No Way Back (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)This Russell Crowe film is one of his least known works. One should realize it is not in the same caliber as his other great films, but one that should be appreciated as strictly an action hero performance instead. "No Way Out" was not a theaterical release, instead it debuted on cable televison. It has the typical elements of a made for t.v. movie fare; weak script and storyline, minimal character development, and strictly action-driven. However, Russell Crowe turns this film around from your typical action genre movie to a well-paced and well-acted film on his part. This is the first role of Crowe's where he plays a father and a widower. It is ashame there was not enough of an established relationship between father and son. However, it was so adorable to see the character of Zack Grant talk to his son as if an adult and have his son call him by his first name. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by this different kind of film, character, and performance by Russell Crowe in his fourth U.S. film. You will notice how far he has come in his present film career!

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An FBI agent trying to redeem his career ends up in the middle of a Mafia vendetta.Genre: Feature Film-Action/AdventureRating: RRelease Date: 7-JUN-2005Media Type: DVD

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3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition) (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although many say the Western is dead, in books as well as movies, it continues to rear its head and make itself known every so often. There's something inherently noble and visceral about the artform and the subject matter, the calm delineation between good and evil, that stubbornly continues to attract an audience.
In 2007, the Western showed back up at the box office in a trio of films that came out roughly at the same time. 3:10 TO YUMA was the first out of the gate, but it was followed in quick order by THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
The movie had been made fifty years ago, and much of the plot in that version made it into the remake. Both movies were based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, who has had several of his Western and crime novels made into films.
Christian Bale stars as Dan Evans, a one-legged, down-on-his-luck rancher struggling to keep a home together for his wife and two kids. Russell Crowe plays Ben Wade, an intelligent and heartless outlaw who's leading one of the blood-thirstiest gangs to ever take up the owlhoot trail.
Both stars take turns stealing scenes. Bale has the hard-edged look of coarse rawhide. Crowe possesses some of the deadest eyes ever shown in movies.
One of the best portrayals in the movie was a surprise to me, though. It took me a minute to recognize Peter Fonda as professional bounty hunter turned Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy. Fonda reminded me a lot of his father Henry, but part of that is because Fonda has aged. He also delivers a quality of acting and honesty in the character that is just amazing, and he was content to carry the supporting character role and didn't try to upstage anyone.
Logan Lerman was another surprise. He stared as William Evans, Dan's 14-year-old son. I'd thought Lerman was much older, but as it turned out he was 14 when the movie was made. He was likeable and intense.
When it came to truly cold-blooded villains, though, Ben Foster as Charlie Prince totally blew me away. The hair on the back of my neck went up as soon as he stepped on stage, and within a minute I hated him.
The story is simple. Dan is struggling to make ends meet and bumps into Wade during an armored wagon job. Later, after taking Byron McElroy into town for medical attention, Dan confronts Hollander, the man who's trying to run him off his land. When Hollander won't give him an extension on his loan, Dan finds Wade and helps take him captive. Then he agrees to help transport him to Yuma for $200.
The movie quickly spins out into the action of the violent road trip. In addition to being one of the fastest gunmen around, Wade is also a skilled psychological warrior, constantly taunting his captors and seeking out their weaknesses.
The action involves traveling through hostile Indian lands, meeting up with a team of killers working the railroad coming through the area, and a final showdown in Yuma that is one of the most exciting I've ever seen in a Western.
For two hours, I sat marveling at the characters, then tensely awaiting the outcome of the latest danger they were all facing. Even then, the twists and turns of the characters, the back stories they were all hiding till the very last moment, were awesome. No one was quite who I thought they were.
Westerns succeed best by having good men with a history of bad violence and bad men who haven't completely gone over to the dark side. 3:10 TO YUMA is one of those.
One caveat I will offer to people who have seen the original movie starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, this version does NOT follow the same paths or end up the same way. Expect to be surprised and shocked at how things turn out. And you'll be tense nearly the whole way through.

