Movie of the Week: The Count of Monte Cristo

"A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous 'friends,' escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge." IMDb

The Count of Monte Cristo has been one of my favorite movies since I saw it in theater when it first came out.  I have seen it countless times, and I'm sure I will watch it many times in the future.  It's one of those movies where if you tell me that you haven't seen it...we're watching it.  I don't care if I already watched it earlier that day, we're watching it, cause you gotta see this...and I will probably spend most of the movie annoyingly looking at your face to see if you're enjoying it as much as you should be.  Yeah I'm that guy...

So, not only is this movie brilliantly cast, well acted, and paced wonderfully, but this type of story should have a special place in the heart of anyone who's ever felt like they have gotten the shaft before. It's a story about revenge!  Who hasn't ever wanted to serve someone their comeuppance on a nice frosty plate?  A frosty plate of doom!  I suppose for me, specifically, I love this movie because I've always been the fat kid who got picked on and stuff, so I happen to find the idea of somebody who disappears for a long time, reinvents himself, comes back unrecognized by his foes, destroys their entire world, AND THEN EXPLAINS THE ENTIRE PLOT IN A DRAMATIC AND PRECISELY TIMED MONOLOGUE!!!...*deep breathes*...quite appealing.  

So yeah, I don't want to give anything else about this movie away.  Just go watch it.  And if you've seen it already, fuck it, watch it again....Also the guy who plays Superman in the new Man of Steel movie is it is as a kid.  That doesn't really add or detract either way, but I figure I can at least keep this shit current.

Frequency Review

An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years.  The son tries to save his father's life but the must fix the consequences." IMDb

Frequency is one of my top ten, all time, favorite movies.  Whenever someone asks the hypothetical "what movies would you take with you if you were stuck on a desert island" type questions, this is one of the ones that isn't porn which makes the list.  For as good as the movie is, it often baffles me how few people have even heard of it, especially with the gaining popularity of Jim Caviezel with his roles in the show Person of Interest and the film Jesus and the Amazing Technicolor Ass-beating. (that's just what I always thought Passion of the Christ ought to have been called) 

Jim Caviezel plays a New York cop by the name of John Sullivan.  He is what I would call basically lost.  He's no good with relationships, he drinks more than he should, and the only family he has is his mother.  His life is just kind of missing something ya know?  Dennis Quaid, on the other hand plays Frank Sullivan, a New York firefighter, Mets fan, family man, and all around good guy.  He's good people that Frank Sullivan.  Good guy to have around.  Yeah.  Anyway, one night while fiddling around with his father's old ham radio, John crosses frequencies with Frank and they start a conversation.   They soon discover that the radios they are talking on just happen to have identical call signs, and they are actually father and son, separated by 30 years.  (Holy shit! Solar flares be crazy!) John frantically explains that his father died in a fire 30 years ago, which just happens to be the next day for Frank.  The next day Frank ends up in a burning building that John had described and manages to survive the fire.  (Yay!)  The problem is, now that Frank has survived, John's mother is no longer alive in the present and was murdered 30 years ago for some reason.  (Dun dun dun!...I'm sorry, I've having too much fun with this)  So, now the two men have to team up 30 years apart to try and prevent his mother's murder.  Awesome. (I've said 30 a lot)

My reasons for liking this movie are actually rather simple.  It has solid acting, warm and believable characters, and an interesting and original story.  It definitely gets bonus points from me for having space/time continuum elements and alternate reality kind of stuff in it, but this is not a time travel movie.  That stuff is merely an effective tool for delivering a suspenseful and well paced story.  That's really it.  I don't want to give too much away because I think this movie is something that everyone should really just watch and experience.  So just watch it.