{"id":179,"date":"2014-03-22T03:25:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T03:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=179"},"modified":"2022-09-24T19:30:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T19:30:49","slug":"in-prison-escaping-from-prison-and-going-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"In prison; escaping from prison; going to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caesar<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caesar Must Die<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2012)<\/p>\n

This film about prisoners in an Italian suburb staging a production of Shakespeare’s\u00a0Julius Caesar<\/a><\/em> won the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The director used actual prisoners in the cast, which makes the film interesting, but it didn’t do anything for me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Last<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Last Stand<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2013)<\/p>\n

Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was once a Los Angeles police officer but after a botched operation injured his friend, he resigned to take a job as sheriff in Sommerton Junction, Arizona, a slow-paced border town.<\/p>\n

When notorious drug dealer Gabriel Cortez escapes FBI custody, Agent John Bannister (Forrest Whitaker) pursues him towards the border where Owens and his rag-tag group of impromptu deputies are the only thing preventing his escape.<\/p>\n

I had low expectations, but this was a decent action movie. \u00a0Arnold has always had charisma and uses it well here. \u00a0Forest Whitaker is good, but you have to ask what an Oscar-winning actor is doing in a movie with Schwarzenegger and Johnny Knoxville.<\/p>\n

It’s fun to see Harry Dean Stanton (at 87) in a small cameo as a cantankerous land owner, weird to see Zac\u00a0Gilford outside of Friday Night Lights<\/a><\/em>, and always unnerving to see Peter\u00a0Stormare, who will always be recognizable as the bad guy in Fargo <\/em>(1996).<\/p>\n

It’s a passable action movie, and a long way from the worst thing Arnold’s done<\/a>, but it’s forgettable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

American Hustle<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2013)<\/p>\n

Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is married to the unpredictable Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), but in love with Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) his con artist partner. After FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) catches Irving and Sydney, he convinces them to help him set up a sting operation to catch public officials accepting bribes, including the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).<\/p>\n

Bradley Cooper is growing on me. The Hangover <\/em>(2009) was a fun movie but ruined by the horrible sequels. The A-Team<\/em> (2010) was not quite as enjoyable as its source material<\/a>. Limitless<\/em> (2011) was a decent thriller. <\/em>However, since Silver Linings Playbook<\/em> (2012), he’s proven himself to be more than a matin\u00e9e idol.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian Bale is an extremely talented actor who’s willing to transform himself into whatever the role requires. It’s difficult to watch this movie and believe you’re watching the same\u00a0guy who played\u00a0Batman<\/a> and Dicky Eklund<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jennifer Lawrence is always excellent. Her Rosalyn is a feral animal, but there’s a seemingly misplaced scene in this movie\u00a0with\u00a0her lip-synching “Live and Let Die.”<\/a>\u00a0 It comes close to derailing the film, but it’s oddly effective and will be one of the scenes I most remember\u00a0from the movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy Adams is one of the most dependable actresses in Hollywood. \u00a0She’s good in everything she does and makes it look so easy she gets overlooked. Sydney Prosser is the heart of this movie, which only works if the audience believes her chemistry with Irving and Richie.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

When did Louis CK become a legitimate actor? \u00a0Between this and Blue Jasmine <\/em>(2013), he’s made the most of the critical success of his eponymous TV show<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Forty years after The Godfather Part II<\/em> (1974), Robert DeNiro is now playing the aging Miami mobster<\/a>. \u00a0It took awhile, but the circle is complete.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

David\u00a0O. Russell has a reputation as a difficult director<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0However, actors are apparently loyal to him.\u00a0\u00a0Cooper, Lawrence, and Deniro were in Silver Linings Playbook<\/em>, and Bale worked with him in The Fighter<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved this movie because I love movies about con artists such as The Sting <\/em>(1973), Matchstick Men <\/em>(2003), and the admittedly cheesy Now You See Me <\/em>(2013), and one of my favorite television episodes is\u00a0“Pick a Con … Any Con”<\/a> from the first season of Cheers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you like 70s period pieces, or con artist movies, you’ll love this film loosely inspired by the\u00a0FBI’s ABSCAM operation<\/a>. I’d like to watch it as double feature with the Godfather Part II<\/em> to see the other side of the casino building business, or Saturday Night Fever<\/em> (1977) because it feels like several characters from this film just left the disco with Tony Manero.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Caesar Must Die\u00a0(2012) This film about prisoners in an Italian suburb staging a production of Shakespeare’s\u00a0Julius Caesar won the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. The director used actual prisoners in the cast, which makes the film interesting, but it didn’t do anything for me.     The Last Stand\u00a0(2013) Ray… Continue reading In prison; escaping from prison; going to prison<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28,58,76,132,163,210,285,287,331,405,434,717],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-action-films","tag-amy-adams","tag-arnold-schwarznegger","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-christian-bale","tag-david-o-russell","tag-foreign-films","tag-forrest-whitaker","tag-harry-dean-stanton","tag-jennifer-lawrence","tag-johnny-knoxville","tag-shakespeare","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12858,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/12858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}