FORD VS FERRARI (2019) – My rating: 9/10

Ford v Ferrari (titled Le Mans ’66 in the UK and other territories) is a sports drama directed by James Mangold and written by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller. The plot follows a determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby and his British driver, Ken Miles. They are dispatched by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca with the mission of building the Ford GT40, a new racing car with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari racing team at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. Despite the great trailers for this movie, I didn’t intend to see it but I kept hearing great reviews from friends so I finally gave in.  Ford vs Ferrari exceeded whatever expectations I had.

In 1963, Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) suggests to Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts)  that he purchase the cash-strapped Ferrari as a means to boost their car sales, participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone), however, walks out of the deal because Fiat offered him a more lucrative deal that would allow him to retain his ownership of Scuderia Ferrari. In rejecting the proposed deal with Ford, Ferrari insults the company and its CEO. A furious Henry II orders his racing division to build a car to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans. For this task, Iacocca hires Shelby American, owned by Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a racing driver who won Le Mans in 1959 but was forced to retire due to an ongoing heart condition. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles (Christen Bale), a hot-tempered British racer and struggling mechanic. The two were best friends and had a long-standing relationship. Shelby and Miles test the Ford GT40 Mk I prototype at Los Angeles International Airport, working out all of its design flaws until it was race-ready. The events that followed were heartfelt and forever carved in history.

From this point in the movie, Ford vs Ferrari tells a compelling true story that is intriguing, to say the least.  Ford vs Ferrari, which is based on actual events, turned out to be a better story than I anticipated.  I expected a run of the mill movie with a lot of meaningless car races.  Not being into car racing, I didn’t know names of the car racing greats so Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles didn’t mean anything to me.  What a story Ford vs Ferrari turned out to be.  I don’t know quite how it was done, but the camera work, while they were racing, was magnificent. I felt like I was in the car with Ken Miles.  The excitement was non-stop.  I’m sure if you go to see Ford vs Ferrari, you’ll like it as much as I did. The film has grossed $172 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who lauded the performances and racing sequences. It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of the year, while Bale was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. FYI: In the early stages of the film’s production, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast in the starring roles, but those plans fell through. I believe the right actors were cast.  I found this true story exciting and I highly recommend it to everyone, not just car racing fans.  Check It Out!

[FORD VS FERRARI is Oscar-Nominated for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Editing — Totaling 3 Oscar nominations]

VICE (2018) – My rating: 9/10

Vice is a biographical comedy/drama written and directed by Adam McKay. It is the second theatrical film to depict the presidency of George W. Bush, following Oliver Stone’s “W” and the third collaboration between Bale and Adams, following The Fighter and American Hustle. The plot follows Cheney in his pursuit to become the most powerful Vice President in American history. All I can say is, this film is brilliant and well put together and true.

**** SOILERS ****

Vice is narrated by Kurt (Jesse Plemons), a fictitious veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and opens with Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) along with White House officials responding to the September 11 attacks. The film then flashes back to Wyoming, 1963, where Cheney finds work as a lineman but struggles with alcoholism, which led him to drop out of Yale. After a traffic cop stopped Cheney for driving while intoxicated, his wife Lynne Cheney (Amy Adams) convinces him to clean up his life, using powerful verbiage and ultimatums.  The film then flashes forward to 1969 when Cheney finds work as a White House intern during the Nixon Administration. Working under Nixon’s economic advisor Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), Cheney becomes a savvy political operative as he juggles commitments to Lynne and his two daughters Liz (Lily Rabe) and Mary Cheney (Alison Pill). While working at the White House, Cheney overhears Henry Kissinger (Kirk Bovill) discussing the secret bombing of Cambodia with President Richard Nixon (himself on film), which revealed the true power of the executive branch. Rumsfeld’s abrasive attitude leads to a suddal detachment between the two men from Nixon that worked in their favor; after Nixon’s resignation, Cheney rises to the position of White House Chief of Staff under President Gerald Ford (Bill Camp) while Rumsfeld becomes Secretary of Defense.

After Ford is voted out of office, Cheney runs to be representative for Wyoming. After giving an awkward and uncharismatic campaign speech, Cheney suffers his first heart attack. While he recovers, Lynne campaigns on her husband’s behalf, helping him to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Reagan Administration, Cheney supports a raft of conservative, pro-business policies favoring the fossil fuel industries. Cheney next serves as Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) during the Gulf War. Outside of politics, Cheney and Lynne come to terms with their younger daughter Mary coming out as gay. Though Cheney develops ambitions to run for president, he decides to retire from public life to spare Mary from media scrutiny.

