L.A. Confidential (1997) - #79

Empire top 301: #79

IMDb top 250: #91

Rating 10/10

Director: Curtis Hanson

Writers: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson & James Ellroy

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn & Kim Basinger

“Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.”

Set in a corrupt 1950’s Los Angeles, L.A. Confidential tells the story of three police officers and their investigation to uncover the truth behind the Nite Owl killings that saw one of their own killed. Sergeant Edmund "Ed" Exley is the son of a legendary decetive who was killed in the line of duty; Exley wants to live up to his father’s reputation. Whilst he insists on doing everything by the book and follow regulations, he is cut throat in his ambition to get to the top. Officer Wendell "Bud" White, is perceived as nothing more than a mindless thug relying on violence to get a confession. He is obsessed with with punishing women-beaters and has a dislike to Exley, after Exley is influential in getting his partner Dick Stensland fired from the force, following his actions after the “Bloody Christmas” scandal. Dick Stensland is later killed in the Nite Owl killings. Sergeant Jack Vincennes is a narcotics detective who also moonlights as a technical advisor on the dective show Badge of Honor. Jack can usually be found mixing with celebrities and Sid Hudgens who writes the gossip tabloid Hush-Hush. During their separate investigations into the Nite Owl killings all three police officers discover a world of corruption involving the police, pimps and prostitutes and the Hollywood insiders.

L.A. Confidential is a superb neo-noir thriller that’s just full of twist and turns, from a stunning Oscar winning script by Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson. The dialogue is quote worthy and there are some great one liners. The direction is superb and Hanson has got the tone and feel of 1950’s Los Angeles on point. The film is so stylish and dripping with Hollywood glamour, the costumes and sets are gorgeous. The music is perfect and fits the tone of the movie so well. 

The performances are excellent from everyone. At the time the movie was made Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe were relatively unknown but they are perfect in the roles they play; Pearce plays slimy weasel well and we know Crowe has got ‘hard man’ down to a tee. Spacey does slick and stylish so well and I love the character of Jack Vincennes. The real surprise here is Kim Basinger, in her Academy Award winning role of Veronica Lake look-a-like Lynne Bracken. It’s a really soft and thoughtful performance however, was she better than Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights…NO!

Danny DeVito and James Cromwell provide excellent support, as does everyone who has a speaking role. L.A. Confidential reminds me of Chinatown a lot, only it’s better in my opinion. I believe this film to be pretty perfect. It’s one of the greatest films of the 90’s and indeed of all time. 

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003) - #12

Empire top 301: #12
IMDb top 250: #9

Rating 10/10

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin & John Rhys-Davies

"The board is set... the pieces are moving"

The final instalment of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The battle for Helms Deep is won and the remaining Fellowship Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and Pippin join King Theoden to help defend Gondor's capital Minas Tirith from Sauron and his army of evil. Amidst this looming threat Aragorn finally becomes the man he was born to be to claim the throne and lead his army into battle. Frodo, Sam and Gollum venture deeper into Mordor towards Mount Doom to fulfil their task of destroying The One Ring, but not before Gollum leads them to the lair of giant spider Shelob. 

The Return Of The King is not as good as Fellowship for me but still deserves it's 10 out of 10 marking. It so beautifully filmed and written and filled with so much excitement and tension. Aside from the fifteen endings it has it is pretty perfect. I've viewed this movie so many times since it's release and it still has me near to tears during the final moments. 

The whole production is pretty astounding, from the costumes to the set designs, to the cinematography to the fight choreography. The special effects are superb and the score and music are stunning, I love Annie Lennox's academy award winning Into The West, such a gorgeous song. 

The cast are just as brilliant in this as they are in the previous two, great idea to shoot them back to back. The standout in this chapter is Sean Astin as Samwise, he really is amazing and his scenes with Frodo towards the end of the film are so touching. The character of Frodo does bug me a little in this film but Elijah still does a decent job. Eowyn is less annoying in Return Of The King and thankfully there are no Ents, so smiles all round. 

