Vertigo is a pretty big movie from the late 50’s. I’m sure that most of us know what the term Vertigo means, so I’ll skip that part. Alfred Hitchcock tends to make a lot of mystery movies and this one is no exception. The actual mystery doesn’t start until the later part of the film, unless you debate whether there’s a….Ghost involved! Let’s see how epic this film turned out.

Joh-Scottie is the main character of the film and he’s pretty terrible, but more on that later. He’s a retired detective who had to stop being a policeman when he led someone to their doom. It was an accident and the guy practically lunged off of the roof, but Sco-John knew that he needed to retire. Now he lives the happy life, no stress, no pressure! Unfortunately, someone wants him to complete one last assignment. (Sound like James Bond or Batman yet?) Jo-Scottie accepts and his mission is to follow the man’s wife: Madeleine. He fears that she is being possessed by a ghost. Sc-John follows her to a lot of placed and eventually she jumps in a river. Her body is able to float amidst the water so at least there is no chance of drowning, but John- I mean Scottie! Decides to save her. She escapes yet again and John is back to square one. Is she being possessed? Is she just insane!?

The film had a very weak cast, but films tend to do that. The best character was easily the judge when they took the main character to court. This guy knew what he was talking about and he saw through the main character’s act with ease! This guy was definitely an intellectual and not someone who should be messed with. John/Scottie suffers from delusions and he basically cracks towards the second half of the film. I would have felt bad for him, had he not been such an awful protagonist. You can’t even call him a hero since his short sighted, immoralistic (Is that a word? Well, now it is!) actions quickly turn him into the antagonist. Towards the end, you aren’t even sure who you should root for anymore! (I decided to just watch the two villains duke it out with an expression of horror on my face!) It’s really too bad, since the main character was pretty good at the beginning. He stayed solid until he took on the mission, which is where he slowly (But steadily) went downhill. The other characters were pretty unmemorable, but Judy Barton made some pretty big mistakes. Sometimes you shouldn’t wear things from the crime scene….

Overall this movie wasn’t one of Hitchcock’s better films. I do applaud the fake out endings, (Did you think that Avengers had a lot of those? This one has around 5 different scenes where the film “ends” and then starts up again. It was pretty epic, but one of the fake endings beat the real one. Only one of them though, I did enjoy the real ending since it was a pretty epic twist) but it wasn’t enough to keep the film afloat. It was just too long and suffered from the main characters. I recommend the film if you want to see a film where the main characters gets to leap across buildings, but otherwise, check out Man of Steel. He may not jump over them, but flying’s pretty good as well!

Overall 3/10

Alright, The Grandmaster is a film that many of you may not have heard of. It is based off of a “True story”. Ever heard of Ip Man? Well, he’s Bruce Lee’s teacher and apparently he was extremely tough. The film likely exaggerated his strength, but that was the fun part, so we should definitely let it slide. Usually films that are based off of real life are pretty awful, but since this one is action oriented, maybe that won’t hold true.

The Grandmaster starts off with an ambitious beginning. Ip Man has a big fight against a group of warriors and he skillfully makes short work of them. All of his opponents go down pretty quickly except for one warrior who manages to put up some resistance. There is never a question of who will win the battle, but I’m glad that at least one warrior tried to do something. The whole scene was very cool, but there was one problem with it….This scene completely destroyed the rest of the film. Sometimes, you should try not to start out so epic. This is one of those rare occasions. The problem is that the rest of the film doesn’t feature an abundance of fights and the ones that came up were cool…just not quite as cool. The first scene set the tone, but the rest of the film just dropped it.

The film stayed at a solid level for a while as Ip Man becomes the representative for the South. He faced various martial artists of the South who used different fighting styles, but Ip Man proved to be much better than the others. The fights did make for some pretty epic scenes. One of his opponents mixed different fighting styles together, which is a pretty good way to fight. Ip Man’s form of Kung Fu only uses three different signs, but they are sufficient to win battles.

