Driving Miss Daisy

  Released Year: 1989

Directed by Bruce Beresford

Casted by:

Jessica Tandy as Daisy Werthan

Morgan Freeman as Hoke Colburn

Dan Aykroyd as Boolie Werthan

Patti LuPone as Florine Werthan

Esther Rolle as Idella

 Story: 

In 1948, Mrs. Daisy Werthan, or Miss Daisy, a 72-year-old wealthy, white, Jewish, widowed, retired school teacher, lives alone in Atlanta, Georgia, except for an African American housemaid named Idella. When Miss Daisy wrecks her car, her son, Boolie, hires Hoke Colburn, an African American chauffeur. Miss Daisy at first refuses to let anyone else drive her, but gradually gives in.

As Miss Daisy and Hoke spend time together, she gains appreciation for his many skills. After Idella dies in 1962, rather than hire a new maid, Miss Daisy decides to care for her own house and have Hoke do the cooking and the driving.

The film explores racism against black people, which affects Hoke at that time. The film also touches on anti-semitism in the South. After her synagogue is bombed, Miss Daisy realizes that she is also a victim of prejudice (religious). But American society is undergoing radical changes, and Miss Daisy attends a dinner at which Dr. Martin Luther King gives a speech. She initially invites Boolie to the dinner, but he declines, and suggests that Miss Daisy invite Hoke. However, Miss Daisy only asks him to be her guest during the car ride to the event and ends up attending the dinner alone, with Hoke insulted by the manner of the invitation, listening to the speech on the car radio outside.

Hoke arrives at the house one morning in 1971 to find Miss Daisy agitated and showing signs of dementia. Hoke calms her down. Boolie arranges for Miss Daisy to enter a retirement home. In 1973, Hoke, now 85, retires. Boolie and Hoke drive to the retirement home to visit Miss Daisy, now 97. As Hoke feeds her pumpkin pie, the image fades, with a car driving away in the distance.

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment: 

I have been wanting to watch this Oscar Best Picture for a long time and yes it was one of the recommend movie in Etihad and I happily watch this during my flight time. This movie had gotten a lot of negative criticism of not being great enough to win the best movie that year. Well, beside having soft competitors that year, this movie is not too epic enough comparing to other Best movie that has ever won the title.

But for me, this is just nice... Not necessary all the Best Movie has to be "EPIC" right? The storyline is warm and loving and the title of this movie is enough to attract people's attention. Beside Best Movie, Jessica Tandy's great performance has won herself Best Actress as well... This movie also won Best Screenplay & Best Make-up, total of 4 won in Oscar. :)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Released Year: 2003

Directed by Peter Jackson

Casted by:

 Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

 Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

  Ian McKellen as Gandalf

John Rhys-Davies as Gimli

 Orlando Bloom as Legolas

Sean Astin as Samwise "Sam" Gamgee

 Billy Boyd as Peregrin "Pippin" Took

 Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck

Andy Serkis as Sméagol/Gollum

Miranda Otto as Éowyn 

David Wenham as Faramir

John Noble as Denethor

Liv Tyler as Arwen

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

Hugo Weaving as Elrond

 Story: 

Gandalf leads Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and King Théoden to Isengard where they reunite with Merry and Pippin, who helped the Ents destroy Saruman's forces. With Saruman himself defeated, Gandalf retrieves Saruman's palantír. Overcome by curiosity, Pippin steals a glance into the seeing-stone, and suffers an immediate mental attack from Sauron himself. From what Pippin was able to recount, Gandalf deduces Sauron will attack Gondor's capital Minas Tirith, so he rides ahead to warn them, and takes Pippin with him as 'punishment'. They meet Lord Denethor, steward of Gondor, bitterly grieving the death of his son Boromir. Pippin offers his service to Denethor after confessing Boromir died protecting him.

