Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

 

 

Something Borrowed

Rating:

Movie: Something Borrowed (2011)

Studio : Warner Brothers

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 103 min

Website : warnerbros.com

Rating : PG-13

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi8w9s

Review:

In this tale of love, betrayal, yearning, and relationships, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) is alone at 30 years old. Sure she has a great career as a top New York lawyer, but her love life is a disaster. And it doesn’t help that her life long best friend Darcy, who is engaged to be married, is bugging her that the clock is ticking. But when she finally finds love in Dex (Colin Egglesfield), a past acquaintance from her law school, all is good until she finds out that he’s actually getting hitched to Darcy (Kate Hudson). Rachel must decide whether to tell her best friend and risk their long time relationship or dive into the love that she really wants. Read more…

Drama, In Theaters, Romance colin egglesfield, Drama, ginnifer goodwin, john krasinski, kate hudson, pg13, Romance, warner brothers

Crazy Heart

Rating:

Movie: Crazy Heart (2009)

Studio : Fox Searchlight

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 112 min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/crazyheart

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb7utw

Review:

As of this writing, Jeff Bridges has already won a Golden Globe for his performance in Crazy Heart, and he is expected to receive an Oscar nomination, if not win the award entirely.

And he deserves it. Bridges disappears completely into his portrayal of Bad Blake, a 57-year-old alcoholic former country star whose career has been reduced to playing in front of small crowds in bowling alleys and bars. Subsisting on a steady diet of cigarettes, whiskey, and longnecks, Bridges can still entertain the crowds of loyal fans who request songs, and he’s still suave enough to be able to take groupies back to his hotel room.

Things begin to look up for Blake when he meets Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a reporter for a small New Mexico paper, who wants to interview him. They talk about music and life. Soon enough, predictably but endearingly, they’re soon doing more than talking. She has a four-year-old son and has made mistakes in her life as well, but has held it together. We see that there’s potential for change in Blake, but he’s so worn down, so accustomed to the hard-drinking, nomadic lifestyle that change can be just out of reach. There’s a heartbreaking scene where he takes Jean’s son for some quality time at the playground, and he shows here that he could just be an effective father figure. Upon bringing him home, he sneaks away to take a swig from his flask.

This is a wonderful movie. Bridges doesn’t play Blake; he embodies him. He and Gyllenhaal create a convincing chemistry, and we root for the relationship to drive Blake to throw away the bottle and settle down with a family. Colin Farrell does a good job as the country star who was mentored by Blake and is still loyal to him, and Robert Duvall has a small but powerful role as an old drinking buddy of Blake’s who’s sober. Duvall’s presence was no doubt inspired by his Academy Award-winning performance in Tender Mercies, a similar film about a down-and-out country singer. I haven’t seen it, but now plan to.

I’ll also add the music. The soundtrack, which I also intend to find, had my head bopping throughout. I’m not a huge country fan, but I do have Toby Keith on my iTunes, and I’m listening to him as I write this review. Like most of the country songs I’ve heard, Blake’s revolve around alcohol, heartbreak, and regret, strong themes in his life. One of his songs goes, “I used to be somebody, but now I’m somebody else.” But does he need to stay that way? We know the answer, but the center of the film revolves around whether he learns it. It’s a masterpiece.

-Craig Wynne

Drama, Mystery, Romance crazy heart, Drama, Music, Romance

(500) Days of Summer

Rating:

Movie: (500) Days of Summer (2009)

Studio : Fox Searchlight Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 95min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/500daysofsummer

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9q55j

Review:

(500) Days of Summer is the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his year-and-a-half on again/off again relationship with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). Tom, a greeting card writer, falls head over heels for Summer, a new administrator at the same greeting card company, and is convinced that she is the one he’s been waiting for all of his life. We’re told that Tom believes that he’ll never be truly happy until he finds “the one”—hence the importance of discovering Summer Finn—and he’s carried this belief with him his entire life because of 80’s British pop music and a misreading of the film The Graduate. Summer, on the other hand, doesn’t really believe in love, at least not the kind of love Tom believes in, but insists on taking Tom on a ride that he and audiences will never forget.
Audiences also will have a hard time forgetting the performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Gordon-Levitt’s Tom, wonderfully balanced with charm and sympathy, paired with Deschanel’s free-spirited and whimsical Summer makes their repartee so much fun to watch. They execute their parts so well, it’s really difficult to imagine anyone else playing these characters.

This script, by neophytes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, has Best Original Screenplay written all over it. It’s a combination of the best of the youthful, hip, music-induced flicks Garden State and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist with the originality and freshness of Little Miss Sunshine. The “author’s note” at the beginning of the film implies that the author did, in fact, live this story. And there’s just enough realism in the script to believe that, perhaps, he did.

With such a splendid cast and such a solid script in place, Marc Webb could have just phoned in the direction. However, for his first major motion picture, this music video director decided to not let his considerable visual acumen go to waste. And though he uses every trick in the book—animation, split-screen screen, infectious music—it doesn’t feel overwrought.
Webb’s Los Angeles backdrop is the real winner here, and thanks to Webb, anybody under 40 who doesn’t want to visit L.A. after this film doesn’t have a pulse.

-Sam Henderson

Comedy, Drama, Romance 500 days of summer, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Adam

Rating:

Movie: Adam (2009)

Studio : Olympus Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 99min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/adam/

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9zn4g

Review:

Adam is 29 years old, living in an apartment he once shared with his father, and is a relatively good-looking man. He gets blatantly affectionate looks from women, is well-dressed, and is a hard worker at his job as an engineer at a local toy firm. With his awkwardness towards the opposite sex and his tendency to ramble about his passions, you would initially think he had the makings of a 40-Year-Old Virgin, but chances are you would never imagine he had something like Asperger’s Syndrome unless he said so.

When Beth, a budding children’s author and daughter to an influential executive accountant, moves in and meets the awkward fellow by chance, she finds herself entranced by him and, like the very satellites Adam rambles on, they begin to push and pull against each other in an orbital dance with each other that leads both into a predictable trajectory and impact you expect from a romance film, but with the trappings of a convincing relationship between a woman finding her own way in her world and a man learning to understand his own.

I have to say that the acting throughout the film is really good. It seems that every character with more than one dialogue in the role has at least one moment to pull out at least one good scene in the film (Frankie Faison steals quite a few as Adam’s mentor-like friend, Harlan). While Rose Byrne does not seem to shine as well as her counterpart Hugh Dancy, she more than makes up for it in the later half.

Kudos should also go to the cinematography for the film, where you can tell care was placed in shooting the location and getting the most visually-appealing scenes and compositions you could hope for in a film of this nature.

-Donald Lee

Comedy, Drama, Romance adam, Comedy, Drama, Max Mayer, Romance