Posts Tagged ‘brad pitt’

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

December 26, 2008

I raced to the theater on Christmas night to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. I wasn’t entirely familiar with the story before seeing the trailers, but the second I saw them I had to see this film. The film follows Benjamin Button as he is born physically old, and then grows younger. What I loved so much about this film was that it didn’t matter how long it was. The running time was about 2 hrs and 40 mins. In films of that length, you tend to start feeling the time stretch at about 1 hr and 40 mins when you realize the film isn’t close to being over. But in the curious case of this film(I had to), the length didn’t bother me. Not at least until the last 10 minutes, but considering the entire film I can let that slide.

The supporting cast was also fantastic. Cate Blanchett is insanely hot in this film, and should always be a redhead. Tilda Swinton is also superb in absolutely everything she is in. The film was written by Eric Roth who also wrote Forrest Gump, and you can tell just a little bit every time a historical event intertwines with whats on screen.

It seemed that David Fincher, the director, had a little extra fun in this also. There was a character who would show up throughout the film and would recall the 7 different times he was struck by lightning, each story was accompanied by a 3 second classic film clip of that event, providing a laugh each time. It broke up the somberness in some places quite nicely. There was also a sequence that I found quite amazing, one in which Benjamin is narrating a chain of events that lead up to a certain event. It was just a small pearl to add to the treasure chest of this film.

I Couldn’t Stop Loving
There are a handful of films that can pull a feeling out of me throughout the duration. Benjamin Button held such a constant mood, constant tone, constant feeling throughout. While watching it I was filled with the strong…unexplainable feeling. It wasn’t energetic, but it definitely wasn’t tiring, just comforting. While watching Benjamin Button go through his life, learning, and accepting, and taking in life regardless of his condition, I was thinking of everyone that gives me these feelings. I was in a whole different place, falling in love with the people in the film. There are certain things that I think should qualify a good film, and one of them is the ability to take you places and then leave you better off than you were at the start of it. I love this film for that fact.

The Curious Case of Brad Pitt
Seeing Brad Pitt in a film like this makes me think back to when I was a little 3rd grader. There was a book fair that used to come to school, and they would have tons of shitty unauthorized biographies on the heartthrob actors of the time. Brad Pitt was the subject of many. Years later, I saw Fight Club and all of a sudden I was a Brad Pitt fan. Then Snatch came about and I changed my mind a little, thinking that he was just going to keep playing the muscly hot guy in every movie. The turning point that got me on the fan side of Brad Pitt, The Actor, was in “The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford”. That is one of my favorite films, and one of my favorite performances by an actor, ever. Then he threw a curve ball with his great portrayal of an amazingly dumb fitness trainer in “Burn After Reading”. The dude can act, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” just exemplifies that fact.

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My “Burn After Reading” Review

September 12, 2008

If you liked No Country For Old Men, well, it doesn’t matter because “Burn After Reading” is a DIFFERENT film altogether.

“What the fuck!?” is what the tagline should be for this movie. John Malkovich’s character uses it extensively, and the audiences across the nation have probably said it too while watching this.

The story starts off simple enough: a CIA analyst gets demoted but doesn’t take it too well, and quits instead. He decides to start writing some memoirs that include details about his secret work with the CIA. His wife, in an attempt to get his financial records on a disc, accidentally copies his memoirs along with them. Her lawyer’s secretary drops her copy in Hardbody’s Gym and it lands in the hands of the awesomely, flaky, bleached-blonde-haired Chad Feldheimer played every little bit by Brad Pitt. He believes he has his hands on some classified intelligence “shit”. He believes he can get money for it by blackmailing the owner, Osbourne Cox played by Malkovich, and Chad’s co-worker wants in on the action so she can pay for her cosmetic surgery(s).

A tangled fucking web starts to get weaved including unfaithful wives and husbands, and one confused as hell CIA superior played perfectly by J.K. Simmons (most would know him as J. Jonah Jameson, or Juno’s daddy).

I was super-pumped to go see this movie. One reason being the Coens, and the other being Brad Pitt. I say Brad Pitt because the dude is fucking amazing in everything I’ve seen him in since Fight Club, not because I’m gay (I’d fuck him).

Brad Pitt definitely lived up to my expectations and beyond, as always with him. We are so used to seeing him being the cool guy, but then you get him as this who works in a gym and just does NOT have a clue and it is brilliant.

John Malkovich was pure madness and pushed the anger and drinking problems to just the right level, not too over the top.

Frances McDormand’s character was just as dumb as Pitt’s, and they were an amazing team. Watching her character’s actions was a treat. The whole time you are thinking to yourself, “Is she really doing/saying that?”

Tilda Swinton played an awesome bitch. Yeah, she was a bitch and it was perfect.

Let’s not forget Mr. George Clooney. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a role like this. With the combination of Brad Pitt AND George Clooney playing someone other than their cool guy characters, it was amazing. It was refreshing to not recognize Clooney as Clooney, and instead as this guy with some serious issues.

What amazes me most about this movie is the writing. This is one of the best stories, writing-wise, that I’ve ever seen. This is some hardcore and reverse-engineered “shit”. I say reverse-engineered because there’s no way the Coens’ could write this in a linear fashion. They had to have started at the end and wrote this backwards to follow it themselves. I give them HUGE credit for this.

Best comedy/thriller/spy-crime/drama/noir/”What the fuck!?” film of the year.

Burn After Reading

8 out of 10

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“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” Review

February 8, 2008

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4.5 out of 5

I have loved the Western movies that have been coming out recently. 3:10 to Yuma, There Will Be Blood, and now The Assassination of Jesse James. I saw a preview for this movie and it looked amazing. But then it never got released anywhere close to me. BUT I finally got it on Netflix.

The story is pretty straight forward with that title and all, or so I thought. The plot didn’t actually tighten up until 2/3rds of the way into the film, but it is two and half hours which works out. I was honestly felt lost on and off, but the main thing was the relationship between Jesse James and Robert Ford, and with that this succeeded. When you first meet Robert Ford he is very child like but wants to break out of that shell, and show that he is special and can be part of the James crew of bandits. You soon find out about his childhood and his fascination with Jesse James as a kid, and now he his walking with the legend he looked up to. But he starts to show signs of maybe being obsessed and taking that obsession to another level. Jesse James is introduced just as you would expect, a cold-hearted outlaw. You soon learn of some complications with his health and his overall state of mind. I almost feel like there’s nothing to spoil here but there is a lot more to see in this film then the title would suggest.

Brad Pitt is fucking perfect as Jesse James. He plays the different aspects of the character to perfection. He stirs a variety of emotions both individually, and sometimes within one scene. He is funny, scary, and emotional all to perfection. This is one of my favorite performances(along with Pitt as Tyler Durden). Casey Affleck as Robert Ford comes in very close competition to Pitt’s performance. Both James and Ford go through a transformation throughout the film, but Affleck’s is a much bigger transformation. He goes from an underdog trying to show his talent, to reliving his childhood obsession with James, to becoming someone he never intended to be. The title implies, no, straight out tells you that he is a coward but he wasn’t always a coward. His dreams became twisted with a harsh reality and obsession which turned against himself. Affleck shows some of the greatest emotion and delivery I have seen in a film.

There are other smaller roles in this film that are performed probably as best as they could be, but Pitt and Affleck are clearly the standouts. Even if you don’t get what is quite going on right away, it all clears up by the last third of the film and you will be satisfied by the end. Watch it if for Pitt and Affleck’s performances if for nothing else because it is well worth it.

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