Trouble With the Curve

6 out of 10 stars

Cast
Gus............................... Clint Eastwood
Mickey............................... Amy Adams
 Pete.................................John Goodman
Johnny.........................Justin Timberlake


***** WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS *****

This is when I usually tell about some strange/interesting thing that happened to me at work this week. Nothing exciting really happened I guess, except maybe that one of my coworkers told me how when he first saw my boss, he thought he was a homeless man. I can't say I disagree. 

Anyway, this movie. Not the best. For me, it was a one-time-see movie. I liked it the first time, it was alright. But I definitely wouldn't see it again. It was a little... dry. Dull. Nothing really happened. Maybe it's because I'm a knock-down-drag-out-fight-to-the-death-someone-must-die-or-at-least-be-part-of-a-severely-dysfunctional-family-to-be-a-good-movie kind of person, but I mean really, the best part was probably when Gus (Eastwood) and Mickey (Adams) got in a car accident.  And they didn't play it up very well. The whole scene lasted about two minutes. 

Oh Clint Eastwood. Clint, Clint, Clint. When I first told one of my friends that this was the movie that was playing at my theater, she asked who was in it. I replied: "Oh, you know, Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood." thinking that she would at least recognize those two names. At hearing my response, she promptly cried: "Clint Eastwood? Isn't he like 100?!" 

He's 82.

Close enough.

However, in this movie, you can definitely tell that age is starting to affect him. He doesn't move very well anymore (and yes, I do understand that that was kind of the point of his character but still, he plays it very well). Also, he has absolutely no voice inflection. Everything is monotonous.  Even when he's talking about his wife's death.

Like please, Clint, I need you to control yourself.

Also, he's got the classic Clint Squint. His eyes are forever half-closed in a look where I can't tell if he's glaring at someone or just can't see. Or both. 

Overall, I think Clint's time is coming to a close in the movie business. I understand that he has acted in 68 productions, produced 37, and directed 35, but really like I think it's getting to be that time.

Just let it go, buddy.

Okay, I actually kind of liked Mickey. And that's saying a lot coming from me. I mean I usually hate all female lead roles in movies. Maybe it's because I can kind of relate to her. I mean even though she acts like this sophisticated, uptown lawyer, she's actually a rough-and-tough tomboy who loves baseball. Growing up with an older brother and my dad, I was a tomboy for the longest time. And in some ways, I still am (I mean they are basically the reason that I hate chick flicks and love football). I love how she could show up all the boys in Gus's department. 

However, there was one thing that bothered me. At the end of the movie when she and Gus are walking out of the stadium and she checks her phone and says that she might become a partner with her firm. And then... she just throws her phone away. In the dumpster! ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY THROW THEIR RATHER EXPENSIVE PHONE IN THE DUMPSTER. But obviously to her dumpster > logic.

(I would like to take a moment here to apologize if this seems a bit choppy. I'm trying to watch Gladiator and it's getting to the good part. So I'm sitting here like "YAH. YAH MAXIMUS GET IT. GET IT MAX, YAH. YAH YOU KILL COMMODUS. KILL HIM. YAH THERE YOU GO. NO. NO STUPID YOU CAN'T DIE NOW. NO. NO STOP IT. STOP. DYING." I've seen this movie twelve times. 

You think I'm kidding.

I'm not.)

So back to the review.

John Goodman. This man. Is amazing. I never really realized how many movies he was in. Especially kid movies (think Sulley from Monster's Inc. and Pacha from Emperor's New Groove.) I really like him. A lot. He reminds me of a teddy bear. I like his character in this movie. He's the good guy who tries to please everyone. He's Gus's best friend of 30 years and a second-father figure to Mickey. He's just a likable guy.

(In case you were interested, Gladiator is over so I am Legend came on.

Talk about terrible graphics.

Ew.

So I changed it to The Social Network.

With Andrew Garfield.

Andrew Garfield = life.)

