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Trailer for Charlie Countryman (2013)
Charlie Countryman (2013)
Shia LaBeouf continues to accept darker, riskier roles. Rupert Grint appears like he is trying to shy away from Harry Potter-like movies.
The movie is about Charlie Countryman (Shia LaBeouf), a man who falls in love with a woman who seems to already be taken by an aggressive criminal.
The film is directed by Fredrik Bond and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, Melissa Leo, Vincent D’Onofrio, John Hurt, and Til Schweiger.
The movie appears like it will be pretty violent and twisted. The trailer doesn’t give away too much, but It looks like it will be pretty intense throughout. With a cast like this one, I think that it should be good enough to see in theatres.
The film is set to release on 11/15/13.
Prisoners (2013)
Prisoners (2013)
Before seeing Prisoners, I guaranteed to people that it would be good. Sometimes it is as if I just know. I did not have any doubts about this movie at all. I am not narcissistic. I just sort of have a sixth sense. I am like Haley Joel Osment’s character in The Sixth Sense (1999). However, instead of seeing dead people, I see good movies.
Can’t you just hear me whispering softly? “I see good movies.”
Bruce Willis responds, “In your dreams?”
I shake my head no.
“While you’re awake?”
I nod.
“Good movies like, in graves? In coffins?”
“Walking around like regular movies. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re good.”
Bruce Willis asks, “How often do you see them?”
I whisper, “All the time. They’re everywhere.”
Prisoners is about two little girls who go missing. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is the father of one of the girls. He will stop at nothing to find out who took his daughter and will do whatever is necessary to get her back.
The movie was directed by Denis Villeneuve and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrance Howard, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Wayne Duvall, Len Cariou, David Dastmalchian, and Dylan Minnette.
Prisoners was gripping. It did not take long to pull me in to the disturbingly chilling story. It’s the next day and I’m still thinking about the film.
It should go without saying that it’s not exactly a feel good movie. Two little girls disappear. There is nothing good about that. Because of the subject matter, some aspects of the film are hard to like. However, the film was so well-made that it doesn’t pull any punches, and rightfully so. You have to see the bad in order to appreciate the good.
The movie is brutally violent and gory. There is plenty of language and blood. It captures the eeriness of the twisted plot perfectly.
Jackman plays a broken man who does not hesitate to do whatever is necessary to get his daughter back. His performance was excellent. It might be his best and more realistic role yet. It is Hugh Jackman unplugged like you haven’t seen him before.
Gyllenhaal plays the detective on the case. He is obsessed with his job and has solved every case that he has been assigned to. He is not about to fail now. This movie is equally Gyllenhaal’s movie as much as it is Jackman’s.
The rest of the supporting cast all play their parts well and Leo stands out among them.
The film is just over two and a half hours long, but I was so in to it that I did not notice. Time flies when you’re have fun, or watching a good movie. Prisoners never gets boring. It absorbs you and keeps you guessing until the end.
Jackman, Gyllenhaal, and Leo all gave Oscar worthy performances and the film itself is the best movie that I have seen so far this year.
I rate this movie a 9 on a scale on 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you liked Prisoners, then you will probably enjoy:
Mystic River (2003)
Trailer for Prisoners (2013)
Prisoners (2013) (Click on the title for my full review.)
Two little girls go missing. The father (Hugh Jackman) of one of the girls finds and captures the man that he thinks took them. He will stop at nothing to get his little girl back.
The film is written by Denis Villeneuve and directed by Aaron Guzikowski.
The rest of the star-studded cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard, Maria Bello, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Mike Gassaway, Dylan Minnette, Len Cariou, and Wayne Duvall.
Kidnapping is not a new idea for a movie, but this one looks pretty intense. The cast is top-notch and the movie looks like it has potential.
I think that I’ll have to check this one out when it hits theatres.
The film is set to release on 9/20/13.