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3:10 TO YUMA - DVD Movie

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A Good Year (Widescreen Edition) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)I really don't understand all the bad reviews from critics and reviewers alike for I personally loved this movie. Now, it's not the grandest spectacle to grace the big screen nor is it Russell Crowe's finest hour, but `A Good Year' is some quality entertainment and serves it purpose in the relaxed and happy season that is fall. Having just seen the poorly made and highly overrated `Catch a Fire' I was ready to relax and watch something entertaining and enjoyable, and being the Russell Crowe fan that I undoubtedly am I decided that `A Good Year' would be just that movie.
Max Skinner (Crowe) is a stuck up British stock broker who at one time was a kind hearted soul, and his fondest memories are littered with his Uncle Henry (Finney) and his Chateau in France. Upon his Uncles death Max is left the sole owner of Henry's estate, and in like fashion he flies out there in order to sell if for profit and make it back ASAP. What he doesn't bank on is Christie Roberts (Abbie Cornish) showing up claiming to be the long lost daughter of Henry and claiming rights to his estate. Throughout the course of the film Max has to go through the stages of redemption, which include discovering the jerk he has become and rediscovering his inner child.
The two key components to his wonderful film is the scenery and the acting. The script and storyline as some have already pointed out is very unoriginal, we've seen this done plenty of times, but the beauty that is France, as well as the beauty that is Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard (who plays Fanny, the seductive woman who steals Max's heart) more than make up for the familiarity. Crowe is, as many know, my all time favorite actor ever, and I feel that he can carry any film he touches. Whether you are a fan of his phone throwing escapades or not, you have to admit that the man is gifted, very gifted. Here he proves that by being just as compelling and engrossing laughing and smiling as he is riding into battle. Albert Finney and Marion Cotillard are also wonderful here, but to me it was little Freddie Highmore (such a talented young man) who outshined most in the cast (can anyone outshine Crowe...I don't believe so).
As I said in the beginning, I don't understand all the bad press. So what if it's no `A Beautiful Mind' or `Gladiator', so what if Russell was not Lucky Jack or James Braddock, `A Good Year' is still a good time and Max Skinner is just as fun as Crowe ever was. I recommend it, I enjoyed it, no better yet, I loved every minute of it.

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Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) is a highly successful investment expert with no time for life outside work. When his estranged uncle dies, Max inherits the vineyard in France where he grew up as a child, and his first intention is to sell the vineyard as qui

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L.A. Confidential (Snap Case) (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)Rather than review this amazing modern Noir...I just want to say..BUY this new version...it looks fabulous and the bonus features are PLENTIFUL and very meaty with content and the good news is they ALSO have brought over the features from the first release allowing all of us to dump that one and that isn't always the case. They also have a nearly 1 hr TV movie/pilot called LA CONFIDENTIAL starring Keifer Sutherland which is fun. There is also a bonus CD disc of music which is icing on the cake. I just spent a few hours watching all the bonus features and will absolutely watch them again ( a rarity) and as I said..the movie never looked better..I've only checked out a bit of the commentary which has a staggering number of contributors and should make another viewing of the movie with it running a fun trip indeed. WB does it well when they re-issue and not just with the sexy new cover image ..this baby got a complete overhaul...
enjoy!

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Body of Lies (+ BD Live) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)You really have to admire Ridley Scott's moxie.
Even though the 70-year-old director has long established himself as one of Hollywood's best and most durable directors; having helmed some of the most entertaining films of all time, in virtually every genre (including sci-fi classics like Alien and Blade Runner); and having been nominated no less than three times for the Best Director Oscar (Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down), to decide to take on theme that has produced exactly zero blockbusters thus far - the Middle East and terrorism - takes an incredible amount of chutzpah.
But it does help if you have the help of two of the biggest actors in Hollywood at the moment, those being Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe (who has worked with Scott on two previous films, Gladiator and A Good Year). It's ironic to think that the last time these two actors shared the screen was back in 1995, with the clichéd-but-entertaining oater The Quick and the Dead. Of course, at the time, Crowe was a complete unknown and DiCaprio was a 21-year-old newcomer with only a couple of notable titles under his belt. But oh, how that's all changed now.
It's not easy to describe the plot of Body of Lies without giving too much away. DiCaprio plays CIA operative Roger Ferris, who is trying to flush out a terrorist leader named Al-Saleem in Jordan. He gets his orders from Ed Hoffman (Crowe), a man for whom results are the only satisfactory outcome, delivered with a fair amount of arrogance and a cocky Southern drawl. Ed plays the situation like a kid playing a video game, and has the resources to change the rules anytime he feels like it, dispensing his orders from his office, from his backyard, from his daughter's soccer game, for Pete's sake! This, of course, infuriates Ferris to no end, because he is the one who is in the trenches, chasing the bad guys, dodging bullets, ducking explosions, and procuring the badly-needed intelligence that Hoffman needs. Ferris is also trying to build a productive working relationship with the head of Jordanian Intelligence, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), a relationship that is made even more tenuous by Hoffman's double-dealings and hidden agendas.
There are so many ways that Scott could have screwed this up. A lesser director might have chosen to ramp up the action, sacrificing intelligence for entertainment. A lesser director could have taken this story of espionage and twisted it into a convoluted and indecipherable Gordian knot. A lesser director would have gotten less convincing performances from his lead actors.
But Ridley Scott is not a lesser director. Though the plot is indeed complex, with many layers and sub-layers, deceit and treachery, Scott never lets you lose sight of the overall picture. He tells a solid, wonderfully entertaining story, without the need to drive home its message with sledgehammer subtlety (after all, very few things are black and white). And most of all, he gets electric performances from Crowe and DiCaprio, whose symbiotic relationship with a thinly-veiled veneer of mutual contempt is a pleasure to watch.
I don't know if Body of Lies will end up breaking through the barrier that every movie in this genre couldn't; but for what it's worth, I hope it does. One thing's for sure... if anybody can, Ridley Scott can.