Meanwhile, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee are led by Gollum to Minas Morgul where they witness the Witch-king of Angmar leading an Orc army to drive Denethor's younger son Faramir and his men from Osgiliath. At Gollum's urging, the three begin climbing a precarious stair carved in the cliff face that will take them into Mordor via a 'secret way'. But having overheard Gollum's plot to regain the Ring, Sam keeps a suspicious eye on him. In Gondor, Pippin follows Gandalf's instructions and secretly lights the beacon to signal Théoden to assemble the Rohirrim and come to Gondor's aid.

While helping Théoden gather his forces, Aragorn is approached by Elrond who says Arwen is dying. After seeing a vision of her son she refused to leave Middle Earth. Elrond then gives Aragorn the sword Andúril, Isildur's sword Narsil reforged, so he can reclaim his birthright while gaining reinforcements from the Dead Men of Dunharrow. Joined by Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn travels to the Paths of the Dead, recruiting the Army of the Dead with the promise to release them from their curse once they fulfil their oath to Isildur.

Faramir is gravely wounded after a futile effort to retake Osgiliath, and believing his son to be dead, Denethor falls into madness. Gandalf is left to command the city defences against the Orc army led by Gothmog. But as Gothmog's forces eventually force their way into the city, Denethor tries to kill himself and Faramir on a pyre. Pippin alerts Gandalf and they save Faramir, but Denethor leaps to his death from the top of Minas Tirith just before Théoden and the Rohirrim arrive. Initially the Rohirrim have the advantage at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, but are eventually overwhelmed by the Oliphaunt-riding Haradrim while the Witch-king mortally wounds Théoden. Though Théoden's niece Éowyn, having posed as a male soldier, battles and slays the Witch-King with Merry's help, Théoden dies of his wounds. Aragorn arrives with the Army of the Dead, they overcome the Orcs and win the battle. The Dead are released from their curse, and the wounded are tended to. In the Houses of Healing Éowyn meets Faramir, and they comfort each other. Aragorn and the other captains of Men decide to lead all who can march upon the Black Gate as a distraction, so Frodo and Sam can get to Mount Doom.

Meanwhile, Gollum manipulates Frodo into leaving Sam behind before they arrive at the tunnel leading to Mordor, and then tricks him into lair of the giant spider Shelob. After a terrible chase, she paralises and binds Frodo. Sam returns and drives Shelob away, but believing his friend to be dead takes Frodo's sword Sting and The One Ring for safekeeping. When he sees Frodo's body being taken by Orcs to Cirith Ungol he realises Frodo's still alive, and gives chase. Sam rescues Frodo from the Orcs, and returns the Ring to him. Aragorn's army draw out Sauron's forces and empty Mordor, allowing the exhausted Hobbits to stagger to the volcano, but they're attacked by Gollum when they reach Mount Doom. Frodo finally succumbs to the Ring's power and claims it as his own, and refuses to destroy it. Gollum attacks Frodo and bites his finger off to reclaim the Ring, but then (while holding the Ring) Gollum falls into the volcano where the Ring was made. Sam manages to save Frodo. The Ring and Sauron are both destroyed, causing a chain-reaction that consumes the mountain, topples Barad-dûr, and kills most of the fleeing Orcs as the ground crumbles beneath them. Gandalf flies in with eagles to rescue the Hobbits, who awaken later in Minas Tirith and are reunited with the surviving Fellowship members.

Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and takes Arwen as his queen. They, and all others present at his coronation, bow before Frodo and the Hobbits. The Hobbits then return to the Shire where Sam marries Rosie Cotton. Frodo, unable to cope with the traumas of his journey, departs Middle Earth for the Grey Havens with his uncle Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Elves, leaving Sam the Red Book of Westmarch which details their adventures. Though saddened by Frodo's departure, Sam is gladdened by the warm welcome he receives on returning home.

