Movies: Mass Post... Part II

A bit more of a serious note today with some heavy dramas that I've seen lately.

We'll start with the amazing Dallas Buyers Club based on the true story of AIDS sufferer Ron Woodroof, set in the 1985. Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) fought the FDA for years over the illegal drugs he was taking that were actually improving his quality of life as a HIV patient. He goes from being anti-gay to having a transgender best friend and business partner. After his discovery of alternative treatment drugs he starts up the Dallas Buyers Club: a loophole in the laws that allows him to legally sell memberships rather than the drugs themselves. Who knows how many lives he saved / extended with this endeavor. After watching this movie I can see why Jared Leto and McConaughey won Academy Awards for their performances, they were both amazing, especially Leto. Worth a watch.

The Book Thief is an adaption of the book by Markus Zusak, which I haven't read yet but is still on my to-read list after having watched the movie, so that's saying something right? Narrated by Death (Roger Allam), set in 1939 Nazi Germany, we know this movie will have some tense / sad parts, and man does it ever. The story revolves around Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) who just loves to read books in a time when books and knowledge are dangerous things to have. I don't want to give anything away but it's a really lovely story...right until it's not. Also starring Geoffrey Rush, who I just found out was born very close to where I was born. I would watch it again, probably after reading the book.

I had been waiting for 47 Ronin to come out but I hadn't heard anything about it except that it was a samurai movie starring Keanu Reeves (The Matrix). It's based on an old legend about a group of ronin - samurai without a master - who avenge their fallen lord. What I didn't realise about it was that there was going to be such a fantasy element to it, I suppose I should have known better though... The first beast scared the hell out of me purely because I wasn't expecting it. The animations are obvious but the creatures and the art itself is fantastic, as is the film style. I enjoyed it but then again, I enjoy a lot of foreign films... This is pretty Westernised though considering. It didn't do very well according to the box office but it's another movie that I would watch again.

That'll do for today. I have some rather strange movies lined up for tomorrow's post, so stay tuned!

Love Gee
xoxo

TV: True Detective SE1 EP3

True Detective
Crime, Drama

I'd seen this on my list of new shows but I didn't even bother with it at first thinking it was just another detective show and I have enough of those at the moment. Then my sister linked me the above trailer and I realized that I absolutely had to give it a go. For a start, it's HBO who have been responsible for True Blood, Game of Thrones and The Newsroom. Then of course there's Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, Natural Born Killers) and Matthew McConaughey (The Lincoln Lawyer, Magic Mike) together! It's like they were made for each other.

McConaughey plays smart and strange Rust Cohle. He's cold and calculating but he's a fantastic detective. His monologues alone are worth watching this show. His partner Martin Hart (Harrelson) is the more stable, typical detective. He spends most of his time trying to figure his partner out, poor fella. The show revolves around these two detectives, their partnership and an old murder case. The timeline flicks back and forth between telling the story of the case in the present and the past where the case occurred.

I like that it's set in the past (I think it's mid-90's) and the use of computers and mobile phones is not apparent - it's a real detective story. The two leads are insanely good of course, they hold the focus of the viewer even if you can't always understand what they (Cohle) are saying. The tension between the two detectives is obvious, as are the personal problems of each and the fact that somewhere along the line, something happened in the investigation. I also think I remember a snippet in the first episode where the present time detectives interviewing Cohle and Hart admit that the murderer is back. I have a feeling they think Cohle is responsible. I guess we'll see.

I'm intrigued to continue because of McConaughey and Harrelson. I've heard the second season has been picked up already, unsurprisingly, and HBO expect big things. So far it's a bit slow but I'm enjoying the way its shot and the characters. I'll give it more time before it gets a better rating from me.

2 out of 5 LSD flashbacks...

Movie: Magic Mike (2012)

Magic Mike (2012)
Biography, Comedy, Drama

Ok, so as much as I know this is based on a true story and that true stories don't always have a clear-cut conclusion, this movie pissed me off. I'd heard from others that what this movie was lacking in plot line, it made up for in hotness. Yeah, I'll give you some of that, but it wasn't the lack of plot that got to me, it was the lack of conclusion.

Before I rail on and on about how annoyed I am by this movie, lets take a look at the steaming cast. We have Channing Tatum (Dear John, Haywire) as Magic Mike; shameless stripper working multiple jobs in the hope that one day he can start his own business. He meets The Kid - Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four, In Time) - on a job one day and invites him back to the club, shoving him totally unprepared on stage to strip terribly in baggy undies in front of a packed house of screaming ladies. He joins the gang which includes; Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), Tito (Adam Rodriguez) and ring leader Dallas (Matthew McConaughey).

IMDB's synopsis - A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women and make easy money - is what follows. Things get a little hairy. Mike's friend Joanna (Olivia Munn) - who I immediately recognized as Sloan from The Newsroom! - dumps him, while The Kid's sister Brooke (Cody Horn) goes nuts at Mike for not looking after her little brother.

So there is some story line, which is great, but none of these story-lines actually conclude. Mike wants to start his own business, bank knocks him back but we never see if he did it or not. The Kid goes off the rails selling drugs and ends up owing some bad people lots of money. Mike pays the debt off for him and then leaves the club and The Kid takes up his spot. We've hear about Miami the whole way through the film and even though everyone seems really happy about that, we don't hear much more about it. There is not enough Matt Bomer. Mike has the hots for The Kid's sister and even though we see a little flirting and one kiss as the closing scene; that's pretty much it.

The hotness almost cancelled out the crappy plot...almost. I could have looked past it if they had showed us Mike starting his own business and The Kid running the show in Miami, but they didn't and I was left disappointed. So if you want to see this movie, make sure you're only watching it for the glistening abs...

2 out of 5 six-packs...