Movie Title: War Horse
First Watch / Repeat Viewing
Running Time: 2 hr. 26 min.
Rated: PG-13
Who did I watch with?: Flying Solo
Where did I watch it?: Home
Review:
War Horse is an interesting take on the big budget war movie as it uses the horse as the main driver of the narrative. The horse passes through the lives of many individuals and in doing so tells the story of their lives in the midst of World War I.
Joey is a horse that Albert never should have had. Ted Narracott (Peter Mullen) is a drunk veteran from the Boer War that is renting a farm in the Devon countryside. He has a bad knee and acts like a fool on a regular basis. At a horse auction in search of a new plow horse he buys Joey. Joey is a gorgeous horse, but not a plow horse at all. Soon, Joey is put into service as a dray horse despite not having the appropriate physical build. He proves himself apt to the task and is trained by Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) to do a great many tricks. He is a fine horse. Albert and Joey become quite attached, but in buying Joey Ted broke the bank. He needs to do something to make ends meet or he will lose his land and end up in the work house.
World War I breaks out and suddenly there is a huge demand for horses. Ted sells the horse in order to be able to keep the farm. There is a succession of characters that take possession of the horse from that point forward. They include a pair of British officers played by Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch, a German youth enlisted in the Kaiser’s army, an old man and his grand daughter, and an ordinance officer in the German army. As Joey is passed from place to place he suffers many hardships, but there is hope on the horizon. Albert enlists in the army to go and fight in Germany. It is a Spielberg movie, so it is pretty predictable from that point forward. However, it is also poetic and does a beautiful job capturing the horrors of war and mankind through the eyes of a horse.
Verdict:
It is a beautiful and touching movie. See it.
Tomorrow’s Movie: Ringu (1998)
Movie Title: Ringu
First Watch / Repeat Viewing
Running Time: 1 hr. 36 min.
Rated: Not Rated
Who did I watch with?: Flying Solo
Where did I watch it?: Home
Review:
Ringu tells the story of a killer videotape that was later remade by Gore Verbinski for American audiences. Reiso Asakawa plays an intrepid local reporter doing an investigative report on a tape that is rumored to be killing local children. This becomes especially striking after four high school students die in the same night of an unknown illness. After a brief search Reiso comes across the tape at a hotel where the four students had stayed together. Reiso watches the tape and receives a cryptic phone call immediately afterward.
Seeking someone to share in the experience, Nanako gets her ex-husband Ryuji to watch the video, and her young son Yoichi accidentally gets a glimpse of the video. The couple sets out on a quest to unravel the mystery of the video tape and hopefully save all of their lives. Ringu is less graphic than its American counterpart and relies more heavily on the mystery elements which are the strengths of the story. It also doesn’t rely on the same terrible trick ending that the American version does
Verdict:
Ringu is a superior movie to the American version of The Ring. See it.
Tomorrow’s Movie: High Tension (2003)
