u/DiscoInError93

Solid acting from Denzel Washington, Tony Shalhoub, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis.

The Siege follows an entertaining but somewhat predictable 'terrorists attack New York City' plot. I can't help but feel like this movie has been memory-holed in the post-9/11 era due to its' striking similarities...

I wouldn't go out of my way to watch this again, but it's worth seeing once.

If you don't like Ralph Fiennes, skip this one - it is three straight hours of Ralph Fiennes, but it’s fantastic.

Sunshine follows the generations of a Hungarian Jewish family. It's a deeply emotional, romantic, and, at times, disturbing story. The film is beautifully shot with many incredible sets, locations, and an extensive classical soundtrack. The dialogue is immense and it would be a lot to take in during a single sitting - I would recommend watching in three sittings, split across the generational epics.

The juxtaposition of Fiennes role in Schindler's List and Sunshine is ... terrifying. I get the sense this was advertised as a holocaust film, and those scenes were very intense, but it was a small part of the whole. There was so much character depth to this film. I'm not yearning to watch this again soon, but I am glad to have seen it.

Rush is a dark, heavy movie and if you've been down the rabbit hole of narcotics addiction and/or undercover cop movies, you'll enjoy this one.

Undercover cops Raynor (Jason Patric) and Kristen (Jennifer Jason Leigh) lose their way in the drug trafficking world trying to make a case. It's not the deepest plot, but the acting is great.

This is undeniably one of Jennifer Jason Leigh's strongest performances behind Fast Time at Ridgemont High and Jason Patric's acting throughout is intense - I don't have another word for it. Sam Elliot's role as Captain Dodd (almost) steals the show as he helps Raynor and Kristen navigate the case. Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band convincingly plays the baddie in his only movie credit.

The Grammy-winning soundtrack/score was done by Eric Clapton and it's fantastic. The cinematography does a great job establishing the gritty small-town vibe.

Absolutely worth the watch - streaming free on Plex, Tubi, and a few other places.

I was mindlessly drawn to this movie by the cover, so I wasn't expecting much from this early Patrick Dempsey movie, but I ended up really enjoying this.

Charlie (Dempsey) talks his way into a backroom poker parlor and accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight. He goes on the run from the corrupt cops and the mob with the stunning Kelly Preston by his side. There are a few great car chase and fight scenes throughout and the violence and gunplay really ramped up towards the end, almost over the top.

If you need a quick thriller to watch, I'd keep this one in the playlist! Unfortunately I'm not sure if this is streaming anywhere, so you may have to do some hunting to find it.

Belly (1998) stars DMX, Nas, Method Man, and Hassan Johnson (prior to his fame as Wee-Bey on The Wire). It's a gritty drug dealer come-up story without much substance. It really felt like someone watched Goodfella's and Scarface and then tried to reshoot several scenes from those movies with a lot of nudity and sex scenes interspersed for no real reason. The story was all over the place, with random time jumps and character build-ups for nothing.

T/W: >!We find out early on that one of the main characters is having a sexual relationship with a 16 year old he has been grooming since she was 11 and we then see her performing a sex act. I honestly don't understand why this storyline is in the film at all...!<

The soundtrack was very well done and probably saved the film in the edit. The cinematography and lighting were nauseating and the opening 5 minutes definitely needs an epilepsy warning... As you can see from the few pics I selected, this looks like three different movies cut together. The bathing in harsh light ends up being really distracting and the constant long shots of naked woman that don't advance the story get old fast.

The ending of this movie really threw me for a loop. It has this crisp, bright, no-film-grain, happy New York scene that could've ended the movie, >!but instead we get a 15 minute assassination attempt on an entirely new character with no context and a very weird and lengthy monologue woven across scenes of Times Square on New Years Eve. It feels stuck-on and unplanned...!<

This might be worth watching for the soundtrack, but I can't recommend it beyond that. If you've seen this, maybe I missed something in the story and you can fill me in??