A Bridge On the River Kwai

I always like to watch critically acclaimed older movies. Able to appreciate the excellence of film and ignoring outdated practices and technologies I am usually really pleased. This film highlighted some great Alec Guiness moments that help a younger generation that only knew him as Obi-Won Kenobi appreciate how great of an actor he was. The film follows a prison camp during WWII and the primarily British soldiers involved. Japan is running the camp and Guiness fights their Colonel that runs it (Saito) the entire time. He fights for his officers to not have to work with the rest of the men. Saito is furious the captured men aren't working efficiently to build a bridge he personally needs completed by May 13th or he'll have to kill himself. Guiness is furious that Saito can't figure out to let him and his men run the project to make the bridge superior and efficient. They battle as their wills take the forefront over their men's best interest. An American escapes during this mess to make it back to British command and hopefully be transferred home. Instead he makes it back and is essentially forced into helping the British attempt to blow up the bridge that's being built by their own men. Very interesting story and played beautifully by Guiness especially. It really shows the arrogance of some, especially those in charge, and the insanity of war. Bottom Line: 7.9 out of 10. Excellent in a lot of ways, but I did struggle to get through some of the old-timey things in this one. Guinness' performance is the real highlight here. It did win Best Picture as well, but Guinness is the best part of this entire thing by far.

The Hustler: Paul Newman Gold

I watched the Color of Money with Tom Cruise and 1/4 century older Paul Newman and thought it was very good. When I found out it was a sequel to the Hustler featuring Newman and Jackie Gleason, I knew I needed to see the original. I found it on Starz and DVR'd it since it played at 3am. The movie follows Newman, a pool shark, as he travels a bit to find pool legend Minnesota Fats playing in Des Moines, IA. Newman starts playing and they continue playing high stakes pool for basically a day and some change. You're introduced to George C. Scott's character, who is excellent as all George C. Scott characters all. A very young Pieper Laurie plays Newman's love interest, they bond over having nothing to do but drink and that's the only relationship they have, but it grows from there. Newman debates what to do with himself as pool in the area is drying up since everyone knows he gave Minnesota Fats a run. Scott ends up bankrolling Newman and they start a pool hustling adventure. They move around a bit while Scott pits himself vs. Laurie in a fight for Newman's soul. Newman is fantastic and carries the movie as he needs to as it's essentially a biopic. The final scenes of Newman shooting pool with Gleason again with Scott in the background are excellent, as are their first go-around. It's tragic that Gleason isn't utilized more, he's excellent as Minnesota Fats. Bottom Line: 8.8 out of 10. Excellent movie that shows of Newman's talent in a variety of ways. He's just a great pool player, which is one of the many things highlighted throughout the film. Highly recommend renting this one if you have some time. It's possible it'll find itself on Netflix, or a variety of streaming tools soon as well.

Orange is the New Black: Season 2

Orange is the New Black (ONB from now on) is an interesting show about a female prison who gets visited by Pieper, an affluent, educated, pretty white lady. The show switched quickly from the Pieper pitty show, to really digging into the other characters and season 2 really goes into their backgrounds and it's very good. The cast is very solid and I found out the other day that the captain from Star Trek, I think Voyager (The one with the lady Captain?) plays the great character Red. You'll recognize some of the other characters, but it really is a triumph due to overall strength, not just one character. I strangely thought this show is really good and you actually start caring about the characters and their flaws and problems. It's especially weird since 95% of the show are females in prison (and there is some nudity, so yes, all the stereotypes of women in prison come true). The 2nd season in my opinion is better than the first as the story continues to be less and less about Pieper and even more about the other characters. There's less of Donna from That 70's Show, but she remains a part of it. I certainly think it's worth giving a chance to if you haven't already. Like most shows, give it more than one episode before passing judgement. Strong cast, unique and interesting premise, and boobs, it's a win-win-win.

Thor: The Dark World

The first Thor was a pleasant surprise that added some depth to Thor and his homeworld of Asgaard that was welcome and rather impressive to me. Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo are heavyweights to place as Thor's parents and Hopkins is awesome as Odin. Loki was introduced and is outstanding played by Tom Hiddleston. Somehow they had Natalie Portman play his love interest. Stellan Skaargard plays a crazy scientist, ALL are excellent in the first one. ALL reprise their roles, but for some reason it DOES NOT work in the second go around. It's so weird, but everyone isn't as good really. Idris Elba is if I'm getting technical I suppose. The story follows Thor as he works on bringing peace to the 9 realms Asgaard oversees/rules over essentially. Thor is still in love with Portman and checks on her from afar. Loki is imprisoned and Russo (His Ma) is the only one who cares at all. There is some crazy ancient evil called the Aether that makes no sense and is really half-assedly explained. The ancient race that once tried to rule the 9 realms with THE AETHER, but Odin's Pappy stopped them. A few survived and that's enough to pose a threat on the world thousands of years later. Once again, not explained for shit. There's some general candy-assed fighting and the story as I said before is insanely far-fetched and weird to me, AKA total bullshit. It really seemed unenthusiastic this time around. Bottom Line: 6. 7 out of 10. I was generally unimpressed by this effort after an impressive run of superhero movies that actually were better than expected. Too much weird cosmic stuff going on that is ridiculous. Pretty much ruined this thing for me.

Kick Ass 2

I took a flier on Kick Ass 2 while it was on Cinemax. It catches up with our characters from the original as Hit Girl starts her freshman year, Dave (Kick Ass guy) goes into his Senior year. They bring in some new characters, Chris Mintz-Pleese (Or whatever McGlovin's real name is) reprises his role as the weird and social media obsessed villain. That social media part was the a little scary thinking of all the stupid things, criminal and otherwise, that go on to get a few million Youtube views. That part did bother me and it was smart to show the utilization of social media for good and evil recruiting purposes. Mintz-Plaase relishes the role of villain and obsesses over popularity and the thought of having Kick Ass' death on Youtube. The fighting is alright, but you have no feelings or vested interest the the charcters, good or evil. The first was a little funnier and did a better job of making fun of how ridiculous the "superhero" idea is. Bottom Line: 5.4 out of 10. Had some entertaining moments as Chloe Grace Moretz is still VERY impressive as Hit Girl for all the stunts, etc she pulls off. Her acting doesn't follow her action abilities, but she's still probably the only thing that's going to come from this series. Jim Carrey has a pretty good turn in it. I really wouldn't recommend watching this one.

I Should have Done This A Long Time Ago: Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier

I realized upon jumping into Capt. America 2 that I had forgotten much of Capt. America 1, so I'd recommend a quick refresher before jumping into this one because there are some crossover things involved. ANYWAY, the movie joins us in present day where Capt. is ever-ready, but becoming disgruntled with S.H.I.E.L.D. and their lack of trust and forthrightness (doubt that's a word) in their dealings with THE CAPTAIN. The villian known as "The Winter Soldier" is introduced and he's f*($)&^G awesome because he doesn't talk, or really do much besides kill and kick ass. They do a great job of keeping their cards close to their chest during the movie and the REAL plot is pretty much hidden throughout. It's really an interesting plot that's RATHER far-fetched, but tries to explain most of it and that works for me. The action scenes are excellent and I thought the cast was excellent as well. There really weren't a lot of "That's ridiculous" moments, which is my #1 reason action movies piss me off generally. THis is certainly worth watching, even if it's a rental. It was IMPRESSIVE in theatres though, so if you can find this one at the cheap seats or something I'd recommend it. Bottom Line: 8.6 out of 10. Better than expected and hats off to Chris Evans for going from Jake Wyler to Capt. America. This probably pays much better.