 L² Scored: 10/10 

L² Comment:

Finally I found a friend who own the Blu-Ray version of the extended version of this movie. If not mistaken, the whole movie is about 4 hours ++. After spending such a long hour in my friend's house, finally I complete watching the whole set of this movie series *applause :p

This movie jointly holds the record for the largest number of Academy Awards won with Ben-Hur & Titanic. Not sure whether there will be any epic movie as big as this, but Lord Of The Ring will always be one of my favorite :)

Forrest Gump

Released Year: 1994

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Casted by:

Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump

Robin Wright as Jenny Curran

Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor

Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue

Sally Field as Mrs. Gump 

 Story: 

While waiting at a bus stop in 1981, Forrest Gump begins telling his life story to strangers who sit next to him on the bench. His story begins with his being named for a relative, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and proceeds to the leg braces he had to wear as a child in the 1950s, which resulted in other children bullying him. He lives with his mother, who tells him that "stupid is as stupid does." His mother runs a rooming house and Forrest teaches one of their guests, a young Elvis Presley, a hip-swinging dance. On a bus for his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny, with whom he immediately falls in love, and they become best friends. One day, while fleeing from bullies, Forrest's leg braces break apart and he discovers that he can run very fast. Despite his below-average intelligence, his speed earns him an athletic scholarship to the University of Alabama. While in college, he witnesses George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, is named an All-American football player, and meets President John F. Kennedy.

After graduating, Forrest enlists in the United States Army, where he befriends former shrimp fisherman Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, and they agree to go into the shrimping business together once they end their service. They are sent to Vietnam, and while on patrol their platoon is ambushed. Forrest saves four of the men in his platoon, including platoon leader First Lieutenant Dan Taylor, but Bubba is killed. Forrest himself is wounded and receives the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson. While recovering from his injuries, Forrest meets Lieutenant Dan, who has had both of his legs amputated due to his injuries. He is furious at Forrest for leaving him a "cripple" and cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle.

Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping pong and begins playing for the U.S. Army team, eventually competing against Chinese teams on a goodwill tour. After his return from China, he appears on the The Dick Cavett Show with John Lennon, which after describing his experience in China as best as he can inspires Lennon to write his 1971 hit Imagine. He visits the White House again and meets President Richard Nixon, who provides him a room at the Watergate hotel, where Forrest inadvertently helps expose the Watergate scandal. He again encounters Lieutenant Dan, now an embittered drunk living on welfare. Dan is scornful of Forrest's plans to enter the shrimping business and mockingly promises to be Forrest's first mate if he ever succeeds.

Forrest is discharged from the military as a Sergeant and uses money from a ping pong endorsement to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his wartime promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan keeps his own promise and joins Forrest as first mate. They initially have little luck, but after Hurricane Carmen wrecks every other shrimping boat in the region, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company becomes a huge success. Forrest returns home to care for his ailing mother, who dies soon afterwards. He leaves the company in the hands of Dan, who invests the proceeds of the company in shares of "some kind of fruit company", making them both wealthy.

Jenny returns to visit Forrest and stays with him. He proposes but she turns him down. They make love, but she quietly slips away the next morning. Distraught, Forrest decides to go for a run, which turns into a three-year coast-to-coast marathon. Forrest becomes a celebrity, attracting a band of followers. One day he stops his marathon suddenly and returns home, where he receives a letter from Jenny asking to meet.

This brings Forrest to the bus stop where he began telling his story at the start of the film. During his reunion with Jenny, Forrest discovers they have a young son, also named Forrest. Jenny reveals that she is suffering from an unspecified viral illness, presumably HIV/AIDS. She proposes and he accepts, and they return to Alabama with Forrest Jr. and marry. At his wedding, he meets Lieutenant Dan, who now has titanium alloy prosthetic legs and can walk (although he still has a cane at this point), as well as his fiancee.

Eventually, Jenny dies of her illness. Forrest waits with Forrest Jr. for the bus to pick him up for his first day of school, and watches his feather bookmark float off in the wind.

