Unforgiven

Besides John Wayne, I think everyone would agree that Clint Eastwood is the biggest and best western movie actor out there. From his roles in “Fistful of Dollars” through to “Pale Rider,” Eastwood has done so many memorable roles in the western genre, while also making a name of himself as a great director.

However his best, most personal work as both an actor and director can be seen in the dark and serious western classic, “Unforgiven,” released in 1992, Eastwood’s tribute and finale to the western, which tells the myths and legends found inside the genre, and shows violence in a very realistic way.

The film starts in the town of Big Whiskey. A prostitute has her face cut by a cowboy, who took exclusion to her making fun of his manhood. The towns Sheriff “Little” Bill, played by Gene Hackman, a man of strict authority and cruel violence, lets the man and his partner go, only after they say to pay the prostitutes’ pimp seven ponies for damaging his “merchandise.”

Livid at Little Bill’s choice, the rest of the prostitutes get all of their money and post everywhere that a bounty of $1000 has been put on the head of their friends’ enemy and his partner.

William Munny (Clint Eastwood), an infamous murderer who has changed his ways thanks to the help of his late wife, is approached by enthusiastic young youth, the Schofiled Kid (Jaimz Woolvett), to help him take on the enemies. With his wife died, his pigs dying of fever and two young children to feed, Munny agrees, convincing his old friend Ned Logan, played by Morgan Freeman, to join them.

Meanwhile, the overconfident British gunslinger called English Bob, played by Richard Harris, has just entered Big Whisky to claim the money for his own.

Matthew Pejkovic said in his review, “David Webb Peoples’ screenplay offers a fresh perspective to a world full of many mythical figures, especially that of the gunslinger. Long time Eastwood cinematographer Jack N. Green provides dark, vibrant images which compliments the films pensive tone. Set design, costumes and editing are also great.”

Even though many westerns worship violence, “Unforgiven” is anti-violence. Pejkovic said, “Each disturbing kill is enhanced by anguished cries of mercy, and are often followed by tragic repercussions. The influence of alcohol towards violence is also explored, as all of Munny’s infamous killing sprees were done when drunk, the demon drink no doubt giving rise to his murderous rage.”

Eastwood gives a great performance as Munny, maybe the western genre’s darkest and most difficult character. Throughout the film, the audience is told of Munny’s well-known killing sprees, which include the murder of women and children. At first, it is hard to believe that such an old, broken down man could be responsible for such murders. However, during the film’s final scenes, the Munny from the past reappears from the darkest of his head in a tense, riveting piece of cinema.

Gene Hackman’s overbearing screen role is put to good use, while Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris give solid supporting roles.

Like all the westerns I have reviewed this month, you have to see this one. It is an absolute must. Seeing how westerns don’t really come out as much anymore, it’s nice to see this one to come out at a time when westerns are not so common. This one should not be skipped over.

Thank you for joining in on “Clint Eastwood Western Month” and I’m sorry again for posting this late, as I had a busy day today. I hope everyone enjoyed my reviews, and I hope all of you check these films out.

Stay tuned next month for a nice little friendly month of great movie reviews.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Now we have come to the last, and undeniably the best, of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” “The Good, the bad and the Ugly,” released in 1966.

Eric Henderson started his review out by saying, “It seems inconceivable now that spaghetti westerns, specifically those served up by Sergio Leone, were once considered to be somehow less faithful to the western tradition than Hollywood’s crippled efforts of the same time period (look no further than the musical that Leone’s star Clint Eastwood made a few years down the road: Paint Your Wagon). The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, shorn of nearly 20 minutes for its original American release, is surely one of the most compelling validations of the western genre’s most elemental touchstones: the quiet stoicism of men who were islands unto themselves, the necessity of according respect to that unforgiving nightmare that is the Land, and the malleable but unquestionably unbreakable divisions between good and evil.”

Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name may have a hidden (postmodern) dishonest streak in his race against Lee Van Cleef’s “Bad” and Eli Wallach’s “Ugly” to find $200,000 worth of buried gold, but, as Henderson notes, “the scene where Eastwood covers a dying Civil War soldier with his trench coat confirms that there’s really nowhere near as much room for debating his moral alignment as there was even in the later work of John Ford.” Maybe those who saw the movie during its original release were finding the ethical clearness that was “respectable” westerns and didn’t expect Leone’s uncontrolled movie richness. Henderson noted, “The director’s uniquely impassioned and architectural Italian sensibilities turned the American Southwest—or, rather, whatever portion of Spain his producers decided would suffice—into a dreamlike terrain of bombed-out ghost towns that still invariably host cathartic shoot-outs, amphitheater-shaped graveyards that seem nearly a mile in diameter, and wide vistas that alternate with extreme close-ups without nary a medium-shot buffer in sight.”

Now we can’t forget the amazing score of Ennio Morricone that you’re never really sure are simply background music and not simply powering the action on the screen, like how Henderson puts it, “as when a Confederate P.O.W. band plays accompaniment to a prolonged beating or when desert birds seem to be whistling along to the signature fourth-inversion riff.” He sometimes sacrifices clarity for effect (as Henderson points out, “when Wallach’s motormouth inexplicably goes all tacitly Van Cleef for one compelling scene as he “shops” for a new gun), but Leone’s cinema, now fully embraced by cinephiles and fanboys alike, is practically a genre unto itself.” However, his harmony with Eastwood’s main character – and, as Henderson describes, “thereby, the cowboy mythos in toto” – as a scoundrel, conflicted nonbeliever puts him in the same sublimate level of directors who, like Ford or Huston, simply tried to live out their own legends.

If you haven’t seen this movie, why are you reading this review? Go out and watch this film, like you should do with all great films. Especially with the famous line, “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” This is another one of my all time favorite Westerns. I give this a high recommendation for those who are fans of Eastwood and Westerns. You will absolutely love this one, I promise. With three of the greatest actors, how could you go wrong?

Now we have finished Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy.” Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of “Clint Eastwood Western Month.” I also want to apologize for posting this late. I completely forgot that today was Friday.

Hotel Transylvania 3

Well everyone, I went and saw “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation,” released three days ago. Strange how this is released in summer unlike in the past they released these movies around the time of Halloween. However, is the movie still good? Let’s find out:

Nell Minow started her review out by saying, ““You have to be carefully taught,” according to the Rodgers and Hammerstein song in “South Pacific.” Lt. Cable and Nelly Forbush sing ruefully about the prejudices drummed into them as children: “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late/Before you are six or seven or eight/To hate all the people your relatives hate/You’ve got to be carefully taught.”” That same serious theme is nicely mention in the middle of the hilarity and enjoyable scares in this third in the “Hotel Transylvania” movies about Dracula, the loving-to-a-fault vampire dad voiced by Adam Sandler, his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez), her really calm human husband, Johnny (Andy Samberg), and their son Dennis (Asher Blinkoff).

In pretty much every other way, it’s basically the same story as the first two, with only a little less smart monster jokes than the first one and a somewhat more interesting storyline than the second one. Basically, Adam Sandler gets to do his two favorite things: speak in a “funny” accent and be lazy, rather in a foreign location (Minow advised, “IRS, check to see if he deducted a cruise as a business expense in developing this one”).

Dracula is still completely in his daughter’s life, worrying a whole lot when you see that it is very difficult to hurt a vampire. To be sure we understand that fact, it is explained to everyone in the movie’s opening flashback, set in 1897, where vampire killer Van Helsing, voiced by Jim Gaffigan, is trying to kill Dracula. Minow noted, “But he is no match for a vampire with nimbleness, courage, and imperviousness to any threat but garlic or a stake through the heart. The original story’s third weapon against vampires, a crucifix, is omitted in favor of cartoon secularism, as is the ickiness of subsisting on blood, the inconvenience of sleeping in sunlight, or the problem of marriage between someone with a human life span and someone who never ages. Any concerns about those issues are for Twihards.”

