Great Movies: As I See It

Hello all,

The other day I watched a movie called Maximum Conviction. Starred Steven Seagal . I was never a fan of him and the next morning Sara grumbled that I fell asleep halfway through the movie, I said to her "well, what do you expect? He's not my type of guy."
I am very selective over what sort of movies to watch. Same goes for books. I  only read books from a few authors. Worse than that,  I only read Jeffrey Archer's books nowadays.  What is becoming of me!

Back to movies, I have a few movies that I will consider as  masterpiece. I was neither a Sci Fi fan nor was I of any action-packed movies. So, we can count those out.
Here's the list of movies that I find intelligent,entertaining and have that good-to-watch qualities : The Silence of The Lamb, The Fugitive, Shooter, The Bone Collector and Above Suspicion. Mind you, this is from my personal point of view.

I will not go into the story line of each movie I had watched. I just want to share the best scene or moment in each movie with you people.

Let's go with Silence of the Lamb first. There was Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Both had at one time visited this island (Langkawi). Believe it or not, I was standing right opposite Jodie Foster when she was here years ago to film Anna and The King whereas Anthony Hopkins was here last year (if I am not mistaken) for holiday.
Ok, I am blabbering a wee bit.
About the movie. Anthony Hopkins was brilliant as Hannibal Lecter. I can't think of anyone better to play that part. He didn't overdo his part. His greatest asset was his cold blue (dead) eyes. The story line was easy to grasp unlike some other movies that needed us to think and re-think what the movie was all about. He was intelligent yet totally gruesome when he disguised himself using the face of the security guard that he had cut off earlier.
And then there was Foster as Clarice Starling, a rookie at her job and raring to prove her ability at what she was about to investigate. Brilliant!
Then comes the sequel, Hannibal. I was slightly disappointed when Foster wasn't in the cast. And I feel the movie was a little messy. I was kinda lost a few times throughout the movie. Thus, this movie was not in my list. Biased because Foster was not in it? Maybe.

The Fugitive: Let me tell you guys. He is one of my favourite actors. Truly a great actor. I remember watching one of his movies, What Lies Beneath. There was one scene when he was standing by the staircase railing looking down at his wife, I think.  He looked panic, the camera focused to his side profile and I can see him gulping. It looked real. Like he was in panic that he get caught.
Back to The Fugitive, this movie was the greatest among all other movies that I've watched. Ford was excellent as Dr Richard Kimble. My favourite scene was when he went back to the hospital he worked, looking for some clues about the prosthetic limb that could lead him to his wife killer and when he changed a medical's order so that a young boy's case be handled urgently. He was truly convincing playing the part of a surgeon. Intelligent movie and I was glued to my seat until the end.

Next, The Shooter. Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger. For a white guy, he's kind of small. Can I say petite? No? Only for ladies,huh? Okay, however one may describe him, he's ruggedly gorgeous. This is another movie I never get tired of watching. My favourite scene? There were two, one was  when they (the military men and him) were at a building scouting the place where the President's speech was to take place. They were talking about the possibility of a shoot out from that distance. They were taking into account about the lightest blow of wind that could ruin the target, the angle, the shooting position and all those cool talk about guns. I was intrigued by it all. The other one was when he was approaching a cabin where a Russian shooter was hiding. The camera focused on a silhouette figure of a man standing in a small boat (or dingy) approaching the hide-out. That was classy. Overall I loved this movie. I had watched it about five times.

The Bone Collector: Another great actor taking the lead role. Denzel Washington. The story line has a slight resemblance to The Silence of The Lamb movie. The way Washington was portrayed as an intelligent quadriplegic homicide detective. His office is the hospital itself. His sidekick was played by none other than the beautiful Angelina Jolie. Since he can't move at all, he depended on Jolie to describe him about the crime scene and evidence carried in by the police and Jolie as well. From  there, he'd put two and two together. Jolie was to be his eyes and ears. Jolie's performance was still raw back then. Overall, I enjoyed the movie.

My last favourite is Above Suspicion. I know, you guys must be thinking, what movie is that? Believe me, I didn't think much of it at first but one day when I had nothing better to do, I sat and watched this movie played by Christopher Reeves (that's right, Superman himself) and I thought to myself, that wasn't bad. Christopher Reeves played a role as a paralyzed cop, Dempsey Cain. (ironically he became paralyzed in real life not long after that movie was shot)
In this movie, his wife had cheated on him with another man, and that other man happened to be his brother. He plot to kill his wife. My favourite scene? When he was required to take the polygraph test to prove his innocence. He trained his voice by controlling the voice vibration so that it will appear positive in the test. Another scene was, when he was cross-examined in the court, by a police officer (played by Joe Mantegna) and out of exasperation the officer stabbed him (Cain) on his thigh. He remained motionless. I forgot most of the story line as the last time I watched was maybe five years ago.

Out of the five movies, my pick would be.... The Fugitive followed by The Silence of The Lamb. I know, many would argue Silence of The Lamb has a good screen play. But I am looking it in a few ways. The Fugitive has a much easier script to grasp. We, the audience could relate as to what Dr Richard Kimble was going through if that were to happen to any us, whereas in Silence of The Lamb, Dr Lecter's intelligence is way ahead of our thinking. It seemed a little far-fetched to think that someone could be that smart while being locked up in a prison.

There were other movies that interest me as well, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Both of my gorgeous leads were in that movie. As usual I am more inclined towards the bad guy. So when Travolta requested for Denzel Washington to shoot him, I was upset. I loved Travolta since his days of Saturday night Fever and Grease. I even tried once to cut a little cleft under my chin so that I could look like him.
My daughter, Sara, many a time got upset while watching movies with me. Reason being, I was always backing up the bad guys. I had to defend myself by saying I am not siding the bad guys but rather their acting, the way they present or carry themselves as the bad guy made me always wanted to be on their side. I guess directors or rather other actors (playing good guys) must find some way to project themselves as someone that audience feel protective towards or drawn to them.

Of course I watched some light movies especially comedies. Adam Sandler had me in stitches in most of his comedy movies. Soffian (my son) is a great fan of him. I love the Big Daddy movie where he looked after a little boy and taught him what every mother wouldn't dream of doing/teaching.  I like Just Go With It, Grown Ups and many more.

Who  says too much movies or TVs were not good to us. I, for one disagree with that line. There were movies or TV series that taught us things we'd never knew in our everyday lives such as C.S.I. After watching countless of episodes, I had learn a few things about blood trajectory, DNAs, the crime scene itself and many other things of which I had no  way of knowing it had it not be from the CSIs. Oh, by the way, Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) is my favourite  detective in CSI.

Okay, had to go now. Hope you enjoy the little write up.
Have a great day wherever you are.

Rose
8th.November '13