 L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment: 

 This epic movie is based on the novel of Winston Groom in 1986. It has won the best movie, the best director, best actor and many others~ The storyline is just damn perfect, its a motivation and inspirational movie which makes me feel like "if u dont give up, the God will prepare a road for u"~... i really do believe that there are chances and faiths always wait for those who tries~

Slumdog Millionaire

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by Danny Boyle

Casted by:

Dev Patel as Jamal Malik

Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as Youngest Jamal
 Tanay Chheda as Teenage Jamal
Freida Pinto as Latika

Rubina Ali as Youngest Latika
 Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as Teenage Latika
Madhur Mittal as Salim K. Malik

Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Youngest Salim
 Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as Teenage Salim
Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar

 Story:

In Mumbai in 2006, eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik, a former street child from the Juhu slum, is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and is one question away from the grand prize. However, before the Rs. 20 million question, he is detained and interrogated by the police, who suspect him of cheating because of the impossibility of a simple "slumdog" with very little education knowing all the answers. Jamal recounts, through flashbacks, the incidents in his life which provided him with each answer. These flashbacks tell the story of Jamal, his brother Salim and Latika. In each flashback Jamal has a point to remember one person, or song, or different things that lead to the right answer of one of the questions. The row of questions does not correspond chronologically to Jamal's life, so the story switches between different periods (childhood, adolescence) of Jamal. Some questions do not refer to points of his life (cricket champion), but by witness he comes to the right answer.

Jamal's flashbacks begin with his managing, at age five, to obtain the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, which his brother then sells, followed immediately by the death of his mother during the Bombay Riots. As they flee the riot, Salim and Jamal meet Latika, another child from their slum. Salim is reluctant to take her in, but Jamal suggests that she could be the third musketeer, a character from the Alexandre Dumas novel (which they had been studying — albeit not very diligently — in school), whose name they do not know. The three are found by Maman, a gangster who tricks and then trains street children into becoming beggars. When Jamal, Salim, and Latika learn Maman is blinding children in order to make them more effective as singing beggars, they flee by jumping onto a departing train. Latika catches up and takes Salim's hand, but Salim purposely lets go, and she is recaptured by the gangsters. Over the next few years, Salim and Jamal make a living travelling on top of trains, selling goods, picking pockets, working as dish washers, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal, where they steal people's shoes. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika, discovering from Arvind, one of the singing beggars, that she has been raised by Maman to become a prostitute and that her virginity is expected to fetch a high price. The brothers rescue her, and Salim draws a gun and kills Maman. Salim then manages to get a job with Javed, Maman's rival crime lord. Arriving at their hotel room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him and Latika alone. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him, and Jamal leaves after Latika persuades him to go away (presumably so he wouldn't get hurt by Salim).

Years later, while working as a tea server at an Indian call centre, Jamal searches the centre's database for Salim and Latika. He fails in finding Latika but succeeds in finding Salim, who is now a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's organization, and they reunite. Salim is regretful for his past actions and only pleads for forgiveness when Jamal physically attacks him. Jamal then bluffs his way into Javed's residence and reunites with Latika. While Jamal professes his love for her, Latika asks him to forget about her. Jamal promises to wait for her every day at 5 o'clock at the VT station. Latika attempts to rendezvous with him, but she is recaptured by Javed's men, led by Salim. Jamal loses contact with Latika when Javed moves to another house, outside of Mumbai. Knowing that Latika watches it regularly, Jamal attempts to make contact with her again by becoming a contestant on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He makes it to the final question, despite the hostile attitude of the show's host, Prem Kumar, and becomes a wonder across India. Kumar feeds Jamal the incorrect response to the penultimate question and, when Jamal still gets it right, turns him into the police on suspicion of cheating.

