The Rock

The Rock

Back in 1996, director Michael Bay directed the action movie The Rock.  This is one of my favorite action films, because of its great plot, intense violence scenes and amazing musical score.  The movie stars Sean Connery, Ed Harris and Nicolas Cage.  Michael Bay is known for directing Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, Transformers and many other action movies with special effects.

Plot

General Francis Hummel(Ed Harris) and a group of Force Recon Marines, steal several rockets and VX gas containers from a Navy base.  The Marines then seize Alcatraz Island, nicknamed The Rock, which is now a tourist sight, taking the tourist hostage.  Hummel then calls the FBI and the White House staff to tell them his demands, which are that the government pays reparations to the families of Marines who died under his command on black ops missions who were never honored.  He also demands that the Marines who helped take Alcatraz be paid 1 million each and have safe passage out of the country.  Hummel tells the White House that if his demands are not met within 24 hours, he will fire the VX gas, a very deadly nerve agent, at San Francisco, killing thousands.  The government decides on sending a Navy Seal team to rescue the hostages and secure the rockets.  The FBI calls in chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) to assist in dismantling the rockets.  Goodspeed, who has just proposed to his girlfriend after finding out she is pregnant, has never seen any action before and thinks that he is only there to brief the Navy Seals.  Needing to find a way into the island without being spotted by Hummel, the FBI is forced to turn to imprisoned British MI6 agent John Mason (Sean Connery), who escaped from Alcatraz Island years ago only to again be captured and imprisoned by the FBI.  Before the mission in San Francisco, Mason escapes to see his daughter before being caught by Goodspeed who convinces Mason to work with the team as a guide.  That night, the Seals, Mason and Goodspeed, who didn’t even now he was going on the mission, infiltrate the island.  Hummel gets suspicious and send his Marines to patrol the island.  After exploring several tunnels the Seals are ambushed in a shower by the Marines and ordered to drop their weapons by Hummel.  The Seals refuse and after a minute of yelling at each other the Marines kill all the Seal team members except Mason and Goodspeed.

Mason plans on deserting but after Goodspeed tells him about the rockets aimed at San Francisco and the Marines almost killing them a second time, Mason and Goodspeed work together to disable several rockets and kill several Marines.  Over a loud speaker Hummel threatens to kill a hostage unless the remaining Navy Seals surrender.  Mason surrenders to give Goodspeed more time.  Goodspeed disables another rocket but he is also captured and put in a cell near Mason.  The FBI then begins their back up plan, which is for F-18s launch airstrikes against the island which will neutralize the gas but will kill everyone on the island.  Mason quickly escape from his cell and frees Goodspeed and tells him why he was imprisoned in the first place.  Mason was imprisoned for stealing a microfilm of the United States' most closely-guarded secrets, including the 1947 UFO Crash, the Kennedy Assassination and the Watergate Incident, and he refused to tell the FBI where he stashed it.  While the two search for the last two rockets, time runs out and Hummel launches one of the rockets.  Hummel, who was bluffing the whole time, crashes the rocket into the sea, which angers the Marines under his command.  Hummel then tells his Marines that he is standing down and that the Marines have to leave now or be killed by F-18s.  The Marines who instead want the money promised to them and shoot Hummel and anyone who allies with him.  Hummel is rescued by Goodspeed and Mason who tells them the location of the last rocket before he dies.  The two then kill the rogue marines and disable the last rocket but not before one of the jets fires sending Goodspeed flying into the sea.  Goodspeed, Mason and the hostages all survive airstrike Mason tells Goodspeed the location of the secret documents he stole years ago, before he swims away.  Goodspeed later tells the FBI that Mason is dead and his body was vaporized by the airstrike.  Goodspeed and his fiancé then travel to Kansas where they find the documents.

