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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street: The Leader of the Pack
Set in the 1980s, The Wolf of Wall Street tells the true story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his desire to be rich instantly. Growing up in poverty, Belfort's only dream was to be rich, and what better way to do that than in stocks? At the young age of 23, Belfort and his wife, Theresa (Cristin Milioti), head to New York so Belfort could learn the ways of Wall Street. Being taught by stock tycoon Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), Belfort quickly transforms from a mild mannered hometown boy to a drug addicted, adultering wolf, that is, of course, the stocks crash, Hanna's brokerage firm closes, and Belfort is out of a job.
Belfort's broking career looks bleak until his wife points out a small brokerage firm that is still hiring brokers. Excited about the opportunity, Belfort's hopes are quickly dashed when he enters the office of the firm, in a strip mall, and sees no put-together businessmen in thousand dollar suits, but he instead sees large, sweaty guys in collared shirts and sweatpants. Belfort's hopes rise once again as soon as the firm's owner tells him that the commission on the stocks sold, penny stocks worth six cents a share, is 50%, which means that if Belfort sold $10,000 worth of shares, he gets $5,000 straight into is pocket. Soon after Belfort makes a small fortune, he meets Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), and together, they co-found Stratton Oakmont OTC firm, and dive deeper into the illegal world of drugs, hookers, and money.
The Wolf of Wall Street is simply one of the best movies of 2013. Definitely for mature audiences only, the rated R movie is, in my opinion, a boarder line NC-17 rated movie. The film can really only be described in one word: raunchy. Without going into detail, drug abuse and sex run rampant throughout the movie, of course along with the various other illegal activities.
In the days leading up to, and the days after the release of The Wolf of Wall Street, controversy about the movie began to rise. Many were saying that there is a case to be made that the movie glorifies criminals and criminal activity. Yes, The Wolf of Wall Street shows what happened to Belfort as his dove deeper into the criminal underworld, and yes, things looked pretty awesome. However, the movie DOES NOT glorify criminal activity, it simply acknowledges it. The highlife that Jordan Belfort lived through the majority of the movie is not the message of the story, the message of the story is what happened to Belfort in the final twenty minutes. The movie is not showing the rewards, it ultimately shows the affects of the actions taken.
In The Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio, in a way, once again channels his inner Jay Gatsby as he lives the life of wealth and parties. In a way, Jordan Belfort is very similar to Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, just 60 years later. Anyway, DiCaprio's acting is memorable, and is a performance that should definitely be acknowledged. While I personally think Tom Hanks' performance as Captain Phillips in Captain Phillips earlier in 2013 will ultimately win the Oscar, DiCaprio is, at least, worthy of a nomination. Jonah Hill is great in the movie, and the rest of the cast does a fine job. DiCaprio, however, is definitely the star of the film, and has a chance to end his Oscar drought (knock on wood).
Of the Christmas day releases (the others being: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Grudge Match, 47 Ronin), The Wolf of Wall Street is definitely the best, and is also one of the best of 2013. With the Academy Awards around the corner, I find it hard to believe that Wolf will leave the awards show empty handed, but I've been wrong before. While not living up to my expectations fully, The Wolf of Wall Street is nonetheless a fantastic film that is 100% worth seeing. Scorsese, once again, delivers a phenomenal movie, maybe his best since The Departed, which, ironically, starred Leo DiCaprio. I do, once again, have to stress that The Wolf of Wall Street is for mature audiences only.
Rating: 9 of 10
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American Hustle (2013)
American Hustle: Don't Get Hustled By This Con
Everybody has to do what they can to survive, even if what they do lies on the illegal side of things. The same goes for Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale). A con-man for the majority of his life, Rosenfeld has quickly become one of the best in the business. Dabbling in fake loans and fake artwork, Rosenfeld makes a good living for himself. Business only gets better for Irving when he meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) – the woman he quickly falls in love with, even though he is married to his wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). Sydney joins the business with Irving and things run smoothly, until they run into F.B.I. Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).
After DiMaso takes Prosser to jail and holds her there for three days, Irving cuts a deal. He agrees to run four cons with DiMaso to take down some criminals, and in return, Rosenfeld and Prosser walk. Their plan goes off without a hitch, until DiMaso gets addicted to and mentally sickened by the case when he learns that the lovable Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), hailing from New Jersey, is as dirty as they come. With the con in full swing, Rosenfeld realizes he is in way over his head, and needs to hustle his way out.
There's really no need to sugarcoat anything – American Hustle is not a good film – mainly because of the acting. Before I begin ranting about all that was bad about the movie, I do want to quickly rave about two things: the story, and Christian Bale. First, the concept of American Hustle is really intriguing, and I do genuinely see the appeal that most of the country sees in the film. The hustling and con-artist world is a fascinating world and the story, not the script, the story is written very well. Christian Bale is absolutely fantastic. Bale easily saves this movie. His acting is brilliant and flawless. He is definitely deserving of an Oscar nomination, and has a legitimate shot, in my opinion, to challenge Tom Hanks. Also, it is worth noting, that Jeremy Renner also does a commendable and noteworthy job in the movie.
Now, to the problems. Starting off with Bradley Cooper: I do have to say his performance isn't terrible. It is, however, strange. I never once got a sense of who Richie DiMaso is. One minute he's calm and smart, the next he's a drunken maniac, and then the next he's a sobbing idiot. Normally, I would commend drastic emotional changes like this, however it comes across as confusing and weird. Next, onto Jennifer Lawrence. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why she was in the movie. The director must still be drunk over the success of Silver Linings Playbook in 2012. Lawrence's character is completely unnecessary and sloppily written. I would bet a serious amount of money that David O. Russell created Rosalyn Rosenfeld for the sole purpose of having Lawrence in the movie. And another thing, to be honest, Lawrence is terrible in the movie. Her acting is obviously fake and forced, and, I'm sorry but it's just plain awful. Finally, to Amy Adams. Her character I liked, her I did not. American Hustle would have been much, much better if someone else was cast in the role of Sydney Prosser. I'm sorry, but Amy Adams plays the role in the same old, lifeless manner she plays all her other roles.