Back in the interrogation room, the police inspector calls Jamal's explanation "bizarrely plausible", but thinks he is not a liar and, ripping up the arrest warrant, allows him to return to the show. At Javed's safehouse, Latika watches the news coverage of Jamal's miraculous run on the show. Salim, in an effort to make amends for his past behaviour, quietly gives Latika his mobile phone and car keys, and asks her to forgive him and to go to Jamal. Latika, though initially reluctant out of fear of Javed, agrees and escapes. Salim fills a bathtub with cash and sits in it, waiting for the death he knows will come when Javed discovers what he has done. Jamal's final question is, by coincidence, the name of the third musketeer in The Three Musketeers, a fact he never learned. Jamal uses his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call Salim's cell, as it is the only phone number he knows. Latika succeeds in answering the phone just in the nick of time, and, while she does not know the answer, tells Jamal that she is safe. Relieved, Jamal randomly picks Aramis, the right answer, and wins the grand prize. Simultaneously, Javed discovers that Salim has helped Latika escape after he hears Latika on the show. He and his men break down the bathroom door, and Salim kills Javed, before being gunned down himself at the hands of Javed's men. With his dying breath, Salim gasps, "God is great." Later that night, Jamal and Latika meet at the railway station and kiss. The movie ends with a dance scene on the platform to "Jai Ho".

L² Scored: 10/10

L² Comment:

The best film deserve a full point right? Yay, love the storyline and how it trigger Jamal to answer every single question on the reality show. Its so fantastic and brilliant how the story was writen this way... i dont mind to watch it again and again...

Midnight Cowboy

Released Year: 1969
Directed by John Schlesinger

Casted by:
Jon Voight as Joe Buck
Dustin Hoffman as Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo
Story:

The film follows the story of a young Texan named Joe Buck, who works as a dishwasher in a diner. As the film opens, Joe dresses himself like a rodeo cowboy, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a hustler.

Joe's naïveté becomes evident as quickly as his cash disappears upon his arrival in New York. He is unsuccessful in his attempts to be hired by wealthy women. When finally successful in bedding a middle-aged New Yorker, Joe's attempt to "talk business" results in the woman breaking down in tears and Joe giving her $20 instead. Joe meets the crippled Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, a third-rate con man who easily tricks Joe out of $20 by offering to introduce him to a well-known pimp, who instead turns out to be a religious fanatic. Joe flees the scene in pursuit of Rizzo, but he is long gone.

Once broke, Joe is locked out of his hotel room for failure to pay the bill. He finally attempts to make money by submitting to oral sex from a young man in the seats of a movie theatre, but even this plan goes awry when the teenager reveals he has no money. The next day, Joe spots an unsuspecting Rizzo at a lunch counter. He angrily shakes Rizzo down for every penny he has — all sixty-four of them — but Rizzo surprisingly offers to help Joe, by sharing his place, an apartment in a condemned building. Joe reluctantly accepts the offer, and they begin a business relationship, helping each other pickpocket, steal and further attempt to get Joe hired as a stud. They are both completely alone without each other, and a genuine bond develops between the two men. Rizzo had a cough when the two first met during the summer and, as the story progresses into winter, his health steadily worsens. Joe and Enrico

The events of Joe's early life are told through fast-cutting flashbacks interspersed throughout the film. He had been to church and baptized as a boy but has only frightening memories of the experience. The two people Joe had loved were his grandmother, Sally Buck, and his onetime girlfriend, Crazy Annie. His grandmother raised Joe after his mother abandoned him but often left him alone to go off with boyfriends; one of them, a wrangler named Woodsy Niles, was Joe's only father figure. Annie had been a promiscuous girl who changed her ways after meeting Joe, but this did not sit well with the men of their hometown: the two were caught and raped by a gang of males. Annie was later sent to a mental institution; Joe joined the army. Sally Buck died while Joe was away serving in the Army, and Annie remains a constant presence in Joe's mind.

Rizzo's backstory comes mostly through the things he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate shoe shiner who worked deep in a subway station, developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out breathin' in that wax every day!" Rizzo learned shining from his father, but refuses to follow (such as he could, after polio crippled one leg) in the old man's footsteps.

