Reviews by kgbelliveau

Brendan Frye: So now we've shaken the tree. Let's wait and see what falls on our heads.

Brendan is a loner and keeps to himself, until one day he gets a phone call from his ex girlfriend Emily saying that she needs his help and she cannot trust anyone but him. Brendan drops everything to help this girl who he still loves with all his heart. Emily denies that she needs help and tells Brendan that he would be better off to drop things and go on with his life. Brendan does not follow her advice and the next morning he finds her dead at the entrance to a tunnel. Brendan then decides the best way to get information is to pressure her new friends with questions and show The Pin ( a local drug runner) that he can be trusted. With the help of his loyal friend The Brain, Brendan looks for the truth but he may not like what he finds.

The Brain: When the "Upper-Crust" does shady deeds, they do them all over town, and the pitch is, they got these little symbols so they can tell each without word getting around


Brick is a tale of drugs, murder but most of all it is a story of undying love. Brendan has these strong feelings for Emily and she has moved on to a new group of friends and an unhealthy lifestyle. Brendan still cannot help but have feelings for her. Even though they are in high school and young he seems to have this heartfelt real connection to the one girl who wants nothing to do with him. Even though circumstances have made it difficult for him to be with her when she calls him for help he has no hesitations, he immediately starts asking questions and taking names. He gets the info he needs to try and bail her out, but unfortunately he is to late to do so and he is left investigating her murder and not knowing for certain which of her "upper class" friends can be trusted or not. Brendan is just an average guy who had his heart stomped on by a girl he really cared about. Whether or not you believe in high school romance at some point everyone feels what Brendan feels, but sadly unlike Brendan many people would not go the extra mile to help protect the ones they care about.


There is so much going on this film, it is easy to forget that the main setting is a California high school. There is never a shot of a classroom and there is no real evidence other then one chat with A Vice Principal that this film is set in a high school. There are so many times when you look at the situation Brendan is in you think that discipline would go way beyond a V.P. Brendan had played lead detective before and this is mentioned in his intensified chat with the V.P. All though Brendan had played detective in a case that involved high school students, but this time around it is clearly stated The Pin is a 26 year old non high school student. This simply just means unless Brendan can catch someone in the act of drug running directly on school ground there could be no punishment handed down by school administration.

Brick is a smart mystery film, it is careful with the amount of information it divulges at one time setting itself up for an ending that you did not see coming. People may try and claim the ending was predictable, but really there was no clues through out the entire film and the lead you in the complete other direction. You cannot just claim you could see it coming because you were blindsided by the outcome and you do not want to admit they had you fooled. It is okay to be fooled by a mystery, if you can call every little thing that is going to happen it makes for a boring movie with no suspense or intensity. The intensity built in Brick because Brendan had no idea which of Emily's friends he could trust and believe. He was getting bits of information and could never really know if it was the actual story or just another lie to take attention off of the real killer. When the film is all over it becomes clear how smart the mystery of Brick really is. Try being the one who wants all the answers and you are asking sketchy people the questions, very few people would risk their lives like Brendan did.

Brick had its own form of high school lingo. There are some times when they just get going in the slang words and you cannot help but remember some of the ones that your social circle used. There are words like bulls instead of cops. There are many more and the entire cast looks and sounds like high school students. Joseph Gordon Levitt looks younger then he actually is with the Harry Potter glasses and the long curly hair. However despite looking younger, Levitt shows a maturity in the role of Brendan that he has not shown in any of his other works. Levitt is able to capture the darkness that surrounds Brendan, and he is able to make Brendan real. He gives Brendan real emotions and real issues. Joseph Gordon Levitt gives the character of Brendan life, he gives him morals and beliefs and makes Brendan one of those characters we can hope for. Finally a character comes to life that only has good intentions and does not lose site of these intentions along the way.

Brendan Frye: No, bulls would gum it. They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes and probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one. But they'd trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes, and if we're doing this I want the whole story. No cops, not for a bit.