These are nice and fun monsters, including the Invisible Man and his girlfriend (David Spade and Chrissy Teigen), Frankenstein’s Monster and his bride (Kevin James and Fran Drescher), Murray the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key), Mr. and Mrs. Wolfman (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), with their dozens of wolf-babies, including their daughter Winnie (Adam Sandler’s daughter, Sadie Sandler), Blobby (Genndy Tartakvosky) and Dracula’s father, Vlad (Mel Brooks). There’s nothing really scary about them and they want to spend their whole time having out with each other, first at the hotel that gives the series its title and then at Mavis’ surprise vacation – a cruise ship with all the services. As Dracula says out loud, that means it’s just his hotel except on a boat. However, there’s one other big difference. He’s not the boss, which is both worry and little load off. “You need a vacation from managing everyone else’s vacation,” Mavis tells him. This is actually the time for them to have some family time together.

Dracula says that the cruise, sailing for the Bermuda Triangle and the lost city of Atlantis “is not the Love Boat.” However, he starts to think he might want to find love (the vampire word “zing” for love at first sight), many years since his wife died. He even tries to find someone he’d like to swipe right on in the monster app Zinger, which is their version of Tinder. Then, he sees the beautiful human ship’s captain, Erika, voiced by Kathryn Hahn, and ZING.

There are some “monsters have to be monsters” lines – “We’re here, we’re hairy, and it’s out right to be scary!” However, they’re not scary in the end and as in the other films it is the humans and their refusal to look beyond the scary exteriors to see that just like humans; monsters love their families and don’t want to hurt anyone. Minow said, “There’s a lot of silly stuff, a cute dance number, some appealing if uninspired pop song selections (Bruno Mars, the Beach Boys, the ubiquitous Mr. Blue Sky), plus the one song no one can resist dancing to (I won’t spoil it, but the audience groans suggested no one was surprised). It turns out music does have charms to sooth the savage beast after all.” This movie has enough in it to calm kids on summer vacation for 90 or more minutes.

Minow noted, “Parents should know that this movie has some schoolyard language, potty humor, peril and violence (including attempted murder of monsters and a character who is badly injured and ultimately almost entirely prosthetic).”

Now, in all honesty, this may or may not be as good as the first two, but I think it’s a fine, enjoyable animated family film. If you liked the first two films, you should be able to enjoy this one. I personally had some really laugh out loud moments in this film and found myself having an enjoyable time here. I would give this a recommendation and say check this one out. You should be able to enjoy this one. If anyone has kids, bring them along.

Alright everyone, thanks for joining in on today’s review, stay tuned next Friday for the continuation of “Clint Eastwood Western Month.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Tonight I got a chance to watch the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” released on the 6^th, at work. Now, I will tell everyone what I thought about it.

Scott “Ant-Man” Lang may be a superhero, but his successes are really highly qualified, mostly because he never does save the day without distancing his friends and close ones, that his sense of self-worth is always shrunk to human level.

Lang is reminded of his character-defining failings throughout the chaotic, but enjoyable super-sequel “Ant-Man and the Wasp” every time he tries to show his manly strength. Lang (Paul Rudd) helped Captain America that one time, but only after he stole the Ant-Man suit from his hesitant mentor (Michael Douglas). However, he saved the world in “Captain America: Civil War,” without asking his training and romantic Hope van Dyne, reprised by Evangeline Lilly. He’s starting his own security business in San Francisco, but is still under high-security house arrest. Simon Abrams said in his review, “Like writer Nick Spencer's recent run on the Ant-Man comics, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” presents Lang as a hapless but well-meaning small fry who tries, and often fails, to live up to expectations.”

Abrams continued, “Macho pride may be a generic flaw for a superhero movie, but "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is the rare super-film in which actions have consequences, and the characters overcome their ego-driven tendencies long enough to work together as a raggedy team.” Supporting characters, like evil weapons dealer Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), mysterious super-villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), clueless FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), and Pym’s separated former coworker Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), frequently keep Lang and Pym off their well-thought plan, mainly their shared goal of getting the equipment that Pym needs to rescue his long-missing wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the trippy, sub-atomic (and very dangerous) Quantum Realm.

