Movie #359 - The Last Castle

The Last Castle
2001 - Rated R - 2 hr 11 min
Director: Rod Lurie
Starring: Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Burton, Delroy Lindo

Okay, I like this one.  Redford plays an imprisoned General, stripped of his rank, and tossed away into a maximum security facility... the castle, I suppose.  (Redford = the Good "bad" guy). Gandolfini plays the warden, a mean guy who mistreats his prisoners and abuses his power.  (Gandolfini = the Bad "good" guy). This blurring of the line between good and bad makes for an interesting conflict between these two alpha characters.  And when Redford wields the power of the other prisoners' support, Gandolfini better get out the way...

Of course, it's more than just a battle between these two men.  The 1200 prisoners supporting Redford's efforts might have their own motivations, but Redford is in it to conquer the system that used him, abused him, and then threw him away.  It's like what might have happened after A Few Good Men... sorta.

So this one's fun to watch, for me at least since I like this mind-game type of action flicks.  Good times all around.

Movie #358 - The Last Boy Scout

The Last Boy Scout
1991 - Rated R - 1 hr 45 min
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Taylor Negron, Danielle Harris, Halle Berry, Bruce McGill, Chelcie Ross

Bruce Willis, true to form, plays a cynical detective with a chip on his shoulder.  Wayans is a former NFL star.  Together, they're an unlikely pair working together to solve a crime and unravel the mess of politics they find. 

This type of movie seems to be a dime a dozen, and I didn't see much that makes this one any different from other Willis action flicks of the 90s.  Wayans actually does well in this more serious role. It's certainly not his usual wacky side-character part.  And Willis's daughter (Harris) is a piece of work.

The personal relationships here leave a little to be desired.  And the plot, while engaging, failed to wow me in anyway.  I mean, with a tagline like "The goal is to survive," you'd think it's be totally gripping.  Meh.

Additions & Set Backs... Ugh!

So this week we went on vacation... and everywhere we go, people seem to want to help expand the Movie Wall.  And therefore, lengthen my personal journey throughout said Movie Wall.  So of course, we found a video store having a mega blowout sale up in North Conway.

And we bought 53 new movies, for less that $2 apiece.  Sweet, right?

Sure, unless someone's trying to watch all the movies on the wall in alphabetical order.  Of the new titles, 28 are in letters I've already completed.  So that means I'm going rogue again and plowing through these new movies to get back to the L's.  It also means that the entire movie collection has been pushed back a shelf, so the movies I was watching on Shelf 8 are now on Shelf 9.  This messes things up a bit.

Here's the new plan.... I'm going to watch the 28 new additions, plus finish the rest of what WAS shelf 8 and then move on to finish the rest of shelf 9 (which will only be about 15 or 20 titles).  In all that confusing mess, I will watch about 60 movies total to finish and move on to Shelf 10.  Does this make sense?  Bear with me here, people.

So here are the 28 movies I'm jumping back to, in alphabetical order:

1. The 13th Warrior
2. Analyze This
3. Animatrix
4. Breach
5. Can't Hardly Wait
6. Cliffhanger
7. Connie & Carla
8. Conversations with Other Women
9. Courage Under Fire
10. Dave
11. Finding Neverland
12. First Knight
13. From Hell
14. The General's Daughter
15. Girl, Interrupted
16. GoldenEye
17. Heartbreakers
18. The History Boys
19. The Imposter
20. The Invention of Lying
21. The Italian Job
22. Kiss of the Dragon
23. The Last Samurai
24. A League of Their Own
25. Legends of the Fall
26. Liar Liar
27. Life as a House
28. The Losers

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand the rest of the new Shelf 9 includes:

1. The Long Kiss Goodnight
2. The Lookout
3. LOTR: Fellowship
4. LOTR: Two Towers
5. LOTR: Return
6. Lord of War
7. The Lost Boys
8. Love Actually
9. The Lovely Bones
10. M
11. Magnolia
12. The Majestic
13. Major Payne
14. Mallrats
15. The Man in the Iron Mask
16. The Mask of Zorro

So that's 44 more movies added to my current watching load (plus what I still had left from Shelf 8).  Ugh.

In light of these developments, I'm pushing my deadline back to December 31, 2011. And also forbidding Mike to purchase additional DVDs under penalty of death.  Wish me luck...