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Trailer for American Hustle (2013)
American Hustle (2013) (Click on the title for my full review.)
David O. Russell has taken 3 stars from his film Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and 2 stars from his film The Fighter (2010), and brought all 5 of them together to make American Hustle (2013). If The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook had a baby, it would be named American Hustle.
Not only is this film a guaranteed Oscar contender, but it will most likely be amazing.
The noteworthy cast includes Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Michael Pena, Jack Huston, Louis C.K., and Alessandro Nivola.
This film is a definite must-see.
It is set to release this Christmas, 12/25/13.
Movie Picture of the Day 8/2/13
Al Pacino raised some Hell in the movie The Devil’s Advocate (1997).
2 Guns (2013)
2 Guns (2013)
Director Baltasar Kormakur pulled out the big guns for his new Action/Comedy 2 Guns. With a cast that includes Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Bill Paxton, James Marsden, and Paula Patton, how could you go wrong? This is the question that I asked myself. My answer was that you most likely can’t go wrong. I was very excited to see this film, so I caught one of the first showings.
The film is about an undercover DEA agent (Washington) and an undercover Special Forces officer (Wahlberg) that team up to get close to a drug cartel. The catch: each man is unaware that the other is a cop.
The rest of the noteworthy cast includes Edward James Olmos, Fred Ward, Robert John Duke, and Patrick Fischler.
2 Guns is a high caliber adventure that is fully loaded with twists and turns, plenty of action, an amazing cast of edgy characters, lots of laughs, and a whole lot of fun.
Denzel Washington is one actor that has never really disappointed me. He has always acted his heart out in every role that I have seen him in. He is certainly one of the greats. He is one of the most consistently solid actors of our time. His role in 2 Guns is evidence that he has no intention of changing his ways or slowing down. His character is suave and in control. He lets his presence be known on screen. If he were a Jedi, the force would be strong with this one.
Mark Wahlberg’s acting ability has noticeably improved over the years. It was never bad by any means, but he has definitely found his niche. He has always taken a no-nonsense approach to his acting. This has given his movies more intensity and energy. Over time, he has learned to develop a different personality to each of the characters that he plays. He has become very versatile. In 2 Guns, he somehow managed to be funny and a badass.
The witty banter exchanged between Washington and Wahlberg was hilarious. That, mixed with each man’s physical ability for violence made the movie very entertaining. Their characters played off of each other wonderfully.
Besides Haywire (2011), I have not seen Paxton in anything great for a while. This is his best film movie Frailty (2001). He played a good tough-guy in this film.
There was never a dull moment in this movie. If you are looking for a lot of action, some good laughs, great acting, and an overall awesome film experience, look no further than 2 Guns. This movie has everything. It’s the best Action/Comedy film so far this year, and will probably be the best of the year.
I rate this movie a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you enjoyed 2 Guns, then you will most likely enjoy:
Movie Picture of the Day 8/1/13
Sonny Corleone (James Caan) is having the worst day of his life in the classic film The Godfather (1972).
Vehicle 19 (2013)
Vehicle 19 (2013)
I had no expectations before watching this movie. Paul Walker has made some surprising films in the past, so I thought that I would give Vehicle 19 a chance. Which movies has Walker surprised me in before? Good question. The answer is Running Scared (2006), The Lazarus Project (2008), and Eight Below (2006).
Vehicle 19 follows Michael Woods (Paul Walker), an American who travels to a foreign country. He is in for a bumpy ride when a mix-up with the rental car company lands him in a vehicle with a cell phone, a pistol, and a bound and gagged woman in the back seat.
The movie was written and directed by Mukunda Michael Dewil. There are no other noteworthy cast members.
Paul Walker is the lead in this boring waste of time, foreign, low budget one man show filled with cheap car chases, laughable special effects, a dull storyline, and uninteresting dialogue.
The soundtrack was painfully annoying and did not help the film’s cause.
For a movie classified as an action/thriller, it was deathly slow at times.
The plot was basically the equivalent to the punch line of a bad joke. It was not entertaining, it lacked a point, and I quickly wanted to change the subject. Often when the main character encountered a problem in the movie, the solution was all way too convenient.
The acting was bad. The writing was worse, but the filmmaking as a whole was just a disgrace. Luckily the movie’s runtime was only 85 minutes. However, that was an 85 minutes that I will not get back.
Do yourself a favor and steer clear of this train wreck that somehow became a movie. It is not worth your time or money.
I rate this movie a 1 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? RUN!
Kick-Ass (2010)
Kick-Ass (2010)
I delayed seeing Kick-Ass for 3 years. Honestly, at the time that it came out, it appeared like it would be jam-packed with gratuitous amounts of stupidity. I was fed up with superhero movies being the trend and given the fact that Nicolas Cage was a part of it made me worried. Cage is one of my favorite actors, but at the time that he made Kick-Ass he was taking any and every movie role offered to him. He was having money problems and he needed to get out of debt. During that time, he systematically dismantled his image and his career by force-feeding the world 11 movies over the course of 3 years. I thought the title was pretty lame and I was very skeptical to say the least.
The movie is about a nerdy high school kid (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who one day decides that he wants to be a superhero. He dresses up like a superhero and therefore thinks that he is one. Fighting crime proves to be much more difficult than he anticipates and he gets in way over his head.
The film is directed by Matthey Vaughn and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Rispoli, Clark Duke, and Jason Flemyng.
