Due to a big snow storm which left me trapped in parent’s home for 11 days, I got really log jammed on reviews. Since I am so behind I am doing brief summaries of most of the movies I watched in order to catch back up.
The Proposition: The best word to describe this film may be: gritty. It’s both realistic and unrealistic at the same time. The setting seems real, the characters feel real, but at the same time it seems a bit outlandish which somehow makes you think its some unbelievable that it works. There’s great acting, great writing, it’s eventful and odds are it’s like no movie you’ve ever seen before. As I have mentioned before, I have a strange love affair with Guy Pearce as an actor. I cannot really explain it, so I don’t expect anyone to understand it, but whether you like him or not, you’ll appreciate his performance, verdict: $$$$
Zombieland: This movie is funny. I had low expectations to begin with and the start of this movie did not help that. In fact, in a move I rarely make, I almost turned it off after the first few minutes. In some misguided attempt to make it up to myself for quitting my baseball team in eighth grade, I try to finish what I start which can be a real pain when reading a bad book more so than a bad movie. But I digress; the beginning of this movie is a little bit more graphic than what I anticipated. From that point on however, the movie establishes a fair balance between gory, zombie movie and comedy. The cameo in this movie is great, mostly because I didn’t see it coming. Since no one ruined it for me beforehand, I won’t ruin it for you either, as it was a legitimate highlight of this movie for some reason I don’t fully understand. Woody Harrelson will forever be my boy because of his stunn ing role in White Men Can’t Jump, so for that reason (and the fact that it’s really funny, as I may have mentioned already) I think you should look into Netflixing this one, verdict: $$$$
Surrogates: Movies should take some advice from the military and be all that they can be, however this also means knowing their limitations. I often criticize movies for trying to do too much. That is clearly the case here. One would think, that Bruce Willis (the man rode a Harrier jet in one movie for F’s sake) + robots = ass kicking, edge of your seat, head butt your girlfriend cuz you “can’t believe Bruce just F’ing did that,” type of action. Wrong. This movie had the potential to be a lesser version of I, Robot but they squandered that opportunity by trying to introduce this terribly awkward subplot where Bruce battles his inner demons and tries to reconnect with emotionally distant wife. Borrriiinnnggg. I like Bruce Willis when he: A.) kicks bad guy’s asses B.) kicks slightly less ass but is funny about it or C.) is the bad guy and then kicks ass (I got wayyyy too much enjoyment from him blowing off Jack Black’s arm with a rifle that can only be described as a cannon). This movie should not have had an delusions about being an action/sci-fi/drama hybrid. Next time, cut out the misplaced mushiness and stick to your story’s strengths, verdict: $$$
No comments:
Post a Comment