Showing posts with label (500) Days of Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label (500) Days of Summer. 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

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

19/50x2: (500) Days of Summer

As I sat down to write a little bit about this film I suddenly got this and 50/50 jumbled together, so this could have been one odd review - but still probably an excellent movie.

Well, as I have said before Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite possibly one of the best working actors in Hollywood today. In (500) Days of Summer he stars as Tom Hansen, a college graduate with a degree in architecture, who is working at a greeting card company.

He works with his best friend McKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) - who I really enjoy almost every time I see him and wish that he was in more things (oh and is married to Christina Hendricks, but I am of topic) - and one day notices a new hire as his boss' assistant, Summer (Zooey Deschanel).

Tom confesses to McKenzie that he is attracted to Summer, and one night over karaoke lets it slip to Summer. Despite not wanting a boyfriend, Summer and Tom grow rather close and eventually do become a couple.

The rest of the film, which is done rather well with a graphic to break things up, jumps to good and bad portions of their relationship. During the first part of their relationship everything is happy and chipper, the birds are singing - but as the relationship goes on things become much gloomier.

As things progress, Tom and Summer are out together and when another man flirts with her he jumps in and gets into a fight. Thinking it showed his feelings for her he was happy about it, but she was not and they get into their first real fight.

On day 290, after seeing The Graduate Summer announces to Tom that they should break up because she is no longer happy with their relationship, but that he is still her best friend.

He storms off and falls into a great depression, and his much younger sister, Rachel (Chloe Moretz) is called in to get him out of his doldrums. Rachel is in the film a few other times as Tom seems to always go to her for help.

I will not reveal anymore as to what happens, because this is a really good movie and if you haven't seen it you should.

As I said, anything Gordon-Levitt is in is appointment watching for me lately. Plus, I have always enjoyed Deschanel's work - and Moretz, though not in a ton of things, has done well in her outings as well.

I loved the way the story was told, including the small graphic breaks that they had in place. I liked that there were two different tones to the movie - the light and fluffy and the dark and dreary. Just like life.

Grade: