Tag: Drama

Gone is pretty much like Taken.

You know, if the main character is a young adult women, not an older man.

And if the younger sister is taken, not the daughter.

And if the main character has no training in any government field.

And if it takes place in a small town not half of France.

And — okay, not much like Taken.

Next thing you know I will be comparing everything to Top Gun.

Amanda Seyfried is just a girl. She works the night shift at a local diner, and lives at home with her younger sister, Emily Wickershaw. Possible drug use is happening. And vague references to a park. But why? Well, two years ago Seyfried was abducted from her house, and allegedly thrown in a hole in the middle of the forest. She wasn’t alone, bu there was bones too. She was trapped all day, but at night, heard a voice saying that it was time to die, and managed to escape when the mysterious man got her out of the hole. Since then she has lived her life in fear.

Unfortunately the local police don’t believe her story. Couldn’t find the hole, no signs of any abuse, and other complications. She was even put into a mental hospital for the story (severe!). But she lives with the sister now, and after getting home in the morning (and after some weird encounters with her coworker, Jennifer Carpenter) she finds her sister…missing! Based on very little evidence, she knows for a fact that the abductor has come back and meant to get her, but instead found just her sister.

Of course none of the detectives (Daniel Sunjata and Katherine Moenning) really believe her, but the new guy, Sebastian Stan kind is willing to believe her. Even though she has only been gone for hours, not really a missing person case. But Seyfried is freaking out, knowing that the killer “kills at night (from her one time being there)” and that she is running out of time!

So using what little she is given, she follows clues, and talks to many people who seem to remember an awful lot about their previous day, hoping to catch the killer in time. Wes Bentley also plays Emily’s boyfriend. Tons of other guy actors I know in this film, but you know, don’t want to give away which ones are important and which ones are not.

But will these strangely placed convenient clues and people who know way too much information, will they lead her to the killer? Or will she run into a trap? Or is she just making it all up again?

Or will her life revolve around a series of flashbacks that could be fake? Fakebacks.

For a film I didn’t even hear about until I saw it for sale (when I was going to pick up my copy of Goon), I was surprised that I liked it that much. Honestly, I assumed the only reason it was even supposed to be a big movie was because of Amanda Seyfried. I couldn’t recognize any of the actors on it besides her (and until I watched it, when I obviously knew Jennifer Carpenter).

But I thought it was nicely done. Seyfried’s acting was great, and had to carry the film. Lots of red herrings. Believable enough plot, but very believable ending. The police chase throughout the film wasn’t as believable. Tons of bumbling idiot cops I guess. And it also didn’t feature tons of shots of Seyfried kicking ass or anything. Mostly running away, and being sneaky.

I’d definitely say its worth a watch.

As I have pointed out before, Matthew Broderick has been in a bunch of movies the last few years, just none of them big. All smaller releases or indie pictures. Usually drama-comedies. For whatever reason, he just can’t make the big screen anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s out of apathy, and more focus being put on his broadway career.

Either way, I saw a preview for Wonderful World on some random movie, and it made me really want to see it. I looked hard for it, for like, ten minutes too! Then forgot about it. BUT HAH, I GOT IT NOW FUCKERS.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Broderick works as an editor for some publishing company. He has been working there for eight years. Most people see it as a temporary job before they do what they really want. Like his good friend Cyril (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who you all know). “Good friend” is a stretch, more accepting of his cynicism friend is a better choice of words.

Cynicism? Yeah, Broderick isn’t a nice person in this movie. He assumes the world to be bleak, miserable place, where everyone is out to get everyone. He is divorced (shocker) and his only decent moments seem to be the times he gets to hang out with his daughter (Jodelle Ferland). He is oblivious to the fact that her life is also miserable, no friends, no skills, and gets more depressed the more she hangs out with her dad.

Speaking of stuff being shitty. His roommate Ibu (Michael Kenneth Williams, motherfucking Omar) is a diabetic, and during an attack when he tries to get Ibu to the hospital, he finds his car getting towed for an illegal park. Unable to convince the tow truck driver of the real emergency at hand, Ibu collapses in the streets and is sent to the hospital to stay. Well fuck. His sister from Africa (Sanaa Lathan) visits due to his sickness, and stays in their apartment.