Abrams said, “But the discursive, tangent-filled nature of Lang's story is the most charming aspect of "Ant-Man and the Wasp." Lang's narrative is a revolving door of well-meaning outsiders,” here comes his former wife Maggie (Judy Greer) and her friendly do-gooder husband Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) with Lang’s beloved daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), and disturbed coworkers, like Lang’s “X-Con” security crew team of Kurt (David Dastmalchian), Dave (T.I.) and Luis (Michael Peña, always cracking jokes in every scene). Abrams noted, “Many of these characters are also struggling to suppress their own habitual catastrophizing:” if Ghost doesn’t steal and start Pym’s equipment immediately, she will die. If Pym doesn’t get Lang’s help in getting his equipment, his wife will disappear. Finally, if Lang doesn’t get back to his house before Woo returns to see if he’s there, his career as “Ant-Man” is over.

Thankfully, director Peyton Reed and the film’s five credited screenwriters skillfully (but not always stylishly) balance these differed plot points. They don’t develop every part, but they do follow through with enough subplots and ideas that most audiences will be supposedly provided in the characters by the time “Ant-Man and the Wasp” predictably transfers into a series of well-done set pieces.

However, there are several parts during the film’s first half where Reed and his writers don’t importantly advance Lang’s character development beyond moving their chaotic plot forward. Abrams said, “During these early scenes, Lang randomly loses control of his super-suit, and consequently behaves like a sulky, Peter Parker-like post-adolescent. He also sometimes behaves like a relatively mature caregiver who relishes taking care of his daughter and sighs heavily whenever he can’t independently figure out how to solve his domestic problems.” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” possibly doesn’t do enough to settle the difference between these two fighting features of Lang’s personality.

Abrams said, “Speaking of personality: the first half of “Ant-Man and the Wasp”—the part that’s most reliant on plot-pushing expository dialogue—definitely feels like it was cobbled together by a creative committee that includes five credited writers. This minor, but noteworthy shortcoming is why I spent much of this review praising the film’s characters and ideas and not its brick-and-mortar storytelling. Like many films produced by Marvel Studios, this one is sometimes marred by uninspired cinematography (by Dante Spinotti, Michael Mann regular director of photography!), and over-edited set pieces.”

However, this only happens sometimes. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” really goes off once its makers stop setting up their strange plot, and start focusing on inserting their better ideas into active car chases, fight scenes, and comedic moments (Abrams said, “I especially love the bit where Lang, after being knocked out and tied up, asks his kidnapper to help him video-chat with Cassie”).

For most of the two hours, Reed and his team take comic fans on a long, strange drive with some of the most considerate cinematic crime-fighters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Taken in its total, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” may not be the best in any subject, however, like its always struggling hero; it is good enough in many ways.

If you enjoyed the first one, then I think you will definitely enjoy this one even more. I found it to be more entertaining, more fun, more action-packed and a more humanizing drama than the first movie. There is a similarity that I noticed the “Ant-Man” movies have with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, and that is they both are entertaining while also having a deep theme of family. However, this film has a great cast that all contributes to their parts fully and it’s a great roller coaster ride that is worth going on. This is another one of my favorite comic book movies. Definitely check this one out in theaters when you get the chance, you will thoroughly enjoy this one more, I give you my word.

Spoiler alert: in the mid-credits scene, Pym, Lang, Hope and Janet plan to harvest quantum energy to continue helping Ghost. While Lang is doing this in the quantum realm, he finds out there is some bad news out there. The post-credit scene is just the ant playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which you saw in the trailer.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review, check in next Friday for the continuation of “Clint Eastwood Western Month.”

For A Few Dollars More

Here is a magnificently slippery, sweaty, hairy, bloody and violent Western. This is an absolute joy.

