Drive

Ryan "Baby Goose" Gosling is getting Oscar hype for some reason. I liked the movie, I just feel like Gosling really didn't have to do much except say about 80 words and drive a car primarily. The movie is an homage to 80's stuff with tight scorpion jackets, neon pink cursive writing, and 80's techo music with Megatron and foreign chicks singing in the background. Looking past that we join Gosling on a heist where he is the getaway drive, or "Wheelman" as the kids say. He looks smooth, never talks, and drives a car very well. He comes across a neighbor lady, doesn't say anything, later sees her in a market, doesn't say anything. Sees her in a parking lot having car trouble, walks over to fix the car, doesn't say anything. Returns the groceries to her apartment, doesn't say anything, BUT finally says "where should I put these" and the unbearable awkwardness is broken, but remains a recurring theme. We find out her baby's daddy is in prison, Gosling starts spending quality time with them and they take a SHININ' to each other. Gosling works at a garage she takes her car to, his boss insists Gosling take her home where he takes the woman (Carey Mulligan) and her son on a detour in an aqueduct and to a stream where I assumed gruesome murder/rape was about to ensue, but instead they form a bond. After a few bonding sessions they find out her baby's daddy is getting out of prison= fun is done. Husband still owes $$$ to people, they force him to rob a pawn shop and Gosling offers his services as Wheelman extraordinaire to ensure everything goes swell. All hell breaks loose, the movie takes off on a crazy ride of vengeance and it starts getting real stabby.

Bottom Line: 7.9 out of 10. I really felt like it was good, and I liked it, but it seemed to take a long time to accomplish anything meaningful. I honestly don't know if I'll watch it again, but it's certainly worth seeing once. Interesting soundtrack and camera work.

R.I.P Joe Pa

A real tragedy befell Penn St, Pennsylvania, and America on Sunday as Joe Paterno passed away from complications from lung cancer, and perhaps more tragically, a broken heart. There are painful parallels between the passing of coaching great Bear Bryant and Paterno. Both men gave their whole beings to coaching, though Paterno would be much more well-liked by the general masses. After Bryant retired, he passed soon thereafter and Paterno mentioned to Brent Musberger once upon a time that he never wanted to retire for fear of having the same thing happen to him. He never did retire, he was stabbed in the back and ran over by the very institution he built. A university more well-known for livestock than football when Paterno arrived he turned Penn State into a world-class University. His legacy dives so much deeper than football as he gave countless hours and funds to various University projects, most notably the new library and hospital. I don't think it's possible to overstate what he's meant to Penn State. He was the man who fell on the sword for the failures of those in charge in the Sandusky scandal. A 76-year old man at the time of McReady's confession of seeing "something" in the shower he went to his higher ups and, as is with University policy, gave it to those in charge to handle. Somehow his celebrity and greatness was used against him to be the poster child of the University doing SOMETHING to respond to the allegations and their complete failure to do anything at all about it. It bothered me from the moment it happened and especially pisses me off now. Blame was assigned in completely the wrong manner. I refuse to think anyone would have gone fucking vigilante on Sandusky upon hearing the weak allegations of McReady. Paterno's job had nothing to do with dealing with Sandusky, nor did he have any greater obligation than to pass it along to the University higher-ups.

How does he bear any blame for this? Why was he jumping on grenades for the university that just threw him under the bus? His last act for the university he did everything for was to diffuse the largest bomb in school history by laying on it. This was somehow the genius PR strategy. To place it at the feet of the man who is synonymous with Penn State glory and greatness. Mourners flock to visit the final resting place of their hero and, for thousands of players, father figure. The great moulder of men who has the loyalty of thousands he coached into being better people will somehow be remember for all the great things, and one monster bad thing that he had nothing to do with. People who feel that now is another great opportunity to take a parting shot at how he handled this scandal can find me in any parking lot of their choosing for some words. It simply wasn't what Paterno deserved, or should have gotten. It's a bunch of bullshit, a tragedy, a joke, a fucking travesty. I feel horribly for his family and loyal friends/followers. His legacy should be polarized, not tarnished. It's going to bother me for the rest of the time I'm alive on this earth.

