The Town

Ok so its time for an honest moment from me. I have, and I will caveat this later, always liked Ben Affleck as an actor. I KNOW! I know that he has been in some...well, rough, uncompelling movies. I will admit that. But you know, I mean YOU KNOW that Good Will Hunting would not have had as solid of an ending as it did, without Affleck's characters speech to Matt Damon about how he wants him to not come to his front door one day. It's true admit it. I know Daredevil sucked, ok Gigli sucked, ok Paycheck sucked but again most of 2003-2005 sucked for movies too.

And as of late, I have really appreciated his non-jerky approach to movies. He has taken small roles, sometimes funny and sometimes not, and has taken a humble approach to his acting and I appreciated that. It's cool to see a guy who could be in a starring role and then get killed off in the first 10 minutes of a film (Guy Pearce did it in Hurt Locker and Affleck did it in Smoking aces).

That scenario always has a "Whoa, what?" aspect to it and makes you just shake your head for a moment because you have it ingrained in you that particular actor should be on that screen for a longer time than he is. I love it. I love to see good actors humble themselves to lend their talent briefly to a project. It shows that they love their craft and they are not above only have five minutes on screen. It surprises me and I love to be surprised in a good way at the movies and Affleck has shown me that continually (he was GREAT in "She's Just Not That Into You" as well in a small role).

Now the Fall movie season is coming (a movie season I used to hate but since the Departed came out in October 2006, I now love), and with it some great contenders up against "Inception" for Oscars. One of them looks like "The Town" starring Affleck and Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner and a slew of other heavy acting hitters. When you say those three names together however, you can't but be blown away with what might happen. I am already looking forward to cooler temperatures, putting on my Navy Peacoat, and walking to the theatre to go see this movie.

The trailer explains the idea of the movie in detail, of course so I won't go too deep into it. Just know there is a bank robbery, one of the bank robbers (Ben Affleck) falls in love with one of the bank employees, pursues a realtionship with said employee, whilst being pursed by tenacious FBI Agent (Jon Hamm) and being looked at warily by fellow bank robbers (Jeremy Renner). Affleck does star and direct in it, Jon Hamm already was talking it up in March on "The Nerdist Podcast" as a great movie and Affleck was great to work with and just fun to chat with. Whenever an actor is talking about a co-worker without a direct question about "how did you two find working with each other" from a reporter during the media blitz preceding a movie, chances are they really liked working with each other. And that translates most of the time into good times at the theatre.

Anyways, the movie might fall flat, it might be awesome, but judging from the talent, the apparent story, and the fact that its based on an incredible book, this movie is on my must see list. Right behind Inception, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. So go see another Ben Affleck movie set in Boston (surprise!) this fall. I think that you guys will like it, and forgive Affleck for Paycheck already, he's done his penance by having to propose to Jennifer Anniston on film. Isn't that enough for you people!? See you all at the movies.

Valhalla Rising

Ok so there are two things that I really love. Movies involving war and movies involving Vikings. I just saw a trailer that has both and this movie seems to really, really kick tail. I mean look at the freaking picture dude! This dude has Viking tattoos, one eye and a sword! How can you say no to that?????!!!! Ok, the trailer looks violent, but it was around 1095 AD (I know this because they are going to the crusades and 1095 was right around that time so meh!) and that was a violent time so meh again! :) Anyway, check out the trailer (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/valhallarising/) and you shall hopefully enjoy. :) Dude carries a freaking axe!!!! Awesome. Lol I'm nerding out right now, it will pass. Hee Hee

Kick Ass

Yes forgive the relative lateness of this post as of course this movie has been out since April, but I just saw it and I have to be able to talk about it.

First, this movie is an astounding breath of fresh air when it comes to the super hero genre. It is an origin story, a conflict story and a action packed story all wrapped up into one. I love origin stories when it comes to super heros, they are discovering new things as the audience does as well and its fun to watch them have fun with their new powers. The only problem is that most of the time there is relatively no wonderful fight sequence until the end. Yes this movie does have that, but it has several strung throughout the film and its amazing to watch.

Second, it is wonderfully original. A quick synopsis is that a young man name Dave (played by Aaron Johnson) asks the question that most geeks have thought in their lifetimes of "Why are there no super heroes?" The answer in quick succession is that there are none because they would probably get killed. But after Dave and a friend of his (which by the way his two friends are underutilized in the film and are both hilarious) get mugged while a man watches from his apartment, Dave decides that he should become a super hero. A person who stands for justice bravely while others watch. Kick Ass is born.

I won't spoil a lot of good parts of this film but let me just say that Kick Ass quickly finds that he is in way over his head, and that he is not the real deal of a super hero. He is confronted by this with the introduction of Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage, I know what you are thinking, but stop, he is really good!). These two characters make the film. Unfortunately, I will say that Hit Girl swears, a lot. Yes sometimes it is funny to see little kids swear, but to be fair, maybe she does so to much. You don't know why she knows all of these words, she says them anyway, its funny but over the top, lets move on. This movie even makes Nicholas Cage compelling. Its amazing. He is so good it just makes me want to go see Raising Arizona all over again before he became a puppet of Jerry Bruckheimer.

Of course there is always a villain. In this case by the name of Frank D'Amico (played by the wonderful Mark Strong, who is also in Robin Hood which will be the next post). He is not an all knowing, all powerful guy, in fact he has his issues with his son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Role Models and McLovin Fame) and has a crumbling criminal empire. I like this view of this villain because he doesn't laugh manically, he has faults, he can be evil, but also is just a guy in the real world who thinks things should run a certain way and yet everything is turned on its head because some kid decides he wants to become a super hero and as a result everything he knows is affected.

In many ways all of the characters are connected, they all have faults and needs just like anyone else and the movie is (for the most part) held to a steady grip on reality. If someone were to try what Dave has tried many of these things would go wrong for them. They could inspire hope and have a ton of Facebook hits, but it would be bittersweet and many would be overwhelmed just like Dave was.

I am rambling a bit here but let me just say that this movie is worth it. It has some sexual themes that I was not happy with, but on Blu Ray they can be fast forwarded through. It has many twists and turns, some heart wrenching themes of family relationships (Father and Son, Father and Daughter), love relationships and many betrayals. It is funny, action packed and drama filled and it is all done well. I was a big fun movie and I enjoyed it.

Let me just say that this is my first post and I am super terrified that everyone will read it and be like, "Man this dude does not know what he is talking about." Well, to whoever reads, first of all, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to read my stuff, and second of all, I really hope that you enjoy what I say about these movies. One of the reasons why I am writing all of this stuff is because I hear so many reviews of movies that I have enjoyed and the critics just get bogged down in the minutiae of the movie, or they simply overlook every thing that can make a movie good or bad.

I love movies, and I enjoy them immensely, and I have no stake in the industry at all. I just want to let everyone know where these movies I think are coming from and hopefully people can see the same things I do and that I enjoy whether that be a creative stand the movie has made or just a good sequence of events in the plot or even parallels (writers love parallels, whether they are there or not. :) ) within the plot. Overall, I hope that you all (whoever you are) enjoy what you read and what you see in my posts. Thanks for your time, and have a great day. :)