Abi Damaris Corbin’s quiet feature debut, Breaking, is a movie that does everything Nick Cassavetes’s disaster John Q failed to do when it managed to make $71 million domestically in 2002. Of all the things Denzel Washington has saved in his movies (subways, jets, submarines, locomotive trains), holding up a hospital and forcing a doctor to perform life-saving surgery on his son was, by far, his worst. Unfortunately, Washington’s always-solid performance couldn’t save an absurd script based on a ridiculous presence. The based-on-a-true-story Breaking offers breakout performances by Corbin and the film’s lead, John Boyega (Detroit, The Woman King), most notably recognized for his role as Finn in the latest Star Wars movies.
Category Archives: Michael K. Williams
The Gambler (2014)
Rupert Wyatt’s (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Star Trek 3) The Gambler is a movie that should have done better both with critics and at the box office. Accruing just $33 million domestically and a 46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie deserved a better fate. Sure it has its flaws, but 98% of all movies do. One factor against The Gambler was that it wasn’t striking the right audience. The first preview of this movie was a quick 30-second throwaway commercial during a ball game. I do not recall seeing a more extended trailer for this movie in the theater. When I did see the television commercial, it made it seem like it was a shoot ’em up action flick. That’s not what it was at all. I’ll say that this was one of Mark Wahlberg’s (Lone Survivor, The Perfect Storm) finest performances to date. I know Wahlberg is hit or miss with many people, but the man has talent. He has proven he can successfully do drama (The Fighter, Three Kings, Rock Star), crime (The Departed, Four Brothers), comedy (The Other Guys, Date Night), and action (Shooter, The Italian Job, and a host of others). Wahlberg can play a good guy as well as he can a bad guy. But rarely does he play a vulnerable character or a character that doesn’t look like an all-star for a least a good chunk of the movie. Without revealing too much, I will say that this is one of Wahlberg’s most insecure and vulnerable characters. It’s also a role he doesn’t overplay, which, I think, would have been very easy to do. While I didn’t love everything about this movie, I certainly liked it. I would recommend it to all Wahlberg fans or fans looking for a light drama, light crime movie that you don’t have to overthink or take too seriously to enjoy.
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The Road (2009)
John Hillcoat’s (Lawless, The Proposition) The Road is the best film adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Yes, I know that this means I preferred The Road over 2007’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture No Country For Old Men. The Road is a good adaptation of McCarthy’s novel, though not a great one. The novel, with the same name, presents a desolate 2929 America where nomadic tribes scour the earth, looking for any signs of life that would allow them to sustain existence. With the animals and vegetation extinct, cannibalism is alive and prevalent, though the number of people inhabiting the earth dwindles yearly.
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