Netflix 2015 - Cinema Crespodiso

Netflix pick for 7/27/15 – ‘Mission: Impossible’

The series of films based on the popular 1960’s television series “Mission: Impossible” might be best known for two things: first off, this was the series that got Tom Cruise doing his own stunts in action movies in earnest, as his performed most of his own stunts in this movie in order to save money and also because everyone recognized that the scenes just looked better with the actual main actor in there instead of shooting around stuntmen. And secondly, being produced by Cruise himself, this franchise of films has the distinction of being the series of movies with the best directors possible. John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Tom Cruise always goes after the best to help make his movies a reality. And that started with the very first “Mission: Impossible,” which was directed by the one and only Brian De Palma.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 7/21/15 – ‘A Most Wanted Man’

In 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman was the lead in what would turn out to be one of the last films of his frustratingly shortened career, and it also turned out to be one of his finer performances.

In “A Most Wanted Man,” we get a wonderfully disheveled and world weary Hoffman as a German intelligence officer tasked with making inroads in the battle against Islamic-based terrorism, and it is a pleasure to watch him navigate the tricky waters of international espionage and global terrorism.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 7/14/15 – ‘The Legend of Drunken Master’

Some of you may be too young to know this, and some of you may be too old to remember, but the 90’s was kind of a worldwide coming out party for kung fu cinema. Having been born in earnest in the 1970’s in China, these “chop sockey” action flicks saw pale imitators crop up in America in the 80’s before we just finally started the importing the straight dope from Asia to our shores.

By the time the late 90’s rolled around, Chinese kung fu stars like Jet Li and Jackie Chan were getting roles in American movies like “Lethal Weapon 4” and “Rush Hour,” and no longer did we need non-Asian counterparts to pretend to martial arts masters in our movies. We finally got the real thing. One of the movies that helped make this transition happen was 1994’s “The Legend of Drunken Master.”Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 7/6/15 – ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’

2015 may be the year of the spy movie, but 2011 had a fantastic spy movie of its own, one with fantastic performances and tense, sure handed direction. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is all twists and turns and accusations and covert missions, with a healthy dose of infidelity, regret and personal as well as professional betrayal. There is a lot going on in this movie, so pay attention because it all adds up to something beautiful and melancholy and wonderful.

Back in 2011 this movie made my top ten list of the year. This is what I wrote at that time:

The anti-James Bond movie, this is a cold war era British spy film featuring great work from great actors and solid, assured direction from the director of Let The Right One In. There is very little actual action in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but the suspense just gets more intense as the story goes on, as retired super spy George Smiley (a most excellent Gary Oldman) goes on a hunt for a mole in the highest ranks of the British secret service. There is a definite 70’s vibe to this movie, with more than enough smoky backrooms and paranoia to satisfy Sydney Pollack, and the story is dense enough that multiple viewings would be rewarding. A lot of layers on this onion, that’s for sure, and well worth peeling back.

Netflix pick for 6/29/15 – ‘Inglourious Basterds’

By 2009, Quentin Tarantino had already established himself as an auteur director of incredibly hip throwback cinema, all cool dialogue and twisty plots and references to other movies, overly violent and vulgar, films that felt effortlessly old school and contemporary at the same time. But then he released “Inglourious Basterds” and the world saw what happened when Mr. Tarantino actually had something to say.

Movies like “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” and “Jackie Brown” are very cool and awesome and stand the test of time, but they also don’t actually say much. One is a cool collection of stories, one is at the most about the different faces of ultra manhood in the guise of a failed heist, and the third is an adaptation of a novel that just exists as a cool crime story, with Tarantino throwing shades of 1970’s blaxploitation on top of it all, and they are all good, really good even, but don’t have much to say. But with “Inglourious Basterds,” Tarantino starts out with a revenge fantasy war western man on a mission movie and slowly morphs it into a story about the power of cinema and how art can combat tyranny as a weapon. It is pretty incredible how this story evolves and the ending works on that meta-level where there is an amazing combination of imagery and theme (you know, real story telling), and it just might be Tarantino’s best movie. And that is something considering he made “Kill Bill.”Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/22/15 – ‘The Exorcist’

When “The Exorcist” came out in 1973, it shook the world with its bleak, gloomy depiction of exorcism and demonology, a horror film made to an extreme that was not at all common at the time. It helps that not only does this story go to some taboo, dark places but was done so in a very masterful manner, which just made it all hit that much harder. It became common to see people literally fleeing the theaters in tears, having been broken down by this movie about a girl being possessed by a demon and the exorcists called in to save her. It was just too real for them. Something so fantastical and outlandish seemed possible because the movie was so believable.

