Dallas Buyers Club

It's never been a secret that I can't stand Matthew McConaughey. He's obnoxious, plays every character the same in every film, and generally speaking just makes me angry. Did anyone REALLY want to see him rip his clothes off in Magic Mike? I've never been a fan, and because of this I almost skipped this film. I just knew that, unless he absolutely wowed me, I would think poorly of Matthew McConaughey.

Well, I wasn't entirely wrong. I certainly found his performance to be the cutout performance he always gives us. Although of course the character was different, and he perhaps played McConaughey in that character, his mannerisms were all the same. I could have copied and pasted any of his actions into any of his other roles and, frankly, it probably would have worked. He rubbed me the wrong way as he always did, although it should be noted that this is probably the intent of the character initially. He was unimpressive, and frankly, does not deserve the Oscar nomination. I guess it's going to take a lot more for me to really be impressed by him, no matter how amazing the (mostly) true story is.

But that's not to say I didn't love this film. While he was as I expected him to be, I have to say that the rest of this cast was just wonderful. Jared Leto in particular, playing the AIDS infected transgender Rayon, gave a killer performance, making us laugh, and ultimately cry at her plights and struggles. He deserves that Oscar, and I'd even say that above Michael Fassbender, as amazing as he was in 12 Years A Slave. Jennifer Garner gives a performance I think might just be her best. She plays a morally confused doctor, who knows the negative effects of what she's doing but is afraid to go against her superiors and education to support McConaughy. She's instantly likable, but beautifully broken. She shines through as well.

The story itself is fascinating. McConaughy plays Ron Woodroof, a drug using rodeo enthusiast, who learns that he is HIV positive after years of drug use and unprotected sex. Homophobic to an extreme, he refuses to believe he's contracted the virus in fear of being perceived as gay. The real Woodroof was reportedly bisexual, however this is never really touched upon. While struggling to illegally obtain medication, he meets Rayon, with whom he eventually opens The Dallas Buyers Club, a club for HIV positive individuals to receive medication not approved by the FDA. The story takes it's liberties (Rayon and Dr. Eve were not real people), but it still shows an amazing story, and a great character study on everyone involved.

Dallas Buyers Club suffers from a mediocre performance from a mediocre lead actor who somehow got an Oscar nomination. But that doesn't make this film any less valid or impressive. It really is one of the best movies of the year.

Rank - 5/5

American Hustle

David O. Russell usually satisfies me. But his last two films didn't quite do it for me. Silver Linings Playbook was funny, but I desperately wanted it to either be funnier or more serious, it was in an awkward middle ground. I hated The Fighter. So I guess from the trailers I was hoping for a funnier film out of this, or at least a serious film with its moments of comedy well picked.

This film works. That's the only way to say it. It just works so well. It has its moments of brilliant comedy, and then it really knows how and when to take itself seriously. But most of my props for this amazing movie go to the five pictured leads. Bradley Cooper impresses once again as an overly eager FBI agent, doing things to make the audience laugh one moment, and then frustrating the audience with his juvenile actions the next. Amy Adams, who I've developed a dislike for, is an amazingly seductive and manipulative con artist. Christian Bale maintains a perfect balance of likability with obvious wrongdoing, allowing us to support him despite his wrong doing no matter your moral stance. Jennifer Lawrence plays a broken, addicted, and sometimes hilarious ex wife, who's maltreatment of her child actually can work as comedy. Jeremy Renner plays an immediately too likable politician, one who you know you have to like, but who I found myself getting frustrated with for being too likable. All of this works just so well. Each one of them deserves something for their performances. I had no idea much of this film was even improv. That fascinates me. It's a brilliant display of some of the best talent Hollywood has to offer.

The film itself knows when to balance ridiculousness with comedy. In particular, the revelation that the fake Sheikh was being played by a Mexican man sticks out in my mind. Shots of Bradley Cooper nonchalantly curling his hair are incredibly funny. There was even a bit of humor in an awkward almost sex scene between Adams and Cooper in a public restroom. The creators knew where comedy could be pulled in ways I didn't expect. I loved that.

There's not much else to really say about this (considering at this time it has now been over a month since I've seen it), but it's definitely one of the best the year has to offer.

Rank - 5/5

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Few people will deny Nelson Mandela's amazing story. His contributions to equal rights in his country, as well as his inspiration to forgive and overcome fear, are unrivaled. His passing brought tears to my eyes, which might have been embarrassing in the cafeteria I was sitting in when I saw the headline, but plenty of people were just as powerfully affected as I was. This movie had already released, but it hadn't come to my town, so I had to wait. When it finally came, I dropped everything to make it to the film.

