Southland Tales

It's not good...really. It tries hard, too hard and ends up being a jumble of ideas. Skip it...really.

The Mist

This film made me love Thomas Jane. Many familiar faces appear, including Mystic River's Marcia Gay Harding, W.'s Toby Jones, and Andre Braugher. The cast is filled with prominent actors playing minor roles, which really rounds the quality of acting out to a solid level of decency. Even American Pie's Sherminator is in this. (His name is Chris Owen).

The plot: A mysterious mist covers a small town, and citizens are trapped in a supermarket. Mysterious monsters appear. We are told the military has been experimenting with unknown motives in the local mountains. We are reminded that the fog that preceded the storm was unexpected and strange. Furthermore, we are constantly involved with the characters in this supermarket, and therefore really begin to care about Thomas Jane's character, and his son - even more so once we are presented with the deep psychotic nature of many of the other characters - and how influential they become. Basically, it's just a really effective movie, tense and entertaining. It feels like a good old basic Sci-Fi story, but much more humanized than I'd expected.

If you like thrillers, horror films, Thomas Jane, or Half-Life (the story is basically the same, the POV being the only difference) - then watch this film. The ending is very interesting.

Watch This!: The Company

I remember when I first heard about "The Good Shepard", a DeNiro directed C.I.A. epic. Sadly what we got was a 2 and something hour long film that just dragged to the finish. Luckily I discovered The Company, a tv mini series starring Michael Keaton (to name one), at a blockbuster.
The series begins in Berlin, the Iron Curtain is slowly closing and the C.I.A. is desperately trying to gain valuable information through contacts in East Berlin. From then on the show follows the C.I.A. and KGB through a 40 year period with the Cold War and the slow demise of the Soviet Union as a backdrop.
The show is what "The Good Shepard" should have been, well paced and entertaining from start to finish. The end lets you feel as if you have taken this 40 year journey with the characters.
The ensemble includes: Michael Keaton, Alfred Molina, Chris O"Donnell.
If you liked Band Of Brothers or you love espionage thrillers you will love this show.
WATCH IT.

Sam Rockwell Yelling in Space...AWESOME

The Tribeca Film Festival has ended. Although not majorily excited about this years line up, I was able to see the one film that I had been excited for ever since I heard the first Sundance buzz, Duncan Jones' 'Moon' starring Sam Rockwell. I had read a lot of positive reviews and I was not gonna miss the first showing in New York. Naturally I went in with very high expectations.....and I was not let down. This movie is fucking incredible....I would go so far as saying that this is my favorite film of 2009 (Public Enemies has to be amazing if it wants to compete with this film.) This being the first showing during the TFF, the audience was treated to a Q and A after the film which featured Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell, as well as Nathan Parker (the writer) and the producer. A fun side note, Duncan Jones' father was also in attendance (David Bowie).

Sam Rockwell plays Astronaut Sam Bell who has been working on the Moon for the last three years alongside his robot GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

That is all you need to know about the plot. This film is just amazing, Sam Rockwell AGAIN proves that he deserves to be in more movies, basically being the only actor in this film. After the first 5 minutes you develope a connection with this character which lasts thruought the film. Although I knew that Rockwell was in attendance I still believed that this was not Rockwell but Sam Bell who was waiting to return home.
The film is shot beautifully and it is amazing to see what Jones does with a 5 million dollar budget, showing us that we don't always have to see gigantic explosions in space to make a scifi film entertaining.

The film is paced excellently,  giving us longer emotional scenes but also quick back and forth dialogue which adds some comedy to the overall rather saddening film.

I will not discuss the film any further, because it would just spoil the film for you. 

WATCH IT....it will change your life for the better.