Also, to the director, David O. Russell: what were you thinking? Yes, The Fighter worked, and yes, Silver Linings Playbook worked, and I get it, many directors like to recycle the actors they use for many of their films (Christopher Nolan comes to mind), but that doesn't mean it always works. You cannot mush the casts of two movies together and assume it will work – and here, it did not. Bale worked, but Adams, Cooper, and Lawrence flamed out, which really made the movie suffer. Also, Robert De Niro has a miniscule part in the film which bothered me. Why? Why do you need to bring in a talent like De Niro to have him be in the movie for around five minutes? What is the point of that? Is it maybe because he too was in Silver Linings Playbook and you hoped throwing him in there would make things work again? If that's the answer, shame on you David O. Russell.
With all the ranting I've done, it sounds like I'm about to give American Hustle an awful rating, and I will not be recommending it. I'm not doing either of those things. I completely understand the appeal to American Hustle, believe me, I wanted nothing more than to like this movie. My major problem was the cast of the film, aside from Bale and Renner. All in all, Bale, Renner, and the concept saved this movie from being a tragic failure. As for recommending it, I cannot sit here and say "see it" or "don't see it" because I am in the middle. There are good qualities that bring it up, and there are bad qualities that bring it right back down. In the end, all I can say is, if you want to take your chances, go ahead, but be very cautious.
Rating: 5 of 10 BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com @BrickFilmReview
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
An Uplifting Story About Life and Reality
Everyone has a dream to be something they are not. For Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), that's to be noteworthy. A chronic daydreamer, Mitty lives a simple life in a New York apartment and goes to his job at Life Magazine where he is in charge of negative photos – a job that he's had for 16 years. Having done basically nothing with his life other than master skateboard tricks as a teenager, Mitty constantly daydreams about being somebody different – an adventurer, a hero, and a romantic.
Mitty's life heats up when he meets Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig), a recently divorced single mom with an eHarmony profile and a new job at Life. When Life is bought by a big corporate company and decides to move strictly online, jobs, including Mitty and Melhoff's are put in jeopardy. When Mitty can't find a negative from renown photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) that was scheduled to be the cover for the last print issue of Life, he sets out on an amazing global journey beyond his wildest imagination.
Loosely based on a 1947 movie of the same name, Walter Mitty is your typical, run-of-the-mill feel-good movie. The underlying tone of the movie is obvious – take advantage of everything life has to offer. Going in with an open mind, Walter Mitty is a movie that can definitely give someone a new perspective on life in general.
There honestly isn't much to complain about in Walter Mitty. It's a simple story of one man who lives in his head and has to break his way out. Ben Stiller pretty much plays the same role he does in most of his other movies. Kritsen Wiig is a fine supporting actress, and Sean Penn's surprisingly limited and very few worded role is great. While not anywhere near the best picture of the year, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a good movie about the everyman, and one that is worth a shot.
Rating: 6 of 10 BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The Reutrn to Middle Earth is Anything But Desolate
Set in Middle Earth, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug picks up where we left off in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. After a brief opening scene showing Gandalf (Ian McKellen) approaching Thorin (Richard Armitage) and convincing him to take back the dwarf's home at The Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). Time jump twelve months to where we left off in the previous movie, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf, Thorin, and the rest of dwarfs frantically run to get away from a pack of Orcs, led by Azog (Manu Bennett), who have been hunting them. After Gandalf leaves to report the coming of a greater evil, Bilbo and the dwarfs venture into the Mirkwood Forest.
The string of bad luck that seems to follows the dwarfs continues, as the lose their way in the forest, get ambushed by a pack of giant spiders, and then are taken prisoner by the woodland elves, led by King Thranduil (Lee Pace). With the help of Bilbo and the ring he found in the goblin lair in An Unexpected Journey, the dwarfs escape the grasp of the elves and eventually make it to Laketown, a small town at the foot of The Lonely Mountain, and eventually back to Erebor, where the dragon Smaug awaits.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is easily better than it's predecessor. An Unexpected Journey was warm and friendly, while DoS was much, much darker. The movie is gripping beyond belief. Being a continuation of the previous movie, DoS jumps directly into the heart-pounding action with the immediate Orc chase. The plot is well thought out and written extremely well. Martin Freeman outperforms himself as Bilbo Baggins since the last movie, and we get to see the true leadership side of Richard Armitage's King Thorin. The movie does jump around quite often, from the dwarfs, to Gandalf's mission, to the elvish troubles of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom).
While there is nothing glaringly wrong with The Desolation of Smaug, there are a few things here and there that I found fault with. First of all, is found that Gandalf was underused. Granted he had to go off on his own mission that got him in some trouble, there was, honestly, significantly less screen time of Ian McKellen compared to An Unexpected Journey. Secondly, I found that some events of the movie were a tad predictable, and this is coming from someone who has not read the book The Hobbit. Personally, I feel that a greater sense of danger could have been introduced to the film, but, in the grand scheme of things, this is a minor setback, especially since it is the second movie of a trilogy. The CGI, however, needs to be addressed. The imagery was absolutely fantastic. The work on the dragon Smaug, in particular, was breathtaking and seemed as if they had an actual dragon.
At the end of the day, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug did its job; it perfectly continued the story left off in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and it perfectly set up for the third film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. The movie ended with a seamless and gripping cliffhanger, and leaves feelings of satisfaction, desire, and, to an extent, un-fulfillment – a feeling that has a justified place in context of the movie. If you have not yet seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy you can still enjoy and understand The Desolation of Smaug, so long as you see An Unexpected Journey first.
Rating: 8 of 10
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Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Saving Mr. Banks: Disney at It's Best
Every story has some truth behind it. No matter how fictional the situation, there is always a bit of truth in each and every story told. The same goes for Mary Poppins, the 1964 Disney movie that became an instant classic. Based on the character created by P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins focused on a magic nanny who had arrived at the house of a banker, Mr. Banks, to fix his unhappy family. Saving Mr. Banks focuses on P.L. Travers, as she reflects on her troubled childhood while attempting to work with Walt Disney to bring her character to life.
