Tag: Matthew McConaughey

Sometimes, the best publicity for a movie is a battle with the MPAA. Just ask Harvey Weinsten and the movie Bully. That is what (intentionally/unintentionally) happened with The Wolf Of Wall Street. It was supposed to come out on November 15, but after being given an NC-17 rating by the board, Martin Scorsese had to go back and cut some more material out of his three hour biopic of of one Jordan Belfort.

Which is why it was pushed back to Christmas (pushing back Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit to January 17. Same distributor, didn’t want to compete against itself). I couldn’t be happier that it got pushed back, either. Compared to last years Les Miserables and Django Unchained, this year’s releases needed a kick in the butt to be anywhere close as good.

A raunchy, naked woman filled hard kick in the butt.

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), for all intents and purposes, was a self made man. His parents were accountants, and he wanted to go to Wall Street in the late 1980s to become a stock broker. He quickly got a job, became good buddies with the boss (Matthew McConaughey), and was taught all of the ins and outs of the business. Including the not so legal ins and outs.

Well, his first actual day as a stock broker, Black Monday happens, and the firm he works for quickly goes under. Back to being on the bottom, Belfort finds out about “penny stocks,” companies too little to be sold on the actual stock market, where the commission for a broker goes from 1% of the sale to 50% of the sale. If he can land some big fish on these worthless stocks, he could probably make fat cash quickly, with everyone none the wiser.

But that illegal activity is just the tip of the iceberg. Drugs. Money laundering. Drugs. Drugs. Prostitution. Tax fraud. Bribing officials. You name it, this guy did it. With the help of his very awkward buddy, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), there ain’t nothing they can’t accomplish, or at least nothing that can’t be bought.

The Wolf Of Wall Street has a huge cast of characters, most of them actually quite important and memorable. Rob Reiner plays his dad, an angry accountant, and Kyle Chandler the FBI agent trying to bring him down. Cristin Milioti plays his original wife, and Margot Robbie plays his new wife. Jon Bernthal plays a drug dealer, and Jon Favreau his lawyer. Finally, last but not least, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Henry Zebrowski, Brian Sacca and Ethan Suplee play his original start up friends and workers who carry him to the top.

I don’t think I need to say anything for this one.

The Wolf Of Wall Street can best be summed up by three words: Unforgiving, Real, and Amazing.

I initially groaned at the three hour run time, and although it can be difficult to make it through if you drink a lot of fluids during the movie, the viewings at home when you can pause will be easy peasy. The three hours are full of so much tension and energy (while also constantly moving the story forward) that it all flies by in a jiffy. In the last twenty minutes or so, the extreme length became noticeable as the movie slowed down. But slowing down makes sense at that point in the movie, to fully understand that Belfort’s bubble had finally been burst.

The acting performances by everyone involved was incredible. DiCaprio, despite looking like himself, felt like a completely new man. Every time he got up on the microphone, I was in awe at the intensity and heartfelt that he showed. The second “chest bumping song” scene is unforgettable. On the other side, Hill didn’t look or sound like his normal self at all. Dare I say, he has actual acting talent?

The movie definitely earns its R rating, and it is pretty clear why originally it was given the NC-17. It was incredibly dark and funny, so much that I couldn’t tell if I really wanted to laugh or run and hide from the screen. It is a twisted version of the American Dream, a train wreck that somehow rampaged through the country side, and something that I could not take my eyes off.

Although I doubt it will be considered the best film of 2013, it can certainly be considered the most ambitious.

 

4 out of 4.

Marry Christmas! Because those jerks at the local theater wouldn’t give me Black Nativity, I was left without a movie to review on Christmas.

So I decided, fuck it, lets think outside the box.

I bought a DVD version of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past some years ago at a Black Friday sale, but never got around to watching it. So of course, this RomCom, is some weird alternative telling of A Christmas Carol.

Basically 100% identical, but this one has attractive women fawning over our main character instead of money.

