Simon's Movie Reviews

Here’s a fact that will make you feel older: it’s been 17 years since the release of the second chapter of the Lord of the Rings saga. Looking back it was one of those movies that signalled the permanent residence of fantasy blockbusters on the big screen. Whereas The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) was a bit of a road trip, The Two Towers (2002) becomes a war movie in the third act with armies fighting in the rain, exploding walls and the arrival of the cavalry at the last minute. However audiences had never seen before an army composed of an advanced breed of Orcs and the cavalry being led by a bearded wizard recently back from the dead. This is one of the rare movies that I have seen twice on the big screen and numerous times after on DVD, specifically the extended version. Director Kevin Smith may have a point by saying these movies are basically hours of people walking and that the one true trilogy is Star Wars , but I really enjoy watching those hours of footage directed b...

Nothing drives a good drama like conflict, and with movies I love it when said conflict is someone defying authority. It can be something large scale like a rebel trying to take down a government, but it can work just as well on a smaller scale such as a rebel defying a head nurse in a mental institution. Of course in Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), it helps that the rebel is played by Jack Nicholson at the top of his game facing a head nurse played with icy perfection by Louise Fletcher. There are many ways in which I first enjoyed this story: by reading the book by Ken Kesey on which it is based, eventually renting the DVD, and also by seeing it performed onstage. No offense to Mr. Nicholson, but that last one is actually my favourite experience since it was a school play in which my older brother played one of the patients, at one point stealing the show I might add. This was in the late 90s when my brother and I were going to an American high school in...