"The Judge" Review

The Judge

3.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Moderate sexuality
-Strong language, including f-words, throughout.
-This one is rated up from most R rated films in terms of family appropriateness because the only reason it is R is the language. Furthermore, it has a good message about integrity that families might appreciate.







With complex characters and a good message, "The Judge" is worth seeing despite its weak first act.

Robert Downy Jr. plays Tony Stark Hank Palmer, a rich, talented lawyer who has spent his career defending awful people. He is from a small town in Indiana where his father, Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall), has served as judge for many years. The two have had a falling out to where they rarely communicate anymore.

When Hank gets word that his mother passed away, he goes to his hometown for her funeral where he is forced to see his father. After a series of events, Judge Palmer undergoes a criminal investigation, and Hank stays to defend him.

Coming into this movie, I was expecting Hank to be a complete jerk with no sense of right and wrong. However, he is a likable person. He has told his share of lies, but he is not without morals. When he sees his father needs help, Hank does everything he can to defend the man even though their relationship is messed up. This proves to be difficult because Joseph is all about honesty and honor, whereas Hank knows all the loopholes that could easily get his father out of trouble.

Without hitting the audience members over their head, this film has a good message about honesty. It is about how having integrity and telling the truth can make everything right.

Robert Downy Jr. does a great job as the arrogant, yet likable lawyer. His character is a lot like Tony Stark in that he is far from perfect, but he still has great qualities. He is also wickedly brilliant, and it is fun to see him figure things out.

Robert Duvall also does a good job as the integrity-filled Judge Palmer. While I like this character towards the end, there are certain parts in the middle where he seems like a two-dimensional, stubborn elderly man. He is difficult for Hank to deal with, but the film later explains why.

"The Judge" does not receive a higher score from me because of the weak set-up. The beginning does not do much to suck the audience in. The fact that he is a brilliant lawyer who works for bad people is only revealed through the dialogue, and I would have liked to have seen Hank Palmer defending a scumbag before he goes to his hometown.

The beginning feels rushed. When Hank goes to his hometown there is very little context given about it. In actuality, him going is a big deal, but this is barely implied as he sarcastically says something to his daughter about his father. Little about the dynamic between Hank and Joseph is discussed until later, and the movie picks up when this happens.

The whole first act feels like a series of events that had to be glued together for the sole purpose of moving the story along. Some of the scenes end by dissolving into the next ones, and this makes the moments feel unimportant.

The reason for this probably has to do with its already-long running time. It stands at two hours and 21 minutes. It would have benefitted from cutting out on some of the superfluous subplots and focusing more on the two central characters.

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"Boyhood" Review

Boyhood

5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Strong language and descriptive sexual content throughout.
-One scene features boys looking at naked images, but they are not clearly shown.
-I rated this up a little because it is only rated R because it is a realistic depiction of life that anyone can relate to.







"Boyhood" will make you reflect on life while watching an entire childhood pass by in just three hours.

The film follows a boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) over a period of about 12 years. When the film starts, he is five years old, and by the end of the film, he is 18 and starting college. It is one of the most ambitious films ever made it was filmed over 12 years with the same actors. The beginning was filmed around 2001 or 2002, and the end was filmed within the last year. This means Mason literally grows up before our eyes.

Every actor stays consistent over the years. Not only does it show Mason grow up, it shows the ups and downs of his mother's (Patricia Arquette) life through the eyes of him and his sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater).

The first hour is less about the children and more about their struggling single mother. Separated from their father (Ethan Hawke), she goes through several relationships that affect Mason and Samantha's well-being.

In the beginning, their father is an irresponsible man. He plays in a band and dreams that he will make it big. His life is not shown as explicitly as the mother's, but it is clear that reality hits him in the head as he becomes older.

The beginning focuses so heavily on the adults because Mason and Samantha do not have defined personalities when the film starts. While Samantha never gets much of a character arc, Mason has definite interests in the beginning that stay consistent in the end. He does not care very much about sports. He cares more about science and learning. As the film progresses, it shows him become interested in the arts.

By the second hour, the film is mostly about Mason. His personality becomes more defined in his teenage years. Essentially, he becomes confused about the purpose of life. He is full of teenage angst and does not trust the system.

