Reviews by kgbelliveau

Sam Cahill (Maguire) must go to war just as his younger brother Tommy (Gyllenhaal) is released from prison. Their father (Shepard) holds Sam in the highest of regards while at the same time he looks at Tommy as a disgrace to the family. After news is broken that Sam has died in Afghanistan Tommy takes it upon himself to try and be the watchful protector of Sam’s wife Grace (Portman) and their two young daughters. All that changes when Sam returns home alive and well, because he had been held prisoner for months on end and was subjected to brutal torture. Sam is moody, irrational and hell bent on believing that his brother has taken over his spot as head of the family.

After Sam returns from war he frightens his young children, his moods are different, he is easily agitated and not as kind and big hearted as he was before. Sam kept his secrets from Afghanistan hidden from his family, he wanted to resume his normal life, get back to the way things used to be, but he was trapped deep inside his own mind, where he was forced to live with what had happened and he just wasn’t ready to face that burden. Jake and Tobey have always been compared as far as looks are concerned, both were in the mix with Spiderman and now here we are and they are playing Brothers in a war film. Their chemistry is great and their relationship goes up and down, and they actually begin to switch roles when you think about it. Tommy starts out rough and disconnected, Sam loving and nurturing to his young girls, and in the end it is Uncle Tommy that Sam's two daughters want around.

When you dig deeper into Brothers it becomes evidently clear there should have been more scenes where the main characters were not afraid to explode emotionally on one another. Tommy with his father, Tommy and Grace, Sam’s daughters with Tommy, they played the sympathetic brother card and how he became like a father to them, but I was hoping they would realize at some point that they should want their father back, nothing against uncle Tommy don’t get me wrong he was a valuable character to the final outcome but those children at some point would have missed their father and not been able to just replace him whole heartedly with his brother. When you think about the quick transformation Tommy had, you wonder why he couldn’t have just been like that since day one, it is difficult to buy into that he changed on a whim just like that because he needed to step up. Naturally when he begins to spend more time with Grace he begins to fall for her, but nothing ever happens except a kiss but Sam believes there is more to it than that.

I did enjoy the tension that builds in brothers; you can feel it from the very first scene down to the final scene where Sam tells Grace what happened during the war all though the audience already knows because he saw what he did. I did like Tobey as Sam changed, not necessarily pre-war Tobey, he reminded me of a grown up army man Peter Parker, but when he returned home, Tobey got to show his emotional range as an actor, happy to be home yet part of his wishes he would have never come home. It must be a terrible feeling to feel disconnected from your family but still wanting to be close with them because they are the one thing holding you back from completely losing your mind. Brothers reminds me of a kid at the beach when the water is cold, testing it first, getting used to the cold, or never actually just enjoying the beach always just dipping their toes in the water. Brothers never dives when it should have, it quietly and effortlessly dips its toes in the icy cold waters only to retract right away. It never adds wood to the already burning fire to keep it going so to speak. It almost seems like having these characters have a showdown which results in permanent change would be way to difficult, it almost seems that at times Brothers is afraid to tell us exactly the damage that can be done by war. Jim Sheridan you had in the palm of your hand the chance to deliver a deep and meaningful message of how this war not only affects those fighting in it but can change their lives completely and Sheridan you had the chance to show us how messed up these people can become when they go through war, but you chose to calm the intensity down when you had it boiling and you had the audience cringing with chills. The ending is completely wrong for this film and that is sad because the middle parts of this film were shaping this film for some thrilling climax and that just never happens. The actors did a fine job with the script they were given, but these war films need to step it up a notch and deliver their messages loud and clear and stop dancing around what they think we have already seen and heard about.

Hannibal Lecter: People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life.

10 years have passed and Dr. Lecter is living under a disguise in Florence, Italy as an art scholar. Back in his home country of America agent Clarice Starling(Moore) is the center of a botched drug raid which resulted in one of the drug dealers being shot with a baby in her arms. Mason Verger (Oldman) who was the only one of Lecter’s victims to survive uses Clarice’s latest mishap as a way of getting her reassigned to the Lecter case, in hopes that this will draw Lecter out of hiding and he get exact revenge on Lecter for what happened to him.