Can her presence in his life change it at all, even as the world gets darker? Why is he talking to Philip Baker Hall, who is a made up guy in his head? Does the fact that he used to be a children song writer have anything to do with any of this? Will his case against the city due to towing in an emergency go unheard?

In case you guys didn’t believe me earlier that he was in this movie, here is a picture, that is somehow supposed to be proof!

I feel like I’ve talked about this movie too much already. I liked the set up and liked probably half of what happened in it. But not everything that happened. More importantly, it felt way too slow.

It also didn’t even feel real, which I think is an aspect they were going for. Broderick’s zombie like nature is present about 80% of the film, with snippets of happier times throughout and the end. It isn’t pleasant or interesting to watch. Just want to tell him to be a jerkface. It did get annoying though that almost every character complained to him about his disposition. Repeating records repeat.

I just expected better of the music man.

Although Jarhead is just outside of my range of reviews, I wanted to review a war-like movie for Memorial’s Day, and it is not only decently new but also a few people I have talked to about it haven’t ever seen it.

And damn it, I got it on Blu-Ray pretty cheap last Black Friday, so I wanted to see it, damn it.

Taking a new spin on the giving nature of the Marines.

The film takes place a few decades ago, and the war components during Operation Desert Shield. But earlier we get to see Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal). It’s okay, nothing great. Lot of yelling. Eventually he gets invited to try out for a Sniping unit for the Marines, where Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) is not only the trainer, but the leader in combat too.

Regardless, he makes it to the final cut of 8 people, and even gets to be a shooter. Because yeah, unluckily, 4 of the 8 just get to be spotters. Like his new partner, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard). Then eventually off to combat! Hooray!

Or not. They then get to live out in the desert. Bored. Very bored. Trying to become accustomed to the new environment, but also boredom. Due to alcohol and changing of the duties, a fire breaks out and Swofford is demoted all the way back down to Private. Where the boredom remains, but the daily jobs are worse. The only thing for them to do is masturbate, which they make that pretty clear. But hey, even more eventually, they get to go to combat! Or at least get to go through the desert and be mobile.

One of the members, Fowler (Evan Jones) seems to be increasingly losing his sanity, having a more and more extreme sense of humor. Everywhere they go seems to be in the path of destruction that the airforce has already cleared, tons of burned Iraqi vehicles and people. Once they reach the Oil fields, the oil spurting up from the ground literally rains down on them (and eventually, is a constant jet of fire going into the air).

But when they get into a territory with the enemy in sight, will the finally be able to pull the trigger and prove their worth to the Marines?

My normal suspense method leaves very little suspense.

I should note that that picture above scares the crap out of me. Oil raining from the sky, caking the desert, (where they are digging holes in order to sleep in) while also different spewing oil areas are on a constant state of fire. That shit was real, and lasted for up to 10 months in 1991 Kuwait. Holy shit. It’d be the closest thing to Hell on earth, and I never heard of it before this movie.

During the first half, there was a lot more comedy than I would have expected in a “modern” war movie, but people do comedic things when faced with isolation and boredom. There isn’t a lot of open firing in this movie against any ‘bad guys’. The real enemy in this situation is just keeping sane and keeping your friends sane. Which in itself seems crazy!

Although the soldiers did exhibit their own personality, I didn’t even see Jake Gyllenhaal as Jake Gyllenhaal for most of the movie, just saw him as a real soldier. True for all the actors, EVEN Jamie Foxx (somehow).

I thought the acting and plot was good, and it was definitely heart wrenching in all the right places. The scenery was probably spot on, and vivid enough to make the viewer get irritated by the conditions we’d endure if we were there.

My first NC-17 review! Oh man guys, oh man.

I obviously knew the rating before going in. Only reason I really heard of Shame was because of a lot of uproar over being ignored by the Academy for awards (because for some reason people seem to care about them). A lot of people say it is because the Academy is bunch of Prudes!

I can’t really speak to that. But I will let this gif explain one of my thoughts early on in the movie.

It’s even funnier in reverse.