The battles scenes in Return are probably more impressive than those in Two Towers and the catapult moments during the opening of the Battle of Minas Tirith are brilliant. The scenes with Shelob are also fantastic and incredibly tense, probably more so for me as I really hate spiders!! They freak me out! The whole 15 endings thing does begin to grate after several viewings, just when you think it's over they add another scene! However, it's all tied up nicely and everyone gets a fitting send off. 

This is a perfect ending to an amazing trilogy. 

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - #46

Empire top 301: #46
IMDb top 250: #20

Rating 9/10

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Sean Bean, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin & John Rhys-Davies

"A red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night."

Part two of The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy continues the story of Frodo Baggins (Wood) and his journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring and defeat Sauron. In the second instalment Frodo and Sam (Astin) trek towards Mordor when they are attacked by the One Rings former owner Gollum (Serkis), after discovering they do not know the way to Mordor they agree to take Gollum along with them as their guide. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pursue the Uruk-hai in search of their captured friends Pippin and Merry and meet Gandalf The White who takes them to Rohan were King Théoden has been bewitched by Grima Wormtongue and Saruman allowing his Kingdom to be controlled by Sauron. After breaking the spell cast on King Théoden the people of Rohan travel to Helm's Deep to stay safe behind the "impenetrable" walls. However, Saruman send an army of Orcs and Uruk-hai to kill them and thus begins the battle for Helms Deep. 

   
The second movie starts off brilliant and it's straight into the action. There's no delaying but pointlessly recapping on what's previously happened, the adventure just continues. The are some really exciting scenes and moments in The Two Towers however, there are also some quite drawn out, bit boring scenes too. Point in case The Ents; now I understand they're supposed to be old and withered and curmudgeonly but there scenes just seem to go on and on and on, until I get so bored now I want the Orcs to come along and hack them down! There doesn't seem to be any urgency in their scenes and they don't sit well amongst everything else that's going on.

I also have a real issue with Eowyn played by Miranda Otto, I can't put my finger on whether its the character or the actress but she really grates on me. I always hope for an additional scene where Liv Tylers Arwen travels to Rohan and kicks her ass! Alas, this doesn't exist but it should. Hower Ents and Eowyn aside this movie is still superb. 

The cast are still on fine form and provide some great performances. It's a real treat to see Gimli and Legolas getting friendly but still bickering like children. There scenes together provide some real laugh out loud moments and you'll be cheering along watching them fight and kill the Orcs and Uruk-hai. Bernard Hill is great as Theoden and the scene were he grieves for his dead son and talks to Gandalf is really lovely and quite sad. Brad Dourif's Grima Wormtongue is a great character and I wish he got more screen time, at least more than the bloody Ents. 

The standout though is Gollum, one of, if not the best CGI creature creations ever!! Voiced and played by Andy Serkis he is just a fantastic character. The scenes were Gollum has conversations with his previous self Smeagol, cutting from one shot to another are superb and as hideous as he is you can't help but like him, or is it pity! The CGI for all of the movie is excellent but never more so than on Gollum, it's beautiful work. 

For all the boring bits you have to suffer there is an amazing pay off with The Battle for Helms Deep. Those scenes are truly brilliant and still exciting to watch even after so many viewings, they're filled with great one liners from Gimli and Legolas and the fight scenes are well choreographed. 

Whilst it doesn't thrill me as much as The Fellowship Of The Ring, mostly because of The Ents, The Two Towers is still a masterclass in fantasy filmmaking. 

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) - #7

Empire top 301: #7
IMDb top 250: #12

Rating 10/10

Director: Peter Jackson
Writers: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens
Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Sean Bean, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin & John Rhys-Davies

"One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them."

Set in Middle-Earth, Fellowship is the first in a three part story about the Dark Lord Sauron, who is seeking the One Ring. 19 magical rings were created and given to the Elves, Dwarves and Humans however, another more powerful ring was created the One Ring. This ring was forged out of all of Sauron's evil and malice and allowed him to control the other rings and conquer Middle-Earth. During a battle Prince Isilidur cuts the ring from Sauron's hand and destroys his human form. The ring passes through many carriers over the next 3,000+ years but Sauron is bound to the ring and the ring to he and as he grows stronger the Ring wants to return to it's master. The ring falls to Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) who volunteers to take the Ring to Mount Doom in Mordor to throw it back into the fires where it was forged to destroy it. Eight companions accompany Frodo on his Journey to Mordor; Wizard Gandalf (McKellen), Hobbits Sam (Astin), Merry (Monaghan) & Pippin (Boyd), Elf Legolas (Bloom), Dwarf Gimli (Rhys-Davies) & Men Aragorn (Mortensen) & Boromir (Bean) - The Fellowship of the Ring. 