When you think about classic movie villains you instantly think of Dr. Hannibal Lecter and his menacing appearance, you think about the riveting portrayal of Anthony Hopkins the way he sounds, the eeriness of his voice, the insanity that is 100 percent visible in his eyes. This is what you get after you watch Silence of the Lambs. Now when you think about Hannibal, you think it has his name all over it how can it be a bad film? When you think about what Silence of the Lambs did so well you can instantly see why Hannibal does not compare. Silence of the Lambs was perhaps the first truly mind numbing scary movie I have ever seen in my life, when I watched it for the first time people had to tell numerous times it was just the events of a film, I was young and I bought into that still. Now as I grow older, it becomes so real, there are people like Lecter in this world, and Anthony Hopkins just seems so poised and so ready to try and torture your mind. Silence of the Lambs was so brutal in showing us the harsh realities of Hannibal Lecter, the way he manically destroys and tortures his victims, whereas in Hannibal you could almost see how he existed normally not that he was deranged beyond belief. The timeline of 10 years is rather long if you want my opinion, a killer of this nature would not have been off the map for this long. Did they stop searching for him? What happened? Why did it take 10 years before they heard anything about him again?

The recasting of Clarice completely turned me off, Moore’s accent did nothing for me, and she seemed rather dull and flat but I didn’t expect her to match intensity with Hopkins the way Foster did in Silence of the Lambs. However Mason Verger was an interesting character, bed ridden due to injuries suffered at the hands of Lecter but not completely innocent in this whole story. Lecter was originally assigned to be Verger’s therapist because of his child molestation conviction, so the film never allows Verger to become the innocent victim. Perhaps taking Verger and making him an innocent victim of fate and circumstance would have been a much better story, how Lecter corrupted him to only want revenge, to seek torturous justice and to make Lecter feel pain as he felt it would have been a better story. But when you realize that two criminals are going to showdown you know which one is going to win, hell his name is plastered as the title of the movie.

What I disliked most however was how Lecter was always where he shouldn’t have been too long. Let me explain, he would stay at the scene of his crimes just until the cops showed up, then like the wind he was magically gone leaving Clarice and the other FBI agents wondering how he could have possibly managed an escape. Where in Silence of the lambs Lecter used disguises and pure brute force in this film he simply uses the art of timing, but there is no way we could get the timing just right every time.

Hannibal is not the sequel fans were hoping for, the 10 year gap in storyline could be to blame, perhaps it was just too difficult to duplicate the darkness of the first one, perhaps it was the change in director and the main female lead, perhaps it was a small combination of all of these things leading to what one can only describe a mediocre sequel. In the end though I think this film fails because of its inability to mess with your mind like Silence of the Lambs did; which is due in large part this film squarely focuses on Lecter as its big picture and forgets about all the tiny little background images that help make it a complete image.

Tracy: What you can't do, is save everyone.

After the remains of Detective Kerry are found FBI agents Strahm and Perez are called into help veteran Detective Hoffman. But then SWAT commander Riggs goes missing and he becomes the latest officer to become a part of the Jigsaw madness. Riggs must play a game in order to save the lives of one of his best friend, Jigsaw playing on how Riggs will stop at nothing until he feels that everyone is safe.

This is far better then Saw 3 and could still use just a tad more improving to reach the level of the original. All though what Saw 4 did was take us back to the roots of John Kramer, how he became ruthless and deadly. John had more than one reason for doing what he did, and he took it to a whole new level because of one thing that happened while he was with his wife Jill Tuck. I liked it better when Jigsaw John Kramer was just a man with Terminal Cancer looking to teach people what they still had. Now they have Jigsaw painted as the man who had it all and lost it all in a short period of time. The revealing of past events will always happen as sequels progress, but adding too much substance to your character or revealing new info too late in the game can turn people off.

However being that it has been over a year since I last watched a Saw film I am willing to treat this as the first piece to a new beginning to the Saw Series and if I see it that way I can appreciate this film. I liked the first one, original full of tension basically the first purely original horror film in years, the second followed closely behind and I was perhaps looking to the third to close the series, and then when it was the worst of the ones I have seen thus far I really figured there was nowhere else they could possibly go and the legend that was Jigsaw had finally overstayed its welcome. I like the actors that have been attached to these films. Tobin Bell, Danny Glover, Donnie Wahlberg , Shawnee Smith; They have all played major parts and have all done well, but this will perhaps go down as another horror franchise that could not figure out when enough was enough.

Many people tend to only see the Saw films as Gore and more Gore, but they truly do have a message hidden deep down within the hideous traps that Jigsaw sets, that message is that we are in control of our destiny, and if we love what are given and appreciate what we have even if it is not the greatest then we can be happy in life. Jigsaw wants to teach people a serious lesson and he does that, but many people are more fascinated with what gadget he will use next or how these people continue to play his game then they are with the point behind his games. When the producers began to notice this Pattern they perhaps should have perhaps toned down the Gore and focused more on the reason, but this film itself has a random unnecessary scene where a random crime Scene Investigator gets shot with a rod to the head. She was not involved in the game, just a victim of circumstance and a chance for people to see another death.

