Like everyone else in America, I stay pretty busy. I've got 3 teenagers, a full time job, trying to make some films, and going to school at night part time. So rare is the occasion that I actually get a real day off. But when that happens, I binge. And I binge hard. I use those "blue moon"s to catch up on any movies that I may have had even a slight interest in seeing when they came out, but they slipped through the cracks and are now conveniently available in a magic box that just spits them out at the touch of a button when you go buy a Big Mac. So I thought "Hey, why not share your binges with the people. Maybe, if they happen to have a day to O.D. on some films, you could help them make the right choices or at least avoid the bad ones." So when I get that chance, you'll get the scoop. Sound good? Let's go!
LAWLESS - I had high hopes for this one and thought it would start the weekend off on a high note. Plus, my wife, Kristie, who is typically my partner in crime for these fabulous ventures, is kind of partial to Shia LaBeouf, so it seemed like a winner and a good one to lead off with.
The positives: Tom Hardy impressed me again. I've seen him in four movies now (that I can think of) and have really liked him in all of them. And, really, all of the characters in this movie were pretty well done.
The negatives: The story was pretty weak and really slow developing. And the ending was painfully predictable. I know it was based on true events, but if the events have an obvious storybook conclusion, change them. We won't mind, and nobody is going to call you on it.
PITCH PERFECT - *deep sigh* Ya, I'm a 36-year-old man and I watched a movie about college acapella groups. I blame Kristie for this one. Here are some thoughts:
The positives: If you go into a movie with extremely low expectations, typically you'll be pleasantly surprised with SOMETHING. In this case, the fellas (Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, and Adam DeVine) got a few laughs out of me. And I know girls don't necessarily like to be called cute, but Anna Kendrick is cute.
The negatives: I'm a 36-year-old man and it's a movie about college acapella groups.
LOOPER - To me, this was the one I was waiting for. The main event of the weekend. I just hoped my high expectations didn't have the transverse effect as my low one's for Pitch Perfect.
They didn't.
The positives - Joseph Gordon-Levitt is making me happy. I haven't seen him bad in anything yet. But in Looper, he outdid himself. He must have studied every Bruce Willis action movie since Die Hard, because he had the mannerisms down perfect. Even the breathing under duress was like Bruce. It was impressive. As was the movie as a whole. Great characters. Great acting. Smart story with good pacing. I will buy the blu ray.
The negatives - Watching movies made by people smarter than me about time travel makes my over-analytical brain go into overdrive and gives me a headache.
TED - Did you guys realize the T.E.D. stood for Terribly Extremely Dreadful (rim shot). Should have named this one "Turd". I didn't like it. At all.
The positives - Mark Wahlberg is pretty funny. There were a few times I actually laughed, and they were all because of him.
The negatives - Everything else. If somebody could make a case to me as to why people enjoy movies like this or The Hangover, I would love to hear it. Seriously. "Hahaha we're doing drugs and cussing and peeing and pooping on things and having sex and it's hilarious!" No, it's not. Not to me, anyway.
THE BOURNE LEGACY - I loved the Bourne Trilogy, with Matt Damon portraying the amnesiac human weapon, Jason Bourne. I loved the concept of the fourth installment, with Jeremy Renner playing super-spy Aaron Cross, who is in the next step of the evolutionary process of training that Jason went through, making him even more bigger and badder. Sounds good, right? Well...
The positives - It was pretty cool how this movie coincided time-wise with the last of the Matt Damon installments, The Bourne Ultimatum. I actually re-watched Ultimatum to refresh, and the stories seemed to gel pretty well together. Also, Jeremy Renner does action sequences about as good as anybody, and there are plenty of opportunities to showcase this.
The negatives - The decision to make this new batch of super-spies dependent on pills to sustain their abilities, seemed weak to me. Jason was a bad man because he was well trained and super skilled. Aaron was a bad man because he took government-issued drugs. I didn't care much for that. Also, the movie seemed sort of clunky. Transitions were far from smooth. By far the worst of the Bourne's, and it isn't close.
PREMIUM RUSH - I'll be honest: Redbox got another buck from me on this one because I loved Joseph Gordon-Levitt so much in Looper. I just wanted to watch him in something else. And this qualified as something else.
The positives - This movie was great for what it is: A fast paced, edge-of-your-seat, popcorn movie. Gordon-Levitt was fine, but he didn't exactly have a tasking role. And fellow Kentuckian Michael Shannon is always fun to watch be a psycho weirdy. Which he does again in this one.
The negatives - Everything is fairly predictable. The filmmakers threw plenty of formulaic obstacles at our protagonist, but at no point did they create the sense that he may not be able to overcome one. And the ending was pretty corny and kinda lame.
So there it is: a weekend well spent by me, as I'm sure you'd agree. Feel free to let me know what you think of my assessments. Agree? Disagree? Did I talk you into or out of any of these? I'd love to hear some opinions. Until the next weekend of binging, keep the Blue Ray player warmed up for me.