Goodfellas

Well, to put it simply, Goodfellas was not good. Maybe because it's an older movie and this was my first time ever seeing it, or maybe that as a true story it was lacking in plot. I dont know.

So this is the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) who's whole life's ambition is to be a gangster. He becomes an errand boy for the head honcho Paulie, and along the way he meets Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) who becomes his ultimate idol. He also becomes close with Tommy (Joe Pesci) who's kind of a hothead and unpredictable. Well his dream comes true and he becomes a great gangster. A lot of how these guys make their money is by stealing things while in transit to their destination and selling them for a higher price.

He also meets a girl named Karen while on a double date with Tommy. He is too focused on his career to really pay attention to her, but eventually she gets his attention and he likes what he sees. They get married and he gets rich, but she has a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle of a gangster's wife. Don't worry, eventually she gets used to it.

Tommy ends up killing a guy in the heat of the moment for no reason other then he was insulted a tiny bit. The guys go bury the body and thats the end of it supposedly. Months later questions start arising and other gangs start wondering what happened to the guy.

Lots of years go by. Henry and Karen's marriage is a bit rocky and he also starts a relationship with a new girlfriend. He, Paulie and Jimmy end up going to jail and in order to get by Henry starts selling drugs. After they get out Paulie warns that the drugs have to stop, and that they should get back to the old business. Well Henry does it anyway and sells cocaine. He has his newest mistress cut the coke in her apartment.

Jimmy and some other guys set up a huge heist at the JFK airport and get about 6 million dollars from it. Well some of the guys aren't smart about it and start spending lots of money fast. Jimmy doesn't like that. Eventually in order to cut as many connections as possible to the robbery, he kills almost everyone involved. He doesn't kill Henry who wasn't involved in it, but Henry still got some of the take. Tommy also doesn't get killed because Jimmy, Tommy and Henry consider themselves a team almost, and a goodfellas to each other.

Well eventually Henry's coke-hazed days come to an end. He goes back to jail. When he gets out he was planning on selling coke from his last shipment to help them survive, but Karen flushed it down the toilet during a raid on their house. Tommy was about to be "made", becoming a leader in their community, but instead he got killed in revenge for the guy he killed in the moment way back when. Henry lied to Jimmy and Paulie too many times and so they decide to have him killed too. But Henry suspects that something is up and so he decides to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in exchange for Witness Protection. He lived in WP until this movie came out, and was so excited that he was like "Everybody, that was me!" They kicked him out.

This was set in the late sixties-eighties. And the decor was insane. I never knew that such crazy wallpaper existed. I think the actors did a good job, but the plot was just really slow.

Andrew's Closing Thoughts: One of my all time favorite gangster movies.

Up Next: The Goonies

Good Will Hunting

 

This is supposed to be one of the greatest movies ever apparently. I have never seen it all the way through, but Andrew really loves it. We have a (now) all-star cast: Baby Ben Affleck, Baby Casey Affleck, Baby Matt Damon, Stellan Skarsgard, Minnie Driver and Robin Williams. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon actually wrote this movie and won awards for it.

The setting is Boston (as is basically every Ben Affleck Movie). We open up to Will (Matt Damon) working on some very complicated math problems. Then all of a sudden at MIT some math problem open to the students that was stumping them for ages appears to be solved. The campus is all abuzz with who the genius is.

Then we meet a group of guys just cruising the streets, when all of a sudden Will comes across his bully from kindergarten. He decides its time to settle the score and so a street brawl ensues. Nothing says brawl like beating somebody up in a windbreaker, as is the Affleck brothers' case. Will gets caught by police and is arrested. Turns out he is not a first offender. He has been in and out of the system since childhood. Foster care, lots of assault charges etc., etc.

The professor of the math class with the mystery problem see's Will answering a new problem on the board, but doesn't get a name. Will is not actually a student there, but a janitor! He find out who Will is and goes to his hearing about his latest criminal activity. True to the genius character Will is, he is defending himself in court. Unfortunately because he also assaulted a cop, he gets sentenced. The Professor( Skarsgard) makes a deal with the judge that Will will be released under his care on the condition that he help him with math at MIT and that he sees a therapist.