I appreciate what Saw has done for the Horror genre and what the actors involved have done to prove that acting in Horrors does not in fact have to be atrociously bad. Saw has fallen victim to some of the classic horror clichés like having the main character die only to return in some improbable way or just having it continue after he/she has died. In the end this is just a horror film, that tries to mess with my mind but couldn’t. Come horror genre find a film that can change the way I see the world and mess with my mind for life, I will be waiting.

Remy (Law) and Jake (Whitaker) are two best friends who have grown up together and now they work together. Remy and Jake work for a company known as “The Union” who sells mechanical organs to those in need at a hefty price. The only thing they fail to mention during their passionate speech about prolonging your life is that if you fail to pay Remy and Jake will come and extract that organ from your body. All is fun until Remy suffers cardiac failure on the job and when he wakes up he realizes that the company has given him one of their top of the line hearts. The incident affected Remy in more than one way, because he gets cold feet as he returns to the job.

Perhaps you can and will chalk this film up to one of those predictable action movies, or perhaps you will see this as a basic plot structure for an original film. I am here to say that it is both of those. The plotline was interesting, the whole repossession of organs made of metal was a good idea, the whole speech from Frank and the Union about prolonging your health was the same speech we get in today’s world when a loved one needs surgery. One complete rip-off I noticed though early on, and many people may not see this like I do, but when Remy was listening to opera music while slicing someone open I right away drawing comparison to Paul Smecker played by Willem Dafoe, perhaps that was the wrong thing to do, but the music and the atmosphere reminded me heavily of the scene in The Boondock Saints where Smecker danced in the street early on.

A futuristic looking world, where there are trains in the sky, holographic logos everywhere, ears that could be used as headphone jacks and what kind of car does Remy drive. He drives a muddy Volkswagen SUV that is just like the cars on the road today. Note to the wise director, if you want to go all out go all out, go beyond what we already know, create your own world that draws parallels with issues of our own society. Perhaps though the biggest let down of all was when Remy and his new found walking Metal Organ companion entered a decimated area, only for the director to show them walking ahead in the distance with this massive sign that read “Paradise” why is that directors try and do that, it is because they want us to notice how corny and ineffective little things like this are towards progressing the plot. Is it simply because they just hope we notice and make a comment on how interesting and ironic it was? I am not quite exactly sure why directors feel the need to add those things into their films.

Maybe just maybe you want to love the in your face, epic Jude Law fight scenes, or maybe just maybe you went to see this film because Forest Whitaker was attached to it. Either way those are two things that can leave at least a tiny bit satisfied. Whitaker played the loyal friend, who was trying not to have to go out and repo his best friend, all though there is one scene in particular where Remy blows this whole idea to oblivion, and we are left with another loyal friendship shattered and broken. We learn that Jake is the one who initially caused Remy’s accident. Why is it not possible for filmmakers to see that friendship is where people’s loyalties are. If this guy is supposedly your best friend for life, then why compromise him? Why make it so he will hate you and feel alienated against the world. Is there any logic to these filmmakers constantly having these characters wreck the one thing that gives them stability in their lives? Why aren’t these films capable of having two friends, who fight back to back to save each other because they have been friends since they were kids? Why must there always be the female who understands his pain, who can sympathise or perhaps she has it worse than our main lead and he is the one that feels he is obligated to save her and give her the life she deserves. Why does our leading man always put his trust into this females he just met, perhaps she has a hidden agenda, you know nothing about her, how do you know you love her and that she is your soul mate.

