The 15:17 to Paris is easily one of the worst movies of not only this year, but the past few years, and just a complete misfire for the usually great Clint Eastwood. While casting the real life heroes as themselves was a mistake, there were numerous other issues at play.
The Witches is certainly a odd Italian movie for sure but not entirely engaging despite its weirdness and as an anthology, never really found a balance, though it was fun seeing a young Clint Eastwood starring in one of the anthology shorts.
Unforgiven is probably one of the best westerns ever made and it’s a movie that transcends audiences so if you’re like me and don’t normally watch those kinds of movies, give this one a shot: it features fine performances, fine direction and a story that is compelling from beginning to end.
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil is a nice inclusion in Warner’s Archive Collection and while I didn’t particularly think very much of the movie, there’s at least some good elements headlined by another masterful performance from Kevin Spacey and even John Cusack contributes well.
Not quite as powerful as it could have been, Clint Eastwood’s True Crime at least offers a couple fine performances and has a compelling enough of a story, though the screenplay could’ve used more work.
Escape from Alcatraz is one of my personal favorites from Clint Eastwood and although it’s hardly perfect, it is efficient in both its story telling as well as character development giving us just enough to care about the outcomes. This bargain catalogue title is rather basic with no features while the video and audio transfers, although not great, are both satisfactory.
Jersey Boys is clearly a passion project for producer/director Clint Eastwood and although the cast perform admirably enough, I never quite found the feature that engrossing but admittedly, I also don’t have much of a connection with the music or the group, so those who do (older crowd) might get more out of the movie than others.
Twilight Time’s release of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, a long ignored title within the MGM catalogue line, is a fun flick featuring excellent performances from Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges set against the beautifully photographed backdrop of the Midwest. The Blu-ray offers up good video/audio transfers, both certain upgrades over their DVD counterpart, but the features are limited.
The praise for Million Dollar Baby might have waned over the years and upon its release got its fair share of spoofs, but 8 years later I still loved just about every minute of it even if it’s as depressing as all hell.
Blood Work is what I would call a minor blip for Clint Eastwood. It’s not bad and has a few good scenes, not to mention Eastwood himself is as good as usual, but the story never gains momentum. Even so, it goes by quickly enough and the supporting cast are all fun to watch. As far as the Blu-ray is concerned, the audio and video are more than adequate (and upgrades over the DVD) while the features, albeit forgettable, are good to have.
J. Edgar is one of those films that you can see the passion be it from the costume design, production design and the cast. It’s unfortunate that the screenplay never quite gives the viewer a reason to care either way. Worst still, the movie plods along at a slow and arduous pace and although I appreciate the non-linear storytelling (it worked for Scorsese in The Aviator after all), it doesn’t do any justice for the character in the long run.
Unforgiven is probably one of the best westerns ever made and it’s a movie that transcends audiences so if you’re like me and don’t normally watch those kinds of movies, give this one a shot: it features fine performances, fine direction and a story that is compelling from beginning to end.
Unlike other average films I’ve come across over the years, there are definitely reasons to see Hereafter, if nothing else for the performances. It is unfortunate that the screenplay needed another draft or two to shore up issues with the plot since Clint Eastwood direction is well done to go along with Stern’s beautiful cinematography.
Unlike other average films I’ve come across over the years, there are definitely reasons to see Hereafter, if nothing else for the performances. It is unfortunate that the screenplay needed another draft or two to shore up issues with the plot since Clint Eastwood direction is well done to go along with Stern’s beautiful cinematography.