Shame is about sex, and a guy who is addicted to sex. That guy being Michael Fassbender, or as you may remember him, Magneto from X-Men: First Class. On the surface, he just seems like a normal successful business man in New York City. But socially he just seems mysterious.

When he goes out to the club with his married boss (James Badge Dale), without even trying he successfully ends up with the woman his boss was chasing. Dude has “talent”. We find out later his longest relationship was four months long, because he had decided to give it a “shot”. When he returns to his apartment one day he finds that someone else is no only inside, but SHOWERING in his shower. He rushes in with a bat to find a very naked Carey Mulligan (main character in Never Let Me Go!), his sister, and remembers he did give her a key after all.

She is going to be in town for the next few days, much to his dismay. He seems to be upset with her for whatever reason, finding plenty of reasons to yell at her throughout the movie (but perhaps the most acceptable reason is her having sex with his boss on his bed).

Fassbender also goes on a date with one of his coworkers (Nicole Beharie) and miraculously, at the end of the night nothing happens. But when they attempt to hook up the next day, he finds himself lacking in that department for whatever reason. Right after (the SHAMEful encounter) he does get it on with a random prostitute though. Hmm.

The relationship between his sister and him get more violent, as his addiction gets more and more prevelant. Cam websites, gay night clubs, ménage à trois, and more. While his path to self destruction is more an implosion and self contained, at the same time, his much more emotional sister is more vocal about the problems that they face, and exploding at an even higher rate.

I think I made that movie sound a lot more epic with that last paragraph. Success!

How good was this movie? So good. It felt incredibly real, in the good way. The high rating is due to the plentiful amount of scenes, and the realistic way most of them were done. For a few reasons.

It was obviously an overly adult subject matter, but it also left a lot to be implied. I think it implies that in their youth, the main characters were probably in an abusive household, that only the two of them really can relate to, which explains why the sister continually insists that they have to keep in touch, and why they don’t talk to their family. I’d say there is also room to suggest that from the abuse, they might have been in an incestuous relationship at one point, but…that one is trickier.

I was very scared one scene where it seemed Fassbender almost came to blows with his sister (while naked!), thinking I was about to see “incest”. But don’t worry guys, not in this film at least.

Other fucked up shit happens instead.

Yes. The acting in the movie is great, and the plot, just not sure how often I’d want to see this movie. Definitely a once every few years type of film.

The Bucket List, if anything, did have a lot of people talking about it. Most of which I doubt who saw it. I mean, why would you need to? You know exactly what happens in this movie from the title. Two old guys, living their last months to the fullest (somehow) and then probably dying. Both probably have some sort of family problem.

You know all of that, because the movie isn’t about surprises or the best plot, just one of those heartwarming tales that might make your cry or feel good.

That’s why it has took me til now to watch it. Really no need, but hey, I had to watch it eventually. Not because of a lame joke about needing to watch it before I died, just because I owned it and needed to watch it.

Before I died. >.>

Unrelated Orange picture? Or the rage you feel right now as I babble?

Blah Blah Blah. Morgan Freeman is an old man, mechanic, pretty smart because he reads a lot. Has a wife, Beverly Todd, has faith, and has a big family. But then he gets a terminal illness. Jack Nicholson, uber rich guy gets put in his room, also with cancer. Sharing rooms?! Yes, because he was a mean hospital owner and said each room needs two beds, to maximize efficiency and make more money. So when he finally gets sick and wants his own room, his assistant, Sean Hayes, won’t let him, as it’d be a horrible PR move.

Chemo happens, it sucks. And eventually they bond. Jack see’s Morgan’s bucket list, full of ridiculous items, like being President, and tells him they should both do it. Leave his family, travel the world, money is no option, fuck the metaphors. And eventually he says sure. Skydiving, racing, Great Wall Of China, Pyramids, etc.

But how far will Morgan go to experience life to the fullest? A man who has only been with one woman, who he has left her behind to see the world? Also, will Jack be less of a dick, and visit his family for once in his life? I think you know the answer to both of them.

Chances of green screens being involved? Pretty high.

But was I entertained is the bigger question?

Ehh not really. Morgan Freeman’s character made a good argument why he should get the chance to do whatever he wants before he ends his life, which he seems to have gotten chastised for by everyone for doing it. Bitches, please. Even Freeman’s acting I thought was just okay. But Jack Nicholson had a much more powerful character to me, and thought he did a lot better.