During the presidency of Bill Clinton, Cheney becomes the CEO of Halliburton while his wife Lynne raises golden retrievers and writes books. A false epilogue claims that Cheney lived the rest of his life healthy and happy in the private sector and the credits roll, only for the film to continue. Cheney is invited to become running mate to George W. Bush during the 2000 United States presidential election. Recognizing that the younger Bush is more interested in pleasing his father than attaining power for himself, Cheney agrees on the condition that Bush delegates “mundane” executive responsibilities like energy and foreign policy to him. As Vice President, Cheney works with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, legal counsel David Addington (Don McManus) and Chief of Staff Scooter Libby (Justin Kirk) to exercise control of key foreign policy and defense decisions throughout Washington.

I especially enjoyed Vice because I am sort of a political junky.  I th0ught Vice was well thought out and outlined Cheney’s agenda as close to the truth as possible.  For those who are not that political, Vice was easy to understand and delivered it’s message for all  to process.  44 year old Christian Bale had to gain 40 pounds for the role of Cheney and was barely recognizable.  I’ve provided a picture of the transformation from Bale to Cheney — now that’s dedication.  I think Vice is worth seeing, you will learn a lot of not so good historical events such as the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq, caused by Cheney.  There is also a monologue at the end of the film you wouldn’t want to miss.  Vice will probably be nominated for an Oscar.   Check it Out!

[Vice is Oscar nominated for BEST: Picture, Supporting Actress, Actor, Supporting Actor, Director, Original Screenplay, Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Film Editing]

 

THE PROMISE (2017) – My rating 9/10

Based on a true story the Turks still deny, The Promise flew way under the radar.  This is another history lesson that everyone should know and see.   Everywhere, The Promise was featured/advertised as a love triangle involving a medical student, an American journalist and an Armenian women raised in France.  However, more than a love triangle, it’s a story of Genocide against the Armenians in the 1900’s just as World War I was getting started. 
NOTE:  The film was a box office bomb, grossing just $8 million against its $90 million budget.  According to the studio, The Promise was made to bring attention to the events of the Genocide as oppose to making money.

Mikael, (Oscar Isaac) an apothecary is an Armenian whose life dream is to be a medical doctor.  Living in the small village of Sirun with not enough money to afford medical school, he promised his hand in marriage to the daughter, Marta (Shohreh Aghdashloo), of an affluent neighbor, in exchange for 400 gold coins as her dowry, which would more than pay for his education.  Mikael was sincere in his proposal and was determined to fall in love with Marta upon his return from Constantinople’s Medical Academy as a doctor.  Upon arrival in Constantinople, Mikael was to contact a wealthy uncle and family friend, Mesrob (Yigal Naor) for his boarding, food and any other help he may need.  While there, Mikael meets and falls in love with Ana, (Charlotte Le Bon) who is already romantically involved with Chris Myers, (Christian Bale) an American reporter for the Associated Press, as well as befriends Emre Ogan, (Marwan Kenzari) who is also in training to be a doctor and is the son of a high level Turkish official but is only doing so for his father, as he has no interest in the medical profession.

World War I as started and Mikael temporarily manages to avoid conscription in the Ottoman army through a medical student exemption with the help of Emre.  But when he tries to save his uncle from imprisonment during the roundups of April 24, 1915, he is detained and sent to a prison labor camp himself.  There he is put to hard labor where many Armenians were brutalized and died of exhaustion and starvation.

The events of The promise are graphic and sad.  An estimated 1.5 million people were murdered, including innocent women and children, for no reason.  The love story was insignificant but felt necessary to keep relations between the nations at a tolerable acceptance.  I for one, feel horrible that anyone should get away with such atrocities but it has happened many times in many places with no repercussions.  At any rate, this movie was well put together and was very informative.  It’s due to be released on July 18th to DVD.  Check it out if just for the history lesson!

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THE BIG SHORT (2015) – My rating: 8.5/10

The Big Short is a brilliant piece of film work.  To keep excitement, interest and focus on financials from so many different perspectives for 128 minutes in not easy.  The Big Short played like a well oiled machine.  Each player was like a detective unraveling a case and there were many players.  In 2005, Michael Burry (Christian Bale) noticed the US housing market was very unstable because of subprime loans based on high risk, providing very few returns.  He predicted that the market would collapse around the second quarter of 2007 but he also realized he could profit from the situation by creating a credit default swap market that would allow him to bet against the housing market.  He went to several banks and successfully sold his idea.  However, his clients felt he was wasting their money and demanded that he cease all activities plus return their money but Burry refused.  As tempers heated, Burry placed a moratorium on withdrawals, which made his investors even more angry.  The market did indeed collapse as Burry predicted and he produced 489% profits from his plan.

