The Fighter- Brotherly Love

Not since The Dark Knight have I gone into a movie with such high expectations, and left thinking that it was even better than expected. The Fighter was that good. With a great underdog story, fantastic acting (especially from Christian Bale), a lot of emotional moments, and a surprisingly high level of comedy, you really need to get yourself to a theater and see this right away.

Spoiler alert...Below are more in depth thoughts on The Fighter. So before reading any further, watch the movie, bring a cake to some crack heads, then read what I have to say.

This is not just my Christian Bale bias right? That was unbelievable performance. From the two minute clip during the credits of the real Dick Eklund you could tell how spot on Bale was with his portrayal of the cracked out ex-boxer. Seriously, how good is this guy with accents? I've heard him do so many and they always make me forget that he is from Wales. "Let me see, a cracked out dude from Lowell with no teeth? Yeah I got that accent in my back pocket."

Bale had me feeling bad for Dicky, wanting to punch his lights out, and laughing hysterically at everything he said for the entire movie. That's not to say that the other performances weren't also great. Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams were fantastic as the leading couple. Of course they didn't have as difficult a role as Bale, but both did a stellar job making me care about whether Micky Ward succeeded.

Funniest movie of the year? I haven't seen many this year, but it's hard to imagine laughing more than I did at The Fighter. Literally every time the seven butt ugly sisters came on screen, I lost it. Between their hair, their faces, and their ridiculous comments in ridiculous accents, I just couldn't handle it. There's no way they went into making this movie thinking it would be this funny. Add to that both Bale and Adams who had terrific comedic moments throughout, and you have yourself a great comedy if you wanted to label it as such.

But at the end of the day this was a movie about two underdog brothers. One, a former boxer turned crack addict, who would do anything to live vicariously through his little bro's success. And two, the little brother boxer that has never received any attention because big bro Dicky knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard once upon a time. It was great seeing Amy Adams's character convince Micky to do it without his mom and brother, because I knew that he would have success that way, but when he demanded to bring Dicky back on as his trainer once out of jail, that's when I was sold. Really Micky's love of his brother, and the fact that they fought for the title together, made this such a great story. Thankfully Dicky turned his life around, and got new teeth, while in the big house. With big bro in his corner, Micky won the welterweight championship of the world and everything is good.

Not being a boxing fan, I was glad that I had no idea what was going to happen heading into Micky's title fight. Knowing that it was a true story, my gut told me that Micky would lose. I was both surprised and excited when that Englishmen hit the ground for good.

I give it an A, and I give Christian Bale's performance an A+. If he doesn't finally win an Oscar for this I am going to throw a fit.

Double Feach

So last night The Bonz, JJ, The Neon Kid and I pulled off the old double feach. For those of you who don't like to cheat the system, that is going to a movie and then strolling down the hall to another. Like most people, I don't enjoy paying $9 for a movie, especially when it's not fantastic (like the four that I have now seen this summer). First on tap was Land of the Lost, which was followed by Public Enemies (note: I would switch this order if I had to do it again).

Land of the Lost
I have to stop thinking that Skip Bayless has great ideas about what a good movie is because I went into LoL with semi higher expectations because he tweeted that it was good. Don't get me wrong, he claims that Anchorman is the best comedy of all time, so I guess he kind of knows what he's talking about.

I came away from Land of the Lost pleased with the comedic performances of Will Ferrell and Danny McBride, but disappointed with the movie as a whole. This is the big difference, for me, between The Boreover and Land of the Lost. I would take a movie like LoL, that is low budget, ridiculously stupid, but has extremely funny people in it over a high budget movie that deals with a lifelike situation that only has one guy that is semi-funny.

I haven't seen much of the original show, but I'm assuming the crazy fake looking aliens was a nice omage to the show. Kenny Powers was funny throughout, my favorite being when he would wonder why the other two weren't freaking out at the dinosaurs and other crazy things that were happening. The girl was reasonable and Jorma had his moments.

