The Next Three Days

“The Next Three Days”

The Next Three Days is a crime/drama/action movie directed by Paul Haggis. It stars Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, and Ty Simpkins. The Next Three Days is about John Brennan, played by Crowe, attempts to break his wife Lara Brennan, played by Banks, out of prison after she is accused of murder.

The movie begins with Mr. and Mrs. Brennan having dinner with another couple and after a couple of drinks Lara starts talking about how much she hates her boss.  A argument then begins between her and the other woman over the issue and after a exchange of remarks both couples get the check and they go home. The next morning at the Brennan house, Lara gets arrested for the murder of her boss. John spends the next couple of years raising their son Luke, played Ty Simpkins, by himself. During that time John does all he can to get Lara out of jail because he knows she’s insist. Also, all this time separated is taking a toll on the whole family; especially on Lara and Luke’s relationship. Lara’s lawyer, played by Daniel Stern, tells John that Lara doesn’t have chance on being released because there is too much evidence against her. John goes to tell Lara that she’s not going to be able to get out but she realizes what john is about to tell her and she immediately retreats back to her cell. Lara then attempts suicide but she survives. At that time John decides that he is going to sneak her out of jail. Over the next three months he uses every resource he can from ex-cons who escape from prisons before, illegal id dealers and internet videos to form a precise plan to break Lara out of Jail. With the plan not completely finished Lara tells John that she is being moved to a different jail, so John must execute his plan in the next three days or his plan that he’s been working on for three months will go to waste.

I thought the acting in this movie was very good. I hadn’t seen Elizabeth Banks in another role besides a comedic before and I have to say that it was good. Like for example when Crowe goes to tell her that she isn’t going to be able to get out she go from having being a bit happy because she gets to see her husband to extremely crushed because she has lost at faith in everything. All the acting in general in this movie was pretty good.

One thing that I didn’t like about the movie was that it sort of drag on. I mean I guess I understand that it has to drag on to a point since they needed to portray the months going by but I think I dragged on a bit too much still. Another thing is during the first half of the movie I was bored. That may have been the design of the movie to represent John’s transformation from college English teacher/single father to as it was put I the movie a guy who is willing to push an older women down to the floor because she is in the way between him and freedom. I don’t like the way that it goes from pretty boring to a lot of action in the later part of the movie just because it’s not a good thing when a person becomes bored while watching a movie whether it was done intentionally or not.

All in all it was a good movie. I give it 3 stars.

Due Date

“Due Date”

Due Date is a comedy that is directed by Todd Philips. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Peter Highman along side Zach Galifianakis who plays Ethan Trembley/Chase. This movie also includes Jaime Foxx, Michelle Monaghan and Danny McBride.

After being kicked off an airplane and losing his wallet, Peter Highman must find a way to get from Atlanta to Los Angeles before the birth of his first child.  Ethan Trembley, an aspiring actor and the reason Highman got kicked off the airplane, offers Highman a ride to Los Angeles, and Highman unfortunately has no other choice but to accept. What Highman doesn’t know is that he is in for the craziest roadtrip of his life. As soon as the trip starts Trembley unleashes a question asking assault on Highman. Then Trembley has to buy marijuana for medical reasons but he spends close to all of his money render them virtually no way to buy enough gas to reach Los Angeles. Highman calls his wife Sarah, played by Michelle Monaghan, to wire Ethan money but she wires it to Ethan’s stage name instead of his real name Ethan Chase. After Trembley almost gets left at a rest area on purpose by Highman the two continue driving until Trembley falls asleep behind the wheel and epically crashes the rental car nearly killing the both of them. Highman then has his friend Daryl, played by Jaime Foxx, pick him up from the hospital with no intention of continuing the trip with Trembley, but Daryl convinces him to allow Trembley to come with them. So after a quick visit to Daryl’s house, Highman and Trembley continue heading towards Los Angeles with everything between the two of them beginning to get better until Trembley smokes his marijuana while Highman is sleeping and accidently attempts to drive into Mexico. Trembley flees from the car but Highman gets detained because there is illegal marijuana in the car. Ethan now has the obstacle of sneaking Peter out of the boarder patrol’s custody so they can stay on schedule to make it on time to the birth of Peter’s child.

