The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is the last and final movie that I will be blogging about. I'm glad I saved this for the end because this is one of my favorite movies of all time. It stars Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List, Bruce Almighty) as Red and Tim Robbins (War of the Worlds, Top Gun) as Andy. Andy is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover based solely on circumstantial evidence and is sentenced to two life sentences in the state pen. Andy is a quiet and gentle man which makes him an easy target for the 'sisters', a group of men in the prison that attack and rape smaller inmates. Andy quickly befriends Red and the two become good friends.
Red is the inside man and can get just about anything anyone needs. Andy asks Red for a poster of Rita Hayworth and a tiny rock hammer. Red was used to gettting poster orders but the rock hammer really confused him. Over the years Andy starts doing the taxes and books for some of the guards and even the warden, putting him in good standing with the authorities of the prison. Now that Andy has the guards on his side the next time he is attacked by the 'sisters' leaders and nearly killed, the guards take care of the situation almost killing the 'head sister' and crippling him. He is sent to another prison and never heard from again.
All Andy wants is to be free from the crime he swears he did not commit. Andy is eventually able to make his escape from the prison in one of the most creative ways imaginable. If you want to see if Andy is innocent and how Andy makes his escape you'll have to watch the movie :) I reccomend this movie to absolutely anyone who has decent taste in amazing movies. Its based off of a short story written by Stephen King so you know its gotta be awesome. I give it five stars and it is by far my favorite movie I have done so far.

The Pianist

The movie I'm reviewing this week is The Pianist and it stars Adrien Brody. He plays a polish jew who lives in the Warsaw Ghetto and he goes by his last name, Szpilman. The ghettos were created by german nazi's in WWII to keep all of the jewish people together before they were sent to concentration camps.

Szpilman is a wonderful pianist and does fairly well for himself before the war. When it comes time to evacuate the ghettos he is pulled aside and let back into the city by one of his friends who is a jewish police officer. Even though this means he may have a chance to live, if he is able to remain hidden from the nazi's, he is quite devasted because he is forced to leave his family behind and sadly he never gets the chance to see them again.

Towards the end of the movie Szpilman is doing very poorly and is on the brink of death hiding out in a house. One day he finds a can of fruit and goes in search of a way to open the can. While searching he runs into a Nazi soldier who is actually kind to him and doesn't kill him or turn him in. He is so nice to him that he even brings him food from his home and a cap opener. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and I would recommend it to anyone but, if you do not enjoy serious war movies this is probably not the one for you. All in all I give it four stars!

Fried Green Tomatoes

I can honestly say this is one of my favorite movies of all time. Fried Green Tomatoes stars Kathy Bates (The Blind Side, Rat Race) and Mary Lousise Parker (Weeds, Saved!). It starts out with Kathy Bates as a lonely housewife, Evelyn, who meets an elderly woman in a waiting room at a nursing home. The elderly woman starts telling her all of these crazy stories from back in the day. She told her stories of murder, abuse and conspiracy.

Evelyn is immediately entranced by everything that the woman has to say and they soon become close friends. The woman tells tales of the crazy life that she has led and this makes Evelyn realize what a dull life she leads. This brings Evelyn to make much needed changes in her life and grow as a person. This is a wonderful movie but I wouldn't reccomend it to guys because they most likely won't like it.

TOY STORY!!!!!

Toy Story was created in 1995 and it stars Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Cast Away) as Woody, and Tim Allen (The Santa Clause, Wild Hogs) as Buzz Lightyear. This was pixars first feature film. The movie starts out by introducing Andy, a proud toy owner who has many toys but his favorite is woody (Hanks). Woody is the leader of the group so when Andy gets a new toy, Buzz Lightyear (Allen), Woody is very jealous. He's always been the favorite so when this new guy stepped on his turf he was pretty shaken up.

When Andy wants to take Buzz to his birthday party at Pizza Planet instead of Woody, Woody tries to hide Buzz in an atempt to win back Andy's attention. It works and Woody gets taken instead of Buzz. Little does Woody know that Buzz is waiting in the car to confront him. They stop at a gas station where Buzz and Woody get into a fight and end up getting knocked out of the car. They end of getting into a whole mess of trouble and even though its a kids movie this is a great one for everyone! I give it my highest approval rating.

Forrest Gump

My movie choice this week was Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks and Sally Field. This is a heart warming story about a man just trying to live his life. He grew up in Alabama and was always considered a little slow. As a child he had to wear leg braces because he walked funny and it made kids not really like him that much. His best friend is Jenny and she also plays a very big role in the movie.

Forrest Joins the army and meets his good friend Bubba who sadly dies at war but leads Forrest to open up a shrimping business in his memory. Forrest goes through a lot of different things that really show how truly good of a person he is. This is a great movie and I'd recommend to anyone who likes good movies and isn't mean.

Mrs. Doubtfire

Mrs. Doubtfire was created in 1993, it stars Robin Williams (Flubber, Jack), Sally Field (Forrest Gump, Steal Magnolias), and is directed by Chris Colombus. The movie centers around a man who is going through a divorce and is fighting a serious custody battle. The court only allows him a little bit of time each week to see his children so he goes to drastic measures to see them more.

He sees that his wife is looking to hire a nanny so he decides to, with the help of his brother, dress up as an older woman and try to get the job. He knows his wife very well so he knows exactly what to do to get the job and it totally worked. For a long time it worked out and everyone was really enjoying the arrangment but soon his son will learn the truth and then all the children find out. This was a hilarious movie and I have always loved it. Its great for all ages and has some amazing actors. I would recommend it to anyone! :)

Cast Away

Cast Away is the story of a FedEx executive, Tom Hanks(Big, Forrest Gump), who survives a plane crash and is forced to survive on a desserted island. He has to adapt physically and mentally to survive and provide for himself. After a while he starts to get kind of lonely and bored and starts opening packages that were along board with him during the crash. While doing this, he opens a present to someone that was a volleyball. He paints a face on the ball and names him Wilson. Wilson becomes his only companion. At one point he has a bad tooth that he is forced to remove himself with a pair of ice skates that he found in the wreckage.

This movie really shows how hard it is to survive on your own without any help from civilization. This is truly a great movie that I loved watching. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a great story with great acting! Tom Hanks is amazing and I enjoyed this very much.