Real Steel

I admit it! I am a full-fledged cheesy-action-movie-junkie-whore, god dammit. And you know what? I own that. I own that with fucking pride, man. PRIDE, I say!

Now, what is "Real Steel" you ask? Well, it's a big mushy slushy of "Rocky", "Over the Top", "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" and a brilliant little Twilight Zone episode called "Steel" which, awesomely enough, was written by a personal fave author of mine, Richard Matheson, which is also the story that this film is inspired by. (Oh, the things you learn when you love movies and books at the same time.)

Some might be tempted to include Transformers, but I'm not down with that. Transformers are aliens from another planet, nay, galaxy and they have not to do with man-made ass-kicking machines. There's no galactic war here, no human slavery, no All Spark. Here there power cores, vintage models, underground robot boxing leagues and massive, MASSIVE amounts of robot HEART.

The film itself is SO reminiscent of both the Rocky films and "Over the Top" that I'm surprised they didn't cite them in the credits. I know the film is more of an homage, but it actually lifts entire sequences from both films. I swear the final fight between Hugh Jackman's little-robot-that-could, Atom and the big, bad, shiny black undefeated 'bot named Zeus (Zeus...that's not obvious or anything, *cough* Apollo Creed *cough*) is a complete reproduction of the Rocky Balboa VS Ivan Drago fight. Zeus even throws Atom into his own corner at one point and I sort of whisper yelled "Draaaaaaggggggggooooooo!" in the theater. Also, the montages of Jackman's Charlie and NOT-newcomer Dakota Goyo's Max on the road with Atom and working out by the truck on the side of the road is so right out of OTT it's not even funny. (Note, Goyo should be familiar to you if you watched Thor earlier this year. He played the young Thor in flashbacks to Chris Hemsworth's mighty god.)

For an effects heavy film the movie is beautifully shot, and I think this has to do both with the landscape we're able to see at times, juxtaposing this massive technology with wheat silos and acres upon acres of agriculture. Danny Elfman lent his talent for the film's score which adds a lot of depth to certain climactic scenes.

Goyo and Jackman have an insane chemistry together on screen. Jackman is playing somewhere in between his character in "Swordfish" and the smarmy Wolverine. It's comfortable for him, but he really shines in the dialogue scenes with Goyo. Kevin Durand and Anthony Mackie are great as supporting players, Durand a former foe of Jackman's when boxing was still man VS man and Mackie as a bookie/emcee who loves Charlie, but doesn't trust him as far as he can throw him. The other bright spot in terms of talent is the insanely beautiful Evangeline Lily as Charlie's landlord/love interest Bailey. She makes tough, smart bitch look SO awesome. I love you Ms. Lily.

The central heart line of the flick is the standard underdog story. Max's robot is a little guy, a sparring bot (ahem, ROCKY!), he's old, he's beat up, his joints need oil, but guess what? Homey can take a hit. And he can keep taking hits. All night long, and still get up and fight back. In a world of command prompts and voice-activated punch combinations, Atom is a real boxer. He's a fighter. Max realizes that Charlie's knowledge of the sport and his LOVE of the sport will help lead Atom to the top. So, they come up with an arrangement. Max is a great dancer and Charlie will only teach Atom to box if Max will dance going into the ring before every fight. (Atom has a baller "shadow feature" so therefore Max dancing in the ring = Atom dancing in the ring and it is every bit as amazeballs as it sounds.) Little by little they scrap and climb and finally they get the big dog, Zeus.

The subplot of the film has to do with Charlie giving up custody of Max in exchange for the summer and a buttload of cash, but I'm ignoring that because I don't enjoy the thought of him giving up Max at the end. *Tear*

The final fight is just plain awesome. Max and Charlie and Atom are in fine form, and the undefeated Zeus has finally met with something he can't adapt to. And why? Because Atom isn't just steel. He's steel and determination and he has the heart of a champion inside him. Naturally, Charlie gets his chance at championship redemption when the voice-recognition software gets futzed up and we have the required slo-mo crying scenes of everyone involved, but it just feels SO amazing to watch that little robot kick Zeus's face in. (The actual result of the fight is also pulled from "Rocky Balboa", it's not about the decision, it's about the fight itself.)

