Gone Girl

I really, really wanted to like this one. Heard great things about it, was intrigued by the story and......was let down. I'd heard all about this "shocking twist" but I saw it coming from pretty much the opening 5 minutes of the movie. In fact, it was so underwhelming that my wife & I actually sat there and discussed other options that would have been better twists. Felt there was never really tension and the ending disappointed greatly. When the credits started rolling, everyone in my theater was looking around and asking each other "That it's? It's really over?", expecting there to be more. We felt the same way. In the end, this was a mediocre effort that really should have been a lot better. 6/10.

The Company Men

Ben Affleck plays a sales guy who gets downsized in the wake of the economic crisis. Tommy Lee Jones is his boss and Craig T Nelson is the CEO. Kevin Costner plays the brother-in-law. This is a somber movie with a few light moments that takes a pretty realistic look at what happens to upper-middle class (or above) folks who lose their jobs and their employment prospects afterward. Affleck is solid, Nelson is good, Tommy Lee plays himself, and Costner demonstrates the hilarity of his (in)ability to do a good accent. Good movie that doesn't really strive for greatness and thus never gets there. I did get a bit of a chuckle out of the financial situation Affleck is in - he makes $125k + incentives and is his family's sole paycheck, yet they live in a home that's worth well north of $1m. If that doesn't just explain the mortgage crisis in a nutshell, LOL. Anyway, good movie that just creeps over the Tabedoza line - 8/10.