For the first time in 2010, I was looking forward to seeing a movie with Mrs. Smith. While the Book of Eli had my attention when it hit theaters, Shutter Island put together a more interesting story in the horror genre, which I simply could not resist. When you add in the direction of Martin Scorsese, it appears to be a must watch film. Did it hold up to my expectations?
The movie opens with Teddy Daniels (An FBI agent played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Teddy’s FBI partner played by Mark Ruffalo) sailing into Shutter Island, a prison housing the criminally insane during the 1950’s. The reason that the FBI has been brought to the island is because one of the prisoners, Rachel Solando, is thought to have escaped. According to the doctors at the facility, Solando was on the Island because she drowned her three children in a lake, but seems to believe that her children are still alive and that her fellow prisoners are just her neighbors and all kinds of delivery men. It’s Teddy and Chuck’s job to find out what happened, and more importantly to find Rachel.
Honestly speaking, I very much enjoyed how the movie went straight to the plot without having to set any back story. So often in movies like this, the first 45+ minutes are wasted simply setting the scene, but Shutter Island takes care of that with quick flashbacks throughout. So far … so good.
After arriving on the island, you are immediately introduced to the mastermind behind the island design, Dr. Cawley, played by the awesome Ben Kingsley. You learn a little about the patient missing, a little about Dr. Cawley and most about what takes place on Shutter Island. On the Island, three wards house different criminals – One for men, one for women and one for the “super crazies” (My defined term). It’s now the job of Teddy and Chuck to investigate. I bet you’re wondering at this point why these two FBI agents were sent out on an island nobody would ever dare visit. Well that’s the subplot! Teddy Daniels’s wife, Dolores, (Played by Michelle Williams) was killed in an apartment fire and the man who set the blaze, Andrew Laeddis, is housed in the crazy ward of Shutter Island. You can bet that if Teddy finds him, he’s as good as dead.
From here on out you are taken on an elaborate quest to find both Rachel and Laeddis and it would appear that both FBI agents are free to travel about the prison as they like. Throughout his journey, Teddy Daniels learns that gruesome studies and operations are conducted on Shutter Island, specifically in the island’s lighthouse, and his goal no longer becomes finding the people he’s after but getting off the island before something happens to him. Unfortunately, Daniels believes that his partner Chuck has been taken to the lighthouse, so he has no choice but to try to save him. So if you’re following, the plot has completely changed from an FBI investigation, to a man on the path to revenge, to a torturous island, get me out of here movie. It would seem that just when you have things figured out, this movie says “No, you think you’ve got it… but you really don’t”.
Before the end of the movie, I was a little disappointed with where the story had taken me. The acting was absolutely fantastic but this movie was definitely lacking something. When Teddy reaches the lighthouse to expose the Island for the anti-humanitarian that it has become, the last plot twist is thrown your way … it’s completely empty! Well, not completely, at the top of the lighthouse Dr. Cawley is sitting at a little desk and waiting for Teddy . Spooky!
What’s Dr. Cawley doing all alone you ask, well wouldn’t you know it, Teddy Daniels isn’t in fact an FBI agent on an investigation, he’s a patient at Shutter Island with multiple personalities whose real name is Andrew Laeddis! (Confused?) A long flashback would confirm that Leo’s character had three children who were all drowned by his crazy wife (Sound Familiar?), thus causing “Andrew” to snap and shoot her. For the past two years, Andrew’s primary doctor was Mark Ruffalo’s character and Dr. Cawley decided the only way to snap Andrew out of his delusion was to create the monster ruse. Did it work? Hell yea, you better believe anything Ben Kingsley does, he does well. So let me explain – Teddy Daniels, Rachel Solando and Chuck Aule are actually all characters that Andrew Laeddis made up to help him deal with the tragedy that made him lose his mind. Believing that he is in fact Teddy Daniels and that Andrew Laeddis was responsible for his wife’s death, was all to escape the guilt that he was feeling himself. Funny enough, Andrew Laeddis was actually an FBI agent before he went coo-coo.
To complete the story, Andrew Laeddis doesn’t want to live with the burden of his dead family and pretends that Dr. Crawley’s experiment to retrieve him from the black hole in his mid has failed. He pretty much asks to be lobotomized. The end has mercifully come upon us.
