Win Win = Win

Win Win is a fun dramedy starting Paul Giamatti (Sideways, The Illulsionist), Amy Ryan (The Office, Gone Baby Gone), and new comer Alex Shaffer.  The movie follows the story of Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), a struggling lawyer trying to support his family who ends up caring for the grandson of one of his clients.  The burden that Kyle (Shaffer) amounts to is somewhat lessened by the fact that he quickly puts an end to the losing streak of the high school wrestling team that Mike coaches.  As Kyle's life becomes more entwined with his, Mike begins to change his outlook on life and starts doing whatever it takes to care for his family.

The story is pretty straight forward; no big complications or twists in the plot, but it's charming and endearing.  The characters are real and believable and the movie does a good job of making you root for them and want want them to succeed.  I even found myself liking the character of Kyle (which, considering his age, is a pretty unexpected occurrence...)  One thing I should mention is that it's highly character driven so if you're the type that requires actions, suspense, or a deep plot to keep you interested, it may not be for you.

The cast is solid with great performances by Giamatti, Ryan, and a surprising breakout performance by Shaffer.  At times I found Kyle to be a little flat, but I had a hard time determining if he was intentionally written and directed to be this way or if it was a result of the actor's relative lack of experience.  Melanie Lynskey who portrays Kyle's drug addict mother also gave a great performance, not at all your typical one dimensional pathetic druggie type.

I know I know....

So, after a quite long hiatus, i am going to be coming back to this site. My Fiancee suggested i should come back to it even though my time is severely limited, and i think that is what i will do. so in between my new job, my wedding plans, and all the other crazy cool stuff i get to do with my life, i will hopefully be posting more movie reviews thought about movies coming out, whatnot. i will definitely be starting on my 2011 top movies list. (i always want to say top ten, but it never ends up that way) I thank all my followers for being followers, and if any of you are still seeing these posts, know that i will be coming back to do some more reviews, and hopefully you all will continue to read them. sorry about the hiatus, life just happened.

well i hope everyone has a great day, and if you guys want me to watch and give my thoughts on particular movies, let me know in the comments!

BRO, I GOT THIS!!! Top Ten Movies 2010 (Following Suit)

This is super late, but here it is anyway. 

1. Buried (Super creative and hooked me from the first second.)

2. 127 Hours (Am I sensing a pattern in the material I'm putting at the top of this list?...)

3. Inception (Hmmm guess not)

4. The King's Speech (Made a movie about getting over a speech impediment thoroughly entertaining... a feat)

5. Social Network (Very entertaining and well made/acted)

6. Tron: Legacy (Love imaginary nerdy stuff... so... yeah.)

7. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Actually debated putting this higher, super creative and entertaining.)

8. How to Train Your Dragon (One of the Best Animated Movies I've ever seen)

9. Kick-Ass (So off the wall that I never stopped laughing or thinking, "This is the most awesome thing ever.")

10. Robin Hood (Really good take on the story and very entertaining, plus Kevin Durand is the MAN......ahem.)

BEST Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop (Gave this its own category because I could not fairly judge it against the others because Documentaries are in a different league in my opinion.) 

Some Close Honorable Mentions:  Book of Eli, Karate Kid, Date Night, Salt, Toy Story 3 

(These Were Entertaining but not quite enough, still good movies in their own right.) 

Less-Honorable Mentions: Tangled, She's Out of My League, Alice In Wonderland 

(These movies were okay but really, with the exception of She's Out of My League--which was very funny, these were pretty forgettable.)

Movies I should NOT have watched: Skyline, Gulliver's Travels (wow...just wow...I'll give Skyline the Booby Prize for being the movie that was so bad, reminiscing on its terribleness kinda, sorta, almost makes me wanna watch it again... like right now.)

Well there ya go... I didn't see as many movies as I really wanted to, most of the movies I saw were catch-ups from 2008-2009...lame. But i think i got a good list out of it. I am really looking forward to 2011 though...

2011 HOPEFULS:

The Mechanic

Sherlock Holmes 2

28 Months Later

Never Back Down II

Bioshock

Love

Paul

Sucker Punch 

Hannah

District 10

I Frankenstein

Source Code

The Divide

The Hobbit

Upside Down

Wrecked

Breaking the Law Really Has Never Looked Like so Much Fun

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” (2010) 9/10

“I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore.“

This is the first review of a Independent/Documentary film to appear on GrabYourSourPatchKids, and let me tell you, it is a great one. Reading the synopsis for this movie did not prepare me at all for this movie, and I am very glad for it. This movie follows a avid—almost to the point of obsession—cameraman/street artist, and his quest to capture his entire life on film. Frenchman Thierry Guetta lost his mother when he was 11 years old to an illness his whole family hid from him. After that he vowed to film everything about his life so he would never overlook or miss details about his life ever again.

“I felt like I should capture everything on film. I felt like everything that I would capture, these moments—anytime in my life—it would be the last time that I would see it the same way.” Thierry Guetta

This film is everything I don't usually attribute to documentaries per se. it is fun, exciting, thought provoking, and above all interesting. It dives into the seedy underbelly of street art. Thought they talk quite a bit about graffiti, it goes into all sorts of media. It follows this mans journey as a “cameraman for the street artists” as he follows them around and gets up close and personal with some of the most notorious street artists is L.A., Paris, and London.

