If Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall Traded Characters in The Shining (1980)
If Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall traded characters in The Shining (1980), things would have turned out a little differently don’t you think?
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
I went into The Lone Ranger without the greatest of expectations. The film’s trailers made it appear like it was going to be outrageously exaggerated and therefore hard to enjoy. But, at the same time, I knew that the film was created by the team that made the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so it had to be good for something. Also, it’s a Johnny Depp movie. When was the last time that Depp disappointed?
The film is about a very old Native American named Tonto (Johnny Depp) who tells the story of his encounter with a man named John Reid (Armie Hammer) and how that man eventually became The Lone Ranger.
The movie is directed by Gore Verbinski and the rest of the notable cast includes William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, and Ruth Wilson.
The film was not as exaggerated as I anticipated. The parts in the movie that were unrealistic were done tastefully and intentionally. Instead of those scenes being hard to enjoy, they usually were pretty comical. That was a welcomed surprise.
Depp was delightful, as per usual. His character had more hysterical one-liners than all of Bruce Willis’ action movies combined. Depp stole the show, as he normally does. The film almost should have been called Tonto instead of The Lone Ranger. Tonto is just another piece to the puzzle of insanely awesome characters that Depp has portrayed.
Hammer was okay, but at times his character felt more like the sidekick. He did what he could for his role, but he was no match to Depp’s Tonto.
Wilson was nothing special at all. She was a poor choice for a female lead. She seemed like a cheap version of Michelle Monaghan without the talent.
The rest of the cast had cameo-like appearances with the exception of Fichtner and Wilkinson, who were both excellent.
Overall, The Lone Ranger was a little long and drawn-out at times, but also fun to watch. Depp made the film worthwhile. If you enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), then you will likely get a kick out of The Lone Ranger.
I rate this movie a 7.5 on scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
Happy Birthday to Kevin Bacon
Happy Birthday to Kevin Bacon! He celebrates his 55th year in this world today.
When I think of Kevin Bacon, the first thing that comes to mind is the game “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” This guy has acted alongside so many of the greats in so many excellent films that they named a game after him.
So how do you play “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” you ask? Well, great question, thanks for asking. The object of the game is to link any given actor to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps or less. The less steps the better. For example I’ll use Angelica Huston as the other actor because she shares birthdays with Kevin Bacon, except today she turns 62. Now let’s try to link Huston with Bacon in the least amount of steps. Huston was in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with Bill Murray, that’s the first step; Murray was in Wild Things (1998) with Bacon, and that’s the second and last step. There you go. I successfully linked Angelica Huston to Kevin Bacon in 2 steps. Obviously the only thing better than 2 steps is 1 step. The only way that you could link the two actors together in 1 step is to find a movie that they were both in together. That example was pretty easy. Sometimes the game can get pretty intricate and difficult.
I used to play a variation of “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” The version that I would play was to link any 2 random actors together, rather than always Kevin Bacon and 1 other.
Not everyone can play those games. You almost have to have a real movie obsession to be any good at them.
You know than an actor is pretty awesome when they name a game like that after him.
Click on the links below to read my Kevin Bacon movie reviews:
Happy Birthday to Shelley Duvall
Happy Birthday to Shelley Duvall! The actress turns 64 years old today.
Happy Birthday Mrs. Torrance!
Remember that kooky, creepy lady who played Jack Nicholson’s wife in The Shining (1980)? Yeah, that’s her.
That is about the only movie that I liked her in. But, you have to admit, she helped make The Shining as horrific as it is.
Happy Birthday to Sylvester Stallone
Happy Birthday to Sylvester Stallone! The Italian Stallion turns 67 years old today.
When I think of Sylvester Stallone, I think of his characters Rocky Balboa and John Rambo. Balboa is from his 5 Rocky films, beginning with Rocky (1976) and Rambo is from his 4 Rambo movies, beginning with First Blood (1982).
In more recent years, Stallone has gathered together his fellow aging action heroes. They have all banded together to form The Expendables trilogy. The Expendables (2010) started it all. The Expendables 3 is planned to release in the summer of 2014.
Click here for Stallones Big Question for Chuck Norris.