He was also the only character we got to see keeling over in cancer pain. Correlation?

But yeah, this movie did absolutely nothing to me, and despite the fact that people will still make a lot more bucket list references for the next few years, I will never see it again.

Ooh, Noise. That would be either some vague horror movie, or another remake of The Grinch.

Obviously it is neither, but man, wouldn’t some gritty remake of The Grinch be cool? Something rated R, yet also still not a horror movie.

I’d watch it.

Quick googling says there is no such thing as a Gritty Grinch. Yet.

Instead of my bizarre idea, this movie goes one step bizarrier (Level 2 spell?). It stars mild mannered Tim Robbins. He lives and works in New York city, with his wife, Bridget Moynahan, and their young daughter. But every night the same thing happens. The noise never stops. More specifically, the car alarms, but all the excess noises are a big problem in his eyes.

It makes the baby wake up, and makes it so no one can sleep well, and also makes him limp. Err. Well because the cops never seem to do something about it, he decides to do his own punishment. First he starts slow, deflating a tire or whatever. But eventually he is full on rage mode, smashing the window open to pop the trunk, to cut the line to the battery, just to shut it off. 3 minutes is too long for an alarm to go, given that most people ignore alarms anyways and probably do more harm than good.

He becomes known as The Rectifier, a sort of vigilante punishing those who don’t turn off their alarms. He does try to use the courts to his advantage, but each time his case is thrown out. After his wife makes him leave for his obsession, he meets a Russian student, Margarita Levieva, who helps him start a simple petition to change some car alarm laws and make it fine-able which gets huge support. But the Mayor (William Hurt) and his assistant (William Baldwin) don’t like it just because it seems to support vigilantism, so they put a stop to it.

So it becomes up to Tim Robbins to find a way to get his law passed, any means possible.

Look at all that rage. Yeah, he clearly mad.

I will keep this short and sweet. This movie was weird, yes, which I like. The beginning felt pretty good but died down after about twenty or so minutes. The ending was also strong, I liked what he decided to do in order to finally get his ordinance passed. But a whole lot of the middle was kind of boring. I didn’t even like their quick country plantation visit, where he found that the noise problems still exist outside of the city.

It is a bad problem, no one likes it but everyone accepts it and his character cannot fathom why they should accept it any longer. So he decides to spend a long time trying to combat it, and it is kind of awesome in an “unexpected hero” sort of way. I was surprised this wasn’t based on some real life story of a guy who hated the alarms that much.

But man, if it was a bit better in the middle, this movie would be a lot better.

I first heard about this movie before it came out to theaters, a friend of mine saw the trailer and shared it and I was like, whoa, this looks pretty awesome.

I then “forgot about it” in that I could not remember the name. At all. I remembered what it was about. But the name?! I kept confusing it with Project X, not for similar subject matter, but I could imagine a lame title like that for the trailer I saw. It wasn’t until a few days ago when someone suggested I watch Chronicle. I was like, “Chronicle? Never heard of it, let me go to IMD-OH MAN THAT MOVIE!”

I was seconds away from downloading it illegally too, but don’t worry, it came out on DVD/Blu-Ray Tuesday!

Ah, they don’t look worried.

Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a kid in high school, who is bullied and generally keeps to himself. He lives in a bad household too, where his mom (Bo Petersen) is dying of cancer and his dad (Michael Kelly) beats him and is verbally abusive. Because of this he decides to video tape his life as a self project, so that others can know what he goes through, have the last moments of his mom, etc.

People find it weird. People HATE being video taped, they just assume he is creepy. He is feeling all bad at a party his cousin, Matt (Alex Russell) made him go to, when Steve (Michael B. Jordan) the popular high school president friend of Matt makes him grab his camera to check out something cool. Matt and Steve found a huge hole in the ground that makes weird noises! So of course they investigate it. Well they find a giant blue crystal, weird noises, gives them headaches and nose bleeds, and breaks the camera.

Three weeks later? Oh hey look, telekinesis.