I'll start by saying I absolutely love The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and of the three Fellowship might just be my favourite. I've never read the books but from online comments from die hard fans Peter Jackson seems to have made a pretty faithful adaptation. When I first saw this movie at the cinema in 2001 I came out completely amazed and couldn't wait for the 2nd part. 12 years later I watched it and felt the exact same way. 

There are so many amazing things about this movie. The New Zealand landscape provides an absolutely beautiful backdrop as Middle-Earth, the cinematography is just awe-inspiring and rightly so won an Oscar. The make-up is fantastic from the Orcs to the ageing of characters, the costumes and sets are beautifully constructed and look great on screen, everything from The Shire to Gandalf and Saruman's staffs. The special effects are superb and still look great today, the battle scene in the Dwarf City of Moria with the goblins and Balrog are still impressive and exciting. 

Each and everyone of the cast are exceptional. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are great as friends Frodo and Sam and although they can come across as a bit wet and whiny, they're really sweet and you really care for them and hope that they survive. Ian McKellen's Gandalf is one of the best things about this movie and the subsequent Middle-Earth movies, he's strong and wise but funny and caring and McKellen is perfect. Whilst only in the movie for a little while both Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler deliver impressive performances that you remember, suppose a little easy when they're the only two speaking females in the cast, but really they are excellent. 

After seeing the movie quite a lot there are some bits that kind of annoy me now, like Merry and Pippin constantly causing problems and bringing dangerous attention to the group. If the fate of Middle-Earth was at stake they'd have been bumped off straight away. But this is just a small thing and doesn't take away my enjoyment of the film. 

At just a few minutes shy of 3 hours it is a bit of a stretch but it's filled with so much action, great acting and wonderful scenery those hours just fly by. The Lord Of The Rings series also has one of my favourite scores of all time. It's just brilliant. I'm a huge fan of fantasy movies so it was probably always a dead cert that I'd love this.

Honestly, one of the best movies ever!! 

The Crow (1994) - #241

Empire top 301: #241
IMDb top 250: -

Rating 5/10

Director: Alex Proyas
Writers: David J. Schow & John Shirley
Starring: Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, Michael Wincott, Anna Levine & David Patrick Kelly

"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever."

Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) returns home on Devil's night, to find his fiancée Shelly being brutally attacked by a group of local thugs. He is attacked and thrown out of a window to his death whilst Shelly is raped and also murdered. One year later Eric rises from his grave as an undead avenger intent on seeking revenge for his and Shelly's death. 

I didn't hate The Crow but I never really liked it either, it didn't bore me but it never really excited me either. I'm not really sure whether it was the cringey dialogue, all over the place nature of the film or the bad over the top acting that made me indifferent to the movie.

The script is just so corny, I was cringing for the actors having to deliver such awful lines. Whether this had an effect on their performances or not I don't know but it was all just too silly, the whole "fire it up, fire it up" thing was just ridiculous and didn't make the thugs seem at all threatening, if it wasn't for the knives and guns they were carrying you'd have just thought they were a bunch of simpletons! David Patrick Kelly, who I love in The Warriors, is just awful here as are the rest of his cronies! 

Michael Wincott is the absolute worst though, his performance is so over the top, but not even in a "Showgirls" type of way or one that befits the comic, it's just so cartoony and ridiculous. The young girl Sarah was also a major annoyance for me. I can't abide precocious children on screen or in real life and she has got to be one of the worst. Throughout I just wanted her to be run over by a garbage truck whilst she was skateboarding on the roads! 