What a sad disappointment. The power of a man who saved his entire country by sacrificing his life, his sanity, and even his respect from his followers, was told in a completely passionless way. Significant moments of his personality were downplayed, the film instead opting to make him look like a womanizer, and making him appear as a completely broken individual. Parts of his activism were so downplayed that, from an outsider looking in, it was actually confusing to wonder why exactly his imprisonment sparked a revolution. In fact, we don't really see his character demonstrate any leadership until his imprisonment. His imprisonment was downplayed, never as brutal as it should have been. Perhaps this is based on truth, but this experience obviously had a profound result on Mandela's life, so why did it seem so downplayed? Not to mention we hear news of growing revolution, but we very rarely see what the revolution is doing outside of the prison. Perhaps this is because of the focus being from Mandela's point of view. But without strong demonstration of him as a leader, why would I believe the focus was him? In fact, a lot of this movie focuses on his wife.

But there are two glowing beacons in this film. One is Idris Elba, who I absolutely love to begin with. He always puts a strong, silent power into his characters. It works wonders for Mandela, and he's an absolute powerhouse for the entire film. That being said, his character doesn't work thanks to the script. We see Mandela introduced as a cocky womanizer. But then, we see no character growth. We never fully see him change. That's unfortunate, and makes Mandela look boring. Mandela. Boring. Really?

The second beacon of hope is Naomie Harris, playing an amazing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She's an idealistic, passion-filled woman, in the film a perfect demonstration of what Nelson Mandela didn't want to become. I actually don't know how accurate this is of a portrayal, but I liked it nonetheless. I sympathized with her in the best, worst, most frightening, and convincing ways.

But sadly, these two characters are just not enough to carry a boring, poorly written story that ignores so much of the history its trying to show. It starts out with a promising display of Mandela as a person, but leaves it for a barrage of historical happenings, while skipping the most interesting. It's a shame. We need a better Mandela film. This just wasn't satisfactory

Rank - 2/5

Oldboy

I had never heard of the original manga or film, but when I first saw trailers for this I was fascinated by the concept. This is about an alcoholic mess of a man being kidnapped and imprisoned for 20 years, being framed for the rape and death of his ex wife, and then being able to escape, but strangely let go. The story than follows him as he fights his way to the truth about his incarceration, struggles to find his daughter, and tries to figure out the identity of his captors. I was already hooked, mostly because of the name Spike Lee attached to it.

To this day, I haven't had the time to watch the original. So going off of this film alone, I have to say I liked it a lot. I found myself genuinely excited by everything happening, suspenseful during his fight scenes, and sad at his tragedy and pain. Josh Brolin is such a powerful actor to begin with, he plays such a disturbing alcoholic changed into a completely destroyed man. I have to give major props to Sharlto Copely for his AWESOME performance as the main villain, not unlike the bearded guy from The Hunger Games mixed with a bit of the Joker. It's super cool, he's phenomenal. Then again, after his performances we've seen I'm not surprised.

I think my biggest problem with the film is its tone. It tells its story very darkly, but the violence never really hits a level. It's constantly abrasive. Never really shocking, which is what I feel like the movie was going for. It's pretty badass, but then again the rest of the tone of this movie doesn't really suggest badass, it suggests emotionally destructive man. From that, I'd think that the violence would be disturbing. But it never really crossed that line for me, except for perhaps one scene involving Samuel L Jackson. It all works, but it's not as powerful as I'd imagine. That's not to say the script doesn't try. In fact, the script to me was very successful. But the power of the story never really hits home, until the very end with the reveal that, admittedly, I didn't see coming.

Old Boy is so close to being a huge success of film making. I just wish it took more risks, or maybe took itself less seriously if it wanted to keep the tone of the violence where it was. But even so, it works. I gotta get my hands on the original...

Rank: 3.5/5

Homefront

This movie opens up with an absolutely RIDICULOUS drug bust. A bust so silly, so over the top, so ridiculous, so confusing, that I had to stop and really consider why I was watching this. (The answer was simple - boredom with my friend.) Suddenly, we watch a biker Statham who's really an undercover agent, of course, now become an obviously likable father of his only daughter who is apparently causing fights in school to defend herself being bullied. Of course the little girl gets in trouble because there are never adults watching these kids in the playground. Insert overly dramatic mother who you hate to watch act who tells her brother James Franco to attack Statham. Yeah, I'm confused already...what does any of this have to do with the drug thing? Well, turns out Jason Stathams bust was of a major drug king, who is now in prison. And because of an obscure newspaper article he knows exactly where Statham is and orders his crew to hunt his family down. Wait, what?

