Tuesday's With Movies: 3/29/11

Tangled: It is obvious that I will watch this. I am a Disney fanatic, and I have a 4-year old. I actually received our copy of the movie from the Disney club last night, a whole day before it was released. Aren't I special?








Black Swan: OK, I love Natalie Portman and this film was nominated for an Oscar. I will be checking it out, despite the presence of ballet dancing. And, I don't know the whole story, but the movie apparently has some sort of twist or something (so I have heard). I am looking forward to it.






Fair Game: When I first saw the trailer for this I had no real intentions of seeing. But, I re-watched it and I also got a little more information on the film and it has grown on me, so I will check it out when I can.








All Good Things: I know nothing about this except it stars Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, so it is in my queue. It is marked as a thriller - so I guess we will see what it is about.

30/50: King Arthur

I originally wanted to watch this film when it first came into the theater. At the time I had a bit of a Keira Knightley crush going on and was checking as many of her films as I could. But, I never got around to seeing it and I heard mixed reviews once it finally came out on DVD.

Anyway, King Arthur is not truly about Knightley, but it is a totally different way of telling the story of Arthur and the Knights of his round table. I, of course, am much more familiar with The Sword in the Stone and various forms that are about the same as that story - this one was completely different.

I have actually owned this movie for awhile and never once tossed it in until I forced myself to watch it with this list - and you know what, I didn't hate it. I may have actually enjoyed it.

Arthur (Clive Owen) leads a bunch of knights, including Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), to battle and protect land against the Woads - who are actually led by the "black" magician, Merlin (Stephene Dillane).

As the film opens, Arthur and his knights are on their final mission and will be allowed to go home after 15 years of fighting when they guide a bishop through Woad lands. However, once they arrive they are asked for one last mission to save a family, whose son just may one day be pope, from the attack of Saxons.

While at the castle of the family, Arthur knocks down a wall and realizes that the family has been killing people and leaving them to die in prisons. Found there is Guinevere (Knightley), who in this adaptation is a Woad.

In order to take down the Saxon army, the two sides - the Woads and Arthur's knights - come together and form their own army, which is still way smaller than the Saxon army.

I am not really sure why this was knocked so much, because I felt the acting was pretty good and the battle scenes - especially the one at the end - were amazing.

Also seeing this has reaffirmed my crush on Knightley, and I need her to stop making those wickedly boring period pieces. Get her in some odd comedy or a modern day action film.

Grade:

29/50: Donnie Darko

I have heard many great things about this film. It sort of has become a cult classic among many people, but I never really got around to watching it - and I really had no true interest until I had heard it was so good that I had to at least give it a try.

Donnie Darko stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular character. Darko suffers from some sort of mental illness that I don't believe is ever truly said - though it is perceived and mentioned that he may have schizophrenia.

I do not hate Gyllenhaal as an actor, but he has never really jumped off of the screen for me like other actors have. However, in this film he was downright amazing. Probably his best acting performance to date that I have seen.

Anyway, Darko is being led around by what is thought to be a figment of his imagination - that he sees as a very odd and scary looking bunny named Frank. Darko wakes up at night - usually at midnight - and is told by Frank to do random things. During one of these sleepwalking excursions, Darko is able to escape death, which he is then led to believe that Frank saved his life and therefore should listen to whatever Frank tells him to do.

Darko also begins to lash out at school, mostly when it comes to the teachings of Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) who has a sort of infomercial/cult like way to his preachings. He also falls in love with a new girl in school, Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), who along with her mother has escaped a violent stepfather.

A lot of things begin to happen, and Frank tells Darko to do a lot of bad things - which somehow expose things that many people did not know. It all comes to fruition at the conclusion of the film when everything sort of comes together and is somewhat explained.

There are tons of well-known actors and actresses in this film, including Jake's sister Maggie playing his sister, Elizabeth. Noah Wyle portrays Ken Monnitoff, a science teacher that helps Donnie with the possibility of time travel.

Seth Rogen plays Ricky Danforth, a classmate of Donnie and also a bully, who doesn't appear to have much to do with the actual plot - but does. And finally, Drew Barrymore as Karen Pomeroy, Donnie's English teacher. Her inclusion in the film is still not really understood by me, nor is a few of the other things that go on in the film, but nevertheless I felt she did well in her role.

I did not watch the Director's Cut of the film, so I am not sure if more is explained in that version, but I don't think I totally grasped everything that was meant to be told in the film - and even without knowing that I really enjoyed it.

Like I said, great performance by Gyllenhaal (both of them actually) and I don't think I would have liked it as much if he didn't have a great performance. Also truly enjoyed Jena Malone and Wyle as well - who I am unsure why he doesn't get more film roles.

Grade:

Who? What? Where? #17

Fletch hits double figures, but Jess remains in the lead. Fletch was able to correctly identify Kate Bosworth as Jill in 21.

The top of the board is getting a bit closer now. Good luck to everyone.

The concept is simple: each week I will place a photograph of a character within a film. It is up to you (the participant in the game) to tell me the following:

1) The name of the actor (or what the actor goes by in his acting profession).

2) The name of the character in the movie.

3) And, the name of the movie.

Each correct answer gets you a point - so if you get all three correct on a given week, you can get three points. I will keep a running chart each and every week. As of now, this will be played for bragging rights only - but we shall see what the future holds.

So here is week #16:


Standings:
Jess - 15 points
Matt - 14 points
Fletch - 10 points
Mrs. Kano - 5 points
Nick - 4 points

28/50: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I really have a hard time watching films that are older for the first time and actually liking them as much as a should. The quality just isn't there anymore and it really just feels old.

However, with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I really had issue with the fact that it was released in 1975.

R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is a convict that is sent to a mental institution, despite the warden of the place believing that McMurphy is faking. While there, he befriends all of the other patients, and soon realizes that they are being treated unfairly.

He begins to teach them a few different things, like gambling and watching the World Series. He even breaks them out for a day on the lake fishing.

The main problem with the hospital is its staff, led by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). One of the worst villains in cinema history (even voted that by AFI). Her villainy is more mental than physical, but she is truly heinous. She treats the patients horribly - and won't let them enjoy anything.

A few other bright spots were spotting Christopher Lloyd as a patient named Taber. And, once the film ended, finding out that the person playing Martini was Danny DeVito. I honestly had no clue that he was in the film, and had to go back to see who he was. I was astonished.

Anyway, the ending was horrible - and not horrible as in I hated it, but just hard to take. I won't divulge too much in case someone hasn't seen it.

Either way, I loved the film. A great performance by Nicholson - even though he was supposed to be over the time, I don't think he felt over the top.

Grade: