A three hour character driven spectacle would be the sentence that comes to mind when thinking of "The Deer Hunter". Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale all allow us to see inside their characters superbly...
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A three hour character driven spectacle would be the sentence that comes to mind when thinking of "The Deer Hunter". Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale all allow us to see inside their characters superbly and the culmantion is a movie that, while easily forgettable if you don't adhere to policy of not allowing your attention to wane and don't understand the complexity of friendships and war, gets you feeling about the characters, and gives a fascinating, albeit chilling, insight into the horrors of guerilla warfare.
The story follows the two steel working Russian Orthodox occupants (Walken and DeNiro) of a Pensylvanina town, and in three acts tells their story from social bliss in America, to the harrowing stage of the Vietnam war, and back to America (one alive one dead) where the remaining friend copes with the mental horrors of the aftermath of the war.
This film is superbly told, and until "Crash (2004)", was the only movie which could pull off a purely character driven script. Buy it, see it, and if you don't like it (which would be a surprising event) Ebay it.

Oscar wins:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walken)
Best Film Editing
Best Sounf

Oscar nominations
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Streep) (deserved a win)
Best Actor (DeNiro)
Best Cinematography
Best Original Screenplay (deserved a win)

While brilliant acting is put forward by Tim Robbins as "Andy Dufresne", the shy yet clever banker wrongly convicted of a double murder, and Morgan Freeman as "Red", the well respected prison veteran the story can be at time's...
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While brilliant acting is put forward by Tim Robbins as "Andy Dufresne", the shy yet clever banker wrongly convicted of a double murder, and Morgan Freeman as "Red", the well respected prison veteran the story can be at time's a slow, and those with a very short patience (and attention) span, will not be able to slog out the first 60 minutes in which the question "where is this going?" begs an answer, to find themselves at an overwhelming strong and unsuspecting ending.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is set over 20 years in Shawshank Prison and follows the two main characters played by Freeman and Robbins. Accompanying them on their trip through the prison filled with guard high on sadism and religion, is a superb supporting cast managing to hold their own. The plot is cleverly interleaved and a series of unsuspecting events lead to one jaw-drooping climax.

At the 1995 Oscar's this film was nominated for a total of 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Leading Actor for Freeman (who would have been more suited to the Supporting category), but on the big night failed to win a single award in the shadows of the years big commercial and critical success "Forest Gump". Although it is currently considered one of the greatest movies made, it is only so because of a superb screenplay and acting, and those two together fail to make a film that overall you could truly appreciate 20 years after watching it.

Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley were perfect in their roles as Captain Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swan respectively but Orlando Bloom was horribly cast.

The movie action is, at times, great but unfortunately it goes too slow, and at...
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Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley were perfect in their roles as Captain Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swan respectively but Orlando Bloom was horribly cast.

The movie action is, at times, great but unfortunately it goes too slow, and at times you can be waiting for something to happen for too long. Gore Verbinski was the perfect choice as director and the music was brilliantly done by Hans Zimmer.

"Twister" stars one of my favourite actresses of all time, Helen Hunt, but it is a poor credit to her name.

The movie consists of horrible incidental music, flat action and too much of the same thing. By this I mean that the...
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"Twister" stars one of my favourite actresses of all time, Helen Hunt, but it is a poor credit to her name.

The movie consists of horrible incidental music, flat action and too much of the same thing. By this I mean that the film has too many scenes involving twisters. You might ask "Isn't that what the film's about?", and yes you'd be right but there is too much Twisters!