Brick is a solid mystery, a film that makes you think. You will be blown away by the incredible acting, the hard hitting suspense and the twisted outcome will hopefully make you think twice about who you can trust in life.

Brendan Frye: I can't trust you! Brad was a sap. You weren't. You were with him, and so you were playing him. So you're a player. With you behind me I'd have to tie one eye up watching both your hands, and I can't spare it.

The year is 1983 and L.A is a booming city. There are those who are living the dream as a film producer or a news anchor. There are also those people who are working for the minimum just looking to get by. Then there are the young people who are hooked on sex drugs and rock and roll. This is there story, a story about the ups and downs of the rich and the poor all trying to make a living and be happy.

The Informers is basically a softcore porn film with an 80's music soundtrack. There is nothing else that really defines this film as being set in 1980's L.A. However if you are a fan of films with sex and drugs and rock bands this is your film. There are plenty of characters and most of them are connected by sleeping together with only a few connected minimally through a sub plot. There are even two characters (Played by Brad Renfro and Mickey Rourke) that seem to have no connection to any of the other characters except for a brief encounter. The Informers makes it tough to decide who the main character is and who does not matter very much to the story at all. These characters were all about sex and drugs. However the story that involved Rourke and Renfro's characters was different. Rourke played Pete and Renfro played his nephew Jack a door man at a hotel. Pete was an ex con looking to pay back some money he owed and he needed to stay at Jacks house. Pete was displayed as a slimy individual and Jack was portrayed as nervous and a man working to change his life. This was the best part of the film and Rourke and Renfro did awesome jobs opposite each other.

Sex in a film does not have to be bad thing, it can advance the plot, it can compromise the characters and the beliefs they have, but the sex in this movie was a bit over the top. They had these characters who basically just got together to have sex parties. Then as the film progressed one of the females develops AIDS at a rather alarming rate, which is unrealistic because the Aids virus takes about 10 years to show affects on the human body and you can go a long time before you even get feel sick at all. And yet through the film it was one female character who was sick and through out the film she was shown having sex with multiple characters who just seemed to be fine. The young cast did a decent job, but there were no real authentic characters that you could feel bad for. Jon Foster and Amber Heard lead the young cast as well as they could. I just think it comes down to the script trying to cram too much into a film that is only 98 minutes long. The Sex in this film was just about young good looking people sharing their bodies with each other, without the emotional connection and perhaps that is why it is extremely difficult to ever buy into these characters.

What the Informers does so well is capture the 80's music style. At times during the film you can really get a feel for what the 80's music was all about. When they watched T.V you could see the music videos playing in the background and it was classic 80's as we know it. The music was the best part about the film, as these peoples lives unfolded the music is what told the story and what helped make the story unfold smoother. There was a lot that was happening during the 98 minutes that this film ran for.

This film is apparently based on a set of short stories written by Brett Easton Ellis and you can tell this easily when watching the film. It seemed like Gregor Jordan and his crew was grasping to try and have these characters weave in and out of each others stories. It would have been much better had they focused on one of the short stories instead of trying to add as much realism to all these character and failing on all but 3 or 4 of them. There were some big names in this feature including Kim Basinger, Billy Bob Thornton and Winona Ryder all of whom seemed to be o.k. with giving just a half decent portrayal. Perhaps it just seemed this way because much of the spotlight was given to the young and ambitious cast they were working with or because Rourke and Renfro did such an amazing job bringing interest and intrigue to the lives of their characters. Pete and Jack were the one set of character whose tale of origins seemed like it would be an interesting story and yet they only mention it in a brief statement.

And despite everything I watched in this film, The Sex, the 80's coming alive, Mickey Rourke being his usual awesome self and Brad Renfros final portrayal (one hell of a final portrayal I might add) part of me wants to absolutely hate this film and part of me wants to embrace the 80's feel it had and just take it for what it is. I am feeling generous today so I will tell anyone who is on the fence about this film to give it a chance, because it was truly on the verge of being something spectacular and awesome and so maybe for you people out there still wanting to see it it will be awesome.

