Showing posts with label The Town. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Town. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2012

50x2: Conclusion

Let me first start this by saying - I suck.

After such a seamless first 50 list that took no time at all, I took forever watching these second set of 50 films. Now, of course there were some reasons behind why it took so long, but not why it took this long.

The first post on this second list was made on August 11, 2011. The final post on this list was posted this morning. That is an entire year to sit down and watch 50 movies then post about what I thought. That is insane.

My main conclusion for why this took so long is basically laziness on my part. I watched a ton of these movies without sitting down to write the review. And then I found myself playing catch up, and the catch up took too long. Which basically made me stop watching the films until I did catch up.

Not this time. I am promising to watch a film and write a review as soon as possible after finishing it. My main reason for doing these lists is to get myself to watch films that I should be watching, but for some reason continue to put off.

Some of the films are exactly what I think they are going to be, and some of them surprise - and this works in both ways. Some films I watched surprised me that I liked them so much, while others surprised me that I just didn't enjoy it as much as I should have.

Anyway, to wrap up the 50 films list, volume two - here are my 10 favorite characters from the movies I watched and the top 10 films. Enjoy! 50 list, volume three coming soon.

Top 10 Characters 
10) Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen)

Mortensen stars as Tom Stall in A History of Violence. Stall is a local diner operator with a wife and two kids. One evening he takes out a few diner thieves and becomes an over night hero. But, he gets discovered on television and it turns out Stall is not who he says he is.

9) Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher (Chevy Chase)

Almost everyone knows this film, but for some reason I never actually sat down to watch the movie. Chase stars as the titular Fletch, a columnist for a newspaper, who gets caught up in a bit of an issue with a man who wants Fletch to kill him.

8) Sir James Matthew Barie (Johnny Depp)

Depp stars as Barie, the man behind the magical Peter Pan, in Finding Neverland. This film shows Barie befriending a family and some children as he pens his most memorable book.

7) Aron Ralston (James Franco)

The first of two characters on this list that pretty much spend the entire film on the screen alone. Franco stars as Alston in 127 Hours, a film based on a true story where a mountain hiker falls down in between a pair of rocks and gets caught for days.

6) Floyd (Brad Pitt)

Pitt, who plays a bit of a stoner named Floyd in True Romance, doesn't have much screen time at all, but his presence is definitely felt. His character is pretty hilarious and he mistakenly tells the bad guys where to go to setup the final showdown.

5) Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Like so many others I have sort of developed a non-sexual man crush on Gordon-Levitt. This man can act, and I have loved so many of his films of late. Here he stars as Tom Hansen in (500) Days of Summer, a man that falls in love but with a woman that doesn't seem to have the ability to love in return.

4) Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds)

I will make the confession that I didn't think Reynolds had the ability to carry a film alone - I hardly felt Tom Hanks could do it. But, I was wrong. Reynolds plays Conroy in Buried, a film where he gets buried alive with only a few things available to him to help him get rescued.

3) Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale)

I could have picked a lot of characters from this film. Bale gets most of the credit in The Fighter as the struggling Eklund, but Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams were just as good in this film. But, I think Bale played most against cast so he gets the edge for me.

2) Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling)

This is sort of where I come to the realization that Gosling is going to be a talented actor for a very long time. He stars as Lars in Lars and the Real Girl, a man that had a difficult upbringing and has the inability to connect with others - so he bonds with a sex doll instead.

1) Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson)

Woody Harrelson just has this ability to stand out, at least to me. In a film a bit outside my comfort zone that I really loved - Harrelson had a lot to do with it. He was so badass and hilarious in this film. He just loves killing zombies, but all he really wants is a Twinkie.

Top 10 Films
10) Point Break

9) City of God

8) All the President's Men

7) The Town

6) Zombieland

5) (500) Days of Summer

4) Buried

3) The Fighter

2) Mystic River

1) Lars and the Real Girl

Thursday, August 11, 2011

1/50x2: The Town

History is sometimes bound to repeat itself.

In the case of Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), it begins to mirror that of his father, Stephen (Chris Cooper) in the Affleck directed The Town.

Doug is a crook, like his father before him, but so far Doug has been one step ahead of the law, unlike his father, who is now serving life in prison.

Doug isn't alone, he has a trio of good friends that help him out, including his best friend James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner). Doug is the brains of the operation, he strategically maps out the perfect heists as to not get hurt and not get caught.

During one such heist, James takes the bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage, only to release her once they are far enough away. However, James becomes paranoid that Claire may know something and could turn them in, so Doug 'runs into her' to find out the truth.

Well, one thing leads to another and all of a sudden Claire and Doug are falling for each other - talk about a perfect couple?

James, who has been to jail before, finds out and he becomes increasingly unstable - forcing Doug to do a heist even though it isn't foolproof.

All the while, Det. Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) believes that he has figured out that Doug's gang was behind the robberies in town, but he needed the evidence to arrest them.

Behind these worker bees is a mastermind, the florist Fergie Colm (Pete Postlethwaite). When Doug confronts him about getting out, Fergie threatens to hurt those he loves.

The final heist is to rob a sacred Boston landmark, Fenway Park. As they prepare, James tells Doug that he has no plans of going to jail - if things go wrong he plans on having a shootout.

The film also stars Blake Lively as Krista Coughlin, who while watching the film doesn't really have much going on, except being a junkie. However, she becomes more and more important as the film roles on.

I thought this was a good way to start my second 50 films list. A great heist movie (although I would have liked a few more heists). But, the overall story was just as good as the heists. I am not sure the hatred for Affleck - sure he has had some missteps, but as of late he has truly done very well for himself. Here he shines as well.

Grade:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Tuesday's With Movies: 12/14/10

Sorry this is late. Been a busy week. So I am a few days behind on everything.

Anyway, here is the new Tuesday's with Movies (Who? What? Where? will be posted tomorrow).

Pretty big list this week.

Despicable Me: I am pretty interested in this film, but not enough to run out to the theaters. My son is liking the look of the minions that are in this film so I know that we will check it out as soon as we can. I have heard mixed reviews about this so, again, I will try to put my own spin on things once I get to watch it.





The A-Team: One of the few movies that I was lucky enough to check out in the theater this year and I absolutely loved it. The entire crew was great - tons of action and very funny as well. I will definitely be owning this one as soon as I can. Make sure to check this one out and I am seriously hoping for a sequel to this.





The Town: Another film I wish I could have seen in the theaters. Ben Affleck has really become a great person behind the camera and I can't wait to finally check this one out. It looks to have a lot of the things that interest me and it appears to be another breakout for Jeremy Renner.






The Other Guys: Looks to be anther Will Ferrell vehicle that will be funny, but not as funny as it should be. The previews/trailers have been somewhat funny, but for some reason Ferrell continues to pull the same schtick that he has been doing for awhile now. I hope this isnt the case in this film, but I fear that it is.





Legend of the Guardian (Owls of Ga-hoole): I have no idea what this was about and I was very confused when I saw the first trailer. My son asked what this was about and I really could not tell him. It almost feels like a Lord of the Rings for owls. As of now I have no intentions of checking this out.





Nanny McPhee Returns: Um, I have not seen the first. Doubt I will see the second.