Homefront was a mess. That's the only way to describe it. It makes absolutely no sense, character motivations are confusing at best, acting is laughable, the music is overbearing and loud. The mixing for this film must have been done by Michael Bay - each gun shot pierced the years, no matter how loud everything else was around it.

A lot of this movie escapes me, so I can't criticize every detail. But I remember the story for its sheer ridiculousness. That's all there is to say. This movie is a mess. Plain and simple.

Rank: 0.5/5

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The first Hunger games was pretty uninteresting to me. I love Battle Royale. Yes I'm one of those. I thought there was a lot to respect in the first film, but too many problems for me to really be interested in what's going on. Why was it that she spent so much time fighting for sponsors, but then only received help from Haymitch? Why was it that the death of of a child sparked a revolution, when surely these people had seen the death of MANY children before this one? If the government was so concerned with perception of hope and revolution, why would they broadcast so much footage that could spark a revolution? Why on earth was it that they were pretty much okay with potentially all of the kids being killed by dogs, but terrified at the idea of them killing themselves? This wasn't nearly as good as Battle Royale, a film I'm sorry to say I compared it to rather harshly.

So, again, having not read the books, I didn't really care to think about what this was going to be about. There is no way for another Hunger Games film to be interesting without another Hunger Games. How could they possibly force that? What would possibly put Katniss into that situation again? Could a generic revolution plot really carry the rest of this series? I doubt it. What could possibly salvage this series?

Well while I felt the story was a bit forced and maybe a bit nonsensical (I get that she's a good archer, but DAMN that final shot was absurd...), I have to admit that I certainly found this film far more enjoyable than the first. I found characters much more believable, motivations more focused, and far less plot holes that wore it down. I loved the diversity of the tributes. Instead of being a group of people who all looked diverse but perhaps not believably random (each of them happened to have an incredibly useful skill), now we saw a group of people who all also had skills, but not as obviously useful as the past tributes. It works. Jennifer Lawrence is as good as she ever is, completely embracing the character with obvious adoration and respect.

Generally speaking, I found the camera to be less shaky, which in this case was appreciated. The first film tried to jump in and out of a first person look, a style that didn't work for me. But here, it felt more balanced, enough to actually put me into the story but not enough that it was distracting or headache inducing. The effects were less obviously CGI, which was obviously a very welcome improvement, with only one or two grating moments.

I still have to say that The Hunger Games isn't as impressive of a film as Battle Royale. But this film gave me hope for the final two to be interesting and good. At the very very least, it's a better sequel than Battle Royale's sequel...

Rank - 4.5/5

Frozen

Joss Whedon was asked why he focuses so hard on writing believable female characters. His answer was along the lines of "Because you're still asking that question!" I don't know where he said that or why, I just know it was said from a bluray commentary I was watching from the creators of Legend of Korra. But that quote hit me. It's true. Why should female characters be treated differently than males? They need to be believable, and strong. Just like males. The problem? So many female characters are written to be masculine, mistaking strength for manliness. It gets frustrating.

In that regard, this movie is an awesome breath of fresh air. I loved seeing such lovable characters leading the ensemble, ones that were recognizably flawed, beautifully strong, but still girls for women to connect with. I love how instantly, the idea of "true love" as dictated by fairy tales is dropped as unrealistic and fake. And I certainly love the complete lack of focus on romance for the vast majority of the movie. It keeps just enough for Disney Princess lovers to enjoy, but not so much that it feels forced or silly.

This doesn't mean that I loved everything. Even though I loved the strength of women displayed in this, I didn't like that men had to be portrayed as all evil, greedy, or stupid. I hoped the movie was going to have a bit more of a fair minded view towards people in general, but instead it did keep its leading characters in much higher esteem than anyone else. Which I suppose can be done with no problems. But to have such strongly written female characters, and then such a beautifully mature moral in the end, it really did bug me that the film resorted to generalizing the opposite gender.

