The Nines did nothing to convince me that Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal, The Amityville Horror) is the great actor many consider him to be. I’m still waiting on one Ryan Reynolds movie that I enjoy. I’m expecting I will enjoy The Green Lantern, but my enjoyment of this movie might be despite Ryan Reynolds and not because of him. I also suspect I will enjoy Buried when I watch it. I have heard good things about his performance in that movie. As for now, Ryan Reynolds did nothing in The Nines to improve my perception of him as a lead actor.
Category Archives: Mystery
Salt (2010)
The one thing I kept focusing on during my viewing of Salt was that this movie was written specifically with the idea that Tom Cruise would be playing the lead role. Instead, Cruise opted to co-star with Cameron Diaz in the romantic adventure Knight and Day. And while Knight and Day was pleasantly entertaining and a movie I recommend, Cruise would have preferred to have Salt in his filmography rather than Knight and Day. I believe he took Knight and Day because the role allowed him to be a quirky, jovial type of character and also because many might identify Salt as a Mission Impossible franchise movie.
Dark Country (2009)
Thomas Jane’s directorial debut leaves much to be desired. I enjoyed Dark Country more and more for the movie’s first two-thirds. However, the film loses me once it starts going from trying to be a believable mystery to an over-the-top parade of being there/done those moments. I can appreciate movies that force a character to go mad until he slowly reaches the depths of hell (Apocalypse Now, 1408, American Psycho, and, of course, The Shining). But if this is the result you aim for, you will need a first-time director to accomplish that. Dark Country could have gone in a dozen different directions. Unfortunately, for me, and probably for you, too, I was led on a path that left me dissatisfied.
Continue reading Dark Country (2009)
Hard Candy (2005)
2005’s Hard Candy turned out to be a breakout movie for debut feature film director David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Patrick Wilson (Little Children, Lakeview Terrace), and Ellen Page (Juno, Inception). This was a highly controversial film at the time of its release and did not garner a lot of money at the box office. It is about a 32-year-old sexual predator named Jeff (Wilson) who begins an online relationship with 14-year-old Hayley (Page) that leads to a physical encounter.
The Game (1997)
1997’s The Game was David Fincher’s film movie as a director, but the first following the highly successful and fan-favorite Se7en. Fincher’s first movie was Alien 3, which had many franchise fans wishing the series had ended with Aliens. With one flop and one success under his belt, Fincher needed to make a statement with his third movie to prove that Se7en was not a fluke. The Game grossed $48 million at the box office, roughly half of what Se7en brought in, but this was still considered a success. Moreover, perhaps more importantly, it was a success with the critics. Following this movie, Fincher became a household name. Still, he has picked his projects carefully. From 1993 to 2010, Fincher has directed just nine movies. However, His most recent films (The Social Network, 2010, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008) garnered him Academy Award nominations for Best Director.