Shutter Island

Much like my review of Moon below, I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet as not to give the story away. First off let me just say that I freaking loved Shutter Island. Some people told me that they new what was going on straight off the bat. I knew something was up for sure, but I wasn't able to fully piece it all together until the very end. But even if you do already have it figured out, Shutter Island is still an extremely well made film that will haunt you long after you leave the theater.

Martin Scorsese has ventured into the creepy horror type mystery before with another underrated and overlooked film called Bringing Out The Dead and, oh yeah, CAPE FEAR. So Marty certainly knows how to effectively creep out an audience, and doing so with perfect cinematic style. Right off the bat in the opening scene we see a massive ship carrying Teddy and Chuck, played by Leonardo Dicaprio and Mark Ruffalo. The ship slowly comes into view breaking through the thick fog and all we here for a minute are the sounds of the ship sounding it's horn and it's just so effective and creepy. Then once they arrive minutes later the score kicks in. It's a lot like the score of The Shining and it really effected me, I loved it.

Leo did an amazing job as Teddy. He never disappoints with his acting skills and his film choices. Even though he still looks like he's 20 he proves that he can play anyone anywhere, and that's called great acting. I thought his best scenes were the scenes with him and Michelle Williams. They were so effective and emotional. One scene towards the beginning he's just standing and holding her and crying and the score kicks in and Leo delivers the tears and it was just really amazing to watch on screen.

Shutter Island is a film that requires many viewings even if you do have it figured out. There's just so many hidden clues and even different ways things can be interoperated. Some cool little tid bits I found out was that two of the main wardens were played by the two amazing actors Ted Levine and John Carroll Lynch who both played serial killers in Silence of the Lambs and Zodiac. Levine playing Buffalo Bill, and Lynch playing who we think is the zodiac killer. It was a nice touch. I can't wait to get my gitty little paws on this blu-ray, I'm gonna watch it so many damn times. Shutter Island gets a 5 outa 5.

Moon

I finally got the chance to watch Moon on blu-ray last night. I was extremely disappointed that I was unable to see this in theaters and Netflix took forever to send it. But alas I was able to take my long awaited trip to the moon, and it was spectacular.

Fist off I'm not going to give away any spoilers so this is gonna be a shorter review, as it's hard to review without giving too much away. Moon is directed by second time director and son of David Bowe, Duncan Jones. His first film was a short film that he directed in 2003 called Whistle which I believe is included in the special features of Moon, so I'll be checking that out later for sure. This guy has certainly got a long career as a director ahead of him. His work here is so brilliant and really captures the essence of a man alone on the moon with just a robot named Gerty, brilliantly voiced by Kevin Spacey, to accompany him. Really all I can say without ruining it is that with just two weeks left before his 3 year mission is over and he can go home, Sam, played by Sam Rockwell, has an accident and the paranoia begins.

Sam Rockwell gives a tour de force performance as astronaut Sam Bell. Rockwell proves here that he's able to do just about anything his character calls for. Wether he's slowly slipping into paranoia, or realizing just what's going, Rockwell delivers. He also proves that he certainly is one of the best actors out there and it's a shame he wasn't nominated for Oscars or Globes. To be able to pull off such a great performance and have no other actors in the scene to feed off of is amazing. He's always been an overlooked actor in my opinion but hopefully after his performance in Moon he'll be more appreciated. Moon was made on just a 5 million dollar budget and shot over the course of only 8 days. It's smart, mind bending, eerie, well written, beautifully shot, and extremely well acted by Mr. Sam Rockwell. Moon gets 4 and 1/2 outa 5.