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The CIAs hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agencys man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky a satellite link watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIAs Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival. Leonardo DiCaprio (as Ferris) and Russell Crowe (as Hoffman) star in Body of Lies, adapted by William Monahan (The Departed) from the David Ignatius novel. Ridley Scott (American Gangster, Black Hawk Down) directs this impactful tale, orchestrating exciting action sequences and plunging viewers into a bold spy thriller for our time.

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State of Play (2009) (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally a great adult suspense film about several timely subjects . It 's about the dying newspapers and political corruption.
Russell Crowe is excellent as an overweight ,slightly shabby journalist ,who is flawed personally,but an excellent journalist.
Helen Mirren is good as his stressed boss.Ben Afflek is surprisingly good as his old friend and US congressman. Rachel
McAdams is fine as the new face of the news,a blogger for the newspaper. There is suspense, that grabs you and holds you til the end. I saw it with friends and discussed it through and after dinner. Always a sign of a good movie. How in the world does Crowe manage to be so appealing in messy clothes and overweight? I highly recommend this movie.

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Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast, including Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams & Helen Mirren in the blistering thriller about deception, manipulation and corruption. When D.C. Reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming politician (Affleck), he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nation’s power structures.In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no one’s integrity, love or life is safe. From director Kevin Macdonald of The Last King of Scotland, State of Play brings together gripping performances, riveting suspense and is “sophisticated, intelligent and powerful" (Shawn Edwards, Fox-TV).

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The Next Three Days (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Russell Crowe plays a man who's wife is convicted of a murder he's convinced she didn't commit. After she tries to kill herself, he decides to break her out of jail. Although the movie felt somewhat slow for a portion of it, ultimately I have to say that I enjoyed it, and can highly recommend it. Here's why:
1. It's a smart movie. It makes you think, and you're not told every last detail up front. In fact, you don't even know if the wife was innocent of murder or not for most of the movie. You're led through the story with pieces to the puzzle, and by the end it all comes together. It was really interesting.
2. It was not predictable. I found myself constantly evaluating what was happening, and trying to figure out what would come next. When you think you know what's coming, you realize you don't. It had some interesting turns and twists.
Although it started out slow, I think the way it progressed was important for the development of the characters and the story. It was, in my opinion, a good decision to develop the story this way, and worth sitting through.
3. It challenges your values. I had to keep wondering if I thought Crowe's character was doing right or not, and I found I kept evaluating whether I wanted him to succeed. Was he a desperate man who was forced to become a hero? Or was he a man who has gone over the edge into darkness? It certainly makes you think.
4. The acting was amazing, as you'd expect from Crowe. We think he's one of the very best actors of our time. Elizabeth Banks played the wife, and she was so believable. I was surprised that Liam Neeson had such a very tiny role, and Brian Dennehy, a powerful actor, barely said anything. Still, their presence in the film added to it.
5. There was some good action. Not a ton of it though, but enough to keep your adrenaline rushing once in a while. The last portion was edge of your seat exciting.
Ultimately I'd say this is a very satisfying movie experience. It's different, not a formula, and by the end you're on the edge of your seat.

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Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a murder she says she didn’t commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, John devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves. Lionsgate presents a Hwy 61 Films / Lionsgate production. The Next Three Days stars Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde and Liam Neeson, and is directed by Paul Haggis from a screenplay by Paul Haggis. The Next Three Days is produced by Michael Nozik and Paul Haggis, and Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier.

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