The filming can be a bit dicey at times, because they use a lot of footage that Thierry took with his hand held and not so great video camera. This however, did not bother me because it added to the grit and the unclean feel. This overall feel to the movie really brought home the fact that although street art is illegal—there are actually a number of time when he and his friends get caught in the film—it is a lot of the time so beautiful. Some of the shots in this film took drab, boring looking buildings and made them into beautiful works of art.

It was not until the last 20 minutes of the movie that I realized my favorite part about it. This film was originally supposed to be a film about a famous British street artist named Banksy. Guetta had made it his life goal to get enough footage and interviews to be able to make a documentary about this artist. Soon after Banksy received the rough cut of the film that was being made for him, he realized that it was terrible—and more importantly, he realized that he wanted to make a documentary about Guetta. As Banksy says in the film, “The film is the story about what happened when [Guetta] tried to make a documentary about me, but he was...actually a lot more interesting than I am. So now...well... the film is kind of about him.”

If you have ever looked at the side of a graffiti covered building and thought that it was even remotely cool and interesting—which I am pretty sure most people have—then you have to see this documentary. It lends great insight on the lives and activities of these “outlaws” and shows a good picture of how these artists ultimately felt about Guetta, the man who became a superstar in the street art world in less than a year.

That Rug Really Tied the Room Together Dude.

“The Big Lebowski” (1998) 8/10

“Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles.”

This movie is great—don’t let the 8/10 rating fool you. The reason I gave “The Big Lebowski” an 8/10 is because there are some unnecessary parts, and some that are just in poor taste, for instance, the Dude’s encounter with an adult film producer. However, that being said, the rest of the movie is absolutely great. It takes a certain sense of humor and is not for everybody, but this is the movie I could watch over and over and still laugh at every time.

Jeff Bridges (“Arlington Road,” “Crazy Heart”) delivers a great performance as Jeffrey Lebowski—a washed up loser who spends his days bowling and mixing white Russians. He and his friend Walter (John Goodman: “Coyote Ugly,” “Emperor’s New Groove,” “O Brother Where Art Thou?”) get sucked into a kidnapping and ransom scenario between a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski and a group of nihilists who “believe in nussing!!!” (Try to read that in a German accent… It’ll make more sense.) The two friends make it to the bowling championships, while having to clean up the messes they inadvertently make and putting up with the poor timing and lack of tact of their third cohort, Donnie (Steve Buscemi: “The Island,” “Big Fish,” “Ghost World”).

While Jeff Bridges nails his role and really sells his character to the audience, the star of the movie is John Goodman. The way he portrays the inconsolable, anger-afflicted, Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD is perfect. Some of the rants he goes on—including a five minute fit about the fact that he doesn’t bowl on Saturdays because he is Jewish and must respect the Sabbath—are hilarious and really add to his character.

The Coen Brothers did a great job with the movie’s direction and writing—the characters develop, and the movie is fluid and well arranged. ”Lebowski” has some of the best one-liners I’ve heard short of Superbad. The way the nihilists go about unleashing their criminal mayhem and shouting at people, claiming they “believe in nothing!!” all while wielding samurai swords and BoomBoxes, is absolutely hilarious. It is very entertaining and leaves you feeling like maybe, just maybe, the Dude is a hero in his own way, despite all the antics and the mayhem.

Now I realize this is a cult classic and a lot of people have seen ”The Big Lebowski” already, but for those of you who haven’t seen it I strongly suggest you do at least once. Really, if you like German technopop, samurai swords, bowling, rugs that tie the room together, and seeing people follow the guidelines of the Jewish day of rest, you should see this movie. 

Claustrophobia at its Best

Buried (2010) 9/10

“It's really dark, really cramped in here, my Zippo® keeps getting too hot for me to hold, and this stupid Blackberry® has TERRIBLE battery life!”

WOW. Just wow. I am absolutely floored by “Buried.” In fact, I have no doubt that it just shot into the spot of my number one favorite movie of 2010 by far... and will probably stay there (with 127 Hours being the only movie that could come close to knocking it out—ugh! I still have yet to see that!). Ryan Reynolds (“The Proposal,” “Smokin' Aces,” “Definitely Maybe”) is an almost solo act in this piece about Paul Conroy, a truck driver sent to Iraq to deliver building materials. Their convoy is attacked and he is buried alive inside a western-style wooden coffin. We must glean this from the many phone calls Conroy makes, however, because aside from a video on his cell phone, the camera never leaves his 2-by-6-foot cell. The only other appearances come in the form of the voices of several phone correspondents and one video of a woman (Ivana Miño: “Guadalupe,” “Reflections,” “El Criminal”) being held hostage by the same group that encapsulated Conroy.

