I don't know why this took me so long to see. The cast alone is enough to make this a mind-blowing movie. Christian Slater in the best role I've veer seen him in, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Michael Rappaport, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, it just keeps going. This movie had so many great moments, literally every 10-15 minutes I would just be ecstatic about something or other. Some genuinely hilarious moments, beautifully written (obviously I think so, it's by Quentin Tarantino), and a fairly original take on a romantic genre. Great stuff.
9/10
Film#102 - The Insider, 1999, dir. Michael Mann
Extremely political and historically significant, this is really something I feel everyone should at least be aware of. It's such a courageous story that's actually true, it's inspiring to say the least. For anyone who has no idea, this is about Jeffrey Wigand, a former executive at a "Big Tobacco" company who goes to great lengths to expose the industry for what it is. He changed the face of cigarettes and took great risks to do so. Russell Crowe and Al Pacino are quite the pair here, and Pacino arguably gives one of his best performances. He's just very well suited for his role as Lowell Bergman, a producer of 60 Minutes on CBS. A bit lengthy but never what I would consider a dull moment.
9/10
Film#103 - Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother), 1999, dir. Pedro Almodovar
I was more or less forced to watch this. In a certain class of mine we had to pick a film from a list and do a presentation on it; I got last pick. I appreciate what this film is trying to do, with it's allegory to the global positioning of Spain, and the way it breaks down ideology with it's discussion of gender and sexuality, but really it's just an 'okay' movie. It's well acted, sure, but it also doesn't seem to know what it's doing. The first section, especially the opening credits, are just unlike the rest of the film. It goes all over the place and ignores a lot of thing I felt needed further development. It was good, not great.
7/10
Film#104 - Muriel's Wedding, 1994, dir. P.J. Hogan
Another middle of the road film. Toni Collette is great, just so awkward and honest, but the plot is nothing special. A Girl who wants to be married, an ugly-duckling, trying to find herself. Set in Australia, it gives it a bit of originality just by the way these people talk, playing on Australian culture that I feel gives it a uniqueness to me, but as a representation of Australia it may be poking too much fun at it. It's charm very well may be in it's foreign yet familiar feel. Some pretty cheesy lines here and there, and much of the family is made up of characters whose emotions and desires are in a way unrealistic and nonsensical. Still, it was fun to watch, so it made up for some of it's faults.
7/10
Film#105 - The Ugly Truth, 2009, dir. Robert Luketic
Horrendous. I honestly thought this could be okay. It was a train wreck. Katherine Heigl and Gerald Butler are just the worst actors. The premise, well, it's absurd, and the way these characters become friends and ultimately fall in love (I'd say it spoils it but it's clear from the first 10 minutes of the movie) is just so unrealistic. At first they are at each other's throats, and then just so quickly they are best buds. There were too many moments where I literally wanted to scream at the screen. It was terrible. There were, however, a few good laughs, but mostly at how bad this movie was. There are so many ridiculous scenarios that have obvious fixes but of course the movie plays them up hoping for laughs. I would sincerely look down on someone who loves this movie. There is so much dialogue about gender roles that any morals it might have had have been so forced down your throat that they've completely lost their value. That's not to say there was ever any real value to it in the first place. Do not see this. Ever.
3/10