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a successful photographer of models for magazines. He is with a different woman every week, and then moves on, never getting in love, never getting serious, only having fun. Turns out he learned it from his mentor, Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas) after a bad prom in high school.

But now, his brother (Breckin Meyer) is getting married to the love of his life (Lacey Chabert), of which Connor doesn’t approve. It is not like Connor is going there to mess it up, he is just going to highly suggest it. Also at the wedding is his former fling, Jenny (Jennifer Garner), who he knew most of his life.

Either way, during the weekend wedding, for whatever reason, he learns he is going to get visited by the ghosts of girlfriends past. No, don’t worry, they didn’t all die or anything. It is just that they will appear to him in visions and talked about briefly. Of course girlfriend is a vague term, because he didn’t date any of them, he just hung out with some for about a week or two, and sexed a lot. Will a look into his past, present, or future sway his lifestyle and make him go for his one true love?

Emma Stone plays the ghost of girlfriend past, Noureen DeWulf of girlfriend present, and Daniel Sunjata plays an eligable bachelor who is interested in Jenny.

Lacey Chabert you recognize from Mean Girls. You are welcome.

It is strange going back to 2009 to see a movie of this nature. All because of Matthew McConaughey. Pre-2010 he had these roles a lot, like Failure To Launch or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (both of which feature him leaning on the cover, fun fact). But now he has evolved into a much deeper actor. Bernie. Magic Mike. Dallas Buyers Club. Mud. The Lincoln Lawyer. So many damn movies.

But this is RomCom Matt, and he follows the formula perfectly.

In fact, this movie follows it way way too easily, and it doesn’t feel too important. He only one does one big act of love near the end. Everything else is jut playboy flirting. But I guess Jenny always loved him and never moved on, so it was easy to get her back at the end? Seems a bit silly.

It would make more sense if everyone knows the journey he went on over the three days, but they dont, that shit was all in his mind basically. Everyone didn’t get transported back to his awkward middle school years. Personal journeys don’t mean squat when no one can really see that you have changed outside of saying “Oh yeah, I have changed!”.

So I guess that’s my disappointment, as a man who tends to enjoy a nice RomCom. This one is a bit weak. It is original in the RomCom world (but obviously not itself, original) so that is cool. But it wraps up everything too neatly, even for RomCom standards.

2 out of 4.

I didn’t think I would be able to see Mud until it was released on Blu-Ray later in the year. After all, Iowa isn’t necessarily the epicenter of the film community, so even a bigger “Indie” release like Mud would probably never get to our small town lifestyle. But here I stand corrected and I only had to wait three weeks after its release!

Hopefully this is a nice change for the indie/arts movies in the area. I’d rather get them 3 weeks late than never at all! Even though the Mud Trailer only seems about small town living and befriending a criminal on the run, it still looks awesome.

My current guess for crime is pedophilia. Arkansas is generally a quiet state that you never see in the news about…well, anything at all. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is a 14 year old boy who lives a relatively normal life on the Mississippi River. His family lives in a house boat, he gets an allowance from his dad for helping deliver fish to neighbors, he goes to school, but mostly he just likes to adventure and play outside. With the help of his friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland, first film/TV role ever), they find the strangest thing: a boat stuck in a tree on a small island.

Finders keepers, so they are happy to have a new boat/tree house. But then they find out they were not the first ones there. They find a stranger with crosses in his shoes, a gun, and a request. Help bring him food and eventually restore the boat, he will give them his gun. He is there waiting for a girl, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), and cannot leave to find her because he is wanted by the law for a mistake.

He also wants to go by the name Mud (Matthew McConaughey). Strange name, kind of dirty, but who am I to judge?

Mud will have to rely on two kids going through their own personal problems to help him escape down the Mississippi, hopefully with the love of his life. Also staring Sam Shepard as a mysterious neighbor on the river.

I can’t tell if they are worried, scared, or bored. I will continue to assume pedo. McConaughey, McConaughey, McConaughey. Holy crap, McConaughey. Maybe it is just his voice, which gives him an unfair advantage, but I am in awe of his performance. He outshines any other role he has been in (yes, this includes Magic Mike), but he also does it with such ease, it appears that talent just oozes out of his body.

