Film Review: NURSE BETTY (2000)

Director: Neil LaBute
Writers: John C. Richards (story/screenplay), James Flamberg (screenplay)
Running time: 110 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama/Romance
UK Release date: 1^st September 2000

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 31^st August 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I can’t say I knew an awful lot about this movie before viewing. I had seen the title pop up quite a lot since it’s’ release but had never had the chance to see it until now. I found it interesting but not all that engaging; some good performances but it didn’t quite hit the mark. Here’s a very brief summary before I expand on that.

When waitress and soap opera fan, Betty Sizemore (Renée Zellweger) witnesses her husband, Del (Aaron Eckhart) being murdered, she goes into shock. This has the effect of making her believe she has left Del and is headed to LA to meet up with her ex-fiancé, Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear) from the hospital-based soap ‘A Reason to Love’. Of course the men who murdered Del, Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and Wesley (Chris Rock), are on her trail as soon as they know she had witnessed the crime. On arrival in LA she is befriended and taken in by Rosa Hernandez (Tia Texada), after she saves Rosa’s brother. They set off to find Dr. David Ravell, but how will Rosa react when she realises he’s totally fictitious.

Although I found it an interesting concept, I found it quite hard to engage with any of the characters. Having said that, I did find I had a bit of a soft spot for Betty. It’s pretty well made, although I did feel I was watching a soap half the time. There were far too many coincidental events going on that allowed the plot to progress. The performances were all pretty good with Renée Zellweger easily standing out. Morgan Freeman was, well, Morgan Freeman; he just seems to play every part the same these days. Chris Rock was a bit of a surprise for me, playing the hot headed Wesley with great aplomb and a great degree of swearing. Over all though, I found it a little disappointing despite the decent performances, it never really got going.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED (Just)

My score: 5.9/10.

IMDb Score: 6.2/10 (based on 25,424 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171580/

MetaScore: 69/100: (Based on 34 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 84/100: (based on 130 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 38/100: (based on 34,847 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nurse_betty/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Trailer:

Film Review: UNFORGIVEN (1992)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Running time: 131 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Drama/Western
UK Release date: 18^th September 1992

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 23^rd July 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

As those who have read my stuff before will know, I’m not really big on Westerns; I guess I watched too many of them when I was growing up (they were just about the only films on TV). The Spaghetti Westerns peeked my interest for a while, but there have been very few in recent years that have caught my curiosity. This, however, is a different kettle of fish altogether. This is one of the few that I could watch several times over and still get something out of. Clint Eastwood really knows how to tell a story; I suppose while working with the likes of Sergio Leone, something had to rub off. Here’s a brief summary before I give you my thoughts.

When a whore is cut up by a couple of ranch hands and the local law, Little Bill Daggett, does little or nothing a bout it, the other whores pool their resources in order to get retribution. Word is put out that a bounty of One Thousand Dollars has been put up for the lives of the two perpetrators. A young man calling himself The ‘Schofield Kid’ hears about it but decides he might need some help. He calls on Bill Munny, a former gunfighter and asks him to come out of retirement. Bill is a reformed character, having married and raised a family, but with his wife recently deceased, he is tempted. He sends the kid on his way, but can’t help thinking about it. Eventually he decides to follow and leaves his children to fend for themselves while he’s away. He calls on his old partner, Ned Logan, and persuades him to join them. Meanwhile, back in the town, another gunslinger, English Bob, arrives and is given short shrift by Little Bill, who makes an example of him and sends him on his way. The trio finally arrive in town with Munny suffering from a fever. He is badly beaten up by Little Bill but not before the other two make contact with the whores. They manage to find a hideout where Munny can recover. The question is, will they still have the stomach to do what they came for? I’ll leave it there as I’m sure there are many out there that haven’t seen this and I don’t want a show-down with the spoiler police in my local saloon.

As with many Eastwood-directed films, this has quite a slow and deliberate pace, but it is always interesting. I love the way he allows the story to evolve. As usual, an excellent performance from Clint Eastwood himself as Bill Munny. Also great were Gene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett, Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan and Richard Harris as English Bob… but why they picked an Irish actor for the part I’ll never know! Also worthy of note was Jaimz Woolvett as The ‘Schofield Kid’.

As I’ve already said, the storytelling is excellent and the characters are interesting and hold your attention. I get the impression they were looking for realism in the look of this picture and it does look like what I imagine the Wild West really was like. I just wish they had made the interior shots a little brighter, much of the action takes place at night or indoors and you can believe they are shooting by candle-light in some scenes, it’s so dark! This is the thing that let this one down for me, I was struggling to see who was shooting who in some situations. But that aside, it’s a very fine piece of work and fully deserved it’s 4 Oscars (including best picture) and five other Oscar nominations. This one comes highly RECOMMENDED.