Set in 1961, Saving Mr. Banks chronicles P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) and her reluctant trip to Los Angeles to meet with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who has tried to buy the right to Mary Poppins for almost 20 years. Convinced to go by her agent, Travers hates just about everything about California, as well as Disney's plans for the movie. Disney quickly finds himself banging his head against a brick wall (metaphorically), due to Travers' stubbornness and brief arrogance.
During the days spent shooting down just about every single idea the screenwriters had for Mary Poppins, Travers often thinks back to her childhood, specifically moments with her very, very loving, but also very drunk, father, Travers Goff (Colin Farrell). Goff seems to be a fantastic father, always cheery and ready to put a smile on his children's face, and always encourages his daughter to dream, and tells her that she can be anything she wants to be. Her happy family begins to burst at the seems however, as Goff's drinking problem spills over into his family life, and eventually made Travers the stone cold person she had become. With P.L. Travers' ever-growing stubbornness, Walt Disney's attempt to bring the beloved character to life seems like an insurmountable challenge.
Undoubtedly, Saving Mr. Banks is absolutely fantastic. It's perfection from beginning, to middle, to end. Each scene was filled with emotion, feeling, and heart, and that really shined through. Many movies that dabble with flashbacks usually struggle with the integration into the movie, however SMB does this brilliantly and seamlessly, using the many flashbacks to explain key points in the story.
Saving Mr. Banks' acting is incredible. Emma Thompson nailed this roll. Towards the beginning, her character is maddeningly arrogant and stubborn. As the movie progresses, you can really feel her emotions change, and you can feel along with her. Annie Rose Buckley, who played P.L. Travers as a young girl in the flashbacks, perfectly compliments Thompson's character. She is about as flawless as Thompson is. Colin Farrell's performance as Travers Goff is amazing, and Tom Hanks's role as Walt Disney is played to perfection.
There are not enough adjectives to describe how great Saving Mr. Banks and the cast are. First off, SMB is definitely one of Disney's best movies, live-action or animation. It's probably the best Disney movie since The Lion King, or maybe even since Mary Poppins itself. This movie is definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination. Emma Thompson deserves the award for Best Actress, and Tom Hanks is as good, if not better, than his performance earlier this year in Captain Phillips, and should definitely take home Best Supporting Actor. Saving Mr. Banks is a fantastic, feel-good, family friendly movie that exceeds Disney standards and stands out as, to this date, one of, if not the best, movie of 2013.
Rating: 10 of 10
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Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
Anchorman 2: It Really Was Kind of a Big Deal
Years after the legend was born, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) once again returns to the limelight - co-anchoring a national news station with his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Life is good for Mr. Burgundy until news legend Mack Harken (Harrison Ford) promotes Veronica to nightly news and kicks Ron to the curb.
With his news days seemingly behind him, and after a suicide attempt, Burgundy gets lifeline when he is offered a slot on GNN, the world's first 24-hour news network. After tracking down Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Coechner), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), the Channel 4 News Team is back to take on the world.
While not living up to the original Legend, Anchorman 2 serves up another one just as hilarious, and goes down as one of the best comedies of the year. In the nine years since we last saw Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell's performance has not changed one bit. Steve Carell's mentally disabled Brick Tamland makes a spectacular, quirky return, and manages to be even more hilariously stupid. David Coechner's Champ Kind and Paul Rudd's Brian Fantana return with even, gut-busting performances.
With all this raving, Anchorman 2 did not come without it's faults. Some scenes could have been left out, as they hurt the movie and ultimately lowered its score in our eyes, and frankly weren't that funny. Despite the minimal shortcomings, however, the film lived up to the hype that has been building for a long while. The fresh humor and quick wit keeps the audience on their toes, and there's a joke basically around every corner. The potential for more was there, but nevertheless, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is a definite must-see.
Rating: 7 of 10 BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com @BrickFilmReview
Out of the Furnace (2013)
Out of the Furnace: Bale's Return a Slow Burn
Beginning in 2008, Out of the Furnace centers on the Baze family, primarily brothers Russell (Christian Bale) and Rodney (Casey Affleck). Living in a small industrial Pennsylvanian town, Russell spends his days laboring at the steel mill (the furnace), while Casey, a soldier, spends his days borrowing money to gamble away while not fighting overseas. Usually Russell is the one taking care of Rodney, however roles change after a drunk-driving incident lands Russell in prison for some time (I assume five years).
When released from prison, Russell's brother eagerly awaits to take him home. As Russell does his best to reintegrate himself into society, without the help of his former girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana), he learns that things have changed from the time of his incarceration. Along with the passing of his father, Russell realizes that Rodney has gotten himself into a great amount of debt with local crime boss John Petty (Willem Dafoe), and as a result is forced to fight for money, like animals. Things quickly go south when Rodney learns of fights in Jersey, run by major crime lord Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), that pay a ton of money, but soon after, he goes missing. Back in Pennsylvania, Russell Baze faces the decision to sit back and let the police fail to do their job, or risk his freedom and get justice for his brother.
After a long 17-month absence from the theaters, Christian Bale ditches the cape-and-cowl in exchange for a goatee and a shaky film. Out of the Furnace is mediocre. It doesn't have anything to do with the acting, really, but the movie as a package just was not fulfilling. Bale, surprisingly enough, plays his part well, and is actually one of the saving graces of this subpar film. Out of the Furnace was a decent change of pace from what we've seen from Bale lately (The Dark Knight trilogy) but, overall, the movie was slow. It took forever to pick up any steam and get interesting. Quite frankly, the movie wasn't really interesting at all.
While Bale may have been fine, the same cannot necessarily be said for the rest of the cast. Casey Affleck's character was strange, and his acting just made Rodney Baze stranger. It was hard for the audience to get behind the character and feel for him the way it was obviously intended to. Zoe Saldana's character serves ZERO purpose, and Willem Dafoe's John Petty wasn't that much better. Woody Harrelson's villain, Harlan DeGroat, is certainly interesting. DeGroat is the first character introduced in the film, when we see him beat the life out of a guy at a drive in, for essentially no reason at all. Given that the point of the scene was to show how violent and unreasonable DeGroat is, the entire scene comes across as awkward, forced, and unnecessary. For a main character, DeGroat is under used, and in general is just strange.
