5/23/05---movie reviews

So I had the chance to catch a couple of movies over the weekend....one I had seen before but was catching the DVD, and the other that's relatively new.

1) Saving Private Ryan--so the other day Andy comes home and starts talking about how in class that day they had discussed D-Day and the invasion of Normandy.  He was asking me some questions about various things regarding that day so that night I sat he & Kellie in front of the television and showed them the first 30 minutes of Private Ryan.  I've always heard that the first 30 minutes of this movie truly depicts the insanity of being at war...the confusion, the blood, the danger, the fear....that at one point or another grips every soldier.  The truth is that not every soldier can be John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima or Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now.  Sometimes the fear and sense of dread take awhile to manifest themselves, as is displayed in Private Ryan by the way that Tom Hanks character of Captain Miller slowly begins to develop an uncontrollable shake in his left hand.  Director Steven Spielberg has made his tribute to the "Greatest Generation" based on stories that his father told him about his experiences during WW2.  He is not only done that generation proud, but made what can argueably called the greatest war film ever made.  Great performances abound, from Hanks--doing his usual standout work, to Tom Sizemore as the gruff sargeant and Matt Damon as the title character.  One of the other things that was interesting was the number of times a relatively known actor popped on the screen and I thought..."man, that guy is in this movie also?"  Watch closely for the likes of Dennis Farina, Ted Danson (?!!?) & Paul Giamatti in smaller roles.  A tremendous movie, grueling, with some grim battle scenes.....but so well made and told that its impossible to not watch.  *****
2) Sideways--I don't really like wine.  Never really got into the whole "clarity, texture" nonsense that some wine conisseurs throw out there.  That being said, this is probably the greatest movie ever made about the wine industry--that's also a very funny and pointed look at failed relationships and the effect they can have on people.
Paul Giamatti--back from WW2--plays a struggling writer and sometime wine snob who takes his best friend, Thomas Hayden Church, on a weeklong bachelor party before the latter's wedding day.  Their experiences in California's wine country during their week of discovery are the basis of the film which also features a very fine performance by Virgina Madsen--and where they dragged her up from I don't know
because I haven't seen hide nor hare of her in ages.  Anyway, this film is a little slow in the beginning but at some point the train sort of hits the top of the hill and starts going downhill at a much faster pace, to the point where at the end of the film I really didn't want it to end--because the characters had really started to grow on me.  There are some very touching scenes in the film and one flatout laugh out loud hilarious scene--I will only say that it involves one of the characters going back for a misplaced wallet--that will stay with you for a long time.  Good film.  ***3/4

Later,
Jeff