Act of Valor

I had some worries jumping into this knowing it was using current U.S. Navy Seals, not actors for the roles. You will notice it's not as smooth as other movies in terms of dialogue and some acting parts, but it is all made up for in simply the most realistic military movie ever made. I also want to preface that the Seals are NOT bad actors, they do a fine job. The movie follows a Navy Seal team through a series of missions that start out as a rescue, then turns into a manhunt. They are so smooth and badass in the combat sequences that it really sets a standard for movies to follow. I did HATE the Call of Duty-esque camera view from time to time. It detracted and felt really gimmicky and cheap. The film is pretty heart-wrenching and gritty, it really doesn't pull any punches about the life of our armed forces. There isn't a lot of room for comedy and joy, just some character development and right into it. Really a tribute/ recruiting film for our military, but certainly worth seeing the most realistic combat you'll see.

Bottom Line: 8.2 out of 10. It's really worth checking out, bring tissue or a handkerchief, probably going to come in handy.

Win-Win

Win-Win was available on Cinemax on demand and I heard good things and saw it was tracking 94% or something crazy high on rotten tomatoes. I'm a pretty big fan of Paul Giamatti despite the fact he really is normally the same character of an older, generally calm guy who has bouts of intense yelling and anger that is generally awesome. Good additions of Amy Ryan (of The Office fame), Jeff Tambor, Burt Young (Pauly from Rocky), and newcomer Alex Shaffer who is excellent in the role of Kyle. Giamatti has two daughters and is married to Amy Ryan. He runs a struggling law office where his primary clients are the elderly. He finds a hidden gem in Burt Young's character, an elderly man in the early stages of dementia who can no longer take care of himself, but doesn't want to go to a home. Giamatti notices he would receive $1500 a month to be his guardian, so he tells the court he'll take care of him and keep him at home, but he enrolls him into an elderly home all the same when his daughter fails to answer any of the letters or calls his law office makes. Kyle shows up at Paul Young's house and says he's his grandson and things start to get real interesting. Great story, acting, writing, EVERYTHING. A solid film throughout carried by Giamatti similar to Sideways. Kyle Shaffer was a great high school wrestler which shines through in his performance, but his career ended when he broke his L-5 vertebrae (www.imdb.com SHOUT-OUT).

Bottom Line: 8.6 out of 10. I really liked the movie and besides some unavoidable slower parts I thought it was really good. I'm probably too high on Shaffer, but for your first acting performance he certainly held his own.

Hobo With a Shotgun

I fell for the bullshit "grindhouse" like movie Hobo With a Shotgun because Rutger Hauer is cool shit and I wanted to see an action movie. It's not so much an action movie as fucking garbage. They might have just picked random names out of a phone book to place with Rutger Hauer. Molly Dunsworth as Abby the prostitute would be the only other actor worth mentioning. Story is Rutger Hauer is a hobo who becomes disgusted with a town which is completely insane with evil and bad people. They do horrible things lead by a guy named Drake and his two idiot sons who suck at acting and I imagine life. There are a few cheap laughs and pure gross-out bullshit throughout. I don't really want to talk about it, it's fucking terrible.

Bottom Line: 1.8 out of 10. I'd rather slam my dick in a car door than see this again.

Safe House

I jumped on this one just because of Denzel's name being attached to it. The movie itself is not at all what I thought it would be. Ryan Reynolds is an agent who watches a C.I.A safe house in South Africa. Denzel is an uber badass who defected from the C.I.A. and sells secrets and info for money on the black market. He runs into a U.S. Counsolette/embassy out nowhere and he hadn't been on the radar since 2011. He is taken into custody into Reynold's safe house and shit just goes crazy. Denzel has an interesting back story you slowly learn as craziness happens all around you. Reynolds wants to do anything to get a promotion out of house sitting for the government and it leads him to do crazy shit to try to bring Denzel in. Good story, well written, good cast, and some cool twists and turns. Well done film.

Bottom Line: 8.2 out of 10. Everything is really good and solid from top to bottom. It's worth checking this film out.

Paul

I saw Paul after some recommendations about it and I thought it was alright. Starring Simon Pegg and the other guy from Shaun of the Dead, Seth Rogan as the voice of Paul the alien, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Sigourney Weaver. Strong cast. The story is Paul the alien is on the lamb from the government and Simon Pegg and other guy are nerds who write and draw sci-fi books. They try to help Paul get to his undetermined destination where he's going to get picked up by his people and go back home. Zaniness and wackiness happens, it's strangely child-like, but still has very adult language, it makes you feel weird.

Bottom Line: 6.7 out of 10. Good for a few laughs and it's really got a strong cast for being a strangely kiddy movie with bad language.

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.