Love and Other Drugs:
- Quick film synopsis: Movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai). Gyllenhaal is a pharmaceutical salesman, specializing in Viagra. Hathaway is an artist with early Parkinsons disease. They meet, and begin a complicated relationship. It's a essential a romantic dramedy.
- I'm a HUGE Anne Hathaway fan, please know that going in. I've heard a lot of comparisons of Hathaway to Julia Roberts, and I'm not sure that leap should quite be made yet, but I do think she's very good. I feel like she's got good range, and she's quirky in a good way.
- Gyllenhaal is vanilla for me. I don't dislike him, but I've never thought he was out of this world or anything. Having said that, I thought he was good in this film, and I enjoyed his performance.
- Things I disliked: Oliver Platt is in the movie, and I thought he should have had a little bit bigger role. I like Platt, and I liked his character. Hank Azira is in the movie, and I don't like him, and didn't like his character. I've heard and seen a few interviews with Azira in the last couple of years, and in this movie he plays a character similar to how he has portrayed himself in those interviews, a total prick.
- Things I liked: The actor that plays Gyllenhaal's brother, Josh Gad, was very good. Extremely funny, good comedic timing, and a great fit for the role. I did like Hathaway in this movie, I've read and heard some reviews claim it's a career defining role for her, but I'm not sure I agree with that. She was better in Rachel Getting Married, but she's good in this movie.
- Summary: I liked the movie, didn't love it. It follows a pretty common romantic dramedy formula. Two characters headed in opposite directions, fall for one another, tragedy happens, and how does all of that get reconciled? There were no surprises, nothing that knocked my socks off, but I was entertained and at the end of the day, that's pretty much all I want. I give it a B-, and if you catch it on cable in a year or two, or streaming for free on Netflix, I would recommend it.
The Town:
- Of the three movies I saw, this is the one I was most excited to see, and typically in that case I find myself disappointed, so I approached the movie with optimism, but tried not to get too excited for it.
- Movie synopsis: The movie was directed by Ben Affleck, and also stars Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, and Rebecca Hall. Affleck and Renner are bank/armored car robbers, and in a heist gone somewhat astray, they kidnap Hall. Affleck has to tie up Hall as a loose end, and as luck would have it he falls for her. And of course bank robbers don't change their stripes, so of course they have to pull of another score, all while hiding their identities from Hall.
- I like Ben Affleck. There's no doubt he's made some bad acting decisions in his career, but for the most part I enjoy his work. As a director, I loved Gone Baby Gone, his directorial debut. I think he catches a lot of flack because of his personal life early in his career, but honestly I don't think that criticism is justified.
- Jeremy Renner is very good. He's on a really good career arc right now with The Hurt Locker and now the The Town, but I'm a little concerned with his upcoming films. A Mission Impossible flick, and The Avengers. Hopefully he keeps a good mix of blockbusters, and movies that allow him to demonstrate his acting chops.
- Things I liked: To be honest, most of everything. I thought it was extremely well done, well acted, had a good pace, and was entertaining. Renner was excellent, I though Affleck was very good, it had good action, good dialogue. Chris Cooper has a small part as Affleck's dad, and he's always good, so even in a very small part, that was a good bonus.
- Things I didn't like: I don't watch Mad Men, so I'm not familiar with Jon Hamm, who I understand is top notch in the show. In this movie, not so much. He wasn't horrible, but he wasn't good. He was stiff, and quite frankly I didn't buy him as a FBI agent. There were certain parts of the plot that I thought asked the audience to take a pretty big leap of faith, and one plot point in particular that bugged me, but overall not too bothersome.
- Summary: I really liked this movie. It wasn't as good as The Departed which it is most often compared to, but it was extremely good. I think Affleck is demonstrating a real talent as a director and I look forward to seeing what he does next. One thing I would like to see, it would be nice to see him do a film outside of Boston. This movie was a definite A, and if you haven't seen it, do so as soon as you can.
The Fighter:
- Let's be honest, I'm the target audience for the fighter. I love boxing, I love sports movies, I love true story dramas, it would be pretty hard to screw this one up for me....but there were things I didn't like.
- Synopsis: Mark Wahlberg plays Irish Micky Ward, a Boston boxer struggling to make it in the fight game, trained by his crackhead half brother, Dicky Eklund played by Christian Bale. That should be enough drama, but Ward also has a whole gaggle of sisters, and a crazy mom. David O. Russell (Three Kings) directed the movie, and Amy Adams and Melissa Leo play the two main women characters, Ward's girlfriend, and mother.
- Similar to Affleck, I think Wahlberg gets way too much crap for being a bad actor. Personally, I like him. The dude stays in his lane, and he's never going to be the best actor in his generation, but I think he does a good job.
- Christian Bale might be the best actor of his generation, he's very good. He's excellent in this movie, and definitely deserved the Oscar. Having said all of that, I would like to see him play a part that is maybe just a little understated.
- Oscar opinion: Between Melissa Leo, and Amy Adams, the academy awarded the statue to the wrong woman. Leo was good, don't get me wrong, but she had the much easier part to play. Ward's mom is a complete over the top nutjob, and Leo pulled off the part well, but to me her part probably could have been done by any number of actresses that fit the character profile. However, Amy Adams was incredible, for me she was the highlight of the movie. I thought her part was much more difficult, and she played it much better, and deserved the Oscar.
- Things I disliked: The movie was very slooooow. I like a movie to keep moving, and this one didn't really deliver. I would have liked more boxing, but for the majority of the people out there that's probably not an issue.
- Things I liked: The movie is pretty historically accurate, and the boxing scenes that were in the movie were shot really well. Nothing will ruin a sports movie quicker for me than not depicting a sport accurately, and this movie gets boxing right. The acting performances in this movie were extremely good, the best overall of the three movies I saw.
- Summary: I liked the movie, but not nearly as much as I anticipated I would. Quite frankly in my opinion Micky Ward is the secondary focus of the movie, and Bale's character Ecklund is much more prominent. I understand that from a drama standpoint that's probably the right equation, but from a personal standpoint I wasn't thrilled with it. Overall, I did enjoy it, I was entertained, and I would recommend it. I give it a solid B, maybe on a second viewing I could see bumping that to a B+.
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