EricWatchesMovies

A biopic involving baseball statistics? Sure, why not.

Moneyball stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, a former baseball player turned General Manager. In 1993 as the manager of the Oakland Athletics, and frustrated with his low player budget compared to teams like the Yankees, he developed a new system to scout players by looking at statistics in a different way.

Brad Pitt was solid in the film, his character is somewhat private but oftentimes quite humorous. It’s interesting to see Pitt settling into some middle-aged style roles. Jonah Hill was great as Billy Beane’s sidekick, and of course offered some humor of his own.

Summary: A soulful baseball film that will appeal to most people, even if you could care less about baseball or baseball statistics.

Contagion is a thriller starring Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet. Yep, quite a few people.

The bottom line of this film, is that it was rather well made, sharply edited, and contained solid acting. Did the movie need to be made? I’m not so sure. It’s certainly not a happy movie. There isn’t much of any humor, and it feels like material that has been done before. Germs spreading, superflu, pandemic, stuff that in my opinion is not all that entertaining on screen no matter how many stars you throw at it.

Summary: A decent rental, but not so much worthy of seeing in a theater. It has a good cast, and overall is a solid film, albeit a bit bland.

Our Idiot Brother is a quirky comedy starring Paul Rudd as Ned, a gentle-hearted pacifist who gets himself into trouble with his honesty and candor. His 4 sisters see him as a pest and wish that he would get his life together. Ned has recently been kicked out of his house by his girlfriend, so he’s relying on his sisters to help him with this rough patch.

I did actually enjoy the character that Paul Rudd put together for this movie. He’s one of those guys that often plays the same role in every single movie he’s in, so it’s a bit refreshing to see him doing something slightly different.

The movie did offer some good laughs, but in between the laughs it wasn’t enough to keep me interested. A few times I thought to myself “Did they really need to make this film?”. Since each of Ned’s sisters have their own subplots, the story is far from simple. But unfortunately complicating the story doesn’t necessarily make the movie better.

Summary: The warm vibe from Ned makes this movie bearable, and it does offer some pretty hilarious moments. For these reasons I’d recommend this as a rental, but not a moviegoeing experience. Sometimes all we need is a nice lighthearted comedy, and Our Idiot Brother can provide that.

When I first saw the trailers for Drive, I didn’t care to see it. Then I saw the swarms of positive reviews and it made me curious. Indeed, after giving this film a watch, the trailers don’t do it justice. It’s not your average driving action film.

Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a guy who is great at driving cars. His character, who is simply known as Driver in the film, is the strong silent type. He may not say much, but when he does he means business. As we’re introduced to him, we see that he holds both a legit day job as a mechanic, and in his off-time serves as sort of a freelance driver for bank heists and robberies. He’s recently moved into an apartment, where he meets his neighbor Irene, played by Carey Mulligan (who is always awesome). The two have great chemistry together on screen.

As it often does in movies, the illegitimate dealings end up invading Drivers personal life, and he’s forced to take action and deal with some seedy characters in order to return to a peaceful existence.

Most of us have seen car-related action movies such as Fast and the Furious which typically include a lot of cliché elements such as thumping techno music, exotic neon cars, loud engines, gratuitous chase scenes, and hordes of burly men spewing out horribly written one-liners. None of that in this film. This is a different film, and while he is a driver, the car plays a back-seat role in much of the film.

The wiki for Drive summarizes the film in a rather nice way, saying “Drive has been called a tough, hard-edged neo-noir art house feature, extremely violent and very stylish, with European art and grindhouse influences.”. That’s quite a mouthful, especially for something which the trailer portrays as a rather predictable action film. But it’s true, there is a lot going on here, and it’s far from ordinary. As far as the extreme violence, it really took the audience by surprise when this often slow-paced film is marked by a few very intense violent scenes.

Drive has great cinematography, and the soundtrack was awesome. Soothing 80s-inspired electronic soundscapes mixed with night shots Driver cruising across Los Angeles.

Summary: A polarizing film which is not for everyone. The stylized nature and occasional violent moments will turn off some viewers. Drive is an an edgy art-house film that is a refreshing change of pace. It’s unexpected, unexplored, and a great film.

Many of us have seen movies from World War 2 that deal with Nazi Germany and their quest to eliminate the Jewish population. Sarah’s Key is a haunting but poweful film that covers this era from a different angle, the French angle. But as I’ll also discuss, the film has a modern element.

In 1942, when France was under Nazi rule, there was an event called the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in which French police arrested 13,152 Jewish people and brought them to The Vélodrome d’Hiver an indoor stadium. It was a holding zone until they were transported to extermination camps.

