Letterboxd — Your life in film

A delightful film with a great story, beautiful cinematography by Conrad Hall, and a trio of great performances from Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, and Max Pomeranc, plus an entertaining supporting cast featuring Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy, and one of my favorite character actors from this era, David Palmer. I didn’t really care for Joan Allen’s performance, hence my half-star reduction.

Joe Mantegna’s speech to Josh’s teacher, played by Laura Linney, is a terrific piece of writing and acting,

This surprised me a bit, as I had always assumed it was a much more epic film full of battles, bugling, and cavalry charges, but it is actually a very episodic and somewhat intimate story cloaked in a shroud of gorgeous establishing shots of endless prairie. I’m not a fan of Kevin Costner as an actor, but he certainly corralled a great crew to create a film with high production values. Dean Semler’s cinematography and John Barry’s beautiful and highly-memorable score are the standouts.

The first half of this is quite funny, but despite the promise of its premise, it runs out of steam a bit once he joins the army. Eddie Bracken is fun in his supporting role.

1941 Ranked - Favorite to Least Favorite 

This has some very funny moments, but with abrupt tonal shifts, Peter’s characterization as a barely-redeemed jerk, and a plot that gets progressively less believable, it doesn’t quite work.

This is pretty awful. It’s tonally inconsistent, as in parts it seems that there was an attempt to be a bit hip to the hilarity and to present some tongue-in-cheek commentary on the proceedings, but there are more scenes in which the acting and the emotions are played for real, which is of course absolutely ridiculous. The villains in this are lacking in any subtlety, yet their malevolence also feels unmotivated or at least not entirely explained.

My 1,000th review on Letterboxd!

2023 Ranked - Favorite to Least Favorite 

The second James Mangold film I watched today with the plot revolving around a jump from a New York City bridge, after Kate & Leopold.

The film boasts a terrific cast that thankfully wasn’t wasted, as this has a thrilling screenplay that never runs out of interesting, non-contrived twists and moves methodically at a brisk-feeling, but not rushed, pace towards an exciting and very much earned ending sequence.

James Mangold Ranked - Favorite to Least Favorite 

I had a huge grin on my face throughout most of this. Hugh Jackman is a pure delight. Breckin Meyer is fun in his supporting role. The melodic score complemented the film nicely.

James Mangold Ranked - Favorite to Least Favorite 

I was already aware of the famous twist before watching this; therefore, I am unsure if I would have had a different experience had I not known, but besides the twist, the film deserves attention for a compelling story and great performances from Jaye Davidson and Forest Whitaker in particular. The ending at the prison was a bit underwhelming and the last soundtrack entry featuring Lyle Lovett felt inappropriate.

I really enjoyed this. The main quartet are all charming, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, and Gary Cole are very funny, and the premise sounds predictable on the surface, but this actually has some interesting developments throughout that kept me intrigued. A lot of fun!

An interesting premise that isn’t quite exploited to its fullest potential, but Kim Cattrall is pleasant to watch and Andrew McCarthy has some fun lines. James Spader and Meshach Taylor give very committed character performances.

This is still as funny as Shanghai Noon, but the plot is thinner and the British setting isn’t utilized as cleverly as it could have been.