Ladder 49

Ladder 49 (2004)How is that possible? I watched a movie less than a year ago and all I can remember is that I watched it. And I haven’t blogged about it. And it is about the only movie about firefighters that I’ve seen in my life. And both Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta are in it, so it must have been pretty hard to forget. I guess my memory plays tricks on me. Fixing the holes, I rewatched “Ladder 49

Directed by: Jay Russell
Genres: Action, Drama, Thriller
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, Jacinda Barrett, Robert Patrick, Morris Chestnut, Billy Burke, Balthazar Getty, Tim Guinee, Kevin Chapman, Jay Hernandez, Kevin Daniels, Steve Maye, Robert Lewis, Brooke Hamlin, Spencer Berglund
IMDB raintg: 6.6
My rating: 6.5 [rate 6.5]

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Zatôichi

Zatôichi (2003)Trying to shorten my list of movies to see, I decided to watch “Zatôichi“.

Directed by: Takeshi Kitano
Genres: Action, Drama, Crime, Comedy
Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Ookusu, Gadarukanaru Taka, Daigorô Tachibana, Yuuko Daike, Yui Natsukawa, Ittoku Kishibe, Saburo Ishikura, Akira Emoto, Ben Hiura, Kohji Miura, Hideboh, Ron II, Suji
IMDB raintg: 7.7
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

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Constantine

Constantine (2005)Catching up on the hyped up movies, I’ve watched “Constantine“.

Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou, Max Baker, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Gavin Rossdale, Tilda Swinton, Peter Stormare, Jesse Ramirez, José Zúñiga, Francis Guinan, Larry Cedar, April Grace, Suzanne Whang
IMDB raintg: 6.4
My rating: 6.0 [rate 6.0]

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Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)Napoleon Dynamite” had a catchy title and a good 7.1 rating at IMDB, so I watched it while it was at hand.

Directed by: Jared Hess
Genres: Comedy
Cast: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Diedrich Bader, Tina Majorino, Sandy Martin, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, Shondrella Avery, Bracken Johnson, Carmen Brady, Ellen Dubin, J.C. Cunningham, James Smooth
IMDB raintg: 7.1
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

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Cradle Will Rock

Noone in the shop could tell me anything about “Cradle Will Rock“. I couldn’t remember any trailers or posters either. The list of names on the DVD cover looked impressive, so I rented it.

Directed by: Tim Robbins
Genres: Drama
Cast: Hank Azaria, Rubén Blades, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Philip Baker Hall, Cherry Jones, Angus Macfadyen, Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Jamey Sheridan, John Turturro, Emily Watson, Bob Balaban
IMDB raintg: 6.8
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

I wasn’t wrong. The film turned out to be excellent.

I’ve seen several films that show theatrical play in development. As far as I remember, I liked all of them. I don’t know why. Maybe it is a theatre lover inside of me. Or maybe because theatre demands more acting and directing talent attention.

“Cradle Will Rock” is an original movie. It mixes the theatrical play development with pre-Second World War political tension and adds a lot of personal drama to the mix.

With all of that, it is a little bit difficult to follow in the first half of the film. Things get developed slowly and it is not always easy to make sense what is what and why is it there. Excellent casting helps the situation a lot. Actors deliver that personal touch that makes the film interesting to watch even without making much sense.

Towards the second half of the film situation changes. I could suddenly make sense of everything that was happening. All those many characters became clear to me. All story lines started to merge. The more they merged, the more I was sucked into the film. It was an amazing feeling.

Another good side of the film was that it was ver positive. Surely, it touched upon some ugly issues of life in society, but it never lost its huge positive charge. Happy ending was expected from within the first few minutes of the film.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. I can’t recommend this film to everyone out there as it is not a simple and easy going one like most of the Hollywood crap these days. But if you are in the mood for a good film, make sure you watch this one.