The Legend of Zorro (2005)
DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell
CAST:
Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell, Nick Chinlund, Adrian Alonso
REVIEW:
Like a depressing number of sequels, The Legend of Zorro, despite reuniting the same director and two of the stars from the original installment, feels like a tired, hollow afterthought that shouldn’t have been made. Despite numerous attempts to recapture the entertainment value of the first Zorro, The Legend of Zorro never comes close to the high energy level and exuberance of its predecessor. Continue reading
The Proposition (2005)
DIRECTOR: John Hillcoat
CAST: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Emily Watson, David Wenham, John Hurt
REVIEW:
With The Proposition, Australian director John Hillcoat and screenwriter/composer Nick Cave have taken the saying “revenge is a dish best served cold” and taken it up—or down, depending on one’s perspective—a notch. The Proposition is considered an unconventional Western, but it doesn’t deal in clear-cut black hats and white hats or simple shoot-em-ups. Brutal, unromanticized, and mercilessly gritty to the point of being disturbing, it’s a grim, haunting odyssey that doesn’t deal in typical crowd-pleasing Western tropes and conventions, at least not straightforwardly.
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