Decent documentary covering the 2011 season for the Williams sisters. Also some of their history too. Some nice footage and decent insights. Pretty much confirmed my opinions of both. Serena comes off decent then reminds you she's a bitch by physically threatening a line judge and blows it off by claiming players in other sports do worse and get away with it (they don't). Venus, on the other hand, is great. Anyway. worth checking out on Netflix. 7/10.
Saw this on a dollar night that my nephew treated me to. There are major plot holes, things that just don't make any sense (these gigantic robots that must weigh millions of pounds can be flown by 8 helicopters?!?!?!), and so on, but it's still a lot of fun. The effects in general are excellent, the monsters and robots generally look cool, and there's plenty of fighting. As a 2013 American Godzilla movie, I thought it worked just fine, especially for a buck. 6/10.
Downer of a movie dealing with severe drug addiction. Had heard lots of great things about this one over the years but can't say I was impressed. There's some plot holes and, in the end, I think it just true too hard to be artistic. Not bad, with some really good performances, but not the epic movie experience I'd been told. 6/10, maybe 7/10.
Martin Sheen stars as a father whose son died on the first day of trying to walk the Camino de Santiago trail from France to Spain (a 500mi trek). Sheen goes to France to pick up his remains and decides to walk the trail as his way of reconnecting with his son, with whom he did not have a happy departure. Along the trail, he meets up with some other pilgrims and they complete the trip. The goal of the movie was to be understated and it certainly succeeds. That said, there's not much going on here. Sheen's character doesn't really do any self-reflection or gain any real insight. He's nearly 70 years old but experiences no health difficulties. And the people he walks with aren't particularly interesting. In the end, it's basically just 2 hours of nothing. 4/10.
Nicole Beharie is a single mom busted as a drug dealer by a corrupt DA looking to pad his numbers and general federal funds. Based on a true story of a douchebag DA - who's still in office! - in Texas. Can't say this is anything other than standard fare but it's compelling and well done. And Beharie is smoking hot. 7/10.
Based on the true story of a murder in Australia where a young woman killed a fifteen year old dancer she previously babysat. Not a great movie but features some outstanding performances, in particular Ruth Bradley as the killer. She is really great. Movie also features an incredibly disturbing, realistic murder scene that will stick with you for quite awhile. I'm gonna say 6/10 but Bradley's performance is a 10 in this one.
Christoper McCandless is a guy just graduated from college who feels trapped in his everyday life. So he gives away his life savings, cuts up all his credit cards, takes on a fake name and disappears. He wanders the country for 2 years, dipping down into Mexico for a bit, before heading up to Alaska to "live off the land" and find himself. He ends up taking up house in an abandoned school bus and leaving in Alaska for four months before dying under unclear circumstances. This is based on a true story and, other than his death*, is apparently very close to the real story. Directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch, this is really good. There's a sadness to the movie as you know it doesn't end well and that this guy just abandoned his family without warning and without contacting them. Jon Krakauer wrote a book on the guy, tracking down a bunch of the people he met - the hippies who live in Slab City, the grain farmer who gave him a job, the old guy who wanted to adopt him, and more - and studying his writings and photos. I think a lot of us can relate to the romantic notion of just "dropping off the grid" and disappearing. This movie shows the not-so-romantic reality of that. I'd had this movie in my queue for a long time but decided to watch it when it came up in the news this week as another idiot decided to try and emulate this guy and died trying. I really enjoyed this one - 8/10. Look for Jena Malone and Kristen Stewart in small roles as well.
* - the death theory presented in the movie has since been conclusively proven incorrect.
Yeah, this one just doesn't work for me. I saw it years ago and didn't like it. Decided to give it another try. Nope. Christian Slater & Winona Ryder are a pair of high school students angry at their world and the cliques that inhabit it. They plot to get revenge against their school - and do. This is supposed to be a dark comedy combined with some social commentary. It isn't. I get what they're going for, I just think they miss. 4/10.
Timothy Robbins plays a guy who was kidnapped as a kid and raped. Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon were his friends who saw him taken away. They've drifted apart over the years but are brought back together when Penn's daughter is murdered. Long movie, kinda convoluted with a lot of stuff going on as each guy continues to deal with what happened on that fateful day in their childhood. Great cast (Lawrence Fishburne, Laura Linney, and Marcia Gay Harden are also in it) and a good story, directed by Clint Eastwood. Good flick with a slightly dissatisfying ending. 7/10.
Matt Damon stars as a lawyer fresh out of law school working for a charlatan and suing a big, evil insurance company for killing his client by failing to pay for his leukemia treatments. Danny Devito co-stars and Mickey Rourke plays Damon's boss. And you get Danny Glover as the kindly veteran judge trying to steer Damon through his first case and Jon Voight as the evil corporate attorney opposing Damon. There's a good story here - the book is your typical excellent John Grisham novel - but the execution is not good. The questioning that Damon does is terrible, not asking important questions, not knowing proper court procedure and just generally is a mess. Stuff that they try to pass off as "rookie mistakes" but really aren't. The music is 1970s cheesy and the whole thing just feels real cheap and cheesy. Definitely not the best Grisham adaptation I've seen, that's for sure. 4/10.
Richard Gere is a bigwig at an investment bank who's trying to sell his company before his fraud is discovered. He's a good guy though - he only committed the fraud to cover up losses on investments being wrongly held up in Russia. This isn't anything particularly groundbreaking but it's good. 6/10.
Mel Gibson leads a group of soldiers in this based-on-a-true-story Vietnam War movie. Well-done, well-acted, war movie with a terrific story. Very good movie. 8/10.
Clive Owen is a widower with a young son. His kid is weird and there's this weird exchange early in the movie where the kid is asking Owen when his mom is going to die and then runs off to play. I couldn't take more than 30 minutes of this one and gave up. 1/10.
Better than I remembered it being, last time I saw it being way back at initial release. Robert Redford is the billionaire who buys whatever he wants. Demi Moore is Woody Harrelson's wife and she's what he wants. He pays a million bucks and gets her for a night. This movie is mostly about the psychological havoc that that decision wreaks on the married couple. When this came out, it generated a lot of "Would you? Would you let your wife?" debate. Anyway, this is back when Demi Moore was scorching hot and she does a good job of looking hot and carrying her weight next to Harrelson & Redford. Good movie. 7/10.
The recent documentary, not the 2001 movie about a murder. This movie is heartbreaking as it mostly one kid and the crap he puts up with on a daily basis. When a kid on his bus starts stabbing him with a pencil and he just says "Why are you stabbing me?", you'll want to bust some heads. More heartbreaking is the utter impotence shown by the adults. When the kid's principal is shown video of the harassment on the bus, she shows the parents pictures of her grandchildren. Excellent movie, tough to watch. 9/10.
Ashton Kutcher is a high school swim champion who wants to be a Coast Guard rescue diver. Kevin Costner is the crotchety veteran diver whose best friend dies so he's made a trainer for awhile. Costner is unconventional but he gets results. This is not a movie that breaks any new ground but it looks good, has some nifty looking stunts, and is generally entertaining. I liked it. 6/10.
