High Plains Drifter
http://en.wikipedia...._Plains_Drifter
One of the classic Eastwood westerns holding a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've seen quite a few of his movies recently, but there are just so many out there. I still haven't even got close to watching the Dollars Trilogy. This is a somewhat different take on the western genre with a bit of an ambiguous supernatural feel much like another Eastwood film, Pale Rider. The story is set in the late 1800s around a small mining town with a questionable past. The town prospered off a nearby mine, however a government surveyor has discovered the mine is on government ground, and the townspeople are not entitled to mine it anymore. The townspeople hire some local bandits to murder the surveyor, and when the law comes looking for the people responsible, the townspeople pin it on the bandits. Now the bandits have served their jail time and are on a one way route to take revenge on the town. This may sound like a lot of the story, but this is only told in flashbacks. The real story starts when a stranger who plays by his own rules and is a true gunslinger wanders into town days before the bandits are due to be released from prison. The townspeople bribe the stranger to defend their town by offering him anything he wants. Quite humorously, he indulges in everything including alcohol, women, an entire hotel to himself, declaring a new mayor and making the townspeople build a picnic setting for his amusement; then splits when the bandits show up. This is actually quite an easily digestible western to watch for people not into the genre. It's less about cowboys and Indians and more about consequence and mystery. I would recommend it.
The Shining
http://en.wikipedia....ning_%28film%29
A classic Kubrick film I'm sure everyone has seen or at least heard of. I've been putting this off for a while as with nearly all Kubrick films, you're going to be left collecting your thoughts and reading about the film later to make sense of it all. The story is about a teacher and writer, Jack, taking a job as a caretaker of a remote hotel on the offseason with his family. This should allow him to focus on his writing career. Before taking the job, the hotel manager notifies Jack that a few years prior a caretaker went insane and murdered his family. Slowly, as the months of isolation takes its toll, Jack starts showing the same signs of going insane. I can't say much else without spoiling the rest of the movie. This is also a highly rated movie, but certain things bothered me; the pacing is very slow and some scenes just don't fit at all. After the movie I read that this is based off a Stephen King novel, but it loosely follows it. Many subplots were omitted, but some of the scenes remained with no explanation. Stephen King also criticised the movie saying that the plot leaned too much towards the theme on insanity than the supernatural, which I agree with. I'm probably being a bit harsh on this as my expectations were high. You could also discuss the meaning behind the ending for pages, but I won't due to spoilers.
The Monuments Men
http://en.wikipedia....e_Monuments_Men
Recently out in cinemas, this is George Clooney's latest project he has written and starred in. Basically it re-enacts the actions of an army unit at the end of WWII instructed to protect artworks being looted by enemy forces as they retreat back to parts of Europe. I thought I was being a bit biased and unfair thinking this was incredibly dull and boring due to my dislike of Hollywood movies always making Americans the good guys and especially war movies where no blood is spilled yet millions have died. But reading the reviews after, I'm not alone. The guy falling asleep in the cinema near me should have been enough validation at the time. The problem here is that Clooney tries to be hip, funny and likeable juxtaposed to the countless lives lost to war. It just feels inappropriate and odd. All the characters were unmemorable as well and I didn't really care if they survived or not. Give this a miss.
The Iron Giant
http://en.wikipedia..../The_Iron_Giant
A late 90's animated film I had heard good things about. Set during the 50s during the height of the cold war, something crashes to earth one night and a young boy investigates. It turns out to be a giant intelligent robot. Shortly after, the government is snooping around fearing some type of Russian bomb or spying device has been deployed. The boy and the robot become friend while trying to avoid a rather insistent government agent. Reading the reviews on this, people make it out to be some heartbreaking story, so emotional; they have never experienced such a movie before. I mean it probably has a bit more meaning that most animated films from 15 years ago, but I didn't feel that connected to this; especially after some of the roller coasters Pixar has taken us on. I think this is still essentially a kids' movie, and kids will like it.