2014: Week 3: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Genre: Action, Drama

Main Players: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh,

General Gist:  A young Marine is recruited to become a covert CIA analyst and uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy.

Deb's Take:  
First off  WOW!  What a great movie to see in the IMAX.  I don't usually care if I see a movie in the IMAX theatre or not, but this is a great one to spend the extra couple bucks if you like a good thrill ride. 

I will start by saying that movies that address the stock market, economy, international conspiracy, ect, always sort of make me feel ignorant.  I am trying to do better at understanding worldly economics, how the stock market works and how the government comes into play.  I am getting smarter, but still have a long way to go.  This movie was all about terrorists, economy and the stock market.  I think I actually had all the logistics figured out in this one. (Go Deb!)  Because of my understanding the movie was much more enjoyable. It wasn't rocket science, but I'm still happy.

Ok, as far as the movie itself.  I had forgotten how much I like Kevin Costner.  He is such a cool actor.  I like his calm, cool, collected nature that so many of his characters portray.  He sort of seems that way in real life too.  He did an excellent job in this movie, and, as usual, he was his calm, cool self.  Chris Pine is an actor I often forget about until I stumble across one of his movies.  He has the young boy charm, but the movie lover's face. What I liked most about his work in this movie, was the ability to capture the emotions of his character. He had some really badass chase scenes and stunts.  He did such a great job.  Kenneth Branagh plays an amazing bad guy.  I would turn and run if I ever crossed his path in real life. 

The story line was engaging and the action was non stop.  There wasn't a point in this movie that I wasn't totally sucked in.  A great date night movie!  Thanks Leslie and Brian for joining us on this one!!

Deb's Rate: Opening Night

Tiff's Take:
I'll admit that action movies aren't my all time favorite types of movies but I always enjoy them.  I really enjoyed this one.  As Deb said, it was fantastic in IMAX.  Definitely worth the extra cost to see it that way.

This was fast paced and kept you tensed up throughout the whole thing.  That's a sure sign of a good action movie.  What I liked about this one was that it didn't spend a lot of time setting things up.  It got right to the point and just started right in.  It wasn't unnecessarily lengthy.  Another thing I liked about it was the fact that it wasn't super confusing.  I knew who was bad, who was good, what the problem was and how they were going to fix it.  I often enjoy these movies but I usually leave them not really sure what happened.  So, good writing I guess.

I had no idea until after the fact that Jack Ryan is a character in other movies/books.  So can't really compare how Chris Pine was versus Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford or whoever else played Jack Ryan but I'll say he did pretty darn good in my opinion.  They all did.  I literally loved everyone in their roles.  Well done!  

Tiff's Rate: Definitely a strong Friday Night.

Preview: Looks like another pre-screening for us.  "Labor Day" with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin coming next week.

2012: Week 3: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close


Genre: Drama

Main Players: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Caldwell, Max von Sydow

General Gist: The journey of a nine year old boy dealing with the loss of his father who died in the World Trade Center on September 11th.

Tiff's Take:
You never know what to expect going to a movie dealing with September 11th. It seems like it is still fresh enough that only a few mainstream movies have touched on this subject. I imagine it will be different 10, 20, 30 years from now. But for now I still get goosebumps whenever I see anything about it.

However, this movie wasn't so much about September 11th as it was about the effects it had on a boy who loses his father because of it. I was thinking this would be a movie that lead up to that day therefore expecting a really sad ending. It didn't though. It really started out with that day and followed this boy's journey of dealing with the loss of his father. The father was played by Tom Hanks and the boy was played by Thomas Horn. Tom Hanks did great but it was really all about Thomas Horn's roll. He did a fantastic job of being this quirky (on the verge of disorder) boy who thinks he will lose the memory of his father if he doesn't keep around pieces of him. He finds a key his father kept and goes on a mission to see what it opens.  All the while his mom, played by Sandra Bullock, is trying to make sense of it all too.

I've had a little bit of a hard time deciding whether I really liked the movie or not.  It was a little slow but it was interesting and well acted.  Although it didn't leave much of a lasting impression.  For me, that's a big indicator to how well I like something.  So take that how you will.   

Deb's Take:

This movie was definitely not what I was expecting. The advertising made me think I was going to watch a movie about Sept 11, and about one man's journey through that time. As Tiff mentioned, it's really about the reaction of a boy who loses his father Sept 11 and all the struggles and the journey he takes to find some sort of peace and understanding. They sort of played up that Tom Hanks was in the movie, but Thomas Horn was the real star and in the forefront most of the film.

I did have a difficult time getting into the movie. The story line and relationships seemed sort of disjointed for at least the first half of the movie. I felt like I was in an "artsy" film and a lot of the meaning was going over my head or something. I was finding it hard to believe this boy could travel around New York City all day with no adult supervision and that everyone was taking it in stride. Luckily, the ending cleared it all up for me. Thomas Horn really did an amazing job, and I always like Sandra Bullock..(she is a favorite of mine!!). The movie did bring Sept 11 back in a different light, yet as always, made me very sad for the families so closely effected by the terror.

I enjoyed the movie and the message it sent. A good sort of touching movie. My 14 year old didn't think it was all that great, I think mostly because it was just slower paced. Worth an afternoon viewing or week night date.

Preview:

Stay tuned for our first give-away of 2012, and the upcoming movie for the week..."One for the Money"

Week 3: The King's Speech

This week we opted for a movie that has been out a little while. And boy am I glad we did. Wow. What a movie. The King's Speech was right up my alley in almost every way. I love all things British, historical (not American though ironically) and anything about a royal family. The whole subject fascinates me. I didn't realize going into the movie that it was set in the 30's and 40's. (I said I like history, not that I know much about it.) Another point in it's favor. Even if the movie was bad I think I still would have liked it. Luckily, it was not bad at all. It was actually really great. I will be rooting for it when the award shows come up.

This movie wasn't full of action or progressed very fast at all but everything about it made me want to keep watching. First of all, Colin Firth did a wonderful job. I'm not sure I've seen him in many movies that weren't comedies. He was so believable. And let me say Helena Bonham Carter was equally good. She doesn't normally play a role that's so understated. Actually, she usually does the opposite. She sure pulled this one off well. At the end of the movie I actually had to hold back tears after his speech and it gave me goose bumps. Again, wow.

After the movie let out I realized that me and Deb were probably the youngest ones in the theater. It made me think that if my niece had gone with us she would have agonized about sitting through the most boring movie of her whole life. But I have to say that it was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I'm so glad we saw this instead of The Green Hornet or The Dilemma.

To sum it up: wonderfully acted, touching and the makes of an award winner.