Three months is all you have in the world of repos and once those three months are up you need to make a payment in 48 hours or your life is over basically. Three long agonizing months you have to go out and try and get some money, and we all knew right away the Repo system and the “Union” aren’t a company willing to deal with those who have no money in their back account and who aren’t able to keep a stable job. “The Union” would not give a heart to people who will go seeking a new job once they heal. So the biggest flaw of all when you think about the world of Repo men is how can you possibly pay for a 600k liver or a 950k heart when you don’t even make that much money in a year. Borrow from the bank perhaps, take out a line of credit to pay a heart, is the “Union” really going to want to deal with a person who doesn’t make 100k in a year. Also another big flaw is that if you just had open heart surgery and now this metal ticker is keeping you alive, will you even be back working in three months? Money is the route of all evil, this is the moral of this film. During the film they talk about these chips that can be implanted into your brain where you live in a comatose state and you imagine everything is happy and you never have to be sad again. What real message is this sending kids? The more money you make the happier you will feel with your life. All though no kid under 18 should be viewing this movie anyway, we all know they can and will with online capabilities, and what are the three things this film will teach them. 1. When you find yourself in times of trouble, there will always be an understanding female waiting, and you will fall in love, don’t second guess this. 2. Your best friend in the whole world who you have known since you were 9 or 10 years old does not have your best interest at heart and finally 3. When mechanical organs are available for sale at an outlet in the mall you must make sure you have more money, and having this money can get you happiness. But ultimately remember people if you cannot find the cash you have 90 days to enjoy yourself.

An imperfect film that when you begin to think about you realize there are so many issues. Even once you process these issues you just cannot hate this film

A Ghost Writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to help former British Prime Minister Adam Lang(Pierce Brosnan) finish his memoirs. The Ghost begins to realize that there is more to the story then what he originally is aware of. Adam Lang is accused of giving up suspected terrorists to the US so that they could be tortured. The Ghost also uncovers that there may be a few facts in Lang’s memoirs that may have not happened exactly the way he says it does. As the Ghost learns the secrets of Adam Lang he begins to see that his predecessor may not have committed suicide at all.

I had really high expectations from this film going in, these films are the ones that I usually really enjoy watching because of how in depth they go with the plot and how well the actors portray their characters. This film met all my expectations and even went further by adding the simplistic feel to the tense scenes. What was really enjoyable about this film was that as soon as you thought the film was going to go the route of action it quickly slowed itself down and went back to the pace which it set from the beginning. I appreciate that Roman Polanski dialled this film down from possibly being a film that tried to answer to many questions to a film that was engaging and character driven.

Perhaps the best part of the film came when a 94 year old Eli Wallach made a small but pivotal appearance in this film. Such a small but chilling performance and at 94 years old that is something. All these tiny characters like the part that Wallach played helped answer the questions of the Ghost. All though we knew there was more to it then what people were willing to tell the Ghost we still wanted to see how it played out and see all these interactions between the Ghost and those who hold the answers he is looking for.

The Character of Adam Lang draws many comparisons to real life former British PM Tony Blair. In the film Adam Lang had many affiliations with the American Government and basically did what they told him making him a puppet on a string. The title of the book “My Life” is the same as Bill Clintons in real life, and the book in the film which heavily criticizing some politicians draws many comparisons as well to the book that was published by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In the end Polanski is simply trying to say that all Politicians have skeletons in their closets, and they will go to any lengths to keep these secrets from reaching the news channels and blowing their reputation sky high. Lang being the puppet on the string was brilliantly noted in a scene where he is being scrutinized on national television and his workers think that making a statement would be the best idea, and they toss around ideas and ultimately Ruth looks at the Ghost Writer and says “Why doesn’t he do it, he is the writer” which means that over the years when Lang had to make these tough calls he never made them based on what he wanted to say.

The War crimes allegations were not the focal point of this film, they were the initial reason as to why the Ghost Writer thought Lang might have something to hide, but it is only once he begins to dig into the past of Adam Lang he begins to realize that the timeline of events that Lang said took place cannot in fact be what truly happened.

Easily one of the best films I have seen for far in 2010, because it keeps you engaged in the story as the secrets and the layers of hidden agendas begin to peel back and become exposed. The tension is in the story, how a cover-up can affect so many and how far people are willing to go to keep themselves covered up from the ugliness of a scandal that rips through the headlines. A film that relies on its actors to play simple parts, to appear as fake individuals while we know that is exactly what they are trying to do. This film is a film that relies on its message, its story and its characters to help us realize exactly what it is trying to say. Out of the 128 min runtime it builds itself up for about 120 and then finally reveals exactly what we have wanted to hear the whole time. I would say skip this film to most people, but to those of you who like a build up with no shocking edge of your seat action then this film is perfect for you. One of those films that says what needs to be said with no fluffy white happy resolution. This could easily make a top 10 films of the year list. Top notch effort from everyone involved.

Chris Pratt: Once upon a time, I woke up. I took a shower with soap.

Chris Pratt was an up and coming hockey star, until one night he got into an accident that changed everything. Chris was left with short term memory loss. Chris still wanting to maintain a normal life, takes a job working as a night janitor at a bank, which leads to his involvement in a well planned heist.

