The Green Mile

It may be hard to believe but, the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Green Mile is fast approaching it's 20th anniversary. The film was released in December of 1999. It was a both a hit at the box-office and with critics, garnering a slew of various award nominations and winning a few along the way. Directed by Frank Darabont (who had just directed a big-screen version of  another King story, The Shawshank Redemption, a few years earlier) The Green Mile definitely a movie worth checking out if you've never seen it -or- if you're like me and just haven't rewatched it in a decade or so.

Set primarily in Louisiana in 1935, the film focuses on a prison cell block where death row inmates are kept. Named the 'Green Mile' because of the green colored floors, we're quickly introduced to the block's new inmate John Coffey (played by the late Michael Clarke Duncan). Although Coffey is an intimidatingly large man, he doesn't seem to have the personality or demeanor of a murderer. Coffey soon starts to endear himself to the guards, especially Paul (played by Tom Hanks) and they eventually discover that he has supernatural healing abilities. There are a couple small surprises along the way but overall I think it's a pretty straightforward story. The strength of this film, beyond just being an interesting story, is in the cast and how it's paced. The movie is a little over three hours long and sure, maybe a minute or two could've been shaved off. However, I think it mostly warrants that runtime and at no point do I feel like the movie drags scenes out unnecessarily. With regards to the cast, having a group consisting of actors like Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sam Rockwell, James Cromwell, David Morse, Michael Jeter, and Doug Hutchison really does help to elevate the material.

It's a good movie. I recommend it. 4 out of 5.

A Week of Kubrick - Day 3: Eyes Wide Shut

It's day 3 of "A Week of Kubrick" and so far I've taken a look back and rewatched Full Metal Jacket from 1987 and Lolita from 1962. Today's movie was the last film Kubrick ever made and was actually released shortly after his death. The film is, of course, 1999's Eyes Wide Shut. 

1999 is often considered one of the great years in the history of cinema with films like The Matrix, Fight Club, American Beauty, The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense, and Magnolia all coming out that year. Kubrick's final directorial outing is among those memorable films that closed out the 90's.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Dr. Bill Harford and Nicole Kidman as his wife Alice. It starts out simple enough with the two attending a Christmas party where they are both seen by each other flirting with other guests. The next evening while having an argument Bill receives a call about a patient of his passing away, and this is really what sets off a chain of events that drives the whole film; When Bill visits the dead man's daughter she tries, unsuccessfully, to seduce him. On the way back home Bill engages a prostitute but changes his mind at the last second. After that he notices an old college acquaintance, Nick, is playing piano at night club he decides to go inside. The two start up a conversation but are quickly interrupted when Nick receives a phone call about playing piano at a secret event where everyone wears masks. Intrigued by this, Bill rents a costume and heads to the party. What he finds when he arrives is a secret society and sexual rituals. It doesn't take long for the members to realize that Bill is an unwelcome outsider. They kick him out of the party and basically tell him to forget the whole thing. Of course he doesn't, and the rest of the film mostly revolves around the events of that night.

 It's a film of mystery and intrigue, all the while maintaining a sort of dream-like quality as Christmas lights give so many scenes a warm glow. While I don't think many would consider it one of Kubrick's best, it's still a solid film that is well acted and beautifully shot.
I give Eyes Wide Shut a 4 out of 5.

A Look Back at the 'American Pie' Films

For those who don't already know, the American Pie film franchise is a series of teen comedies, full of people finding themselves in awkward and often embarrassing situations... with a bit of gross-out humor thrown in for good measure. These are not high-concept cinematic masterpieces and even though I usually don't get into these types of movies, I've always enjoyed this franchise. 

Now, I'm only going to focus on the main series and not any of the spinoffs like American Pie Presents: Band Camp or American Pie Presents: Beta House. This is because;

 A) All those spinoffs were direct-to-video releases and they're all awful, so I don't want to rewatch any of them for this piece.

B) Other than Eugene Levy, none of the core original cast is in the spinoffs.

Now, none of these films were hits with critics for obvious reasons (the first film features Jason Biggs humping an apple pie), but they all did well at the box-office. Looking back, the first three films are pretty dated but a lot of the jokes still get a laugh out of me and the pop-punk/alt. rock soundtrack each film has is right up my alley. I find the core cast of this series to be a bit of a mixed bag with actors Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, and Eugene Levy all giving memorable performances, whereas some others like Chris Kline, Tara Reid, and Thomas Ian Nicholas are kind of forgettable.

