Dramatic English films of the past few years have been long on acting and short on substance. The Queen is one of the more egregious examples. The British like their monarchy about as much as they like Oasis. Any boring film about the death of Princess Diana is going to get a free pass. I was surprised to find myself so thoroughly engrossed with this film. I would describe The King's Speech as smart, stylish and substantial. The main character's struggle is universal and inspirational. He has an embarrassing problem, one that is hard to come to terms with. Breaking through one of life's obstacles bravely, boldly and head on. One minor flaw with this movie is the characterization of Winston Churchill. It's a little one-dimensional and over the top. All in all, one of the better movies of 2010.
Final Verdict: 95 out of 100
(These past few reviews have been on high quality movies. 2010 was a great year for film, significantly better than 2009. That being said, I look forward to reviewing the new Big Mama's House when it comes out.)
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Somewhere
The story is familiar; a man who has everything and gets everything he wants, suddenly he finds his life boring, devoid of love and meaning. Johnny Marco (Dorf) is a well known actor. He drives a Lamborghini and this car symbolizes the bubble he lives in. His day consists of shallow interactions with opportunistic individuals. Drifting through life comfortably. With no real need to get his hands dirty. This guy seems kind of dead inside.
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True Grit
The Coen brothers rarely disappoint; this film is not one of those rare exceptions. The screenplay is based on a Charles Portis novel (True Grit).
Mattie Ross, a quick-witted and obstinate 14 year old girl (Steinfeld), hires U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (Bridges) to avenge the death of her father. LaBoeuf (Damon) is a bumbling inept Texas ranger. Tom Chaney (Brolin), is the man both Ross and LaBoeuf are after. Ross, Cogburn and LaBoeuf worked together through much of the movie.
The Coen brothers did not write this story, but it is no coincidence that this film shares common themes with some of their previous works.
“Well, all the time you spend trying to get back what's been took from you, more is going out the door. After a while, you have to try to get a tourniquet on it... You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity.”
-No Country for Old Men (2007)
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stoplight
I was at the stop light today, I turn on the radio to kube and start bobbing my head like i´m really into the song, in an exaggerated comical fashion. Then this 4 runner full of people pulls right beside me laughing there asses off. I then proceeded to give them a thumbs up. Did they know I was joking? Either way its pretty funny. Perhaps they will realize how ridiculous peoples´ values actually are. A chuckle and an epiphany for them I suppose. This pretentious blog entry is over.
peace
Ed aka
Eazy-e aka
Heineken
7
chester
The Human Conditon
The story follows the life of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai, Seven Samurai), a pacifist, and a fierce egalitarian. He marries his long time girlfriend, Michiko (Michiyo Aratama). Kaji is offered and reluctantly accepts a management position, at a mine in Japanese-colonized Manchuria (with a military exemption). At the mine, he is put in charge of Chinese POWs. These prisoners provide slave labor for the mining operation. His superiors and coworkers believe that he is a little too nice to the prisoners. Kaji manages to meet quotas in spite of what everyone else thinks. Eventually, he gets blamed for letting prisoners escape at night. It seems his coworkers are conspiring with the Chinese prisoners in a rather profitable venture. Some of Kaji's workers are falsely accused of trying to escape. In a matter of moments, Kaji ends up getting shipped off for mandatory military service.
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Hellboy 2
Hellboy and his buddies have to save the world from an underground race of beings. I'm not going to get into the plot because its fairly complicated.
Hellboy 2 had a solid director and visually this movie was quite impressive. Plain and simple, the movie was boring. The script, the dialog/relationships between the characters were pedestrian, trite, and unimaginative. I'd had no reason to care about these characters. The entire movie, the audience is well aware that all these characters are going to be unharmed and everything will be back to normal once they beat the bad guys (without much struggle). Conflict is the essence of any story, but this movie lacked anything of the sort.
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Rockin' Nut Road Snickers and Tim McGraw's Spicy Jalapeno Fritos
There are three possible ratings subpar, par, and über par.
Rockin' Nut Road Snickers- Repugnant would be an understatement. This candy bar is nothing short of atrocious. I feel like the Mars Corporation has personally assaulted me with this cornucopia of complete crap. After eating this, the only thing rocky I experienced was the road to recovery.
Rating: Subpar
Tim McGraw's Spicy Jalapeno Fritos- These are pretty much what you would expect. They are better than regular fritos. Not as good as Chili Cheese Fritos. The gold standard for chips is Salsa Verde Doritos. Needless to say, these fall short of that gold standard.
Rating: Par
Horton Hears a Who
An elephant discovers that there is an entire world living on a piece of pollen. He goes on a journey to find a proper home for these tiny people, on top of a mountain. The mayor of the tiny world and the elephant communicate back and forth. They both tell everyone of this, and everyone seems to accuse them of being crazy lunatics.
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