Netflix 2014 - Cinema Crespodiso

Netflix pick for 3/24/14 – ‘Donnie Brasco’

“Heeey, fuhgedaboutit!” For sure, “Donnie Brasco” is the more underrated gangster movie of the 1990s that still managed to make sure this particular stereotypical exclamation embedded itself deep into our lexicon, forever associated with wise guys and undercover agents who went too deep into the mob in order to get their targets.

Directed by an Englishman and starring Johnny Depp, “Donnie Brasco” on the surface is one of the least authentic Italian-American mafia movies to be made, but actually they pretty much nail everything about what made real life FBI agent Joe Pistone’s story as an undercover agent so incredible and ended up with a critically acclaimed film, one that does not get mentioned enough when it comes to portraying the mafia lifestyle and enterprise on film. Great acting (including from legend Al Pacino, still a number of years and a few performances away from the current Pacino we all know and tolerate), an incredible story, strong direction, compelling characters and relationships, it is all here and it is pretty damn great.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 3/17/14 – ‘Dirty Pretty Things’

“Dirty Pretty Things” is a movie about illegal immigrants in the UK and how they are exploited, but that’s a tough sell, so really “Dirty Pretty Things” is about an illegal immigrant with a medical background being forced to take part in some black market type of stuff, while another illegal immigrant has to deal with her sexually exploitative boss at the sweat shop at which she toils away for little money, and how these two people find each other and help each other overcome some serious odds.

This is a really well made movie, captivating and interesting in that “thriller” sort of way, what with our leads being fugitives from the law and constantly hiding their illegal status, but also taking the time to really explore these characters and their few relationships and daily lives and rounds out the whole picture, so that when the ending comes around, the characters are actually developed and feel like they arrived somewhere that they worked hard to get to, as opposed to just going through the motions of a plot because the screenplays says so.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 3/10/14 – ‘Day of the Dead’

There was a time not too long ago when zombies were most certainly not the cultural force they are now in this present day. There were no “zombie walks,” no hugely successful zombie-based television shows or comic books, nothing to indicate that popular culture would one day be inundated with zombie-related materials. Hell, back in 1985, zombies were strictly the province of comic book wielding, put-upon geeks and nerds, and there was one undisputed king of the undead, and that man was George Romero, and he had just released the capper to his undead trilogy (a trilogy which he would end up adding to in the 2000’s zombie boom), and like many trilogies, while the third installment is not as good as the two that came before it, it, “Day of the Dead” has plenty going for it to make it a Netflix Instant Pick of the Week.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 3/3/14 – ‘Prince Avalanche’

Before he was the director behind the studio-produced comedies “Pineapple Express,” “Your Highness” and “The Sitter,” writer/director David Gordon Green was a critical darling and the maker of tiny little coming-of-age Southern-set indie movies like “George Washington” and “All The Real Girls,” small movies based heavily on the characters and their development, and with his latest movie “Prince Avalanche,” Green has returned to those indie roots with a film that fits the first half of his filmography much better than it fits in with the second half.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 2/24/14 – ‘The Untouchables’

Written by David Mamet. Directed by Brian De Palma. Scored by Ennio Morricone. Starring Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery. You need more reasons to watch the fantastic 1987 crime drama “The Untouchables?”

“The Untouchables” may be best known for its famous shoot-out on the steps sequence, featuring a baby carriage bouncing down the stairs while cops and gangsters shoot at each other in super dramatic slow motion. This is a fine example of the whole “amateurs create, professionals steal,” as this is De Palma’s great call back to the 1925 silent movie “Battleship Potemkin,” and much like most of De Palma’s career, this movie is just as much an ode to cinema in general as it is a telling of the Eliot Ness – Al Capone story. This movie is fun, epic and definitely worth watching if you have not seen it already.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 2/17/14 – ‘Marathon Man’

Combining both the general distrust and sense of doom that permeated the United States in the 1970’s with everyone’s inant fear of dentistry, “Marathon Man” is an awesome 7’s classic featuring a great lead performance from Dustin Hoffman, as well as everyone’s favorite type of movie villain, Nazis.