It appears as if old age is not going to slow down Sylvester. He is 67 and he continues to make action films. This October he will be trying to break out of prison with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Escape Plan (2013). This Christmas Stallone will be boxing Robert De Niro in the film Grudge Match (2013). The Italian Stallion vs. The Raging Bull. That promises to be a Christmas present worth waiting for. My money is on Rocky.
Click on the links below to read my Sylvester Stallone Movie Reviews:
Identity Thief (2013)
Identity Thief (2013)
I cannot begin to comprehend how frustrating it would be if somebody stole my identity, my money, ruined my credit, and straight up destroyed my good name. I cannot fathom how angry and upset I would be. Besides wanting to physically hurt that person, I would probably want to do anything and everything in my power to get my identity back and my life back to normal.
Identity Thief is about an upstanding citizen and hardworking father named Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) who gets his identity stolen by a woman (Melissa McCarthy). She systematically destroys his life while running around town having fun on his dime. In order to try to fix the harm that she has caused, Sandy decides to travel across the country to track her down and bring her to justice; a task that proves much more difficult than he anticipated.
The movie was directed by Seth Gordon and written by Craig Mazin and Jerry Eeten.
The rest of the noteworthy cast includes Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, Robert Patrick, John Cho, Jonathan Banks, Genesis Rodriguez, and T.I.
I thought that this film was going to be funnier. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments of hilarity, but it just wasn’t as funny as it looked. However, it is still above average and funnier than a lot of comedies out there these days.
A number of events in the movie were a little too convenient and predictable. Given that it is in fact a movie, some of that is to be expected. However, when convenient things happen too often in movies, it tends to take away from the suspension of disbelief. When things are less believable, they are also less enjoyable. Identity Thief seemed to try a little bit too hard at times and as a result, the film was not as humorous as it otherwise could have been.
Bateman and McCarthy played their characters perfectly. He was a decent, easy going, stand up guy. She pulled off being not nearly as innocent as she looked. The two contrasted very well and the end result was a good amount of uncontrollable laughter.
Peet seemed to simply show up for the money. Her role was not major, but it seemed like she just read her lines without much effort at all.
At times the humor fell short, but I fault the writers for this. A couple of raunchy scenes were way over-the-top and seemed unnecessary. It felt like they were part of the movie simply for the shock value. Instead of those scenes being shocking or funny, they just came off as being cheap and stupid.
Overall Identity Thief is worth seeing and good for a number of laughs.
I rate this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
If you enjoyed Identity Thief, then you will probably like Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) and Due Date (2010) even better.
Happy Birthday to Eva Green
Happy Birthday to Eva Green!
Green was a Bond girl at the age of 26 opposite Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006). As it turned out, it was that film that helped her make a name for herself.
6 years later she became a witch who condemned Johnny Depp to be a vampire in her 10th film, the dark comedy Dark Shadows (2012).
Eva has proven her ability as an actress. She will appear in 2 major sequels on the horizon, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) and 300: Rise of an Empire (2014).
Today Eva Green turns 33 years old.
It seems as if she has a very promising career ahead of her. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next.
Happy 4th of July!
Happy Independence Day from brockingmovies.com! I hope you make it a blockbuster.
Happy Birthday to Eva Marie Saint
Happy Birthday to Eva Marie Saint! The famous actress turns 89 years old today.
She is most known for playing the leading lady opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, North By Northwest (1959). In real life, Grant is 20 years her senior.
I find this picture fitting considering it’s the 4th of July.
Eva Marie Saint has been making movies and television shows for the last 66 years.
Cheers to you Eva!
Happy Birthday to Tom Cruise
Happy Birthday to Tom Cruise! The outstanding actor turns 51 years old today.
Cruise is one of the greatest actors of our time. Some don’t like him because of his views. I try not to judge. His films speak for themselves. The guy can act.
13 Best Tom Cruise Movies (in no particular order):
The Last Samurai (2003)
Collateral (2004)
Valkyrie (2008)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Days of Thunder (1990)
The Color of Money (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
Minority Report (2002)
Rain Man (1988)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible III (2006), and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
There are plenty of other Cruise films that could have been on this list, but these are just my favorites.
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