At one point, an odd-looking couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer inviting him to a party. They enter into a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars Viva, Ultra Violet and others in cameo appearances). The naive Joe smokes most of a joint thinking it's a cigarette, then takes a pill offered to him and begins to hallucinate. He leaves the party with a socialite, who agrees to pay him $20 for spending the night with her. Rizzo falls down a flight of stairs as they are leaving; he insists he is fine. Joe and the socialite attempt to have sex, but he suffers from temporary impotence. They play a game of scribbage together in which Joe reveals his limited academic prowess. She teasingly suggests that Joe may be a homosexual, and that does the trick: he is suddenly able to perform, and the two have lively, aggressive sex. In the morning, the socialite sets up a friend of hers to be Joe's next customer, and it appears his career is on its way.

When Joe returns home later, Rizzo is in bed, sweating and feverish, and admits to Joe that he is unable to walk. Joe wants to take Rizzo to a doctor, but Rizzo adamantly refuses. He wants to leave New York for Miami; this has been his goal the whole time. A frightened Joe is determined to take care of his friend and leaves the apartment to scrounge some money. He picks up an older male customer, but the man tries to send him away at the last minute out of guilt. Joe's desperation boils over when the man gives him a religious medallion instead of cash. He beats and robs the man, stuffing the telephone receiver into his mouth when he thinks the man is calling the hotel front desk for help.

With the money, Joe buys two bus tickets to Florida. During the long journey, Rizzo's already serious physical condition deteriorates further. During a rest stop, Joe touchingly buys bright new clothing for Rizzo and himself. He throws away his cowboy outfit and admits "I ain't no kinda hustler." As they reach Florida and near Miami, Joe talks about plans to get a regular job, only to realize that Rizzo has died in the seat beside him. After Joe informs the bus driver, the driver tells him that there is nothing else to do but continue on to Miami.

The film ends with Joe seated with his arm around his dead friend, numbly staring out the bus window as row after row of palm trees go by.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Well, guess what? Jon Voight is Angelina Jolie's father. That's why u see Angelina is so hot... Coz the father is hot as well. This movie has won the best film in oscar academy awards. And both Dustin and Jon has been nominated as the best actor but did not won.

The whole film is kinda simple but the "gay relationship" is kinda hidden between the 2 guys in this film. Well, i would love to watch more of Jon Voight's movie soon :)

American Beauty

Released Year: 1999
Directed by Sam Mendes

Casted by:
Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham
Annette Bening as Carolyn Burnham
Thora Birch as Jane Burnham
Wes Bently as Ricky Fitts
Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes
Chris Cooper as Frank Fitts
Peter Gallagher as Buddy Kane
Story:

Lester Burnham is a middle-aged magazine writer who despises his job. His wife, Carolyn , is an ambitious real-estate broker; their sixteen-year-old daughter, Jane , abhors her parents and has low self-esteem. The Burnhams' new neighbors are retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts and his introverted wife, Barbara; their teenage son, Ricky, is a marijuana smoker and drug dealer whom the colonel subjects to a strict disciplinarian lifestyle. Ricky records his surroundings with a video camera, and keeps dozens of taped videos in his bedroom.

Lester becomes infatuated with Jane's cheerleader friend, Angela Hayes, after seeing her perform a half-time dance routine at a high school basketball game. He begins to have sexual fantasies about Angela, during which red rose petals are a recurring motif. Carolyn begins an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane. Lester is told he is to be laid off, but blackmails his boss for $60,000 and quits his job, taking employment serving fast food. He buys his dream car and starts working out after he overhears Angela tell Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he improved his physique. He begins smoking marijuana bought from Ricky and flirts with Angela whenever she visits Jane.

The girls' friendship cools and Jane becomes involved with Ricky; they bond over what Ricky considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag dancing in the wind. Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently. Buddy cools the affair, saying he is facing a potentially expensive divorce. Col. Fitts becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship, and finds his son's footage of Lester lifting weights while nude, which Ricky captured by chance. After watching Ricky and Lester through Lester's garage window, the colonel mistakenly concludes the pair are sexually involved. He later beats Ricky and accuses him of being gay.