While I can't say Out of the Furnace was one of the worst movies of the year, it wasn't great, and Bale will, unfortunately take a hit for it. The movie seemed to be put together haphazardly, and it was awfully slow and frankly boring. Luckily for Bale, his role in American Hustle later this month should make Out of the Furnace ultimately unforgettable, but for now, this one will sting. If the movie is something you really want to see for some reason, by all means, go ahead, but, in my opinion, you should save your money.
Rating: 4 of 10
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The Book Thief (2013)
The Book Thief: A Story of Courage
The Book Thief is a movie told through the eyes of the citizens of Germany during World War II. Due to events leading up to the war, a mother is forced to give up her child for adoption to seek refuge for herself. The girl, Leisel (Sophie Nélisse), is adopted by a poor family of two, an older couple, who live in the heart of Germany. The father, Hans (Geoffrey Rush), is kind, friendly, and quickly forms a bond with Leisel. The mother, however, is much more strict and uptight. Being the new girl, Leisel only made one friend, a young boy named Rudy (Nico Liersch) who one day dreams of going to the Olympics.
Coming from a poor family, Leisel is illiterate and wishes to learn how to read. Throughout the movie, Hans and Leisel read books that Leisel "borrows" from a rich family who hired the mother to do their laundry. Around the halfway point in the movie, the family is faced with a new challenge when a Jewish man seeks refuge in Leisel's home from the Nazis.
The events of the movie are suspenseful and tug at the heart strings. However, The Book Thief tends to drag on from time to time. With most of the movie about reading books and hiding from the Nazis, some of the scenes are longer than needed. This does not take away from the fact that the movie does an excellent job of portraying how evil the Nazis really are.
Overall, The Book Thief is a mediocre movie. With one big name actor, Geoffrey Rush, the other actors in the movie simply blend together. I wouldn't necessarily rush out to see it, but The Book Thief is a movie to see on a rainy day with nothing else to do.
Rating: 7 of 10
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Frozen (2013)
Frozen: Holiday Magic and Fun
Leave it to Walt Disney Studios to kickoff the holiday season with a fun, joyful winter movie! Disney's Frozen is a fun filled movie that focuses on two princesses who had been separated for the majority of their lives. The two princesses were sisters, and, at birth, one sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), was born normal, while the other, Elsa (Idina Menzel) was cursed with the ability to control winter.
At a young age, Anna and Elsa would use Elsa's power at a toy, playing with it for fun. One day, Anna was injured by Elsa's powers and her life was in jeopardy. Her parents took Anna to the magic trolls to save her. The trolls save the princess' life, and then wipe her memory of Elsa's, as they thought it would be best she didn't know.
Meanwhile, Anna and Elsa's parents lock Elsa in her bedroom until she can learn to control her ability. Unfortunately, Elsa never learns to control her powers, and is locked in her room until her parents are killed in a sea storm. Many years later, Elsa is old enough to be queen of the kingdom, but is afraid the people will learn of her powers.
All these years, Anna had been alone, and searching for her one true love. When she learns that Queen Elsa is her sister and that Elsa has trapped the kingdom in eternal winter, she teams up with a man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and a snowman, Olaf (Josh Gad), to find her sister and end winter.
Frozen is a definite kid and family friendly movie. It has everything you would expect from a Disney movie, from the princess, to songs, to laughter left and right. This is a perfect movie to get you into the holiday spirit, and a movie which I definitely recommend!
Rating: 6 of 10
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Homefront (2013)
Homefront: Home of the Brave
In the southern United States, the communities are close-knit. The towns are small, and everybody knows everybody. When something happens in a town like this, word spreads fast, and reputations quickly begin to form. Former DEA Agent Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is faced with this dilemma when he and his daughter, Maddy (Izabela Vidovic), move to a small Louisiana community after his wife passes away.
Broker left the DEA after he infiltrated a biker gang infamous for producing crystal meth. During the raid to take down the drug ring, things go south for the team of DEA agents sent in to apprehend the cooks inside, resulting in the kingpin, Danny T (Chuck Zito) and his son, JoJo (Linds Edwards) briefly escaping, before the police trap the both of them, killing JoJo and arresting Danny T.
Fast forward two years to Broker and his daughter adjusting to their new life in Louisiana. Things for the two quickly go south when a bully steals Maddy's hat and pushes her, and then Maddy proceeds to beat him up. Enraged, the boy's mother, Cassie (Kate Bosworth), goes to her meth-kingpin brother, Gator Bodine (James Franco) to "handle the situation." Things quickly go up in smoke when Gator breaks into Broker's house and learns of his former career. Needless to say, stuff hits the fan.
Written by Sylvester Stallone (yes, you read that correctly), Homefront is OK. It's the type of movie that you would expect to see Jason Statham star in, as he has created a nice little niche for himself as this generation's action star, traveling the same path as stars such as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Stallone himself. The difference, and a good difference at that, is that if Stallone starred in this movie, there would be more action and less heart, however I enjoyed the movie this way.
The one problem that seems to rise in Stallone's script is the plot itself. Yes, the plot is intriguing, a former DEA agent moving into a town with a meth-lord, but the way the movie was laid out was poor. Homefront starts off with a bang, providing the initial conflict with Danny T, then quickly followed by the catalytic conflict between Maddy and Cassie's son, but after that, the movie scuffed it's feet for the next hour or so. I found myself being more concerned over what happened to Maddy's missing cat that I was the characters themselves.