Justin Timberlake. Sigh. Admittedly, he was alright in this movie. He was most certainly the comic relief. I did chuckle a little a couple times when he was on-screen. Like the whole "bar fight" scene. And how he asked Mickey out on a date. I just don't know why but for whatever reason, every time I see that Justin Timberlake is going to be in a movie, I cringe a little. He just always plays very.... static characters.

So overall, it was a decent movie. Interesting enough concept. However, there wasn't really a climax. Also, they didn't do much with the pitcher that the bring in at the end, Rigo. I mean yah, they had him as "Peanut Boy" in the beginning, but then he just kind of disappeared from the movie until the end. I feel like they needed to build up his character a bit more. It was alright the first time. After that it was just kind of dull. Solid 6.

Asdfghjkl. Andrew Garfield.

P.S.- I'm taking the ACT tomorrow. God save my soul. 

Sources

Cast-IMDb

Images-Google

Looper

3 out of 10 stars

Cast

Younger Joe.....................Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Older Joe.....................................Bruce Willis

Sara..........................................Emily Blunt 

Cid.........................................Pierce Gagnon

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

Can I just rant for one tiny moment? Someone came into the theater this week and asked for unchilled bottled water. Unchilled. As in not cold. Like, seriously? If you come into my theater and ask for unchilled water, I will judge you so hard.

Anyway, back to the movie. 

I wouldn't say this is necessarily a bad movie. It's just...... weird. That is really the only word I can use when describing this movie. It's just plain weird. I think he tried too hard to play the cool guy though.

Can I just first take a moment to say that this is not Joseph Gordon-Levitt. That's just not what he looks like. It threw me off the whole movie. I kept looking at him and thinking "no.... just no." I know he was supposed to look like a younger version of Bruce Willis, but it just wasn't working for me. And besides, of all the actors in Hollywood to choose to play older and younger versions of each other, they choose Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis?? Their casting director should be fired. 

But besides the whole changed-appearance thing, I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt did alright in this movie. It definitely wasn't his best. But it certainly wasn't his worst. He did an excellent job of narrating in a dramatic voice. 

Okay... Bruce Willis. I think I actually sort of maybe liked his character. I'm not quite sure yet. He wasn't... awful. But again, I don't think it was his best performance. There was one point in the movie, don't ask me about it because I won't be able to tell you, but there was one point where, for like maybe 2 seconds, that Bruce Willis had hair. It was a close-up of him turning around so you could only see half of his face. But it was long, stringy, black hair with an intense widow's peak. And for whatever reason, those 2 seconds just make me madder than all get out. I cannot stand to see Bruce Willis look like that. It infuriates me. It's not the fact that he has hair. I've seen him with hair before, in Surrogate. I don't know. It was just atrocious. I do think that the whole time, he was fighting for a noble cause. He only wanted to save his wife. He was fighting for the one's he loved. However, I do not under any circumstance promote the killing of small children. I thought that was horrible. Especially the first one, when the boy turns around and sees Bruce Willis just standing in his garden, watching him. I wanted to be like "YOU CREEP GET AWAY FROM THAT BOY HE'S REALLY CUTE!" But of course he killed him anyway. What a terrible person. Poor kid.

I will admit that I somewhat approved of Emily Blunt's character. Only somewhat. I was rather impressed, though, with her ability to put on an American-Southern accent. Some British actors have enough trouble with regular American accents (think, Chicago-like), let alone one with an accent. I thought that was pretty skilled. However I did almost snort Dr. Pepper up my nose at the part where Sid (Gagnon) is having his 'meltdown' and she locks herself in a safe. I was like 'really? That's your panic room?' I feel like that could be potentially very dangerous. But I guess you gotta do whatever it takes to protect yourself from your raging, psychopathic 4-year old...