During all this, Will has met Skylar(Minnie Driver) who could very possibly be the one.

Now the search for a shrink begins. Will reads their books before he visits them and then messes with them during their sessions together, to the point they become pissed off and want nothing to do with him. As a last hope, the Professor reaches out to an old roommate. Sean (Robin Williams) is a psych professor at a community college. He has recently experienced the death of his beloved wife and seems to have stopped living as well. At his first meeting with Will, Will is able to dissect things about Sean's inner struggles just by looking at something he painted. Things get heated.

Sean decides to keep seeing Will because he is intrigued. At the their next meeting, one of the best scenes of the movie occurs.



This scene has become so iconic and loved that after Robin Williams' untimely death this past month, people took to this bench where the scene was filmed and used it as an impromptu  memorial. There is even a petition going around to erect a Robin Williams Statue in this park.



Well he and Will slowly begin to build a bond while Will is constantly showing up all these Ivy Leaguers with his mad math skills.  He is constantly getting pressured over what he should do to use his genius ability. But he just wants to work construction with his pals! Or rather he's really afraid to actually try so he just settles for the life in construction. His girl Skylar is constantly wanting to know more about his past and his family, and he keeps lying and brushing the subject off. He thinks once she learns of the abuse and terrible childhood he had, she wont want to be with him. They have a very emotional fight and it was probably the best scene that Minnie Driver has ever had in her entire career. Things leave pretty tense but the truth is finally out there.

His friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck) admits to Will that he has always had high hopes for him and that it is Will's responsibility to go and do something amazing with the talents he has been given for Chuckie, because he is well aware that he will only be a construction worker. This conversation, along with a breakthrough he has with Sean about realizing "It's not his fault" for his past" allows him to possibly dream about the future and its real possibilities. He is also able to love and trust again.

He accepts a position with a prestigious firm that The Professor set up for him, but on the verge of starting this new phase, he decides to travel to California to go meet up with Skylar who is now attending med school at Stanford. He leaves a note with Sean saying "He had to go see about a girl"


It was a really great movie!! Tons of F-Bombs, and their bostonian accents were a little crazy, but hey, that's a Ben Affleck movie!!

Andrew's Closing Thought: My Favorite Robin Williams bearded movie role.

Up Next: Goodfellas

Braveheart

Ahhhhhhhh! This movie is so good! It took us a while to watch it because it was tough to find the time to sit down and watch a 3 hour movie. But we finally did it.

So if you haven't seen Braveheart then stop right now and go watch it. Don't read my silly blog about it, go actually watch it, because its that amazing.

It's set in the 1300's in Scotland, who has not yet separated from England, though they are trying to. William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is a Scot who was orphaned at a young age and went and lived with an Uncle who taught him languages and other intellectual things. He also was taught how to fight, so he's basically the whole package. He comes back to his childhood village to  build a home and a family.

During this time the King of England, Edward Longshanks, decided to enact a law called prima nocte, in which after a Scottish commoner marriage,  an Englishman would get the first night with the new bride instead of the groom. Well William arrives in time for a wedding and sees the trouble this causes, and doesn't like it one bit. His childhood crush's dad asks him to join with them in the rebellion against England, and he refuses. So now the dad won't let him court his daughter Maron.(Who I always thought looked like Winnie from the Wonder Years) That doesn't stop him. He woos Maron and they end up getting married in secret because he doesn't want to share her with any other man.

I recently got super into book series called Outlander, that takes place in 17th century Scotland. So while they are still a few hundred years apart, I was trying to merge the two different cultures of Scotland and see what were similar between the books and this movie.Anyway, the young couple were hand fasted which is something i learned about in the books, so I was super excited when that occurred.

Maron can't hide her newlywed glow and an Englishman takes notice, and also probably notices the Wallace's plaid hiding under her clothes. He tries to rape her and she fights back and soon Wallace rescues her. He sends her to escape to their secret spot while he beats up the rest of the soldiers. She doesn't make it and is then used as bait to get Wallace to return. He doesn't show so they slit her throat. Uh oh, Wallace found out and he's pissed. He and the rest of the village slaughter the English garrison. Maron's death inspires Wallace to fight for the freedom that she never had.

