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Shutter Island (2010)

Leonardo DiCaprio is Deputy U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, he and his partner Chuck are dispatched to Shutter Island, a maximum security mental institution on an island off the coast of Boston to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous mental patient.  What comes next is a mind fuck of twists and turns, some, which were a little obvious, and others that were totally unexpected.

Leo was on top of his game in this and played a completely believable character (you will see why I say believable when you watch the movie).  Mark Ruffalo played Deputy U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule and paired with DiCaprio they made a perfect team.  There was a ton a charisma between the two of them.  The plot is rock solid and Martin Scorsese I believe really came out of his comfort zone with this film, it says Scorsese, but not in the sense the Departed did.  It’s very different and it would be great to see him further branch out like he did with Shutter Island.

The score for this movie was perfect.  Their were some pretty dramatic scenes and a few that were spooky as well, the music at times made me think the hair on my neck was going to stand up at any minute.   I heard a few people say they fell asleep during this movie, that it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s worst film, etc.  I don’t think that could be further from the truth, in fact I would venture to say that was one of his BEST performances to date.  I would love to see Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Ruffalo back on the screen together for another film.

I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Edge of Darkness (2009)

Mel Gibson is Detective Thomas Craven, a seasoned Boston P.D. Officer.  On his way to take his adult daughter to the hospital she is gunned down on his doorstep.  Initially it is thought to be a hit which was intended for him, what comes next is a series of twists and conspiracies which will keep most everyone interested.

It was nice to see Mel Gibson in a leading role, since his last one was Signs in 2002.  He played a very believable and determined Father, hell bent on finding his daughters killers.  The storyline was kind of “cookie cutter” in my opinion, meaning I have seen this movie before but it had a different name and a few different details.  There are some pretty gnarly scenes of brutality, especially when his daughter is gunned down.  I’m sure the gore hounds can appreciate that.

Overall I wish I had waited for DVD for this one.  Was it a good movie? Yeah, I guess.  However, I’d have rather seen Mel Gibson’s return to stardom in a more creative movie.

Fringe Season One

We just finished watching the entire first season of Fringe.  Fringe is the brainchild of J.J. Abrams (creator of Star Trek (2009) and Lost).  Fringe brings together a motley crew of character, which works perfectly together.  You have Special Agent Olivia Dunham, a very gung ho and smart Special Agent with a knack for always wanting to solve the case no matter the consequences.  You have Dr. Walter Bishop a mad scientist of sorts who spent many years as a Professor at Harvard while doing secret government experiments.

Walter was later institutionalized after his lab assistance was killed in an accident.  Peter Bishop (son of Dr. Bishop) is a character with a mysterious past, Peter is Walter’s caretaker while he is away from the asylum, Peter has also proven to be highly intelligent and an asset to the team.  There are several other notable characters, but this gives you a general idea of what to expect from characters.

Fringe is a special division within the F.B.I. who has the duty of exploring and solving strange cases, which other agencies cannot.  It’s Walter’s experience in dealing with special government testing that makes him particularly important, because he is familiar with many of the strange occurrences.  Some of these occurrences are people catching on fire, a plane mysteriously crashing, and a super creature in the sewer killing people.  I think of Fringe a lot like the X-Files but with some of the cases not as outlandish and ridiculous as the X-Files.  Now granted, Fringe has its fair share of weird shit, X-Files without question takes the cake for weird stuff.  This has become one of my favorite shows and is currently on Season 2 on Fox.  If this sounds like something you would like, please tune in as it will help with ratings and make Fox renew it for a second season.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Today I finally got to see the long anticipated (at least for me) Guy Ritchie release of Sherlock Holmes.  As many know Sherlock Holmes is a classic series of stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The film starred Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as his trusty associate / babysitter Dr. Watson.

Lord Blackwood is back from the grave and it’s up to Holmes and Watson to figure out why and how.  Blackwood and his secret organization will do anything to make sure Sherlock Holmes and the good Doctor fail.

First off RDJ and Jude Law were top notch in this movie.  In retrospect I cannot think of anyone who I’d rather have seen as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law was a brilliant Dr. Watson.  While the characters were not 100% true to the books, they were still very enjoyable and delivered many laughs.  Several critics were unhappy with the inaccuracy of the characters, but they failed to realize that Guy Ritchie never claimed this was an accurate page for page depiction of the books.

The story was solid, but at times it was a bit slow.  It would slow way down and then some great action would happen and it would slow down again.  I typically like Guy Ritchie but I could not make it through his last movie, RockNRolla so naturally I was glad that I enjoyed this one.  Really my main beef was how slow the movie got at times and I felt it was a little long.

Overall, I give Sherlock Holmes 4 out of 5.  It got knocked down because of the slow parts.  I’m glad that the story ended and left it open for a sequel.  Especially considering Holmes arch nemesis Professor Moriarity had a part in the film.  I cannot wait to see where the next one takes this great acting duo.

The Spanish “Lon Chaney”

A legend of Spanish horror cinema passed away.  Often called the “Spanish Lon Chaney”, today Paul Naschy (1934 to 2009) lost his battle with cancer.

Paul was my favorite foreign horror film star.  Danielle and I waited in line to meet him at Fangoria for hours in 2006.  He spoke very little English but you could tell he was very gracious for the support of his fans.  He even hugged me when I told his translator how long we waited.

I am honored to have met him and when I saw Jovanka Vuckovic’s tweet about his passing, it truly made my heart hurt.

You can check out his filmography and additional information at Naschy.com.

Rest in Peace Jacinto Alvarez Molina.