Road To Perdition (2002)

The point of these challenges or what I am doing is to check out films that you never seen before. Unfortunately for me, there have been a lot of films that somehow have fallen through the cracks and I just have not had the chance to see them and the film I picked for today is one of them. The film I chose for today is called Road To Perdition and it was released in 2002 and it was directed by Sam Mendes (1917). The film stars Tom Hanks (Toy Story 4) as Michael Sullivan, a mob enforcer whose son happens to witness a murder that ends up getting Michael's wife and other son killed because of it. This forces Michael to take his son on the road with him as he plans his revenge. The film also stars Tyler Hoechlin (Everybody Wants Some!) as Michael Jr., Jennifer Jason Leigh (Good Time) as Annie Sullivan, Paul Newman (The Hustler) as John Rooney, Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) as Connor Rooney, Ciarán Hinds (Frozen) as Finn McGovern, Dylan Baker (Trick 'r Treat) as Rance,  Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger) as Frank Nitti, Jude Law (Captain Marvel) as Maguire, and Liam Aiken (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Peter Sullivan.

The truth of the matter was that I had only seen the ending of the film so I ultimately knew what was going to happen, I just didn't know how they got there. Jude Law's role wasn't a huge one, but he makes such an impact with the screen time that was given to him. He is instantly a character that you are never going to forget because of how creepy the guy is. He likes to take photographs of the dead and not just the ones that he has killed either which should be enough information for you to know who you are dealing with. There is so much emotion in this film that it's divided and distributed very well throughout the story from the loss of his family to the loss of his other family which hurts just as much to a guy like Michael Sullivan. Tom Hanks was well... Tom Hanks and that means that he was masterful because I don't think that Tom Hanks makes a bad film and if he does its very rare. Tom does an amazing job of keep your attention as he struggles to navigate through the madness because he has to deal with his son and his issues plus deal with the fact that the "family" wants him dead. I love the costumes, the sets, the cars, and of course the Tommy Gun which we get to see in this prohibition era film. Sam Mendes does an unbelievable job with the film and we really shouldn't be surprised at this point. The film is currently available on Netflix as we speak and this is one that you are going to want to check out. So wit that being said, I am going to go ahead and give the film an A- for a final grade.

Frozen (2013)

You'll notice over time that there are a lot of films that I have never viewed and with the astronomical amounts of films released in the past it almost seems impossible to see them all. Disney is one of those companies that I have unfortunately missed a lot of so when they decided to come out with Disney +, I took it as an opportunity to catch up which is why I chose Frozen for today's film. The film stars Idina Menzel (Uncut Gems) as Elsa, a girl who has never had it easy ever since she was a kid who discovered she had the powers to freeze things. To make matters worse, she almost killed her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) which forced her into isolation so that she could learn to control her powers. Well, one faithful day as she is revealed to the world as the new Queen, she kind of freezes things and curses her village into infinite winter and now it's up to Anna to try and save Elsa and the village before it's too late. The film also stars Josh Gad (Pixels) as Olaf, Jonathan Groff (Glee) as Kristoff, Santino Fontana (Sisters) as Hans, Alan Tudyk (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Duke, Ciarán Hinds (Game Of Thrones) as Pabbie, and the film was directed by Chris Buck (Surf's Up) & Jennifer Lee (Zootopia).

I am not going to lie and say that I thought some of the songs they sing were a little cheesy to me at first, but as the movie progresses you almost forgive the singing. You forgive it because the story gets better and more interesting as the movie progresses and you can see why people loved this film. I will however say that if it wasn't for Josh Gad as Olaf, I don't think the film would've been that good because he is the MVP of the film for sure. Every Disney movie has that formula in it with all of the main characters, but one of them is always the comedic relief of the bunch and Olaf is that for Frozen. One of the things I liked most about the film too is that it didn't end with the typical princess in distress moment. What I mean by that  was there was no prince at the end of the film that kisses the Princess and she's magically fine. No in this film, they go outside the box and it's the true love of one sister to another that saves Anna at the end of the film. The voice acting was great, the singing was great as well, and the story was great. Their is not a lot to pick apart when it comes to this film, but I imagine that if I was a little kid when this came out that I may have loved all the songs too. So, I am going to go ahead and give this film an A for a final grade because it deserves at least that.