Rambling Film

The last set of emotions in Mettel Ray's blogathon are here! This week, she asks us to examine hate and love . Narrowing this down was really bloody difficult. I could go on and on and on with these. I do have to give a big THANK YOU to Mettel Ray for this blogathon! This is the most fun I've had doing one of these in awhile, and I'm kind of sad that it's ending. I hope she does it again, only with TV shows. *cough cough* *hint hint* 1)"I hate you, and if you ever come near me again, I'll kill you and your entire family." - The Butterfly Effect I have never really loved and hated a movie simultaneously so much until I saw The Butterfly Effect. This is one of my favorite movies until the last 5 minutes. When Evan goes back and tells Kayleigh he hates her, that way they never become friends, and he never ruins her life. SERIOUSLY? Fuck that. Those two were meant to be together. (Although the alternate ending on the DVD, where Evan strangles hims...

The odds are never in our favor. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are back in District 12. They're still trying to cope with what happened in the area. Katniss with having killed people, Peeta with having a fake relationship with the girl he truly adores. Katniss is also confused by her feelings for her best friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) After their Victory Tour goes south, they find out that the 75th Hunger Games have special rules: That the tributes will be reaped from the current pool of victors in each district. This means Katniss and Peeta are back in the arena, only this time it's much more dangerous.     Catching Fire was probably my favorite book of the trilogy. It introduced us to wonderful characters like Joanna, (Jena Malone) Finnick, (Sam Clafin) and Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) Who all were spot on here. (Especially Joanna. Her feistiness was awesome and I loved her little on air tirade. Clever use of "bleeping" there) The fi...

It's just vitamins.   It's 1985, and Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) lives his life dangerously. He has unprotected sex, does plenty of drugs, and one day after getting hurt on the job, he finds out he's HIV positive. He, like many people back in that era are stuck in the mindset that only homosexuals get AIDS. When his family, friends, and employers abandon him once they learn of his illness, Ron takes it upon himself to find better treatment. The FDA approves a drug that has very toxic results, one that Woodroof's reluctant physician (Jennifer Garner) has tested in clinical trials. He does his research and finds other drugs, minerals, and vitamins that are used in other countries, but not approved in the United States. He meets a cross-dresser Rayon (Jared Leto) and together they form The Dallas Buyers Club. They're not drug dealers, the drugs are free, they just sell memberships to get around that. Of course, none of this is legal, and everyone seems to...

Boardwalk Empire episode 4.12:   *WHY?!?!?!?!??!!?!?! Okay, let's be honest, we did see this coming, but if I have one gripe about Boardwalk Empire's mostly awesome season finale, it's about Richard Harrow.   *SPOILER ALERT ----> Richard Harrow has been my favorite character since he was introduced in season one. A big theme for Richard has been that he's always wanted a family, but is afraid he'll never get one because of his disfigurement. He always envied what Jimmy had, and this season, he FINALLY gets a family. He marries the woman he's come to love, and he's become a father figure to Tommy since his parents are dead. Fantastic. If they wanted to write Richard off of the show, they should've had him just leave with his family to Wisconsin. Then at least we would know Richard is happy. But nope, Nucky has him do one last job, which he totally botches, and in his grief, does not get help when he, himself is shot, and goes to die unde...

The pigs in this movie actually serve an important purpose.   I'm really not sure how I feel about Upstream Color as a whole. I tried to let this film sink in after I viewed it, but it's just as blurry to me now as it was when I watched it.   A woman named Kris (Amy Seimetz) is drugged and hypnotized by a strange substance that the thief (Thiago Martin) has discovered in a plant, and transferred into a worm. He tricks Kris into giving him all of her money, and sets her free. She has no idea what happened or why she's all of a sudden drawn to a man named Jeff. (Shane Curruth) Turns out, they were both victims of this hypnosis, and now they're stuck navigating the world as if it were a dream.   I can handle narratives like this in small doses, but this film felt like it was trying to be Terrance Malick Jr. I should probably just copy and paste my Tree of Life review here). There was an interesting plot there. There really was! But it didn't feel connec...

