The Green Mile

The Green Mile
One of my favorite movies ever!

I'm currently reading the book for this.

-1999 American drama directed by Frank Darabont
-Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King
-Told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecombe, Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.
-Tells the story of Paul Edgecombe and his life as a supervisor on the death row during the Great Depression and the supernatural events that he was able to witness

Did You Know?
-The music old Paul Edgecombe hears in the nursing home is the same music the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
-When Melinda Moores is visited by Coffey, she gives him a St. Christopher medal. According to Catholicism, St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and like Coffey, died a martyr.
-Doug Hutchinson, who played Percy Wetmore, was actually 39 years old, instead of being 21 like the character in the book.
-When Paul and John go outside, John looks up and says "Look Boss, it's Cassie, the lady in the rocking chair". This is a reference to the constellation Cassiopeia

Plot
-In a Louisiana nursing home in 1999, Paul Edgecombe(Dabbs Greer) begins to cry while watching Top Hat. His elderly friend, Elaine Connolly, shows concern for him and Paul tells her that the film reminded him of when he was a corrections officer in charge of Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the summer of 1935. The cell block Paul(Tom Hanks) worked in was called "The Green Mile" because of the color of the floor's linoleum. Condemned prisoners would walk this floor, nicknamed "The Last Mile" by the guards because it was their last mile before their execution.

-One day, John Coffey(Michael Clarke Duncan), a giant of a black man, 6'8'', is convicted of raping and murdering 2 small white girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick. He shows all the signs of being a gentle giant; keeping to himself, soft spoken, fearing darkness, and crying often. Soon enough, John reveals unusual powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and bringing a mouse back to life. Later on, he would reveal that he would heal the terminally ill wife of the prison warden, Hal Moore(James Cromwell).

-At the same time, Percy  Wetmore(Doug Hutchinson), is a sadistic guard who enjoys bothering the prisoners. The only thing that is keeping him there is he "knows people, big people". He is the nephew of the governor's wife. Percy recognizes that the other officers greatly hate him and uses that to demand to be "put out", meaning front line position, on the next execution. After that, he promises that he will have himself transferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. A deal is made. But then when it comes time for the execution of Eduard Delacroix(Michael Jeter), Percy sabotages it. He is supposed to soak the sponge that goes inside the electrode cap for a quick death in brine to conduct it better. But he does not soak the sponge, and this causes Del to catch fire and die in great, slow pain

-Before Del's execution, a violent prisoner named William "Wild Bill" Wharton(Sam Rockwell) arrives, due to be executed for multiple murders committed during a robbery. At one point, he grabs John's arm and John physically senses that Wharton was the one who raped and killed the 2 girls, the crime John was accused of. John "takes back" the sickness in Hal Moore's wife Melinda and puts it into Percy, who goes mad and shoots Wild Bill to death in his cell, after which, Percy falls into a coma like state. He is tranferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. In the aftermath of these events, Paul talks to John, who says he "punished them bad men" and offers to show Paul what he saw. John takes Paul's hand stating he has to give Paul "a part of himself" in order to see what really happened

-Paul asks John what he should do, if he should open the door and let John walk. John tells him that he is ready to die because the world has too much pain in it and he is "rightly tired of the pain." As the last request he makes, John watches Top Hat. When John is put into the electric chair, he asks Paul not to put the traditional black hood on, as he is afraid of the dark. Paul agrees, shakes his hand, and John dies.

-As Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Elaine questions his statement that he had a fully grown son at the time and Paul explains that he was 44 years old at the time of John's death and that he is now 108 years old and still in excellent health. This apparently had a side effect of John giving a "part of himself"  to Paul. Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse brought back by John is also still alive. Paul believes his outliving all of his friends and relatives is to be a punishment from God for having John electrocuted. Paul explains he has deep thoughts about how "we each owe a death; there are no exceptions; but, Oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long." Paul is left wondering if Mr. Jingles has remained living, and wonders how long it would be until Mr. Jingles death.

