring, yet Donner made us care about the two polar opposite characters; homebody Roger Murtagh and wild Martin Riggs. The chemistry between the two characters is unlike anything you would ever see. The comedy and even the action work because of this duo. The idea of this movie was generated from Shane Black. A recent college graduate, Black wanted to create a “modern Western” and was inspired by ...

  Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) 1987’s Some Kind of Wonderful is pure, golden John Hughes. It is yet another story focused in a high-school setting that delivers a message about the pains of growing up. If the plot sounds recycled (and it basically is), Hughes once again elevates a standard coming-of-age story thanks to his empathetic screenplay that developed realistic, three-dimensional characters. This film is not exactly about if the hero of the story gets the woman of his dreams, but rather it asks the question, should he get the girl of his dreams. And once again, I am amazed how accurate Hughes is able to grasp high-school life especially in areas concerning relationships. If the plot of this movie sounds familiar, I bet you are thinking about 1986’s Pretty in Pink which was another working collaboration between producer/writer Hughes and director Howard Deutch. While I thought that particular movie was your fun, typical Hughes drama, the film made headlines because of its...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 12 "Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat" June 02, 2015 Spoiler Alert! And y’all thought that Major would be the first one to discover Liv’s secret! Good job, iZombie ! In “Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat,” someone outside of Ravi and Blaine knows who Liv really is and that person is…Peyton Charles, her roommate. The episode does an amazing job building up for the emotional reveal and its immediate aftermath. Even though Peyton, since she is a recurring character, did not have much to do this season, she was a major part of this episode. She is a genuinely kind person who wants her friend Liv to be okay and is worn down from Liv’s ever-changing personalities and mood swings (brains, duh!). We learned more about their friendship as Liz took on stoner and cheerleader brains. That said, this particular episode was more scary than funny. I loved the I Know What You Did Last Summer references. In this episode, Liz has to deal with Seba...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 11 "Astroburger"  May 26, 2015 In some ways, “Astroburger” was a really funny episode. In other ways, it was also an incredibly painful episode, especially in terms of Liv and Major. As a zombie, Liv has eaten brains from different personalities. This episode, however, gave her a troubling persona and that happens to be paranoia and delusion. Some fun came out of the brain such as the crass Cheeto flame devil coming to life, although I felt like it might have been a tad overdone. However, she spent the episode becoming closer to Major and decided to tell him her secret…but that ended up as a hallucination. I felt so awful for Liz especially now that Liz is aware of Major’s knowledge that zombies exist. Yeah, I do not think their cuddly make-up will last long. In this episode, Major decides to check himself out of rehab. He gets tied into the case of the week when Scott E, the person who told Major about zombies, apparently committed suicide. His...

  King Kong (1933) If you are someone who loves movies, you can easily answer this question. Do you like horrifying and adventurous creature movies like Alien or Jurassic Park ? Are you in awe when mind-blowing special effects take over the screen and make these creatures realistic and horrifying as possible? If you (most likely) answered yes to any of these questions, then you have 1933’s spectacle King Kong to watch. Despite my lifelong passion for cinema, this is the first time I have ever seen the film. I am familiar with the story because I saw Peter Jackson’s remake, but it was about time that I became familiar with this movie. I felt like a kid again. I watched the battle scenes with such intensity. I became invested, once more, into the Kong character. He is more than just the big, bad monster. I sympathized with his plight. I felt these array of emotions even after thinking how outdated the special effects are. Sometimes, I could not help but giggle watching Kong. But in 1...