Menace II Society review

  Number 807 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Hughes' brother 1993 teen-crime drama Menace II Society.

Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner) and Kevin "O-Dog" Anderson" (Larenz Tate) are two boys growing up in the rough streets of Crenshaw, Los Angeles. Together they need to navigate the dangerous life of gang violence and drugs.

To any budding film-makers out there, I'll give you some unsolicited advice. Don't do what the Hughes Brothers did and have your two main characters shoot to death an innocent Korean couple who are just running their shop. It isn't a great way to get me to care about your characters. It's not like it was an accident or the boys felt guilty; on the contrast, O-Dog constantly boasts about his crime.

It was a bad start and things only got worse from there. Menace II Society offered a superficial surface look at a deeply-nuanced issue. It's difficult not to draw comparisons to the the 1991 Boyz n the Hood which has similar subject matter.

The main comparison is one of quality. Whereas Boyz n the Hood was good, Menace II Society was not. Tonally, it was all wrong. The Hughes Brothers, wanting to contrast with the hopeful Boyz n the Hood, were aiming for a more nihilistic tone. Yet, I detected little nihilism. It wasn't like the characters were bitterly resigned to their situations; they were embracing them. O-Dog constantly shows the CCTV footage of him shooting the Korean couple to anybody who's interested. Again, why am I supposed to care about or like this character?

The dialogue was also incredibly ham-fisted. I was rolling my eyes so much that at point they got stuck in my skull. It reminded me of Green Street Hooligans where Charlie Hunnum had to recite the Cockney rhyming dictionary.

It didn't help that the actors didn't believe what they were saying either. All round, the acting wasn't great. I want to say something about Jada Pinkett Smith who debuted in this film, but Will doesn't like it when his wife's name is in other people's mouths.

I didn't like this film at all. The characters were horrible, the dialogue was corny and there was nothing nihilistic about it.

The Pursuit of Happyness review

Number 394 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2006 biographical drama 'The Pursuit of Happyness.'

Based on the true story, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is a down-on-his-luck salesman. Seeing an opportunity to save himself and his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) from homelessness, he enrolls in a stock-broking internship. But the journey proves a lot harder than he ever thought it would be.

I must have first watched this film over ten years ago before revisiting it for this challenge. And it still remains absolutely brilliant. It is inspirational, but heart-breaking. It is poignant, but never overly-sentimental or cheesy. In many ways, it is the American Dream in action. Chris Gardener starts at rock-bottom, but through determination and hard work, he makes a true success of himself. For some, the American Dream is purely just that, but for Gardener this dream became reality.

Will Smith was absolutely fantastic. This was the first time that I really took notice of him as a dramatic actor, and he was well-deserving of the Best Actor nomination. After he and his son are evicted from their motel, they spend a night in a public bathroom with the door barricaded shut. When a cleaner tries entering, Christopher locks the door and silently breaks down. Ten years later, this scene still brought tears to my eyes. I don't cry often at films, but this was a true exception. Beyond that, Smith turned Gardener into a well-rounded and passionate character. To succeed as a stock-broker, Gardener is told that he needs to be good with numbers and good people. And Gardener is certainly a charismatic character.

Jaden Smith, Will Smith's real-life son, was also very impressive. He was only five-years-old, but he brought a different element. We saw the stresses of poverty through the eyes of a child. Christopher Jr doesn't understand why he can't go back into the motel room after being evicted. He doesn't understand why he has to sleep in a homeless shelter. 

And this confusion and pain was equally heart-breaking to watch. But Jaden also provided so much humour to what could have been such depressing and hard-going film. He was just as charismatic as his father. And the two of them had great chemistry, which wouldn't be surprising considering they are father and son. However, the two of them have appeared together in subsequent films which have been less than well-received.

I've been speaking a lot about the men, but I cannot forget Thandie Newton who plays Chris's over-worked wife Linda. She has to work two jobs to cover Chris' lack of income. This stress eventually leads to her breaking down and leaving her family. Although I wasn't entirely clear on why her son had to stay with Chris, and not go with her, Thandie Newton also excelled in this role. She was one of the most sympathetic characters in this film; constantly trying to fix an inherently broken marriage that cannot be fixed.

