Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Michelle Williams, and Jackie Earle Haley

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Today on a day off of work, I finally got to see, “Shutter Island” the newest collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio. Before the movie, I did a little shopping at Best Buy. I bought Ozzy Osbourne’s new book, “I am Ozzy” and picked up the game “Heavy Rain” for the PS3. I will talk about that stuff in another post, but lets go on with this review:

Plot/Synopsis: Leonardo Dicaprio plays a cop named, Teddy Daniels, he was also a former US Marshall. Teddy goes to Shutter Island with partner, Chuck Aule who is played by Mark Ruffalo. The two cops go to the Ashecliff Hospital on the Island to investigate a patient who disappeared from a locked room. This is a hospital for the insane, it is not a prison. Teddy and Chuck were on a case to help find a missing patient named, Rachel Solando. Rachel was put in the hospital a long while back because she drowned her own three children in a lake by her home. Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingley’s role) who is the head psychiatrist of the hospital wants Teddy and Chuck to help him find Rachel and bring her back to the hopsital alive. As Teddy and Chuck investigate, they begin to find strange and uncomfortable things about this hospital.

This film “Shutter Island” was actually made in the year 2008. It was supposed to be released last year around Halloween, I remember, but the film got pushed back to the month of Feb. of this year. So it’s been a long time. This is a film we’ve all been waiting for and it’s finally here.

On with the film, I thought the film was very impressive for a lot of reasons. It was a perfect movie. Is it a horror flick? I would think so. The storytelling of this movie is what impressed me the most. I liked the acting, the cinematography, the musical score was also great, but it’s the story that’s what got to me. The story to this movie was very dark. I think it’s the darkest movie Scorsese has ever done. Yes, Scorsese has done some pretty dark films over the years, but this one is totally different than his earlier films. Scorsese has done thrillers/horrors before like “Cape Fear” for example. So he’s no stranger to doing dark films.

The story kept you at the edge of your seat. You just want more and more. Never know what is going to happen next ’cause the film was very unpredictable. You think this is going to happen and that will happen, but nope, something else happens. I love films like that! I don’t want to talk about the whole movie ’cause there are some huge shockers toward the end of the movie.

This is Leo’s best acting in a long time too. Some may not appreciate him because Leo haters think he’s the type of actor that women drool over, but Leo’s role in this film I think was aimed at the “male” audience and not toward the women this time. This was more of a guy Leo Dicaprio movie, not a chick flick Leo Dicaprio movie. Hope you know what I mean by that. This is not the best Martin Scorsese flick ever made but it certainly is one of my favorites and it certainly is the best Scorsese/Dicaprio movie for sure.

If you like a good bone chilling horror flick, this is a good one for you. I’ll warn you, a flick like this will get you talking  and will get you thinking to yourself like, “wtf?” I mean, when the movie got over with and “Directed by Martin Scorsese” poppped up on the screen at the end of the film, the theater was dead silent for like ten minutes, then people started talking to each other. That’s how incredibly shocking this movie is. Do yourself a favor and see this soon.

Score for “Shutter Island” = **** (4 stars as in “Excellent”)

Kev