More Scots join together and there's lots of Scots killing English and English killing Scots.

During this time, we meet Robert the Bruce, who is the heir to the Scottish throne. His dad has leprosy or something, and they have a super twisted relationship. He pretends like his dad is in France while he is really hiding in the attic. He thinks that Wallace's campaign is admirable and wants to support it, but his dad keeps tainting him to side with England for personal interests. 

The King's son is recently married to woman from France. He's not a very good ruler and he care's more about his boyfriend than his wife. She is falling for the legend of Wallace and views his mission as romantic.

The first big battle happens when the Prince sends England's northern army to face Wallace and the Scots. At this time the people are divided. There's the common people and then there's the nobles. Wallace rides in with his blue painted face and with a great speech unites them. They then flash and moon the English army.
The English start off with archers. After a couple rounds of taking the arrows, Wallace signals for a group to break off and retreat. The cavalry comes in and the front line surprise the English with some really long spears that take out the horses. It's all hand to hand combat from here. Once the infantry head into battle, the retreaters come back around and take out the archery. The Scottish won the battle!!!!!!!

They then go and slaughter the town of York and take the city.

The King is super pissed and ends up killing his son's boyfriend. Oh snap!

Meanwhile, back in Wallace's world, he has a couple new friends. His old best friend Hamish (Mad Eye Mooney!) and his new best friend Steven from Ireland become his counsel and support system.

Wallace meets with the Princess under the banner of a truce, and shows her that Longshanks is lying and that he is really a terrible person. She's smitten with him and helps him a couple times throughout the movie by warning him of danger before it happens

The next big battle occurs where the Irish and French join in to help the English. As the Irish infantry and Scottish are charging towards each other, the Irish  suddenly stop, shake hands with the Scots, and help fight the English. Surprise! Then some archers fire flaming arrows into some oil spread out the night before, which takes out the English cavalry. Then its more infantry fighting and they win again!


Robert the Bruce continues his internal battle with what side he should truly align with.

Wallace and the Princess start having a secret relationship, and she gets knocked up!


The final big battle with the King happens, and just as Wallace thinks he has the upper hand, all the nobles back out and they lose the fight. He chases after the king, only to come face to face with The Bruce, who betrayed him. But then Bruce spares his life and sends him away with Steven. Wallace then goes and kills the nobles that betrayed him, except Bruce.

Thinking that Bruce finally wants to join sides with him, Wallace meets up with him only to be ambushed by the English. Bruce really didn't know about that happening. Wallace then refuses to confess or give his loyalty to the King so he gets tortured. When everyone is yelling at him to scream mercy and end his torture, he gets the strength to yell Freedom!

Eventually under the leadership of Robert the Bruce, Scotland becomes free. (Apparently he is the real historical Braveheart, whatever that means)

I love all the different military tactics used throughout the movie, however it's been a really long time since I watched this movie not on TV. It's a whole lot more gorey and gruesome than what it is on tv, so I ended up just closing my eyes for the majority of the battle scenes. Gross!

Andrew's Closing Thought: The most historically inaccurate movie ever

Up Next: Bridesmaids

The Bourne Ultimatum

This movie wasn't originally planned for the series, so they had to get creative since they had the last one end in a nice resolved manner. This picks up right after Jason escapes in Berlin. He's just traveling along in Europe when he reads an article exposing the operations behind Treadstone and himself being a feature figure in the article. He along with the CIA want to know who the leak was. The reporter, named Ross also talks about another operation called Blackbriar. Jason really wants to know about this one, and so does Pamela Landy. It turns out a man named Noah is running Blackbriar, which is project Treadstone on steroids. More assassins.