As for the music, I'll be honest. I hated the first few numbers. Especially that awful song between the prince and Anna. What a boring, bland, pointless number. I hated it a lot. But then, "Let It Go" happened. And the number with the trolls. These numbers really saved the rest of the films music, spectacularly. I genuinely hope that "Let It Go" takes the Oscar for "Best Original Song." The voice cast for this film are actually mostly actors who are active on the Broadway scene, so the vocal performances are astounding. And each musical number has its own charming and awesome animation.

But then there's my biggest problem - the snowman Olaf. Sure, he's cute. But he has no personality other than being zany. It comes from nowhere. I'd have loved him to be more socially awkward, being a snowman inexplicably brought to life and never meeting people before. Instead, he just has little quips to be funny. But the film didn't need comic relief. It had its strong funny moments without him.

I'm sure everyone disagrees with me about Olaf. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the film. But at the end of the day, I hold Disney to a constant high standard. And this was so close.

Rank - 3.5/5

Happy Tom McHugh Day!

So I'm still in school. And school takes up pretty much all of my time. I have zero time. So I'm really trying to get my blog updated with the like, 20 reviews I'm missing. But I needed a break. So here's something fun!

What is Tom McHugh Day you ask? Well, it all began back in high school when I was just a wee little Boy Scout. I had worked hard, and achieved the highest rank of Eagle Scout. When that happens, you get a plethora of letters from various government officials, including the President, Vice President, Senators, Representatives, Governors, etc. All of them say the same thing. Congratulations, this is a true testament to your character, you're a true blessing to society, blah blah blah. It was obvious none of them were personal. Except for one...



Did you see it?? Do you see it at the bottom?! That's right! M. Jodi Rell, the Governor of CT, declared January 6th, 2008 to be MY HOLIDAY!!! Sure, it was only that one year. But do you have a holiday? No. So I'm going to milk mine for all its worth! Which is a lot to me!

So what do you do on my holiday?! You can do the standards. Check out some bad movies, listen to a lot of Hanson, practice my mannerisms. But I figured you know what? This is a great opportunity. For years, people have asked me what my favorite movies were. So, maybe now is the time! Maybe this year, I'll post my top 10 favorite movies of all time, and let everyone pick one they perhaps haven't seen, and experience something I really love!

Here it is, something my readers have actually been asking for - my top 10 favorite films of all time!!

10. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Directed by Mel Stuart, 1971)


Willy Wonka is one of my favorite characters of all time. He's fun, and easy to love if you're a kid, but he's also incredibly creepy, socially awkward, and even frightening. As a kid, I loved the imagery around the factory. I had fun watching the characters eat everything in the chocolate room, I loved the zany inventions that simply made absolutely no sense. As an adult though, I appreciated each moral that the children learned, especially through the amazing use of the seven deadly sins to show flaws of each character. I loved the musical numbers, to this day considering "Pure Imagination" to be one of the greatest musical numbers of all time. I'm still mesmerized by that entire song, amazed at its amazing balance of creepy with fascinating, a nervous edge to it but still letting the audience have enormous desire to learn about the room they're in. Finally, I LOVE the way the story grows from one small boy's desire to have something to call his own, a golden ticket, to complete control (if you think of it the way I do) of children's happiness. It's a really great story, it almost pains me to realize it's only number 10 for me.

9. Shaun of the Dead (Directed by Edgar Wright, 2004)


I love zombies. There's no other way around it. I see a merit to zombies so many people take for granted. The drama of knowing your loved ones can become animalistic demons who would just as soon attack you, the hilarity of hordes of zombies slowly shuffling, the terror of certain zombies running faster than any living human, its a genre that lends itself to any tonality or audience reaction. But what I never thought was that I would find a movie quite like Shaun of the Dead. It's a zombie movie that works on every single level. There's drama, there's absolutely hilarity, there's genuinely frightening moments, and all within (as the tagline reads) "a romantic comedy. With zombies." Shaun of the Dead is a movie I can watch over and over, laugh every single time, discover new little things I missed the last time, and still have a huge amount of stuff with the story I already know. Plus I'm a sucker for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I love them in everything. But personal favorite, even with the AMAZING summer film The Worlds End, I can't let Shaun of the Dead go. It's one of the funniest films I've ever watched, and my favorite zombie movie ever.