Ohhhh how I wonder what could have been. With a director like Scorsese and a cast that includes DiCaprio and Kingsley, I was really pumped for this but it turned out to be a poorer version of the psychological thriller “Identity” (Which I love because it was original at the time). The acting was truly the only thing that kept me from booing this movie during the credits and on the horror movie scale, I disappointingly give it 4 decapitations.
James Bond – Sexy secret agent man known for his womanizing ways… oh and of course saving the world from eminent doom. Created by novelist Ian Fleming and externalized as the ultimate ladies man by millions of people for the past 48 years, James Bond is the coolest manly man to ever walk the Earth. And just as every manly man has to have a female counterpart, James Bond has the Bond girl. After all, one dream that every aspiring actress has is to die in the arms of James Bond.
These courageous ladies are far from shy and definitely far from ugly. The typical Bond Girl is in her early to mid-twenties, roughly ten years younger than Bond, who seems to be in his mid-thirties. Bond Girls also have a degree of independence even though they are clearly intended as sex objects. They are often victims rescued by Bond, fellow agents or allies, villains or members of an enemy organization, most typically the villain’s accomplice, assistant or mistress. Some are mere eye candy and have no direct involvement in Bond’s mission, and other Bond Girls play a pivotal role in the success of the mission.
To date, only two Bond Girls have actually captured James Bond’s heart. The first, Tracy Draco (Diana Rigg), married Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) but was later shot dead at the end of the movie. The second, was Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale (2006), but unfortunately she committed suicide by drowning herself in a canal in Venice. So what’s the morale of these stories? Well James Bond is just destined to roam the earth in search of the next global disaster and a vixen to help him save the world. Or at least help him take his mind off of things for a night or two.
How lucky can one man get? Every movie has a main Bond girl, sometimes one or two secondary Bond girls and a Bond villain who is normally the main villain’s henchwoman… and Bond gets to sleep with all of them. Some of the most famous secondary Bond girls and Bond villains include Grace Jones, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Teri Hatcher and Sophie Marceau and you can bet there’s going to be many more to come.
Dear John is definitely a movie I was excited about, another gem from the author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Dear John tells the story of a soldier on leave named John (played by Channing Tatum) and a gorgeous girl next door named Savannah (played by Amanda Seyfried). The two meet when Savannah drops her bag in the ocean,and John, who just happened to be surfing nearby, dove in to get it. That ladies and gentlemen, is all it takes to fall in love.
It’s not enough that these two are absolutely beautiful, Savannah also builds houses for the homeless while on spring break and wants to be a special ed teacher and John is not only fighting for his country but also surfs, fights, has a perfectly sculpted body and is altogether a sweet sensitive guy. What more can you ask for?
After the two fall in love, John has to go back to the army (Special Forces) and they begin writing each other letters back and forth. Even though John promised Savannah he will be back in a year, he is forced to reenlist due to 9/11. Thanks for ruining the love of a lifetime Bin Laden.
Then, John receives a letter he was not expecting. Savannah has moved on with someone else, an older fellow with an autistic son and is already engaged. John is heart broken and decides to reenlist for another few years. Six years have gone by and John is sent home to take care of his dying autistic father, played by Richard Jenkins. While home, John can’t resist and decides to visit the long lost love that broke up with him with a letter five years ago. And that’s when the story unravels… if you are planning to see this movie, stop reading right now because I will totally ruin it for you.
Who did Savannah marry? She tied the knot with the last person you would ever expect. The older single father (Tim) to an autistic son that she has known her whole life. Why? That’s a very good question. Savannah never stopped loving John, but felt like Tim needed her. After all he had an autistic child AND cancer. Talk about a sad story.
Savannah catches John up on the situation, and John, being the selfless romantic that he is, sells his deceased father’s enormous coin collection, makes an anonymous donation for Tim’s hospital bills and heads back to the army. A few months later, John receives a letter from Savannah, telling him about the strange donation that gave her husband two healthy months to spend with her and his son to say goodbye. Crying yet???
