The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This marks the first review which will be printed in the UW-L Racquet!

Coming soon to Coate Field is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, last year's Oscar nominee for Best Picture. This fictional biopic which chapters the life of a man living in reverse is the most impressive work to date of director David Fincher. Benjamin Button is born as a grotesque miniature man of 80 or 90 years of wrinkled age. Startled by his son's appearance, Benjamin (played by Brad Pitt in an Oscar nominated role) is abandoned on the door step of an assisted living residence. He is adopted by one of the home's caretakers and Benjamin starts his life as no other man has known. His "childhood" starts with arthritis and a wheelchair, presumedly aging forward towards death. As time goes on, it becomes evident that Benjamin is not growing older by the day, but younger.

As the film progresses you are taken through Ben's struggles and life lessons as he learns to read, walk, and all those other motor skills as the world see's him as something far different than a child. During his preadolescence (which appears to be late 70s) Benjamin encounters his first crush, a young girl who grows into a renown ballerina, played by Cate Blanchett. They become good friends from the start but as they begin growing closer to each other in age, their hearts grow much closer as well. Age, youth, injury, and death test the characters' will to be together as their age distances. Benjamin's life is marked by experiences, encounters, and journeys. He spends life as a retiree, a sailer, a child, and in the beginning and in the end he is alone.

This movie pushes 3 hours in length but its plot keeps you captivated along the way. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett both turn in great performances. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a revelation to what really matters in one's life. Everyone lives for an unknown time, but the years do not compare to the ways in which they are spent. Because, as the tagline proclaims, "Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments."

To see how this plays out, be sure tocheck out Midnight Movies at Coate Field during Welcome Week!

Rating: 3.5/4 Stars

The Goods: Sell Hard, Live Hard

I love Jeremy Piven. His role as Ari Gold in Entourage is one the greatest characters in television and it has scored him an Emmy. But in this role as Don Ready, a dynamo salesman of used automobiles, I see much of the same character but in much more watered down and more trashy version. Don Ready is very vulgar and lewd but he lacks much of the Ari Gold wit and flash that makes Jeremy Piven a good actor.
In "The Goods," the premise is that a used car lot is about to go belly up if it doesn't move many of the sitting cars in its inventory within the next few days. The owner calls in a "mercenary" (Piven) to liquidate the assets and save the business. The major plot in the movie is that Don Ready becomes emotionally attached to this task, because of his love interest in the daughter of the autodealer, Ivy, played by Jordana Spiro of "My Boys" (TBS) fame. There are a lot of obstacles that come in the way and they are all very over the top, and not very funny. As the story plays out you see some familiar faces notably Ed Helms (The Hangover, The Office), Will Ferrell, and much to my displeasure Kathryn Hahn (the sex maniac inlaw of Step Brothers, I seriously cannot stand her choice of roles) and David Koechner (Champ from Anchorman, I hate him in all his roles as well).

This wraps up to be an okay movie, but I wouldn't pin it to be a good at all. At the same time it's not that bad, it was decently entertaining and very short (83 minutes). It was far from as funny as I hoped it to be. The writing wasn't sold very well and producer Adam McCay appears to have fallen short yet again. Save this movie for the Redbox.

Rating: 1.5 of 4 stars.

Trailer

Shorts

In theatres as of August 21 comes Shorts, the next film by director Robert Rodriguez. He was also the director of Spy Kids, which really laid out what I was going to get with this movie. It was going to be cheesy and completely geared for the kids. I really don't know why I decided to watch this.