Cast
-Tom Hanks: Paul Edgecombe
-Michael Clarke Duncan: John Coffey
-Bonnie Hunt: Janice Edgecombe
-David Morse: Brutus "Brutal" Howell
-Doug Hutchinson: Percy Wetmore
-Sam Rockwell: William "Wild Bill" Wharton
-Michael Jeter: Eduard "Del" Delacroix
-James Cromwell: Warden Hal Moores
-Patricia Clarkson: Melinda Moores
-Barry Pepper: Dean Stanton
-Jeffrey DeMunn: Harry Terwilliger
-Harry Dean Stanton: Toot-Toot
-Dabbs Greer: Old Paul Edgecombe
-Gary Sinise: Burt Hammersmith
-Graham Greene: Arlen Bitterbuck
-William Sadler: Klaus Detterick
-Bill McKinney: Jack Van Hay

Ninja Assassin

Ninja Assassin

-2009 American martial arts film directed by James McTeigue
-Story was written by Matthew Sand
-Stars Korean pop musician Rain as a disillusioned assassin looking for payback against his former mentor, played by ninja film legend Sho Kosugi.
-Explores the topics of political corruption, child endangerment, impact of violence.

Did You Know?
-After Raizo(Rain) is first captured and chained to a wall, his captors look at him and say "He should be in a boy band". In fact, Rain started his career in a boy band called Fanclub
-Korean pop singer Rain had no martial arts experience whatsoever for this movie. He trained nonstop for 6 months to prepare

Why does it seem like alot of Asian guys are cute?

Plot
-Raizo(Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become the most lethal, most dangerous ninja assassin in the world. As a child, Raizo(being an orphan) was taken by Lord Ozuno(Sho Kosugi) and is enrolled in severe brtual training to become his next successor. The only generosity he ever gets is from a kunoichi(female ninja) named Kiriko(Kylie Goldstein) with whom he begins to fall in love with. As time goes on, Kiriko becomes less happy with the Ozunu's routine of kill, kill, kill and wants to leave it all behind for freedom. One rainy night, Kiriko decides to escape and encourages Raizo to go with her. He stays. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko was caught and later killed in front of Raizo by her elder ninja brother Takeshi(Rick Yune). As a result of her death, Raizo begins to harbor hate towards the Ozunu. However, this is the past and it switches to modern day where a disguised female assassin(Linh Dan Pham) attempts to kill Raizo at a laundromat. He fends her attacks off and kills her, leaving her remains in the washing machine

-It switches back to the past where Raizo is seated in a car and told by Lord Ozunu to complete his first assassination mission. Afterwards, Raizo meets the rest of the clan atop a city skyscraper in Berlin. There he is told by Lord Ozunu to kill another kunoichi traitor like Kiriko. He rebels against Lord Ozunu by cutting his face with a kyoketsu-shoge(double edged blade) and engages in fight against his former ninja kin. Barely surviving, he falls over the edge and into a nearby pool. Raizo recovers and begins to intervene and foil Ozunu kill attempts. Elsewhere, Europol agent Mike Coretti(Naomie Harris) has been investigating money linked political murders and finds that they are possibly connected to the Ozunu. She defies her boss, Ryan Maslow(Ben Miles) and retreives secret files to find out more

-Mika and Raizo meet and she convinces him to go to Maslow for protection as well as provide evidence against the Ozunu. Raizo is arrested by Maslow and abducted by agents from Europol for interrogation. Feeling betrayed, Mika is assured by Maslow that he is still on her side and gives her a tracking device for emergencies. The Ozunu ninja infiltrate the Europol safehouse where Raizo is being held in an attempt to kill him and everyone else inside. Mike frees Raizo and they escape, but Raizo sustains near mortal wounds. She takes him to a nearby motel to hide. Resting in the motel, Mike implants the tracking device into Raizo, as the ninjas continue their pursuit. Unable to fight off the encroaching ninjas, she hides outside the motel until Special Forces arrive to help her. By the time they arrive, the ninjas have kidnapped Raizo, bringing him before Lord Ozunu for prosecution. During transport back to the Ozunu, Raizo uses his ninja techniques to heal his own wounds