The Pursuit of Happyness was such a great watch. In one second it will be knocking you to the ground, but the next it will be picking you back up. And just remember what Chris Gardener tells his son: "don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't do something."

Seven Pounds review

 Number 658 on the top 1000 films of all time is the drama film 'Seven Pounds.'

Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is a man seeking penitence. He is a man looking for redemption who seeks to change the lives of seven people. Two of these include the blind, vegan, meat salesman Ezra (Woody Harrelson) and Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) a printing business owner with a weak heart.

Will Smith is a hell of an actor. He first came to fame in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Although he is goofy in that he also shows his raw potential as a dramatic actor. And that potential came to the fore within Seven Pounds - one of his most mature roles to date.

*Spoiler alert* Ben Thomas causes a car crash that killed seven people including his fiance. To make up for this, he donates his organs to people he thinks really deserve them. he uses his brother's IRS agent's credentials to help track down these people. Sure you could argue that story itself was all very unlikely Ben Thomas proves himself to be a jack of all trades, including repairing a broken printing press, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief.

I do enjoy a good redemption arc. They start with an already likeable character knowing that he's messed up. And now he is hoping to make up for his mistakes. And when you have Will Smith playing that character things are even better. Will The supporting cast were also good.

Both Woody Harrelson and Rosario Dawson were very likeable as the unwitting recipients of Ben Thomas' good deeds. neither of them are in desirable situation, but they always remain positive. Rather than pitying themselves, they still do the best they can.

The same can be said for Ben Thomas. In many ways, he is an inspirational character. And this inspiration lends the film a lot of emotional weight. it becomes the driving force that propels Seven Pounds along.

The true film's structure can be confusing. You have to wait the entire film to discover Ben's true motivations, but I still very much enjoyed Seven Pounds. It showcased Will Smith at his best.

Gosford Park review

 Number 992 on the top 1000 films of all time is Robert Altman's 2001 period drama/murder mystery Gosford Park.

Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) is a wealthy industrialist, married to Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) who invites a group of equally wealthy Britons and one American to dine in his country estate. Some of these guests include Sylvia's aunt Constance, Dowager Countess of Trentham) (Maggie Smith,) William's brother-in-law Raymond, Lord Stockbridge (Charles Dance,) film star and William's cousin Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam) and American film producer Morriss Weissman (Bob Balaban.) However, when one of the party is discovered dead, everybody becomes a suspect. This includes all of the downstairs staff. Richard E. Grant, Kelly Macdonald, Emily Watson, Eileen Atkins and Helen Mirren star as some of the butlers, valets, cooks and housekeepers.

I can totally understand why this film is so low down on this list. It was so boring. When things actually got going, it did start to pick up, but it takes over an hour for things to get going. Prior to anybody being murdered, it was an endless onslaught of rich, pretentious people talking about rich and pretentious things. All of the characters very much blurred into one and it was difficult to distinguish between them all. The cast was far bigger than it had any right to be.

This is a period drama and I bloody hate period dramas, so, no doubt, I do have some bias toward this film. Period dramas have never been something that's interested me. They're full of unrelatable characters with unrelatable problems. And I don't know why they're called dramas. There's nothing dramatic or remotely interesting about them. That criticism very much applies to Gosford Park too.

 Julian Fellowes wrote Gosford Park, so it's no surprise that the film turned out the way it did. He's part of the House of Lords and a member of the British landed gentry. Originally, Downton Abbey, which Julian Fellowes also wrote, was supposed to be a spin-off of Gosford Park, before it became its own show. I haven't watched Downton Abbey and I have no bloody intention to now.

As I said, once somebody actually dies, things become interesting, because we have a mystery to solve. We're treated to Stephen Fry playing the incompetent Inspector Thompson. He really helped to liven up the stuffy atmosphere. But why do we have to wait over an hour to get to this point? By this point, I had almost lost interest in the film. It was all so pretentious.

I really did not care for Gosford Park at all. It was overly-long, boring, pretentious and a sheer waste of the acting talent involved. But I am biased toward period dramas, so maybe that's just me.