DVD/Movie Review: Sin City

 

Sin City is a movie from 2005 that is an adaptation of a very dark and violent graphic novel by Frank Miller. It was mostly directed by Robert Rodriguez, but a portion was also directed by Quentin Tarantino and a portion by Frank Miller. It stars Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, Alexis Bledel, Jamie King, Benicio del Toro, Elija Wood, Carla Gugino, Nick Stahl, Josh Hartnett, Powers Boothe, Devon Aoki, and Brittany Murphy. It tells essentially three separate stories that overlap and intersect occasionally with each other. It starts out with Bruce Willis, one of the city's honest cops saving a young girl (who later in the movie grows up and is played by Jessica Alba) who has been kidnapped by the son (Stahl) of a corrupt senator (Boothe), then shifts to the story of a brute played by Micky Rourke who is on a revenge mission against the killer of his "true love," a hooker played by Jamie King. Then, there is a story about the boyfriend (Owen) of a bartender ( Murphy) who is being harassed by a corrupt cop (del Toro) taking out said cop.

The original DVD release was very bare-bones. The only extra is a short behind-the-scenes featurette. The movie, like the graphic novel, is very violent, with beatings, dismemberings, and everything in between, but manages not to show a lot of blood by showing the blood basically as bright white against the black and white that the movie is (mostly) filmed in. There is also some nudity, mostly from Carla Gugino and Jamie King, but also have characters in various states of undress or skimpy outfits (including Alba, Rosario Dawson, and Devon Aoki), and a lot of swearing. Basically, this is something you are going to watch if you are in the mood for an action movie and you do not mind very violent action movies. It is definitely not in the vein of the superhero comic book adaptations that Marvel and DC have put out since this was released. It is much more in the vein of Kill Bill and Watchman. Chances are, if you like those, you will like this. But, if you hate movies like those, you probably are not going to be into this one either.

DVD/Movie Review: The Sixth Sense

 

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment in the main roles and Olivia Williams in the main supporting role. Donnie Wahlberg has a brief but pivotal appearance at the beginning of the movie, and Mischa Barton (who would later go on to star in the hit series The OC) has a small role toward the end of the movie. It was actually Shyamalan's and was a very surprising hit and ended up being his breakout hit. It also saw a shift in Willis' career from action hero to taking on more dramatic roles. In it, Willis stars as a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe, who is attempting to help a young, troubled boy named Cole (played by Haley Joel Osment). He is the only child of a single mother (played by Toni Collette ), who is trying to figure out how to help her son. I will not go into too much detail for the handful of people who may not have seen it by now, but if you are aware of Shyamalan's other movies, there are twists in this one that you may or may not see coming. In fact, it was probably this movie that led him to get overzealous with the plot twists in his subsequent movies, which got more and more silly over the course of time (at least for a while).

The DVD extras include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as trailers and TV spots. A good amount of material. The picture quality of the DVD (at least the initial release) is okay, but not great, even when upscaled playing on a 4k TV with a 4K blu-ray. But, given the initial run of the DVD is now over twenty-years-old, that is not surprising. Overall, the movie is excellent. It is a blend of a drama and jump-scare thriller (not really a horror movie per-se). It is well written and very well acted, all the actors, especially Osment being so young, doing a wonderful job in their roles. It is definitely the best of Shyamalan's movies that I have seen (I have not seen some of the more recent movies like Split and Glass yet), and it is definitely worth checking out.

Blu Ray/Movie Review: Armageddon

 

Armageddon is pretty much the quintessential Michael Bay movie, a lot of action but totally unrealistic and even more non-sensical. The basic premise of the plot is that a killer asteroid is headed toward Earth. NASA determines that a team has to be sent to the asteroid to destroy it, by drilling a hole into it and planting a nuclear bomb to blow it apart. The government uses the design for a drill created by an oil driller named Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis). Instead of the logical thing, having Stamper's drill team train the astronauts how to use the drill, they decide to train the team of drillers, who are, to say the least, not even remotely qualified to be astronauts, to go up to the asteroid and drill the hole. Again, totally, stupid, but if you can suspend your disbelief, it works.

There is a strong cast including Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Jason Issacs, and William Fichtner. The members of the drilling team are pretty much lovable losers, and the astronauts are hard-nosed by the books types that don't want them there. Of course, the inevitable conflict between the team members as well as the threat of the asteroid intensifies throughout the movie.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. The extras are sparse, however. The trailers and the video for Aerosmith's song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", which was probably as popular as the movie itself. The video quality is upgraded from the Criterion Collection release, but the extras are a big downgrade.

Overall, the movie is what you would expect from a Michael Bay summer blockbuster. Lots of action and heroics, but nothing that you would expect to have a deep conversation about. The acting in this is much better than some of the Transformers movies (especially the various sequels), which helps offset the completely stupid plot. The romance story between Affleck and Tyler's characters was not really needed but was okay in the grand scheme of things. So, if you are looking for an action movie that you can kind of just turn your brain off and enjoy, this is a good one.