50x3: Moon (O-1)

For the first film on Oscar's list I watch one that I was not too familiar with. I had heard about it and had seen the odd poster for it, but really had no idea what it was about.

I will say this before I start, there is really no way to talk about this film without spoilers - so if you have not seen it and plan to do not read anymore.

Moon is a film in the same vein as Cast Away or Buried in that for pretty much the entire film we are with just one human character. Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, who is on a 3-year mission on the moon to oversee harvesting that is done there for a gas called helium-3 that is sent to Earth.

Bell has a wife, Tess (Dominique McElligott) and a young daughter Eve (Kaya Scoderlario), which are the only things really keeping him going while spending his days alone. Them and his only other 'friend' a robot named GERTY (Kevin Spacey).

With only two weeks remaining on his mission, Bell gets in an accident while out on the moon surface trying to recover a helium-3 canister. He awakens in the infirmary by GERTY with no memory of the accident. He overhears GERTY speaking with the Lunar Industries, who is in charge, despite the fact that communications have been knocked out for years.

GERTY is to keep Bell in the space station and not let him out as a rescue team comes to get him. Believing something is not right, Bell creates a fake issue to get out of the station and finds an unconscious person inside a crashed rover - which turns out to be himself.

As it turns out there is no 3-year mission. Long ago a man named Sam Bell volunteered to have himself cloned so that these clones could harvest on the moon risk free. Of course, all of Bell's memories and thoughts were left inside his clones - so they longed to get home and see their wife and new child.

But, there was no return home for these clones. Their 3-year mission was (and this is just what I gathered) actually their life expectancy. Once their 3-year mission was over - GERTY would 'awaken' another clone and the cycle would begin all over again.

In Moon Rockwell did have a few more things to interact with than Hanks did in Cast Away. Hanks' lone companion was a volleyball that couldn't speak, while Rockwell had a robot that could interact and eventually another clone to speak with.

But, Rockwell still did an amazing job in the role. Plus the difference between the two clones was night and day. Despite not having much color in the film, the views were outstanding - especially when they journeyed out onto the surface of the moon.

Grade:

25 Days: Fred Claus

The 25 Days of Christmas rolled on last night as we took in Fred Claus.

Fred Claus came out last year in November and stars Vince Vaughn as the titular character.

The story follows an unknown relative of a certain jolly fat-man named Santa Claus, played by Paul Giamatti. This relative is his older brother, who has been in his younger brother's shadow for years.

We learn that when Nicholas was born, he was immediately a giver and a saint. Fred began to resent his younger brother, as his mother often wished he would be more like him.

Fast-forward many, many years and Fred is still the black sheep of the family, while Christmas has totally taken off thanks to Nick.

In order to start up a company, Fred asks Nick for a loan - but to get the loan he has to go to the North Pole to visit and work off some of the debt.

This just happens to intertwine with the visit of Clyde Northcut (Kevin Spacey), a efficiency expert with a grudge.

Of course, as things start to pile up thanks to Fred and his bumbling ways - Christmas comes very close to being canceled. That is, of course, unless Fred can save the day.

I have two very different opinions about this film. First, because it is a Christmas film and obviously meant to have a lesson, I cut it a little slack. The entire story as a whole was very nice and very easy to watch.

I felt that all of the characters played their parts very well, and seeing Giamatti as Santa was pretty entertaining in itself.

I did have a few issues, though. The main one being the simple fact that a man (Santa) who spends his entire time doing things for the benefit of others for no reimbursement, would ever have an efficiency expert - or at least would ever listen to him. He isn't profiting from what he is doing, so there was no need. So, you really had to look past that.

Also, the main elf, Willie, is played by John Michael Higgins who just so happens to be a normal sized person. There were also a few others mixed in, like a DJ played by Ludacris. However, a few of the others were played by little people, or even children. What was the point of mixing that up? They should have went with the all of one to make things flow a little better.

And finally, this seems to happen in every Christmas film, but there is one 'elf' who happens to be regular size named Charlene, played by Elizabeth Banks. No real mention why she is regular size, she just is. Besides the main family and Northcut, everyone else was a small elf that was in the North Pole - so why was this one person normal size?

Just a few beefs, but it didn't really take a lot away from the film. I laughed out a few times and the story obviously held a lesson for the end.

Grade:

Movie Booms I

I must say that the total lack of television on now, thanks to most of the seasons being completed, I have found some extra time to dive into some movies I have been longing to see.

I posted a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Saturday, but I was also able to catch four other movies during this extended weekend.

Things started off on Saturday, when on one of the movie channels I noticed that Next was about to start (I am one of those people that can't watch a movie he has never seen, unless it's from start to finish), so I decided to record it and watch it when Kasey went up for his nap.

Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. Cage is Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who just might be the real thing. Johnson has this ability to see into the future - but only two minutes ahead and only things involving himself.

The only occurrence of him seeing further into the future involves Liz Cooper (Biel), whom Johnson believes is part of his destiny.

The FBI, however, led by Callie Ferris (Moore) is trying to lure Johnson into helping them find and stop a group of bombers. Johnson, though, just wants to remain normal and resists - until Cooper is kidnapped by the bombers.

I was actually pretty interested in the film, Cage is always hit or miss with me, and he was pretty tolerable here - I was not too impressed with Moore as the FBI agent, however. The movie flowed pretty well - that is until the ending, which I felt ended much too soon. It was a pretty interesting play of events, but I was looking for me.

I would have to give this movie a 3/5 thanks to the disappointing ending.

Sunday night I managed to finally watch a movie I had been interested in seeing since it was in theaters.