Mud itself is a pretty slow moving film, which fits perfectly given its setting. It uses scenic swamp imagery to really drive its ideas home, and helps us realize that no one, especially our heroes, are perfect. I classify this film as a Drama Romance, but it wouldn’t be like any Romance film you have seen before. The ending is unpredictable, the characters and finale are realistic.

Although I liked where all the characters ended up and how their plot lines finished, I didn’t like the entire ending. The ending included a shootout, which was a stark change of pace from the rest of the film. It seemed like a few minute where realism flew out of the window, with results that are really out of place.

Despite how fantastic his acting was, I doubt McConaughey will receive a nod from the Oscars. Sure, it is only May and I haven’t seen any other big contenders this year yet, I just doubt that his character played a big enough role to be recognized as one of the absolute greats.

3 out of 4.

Who doesn’t have fond memories playing Paperboy as a kid?

Oh wait, shit, I don’t. Huh. I never had that game. Ever. Or tried to play it. I think it involved throwing newspapers in mailboxes or porches, getting chased by assholes and dogs. Sounds about right. Either way, my intro has failed me.

Oh right, The Paperboy. some movie, based on a fictional book, and maybe creepy.

Zac Efron doing his best to not get type-casted is pretty dang creepy.

In this movie, there was a racist and bad sheriff, who got murdered. No one really liked him, but Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) was sent to prison regardless.

Years later, a local paper is trying to prove his innocence. We have the brothers, Ward (Matthew McConaughey) and Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) and a black British man, Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), all working on the case! I should probably mention this is also during the civil rights movement during the 1960s, which is why his Britishness matters.

But they have an additional ally. Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), Hillary’s wife. Yes, Hillary is a man. Kidman is white trash, yes, but she can let them get to Hillary, who for some reason doesn’t give a shit that he is in prison. Minus the fact that he misses dat body.

Either way, lots of dramatic shit happens, they might succeed, and other bad things might happen as well. Of course Jack also falls in love with Charlotte. Because that leads to drama. Oh, Macy Gray is also the narrator and a maid.

‘Fierce’ – A new perfume by Kidman

Well, this movie probably gets my “Weird movie of the week” award. It was eerie and strange to watch it, but it was hard to actually point out why.

Definitely a slow going movie, where everything is done for a reason. I found it a bit hard to follow the story, was a bit disjointed in the beginning. John Cusack definitely played a role like I have never seen before. Like a deranged Earl.

The real star of this movie is Nicole Kidman. She acted the fuck out of this movie, and she is the best part. But the eeriness and strange story kind of put me off, not to mention the slow moving plot points. Eventually on youtube will be a compilation of Kidman’s best scenes from the movie, and you should watch that. The actual movie itself? Up for debate, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

1 out of 4.

Movies about male strippers aren’t very common in the world for whatever reason. Women strippers? Sure. But men? Nah. Which is shocking, given the large success of the last male stripping movie I’ve seen, The Full Monty. So why not Magic Mike? Only like a 14 year difference or so. That is incredibly small amount of male stripper movies.

But when you also decide to make this movie pseudo-biographical? Yes. Apparently it is inspired and slightly based off of Channing Tatum‘s early life, when he was a male exotic dancer. Well, that just makes it heartfelt. I guess.

We at Gorgview.com would like to note that we are not sexist, and as such we are fine with men being turned into objects, just like women.

In the heart of Tampa is a dangerous part of town. Sexydangerous. A male strip club, that is only open three nights of the week, where women go to flip a shit over men getting almost naked and dancing. Lead by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), a now slightly older showman who never strips himself, he brings on energy and a good time to any lady who has the cash. Their biggest act is Mike (Tatum), now 30 years and still showing off his strong dance moves. Other dancers include Tito (Adam Rodriguez), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), and Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello).