As the film starts, we’re introduced to the Starzynski family, a Jewish family who unfortunately is about to be taken into custody for the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. Besides the parents, there is Sarah the daughter (10 years old), and Michel the son (about 3 years old). Before they’re taken into custody, Sarah locks her brother in a hidden closet so he will be safe until they return. The story follows Sarah, who endures a heartbreaking and emotional journey that will take her to many places in order to get back home and find her little brother.

The film has a secondary plot, which takes place in modern times. We meet a woman named Julia (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) who is on a mission to find out more about the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, and simultaneously trying to learn the history of the house her husband has recently inherited.

There is a lot of story here, more than I can really explain without suggesting that you just watch the film, because it’s an excellent film that is superbly made. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and the edge of my emotions. I found that when I left the theater, I was in a daze. It’s really powerful material and knowing that this stuff was happening is unreal. The film did a wonderful job of telling this story, and the secondary plot was a unique way of adding even more depth to the story.

Summary: It’s sad, heartbreaking, but in the end Sarah’s Key is an amazingly made film that I recommend viewing. It won’t put you in a joyful mood, but it will shine some light on forgotten events, enchant you with amazing performances, and keep you wondering what will happen next.

Super is a dark comedy starring Rainn Wilson as a middle-aged guy named Frank D’Arbo who seems somewhat satisfied with his life, at least for the first few minutes of the film. His wife (played by Liv Tyler) suddenly disappears, and he soon finds out that she has been taken by a seedy drug dealer named Jock (played by Kevin Bacon).

It has similarities to Kick Ass in that a guy with revenge on his mind decides to take matters into his own hands and fight some crime on the streets. And of course with a homemade costume. It’s violent, and to me that is the most humorous part of the film. For example, when he sees a dude cutting in line at the movie theater, he angrily walks over to his car, awkwardly changes into his super hero costume in the back seat, walks back over to the guy, and beats him with a monkey wrench in front of everyone.

The pace and story development is lacking, and I found that Rainn Wilson wasn’t all that likable in his role, which was probably because his character was undeveloped and inconsistent. The movie also contains Ellen Page, who is a comic-book-crazed girl who idolizes Frank when she learns about his secret identity as a crime fighting renegade.

Summary: Did Super really need to exist? Honestly I would be ok without it. I’m not even sure who the target audience was, because while I typically like violent comic book style movies, this did not resonate with me. You’re better off watching Kick Ass if you want to see a normal guy running around without any super powers. It at least offers a lot more charisma and a better soundtrack.

I went into this film not knowing anything about it, except that it was based on a book. What I ended up seeing was a great film with a strong message.

The Help is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. Aibileen Clark, played by Viola Davis, is a middle-aged woman who has spent her life raising white children as an in-house maid. She is unfortunately more of a parent to the children than the actual parents, who are for the most part absent and spending most of their time socializing and partaking in a superficial upper-class lifestyle.

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, played by Emma Stone, makes the controversial decision to interview a group of maids and get their side of the story, and turn it into a book. At the time it was illegal to do such a thing in Mississippi, so they had to be secretive about it. Skeeter is inspired to take on this project when the maid that raised her was wrongfully fired by her mother, leaving Skeeter heartbroken. Skeeter doesn’t really fit in with the racist high-society white people in her community, but unfortunately has to deal with them and their vicious, manipulative nature. The social circle in the neighborhood is run by Hilly Holbrook, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. She’s a snooty, sneaky woman who has the females of the community on a tight leash.

The movie is powerful but sad, and seeing the blatant racism that was unfortunately a reality during that time was difficult to watch. There are some truly villainous characters depicted in this movie, who harshly treat the maids as second-class citizens despite the fact that the maids are raising their kids, doing all the chores, the shopping, and getting paid almost nothing for it.

Aside from the anger I felt at the characters because of their disregard for civil rights and equality, this movie was extremely well made. Almost every performance was spot on and brilliantly executed. Octavia Spencer, who plays the role of maid Minny Jackson, was probably my favorite performance. She was feisty, bold, and her spunky attitude made for some very memorable moments. Even Emma Stone carried her weight in the film, which going into I was a little unsure about since she normally stars in teenybop movies.

In the end, not only was this a great film, it was an important film. It’s the type of film people need to see from time to time, to remind them how close we are in the timeline of history to this level of social inequality. But also to remind us of how far we’ve come to making things right.

Summary: There’s a reason this sleeper hit has been maintaining it’s top spot at the box office for a few weeks: The Help is a solid film with a great cast, great performances, and a great message.

Mars Needs Moms is an animated sci-fi adventure mostly intended for younger audiences. The graphics are along the lines of Polar Express, so they attempt to make things somewhat realistic. The storyline involves a young kid who, like many kids, take their parents for granted. He whines, refuses to do chores, and overall is quite a brat.

