ALL GOOD THINGS

All Good Things was a little long and drawn out, so I can see why it wasn't to popular in the theaters.  Like I have said in the past, I'm not a big fan of movies based on true stories because you don't really know what actually happened and what is embellished - which is exactly what I couldn't tell about this movie.  It seemed to me that a lot of the story was sensationalized to make up for an otherwise anti climatic plot.  Ryan Gosling did a good job playing a guy who never really recovered from witnessing something horrible as a child. This, plus other "stressers" like his relationship with his father, most likely contributed to his mental instability later in life.  He was very haunting in this movie and it freaked me out a little bit.  Kirsten Dunst was convincing as a naive girl that got in-too-deep with a guy that she really didn't know very well.  This movie was okay, but I wouldn't rush right out to rent it.

You Should Watch Anything With Jason Bateman In It

The Switch is a hilarious movie starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston.  I love it when Jason plays a guy like this - a neurotic and snarky guy that few people can stand.  The little boy in this movie is adorable and he does such a good job of emulating Jason's character.  Jennifer plays her typical character, a bohemian type lady who has difficulty finding and keeping a man, but she's actually funny in this movie.  She and Jason play off of each other well.  I would recommend this movie. 

I Know Now After Watching HOW DO YOU KNOW That This Movie Sucked

This movie's story line was horrible and didn't lead anywhere.  I expect Owen Wilson to be in a crappy movie, but not Paul Rudd.  His talents were wasted in this movie.  Paul is great at playing the snarky, pessimistic guy who is hilarious, but instead he plays a awkward doe-eyed guy who honestly weirded me out  through the whole movie.  Jack Nicholson played his typical sleazy asshole character.  What he put Paul Rudd's character through was unspeakable.  Reese Witherspoon's character pissed me off the most.  When  speaking she never really said anything that made any sense.  She spoke in fragmented sentences.  I could not understand why these two men where so enamored with her.  And as a former softball player, I was not convinced that Reese could play a woman that had been playing the sport her whole life and was a member of the American Olympic Softball Team.  I would not recommend this movie.

Not Your Typical Woddy Allen Flick

You would never guess that Match Point was written and directed by Woody Allen.  First off, he is not in it, there is no narrator and it's not whiny like his other movies.  Jonathan Myers is sooo hot!!! He plays a total ass that does something unthinkable and gets away with it.  I'm not a fan of Scarlett Johanson, mostly because she can't act and the only reason they give her gigs is because she is shapely and has these huge lips, but I like how crazy she was in this movie.  She goes totally nuts and becomes this obsessively crazed woman who's threatening to ruin the Jonathan character's life.  The story is great and it has all of these twists and turns that you wouldn't expect in a Woody Allen film.  I wish he would do more movies like this one.  I would recommend that you pick this one up because it is entertaining.

ADJUSTMENT BUREAU Was Good, despite religious undertones

Back in the 90's there was this movie called A Life Less Ordinary starring Ewin McGregor and Cameron Dias in which they were followed around by two angels who were doing everything they possibly could to make Ewin and Cameron's characters fall in love with each other.  In Adjustment Bureau it was the exact opposite.  In this movie there were people following around Matt Damon's character doing everything they could to keep him away from Emily Blunt's character.  Now these people that were following around Matt Damon's character were only vaguely referred to as "angels", but that's definitely the first thing that popped into my head when we found out about their "organization" and what they do.  Also, the boss whom they answered to was a mysterious character called the "Chairman" (God?...or maybe Frank Sinatra).  When you get past all of that hokey stuff and a few holes in the plot it was a good movie.  Matt did a good job.  He played the "All American Guy" who has pulled himself up from his rough, meager beginnings instead of the guy he's been playing lately who carries a gun and is on some secret mission for the government.  Emily Blunt was good as the bohemian, care-free dancer who keeps getting swept in and out of this man's life. Gary liked the music because it was done by a guy that has done some other composing for other movies we've seen.  Also, whoever created the aesthetic for the settings, buildings, design, etc. that were used for this movie did a good job.  The architecture was amazing!  I would recommend this movie.

Editor's note: Another good score by composer Thomas Newman (American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption, Met Joe Black, Revolutionary Road, HBO series Six Feet Under and many more too numerous to list, but you would recognize almost all of them).

Yet Again, Kevin Costner Playing A Drunk Idiot

I've been going through my DVD collection and found a movie I hadn't seen in a while, The Upside Of Anger.  In this movie Joan Allen plays a woman who thinks her husband has left her and disappeared with his secretary.  She starts going through a breakdown of sorts, during which she also has to be a mother to her 4 strong-willed daughters while being pursued by a retired baseball player who spends his days drinking and doing little else (Costner's character). There's a plot twist at the end that you won't see coming that changes the whole mood of the movie.