While working on a construction gig, Mike runs into Adam (Alex Pettyfer), just a 19 year old kid, who is pretty down on his luck. After a few run ins, he has him stop by to help run props for the dancers, and due to an accident, he is thrown onto the stage to strip without any real training! Well it works out, kind of, so he joins full time. And he has a sister, non approving Brooke (Cody Horn). Mike would totally persue that, you know, if she wasn’t so stuck up, didn’t already have a boyfriend, and if he didn’t kind of have a weird thing going on with Joanna (Olivia Munn).

Either way, Adam is introduced to the living large lifestyle, and gets pretty deep pretty fast. Mike himself would rather stop stripping eventually, and work with his hands, building customer furniture. Once banks give him a damn loan (shitty credit dealing only with cash), and you know, if he didn’t have to pay off other miscellaneous purchases. Oh yeah, and Gabriel Iglesias is the club DJ, but as he is Hispanic, he is also a drug dealer.

To further clarify our non-sexism, here is some women potentially being objectified as well.

So, surprisingly I guess, the movie wasn’t completely terrible. Was there lots of eye candy for the females? Sure. But the dance moves / performances were generally mostly good, with some big exceptions. Even some funny moments. But the biggest problems really came from a technical stand point.

Generally, I found the transition between scenes to pretty bad in this movie. It opens to the McConaughey “do not touch” monologue from the trailer, but then goes to a black title screen with JUNE on it. Alright. I have no idea why though. I guess the first scene wasn’t June, and now it is? Or we are in a flash back? No, they just arbitrarily decided to tell you the current month that way, fine.

But besides that, scenes would end a little bit too long after the joke, or just at other awkward moments, never flowed too naturally. They also tried to do a lot of long shots for conversation scenes, which were hit and miss. Most of the time they were a miss if they involved Cody Horn, who was pretty bad in this movie. I guess her character was supposed to have a disapproving look 100% of the time on her face, but holy crap was it annoying.

Finally, Kevin Nash. What the fuck. He played the bigger male stripper, but whenever there was a group dance scene, I couldn’t pay attention to the sweet break dancing, because every time he was on camera he looked out of place. Dancing like a robot, not doing much at all. They could have easily gotten a big guy who can actually jump, no idea why they went to shit with him.

I’d say the plot wasn’t the best, but the (mostly) well choreographed dance scenes earn it a watch.

2 out of 4.

The tale of Bernie is a strange one and a tragic one. More so when you realize it is based on a true story.

I SAID BASED. Apparently there was large support from the actual town of Carthage, Texas to not let the film be made there, as a lot of people either felt like they were being made fun of, or though Bernie was a creepy bad man. But you know, it is just a similar story, with a lot weirder stuff going on in the film. So take it with a grain of salt.

Or else this man will come into your room at night and host your funeral!!!

Bernie (Jack Black) is a weird man. He may be gay, but he loves Jesus and is super Christian, so that is probably not true[Editor’s note: Movie logic, not mine.]. He became a funeral director, and knows the proper way to liven up a corpse for the big day. Originally from Louisiana, he has moved to small town Carthage, Texas, where he immediately strives to become a pillar in the community. He sings, he acts, he gives gifts, he mourns, he funeral directs, he goes above and beyond the call of duty every time. EVERYONE loves him.

Mostly. Not Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) who just had her husband pass away. But she hates everyone, and everyone hates her back. But she is super rich, and keeps it all to herself. Two of her grandchildren even tried to sue for some trust fund! What gives? Despite all this, Bernie does his best to get her to cheer up, and is eventually welcome into her grace. She isn’t that bad, just gotta give her a chance!

Eventually they start doing everything together. Trips around the world, shows, just general shopping and hanging out. He is living the life. She begins to let him handle her affairs to, having access to all of her funds and stuff, so she doesn’t have to do it. But she also gets more protective. She starts treating him worse and worse, limiting his schedule and life, making him direct less funerals, and even sing less at church! It’d be a shame if one day Bernie just snapped and shot old Marjorie in the back. It’d be worse if he freaked out, didn’t know what to do, and decide to hide the body in the house and pretend she was still alive. For months. Yeah, that would be bad.

