It's been a while since I went on a movie run and had as much success as I had today. I saw four movies and only one of them was lousy. The other three weren't just good, but they were terrific.
127 Hours - James Franco plays a climber and canyon explorer that literally finds himself between a rock and a hard place in Danny Boyle's latest film. After driving to the middle of nowhere to explore the Blue John Canyon in Utah without telling anyone of his plans or his whereabouts, Franco's character falls in a crevice and gets his right arm stuck beneath a rock. The story tells of Franco's character reliving his relationships with his parents, family, and loved ones as he slowly runs out of food and water while pondering his predicament. Based on the true story of Aaron Ralston, Boyle's film is both entertaining and cringe-worthy. Franco played the part brilliantly and it will be very interesting to see how he will accept the Oscar when he's co-hosting the ceremonies.
The Fighter - Speaking of brilliant roles, Christian Bale knocks his out of the park. I've always been a fan of Bale, but he was absolutely mesmerizing to watch in his role of big brother to welterweight fighter Micky Ward played by the almost-always terrible Mark Wahlberg. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Wahlberg is horrible. There's something about the way he delivers each line that makes me want to punch him myself.
The Fighter was a great movie and it was made even better with Bale and Amy Adams as Wahlberg's love interest. Throughout the film, I kept marveling at Bale's performance, but it wasn't until the credits began to roll with an interview with the real-life character Bale portrays that I was blown away. The only downside to this film was the soundtrack. Red Hot Chili Peppers for the training montage? Ben Harper for the first song of the credits? This was a film that needed an original score of instrumentals and not songs from the Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest.
How Do You Know? - If you only see one movie this holiday season and this was it, I feel extremely bad for you. I'm a
big Reese Witherspoon fan but she was absolutely terrible in this. It had to have been the writing's fault because even Jack Nicholson was bad and he's
never bad. This was one of those movies that you don't want to watch, but you can't look away because of how poorly each line is delivered and how asinine the plot is. An ex-professional softball player (Witherspoon) dates a doofus Major League Baseball player (Owen Wilson), but befriends a business man (Paul Rudd) in the middle of a federal investigation for something his dad (Nicholson) framed him for? I
think that's what was going on. The movie was just plain dumb.
Black Swan - The story of the black swan is this: A beautiful girl is turned into a white swan and the curse can only be reversed with true love. Once she finally finds the prince charming to change her back, her twin sister (a black swan) seduces him and tricks him into falling in love with her. The white swan then goes on to kill herself. I didn't exactly do poetic justice to the tale, but Natalie Portman plays a ballet dancer who gets the role of a lifetime in a production of
Swan Lake as the Swan Queen in Darren Aronofsky's first film since resurrecting
Mickey Rourke's career in
The Wrestler. This psychological thriller is by far the scariest film I have seen in a very long time. Portman is freakishly good as her inner-demons and insecurities drag her down and take control of her entire being. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this going in, but it ended up being the best film of the day.
127 Hours - James Franco plays a climber and canyon explorer that literally finds himself between a rock and a hard place in Danny Boyle's latest film. After driving to the middle of nowhere to explore the Blue John Canyon in Utah without telling anyone of his plans or his whereabouts, Franco's character falls in a crevice and gets his right arm stuck beneath a rock. The story tells of Franco's character reliving his relationships with his parents, family, and loved ones as he slowly runs out of food and water while pondering his predicament. Based on the true story of Aaron Ralston, Boyle's film is both entertaining and cringe-worthy. Franco played the part brilliantly and it will be very interesting to see how he will accept the Oscar when he's co-hosting the ceremonies.
The Fighter - Speaking of brilliant roles, Christian Bale knocks his out of the park. I've always been a fan of Bale, but he was absolutely mesmerizing to watch in his role of big brother to welterweight fighter Micky Ward played by the almost-always terrible Mark Wahlberg. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Wahlberg is horrible. There's something about the way he delivers each line that makes me want to punch him myself. The Fighter was a great movie and it was made even better with Bale and Amy Adams as Wahlberg's love interest. Throughout the film, I kept marveling at Bale's performance, but it wasn't until the credits began to roll with an interview with the real-life character Bale portrays that I was blown away. The only downside to this film was the soundtrack. Red Hot Chili Peppers for the training montage? Ben Harper for the first song of the credits? This was a film that needed an original score of instrumentals and not songs from the Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest.
How Do You Know? - If you only see one movie this holiday season and this was it, I feel extremely bad for you. I'm a big Reese Witherspoon fan but she was absolutely terrible in this. It had to have been the writing's fault because even Jack Nicholson was bad and he's never bad. This was one of those movies that you don't want to watch, but you can't look away because of how poorly each line is delivered and how asinine the plot is. An ex-professional softball player (Witherspoon) dates a doofus Major League Baseball player (Owen Wilson), but befriends a business man (Paul Rudd) in the middle of a federal investigation for something his dad (Nicholson) framed him for? I think that's what was going on. The movie was just plain dumb.
Black Swan - The story of the black swan is this: A beautiful girl is turned into a white swan and the curse can only be reversed with true love. Once she finally finds the prince charming to change her back, her twin sister (a black swan) seduces him and tricks him into falling in love with her. The white swan then goes on to kill herself. I didn't exactly do poetic justice to the tale, but Natalie Portman plays a ballet dancer who gets the role of a lifetime in a production of Swan Lake as the Swan Queen in Darren Aronofsky's first film since resurrecting Mickey Rourke's career in The Wrestler. This psychological thriller is by far the scariest film I have seen in a very long time. Portman is freakishly good as her inner-demons and insecurities drag her down and take control of her entire being. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this going in, but it ended up being the best film of the day.
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