*Spoiler Alert*



James Reese is a low level C.I.A operative and would love nothing more then to become a special agent. Reese gets his chance when he is asked to help out special agent Charlie Wax. Reese must drive Wax wherever he needs to go, and make sure that Wax is able to stop a terror cell before it is too late. Reese has more then he bargained for while working with Wax, but if he can get the job done and clear his name in 48 hours he may just get the promotion he always wanted.

It is clear to see why people like this film. Travolta is witty, Wax is over the top and attempts to be a badass all the while maintaining this likeable down to earth quality. Wax is not the typical C.I.A agent, snorting cocaine, waving guns and shooting anyone that stands in his way. That is the way the character appears to anyone who just took this film for entertainment purposes (which is not a bad thing). Perhaps I just find that they cannot create unique characters anymore, Wax is just a mix of all of the wall agents that have been created in the past. His live-by-my-own rules method has been used before, plenty of times, and will continue to be used in future films about characters of the same nature. Wax is just another agent who swears and bends the rules a little too often and at entertainment value I guess that is somewhat pleasing.

From Paris with Love tries to have awkward comedic moments between the confident Wax and the nervous James Reese. They would have worked had From Paris with Love been an action comedy. Yet somehow they managed to add really interesting comedy with what was supposed to be really intense drama and it just does not work. With a film there has to be a boundary where the comedy or the drama becomes the primary genre. Yes we have all watched those overly awkward dramatic scenes that are meant to carry some comedy in them as well. But a film is supposed to make you feel something, it is supposed to target a central emotion (by no means I am telling people how they should feel, because we all come out of a certain film feeling differently) but each film has an intended emotion on which it builds the foundation of its story. A comedy film is not supposed to make us feel sad and drama most likely is not intending to make us feel happy. With From Paris with Love it is tough to tell which one they wanted to be the focus, because even the ending was almost bitter-sweet. Most Hollywood directors have yet to find the perfect balance (outside of the romantic comedy genre that is). I am excited to see the first dramatic-comedy action that finds the perfect balance; it will surely be a crowd pleaser.

Jonathan Rhys Myers did little to help the film at all. His character of James Reese was a hopeless romantic who was oblivious to his dangerous surroundings. Reese was supposed to be an intelligent man and there was no real evidence of that in the film. Perhaps that does not fall entirely on Rhys Meyers but his acting did not help out the character at all. Reese wanted to be a big shot without actually having to do the big shot work. There is nothing valuable in that type of character. The worst thing of all was how Wax kept insinuating that romance would be the death of Reese and it turned out to be his girlfriend that was setting him up for information. Which at this point Reese gets this new found ability to shot and stand up for himself killing the one person he supposedly cared for the most. Should it not have been more difficult then just not being able to talk it out? Most people would have been frozen and at any other moment in the film he would not have been able to pull the trigger.

From Paris with Love is entertaining if that is all you take it as. By far not a bad film, just a film with faults like any other.

Dan and Candy are in love with each other as well as heroin. They lead unhealthy lifestyles and Candy begins to lose focus on her art and things begin to spiral out of control. Dan and Candy try to get things straight but the drugs just keep getting in the way of their happiness.

The toughest part about watching a film with such powerful scenes is that you have this uneasy feeling that the final striking vision of the film will not leave you with joy, instead it will leave you realizing how harsh reality can be on people who have tried their best and came up empty handed. Candy and Dan were not bad people; they went about making money the wrong way and found themselves living fast with no way of paying for their lifestyle. You watch these lives unfold on the screen and you realize that a solid film is not just actors strutting their stuff and looking cool, but it is about reaching deep within and making people realize reality is not the perfect world where everything is calm and people live free without concerns.

