September 9, 2011, - 6:39 pm
Wknd Box Office: Warrior, Contagion, Creature, Attack the Block, Brighton Rock
One of the best movies of the year–if not the best–this weekend. One okay movie. And the rest are absolute garbage.
* “Warrior“: If this isn’t my pick for best movie of the year, it will probably be in my top two or three. Absolutely excellent. Heart-pounding, non-stop action, entertaining, and patriotic.
As I noted when I initially wrote about this great movie, many movies are deemed as “the new Rocky” or “the next Rocky,” and none of them lives up to it. Not even close. This one does. In fact, I think I might even like it better than “Rocky.” This one involves Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), not pure boxing, and is, therefore, a little more violent, something to consider if you have young kids. But it’s fine for teens. It’s ultimately positive and uplifting, though there is a little melodrama I could have done without.
The story: Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy play brothers, the estranged sons of recovering alcoholic Nick Nolte. Both used to be boxers that he trained, but they have nothing to do with him because, as a drunk, he was bad to his wife (their mother) and them. Edgerton is a high school teacher, husband, and father, struggling to save his family’s home. And Hardy is a mentally off-kilter, angry U.S. soldier who served in Iraq, who seems unbeatable with his brutal take-no-prisoners boxing style. Both train to win an international MMA competition in Atlantic City, and both have their struggles. Edgerton is older, and his wife and others think he’s too old for this line of work, which could kill him.
Hardy, while agreeing to train with his recovering addict father (who is now a religious Christian), is very mean and obnoxious to him outside the ring. Some of that was a little much and kind of painful to watch. But, overall, the movie is riveting and the kind you want to applaud at the end. While the movie is a little slow at first, it quickly speeds up all the way to the finish. I loved the ending, too. It stops at just the right moment. And until that point, it’s full of suspense and thrills.
If there’s one drawback, it’s that the movie temporarily descends into political correctness. At one point, the man to beat in the MMA competition is a Russian goliath, who wears the Soviet hammer and sickle. But, as we all know, the Soviet Union is long gone. A better choice for this villain would have been a Muslim goliath. But, as we all know, it’s the first rule in Hollywood these days: thou shalt not speak ill of Muslims.
Yet, even with this flaw, “Warrior” is still fantastic. If you see one movie this year, see this. Liking boxing or understanding MMA is not required. But if you like those as I do, you’ll love this even more.
Absolutely my kind o’ movie!
FOUR REAGANS
Watch the trailer . . .
* “Contagion“: The best thing about this movie is that the execrable Gwyneth Palestine-trow dies at the beginning. Unfortunately, there are scenes of her after that. And it also stars the even more loathsome Matt Damon, promoter of anti-American Howard Zinn and other BS. Add to that, 9/11 Truther nut Marion Cotillard. Still I gotta review the movie.
If you like doomsday or epidemic movies like I do, you’ll like the first half or so of this movie. But, then, as it resolves itself, it’s boring, cheesy, and not very believable. And it’s a letdown.
An epidemic starts and spreads, killing millions of people worldwide. And it can neither be identified, nor can a vaccine be developed because the virus keeps killing everything with which it’s spliced, etc. Gwyneth Paltrow gets the virus in Asia, from which she’s just flown home to Minnesota, after a business trip. She starts to get sick, and soon dies in front of her husband, Matt Damon. On the way home from the hospital, he learns his young son has died, too. Soon, the World Health Organization and the Department of Homeland Security are on the scene, seeking to trace the virus and find out how fast it incubates and spreads, how to contain it, and how to vaccinate it.
Meanwhile, there are riots on the streets, abandoned stores, and wanton crime and robberies of neighbors, as Damon and others struggle to make sense of it all.
A left-wing blogger (Jude Law) is constantly questioning the government with conspiracy theories and criticism, and his audience is growing. The best part is that he turns out to be a fraud and a phony in the end, typical of many on the left (and, sadly, far too many on the right, too). Also, a World Health Organization doctor tells his fiancee (or wife–it was confusing) to leave Chicago before the State of Illinois is quarantined, and he gets in trouble for it. You know those lefty do-gooders who work for the WHO always give their family and friends special treatment.
Like I said, the first part was great and riveting, but the second half is a letdown and makes you wonder if it was worth it.
ONE REAGAN
Watch the trailer . . .
* “Creature“: I would say that this went from bad to worse, but it’s more like worser to worst. This was sooooo absolutely awful, disgusting, and just plain stupid. Incest, a sister masturbating and making out with her brother, a half-alligator/half-human monster who looks like a bad Halloween costume, multiple topless scenes, and horribly cartoonish, creepy Southern hillbilly stereotypes are what this movie is chock full of. No thanks. I’d have walked out of this two minutes in if I didn’t have to review it. It was that bad . . . and worse.
Four very unlikable 20-somethings are driving in the backwoods of Louisiana, where they stop at a convenience store for gas and learn of the urban legend of a half-human/half-alligator creature (or is it, half-crocodile? I didn’t care, ‘cuz this movie stank that bad). They go to the house in the backwater to find it, and camp out there at night, when they are terrorized by killers, the crocodile man, and the hillbillies.
YUCK!!!!
FOUR MARXES PLUS
Watch the trailer . . .
* “Attack the Block“: This British film has the usual liberal “we shall overcome with minority criminals” BS. A group of violent teen Black and Muslim criminal thugs who rob and attack people are the heroes of this movie because they fight off aliens from their London-area apartment complex (“the Block”). Uh, nice try, but thugs are thugs. Period. Most disgusting was the part when the police want to arrest the thugs and the woman who they robbed lies to protect them at the end. Moronette. Reminds me of the Americans who continue to assume the role of apologist for Islam.
FOUR MARXES
Watch the trailer . . .
* “Brighton Rock“: Awful. This British movie should have come with a Cockney decoder, because for the first third of it, I couldn’t understand a thing they were saying. Speak English or give us subtitles. A gangster thug in the ’60s murders a rival gangster and marries the one woman who can tie him to the murder to keep her quiet. She’s a moron and a fool, and I wanted them all to die. Slow, boring, pointless.
FOUR MARXES
Watch the trailer . . .
Keep up the work Debbie. The haters will hate
jeremy on September 9, 2011 at 8:36 pm