Step Brothers

Will Ferrell is the king of ridiculous. How could a Will Ferrell movie not be funny? I was worried that this would be a weak sequel to Talledega Nights.

Chris Farley and David Spade did great movies but i could not really tell the difference between Black Sheep and Tommy Boy. The jokes were the same the relationship was the same. In Step Brothers there is enough change so that it doesn't feel like the sequel to Talladega Nights. The humor is similar but the plot is different enough to keep it fresh.

The only problems were in some of the supporting cast. They didn't really play it straight enough. The dad falls in love with the other step son. The parents were fairly disappointing. How they hook-up seems very contrary to their nature. But those are small points considering how good Reiley and Ferrrell are together.

This movie is really funny, but it also is way more extreme than needed. This has all the humor of Talladega Nights but it also is much more profane. I didn't feel like the vulgarity of this film made it funnier or edgier than Talledega Nights. The things that made this R as opposed to PG13 were not the highlights of this film.

All in all if you can stand an R rated movie, and you like Ferrell this is going to be what you want.

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Afflek's movies really are better when he isn't in them. Ouch, I know, I am jerk. But this movie is good. It really puts the audience in the gray area of life. It is not Ransom. Ransom was the story of a man getting his son back. Its a story we want him to win. If he gets his son he wins we feel good. If the boy dies, he loses, and we feel bad. What this story does in Gone Baby Gone, is say that in the light of these horrible people and horrible situations there may not be a way for us to feel happy. There is a time in the middle of the film where Patrick knows that what he did was wrong. And so the guilt is beggining to affect him. But those around him pat him on the back and tell him he did good. And they will not let his guilt stay. And he struggles with his choices, and how he wants to feel guilty he wants to be punished and there is no one around who will let him feel bad about his choice.

This movie will prompt alot of discussion about means and ends, right and wrong. I think it is very well done. I was suprised by how much i liked this movie. Though Patrick and Angie's relationship is weird. To me they just seem like a dating couple. They don't ever divulge having a strong committment or any future plans, so when they start to have trouble I don't feel all that compelled to wish they work it out. I wish there was more to that. Other than that i think the story is good, Its well done. I reccomend it.

Across the Universe

So I am not the world's biggest Beatles fan. They have great songs, but they have a million songs, some are bound to be great just based on the odds. They have enough songs to provide the music for a musical. That's crazy. This movie didn't have to do anything accept make sure people were named "Jude" and "Lucy" and they filled it with Beatles songs. If i were a big Beatles this might be a FANTASTIC movie. It was, however, good.

I found this movie very refreshing. It wasn't the greatest story ever told. As far as love stories go its pretty simple. But the telling of the story, by using these songs, is very clever. They are re arranged and choreographed and its like watching a well done music video. Its not just dancing people like in West Side Story, but the whole scene becomes choreographed. And the visuals to match the songs are great. This film is art. Its beautiful watch and hear. I liked it. Also, there are some surprising cameos. Overall I recommend this movie.

The Dark Knight

So I often leave movies that i am looking forward to a little disappointed. Often there is just too much hype. This movie is not like that. Heath ledger's performance is great, and the Oscar talk is very warranted. In The Dark Knight,The Joker reigns supreme. Villains are often very simple, and though they seem mysterious to other characters, we as an audience can see that they are flat characters. The Joker is extremely dynamic. He is scary and funny. Jack Nicholson had the laugh and the face to play the joker, but the joker in "Batman" was just someone to say clever whips and get beat by Batman. In the Dark Knight, Ledger is able to bring out the truly disturbed nature of the Joker. What is important is that there are differences between the villains of The Dark Knight and Batman Begins that were not found in any other movies. In the films of the 90s, all the villians were defined by their gimmick- Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Two-Face. They were all defined by their name. The Joker made jokes, the riddler told riddles Mr Freeze said "Everybody Freeze!" and Two-Face flipped a coin; but they only did what they did because their name was what it was. The JOker is not a gimmick, the joker is a true villain. The kind of villain you love to watch, because he is as good at evil as Batman is at good.

This movie was very exciting, it pulls you on and on further into the Joker's Psyche and Bruce Wayne's struggle to be Batman. The great parts of this movie are greater then Batman Begins, but there are parts of this movie that seem far-fetched, considering this is supposed to be the real life version (not the comic book version). Batman Begins didn't get as good as Dark Knight but it also did not have the moments of "What?" or "Thats not necessary?" or "Why did they add that?" Anyways I will probably go see this again. I reccomend it to anyone, who can stand some violence.

That being said its not grotesque, its not Saw or Hostel, its not even Lethal Weapon, because there isn't much if any profanity. If the way to overcome evil were to out evil it, if the way to destroy violence was to out violent the perpetuators of violence, if the way to overcome fear was to put fear into those who would use for evil, then this film would tell an amazing story to explain the world. As it is It is an amazing story and a great movie. Go Watch it.

My Goal

So the goal of this blog is to review movies (maybe books and music). I hate spoilers, so I will not put in spoilers if the film is still new, and if later I talk about things that give away stuff I will note that there are spoilers. This is not the kind of review where I will say "I agree with this film so it must be good." I hope to be able to be a little more critical than that. If you want to dialogue feel free to post a comment.