Amistad

Amistad is Steven Spielberg's tale of the 1839 mutiny aboard a slaveship named La Amistad. African prisoners overthrew the ship in a bloody rebellion, killing all crew members except two, who were supposed to lead them back to Africa. They land utterly confused on American soil (I think in PA, but I'm not sure sadly) where they are promptly tried on various charges, but on the backburner the entire time is who owns there people? The cast is phenomenal. Morgan Freeman, Djimon Hounson, Matt McConaughey, Anthony Hopkins (steals the movie), Stellan Skaarsgard, even Pete Postlewaithe (the late sadly) who you'll recognize, and Anna Paquin. The prisoners speak zero English and can't communicate for a decent portion of the film. You follow the trials through different levels of our legal system and learn their horrible story. The acting is unreal, and clearly Spielberg is tugging on your heartstrings from time to time. Hopkins lays it down as John Quincy Adams and deserved, and got, his usual Best Supporting Actor nod for this one. Everyone is excellent, but Hounson and Hopkins stand above, ESPECIALLY HOPKINS (I was in awe). It's a great story told expertly by cast and crew alike.

Bottom Line: 8.4 out of 10. An excellent film that is essentially a must-see if you've never indulged. On I think Starz currently. Downgraded because it's fairly long and has some drab parts that make you realize it's over 2.5 hours long. It's solid though, I feel dirty lowering it like that, but it's not Schindler's List good if you're wondering, so I maintain some standards here.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood directed a couple WWII pictures around the same time, Flags of our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima. Letters from Iwo Jima is from the Japanese prospective of the battle for Iwo Jima. Ken Watanabe leads a solid, if not unrecognizable cast that does an excellent job of portraying the unimaginable plight of the Japanese soldier. Your Emperor expects you to fight and win despite having inferior everything. If you can't win, then you should die, because that's what's honorable. It displays interesting parts of Japanese culture and is very entertaining despite it's educational value. I love Ken Watanabe personally. Anytime you need an Asian male actor I think the list starts with him. He plays the role of the General in charge of defending the island of Iwo Jima despite getting NO help from Japan. Iwo Jima was historically important because it was the last Pacific Island before the mainland of Japan. Once America conquered Iwo Jima, it could begin bombing runs on the Japan mainland (kind of a big deal). You are painfully watching the desperate scramble to hold on to the small piece of land to the death, because that is the only possible outcome.

Bottom Line: 7.8 out of 10. Skewed because I'm a history/ WWII fan, so it's probably a bit high.

The King's Speech

I succumbed to the Oscar's charms and watched King's Speech since it's free on Showtime. The film is the story of soon to be King George VI and his strange stammering and stranger ascent to the thrown. Geoffrey Rush is his standard great self, Colin Firth is excellent, and Helena Bonham Carter can somehow play a crazed bitch in Fight Club as well as an English Queen, pretty good stuff. The King has a crippling stammer that makes public speech impossible. Rush is the last option, though the King is far from a fan at first. Their relationship and the King's progress moves forward and it's very well done and acted throughout. It's an excellent biopic that really puts you into the time and immerses you in it. I don't think it deserved Best Picture in front of the amazing and original Inception, but that might be my youth taking over.

Bottom Line: 8.1 out of 10. Very strong movie, just far from exciting or dazzling to the layman like myself.

Battle for L.A. (Not the RATM album)

Aaron Eckhart has played of my all-time favorite roles of Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking. He plays a Sargent in Battle for L.A. and is a soul because he lost the men under his command in Iraq, but he survived. Aliens are attacking L.A. and we aren't doing too hot fighting them. They have guns that shoot pieces of metal, comparable to a rail gun in video games. It's fighting and drama and action, so it's not terrible. It's pretty ho-hum and predictable for the most part. Decent acting throughout headed by Eckhart as the tortured soldier. There's quite a bit of ridiculousness, like not just blowing up everything around the aliens because the millions of missiles we have all across the country are apparently useless, but sending troops on foot with M-16's is the best idea we can come up with. All projectiles we could fire from any number of places, including jeeps and vehicles we have all over the place. I couldn't look past those facts the entire time, so the movie was jaded for me.

