Kill the Irishman

Based on a really interesting true story, Kill the Irishman stars Ray Stevenson as Danny Greene, an Irishman who rises to power in the mafia in Cleveland. The movie opens being set in the 1960's on the Cleveland waterfront. Tired of being bullied and overworked, Danny takes the necessary steps to help his union. This eventually leads him to bigger and better things, until eventually he's basically running the Cleveland mafia

Danny Greene's fate is obvious, and it's his murder and investigation that helped the Justice Department bring down the notorious mobster families in New York. Those cases were tried by future New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani.

In addition to Ray Stevenson, the movie stars Vincent D'Onofrio as Greene's closest ally. You'll remember D'Onofrio from his younger days when he played Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. Also starring in the moving is Christopher Walken as on of the mob connections in Cleveland who helps run money from New York, Val Kilmer as the Cleveland detective, Linda Cardellini as his first wife (remember her from Freaks and Geeks?), Tony Darrow, a real-life mobster who also starred in The Sopranos, Paul Sorvino, from Law and Order and he played a mobster in Goodfellas, and finally Laura Ramsey, the very attractive girlfriend of Danny Greene.

The movie was directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, but I read a review of the movie in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that humorously said 'had Danny Greene lived and operated in New York, he would have been a higher profile gangster and the movie would ultimately have been directed by Martin Scorsese and starred Robert de Niro.

Kill the Irishman is Rated R for strong violence (shootings and car bombs), language, and nudity (Laura Ramsey...gggrrrrr)

I really liked this movie. I'd have to say this is one of the better movies that I've seen this year. Had I realized that this movie was based on a true story prior to watching it, I probably would have enjoyed it even more. As it was, once the movie finished and those closing comments came on the screen, I thought, "Oh, crap! I didn't know that!"

Given what I know now and how much I liked this movie while watching it without the historical benefit, I give Kill the Irishman 4.5 stars.

Fair Game

Fair game is the movie based on the true story of Valerie Plame and her exposure as a CIA operative when her husband Joe Wilson admonishes the Bush Administration for going to war in Iraq under false pretenses. Ambassador Joe Wilson is played by Sean Penn. I swear I watched the entire movie thinking, "Is that Sean Penn?" If he only would have said, "Whoa, Mr. Hand!", then I would have known who it was. Valerie Plame is portrayed by Naomi Watts. The story is well-known, especially if you haven't been living under a rock for the past 10 years. Plame is doing undercover work and communicating with operatives in foreign rogue nations. Joe Wilson is in touch with the international community and knows what's going on. When the Bush Administration says that they know Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and are working on a nuclear bomb, he goes on the record on many talk shows dismissing this false rumor. Scooter Libby, the trusted Bush aide, exposes Plame as a secret operative in retaliation. Through government intimidation (White House and CIA), the family is pushed to the brink of what any family can tolerate. Also starring in the movie are David Andrews as Scooter Libby, Geoffrey Cantor as Ari Fleischer, James Rutledge and Andy Card, and Sam Shepard as Sam Plame. Fair Game is 108 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for some language. I was afraid that this movie would have super strong liberal overtones and be anti-Republican, but they did a good job of presenting the facts as they were and not trying to spin it in any way. The movie was a bit slow, but not too bad. Overall I enjoyed this averagely. I will give it 3 stars.

Julie & Julia

As stated at the beginning of the movie, Julie and Julia is about 2 true stories, put together in parallel.


Julie Powell, played by Amy Adams, is a customer service representative in post-9-11 New York City at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation who answers calls about victims and complaints about the new proposed tower.


Julia Child really needs no introduction. But if you lived under a Chia Pet your whole life, then Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep, is a famous chef that was on public television and taught the world to cook French foods with her unique voice and accident-prone style mannerisms.


In the movie, Julie needs some direction in life as she hates her job and her so-called friends, so her husband convinces her to do something, like blog about something she enjoys, like cooking. Julie then goes on to cook every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook in 1 year and blog about all of them.


Meanwhile, we follow Child's life in France with her husband who works for the American government. She went to a famous French cooking school, then began teaching cooking classes, and then collaborated with friends to write their own cookbook.


Meryl Streep was phenomenal in this role. Of all of the movies that I've seen her in, this is easily the best. She characterization of Julie Child was dead-on. The adorable Amy Adams, on the other hand, plays a bit of a whiny obsessed girl who can get a little bit annoying at times, but I always try to remember she's playing a character.


At one point in the movie Julie mentioned that they could make a book or a movie about her experiences. I immediately thought that would be a great idea, then I realized that I was watching that movie. Duh.


Streep was nominated for many Best Actress Awards, winning a Golden Globe for her performance, and the movie received a nomination from the Golden Globes for Best Picture.


Directed by Nora Ephron, no relation to teen idol Zac Efron, the movie also stars Stanley Tucci as Child's husband, and Chris Messina as Julie's husband. Julie and Julia is 2 hours long and is rated PG-13 for some potty language and some minor sexual imagery, though I think they threw that in there just to get the PG-13 rating. Otherwise, the movie was harmless.