This movie was really, really bad. I really regret watching this. It's supposed to be a light-hearted, goofy kid's comedy, but it was so dumb I don't see why anyone would go and pay money to see this. In a story basically involving a boy named Toby coming across a magic rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes, you really get a handful of 'laughs'. The story is told in a series of shorts, all which crank out forced joke after forced joke. I really don't want to devulge more about this film because I really couldn't care less about it. Overall, a big waste of time, and unless you are babysitting and need to kill an hour and a half, a definite not see.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tClE9-Pkptw&feature=related

Adventureland

Coming from the director of Superbad, Greg Mottola is Adventureland. The movie takes place in Pittsburgh in 1987 as it follows the post-college shortcomings of James Brennan (played by Jesse Eisenberg, who is possibly the new Michael Cera type, and who will be seen in Zombieland this fall). He had planned for a trip to Europe for his graduation present, but his Dad's job was transferred, thus ending said trip. All his financial setbacks force James to take a summer job at the local amusement park, Adventureland. This obviously isn't what James had had in mind but little does he know that what started out as his worst summer to date could actually turn out to be the most transformative.

Being that this is from the director of Superbad, I thought there was going to be a plethora of f-bombs and just gross-out joke after gross-out joke. Not that I don't enjoy that kind of thing, but this movie really wasn't that at all. It really was more down the line of a drama. I was really impressed by Eisenberg, being that this was the first movie that I had seen with him in it. He is the next Michael Cera, but he has a little more witty and intellectual with his delivery, whereas Cera is just random and shy with his. This movie also stars Kristen Stewart, from the Twilight series. She does a very nice job playing Em, the love interest of James. This relatively unknown cast all does a pretty good job and really makes this a watchable drama. I was a little disappointed because there weren't as many laughs as I thought. Also, the guy from the Cingular commercials, who is always fighting with his mom about rollover minutes and such, was also in this film (Matt Bush). I don't like that guy.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars Out on 8/25 on dvd Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykI3kkM9l4

Inglourious Basterds

This picture is huge. Anyways my apolgies for not putting up any reviews up in the last few weeks. It's been a busy stretch. Also, I'm going to start making these shorter as well so I can get more out frequently. So let's begin.

Inglourious Basterds is the next film in a long line of impressive flicks by director Quentin Tarantino. From seeing the trailer I was all like, "dang this going to be as graphic as Kill Bill but as witty and funny as Pulp Fiction." I happened to be pretty close to my guess, but there was something about this movie that made it fall short of expectations.

A real quick summary of the film before my opinion of it. In nazi-occupied France, there are two things happening. The first is there is a lieutenant played by Cristoph Waltz going around and killing what remaining Jewish people there are left. We meet him at a house suspected of hiding Jewish people. They shoot up the house and only one girl manages to escape. Also, there is a group of men called "The Basterds" lead by Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). There sole purpose in France is to kill Nazis. Can't really go to much more into depth on that topic, because that's all they do. The movie then follows these two stories through scenes that to some could be hilarious, to some could be boring, and to some be absolutely gross and made you want to turn away. That's what Tarantino brings us in all of his films, and this one isn't different.

Unfortunately, something about this movie rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. I knew that Tarantino likes to prolong his violent sequences with a little prolonged humorous dialogue, but this one seemed to just drag it out. I also thought some of the stuff was unecessary. Don't get me wrong, I love Tarantino's films, especially Pulp Fiction, and there are some things that I felt were over the top, yet I still enjoyed it. For this film, I felt that the over the top stuff was just not needed because it was used incorrectly. I can't say what they were because I don't want to give anything away. This review is running long so my overall impression was disappointed. Not the worst thing your going to see this summer, but not worth seeing. Brad Pitt is very funny as the lead, but just about everything else besides that falls short.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQhTVz5IjQ

The Ugly Truth

Out in theatres as of July 24th is The Ugly Truth, just another film in the long line of romantic comedies to hit the screens this summer. The plot really follows the romantic comedy guidelines as we watch a struggling television producer Abby (Katherine Heigl) try and come up with ways to make her show better. Her superior then decides to bring in Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), who's cable show is a hit because of the ridiculous things that Chadway says or does during his airtime.