I have mixed feelings about the acting in this movie. On one hand I like Robert Downey Jr. and I thought his acting was the best thing about this movie, but on the other I didn’t really like Zach Galifianakis’ performance in it too much. Admittedly I’m not the biggest Zach Galifianakis fan in the world since I think he has to try to be funny instead of being naturally funny but I liked his performance a whole lot better in “The Hangover”. As much as I don’t want to compare an actor’s performance in one movie to another I will. In “The Hangover” I liked Galifianakis’ performance because at the time it was unique and different, but I didn’t like his performance in Due Date because it’s virtually the same character in both movies instead of something unique.

My overall take on this movie is that it is alright movie. As a comedy it’s mildy funny and has a decent plot with some well known actors, and this would be a movie that I would like to go see again.

Megamind

“Megamind”

Megamind is an animated comedy directed by Tom McGrath. Will Ferrell stars as the voice of ultra smart, super villain Megamind, along with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Ben Stiller and David Cross.

Super villain/genius Megamind and super hero Metroman, who is played by Pitt, have always had a rivalry ever since they were babies, with Megamind always living in Metroman’s shadow. When Megamind would do something good in school Metroman would do something greater. One day Megamind realizes if he’s bad at being good then he’ll just be bad.  Megamind then begins to fight Metroman for control of Metro City but always loses the battles. After escaping from jail, Megamind along with his protector and only friend Minion, who is played by David Cross, attempt a plan to defeat Metroman, and this time he’s actually able to kill his life long rival. Now with Metroman out of his way, Megamind is able to do whatever he wants in Metro City without anybody stopping him, but some how Megamind isn’t satisfied. He misses the thrill he got from battling Metroman, so he decides to create another super hero just like Metroman so that he can fight him. After accidently injecting Roxanne’s cameraman, played by Jonah Hill, with an chemical of super powers from Metroman’s left over DNA, Megamind who pretends to be Bernard, played by Ben Stiller, starts hanging out with Roxanne and begins to fall for her. When she finds out that Bernard is actually Megamind she flees. Megamind then turns his attention to Roxanne’s Camerman who is now called Tighten and they begin a massive battle for control of the Metro City.

This movie was pretty good in all aspects. It was a good movie all the way around from having an all star cast, to the animation and the soundtrack. Also the dialogue in this movie made it decently funny. The unique story of evil vs evil for the control of the city is what I like most about this movie because it’s different from the normal good vs evil.

One thing I don’t like about this movie is the character of Metroman. Don’t get me wrong I like Brad Pitt as an actor, and I like Brad Pitt’s job in this movie. I just don’t like the character he had to play in this movie. Metroman is too flashy and cocky for a super hero.

Overall I say this movie does not waste your time. It’s not great but it is better then good. Will Ferrell is awesome in this  ovie and that’s reason enough for anyone to go watch it.

Red

RED

2.5 stars. RED is a comedy/action movie about former CIA agent Frank Moses who is played by Bruce Willis trying to survive from being killed by hot shot CIA agent William Cooper played by Karl Urban along with the rest of the CIA because the government is trying to cover up an event that Moses was apart of in the 80’s. Frank and his friend Sarah played by Mary-Louise Parker, who works as a telephone operator for the company that Moses gets his retirement checks from, are on the run as he tries to uncover why he is all of a sudden a target of the CIA’s. Moses goes to each one of his old friends to let them know that they are all now targeted by the CIA. Frank along with his friends Joe played by Morgan Freeman, Marvin played by John Malkovich, and Victoria who is played by Helen Mirren all come together to try to stop the CIA from executing their plan to kill anyone with any knowledge of a covert mission that took place decades earlier.  

I’m not the biggest Bruce Willis fan but I did like his acting in this movie and I really movie as well. I definitely just liked the overall acting in this movie especially with since I am a Morgan Freeman fan. I also liked the action scenes in this movie especially the scene where Helen Mirren is fighting of the CIA in the kitchen with her Uzi. The thing about the movie is I didn’t really like the story. I mean it wasn’t a bad one but it wasn’t really a great one either.