“For a Few Dollars More,” released in 1967, like every single huge and corny Westerns Hollywood used to make, is filled with problems and not story. Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Plots were dangerous because if a kid went out to get some popcorn he might miss something.”

Westerns had problems, instantly noticeable. Ebert put it, “The man in the black hat strikes a match on the suspenders of a tough guy at the bar. Two gunmen face each other at each end of a long alley.”

“For a Few Dollars More” has so much of that, but it’s on a larger, more exaggerated way, it that’s possible. Ebert said, “Shoot-outs aren't over in a few minutes like they were in "High Noon."” They are always remembered.

Ebert admitted, “This is a sequel to "A Fistful of Dollars," which I didn't see but wish I had.” Both films were shot in Italy, with English-speaking actors as the stars and Italians in small parts with dubbed dialog.

Clint Eastwood, as The Man With No Name, is fearsome: He chews and spits out a handful of cigars.

The great Lee Van Cleef, as Colonel Mortimer, looks like a noticeably tired Clarke Gable. He carries an arsenal with him. After a famous fight where they shoot each other’s hats to shreds, Eastwood and Van Cleef team up to collect the reward for the desperado Indio, played by Gian Maria Volonte.

The rest of the film is one giant old Western cliché after another. They aren’t done well, but they’re over-done well, and every problem is stretched out to that you can enjoy it.

As a sequel, this one might be better. I really like this one a lot because of how the Western genre is played out in this one, and Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name is just as dreadful as ever. See this one because this is one that you shouldn’t skip.

I would also like to apologize for posting this late, as I worked really late tonight. Look out next week when I look at the last and absolute best of “Leone’s Dollars Trilogy” in “Clint Eastwood Western Month.”

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

My brother and I went today to check out the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” released last month, and I will let everyone what I thought of the film.

Peter Travers started his review out by saying, “With cynicism running like a toxic streak through mainstream media, a documentary on sweet, soothing TV host Fred Rogers may strike you as hopelessly naïve – or just the pep talk we need. We’re with the latter camp.” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” talks about how this determined minister, who wanted to help children feel special in the world, managed to create a show on television with over 1,765 episodes from 1968 to 2001. Mr. Fred Rogers died of cancer at the age of 74 in 2003, a child supporter who left the church to become a helper for television.

Travers noted, “This portrait, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), isn’t out to canonize the TV icon or to bury him. A political conservative, Rogers didn’t like rocking the boat.” His first task of making a children’s show was always being honest with everyone. Whether he would talk about the death of a pet or the murder of Bobby Kennedy, Mr. Rogers felt patience and understanding could take you anywhere toward helping his child viewers understand difficult problems. Travers said, “His show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, was pokey enough to draw derisive laughter from skeptics who couldn’t endure the slowpoke way he opened every show: smiling, changing into comfy shoes and a cardigan and addressing his audience with a song.” “So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day/Since we’re together we might as well say/Would you be mine/Could you be mine/Won’t you be my neighbor?” (To put it bluntly, nothing our president would be heard singing today.)

Travers said, “Generations of kids proved the naysayers wrong by forging a close connection to this gentle man whose sympathetic manner stood in marked contrast to the manic cartoon mayhem that proliferated on childrens’ programming. To help guide his young audience threw life’s thornier patches, Rogers created puppet characters, most memorably a glum-faced Daniel Striped Tiger with whom he strongly identified. Neville sketches in his subject’s own childhood as a sickly, overweight kid bullied as “Fat Freddy” and who suffered bouts of loneliness and anger.”

We don’t hear much from Mr. Rogers himself, infamously private until the end, in the archival clips. One of his two sons says it wasn’t easy being raised by “the second Christ.” During the years of school segregation, when black families were banned from public swimming pools, Mr. Rogers invited his show’s neighborhood cop, played by gay African-American Francois Clemmons, to soak their feet together on camera. Clemmons later said that Mr. Rogers told him not to openly come out because of the thought that viewership would decrease.

