[No links because it’s not out yet.]

Everyone loves this movie. I think the critical praise of The Wrestler is rivaled only by the love for Slumdog Millionaire. And in a lot of ways these two movies are very much the same for me.

The Wrestler tells the tale of Robin “Randy the Ram” Robinson. He’s a former superstar wrestler that’s now on the outs and on his last legs. He goes through life wrestling on the most minor of circuits, trying to make ends meet. He has trials and tribulations of all kinds.

I thought Mickey Rourke is excellent in this movie. It really is the perfect comeback vehicle for him. He is so true in this role. It really his story just placed in the context of professional wrestling. Marisa Tomei is also excellent in this movie. She’s so hot too. But that’s neither here nor there.

My problems with this movie, and with Slumdog Millionaire, is that it’s not very original. There are so many cliche things: scenes, dialogue, etc. Do the performances earn the emotions so blatantly being courted in these cliches? Yes, but that doesn’t mean the cliches didn’t take me out of the movie a little. If this wasn’t an indie movie by Darren Aronofsky, I don’t think it’d get as much praise. It’s the same as Slumdog Millionaire, if that wasn’t a FOREIGN indie flick, I doubt people would love it as much. I know there are many cliches that appear in movies, all movies, and that’s that, but they really took me out of the movie. I don’t want to list all the cliches out because that’s just too much work.

I still think people should watch this movie. There really is a lot of good. And I liked it a lot. Just I think people are glossing over some of the problems with movie in the midst of the lovefest.

[I know these reviews are terrible. I want to do a little bit long form essay, but if I did that per movie, I’d never publish anything.]

[Blu-ray | DVD | Video on Demand]

[Short review of this, might do more detailed one later.]

Mongol tells the tale of the rise of Genghis Khan. I thought this movie was excellent and made me want to watch the following installments (Mongol is the first of a planned trilogy chronicling the life of Genghis Khan).

The performances were all excellent. I thought a lot was portrayed with very little dialogue. The cinematography was gorgeous, even if the picture quality was mixed throughout. I had some problems with some of the time jumps. The movie did a decent job of establishing how the future Genghis got followers on a basic level, but jumps from him having 2-3 followers to a few years/months later having a whole army. I think no matter how fair a leader is, it takes a bit more to convince that many to follow him. I just wish it had shown more of that process.

Additionally, this movie, while telling the tale of Genghis’s childhood and rise to adulthood and khan, it definitely felt like the first part of a series. I think the movie stands on its own as a movie, but given the time cuts mentioned above, it just felt like it was lacking something. Knowing it’s part of a series explains that. I definitely want to see the next two movies.

A biopic about the first master to teach Wing Chun kung fu openly. His most famous student, at least here, is Bruce Lee. Don’t know if I can really review this movie as it was subtitled, but I don’t think the subs were the official subs. That said, Donnie Yen was amazing in this movie. Beyond the martial arts, he was excellent, showing great subtlety of emotion.

The movie itself was mixed to me. There were a few timeshifts that were explained with the use of title cards or whatever the technical term is for them. However, even beyond that, it really seemed like this was two separate stories connected by a few strings, including the main character. As a result, there were many subplots that seemed shortchanged/shoe horned into the movie. This really took away from the movie, even though many of these subplots really could’ve added to the movie.

I think it would almost go without saying that the fight choreography is just beautiful. From the first fight to the last, just gorgeous to behold. If you are a fight film fan, this movie will not disappoint. Even the 10 on 1 scene is amazing. This is what multi-participant fights should look like. Not the computer generated crap like you saw in things like the matrix.

The audience for this movie is specific, but if you are in that audience, you will not be disappointed.

I’ve not read a single good review of this movie. Just one comment on Twitter that it was okay. Other than that it was universally panned. You know what? Not so bad. Was it heavy-handed? Yes. Was it obvious what was going to happen about 2 minutes in? Yes. Will Smith’s performance was a little uneven, but I think there were a lot of commendable bits.

Will Smith is a man looking for people to help in a quest for redemption. He observes the individuals to make sure they are good people. He helps them in various ways once deciding they are worthy.

I think the movie rightly focused on the Will Smith/Rosario Dawson relationship, but I think the Will Smith/Woody Harrelson relationship got too much screen time, at the expense of other more worthy relationships, like the one between Will Smith and Michael Ely (in the role of Will’s brother) and the one between Will and Barry Pepper (Will’s character’s best childhood friend). Actually, if you ask me, cut out Woody altogether and just add these other two relationships.

