Oh Forest...

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai(dir. Jim Jarmusch)
Le Samourai mixed with Branded to Kill and directed by Jim Jarmusch has masterpiece written all over it, but it never fulfills that potential. If the movie was more focused on Forest and didn't have the other moments that focused on the gangsters, this would have been really good or great, but as it is, it's some uneven masterpiece. Ghost Dog performs his job with such skill that Melville would be proud, but Jarmusch's view of the criminal underworld is less flattering. I understand that's the point to show this super intense guy kicking ass compared to these dumb gangsters, but the characters are alittle too over the top. There are some moments that are forgiveable like a gangster singing along to Flava Flav. Another viewing might convince me that it's not just an uneven masterpiece, but a bonafide masterpiece. For now it gets
*** out of ****
Letters from Iwo Jima(dir. Clint Eastwood)
A much better film than Flags of Our Fathers, but it also shares some of that film's heavy-handed trappings. I enjoyed this film's unsentimental look at war to ritual suicide with grenades and the killing of prisoners of war. There is a certain bleak madness to it, but hope glimmers beneath the surface. Some moments seem to be designed to manipulate audience's emotions like Nichi giving all the medicine to an American soldier and ending up getting wounded. Most of the soldier's flashbacks were clearly designed to create some tears. The gimmick of going back to the present time to show the letters from Iwo Jima was pretty ridiculous, but the biggest flaw this film had had to deal with Ken Watanbe's favoritism of the main character. It seems utterly appalling and ridiculous to me that a man of authority would allow a soldier to not partake in a battle because he has a wife and kids. Sure, that seems reasonable, but we never see Ken Watanbe's character ask any of the other soldiers if they had a family. This film had some sublime moments and some cringe-inducing moments.
*** out of ****