CodyC Reviews

Fargo (1996)

Best movie I've seen in a long time!

[10/10 · 4 February 2000]

The acting in this movie is superb! Frances McDormand was brilliant and her best actress nod was well-deserved. But I thought the best performance was from William H. Macy as the inept Jerry Lundegard. I could feel the emotions exuding from Macy's character as his situation got worse as the movie progressed.

The storyline is brilliant, without any major flaws, and it is helped by the fact that the movie "claims" to be based on a true story.

Overall, the combination of astute acting and wonderful character development from the script make this one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Schindler's List (1993)

Truly remarkable

[10/10 · 4 February 2000]

Little more can be said about how wonderful this film is, but I just wanted to note that the handing out of the Best Supporting Actor Award to Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive in lieu of Ralph Fiennes has to be one of the, if not *the* (Titanic's awards notwithstanding), greatest injustice in Oscar History.

Glory (1989)

very good (not great) movie

[7/10 · 4 February 2000]

This is a very good flick; the acting is quite good (even a surprising performance from Matthew Broderick), the war scenes are probably the most realistic save for Saving Private Ryan, and the movie is reasonably historically accurate, though I believe it downplayed the way the black soldiers were treated by their white contemporaries.

The other qualm I had about the film was its over-sentimentality towards the main characters, especially during the battle scenes, which was a chronic problem throughout the movie.

7.5 out of 10

Witness (1985)

Decent, but a tad overrated

[6/10 · 3 February 2000]

I was surprised that this film got as much recognition from the Oscars as it did. Peter Weir's directing is certainly praiseworthy and the cinematography is outstanding, but overall, the film falls a little flat. The romance between Ford and McGillis was forced and the end was predictable.

Ford puts up a decent performance, but unfortunately I find that this one is much like many of the other movies that Ford has been in since.

Overall, 6.5 out of 10.