Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Yet again another very long break from movies. But this time I’ve got a backlog of good films (read: highly recommended by people, who’s opinions I respect) to watch. So, I started off with “The Weather Man“.

Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Peña, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Rispoli, Gil Bellows, Judith McConnell, Chris Marrs, Dina Facklis, DeAnna N.J. Brooks, Sia A. Moody, Guy Van Swearingen, Alejandro Pina, Jackson Bubala
IMDB raintg: 7.2
My rating: 8.0

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Vladimir remind me today that I wanted to see “The Italian Job” - the original version from 1969. After work I rushed to Martin’s DVD club and luckily he had one for me.

Directed by: Peter Collinson
Genres: Action, Comedy, Crime
Cast: Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, Fred Emney, John Clive, Graham Payn, Michael Standing, Stanley Caine, Barry Cox
IMDB raintg: 7.3
My rating: 7.0

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I watched “Miss Congeniality” when it was in the movies, but I couldn’t remember a thing except that it had Sandra Bullock in it. I heard that the sequel also came out, so I decided to watch both movies together and see if I was missing anything.

Directed by: Donald Petrie
Genres: Comedy, Thriller
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine, Benjamin Bratt, Candice Bergen, Ernie Hudson, William Shatner, John DiResta, Heather Burns, Melissa De Sousa, Steve Monroe, Deirdre Quinn, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Asia De Marcos, Ken Thomas, Gabriel Folse
IMDB raintg: 6.2
My rating: 4.0

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Since I’ve been choosing a lot of average movies to watch lately, I decided to get something that I saw already, that I knew is good, and that I wouldn’t mind too much watching again. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” was a perfect match.

Directed by: Frank Oz
Genres: Comedy, Crime
Cast: Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, Barbara Harris, Ian McDiarmid, Dana Ivey, Meagen Fay, Frances Conroy, Nicole Calfan, Aïna Walle, Cheryl Pay, Nathalie Auffret, Lolly Susi, Rupert Holliday-Evans
IMDB raintg: 6.9
My rating: 7.3

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Watched an interesting film - “Statement” - on DVD. This one is about exciting current days life of those who used to help Nazi during the World War II. Probably not all of them, but surely some of them had all the fun, pictured in the movie. Imagine yourself being wanted by police for crime against humanities, hunted down for execution by some extremist groups (not in the movie, but nicely mentioned), looked for by relatives of your victims, and searched for by your ex-comrades who are afraid that you will let all the secrets out. Now that is some fun!

It is nice to see a European film once in a while, especially when it has to do with Europe and World War II. Somehow American movies are slightly of the ranks for me. Good story, excellent photography, and good acting by Michael Caine all make me give this movie a …

… 7 out of 10.