The acting in Homefront is also mentionable. Statham's acting remains un-waivered from the countless number of action movies he has done in the past. James Franco's portrayal of Gator Bodine is, in my opinion, brilliantly played. Instead of the hothead villain we would normally see in a movie like this, Franco's Bodine is calm, cool, collected, and will probably be underrated. Winona Ryder's performance is forgettable. She did fine, but her character was randomly thrown into the mix without an introduction, and was probably unneeded. The Best Actor award for Homefront, however, goes to Izabela Vidovic for her performance as Statham's daughter, Maddy Broker. Her acting in this movie in phenomenal. In the span of 100 minutes, she is calm, tough, courageous, brave, scared, nervous, and upset – and she hits every single nail on the head. Near flawless.
At the end of the day, will Homefront win any awards? Doubtful. At year's end, will it go down in history as one of the best movies of 2013? It's up there, but not that high. Homefront is your typical, run-of-the-mill action movie, which, surprisingly enough, has a good amount of heart. It should make it to Netflix soon enough, but Homefront is worth a matinée price ticket, and definitely a movie that's at least worth a shot.
Rating: 6 of 10
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Lawrence Heats Up Theaters Once Again
After the events of The Hunger Games, the pressure was on production company Lionsgate to make a good sequel - which is exactly what we got. With Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark having survived the 74th annual Hunger Games, they are now forced to keep up the image of a relationship for the media. Our two protagonists are on a tour to visit and give their thanks to the 12 districts who lost lives during the Games. With broken families and angered people, the districts are anything but satisfied. With increasing tension mounting between the Capitol and the districts, a rebellion is on it's way.
To keep up their public image, Katniss and Peeta are forced to act as if they are star-crossed lovers. Along with this pressure from the media, Katniss begins to stress over having to kill people in the last Hunger Games, and feels she has lost all of her morals.
While on their tour, and fighting the urge to express their true feelings about the Games, Katniss and Peeta put on their best stage face, while the people from the 12 districts blatantly express their feelings about the Games. The districts begin to experience outbreaks of violence and revolts. With Katniss being a symbol of hope for the people, the President has a plan to get rid of that hope. Instead of a traditional Hunger Games this year, President Snow has a plan to have winners from each district (one boy one girl) to be reselected and fight in the games. With Katniss being the only girl and Peeta volunteering, they are in another Hunger Games. Yet this one is different than all others.
Overall this is a quality movie. Not many franchises can say they have a better sequel than they do an original. However The Hunger Games franchise is an exception. With the phenomenal acting by everyone, and the amazing story, this is one of the best movies this year has seen. Catching Fire is a must see.
Rating: 9 of 10 BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com @BrickFilmReview
Delivery Man (2013)
Delivery Man: Can I Get 533 Kids To Go?
Imagine a life where you are flat broke, unreliable, and have trouble doing the easiest job in the family business. That is the life of David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn). Being the delivery man for his father's meat market, Wozniak lives a debt-riddled life, and not even his girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders) can count on him to be around. Upon learning Emma is pregnant with David's child, and Emma's telling David that he is unreliable and does not have a life, Wozniak sets out to do just that – get a life.
While working to get a life, a lawyer from a fertility clinic stops by David's apartment to tell him that for over three years, the clinic accidentally only used his sperm, which he donated almost 700 times in order to earn some money, and is the biological father of 533 children. The lawyer tells Wozniak that, even though he signed an anonymity clause under the name Starbuck, his children are filing a lawsuit to find out who their father is.
Wanting to stay anonymous, David goes to his lawyer/friend, Brett (Chris Pratt), to fight the lawsuit. And after Brett gave David an envelope containing the profile of 142 of his kids, David sets out to meet them and be their guardian angel, all the while proving himself as a father and person to Emma.
A remake of the 2011 movie Starbuck, Delivery Man is OK. The movie isn't bad, but it's not the greatest movie ever. The story, crazy as it is, is heartwarming, watching Vince Vaughn's character attempt to silently reach out to his children. In the movie, we see a different side of Vince Vaughn's acting. Normally, in movies such as Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers, we see your typical comedic-movie character. However in Delivery Man, Vaughn shows feeling and emotion, really getting across what Wozniak must be feeling and how he is handling it. Cobie Smulders' performance is fine, and Chris Pratt's character doesn't make much of an impact, but overall, the movie is fine. While I did laugh a couple times, I personally am not so sure that Delivery Man should be classified as strictly a comedy, especially since I laughed more during Thor: The Dark World than this particular movie. Nonetheless, Delivery Man is a decent, feel good movie that won't waste your time.
Rating: 6 of 10
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Ender's Game (2013)
Ender's Game: Take a Step Into the Future
Enders Game is a sci-fi movie about a genetically modified kid, Ender, who is the last hope in man's war with an alien race. Ender is a child who is sent into a program that breeds young minds to become the ultimate human being who can then protect the earth from the aliens.
Throughout this movie you see how smart, strong, and tactical Ender, the main protagonist, is. With the techniques from the program, Ender proves is mind surpasses his appearance. He is a great leader to his crew, and makes everyone feel as though they contribute while also being a total badass. With the aliens on their way to attack the human race, Ender keeps his crew under control and ready for an epic battle.
Personally I enjoyed the movie. With a killer cast and very good special effects it will keep you entertained from credit to credit. If you want to see a nice sci-fi movie, Enders Game is the movie for you.
Rating: 7/10 BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com @BrickFilmReview
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Thor: The Dark Wolrd - Marvel's Phase Two Indeed Gets Darker
Imagine what it was like before the solar system existed. Now, imagine what it was like before the universe existed. Before the universe, what was there? According to Norse mythology, before the universe, there was darkness. In Thor: The Dark World, directed by Alan Taylor, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is forced to fight the darkness that once consumed everything.
Two years after Thor's first visit to Earth, and just over a year after The Battle of New York, scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) dreams that one day Thor will fulfill his promise to her and come back. While on a date, Jane's assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) pulls her away from her date and to a deserted building which housed some sort of portal. After being sucked in by a portal, Jane stumbles upon the aether, a powerful, other worldly element desired by leader of the dark elves, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), to bring the darkness back to the universe forever. The aether, with a mind of it's own (in a way), attached itself to Jane, now living inside her. When Jane surfaces back in London, she is greeted by Thor, who takes her back to Asgard after realizing something is terribly wrong.