I really enjoyed this movie and thought most of it was hysterical. Streep had me laughing all the time. And Amy Adams is always nice to look at. My only criticism is a couple of jabs at Republicans. One was deserved as it dealt with Joe McCarthy, who was a paranoid idiot. The other was totally unnecessary and even illogical. You'll see what I mean. Despite this, I give Julie and Julia 4 stars.

The Soloist

The Soloist is a true story about a Los Angeles Times reporter who discovers a mentally ill violinist named Nathaniel Ayers who is living on the streets. The reporter, Steve Lopez, who is played by Robert Downey Jr. - who continues to roll out films after his long cocaine-related stint in prison, is writing a series on this virtuoso, while pushing him to come off of the street and into an orchestra where he can get his due recognition.

The mentally ill artists, played by Jamie Foxx, who many think really is mentally ill after his tirade about teenager Miley Cyrus, has trouble with reality and hides in his own world. Foxx is very convincing in his role and, despite his public indiscretions, continues to prove his value in Hollywood.

I found the story to be controversial. Lopez is writing a story about his relationship with Ayers, though he is manipulating the life of Ayers. Basically Lopez was creating his own story to write. Should a reporter write about life as he views it or life as he makes it? Lopez went on to write several books about the experiences that he helped lead with Ayers.

The movie, which was directed by Joe Wright and also starred Catherine Keener, is an hour and 45 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for "thematic elements", whatever that is, drug use, and language.

The movie moves really slow and it appeared to be longer than it really was. The ending was anticlimactic and just seemed to end without any conflict resolution. Despite his recent exciting movies such as Ironman and The Zodiac, Robert Downey Jr. needs to chalk this one up as a dud. I give it 2 stars.

Defiance

I love a good war movie. Heck, I usually like a bad war movie. Especially when it's about World War II. It is such a fascinating part of our history. Almost the ENTIRE planet was at war. How crazy is that?

Defiance is a war story that is a true story about a not-so-glamorous part of the war. The movie is set in Eastern Poland in the woods. There, the Bielski Brothers have fled their village after a German invasion and while roaming in the woods happen upon a group of wandering Jews who had fled the Nazis. Note that I separate Nazis and Germans. They were 2 distinct groups. The Germans were the soldiers. The Nazis worked for the political party and for the most part are the ones that ran the concentration camps and the Jew extermination policy. One could be a part of both groups, but being a German did not make one a Nazi, just as an American in the army is not necessarily a Democrat.

Defiance stars Daniel Craig (James Bond in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) as Tuvia Bielski and Lieve Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate and RKO 281) as Zus Bielski, 2 brothers. While both men acted with fake Russian\Polish accents, Liev Schriber actually made a good Polish Jew, whereas Daniel Craig makes a good Brit speaking in a Polish accent who probably doesn't go to church as often as his mother would like.

Once the first few families of Jews were found, Tuvia decides that they must protect them. Over time, the refugees number in the thousands. Zus, on the other hand, wants to be a fighter rather than a protector and leaves to join a Russian detachment. Meanwhile, Tuvia, the now default leader of the refugee, finds himself fighting not only a war, but partisan bickering and struggles for gathering food, protecting the people, and trying to remain unseen by the occasional German observation planes.

Almost the entire movie is set in the woods of present-day Belarus, though filming was actually done in nearby Lithuania. Another notable fact is that many of the cast were relatives of surviving refugees, which number in the tens of thousands.

Defiance was directed by Edward Zwick, no stranger to directing big films, also known for Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond.

The movie states that it is 2 hours and 17 minutes long, though my DVD player was able to knock it out in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Perhaps I have an aggressive DVD player. Defiance is rated R for violence, mostly for violent gun battles and exploding bombs, and language.

Though an interesting story, the acting was a bit melancholy and dialog was slow. After watching the movie, I read about the true story and found it to be fascinating. However, I will have to give the movie 3 stars. I think it could have been a little better.

Radio

Based on a true story, Radio is about a mentally disabled man who was nicknamed Radio because he, get this, always walks around with a radio. Gooding plays James Robert Kennedy, a black man living in the South during the early 1970's.

Convincingly played by Cuba Gooding Jr., Radio is the butt of a practical joke by the high school football team in Anderson, South Carolina (where several of my friends from college lived). The football coach, played by Ed Harris, decides to teach a lesson to the team and show some goodwill toward the man, to make Radio a sort of mascot. Also starring in the movie is Debra Winger.

At first, everyone wonders what the hell Coach Jones is doing, including the Principal and everyone at the barber shop. You'll have to see the movie to see what I mean about that one.

The movie deals with the adversity that the coach must overcome in dealing with a hostile townfolk. Radio is filled with light comedy and is sometimes sad.

A the end of the movie, you get to see the actual Mr. Kennedy, as he is still a fixture at that high school.

Radio is a great movie that my wife and I both enjoyed watching. You will be cheering for Radio at the end. I give Radio 4 stars. This is a good movie to watch with your lady that doesn't include castles, horses, English accents, or some horrible disease that ends up killing someone.