Oh, man, what a fantastic movie is. This was actually my second viewing of The Hours. I first watched it back in 2010 and remembered being extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would not have given this movie a chance back when it came out in 2002, but my interests in films have changed dramatically since then. Now that’s not to say I still can’t enjoy a blockbuster (I actually watched Captain America: Civil War earlier in the same day and loved it), but I am much more into the human aspect of independent dramas like The Hours than I am about action movies or comedies. This movie deals with depression, a topic that I am, unfortunately, very familiar with. And it does it from three different time periods with three different stories that are loosely at times (and not so loosely) during others. This movie knotted Nicole Kidman (Cold Mountain, Rabbit Hole) with, surprisingly, just her third nomination to date (as of May 2016) and her first and only win. With a prosthetic nose, she was virtually unrecognizable as Virginia Woolf. But it wasn’t her physical characteristics that stood out. It was how she immersed herself in the role of a woman who you would think had it all but was so mentally troubled that she could not find any happiness in her life. An accomplished actress, this is the performance of her career in a movie that shouldn’t be missed by anybody who views life with a cup half empty sort of mentality.
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Category Archives: Jeff Daniels
Steve Jobs (2015)
The much anticipated Steve Jobs exists so much as a single entity that we may forget that the 2013 Ashton Kutcher Jobs movie ever existed. Steve Jobs has been a much bigger hit with critics (85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes versus 27% rotten) and audiences (the 2015 movie earned more than half of what the 2013 movie grossed in its first week alone). While neither Kutcher nor Michael Fassbender (Shame, 12 Years a Slave) looks anything like the actual former CEO of Apple, Fassbender is a much more credible dramatic actor than Kutcher ever will be. That is reason enough to give Steve Jobs the nod over Jobs if you debate which one to watch. This review will not compare the two movies as I have not seen Kutcher’s Jobs, and I have no desire to see it. For whatever reason, I wasn’t looking as forward to the Fassbender vehicle as I thought I would have been, and it turns out that trepidation was justified. Steve Jobs was a very average movie that I can only recommend with the caveat that, while you might like it, you aren’t going to like it as much as you were hoping to like it.
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The Martian (2015)
Fans of the self-published debut novel will not be disappointed by Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Gladiator) adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian. This is a good movie that should be viewed in 3D on the largest screen that you can see it on. While it doesn’t come close to delivering the same experience as Gravity or even Interstellar, it is one of the rare movies that truly benefits by being seen in 3D. Before I get into this review, I want to mention that I will try to write it from the standpoint of someone who has not read the fictional novel as best as I can, as I know this is something that most people have not read. With that said, I will refer to the novel. I will also give some spoilers, but I will provide notice before diving into any of these. If you read around the paragraphs marked spoilers, you will be okay with reading this review before seeing this movie. The Martian is a very good movie, but it is not great. I was not disappointed by it. If I hadn’t read the novel, I think that maybe the trailers and the hype would have left me wanting more. This movie currently sits as my #6 movie of 2015, but I think there is less than a 1% chance it will finish in my end-of-year top 10. It didn’t have the emotional impact Gravity had, nor does it have the What did I miss? I need to watch this movie again type of feeling Interstellar had. Also, as I will mention, something was missing overall from the performances especially considering that Scott landed the cast of the year. While I will heavily critique this movie, I again want to say that I really liked the movie. It was a very good adaptation of the book. It held my interest throughout its 2 hour and 14-minute time frame.
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