Once the aether is awakened, Malekith is also. He learns that the aether is on Asgard, so he strikes. After a bloody battle, Thor is forced to go to the one man in all the nine realms who he trusts the least, his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston). With Loki free for now, he, Thor, and Jane set out to destroy Malekith and save the nine realms from eternal darkness.
Being the second installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Two, Thor: The Dark World does a nice job of getting the story across. The Dark World was miles better than Thor back in 2011, and while it certainly is not the best movie of Phase Two, and only tops a couple movies in Phase One, TDW holds it's ground. Much of the movie was CGI effects, which were spectacular. Also, TDW seemed to go along with the overall plan of Phase Two to go darker, which TDW did both literally and story wise. While some may say that Malekith is a perfectly suitable villain, an argument can be made that he was subpar, and could have been made much more evil. Sprinkled throughout the movie were scenes that could have, and probably should have, been removed. Also, some plot point may be confusing, so be sure to pay close attention.
All in all, Thor: The Dark World is a solid movie. Chris Hemsworth gives the best performance he has given as the character. Tom Hiddleston once again shines as Loki, and Natalie Portman does a solid job as Jane Foster. Unfortunately, Stellan Skarsgård's Dr. Erik Selvig is ridiculously underused and treated as a joke, which is a shame especially considering the roles he play in Thor and The Avengers. With all this being said, Thor: The Dark World is still a definite must see.
Rating: 7 of 10
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Last Vegas (2013)
Last Vegas: Make the Most of Your Time
Last Vegas is the story of four lifetime friends reuniting after having been separated for 58 years for one hell of a bachelor party. With this all star cast of Morgan Freeman (Archie), Robert De Niro (Paddy), Michael Douglas (Billy), and Kevin Kline (Sam) you're in for a hilarious and touching movie. When Billy engages a woman half his age, his childhood friends extemporaneously decide to throw him the engagement party of his life.
This movie is 100% hilarious! The funny, exotic situations the characters are put in will have you laughing non stop. This goes without saying that the movie is not just goofy and ridiculous situations, it is also about the four men learning more about themselves and how to accept the fact that they are getting older.
The primary reason this movie was made was to show that just because you are getting older, that does not mean you are unable to have a good time. And where better to have a good time than Vegas? Overall this movie is fairly entertaining and will leave you satisfied. While I doubt Last Vegas will receive any Oscar nominations, it's still a movie that is worthy of a recommendation.
Rating: 7 of 10
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Free Birds (2013)
Free Birds: Family Friendly Holiday Fun
Who doesn't love Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving has everything: football, arguing family members, and of course, the turkey. Thanksgiving is loved by just about everyone, except the turkey. Directed by Jimmy Hayward, Free Birds is about two turkeys, Jake and Reggie (Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson), who team up to travel back in time to change the course of history and take turkey of the Thanksgiving menu forever.
Growing up on a turkey farm, Reggie was always the outcast. He was small, thin, and had a blue head, while the other turkeys were all large, strong, and red headed. Unlike the other turkeys in his flock, Reggie was smart. He knew that the farmer was raising the turkeys for a Thanksgiving feast. After years of warnings from Reggie, the flock finally believed him when the eldest turkey confirmed that Reggie was telling the truth. As Reggie tries to rally the flock and stick together, they instead sacrifice Reggie to save themselves. Petrified, Reggie awaits his gruesome fate, until he learns that he will not be eaten, but instead he is this Thanksgiving's turkey pardoned by the president, and then given to his daughter as a pet.
Now the most important turkey in the country, Reggie begins to live out his luxurious life. He watches Spanish television, orders boxes on top of boxes of pizza, and even walks around the house in pink bunny slippers. Things are going perfectly for Reggie, until he is kidnapped by Jake, another turkey, and recruited on Jake's mission, courtesy of "The Great Turkey," to travel back to the first Thanksgiving to rid of the turkey-eating Thanksgiving tradition. After reaching a secret government base, Jake and Reggie find the Space Time Exploration Vehicle Envoy, or STEVE (voiced by George Takei), and travel back to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.
Free Birds provides exactly what you would expect from an animated film. It is fun, and family friendly. It's a movie that will get the kids interested in the history of Thanksgiving, while it may deter them from eating turkey that day. This is a very kid-enjoyable movie. The plot is simple, the jokes are quick and quirky, and it actually followed the rules of time travel. Now, it certainly isn't the best animated movie of the year (Monsters University), but it definitely isn't the worst of the year either (ehmm, Turbo). It's definitely worthy of a family outing to the movie theater, and if you get the chance to watch in in 3D, do it. On an animation scale, Free Birds is a 6.5
Rating: 6.5 of 10
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The Counselor (2013)
The Counselor: I Advise You to Stay Away
Down in Mexico, drugs flow like water. When a successful lawyer decides to go into business with criminals to get a piece of the action, the blood starts flowing too. The Counselor focuses on the Counselor (Michael Fassbender) and his business dealings after he becomes engaged to Laura (Penelope Cruz). With things going smoothly in his life, the Counselor tries to make some money on the side by getting himself mixed in with drug trafficking and opening a club with his friend, Reiner (Javier Bardem). Being a successful businessman and criminal, Reiner is mixed up in a confusing sexual relationship with Malkina (Cameron Diaz) who ultimately has ulterior motives from standing by Reiner's side. With the club being funded by Westray (Brad Pitt), things for the Counselor could not be better, that is until one of his clients, Ruth (Rosie Perez), calls the Counselor from jail, and asks him to get her son released from jail over a speeding ticket.
Thinking nothing of it, the Counselor gets Ruth's son out of jail. Once released, the son meets a man at a coffee house, picks up a device that belongs on the truck that is trafficking drugs, and leaves the meeting. All the while, an assassin had been spying on the meeting, and set a trap for Ruth's son, who speeds down the roads at over 200 MPH. After the son is dead, the assassin collects the device, and leaves the body in the road. The people Ruth's son were working for suspect the Counselor was behind the killing, since he freed the son from jail. Fearing for their lives, the Counselor, Reiner, and Westray scramble to save themselves.