Speaking of psychopathic 4-year olds, lets talk about Cid. Sweet baby mother of pearl. This child. First off, look at his face. So cute. So presh. I wish I could just wrap him up in my pocket and save him for a rainy day. And let me just remind you all that Pierce Gagnon was five when he filmed this movie. 
Five. 
And what have you done with your life so far?
Exactly.
This is some of the best child acting I have seen in a very long time. I love the part when he distracts the guy who comes to question Sara. How he just walks around the big circle so smooth-like. Also, he's remarkably good at making an angry face. And I don't mean like little-kid-gets-mad kind of angry face. I mean like I-swear-I-will-make-sure-you-die-the-most-painful-death-possible kind of look.
He's five.
People on tumblr like him a lot.

So although it did have Pierce Gagnon in it, I still think it wasn't a very good movie. There was just so much excessive language. And I guess that is more realistic since most of it is about grown men fighting each other but still, it would've been just as great a movie if there wasn't as much foul language. 

Plus, they could have done with a little less violence. Now I know that's unusual for me to say. I'm usually pretty chill with violence. It doesn't bother me. (That's what happens when your dad has you watch Saving Private Ryan when you're nine.) But this time, I just got tired of it. Like, we get it. You see the guy, you blow his guts out his back. Enough already, I've seen in twelve times. And as my mom said, it left nothing to the imagination. If somebody got shot, you would see everything. 

And finally, I really don't think the movie was very well thought out. Half the people I've talked to are still confused as to whether Cid was a younger-younger version of Joe or if he really was the Rainmaker... or if Joe was the Rainmaker. I finally conceded to the idea that Cid was not a younger-younger version of Joe and that Cid was supposed to be the Rainmaker but because Joe killed himself, Cid would have a loving mother in his life who would keep him on the right track and not turn into a murderous raging monster. But I wouldn't know would I because THEY DIDN'T CLEAR THAT UP AT ALL. Also, the one thing I thought was that if Abe, Joe's boss, was from the future, didn't that mean that a younger version of himself was running around somewhere? And if so, I thought that was illegal. I don't know. There were too many unanswered questions.

Like why did Joe want to go to France?
I just...
I can't.
Okay. Goodbye.
Drink cold water.





Sources
Images-Google
Cast-IMDb

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

6 out of 10 stars

Cast

                                       Cindy Green............................Jennifer Garner

                                                 Jim Green................................Joel Edgerton

                                                 Timothy Green.........................CJ Adams

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

This movie is currently playing at the theater I work at. Honestly, I didn't really know if I wanted to watch it or not. However, I sat through it and I'm really glad I did. 

Let me start off by saying that although I did not give this the highest of rates, it was still a feel-good movie. It was really cute and had an interesting concept. 

From the beginning though, I loved the cast. I really liked Jennifer Garner and she was excellent at playing the over-protective mother. And because this wasn't an action movie, I actually enjoyed having a female as one of the lead roles. I did feel bad for her in the beginning. And whenever she talked to her troll of a sister. Like really, BRENDA, SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR KIDS ALREADY. Anyway, I approved of Jennifer Garner's performance.

I have decided that I really like Joel Edgerton. The first time I remember seeing this Aussie on-screen was in Warrior (I have recently discovered that he was in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith... I feel very deceived). However, since Tom Hardy was also in that movie and because I believe Tom Hardy is God's gift to the earth, I thought he completely out-shined Joel Edgerton.  But, in both movies, Edgerton played the family-man, always caring about his wife and kids. I think he'd be a good dad to be quite honest. And, because he had no fierce competition for face time in this movie, I got to see how good he really was. 

Okay, this kid, CJ Adams, I love him. He's so cute. Like when I have kids, they'd better be like this child right here. He's a really good actor for being so young. He was definitely the highlight of the movie. His character was just so precious. And in the beginning, the way he said "please don't ask about my leaves." Oh my gosh. I died. 

However, I will say about this movie, Timothy's "departure" was a bit sudden. I mean I know they built it up the whole movie about his leaves falling off and everything but still, when the time actually came for him to leave, it was very sudden and over very quickly. But I don't know, maybe that was the point. I just thought it should have been a bit more dramatic. 

Nonetheless, I thought it was a very cute family movie. It's perfect for all ages. I would recommend it to families who have younger kids or for anyone who wants to watch a feel-good movie. I approve.

And I love the name Timothy.