Another vampire movie where the leads have more chemistry than the ones in Twilight.     Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) seems to be a 16 year old girl who lives with her older sister Clara. (Gemma Arterton) They move around often and after Clara kills a mysterious man, they're soon on the run again. Eleanor and Clara are not human. They're centuries old vampires and Eleanor has reached the point where she is sick of lying about their existence. She's drawn towards a kind but sickly boy, Frankm (Caleb Landry Jones) but what consequences come with Eleanor's secret?   I love Saoirse Ronan. I will watch this girl in anything. She's easily one of the best young actresses out there and I believe she'll grown into one of the best of all time. She's perfectly timid and curious here. Even Arterton manages to pull off a good performance, and I usually think she's awful. Byzantium lacks the traits most vampire movies nowadays have (Bearing fangs, sexy/bloody ...

Abracadabra.   FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent) are tasked with tasked with trying to pin down four magicians (played by Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco) who rob banks during their shows and give the money to their audience. They're backed by a powerful benefactor Arthur Tressier. (Michael Caine) With the help of magician de-bunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) they're in for a hell of a ride to say the least.   I have to admit, the spinning camera shots got annoying really fast, but I found this film quite fascinating. The special effects were great. All of the actors seemed perfectly cast, (Although I swear Morgan Freeman was about to say "Very good, Mr. Wayne" whenever he was talking to Michael Caine) and the ending packed a legitimate surprise. Overall, while I didn't expect much from this movie to begin with, I'm happy with what I watched. I'm interested ...

Less misogyny is always a good thing.   There are several things V/H/S/2 does better than it's predecessor. If you recall, I wasn't a huge fan of the first installment.   I'm going to split up each segment and review them separately again, because that's really the best way to approach this film: Like you're watching 5 different movies. Tape 49 - The narrative basically follows two private investigators sent to find one of those little bastards from the first film. They mention early on the cops are not looking for "some college kid." Like any horror movie, of course the characters split up. Ayesha, while trying to see what is on this kid's lap top starts to watch the nearby VHS tapes. It built quite a bit of suspense through out, although it fell to far too many horror clichés. Grade: B Phase I Clinical Trials - This one is about a man who loses his sight in one eye after a car accident. His doctor is testing a camera in place of his...

Part three of Mettel Ray's Breaking Emotions blogathon is here! This week, it's smiles and thrills. Let's get started. *Author's note: Taking the Trills list down to three was really, really, hard.* 1) Kyle's mom is a bitch in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut I was 12 when this movie came out. It actually holds a very dear place in my heart because I begged my dad to take me to it, and he complied, only after a theater employee told him it was "just like the TV show." Obviously it wasn't and the 2nd song in the film drops the F bomb more times than most movies do as a whole, but the song that makes me smile to this day is Cartman's rendition of "Kyle's mom is a bitch." He sang it once before on the TV show, and it was great, but when he starts singing it in different languages, my dad and I totally lost our shit laughing. As embarrassed as he probably was for taking his kid to see this, at least it was hysterical. ...

The Walking Dead episode 4.6: Live Bait I'm using a picture of Carol because fuck you.   *That was the most boring episode of The Walking Dead since last season's Prey. Ugh.   *This is the first of two Governor-centric episodes. Because even though we already know this guy is a psychopath, the powers that be feel the need to show us that he's got a sympathetic side as well. First off, we don't need that. This episode would've made more sense last season, but not now. Not after we know what he's capable of. Aww, The Governor is getting laid and being nice to a little girl? That's great, I'm still not going to sympathize with a rapist. Sorry.   *The ending's big "holy shit" moment wasn't very surprising. I knew that wasn't the last we were going to see of Martinez.   *Who's idea what is to place this episode right after Rick gets back to the prison? If I don't see Carol before the mid season finale, I'm...

