The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada ( 2005 )

Tommy Lee Jones desrvedly won the 2005 Cannes Film Festival best actor award for this film , which he also directed. Showing there's more to his talent than acting which has gained him a strong presence in the movies for 35 years.

Although Three Burials has a rather unmemorable title , the film certainly is VERY memorable.Jones plays Pete Perkins, a laconic, weathered cattle ranch foreman inthe
bordercommunity of Van Horn, Texas. He has formed a closefriendship with Melquiades Estrada (Julio César

Cedillo), a cowboy from Mexico. Meanwhile, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) and his beautiful if vapid blond wife Lou Ann (January Jones) have just come from Cincinnati to Van Horn, where Mike has a taken a job as a border patrolman. He reports to Dwight Yoakam's hard-nosed Capt. Frank Belmont, who refers to undocumented workers with a racial slur.


Mike and Lou Ann's lives peaked in high school, and the swiftly bored Lou Ann has little to sustain her. Mike is a mindless macho type who pores over Hustler magazine on the job and immediately displays a propensity for excessive violence in capturing illegal immigrants. When
Melquiades spots a fox menacing a herd of sheep he takes aim, and trigger-happy Mike, on duty nearby, returns fire, killing the cowboy.

Pete promised Mel that should Mel die he would see that his body was buried in his village in Mexico. With Pete, a man's word is taken seriously, and acting on a tip, he kidnaps Mike into accompanying him.


Arriaga backs into his story, alternating among its variousstrands, moving between past and present without warning; it's his way of plunging the audience into the lives of the various people who will soon interact in convoluted and unexpected ways.

The trek south of the border, which holds a climactic surprise revealing the depth of Melquiades' yearning for family ties and a life in an idyllic setting close to nature, is crucial in that it forces a
reevaluation of Mike, heretofore easily dismissed as a lethal jerk. The adventures and hardships become a transforming experience for him and reveal Pepper as a young actor of range and depth.

Beautifully photographed throughout , ' Three Burials ' recalls the gritty westerns of Bud Boetticher and there's more than a passing resemblance to Sam Peckinpahs ' Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia ' . Besides Tommy Lee Jones , Brad Pepper turns in a fine performance too. Definitely one to watch!


CRYSTAL EGG

The Condemned ( 2007 )


A choice selection of convicted death row inmates are offered the opportunity to compete in a deadly game on an abandoned island where the winner will win his or her freedom and there sentences dropped.

Becoming part of a reality TV show the 10 condemned killers from all over the world are pitted against each other and ultimately fight to the death to gain there release. Unknown to the prisoners until later on, hidden cameras are placed in obscure places all over the island and there fights filmed and realyed back to the TV team which are camped on the other side of the island.

The condemned is one exceedingly violent film as one might expect. About several leaps ahead of anything Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwartznegger appeared in. Unlike those stars however there's no one in this that comes remotely as close. Former WWE wrestler Stone cold Steve Austin as he's known stars as Jack Conrad , yes he's grim and cold and really mean yet not as much so as Vinnie Jones, who here goes way overboard at being overly obnoxious.

What we have here is an an overly preachy tone and a nastiness which is taken to the utmost levels. Having said all this i don't think it's quite as bad as most other reviewers have said it is. There's plenty of action to be had , if somewhat grisly and it,s almost fiendishly enjoyable to see the TV crew get there comeuppance at the hands of McStarley - Vinnie Jones with guns blazing.


HARD BOILED

Captivity ( 2007 )

Can't say anything good about this deplorable movie.It doesn't make any real sense; is totally unconvincing ; is voyeristic and grubby in the worst sense and is so predictable and horridly cold it's a very unpleasant and nasty view all round. Alright ...it's slickly directed by Roland Joffe' but it's almost totally devoid of any suspense and character.

If watching a beautifull woman ( Elisha Cuthbert ) being trapped in a room and having mind games played on her is your bag you will probably enjoy this.

Unfortunately in this day and age there seems to be a growing demand for films like this, which is very sad. Definitely a bad and rotten egg!

BAD EGG

RESCUE DAWN ( 2007 )

Based on a true story ' Rescue Dawn ' depicts the plight of real life german - american vietnam war survivor Dieter Dengler.Director Werner Herzog here creates a very real and gripping experience who earlier made an excellent documentary on the same topic called 'Little Dieter Needs To Fly', with Dengler reliving his traumatic experence while in the clutches of the enemy.

Unlike most war films Rescue Dawn is a sincere and focused portrait of not only a soldier but also the bonding between fellow prisoners. Cutting out any obligatory love story, flash backs or any political statements which have spoiled many other war movies Rescue Dawn gets right to the point without any extraneous clutter. What we have here is a genuinely moving film which certainly ranks as one of Herzogs finest achievements who remains still one of the most unique directors around. One can't help but feel had this been made by one of hollywoods big guns it would have turned out a lot different.

Dengler is played by Christian Bale who having crashed must try to survive and look out for any means of rescue, which is cut short when captured by a group of Vietnamese. Staying true to his morals he refuses to sign a paper discrediting his fellow americans and is therefore abused, tortured and psychlogically victimized.

Eventually Dengler is sent to a makeshift camp where he meets four other prisoners and forms a close relationship with POW Duane Martin played by 'Steve Zahn'.Conditions in the camp are horrific but Hertzog treats them matter of factly and they are not overdone, as in most other peoples hands they would have been.With there feet Manacled to boards and hands handcuffed the prisoners can only roam the guarded camp by day; at night it is impossible, and this is where Dieter finds a way to pick the handcuffs with a nail he secretly procures.

With food being scarce for not only the prisoners but the guards also, conditions get worse and Dieter hatches a plot to escape.The escape is a success and Dieter finally manages to escape by waving down a passing helicopter but his buddy Duane is unfortanately killed.These final secenes are very moving!

Excellent performances here by the two main leads 'Christian Bale ' and ' Steve Zahn '
makes for a must see film.Hertzog turns in a fantastic movie here and it gets my highest accolade the CRYSTAL EGG award.

TARANTULA ( 1955)

Another splendid science fiction come horror film by film director Jack Arnold.My prevoius review of ' THEM ' was released a year earlier and has a similar beginning , being part of the popular 'Giant Insect ' cycle of the period. Rather than having the little girl fleeing from the unseen THEM Arnold has a strangely distorted man with head and hands twisted into bestiality, jump out into the desertr and collapse as the title credits appear.

Performances are much better than average in TARANTULA. Leo G Carroll ( remember him in ' The Man From U.N.C.L.E ) plays a biochemist experimenting with artificial nutrients which consequently have devastating abnormal effects not only on man but also a huge TARANTULA which escapes from the laboratory.

John Agar and Mara Corday, are also smoothly effective with some touches of humor.Look out near the end for a fleeting glimpse of a young and uncredited Clint Eastwood as the fighter pilot who drops some napalm.

Universals desert town standing set is used to great advantage as it did in THE MONOLITH MONSTERS. Used here as a focus of action and a bridge to the rather more threatening world which lurks just beyond the lamplight. Arnolds feel for the desert is once again perfectly realised.

Obviously the special effects are not up to todays standards but what we have here is all atmosphere throughout and not like todays CGI perfectly rendered mostly lifeless FX. Travelling mattes and giant sets were mainly used making the spider appear enormous. I think we can forgive tha fact that the spiders legs don't seem to touch the ground.

GOOD EGG