Posts Tagged ‘ 2001 ’

Conspiracy is so accurate and realistic, forcing the viewer to see by proxy a real meeting held by Nazi Germany’s administrators to plan The Holocaust that it actually leaves the viewer quite literally on the verge of nausea.  It is a horribly sad, but true tale, based upon the one surviving copy of the meeting’s notes found in the aftermath of World War II.

The best of the best, here are presented the ten best movies about crime which are based on true stories.  They are listed in alphabetical order and each is generally a quite good movie, but what makes them especially interesting, and in some cases, very, very terrifying, is that this is not complete fiction; in fact, most of what is being portrayed really did happen…

1.  Blow 2001 – Directed by Ted Demme

Starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Franka Potente, Paul Reubens, Jordi Mollà, and Ray Liotta, this Ted Demme directed picture tells us the story of George Jung (Depp) who goes from being the son of a lower-middle class plumber (Liotta) to drug dealer, to drug trafficker, to basically cocaine king of the United States, to inmate, to parolee trying to get back into his daughter’s life, and finally to permanent inmate.  The movie is heart-wrenching and the kind of movie men will in which men watching will tear up at the end because George finally realizes that the advice his father gave him long ago, when his father’s business was in trouble, was the truth, and George has realized it too late to do anything about it.  It is as tragic as it is brilliant with fantastic acting, a great cast and the never-changing excellence in direction of Demme.

The third and final installment of Baz Luhrmann‘s “Red Curtain” trilogy is the first musical in recent memory to capture public notice. Moulin Rouge is the story of a young writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor) trying to get a break in 1899 Paris. The focus of the Bohemian community in which he resides, is a nightclub called the Moulin Rouge, where Satine (Nicole Kidman) is a dancing courtesan. 

Likely based upon The Magnificent Ambersons, The Royal Tenenbaums follows the attempts Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), the estranged patriarch of the family, to become closer to his family of three child-prodigies, their children, and his ex-wife Etheline Tenenbaum (Angelica Huston).

In his directorial debut, Billy Morrissette brings us the best adaption of William Shakespeare to date in the world of film: Scotland, PA. Morrissette, also the writer of this movie, effectively adapts the classic tale of MacBeth into the blue collar world of a fast food restaurant in the 1970s. Joe McBeth (James LeGros) and Pat McBeth (Maura Tierney) are a pair of workers in a local fast food restaurant called Duncan’s, but Joe has many ideas for innovations and the pair conspire to murder the owner of Duncan’s when their advancement is stifled and ideas are used by the management.