-Europol special forces and tactical teams by Maslow storm the secluded Ozunu retreat(in the mountains) using the tracking device on Raizo. Raizo kills Takeshi and confronts Lord Ozunu in a sword fight. Mike interferes, but is stabbed by Lord Ozunu. Angered, Raizo uses a 'shadow blending' technique for the first time to distract and kill Lord Ozunu. Mika, fatally wounded, is saved by a strange thing; her heart is actually on the opposite side of her chest. After Europol leaves, Raizo stays behind to tend to the ruins of the Ozunu retreat. He later climbs the same wall Kiriko did while trying to escape and looks at the surrounding countryside. He then recognizes his freedom for the first time.

Cast
-Sung Kang: Hollywood
-Randall Duk Kim: Tattoo Master
-Ben Miles: Maslow
-Naomie Harris: Mika
-Rain: Raizo
-Sho Kosugi: Ozunu

The English Patient

The English Patient

-1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri-Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje.
-Directed by Anthony Minghella
-Set before WWII, it's a story of love, fate, misunderstanding and healing. Told in a series of flashbacks.

Did You Know?
-Ralph Fiennes burn make up took 5 hours to apply every day
-Both Naveen Andrews and Kevin Whately had to learn how to operate motorcycles for the film

Hmmm, might have to check this out. I'm always up for a good, old fashioned love story.

Plot
-Set during WWII and shows a critically burned man, at first known only as "the English patient", who is being cared for by Hana(Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse in an Italian monastery. The patient is hesitant to reveal any info but through a series of flashbacks, people who watch the movie can see into his past. It reveals that he is in fact a Hungarian geographer, Count Laszlo de Almasy(Ralph Fiennes), who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman, Katharine Clifton(Kristin Scott Thomas), brought his situation to light. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio(Willem Dafoe), a Canadian intelligence officer and former thief, arrives at the monastery. He lost his thumbs while being interrogated by German officers and he reveals that it was the actions of the patient that had brought about his torture. In addition to the story, the film devotes time to Hana and her romance with Kip(Naveen Andrews), an Indian Sikh sapper in the British Army. Due to events in her past, Hana believes that anyone who comes close to her is likely to die, and Kip's position as a bomb defuser makes their romance full of stress

-In the 1st phase, set in the late 1930s, the minor Hungarian noble Count Laszlo de Almasy(Ralph Fiennes) is the co-leader of a Royal Geographical Society archaeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya. He and his English partner Madox are at heart academics with little sophistication in the politics of Europe and Africa. Shortly, both the morale and finances of their trip are bolstered by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katherine Clifton(Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas). The Count is very attracted to Katharine. When Geoffrey is away from the group, an affair begins. The final months before the onset of the war, he Count's discovery of an ancient Saharan cave with "swimming figure" paintings ffrom the prehistoric times are found. Romance between the Count and Katharine get stronger. She is plagued with the guilt of infidelity, while he shows a streak of jealousy along with an imbalance that later haunts him

-The fall of 1939 and the war all bring excavation to a halt and Madox and the Count go their own ways. Geoffrey Clifton has pieced together the outline of the affair and seeks a sudden revenge: crashing his plane, with Katharine aboard, in the Count's desert camp. The wreck injures Katharine and narrowly misses the Count, and kills Geoffrey. He manages to take Katharine into the shelter of the swimming figure cave, leaves water for her, a flashlight and a fire and begins his 3 day walk back to the nearest town and help. The town is held by British Army and the dazed Count, with his non English name, is unable to explain his situation. He loses temper and is thrown into military jail. He is sent in chains on a train "north to Benghazi", escapes, finds himself behind Afrika Korps lines and quickly trades his desert maps with the Germans for a biplane. By the time he returns to the cave, Katharine is dead- and in all but a physical sense, so is the Count. He manages to bundle her body into the plane and take off. Ironically, a German anti-aircraft  battery shoots down the plane as he pilots it over the desert. Horribly burned, he is rescued by Bedouin tribesmen

-The film's 2nd phase shifts to Italy and the last months of the war. The Count by now is an invalid, and dependent on morphine and care of his French-Canadian nurse Hana. That monastery becomes the main point for the movie and it shows Hana seeing a fiancee and friend die in the Italian campaign and is left to wonder if her relationship with a British-Indian will break her chain of bad luck. A visitor named Caravaggio is in search of the Count that he thinks played a role in the problems in Egypt. He lost both thumbs to an interrogation by the Nazis and has killed those who he deems responsible.