Ricky falsely admits the charge and goads his father into turning him out of their home. Over Angela's objections, Ricky convinces Jane to flee with him to New York City, after first calling Angela ordinary. Carolyn loads a gun and drives home. Col. Fitts confronts Lester and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the colonel, who flees.

Lester finds a distraught Angela; she asks him to tell her she is beautiful. He does, and she begins to seduce him. After learning that Angela is a virgin, Lester stops; the pair instead bond over their shared frustrations. Angela goes to the bathroom and Lester smiles at a family photograph in his kitchen. A gunshot sounds and blood spatters on the wall. Ricky and Jane find Lester's body. Carolyn is seen crying in the bedroom, and the colonel returns home, bloodied, a gun missing from his collection.

Lester's closing narration describes meaningful experiences he's had during his life, and explains that despite his death he is happy, as "it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world."

L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

This movie won a multiple awards in 2000, a movie which talks about the life of the american. Nothing really special about the storyline, but mainly talks about the life of Lester Burnham which is gonna end soon by shot in his head at the very end of the movie.

Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari & Thora Birch were given so many chances to show their acting skills in this movie. But 3 of them don't really do well in the industries after that, Suvari manage to get herself into the American Pie series movie, but did not score well either.

Of course the best will still be Kevin Spacey who won the best actor through this film. Wouldn't it be better if he shows us his willy in this movie? lol~

No Country For Old Men

Released Year: 2007
Directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Casted by:
Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh
Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Story:

West Texas in June 1980 is desolate, wide open country, and Ed Tom Bell laments the increasing violence in a region where he, like his father and grandfather before him, has risen to the office of sheriff. Llewelyn Moss, hunting pronghorn, comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry: several dead men and dogs, a wounded Mexican begging for water, and two million dollars in a satchel that he takes to his trailer home. Late that night, he returns with water for the dying man, but is chased away by two men in a truck and loses his vehicle. When he gets back home he grabs the cash, sends his wife Carla Jean to her mother's, and makes his way to a motel in the next county, where he hides the satchel in the air vent of his room.

Hitman Anton Chigurh has been hired to recover the money. He has already strangled a sheriff's deputy to escape custody and stolen a car by using a captive bolt pistol to kill the driver. Now he carries a receiver that traces the money via a transponder concealed inside the satchel to Moss's hideout. Bursting into the room at night, Chigurh surprises a group of Mexicans set to ambush Moss and murders them all. Moss, however, one step ahead, has rented the connecting room on the other side, so by the time Chigurh removes the vent cover with a dime to grab the cash, it is already back on the road with Moss.

Tracking the satchel to a border town hotel, Chigurh's pursuit climaxes in a firefight with Moss that spills onto the streets, leaving both men wounded. Moss flees across the border, collapsing from his injuries and waking up in a Mexican hospital. There Carson Wells, another hired operative, offers protection in return for the money. After Chigurh cleans and stitches his own wounds with stolen supplies, he gets the drop on Wells back at his hotel and kills him just as Moss calls the room. Picking up the call and casually raising his feet to avoid the blood on the floor, Chigurh promises Moss that Carla Jean can be saved only by returning the money. Moss remains defiant.

Moss arranges to rendezvous with his wife at a motel in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm's way. She reluctantly tells Bell to try to save her husband, but Bell arrives too late. He sees a pickup carrying several men speeding away from the motel and finds Moss lying dead in his room. That night, Bell returns to the crime scene and finds the lock blown out in his suspect's familiar style. The scene shows Chigurh hiding behind the door of a motel room, observing the shifting light through an empty lock hole. His gun drawn, Bell enters Moss's room and notices that the vent cover has been removed with a dime and the vent is empty. In fact, we see that Chigurh was not present in the room when Bell entered, indicative of the aging sheriff's rising sense of anxiety and fear. Bell visits his Uncle Ellis, an ex-lawman. Bell plans to retire because he feels "overmatched," but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. For Ellis, thinking it is "all waiting on you, that's vanity."

