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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Cinderella (2021)

Cinderella is a modern take on the classic tale. This time everything is politically upside down. Written and Directed by Kay Cannon, Cinderella takes any chance it can to push an agenda. It's nauseating in the forcefulness of the propaganda. It's hard to take any scene that isn't singing seriously. It lives in a dystopian world where anyone who doesn't think progressively like-minded is a fool and shouldn't have joy. The direction is okay, but that's to be expected as she probably picked up some being the producer of the Pitch Perfect trillogy. Camila Cabello plays Cinderella and her first major film. She can sing and performs well next to her stepmother played by Idina Menzel, who needs no introduction. Surely, she will be in future musicals and I can only hope for one with a better writer. Pierce Brosnan plays King Rowan and is forceful in his performance but given the point of his character, it's sad to see. Someone had to be the punching bag, and ...

Escape Room (2019)

Escape Room is presented as a Saw-like game of puzzle solving or your life ends. This time around they remove the gore to get a PG-13 rating and a January release. Adam Robitel is best known as the director of Insidious: The Last Key. Which I 'saw' and meh'd about last year. He also did Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension which I haven't seen. I stopped watching the Paranormal movies after The Marked Ones. There are some camera/direction problems nothing an average movie-goer would notice. Taylor Russell plays the main character Zoey. Don't take any offense, but she has a really hard time going full Aspergers, but once she turns Lara Croft she does a decent job. She also did the over-looked Lost in Space TV series which I still need to watch. I want to see Deborah Ann Woll in more movies after seeing her in this. She was a shining star in this film. She plays a former military survivor with a lot of baggage. You'll remember her as Karen Page from ...

Red Sparrow (2018)

Red Sparrow is about a Russian ballerina who must work for her government. Her mission: to get information out of an American who has a mole in the Russian administration. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the same man who brought you The Hunger Games and I am Legend, Lawrence does a great job with the flow of the film. For films that are thrillers and mysteries, the problem is having the audience figure out the ending before the climax. The way the film is edited and used allows a smart audience member to be tricked into thinking it is one person when it was someone else the entire time. Great direction. This, other than Mother! is the hardest role I believe that Jennifer Lawrence has ever done. She has a pretty trying and rather quick transition from ballerina to Jason Bourne , Black Widow , completely-awesome heroine. She is smart and willing to go the distance to make sure that she and her mother are happy. I can't really go into more details without spoiling her chara...

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