Jason finds the reporter in London and they are able to talk briefly but then the cops and an assassin are after them. There's a pretty cool chase sequence through Waterloo, but alas the reporter gets too skiddish and angsty and deviates from Jason's instructions, and gets killed. Jason steals his notes and flees the scene. He has a lead to Madrid to find the source behind the article. At the same time the CIA learns that it was Neal Daniels who was the leak, who is currently stationed in Madrid. Jason breaks into his office to see that he has fled, but runs into his old pal Nikki! She helps him escape, barely. They head to Morocco where Nikki plans to lead him to Daniels. Unfortunately there is an assassin sent to kill Daniels at the same time. Noah decides that Nikki is to be the next target after Daniels. Jason tries to stop the assassination on Daniels but fails. Desh, the assassin heads after Nikki, and a really long chase sequence occurs, leading to Bourne and Jason fighting it out. They report in that they are dead, and must be on the run again. There's a deja vu moment, where Nikki dies and cuts her hair to be short, dark and choppy, just like Marie. Instead of staying with Nikki, Jason has learned his lesson and makes her leave and she goes on the run solo.
 

He then heads to NYC. Landy wants to help him and doesn't think he's a threat to them. They communicate through code briefly at the airport and Jason knows that they know he's coming. He calls Landy and they set up a meeting spot. Because Noah is suspicious of Landy, he's tapped her phones and he and a big squad follow her to the rendezvous. During this time, Jason sneaks into Noah's office and steals the files on Treadstone/Blackbriar. He then calls Noah and gloats! He gets in another massive car chase with another assassin that ends the same way as the one in the Supremacy. He has the chance to kill his assailant, but chooses not to. Thanks to another tip from Landy, he heads to the building where he first began his Treadstone career. He gives Landy the documents he stole and she faxes them to some important person. He meets the creator of the program, and learns that he used to be a soldier who then volunteered for the program. He had some difficulties just killing people without reason or regard for who they are or there life. But as we know he got over that. He barely escapes, and makes it to the roof where the assassin from the car chase holds him at gun point. He can't help but wonder why he was spared, and Jason responds "Look at us, look at what they make us give" (just like in the first one!) and jumps into the East River. Right as the assassin lowers his weapon, Noah shoots Jason.

We then see that legal actions are being taken against the creator of Treadstone and Noah. And, that Jason swam away safely after jumping off the building!

I really appreciated all of the nods to the previous movies in this one. However, while watching them back to back I couldn't help but think, "oh they're doing this again".

But these are really great movies.

I think I realized that one of the reasons I'm having some trouble with the blog the last few times has been because the last 6 or so movies have just all been super action packed movies. I'm ready for a break from the car chases!

Andrew's Closing Thought: A fitting end... if only it would have ended. (We both disapprove of the bourne legacy)

Up Next: Braveheart

The Bourne Supremacy

We pick up in our tale of the Amensiac Assassin Jason Bourne in India. He and Marie are living a low key lifestlye for the past 2 years. Jason is riddled with nightmares about his past, and Marie tries to help him by encouraging him to write a dream diary and remember the names of those he has killed. They are living their peaceful life until one day Jason senses that somebody has finally found them. He was right, and a car chase through their Indian village happens, ending with Marie getting shot at the drivers seat and careening off a bridge into the water. Jason tries to save her but realizes she is dead. He's super pissed now.

Right before this happens, some sort of covert operations was going on in Berlin, where the US was hoping to get a hold of some documents they referred to as the Netsky files. Things went wrong when the man who hunted down Jason and Marie kills the operatives about to get the files, and frames Jason Bourne for it. He then goes to kill Jason to tie up loose ends.
 
Jason travels to Naples Italy, which alerts the gov. to his presence. He gets stopped by security, beats them up and hacks onto his phone. Especially interested in his travels is a woman named Pamela Landy. She puts together a task force which includes the same people working in the first movie, like Nikki, and a super high level guy named Ward. They meet up with her already in place team in Berlin. Jason listening in, heads to Berlin as well.

Jason makes contact with her and wants to know why they're after him, and learns about being framed. He sets up a meet with Nikki and learns a few more truths from her. The operation that originally failed in Berlin was to get the Netsky files, files about a Russian politician that proved something. Jason recognizes this and is somehow familiar with the name Netsky. He eventually remembers that he was the one who killed Netsky, it was his first, unofficial assignment. He was suppose to just kill him, but then his wife walked in and he had to kill her too, and he framed it as a suicide. He felt really guilty about this, especially since they had a daughter.