-Hana finds solace in the film. Her lieutenant survives a brush with death on the last day of the war and her hope in love is made stronger. The Count asks for, and dies of, an overdose of morphine from Hana

Cast

• Ralph Fiennes as Count László Almásy
• Juliette Binoche as Hana
• Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton
• Naveen Andrews as Kip
• Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton
• Julian Wadham as Madox
• Jürgen Prochnow as Major Muller
• Kevin Whately as Sgt. Hardy
• Clive Merrison as Fenelon-Barnes
• Nino Castelnuovo as D'Agostino
• Hichem Rostom as Fouad
• Peter Rühring as Bermann
• Geordie Johnson as Oliver
• Torri Higginson as Mary
• Liisa Repo-Martell as Jan
• Raymond Coulthard as Rupert Douglas
• Philip Whitchurch as Corporal Dade
• Lee Ross as Spalding
• Anthony Smee as Beach Interrogation Officer
• Matthew Ferguson as Young Canadian Soldier
• Jason Done as Kiss Me Soldier
• Roger Morlidge as Sergeant – Desert Train

Young Guns

Young Guns

-1988 action/Western film directed by Christopher Cain
-Stars Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Philips, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Casey Siemaszko, Dermot Mulroney, Terry O'Quinn, Brian Keith, Jack Palance

-Retelling of the adventures of Billy the Kid, during the Lincoln County War, which was in New Mexico in 1877-1878

Did You Know?
-Country singer Randy Travis has an uncredited role as the Gatling machine gunner
-A few members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club were used as extras in the bar scene where they arrest Henry Hill

Plot
-John Tunstall(Terrance Stamp) is an educated Englishman and cattle rancher in Lincoln County, New Mexico. He hires wayward young gunmen to live and work on his ranch. Tunstall is in heavy competition with another rancher named Lawrence Murphy(Jack Palance) and their men fight on a daily basis. Tunstall recruits Billy the Kid(Emilio Estevez) and tells him to renounce the violence, saying that "He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind". Tensions go up and up between the 2 groups, resulting in the murder of Tunstall. Billy, Doc Scurlock(Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez(Lou Diamond Philips), Richard M "Dick" Brewer(Charlie Sheen). "Dirty" Steve Stephens(Dermot Mulroney), Charlie Bowdre(Casey Siemaszko) consult their lawyer friend Alex McSween(Terry O'Quinn) to get them deputized and give warrants for the arrest of Murphy's men

-Billy quickly changes Dick's authority as leader, vowing revenge against Murphy and the men responsible for killing Tunstall. The men call themselves "Regulators" and arrest some of the murderers. Hot headed Billy is unable to wait for justice. So he guns down unarmed men and goes on to kill one of the Regulators in the paranoia belief that he was still in league with Murphy. The men are stripped of their badges, which they find out through reading a newspaper. That same paper also confuses Dick for Billy, showing a picture of Dick labeled "Billy the Kid", a nickname Billy begins to like

-While local authorities begin their hunt for Billy and his boys,  the Regulators argue about continuing with their warrants or go on the run. One of the men on their list is Buckshot Roberts(Brian Keith), who tracks them down, barricades himself in an outhouse and Dick dies in a shootout. Billy appoints himself as leader and the gang gets famous. Now the U.S. Army is assigned the task of bringing in the gang to bring them to Murphy's corrupt justice

-The gang stays hidden for a while and Charlie gets married in Mexico. While attending the wedding, Billy meets Pat Garrett(Patrick Wayne), who is not yet a sherrif. He warns Billy of an attempt on Alex's life by Murphy's men that will occur the next day. The gang packs up and heads off to save Alex.

