Author Archives: JPFmovies

T.J. has been hounding me for months to review one of his favorite movies Law Abiding Citizen.  The film clearly resonates with him and his general distaste for the government particularly the “justice” system.  After watching the film I now know why—it rips the system a new one if you get my meaning.  Moreover, as I state in the title, I am not a Jamie Foxx fan, but this film was pretty darn good because the “bad guy” a.k.a. the Law Abiding Citizen beats the corrupt system until the last five minutes of the movie.  I do wish the movie would have let him win the whole game but we all know Hollywood just could not let that happen.

In a violent home invasion, engineer Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is forced to witness the rape and murder of his wife and young daughter. Prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) is unable to use DNA evidence to securely convict both accused.  Because he is more concerned about his high and yet unbeaten 96% conviction rate,  Foxx makes a deal with Darby (the actual murderer), letting him plead guilty to a lesser charge, in return for testifying against Ames.  Ames is falsely found guilty of masterminding the break-in and both murders and is sentenced to death.  Shelton is outright pissed off because of the brutal nature of the crime to his family he wanted Foxx to take both killers to trial.

Fast forward ten years and the criminal’s time on death row is up, but our hero, the law abiding citizen, has managed to replace the typical drugs used in executions with another drug (Potassium bromide), causing Ames to die an extremely painful death.  Not to worry though our law abiding citizen has not forgotten his partner in crime because he brutally tortures and extremely brutally dismembers him in revenge for killing his wife and daughter while videotaping the whole thing.

In a great court scene Shelton represents himself and successfully argues that he should be granted bail, citing weak evidence and lack of criminal record but when this is granted, he outrageously berates the judge for accepting the “bullshit” legal precedents he himself cited and for being too eager to let madmen and murderers back on the street. The judge jails Shelton for contempt of court.

Not knowing who they are dealing with, one of Foxx’s acquaintances arranges a meeting with a CIA contact learning that Shelton had in fact worked with the agency previously as a “brain”; a highly trained agent whose job was creating devices to assassinate people in imaginative ways. Further, they are warned that Shelton has no contacts but is capable of killing anyone he wishes, no matter who they are or where he is. The contact warns them that Shelton does nothing without a reason, and if he’s in solitary confinement at the prison, he’s there because he wants to be there, and not that they put him there. During a meeting with Rice and Cantrell, the judge that presided over Darby/Ames’ case, is killed when she answers her cell phone. Shelton demands Rice to drop all charges against him or more people will die – he has until 6:00 am to do so. When Rice again fails to meet the demands, a number of Rice’s assistants are killed by car bombs, one of them is Sarah Lowell (Leslie Bibb). Rice immediately moves his family to a safe house. As Rice and Cantrell leave the funeral of Lowell, Cantrell is killed by a weaponized bomb disposal robot operated by an unseen person.

Fast forward a little and it turns out that our law abiding citizen has tunneled into prison.  So he comes and goes as he pleases.  Foxx finds a bomb in the tunnel meant for the mayor and other big wigs and tricks our law abiding citizen into detonating it in his cell.

I will say that the law abiding citizen didn’t seem to care as he really had nothing left to live for.  So maybe he won after all.  If you are fed up with the government, the criminal justice system or any real form of state imposed authority watch Law Abiding Citizen at the very least it will let our some serious frustration.

High and Low (literally “Heaven and Hell”) is a 1963 police procedural crime drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Kyōko Kagawa.

A wealthy executive named Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is in a struggle to gain control of a company called National Shoes. One faction wants the company to make cheap, low quality shoes for the impulse market as opposed to the sturdy but unfashionable shoes currently being produced. Gondo believes that the long-term future of the company will be best served by well-made shoes with modern styling, though this plan is unpopular because it means lower profits in the short term. He has secretly set up a leveraged buyout to gain control of the company, mortgaging all he has.

Just as he is about to put his plan into action, he receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son, Jun. Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, but the call is dismissed as a prank when Jun comes in from playing outside. However, Jun’s playmate, Shinichi, the child of Gondo’s chauffeur, is missing and the kidnappers have mistakenly abducted him instead.

In another phone call the kidnapper reveals that he has discovered his mistake but still demands the same ransom. Gondo is now forced to make a decision about whether to pay the ransom to save the child or complete the buyout. After a long night of contemplation Gondo announces that he will not pay the ransom, explaining that doing so would not only mean the loss of his position in the company, but cause him to go into debt and throw the futures of his wife and son into jeopardy. His plans are weakened when his top aide lets the “cheap shoes” faction know about the kidnapping in return for a promotion should they take over. Finally, under pressure from his wife and the chauffeur, Gondo decides to pay the ransom. Following the kidnapper’s instructions, the money is put into two small briefcases and thrown from a moving train; Shinichi is found unharmed.