Matthew McConaughey plays the local DA who is attempting to get justice served, Sonny Carl Davis as Lonnie, a lawyer, and Rick Dial as the funeral director.

A chainsaw statue? That does sound like a great investment.

Why spoil most of the movie? Ehh, true story. I knew going into it that Bernie killed some old lady, and kept it a secret. But knowing that ahead of time didn’t ruin it at all for me. What made this movie something special was the large cast of characters. Instead of a narrator, the story is basically narrated by a large group of townsfolk that are retelling the events and their thoughts on the matter. Sort of in a documentary or realty show like format, they are talking straight to the camera and sitting in a home or shop or office, and they are phenomenal. They add so much depth and character to the movie, they are one of the best “greek choruses” I have ever seen.

Not to take away from the main cast of actors. McConaughey did what he always does. Jack Black really enveloped himself in this character, and if you like to hear him sing, you get to do it quite a bit. Mostly religious songs too! Shirley MacLaine did a lot with her body language before she was talkative, also doing a nice job.

And it is weird. Quirky as shit. I thought it was a well done darker comedy, and will probably buy it someday.

3 out of 4.

I have been getting some flack for only giving 4 out of 4s to mostly just drama movies and some action ones. People demanded a review of a 4/4 Comedy, so with that, I brought back one of my favorite in the last few years, Tropic Thunder.

By now most people are aware of this movie. It has a group of guys, all famous actors / celebrities (except for Jay Baruchel) making the Vietnam War movie based on a real book. In it is Comedian Jack Black(Jeff Portnoy), Action star Ben Stiller(Tugg Speedman), and Serious Dramatic Robert Downey Jr.(Kirk Lazarus). Also, Rapper Brandon T. Jackson (Alpa Chino).

This group of ragtag people are making the director, Steve Coogan, angry with their drama. So with the help of Nick Nolte (book writer) and Danny McBride (bomb expert), they place the actors in the jungle with cameras hidden around. They plan on scaring them into acting better, by only giving them safety if they finish the movie, going for very gritty guerrilla style takes. Unfortunately, there is real threats in the jungle, so the actors have to try to both survive and think they are doing a movie.

“I’M A LEAD FARMER MOTHER FUCKER!

What makes this movie really great is pretty much all of it. It is a very quotable movie, I can still do several scenes and I haven’t seen it in awhile. RDJ does one of my favorite performances ever, as blackface general who never breaks character. It is just so believable, his drive. The Stiller character is very annoying, but thankfully, that is what they were going for. I thought Matthew McConaughey just played an overexaggerated version of himself, and that the Tom Cruise cameo represents exactly what I want from Tom Cruise. Always.

Seriously. It is funny. Has enough WTF humor in it (Retards, endangered species death, etc). Just overall great movie. The fake previews at the start helped set the mood. Instead of just a war parody, it becomes a satire on the film industry as a whole.

“BIG ASS TITTIES!”

4 out of 4.

I think everyone knows who Matthew McConaughey is. I also think most people know about his “Face”. He has a weird intense face. I think this intense face ends up getting at least one close up in every movie he is in too. For a way too long example of this face, check out Tropic Thunder. In the scene with him and Lex Grossman (Tom Cruise (I think that’s the character name?)) talking about the Jet. He definitely has that moment in this move too.

This is not at all the image I wanted here.

But instead of being an agent he is a lawyer! Lincoln Lawyer meaning his car and his profession. MAN that took forever to figure out. Nothing about slavery.

He also is known for getting criminals out of their crime. But he is haunted by the fact that he might ever let an innocent person go to jail (not the other way around). This becomes an interesting crime thriller. Halfway through it you know who the killer is. But there are many complications with the law and its hard to describe without giving away. The whole ending is tense and you wonder how will Matthew McConaughey get out of this mess!
Also, this has William H Macy in it, which makes every movie better.

Even this one.

3 out of 4.