-While in the home of their lawyer friend, an entire gang of Murphy's men appear and surround the house. Another intense shootout starts, as the authorities, led by George W. Peppin, opens fire on the house. Billy once again shows off by shooting him with a snap long range gunshot out the window. Ceasefire is called for the night, but the battle continues the next morning. That's when the Army rolls in, accompanied by Murphy. They torch the house and Chavez runs out the back, causing Steve to assert that he has deserted. As the house begins to burn, the men come up with a plan of escape- they begin throwing Alex's stuff out the windows of the 2nd floor. Billy places himself inside a large trunk and when it lands in front of the house, he takes a chance and begins to open fire

-Almost at the same time, Doc Scurlock busts out of the staircase on the top floor, guns blazing, followed by Charlie and Steve. As they make it to the lawn, Billy is shot twice in his arms. Charlie challenges the bounty hunter, John Kinney(Allen Keller). Kinney shoots Charlie and he fires back. Charlie kills Kinney, but in the process, takes a few more shots and dies

-Chavez takes the Army by surprise by screaming "Regulators!" he rides in, leading horses for the others. He comes from behind the army and jumps their barricade to get his extra horses to the surviving guys. Billy jumps on one horse as Doc gets on another. Doc is shot as his girlfriend Yen Sun(Alice Carter), Murphy's Chinese sex-slave, screams. He rides over to her and picks her up, and they ride off. Chavez tries to get Steve on a horse, but is wounded and he falls. Steve helps Chavez mount a horse and sends the horse off so Chavez can get away. Steve is then shot multiple times and falls to the ground in a dirty puddle, dead

-Alex cheers on the boys as they escape. The army opens fire on Alex with a Gatling gun and he is dead. As the remaining men go away, Murphy hurls threats and curses them, but is stunned when Billy turns back. beyond gunshot range of most normal guys. He says "Reap it Murphy, you son of a b----."He makes another impossible shot, landing one right between Murphy's eyes and killing him.

-The final scene is a voice over of Doc explaining what happened later. In Doc's words, he includes that Alex's widow caused a congressional investigation into the Lincoln County War. Chavez took a job at a farm in California; Doc moved east to New York and married Yen Sun, who he saved from Murphy; Billy continued to ride on until he was found and shot dead by Pat Garrett, who was shown as barely knowing Billy. Billy was buried next to Charlie Bowdre at Fort Sumner.

Cast

• Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid
• Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock
• Lou Diamond Phillips as Jose Chavez y Chavez
• Charlie Sheen as Richard "Dick" Brewer
• Dermot Mulroney as "Dirty Steve" Stephens
• Casey Siemaszko as Charlie Bowdre
• Terence Stamp as John Tunstall
• Jack Palance as Lawrence G. Murphy
• Terry O'Quinn as Alexander McSween
• Sharon Thomas as Susan McSween
• Geoffrey Blake as J. McCloskey
• Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts
• Patrick Wayne as Pat Garrett
• Tom Cruise as Cowboy (uncredited)
• Randy Travis as Gatling Gunner (uncredited)

Tango & Cash

Tango & Cash

-Made in 1989 by Andrei Konchalovsky
-Stars Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell as 2 rival LAPD Narcotics detectives who are framed for murder and have to work together to clear their names

Did You Know?
-When Tango and Cash escape the prison, Cash turns to Tango and asks him if "stopped for coffee and a danish". Tango says "I hate Danish" as a sort of in-joke referring to the recent divorce from Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen
-When Brion James was cast in the role, it was only meant to be a small role with a few lines. But it was Jame's idea to give the character Requin a Cockney(accent used in and around London, England) accent to make him stand out more.
-The glasses Stallone wears in the movie are not fakes but really his own glasses. If you look closely, the glasses indicate he's near sighted in one eye.

