Day 313: Wag The Dog (1997)

Today is November 8TH and that can only mean one thing in the United States Of American and that it’s Election Day 2016. So to help celebrate the fact that it’s Election Day, I decided to watch a film that had to do with campaigns and such and that film is 1997’s Wag The Dog. It’s election time and the President of the United States has landed himself in hot water when a scandal breaks out. To try and help keep away the backlash of the scandal, the presidents trusted aides decide to hire famous spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro). Brean will come up with a brilliant scheme to take away the attention with eccentric producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), but the question is can they pull it off? The film also stars Anne Heche (Volcano) as Winifred Ames, Denis Leary (Suicide Kings) as Fad King, Willie Nelson as Johnnie Dean, Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2) as Liz Butsky, Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia) as Stacey Lime, William H. Macy (Fargo) as CIA Agent Young, John Michael Higgins (Bad Teacher) as John Levy, Woody Harrelson (Rampart) as SGT. Schumann, Suzanne Cryer (Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place) as Amy Cain, David Koechner (Paul) as Director, and the film was directed by Barry Levinson (Rock The Kasbah).

I have to say that putting Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman on the same screen was a brilliant idea. They played off of each other so well and you could definitely see the chemistry between them. I had to look it up for myself, but these two have only been in four films together (Sleepers, Meet The Fockers, and Little Fockers). The idea of the film is actually an interesting look at what happens behind the scenes of an election campaign. I mean think about it, how much information that gets passed on to the media that you see is 100% true? Don’t you think something like that could be happening now with this election and we don’t even know about it? I think politics is a dirty game anyways and this film shows you just that. I just didn’t really like the ending because I loved Dustin Hoffman’s character, but I won’t give that away to you. The acting in the film is great and a lot of today’s stars are featured in this film and Woody Harrelson was perfect in the film as a crazed nut that they use to their advantage. The cinematography in the film was great, the editing was amazing as well. I wish I had seen this movie way back when I decided to watch Bulworth because this was a great film. I am going to give Wag The Dog an A for a final grade.

Day 144: Suicide Kings (1997)

For today’s film, I chose a film that I have only seen bits and pieces of either to not having the time to watch or other things had come up. I also decided on the film Suicide Kings because of the mere fact that Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone) starred in the film and he’s one of my favorite film personalities. The film follows five friends who decide to kidnap a mobster by the name of Carlo Bartolucci (Walken). You see the five friends are hoping to squeeze some money out of Carlo in hopes of getting enough to pay a ransom note on one of the friends kidnapped sister. The only problem is that Carlo decides to play mind games with all of them in hopes of turning them against themselves. The film also stars Denis Leary (Rescue Me) as Lono Veccio, Nina Siemaszko (Airheads) as Jennifer, Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) as Avery Chasten, Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints) as Max, Jay Mohr (Pay It Forward) as Brett Campbell, Jeremy Sisto (Clueless) as T.K., Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) as Ira Reder, Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Jeckyll, and the film was directed by Peter O’Fallon (Legit). 

This was a pretty interesting film to say the least, but it’s a Christopher Walken film where he plays a mobster. What more can you ask for from a film like this one? The idea of he kidnapping is actually pretty solid and when you find out a detail that the abduction of the sister was an inside job, you begin to try and figure out who did it. All I will say to you is that I should have gone with my first choice personally cause I would have been right. That is the beauty of films with a little mystery thrown in there is that they make you try to guess to the who-dunnit scenario. I really like Johnny Galecki, but his character really annoyed me a little bit, but then again he did his job right. The acting in the film for the most part was really good from everyone even Denis Leary who plays a cool driver/hitman kind of guy. This is actually a pretty good film despite getting a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, but according to the audience score it must be a cult classic by now. I saw that one reviewer compared the film and it’s style to Quentin Tarantino and I can honestly see that as far as the dialogue is concerned. That was definitely the highlight of the film for me was the dialogue because the film was well written. The film is currently available to watch on HBOGO so check it out if you dare. I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.

Day 52: Freaks Of Nature (2015)

I was going through my local Redbox trying to find a film to watch when I stumbled upon one that caught my eye based on the poster. The film is called Freaks Of Nature and it’s a horror comedy that was released back in October. In the town of Dillford, humans, zombies, and vampires all live in some form of harmony together. They work together, live near each other, and go to school together so it sort of seems normal. That is until one unfaithful day when the Aliens all of a sudden decide to show up. The aliens bring chaos and unnerving thoughts that send everyone in a downward spiral. That is until three teens, a human named Dag (Nicholas Braun), a zombie named Ned (Josh Fadem), and a vampire named Petra (Mackenzie Davis) have to team up to try and save their town from not only the aliens, but from each other as well. The film also stars Denis Leary (Rescue Me) as Rick, Ed Westwick (J. Edgar) as Milan, Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) as Lorelei, Keegan-Michael Key (Let’s Be Cops) as Mr. Keller, Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) as Shooter Parker, Joan Cusack (High Fidelity) as Peg Parker, Chris Zylka (Piranha 3DD) as Chaz Jr., Ian Roberts (Get Hard) as Chaz Sr., Mae Whitman (Independence Day) as Jenna Zombie, Patton Oswalt (King Of Queens) as Stuart Miller, and the film was directed by Robbie Pickering.

If you are afraid of how cheesy this film could be, well don’t bee because I really liked it. I feel like horror comedies are the new thing in Hollywood with how good Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse proved to be. Freaks Of Nature is sort of a spoof movie without actually being one if that makes any sense to you. It kind of pokes fun at the vampire genre with some of the vampires looking like they came straight out of Twilight or how the aliens look as if they came out of The War Of The Worlds. I’m not going to give it away completely, but there is also an homage paid to Teen Wolf contained within the film and when you see it you’ll know what I am talking about. Vanessa Hudgens is and always has been super hot and she definitely is in this film as the sexy Lorelei, the object of Dag’s affection until he meets his one true love that takes him time to discover. There were only a couple of times I thought to myself that the film was getting a little cheesy, but not enough to deem this a Cheeseball Cinema worthy film because it was that good. It has all the comedy you could want with some horror like chase scenes and suspense with the aliens as well. The acting was very good and the cinematography was good too.Wait till you see what happens to the alien at the end, it looks like he is that creature from Basket Case. It was a fun film to watch and defintely worth your time if you enjoy horror comedies knowing that they are just that “Horror Comedies”. With that being said, I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.