White Heat

Posted on March 30, 2017 by jaycluitt

Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is the brash, ruthless, potentially crazy head of a crime gang in California. After a train robbery draws unwanted police attention, Cody decides to take the fall for a smaller job in Illinois, heading to prison for a minimal sentence. The police see through his ruse but entertain the plan anyway, as they have a scheme of their own involving an undercover officer (Edmond O’Brien) who will become Jarrett’s new cell mate, Vic Pardo, whose mission is to discover the identity of Jarrett’s money launderer. Cody must now deal with being away from his gang, his girl (Virginia Mayo) and, worst of all, his Ma (Margaret Wycherly)
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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Posted on February 27, 2017 by jaycluitt

Portsmouth, 1787. Ship’s Lieutenant Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) press-gangs a pub-load of unwilling men aboard The Bounty, heading on a two-year voyage to Tahiti in search of breadfruit. At the ship’s helm is Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton), one of the cruellest men to ever sail the seas in the name of the King’s navy, and he more than lives up to his reputation. After Christian and the crew can take no more of Bligh’s cruelty they mutiny and take over the ship, but their problems do not end there.
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A Matter of Life and Death

Posted on December 31, 2016 by jaycluitt

Whilst returning home to England after a mission over Germany during World War II, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) reports back to American radio operator June (Kim Hunter) and alerts her to the presence of his squad, who all bailed out of their severely damaged aircraft. With his own radio technician, Bob (Robert Coote), dead and no intact parac/hutes remaining, Carter knows he will not survive the return journey, but plans to eject anyway, preferring to jump rather than fry, but during his brie dialogue with June the pair develop an attraction. Suffice to say, Carter bails out and his plane crashes but, miraculously, he awakes on shore, fully alive. You see there has been an error in Heaven and, due to the heavy fog across the English Channel, Carter’s body could not be found. An agent of Heaven, Conductor 71 (Marius Goring), is sent to retrieve him, but alas he has met in person with June and the two have fallen hopelessly in love, and therefore Carter is far from willing to accept his allotted demise, and instead intends to fight his case to the end.
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The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Posted on November 26, 2016 by jaycluitt

It looks like just another day at the detective agency for Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) when Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor) walks in requesting his assistance in tailing a man believed to have run off with her sister, but when Spade’s partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) is shot and another body shows up later that night, Sam soon finds himself under question by the police. His gift of the gab can only talk himself out of so many predicaments, as he becomes entwined in a desperate search for a priceless artefact that everyone seems to crave.
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Little Children

Posted on November 2, 2016 by jaycluitt

Sarah (Kate Winslet) is a stay-at-home mother whose life is already feeling rut-like and unfulfilling, something that is exacerbated when she catches her husband Richard (Greg Edelman) masturbating in his home office with an unfamiliar pair of women’s underwear tied to his face. Part of Sarah’s daily routine involves going to the park with her three year old daughter Lucy, where Sarah sits slightly apart from the other mothers, due to their constant judgement at how much better they are at caring for their children than Sarah. They all idolise a man named Brad (Patrick Wilson), their male equivalent who brings his young son Aaron to the same park. On a bet, Sarah introduces herself to Brad, and the two soon find the company of the other fulfils something missing in their own lives. Meanwhile, convicted sex offender Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley), who was arrested for exposing himself to children, has been released from prison and moved back in with his mother, May (Phyllis Somerville). Many members of the community are uncomfortable having Ronnie living in such close proximity, especially former policeman Larry (Noah Emmerich), who makes ruining Ronnie’s life his own personal obsession.
little-children
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Cool Hand Luke

Posted on October 6, 2016 by jaycluitt

A prison chain gang in Florida gains its latest inmate in the form of Lucas “Luke” Jackson (Paul Newman), a war veteran sentenced to two years for cutting the heads off parking meters whilst inebriated. However Luke has a fairly serious issue with authority and a tendency to rebel against any order he is given purely on the grounds of it being an instruction, so prison life isn’t something he fits into well.
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Das Boot

Posted on September 27, 2016 by jaycluitt

Germany, 1941. War correspondent Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) is assigned to accompany the crew of the U-96 boat on their next tour, to take photographs and document the trip for propaganda purposes. Under the command of their Captain (Jürgen Prochnow) the crew face the ups and downs of maritime warfare.
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Room

Posted on May 22, 2016 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.

Today is Jack’s birthday, he is five years old. To him, the whole world is Room, an 11×11 foot enclosure outside of which he has never been. He lives with his mother, Ma, plays with Egg Snake under Bed, eats with Meltedy Spoon and sometimes, when Old Nick visits, Jack has to sleep in Wardrobe, counting the groans before Old Nick falls asleep. The stuff on TV is all fantasy, things that don’t exist in real life. Jack’s world ends at the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the skylight and the heavy metal door, locked with a keypad combination. Beyond that, there is nothing.
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Blind Spot: The Elephant Man

Posted on April 26, 2016 by jaycluitt

Whilst attending a carnival, well-to-do surgeon Mr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins) sees John Merrick (John Hurt), a 21-year-old man born with such severe physical disfigurements that he is displayed as “The Elephant Man”. After Merrick receives another in a series of beatings from his “owner” Bytes (Freddie Jones), Treves takes Merrick into the hospital and cares for the man, slowly uncovering the person behind the appearance.
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The Godfather

Posted on April 21, 2016 by jaycluitt

Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the head, or Godfather, of his family and crime syndicate in 1940s New York. He receives a request to move into narcotics by up-and-comer Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), but when Vito declines, the Tattaglia family, with whom Sollozzo is in business, attempt to kill Vito and break the Corleone family apart. With Vito in hospital, it is up to his children – headstrong firebrand Sonny (James Caan), simple Fredo (John Cazale), newly married Connie (Talia Shire), war veteran Michael (Al Pacino) and adopted Tom (Robert Duvall) to resolve matters.
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