Bottom Line: 6.8 out of 10. It was better than I expected, but that really isn't saying much. I hate ridiculous moments in action movies and this had a few, but it was manageable. It's worth a free viewing on Starz, or whatever movie channel it's on.

Priest

I also took the opportunity of watching Priest trying to watch some kick ass action scenes without having to give a shit about the movie itself. This movie failed wholesale at even those modest expectations I had. The only good action you could've watched in the trailer, but I'll give this movie some kind of real review. Paul Bettany is a "Priest", or a man trained by the church to hunt and kill vampires. He's haunted by the death of his friend and fellow Priest Karl Urban who he could have saved. Karl Urban didn't die but was re-born as a man/vampire who has great power. He kidnaps Bettany's niece and kills his brother and brother's wife in the process. Bettany undoes his vows to the church and goes hunting. Cam Gigandet is simply the worst actor I've ever witnessed. He has no real emotion or talent. He does confused and stupid for his only two looks/emotions. Bettany is solid and pretty badass, but super one-dimensional as expected. Maggie O looks good and is solid as well. Lilly Collins is hot, she'll be in some movies as she can look VERY young, but she's 22, so dirty thoughts are nothing to be ashamed of (didn't know that until looking at her IMDB profile...). Bettany finds vampires are still in full force unlike society has been led to believe by the church, crap ensues.

Bottom Line: 3.1 out of 10. Some decent fights/effects but the acting and plot are just fucking terrible. Nothing is good about this film except that it's only 80 minutes of my life instead of 100 I won't be getting back.

Kill the Irishman

I watched a documentary of Cleveland legend Danny Green (YUP, Irish guy). He ran some unions and was a bill collector like Rocky, only he beat the shit out of a lot more people. He ran into trouble when rather than pay the mafia %50, or whatever their cut was of his "action" he told them to fuck off. What ensued was 37 bombings in a Summer and a lot of death and craziness. He survives like 8 assassination attempts and lives a pretty badass life. Solid cast headlined by Ray Stevenson as Danny Green, Christopher Walken, Vincent D'Onofrio and Val Kilmer. You'll recognize all the Italian guys in it from either the Sopranos, Casino, or Goodfellas. It's very entertaining and well done. I think Stevenson was too old for Danny Green in his younger days, but he does a good job in the very tough but still has some kind of heart Irish guy.

Bottom Line: 7.6 out of 10. Worth a free look on Starz while it's on. Interesting facts on the times and Danny Green that you ordinarily would never have known. Real footage is spliced in on occasion that really makes it feel authentic and biographical. He's just so badass it's just amazing and that's what I couldn't get past.

Super 8

Had the opportunity to watch Super 8 over the New Years weekend and I was impressed for a stretch, then disappointed. The story is a smaller town in Ohio has some kids who are making a movie for a festival. Side story is one of the kids mom died in a steel mill accident and his dad is emotionally distant. It's pretty pointless, but they try to play it up (poorly I'll add). Kids wonder off at midnight to do some shooting (zombie movie) and witness a train get derailed by a guy driving a pick-up truck into it. On further investigation they see their middle school teacher drove the pick-up truck into it and in a recurring theme of completely defying logic, he's still alive. He tells the kids to say nothing to anyone and waves a gun at them. Kids tell no one and the Air Force rolls into town to start picking up the mess. People, pets, and metals start disappearing, you start catching flashes of a huge beast with multiple arms (4 I think) and the plot thickens. At the end of the day it gets ridiculous and silly at times, and the attempts at adding human feelings and such fail. It's still a pretty interesting movie with great special effects and for the first half, an interesting plot.

Bottom Line: 6.6 out of 10. It's worth seeing, but don't go into it with great expectations. It's really a well hidden monster thriller, but once the cat's out of the bag it goes downhill in a hurry.