Even after he’s passed, Rogers still gets crushed from homophobes who say he was gay, and experts who insist he taught incompetent millennial to think they were “special.” Travers noted, “Hollywood is planning a feature on Rogers starring Tom Hanks, which will no doubt offer its own clues into the enduring mystery of a public figure who raised several generations of kids by proxy.” In the end, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” gives the timeless message to allow us to see the man work with those who meant closest to him: children. In these depressing moments, it’s a good feeling to see a funny, touching and crucial documentary that is both appropriate and endless.

If this is still playing in a theaters near you, definitely don’t miss the opportunity to see this documentary. This is especially to those who, like myself, grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Mr. Rogers touched so many children around the world and this is the documentary for them. I can understand if people will cry watching this, but I didn’t. I will admit that I cried when he passed because my childhood icon was gone. See this when you can. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see this in theaters, seeing how I was a huge fan of Mr. Rogers as a kid.

Thank you for joining in, stay tuned this Friday for the continuation in “Clint Eastwood Western Month.”

A Fistful of Dollars

For this month, I will be dedicating it to another set of Westerns, but this time it will be ones that star Clint Eastwood. Let’s kick it off with the first of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” Trilogy, “A Fistful of Dollars,” released in 1964.

This film was a remake of Kurosawa’s 1961 classic, “Yojimbo,” and was an Italian made Western, filmed in Spain, which started the trilogy of the so-called Spaghetti Westerns. Clint Eastwood plays “The Man With No Name,” the first of the three films made with the same theme.

Eastwood was on TV in the “Rawhide” series and took the opportunity to fly to Europe to make these films when both James Coburn and then Charles Brosnon were offered the role by director Sergio Leone, but wanted more than the $15,000 offered. The films became popular in Europe when Eastwood became a huge actor, and three years later, United Artists bought all three of the “Dollars Trilogy” and showed them with great success in U.S.A.

The film has no message, but where violence is shown by the hero being as unethical as the villains. This type of behavior changed the way Westerns were made. It’s an entertaining film, violence and everything, its only problems being the poor dubbing and Leone didn’t perfect all his moves in a clear way. Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “Yet this film, not as rewarding as his others in this series, still has the style of the director's later works, plus the same themes of graphic violence, a laconic hero, and the thrill of gunfights galore.”

Eastwood arrives in the dusty Mexican border town of San Miguel, where visitors don’t arrive without wanting something illegal. An old bell-ringer tells the visitor that in this town, people either get rich or die. Eastwood, while riding on his mule, is shot at by the gunmen of the Baxter clan. He soon is told by the bartender Silvanito, played by Pepe Calvo, that there are two gangs in town fighting: the Baxters and the Rojos. They control the gun-fighting and liquor business, and are at a disagreement. The Baxters include: Sheriff John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy), his smart business-minded wife Consuela (Margarita Lozano) and their dumb son Antonio (Bruno Cartenuto). The enemies are the Rojo brothers: Ramon (Gian Maria Volenté), Esteban (Sieghardt Rupp) and Benito (Antonio Prieto). The most trusted gunman of the crew is Chico (Brega). Both parties have many guns, but the Rojo family is the stronger family. Eastwood decides he’s smart enough to play them off one against the other, and try to get as much of the money he can from both families. He hires himself out with the Rojos, and to earn the money he kills the gunmen who shot at him. Schwartz noted, “Clint chomps at the end of his cigar without smoking it, says little, wears a Mexican poncho, and is always with his trusted .45s.” He makes an impressive person, as he’s tall, bearded, and intimidating.

Eastwood sees the possibility of the money coming his way when he sees Ramon Rojo and his brothers kill a Mexican cavalry unit for their gold. He steals two cavalry corpses and tells each family to look out for one another, and thereby makes them start a shooting war. This ends up with lots of corpses for the coffin maker in town. Schwartz noted, “But this scene was shot in a shoddy way, as it was hard to comprehend that the two gangs were so stupid that they would so easily believe that the stiffs they were fighting over were real.”