Well, the movie ends while a hunky goatee sporting John is tying his bicycle to a poll next to a coffee shop, where he catches Savannah’s eye. She runs out of the shop and they hug. Really… that’s it??? Ending was a little disappointing, but at that point I was sobbing so hard I really didn’t care. Seriously though, this is definitely not a date movie. Do not see it with your boyfriend, and definitely do not see it with a stranger. Call your girlfriends, bring a box of tissues and prepare to cry your eyes out. I loved it.
This guest post comes from Michael, a contributing editor of the Dough Roller, a personal finance and investing blog, and Credit Card Offers IQ, a credit card review site.
If you’ve been going to the movies lately, then you know that there hasn’t been a shortage of apocalyptic themed films. After seeing “Knowing” and “2012”, I was tired and disappointed that the end of the world couldn’t be done in a way which I found enjoyable to watch. Both of those movies showed worldwide destruction, as it happened, and in the end offered hope for the rebuilding of humanity. However, for some strange reason, I was looking forward to The Book of Eli, as this movie had what the others lacked … an extremely solid cast. No offense to Johnny C or Nicky C of course.
Denzel Washington continues to put forth excellent cinematic appearances and casting him for the lead role in The Book of Eli was the first step in the right direction. The movie opens with the world already in ruins and a single man (Denzel), who goes unnamed at the time, hunting for food to survive. As the story progresses you learn that the United States is a vast wasteland, emptied by a war to trump all wars.
It isn’t until a good half hour into the movie that you come across one of the other few main characters, Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman, who also has lit up the big screen in recent roles. Carnegie runs the town that our unnamed hero enters and after his cronies return from looking for loot, you learn that the one possession Carnegie is after is a King James Bible. The reason is quite ingenious as he plans to use religion to further expand his reign as ruler, which history has shown is quite effective.
The third and final main character named Solara, played by Mila Kunis, accidentally unveils that Denzel’s character is named Eli as she rummages through his backpack to find his name written inside. Acting as the annoying, innocent, “wants more out of life” daughter of Carnegie’s wife, Solara decides to help Eli protect his Bible and deliver it west, where God said it should go.
Once the plot is developed, the remainder of the film is spent showing you a few action and dramatic scenes, which includes an off the wall, ironic plot twist in the end. I feel as if the writing and screenplay lacks what could make this film outstanding and it felt like it was dragging along at certain points. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman turn in fantastic performances and simply watching the two of them battle it out is enough for me to want to see this movie again.
If you’re the non-religious type, then this may not be the best movie for you as “blind faith” is actually the glue that holds this movie together. I was actually surprised that such a slow moving movie could hold my attention as it did and through it’s impressive action and demolition scenes, it’s intriguing plot and it’s incredible acting, I would definitely recommend spending $10 and going out to see this flick.
Sometimes, it seems like there’s a new movie coming out every day. There’s so much to choose from and so much to get excited about. But every once in a while, a movie comes out that just gives me the chills. Dear John, is one of those movies. I am a huge fan of romantic movies in general, and The Notebook is one of my favorites. I must admit, at some point I had it on my IPod and I was watching it every day at work under my desk. lol. The reason I’m mentioning The Notebook is because both movies were directed by the same person, and you can feel how amazing it is just from the trailer.
Dear John stars two of hottest up and coming young actors, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, and tells the story of young guy named John who falls in love with a young girl named Savannah. They only have two weeks to spend together before John goes away to the army and the only way they can keep in touch is by writing each other letters. This movie is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, and the screenplay was written by Jamie Linden. Dear John comes out February 5th, 2010 in a theater near you and I just can’t wait! Oh and the song from the trailer is amazing!!! Gives me goosebumps every time.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last few years, Happy Feet is an animated movie that came out in November of 2006. It tells the story of a penguin who was born slightly different from the rest of his penguin clan. His name is Mumble (I always thought it was Mambo…lol) and unlike all the other singing penguins, he was more of a dancer. This movie has singing, dancing, love, drama and Happy Feet.
The original cast included Britney Murphy, Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Now it looks like were getting two new voices… Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are joining the cast of the upcoming sequel. Happy Feet 2 will be released November 18, 2011 in 3D. One thing that’s kind of sad though; Britney Murphy was the voice of Gloria, Mumble’s girlfriend. Now that she is gone, who will play Gloria?
