Musings on films

Saw IV: Why oh why do I still go to the theatre to watch this shit series? This one was better than the third but it still ended poorly. Argh, a waste of money.

Things We Lost in the Fire: A very good if not great film. The film does have two exceptional performances from Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro (probably one of the best acting jobs of the year of this dude). The script is great but I just didn't fall head over heels for this film.

American Gangster: A remarkable and stunning gangster epic given to us by director Ridley Scott (Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down). Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to go toe to toe as villain and hero and they don't even meet until the end of the movie! It's almost 3 hours but man, does it pass by! One of the best films of the year.

30 Days of Night: Too much style but not enough substance. It kinda sucks (pun really intended) but Danny Huston does give a great performance as the leader of the vampires.

Rendition: It stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Academy Award nominee), Reese Witherspoon (Academy Award winner), Peter Sarsgaard (Golden Globe nominee), Alan Arkin (Academy Award winner), and Meryl Streep (multiple Academy Award winner) and directed by Gavin Hood (Academy Award winner)............all those trophies....but did it suck so bad? Oh yeah, torture is bad. Torture is bad, torture is bad, um....okay, I get the fucking point but why does it still suck? I don't know but I did fall asleep for 1 minute during this film and I rarely sleep when I watch films.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Man, did I want to love this movie. I did love this movie but only some scenes. At its best, it's beautiful, brilliant, and intriguing. At it's worst, it's frustratingly slow and meandering. But man, did Casey Affleck do a fucking great job during this film. He fucking deserves the Academy Award supporting actor award for this performance alone. Brad Pitt was okay but all he did was speaking a sentence and look off at the distance for two minutes before talking again. The cinematography is indeed fucking beautiful as was the score (among the best of the year) but sometimes it's just so goddamn slow that it leads nowhere only to be jump started a great scene. The most disappointing great film of the year.

Gone Baby Gone: Wow, what a directorial debut by Ben Assfleck. Another great performance by his little bro Casey. The ending was fucking great and one of the best endings of the year. It's not a twist ending but one that questions morality. How is the right thing actually right when it is in some cases the wrong thing to do? I found this to be better than Mystic River (which this movie is based off Dennis Lehane's other book of the same name). It digs into the underbelly of Boston's seedy neighborhoods. This is one of the better films of the year.