Plain and simple, The Counselor, directed by Ridley Scott, is awful. The movie does not make any sense. The opening scene is an awkward lovemaking scene between Fassbender's Counselor and Cruz's Laura, and then proceeds to have sex as an underlying theme in the movie, which was, in my opinion, completely unnecessary. The movie is confusing enough without adding aspects that do not even remotely make sense in context. Throughout the entire 117 minutes, The Counselor jumps from scene to scene, plot point to plot point, without any sort of transition or explanation. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what the movie was even about until I looked it up when I got back from the theater. Drugs were only seen twice, at the beginning and the end of the movie, and only mentioned once, which was strange given the fact that the movie was about drug trafficking. The acting was OK. None of the actors stood out and gave memorable performances. The storytelling was sloppy and haphazardly thrown together, and the writing was terrible. Quite frankly, my favorite part of the movie was the end credits.
Of the duds of October movie releases (Runner Runner, The Fifth Estate), The Counselor is by far the WORST of them all. Granted, I gave Runner Runner and OK review and The Fifth Estate an mediocre review at best, I would recommend those movies a thousand times before I would recommend The Counselor once. The movie was sloppily made, confusing, poorly written, uninteresting, and boring. If I could give it a lower number of stars I would but I cannot, so I stick with one star, and I beg you, please save your money.
Rating: 1 of 10
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Escape Plan (2013)
Escape Plan: Prison Gets Tougher with Stallone and Schwarzenegger
What happens when a professional prison-escaper can't escape from prison? Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is forced to answer this question when he is trapped in the world's most secret and secure prison, where the CIA sends super bad criminals to "disappear." Basically being an escape artist, Breslin is the world's go-to guy when it comes to designing prisons. He wrote the book on how to design the perfect, escape proof prison, and is even hired to go into supermax prisons and attempt to escape, to help secure flaws. When the CIA contacts Breslin and partner Lester Clark's (Vincent D'Onofrio) security firm to hire his services, Breslin reluctantly accepts, knowing working for the CIA would mean turning his back on all the safety protocols he created to get out of prison.
Things go smoothly, until the day Breslin is scheduled to be picked up by the CIA, when he is roughly kidnapped, the tracking device dug out from his forearm, subdued, and taken to the most secure prison ever built. Expecting Warden Marsh to be there, Breslin is surprised when he meets Warden Hobbes (Jim Caviezel) at the prison, who has no idea Breslin is there to attempt an escape, or so we think. Realizing something about the job is amiss, Breslin is befriended by one of the tougher guys in the prison, Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Breslin loses all hope of escaping when he realizes the prison is a massive ship in the middle of the ocean, until a push from Rottmayer motivates Breslin to break himself and his new best friend out.
Believe it or not, Escape Plan isn't your typical Sylvester Stallone action movie. There is plenty of action, of course, however there is a decent amount of methodical thinking and strategizing as the two plan their escape. This is one of Stallone's better performances is recent memory, and Schwarzenegger's performance certainly stands out above a few of his more recent roles. Jim Caviezel's Warden Hobbes is not unlike his character on Person of Interest, aside from being on different sides of the law, he plays a calm, collected villain who always seems to be one step ahead for a good portion of the movie. Caviezel's performance is solid and his character was well written.
Staying in-tune with past performances, Stallone and Schwarzenegger provide the same level of badass we have come to expect from them. Stallone's familiar character traits begin to really appear about halfway through the film, while the classic Schwarzenegger action comes to fruition in the climactic final scenes on the deck of the ship. One criticism would be the question posed to Stallone's Breslin "what kind of man decides to spend his life in prison?" is never fully answered. We get some insight once Breslin reveals who he is to Rottmayer, but we never get the full explanation.
Going into this weekend, I planned on reviewing two movies: The Fifth Estate, and Escape Plan. Based on the trailers I had seen and small synopses I had read, I expected The Fifth Estate to be a home run, and Escape Plan to be a dud. After seeing what turned out to be a dud in The Fifth Estate, I was unsure about seeing Escape Plan. I would have waited for box office numbers to help my decision, however everything this weekend would have lower numbers with Gravity still dominating. I'm happy to say that Escape Plan is filled with action and excitement, and definitely worth seeing.
Rating: 8 of 10 Check out more of our reviews at brickmoviereviews.wordpress.com !
The Fifth Estate (2013)
The Fifth Estate Review
In July 2010, the website WikiLeaks released over 90,000 secret United States military reports about the war going on in Afghanistan. This was one of the largest leaks in United States history, on par with the Watergate scandal during the 1970s under President Nixon. One man was responsible - Julian Assange. The Fifth Estate, partially based on a book written by Assange's former partner, Daniel Berg, titled: Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website, details the history of WikiLeaks from when Berg and Assange first met back in 2007, to when the 90,000+ documents were released.
For those who don't know, WikiLeaks was a whistleblower organization - a website where confidential documents were posted online, and secrets were revealed. Portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, Julian Assange took it upon himself to decide that there should be no secrets from the people, and that he exposed confidential files for the greater good. Assange is made out to be a Robin Hood-like person, except instead of stealing the king's riches for the poor, he is exposing secrets the world does not necessarily need to know.
Assange and Berg, played by Daniel Brühl, meet at a computer convention, where the two became friends and Assange let Berg in on his website. Working to release files, Assange and Berg quickly grew WikiLeaks into a household name. Oscar Wilde once said: "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Assange recites this to Berg, stating that WikiLeaks' mission is to protect the identity of whistleblowers. He says that he spent years working on a system that guarantees anonymity for their sources, and Berg believes him. Things, believe it or not, go smoothly, until two of Assange's sources are gunned down, causing a rift between him and Berg, and spelling trouble for WikiLeaks.
