Side Effects

I went on a movie purchasing binge at the local Family Video and walked away with Side Effects, Killing Them Softly, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Jackass 3, and Argo for $56, most of them on blu-ray. I'm very happy currently on the purchases, especially because I never saw Side Effects, Life of Pi, or Killing Them Softly. I started my movie watching experience with Side Effects because I've wanted to see it since it came out on the recommendation of a friend, a recommendation I highly regard. Side Effects is filled with star power with Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones Douglas, and Channing Tatum to name the cream of the crop. Steven Soderbergh directs on top of that, I'm definitely in. The story follows Mara as the wife of Channing Tatum, a disgraced hedge-fund (stock dealer) who is in the clink for 4 years on insider trading. Mara is waiting for him to be released to resume their life, but she's picked up depression in the meantime, mainly because she miscarried right before he went to prison. Tatum is released, Mara crashes her car into a wall and depression is flaring up BIG TIME. Law is her therapist (anal-rapist for all you Arrested Development fans) who is now in charge of trying to fix her through therapy sessions and medication. I can't really talk too much about it, but shockingly the medications have undesired side effects and things get bad in a hurry. I don't really want to talk about the story besides that, just know that it's absolutely worth watching. BOTTOM LINE: 8.7 out of 10. Excellent story, lots of solid acting and I'm a huge fan of Soderbergh's style of intense close-ups and drama. Some unexpected twists and turns and it's really good stuff that keeps you unsure and uneasy throughout. Worth the rental for sure, or if it's a good deal, buy on the spot.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

I took a shot at some rom-com stuff I generally dislike. Steve Carrell and Keira Knightly carry this strange, dark rom-com about the what would happen at the impending doom of an asteroid 70-miles wide hitting Earth, killing everything. Carrell's wife jumps out of his car upon the news and is never to be seen again. Carrell starts piecing his life together and trying to figure out what what to do. His neighbor (Knightly) is crying outside and is welcomed into Carrell's apartment with the promise "I won't steal anything if you don't rape me". She falls asleep after smoking some weed and that's presumably the end of it. Carrell then finds her to get out of town before an impending riot kills them both. They get out of town and her adventure to find her parents and Carrell's adventure to find his high school sweetheart & "love of his life" begins. Interesting cameos and some funny/dramatic stuff happens. I won't ruin it, but it has some decent moments and it's well acted/done. The cameos are the strength, especially Rob Cordroy (standard). Bottom Line: 6.1 out of 10. Kind of boring (to be expected in a rom-com)and it gets a little long in the tooth, but there is some fun and endearing parts. Seriously, the cameos are pretty cool. I'd take a flier since it's free on a movie channel currently.

MEGA REVIEW since I only do one post per month now...

The Purge- I saw the Purge thinking a movie about killing people can never be bad. As you can assume, it was a play on society and the value of all human life, even if you're black and poor. Ethan Hawke is a rich dude who got rich selling home security systems protecting rich people during the 12-hour Government sponsored Sodom and Gomorrah shitshow known as the Purge. You can do whatever you want for 12 hours. Rape, murder, littering, it's all gravy. During the Purge in the movie, surprisingly things go badly. I'm going to start ruining this shit now, so SPOILER ALERT if you care about not being surprised. Hawke's daughter is supposed to be 15 dating an old guy who is supposed to be 18, but the actor is 38 or so. He leaves before the Purge only to someone "sneak" back into the house because he wants to talk to her Dad (Hawke) to explain their love on the only night where he can be brutally murdered for wanting to de-flower his minor daughter. Brilliant idea, I know, and the movie is loaded with them. The house is in full "lock down" where plate steel slides over the doors and windows making it look like a prison for Hannibal Lector types. His jackass creepy son who likes to hide in the closet and drive around a doll that's a camera on a remote control car chassis. It's nothing but weird and fucking dumb. ANYWHO he hears a guy yelling in the street for help since he's poor and about to be murdered by any number of people looking for a homeless, unarmed man to murder during THE PURGE. His dipshit son lets him into the house because life is precious and that kids a dipshit. Homeless, wounded, athletic, strong, black dude is now in the house. Hawke obviously isn't a huge fan and before anything can happen the daughter's boyfriend tries to shoot Hawke, which is always a mistake because Jake Hoight is not to be fucked with. He shoots the kid, wounded homeless guy runs away and all hell breaks loose. After awhile rich, preppy white kids knock on the giant plate steel door with an ultimatum to let them murder the homeless guy to soothe their homicidal madness that gets unleashed once a year so everyone is happy the other 364.5 days of the year, or his family will also be slaughtered. They can't find him, the kids tear off the plate steel like it's fucking tin foil and madness ensues. There's some cool stuff and then the movie takes a few twists and ends. Bottom line: 6.1 out of 10. That's higher than it should be, but I did enjoy some of the film. I hate stupid shit in horror movies like his candy-ass son endangering everyone letting the crazy looking wounded homeless guy in, OR the daughter's boyfriend who thinks he's Jason Bourne all the fuck sudden. Hawke's excellent, everyone else is serviceable but unspectacular. His kids are very unspectacular, but it holds your attention for the 80 minutes it runs. Go rent it when you're bored, it's worth it for cheap thrills. WOLRD WAR Z: I took a flier on some Summer fun about the world going crazy. World War Z combines zombie and viral horror and has Brad Pitt, who is really good at acting. He carries the film as a former UN investigator who wants to be super dad, but his friends in the UN won't let the impending apocalypse just happen without getting him involved. He has a family that's also shuttled with him to an aircraft carrier that's essentially serving as the Pentagon while earth gets fucked by crazy virus zombies that are superhuman. Pitt is fitted with the small task of finding how this happened, then concocting a vaccine with a super doctor. There's a lot of really good action and Pitt really carries it. There's a few fucking ridiculous moments, like zombies climbing over a 50 foot (or so) wall in Israel by climbing a wall of themselves. If you don't think that's fucking insane try just walking on live bodies while they're moving. It's fucking dumb. Moving forward the hunt for "Patient Zero"/ the origin is interesting and there are some great characters exposed and Pitt shines. Bottom Line; 7.4 out of 10. I'd recommend seeing it in the theaters because I honestly think if you don't see if on the big screen it will lose something. A solid film for all. Hangover III: I was excited when I saw this first came out, but I didn't hear much praise. It's at the $3 cheap seats, so I took a flyer myself. It's a departure from the norm, but the same crew. That should be the strength, but there's too much Leslie Chow, who excels in a bit role, but struggles when his character is expanded on. Doug has to hate these movies because once again he's got about 4 lines and is largely gone for the film. It's more of a strange action/adventure with some comedy sprinkled in, which was a huge disappointment. John Goodman is fun as a Vegas gangster, he's the only newcomer on this one. Bottom Line: 6.0 out of 10. A few cheap laughs, but largely unsatisfying. It did attempt to bring closure to a comedy series, which is very rare and it's pretty nice, but it's ruined by the 20 second clip one minute into the credits. Similar silliness, different plot, unspectacular. Rent when you want some cheap laughs and have ZERO expectations.