I have been hearing a lot of hype about this movie in the last few months, and the trailer is finally here. Valentine’s day- a romantic comedy by all means, but is that enough? I mean, how many romantic comedies have we already seen about the same damn thing? Is this different? Yes, those are all valid questions. Unfortunately I don’t have all the answers.Yet. The only thing I can say is that this “He’s Just Not That Into You” style movie is packed full of the stars we know and love. Just to name a few: Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey, Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo, Eric Dane, Emma Roberts, Queen Latifah, Topher Grace, Carter Jenkins, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, George Lopez, Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel. The movie comes out February 12, so until then we’ll just have to hold our breath. Check out the trailer and tell me what you think…
As has become recent tradition, Halloween means it’s time to go see another Saw movie. This time, some friends and I watched Saw VI on Halloween night. The tradition has actually become more of a chore than anything else, as the last three Saw installments have been less than memorable. Back in 2004 when the first movie was released, I was stunned at the ingenious idea. Followed by Saw II in 2005, the impression was that this franchise would be known as the greatest horror movies of all time. Sadly, three years and three bad movies later, here I am donating another $10 to bad acting and bad writing.
Every Saw movie opens up with an exciting and gruesome scene and Saw VI is not different. Two employees from a loan company are locked in a room and chained to the floor with a metal fence and a weight scale between them. They each have a table with cutting instruments and whomever can cut more of themselves off in sixty seconds and place it on the scale will live. The other will have a spike driven through their skull. Well, the acting was downright disgraceful and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I watched. I knew right there that this would be a long 90-minute movie.
As you work your way through the movie, you stumble across the Saw VI plot. Jigsaw decides to get vengeance against the insurance company that would not cover him for his experimental cancer treatment. More specifically, he targets the creator of the formula used to determine who receives coverage and who doesn’t, William Easton. After a little back-story and some more terrible acting and writing, we proceed to the grand stage, where Mr. Easton faces five gruesome tests.
One of the main problems for me about Saw VI was the series of tests that Jigsaw created. Usually, you find a one on one atmosphere where one person’s will to live is greater than the others and that’s that. However this time, we find tests with up to 4 potential victims, whom have absolutely no control over whether or not they live or die. Poor Eddie Winslow takes a shotgun to the chest, even though he put up with Urkel for years.
Finally, after 75 minutes, we arrive at the final climatic scene, which of course includes its fair share of Saw twists. The expected twist is that the man running the game, Detective Mark Hoffman, has his own test coming up; provided my Mrs. Jigsaw. The unexpected twist is that William Easton’s last test has everything to do with the family of a man that was denied coverage by his company, of which he has no control over. Not shocking to anyone familiar with the Saw franchise, the family chooses to KILL KILL KILL, and after a two-minute death scene, William Easton is nothing more than ground sausage.
Unsurprising was the fact that the writers left themselves ready to create a Saw VII for Halloween 2010, which I will once again be forced to watch. Cool death scenes aside, Saw VI followed suit of the deterioration of the Saw ancestry and receives a horror score of only three decapitations.
In 11 days, Halloween 2, the sequel to the strangely successful remake of Halloween will be hitting theaters. Directed by Rob Zombie, who will be known as the worst director of all-time, Halloween 2 is the simple story of Michael Myers return to his hometown of Haddonfield to say hello to his sister. It sounds boring when you describe it like that but Mr. Zombie has a way of overdoing things so you can expect a lot of violence, blood, gore, and overall disgust.
It’s no secret that my favorite genre in film is Horror. I was lucky enough to have a large extended family that liked to torture me by taking me to see horror movies when I was 5 and 6 years old. I can remember my first horror movie experience, which was Childs Play 2. My aunt was dating the Movie tickets guy at the time, so a 17 year old supervising a 6 year old was able to watch an R rated movie. That movie terrified me until I was about 15 and from then on, I wanted to watch as many as I could, because I loved the fear.
When I continue to see horror movies from the 60’s 70’s and 80’s being remade into pieces of crap, I get angry. Directors have become lazy and rather than create an idea on their own, they attempt to take an already good movie and remake it into something better? Why not take a terrible movie and remake it into something good! Halloween will forever be remembered as a classic because it was the first of it’s kind. It didn’t need blood spatter or intestines everywhere to make you terrified; it just needed John Carpenter and a simple idea.
