Movie Review: ***Hotel Rwanda (2004)

 This movie is very intense.  I am glad I saw it once, but there is too much killing and cadavers all over the place to watch it more than once.  This is about the genocide of the Tutsi population by the Hutu.  The Hutu controlled the government fighting the rebels.  The rebels succeeded in killing the president which triggered the killing.  Paul Resesabagina (Don Cheadle) manages a hotel where many Tutsi come to avoid the war.  His wife, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) takes up supporting the orphans who show up.  The U.N. Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) provides all the support he can, and in the end helps them get away to the U.N. reception area.  They keep searching for Sophie's brother and her wife who have gone missing.  They never are able to find them, but they do find their daughters at the reception center.  Joaquin Phoenix plays a t.v. reporter.

M. Night Shyamalan Movies

Old

**** Glass (2019) our three superheroes, Glass (Samuel Jackson), David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Split (James McAvoy)

*** Split (2016)  A bit too intense but James McAvoy does great portraying multiple personalities

**** The Last Airbender. (2010)  Great fantasy show

***^ Lady in the Water (2006) Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti

***^ The Village (2004) Bryce Dallas Howard and Joaquin Phoenix

**** Signs (2002). Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, excellent alien invasion movie

**** Unbreakable (2000)  Again Bruce Willis, superhero, Samuel Jackson super villain

 ****^ The Sixth Sense (1999) Bruce Willis and Joel Osment, terrific ghost story

Movie Review: ****Signs (2002)

This is another M. Night Shyamalan movie and stars Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.  The premise behind this movie is fascinating, and we see the fear through the eyes of the actors.  First mysterious things happen, and then crop circles, and then a view of an alien on the TV.  The reaction to this by Joaquin Phoenix blows me away.  It sets you up for suspense, because the aliens are not there to be friends, but to have a picnic, with humans as the food.  Gibson plays a pastor, who has given up the cross when his wife passed away in an auto accident.  The events of this movie help him find his faith again.  Some things--call them intuition, or inspiration, cannot be explained other than that God is watching us.  This movie is very well done.  It is a must see.

Movie Review: ***^The Village

This movie is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.  Again this movie has twists.  What makes this movie eerie is the use of colors--yellow for the Villagers and red for the monsters.  The community is manipulated into red areas and yellow areas.  It is very isolated.  The villagers are not to go into the red area.  However, some of the young people are wanting to challenge this tradition.  Ivy Walker, who is blind, (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) have a love interest.  However this leaves out a third friend, Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) who becomes jealous, and stabs Lucius with a knife.  It falls upon Ivy to save him by going for medicine.  It is a long journey for a blind girl, especially with monsters around.  Sigourney Weaver plays Lucius' mother, and William Hurt Ivy's father.
I enjoyed this movie very much.  It does not keep its scariness on subsequent viewings, but the first watch is very creepy.  This is not geared as a children's movie, and the red blood is a bit graphic for children.

Movie Review: ****I Walk the Line

I Walk the Line I also found in our personal DVDs.  It is the story of Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).  I assume the actors are singing the songs in the movie, and do an admirable job.  I get carried away by the music, but more so by the characters of John Cash and June Carter.  John Cash was tormented by a poor relationship with his father, and by the death of his older brother in an accident with a saw. I guess this combined with the stress of his career lead to drug addiction.  Another consequence of his lifestyle was the dissolving of his marriage.  June is instrumental in helping overcome drugs for a period, and following his being sober for six months they become engaged.  Drug addiction was a lifelong struggle for Johnny Cash, and the movie portrays the consequences drugs can have.