In August of 2010, I made a list of the movies I had to see before the end of the year after reading Entertainment Weekly’s Fall/Winter movie preview edition. I ranked 15 films in order. #1 was Ben Affleck’s The Town, which has turned out to be my favorite movie (as of 2011). #2 was Buried, which starred Ryan Reynolds. This movie, which I did not see in the theatre, was one of the biggest wastes of two hours of my life. And #3 was The Company Men, which starred 4 Academy Award winners. The release date of The Company Men kept getting pushed back further and further, and while its limited release date was in very late December, the vast majority didn’t have a chance to see it until 2011. By then, my list had changed based on the Oscar Buzz and the lukewarm reviews of The Company Men. I finally was able to check the movie out on Netflix. Based on the film I had seen since my initial list, The Company Men would have still made the top 15, but it would have been closer to the 12-15 range rather than the 1-3 range. To further digress into my poor list, Little Fockers was #4, Unstoppable #5, and The American #6. The movies I liked most were The Social Network (initially #7) and Blue Valentine (initially #8). The Fighter (initially #10), 127 Hours (initially #11), Love & Other Drugs (initially #13), as well as True Grit, Rabbit Hole, Black Swan, and The King’s Speech (both of which I did not even rank).
Category Archives: Drama
Crazy Heart (2009)
Roger Ebert said it best in his review of Crazy Heart about lead actor Jeff Bridges’ performance when he said, “The notion of a broke-down, boozy country singer is an archetype in pop culture. We’ve seen this story before. The difference is, Bad Blake makes us believe it happened to him.” It’s such a simple statement, but so true. Bridges (Tron, The Big Lebowski) gives the performance of his legendary career and, rightfully so, his first Academy Award win. He is the highlight of a very good, albeit flawed, movie.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
It is hard to add a lot of new insight to a movie that has been reviewed thousands upon thousands of times and is liked so much that it is ranked #46 in the AFI’s Top 100 List of Greatest Movies. With that said, most reviews of A Clockwork Orange were written in 1971, when the movie was released. I watched this movie for the first time in 2011, 12 years after the death of its director, Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, Full Metal Jacket). To date, this will be the oldest movie that I have reviewed.
All Good Things (2010)
Based loosely on the true story of one of the most prolonged missing person cases in New York, Andrew Jarecki’s (Capturing the Friedmans) All Good Things tries hard to tell a story but ultimately fails to form anything meaningful or lasting. I say it is based “loosely” on a true story because this case is still an open case. As a result, this story is a wishy-washy mess based upon a jumble of fact, rumor, conjecture, and psychoanalysis. By the end of the movie, you could care less about what happens to each of the characters. You would rather just have some logical conclusion. Unfortunately, that’s not what you get. I felt myself wanting and wanting to like this movie, but I grew increasingly frustrated as the movie dragged toward its unsatisfying conclusion.
The Horseman (2008)
The Horseman is Australia’s version of Taken without the star power and filmed with a much lower budget. It stars Peter Marshall (pretty much an unknown in the United States) in his first starring role as Christian Forteski, a distraught father who goes on a killing rampage after discovering clues that have led to the death of his 20-something-year-old daughter. It’s a revenge flick, and while there isn’t anything new offered when compared to similar movies, it still holds the viewer’s attention. Some of that might have to do with an unknown cast because it was shot exclusively with handheld cameras or not produced in America. So, while you’ve seen this plot in hundreds of different movies if you can stomach the torture scenes, you’ll be entertained. And while you might not remember anything about this movie two weeks from now, you’ll remember that it did hold your interest.
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