Candy: Once upon a time, there was a Candy and Dan... Things were very hot that year... All the wax was melting on the trees... He would crawl on balconies, climb everywhere. Do anything for her... My Danny boy. Thousands of birds. The tiniest birds adorned her hair... Everything was golden... One night the bed caught fire... He was handsome, and a very good criminal... We lived on sunlight and chocolate bars... It was the afternoon of extravagant delight... Danny, the Daredevil... Candy the blessing... The day's last rays of sunshine cruise like sharks..."I wanna try it your way this time!" You came into my life really fast, and I liked it. We squelched in the mud of our joy. I was wet thighed with the surrender... Then there was a gap in things... And the whole earth tilted... This is the business. This is what we're after. With you inside me... Comes the night...


Heath and Abbie were able to take these characters, and paint a picture with their lives. They create Candy and Dan as people, sad people looking to find their way, people who need that extra push to better themselves. Candy and Dan were searching for joy and freedom and they found that in drugs. As time went on they needed to find solace from the drugs, which meant being away from each other, even though through the toughest and darkest of hours they still loved each other. Both Heath and Abbie were able to challenge each other in the most dramatic of scenes, they were able to feed of each others passion for acting, and turn Candy from just another flick about drugs to a sad tale that will resonate with the audience long after they watch the film. Heath and Abbie leave you realizing that actors who create rich and diverse characters are also showing us another world, one that we perhaps do not know a lot about. Film in general is meant to do this, and films that go for blunt messages or direct visuals are much more appealing because you can clearly feel how awkward or how tense a situation is.

Dan: We had a lot going for us. We'd found the secret glue that held all things together. In a perfect place, where the noise did not intrude, our world was so very complete.


Candy is a love story, but not the typical boy meets girl falls and love and they run around falling head over heels in love, and then get married and live happily. Candy and Dan were in love, a love that had its ups and downs and realistically ended on a sad note. Candy and Dan were never going to change, never going to push each other towards a healthy lifestyle. They were addicted to living that lifestyle together. They built this world for themselves, and they could not bend the mold, and change their lives. There is so much in this film that makes this film such a sad film to watch. There are scenes that are designed to make us feel for these characters, to make us see how badly they have messed up their own lives and the lives of those around them. Yet perhaps the most telling and heart breaking scenes are the ones where Candy and Dan are laughing and enjoying each other, because you get a glimpse of how they could have made it work under different circumstances. They could have made it work had they made different choices along the way.


Casper: When you can stop, you don't want to. When you want to stop, you can't.

The stage is set for a T.V series that features racing, explosions, dramatic route changes and over the top action. You must race your way through 12 dramatic episodes where anything can change in the blink of an eye. Be aware of your surroundings or your race could be over quicker then you had hoped.

Split Second is at its core a racing game, there are different tracks; beat the clock campaigns, elimination campaigns and much more. When you take away the explosions and the dramatics you are left with a simple racing game that does not exceed any racing game already in existence. And to be completely fair, even though I like the explosions and the dramatics there is nothing special about this game once you get passed episode 3.

The further you go in the game, the more you realize it is all the same just a newer level with a faster car and a nighttime setting. The game gets boring after you realize you get an achievement in game play every time you do something. Games with too many achievements are absurd because you can do anything even if it is completely simple and then you get points. With a game like this I expect the challenges to be as insane as the concept is.

After episode 3 you realize that the computer cars don’t have the same dramatic timing as you do. My advice to anyone looking to play this game would be strictly online play (which I have yet to try) but playing against users would be more intense for the reason that they would be able to mess you up instead you just continuously messing with the computer cars. When you play a racing game you should never expect to have a distinct advantage against even the computer because in real life the same driver does not always win every race.

Split Second is a game for racing fans, and to play online. It is fun and the idea was there, but when you think of a game like this you think out of this world intense and never boring. Split Second just does not soar; the engine barely even gets hot before you realize every level is the same.

