Double Feature Day: Pt. 2 V For Vendetta

Just finished watching V. Seen this movie plenty of times in the past, this just gave me an excuse to watch it again. This movie was requested by a friend of mine named Cameron, and I was more than happy to oblige. I adore this movie, it has everything a great action movie should have, on top of that, however, it has a great moral that people forget all too often these day:


People should not fear their government. Governments should fear their people.


This movie is an excellent work that gets to show off some strong CGI works and some great choreography and cinematography. I had an exceptionally difficult time finding Cons for this film. The only two I came up with sounded way too nit-picky. I have a feeling that one day this film will be shown in Film classes. It's one of the best films from the 00s, in my opinion.


*Note: Due to legality issues, there will be no photos accompanying this review. While it is "legal", it is only so until somebody raises a fit. And while their movie is about freedom of speech, I doubt they would care much for mine.

Pros:

Special Effects: A few months ago, I dived head first into Computer-generated imagery, more commonly known as CGI. Since working with CGI for myself, I spot bad CGI everywhere. Even in movies I've seen hundreds of times, that one scene now looks so fake. However, while I can see a lot of the CGI in V, none of it looks bad. It's hardly noticeable in most cases and when I did notice it, I was generally looking for it. Quite possibly the most obvious CGI would be the knife trails in some of the fighting sequences.

Choreography: David Leitch, was the Fight Choreographer and also, V's stunt double. He does an amazing job in the fights. It was probably tough working in that mask, limiting his view and, I'm sure, hard to nail the moves. However, his ability to pull it off, gives this film, some of the best fighting sequences from the past 10 years.

 Cons:

Storyline: I remember seeing this movie for the first time back in 2006. I remember leaving the theater and being confused by the storyline. Granted, I was only 15 at the time, but I knew enough to get this movie. The story can be a bit convoluted for a first time viewer. If you don't get the whole thing the first time around, watch it again. It's well worth taking the time to understand it all, it's quite an intricate web. Every time you see it, you'll see something you missed last time.

FINAL SCORE:

9/10

This movie is fantastic, it has action, blood, and Natalie Portman for the guys. However, it also deals with some subtexts of romance, mystery, and drama that will entertain most females as well. This is a movie I'm glad I picked up on Blu-Ray, and for only 8 Dollars! Thanks Cameron for the request, if anyone else would like to make a request, go HERE and read the instructions. kthxbai!

Purchase "V for Vendetta":

Amazon (DVD)

 Amazon (Blu-Ray)

Watch The Trailer Here

Go For Broke

Just rolled the movie of the day, it's on the Combat Classics 50 Movie Pack. Didn't read much about this film, only thing that caught my eye is that it was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. So that's interesting. Pretty excited to dive into it.

Here's the IMDb page: Go For Broke, On that page they also have the full movie for instant watch.

Review: Go For Broke is about the 442nd Army Division and their combat exploits throughout Western Europe. The 442nd was an all Japanese-American regiment which, for obvious reasons, caused them to be less than trusted. They, however, against adversity and rampant racism proved to be invaluable in the Italian and French Front.

After having finished Go For Broke, I can see why it was nominated for that Oscar. The writing was well done and at times, rather comical. The movie had some definite comedy elements which, though present, never overpower the films main genre, action. The action is well done and the cinematography is used perfectly to show off the action.


Pros:

Comedy: Comedy helps to break up the monotony of pretty much all war movies, especially older ones.

Racism: You might be saying, "How is racism a Pro?" Really the reason it's on here is the lack of racism. When you think of a Japanese Army regiment with Caucasian officers in 1943, you'd expect to find some racism, to say the least. However, the few times the film actually does show this racist element, it's kept contained and never used extensively.


Cons:

Character Development: The only development truly present in the movie is the main character's differing opinion towards his platoon. In the beginning of the film he wanted nothing to do with a Japanese-American platoon. However, near the end of the film he wouldn't want to be with any other platoon. And that's the extent of character development. Yes I know war movies probably shouldn't have much character development, however, this film had so little, I noticed it continuously throughout the film.

Pigs: I highly doubt any army would let a soldier keep a pet. Let alone a pig. Tommy, the soldier who "owns" the pig, at some points talks about how precious little food he has. Yet he keeps a fat piece of pork around. Oh well, he eventually hands it over to a poor French family anyway. So I guess it served some purpose.

FINAL SCORE:

7/10

I'm far from a modern military buff or a war movie buff. However, I found the characters in this film to be likeable and the writing was well done. Like I said prior, had there been more character development this would be a higher score.


Purchase "Go For Broke":

Amazon

Oldies

Combat Classics 50 Movie Pack
Or watch it free here (in much lesser quality):

Go For Broke