I love Joan's character in this movie because she lets her grief poor out of her and says whatever she's thinking regardless of whether it's appropriate or not. The four daughters are played by Alicia Witt, Erika Christensen, Keri Russell and Evan Rachel Wood, who all do a great job.  Their characters are all trying to deal with the crap that their mother puts them through during her breakdown while trying to manage and live their own separate lives.

I liked this movie and I'm sure you will too.

Dustin' Off The Old Movie Collection

I went into my collection and watched a movie that most people probably haven't seen.  Imaginary Heroes is a movie about a dysfunctional family (my favorite phrase if you haven't noticed) that are dealing with the recent suicide of the oldest son.  Their lives were not so great to begin with and after the suicide things just got ten times worse.  Emile Hirsch stars in this movie and he looks like he is about 12, but he does a great job.  He redeemed himself from doing the movie Girl Next Door, another guilty pleasure of mine, which was like Jake Gyllenhaal's Bubble Boy.  Everybody has got to start somewhere, right?   I enjoyed this movie and I recommend it.

Two Shows That I Think You Should Watch

Traffic Light and Perfect Couples are two of the new shows that I actually like.  I like Traffic Light  because it's about the the crazy crap that guys come up with to maintain their relationships and home life, or as some people may see it, manipulate their wives and girlfriends.  Every week the married guy, the guy who just moved in with his girlfriend and the guy who is constantly dodging commitment encounter a new scenario and they all give each other terrible advice.  It's funny to watch their plans blow up in their faces because they still haven't figured it out that the women are smarter than they are and they will never pull one over on them. 

Perfect Couples is hilarious.  It's centered around these three couples and how different their perspective  on relationships are from each other.  It's also about the different friendships that the characters have.  I really like this show because the stories are hilarious and I enjoy the actors.  These characters are always getting into these crazy situations and watching them try to get out is the best part. 

I would recommend that you check these shows out. I think you won't be disappointed.

I Don't Just Watch Movies, I Also Read Books!!!

I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the books that I have read and enjoyed.  I tend to read books similar to the movies that I watch; dramas about relationship dynamics that tend to be dysfunctional.  I would recommend the following books to everyone. 

My all-time favorite book is White Oleander by Jane Fitch.  I finished this book in four days, record time for me, and have since read it a dozen more times.  This book is all about a girl's tragic life with all the screwed up crap that happened to her when her mother went to prison and she went  from foster home to foster home until she was 18 years old.  It's also about the complicated relationship between the girl and her mother and how it effects their lives.

I have read one Wally Lamb book already, The Hour I First Believed, and am now reading I Know This Much Is True.  The thing about Wally Lamb books is that even though they are very long (I Know This Much Is True is about 800 pages long), they are very addicting. Wally tends to be really descriptive which can turn some people off, but I love it because he really tries to make you understand and feel like you know the characters in his books. 

I loved the movie Revolutionary Road so I was curious about the author of the book from which  the movie was adapted.  I read the book Revolutionary Road and now love Richard Yates' writing.  I then read three other books by him: Young Hearts Crying, Disturbing The Peace and The Easter Parade.  I enjoyed all of these books because they all have such tragic stories that enthrall you.

All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison starts  with two previously divorced people who merge their kids from their previous marriages all together to form an unconventional and dysfunctional family.  One of the boys from one of the families falls in love with one of the girls from one of the other family and this story is about their tortured relationship.  I enjoyed this movie so much that I read it in 2 days.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is a book all about one night.  It does go back in the past to explain things, but the book is really about this couple on their wedding night and what is going through both of their heads.  They don't really know too much about each other and they do not communicate, so they really don't know what each other is expecting from this marriage.

Skylight Confessions is kind of depressing but addicting.  This was a sad story about a dysfunctional family that eventually collapses in on itself.  You really feel for this poor woman who ends up dying and leaving behind her son who goes into a downward spiral that eventually leads to his demise.  The effect that these people had on each other was very dramatic.  It was a great story to read.

I'm not going to list all of the Anne Tyler books that I have read because there are too many of them.  I will just talk about her as an author.  She takes you into the lives of these families and shows you how easy it is to screw each other up.  In the first book I read a mother just up-and-leaves her family one day and starts a whole other life.  She has no idea, and doesn't really care at the moment, of the havoc she has caused and how screwed up things have become in her house.  She eventually returns to her old life, but it's too late to repair any of the damage that departure caused.  I recommend any of Anne Tyler's books.

I don't read as much as I'd like to, but when I do I really get into the books that I am reading.  I certainly did with all  of the books I wrote about and I'm sure anyone who likes these types of books would too.

Who The Hell Cares What Joan Rivers Thinks!!!

The Fashion Police program is such a joke.  What makes these people think that they are soooo much better than the people that they are criticizing? But, I'm not going to stoop to their level and trash their fashion choices.  That would make me just as bad as them.  They are profiting from tearing down people just to make themselves feel better about their sorry, pathetic little lives. I feel bad for them.  Please don't support these horrible people by watch their show!!!!