Ferrell had some great one-liners...

[as they hang by vines in a cave looking down at their dooms]
"Fortunately I have been in this exact situation three times before,"

[after throwing a temper tantrum he walks up to the others playing a banjo]
"Is there room around that camp fire for a jerk like me?"

My most laugh out loud moment was when Ferrell, Kenny Powers and Monkey Jorma were stoned on sweet nectar and eating gigantic crab legs. Kenny asked the other two how much money it would take to get them to make out. What ensues is comedy gold.

Public Enemies
I went into Public Enemies with high expectations for many reasons. Gangster movies can be sweet, Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, my boy Christian Bale was the detective, and was getting good reviews. I have to say I was disappointed.

It moved too slowly for me, but that could have been enhanced by it being my second movie of the night. Depp was great, but not as sweet as I thought he would be. Christian was again given a bland character that gave him no room to breathe. Why can't he be Alfred Borden or Jack Kelly in every movie?

Here's the big problem I had. I am all for love stories, but I couldn't get into this one at all. Maybe it just wasn't believable for me, but I couldn't feel anything for Dillinger and his girl throughout the film. I wish I could have been sad at the end, for as we all know Dillinger dies, but I didn't care because if he actually loved this chick he would've stopped robbing banks and gone away a long time ago.

I know it was based on a true story, but it was too standard and obvious to me. He robs banks, hides out, robs more banks, gets caught and dies....blah blah blah. Seen it many times before. What makes it better/different? The beginning was interesting, as we see Dillinger doing his thing, but then it runs kinda old through the middle. Things definitely picked up with during the cabin shootout scene and it was solid from there to the end, but overall not enough to pick me up.

Note to dudes (myself included): here is how you pick up a lady, "I like baseball, movies, whiskey, fast cars and you," and then you hold up her coat for her. Boom. Lock it up.

Trio of Trailers

How bout we get a bit excited for movies on the horizon...

July 1st 2009
Public Enemies
Johnny Depp and Christian Bale



December 25th 2009
Sherlock Holmes
Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams



June 18th 2010
Toy Story 3
Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head

Terminator In the Head

I took in Terminator 2 on Friday and went to see Terminator Salvatione (saying it like Doug Heffernan) last night. I was expecting so much from T2 that I felt a bit disappointed, but all in all it was a great film. Salvation, on the other hand, I wasn't expecting much because I heard it wasn't any good. I enjoyed it a bit more than my expectations, but it still wasn't that great overall.

As Lar pointed out, and I completely agreed with, the worst part about it was their was not enough dialog or down time. It was all action, all the time. Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't on the level of Blade Runner bad.

As a movie on its own it wasn't that great, but as a continuation of the Terminator series I think it fulfilled a need. If you are a fan of the series you will have more of an opportunity to really enjoy Salvation, especially because of the classic lines that pop up. Such as when teenage Kyle Reese (left) says to Marcus Wright, "Come with me if you want to live." Or when old John Connor heads out to SkyNet to save Kyle and is asked what they should tell the people. He says to tell them, "I'll be back."

I definitely can see why James Cameron stopped after two, because the first two Terminators had such clever ideas to them. He could just build great stories around the simple yet complex themes of T1 and T2. If you're going to make a movie post judgement day it's gonna have to be a war movie, and that's just not as interesting as the stories of the first two films.

Major issue. How come in Salvation you can kill a terminator by simply shooting them in the head, as John did a few times? Wasn't it really hard to kill one and the other movies (I never saw T3) and in tv series? You had to melt them, crush the whole skeleton, or actually remove the chip. But no, now it's bang, shot to the head, dead.