Gondo is forced out of the company and his creditors demand the collateral in lieu of debt. The story is widely reported however, making Gondo a hero, while the National Shoe Company is vilified and boycotted. Meanwhile the police eventually find the hideout where Shinichi was kept prisoner. The bodies of the kidnapper’s two accomplices are found there, killed by an overdose of heroin. The police surmise that the kidnapper engineered their deaths by supplying them with uncut drugs. Further clues lead to the identity of the kidnapper, a medical intern at a nearby hospital, but there is no hard evidence linking him to the accomplices’ murders. The police lay a trap by first planting a story in the newspapers implying that the accomplices are still alive, and then forging a note from them demanding more drugs. The kidnapper is apprehended in the act of trying to supply another lethal dose of uncut heroin to his accomplices. Most of the ransom money is recovered, but too late to save Gondo’s property from auction. With the kidnapper facing a death sentence, he and Gondo finally meet face to face. Gondo has gone to work for a rival shoe company, earning less money but enjoying a free hand in running it. The kidnapper reveals that envy from seeing Gondo’s house on the hill every day led him to conceive of the crime.

This is another one of the Emperor’s tour de force outside of the samurai films he was so famous for.  Mifune gives his usual stellar performance and the story examines the question (among other things) about human selfishness and greed and doing right no matter what the cost.  And, more importantly how difficult the decision to do the right thing and was rightfully considered courageous by all involved.

We here at JPFmovies have reviewed and lauded the original BBS series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister for years.  The original series ran between 1980 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes.  Now the “revived” Jim Hacker as the PM in a new revival that does nothing less than make one cringe with every word spoken.  The fools decided mess with what ranked as the 6^th greatest British sitcom of all time deserve nothing less than exile.

I would expect this kind of crap from America, but I hope that the British had more class than Holly Wood.  I guess that you can’t win them all.

The acting stinks, is stilted and, for example, they apparently believe that the audience needs to be told the Bernard Wooly is pedantic instead of letting the viewer figure it out for themselves which takes all of two seconds.

Moreover, the famous long and murky speeches made by Sir Humphry and cheap copies of the originals performed by an actor cast by lottery instead of auditions.  It breaks my heart to see such a fabled tale of political satire thrown into the dung heap.  Why?

Dr. H Reviews Jurassic World, Flawed Entertainment at its best (Still in Theaters).

Jurassic world, is a victory of exhilarating CGI’s over the old-fashioned and somewhat mundane art of solid storytelling with relatable characters.  Sadly, it appears that these two factors are like East and West– the two will never meet.

Don’t get me wrong—Jurassic World is a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn summer flick that for the most part will keep you engrossed if not spellbound. But director Colin Trevorrow’s attempt to project the movie as a struggle against corporate and media excess is a bit over-the-top.

The fact that there are two credits for the story and four for the screenplay and that the script was revised about 5 times and the movie took a decade to materialize makes you wonder about the screenplay standards of today.  If this is the final product of a professional screenplay exercise written, rewritten, and revised for audience response, could an amateur writer do any worse?

If this sounds harsh, please consider the following: here are a couple of dramatic moments that needed some creative punchlines.  Two brothers are lost in the wilderness of the park being chased by a rogue dinosaur (and yes this concept is something that the movie has successfully contributed to the dinosaur genre).  Finally after a 20 minute chase outwitting the dinosaur they manage to reach safety only to find a lukewarm reception or perhaps scenes chopped at the altar of the editor’s proverbial splicer.  Ironically, the brotherly bond is the only redeeming chemistry that the movie could successfully portray.  The distant second being the affection between the smaller dinosaurs and their trainer-feeders.  The other, almost criminal, omission was their inability to logically develop the character played by Vincent D’Onofrio, who represented the big arms industry and the Indian actor IRFAAN KHAN (representing the theme park owner with higher ambitions) both of them versatile and talented actors. Henceforth the story takes a childish turn and the protagonists lacked gravitas.

Despite the movies flaws there were some rousing scenes, the most memorable was copied from the master Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds where flying dinosaurs attack the hapless theme park tourists enjoying themselves and pecking them on their heads as the larger beasts lifted them into the air and then dropping some to their some to their deaths and others to serious injury.  Not to give away the climax the most we can reveal is that the director’s final sleight of hand was if you can’t beat them, join them.

Watch the movie for its unadulterated fun but don’t count on remembering the story after a week.  I had to get this review out within 24 hours of watching this film or major omissions would have crept into the review.