Last movie you watched......

Saw Planet of the Apes and liked it a LOT more than I thought I would. John Lithgow really helped. Also saw two documentaries: "Countdown to Zero," which was about the possibility of a nuclear terror incident or an accidental firing of nukes, and "Cowboys at the Beach," which is about male gigolos in Bali. I'd recommend both.

 

Guess my question has been answered by the masses.
By "only four years" I meant it was still recent enough to where people don't have to scratch their brains to remember the Minneapolis collapse.

 

Funny you mention "The Town." I just saw "Gone Baby Gone." Affleck needs a script doctor for his movies. They are close to being outstanding, but ultimately fatally flawed. "Gone Baby Gone's" flaw, among others, is the reams of expository dialogue needed near the end to explain all of the twists and turns. That kind of thing makes novelists like Lehane difficult for me to get through, and it's 10 times more clunky in a movie. Of course, I understand that the whole point of the movie is to get to the moral choice that Kenzie faces at the end, but the movie from about the halfway point to then was very directionless - just moving pieces into place for the big final choice. And, like I said, any stunning "twist" that requires that much talk, talk, talking to explain to the audience loses all impact.

Couple of other things that bothered me:

(1) A P.I. can kill a murder suspect in cold blood, execution style, and not even spend the night at the police station? Really?

(2) The girlfriend/partner character might as well have not even been in the movie. Absolutely worthless character, except for raising the stakes for Kenzie's big decision at the climax.

Movie got a 94 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, so it did do a lot right. Amy Ryan was fantastic. But I'm surprised critics were willing to overlook what I felt were some almost unforgivable flaws and plot holes.

 

Watched "The Warrior's Way" and the remake of "Arthur" last night.

Warrior's Way was atrocious. Not that I was expecting "The Godfather," but I thought it looked like a good genre mashup of samurai and western films, which I think have a lot of natural similarities to begin with (the Magnificent Seven, after all, is the western version of Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai").

It wasn't even entertaining in a mindless action sort of way. The sets were cheesy-looking CGI (it looked like they were going for a Zack Snyder-style look, but it didn't work) and the fighting was just ... boring. The main character, whose name I can't even remember, killed almost every enemy with one sword stroke. There was never a sense he was in danger, making it boring, no matter how many enemies they threw at him.

Kate Bosworth's subplot with the pedophile was poorly done and extraneous and she was awful during the first half of the movie (she got a little better later on, but it was too late). She didn't pull off playful, sassy or sexy at any point in the movie. Grade D-

I've never seen the original "Arthur" and didn't realize I was getting a romantic comedy, but I enjoyed it. It wasn't quite as funny as I expected, but it was pretty good. Russell Brand is growing on me. I loved him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but his act wore thin in the stand-up I've seen of his and his hosting of some MTV Awards show. But he was very good in Get Him to the Greek and now Arthur.

And, not that I needed to see this movie to know Helen Mirren can act, but damn she's good. I thought she was the best character in the movie.

Jennifer Garner had her best role probably since Alias.

Grade B

 

"(500) Days of Summer."

Between this and "Inception," I'm quite impressed with the grownup Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

 

No Strings Attached.

As predictable as I imagined, but not nearly as awful. It wasn't great, but I didn't hate it, either.

 

Go see The Lookout and Brick.

 

Both very good. Gordon-Leavitt is one of the more underrated actors out there. I have yet to see "500 Days," although it's on the DVR.

 

Is it just me, or do you get a glimpse in Gordon-Leavitt's performances of what Keanu Reeves could have been if he could have tamped down all those "Bill & Ted" affectations as a younger man?

 

If you even have a small interest in this movie, watch it. I LOVED this flick.

 

The Lookout is tremendous. Loved Matthew Goode in that, too.

Saw 'Apes' and 'The Help' this week.

Find myself thinking more and more about 'Apes' the more I get away from it -- especially the Cesar character. They have to think about award consideration for Andy Serkis. His motion capture performance was tremendous -- reminiscent of great silent film actors; all in the body language. Just enthralling. The film was good, too. Didn't try to do too much, stayed within itself and rolled out a pretty good summer movie. I kind of want to see it again.

The Help was extremely well acted and well paced. Could tell the director/screenwriter felt compelled to jam in a lot of plot points, but did so far more deftly than many who tackle beloved literature. Some of the supporting characters lost dimension for the sake of plot, but Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain embodied their characters fully. I see a nomination for Davis -- considering she's 'in the club' so to speak, with her nomination for 'Doubt'.

 

For the Gordon-Leavitt fans, check out "Hesher." It's an odd little movie but really shows his range.