I’m quickly losing faith in the horror genre, and each garbage filled 90-minute experience sends me closer and closer to abandoning it all together. I can only recall a handful of top shelf quality cinema in this decade (Identity and the Saw anthology) and I crave more. Halloween 2 will be in theaters August 28th and I am not donating to the Rob Zombie fund. I hope you aren’t either.
*Rob Zombie Slogan* – “I don’t make a lot of the movies you like to watch, I make a lot of the movies you like to watch, worse”
A horror movie freak, I was actually unaware that this movie was on its way out until a co-worker (Dave) casually asked if I had planned on seeing it. After a quick review, the synopsis made it a must see and I thanked my co-worker for filling me in. After seeing The Collector, I feel that Dave owes me an apology. (I will keep you posted).
The basic plot of any “slasher” horror movie is the same. It usually takes 20-30 minutes of groundwork to layout a simple setting then the Slasher does his business for the remaining 50-60 minutes. In the end, either the Slasher wins and everyone dies, or the lone (or sometimes dual) hero thwarts the villain but loses all friends and family in the process. The Collector follows this to form but there is a lot lost along the way.
While I did not go in with any kind of prejudice, the intro credits made me feel that this was a B Level Horror Flick. I was a little uneasy from here on out even though they properly casted a group of no-name actors.
Enter the lead. Arkin (Who has no last name) opens as a man that knows construction. He is working on fixing up a house in the middle of nowhere for a family that has just moved in. (As are a large group of other people). Later it is learned that he is also proficient in safe cracking and has a family that is in dyer need of money. The only way to get money fast is to steal a pricey stone located in the new house owner’s safe. Now that foundation is set, lets dive in to the real terribleness of The Collector.
Without getting into much detail, Arkin tries to steal the gemstone, but runs into someone who has already broken into the house and laid out elaborate traps. (Why The Collector lays out these traps is a mystery to me … he is in complete control the whole movie). Nevertheless, the traps provide for quality entertainment and Arkin slowly gets wise to all of them, never letting The Collector know that he is in the house. After about 30 minutes of back and forth action, Arkin finds a way out of the house and I find a way that this movie ends early. Unfortunately, neither of us takes that road and Arkin returns to the house because there is a little girl still to be saved. (He has a little girl himself, and this HAD to be established, otherwise, why would he go back?!)
The Collector finally realizes that there is someone else in the house and goes one on one with Arkin for the last half hour. After a few more plot holes (There were a lot I did not mention so far) it appears that Arkin and the young girl have survived and there’s a happy ending. BUT, on the ride to the hospital (Of course no police cars follow an ambulance) The Collector T-Bone’s the ambulance, kills everyone but Arkin, and fittingly throws him in his collection chest. A perfect ending to a less than perfect movie.
When you throw in the Miami movie going experience (Everyone yelling at the screen no matter what’s goin on) this was one of the worst films I have seen in a while. Mrs. Smith is not one for horror but she stomached this out pretty well, probably because it sucked and wasn’t scary. On a scale of 1 to 10 decapitated heads (My horror rating scale), this movie receives two decapitations.
Newlywed Bachelor couple Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney look happy at a date night in Hollywood Monday – the same evening their wedding special aired on ABC
February 28, 2010, at 3:04 pm
For the first time in 2010, I was looking forward to seeing a movie with Mrs. Smith. While the Book of Eli had my attention when it hit theaters, Shutter Island put together a more interesting story in the horror genre, which I simply could not resist. When you add in the direction of Martin Scorsese, it appears to be a must watch film. Did it hold up to my expectations?
In 11 days, Halloween 2, the sequel to the strangely successful remake of Halloween will be hitting theaters. Directed by Rob Zombie, who will be known as the worst director of all-time, Halloween 2 is the simple story of Michael Myers return to his hometown of Haddonfield to say hello to his sister. It sounds boring when you describe it like that but Mr. Zombie has a way of overdoing things so you can expect a lot of violence, blood, gore, and overall disgust.
A horror movie freak, I was actually unaware that this movie was on its way out until a co-worker (Dave) casually asked if I had planned on seeing it. After a quick review, the synopsis made it a must see and I thanked my co-worker for filling me in. After seeing The Collector, I feel that Dave owes me an apology. (I will keep you posted).
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