   
Brandon Lee is amazing as Eric and I really love the character of The Crow and what he did. In a better movie, with much better dialogue and direction it would have been perfect, it's like he's giving a 10/10 performance in a 5/10 movie. I'd never seen the movie before but had known the story of Brandon's unfortunate death and I found myself watching the film waiting for that particular scene to come up and wandering how much had to be changed and re-shot and perhaps this affected my enjoyment of the movie. 

I found a lot the scenes quite dark, not in a moody sense, but in a "it's so dark I can't see a thing" kind of way and this annoyed me somewhat. It's definitely a movie I'd watch again at some point later in my life but I wouldn't rush to watch again just yet.

Unforgiven (1992) - #150

Empire top 301: #150
IMDb top 250: #101

Rating 9/10

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: David Webb Peoples
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, Saul Rubinek, Frances Fisher & Jaimz Woolvett

"You'd be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children."

Set in 1880 in Big Whiskey Wyoming, Clint Eastwood plays ageing killer William Munny an Old West gunslinger who comes out of retirement for one last job to kill two men who cut up a prostitute. Along with his old partner Ned Logan (Freeman) and a young man named the Schofield Kid they hunt down the two men accused with a view to killing them and getting the $1000 reward. Meanwhile, back in Big Whiskey the town Sheriff Little Bill requests all visitors submit their firearms to the sheriffs office on arrival and hopes to discourage any would-be-killers of entering his town to collect the reward. 

  
I really love Westerns and this is one of my favourites. So beautifully written by David Webb Peoples and it features some really exceptional performances from all involved. Clint does an amazing job of both directing and performing in the movie. He couldn't have made a more fitting tribute for Western great Sergio Leone.

Unforgiven is pretty brutal and tells the story of a man saved from his life of wickedness by his wife having to return to it for the sake of feeding his children. It shows the real dark side of the Wild West with unsavoury characters around every corner and plenty of violence throughout the story. 

Gene Hackman gives an Academy Award winning performance as Little Bill and whilst his actions in the film could be deemed as evil and excessive his intentions appear to be good. He has some great scenes with Richard Harris and Saul Rubinek and thoroughly deserved the Oscar for this. Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris are both great, as they always are but I want to mention Jaimz Woolvett as the Schofield Kid and Frances Fisher as Strawberry Alice as I think they give absolutely outstanding performances. I love their characters and think they're both played and written superbly. 

Unforgiven is a classic and definitely one of the best Westerns ever, it's so well made and has really stood the test of time. One to watch! 

Die Hard (1988) - #39

Empire top 301: #38
IMDb top 250: #104

Rating 9/10

Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Jeb Stuart & Steven E. de Souza
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Paul Gleason, Reginald VelJohnson & Bonnie Bedelia

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker"

Bruce Willis is John McClane an NYC cop visiting his family for Christmas in Los Angeles. He arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza building to reconcile with his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) who is at the company's christmas party. The party is disrupted by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his group of armed men intent on stealing $640million in bearer bonds held in the vault. McClane manages to escape capture from Hans and his men and sets about stopping the terrorists. 

Die Hard is quite simply a brilliant action film and the prototype for many movies that followed which featured a lone hero taking on a number of terrorists in a confined space. It's the movie that made Bruce Willis a star and gave the world the now iconic line "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker". The film is full of great dialogue and has so many twists and turns to keep you entertained. 

The character of John McClane has become a bit of a caricature now, diluted after 5 movies, 2 of which are pretty bad, IMO, but in Die Hard the character is brilliant. He's not some kick fighting, muscle bound, superhero killer he's an everyman with family problems who just so happens to be a cop. He's not a genius who manages to thwart the terrorists at every turn most of the time it's sheer luck, and/or craziness that gets him out of situations. Willis is great in the role delivering his comic lines with just the right amount of sarcasm and at this age he made for the perfect action hero. 

Rickman makes for a good villain, however the accent is a bit all over the place at times, part German part English part American but this is just a small thing. No complaints with the rest of the cast they all do a pretty good job. 

The action scenes are brilliantly executed with some epic explosions and shoot outs and having it set in a sealed off building with no escape just adds to the tension. After viewing all the other Die Hard movies it is easy to forget how awesome this one is but I assure you it is definitely worth its place on both Empire and IMDb greatest lists and the 9 out of 10 I have scored.