This is the kind of movie you go to...whenever. With friends, with family, with your kids. I went after a really bad day at work and it just brought me so much happiness. It's the kind of movie that makes you happy about life. It makes you feel better about everything. For that two hours, everything is right with the world. So, if you need a pick-me-up or you just want to have a great time at the movies, definitely check out this flick, because it's a knock-out.

Warrior

Sigh. Where oh where do I begin with this film? I suppose the most important thing to say to introduce this review is to point out that the trailer is a completely accurate representation of the movie, and while I thought it gave away too much of the plot, it turns out I was completely wrong.

One thinks, going into these sporting movies that it's all going to be the same note. Come on, you know...montages, incredibly cheesy familial reconciliations, nothing really cataclysmic going down, but Warrior? Warrior will knock you on your ASS if you have any experience whatsoever with any of its themes in your own personal life. Even if you haven't been through anything like it, or known anyone who's been through it, it's likely you will be incredibly moved.

The key to this movie is the dynamic between Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte, who play an estranged threesome of brothers and father. The exact moment that drove the family apart isn't exactly exposed, but the gist of it is easily found. Tom Hardy especially gives a massively powerful performance. Nearly every frame he's on screen is filled with a seething rage. It's like a disease or something that's totally taken over his body and his mind that causes him to be dedicated and hardworking yet incredibly spiteful and violent. Considering the crux of the film is a giant UFC fight, this works well with the tone of the film. Edgerton is the other side of the coin. His performance is full of regret and sorrow over the decisions he made as a teenage boy. He has a family to protect, he has responsibilities that he faces down, whereas Hardy has issues following through with his "duty". And man oh man does Nolte ever shine in this. He plays a recovering alcoholic attempting to forge SOME sort of bridge with is two sons who are at odds with each other. He's constantly listening to an audio book of Melville's "Moby Dick", and there is a singularly amazing scene when he's listening to it on headphones during the competition in his hotel room screaming "Why Ahab, WHY? Why didn't you just give up the WHALE?!" To say what also occurs during this scene would be giving too much away, but needless to say because of my own life experiences I was absolutely bawling my eyes out during the scene.

The three lead men play so well off of each other, it's almost as if it isn't a movie, but an actual theatre production. Nothing feels forced. Barely anything actually FEELS scripted. There's an authenticity there that just isn't really seen much. Authenticity and vulnerability. These big, tough men who all basically want to be loved and respected and they want their family back. All of them wanting the same thing but also fighting against it. All of them with broken hearts.

Hardy's character, Tommy is an "ex"-military man (a twist regarding this plot line that I did NOT see coming also brought a whole other level of drama to the film, and also of understanding on behalf of Tommy), and the only time you really see him smile the whole film is when he's talking to the widow of a good friend of his. The purse for the tournament is massive, and he tells her he's going to give all the money to her when he wins...this is his way of asking for absolution even though she loves him, and believes there is nothing to forgive.

I must say the "final fight" or ultimate climax of the film is pretty much one of the best 20 minutes of sport-related film I've ever seen. The close angles, the claustrophobia, the pain that you literally feel thrown at you at every turn of the camera is visceral and made my heart race the whole time. I wasn't really "rooting" for any one man. I merely wanted them to heal. They had both done bad things, both made mistakes, but they were the kind of mistakes one can't really apologize for. Life just happened...to them, around them. It chewed them up and spit them out and this fight is more about them sticking it to life than to one another. The truth is they just want each other back. Tommy doesn't want to carry his hatred around anymore. He wants to leave it in the ring and move on and he does just that.

...Love. When it comes right down to it, this movie is about love. And how no matter what, we always have to fight for it. It doesn't just come to us, or bless us. We have to fight to keep it with us. We have to fight for our love, for our families, for our lives. The final few frames are just incredible. I sobbed. I mean it. I physically sobbed in my empty theatre (and thank god for that because I was a hot mess). It was just...awe-inspiring. Needless to say this has been one of the best movies I've seen all year and I've highly recommended it to everyone I know who loves movies. It's not an easy movie to sit through by any means, but damn, is it ever worth every second of it.

...A thought, for the moment...

