Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Precious

Genre: Drama
Director: Lee Daniels
Main Actors: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton
Rating: R (Would be awkward with parents Info in the post.)
Length: 109 mins.
IMDb Synopsis:
Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect

    Originaly a novel entitled Push by Saphire (which none of us has read but fully intend to), it was adapted into screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher. Fletcher did an amazing job. This film… just… wow. It was a tough one to watch.  Not because it was boring or because it was badly done (it was quite the contrary actually), but because it was so real. Normally people watch a film to get their mind off of the world and escape into one that is different. In movies things are rarely how they actually are in life. In Precious though, man… you see everything. We knew that people have hard lives but we didn’t realize just how difficult some people have it. It changes your perspective on a lot of things.

    Precious was rated R by MPAA. We don’t always agree with their ratings but this one was classified perfectly. This is a graphic film. One of the characters gets sexually assaulted and the scene is harsh and sad. There is also quite a bit of… scratch that, A LOT of colourful language used in the film. There is physical and verbal abuse. There is some nudity and some sexual content. There is also fair amount of violence.

    The acting in this film was phenomenal. This was Gabourey Sidibe’s first film ever. She tried for it on a whim and got the part, which is amazing. She really made the movie. Her acting along with Mo’Nique was beautifully executed; they had some intense scenes! This must have been an incredibly difficult novel to bring to life on the silver screen, but they played the roles incredibly well. In our opinion, Gabourey could go very far with her acting career. She didn’t only play the role of Precious, she embodied it.

   Incredible acting, incredible message, incredible story. Go out and watch this movie. Buy it, download it illegally, stream it online, we don't care how you watch it as long as you do. We give this movie a well deserved 90%.



Monday, November 1, 2010

The Time Traveler's Wife

Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Mystery/Romance
Director: Robert Schwentke
Main Actors: Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana
Rating: PG-13 (Fine for children, but thye may not fully understand.)
Length: 107 mins.

IMDb Synopsis:
When Henry DeTamble meets Clare Abshire in a Chicago library they both understand that he is a time traveller, but she she knows much more than this about him as he has not yet been to the times and places where they have met before. He falls in love with her, as she has already with him, but his continuing unavoidable absences time travelling - and then returning with increasing knowledge of their future - makes things ever more difficult for Clare.

   Well, at the beginning of the movie I was so confused, even more confused than when my teacher tries to explain algebra or chemistry to me. Which means I was very very confused. Eventually, the confusion is straightened out. Don't worry.
   Once again we have the amazing Rachel McAdams starring in one of our movie night films- and of course she was amazing. This time her leading man was Eric Bana, who I'd never seen before- but happened to be tall, dark and handsome! Their chemistry is great, Rachel McAdams has perfected playing female romantic leads, and has so much experience in it now that it looks almost second nature to her! And Eric Bana, well Erin in particular liked her, and placed him under our "hungry/rugged" guys list. He was also very impressive in this movie. He had been visiting Clare since she was a young girl when he came there from the future. This was the part that confused me; the whole concept of him not knowing this because he hadn't done it yet was a bit beyond my mental capacity. It makes a lot more sense in the end though. This movie is based of the book which I've never actually read, but probably should so I don't know how well the script was written based on the book- I just know the movie was done very well.

   The setting of the movie, especially the meadow scene, I absolutely loved. And the relationship of Clare and Henry was so cute! Heartbreaking too, one can only imagine how hard it would be for the one you love to disappear randomly, without knowing when they will return, and for him not being able to control it in the least. I especially loved Tatum and Hailey McCann who played Clare and Eric's daughter Alba at four and five, and nine and ten. They made the somewhat strange child seem so cute, I forsee a good future in the acting world for the both of them. Possibly one of the best movie night movies coming up close to The Notebook- we gave this movie a 96%

The Last Song

Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Julie Anne Robinson
Main Actors: Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth
Rating: PG (Suitable to watch with parents/ younger siblings)
Length: 107 mins.

IMDb Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Veronica 'Ronnie' Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Tybee Island, Georgia. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father ...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer on Tybee Island with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church. The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story about love in its myriad forms - first love, the love between parents and children - that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that deeply felt relationships can break our hearts ...and heal them.


   Well, firstly I will let you know that we really do not like Miley Cyrus; so we could be a bit biased here, we will try very hard not to me. This movie is based off of the Nicholas Sparks novel which we loved and the movie, which we... not so much loved. Greg Kinnear, and Bobby Coleman were fantastic as Steve and Jonah (the dad, and son). Their relationship in the movie was hilarious, and at the end heartbreaking. Bobby was so cute, and his acting ability is well beyond his years. Liam Hemsworth was pretty good, I do think he would have been better than Taylor Lautner who was also considered for the role of Will (Caroline's opinion. hehe.).Liam's comedic timing, not to mention his overall chemistry with Miley (which was kind of one sided if you ask us) was great. Now, Miley. Miley, Miley, Miley. You are not an actress. You are a much better singer. For once, we agree with Rotten Tomatoes on this one. We didn't think that she was able to handle this type of drama/romance film, and could see her more in a comedy, but like I said before, we weren't Miley Cyrus fansto begin with.
 
   The setting for this movie was really nice. It was filmed in Atlanta Georgia, which fit really well- although it was supposed to be set in North Carolina, according to the novel. Now, we didn't agree with everything the writers did in regards to writing the script. It seems that with the Nicholas Sparks novels, they all get changed drastically- some for the good (The Notebook) and others for the bad (Dear John, The Last Song). Not saying this script wasn't good- because it was- but it omitted quite a few important parts , some which had a lot of meaning to the plot and even turned around one plotline (the church fire) completely!
 
   Although this definetely wasn't our favorite movie, what happened in the end and Bobby Coleman and Greg Kinnear's acting definetely made us cry, not so much Miley and Liam but whatever. Maybe we're freaks. Our rating for the Last Song was a definite 40%