Heat Movie Review

It’s sort of improbable that Michael Mann was able to make Heat the way he wanted to at the length of nearly three hours. How did a studio greenlight that decision? Mann was not a known director like a Scorsese or a Spielberg. Crime drama was not exactly a genre that typically lent itself to epic scope and length. I can only surmise that it was on the strength of having Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as the two leads that made executives believe that people would come to this movie. It didn’t hurt, I’m sure, that the movie is exceptionally well-made.

Black Hawk Down Movie Review

As I rewatched Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down for the first time I more than a decade, two other war Berchtesgaden more than a year later. The similarities are numerous. Both are based on books that attempted to recount, in as much factual detail as possible, the events surrounding are large contingent of American soldiers in conflict. Both were released toward the end of 2001, coinciding with post-9/11 American jingoism. Both focus heavily on the responsibility soldiers in combat feel toward each other more than to the ideology or politics behind the war. And both unflinchingly portray some of the horrors and carnage of war. The other is the more recent Lone Survivor, whose primary focus is on the fact of soldiers in harm’s way pulling for each other. The latter film has faced criticism for being a form of war porn, which you could also say to some extent about Scott’s film. But I think the positives to take away from all three far outweigh any negative observations regarding the depiction of blood and guts in battle scenarios.

Devil in a Blue Dress Movie Review

It’s interesting what more than a decade can do to your perspective and reaction to a film. I really liked Devil in a Blue Dress when I saw it in high school and then again years later on DVD. I was much less enamored with it this time around, although I still think this story of a burgeoning private detective living in the Watts neighborhood of post-war Los Angeles has a lot going for it to recommend.

Carl Franklin wrote and directed this adaptation of the novel by Walter Mosley, the first of a series of ten novels featuring the character Ezekiel Rawlins, brought to life here by Denzel Washington. Franklin’s previous outing as director had been the neo-noir One False Move, which was very well received by critics. Franklin demonstrated a streamlined approach to genre filmmaking, focusing strongly on the violence and tension built into the script. He takes a similar approach to Mosley’s book, but he’s not working with as strong a story.