Eastwood does a good thing by rescuing the beautiful Marisol, played by Koch, who is being held prisoner by Ramon. He kills the Rojo gunmen guarding her and she’s free to go back to her son and husband. For this, he gets tortured by Ramon, but escapes to witness the Rojo brothers burn down the Baxter house and kill everyone. Then, Eastwood returns to get involved in a shootout with the Rojos, saving Ramon for last. Finally, he rides off with the money, instead of with the pretty girl.

In this Western, there’s some humor behind all the staged violence and there’s also a passable Ennio Morricone’s score to increase the type of melodrama. What makes this Western film famous is that is gives a historical purpose as the start of a new way in making Westerns with heroes are not always that good.

This movie is a classic that everyone should check out. If you haven’t seen it yet, go out and see it, as it is a must, especially if you’re a fan of Westerns or Eastwood. Definitely don’t skip this one.

Stay tuned next week for the next in the “Dollars Trilogy” in “Clint Eastwood Western Month.”

American Graffiti

Happy Independence Day to all of my online readers! To celebrate this patriotic day, I will be reviewing a classic coming-of-age movie directed by the great George Lucas, “American Graffiti,” released in 1873.

This was Lucas’ second directorial effort, and his first huge film that took place in 1962 on the night before these graduating high school friends separated. Empire said it right in their review, “An instant classic perfectly attuned to the mood of early 70s baby boomers who'd just woken up after Vietnam, Watergate and the hippie era.” Besides making Lucas and producer Francis Ford Coppola on the path to popularity, this started the acting careers of Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Candy Clark, Charlie Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Joe Spano, Paul Le Mat and Kathleen Quinlan, all who interact as teens driving through the night on the strip in Modesto, California, and get their first tastes in the unstable 60s. A funny-serious movie with great cars and colors and a great feel for the artifacts of an instantly gone time.

Sad to say that this film was a victim to a horrible sequel that came out in 1979, “More American Graffiti.” This tried to re-create the work of George Lucas’ classic and was a risky movie for director Bill Norton, which wasn’t successful. The real reason was that the sequel did split-screen imagery. Margaret Moser noted in her review, “It looked great onscreen in the theatre but loses so much when reduced to even a 27-inch television screen.” This also came out six years after the first one, so that even growing the characters rightly ruined some of the original’s greatness. With most of the main actors returning, “More American Graffiti” does mange to keep some of its dignity and rightly moves the story into the place of political protest and cultural change. Moser said, “A montage of scenes at the beginning takes the viewer from balmy California to napalm-y Vietnam and sets the scene for social and personal rebellion.” “American Graffiti” mainly focused on the male characters, “More American Graffiti” notices the growing of feminism in American in two completely different ways. Cindy Williams in Laurie Henderson Blolander, the former cheerleader who married her high school sweetheart (Ron Howard), wants a more meaningful life than a house in the suburbs with two kids (Mark and Michael Courtney). Moser said, “Clark's character Debbie Dunham has already liberated herself physically from platinum bouffant to straight hippie hair, but inside she longs for a more traditional marriage. The split screen is distracting enough, but it is the choppy scenes representing the passage of time that make the story hard to follow.” However, “More American Graffiti” is not without its moments and Cindy Williams’ moment of realization, where she goes up against authority to lead a police car full of women in singing Baby Love, is great. (Texas audiences will enjoy seeing the late Doug Sahm in great shape as the crazy singer of a band called Electric Haze.) Like the first movie, “More American Graffiti” ends caringly, and to its credit isn’t weak on the original’s serious reflection into the future.

The first movie, as you can instantly think, is a classic that must be seen by everybody. If you haven’t seen it, make sure to watch it today. However, like I have already hinted at, the sequel is just one of the worst. Maybe not so much, but it’s one that shouldn’t have been made. You’ll see “if” you watch it (The key word being “if”). I think everyone shouldn’t watch the sequel and just stick to the first one, since that is amazing.

Once again, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Independence Day. I hope everyone enjoys today, make sure to go out and enjoy the fireworks, and just be safe. I’m not sure if I will be going out tonight to see the fireworks, but we’ll see.

