The Artist (9/10)

Each year I try to see most of the films that will potentially get nominated for Best Picture. Last year I saw 8 out of 10 before the Academy Awards aired and this year I plan to see all of them prior to the awards show. Having said that, there are already predictions as to which movies may be nominated for Best Picture in 2012 and among them is The Artist.  My wife and I saw The Artist just before Christmas. I had read a lot of buzz about the film since Jean Dujardin's (lead actor) won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and the film itself had since received many awards and nominations. Much of the attention the film is receiving is due to the fact that it is silent (except for music). The movie reminded me a lot of Singin' in the Rain  as it dealt with the advent of talkies (movies with dialogue and sound) and the twilight of the silent film star. Dujardin's character, George Valentin, is a famous silent film actor who falls on hard times as talkies become increasingly popular. The film is incredibly funny and well executed. I felt like I was transported back in time. The movie was even shot in a 4:3 ratio (the image was square and had black bars on the sides of the screen as oppose to rectangular). The film is easily one of my favorites of 2011 (my top 10 list should be on here soon) and it will likely be one I show in my Lit through Film class in the future. I recommend this film to anyone who appreciates the history of film and the "innocence" of old time Hollywood. My rating is 9/10.

Getting to Know Matt, Getting to Know All About Matt!

Matt - Looking as pretentious as possible

I'm (one of) the other contributor(s) D-Bo mentioned in the initial post. Let me join Kevin in cheering him on for taking the initiative with a common movie device we all know and love, the slow clap. Mentally anyway, it's hard to type a slow clap without completely losing your audience.

I'd list my top 5s here as well but I have two of the same movies as Kevin, The Godfather & Usual Suspects, and probably three of the same TV shows, at least those (somewhat) currently airing, Justified, Community and Boardwalk Empire.

One of the reasons I was interested in joining Dan and Kevin on this blog was my wife Alyssa and I started to make our way through AFI's 2007 list of the best 100 American movies of the previous 100 years and I thought this would be a great place to share my thoughts on the movies as we go through the list. Expect a review of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? coming just as soon as I get around to it. You can see my reviews for most of the movies 100-68 over on my old blog - Pending Sobriety which I last posted to in June of 2011.

Hopefully, this blog will afford me the opportunity to really start blowing through that initial list as well as post my thoughts on all the other movies we see. Happy New Year!

Hi. I'm Kevin.

Hey. How's it going? So I am one of the friends that D-Bo mentioned in the first post on this new amazing blog. Let's give Dan a round of applause, for coming up with such a great name after much deliberation. I actually really like the name, its quick, simple and to the point. Great job Dan.

So about me - I am a big movie fan and probably an even bigger TV fan, so don't be shocked to see a few small screen reviews pop up on here from time to time. I also enjoy drinking whiskey, cooking, playing poker and stand up comedy (listening not performing). I have another blog called Eat. Drink. Smoke. Where I occasionally (and by occasionally I mean once, in the past year) blog about food, beverage and cigars.

Here is a few top 5's (at this moment) so you get to know my tastes:

Top 5 Movies: Hot Rod, Seven, Usual Suspects, The Hangover, The Godfather

Top 5 TV Shows: Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Arrested Development, Community, Boardwalk Empire

Top 5 Whiskeys: Pappy Van Winkle 15yr, Van Winkle Family Reserve 12yr, William LaRue Weller, Thomas H. Handy, Stranahan's Paladise Cask

Top 5 weird/delicious things I've eaten: Bone Marrow, Beef Cheeks, Rabbit, Pork trotters/terrine, raw octopus.

Feel free to comment on my reviews, especially if you disagree with me because I like to debate...

Ok. Bye now.

It's the RDJ Double Feature: Part 2 - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Being a fan of Sherlock Holmes (the character) I've enjoyed most of the movies and TV shows featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation. That said, Guy Ritchie (the director of the latest films) and I have had an up and down relationship. I loved Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch - and then he decided to marry the wicked witch Madonna and made Swept Away, which I refused to watch based on every review on the planet (it has a whopping 3.4 rating on IMDB). As of late he's redeemed himself with the Sherlock Holmes movies. Hopefully he keeps it up, but enough about him...

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows pits Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) against Professor Moriarty played by the brilliant Jared Harris, most recently of Mad Men fame. Coming along for the ride is Rachel McAdams (resuming her role), Noomi Rapace (from the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Stephen Fry playing Sherlock's brother Mycroft. While all the performances are solid, I wish the story would have allowed more character development, particularly for Moriarty. As one of the greatest characters from the Holmes mythos, the character comes across as one dimensional, though Mr. Harris does the best with what he was given, and comes across very believable.