8. Saving Private Ryan (Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1998)


I'm sure this film pops up highly for most people. And for damn good reason. What isn't great in this movie? Every actor is absolutely dynamite. The music is gorgeous. And of course, there's the opening scene. The single best battle scene I've ever seen, constantly blowing my mind, making me jump, and every time bringing tears to my eyes. This movie isn't for the faint of heart, and it's not one to just pop in for fun. It's one heck of a wild ride. It's physically exhausting, emotionally draining, and mentally destructive. This actually left me having some pretty crazy nightmares, believe it or not. Scenes of sheer brutality, moments of death I didn't even imagine happening before watching. A few death scenes were so traumatizing for me that I still to this day get queasy thinking about them. I suppose the only way to describe this film is an absolute success. This is to me, a perfect movie.

7. Alien (Directed by Ridley Scott, 1979)


"In space, no one can hear you scream." What a GREAT line for this movie to advertise itself on. The movie to this day manages to both inspire and creep me out. I'm a believer that modern horror is all but dead. The best horror movies we see in a year are lackluster at best, with very few exceptions. But this movie to this day manages to make me jump, laugh at scary moments only because I see them coming now, freak out at death scenes and moments of terror. I absolutely love the idea of xenomorphs too. An alien that bleeds acid, can tear through steel like it's paper, and can sneak around with total ease enough to creep up on people despite its huge size? Sold. Not to mention face huggers. What an AWESOME idea! A lot of people seem to think that Aliens is better. I respectfully disagree. Even though I think Aliens is fun, there is absolutely nothing that compares to the tone and atmosphere of this amazing horror/sci fi. I'm gonna go ahead and say if you haven't seen this film, THIS is the one I'd check out for Tom McHugh Day. Go. Do it for me.

6. The Rapture (Directed by Michael Tolkin, 1991)


This isn't a very well known film. Even on a $3 million budget, it only pulled in about $1.2 million. It didn't even do that critically well, holding a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes (although this is a questionable number considering its release before the website was active). But this film had an incredibly profound effect on me, after I watched it for the first time maybe 3 years ago. The film follows a young woman as she changes her lifestyle from promiscuous and perhaps a bit immature, to a lifestyle of overzealous religious fervor. It shows not only the happiness religion brings, but also the twisted results of what too much can do. And it has an ending I can't describe, one that left me speechless. It's a sad story of growth, parenting, and love at its hardest. I watched this movie after discovering my lack of religious belief and serious atheist ideals. It's hard to believe that a movie thematically based around religion actually would have an effect on me. That being said, it is NOT a preachy movie. And if you're a religious person looking for a movie about how religion helps people...this may not be the movie for you.

5. Before Sunrise/Before Sunset (Directed by Richard Linklater, 1995/2004)


I can't think of either of these movies by themselves. They are one. And sadly, I haven't seen the 2013 sequel "Before Midnight", even though I've heard nothing but wonderful things. But these movies are amazing, even for me, a dude. So judge me all you want. But I love how these movies approach love and relationships. They're told in a unique way, one I haven't seen done quite the same way. For those uninitiated, it actually tells most of the story in long single shots or one continuous , all continuous and with no general plot. Instead, it tells its story through conversation. The characters conversation reveal who they are, what they want, where they want to be and where we hope for them to go. I especially love Before Sunset, for its interesting take on reuniting in ways one wouldn't expect. But you should watch both of these. Both of these are actually only about 3 hours long together, and they certainly don't feel like 3 hours. If you're not into romance films, honestly, give these a shot. They're not what you'd expect. And you might just love them the way I do.

4. American History X (Directed by Tony Kaye, 1998)


The first time I watched this film was in one of my college elective courses 3 years ago - "Violence, Aggression, and Terror". I had a trombone lesson immediately after. My teacher asked if I was feeling okay. The truth was, I wasn't. This movie made me physically ill. It was terrifying, heart wrenching, disturbing, and cruel. The film follows Edward Norton as an ex-white-supremacist, desperately trying to save his younger brother from falling into the same lifestyle. The story is told through the young brothers homework, a paper he has to write for his principle after writing a very disturbing paper for class. The film pulls no punches. This has some of the most disturbing, real, and terrifying imagery you can imagine. In particular, one scene of Norton's pride at one incredibly disturbing act resulted in me bursting into tears in terror. This isn't a film for the faint of heart. But it's one I feel that everyone should watch.