Trader, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) hears of Burry’s actions so he decides to put his own plan into something call the credit default swap market.  In turn Hedge Fund Manager, Mark Baum (Steve Carell) joins Vennett.  Together they discover the collapse is being further perpetuated by the sale of CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) that are pretty much worth nothing but dishonestly AAA rated.  After attending the American Securitization Forum in Las Vegas, Mark finds synthetic CDOs have now entered into the market, which will render the market completely helpless at the banks’ expense, so he decides to go through with the credit default swaps to make a bundle for himself while the economy goes belly up.

Two young investors, Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) discover a paper by Vennett that leads them to become involved with the credit default swaps.  Because they fall short of an ISDA, they had to turn to a friend and retired banker, Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to help them pull off all they would need to be successful in this endeavor. Together they attended the mortgage securities forum in Las Vegas and made lots of deals. The two were never happier to make deals that would result in making them super rich but bring the economy to its knees at the same time.  Rickert wasn’t happy but didn’t pull out either.  Brad Pitt’s performance was phenomenal.

The Big Short is a fast moving film that really says it all when it came to the endless financial corruption that ran rampart during the end of the Bush Administration.  I don’t feel anyone paid enough for all the crime that happened.  So many innocent people lost everything and some even lost their lives.  The Big Short really told it like it was.  The acting was fantastic.  I enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind getting upset at how easily these guys manipulated the US economy.

[THE BIG SHORT is nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay]

 

OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013) – My rating 7/10

The best thing I can say about Out of the Furnace is Woody Harrelson who played notorious Harlan DeGroat, a drug addicted gangster who ruled in the Appellation Mountains and Christain Bale who played Russell Baze, a steel worker that’s down on his luck.  Their performances were outstanding.  Other than that, it was pretty much down hill.  This movie was oh so slow — even the music seemed slow except at the end when Pearl Jam’s “Release” permeated the screen.  There were no happy endings and no real message that I could determine.  The story takes place in North Braddock, Pennsylvania’s  steel mill  country and in the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey.   The plot is basically about Casey Affleck’s character, Rodney Baze (Russell’s brother) who goes missing after he agrees to take a dive in DeGroat’s bare knuckle fighting event to even a debt between Willem Defoe, who plays Bookie, John Petty, himself and DeGroat.  Russell who lost his woman (Zoe Saldana) to Chief Wesley Barnes, played by Forest Whitaker, decided to go rogue while looking into Rodney’s disappearance.  This movie presented many questions for which I didn’t get many answers.  In fact, I had to read up on Out of the Furnace to find the truth.  I recommend Out of the Furnace on DVD if you have some time to kill, it’s interesting at best!

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THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS THAT PRETTY MUCH TELLS THE WHOLE MOVIE — IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW, STOP HERE — DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!
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Scene:  One night, Russell slams into a car backing out of a concealed driveway.  The camera zooms in on what appears to be the lower, lifeless half of a child’s body.  We know Russell had at least one drink before starting his journey home.

Question: Why is Russell in Prison?

Answer:  The child and the driver died in the car crash and Russell was arrested for a DWI.

 

Scene:  The movie opens with Russell and Lena (Zoe Saldana) in a loving relationship, playfully laughing and tossing around in their bed.

Question:  Why hasn’t Lena been to see Russell in prison considering how much she loved him?

Answer:  She left him for Chief Wesley Barnes.  One can only assume she thought this would be a more stable life — she also is pregnant by Barnes.

 

Scene:  John Petty reiterates the deal between  himself and DeGroat — (Rodney takes a dive which evens any debt between DeGroat and Petty).  DeGroat reluctantly agrees.

Question:  Why did DeGroat kill Petty and Rodney after the fight?

Answer:  You have to guess at this one because it’s not clear — I think he may have felt threatened by Rodney’s fighting skills.

 

Scene:  Russell larges two bullets in DeGroat.  While limping away, Russell makes a final shot from about 60+ feet away from DeGroat.  DeGroat falls.  We see no movement.  Chief Barnes is standing behind Russell shouting “don’t do it”, “put the gun down”, “let me make this right”.

Question:  Is DeGroat dead?

Answer:  Yes!

 

Scene:  The last scene shows Russell sitting in his dining room reflecting.

Question:  Did the chief not arrest Russell for murder?

Answer:  No he did not!

 

I was able to find out these answers via research, not the movie!