Sources
Pictures- Google
Cast- IMDb

Inception

8 out of 10 stars

Cast:

                                             Cobb.................. Leonardo DiCaprio

                                             Eames.................. Tom Hardy

                                             Arthur.............. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

                                             Ariadne............... Ellen Page

                                             Saito.................. Ken Watanabe

                                             Fischer................ Cillian Murphy

                                             Mal..................... Marion Cotillard

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

Let me just start off by saying, I love Christopher Nolan. He is my hero and an absolute genius when it comes to directing movies. 

This is an example of that genius. 

I mean really, how can one person come up with such a complex idea of various levels of dreams? And the whole planting-an-idea-in-someone's-mind thing? Just amazing.

Anyway, I absolutely love the cast of this movie. I'm a big fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I love Marion Cotillard. Plus, one of my all-time favorite actors ever had a total of about twelve seconds on-screen: Micheal Caine. Yes. The One and Only. 

And let me just take a minute to explain the Tom Hardy situation. You will hear about Tom Hardy a lot on this blog. Brace yourselves, you have been warned. He is, by far, probably my favorite young actor. I consider Inception to be his debut film into America. Yes, I am well aware that he was in the Resident Evil movies. But I feel like ever since Hardy worked with Christopher Nolan, people started to remember "the British one from Inception". 

I adored Eames's character. I thought he was definitely the comic relief in most situations. His constant bickering with Arthur was amusing and his "mustn't be afraid of the big guns, darling" line (scene from picture at top) never fails to make me laugh. I also thought he was really cool in the last level of dreams that they were all in. A.K.A. Hoth. The way he took out the entire security force was rather impressive if I do say so myself. 

Arthur, as much as Eames disliked him, was also one of my favorite characters. I always seem to like the right-hand-man kind of characters in movies and that was definitely Arthur's role. I like his cool, calm, and collected demeanor. Plus, his spiderman-no-gravity hotel fight scene was pretty dang cool. 

I didn't really like Ariadne, A.K.A. Arachnid (don't ask, I know she has absolutely no resemblance to a spider but that's just how I remembered her name the first time I heard it). This is probably because, as you will soon find out, that I really don't like when girls are one of the major characters in a movie. This usually only pertains to action and action-type movies. I have absolutely no idea why I feel this way but that's just how it is. Admittedly  compared to other major-female roles, she was rather good and I was able to tolerate her for the length of the movie.

I didn't completely love Cobb either. For some reason, I typically don't like the protagonist in movies. Especially when it's Leo DiCaprio. I have no idea why. It just seems like whenever its Leo DiCaprio, I just like the secondary characters better...

The only thing I have to say about Marion Cotillard: I am alarmed albeit impressed with her ability to play a character with extreme psychological issues. 

The suspense of the movie gets me every time. Especially when they're all in the van and it's falling off the bridge and they have to accomplish everything before the van hits the water so they can ride the "kick" back up. I've probably watched this movie at least 7 times. Every time I watch it, I always get nervous at that part. I always think they might not make it. I mean, you'd think for as many times as I've seen it, I would be used to it but no, I still get worked up. 

The one thing that I don't understand though is that once the van hits the water and they're all sitting on the bank of the river, how do they get from that dream level back to reality? I mean they got back to that level by riding all the "kicks", but what kick got them back to the plane? Because if they killed themselves, they'd just drop into Limbo, right? AND, they said the time period they'd be on that level was like a week. Hmm, food for thought. 

And finally, the spinning top at the end. Um, let me just say: It was going to fall over. It was wobbling. A TOP CANNOT WOBBLE THAT MUCH AND NOT FALL OVER. JUST LET HIM GET BACK TO HIS KIDS, OKAY? 

Overall, it was a great movie. However, as some people put it, "you have to think in order to watch it". If you enjoy movies that you can sit back and relax while watching, I would not recommend Inception. However, it is an amazing movie with an incredible concept. Another fabulous job by my idol.

Christopher, your genius is showing again...

Sources
Images-Google
Cast-Imdb