MYST #4

The Italian Job

I was having a pretty boring and tired day so I wanted to watch something entertaining and not too serious for my MYST. Once I came across The Italian Job I knew that was the movie I had to watch. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I hadn't of seen it in at least a few years so I thought it would be a good one to do a MYST post on.

The Italian Job is about a group of friends, who, after stealing 35 million dollars worth of gold from Italian gangsters in the city of Venice, are betrayed by one of their crew members, Steve (Edward Norton) . Steve kills John, their beloved leader and father-figure of the group and steals all of the gold. Thinking he had also killed off the rest of the crew, Steve goes on to live his now wealthy life in the city of Los Angeles. After locating Steve, Charlie (Mark Wahlberg) reassembles his group of friends and also recruits Johns daughter to help them get revenge. The movie revolves around their preparation and planning of stealing the gold back from Steve; not for the money but simply to avenge Johns death. Although the movie revolves around the story of a heist, its really more about a group of friends and their intention to get back at the man who killed John. If your not looking for something too serious, its an entertaining and fun watch with a good cast. (Jason Stathom, Charlize Theron, Seth Green, and Mos Def also star in it)

2 scenes in the movie which really stood out to me were the scenes in which they were cracking the safe codes. The first one came at the beginning of the movie when they are underwater cracking the safe in Venice. The camera cuts back and forth from the extremely calm and nerve racking setting of John trying to crack the code to the ensuing police chase which is going on outside through the canals and alleys of the city. The scene cuts back and forth between these 2 a lot and it helped create a lot of suspense. It was also interesting because it showed that both events, which were happening simultaneously, were seemingly equally suspenseful even though one was a police chase and the other was very calm, still, and quiet. This is also seen in the end of the movie when Johns daughter is trying to crack Steve's safe. As she is in the process, the camera once again cuts back and forth between the safe and the ensuing chaos of the men racing towards the safe to stop her. It was very interesting how the director chose to do this with both scenes and it really added a suspensful "are they gonna make it" feeling to both.

Im glad I decided to watch this movie. It was a nice throwback to one of my favorite movies as kid and I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good heist movie. 4/5 stars

MYST POST #3

Jack Reacher

I was real bored looking for a movie on Netflix the other day and somehow I came across Jack Reacher. I usually tend to stay away from anything Tom Cruise as it usually implies a dumb action movie, but I thought it would be funny to watch the movie and write a bad review on it and pretty much bash everything that is a soulless action money-maker.

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the movie. From a technical stand point there wasn't much that stood out other than some different camera angles used for effect and such like that, but given it was a small budget movie I wasn't very surprised by that. It just wasn't that type of big block buster movie. However, the plot had some good twists and It was cool to see the movie unfold in front of you given it was sort of a conspiracy mystery thriller. It also had some subtle humor throughout which kept it a more entertaining watch. 

The movie revolves around the story of the aftermath and investigation of the presumed cold-blooded murder of 5 innocent civilians by an ex-military sniper James Barr. Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is also ex-military and a drifter and is motivated to come and bury the suspect (Barr) once and for all, whom he shares an interesting past with. As he learns more about the case, victims, and evidence he begins to discover that some of it doesn't add up and believes Barr was framed. Reacher then sets out on a seemingly one man mission to uncover the real truth behind the murders and clear his own name on the way. Its cool how the story and investigation unfold throughout the movie and it was much more of a thriller than I had expected.

I couldn't tell wether he was acting or not cause he's pretty much the same person in every movie but Cruise gives the good old signature Tom Cruise performance. It wouldn't be a Tom Cruise without some real cheesy lines, no emotion, and a car chase. The only difference was it actually worked in this movie and aided to some of the humor throughout. I think Cruise knew exactly what  he was doing and purposefully played off that cliche of himself. As a viewer I could pick up on that and it made it seem more funny. Given that he produced the movie and had some behind the screen influence I can painfully admit I respect that. 

Given that there really wasn't anything that special about it technically speaking its hard to pick a specific scene to dissect. I will also admit I got a little carried away with the story to pay attention to some of the technical aspects of it, so ill chalk that one and say put it on me Mr D. 

All in all, it wasn't anything super special, but i think it definitely achieved its goal as a movie. It was entertaining to watch and I think it would be safe to say I would watch it again to see all of the stuff I didn't pick up on the first time around. I give it a solid 3 stars, maybe 3.5 on a good day.