Monday, November 3, 2008

THE ROAD TO PERDITION

I saw this when it first came out but decided, after Newman's passing away, that I wanted to watch it again. I had forgotten how good this movie really is, I mean I knew it was good but I'm just taken back how good it is.

I'm not going to go much into the story but I will say that Paul Newman plays a mob under boss (under Capone--Anthony Paglia in an cut scene found on the DVD) and Tom Hanks and Daniel Craig as his adopted son and birth son respectively.

Everything is going good until Tom Hanks kid sees them kill someone, then everything goes bad. Lots of people get killed, banks get robbed. Jude Law and Daniel Craig try to kill Hanks, Hanks goes after them.

The acting is great across the board, I had forgotten it was Craig in this role as Newman's kinda weak son and he's really good, but the movie really belongs to Newman, who beats on Craig in one scene that's oddly disturbing and moving at the same time, and to Hanks.

The kid playing Hanks kid isn't annoying, but isn't some outstanding kid actor. The rest of the supporting cast is good too. Stanley Tucci, as always, is good. Dylan Baker was good too, but I wasn't sure if he was supposed to come across as a homosexual or not. Jennifer Jason Leigh was good in her small role.

Conrad Hall did a marvelous job with how he shot this. Mendes did a nice job with the direction.

This may be my 2nd favorite MODERN gangster film

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