Plot
-The film starts out as Det. Ray Tango(Sylvester Stallone) is driving a late model Cadillac convertible in pursuit of a tanker truck transporting cocaine. He cleverly stops in front of the truck and when L.A County authorities find only gas in the tank, Tango shoots it and cocaine comes pouring out. Elsewhere, Gabriel Cash(Kurt Russell) arrives at his apartment driving an old Corvette. His style, compared to Tango's 3 piece suits and neatly combed hair is considered casual. Cash wears a t-shirt, his hair is long and shaggy, and a waist length jacket. When he enters his apartment, he finds an intruder and is shot, but a bulletproof vest is protecting him. At the police station, Cash forces the shooter to tell him about a deal scheduled to take place later that night.

-However, the "deal" is really a set up by Yves Perret(Jack Palance) to frame Tango and Cash for murder. The 2 cops go to an empty building, preceded by a man named Requin(Brion James), Perret's henchman. After being startled by each other's presence, they find a dead man with audio equipment hidden in his clothes, and suddenly a team of FBI agents swarm in. Agent Wyler finds Cash's pistol on the floor and arrests both of the detectives

-At their trial, the detectives are incriminated by an audio tape, secretly given to Wyler by Requin and verified in court by an audio expert, which appears to reveal them shooting the FBI agent after talking a drug buy. They plead no contest and are sent to a minimum security prison but instead are taken to a maximum security prison to be housed with many of the people they put away.

-Once in prison, Tango and Cash are roused from their bunks and tortured by electrocution by a gang of prisoners until Matt Sokowski, the assistant warden and Cash's former C.O rescues them. Sokowski suggests they escape and provides them with a plan, but Tango refuses to go along with it. When Cash tries to escape, he finds Sokowski murdered and gets attacked by prisoners. Tango rescues him and the 2 of them escape. Once outside the walls of the prison, Tango tells Cash that if he needs to get in touch with him, to go to a dance club called Cleopatra's and asked for a woman named Katherine. Then they split up.

-The detectives then visit witnesses who framed them in court. Wyler admits to Tango that Requin was in charge of the set up, and Cash finds Katherine at the Cleopatra club. She helps Cash escape the club by dressing him up as a woman. Later that night, Cash learns that Katherine is Tango's sister. As he arrives home, he finds them in a compromising position, she was giving Cash a massage (but from Tango's point of view and hearing, it sounded and looked like the 2 were having sex.) They met at Katherine's house, and they are met by Tango's commanding officer Schroeder, who gives them Requin's address and tells them that they have 24 hours to find out who Requin works for. Tango and Cash apprehend Requin and trick him into telling them Perret's name. Armed with a high tech vehicle, loaned to them by Cash's weapons expert friend Owen, they drive to Perret's HQ, crashing through the fence, destroying a fleet of armed trucks and they break into the building, killing several guards

-At this point, Perret, who kidnapped Katherine, starts a timer that will trigger the building's automatic self destruct. After killing Perret's core security, Tango and Cash are confronted by Requin, who is holding Katherine at knife point, but throws her aside to fight the 2 detectives hand-to-hand. They both defeat him and when Perret appears holding a gun to Katherine's head, they kill him and leave the building with Katherine just before the building detonates. Afterward, Cash jokes about his desire to date Katherine. The film ends with a newspaper headline celebrating their clearance

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone as Lt. Ray Tango
• Kurt Russell as Lt. Gabriel Cash
• Teri Hatcher as Katherine "Kiki" Tango
• Jack Palance as Yves Perret
• Brion James as Requin
• Geoffrey Lewis as Captain Schroeder
• Eddie Bunker as Captain Holmes
• James Hong as Quan
• Marc Alaimo as Lopez
• Michael J. Pollard as Owen
• Robert Z'Dar as "The Jaw"
• Lewis Arquette as Federal Agent Wyler
• Roy Brocksmith as Federal Agent Davis
• Richard Fancy as Nolan (Tango & Cash's Lawyer)
• Michael Jeter as Skinner (the audio expert)
• Clint Howard as "Slinky" (Tango's cellmate)
• Benny Urquidez as Thug (uncredited)