A breathtaking reboot of the Superman trilogy

The original Superman film--besides "Superman and the Mole Men" (1951)--debuted in 1978. The film told the story of an alien orphan sent down from the planet Krypton who becomes the world's first superhero. As is the case with most trilogies, the first of the series was most certainly the best. After a couple failures at making a better Superman movie, the hero was dropped from theaters. That is until recently.

In June of this year, Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" crashed into theaters. The film received very mixed reviews from viewers. For the most part, I feel that Man of Steel matched, if not slightly surpassed, the original Superman film's plot. What the reboot did that the original--or any Superman film for that part--did not do, was show viewers what exactly happened on Krypton before Clark Kent landed on Earth. Sure, we were told countless times what happened, but despite the fact that older versions of the film could not pleasingly pull off such a scene due to the lack of cinematic technology, Man of Steel was truly the only Superman movie that even tried.

Another thing the film did that others did not, was that it laced humor in with all its endless drama and action. Here's just one of many examples...

What really made this film an absolutely stunning reboot to the Superman trilogy was the film's breathtaking cinematography. Whether you liked the film or not, there's no possible way that you could say the cinematography was just so-so. Even some of the computer-generated scenes of the film--particularly the drawn-out fight scenes--are possibly some of the most extraordinary demonstrations of cinematic artwork that have ever appeared on the big screen.

While not all viewers may agree that Man of Steel was a phenomenal film, it's simply unfair to say that it was not a super reboot to the Superman trilogy.

American Gangster

Since I have done three movies with Russell Crowe I should stay with him.  American Gangster is a 2007 true story gangster movie based in the 70's about heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington directed by Ridley Scott.  It was nominated for two oscars including best achievement in art direction.  Denzel Washington plays heroin kingpin  Frank Lucas, who was smuggling heroin in from vietnam in the early 70's.  Russell Crowe plays the detective who is trying to hunt him down.  Ridley Scott creates a beautiful picture of the brutality of the drug industry in New York in the early 70's.  He also gets an oscar nominated performance from Ruby Dee as Frank Lucas's mom who is the only one who is allowed to talk back to him.

I saw the movie when it first came out when I was maybe a bit to young for it, but my uncle assured my dad it was okay and so I continued watching it.  Russell Crowe's character is morally questionable with a failing marriage due to his womanizing behavior and it leads to his wife to seek a divorce and full custody of their child.  Though when he turns in unmarked bills he is promoted to head of a task force to stop whoever is supplying a new potent heroin.  Frank Lucas is the one supplying the heroin and because of his higher quality heroin at a lower price he quickly builds a fortune.

While Frank is able to avoid the cops for a while, but Crowe's character Richie Roberts gets on to him and with the end of the vietnam war Frank Lucas gets his supply cut off.  This combined with a failing marriage due to assassination attempts on his and his wife, and competing with the mafia and other drug dealers leads to him getting caught by Richie Roberts and convicted and sentenced to a 70 year term in jail.  He only served about ten years because he gave info to the police that led to over 100 convictions. The movie is a fantastic story that looks beautiful that is a must see.

Link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXceJA-eoJg

A Beautiful Mind

Sticking with Russell Crowe I am going to switch to another brilliant performance in A Beautiful Mind.  Russell Crowe was nominated for best actor in this role in which he played John Nash.  This was the third year in a row he was nominated for Best Actor following his roles in the Gladiator and The Insider.  A Beautiful Mind won both Best Picture and Best Director and it was well deserved.  It is a true story that is told beautifully by Ron Howard.

A Beautiful Mind follows the life of John Nash it starts at his college life and goes until the end of his career.  Russell Crowe is perfect in the role as he brilliantly performs the trying life of John Nash and the many troubles he had despite being a brilliant mathematician who went to Princeton.  Jennifer Connelly played John Nash's love interest in the movie and she also did a brilliant job and earned an oscar for her performance.

Together they tell the story together beautifully and they give you a haunting vision of the life of John Nash.  I would talk more about the actual story, but if I get more into it I will start giving away some serious spoilers.  All you need to know is the movie is fantastic and worth watching and there is even a scene of the real John Nash at the end that is very touching.  This is Russell Crowe in another must watch performance.

The Insider

The Insider is a 1999, true story, movie directed by Michael Mann that was nominated for seven academy awards. Russell Crowe's performance in this movie is absolutely fantastic and he was nominated for an academy award for his role.  He would follow this role up with a best actor academy award for Gladiator.  Russell Crowe plays a employee for a tobacco company who starts to leak information to the journalist Lowell Bergman, played by Al Pacino despite the fact that it was in his contract not too.  Russell Crowe takes you on a wonderful ride and you really end up rooting for both Russell Crowe and Al Pacino.

Al Pacino also delivers a fantastic performance despite not being nominated.  He plays a journalist who has to fight with the upper news persons at CBS because they do not want to show the story on 60 minutes that would deal a huge blow to big tobacco.  What really brings these performances together is the fantastic directing by Michael Mann and the cinematography work by Dante Spinotti together they paint a beautiful picture of a thrilling story about two men.  I think this is one of the best news movies to ever be filmed.  I do have a bias because the movie is about my uncle Lowell Bergman who is played by Al Pacino.

It is a fantastic movie and Christopher Plummer as one of the CBS heads really rounds out the cast of a fantastic movie.  It is really worth seeing and you will not be disappointed

Gladiator

Gladiator is a movie set during the Roman Empire starring Russell Crowe.  It is a beautiful epic that tells a fantastic story and leads the view through an amazing journey through the brutality of Ancient Rome.  What I love about Gladiator is how beautiful each scene looks and how grand each scene is.  The opening scene of Gladiator shows the Roman army about to take on barbarians.  The scene is beautiful, there is a light snow as the army ready for battle.  Russell Crowe leads them in the charge and sure enough the romans over power the Barbarians.

Part of the reason I am such a fan of gladiator is that I am a big fan of Roman history and I love watching epics, so this suits me quite perfectly.  After this battle the emperor comes to visit and tells him (Russell Crowe) that he is to become emperor after him instead of his son (Joaquin Phoenix).  Well his son finds out about this and after his father's death he attempts to kill Russell Crowe.  Though Russell Crowe escapes and this is where the story really starts.  He becomes a slave and then he is forced to fight as a Gladiator.  These scenes look stunning and the arena is amazing.  Every arena battle is amazing and very well done.  One of his early gladiator fights leads Russell Crowe to say the now famous line "Are you not entertained"

Gladiator is a must watch for anyone and especially anyone who likes Russell Crowe or Ridley Scott.  You will be taken on a fantastic journey that will have you wanting to find out what happens next at every moment.  Luckily for me I have the extended edition so I can watch it over and over.  If you want a glimpse here it is.