The Kingdom revolves around a single incident in Saudi Arabia that involves two U.S. government agents. The agents, who had been stationed at a Saudi Arabian base, were killed when a bomb went off.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper. Foxx plays Ronald Fleury, who without permission, sneaks himself and three other members of his team into Saudi Arabia to help track down the culprits behind the bombing.

Once there, however, the crew is not allowed to touch anything or go anywhere without supervision - until Fleury gets permission from one of the local princes.

It's hard to explain this movie without truly giving something away, so I will just say that the movie has a lot of action - a few squeamish scenes - and the acting is pretty top-notch. Bateman plays Adam Leavitt, and his character gives some much needed comedy to a very dramatic situation. I give the film a 4/5.

The third movie of the weekend was more of a television movie. I had actually heard that this movie was going to be on during an interview on The Mike O'Meara Show and thought it might be worth a look.

Recount premiered on HBO during the weekend. It stars Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Laura Dern.

The film is about the 2000 presidential election year between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I have never been a very political person, but this proved to be a very interesting movie.

The entire movie is focused on the state of Florida during the election, a state that proved to give the election - and the presidency - to Bush. Spacey stars as Ron Klain, an attorney for the Gore campaign, who trying everything in his power to find out the correct results of the election.

For those who might not remember, the state of Florida had a series of issues when it came to it's election. A handful of people, believing they were voting for Gore, accidentally voted for Pat Buchanon. Other votes were cast, with what is called a hanging chad (or a punch that didn't go all the way through).

Thanks to this, many votes for Gore were uncounted and thus gave Bush the presidency. There were so many twists and turns to this situation - which basically all came down to the decision of Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris (Dern), who decided not to count those that were uncounted. Harris is a Republican - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Like I said I am not too political, but this movie certainly had me enthralled. Imagine what could have been? Would we be in the situation we are now if Gore would have won? Very interesting. My lone complaint is I was hoping the filmmakers would have interviewed the actual lawyers and participants on the two campaigns. I was very interested to hear what say James Baker (Wilkinson) had to say about Bush now - eight year later. Nevertheless, I still give this movie a 4/5.

The final movie I was able to watch this weekend was Breach starring Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper. Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysburt.

Phillippe is Eric O'Neill, an upstart in the FBI, who is given his first real assignment as an agent. He is to work for, and investigate, Robert Hanssen (Cooper), an intense, religious, computer intelligence officer.

Hanssen has supposedly been selling off American secrets to the Russians for years, and before his retirement in two months, the FBI is looking to bust him. Phillippe is forced to outwit one of the most intelligent officers he has ever met - and actually begins to like him.

This movie was based on a true story. Hanssen is reportedly the worst spy in the history of the United States. The capturing of Hanssen was the one and only assignment for O'Neill, as he decided to pursue law after the long ordeal.

Breach was an interesting movie which kept me involved, but it didn't have much action - and the 'spy games' used in it weren't as involved as I would have liked. However, it was a good watch so I give it a 3/5.

There you have it - hopefully there will be more of these Movie Booms throughout the summer - as I try to get caught up on the many movies I want to see.

Rensselaer and 21

I'm back.

I'd hate to disappoint the dozens of loyal fans (or maybe it's just one) my blogs - I know they get you through the day.

Anyway, I spent the last three days in my companies home office of Rensselaer in a training session. I learned a lot that should help me in my job - although it was pretty boring, and cramped, at times.

I did get to spend some time with my friend from high school, Zac. We went to dinner in downtown Albany and then he showed me his house. It was good to see him, it had been a long time.

On Wednesday, I managed to find some time - although that time is usually for sleeping during work nights - to sneak off and see a movie. So here is my review.

I went to a late-night viewing of 21 at a very close to my hotel movie theater. It was, by far, the most intriguing of all movies they had showing at the theater - so I grabbed my Goobers and water and went to the movies.

21 has characters that include: Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira), Jimmy Fisher (Jacob Pitts), Prof. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) and Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne).

Campbell is an extremely bright 21 year old, who has been accepted into Harvard Medical School. He is up for a Robinson Scholarship, that selects one student and pays their entire medical school bill. The administer of this scholarship tells Campbell that everyone applying for the scholarship is the top everything in his/her school - to win, you have to do something that really jumps out.

In a class at M.I.T., Campbell impresses his professor (Spacey) and is recruited to join his card counting group, which consists of Jill, Choi, Kianna and Jimmy. At first he is reluctant, but when he realizes he can pay for his own medical school by making money counting cards, he accepts.

The rest of the movie plays out pretty well. Choi, Jill and Kianna each go to separate black jack tables and if a table is hot - flash a signal to either Jimmy or Ben to join in at the table. A quick well placed key word in a sentence, and Jimmy or Ben know exactly where the card count is at when sitting down. They are the big players - the one's that make the money by placing larger bets.

Of course there is the inevitable jealousy that Jimmy soon shows when Ben starts out-performing him, and thus earning Rosa's praise. Also, the attraction between Ben and Jill - and finally the falling out between the players and their 'coach'.

The ending is pretty good. Definitely has some twists that you may not see coming - I figured on a few of them, but was not expecting a couple.

The movie is pretty entertaining. Sturgess is a newcomer that more than holds his own with the veteran Spacey and Fishburne. I was also very impressed with Bosworth - who in earlier projects I have not enjoyed very much.

I would recommend this movie - it is pretty interesting how they can do the counting of cards, and how they signal each other to the hot tables. You never truly lose focus on the film, it keeps you into it for its entire length, which is what a movie is supposed to do.