Star Wars: IV A New Hope

A long long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, there was a movie. This movie changed the sci fi genre forever and even inspired two more movies (what prequels? I heard rumors but, too bad they don't exist). That movie was Star Wars.  Man, even after all these years, Star Wars holds up pretty well, despite the fact that it's budget wasn't huge. It's got great action sequences and memorable lines. So, each month until December, I'll review each of the Star Wars movies (The good ones, obviously.) So, grab your lightsaber and hop into your space ship, and May the Force be with you!

The Plot:
During a galactic civil war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, a farm boy named Luke Skywalker dreams of a life with excitement and adventure. When two droids from said Rebel Alliance show up, his dreams become a reality. With the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo and Chewbacca, Luke saves a kidnapped Princess Leia from the Empire's Death Star. However, their fight isn't over yet when the Empire decides to use their ultimate weapon. Intent on destroying the planet that the Rebels reside on, our heroes gear up and launch an attack. The clock is ticking as Luke and the Rebel fighters take on the Death Star and attempt to destroy it.

The Good:
Pretty much this whole movie. The pacing is done right. The characters are easy to like and easy to get behind. You hate the Empire from the get go, but you're still impressed with them. And the lines that are so memorable; "I have a bad feeling about this." "I find your lack of faith disturbing." And always, "That's no moon, that's a space station." The action's amazing to watch too. From the dogfights in space, to the turrets in the Millennium Falcon. Which, were inspired by actual footage of WW II dogfights. Darth Vader is inspired by samurai culture and the Jedi are loosely based off of samurai as well.  I mean, this movie is awesome.

The Bad:
It was pretty hard to find some bad in all that good, but I did manage to find some. It should be noted I watched one of the many "Special edition" Star Wars, so yeah. There's the scene where Greedo shoots first for one. (Han shot first) Second, there's the deleted scene where Jabba is at Han's ship and they strike a deal. This should have remained deleted. At the end, Han says "Jabba. You're a wonderful human being." Which, makes no sense since Jabba is a space slug. Leia's dialect keeps switching from British and American during the film. There are a few plot holes, but they're not glaringly obvious.  However, the Empire is pretty stingy when it comes to lasers and "malfunctioning" escape pods. Of course, the movie would have been over a lot faster.

Overall:
Star Wars is a classic. It's also a great movie, despite it's flaws. Maybe that's why everyone likes it so much. It'll remain one of my all time favorite movies for years to come.

Rating:
4.5 lightsabers out of 5.

Live and Let Die

Hello folks, sorry for not posting anything over the last month. I've been super lazy lately and as fun as writing reviews is, it's still work. Anyways, I'm back and ready to review some films!

Bond. James Bond. These three words are so legendary everybody knows who James Bond is. The original gentleman spy. The man who has the best job in the world. Cool cars, cool gadgets and cool women, what's not to love about James Bond?

Well, that might be one thing not to love about him.

So, today, I'm reviewing the 8th James Bond movie, Live and Let Die. This movie is one of my all time favorite Bond films and probably has some of the best chase scenes in movie history. So, as they say at MI6, "Bring back the car in one piece."

The Plot:
Several MI6 agents are killed in a span of 24 hours and Agent 007 is called in to finish what they started. Why'd they all die?, you ask. They were all keeping an eye on Dr. Kanaga, a Caribbean dictator. Sounds suspicious. Anyways, J.B. takes off and enters the world of voodoo and whoodoo and drugs. He meets Solitaire, Kanaga's personal fortune teller and immediately gets into trouble. As the mystery unravels, 007 discovers Kanaga is planning to give away 2 tons of heroin for free in order to monopolize the drug industry, then sell the heroin to the highest bidder. 007 manages to bring down Kanaga's drug business with planes, boats and some good old fashioned shoot outs. James Bond stops Kanaga by, well, over inflating his personality, so to speak.

The Good:
The story's pretty good for a Bond film. It's the first one that doesn't have a palm rubbing, mustache twirling villain who wants to take over the world. The bad guy, Kanaga, just wants to own the drug business and nothing else. I like that. Roger Moore as Bond is entertaining. He cracks jokes even when he's in serious trouble. Tee Hee, the villain in the video above is hilarious, because he's always laughing inappropriately, and he's pretty terrifying. Then there's the boat chase. That's right, not a car chase, a boat chase. This is one of the best movie chase scenes ever. It's suspenseful and has comedy at the right times. Then, the best line of all time:

Oh, and some of the set pieces in this movie....stunning. Mr. Big's (Kanaga) lair is...awesome. The underground cave near the end, beautiful.

The Bad:
There's not a whole lot of bad stuff in this movie, but I did find some. Let's start with Rosie Carver, a double agent who works for Kanaga. She has to lead Bond somewhere to kill him or Kanaga's men kill him, I'm not sure. Anyways, worst double agent ever. She screams a every little thing, even to the point where Bond gets sick of it. She's useless and had no point in being in the film at all. Some of the situations Bond gets himself in are easily escapable. There's one scene where Bond sits in a chair, then Tee Hee pushes a button and the world's easiest to break out of hand braces "trap" Bond. Maybe Bond knew that, maybe Kanaga's men had guns. Who knows. Moore tries to look like they're super tight, but these hand bindings rest comfortably on Bond. And finally, 007's CIA buddy, Felix Leiter. Dude's seriously the dumbest CIA agent ever. One of his men gets killed and instead of investigating as to why his agent isn't where he's supposed to be Felix says "He must lying down of the job." Har har. Later, Bond falls in one of Kanaga's traps while Felix gets a phone call from his dead man. (How does that work?) Anyways, Felix comes back, asks the waiter where Bond is and gets hushed. Does Felix get worried and go looking for Bond? Of course not. The CIA should have fired this hack a long time ago.

Over all:
Live and Let Die is a fun movie to watch. There's good lines, good story, good characters and fun for the family. As I said, it's one of my favorite Bond movies.

Rating:
5 Secret agents on whose side?! out of 5.