A New Movie with Old Tricks: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

To be perfectly honest, the whole "bungled heist that rips a family apart" routine has been done before. There is little in this movie that presents something new to the genre (genre???) and the directing is nothing to get all excited about.

What the movie has going for it: the acting. As expected, Seymour-Hoffman and Hawke are exceptional. Surprisingly, Tomei does a good job as well. She is cute as a button even though her character can be described as two dimensional at best.

What sucks about the movie: Nothing "sucks" too much about the movie, really. However, it doesn't have that much going for it either. I don't regret spending $5.50 on it, but if I had paid full price, I would have been disappointed.

If seeing some of the private parts of the actors above gets your rocks off, then be the first in the queue to grab a ticket. Otherwise, you can seriously give this one a pass in lieu of DVD rentals.

Rating: 3/5 slices

A Mist: ...take

Watched Stephen King's "The Mist" tonight and geez, he has made an awesome horrid mess of Lord of the Flies, the Harvest and Sally Kern.

There is no redeeming value in the film other than a few cheap thrills, the random foreign language singing female (aren't they sick and tired of that style by now??? She sung her snatch out in Braveheart and 300, and she's still belting it out with the best of 'em), the creative creature effects and the awesome old woman who plays the gutsy school teacher.

The ending is so unexpected though. Hehehe. Made me chuckle.

Anyway, don't watch it unless you are super shallow mode. 2 out of 5 slices.

A Doll of a Movie: Lars and the Real Girl

At first, I didn't want to watch it. Given its main premise, I imagined a comedic romp about a man who has an obsession with sex dolls to the point of wanting to marry one. Although it was a unique premise to say the least, I wasn't too keen on really venturing into Ryan Reynolds territory.

Oh, hold on. It's Ryan Gosling, the same tortured soul from Half-Nelson. I haven't watched the movie myself, but people have been raving about him left and right. I still haven't recovered/forgiven him for The Notebook, so I really was umming and ahhhing, but I said to myself, what the hey. Nothing to lose.

The movie was astounding.

The premise was not exactly what I envisioned. Gosling played Lars, a dysfunctional chap who has intimacy issues and his "girlfriend", Bianca, is a reflection of that. I was fearing that the movie would fall into slapstick territory, but not once did it do so. The comic relief came mostly in the form of Lars' workbuddy whose screen time barely lasted 5 minutes. The movie itself was highly dramatic, with excellent performances from Gosling, Patricia Clarkson and Emily Mortimer.

It's not a movie about sex dolls and perverted twists. It's about growing up a few years later than expected, facing your demons and embracing the lovely things in the world, even the ones that can hurt you. Yes, there are a few giggles here and there (given the premise, kinda hard not to), but mostly the movie is still a lot of heart. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5 slices