Starts off really strong, the first scene is intense. Right from the beginning Scott Frank sets the mood, this isn’t going to be a light hearted film where everything plays out according to plan. Chris was driving recklessly and anyone could see that, and the accident that he was a part of changed not only his life but those who were with him. Chris cannot change that and has to live with losing not only his memory but two of his best friends during the accident.

Then we see how Chris has started to move on, he is starting to write again, do basic training exercises so that he can remember his day. We see that Chris still has ambitions, that he is determined to make it somewhere. Chris wants to be a teller at the bank. All though through all of this we still see that Chris cannot talk to his girlfriend at the time of the accident Kelly. All though he has come a long way it is still difficult for the two to talk about what happened and how it forever changed their lives.

In Comes Gary Spargo, a man who knows all too much about Chris's injuries and how it is affecting and Gary takes advantage of that, by pretending he can offer Chris something even his own parents are reluctant to give him and that is money. With the promise of Money, power and happiness Chris decides to help out Gary with a little help from Luvlee who we learn is just playing Chris.

Chris realizes too late what he has done, he cannot go back now, and must face the consequences head on.

Not at all a fast paced film, just well paced. It didn’t need to get ahead of itself; therefore it took the plot slow. Chris needed to be shown struggling before we could ever believe that he would help out Spargo and his buddies. We needed to see how Chris's parents treated him after the accident. This film didn’t dive right into the heist part of it, it allowed for a smooth transition from simple man to confused man. Chris began to struggle with his thoughts and his decisions, questioning what was right and what was wrong before he ultimately came to realize what he was doing.

Gary Spargo: My old man used to say to me, probably the only thing we ever really agreed on, was that whoever has the money has the power. You might wanna jot that down in your book. It's something you're gonna need to remember.

Easily an entertaining film, not the best of the best, but I wasn’t hoping for that. I wanted a well developed, well planned out film and I got just that. I easily got into Chris's recovery, hoped the best for him and mini spoiler I was sad when Ted the cop died. I was hoping he wouldn’t have died. But all these little things brought realism to the film, and that is really all anyone could want. Easily a film that relies on its lead Joseph Gordon-Levitt for the painful scenes, and he is amazing. I learned that he trained and hung out and attended real classes for those with short term memory loss. Joseph also let the role consume him; he could little sleep and work out allowing him to grow weary and tired. That is dedication. Joseph stated that before filming wrapped up he had been working on the character of Chris Pratt for 11 months. A film like this would probably take 3 or 4 months at tops to film. Joseph cared enough about the performance to go and learn what it was like to live with short term memory loss and all his hard work paid off.

Chris Pratt: I started skating again. I'm not as good as I used to be, but I'm okay. What happened that night along Route 24 is a part of me now. I just hope that one day Kelly will be ready to see me again and I can finally tell her what I've only been able to say in my dreams. Until then, all I can do is wake up, take a shower, with soap, and try to forgive myself. If I can do that, then maybe others will forgive me too. I don't know if that will happen, but I guess I'll just have to work backwards from there.

A good film. Go rent it, I am saddened by the fact that I didn’t go and see this one at the cinema when it was out, and that I waited two years to rent it. If you want to see this, do not wait another second. Go and rent it.

Benjamin Button was born on the night the great war ended. He was born like every other baby, but unlike every other baby he was born looking like an old man. As he grew older in age, his skin became fairer and it was clear that Benjamin Button was living life in reverse. As he ages Benjamin wants to work, wants to experience life. All the while at sea Benjamin writes to his childhood sweetheart Daisie.

Benjamin Button: I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is.

Although so different they really are the same age. Benjamin finds himself a lady while out at sea and tries to forget about Daisie. After a while at sea Benjamin returns home to see all those he loves getting older, while he himself is the only one getting younger. Benjamin doesn't really know what to do, or how to feel. While home he sees Daisie, and she wants to be with him. He says it is not a good time. As his life progresses Benjamin and Daisie end up together through fate, and end up having a child of their own along the way.

Benjamin Button transforms through out this film. At the beginning he is a child in an old mans body, something nobody understood. Everyone sort of looked down upon Benjamin saying that he wasn't supposed to live long, that he was a monster. But just like everyone else, he had real human feelings, deep emotions, emotions he only wanted people to care about.. Someone did care about Benjamin and that was his momma, not his actual mamma, but the family that he was left as a child. They nurtured him, gave him a life and that is the place Benjamin called home, the one he wanted to go back to when he felt alone. Like every other human being, Benjamin had feelings, real feelings that meant something. He wasn't a monster, he was just born under unusual circumstances.