After writing off Kick-Ass three years ago, I never really thought twice about it until I learned of the upcoming sequel a couple of months ago, Kick-Ass 2 (2013). I heard from a few different people that Kick-Ass was actually pretty awesome. I decided to give it a chance.
The movie was actually pretty bad-ass. The soundtrack set the tone quite nicely with a couple of different songs by The Prodigy. Later it transitioned to Elvis Presley and even Ennio Morricone.
Nicolas Cage was better than I expected he would be. The film was during his low point, but his character turned out to be moderately entertaining.
Mark Strong was a superb hard-ass. He played his part perfectly.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson was alright, but it was the young Chloe Grace Moretz that stole the show. She sure kicked some ass.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie. It was far better than I originally anticipated. There is a bit of language, blood, raunchiness, and violence, but overall it was mildly funny and supremely amusing. It was a well-acted and clever, kick-ass journey into an almost believable world where superheroes exist.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
Movie Picture of the Day 7/31/13
Kathy Bates is a “cockadoodie” cuckoo “dirty bird” (to use her own words) in the film Misery (1990).
If she is his biggest fan, I would hate to meet anybody who isn’t fond of his work.
Movie Picture of the Day 7/30/13
The always incredible Jack Nicholson in the dysfunctional drama About Schmidt (2002).
This picture made me smile. I hope it does the same for you.
The Call (2013)
The Call (2013)
Before watching this film, I had assumed that it was rated PG-13. After watching the movie, I’m a little surprised that it was actually rated R. If it had been tweaked ever so slightly, I think that it probably could have gotten the PG-13 rating. I’m a little surprised that they would not have wanted to attract more of the teenage audience to this movie. It seems like so many other films these days go for that lighter rating to try to get the teeny boppers into the seats. Quite honestly, after learning of the rating right before the movie started, it actually made me raise my expectations of the quality of the film because of the genre.
The Call is a thriller about a 911 operator (Halle Berry) that makes a careless mistake while on an emergency phone call that causes the situation to end badly. Consumed by guilt and anxiety, she struggles to hold it together in order to perform her job. Time passes and one day the operator takes a call from a girl that has been kidnapped (Abigail Breslin). Determined not to make the same mistake again, the operator does everything in her power to try to help the girl on the other end of the line. She soon realizes that there is a link between the 2 emergency calls.
The film is directed by Brad Anderson and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, Michael Imperioli, Justina Machado, and Jose Zuniga.
I held off from seeing this movie in theatres because I wasn’t sure if it would be worth my time. I can usually give or take Berry. Breslin is a talented young actress, but the movie looked a little B-rated. What sparked my interest however, was Anderson’s involvement. He has shown us that he is capable of excellence with his film The Machinist (2004). With that being said, even though The Call looked questionable, I knew that it would at least be well-made.
The film did not allow for much character development. It was not the type of movie that required quality acting. Anderson makes up for this with quality filmmaking. The events that occur in the film were made intense enough to keep my attention throughout. The soundtrack helps to make the movie seem more fast-paced than it really is. Because the film is kept at a relatively fast pace for its entirety, it helps you to forgive and forget the aspects of the movie that are lacking. Bravo to the director for knowing what was necessary to make this B-rated film watch-able.
The film is a little predictable, but it will still suck you in.
I rate this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
R.I.P.D. (2013)
R.I.P.D. (2013)
To me, this film appeared like it would have a lot of similarities to Men in Black (1997). Instead of a police force that protects the earth from aliens, R.I.P.D. has a police force that protects the earth from the dead. The dead people in R.I.P.D. wear human body suits and hide out among the living, sort of like the aliens in MIB. Interestingly enough, the dead people in R.I.P.D. and the aliens in MIB are monsters that appear very much alike. The futuristic guns in each film look like they are all part of the same family. Each movie has old grumpy veterans of the force that are tasked with training the new recruit. Hollywood continues to recycle the same ideas. They twist them around a bit and feed them back to us again on the silver screen.
R.I.P.D. is a buddy-cop comedy with a twist. Instead of simply just trying to protect and serve, Roy (Jeff Bridges) and Nick (Ryan Reynolds) are deceased cops who try to protect the living from the dead as part of the Rest in Peace Department. After 15 years on the force, Boston cop Nick is tragically murdered in the line of duty. Instead of going to heaven, he gets stopped along the way and recruited to become a member of the R.I.P.D. He gets paired with Roy, an R.I.P.D. veteran. Roy shows Nick the ropes, but Nick is only interested in investigating his own murder.
The film is directed by Robert Schwentke and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Marisa Miller, James Hong, Devin Ratray, and Robert Knepper.
Even with the thought of basically already seeing this movie 3 times before, I expected it to be funnier than it actually was. Reynolds humor is usually pretty sarcastically witty. Pairing him with Bridges in a cowboy-like character, I thought that I might die laughing. This was not the case however. There was a touch of cleverness that caused a little bit of deserved laughter, but the comedy was mostly just not there.
All of the actors were likable, but the film was desperately lacking originality. The story was highly predictable and very convenient. I felt like there was not enough of a back story to the Rest in Peace Department itself and why the dead were trying to invade the earth. It was hardly explained why the department existed and why the dead were able to come back to earth. There were just tons of holes in the storyline that were completely overlooked by the characters. Apparently the viewers were also supposed to overlook these flaws and just go with it. I did that, but it made the film less enjoyable.
Overall, you can expect a few laughs and a bit of entertainment. It’s also pretty funny and sad to see what Buzz (Devin Ratray) from Home Alone (1990) has become.
I rate this movie a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
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