OriginalMovieBuff21

Flags of Our Fathers is based off of James Bradley and Ron Powers successful novel about the life stories of six men who raised the infamous flag on The Battle of Iwo Jima. The book, Flags of Our Fathers, is my favorite book ever written. The development of the six men's lives throughout the book was the greatest thing the book had to offer. The Battle of Iwo Jima, in the book, was extremely powerful and shocking of what the actual men had to go through. There was no development in the film of the six men. All it focused on was the three out of the six survivors who made it back from Iwo Jima. I thought the book was mainly based on the six men's lives, not just three. I mean you really didn't care about the three who died, because it never really focused on them.

The battle scenes were pathetic. Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the most horrific and bloodiest battles in history and this film lacked that. There wasn't much emotional and extreme intense battle scenes. I thought it was just all boring. The acting was also mediocre. Ryan Phillipe did fine as John Bradley but I thought Jesse Bradford as Rene Gagnon and Adam Beach as Ira Hayes had bad acting. They tried too hard in their roles and when they acted, it just came out corny. I've never really been a big fan of Clint Eastwood as the director, and I thought Spielberg should of stepped away from just producing, and direct the movie. I thought he would of done a better job overall.

There were a couple moments in the film that were good though. The ending was the best part of the film. With Thomas McCarthy as James Bradley narrating about how the three survivors lived the rest of the lives after Iwo Jima, were great. The War Bond scenes were a lot like the book had it done also. Overall, this was a disappointing film in my opinion, that could've been a lot better.

Hedeen's Outlook: 5/10 *+ D

Accepted is about a high school burnout who has been rejected from every college he has applied to. He starts to create a fake university in order to fool his overzealous parents. This is a surprising comedy that made me laugh on almost every scene. Most of the characters in the movie I never heard of, were all hilarious, especially Jonah Hill and Adam Herschmann. The movie was actually pretty original. I've never really heard of a storyline like this, and when I read it, I thought it would be another dumb comedy with the same jokes as any other comedy. But I was pretty surprised of what I saw. Overall, this was a really funny comedy of 2006 and should get more appreciated. I highly recommend it.

Hedeen's Outlook: 8.5/10 ***+ B+

The Departed is about two men from the opposite sides of the law that are undercover within the Boston State Police department and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy's identities. This is an excellent film by one of my favorite directors, Martin Scorsese. The all star cast represented by Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin are all brilliant and they act out their performances with much realism. The screenplay is written out very well by William Monahan and the direction by Scorsese is sensational, with his trademark camera work. The soundtrack was also very well done. Overall, this is the best film of the year so far and even though it's no Goodfellas, it is truly, one of his greatest films. I highly recommend it.

Hedeen's Outlook: 10/10 **** A+