Benjamin Button: My name is Benjamin Button, and I was born under unusual circumstances. While, everyone else was agin', I was gettin' younger... all alone.

Brad Pitt is famous, that we all know. We all know everything about his life, the personal side of it anyway. Brad is all over the news, with the adoption of children, helping people in New Orleans, and just for being an A-list movie star. Brad is also really good at what he does. Seven was an absolute masterpiece, because of Brad (with some help from Spacey and Freeman) Fight Club was an awesome movie because of Brad starring as Tyler Durden. With the mention of Fight Club comes the next statement. Not since Fight Club has Brad Pitt been able to get his hands on something valuable. With the exception of course now being Benjamin Button.

Not since Fight Club has Brad cared so much about his work, has his work consumed him this much, and has he given us a character that shouts from the roof top about Oscar night. Brad radiates positivity for this role. He screams with intensity, he is fierce like a lion in portraying Benjamin Button, and making this fairy tale seem not so fairy like at all. Brad Pitt is able to make Button seem like he could be our own friendly neighbor our own best friend, while leaving room for people to misunderstand such a supernatural occurrence. Brad Pitt is first class and is excellent. Brad Pitt will gain Oscar buzz and this film is one of the best you could possibly see.

Cate Blanchett is the definition of Sophistication. Her roles take on a new light. She feeds off of challenge, and becomes even better when the pressure is on.She is fantastic in anything she gets her hands on. Cate did something great in the Aviator, I'm Not There and now starring in this magical film about who two people are meant to come together and be together. Cate matches the intensity of Brad and delivers her character of Daisy just as well as Brad gives us Benjamin.. Cate compares with Brad and makes the film that much more envisioning, powerful, heart wrenching. Cate creates magic with Brad, she makes this film twinkle. She reaches for the stars and she goes beyond, shining. I would love for Cate to win best actress for Benjamin Button, but it wont happen. Cate is a beautiful actress, who is so very impressive in every film

This film is so very impressive when you think about it on the grandest scale. Like every other big Hollywood film, you expect acting to be high quality. Check a yes for that. You expect there to be some sort of action somewhere, check another yes to that one. And like every Hollywood picture these days you expect the visuals to be so good you cant even tell it came out of Hollywood. Check another giant yes to that one.Benjamin Button was not a normal man and that had to be shown. As much as the audience grew into who Benjamin was, they still couldn't get over the fact that he was born under the most unusual of circumstances.

I loved the message this film held. Never take anything for granted, live every day like its your last, because you never know what is coming for you. Benjamin in many peoples eyes was a far cry from being like everyone else. He was old, he was wrinkly, he shouldnt have been hanging around Daisy when he was a kid, she couldn't be his friend.Benjamin through out the film expressed his differing opinions because he saw the world in a different light. He didn't see everything the same way everyone else did.

Benjamin Button:“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed, is you.”

For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit... Start whenever you want... You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

-Benjamin Button

Queenie: You never know what's comin' for ya.

This film is one of the best of 2008, it is sentimental, heart wrenching,and romantic.

Patrick Kenzie(Casey Affleck) and his partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan)are hired to help the police find a missing child. He promises the child’s mother that no matter what the outcome and no matter what he has do she will have her child back. Even when the story starts to unravel and Patrick fears the results he still keeps his word.

Patrick Kenzie: I always believed it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are. Your city, your neighbourhood, your family. People here take pride in these things, like it was something they'd accomplished. The bodies around their souls, the cities wrapped around those. I lived on this block my whole life; most of these people have. When your job is to find people who are missing, it helps to know where they started. I find the people who started in the cracks and then fell through. This city can be hard. When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. "You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves."

Patrick Kenzie is one of those characters who believes strongly in right and wrong. He has this sense of understanding; having grown up in Boston he knows what these people are capable of. Half the people Patrick meets up that he once knew through-out the film have taken the wrong path. What I think Casey does so well in this film is he brings to light all the little details of Patrick Kenzie, his accent, his past life and how it shapes the person that he has currently become. Casey is able to make us believe in Patrick Kenzie, the events that took place in this film and wonder about his past.