Red is an ok movie but I feel that it was too predictable and the comedy was a little bit over the top. I thought it was going to be better then what it actually was and it could’ve been a lot better if the writers would’ve been a bit more creative in the action sequence part of the story.

The Social Network

                                     The Social Network

The Social Network is a drama about how Facebook was created.  Jesse Eisenberg, who plays, Mark Zuckerberg gets the idea to create Facebook after he creates a similar social website while he was attending Harvard University.  Mark Zuckerberg creates the website Facemash one night after being dumped by his girlfriend and that draws the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss who want to create a similar website. Zuckerberg agrees to help the Winklevosses with their website but decides to create his own instead with his best friend Eduardo Saverin. When Facebook gets popular on the Harvard campus Tyler and Cameron along with their partner Divya Narendra realize that used their idea to create his own website.  Eduardo wants to start advertising on Facebook so he sets up meetings in New York with potential partners. During the last meeting in Mark and Eduardo meet with Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, and from there he begins helping with Facebook. Sean Parker eventually convinces Zuckerberg tom let Eduardo go from Facebook and then Eduardo sews Zuckerberg for that. The movie goes back and fourth between what happened while Facebook was being created and the two lawsuit depositions against Zuckerburg. I thought the dialogue in this movie was pretty good. I also really liked the acting in this movie, especially how Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg.  Overall I thought The Social Network was a really good movie. Also, the way that they showed the college experience was pretty authentic and I like that because not all movies that are in a college setting aren’t too authentic.

Catfish

“Catfish”

I give Catfish 2.5 stars. Catfish is a documentary filmed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost about New York photographer Yaniv Schulman, Ariel’s brother, having an 8 month long digital relationship with 8 year old painter Abby Faccio and the rest her family.

In 2007, a photo taken by Yaniv appeared in a New York newspaper and he soon received a replica painting of the photo in the mail from Abby. During the next several months Abby, Abby’s sister Megan and their mom Angela keep in contact with Yaniv through the phone and Facebook. Then, one night while Yaniv, Ariel and Henry are doing work in Colorado they discover that Megan and Angela have not been honest with the things they have told Yaniv, so the three of them decide to take a trip to Michigan to meet the family in person and see what is going on.

There wasn’t a whole lot that was good about the movie, but i’ll say that I do like Yaniv’s attitude. For the most part he has an awesome attitude through out the entire movie especially the last third of the movie when he finds out everything.

I feel it’s hard to be critical of a documentary because they don’t have a lot control as far as what happens, but I just don’t think the story is that great. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s an interesting film but I don’t feel it’s that crazy of a story. Is it some what of a creeper story ? Yes, it is some what a creeper story but it’s not much more then a creeper story caught on film.

Out of all the movies out right now Catfish would definitely not be my first suggestion for someone to go watch.

The Town

                                               The Town

The Town is about a group of bank robbers who live in Charleston, Massachusetts which is a notorious town for producing bank robbers.  Ben Affleck is the director and he’s also the main character. Affleck plays Doug Macray who is former hockey player who is now the leader of a group who robs banks in Boston. During the first bank robbing of the movie James Coughlin, Maccray’s childhood friend, who is played by Jeremy Renner takes the bank’s manager, Claire Kessey, as a hostage but shortly after the robbery they realize that she lives also lives in Charleston. So as an attempt to find out what Kessey knows Macray begins to go out on dates with her. He finds out that she is talking to the FBI about the case but didn’t tell them about a fighting irish tattoo that one of the robbers had on his neck for her own protection. After a robbery were they almost got caught Macray tells Coughlin that he’s done because he wants to leave to Miami to get his life together finally, but when Macray goes to tell the same thing to Fergie, the guy they work for, he is threatened that it isn’t in Clarie’s best interesting for him to leave. So after being threatened Macray agrees to do a job where the group will try to rob Fenway Park after a four game series with the New York Yankees. My opinion of this movie is I thought it was a good movie. I really liked Ben Affleck’s acting in this movie. I just like the story of  how the bank robber dates the hostage to see what she knows but then starts to legitimately fall for her.