Grade:  B+

Director:  Sam Mendes		Released:  July 2002
Writer:  David Self, from Max Allan Collins & Richard Piers Rayner's graphic Novel		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin		Running time:  117 minutes

Ratings System

Road to Perdition is very good, perhaps the best movie I've seen so far this year.  Between this and American Beauty Sam Mendes is creating a signature film-making style.  Most notably with his use of sound (or lack thereof), his pacing, and his apparent obsession with the idea of death being beautiful.

There's a lot of good acting going on here, and Jude Law is really moving his way up in my book of favorite actors.  At this point, I'd go see just about anything he's in.  Paul Newman is also exceptional in this film.

I really like the way the gangsters are portrayed as men with the weight of murder on their shoulders, instead of the usual on-top-of-the-world gangsters we usually see in movies.  These guys are killers, and they know it (clap your hands).  They aren't happy about it, that's just what they do.

I hope Mendes continues on the track he's chosen, because he knows how to make a movie look and sound great.  The opening credits sequence of a boy on a bike riding through traffic looks so photographically pretty you won't have a clue who is being credited, because you're not reading them.  Conrad Hall and Sam Mendes are a perfect match.

- crocoPuffs