Ip Man also took on Gong Er. She was a pretty skilled fighter and the first to “Defeat” Ip Man. It was decided that whoever broke a piece of furniture first, would be the loser. At one point Ip Man tries to save Gong Er, but she didn’t need his help and that’s what led to his downfall. With the exception of one scene, this was where the movie deteriorated quickly. Ip Man left the country and wars broke out. People died and the audience felt like snoozing.

Luckily, we still had one fight scene left (2 If you count Ip Man’s fight for the teaching position). Gong Er challenged Ma San to avenge her father. Ma San is a pretty skilled warrior and he was known as the strongest in the North. It’s a shame that he never got to challenge Ip Man. Gong Er and Ma San have a pretty solid fight and they both give it their all. The loser is humbled and the victor goes away feeling triumphant. After such a fight, I would expect nothing less!

The film should have ended there, but we get another half-hour of people talking, people dying, and people talking some more. You start to wonder what happened to Ip Man. Towards the end of the film, he vanished for a while and stopped being the main character. Gong Er replaced him in that regard and we got to see a little of her past. Gong Er and Ip Man were definitely the best main characters of the film. (Though I suppose that is not saying much.) Gong Er stayed strong to her vows and Ip Man beat up as many people as he could.

The Grandmaster is a film that suffered greatly from its length and lack of interesting characters. Had the film been cut down to around 70 minutes plus add some more fight scenes, this could have been one of the better films of 2013. I can’t say that I highly recommend this film, but if you like documentaries, then you should enjoy it. If you are willing to spend some money to see a good fight scene, you can also just come in and check the first few minutes. Of course, if you want a movie with real hand to hand fight scenes, check out Tekken Blood Vengeance!

Overall 3/10

Rope is a classic film that was made by Alfred Hitchcock. You’ve probably heard of him and I’ve seen some of his other films. I believe that I already reviewed one or two, but if not, now you’ll get to witness one. Rope is a classic mystery where the main characters (Well, really only Brandon) decide to tempt fate and see if their “Perfect murder” will come out all right.

The film starts out with David dying. It’s too bad since I’m sure that he could have been a decent character…hopefully anyway. The two murderers are the main characters; Brandon and Phillip. Brandon decides that the murder won’t be perfect unless they invite some people over and make this a fair contest. Brandon wants to test his intelligence against theirs and he also wants to feel the thrills of danger. Phillip is mortified, but he’s never able to stop Brandon from doing whatever he wants. The guests start to come in and things are going well….until Rupert walks in!

Rupert quickly became the best character in the film as he proceeded to completely obliterate Brandon’s chances for success. Brandon’s pretty cunning, but Rupert is an inquisitive person and he won’t be stopped so easily. The irony of the matter is that David’s body is in the same room with everyone. They are using the box that he is in, as the dinner table for the party. There are a lot of close shaves, but can Rupert actually solve this mystery?

The film is pretty suspenseful and it goes by quickly. The film basically takes place in the main room and they just talk for a while. A movie with nonstop talking may seem boring at first, but you never feel bored. I’m not sure if this would work in a modern movie, but I enjoy the dialogue in really old movies. Brandon makes for a pretty likable antagonist, but Phillip can be pretty annoying. He’s a villain, but he’s always doubting himself. Phillip keeps on getting nervous, but it’s far too late since he already committed the deed. Phillip nearly jeopardizes the mission several times and he does crack towards the end. The rest of the characters were pretty uneventful and they were mostly there to add drama. They never seemed to piece together the clues, but I like to think that they would have at some point.

This is a pretty fun film and I’d recommend it. The film isn’t very long and it holds up well. There may not be a lot of action or special effects, but not all films need that sort of thing. A lot of action can’t hurt, but this film manages to pull through without it. The mystery isn’t for the audience, which may be disappointing for some people, but then this would be a completely different movie. If you want a mystery to solve, check out Sherlock Holmes.

Overall 6/10