The entire cast whether they are playing the smallest of parts are still awesome. Amy Ryan shows the desperation of how when a bad thing happens people are willing to make all the promises to change but aren’t willing to follow through with these promises. Morgan Freeman shows us how a cop is willing to lay it all on the line for a certain cause when they know how painful it can be. Ed Harris shows us that even the best of people still rely on breaking the law in order to feel like justice has been served. Amy Madigan shows us how much family can mean to some people and how far they are willing to go to try and help those they care about. And Titus Welliver shows us that families can be torn apart, and when we feel there is no other option perhaps trying to show our loved another possibility is the best option. All of these actors help provide perhaps what is the best film I have ever seen about characters who are divided between what they know is right and what they feel is right. None of these performances will let you down. There are many more characters in this film that help portray these feelings, but these are the main characters that are the focal point and who help further the plot the most.

This film is based on the novel written by critically acclaimed author Dennis Lehane. Lehane has a way of keeping the story woven so tight that we cannot figure out the truth behind the mystery. He keeps an issue in the foreground, a relevant issue where the plot develops one way and then he keeps the truth hidden in the background, and when it all comes together it still all makes sense.

Throughout the film there are certain subplots that take a back seat and then find themselves the center of attention as the story progresses. One of those stories is when Remy Bressant mentions two suspects who could have kidnapped Amanda. Now once the subplot with Cheese is all unravelled and neatly in the films past, we move forward with Patrick watching the news and seeing that a little boy has gone missing. Then one of the guys he talked to about the suspects comes back and he and Patrick go to sell these people Cocaine. This is where Patrick notices a medallion around the molester’s wrist the same medallion the kid was supposedly wearing when he disappeared. This is the kind of subplot most films would have left out, or lightly skimmed over. Not this film, it brings us back, and it leads to Remy and Patrick confronting the kidnapper and his friends. This also leads to Patrick realizing that Remy Bressant is not the cleanest of cops.

Patrick Kenzie: He lied to me. Now I can't think of one reason big enough for him to lie about that's small enough not to matter.


Gone Baby Gone is a film packed with emotion and having to decide what is right and what is wrong. Go see it not for the acting but for the message and the continuing belief that doing the right thing is the way it should be done. I would also suggest a viewing of the extended ending of the film if you have the DVD, there is a final quote by Kenzie that should have made the final cut. In the end Kenzie did what he felt was right and that is all anyone can do in life, we must live with the choices we make.

Tyler Mane as Michael Myers
Scout Taylor Compton as Laurie Strode
Malcolm McDowell as DR. Samuel Loomis
Brad Dourif as Sherriff Lee Brackett
Danielle Harris as Annie Brackett
Chase Wright Vanek as Young Michael
Sherri Moon Zombie as Deborah Myers

Hey world, guess what? I'm Michael Myers' sister! I'm fucked!

After Laurie Strode is nearly killed by Michael Myers, her life is turned upside down, her parents are dead, her dreams are now being haunted, it can’t get any worse for Laurie can it? Wrong, it turns out Michael Myers is not actually dead and he returns to Haddonfield to cause havoc for Laurie who still is not aware of her true identity. Dr. Loomis is promoting his tell all novel about Michael Myers, and Laurie happens to pick it up, this is where she finds the truth about who she really is. She is angry at the world for keeping it a secret for so long, but they were only doing it for her own good. Everything comes to a climax when Michael Myers is holding his baby sister Angel Myers hostage in a barn, this is where Laurie/Angel fully understands who she is, and even comes to terms with it somewhat. The final scenes were really dramatic and well done, go and see it.

Horror films are difficult to review, because the thrills are usually cheap and the acting is usually terrible. That all went out of the window when Rob Zombie gave us his extreme look at Michael Myers, a man torn apart by a traumatic childhood. Zombies look at the life of a well known fictitious serial killer was brutal. He hired 6’9 Tyler Mane to portray the character, and Tyler doesn’t speak one word as Michael Myers, but his performance is still menacing to me atleast. However the Scout Taylor Compton delivered great performances in both the Halloween flicks that Rob Zombie made. Her character of Laurie Strode changed in this film, she was broken and didn’t know who she was anymore, only to find out that she in fact never was Laurie Strode, but all along she was Angel Myers. Good performances from Mane and Compton as well as McDowell as the arrogant, self righteous Dr. Loomis. It was great to see that Rob changed Loomis from the hero to the arrogant know it all doctor who nobody seemed to take seriously.

For me this film should stand as the conclusion to Rob Zombies homage to the great John Carpenter classic, because if they continue to make new Halloween flicks, they will ruin the brutal force that Michael Myers had and the authenticity of the new Myers character that was created. And to me after the thrilling final scene this film included it would be a disaster to go and ruin that with another film.

Spoilers from this point.
There were a few scenes that really stuck out.


