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Tag: movie review

  • drive: not really a movie review

    This past weekend my husband and I went on an Actual Date to the movies, just the two of us. When deciding what to see, we went strictly by the description on my Flixster app, since neither of us get out enough to have heard anything about the current movies out. We chose to see Drive, with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. It seemed like it’d be a fun action flick, had an 8.4 rating on imdb.com, and over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sounds promising, right?

    The reason this isn’t really a movie review is because I don’t deny that it was very well made, and I’m sure many people will love it and even rave about it. (My brother, for instance, told me that he quite enjoyed it.) But it was NOT what we were expecting, and not something I’d ever like to see again. In fact, I wish I could un-see it. It was dark, depressing, eerie, and violent; the kind of violence that is personal and disturbing. There is a scene where one man shakes the hand of another man who had been his friend, and as he does so he slits his arm with a knife severing the artery. “That’s it, it’s over. There’s no pain,” he says to the dying man, as if it’s some kind of consolation. This murder was committed just because the man knew something incriminating.

    At this scene my stomach turned and I actually began to cry. There were several other similar scenes and it really got to me. My husband told me we could leave, but it was almost over so we stuck it out. It’s not that I can’t handle blood – I’m a nurse. And it’s not that I dislike dark or emotional movies. But I’ve always hated gratuitous violence, and now that I’m a mom it almost makes me sick. This movie did not leave us with any positive feelings or hope.

    Last week David and I attended the viewing of an 18-year-old girl, his boss’s granddaughter, who recently passed away from a brain tumor. That’s my baby, her father said to us. That night I dreamed that Meredith died, and I woke up sobbing uncontrollably. Even when I realized it was a dream, I couldn’t stop because I felt so much fear that something bad will happen to her and I don’t feel like I could survive that. I know it’s not possible or even ultimately best for her, but I want her life to be perfect. I’m hypersensitive to anything evil or bad in the world now, and I don’t need a movie to remind me of it.

    We should have just seen Dolphin Tale.

  • movie review: secretariat

    Warning: this review contains major spoilers. But if you think about it, since it’s a true story so does Wikipedia. And in my opinion, knowing how it ends only adds to the experience of watching the movie. You can just enjoy the ride.

    Last week I was able to see an advance screening of the Disney movie Secretariat that releases next month courtesy of BlogHer. The preview came on a day and week where the last thing I felt like doing was leaving my house, but I’m so glad I did.

    When I told my husband what we were going to see, he had no interest in it. “There are ten other movies I’d rather see than this one,” he said, but that was because he had never heard of it. Then he looked it up online and I heard him say, “Oh, Diane Lane is in it?” His tone of voice was considerably more optimistic. “She’s the hottest older woman I’ve ever seen.”

    The movie, of course, is about the famous racehorse Secretariat who won the Triple Crown (i.e. the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes) in 1973 and who is still widely considered to be the best of all time. For most people, what’s so great about this movie is that there is no anxiety about what is going to happen. Unfortunately for me, there was a LOT of anxiety considering I’m not what you would call a follower of horse racing and was confusing the story of Secretariat with the more recent tragedy of Barbaro, who won the Derby but broke his leg at the start of the Preakness and died as a result. The whole movie I was dreading Secretariat’s tragic death, thinking I just might sink into despair. But rest assured! I did tear up several times during the show, but it was all out of happiness.

    Diane Lane plays the owner of Secretariat, Penny Chenery. As they arrive at the Kentucky Derby the trainer, played by John Malkovich, says to her something like, “I’ll handle the race, and you handle the reporters. This is as much a story about you as it is about the horse.” That line could be a summary of the movie. As an animal lover I of course fell in love with Big Red (as he was familiarly called–who knew the crazy names horses have were just for show? Not me.), but the best part was that he wasn’t owned by some jerk millionaire. Penny Chenery was a housewife who was literally betting her deceased parents’ farm because she believed in the horse that much.

    I’m sure the writers probably took some liberties with the true story, but I don’t really want to know what they are. I loved this movie, so did my husband, and apparently so did the rest of the audience because they spontaneously erupted into applause several times and I clapped right along with them. It’s simply happy, and that is something I desperately needed. Because of the moment of joy it gave me during a tough time in my life, it will always hold a special place for me, and I already have plans to take my family to see it when it comes out for public release.

    ***

    All images courtesy of IGN Movies.

    Disclaimer: I was provided with the opportunity to see this movie free of charge. However, I did end up spending my own money on popcorn and Coke, so there’s that. Also, I was not asked to blog about it and the opinions in this review are completely my own.

  • atonement, the movie

    I recently told you a little about the book we read for our book club, Atonement. Since it is Now a Major Motion Picture! we decided to go see it as a group. It took us a really long time to figure out when all five of us could make it together, but we finally settled on last night at seven.

    Well, Leah ended up not being able to come. Amanda was late because she had to pick up Cleo from the groomers. Courtney, Sara, and I walked in right before the actual movie began because with rain and traffic it took us quite awhile to get there. So a bit of a rough start, but I was really looking forward to the movie and was set on enjoying it.

    I was sitting next to Sara, and I noticed that she was breathing a little noisily but I figured it was just her congestion because she’s been sick. But then it became louder, so I glanced over and saw that she was completely asleep and snoring. Not too long after that Courtney got sick to her stomach and left to spend a good while in the bathroom. I noticed that Amanda was focused more on her phone than the movie. I think I’m the only one who enjoyed the movie in its entirety, although to be fair Courtney was really into the movie and couldn’t help that she got sick.

    As for the movie itself, I liked it even though I thought it was a much better book. The music was especially cool. The girl who played Briony was really creepy looking. And that’s about the extent of my review. Apparently it won the Golden Globe for best motion picture, drama. Out of the other nominees, I have only seen No Country For Old Men, which I think I liked better than Atonement. But anyway, there you have it.