They figure out that it works like a muscle. Gets stronger the more they practice with it, and nosebleeds happen every time they exert too much power. Basic things cause it at first, but eventually these bitches can move cars. And fly! But dissension occurs amongst the ranks, as they realize certain things are bad, but other people don’t like being controlled. They plan to fly around the world together, after they graduation. Maybe visit those Tibet monks.

You know, as long as they don’t start fighting it out all telekinetic power wise, and have people die and shit.

I am just going to leave this here.

In case you didn’t know, this is a “hand held camera” movie, but don’t worry, it isn’t some found footage crap. It is just showing the film through whatever video collecting device was running at the time. Whatever it may be! That three week pause is because he didn’t get a new camera, so we get to avoid the delay of discovering they have powers, straight to them playing with them and figuring out what they can’t do. I didn’t find the camera too distracting either, and it kind of helped out the movie in a lot of ways just feel more realistic.

Matt’s pseudo love interest (Ashley Hinshaw) is supposed to help ground Matt, I guess, who might secretly be a smart guy but afraid to show it or else not be popular? Pretty much that aspect of his character is the only thing I didn’t like. He said a feel philosophical things, but they always felt a bit random to me and I think they threw that aspect into the character without fully defining the why aspects.

But everything after that I loved. The visual effects for this movie were great and like I said, everything just felt super real. Predictable events don’t always mean a bad thing, because even if you know which character is going to turn mean, you don’t know what he is going to do when he IS mean.

I am not why I keep getting surprised every time I see another recent but unknown movie starring Jesse Eisenberg. This guy seems to be in everything released in the last four years. He is bigger than sliced bread.

But what is more surprising about The Education of Charlie Banks is that it was directed by Fred Durst. Yes, that Fred Durst.

Official Chocolate Starfish of Baseball.

This movie is set in the past! OooOooOoOo. Mostly the 80s, where everybody was fly. Except for Charlie Banks (Eisenberg), because he was lame. He was also picked on by a bully, that no good Mick (Jason Ritter). He made his and other people’s lives miserable. But Charlie got him back. After Mick had beat up two people to near death levels at a party, he had called the cops and snitched, to get him arrested. I mean, for all he knew he was a murderer!

Now Charlie is a freshman in college, living with his roommate Danny (Chris Marquette, a rich guy they all grew up with. Hell, even Danny was friends with Mick before the incident, and knows not of the snitching of his current roommate Charlie. But guess who shows up for a visit?

Mick! Of course, out of Jail. What starts as a quick visit turns into a long stay as Mick begins to wear their clothes, read their books, attend their classes, and even hit on their womens! Or at least the girl Charlie Banks was crushing on (Eva Amurri Martino). He also still has some violent tendencies, but he might be changing. Or it is all a ruse, and Charlie is freaking out because he thinks Mick knows about his ratting him out, and he is here for some long torturous revenge.

But Charlie deserves some of it. He let Mick come and sit right there during naked hot tub time.

I think this could have been a very good story, but it failed to tell it in a desirable way. The title still doesn’t really make sense. Charlie Banks really doesn’t even change much in the film. He kind of stands up to Mick at the end, but that isn’t even what he should have learned throughout it all. Moral is also not that snitching is bad. Hell, I don’t know what the lesson really was?

People can change, but also makes it seem like people can’t at the same time. This is the worst role I have seen Jesse Eisenberg play, and think he fails quite hard at it. But that Jason Ritter guy? He kicks ass in this movie. The way he plays the reformed maybe bully, either trying hard to fit in and suppress his normal urges, or some dominating personality watching to slowly torture the guy who ruined his life. Unfortunately as the only good acting performance in the movie, with a pretty messy story, leaves it with a fail.

Ready for a vague ass movie review? Because you are about to get one.

Why? Because The Nines is weird. Super weird. And weird stuff happens early on that I didn’t see coming and I think it is essential to the story to not know about it ahead of time.

Literally clicking on the imdb link and looking at the cast list may be enough to make you go “Wait, what?” and give some spoilers away.

So let’s see what the hell I come up with!

EVEN THIS IS A SPOILER. Wait. No. Just a mouse trap.