Oblivion (2013)
Oblivion (2013)
With Tom Cruise in the driver’s seat of this Sci-fi thriller, all that he has to do is do what he does best, act. Forget about his crazy private life. He may have had a lot of drama with his marriages (jumping on Oprah’s couch and whatnot, etc., etc.) and his religious beliefs (Scientology) may seem a bit weird, but lets face the facts. The guy can act and he can act well. He is one of the most solid actors of our time and he still draws a crowd. Tom gets comfortable in his character, hits “Cruise Control” and all of the viewers in the audience are in for a treat. He proves it time and time again that he is highly capable of carrying the majority of a movie on his back. Oblivion is no exception. In fact, the majority of Oblivion is Tom Cruise in one way or another.
After the world has been virtually destroyed by nuclear war and natural disasters, a couple (Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough) become part of “the cleanup crew” to help salvage the remaining natural resources that the world has to offer. They are also there to protect their mission and make sure that it runs smoothly. After a while things may not be what they seem.
I am not a huge fan of a lot of Sci-fi movies. Many Sci-fi movies these days are filled with so much special effects that they make the movie seem totally fake. I do not watch movies simply for the special effects. I enjoy Sci-fi movies where the special effects are tastefully done to the point where it doesn’t take away from the movie. The film also has to have an interesting plot, solid characters that can act, and a well written script and story to tie it all together nicely. Oblivion fulfilled all of my requirements of a great Sci-fi movie quite nicely.
Joseph Kosinski does a superb job of writing and directing Oblivion.
The special effects are not overdone. They are beautiful and awesome and some of the greatest that I have seen, but they are not too much.
The film does not have too many characters in it and that is okay. Tom Cruise is great as always, and everybody else is as good as they can be. Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau all performed to the best of their abilities with what they had to work with.
The plot had many twists and turns which made it very entertaining. The story itself was very original. However, a little bit of the movie was hard to follow and I left the theatre scratching my head. I love movies that really make you think as you put each piece of the story together. I figured out the gist of it, but I felt like it could have been explained a little better. That was one of the only problems that I had with the movie.
Given that I am not much of a Sci-fi fan, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good Oblivion was. It is definitely worth seeing in the theatre and because of the excellent special effects, it will certainly be better on the big screen.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Olympus Has Fallen fell short slightly of my expectations. A few events that took place in the film were so unrealistic that is took away from my suspension of disbelief. Parts of the movie were pretty predictable and other parts were almost laughably over the top. With all of that being said, it was an action movie and most action movies have at least a couple of scenes that are a bit much and a little hard to believe. It is all meant to entertain and this movie is filled with enough action that it does just that.
Antoine Fuqua is known for directing very raw and darkly intense films with good casts and Olympus Has Fallen falls in that category.
After the White House is overrun by terrorists and the President (Aaron Eckhart) is taken hostage, an ex-secret service agent (Gerard Butler) does all that he can to try to get the President back alive and help to retake the White House.
This is Gerard Butler’s best movie since Law Abiding Citizen (2009).
Aaron Eckhart gives a pretty decent performance as per usual.
Besides The Campaign (2012), I have not seen Dylan McDermott in anything good for a very long time, so his role in this film was pretty refreshing.
I have also not seen Ashley Judd in anything for a long time, so it was nice to see her in this movie.
Morgan Freeman has looked very old for a long time, but in this film he really looks ancient. He seems so old that his character is almost unrealistic. I have noticed that he is popping up in everything lately. It’s almost like he is trying to go out with a bang.
Rounding out the rest of the solid cast is Rick Yune, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Robert Forster.
Overall, the movie is enjoyable and worth seeing. If you want to see something that is action-packed throughout, then Olympus Has Fallen will fill the bill.
I rate this movie a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
If you liked Olympus Has Fallen (2013), then you will most likely enjoy White House Down (2013).
Trailer for Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) (click on the title to read my full review)
Antoine Fuqua has a tendency to make very gritty, powerful films. Having directed such films as Training Day (2001), Shooter (2007), Tears of the Sun (2003), and Brooklyn’s Finest (2009), this film appears like it is going to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors. With a cast that includes Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Dylan McDermott, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd, Angela Bassett, and Fuqua directing, it would be hard for the movie to be bad. It definitely looks promising.
The film is set to release on 3/22/13 and I will most likely be in the theatre shortly after that.
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