Review

This film is one of my favorite action film and one of the best 90’s films made.  One of the things I think would have made the film better through would be if Nicolas Cage was not in the movie.  He does not do terrible job acting in this film or anything like that but he doesn’t come close to action stars like Sean Connery or Ed Harris.  The rogue Marines are played Tony Todd, David Morse, Gregory Sporleder and John C. McGinley, who also played an Army soldier in Platoon.  Michael Biehn, who is known for playing Kyle Reese in The Terminator and for playing Dwayne Hicks in Aliens, played the Navy Seal squad leader.  In the movie, right before the F-18s fire on the island, Goodspeed waves green flares in the air to signal them.  This scene is also in Modern Warfare 2, when you are retaking the White House.  One of the best features in this film is the soundtrack.  Hans Zimmer, who also wrote an composed the Black Hawk Down soundtrack as well as Angels & Demons, wrote and composed The Rock’s soundtrack.  The best score known as Hummel gets the Rockets, is played during the beginning of the film when Hummel visits his wife’s grave and when he steals the rockets and gas and late when the Seals are killed by the Marines.  One of the things I didn’t like about the film is that the Marines are the antagonists even though I don’t really care.  Hummel shows honor in the end through by not launching the rockets.  During the scene where the Marines are trying to convince Hummel to fire the rockets, one of them say, “let's be all that we can be,” which is wrong cuz that’s an Army Motto not Marine.  Even though there are a lot of military mistakes in this film it is still one of my favorites movies.  My Rating System is handgun cartridges. Lowest to highest .22LR, .9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .357 Magnum.  I give this film .45 ACP.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, to not waste time the The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, is the greatest western of all time. The plot is great, the music is fantastic and the castings really fits,
　
PlotThe Good, Blondie(Clint Eastwood), and his partner The Ugly, Tuco(Eli Wallach), work together to make money by Blondie turning in Tuco and right before his hanging shoots the rope allowing him to escape. Later Blondie splits Tuco's bounty with him but Tuco starts demanding a larger split, but Blondie refuses. After doing the scheme a second time, Blondie takes the money and leaves Tuco in the desert. Tuco later attempts to kill Blondie and after a failed ambush he captures Blondie and takes him out into the desert.
Meanwhile The Bad, Angel Eyes( Van Cleef), has been hired to find a man named Bill Carson who has stolen Confederate gold, but Angel Eyes turns on his employer and starts his search for gold. Back in the desert Blondie is about to die of dehydration, but right before Tuco kills him, a Confederate stage coach races by and crashes. Tuco runs over to the stage coach to rob the soldiers, a dying Bill Carson tells Tuco that he has hidden the gold in Sad Hill Cemetery, but falls unconscious before he reveales the location of the grave he's hidden it in. When Tuco returns to the coach with water he finds Blondie there and Carson dead, Blondie then tells him that Carson gave him the name on the grave. Tuco then takes him to a mission run by his brother, where Blondie and Tuco ally to find the gold together.
After leaving the mission the two are captured by Union soldiers, because they are wearing Confederate uniforms from Bill Carson's coach, and they are taken to a Union prison camp. At the camp Tuco says his name is Bill Carson, Angel Eyes, disquised as a Sergeant, hears this and tortures Tuco for the location of the gold. Tuco reveales the name of the cemetery but says that only Blondie now the name of the grave. Angel Eyes then offers Blondie and partnership on finding the gold and Blondie agrees. Tuco who is on a train being taken to be hung, escapes by pushing the soldier he is chained to off and by cutting the chain with another trains wheels. Blondie, Angel Eyes and his gang travel to a town that is being evacuated and under heavy artillery fire. Blondie and Tuco meet up and kill all of Angel Eye's men but he escapes. The two come across a narrow bridge with Union forces on there side and Confederate forces on the side of the cemetery. Blondie and Tuco meet a drunk Union captain who tells them that both sides are under orders not to destroy the bridge. Blondie and Tuco then decide to the destroy the bridge and while wiring dynamite they Tuco tell Blondie the name of the cemetery and Blondie tell him the name on the grave is Arch Stanton. When they destroy the bridge the armies clear out the next morning and the two continue there journey to the cemetery. Along the way Blondie stops to help a dying Confederate soldier and Tuco races ahead on a horse he finds. When he reaches the cemetery, he runs around until he finds the Arch Stanton's grave. Blondie arrives and then Angel Eyes who orders them both to dig. Blondie reveales that he lied and that the gold is in another tomb. He writes the name on the bottom of a rock and a Mexican Standoff starts. The standoff ends when Blondie kills Angel Eyes and Tuco finds out his gun is empty. Tuco is then forced by Blondie to dig in the grave next to Stanton's marked unknown, there was nothing written on the rock. Tuco then digs up the gold but is forced by Blondie to stand on top of a grave with his neck in a noose. Blondie then rides off leaving Tuco on the grave with his share of the gold. Just before the grave breaks Blondie rides back and shoots the rope just like in the beginning of the film. Blondie then rides off again while Tuco calls him a, "Just a dirty son of a bitch!"
　
ReviewAltogether its a great movie even through its over two and a half hours. The plot fits together well and is well written. Some times it's no easy to remember whose on whose side but other wise I understood the whole movie. It sorta reminds me of Apocalypse Now, how the protagonists are on a mission but are sidetracked by war. The characters in the film are likable and mostly made out of villians or anti-heros. Besides Bill Carson and a young dying soldier, the Confederacy is never really seen beside in battle scenes. The Union is protrayed as having good men and psychopaths. For example the soldier that tortures Tuco is a nasty son of a bitch, but the prison camp captain and the bridge captain are both shown as good men. The satire was one of the best parts of the film. For example Tuco shoots three bounty hunters in the beginning of the movie and one returns, without a arm, to kill Tuco. The bounty hunter finds Tuco in a bath tub and begins to talk about how he gonna kill Tuco. Tuco instead shoots him when he's in the tub and comments,"When you have to shoot, shoot! Don't talk." There is a lot of symbolism in the film as well. For example, during the standoff between the three a wide shoot shows us the whole huge cemetery which symbolise death. The film has this very memberal music play almost every time someone dies and that's a lot cuz the body count is huge in this film. This ranks up with the best westerns, which include The Wild Bunch, Unforgiven and Bunch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in my opinion. My Rating System is handgun cartridges. Lowest to highest .22LR, .9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP and .357 Magnum. I give this film a .45 ACP.Sergio Leone really knew what he was doing when he directed this film, he also helped write it. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach as a trio of outlaws trying to find some gold coins. On there journey they are stopped by many elements of the American Civil War and the Old West.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now, is probably one of the greatest films I've every seen. Not only is it a amazing war film, it is just an sick movie. Francis Ford Coppola, who is known for directing The Godfather and its sequel, directed this the movie and it was released in 1979 after years of development hell. It stars Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, a Green Beret sent to assassinate the insane Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, who is played by Marlon Brando.  Laurence Fishburne, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford and R. Lee Ermey are in the movie as well.
Plot

