Not being the biggest Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Match Point) fan, I’ve always felt that his romance and dramas needed more substance than he offered. Cassandra’s Dream is a movie I would never have given a chance when it was released back in 2007. Likewise, Colin Farrell (The Lobster, In Bruges) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible, Incendiary) are not my biggest fans. Ferrell has grown on me by shedding his bad boy, box office revenue-chasing persona and doing more indies. I am surprised I even watched it. I’m grateful I gave it a chance after it was released. It was a nice, simple film that entertained me the whole time.
Category Archives: Colin Farrell
The Lobster (2016)
Yorgos Lanthimos The Lobster is one weird movie. I don’t often do well with movies I find to be weird. Some movies that have gotten high ratings with the critics are so utterly dreadful that they are virtually unwatchable. The tone is simple, the dialect is weird, and the actions are peculiar, but the overall strangeness of these movies makes the experience a chore. I know some love Wes Anderson and to each his own. The Lobster feels very similar to one of these Anderson movies, but, oddly enough, it held my interest. While I didn’t understand why a movie so strange needed to be made, I found it engaging, and it really didn’t feel like I was watching it just to say that I watched it. While I didn’t like it and would never watch it again, there were parts of it
Continue reading The Lobster (2016)
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Emma Thompson (Howard’s End, Remains of the Day) got hosed out of an Oscar nomination! I had made it a goal to see all the nominees in all major Academy Award categories. Still, I didn’t see the snubs or the next in lines for Best Actor, Best Actress, etc., unless their movie received a nomination in one of the other major categories. It’s been a while since I reviewed all of the really good films of 2013. I’m sure I had already replaced Amy Adams (American Hustle) with a more deserving candidate. I don’t remember who I replaced her with at the moment, and I don’t feel like going back and looking. I’m pretty sure I did this, though. I believe I replaced the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for this movie because I didn’t feel like any of them deserved it. I think I did keep Jennifer Lawrence as a nominee because the nominees in the Supporting Actress category in 2013 were not overly impressive. But this review isn’t about the underwhelming American Hustle. It is about the under-appreciated Saving Mr. Banks, a movie I had written off as a lame little kids’ movie after a single trailer. It was one of those movies that I told myself I would eventually see because it had so much hype surrounding it, and I have yet to talk to someone who didn’t, at least, like it.
Continue reading Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Horrible Bosses (2011)
In 2011’s Horrible Bosses, four of this decade’s best actors (Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, and Collin Farrell) take a backseat to the film’s three stars. The plot of this movie revolves around three friends. Nick (Jason Bateman – Juno, television’s Arrested Development), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis – Hall Pass, We’re the Millers), and Dale (Charlie Day – Going the Distance) are stuck in jobs that are made intolerable because of bosses who make their lives hell. Their bosses are so terrible that the trio wonders how much better their lives would be if they were no longer their current bosses.
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.