Movie #393 - The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai
2003 - Rated R - 2 hr 34 min
Director: Edward Zwick
Starring: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, William Atherton, Chad Lindberg, Tony Goldwyn, Masato Harada, Timothy Spall

First of all, on a side note, I never noticed before how Timothy Spall is in everything. Seriously, the man shows up all over the place.  I had no clue.

Okay, so he's in this too, but not really in a huge part. So I'll focus on the actual plot.  This movie's got the feeling of a Gladiator-like epic, just set in Japan instead.  Tom Cruise's Nathan Algren suffers just about as much as Maximus and learns most of his important lessons while imprisoned.  An American officer sent to training the Japanese army to withstand rebel Samurai attacks in 1876, Algren is a drunk with a death wish.  He gets captured by the Samurai warriors and winds up training with them.  When they release him, he's caught between the old and new worlds of Japan, forced to decide which side he'll stand on.

This is a great story, told very well, albeit a bit long. But honestly, it's one movie where so much happens that you don't notice how long it really is.  Even having Tom Cruise as the star didn't dissuade me from it (I'm really not a big fan, in case you haven't noticed yet) and I think he does well, capturing the essence of this tortured war hero.  Good stuff, all around.

Movie #226 - Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters
1984 - Rated PG - 1 hr 45 min
Director: Ivan Reitman
Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, William Atherton, Ernie Hudson, David Margulies

Classic.  Really, this movie is a classic.  I'm not sure how "technical" all that ghostbusting equipment really is (though I'm guessing most of it's imagined), but they make it seem like the real deal, in terms of how they attempt to explain and use it.  Scientific or not, you really want these guys to find and "bust" some serious ghost ass.

Watching the movie this time, I was impressed and surprised at how good the effects are.  They're not as good as they would be today, but for 1984, they're not bad at all.  Actually, the "streams" are decent and, as long as the creatures aren't moving, most of the ghosts/demons look okay.  It's not CGI, but it definitely doesn't distract you.

Anyway, what I love about this movie is the campy approach.  They don't take it too seriously and they embrace the weird concept.  A movie like this was ahead of its time, considering the ghost tv show craze that's happening now. Did they make it trendy to hunt for ghosts? I don't know about that, but they did make it look almost fun.

Movie #161 - Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Die Hard 2: Die Harder
1990 - Rated R - 2 hr 4 min
Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Bruce Willis, William Atherton, Bonnie Bedalia, Reginald VelJohnson

Aside from the awesome title, this isn't my favorite of the series.  It tries to reuse the original's model for the beginning portion (except this time he's an LA cop in NY, instead of the other way around) and even pokes fun at it - "How can this happen to the same guy twice?"
Then it gets a bit extreme with plane crashes and airborne fight scenes.  It feels a bit hectic and overdone... but Bruce Willis still kicks butt.  It's fun to watch, but when you've got the first movie and the third one to watch, you'll probably skip this one nine times out of ten.  That's probably why it's the one I remembered the least. Makes sense.