Since ’73 there have been a few dozen movies featuring demonic possessions and exorcisms, including a few direct sequels and one prequel to “The Exorcist” itself, and with the horror genre really taking off in the 1980’s and arriving at some brutal depths in the 90’s and now in the new millennium, this movie likely won’t have the same impact on people seeing it now for the first time. But even if the events in this movie don’t seem so shocking now over three decades later, it is still possible to appreciate the artistry in making this film. It is incredibly well shot, looks amazing, and the tension and dread build slowly throughout leading up to a pretty explosive conclusion.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/15/15 – ‘The Aviator’

From 2004, “The Aviator” Howard Hughes biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese is just as much a movie about Hughes as it is a movie about movies, especially those of the ’30s and ’40s, and this whole epic film serves as a huge love letter to a bygone era while also working as a great depiction of a man held back only by his own demons.

Howard Hughes was a man who made a lot of money for himself and used it to the push the limits of what interested, which the 30’s and 40’s often involved filmmaking and aviation, and in both arenas he was constantly pushing for bigger and bolder. This movie starts with him directing his first movie, the huge hit “Hell’ Angels” and ends with him trying to validate his hugely ambitious Spruce Goose monster plane for the US Military which ended up costing more than planned and couldn’t even be completed before the end of the war.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/9/15 – ‘Beginners’

Need a little respite from these summer blockbusters? Tired of the parade of soulless product designed specifically to make money? Want something intimate and personal and real? “Beginners” is the perfect solution for your needs, thanks to its wonderful acting, great story and excellent direction, a fantastic film made with the clarity of vision not possible when making a film by committee a la everything that comes out between May and July every single summer.

The movie, written and directed by Mike Mills, centers on Oliver (Ewan McGregor) during a crucial time in his life. His relationship with his father (Christopher Plummer, who won an Academy Award for this performance) in the final years years of his life took a turn when his father came out of the closet following the death of Oliver’s mother, and when his dad starts being a more honest person about who he is, his relationship with his son starts to improve as well.

And Oliver also meets Anna (Melanie Laurent) at a party and coming off his own failed relationships, he decides to finally take a chance and try his hand at this romance thing once more, and the portrayal of this evolving relationship is very real and personal and rings true, much like the rest of the film, which is why it all works so well. It has its own unique voice and makes for a wonderful little movie.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 6/1/15 – ‘The Act of Killing’

“The Act of Killing” is a fascinating documentary about some Indonesian gangsters in Jakarta who were hired in the 1960’s to form death squads, rolling through the country killing anyone and everyone under the guise of rounding up communists, and how these gangsters all these years later are in control of the country and think what they did was the proper thing to do. They agree to participate in making this movie thinking it would be an exultation of their exploits, when in reality it makes them look at their past deeds with an unflinching eye, forcing them to face the horrors they perpetuated in the name of their government overlords.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/26/15 – ‘Hot Fuzz’

“Hot Fuzz” from 2007 is the second of three genre-based films from the team of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Following their zombie romantic comedy “Shaun of the Dead” and preceding their ode to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and growing into adulthood in the form of “The World’s End,” here we have their paean to the absurdity that is American action filmmaking, and it is a pretty glorious thing to behold.

Very specifically citing “Point Break” and “Bad Boys II,” “Hot Fuzz” is the story of a hot shot cop in London who keeps upstaging his coworkers, so he finds himself being transferred to a sleepy little village out in the middle of nowhere, designed to get him out of the way and let him waste away somewhere in which the biggest crime is teenage loitering. But since he IS a super cop, Nicholas Angel (Pegg) uncovers a conspiracy within this town and sets to right the wrongs done illicitly right under everyone’s noses.

This movie has the signature hyperactive presentation that Wright has become known for, along with a proper story about a couple of guys learning to get along with each other that provides a nice emotional underpinning for all the violent shenanigans that happen around them. “Hot Fuzz” is an absolutely wonderful and fun movie and one which action film fans should be able to appreciate for many reasons.Continue Reading …