JFK

Posted on August 25, 2015 by jaycluitt

On November 22nd, 1963, President John F Kennedy was killed, supposedly by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was killed by a man named Jack Ruby before the case could go to trial. Despite several other theories, the case was dropped for three years, until Jim Garrison, the District Attorney of New Orleans, picked it up again after noticing some discrepancies within the Warren Report, written to document the details of the assassination. Garrison and his team re-launch the investigation, certain that there is more to it than simply one man and his gun.
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Reversal of Fortune

Posted on August 13, 2015 by jaycluitt

This film was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.

Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close) is in a coma, from which she will never wake. Her husband, the aristocratic European Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) has been charged with her attempted murder, apparently using an insulin overdose, in order to inherit her vast wealth and move on with his life. Claus is released on bail, and hires small time lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to make the case of his appeal plea, despite Dershowitz insistence that Claus is guilty, what with the mountain of evidence piled against him. He is given 45 days to assemble a team and build a case against Claus’ guilt, which proves more difficult than he’d ever thought.
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Mrs. Miniver

Posted on August 11, 2015 by jaycluitt

In pre-World War 2 England, the Miniver family live a happy life. Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson) spends her days going to town and spending their money on frivolities, and feels guilty about buying an expensive new hat-type thing that I would never describe as being a hat, but her worries at what her architect husband (Walter Pidgeon) will say disappear when it is revealed that he has bought a fancy new car. They have two young children – Toby and Judy (Christopher Severn and Clare Sandars), and a 19-year old son Vincent (Richard Ney) who has just returned from Oxford and caught the eye of Carol (Teresa Wright) the granddaughter of the village aristocracy, the haughty Mrs. Beldon (Dame May Whitty), who disapproves of lowly station master Mr. Ballard (Henry Travers) entering his new rose to compete against hers in the upcoming village flower show. All these problems are thrown to the wind, however, when war breaks out, and everyone finds themselves affected.
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The Departed

Posted on August 9, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.

In Boston’s grimy crime-ridden underbelly, Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) is high on the wanted list of Massachusetts State Police, who plant a mole, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) inside Costello’s operation. Unbeknownst to the police, Costello has performed a parallel manoeuvre, with his man Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrating the police system.
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Enter the Dragon

Posted on August 2, 2015 by jaycluitt

A Shaolin monk named Lee (Bruce Lee) is invited to a martial arts tournament being held by Mr. Han (Shih Kien), a former Shaolin monk who abused his training for personal gain. Lee intends to bring him to justice, having been recruited by British Intelligence, but is joined in the tournament by other competitors Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly). It soon becomes clear that the tournament may be a cover for something more sinister.
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My Man Godfrey

Posted on July 18, 2015 by jaycluitt

During an upper class social event, a scavenger hunt breaks out, with one of the required items being a forgotten man, meaning a man forgotten by society, such as the homeless men living down by the river, in a dump area slowly being filled in for renovation. Two sisters, Cornelia (Gail Patrick) and Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) head to the dump and find Godfrey (William Powell). Cornelia offends him, but Irene’s desperation to finally defeat her sister at something warms Godfrey to her cause, so he helps her out. However, when he is humiliated at the event and questioned as to the validity of his “forgotten” status, Irene takes pity on him and employs Godfrey as the family butler, before promptly falling in love with him.
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The Voices

Posted on July 13, 2015 by jaycluitt

Jerry is a nice guy. The nicest guy, in fact. He lives a happy life working in the shipping department of a bathroom fixtures company and longing to get to know Fiona from Accounting a little better, but spending the evenings living above a bowling alley with his dog Bosco and his cat Mr. Whiskers. Who talk to him. And tell him to kill people.
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Fight Club

Posted on July 11, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.

At the end of the 20th Century, men have lost their sense of place in the world. With no real sociological problems to concern them, the American working class males wander through life in a daze, controlled by their jobs and their society-spawned desire for the perfect magazine lifestyle. One such man (Edward Norton) finds solace from his insomnia in support groups for people with terminal illnesses, with this contrast to his own lack of problems finally allowing him to sleep at night. However, his world is rocked by the existence of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow group-attending faker, and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a rather bizarre fellow with a penchant for soap, explosives, splicing pornography into family films and, of course, beating the crap out of other consenting men.
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Master Killer)

Posted on July 6, 2015 by jaycluitt

In Hong Kong, a band of activists plans to rebel against the Manchu government, but during the uprising the government strikes back, and only one young rebel manages to escape. Wounded, he makes his way to the Shaolin temple, where he seeks martial arts training in order to return to his home town and defeat the oppressors.
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The Incredible Shrinking Man

Posted on July 1, 2015 by jaycluitt

Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is an ordinary man living a good life with his wife Louisa (Randy Stuart). One day aboard his brother’s boat Scott is the only one on deck when they pass through a glittering radioactive mist. Six months later, Scott begins to shrink, which he finds both unusual and more than a little irritating.
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