One of the great things about living in Atlanta is the ability to catch some screenings of some movies and TV pilots before they come out. I've been incredibly lucky the last few weeks and have caught 6 screenings over the last two weeks and have another lined-up for this upcoming Tuesday. So I'll do a quick review of these movies and what I thought of them. I'll go in the order I saw them in:
'Smash' pilot: One of my stranger interests is that I really enjoy musicals. I even still watch 'Glee', which has been pretty awful in seasons 2 & 3. So when I heard NBC was taking a shot at a show about the back-stage workings of a Broadway musical, my interest was piqued. And I liked a lot of things about the pilot, but I do have a few concerns. Katherine McPhee as the Broadway newcomer was pretty awesome (and sounded amazing) and Debra Messing as the lead writer was quite interesting. The music sounded great and the choreography was quite good. But I'm not sure where the story goes over the course of the season and the "competition" between the two leads for Marilyn could get very annoying/cliched, very quickly. With all that said, I'm in and am hoping that it'll prove me wrong and become great.
'Act of Valor': Now this was an interesting experiment in movie casting. They used real life, active-duty Navy Seals to play themselves in what started out as a recruitment video and turned into a full-length feature film. I'm sure the Seals did their best (and for beginners, they weren't that bad), but no one will be seeing this for the acting. The live-fire and real tactics made the mission scenes look and feel awesome and authentic. The first mission in the jungle was really great, but the other two big missions didn't live up to the first one. They throw an emotional gut-punch in at the end that sorta works and reminded me of how much these guys give up to protect our freedom. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but it is memorable and is something that really made me think, which is all I can ask for from a movie.
'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close': When I first saw the trailer for this and heard what it was about, I was troubled. I've heard of other movies using 9/11 as a major plot point, but this was the first one I've seen that did. The kid in this movie was quite good and really portrayed how someone with Asperger's-like symptoms would have trouble accepting something like his father dying in the twin towers on 'the worst day.' The acting across the board was good and with actors like Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, you would expect no less. They obviously try to tug at the heart-stings and the scene towards the end with the mother really resonated with me and had me misting up a bit. I still don't know exactly how I feel about using 9/11 in this way, but this movie really worked and I felt the kid's pain as he tried to stay connected to his dad after his tragic death.
'Haywire': A vehicle to jump-start and showcase female MMA star Gina Carano, this movie was a pleasant surprise. I went in with low expectations, considering it was the first movie for this female action star, but the supporting cast including Ewan McGregor, Michale Fassbender, Antonio Banderas & Channing Tatum really worked well together. Carano was obviously great in the fight scenes and even showed some acting chops in the quiter scenes, but still had some moments where she was stilted and showed her inexperience. Instead of being a straight action flick, they worked an interesting spy/revenge angle that adds some interesting layers. While it won't win any awards, it's great at what it does and should launch Carano as THE female-action hero for the foreseeable future.
'Man on a Ledge': As a thriller/heist/revenge flick, this was quite good. Another movie that's not going to win any awards but is very good at what it does. Sam Worthington is almost riveting as the titular man on a ledge and Elizabeth Banks is almost convincing as an honest police negotiator, they have enough chemistry to keep it interesting. While the heist aspect was nothing very original and the supposed "twist" not at all surprising, it still entertained for the entire running time. Sometimes that's all one can expect from a movie with a title like this one.
'Red Tails': The final movie of my two week screening binge was unfortunately the worst. George Lucas' supposed "passion project", pretty much nothing worked outside of some impressive CGI. The characters are cliched card-board cutouts with no depth and surprisingly bad acting. Even big name stars like Terrance Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr, and numerous actors from my favorite TV series 'The Wire' can't elevate material that sounds like it was written by a high school student. The story of the Tuskegee airmen is one of heroes doing everything they can for a country that wants nothing to do with them and it deserves to be told and I'm afraid that this tragic mistake of a movie will forever prevent a true telling of this amazing story.
Well, I think that catches me up on everything I've seen over the last few weeks. I'm going to try to be more diligent in the future in getting my thoughts up here in a timely manner. If anyone is actually reading this, feel free to tell me how wrong or right you think I am. This is my first time trying anything like this, so I'd appreciate feedback from anyone.
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