One night he is awoken to find that his mom is being abducted by some aliens in a spaceship. He runs after it and is able to grab onto it and climb inside undetected. Once arriving at the strange and distant planet, he begins the search to find his mom, meeting a couple interesting characters along the way. It’s a pretty solid movie, although unlike Pixar-style animated movies, there isn’t a lot of focus on keeping the adult audiences entertained. The graphics are pretty amazing for the most part, with the characters looking a bit odd due to their realistic appearance. It works though.

Summary: Mars Needs Moms is a fast paced adventure with one singular message at the core: Appreciate your mom. If you have kids, it’s most certainly a movie you’ll want to watch at some point. If you’re an adult who likes animated movies, this is optional viewing, as it’s a bit short on creativity and doesn’t have a deep heartfelt story like the Pixar movies.

I was a pretty big fan of the original series of Planet of the Apes movies, but the remake in 2001 was pretty horrible. Luckily leading up to the release of this one I was hearing some great reviews, and thankfully I agreed with them. Lets check it out.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes stars James Franco as Will Rodman, who is on the verge of creating a cure for Alzheimer’s. While testing the medicine on chimpanzees, he noticed that it was actually improving their cognitive abilities. Through a series of events, the study is shut down, and the only remaining chimp is a baby named Caesar. Will takes care of Caesar at his house, unbeknownst to the company he works for. Will teaches him basic sign language which allows them to communicate, and watches as Caesar rapidly learns about the world around him at a far greater rate than a normal chimp.

We get to observe Caesar as he grows up, and it’s just as fascinating as watching a nature documentary. But we have the added excitement of seeing a chimp that is far more intelligent than normal, so he’s able to do amazing things and develop mentally very quickly. Initially he’s not supposed to leave the house, so he gets a bit frustrated that he can’t explore the outdoors.

The film kept me thoroughly entertained from the first scene to the last. Personally I would have enjoyed it if it were a bit longer (it was only 105 minutes). Caesar, who was played by Andy Serkis, was probably the most effective CG character ever created. His emotions were very real, and the graphics were amazing. It’s really getting creepy how realistic they’re able to make things. His facial expressions alone were awesome to watch.

At one point in the film Caesar has the opportunity to interact with some standard chimps (and other primates such as a gorilla) at a primate sanctuary. This was really neat, because it let us finally see how this advanced chimp would do around regular primates for the first time. The result was both hilarious and dramatic.

I really hope they turn this into a multi-movie series, because there is a lot of potential here. To me this film was only the tip of the iceberg, because obviously when dealing with a concept as dramatic as “apes taking over the world”, you’re not going to be able to cover that in 105 minutes. Some people were disappointed that this film didn’t cover any of the sociopolitical themes of the original and instead focused more on animal testing and such. While the storyline here is certainly not as much of a social statement, I think if we see a few sequels down the line they’ll have the latitude to explore that if they see fit.

Summary: Some people nitpicked about plot holes and infeasibility. Personally this was my surprise hit of the summer, and I really enjoyed it. Go see Rise of the Planet of the Apes!

Set in the wild west, Cowboys and Aliens is a summer blockbuster that promises two things. Cowboys.. and Aliens. Does it deliver? Well, yes, technically.

The film starts with Daniel Craig as the role of Jake Lonergan. He wakes up in the middle of Arizona, the year is 1873, and he’s got an awfully bad case of amnesia because he can’t remember much of anything. He is however very handy with a gun, and extremely proficient at fighting. And a strange metal device has been attached to his arm. He finds a small mining town where he attempts to get some answers. Unfortunately, the town is attacked by some unknown alien entity, so a group of townspeople band together to investigate.

Ok, so the premise is pretty cool. Personally I’ve thought many times how neat it would be to show people from previous centuries some high tech stuff from the future. The townspeople in this film are probably pretty blown away to see giant machines tear through the sky like a bird, blasting misses all over the place. Unfortunately for them, a pistol won’t be enough to bring them down.

I felt the cast was quite solid. Daniel Craig does a good job acting tough, but his character could have used a little more charisma to go with the badassness. Harrison Ford was great as Colonel Dolarhyde, a wealthy cowboy who runs the town with an iron fist. The townspeople were a ragtag bunch, including one of my favorite actors, Sam Rockwell.

While the film does deliver the promised cowboys and aliens, I think it fell flat as a hollywood blockbuster. I was hoping to see something that blew me away, something that I couldn’t have imagined by watching the trailers, but I felt that wasn’t the case. It does have some great moments of humor between the characters, but the storyline wasn’t enough to carry the movie along. But in the end, we can’t expect master storytelling from a hollywood blockbuster, so if you just want to sit back and enjoy some fun action, it’s good for that.

Summary: If you like Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and the idea of a collision between the very different worlds of cowboys and aliens, check it out. But if the trailer didn’t do much for you, skip it.