"I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice; I’m concerned about brotherhood; I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”

Martin Luther King Jr. on August 16, 1967, during his "Where Do We Go From Here?" speech in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tell me that statement--the REAL statement--is so vastly different from the "viral" quote going around. The allegedly misappropriated quote is merely a condensed version of this even LESS ambiguous statement on the concept that blood merely begets more blood.

I refuse to apologize for how I feel on this matter, and considering one "friend" has already called me a traitor and another took a very thinly veiled shot at me in front of a lot of people, I just needed to clear this shit up.

I am a very patriotic person. I LOVE THE CONSTITUTION. I LOVE my country and I know how lucky I am just to have been born here, so if you want to call me out, be my damned guest. Just know, that me thinking this way doesn't mean that I think you're wrong or awful if you disagree with me and feel something different. I merely respect the fact that you are entitled to your feelings where as apparently, you aren't doing me the same courtesy. So, as always, thanks for that.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Let me start by saying that I am one of those people who sees a Matthew McConaughey movie and pretty much sees/hears nothing but David Wooderson (BAHA!) from Dazed and Confused. "Party at the moon tower...hey, hey watch the leather, man!" Not to mention that I'm pretty sure he signs autographs by spelling his last name phonetically-Matt Mick-Con-Oh-HEY!-but, let me be straight up when I say this, I think The Lincoln Lawyer may be the best role I've seen him play. I really think he's had other good roles, such as U571, Contact, Amistad, A Time to Kill and in particular I love Reign of Fire (shut up!) and Sahara, but this one...this was just a very raw performance. Very gritty. I think he's aided by how the film is shot-shakey hand cams and close-ups on his very stressed out, watery, bloodshot and emotive eyes. In addition, since he plays a father there's something fiercely protective about how he comes across, especially in the latter half of the film when things start to unravel considerably.

Now, in a random twist of normalcy, I haven't actually read the source material for this movie. I kind of wanted to, but now that I've seen the film I think it might be a bit unnecessary. Not that I didn't get what the twist was based on the trailer, but there were some other things that happened that I wasn't exactly expecting, so if I read the book I'm sure I'll either be underwhelmed since I already know what happens or I'll be annoyed if the movie took too many liberties, and I like this movie too much to risk that ruckus.

McConaughey plays lawyer Michael "Mickey" Haller, a very experienced yet somewhat shady defense attorney who works from the backseat of a baller old school Lincoln Town Car. He has a daughter with his ex-wife, Maggie and she (naturally!) is an ADA. Cute. Maggie is played by the wonderful Marissa Tomei (who bears a striking resemblance to Amy Ryan in some of the film's scenes which was odd but kind of awesome). It's clear that they once loved and still love each other quite a lot, but despite it all, they're just never going to be able to agree and therefore a separation-with-benefits is probably the best thing for their daughter.

In the beginning of the film, Mickey picks up a big payday client from a delightfully nerdy John Leguizamo who is his go-to case man. He introduces him to Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) who immediately starts freaking out about being in jail and crying innocence. Mickey takes Roulet's case to the tune of $100,000 upfront and $550 per hour plus separate expenses for his investigator (nice!). There's a particularly awesome scene outside the county jail when Mickey swindles the Roulet family attorney out of a cool grand.

Of course though, things are not always as they seem, and as Mickey begins his research to prepare for his defense of Roulet he begins to uncover things that make him very wary of the man he's representing. The shift in the tone of the film is very subtle, yet very poignant. McConaughey goes from being easy breezy to taut and vicious and weathered in a matter of minutes. This added layer of grittiness is what really surprised me about the film. Even the way certain scenes are shot adds to the tension and you begin to feel really paranoid in the theater about how things might turn out.

For his part, Phillippe is out-freaking-standing. His performance definitely rivals that of Ed Norton in Primal Fear (the roles are similar). But, he slips from confused-scared-richy-business-kid to sociopath-smooth-criminal-bastard so easily it's frightening. The transition isn't slow either. He goes from prey to predator in one, excellently executed scene.

From there, the film really, really soars. I found myself feeling an almost physical need for Phillippe (and bonus points to Francis Fisher for playing his mother in a delectably freakish way) to have the book thrown at him, yet you knew Mickey couldn't do anything to fuck up the case because he himself could be sued and prosecuted and potentially disbarred.

