American Psycho (2000)- Kill Him

American Psycho portrays a New York City CEO sociopath, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), before the 2008 stock market crash.  Patrick descends deeper into his serial killer psychosis as the reel rolls on.
The film saturates itself in eeriness.  This is Chrisitian Bale's first bad guy role, that I can recall. He reacts with ecstatic laughter and toothy grins. He laughs while he hates his friends.  The whole effect accentuates his insanity.  Patrick's apartment suite is ghostly pale.  He leers at his business colleagues, competing to even outdo their bling business cards.  Detective Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe) adds to the intensity, glaring back with psychotic glares and bared teeth during Patrick's person-of-interest interviews.  Batemen takes us through his obsessive personal routines--Bale builds up a great physique for this movie.
I didn't get this title at first.  It's actually about time they sculpt a villain like this.  The white-collar monster is the embodiment of power hungry ruthless CEOs.  Patrick's despicable toward women.  I kept watching, hoping he would get caught.  Where the flick falls short is by giving into the invincibility delusion of a serial killer.  Even after Bateman made too many errors, like running naked in his rich loft building with a chainsaw roaring, Bateman still gets away with it.  Is this a science-fiction?  One neat effect, though, was making a circle of CEOs seem like narcissists on the brink of committing their own crimes.  Yes, hoods are not the only centers of crime.
The ending was sudden, yet due.  The homicidal maniac had done everything to get caught.  FOR THAT ALONE, IT WARRANTS THE SEQUEL.  My Millennial kept begging me to let him see it.  It definitely caters to their modern dark humor.  I can only move it up to the Winning 35 yd. Line. 

The Crown (Netflix 2016)- Dimmer

The Crown began as an astounding portrayal of the English monarchy, immediately after World War II, at the latter days of King George VI (Jared Harris) and the rise of Queen Elizabeth II, his daughter (Claire Foy).  Peter Morgan, formerly The Queen writer, leads the production reviving this climactic time in history.  A second reason to follow this series is a study on how the crown functions in relation to the British Parliament, which had a closer influence than I ever imagined.
You don't have to be a monarchist bug to enjoy the talented cloned cast along with the impeccable full regalia. Morgan takes you to the intimate corners of the royal family.  I was enjoying the travails of King George VI so much that I mourned at his passing too.  Then, the joy picks up as Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) seems to be brought right back from the grave, temperament and fallacies and all.  He trains the young queen like a protege.  I hated to see him go too.  Now, we learn so much about this beleaguered family's crown abdication, cancelled wedding plans, and Queen Elizabeth's own inner struggles to shore up her own marriage to Prince Phillip (Matt Smith).  I avoided all the gossip tabloids, so at least Morgan delivers mounting credibility.  Even the intrigue of the royal staff and bureaucracy is engaging.
Season 2, though, dims the lights on and off.  Taking place in the 1950s-Kennedy presidency, it dulls by focusing on the ebb and flow of the royal couple.  Then it tries to pick it up with the unimportant controversies of Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby).  All dynamics in Parliament and the royal underlings dwindled to a bore. The U.S. is practically absent along with the other world players (until Episode 7), despite the eve of the Cold War and the demise of monarchies internationally.  Finally, the last 3 Episodes returned to Year 1 quality.  Prince Charles's depiction of his youth was gripping!
Season 3 is poised to make a full 360.  The monarchs are aging so there will be a new cast.  There are already casting problems.  The new queen role (Olivia Colman) even admits it will be "huge shoes to fill."  Indeed, Colman is no double like Foy.  The desired Prince Philip (Paul Bettany) has already bailed out. You would think this was better planned out after such success.  In fairness, I move it up to the Winning 25 yd. Line, speculating it will only improve in its projected 6 seasons; yet, halfway into Season 2, the excellent cinematography and props finally wore off and I almost quit watching.

Con Air (1997)- Star Lines

Con Air is pure action entertainment.  Big stars, big stunts, and big suspense sends us on a flight to remember.  There are no lulls with such a crew; the action starts fast and in your face.
Jerry Bruckheimer produced another blockbuster gem.  The main con is Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage), plays his trademark loveable bad guy on a flight transferring prisoners.  Despite Cage's bad acting rap, he pulls off the right effect... AGAIN.  So his southern accent fades back to his Angelino surfer guttural; he's still the glue of the movie.  Officer Vince Larkin (John Cusack) allies with Poe to stop the cons, who are led by evil mastermind Cyrus (John Malkovich).  Malkovich is at his perfect creepiness with a role written for him.  The prisoners provide plenty of character roles with "The Marrieta Mangler" (Steve Buscemi), "Johnny 23" rapist (Danny Trejo, clean shaven), "Pinball" (Dave Chappelle), and others.
Each detoured plane landing ripples the dramatic sine waves.  We are hoping for Poe to survive it all and be able to see his daughter and wife (Potter and Albright) as intended.  Amidst the subterfuge of each convict's conniving, there are big smash-em-up scenes and you never know will die next. Their C-123 plane con transport goes through hell, being tied down, hauled out of desert sludge, and crash landing for the second time in Sin City.  Other massive movers get blown apart, ala Terminator chase scenes, some famous landmarks, and even a classic luxury car that leave you between awe and laughter.
The ending is climactic, keeping it barely believable despite the catastrophic damage laid on the Las Vegas Strip.  There isn't much more substance beyond.  For its rousing role players and smashing scenes alone, I give it a Winning 25 yd Line.

