American Sniper (2014)

American Sniper is about a former Navy S.E.A.L. sniper who becomes a legend for the number of soldiers he saved, and about what happens once he returns home and how he deals with post-duty America.

With a new Clint Eastwood movie coming out soon, I figured now would be a good time to go back and review one of Eastwood's best-directed movies. Eastwood captures the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in a light that seems so authentic that there is little doubt that what you are seeing is real and it feels that way. Eastwood transports you to war much the same Spielberg did with Saving Private Ryan.

There are many roles that Bradley Cooper has done well, but this one surpasses them all by a landslide. He was great in Silver Linings Playbook don't get me wrong but he was robbed by Eddie Redmayne for the Oscar that year. One thing that many military people will probably notice is the mannerisms that Cooper did to make his performance more believable. There is not a scene in which I've thought, 'oh that's Bradley Cooper.' For the entire film, Cooper was Chris Kyle.

Sienna Miller looks so much better as a brunette, maybe that's just my opinion, but then again I'm not wrong. She worked with Cooper again in Burnt and you might recognize her from G.I. Joe as Ana. She plays Chris Kyle's wife Taya. She nails the performance with the help of Eastwood's direction. Acting with a phone and hearing awful sounds in the background is a difficult task to do and she rocks it.

The movie is structured great and flows from scene to scene. There are few moments that drag and nothing that I would take out to save time. I also wouldn't add anything to this film, it has the right amount of tension that a war film needs.

Result: A+ (One of the best films of that year and my third favorite war film of all time)

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Sleepwalker (2026)

Sleepwalker is a horror thriller written and directed by Brandon Auman , who quickly reminds us why his career has primarily been in television rather than feature films. Writing for children's television can sometimes get away with simplistic dialogue and storytelling, but those weaknesses become glaring when stretched into a feature-length horror movie. The screenplay is filled with clunky dialogue and predictable horror beats, while the jump scares rarely land. Instead of creating tension, the film repeatedly left me sighing in boredom. Hayden Panettiere delivers a strong performance despite the material she's been given. It's clear that many of her lines weren't written with much care, but she does what she can to make the character feel believable. Knowing this is her final film makes the performance bittersweet, especially because she deserved a much better script to go out on. Fortunately, her performance here doesn't diminish the work she's done in bet...

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