3. Inherit the Wind (Directed by Stanley Kramer, 1960)


I LOVE the play this film is based on. Inherit the Wind is the amazing fictionalization/adaptation of the Scopes Monkey Trial, in which a teacher was removed from his position and tried for teaching the theory of evolution to his students. When I was in high school, we were assigned this book for class reading. I finished it in a night. I couldn't put it down. And the movie is just as astounding. Rich, beautifully written characters, each of which you support or sympathize with just enough to understand their motives, wrong or right as they may be. Spencer Tracy gives a powerhouse performance as Henry Drummond, the agnostic lawyer coming to defend not just his client but the theory of evolution itself against the overzealously religious Matthew Harrison Brady, played by Fredric March, a man so drastically stuck in his religious ways he knows the exact time the world would have been created according to the bible. I can only imagine what this would have been like to watch in the year it came out. This movie is my favorite courtroom drama, and that's even putting it against 12 Angry Men, another amazing courtroom film. But none has had quite the effect on me artistically as Inherit the Wind.

2) Wall-E (Directed by Andrew Stanton, 2008)


Perhaps people will see this and think "Wall-E as #2?! Tom is SO Pixar biased!" Well, you're certainly right that I love Pixar. But what a lot of people don't know about me is that Wall-E is the movie that made me love movies. I remember going to see it with my family, wondering why on earth I was wasting my time seeing this kids movie. What did I not expect? The incredibly funny moments of slapstick. The super adorable relationship between our robot main characters. The absolutely heart wrenching moments during which tears poured from my face. The ease of connecting with a character that has barely anything to say the entire movie. The music that can leave me in an amazing sense of euphoric awe without the movie playing too. This is the movie that opened my mind to the idea that I might love film. And to this day, I'll defend every second of it. I will fervently defend it as the best animated film ever made. And if you haven't seen it, go put it on right now.

1. The Shawshank Redemption (Directed by Frank Darabont, 1994)


Call it cliche. But I think it's safe to say no film has graced the presence of my bluray player as often as  The Shawshank Redemption. I love this movie so much that I actually own four copies of it. This movie is incredibly touching to me. It gives me a character I don't think I'd ever be able to understand and makes him graspable, believable, real. It has amazing minor characters, each with distinctly lovable personalities and attachment to you. It has gorgeous music, music that really touches me and lets me bask in its simple beauty. I love Morgan Freeman's soft spoken performance of a man who's given up all hope for change, but also loves himself to the extent he can without being able to completely forgive himself. Then of course there's the ending. The film is exciting, interesting, and uplifting. It's a film that sets my standard for any film. I don't think I need to tell people to watch it, pretty much everyone has. But maybe for Tom McHugh day, you can find time to watch what I think is the greatest film of all time.

So there you go! I hope you enjoy my list, and maybe have a few more to add to your list of movies you haven't seen! Leave me some of your favorite movies either in my email or in the comments! And of course, have a GREAT Tom McHugh Day!

The Book Thief

Nazi's. Children. The power of learning. A strong family bond. Death. Drama. What does it all mean? I'll tell you what it means. An Oscar powerhouse. Or at least, one that can be advertised as that.

Hey, guess what. I didn't read the book. What a shock.

So I think my biggest problem with this film is the one glaring obvious problem. This is not a movie that should be toned down. It is a Holocaust movie. It is not okay. When we see dead bodies completely untouched by war, cleanly being dragged along, it doesn't work. It's like Wolverine slashing people with no blood being revealed, or like in the first Chronicles of Narnia where the kid is stabbed and there's zero blood. It doesn't work for me. This doesn't just apply to moments of violence, but to dumbed down moments of politics. Sure, I get that it's from a kids perspective. But it's not like she would be completely oblivious to the happenings around her because she's reading books. I guess at points it works. But at others it really bugged me that this movie was talking down to the audience as if the symbolism wasn't there.

That out of the way, the story is certainly an interesting one. For those uninitiated to the book like I was, this story is about a young girl adopted into a new foster family just as the Nazi's began to take over. One night, the family finds a young boy, a family friend, who needs to be hidden due to his Jewish name and heritage. The film goes through the expected moments of house searching, questioning the trust in close friends, etc. It has its own power, a soft spoken one.

It's my understanding that Death narrates the entire book. In the film, Death pops in and out. That bothered me. I feel like a narration from Death in a story intended for children is a BRILLIANT choice. But it didn't go all out. It only used it as a novelty, as a reminder throughout that death was coming. But this doesn't work unless it's used more frequently, AND the story uses death as a constant theme. Without one or the other, it feels like a gimmick. And it didn't work for me at all.