This last problem I have is mostly for T2 but also works for a problem with Salvation. SkyNet sent back two Terminators to kill Sarah Connor in T1 and John Connor in T2. Why on earth would they send back a T101 (Arnold) to one place and use the much better, T1000 (right), at the other place? They are sending them back at the same time (2029 I believe), why wouldn't they send back their most advanced Terminator to both places? Ooohhh, because we didn't have the technology as film makers to do the liquid metal thing in 1984? Now I see. Not good enough. Should have though of that ahead of time.

No Sanka for Jaydon

Being the great Jamaican that he is, I was very surprised when I didn't find Sanka Coffie in his top ten movie characters. Actually I was surprised when his entire top didn't look like this...

1. Sanka Coffie- Cool Runnings
2. Derice Bannock- Cool Runnings
3. Yul Brenner- Cool Runnings
4. Junior Bevil- Cool Runnings
5. Mr. Coolidge- Cool Runnings
6. Momma Coffie- Cool Runnings
7. Push Cart Derby Starter- Cool Runnings
8. Joy Bannock- Cool Runnings
9. Whitby Bevil Sr.- Cool Runnings
10. Ben Bannock(only in a picture)- Cool Runnings

Either way I was a big fan of Jaydon's list, especially since he gave some love to Jack Kelly and Ronald F. Burgandy. Also big ups for Linderman getting the number one spot.

Jaydon's Top Ten

10. James Bond(left)- Daniel Craig- Casino Royale

9. Jack Kelly- Christian Bale- Newsies

8. Willy Wonka- Gene Wilder- Willy Wonka

7. R.P. McMurphy- Jack Nicholson- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

6. Ron Burgundy- Will Ferrell- Anchorman

5. Hannibal Lecter- Anthony Hopkins- Silence of the Lambs

4. The Joker- Heath Ledger- The Dark Knight

3. Borat Sagdiyev- Sacha Baron Cohen- Borat

2. Tyler Durden- Brad Pitt- Fight Club

1. Alex DeLarge- Malcolm McDowell- A Clockwork Orange

Classic JJ

I have six different dude's top ten movie character lists that I will post. The order that I'll post them in will be how closely they resemble my likes and dislikes...With that let's see the greatness of

JJ's Top Ten


10. Ryan Harrison- Leslie Nielsen- Wrongfully Accused

9. Vernon Baxter- Kevin Nealon- Principal Take a Holiday

8. Chester Lee- Rodney Dangerfield- Ladybugs

7. Alfred Borden (left)- Christian Bale- The Prestige

6. Derek Huff- Adam Scott- Step Brothers

5. Kevin McCallister- Macauley Culkin- Home Alone 2

4. Buddy the Elf- Will Ferrell- Elf

3. Bob Wiley- Bill Murray- What About Bob?

2. Randolph Dupree- Owen Wilson- You, Me and Dupree

1. Bartholemew Hunt- Chris Farley- Almost Heroes

Dark Knight

I know this is way behind,but I really needed things to settle in. Right off the bat I am going to say that Dark Knight was unbelievable. I saw it the first day it came out and was amazed by it. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was fantastic. I can't think of a villain that did a better job. For a two and a half hour movie it wasn't at any point boring or dragging along. I was on the edge of my seat throughout. The one problem I had the film was that it could have used some more Bruce Wayne. Christian Bale did such a good job in Batman Begins, but wasn't given as much time to shine in Dark Knight. Heath definitely made up for the lack of Bruce and then some.

I love the idea of a third film with Batman on the run from the law where everyone in Gotham hates him...could make for great stuff. At this point they're going to need to get a couple of great villains to keep up with the action they've had up to this point.

A couple of quotes on Dark Knight--

Larry: "The crazy thing to me about this movie is that i hyped it up so much yet was still amazed immediately afterwards."

Jaydon: "The movie instantly is in my top 5 and might be my number 1 i just dont know yet."

Batman Movies Ranked--

7. Batman Returns
6. Batman (Adam West)
5. Batman & Robin
4. Batman
3. Batman Forever
2. Batman Begins
1. The Dark Knight