The movie begins with Gary (Ryan Reynolds) being a pretty troubled dude. He is an actor, and just got into an accident. Maybe some naracotics were involved. He also had burned down his house. So now he is in another house, and under house arrest. He hears noises and thinks the house is haunted so he tries to run away, but the cops find him and put an ankle bracelet on. Not before a strange encounter with a deaf girl (Elle Fanning).

Shit! Not only that, but his publisher Margaret (Melissa McCarthy) now is moving into the mansion with him, to keep a watch and keep him from going insane. She didn’t know that there was also a neighbor Sarah (Hope Davis), who he has been talking to who is also under “house arrest” because of her baby.

But once they do meet, you can tell they don’t like each other (it isn’t subtle. They argue), and are arguing about the truth and Gary finding out. Finding out what? Why 9s keep popping up and notes about “The Nines” that he doesn’t understand? And what WILL happen when he leaves the premises of his house again?

Cue crazy shit.

For all you know, this might be in the movie, and not just a random cute koala.

Uhh. So it was a weird movie, and the plot summary I gave was only the first third. It is broken up into three parts, all pretty different from each other, yet weirdly connected. IMDB has the summary as

A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.

Which is true! But also still a bit misleading. It definitely goes into a psychological/potentially spiritual direction that I didn’t see coming. And earlier on, when a chant of “Nine!” happened, it actually scared me and I was worried I was about to watch some screwed up Horror movie. Thankfully, it wasn’t really as scary after that, just weird.

While I like that it leaves it for some sort of interpretation and deeper meaning, I still think it could have been a lot better. I don’t think any of the main three cast members put on a great performance, all of it mostly just ehh. Thankfully the mystery kept me interested. I am not mad at what the ending turned out to be, but overall, I think they could have one a lot better on the story.

Ohh boy, Perfect Sense? I love movies about sense. I don’t love the notion that they like to assume that there is only five senses still, but I do like talking about them nonetheless.

But add in the possible end of the world? Well then yeah, that sounds like a double winner for me.

Who knows what they are doing underneath those masks!

Ewan McGregor is being all British and living in Glasgow, as a pretty fancy Chef. He meets a girl who is not at all impressed by him at first, Eva Green. But he is consistent, yelling from the alleys and what not. She is an epidemiologist. Someone who studies health events, disease spreads and what not.

Which gives an inside scoop as to what is happening. They randomly have some dude who lost his ability to smell completely. They are keeping him quarentened to determine if it is contagious, and doesn’t appear to be.

Yet it spreads. First people start crying uncontrollably, and once they are done, their smell is completely gone. Soon after that, their taste. Needless to say, once smell and taste are gone, people are less likely to go to a fancy restaurant. Seems pointless. Yet still, people must eat!

These are the minor complications of what is going on. It shows how people react to them throughout the world, but that isn’t the main point of the movie. It is the love between the two characters that develop. Unfortunately, and no one has any idea why, eventually after taste goes, the ability to hear falters too. Well fuck. That makes everything difficult. And even further after that, sight.

Needless to say, something effecting everyone around the world to slowly lose most of their abilities to perceive the world is kind of a bitch. People flip out, looting, and a general fear of leaving the house. What if you leave and become blind and already can’t hear? Fucked then. TV stations seem to be flashing the message of hope, that they are looking for the problem, to stay inside, etc. But does it work.

Further more, once Ewan and Eva have a big fight and leave each others lives, will they be able to find each other again before it all goes black? Or you know, will it all go back to normal?

Also featuring Connie Nielson, as Eva’s sister, and Stephen Dillane, as another cook.

But neither are worthy of a picture, when there could be a picture of Ewan sitting down instead.

Pretty crazy circumstances to build a love story around, I say. And It is AWESOME that they tried it. Well done.

But I think a lot of the delivery I overhyped, and was left wanting a bit more. The final scene? Yeah, it was good and romantic up to the gills. Which is what they really wanted to do. But I still think it was missing something.

The narrator of the movie bugged the crap out of me. She talked a lot, but not about a lot of different things. Just love, true love, etc. I got the point, and wished the movie could have just played out without all the interruptions.

Also took me awhile to figure out that some of the events were shown out of order. No need to play games with me movie. I am already dealing with sensory loss.