In the year 1969, during the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin L. Willard is sent to assassinate a rogue U.S. Army Colonel named Walter E. Kurtz, who has gone insane and is fighting his own personal war against the Viet Cong in Cambodia. Willard joins a naval patrol boat whose crew is made out of Engine man Jay Chef Hicks, Gunner's Mate Lance B. Johnson, Gunner's MateTyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller and Chief Quartermaster George Phillips who runs the boat. The crew is suppose to take Willard down a long river to Cambodia where Kurtz based.   Along the way they hitch a ride with the First of Ninth Air Calvary, who is led by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, Robert Duvall, who attacks a Viet Cong village by helicopter before bombing a near by hill with napalm. Throughout the rest of the movie events happen that slow Willard down such as a USO show with Playboy Bunnies, and attacks from the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese and Kurtz's people. By the time Willard reaches Kurtz's camp Miller has been shot and killed, Phillips killed by a spear and Johnson all messed by LSD the situation goes from bad to worse. Kurtz's people kill Hicks, capture Willard and let Johnson walk around camp cuz he's messed up and no threat. Kurtz then explains Willard his view on the war and shares some of the horrors he witnessed. Kurtz has completely lost his mind from the horrors of war and wants to die. Some time later Willard is released and aloud to walk around the camp freely. One night when the natives are ceremonial killing a buffalo, Willard sneaks into Kurtz room and kills him with a machete. Right before Kurtz dies he whispers,"The Horror, the Horror." Willard then leaves the camp with the Lance, the only surviving member of the crew, and sails away while Kurtz last words are heard again as the screen fades to black.



Review

The plot of Apocalypse Now, is based off the 1902 novel Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. The novel differs much from the movie, but the tone and theme are very similar. The movie has a very dark atmosphere which is normal in a war movie, but not usually this dark. The lighting of the film is also dark as well as the tone, and camera angles are usually from a higher angle since there on a boat.  The battle scenes are raw and realistic for the time the movie was filmed even through the film isn't really about the battles as much the horrors and psychological affects of war. The casting in this film is great and includes cameos from Coppola himself as well as from real Playboy Playmates. The film has many quotes and scenes which are now present in pop culture now. During the helicopter attack on the village the music Ride of the Valkyries is played which has parodied a lot. Later in this scene Robert Duvall's character call in a napalm strike on a near by hill and say, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." That's not the whole quote but that's the part that usually is quoted in movies and stuff. One of the things present in the novel and the movie is that right before dieing Kurtz say, "The Horror, the Horror," which is probably the second most famous line that come out of the movie.  This film reminds me of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, cuz of the satire in both films.  For example during the helicopter attack scene U.S. troops are surfing while being fired upon.  In 2001, Coppola released an extended version of the film called Apocalypse Now Redux. This version includes 49 extra minutes of film that were not on the original film. This is a bad ass version but it is around three and a half hours long which makes it almost impossible to watch in one session.  Beside the Playboy Bunnies the only other women in the film are Vietnamese which isn't uncommon in a war film.  One of the interesting things in this film is how much gets in the way of Willard's mission, especially in the Redux version.  This film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the Academy Award for Best Picture but it lost to Kramer vs. Kramer. All together it is one of my favorite films and one of the best movies out there and everyone who likes epic films should watch it. My Rating System is handgun cartridge. Lowest to highest .22LR, .9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP.   I give this film a .45 ACP.