The motto of WikiLeaks was: "Courage is Contagious." Sadly, the movie is not contagious. The movie is, in fact, dull and uninvesting. I found myself often losing focus, and even struggling to not walk out of the theater. Even though it is based on actual events, the plot of the movie is boring and uninteresting. Often times, the movie is quite confusing, jumping from one leak, to personal troubles in Berg's life, to another leak, to problems in the United States government, and then back to another leak. It is very difficult to invest in these characters, as there is so much jumping around it is hard to keep track of who is doing what. One of the few interesting aspects of the movie was the fact that the majority of it was focused on Daniel Berg, NOT Julian Assange, which makes sense seeing as the movie was based on the book by Berg, however this results in viewers jumping right into an already established WikiLeaks, instead of seeing it being built from the ground up.
With that being said, Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Julian Assange is mediocre at best. In the film, Cumberbatch's Assange does not come off as a person who is passionate about his cause, which is a problem because it was established that Assange had set out to change the world. Instead, the character comes off as a man who is working at a simple nine-to-five job, uninterested in what he is doing. A positive that comes out of Cumberbatch's performance is that the character development from beginning to end is clear and noticeable, while Daniel Brühl's performance is lackluster - there is zero indication of character development in Berg, even though the story makes it clear that there should be.
Directed by Bill Condon, The Fifth Estate does not do WikiLeaks justice. For a website that made such an impact on the world as it did, it at least deserves a movie that does something similar. Instead we are given a mediocre movie that, in my opinion, is not worth seeing.
Rating: 3 of 10 Check out more of our reviews at: brickmoviereviews.wordpress.com !
Captain Phillips (2013)
Captain Phillips
In April 2009, the Maersk Alabama was boarded by four Somali pirates. They took control of the ship, took the money from the safe, and took the captain hostage. Hailing from Vermont, loving family man Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) receives his directions to captain a cargo ship from Oman to Kenya, going around the Horn of Africa, and straight through pirate territory. Having already been nervous, Captain Phillips' fears quickly become reality when pirates pursue and take control of the ship.
The pirates are first seen in their run down village in Somalia, where supplies are scarce and villagers struggle to survive the day. With no jobs around, the Somalis are forced to pillage passing ships for money. The Somalis desperation is shown when the men are fighting over who will go on the mission. The soulless look on their faces exemplifies the extent they go to just to get money, and the lack of life they have. Things seem to be going smoothly for the pirates until they kidnap Captain Phillips, when things quickly start to deteriorate.
Captain Phillips is a slam dunk. Tom Hanks is on par, if not better than his past performances in his portrayal of Richard Phillips' ordeal. Barkhad Abdi's acting as Muse, the captain of the Somali pirates, is fantastic. He comes off as calm, cool, and collected. Even when things are getting down to the wire and his crew is under tremendous pressure, Muse is wonderfully able to keep control, and Abdi does a great job of bringing his part of this true story to the silver screen. In his first movie since 2010, and only his second since 2007′s The Bourne Ultimatum, director Paul Greengrass truly put together a marvelous movie.
There isn't much to dislike about Captain Phillips. At times, the background music was a tad too loud and made the voices hard to hear, but other than that, Hanks, Abdi, and Greengrass really knocked this one out of the park. This movie is a definite must see.
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Runner Runner (2013)
Runner Runner: Don't Go All In
"Everybody gambles" That is the first line said by Justin Timberlake's Richie Furst in "Runner Runner." He justifies the fact that everyone gambles at some point, whether it be actual gambling or something justifiable like the stock market. For Furst, however, it's actual gambling. The son of a bookmaker himself, Furst is figuring his on way in life, as a student at Princeton University, studying for his Masters degree in finance. Racking up a hefty $60,000 due by the next week, Furst had made a name for himself on the Princeton campus as an "associate" who directs people to gambling websites, and of course collecting commission.
In his latest attempt to pay his tuition, Furst gambles all the money he has in the world, an amount just of $17,000, on the gambling website Midnight Black, Furst loses all of his money in a game he believes he was cheated on. Being the brainiac he is, Furst uses math to prove he was cheated, and flies down to Costa Rica to confront the man himself, online gambling kingpin Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). After arranging a meeting with Block, Ivan decides to payoff Richie's tuition as gratitude for not spilling the beans on the cheating mishap. To go a step further, Block offers Richie a job at Midnight Black. Accepting the offer, Furst is catapulted head first into the gambling underworld of drugs, sex, and money. Richie soon realizes he is in over his head when he gets picked up by the FBI, and sent straight into a beating when Block has him deliver a less-than-pleasing payoff to the man keeping Block in business. Suffice it to say, Furst wants out, fast.
Now, the movie isn't great. It's good, but not completely there. For a crime movie, it lacks that punch to really make it stand out. The movie does a good job of telling the story to completion with a satisfying ending, however the movie is deprived of true character development. We see some in Timberlake's Richie Furst, however there is almost no development for Affleck's Block, and actress Gemma Arterton's character Rebecca Shafron serves almost no purpose in the movie, and it could definitely survive without her.
"Runner Runner" didn't win the marathon, nor did it fall flat on it's face. It stumbled here and there, but for the most part it kept it's balance. That being said, I recommend you go and see this movie, as long as you can find a show time with a discounted price.
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Gravity (2013)
Gravity Overview
Gravity is a movie that takes on a whole new perspective of astronauts. The movie takes you on a journey with a space crew and their final space walk to set up a telescope on a space station. While you are watching the movies you can really feel the zero gravity and will even find yourself breathing at the same rate that the crew does. The environment of space is portrayed beautifully. In the beginning, the movie stresses that life in space is impossible. This makes it very clear that literally nothing is in space. No sound, no air, and nothing to slow you down if you are caught drifting. Overall, this is a very well written and made movie. There isn't much to say about 'Gravity' without spoiling it because the movie will keep you guessing from start to finish. The main focus of this movie is persistence. 'Gravity' makes it clear that without persistence you are doomed to live without any happiness, and then life becomes pointless. Without the amazing character development set up in the first scene we would be forced to watch a long and drawn out movie. Luckily that is not the case. If it wasn't for Clooney's and Bullock's performance we would have drifted through space with blank characters. With the interesting stories that the characters tell each other while in the void of space we are entertained all the way through the movie. With the acceptation of a couple of minor plot holes and a few scenes that were a minute to long, Gravity is a must see.
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