He then travels to Moscow to try and find the daughter to tell her the truth and apologize. He gets into quite a few scuffles because he is constantly being hunted by the police and other assassins. He's got a hurt leg for a good amount of the movie, and the assassin who failed at killing him early  gets a good shot into his shoulder finally. They get into a big car chase and we assume that the assassin is killed in the wreckage. Jason makes it to the girls apartment and tells her the truth, thinking that that kind of information can really change things.

Jason then goes after Ward, after learning that he was the one Cronkin reported to during the first movie. He records a confession from Ward stating that he was linked to the Netsky files since it was an unsanctioned kill. Ward is caught offguard by the fact that he was just recorded and not killed, he later kills himself right infront of Pamela Landy.

Jason sends Pamela the recording and the truth is exposed. The movie ends by him calling Landy and she telling him his real name and birthday, and shows him walking around NYC. Originally this was suppose to be the end of the series, but then a third movie was greenlit.

Andrew's Closing Thought: It's got as much action as the first, but has a deeper story

Up Next: The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Identity

Andrew's had a cold all week and so to celebrate our day off together we decided to have a Bourne marathon today!

A baby face Matt Damon is found floating in the ocean by some fishing ship. They think the body is dead, and they discover 2 bullet shots in the back and some bank code that was imbedded in his thigh. Big surprise, he's alive and has no idea where he is or who he is. Amnesia!!  He spends about 2 weeks on the fishing boat with the crew, learns he can speak many languages, but still nothing comes back to him. He's pretty frustrated.Once they have arrived ashore he feels pretty lost and alone. While sleeping on a bench one night, he is woken up by cops and he accidentally beats them up. He then decides to go to the bank in Zurich and check out why he has this account imbedded in his thigh. In it is a lot of money in different currencies, lots of different passports that are all him, and a gun. He takes everything but the gun and leaves in a hurry. He learns his name is Jason Bourne, supposedly.

Next up is a trip to the American Embassy where he can get information about his American Passport I suppose. Things don't go so well as people from the bank were linked with the CIA keeping track of him. They are trying to find him. He gets spooked at the Embassy and beats some more people up and hastily leaves. He demands a ride from a girl he noticed inside who was having troubles and low on money. He offers her money to drive him to France, where the address on his passport is listed.

They bond over the long drive, and he  opens up to Marie about his amnesia and stuff. They get to his apartment and its pretty nice, but mostly empty. He learns about one of his aliases, which is supposedly dead. All of a sudden an assassin busts in and he and Jason fight. It's pretty gruesome, in a bone breaking, pen shoved up your skin kind of way. Anytime it looks like a bone is about to be broken, I immediately throw my hand in from of my eyes, because I just can't handle that!

Now he's even more determined to figure out who he is, the whole time the government is out looking for him and Marie. She changes her hairstyle to a dark, short choppy hairdo, and they become romantically involved. He eventually learns that he was an assassin, who was sent to kill some important African politician named Wombosi. He failed. Not long after though, Wombosi was murdered in Paris by Clive Owen, another assassin.

Marie still chooses to stay with him despite knowing what he is. They travel to her brothers house out in the country. Unfortunately Clive Owen follows them there and he and Bourne shoot at each other in countryside. Bourne comes out victorious and Owen's final words are "Look at us, look at what they make us give". I was pretty sad when he died.


He and Marie have parted ways, Jason learns about a small headquarters in Paris that just might hold all the answers he needs. Inside he finds a man named Conklin who was in charge of his assassin self, and Nikki ( Julia Stiles) who was the logistics person who monitored all the assets. He learns the truth about his failed assassin attempt while talking to Conklin. Apparently he had a moment of doubt and conscience because Wombosi's children were around him on a yacht. He left but got shot on his way off the boat. He still needs to learn more about the Treadstone project that he is somehow involved with, but unfortunately some people have come to kill him as always and he has to make a rushed exit. He uses a dead body and jumps down like a 10 story stairwell, shooting a guy midfall and then using his deadbody surfboard as buffer when he lands. He leaves hoping to be done with all of this, and another assassin who we think is off to kill him, actually kills Conklin instead. 