So as with all movies of this style, it will absolutely work for many people. And I'm sure it will work for many people far better than it worked for me. So don't take my word for it. But if you want to know what I think of it, it was decent.

Rank - 3/5

Philomena

Philomena is a story that really hits me hard. It's a (dramatically changed) true story, chronicling a journalist and his protagonist, Philomena, as they travel across the United States looking for her son, given up for adoption as an infant. As an adopted child myself, it left me wondering with all hope if my mother would ever come find me. Although my situation is completely different. But that's beside the point. The point is, I expected this movie to have quite an emotional effect on me. A mother hunting down the child she was forced to give up? Get me the kleenex, this is gonna be another movie like 50/50.

Or not...

The pieces were all there for this story to work. It was an incredibly tragic story, set up with morally questionable religious tactics, resulting in an amazing story of one mans life and one womans forgiveness. But I don't know. A few scenes had me feeling angry or hopeful. But the pacing of the film left me feeling a bit let down by the events happing. The biggest moments felt unimportant, brushed over, forgotten. By the next scene, moments that should have been devastating or uplifting were somewhat forgotten. The moments we love the characters are left behind for the next scene showing they really haven't changed at all.

It's a beautiful story, one filled with awesome revelations about humanity, about love, about devotion and about failure. It also shows brilliant criticism of past Roman Catholic practices, and horrendous injustice supported by such an influential group at one time (granted, it's no longer done). But too many scenes are so obviously fabricated, so poorly structured, that it's obvious what scenes really happened and which were written in for the movie. And some of which are pretty insulting. It turns out one of the incredibly climactic scenes that very much criticized the Catholic Church never happened. It wouldn't bother me so much except for the fact that so much of the film worked in its criticism that I couldn't get over how poor the scene was.

Acting in the film was, to me, hit or miss. Some of it worked, and REALLY worked. But other moments, moments that actors are being praised for, I can't help but think were a bit cartoony. Not unlike A Dangerous Method, where Keira Knightley was praised for her acting but I couldn't help but think it was cartoony, like watching a bad horror performance. There were similar feelings towards this film, granted they weren't as dramatic.

Philomena is worth a watch. It's an amazing story and one I think everyone should know. But sadly, the film is not nearly as successful as I was hoping for. As an adopted child, I have to say it did nothing to make me feel. And I'm pretty sure it's safe to say there aren't many other people that could connect with this movie in the same way, except of course for mothers.

Rank - 2.5/5

Thor: The Dark World

My expectations for Thor are never high. Let's get real here. It's about a norse god in a sci fi action movie, where he lives in a technologically advanced alien society that banishes him to Earth  If this was from anything other than Marvel studios, I would have burst out laughing. It's like reading the plot to I, Frankenstein or Hansel And Gretel Witch Hunters.

I didn't like the first Thor. And it fell to the same problems so many action movies do with silly premises such as this. It didn't let the audience soak in how silly it was. It was too serious for far too long, letting us feel the length of it. Sure, these guys are pretty serious in their own legends. But it's a Marvel movie, setting up a universe where this god was going to fight alongside a man in a robotic suit, a giant green muscular Jekyll/Hyde monster, and a frozen WWII soldier. Only a few scenes really let the audience laugh at the situation, but none were really funny enough to have made up for any of the lengthy stretches of no laughs.

So I guess the ultimate question is, did Thor: The Dark World improve on any of those problematic traits? Absolutely. There was a lot in this movie that the audience was allowed to laugh at and allowed to experience for the silliness that it was. It had a decent amount of genuinely funny moments. It was a lot less political, which left more time for awesome action scenes and fun moments of character development.

...Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...

For every awesome action moment, there was one that was TOO silly. That's right. Too silly. I was laughing at the ships that chopped buildings in half. I had kindof a hard time taking the villains too seriously, mostly ending up making me chuckle to myself. The moments that had me laugh took away a lot of the drama, which took away any suspense previous Marvel movies so wonderfully set up. Even the first Thor film brought about a few moments I didn't expect, or at least had me thinking about what was going to happen next. This film didn't totally succeed in that regard.

I guess I can give the movie credit. It works on a lot of levels. It's an awesome blockbuster action movie. It keeps itself in check, never becoming so dramatic that it becomes stupid or boring. It has moments of laughter. It has a decent amount of drama and a story that doesn't make zero sense. And I had fun. I guess that's the most important thing. I had fun.

...But can someone PLEASE explain to me what that red stuff was?!

Rank - 3.5/5