The Good

• It's a really fun movie - very fast paced and you don't have a chance to get bored
• The interaction between Holmes and Watson - its very entertaining

The Bad

• The fast paced nature of the movie makes it hard to follow at points
• The cockiness of Holmes gets old after a while

Don't look for it to win any awards - but if you are looking to spend a couple hours being entertained definitely check it out. I give the movie a 6.5/10

Also if you are looking for more Sherlock Holmes greatness, I highly suggest checking out the BBC's adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. There are three 90 minute episodes out now, with three more coming this year. See the second trailer below.

It's the RDJ Double Feature: Part 1 - Due Date

Yesterday, after nursing my New Year's Eve hangover all day, the wife and I watched Due Date before falling asleep. The 2010 release features Robert Downey Jr. as Peter, an uptight father-to-be racing across country to witness the birth of his child. The problem is he's stuck with The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis playing pretty much the exact same character that made him famous, however this time he's named Ethan instead of Allen... big stretch, I know. I suppose if something isn't broken, why fix it.

The straight-man/funny-man interactions between them go from hilarious to infuriating (I can completely relate with RDJ's character and his sheer rage throughout the movie). With the theme of the movie being about fatherhood, you can see the roles being played out by the two main characters. Ethan as the son, ranges from being a loveable child who can't care for himself to an absolute irresponsible terror. Peter, doing his best to be a father, displays the joy and unconditional love of being a "new father" to the struggle of dealing with a an unruly child.

While both lead actors do well, I really enjoyed the cameos in the movie. Appearances by Juliette Lewis, Danny McBride, Jamie Foxx, and the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA are all fantastic.

Despite the great performances by all, the annoyance of Galifianakis' character brings the movie down a bit for me (I'm sure that was the point of his character, but goshdarnit, I don't like being annoyed). Also, while I don't mind the story being far-fetched, there are some scenes that are so unbelievable (the car crash) that it takes me out of the movie experience so I give the movie a 7.5/10

Mission:Impossible Ghost Protocol (8.5/10)

The wife and I went to the theater Thursday night for the first time since we saw "Midnight in Paris" back in June (it's been a busy year). Anyhow, after seeing all of the critical acclaim for M:I 4 I figured we'd give it a shot on the IMAX. We loved it.

I'm a huge fan of "The Incredibles", the animated Pixar film in which the Fantastic Four type family of superheroes join together to fight crime, and became excited to see M:I 4 when I heard Brad Bird was directing it as well. It was his first theatrical release as a live-action director and I was "incredibly" impressed. There were some beautiful city scapes that took full advantage of the IMAX cameras as well as a plot that moved along nicely. Tom Cruise was great as Ethan Hunt, which he typically is, but I was very impressed with the rest of his team as well.

Jeremy Renner is going to be the next big action star, while "The Hurt Locker" wasn't quite capable of making him an A-List guy, this movie, combined with his turn as a Jason Bourne type badass in the new Bourne movie should establish him as the action star of the 2010s. Simon Pegg is great in his return as the M:I team funny guy and the chick was sufficiently attractive for an action movie.

So far as plot, there are spies, a possible end of the world type scenario that may or may not be averted at the last possible moment, great action sequences, beautiful girls, fast cars, masks, you get the idea.

If you're looking for some fun holiday fare that takes you to beautiful places and keeps you invested the whole time this is definitely the way to go. 8.5/10 (I like throwing an arbitrary 0.5 point in to our new scoring system just because I can)

Also, there's no way this was only 1 point better than "Warrior" so 8.5 was the lowest I could go. Just kidding Dan, I've never seen Warrior, though from reading your review I'd bet it goes for the cheap tug on the heartstrings looking for a reaction a little too much for my tastes.

Warrior (7/10)

Last night I watched Warrior with my wife. I am a big fan of renting movies on the iPad and watching on my TV with the HDMI connection. That Steve Jobs was a clever man. Anyway, the movie follows the story of 2 estranged brothers who return to fighting (MMA style) after a long hiatus. They enter a big MMA tournament called Sparta (unbeknownst to each other) and lo a behold, they end up fighting each other in the climactic finale. My spoiler is given away in the trailer below. Anyway, the 2 brothers have serious issues with each other and life, which is understandable since Nick Nolte is their father. The events leading up to the film's climactic conclusion would seem unlikely if it was not a true story. It is true right? That's what I heard prior to viewing the film. I mean it has to be true. Who would make something so farfetched up? Gavin O'Connor would, apparently. The same guy who brought Miracle (a true story) to the big screen decided the USA's unlikely victory against Mother Russia on ice wasn't outstanding enough so he decided to pit a high school physics teacher (Joel Edgerton) against an undefeated Russian UFC fighter. I actually did like the movie. Tom Hardy was incredible and Nolte, shockingly, pulled off the dead beat dad role with flying colors. However, when I found out the film was fictional, it took off some of its mystique. I wanted to believe it was true because it seemed so outlandish. My wife felt the same way. The AWOL Iraq war hero fighting against the high school teacher brother he hasn't seen in 14 years. That's the stuff dreams are made of. I would have given it a 8/10 if it were true, but since it was fictional and a bit too unlikely it gets an 7/10 from me.