2014: Week 2: Her

Her

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance

Main Players: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, voice of Scarlett Johansson

General Gist:  A man develops a relationship with his personal operating system.  No seriously.  That's really what it's about.

Deb's Take:
I walked out of this movie quite torn.  I am a sucker for romance and drama, but this movie pushed the whole idea to the limit.  The movie was just bizarre.  I have two thoughts that keep running through my mind.  Either the movie was suppose to enlighten us about the overtaking of media and computers and how we are loosing connection with reality.  Or, we are to be enlightened by the ability for emotions to take on any shape or form and that underneath it all, we just want to feel loved.  I suppose maybe it wasn't either of those, but that's what I took from it.

Joaquin Phoenix plays some pretty quirky characters, and this movie was no exception.  He is always right on the edge of crazy to me, and he did it again.  He was wonderful in this movie, don't get me wrong, but wonderful and crazy fell pretty close together in this one.  Amy Adams had a minor role, but did it well.  Scarlett Johansson was just the voice of the computer, I guess I didn't really feel a connection with her because she wasn't "materialized".  Another hmmm moment.

Although I think this movie taught some good lessons, and will make you think twice about life, love and relationships, I guess I'm a sucker for the old fashioned romance.

Deb's Rate:  Rent It.
                           
Tiff's Take:
I felt like I entered bizarro world the minute I sat down for this movie.  We saw this at the Alamo Draft House downtown and for their previews they had these weird retro clips about computers but with a sexual twist.  I'm sure it was just because of what the movie itself was about but it made me feel strange.  And the movie hadn't even started.

I knew this wouldn't be just a normal love story with Joaquin Phoenix as the main guy.  It wasn't.  It was set in what appeared to be a futuristic LA maybe?  But not so futuristic that it didn't seem realistic.  But, apparently in the future everyone will be awkward.  Almost like awkward is the new black.  Everyone was awkward and it was perfectly normal.  Is that really what we're destined to become?!

So in a nutshell, Joaquin's character is trying to get over a bad marriage and falls in love with, for all intents and purposes, a computer.  They go on dates and have sex and all the normal stuff a couple does except one half of the relationship doesn't actually have a body.  I will say though, after you get over the crazy (or maybe not so crazy) concept, it really felt like they just had a long distance relationship where they never got to see each other.  If you thought of it that way it was sort of a sweet story.  Unlike Deb, Scarlett Johansson as the voice of the computer, made me connect with the whole idea a little better.

But the bland colors, unfashionable hair and wool slacks that sat way too high on their waists reminded you that this is not a conventional story and maybe too far out there.          

Tiff's Rate: Matinee.  Can't get over the odd feeling it leaves you with to give it a higher rating.

Preview:  Taking one for the kids..."The Nut Job"

2012: Week 2: War Horse

War Horse

Genre: History, Drama/Based on true events

Main Players: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson..and the Horse, (of course)

General Gist: This is a story that follows the life of a horse during World War I. The story captures its' many travels, and the people he encounters and touches through-out his journey.

Deb's Take:

Well...this movie was ok. It was long and very drawn out, to the point of losing my interest early on. I really like the idea of the movie and thought that maybe it would be like the "Black Beauty" of this time. In actuality, it wasn't. The story itself was touching, heartbreaking and pretty amazing when you consider all this horse had to go through in life. The hard part was, I just didn't feel a real connection to any particular character, and just couldn't find myself connected to the horse. I am a total animal lover. I had thought I would fall in love with this horse looking at the previews, but I really didn't. I did feel sorry for the horse a lot of the time, and was disgusted with the idea that horses were so brutally treated during the war, however, I just had a hard time not feeling like the story was drawn out and lengthy. I feel like the actors did a pretty good job, again though, nothing extraordinary. All in all I would recommend this movie as a renter, and although it appears to be made for all ages, I think the kiddos would be mighty bored..not to mention the parents.

Tiff's Take:
Wow.  I'm really surprised in the difference in opinion with Deb and I on this one.  She wrote her review first so I had the luxury of reading what she had to say before I did mine.  I actually went into this movie thinking I would feel almost the exact way Deb ended up feeling.  But I didn't.  This movie was long, I'll admit, but I didn't ever feel like I was looking at my watch wondering when it was going to wrap up.  There was a lot to the story but I enjoyed the journey.  I, like Deb, am an animal lover so I was concerned about the movie being too much.  Because, let's face it, something not so pleasant almost always happens in a movie about an animal.  This one was no different but for some reason the horse actually felt more like a person to me.  So it wasn't so sad.  (Not that I like seeing bad things happen to people but...)  I would agree with Deb that the actors were good but nothing special.  None of them really stood out to me.  I'm not even sure I can say the horse did a fantastic job because well, how do you rate a horse's acting abilities?  But I loved the history and connection between all the people that the horse's life touched.  Another thing I found interesting about this movie was the different perspective it gave on a war.  It was almost shocking how non-strategic everything seemed back then.  How did anyone ever survive at all?  It could have also been because most of the war movies I've seen are about WWII or later.  No matter the reason, it was very interesting to me.  So my rating would definitely be higher then just a rental.  I've actually already recommended it to someone who was on the fence.         

Week 2: Country Strong

So this week was Country Strong. I really had mixed feelings going into this movie. First of all, I love love love Gwyneth Paltrow. She has been my favorite actress since around the time she was in Shakespeare in Love. She can basically do no wrong in my book. But, on the other hand, I was really having a hard time picturing her as a country singer. It just didn't fit. So I was having this internal debate before I even went into the theater. Turns out...she wasn't a believable country singer to me. *gasp* Did I just say that?? I swear I didn't mean it, Gwyneth.

But it wasn't just Gwyneth Paltrow not doing country well that didn't do it for me. It was the whole thing. I think Deb and I are probably going to have different opinions on this one.

Let me back up first. It sounds like I really disliked this movie but I didn't. It was entertaining and all the actors were generally good. Actually I think the supporting actors were the best. Leighton Meester who played the up and coming singer and Garret Hedlund who played the other guy really stole the show. Although I still think that the only actor, Tim McGraw, who could have obviously pulled off country didn't really have to "do" country which was a shame.

But when it comes down to it, overall I thought the story line was weak. I had a hard time connecting to the characters and the relationships didn't really pull me in. It focused on four main characters who sort of had these intertwining relationships. The problem was I didn't believe any of them. The movie started in the middle of a story already in process so I felt like I couldn't really connect right off the bat. And when the characters switched from one person to another I didn't really feel any emotion towards it.

So, yeah, I was a little disappointed but that could have come from my own biases before the movie even started. I probably didn't give it a chance.

To sum this movie up: A little slow, a little detached and just okay.