Movie Reviews - Cuz I know you're dying for my opinion
My husband is not a big movie guy. Usually I watch movies on Netflix on my PC and he watches hours and hours worth of the Speed Channel and Classic Car Auctions :-/ He knows I love going to the theater though, and I guess since it was my B-day and our Anniversary this past week (and Isaac ruined our beach plans) he took me to see 3 movies!! Of course he picked them. His largesse apparently only goes so far ;)
So, in my excitement and since it's what my Daddy calls a 'toad strangler' outside right now, I'm going to review the 3 films I've seen this past week.
The Bourne Legacy: I was surprised that I enjoyed this one. Mostly because I'd never seen any of the other Bourne movies. But I was able to follow, probably because the infamous 'Jason Bourne' is not even in this film. It's about another guy played by Jeremy Renner. I liked him and he's quite attractive in his own way. I'd been expecting more of a cheesy James Bond type of thing and was pleasantly surprised that it had what I consider a smarter feel. Lots of action and suspense. Edward Norton was convincing, as usual, in the role of the 'patriotic pragmatist' - meaning he has no scruples/morals about doing anything and everything to "protect" the image of the country.
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 4.
Hit & Run: Yes my husband picked a RomCom, but this one had action and classic cars involved in chase scenes. It had its moments. I enjoyed Tom Arnold in the role of the hopelessly goofy, inept, and loveable U.S. Marshall, Randy. Bradley Cooper was enjoyable as the 'villian'. I'm fairly neutral on the stars' performance (Dax Shepard & Kristen Bell). They were *okay*. I'm not a great fan of the RomCom genre usually, but there were a few good chuckles in this one.
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 3.5
Lawless: The dramatic telling of the true story of moonshiners in Franklin Co, VA during prohibition. I was so on-the-fence about seeing this movie. I'm a native Appalachian. My family has lived in Appalachia / The Blue Ridge Mtns since before the Revolutionary War. I LOVE this place and am highly senstive to how we are treated in media. We're *people* and like ALL people most of us are decent, some of us are shady, and a few of us plain suck. My parents actually grew up in counties that surround
Franklin, so I'm very familiar with the area.
Not sure how Mom will like the film though, because of the violence. It is not the action film, stylized kind of violence. This is more gritty and real and there is a scene where some Chicago gangsters rape a main character that is 'off screen' but nevertheless HIGHLY disturbing. I had to hide my face on several occasions and I'm a big fan of horror movies. But zombies are nowhere near as terrifying as something that has a realistic feel. People are the scariest monsters.
Anyway, overall I think it was well done. The mountain people weren't treated as non-human, animals in a zoo for the most part. There were a few caricatures, but this is Hollywood. Shia LaBeouf did a really good job with the accent and I'm picky about that sort of thing. Tom Hardy who played his brother didn't exactly sound right to me. It was more Billy Bob Thornton Slingblade than Mountain accent *shrugs*. I actually hate Guy Pearce a little right now because he made the villian so unreedemingly despicable. Anyway, I will stop rambling, because bottom line is, I was definitely impressed (and a nervous friggin wreck for 2 hours).
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 4.8 (because the violence was a bit too real for my personal tastes)
So, in my excitement and since it's what my Daddy calls a 'toad strangler' outside right now, I'm going to review the 3 films I've seen this past week.
The Bourne Legacy: I was surprised that I enjoyed this one. Mostly because I'd never seen any of the other Bourne movies. But I was able to follow, probably because the infamous 'Jason Bourne' is not even in this film. It's about another guy played by Jeremy Renner. I liked him and he's quite attractive in his own way. I'd been expecting more of a cheesy James Bond type of thing and was pleasantly surprised that it had what I consider a smarter feel. Lots of action and suspense. Edward Norton was convincing, as usual, in the role of the 'patriotic pragmatist' - meaning he has no scruples/morals about doing anything and everything to "protect" the image of the country.
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 4.
Hit & Run: Yes my husband picked a RomCom, but this one had action and classic cars involved in chase scenes. It had its moments. I enjoyed Tom Arnold in the role of the hopelessly goofy, inept, and loveable U.S. Marshall, Randy. Bradley Cooper was enjoyable as the 'villian'. I'm fairly neutral on the stars' performance (Dax Shepard & Kristen Bell). They were *okay*. I'm not a great fan of the RomCom genre usually, but there were a few good chuckles in this one.
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 3.5
Lawless: The dramatic telling of the true story of moonshiners in Franklin Co, VA during prohibition. I was so on-the-fence about seeing this movie. I'm a native Appalachian. My family has lived in Appalachia / The Blue Ridge Mtns since before the Revolutionary War. I LOVE this place and am highly senstive to how we are treated in media. We're *people* and like ALL people most of us are decent, some of us are shady, and a few of us plain suck. My parents actually grew up in counties that surround
Franklin, so I'm very familiar with the area.
Not sure how Mom will like the film though, because of the violence. It is not the action film, stylized kind of violence. This is more gritty and real and there is a scene where some Chicago gangsters rape a main character that is 'off screen' but nevertheless HIGHLY disturbing. I had to hide my face on several occasions and I'm a big fan of horror movies. But zombies are nowhere near as terrifying as something that has a realistic feel. People are the scariest monsters.
Anyway, overall I think it was well done. The mountain people weren't treated as non-human, animals in a zoo for the most part. There were a few caricatures, but this is Hollywood. Shia LaBeouf did a really good job with the accent and I'm picky about that sort of thing. Tom Hardy who played his brother didn't exactly sound right to me. It was more Billy Bob Thornton Slingblade than Mountain accent *shrugs*. I actually hate Guy Pearce a little right now because he made the villian so unreedemingly despicable. Anyway, I will stop rambling, because bottom line is, I was definitely impressed (and a nervous friggin wreck for 2 hours).
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 4.8 (because the violence was a bit too real for my personal tastes)