This great film was directed by Rodrigo Cortes, who, amazingly enough, is a virtually unknown Spanish director/writer/producer. Aside from “The Contestant,” he has never directed a full-length film. The concept for this movie (by American screenwriter Chris Sparling) is fantastic, and interestingly enough it was released in the same year as “127 Hours,” starring James Franco (“Eat Pray Love,” “Spider Man 3,” “Tristan and Isolde”), which is based on roughly the same concept. Man is trapped, man has camera/phone, man films himself, and man goes through stages of death one by one. The only thing I see bumping “127 Hours” above this film is the fact that it is based on a true story, whereas “Buried” is not. Which is why I am DYING to see it, because I am curious to see who is the better solo show, Ryan Reynolds or James Franco.

Before I go on, however, I would like to point out that ”Buried” does have some flaws. I think this is mainly due to the fact that the director probably has never been buried alive—or probably even spoken heard from someone who has. The problem is that Reynolds' character does not do some things you would expect a person to do in his situation. I won’t spoil it for you, but after watching the movie the few minor things did not detract from it one iota. I did not even think about them until I read some blogs and IMDB’s discussion of the inconsistencies.

The score was also very well done. It added the right feel to the movie. The music sounded cramped and cut short, which is exactly the feel the movie was trying to portray. (I mean, come on, he is buried in a freaking coffin underground, of course you should feel claustrophobic...)

The cinematography was kind of funny, because I knew there was no way this director was going to shoot exclusively in this coffin with Ryan Reynolds. There are not too many angles you can shoot from when you only have space in between Reynolds’ legs or over one of his shoulders. However, during the whole 90 minutes of “Buried,” I never once thought the little tricks he did with the camera—including the long shots stretching out of the coffin—were strange. They added to the mind-bendity (I'm makin' it a word for the time being), and the hopelessness of it all. If I were ever to ask myself, “Gosh, what is a movie that really portrays hopelessness in cinematography?”, this movie will probably be high on the list. I don’t ever get claustrophobic just from watching something cramped. (In fact, aside from the lingering effects on my stomach from just a picture of a great height, and my inability to stand the sound of a plastic spoon scraping against Styrofoam, I don't really have any irrational fears.) But I genuinely felt like I was there in that coffin. I do not know if it was because of the darkness of my fairly small room or what, but I really started to feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable in a few parts, and I LOVED that. I mean, not to get melodramatic, but this movie made me feel things I have never felt before! If that isn't worth a 9/10 rating, I don't know what is.

I highly recommend “Buried” to anyone who wants to see a director and an actor pull off an incredibly difficult concept with such ease that it’s almost laughable. “Buried” is a masterpiece. I definitely expect more from Cortes in the near future, because this man knows how to direct. And one more thing: Let’s see if Reynolds’ performance in this movie will shift his archetype character into something a little less chick-flicky.

Music to My Ears (even if it is on only two strings)

The Soloist (2009) 9/10

My first thought when looking at previews for this movie was “oh great, another inspirational story about a genius who has a hard life and has to overcome the obstacles to make it in the world.” UGH, another “August Rush”, another “Finding Forrester.”

Yes, I admit it, I was very skeptical. Not to mention it had Robert Downey Jr. in it, most of whose movies I do not really care for, with the exceptions of “Sherlock Holmes”, “Kiss, Kiss Bang, Bang”, “Charlie Bartlett”, and “A Scanner Darkly.” That being said, I had heard good things about it and I wanted to see what it was all about, so I popped this bad boy in.

it started off with all the telltale signs of a inspirational/hard time story, the big cheese reporter who has it all—although he clearly isn't happy, and it is obvious. The man underneath the pigeon poop ridden statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven playing the most beautiful music you have ever heard on a violin

with only two strings that should have been recycled long ago. Even the struggle for Downey Jr.'s character to get past Nathaniel Ayers' (Jamie Foxx) apparent mental illness and make a connection has been played out over and over.

Right at the moment where I was beginning to think that my fears were founded and proved right, the movie took a turn that definitely surprised me. The dialogue between Ayers and Lopez (Downey Jr.) was not cliché, nor did it seem contrived. Their conversations were genuine and real, and they had a connection going from the first words, and yet nothing that made sense was said at all.

As the movie went on I was further pleased by how well Joe Wright (director: “Hannah”, “Atonement”, “Pride and Prejudice”) was able to capture these characters and make what I thought to be an inspirational, cheesy film, into something that really made you think and made you feel sadness, happiness, and frustration all at the same time. At the end of the film I realized that this was not necessarily a happy film at all. This man was not just a man who was down on his luck and was living in the streets. This man was seriously ill and he was not someone that could just be fixed or could be given a handout or anything like that. In fact throughout the movie, it is made perfectly clear that he actually did not want most help that is offered to him. In the end the narrator (Downey Jr.) states that he is not sure if anything that he has done has made any difference in Ayers' life, and that all he could do was be a friend and show up and hope that it helped.

The performances of Downey Jr. and Foxx in this movie were fantastic, and really shined. They took these characters and made them organic and made them easy to identify with, and in the end you felt like you went through the journey with them, and felt all the same emotions that they did.

In short this movie did exactly what I like movies to do—surprise me. This movie completely did a 180 on what I expected and I loved every second of it.