A big hit when it was released, “Marathon Man” still works as a great suspense thriller, super tense at times and expertly directed by John Schlesinger. After all, there is an INTENSE scene featuring some dental torture that could have easily been cheesy or schlocky or just plain bad, but with proper direction and acting, this ends up being one of the most memorable and frightening sequences ever in cinema. Coming up on forty years old, this is a film that can still capture audiences, a movie which people can still identify with, a movie that still manages to reflect not only the world in which it was made, but somehow still reflects our world we live in today. The mark of a classic.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 2/10/2014 – ‘The Frighteners’

“The Frighteners” is a fun horror comedy most notable for two things: it is the first “Hollywood” movie from Peter Jackson and it is the last time a movie has featured Michael J. Fox.

Being much closer to the smaller Peter Jackson movies that came before it, as opposed to the Lord of the Rings epics and King Kong remake and all that jazz, “The Frighteners” starts out as a fun ghost comedy about a con man and his ghost buddies, and it quickly gets dark and weird all Peter Jackson style as Michael J. Fox finds himself battling death itself. And in now classic PJ style, the movie was shot in New Zealand, which Jackson was able to pass off as America. This movie also got WETA Digital really up and running, and this coupled with that LOTR action made them the effect powerhouse they are now. Impressive.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 2/3/14 – ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ (1951)

“The Day The Earth Stood Still” is a science fiction classic from 1951, and it is a classic film for a few reasons, and some of these reasons were actually good excuses for doing an updated remake of this film, but when that happened in 2008, it was a big ole failure because they seemingly ignored the things that make the ’51 original still surprisingly relevant today.

The movie was clearly intended to be a warning to all the emerging atomic power countries of the 1940s and 1950s, as the end of World War II was fresh in everyone’s minds and people had every reason to suspect that those kind of extremely dangerous weapons would continue to be used. Flash forward to 2014, and we got people fighting over nuclear power research and whether or not countries should be allowed to develop and possess nuclear weapons. Throw on top of that a bunch of crazy terrorist war bullshit and we have ourselves an incredibly violent, dangerous and destructive society of people on this planet, much worse than in 1951, which actually makes the final message of the movie much more compelling.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 1/27/14 – ‘The Hunt For Red October’

From 1990, the Academy-Award winning* “The Hunt For Red October” was the cinematic introduction of one of the more unlikely movie franchises, that being movies (generally) centered on hero Jack Ryan. Played by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine in subsequent films, the actor who got the chance to bring this weird hero to life was the one and only Alec Baldwin.

And yes, Jack Ryan is a weird protagonist to keep bringing back. He seems to be the Tom Clancy-penned American answer to James Bond, but it just isn’t the same. One of Jack Ryan’s defining characteristics is a bad back that doesn’t seem to bother him ever when you would think it would bother him the most, like in “The Hunt For Red October” when he transfers himself from helicopter to submarine by jumping into extremely cold, stormy waters. Hell, in three of the five Jack Ryan movies, including this one, a major defining characteristic of Jack Ryan is that he is an extremely bright CIA analyst who gets pulled into the field and turned into an operative by a superior, so essentially we have three separate Jack Ryan origin movies here (with the recent “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” taking this whole origin thing to the Nth degree).Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 1/20/14 – ‘Fargo’

Here’s another one for the kids, you know, the people who were little children when “Fargo” came out in 1996, the people who are just discovering the joys of cinema beyond their own nose, know what I mean? Sure you and I know that “Fargo” is awesome. But someone has to tell the kids!

So “Fargo” is awesome, kids. It is a Coen Brothers movie, the same guys who made “The Big Lebowski” (you know about that one, right? With the Dude? Oh kids these days…). It’s got that ugly guy from “Boardwalk Empire” back when people only knew him as that ugly guy, and it has that long haired dude from “Shameless.” Do kids even watch these shows? Who watches this shit anyway?Continue Reading …