Abby immediately is disgusted with Chadway's opinions and viewponits until she meets what she thinks is Mr. Right. She then begins to brag about it to mike until he realizes that she is never going to win this guy unless he helps her out. They then agree to a deal that basically consists of Chadway coaching her in all her moves with this new guy. This is about where you can insert the standard romantic comedy plot. The two, after spending so much time together, begin to feel something between them, and then it comes time for Abby to choose between her dream man and the man she would not dream of being with.

This movie isn't terrible. It does follow the typical plot, but I think what seperated it a little bit from the rest of the bad rom-coms is the lead acting. I feel that they both did a nice job, but that's about the extent of it. This movie would be a good date idea, but other than that, not really worth seeing.

Rating: 2/4 stars Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-wMe9vxkWI

The Soloist

Out today on DVD is the Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. This is a story about a LA Times columnist, Lopez (Downey Jr.), who discovers a homeless man, Ayers (Foxx), with a astounding musical talent. This man is surprisingly a Juliard dropout, but can play a string instrument as if his sole purpose on earth was to do so. However, he is schizophrenic and is very hesitant to trust anyone.

But the columnist persists and wants to help this man, while uncovering an exhilarating story for him to print. As time goes on though, it is realized that some of life's challenges are not as curable as one may hope. This is the major conflict in the plot as Ayers fights for his independence and Lopez fights for well-being of his medically ill friend. But what is also realized, is the most unlikely places that you'll find the most beautiful things.

All and all this is a well-directed film but around 90 minutes it begins to slow and get tiresome. Downey and Foxx turn in very impressive performances, as to be expected. It is based on a true story but yet, I did not feel like it was up to my anticipations of the movie. This film is available for rent and purchase today.

Rating: Not great, not bad. 2.5/4 Stars

Trailer

Free Movies From Redbox?

With the high price of renting from Blockbuster or Family Video and the long waits of the Netflix customer as the mailman delivers the next flick from his queue, many must think there has got to be a better way to get movies. Well friends there is, and not too many people now about this.

Check this out. Redbox and its partners create promo codes allowing people to rent movies for no charge for one day (late fees still apply) in hopes of being those customers into the stores which the redbox's are located. Sounds silly right? But it works. Just enter in a code and swipe your card and you will rent the DVD for free. Codes only work only time per card you use, but if you have multiple cards to your name this equates to multiple free movies.

So text time your near a redbox, try these codes on for size. Believe me, it will work and it will be free. I haven't paid for a redbox rental in well over a month.

Codes:

DVDONME
BREAKROOM

Also, click here to get texts from redbox for a promo code for Free Movie Monday. These codes are only valid for 24 hours.

Enjoy your free movies, and let's all hope that this doesn't bankrupt redbox.

To locate the nearest redbox click here.

The Hurt Locker

There have been plenty of films that try and try again to give us the feel of what it is like in Iraq. I can't name these movies off the top of my head but I do remember that they didn't really get it right. The Hurt Locker gets it right. It's almost perfect in it's representation of the war in this field of duty.

The story follows an EOD bomb squad located in Baghdad over a year long stay. It starts with the team trying to disarm the first bomb that we're exposed to. Unfortunately, the team's bomb technician is killed on this mission because of a roadisde terrorist detonating the bomb with his phone. We are then introduced to the new bomb technician, William James (played by Jeremy Renner who could be on the short list for best actor). He is incredibly smart, but he acts pretty impulsively, putting his team in more danger than they need a handful of times. There isn't really a whole lot of a story to follow, it's mainly just a lot of gripping scenes taking us from one mission to the next.

This movie is hands down the best that i've seen this year. There honestly was no moment where I wasn't on the edge of my seat. It's not gory at all, but you are always filled with that scared feeling because you can not trust anyone you see and you really don't know what's going to happen from mission to mission. The relatively unknown cast (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, etc.) really does an awesome job in embodying what it is like to be on a squad like this. I've never seen a film like this. It is so gripping all throughout the film. Never a dull or unimportant moment. In my opinion, the leading contender for best actor and best picture for this year's Oscars.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars In expanded release in select cities. Becoming more widely released week by week

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhQdJTlo5NI