My Score: 8.7/10

IMDb Score: 8.3/10 (116,751 votes when this review was written)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96/100 (56 reviews counted when this review was written)

LINKS:

(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1041911-unforgiven/
Trailer:

Film Review: INVICTUS (2009)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Running time: 128 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Drama/Sports
UK Release date: 5th February 2010

Watched on DVD Monday 25th April 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I guess I should state at the start that I am a huge fan of Rugby Union, the game featured in this film. A little sceptical when I first put the disc in the DVD player because I’m not a fan of South Africa, I’m English, but my worst fears were soon put aside. The film focuses on Nelson Mandela’s efforts to unite his country, and how he used rugby as part of this process. Based on true events, much of the story is about a country divided along lines if race that is now emerging into a new era. To help ease this process, and to get many of the whites on his side, Nelson Mandela inspires the captain of the Springboks, the South African rugby team, François Pienaar, and encourages him in his quest to win the World Cup, which is being hosted there.

Technically, this is a very well made film, although, as is usual with sports in films, the close-up action shots do appear to be staged (which, of course, they are). This failing aside, it’s a very well written script and there are some very nice performances. There is a nice little sub-plot involving Mandela’s security people, who are all black at the beginning, but when they ask for more men, Mandela sends some white security people round. After a little uncertainty at first, we see them gradually earn each other’s trust as the film progresses. A neat little device that illustrates the points being made in the main part of the movie.

Unusually for a film of this type, the two main characters, who are both very inspirational men, seldom meet. When they do, you can feel the strength of Mandela giving encouragement to Pienaar. This comes across very well and even I was rooting for the Springboks by the end of the film (and I already knew who won!). I remember well watching the final, where Mandela pulled off a great stroke by wearing a Springboks shirt. This had been a symbol of power to the whites and a symbol of oppression to the blacks in South Africa. This one simple act did much to unite the nation and greatly inspire the team.

Two great performances; Morgan Freeman really nailed the voice and the mannerisms of Nelson Mandela, of course, he doesn’t really look much like him, but I guess you can’t have everything. Matt Damon did a great job as François Pienaar, inspirational speeches and a lot of physical work also, but, again, he doesn’t really look like the man he’s portraying. I can forgive that as they both did a really good job.

Over all I found this a very inspirational film with some great moments. It features two very good performances, but I did find it a little too long and the close-up action looked a little too staged. Having said that, I would watch it again sometime and I’m sure I would find more things to like about it. I do like the very measured style Clint Eastwood uses in the films he directs, nothing is too overstated and I have to admire him for that. Recommended.

My Score: 7.5/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1057500/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/invictus/
Official Site: http://invictusmovie.warnerbros.com/dvd/index.html
Trailer:

Film Review: THICK AS THIEVES (aka THE CODE) (2009)

Director: Mimi Leder
Running time: 104 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 1st November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Keith Ripley is a notorious art thief who has been pursued by New York cop Lt. Weber for many years without any conviction. Ripley has more recently managed to avoid going to jail with the help of his god daughter, and lawyer, Alexandra Korolenko. As you might guess, Ripley has ties with the tight knit Russian community in New York.

Gabriel Martin is a young thief from Miami who is befriended by the veteran Ripley. Now, Ripley wants Martin to help him pull of an audacious robbery on a vault containing some priceless Russian artworks. He needs to do this in order to pay off a debt owed to the Russian mob by his former partner Victor Korolenko, Alexandra’s father. After meeting Alexandra, Gabriel pursues her despite Ripley’s warnings not to do so. The mob brings Ripley and Martin to meet the boss, known as Nicky. In order to ensure they carry out the job properly, Nicky arranges for Alexandra to be his guest until the goods are in his possession. This is where it gets interesting for our crooked duo.

A quite well made film, with New York as a backdrop you can’t go too far wrong with locations. Decent performances from all of the main characters, Morgan Freeman as Keith Ripley, Antonio Banderas as Gabriel Martin, Radha Mitchell as Alexandra Korolenko and Robert Forster as Lt. Weber, although none of them were really stretched. I guess in the end, although there was a major plot twist, which I didn’t really expect I found the film a little slow paced and dull. It just needed a little more action and maybe a little less dialogue. Over all, given the quality of the cast, I expected better.

My score: 6/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1112782/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1787036185/