J.T. Walsh

A Few Good Men

“A Few Good Men” is the film that I’ve seen many times, but never blogged about it. Therefor I could never remembered what it was about and had to refresh my memory with yet another watching.

Directed by: Rob Reiner
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, James Marshall, J.T. Walsh, Christopher Guest, J.A. Preston, Matt Craven, Wolfgang Bodison, Xander Berkeley, John M. Jackson, Noah Wyle
IMDB raintg: 7.5
My rating: 7.0 [rate 7.0]

This is one of those predictable Hollywood movies that nicely mixes together law and courtroom them with military and adds a personal drama. The film would have been lost on the shelves of history if it wasn’t for the exceptional cast.

Almost every face in the film is familiar. Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, J.T.Walsh, Noah Wyle… the list goes on. Even Cuba Goodings Jr. appears in a short cameo. These are the people who delivered excellent performance and not only saved the film but made it very capturing. Yes, even Tom Cruise was good. And you don’t here me saying this that often.

Sling Blade

“Sling Blade“. With this kind of title, R rating, and Billy Bob Thornton being in it, I was expecting a really nice action. I guess I didn’t check the genre beforehand.

Directed by: Billy Bob Thornton
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton, Robert Duvall, Rick Dial, Brent Briscoe, Christy Ward, Sarah Boss, Kathy Sue Brown, Wendell Rafferty, Bruce Hampton
IMDB raintg: 8.0
My rating: 8.0 [rate 8.0]

But the film was real good non-the-less. It is one of those films that can be easily spoiled by a trailer or a plot outline. A guy who killed his own mother is released from the mental hospital after spending most of his life in it. He is out in the open. And he is Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah.

Another spoiler? No problem. Not a single gun shot in the movie. He killed them all with the blade. One more? He called only one guy and that wasn’t on the screen. Because it’s not an action movie. In fact, I don’t even know why they put a thriller tag on it. It’s not.

It is an excellent drama. Interesting to note that Billy Bob Thornton wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and played the main role in it. And all of these were excellently done. It is indeed an excellent film with a great story and some really good acting. Particularly from Thornton.

This film could have been better with slighly more pace and a bit more work on the soundtrack. But that’s really nitpicking. The film is outstanding.

Sniper

“Sniper” was on TV. I must have seen it a thousand times by now, but I watched it again. There is something about this film that makes me watch it once in a while. Maybe I just enjoy everything about snipers. Maybe because there are not so many films about snipers. Maybe because of something else.

Anyway, the film is good, although it is about 11 years old by now. There is action. There is coolness. And there are, of course, snipers. There are no naked women, but who needs them when you’ve got marines in the jungle?

I’ll rate this film as 7 out of 10. A whole lot of points go the flying bullet which looked pretty impressive back in the last centure. So impressive, that even Matrix-makers noticed it. ;)