Stay tuned this Friday for what I have in store everyone this month.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Tonight at work, I got to see “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” released last month, and now I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

At some point, maybe it’s when the main character outrun an erupting volcano or maybe that time a trained velociraptor heroically jumps to their help against a much bigger, stronger dinosaur, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” crosses over from the world of the fantastic to the silly.

Greg Maki said in his review, “I know the entire franchise is based around the idea of scientists using genetics to recreate living, breathing, terrifying dinosaurs as theme park attractions and somehow not thinking it would lead to widespread death and destruction. I get that. But then others have the same idea and others after them, and so on and so forth. Of course there are those who wish to exploit the dinosaurs; of course their plans go awry; of course the dinos run amok; and of course our heroes are the only ones with noble intentions.”

At least Bryce Dallas Howard isn’t running around in heels this time for the entire movie.

Maki said, “Though the setting changes, "Fallen Kingdom" essentially adheres to the standard formula — until the ending, which, the more I think about it, I love and hate equally. Love because it should make the inevitable follow-up vastly different from any other entry in the series, and hate because it's so far removed from the awe and wonder — the childlike innocence — of being able to go to a park and see real, live dinosaurs. It's like how the "The Fast and the Furious" was about illegal street racing and each sequel has become more and more ridiculous, eventually placing the fate of the world in a group of wisecracking former criminals' hands in last year's "The Fate of the Furious."”

However, much like the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” embraces its own craziness and runs with it full throttle up the end. Maki said, “Ultimately, it's predictability that holds it back more than the severing of its very thin strand of reality.”

Three years after what happened in “Jurassic World,” volcanic eruption is threatening the dinosaurs remaining on the abandoned Isla Nublar. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), now the boss of the Dinosaur Protection Group, accepts the offer by Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), John Hammond’s former partner in making the dinosaur-cloning technology, to return to the island, gather as many of the dinosaurs as possible and take them to a newly created area. She’ll need Owen Grady, reprised by Chris Pratt, the man raised and trained Blue, now the last living velociraptor, to find her.

Soon after landing on the island, it’s evident the para-military unit in charge of the rescue mission isn’t exactly on the same side, and Claire, Owen, veterinarian Zia (the hot Danielle Pineda, currently playing Vanessa Randall on TBS’s comedy “The Detour”) and systems analyst Franklin (Justice Smith) are in serious trouble.

The setting eventually changes to a house in Northern California, where there is Lockwood’s granddaughter, Maisie, played by Isabella Sermon, because there are always has to be a child in danger in these movies. There’s also another newly created dinosaur, this one a combination of the Indominus Rex from the last movie and a velociraptor – pretty much the baddest dinosaur they have ever created.

What could possibly go wrong?

If you said “everything,” you’re very close.

Pratt and Howard easily revive their bond from “Jurassic World” are a fun couple until the talking mostly stops and the trouble takes over. Jeff Goldblum returns as everyone’s favorite Ian Malcolm, but many probably will be angry to see he’s basically a cameo. Rafe Spall is a little too obvious as a villain as a partner to Lockwood, and there are so many other vaguely villains without even a hint of revealing. Pretty much, they’ll get eaten by the dinosaurs.

Director J. A. Bayona understands who the real protagonists of the movie are. If you want to see the film – more importantly – don’t think of leaving your brain outside the theater (or maybe in your car), you’ll definitely will think you wasted your money on this fun adventure.

The only flaws I can point out about the movie right now are that Jeff Goldblum’s parts were all shown in the trailer and the villains are just the same typical, clichéd ones we have seen in every installment in this franchise. However, Pratt and Howard are amazing in this role, especially with Sermon on their side, along with Pineda and Smith (despite they aren’t with Pratt and Howard the entire time) and the dinosaurs are the best, as usual. Definitely see this one, but I don’t think it’s better than “Jurassic World” and definitely not better than “Jurassic Park.” However, I still think it’s worth going to the theaters to see.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the yearly “Independence Day Movie” review.