He let some time pass and he finds Marie off the grid somewhere in Greece. They can be together now!

I do enjoy these action packed movies and seeing all the clever things that the hero does, but I find them kind of hard to write about in blog form.

Andrew' Closing Thought: It's the start to an awesome action trilogy

Up Next: The Bourne Supremacy

Boondock Saints

Well we finally finished Boondock Saints. I've been putting off watching this movie for a while, but it actually turned out to be pretty good. We started watching it yesterday, and then I got called in to work, so we didn't get to finish it until today.

We first meet Connor and Murphy McManus in mass, where we also learn of the tale of the incident which the bystander effect is based on. A woman was raped and murdered while 38 people watched and did nothing about it. They all just assumed that someone else was going to help. This inspires the McManus brothers to take action against those doing harm. They end up getting in a bar fight with some russian mobsters. They think that everythings over, that is until the injured mobsters come storming into their studio apartment and nearly kill them. Well the bros come out on top with 3 dead russians in their alley.

The police investigate, and an FBI agent (William DeFoe) named Smecker (and his fabulous hair) is on the case. He's a pretty eccentric guy but really good at his job. The McManus bros bring themselves in to the cops and tell them the whole story, that it was in self defense. While in jail they have a vision from God, telling them to punish the wicked. So they now become vigilantes killing evildoers, like really bad people. They get into another scuffle killing a bunch of mobsters at a hotel room, but this one they actually seek out. Their best friend Rocco turns up at the hotel, as he was sent by the italian mafia to kill these people, but instead he runs into the McManus twins. They tell them about the quest they have been sent on and he wants to join them. He knows basically everybody in the crime world and is able to help them figure out who to kill next. He also goes a little off on his own and kills some people in a bar that he's pissed at. The trio kill some people at a porno club.

The Italians aren't happy with Rocco (they think he's working alone) killing all these people, so they get this infamous killer named Il Duce out of prison to get rid of Rocco. During another killing spree with some crooks at a poker game in the suburbs. After they are about to leave, they face Il Duce in the street. He's got like 10 guns strapped to his body, and a massive shootout insues. Rocco loses a finger, and the brothers each get some minor wounds, that they later all cauterize with an iron.

This entire time Smecker has been following their bloodshed and with the Rocco's lost finger, is able to finally figure out who is behind it all. He's torn because as an officer of the law he feels like he should stop them, but at the same time he thinks that what they are doing is a good thing and wants to let them go on. After a brief visit with a priest, he decides to help them. The Saints as they are being called now, plan on going straight to the source and kill the head of the Italians.  Doesn't work out too well because they end up getting bloodied up and captured. Rocco gets shot in the chest. Smecker realizes that they are in a trap and dresses up as a hooker to get into the house. He kills a couple of the mobsters. Il Duce is about to kill the two McManus boys, but then sees them saying a prayer over their dear friends soul. This is something that is only allowed in their family, as they refused to teach Rocco it. Il Duce chimes in on the end of their prayer. It's their Da!!!

Oh, did I mention they are irish??

3 months later the italian boss is on trial. The Saints (with the help of smecker) storm the courtroom and announce to the world their intentions of ridding the world of serious evildoers. It's a pretty epic scene. Then they kill Papa Joe.

The credits roll with a lot of news clippings of peoples thoughts on the Saints, whether its a good or bad thing, which was pretty interesting to watch. They seemed like they were real people, not actors.

Here are just a few things I loved about this movie:
-Norman Reedus from the Walking Dead!!!
- William Defoe was super crazy and fabulous
-First you would stumble upon a crime scene, the police would investigate and put out their theories, and then later you would see what actually happened.
-The brotherly love with the McManus twins
- The balance between humor and drama

Andrew's Closing Thoughts: I think the Saints are the good guys

Up Next: The Bourne Identity