The movie’s central relationship between Will and Rosario worked to a degree. I think Will had more chemistry with Rosario than many of the other female leads in his other movies. I thought Rosario did a great job, as usual.

For what it’s worth, I REALLY hated the last scene. It was just ridiculous bad and obvious. The only way it could’ve been worse if there was some party of all the people Will Smith helped.

All that said, I can’t say I’d tell anyone not to see Seven Pounds. It’s kind of an obvious movie, but that doesn’t make it necessarily bad.

[Blu-ray]

This movie is action packed. Everyone says it’s what happens to Jack Bauer of 24 in 10 years or so and that is dead on. Liam Neeson plays a former CIA operative who gave up the life to try to create, or re-create, a relationship with his daughter.

Maggie Grace plays Neeson’s daughter who is kidnapped by gangsters as part of human trafficking ring. Neeson goes to get her back. Liam Neeson simply lays waste to everyone in his way. This movie isn’t particularly innovative, but it is action packed. In fact it’s pretty cliched, but it’s good in the way 24 was good early on.

This is a great role for Neeson. In fact, I think it’s the kind of role that I think Jason Statham will/should play in a few years. I realize this isn’t much of a review (neither was my last one), but this isn’t much of a movie other than a taut action thriller. If you’re into action movies, watch this flick.

[Blu-Ray | DVD | Video on Demand]

This movie had no point. As far as I can tell it had no plot. I felt the performances were shallow because the characters were shallow. I almost feel bad putting affiliate links up in case people actually buy this movie. On IMDB someone compared it to “Closer” and I understand the sentiment, but no, this movie was terrible. It has four great actors in the lead roles, but they are absolutely wasted.

Okay, so let me start by saying I don’t have a system for reviewing movies. I mean to say I don’t have a rating system. I guess I could just use the 5-star Netflix. Or a 10 scale system. Or thumbs up/thumbs down. But no, I think I’ll just write what I thought about the movie. So here we go… (I should note, I don’t do “after the jump” on this blog and I’m not posting huge bolded “spoiler warnings” prior to parts of the review that “spoil” things.) I made an Amazon affiliate account, so clicky click and help me out.

The Visitor [Blu-ray | DVD| Video On Demand]

I really enjoyed “The Visitor.” The plot is pretty straightforward. A lonely widower going through the motions of life happens across of illegal immigrants squatting in his New York apartment. He makes a connection with one of them (Tarek) via music, and his life is changed.

Richard Jenkins is a veteran character actor seen in many movies. He played the lead role of Walter Vale. I thought his work here was excellent, save one point. Vale’s transformation from the uptight, lonely guy to more than competent drummer seemed a little too seamless. You could argue that he was a natural drummer, had drumming in his heart, and all of that, but that doesn’t just fly for me. The growing friendship between Vale and Tarek is played out through small scenes of their time together. And by the time Tarek is deported, you can see Vale’s anger and confusion.

Haaz Sleiman as Tarek was excellent as well. His sunny disposition and joy about his music was refreshing. Tarek’s change while in the detention center was something to behold. You could see on Sleiman’s face how much being locked up was wearing on Tarek, how it was changing him. It was sad to see.

The performances by the female leads, Danai Jekesai Gurira (as Tarek’s girlfriend Zainab) and Hiam Abbass (as Tarek’s mother Mouna Khalil), were very strong as well. I thought Gurira did as much as she could with a fairly small role. I think any guy (and girl) could relate to the relationship between Zainab and Tarek. In what was given very small amounts of screen time, you saw a lot of their relationship and it was something I’m sure everyone can relate to.

Abbass as Mouna was excellent as well. She had the quiet strength of a woman who had a hard life. I didn’t quite buy the burgeoning relationship between Mouna and Vale, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities.

The performances made this movie. I think it made the most of its run time. I can’t figure out if this movie needed another 10 minutes or so. Looking back on it, the movie was more of a photo album. You saw the progression of the relationships through specific moments in time, without the bits in between. I don’t know, for this movie at least, showing those in between bits would add to the movie. Usually I think it’s better to show the progression of relationships rather than flashpoints that show the end results. Here I think it worked fairly well.

I would recommend this movie.