Heartbreak Ridge

I grew up like most boys drooling over the Dirty Harry films. Clint Eastwood is the ultimate tough guy and man's man. I cannot believe that I have never come across this film before. Starring and directed by Clint comes this 1980s wartime film. I really had a good time with this film and couldn't stop watching it when it started moving along. The film was just a good time the whole way through. Clint's raspy and don't-give-a---- attitude permeates through every scene and with every other character he comes in contact with. He welcomes confrontation.

The only minus I found for this film was the length. It could have been an easy 90-120 minute film, but it was almost to the 2.5 hour mark. It did start to become grueling when they actually begin real battle. It seemed like they were pinned down in that little house/fort for forever! It definitely impacted the positive experience I had been having up until that point.

I need to look into more old school Eastwood films because he knows how to tell a story and act the piss out of it.

Rating: 9/10
RT: 85%

Lost In Translation

I've been chasing this films for literally almost a decade now ever since we watched the second act in one of my film classes at UofM. I did enjoy the film, however, I didn't love it. I completely believed the impromptu relationship between Bill Murray's and Scarlett Johnasson's character and thought it was very well crafted, but the film overall didn't make me sizzle. It was an interesting love fish-out-of-water love story set against the beautiful and unmistakable backdrop of Japan.

Sophia Coppola is a director that I do respect and I appreciate the similar mellow vibe she brings to her works, but I'd rather watch THE VIRGIN SUICIDES over this any day. And I think that it's lack of desire to repeat view has a lot to do with why this film was kind of blah for me. It was shot beautifully and written well, but it wasn't what I wanted, it was exactly what I expected, but not what I wanted.

Bill Murray was a definite saving grace. He moved about the film with poise and brilliance extracting just enough dry humor and sarcasm here and there to hold it all together.

Rating: 7.5/10
RT: 94%

The Joneses

David Duchovney (sp) is probably hands down one of my favorite actors. He's right up there with Bill Murray, Viggo Mortenson, and Edward Norton. And I feel the one brilliant thing about this film was his character. He actually arced during the film (imagine that). Demi Moore was a joy to watch as well, but David really had an excellent performance. Another plus for the film is the polished look it carried throughout. I felt like you were whisked away for 2 hours to the land where 300k sports cars just appeared out of the air and noone had to do anything but play golf for f/t employment.

The story is simple and one-layered, but you still have fun with it. Don't expect to leave this film with a newfound view on life and it won't leave you asking questions or making life changes. It's basically a stage for David and Demi to shine on. And watching them glimmer and dance about made it an entertaining romp for me.

Rating: 8.5/10
RT: 61%

Going The Distance

I can thank my wife for making me waste almost 2 hours of my life watching this film. Going in I was hopeful - maybe Justin Long and Drew Barrymore would have some actual chemistry and be entertaining to watch. I was wrong. Their relationship seemed so artificial and pushed that it hurt. They tried to incorporate a lot of bathroom (american pie) type humor, but it really fell flat. Even the sidekick friends off-the-wall one-liners were so trite and forced that you couldn't help but wondered who wrote this piece of garbage.

There is probably two or three times where there are actual moments of humor, but those come few and far between. One that comes to mind was when Justin and Drew came home and started getting into it on the dinner table while her brother-in-law was eating a sandwich there. His remarks carried the scene, no thanks to Justin or Drew though.

Rating:3/10
RT: 53%

127 Hours

Been a while, but I need to start some consistent writing again. A few weeks back I wrote like 10 pages of my screenplay. It's now at 90 pages... 30 pages seems so far off!

127 Hours was phenom. I love the simple premise and how it's actually based on true events. It was adapted from a book and those usually make for good films. The best part of the film is James Franco. He is a literal vision. By far the best performance I've seen in a long time.

People have said that the weakest part of this film is the fact that the story follows one guy who's trapped under a rock for multiple days and that it is boring. Within their negative issues with the film is where my positive feedback is. Allowing the film to slow down and really concentrate and focus on the time that James is pinned to the rock allows us to share the experience with him and start to understand what he went through.

Most likely will make my top list for the year. Check it out.

Rating: 9.75/10
RT: 93%