Carla Jean returns from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh waiting. When she tells him she does not have the money, he recalls the pledge he made to her husband that could have spared her. The best he can offer is a coin toss for her life. She refuses to play, instead stating that the choice is his alone. Chigurh leaves the house alone and carefully checks the soles of his boots. As he drives away, he is injured in a car accident. He leaves before the police arrive.

Now retired, Bell shares two dreams with his wife, both involving his deceased father. In the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second dream, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by Bell with his head down and was "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. When Bell got there, he knew his father would be waiting. Then he woke up.

L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

Tons of killing and messy blood scenes. Though it won the best film, best director, best screenplay, best supporting actor in Oscar, but a big yawn yawn for me. I just don't really like this~ sorry...

Crash

Released Year: 2004
Directed by Paul Haggis

Casted by:
Don Cheadle as Graham Waters
Matt Dillon as John Ryan
Ryan Phillippe as Tommy Hansen
Terrence Howard as Cameron Thayer
Brendan Fraser as Rick Cabot
Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer
Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot
Story:

In the city of Los Angeles, all these characters life are related to one and another of their life. The story will start with 2 black youngster Anthony and Peter Waters complaining how the restaurant mistreat them because they are black. Just when they saw Rick and Jean, the white couple, the 2 black youngster rob them and took their car away.

Rick is a district attorney who manipulates racial politics in order to further his career. He tried to blackmail Detective Graham Waters so that he will not loss the support from the black community in the coming election. But Rick wife's Jean is super-duper racitst white woman, who does not wanna give herself in this and even scold her Hispanic maid, Maria and a mexican locksmith who came to fix their door.

In another hand, a persian shop owner went to buy a gun with his daughter to protect his shop and family. But due to his selfishness, he refuse to change the door as advice by the mexican locksmith. In the end, the shop was rob and no insurance coverage on his loss.

Tommy and John are 2 policeman who is on duty and found out a black couple is having oral sex on a highway. This black couples is Cameron and Christine. John sexually molests Christine under the pretense of searching for a weapon. Cameron did not do anything but just beg to let them go. Christine was frustrated towards her husband respond as Cameron is a tv cast producer who has been trying so hard to fit into the whiteman society.

Graham Waters is frustrated with his mother of keep on urging him to find his younger brother Peter who ran away from home. He pissed off his latino girlfriend, Ria when he answered on phone during sex. He later went to visit his mum but still not really put his effort to find his brother. In the meanwhile, Tommy cannot stand with John for his behavior and ask to on duty alone. John is happily work with his new partner when he saw an accident. John went for the help and Christine is the victim. The car almost explode and John finally persuade Christine to let him do the rescue and both of them are save.

In another hand, Cameron was rob by Anthony and Peter but he beat Peter off his car and crazily fought with Anthony in his car. Policy came for arrest and Tommy was there. To protect his own black people, Cameron finally dare to stand up and protest for his black society. While Tommy was driving back, he met Peter who is hitch-hiking. He tought Peter wanna rob him and accidentally shot him to death.

The persian owner was not happy that his shop was rob and went looking for the mexican locksmith with the gun he bought. He shot the locksmith but the mexican's daughter rush up and hug her dad. But luckily, the Persian's daughter did not buy the real bullet for him. Persian owner regret on his behavior and went back home. As for Jean, she falled from the stairs and called her best friend to help, but the best friend claim that she's busying doing her nails and is not free. Only the hispanic maid came for help. Finally Jean realised her own racists mind is not correct.

As for Graham, he finally found his brother's dead body. The mother will not forgive him.

L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

One word, wow~ Love the way how the story presented. All the actors and actresses are A class :) Especially Don Cheadle. The whole film mainly talk about the discrimination of races and the change of their thoughts, very nice and real. Kinda heavy though. But i would not miss this nice film. Oscar best film in 2005 which beat down the Brokeback Mountain.