The Big Lebowski (1998)- Coen Cult

A movie that defines what it means to attain 'cult' status.  Every line, every actor, every tune, and every prop counts.  The Coen brothers created another cult masterpiece, showing the essence of cinema: classic monologues, aesthetic cinematography, and mood-setting soundtrack; a detour from today's popular pair of CGI and violence with little substance.
The "Dude," Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), is the quintessential laid back, free spirit bachelor in L.A. devoted to recreation.  He stares blindly at the similar brands of creamer on the lonely market aisle. He introduced me to white Russians and Creedence, the movie's motif.  Just watching the movie, you feel buzzed.  The Dude gets connived to deliver a ransom which disrupts his otherwise uneventful bowling and toker lifestyle.  His friends get sucked in, whom are just as colorful: Walter (John Goodman), aplha male Vietnam vet solves everything with bowling strikes and loudness and Donny (Steve Buscemi), playing straight guy prompting along.  Their exchanges involve excellent timing and memorable quotes: "That's like your opinion, man," among Dude's many Dudeisms; "Cut off your Johnson?" Uli the German nihilist kidnapper (Peter Stormare); "Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you," the Stranger cowboy character actor (Sam Elliot); and Walter's many memes like "I don't roll on Shabaz!"  I could go on and on about almost every single actor in the film. ...that's rare!
The cat and mouse sequence gets a bit convoluted, but is overshadowed by subsequent hilarious, legit urban parodies.  "The Jesus" (John Turturro) makes love to his bowling ball, as a rival bowler, while making fake threats in his purple jumpsuit.  The rich Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston) is the snob with all the labels and talk, but ruled by his vanities.  The final funeral scene is one I've walked into before: the perfect funeral house tilework and furniture, the rigid suited funeral rep speaking compassionately, concluding with the scary bottom line.
The Dude gets to dupe all of these icons of our beloved big cities.  Yet, he is a "f___ing loser."  A TOUCHDOWN in every sense!
   .

Holes (2003)- Holes

Holes is based on the voluminous book by Loius Sachar.  Excellent acting draws you into this peculiar desert world until more questions than resolutions arise.  A juvenile detention center in the middle of a dry Texas lake is the setting for the exploits of teens condemned to dig holes there.
If Sachar also wrote the script, I'm confused why the story and movie diverge toward the end.  Half of the movie has great impulse due to the vivid performances by the main prisoner Stanley, "Caveman," (youngest Shia LeBeouf), his dad Stanley Yelnats (Henry Winkler's comeback), Warden Walker (the ever sexy Sigourney Weaver in a rare bad role), caricature boss-man Mr. Sir, running the prison, (Jon Voight), and even Laker champion Rick Fox in cameo appearances.  Prisoners dig holes, because the warden is bent on looking for a personal hidden treasure.  The movie branches off into different timelines while engaging us with the colorful lives of the prisoners.  Shia charms with his bad boy persona.  While Stanley looks for the treasure, he must deal with a family curse that he has inherited, prison bullies, and corrupt prison staff.
The movie ends too abruptly with little fanfare amok its own tangents.  In the story, Stanley's lawyer (Roma Maffia) takes a bigger role to make sure Stanley gains his release.  In the movie, she just rushes babbling in and out. Stanley also makes sure that his lawyer is able to free his best friend "Zero" (Khleo Thomas).  The movie omits that if Zero stayed, he was going to be killed, ignoring the urgency.  In the book, it's a suitcase; not a pirate-like treasure chest.  In the movie, it was not made clear that surviving on sweet onion juice is what kept the poisonous lizards away from Stanley and Zero when they were trapped inside a pit full of the lethal reptiles.
These 'holes' in the storyline are confusing, rushing to an ambiguous ending to a good thing.  I leave this on the Winning 35 yd. Line.

Die Hard 2 (1990)- Much Harder

Officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back with the same game plan on a grander stage, Washington Dulles Airport.  With his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) in danger, he's pissing off the security experts, squirming through the airport's entrails, punishing his body, and frustrating a new evil mastermind, Col. Stuart (William Sadler).  As his wife said, "Why do these things keep happening to us?"
A franchise is reborn, crowning its champion.  Remember the Iran hostage crisis that spilled into the 80s?  President Reagan tried to mend things, but we still suffered as the world's punching bag with the Beirut bombings of the Marine barracks bombings of 1983 and the spread of communism into Central America the same decade.  Who can bail us out of such Vietnam trauma?  McClane is that hero.  The excellent writing for this is attributed in both films to Steven E. de Souza, with Doug Richardson sharing this script.
That's why Die Hard can never be matched using the same blueprint.  McClane continues to interrupt international plans for mayhem since Col. Stuart was trying to secure the landing of escaped Gen. Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), a corrupt dictator being brought to justice ala Noriega.  Yet, this movie secures itself as a cult series by raising the intensity.  McClane's job is harder.  Now he's trying to save an international airport and battle with more bureaucrats and rank and file employees.  He's attempting to stop jumbo jets not helicopters.  And yes, there is more human collateral damage.
The ending is sensationalism that works, uttering anew from me a huge whoop!  The movie feeds into your raw gut emotions activated by growing up in those decades.  Sensations so strong, my teen is a follower too after viewing: fighting a tow and parking ticket to the end, wife in peril, janitor wisdom, and good ol' mouse and dagger.  Definitely, rewatchable at the Winning 25 yd. Line.