Let's start, obviously, with 1999's American Pie. This first film focuses on a group of friends who are high school seniors that make a pact that they'll each find a girl and have sex by the end of prom night. It's a premise that worked in '99 but probably wouldn't do so well today. Even though each character gets their own story beats, Jim Levenstein (played by Jason Biggs) is the real standout of the movie, and he becomes the true main character in subsequent films.

Next up is American Pie 2 which was released in 2001 and stars all the same cast as it's predecessor. The film picks up with each of our main characters from the previous film after their first year at college. It's summer break and the guys rent a lake house for a summer of fun and plans to end it with a big party. Alyson Hannigan's character (Michelle Flaherty) has a bigger role in this film, with her and Jim developing a relationship. The best way I can describe this one is, uneven. It has some of the series' best moments, and also some of the most skippable.

The third entry in the series, American Wedding, came out in 2003 with some noticeable absences to the cast. There's no Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, or Natasha Lyonne, but when rewatching the movie I really didn't miss any of their characters. In this one everyone is done with college and, as the title suggests, they're all preparing for Jim's wedding to Michelle. Of course, shenanigans ensue, and even the characters in the film acknowledge how remarkable it is that Jim gets into all these crazy situations and ends up coming out of it on top. 

Nine years later the cast of the original came back together for one last time for 2012's American Reunion, and this probably the last we'll see of that original cast in an American Pie film (unless all of the actors get real desperate for money in the future). I never went to the theater to see this one and, in fact, only recently watched it for the first time. While I do enjoy the series, I thought American Wedding was a satisfying conclusion so I passed on this one initially. It's been thirteen years since the gang graduated high school and they're all back in town for a reunion. This one is definitely the weakest of the bunch and a lot of the jokes don't land as well as they did in previous films. It's not terrible, but the movie relies a little too much on the viewer's nostalgia for the older films.

Overall, I wouldn't call any of these movies great, but I think they're fun. Maybe I was just at the right age as these movies came out but, despite their flaws, I find myself going back to them every so often. 

A Look Back At "The Mummy" Movies

There have been a ton of movies that have featured mummies over the years. And in that slew of films between the 1932 Boris Karloff classic and the 2017 Tom Cruise one (that no one except for me seemed to like), exists a trilogy of films starring Brendan Fraser. Now, none of these were big critical hits but, the first two were mostly well-received by audiences.

The last of the Brendan Fraser 'Mummy' films came out back in 2008 and because it's been ten years since that series ended, I thought it would be a good time to look back and see if the movies hold up. Also, I'm going to keep this limited to the just the 'Mummy' films, so the 'Scorpion King' spinoff movies will not be included.

What works: Although after rewatching all of these I think it would be hard to argue in favor of any one of the three films being a legitimately great piece of cinema, it's hard to deny that they are a fun bunch of adventure flicks. Brendan Fraser is solid as the likable jerk Rick O'Connell, there is a nice balance of action and comedy, and the supporting cast is (mostly) good. Also, I like the musical score in all of the films, particularly the main themes from the 'The Mummy' and 'The Mummy Returns'.

What doesn't: The CGI effects in these films are really bad. Some will argue that the films came out in 1999, 2001, and 2008 respectively so they don't look great compared to today's standards. However, as someone who saw all of these when they were first released in theaters, a lot of the effects were subpar even for the time. Additionally, each of the three films carries a runtime of about 2hrs and they all feel a bit too long. Like most trilogies, there is one movie that is clearly the weakest of the bunch, and the runt of this litter is 'Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'. It doesn't involve an Egyptian mummy, most of the jokes fall flat, and they weren't able to convince Rachael Weisz to come back, so they just recast Evelyn.

Overall, despite some problems, I still think this is a fun trilogy of films. Are they going to go down in history as all-time classics? No, but if you haven't seen then in a while then they are worth revisiting.


Have a suggestion for a film review? Leave a comment below.
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If you enjoyed this there is, I did another 'Look Back' at the Hellboy films (you can check that out by clicking HERE).