Oh! And before I forget to mention it, Josh Lucas is also in this film (insert giggly laughter here for the two of them being in a movie together) and portrays the ADA facing off against Mickey during Roulet's case. Mickey runs legal circles around him, but in the end you know he'll get his man. In addition, Michael Pena cameos as a prisoner from one of Mickey's former cases (I won't explain his connection to the case at hand, because it's very predictable yet still plays incredibly well on screen. His transformation is a sight as well.)

Needless to say, there is a very clever, lawyerish ending to the film which also has an uplifting (if not bordering on cheesy) full-circle final scene that will leave you with a nice taste in your mouth and a very satisfied feeling.

It's April now, and while I'm not fully caught up on the movies I wanted to see due to a week-long parental unit visit, I have to say that this is the best movie I've seen all year. Rango is a close second, but this was just a fantastically executed film. The cast was superb, the writing very real and the pacing pretty much spot on. I didn't feel like the film dragged anywhere or wasted words or scenes, everything in it had a purpose, something it needed to achieve plot-wise yet it didn't feel forced or out of character.

We went to this movie really just to get out of the house for a couple hours and were very happily surprised at it's quality. Honestly, even if you're not a McConaughey fan, you need to see this, because he does a good job at getting you to reconsider your opinion. I enjoyed the hell out of it. If you liked Primal Fear or you just like legal movies and thrillers this is wholly worth your time.

Take Me Home Tonight

Let me start by saying that I had my doubts about this movie. I pretty much thought it would be a slightly-not-as-good-as-Superbad-yet-still-Superbad-in-the-80s romp, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely Superbad in the 80s, but the overall sentiment was different and I found the actors to be engaging and almost more fun to watch than it's "younger" predecessor.

The difference between the two is this: Superbad gets old. It does. I almost hate admitting that, but it's true. I remember seeing Superbad in a packed house filled with all manner of people and utterly laughing my ass off, but about a year later I was staying over at a hotel during a road trip and it was on HBO or whatever so Mike and I were all excited to see it again and you know what happened? We laughed about about 80% less than we had initially. One might say this is normal, that you know the jokes, that you see them coming and thus, shit isn't as funny, but that's simply bullhonkey. I to this day laugh at Ace Ventura and The Big Lebowski as much as I did the first day I saw them, so good comedy does stand the test of time. I'm not saying that as a segue to revealing that Take Me Home Tonight is a timeless comedic classic, but I think it's more timeless than Superbad ever had a chance to be.

There are a couple key conversations in the film that make it sort of resonate emotionally as well, one being a conversation between Grace and his love interest-Teresa Palmer-at a stereotypically 80s fortune-500 office party. Initially, Palmer starts out saying all the right things when Grace asks her if she enjoys her job, but at some point she just blurts out that she hates it and everything about it and it's awesome. It's liberating to hear her say it because you can actually see the relief surge through her once she does. Not only that, but it's nice to see someone admit that that financial world is a huge fallacy full of pointlessness. The idea of "the soulless pursuit of money" came to mind.

In addition, there's a nice moment between Grace and his father, played by Michael Biehn, that really sat well with me because it reminded me so much of my own station in life and some of the conversations I've had with my own mom. Not to mention it made me happy to know that it's usually hard for people to figure life out, and that maybe it never does get figured out, but the important thing is to know when to just go for it...just to prove to yourself that you can, failure or success not withstanding.

The kicker of this movie is Dan Fogler, who is the comedic heart of the film and thoroughly enjoyable to watch, laugh at and laugh with. Not to mention, he actually does what I'm sure all of us have dreamed of at some point. Get fired-very publicly-then break in to work, set off the alarm and steal the most badass car (the boss's car) on the lot. Since it's an 80s movie this act is of course followed by finding blow in the glovebox, but that just adds to the vibe of the film and is damn funny.

I didn't need to see this movie in a theater, but I enjoyed it and I would definitely say that it would make an excellent rental for a boring Friday night. You'll laugh, you'll feel a kinship to the movie and you'll get a straight into-the-veins-dose of one of the wackiest and most often themed party-d decades of all time.