4. Dr. Loomis Book Signing- To me when the father of a young girl brutally killed by Myers approached Loomis it was emotional. He felt like Loomis was the reason that Michael escaped from the institution in the first place and he baled Loomis for the reason that his daughter was killed.

3. Young Michaels Unemotional response to his Mother’s death- To me this scene really gave an insight to the insanity of Michael Myers. He didn’t even flinch or get emotional when Loomis told him that the only person who cared for him was dead. All he said was “She will be back” He couldn’t seem to grasp what Loomis was telling and he almost wouldn’t let it sink it that he was getting older and things were changing.

2. Annies death scene- This scene was brutal to be fair. Michael broke a helpless young girl, by savagely killing her. This was the breaking point so to speak for Laurie. Annie was the only one would could completely understand what had happened, because he had been torn apart but the insanity of Michael Myers. She and Laurie were the best of friends and understood each other’s pain and suffering.

1.The Final Scene- When Laurie/ Angel was being held in the barn and she could see the twisted vision that Michael saw of his younger self it was wrenching to see this family back together in such unusual circumstances. Then when Michael is raising his knife to kill Laurie but drops it and she says “I love you brother” and stabs him allowing him to go and be with their mother. Then Laurie walks out of the barn with the mask on her head, and she takes it off falling to her knees. To me this was Laurie finally coming to terms with who she is. As messed up as it was, she was the sister of Michael Myers and they were a family as weird as that sounds.


Rob Zombie crafted a solid film, a good horror flick. Let’s hope his thrilling conclusion is the last of a two part series that has shocked and amazed

Roy Miller is a chief Warrant officer for the Us Army and he is assigned to clear areas of Weapons of Mass destruction, except he begins to notice a pattern, that every area they hit seems to be empty, even the ones that were marked as extremely high risk. As soon as Miller seems to be getting close to finding out some truths other people step in and Miller is expected to step aside and just allow them to figure about what needs to be done. Miller begins to put the pieces together and decides to go Rogue and do what needs to be done, so not only he knows the truth but all of America knows the truth.

Greengrass sets this film about as one of those films that is supposed to deliver small hints as they go along that things aren’t what they seem to be. He drops the major clue to early, and we know what Miller is going to find out, we know the whole reason for going to war will unravel before his is very eyes, so when Greengrass gives those not so subtle hints that something may be up we begin to roll our eyes. That is until Miller actually goes on the mission to find the truth. Once they stop dropping the silent hints then we can see this film for what it truly is. An anti war film that delivers a strong opposition to a cause many Americans have come to agree with. Greengrass creates perhaps one of the only films that’s foundation is rock solid dead set against the war. This film delivers perhaps the biggest anti-Iraq war message of any film to be released about the Iraq war.

The only thing I tend to see as way over the top is Miller was able to get information, classified information on the US army and basically do as he pleased with it. If Miller had this proof, or the American politicians even for one second thought he knew the truth, Miller would have been eliminated in an “accident” before everyone jumps on me for making that statement it happens everywhere else, and the Americans reasoning for being in Iraq or staying in Iraq this long have always been questionable and we as humans do not need a film to tell us this. Now I don’t want to get into this, because my stance on the war has nothing to do with what this film was trying to convey. Now for those who see this is purely anti-war propaganda remember to anything one believes in there will always be those who don’t agree. These war films are relevant whether they speak for or against the war.

The shaky camera syndrome that this film suffers from was one of the things that really irritated me, Greengrass was trying to make big strong political statements and during his electrifying action scenes it was impossible to tell who was firing at whom, and who has been shot and who hadn’t. After the shoot-outs and everything calmed down it went back to being 100 percent straight. Just one of those tiny things that took away from the no-hold barred lay it all on the line action scenes.

What I was hoping for was Matt Damon’s first chance to really convey a character since The Departed. This was Damon’s film, his character was the focal point, and what did it become, one of those single character fights for survival against an entire army looking to bring him down. Damon seemed like he came second to the films ultimate message, and I would say that would be a good thing if this film would have had the explosive ending where the American government suffers greatly from what he was able to find out. I know that didn’t happen in real life , but an ending to that affect would show that there are still people who care about what is right and what is wrong, and there are still people who care about having to be justified in what you are doing. In the end this film gave us these messages of anti-war but nothing came of it. This film lit a fuse early and the fuse burned for nearly 2 hours only to fizzle out before the grand explosion.

Matt Damon of course gives off a performance that is far from bad, but when you look back in about 10 years on what he has accomplished this will just fall into the category of just another performance in a war film that ultimately could not deliver.