Rather than telling the audience "one year later," it simply cuts to another scene that shows a slightly older version of Mason and Samantha. The movie brilliantly shows a passage of time in its pop culture and news references. At the beginning, Mason comes home and watches "Dragon Ball Z" on television. A few scenes later, he plays a Gameboy Advance. In one scene, there is a news report of the Iraq War, and the father talks about how he thinks George Bush is using 9/11 as an excuse for it. Not only does this give the audience a point of reference for what year these people are in, it becomes highly nostalgic. In a way, it is a modern day film adaptation of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."*

The acting is cheesy at times because it deals with child actors. Ellar Coltrane as Mason gets better as the film progresses, but Lorelei Linklater does not improve much. Patricia Arquette also gets noticeably better. She goes through something traumatic while Mason is in elementary school, and when she emotes, it seems forced. However, at the end of the film, when she expresses strong feeling, it is more natural.

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*If you have never heard that song, go look it up on YouTube. It is awesome!

Quentin Tarantino Month: "Jackie Brown"

Jackie Brown

4.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Strong language, including f-words, throughout.
-Gun violence. The wounds are never seen on-screen, but blood splatters on a window in one scene.
-One sex scene. It is a brief depiction of anal sex between a heterosexual couple. It is shown from above the waste, and their clothes are on. However, afterwards, the girl walks away, and the top part of her buttocks are clearly shown.





"Jackie Brown" is difficult to understand at first, but it features the best female character Quentin Tarantino has written.

Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a middle-aged, single woman working a dead-end job as a flight attendant. An illegal gun salesman named Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) uses her to smuggle money from Mexico to California. Coming off a flight, she is stopped by two cops, Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen). They suspect she is somehow connected to Robbie, and upon searching her bag, they find the $50,000 she is smuggling as well as a small bag of cocaine she did not know about.

She gets put in jail, and Robbie pays her bail. He knows she will be offered a plea deal, which will lead to his eventual arrest. His intention in getting her out of jail is so he can kill her before she says anything incriminating. When he goes to her house, she is prepared with a gun, so he cannot go through with the murder.

Robbie is worried about being caught, and there is still $500,000 more that Brown is supposed to smuggle out of Mexico. He wants that money, but he realizes this will be hard to get because Brown is being watched by the police. Because of this, Brown comes up with a slightly convoluted plan to thwart the police and get Robbie his money. Little does he know, Brown is using him for her own purposes.

The plan Jackie Brown lays out is complicated. What she does is different than what she says she will do. In order to fully comprehend it, I needed to watch it a second time. I am glad I did because I have a greater admiration for Jackie Brown and a better appreciation of the movie.

Brown is the best female character Tarantino has ever written. To say she is a smart, independent woman is an understatement. Certain context clues suggest she has been taken advantage of a lot. Now, she knows when people are trying to use her, and she knows how to stand up for herself. She is at a low point in her life, making very little money, and the plan she has will give her a new, fresh start.

Though the story is complicated, especially at first viewing, it is still enjoyable to watch because each supporting character is entertaining. Ordell Robbie is a despicable man. He only looks out for his own interests, and he is willing to kill people to get what he wants.

Robert De Niro plays another despicable character named Louis Gara. He just got out of jail after having served four years for bank robbery, and he now works for Robbie. Even though they are both awful people, Robbie and Gara are completely different. Robbie is a loud, charismatic salesman. Gara is shy and goes along with whatever he is told to do.

De Niro does a great job at bringing his character to life. He has certain mannerisms that show how introverted Gara is. It is one of those performances that is so good, the actor is almost unrecognizable.

Jackie Brown has a love interest in Max Cherry (Robert Forster), a bail bondsman who is getting tired of his lifestyle. Robbie already has the money for bail, but because he does not want to attract any suspicion, he hires Cherry to get Brown out of jail. Cherry immediately finds her attractive, and he does what he can to help her. Both characters are at a point in their lives where they realize they are getting old, and they both have their share of regrets.

The love story is not the main focus, but it does drive the plot forward. Cherry plays a big role in Brown's plan. The fact that he likes her as more than friends is his motivation for helping her. There is some buildup with the love story that pays off in the end without being sappy.

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Quentin Tarantino Month:

Introduction
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Inglorious Basterds
Reservoir Dogs