Never in my life have I wanted to punch so many actors I like in the face.   Paul Dano? Creepy racist power-trip. Benedict Cumberbatch? You're still part of the problem. Paul Giamatti? Fat jerk. Michael Fassbender? Crazy drunk asshole. Sarah Paulson? Bitch. Taran Killem? Wipe that smile off of your face. Don't worry, those are their characters I'm talking about. I had to get that off my chest.   Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free man living in New York. One day, he's tricked by two circus acts, Brown and Hamilton (Taran Killem and Scoot McNairy) and is drugged and sold into slavery. No one believes he is free, and the more he protests, the worse he's beaten. Northup spends the longest amount of time under a cruel owner Edwin Epps, (Michael Fassbender) a man who grows even more sinister when he drinks.   Powerful. That's the best word to describe this movie. Sure, we know at the beginning that Solomon will eventually be free again, but it...

Happy Thanksgiving-sort of    Pieces of April will forever be known as "that only film Katie Holmes was good in" for some. While I absolutely agree with that statement, this little film is far more than that.   Scatter-brained April (Holmes) and her boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke) are planning to have April's estranged family over for Thanksgiving dinner. Her mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) is terminally ill. They've always had a rocky relationship. Coming with her is father Jim, (Oliver Platt) goody two shoes little sister Beth, (Alison Pill) brother Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) and grandma Dottie. (Alice Drummond) The film is split between the family's long road trip and April's beat up apartment complex where she's forced to go door to door to cook her turkey after her stove breaks.   It's funny to me to see Pill and Gallagher as brother and sister after seeing them as potential love interests in The Newsroom. Patricia Clarkson is the re...

Part two of Mettel Ray's blogathon is here! This time she asks us to exam tears (the sad kind) and surprise. It may be obvious, but I should probably point out that surprise is going to have a few massive spoilers, so SPOILER ALERT! Tears 1) Fantine dreams a dream in Les Miserables. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that I cried every single time Fantine sang in Les Miserables. All she wanted was a better life for her child, and she didn't get it. Then she died! I was a wreck. 2) Little Daniel in The Impossible I cried pretty consistently through this movie as well. But finding Daniel is what kicked it off. I have a little boy with beautiful blonde hair like the he had, and I couldn't help but think that if this ever happened to me, I would want someone to help my boy too. It just made me so sad. 3) "Where are his glasses? He can't see without his glasses?" - My Girl This is one of the first films I ever remember cry...

By hammer of Thor!*   I have a really weird relationship with the first Thor film. The first time I saw it, I was so under-whelmed. Then I re-watched it after seeing the Avengers and fell in love with it. That rarely happens.   Admittedly Thor 2's plot is a little weird. Thousands of years ago a race of Dark Elves (complete with home invasion masks) tried to release an evil substance called "The Aether" to control the nine realms. Asgard's soldiers stopped them, but they couldn't destroy the Aether. Instead, they buried it and hoped it would never come back. Too bad poor Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) still bent out of shape by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) not returning that she ends up finding it and subsequently has it absorbed into her body. Thor returns to Earth to get her, and brings her back to Asgard. A war is starting, and Thor must reluctantly turn to his prisoner brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to help.   I fucking loved this movie. I think the vis...

  The Walking Dead episode 4.5: Internme nt You know, normally I would say this was a pretty damn good episode of The Walking Dead, but last week's bullshit story line is still over shadowing this for me. It's no secret I'm not happy with the whole "Carol is a murderer" story line. I feel like it came out of left field and doesn't suit her character at all. In fact, I kind of hate how The Walking Dead treats their female characters as a whole. But whatever, I've ranted enough on this. I think it's crap that we didn't get to see anyone's reactions to Rick's big decision. Sure, we saw Maggie's, but is Maggie really more than a plot device at this point? Don't get me wrong, I like Maggie, but she doesn't have a lot to do. Plus, she just agreed with Rick, which is something I don't want. I want to see him challenged for making such a stupid ass decision in the first place. I wanted to hear what Hershel had to say to hi...