After revealing that he is Iron Man businessman Tony Stark is loving the media attention. Tony is just enjoying being Iron Man and thinking that he has rid the world of evil and that the Iron Man suit is a revolutionary crime fighting tool. The government however would like to get their hands on the Iron Man technology and use it to mass produce soldiers and have an advantage in the war. Tony is being pursued by Justin Hammer an ego centric government official who thinks that he has the brains and the money to challenge Stark on the technological front. As all this takes place Ivan Vanko plans to attack Stark Industries for leaving his father jobless and broken.

There is a lot happening in Iron Man 2 and you would think that it would be enough for the plot to keep flowing smoothly with the final product being an action packed thrill ride. However they somehow managed to add too much to a film that everyone was already anticipating. They had Stark trying to stop himself from dieing.They had Stark being interviewed by Fury and cracking jokes about his eye patch. They had Stark drinking and fighting with the one friend he has. They had Stark questioning the sudden appearance of Natasha. But ultimately and this was the story that seemed lost they had Stark battling Vanko who during the film had been recruited by Hammer to design a suit that could better the Iron Man suit.

Tony Stark: I'm not saying I'm responsible for this country's longest run of uninterrupted peace in 35 years! I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a Phoenix metaphor been more personified! I'm not saying Uncle Sam can kick back on a long chair, sipping on an ice tea, because I haven't come across anyone man enough to face me on my best day!


Robert Downey Jr is the perfect choice for Tony Stark. Downey is just so perfect at capturing the smug narcissism of Tony Stark, or as many people might see it the confidence that Stark has in his own work. However you see it one cannot deny that despite all the things that may have been crammed into Iron Man 2 Downey as Stark is not a let down. He continues to play the character exactly the way he was written in the comics and he even looks similar to the way Stark has been drawn in the best. As a whole Iron Man 2 may have been a let down in some aspects but as a fan of the series and Robert Downey Jr I am confident that this franchise can bounce back and be better then ever with its third installment. There are a few things that must be present in order for this franchise to do that. Scrap the appearances by Sam Jackson as Fury and stop the whole will he wont he story with the whole idea of them creating the avengers. I think we all know that Iron Man will be part of the avengers. Also for a third installment bring in the alcoholism factor, they gave us a glimpse but never really showed how it stopped Stark from being Iron Man and saving the world. Just slow down the pace and focus more on the adult issues that Tony Stark has always been faced with in the comics.If you create the Stark from the comics these Iron Man movies would not be for kids, but instead they just have Stark parading his confidence and blowing things up.

For a fan of the Iron Man comics and a fan of the first film that did not do a lot of developing with the character of Stark, instead they just brought a supporting cast full of big names to hype the film. I am slightly disappointed in the final product for a film that I had seriously been anticipating since 2008. Oh well there is hope for the future.

After a young man supposedly kills himself his friends begin having these nightmares and one by one they are killed as they sleep. Quinton and Nancy must find the answers before they become the next victims. They begin to peice together that their parents are hiding something from them abour a man named Freddy Krueger. For Freddy this is all about revenge for what happened to him.


Freddy Krueger: Why are you screaming? I haven't even cut you yet!


Horror has to be the most predictable genre out there. The thrills are cheap and the dialogue is nowhere near how people would actually talk in a day to day conversation. The biggest problem of all perhaps is that we can see the outcome from a mile away and that can make for a boring film. Sam Bayer is attempting what Rob Zombie did back in 07 with Halloweem and that is to put a modren spin on a iconic horror villian. Freddy is much more psychologically appealing then Michael Myers because unlike Myers Freddy uses his words to taunt his victims and turn their innocent dream worlds into a hellish fight for survival. Freddy has limitless possibilities as he appears only in a dream world where Myers finds himself limited to reality. There is no escaping Freddy Krueger.

Horror a whole genre is supposed to make you cringe in fear, make it so you are afraid to go to sleep at night. Horror films are supposed to make you realize that there are things that happen out there that we do not even want to imagine possible. Somehow modern horror falls short of doing this. Perhaps because they make it all about the shadow that appears when it should not be there or the scaring of the characters by their own friends. Perhaps it comes down the characters coming off as stupid and oblivious to the dangers that surround them. As a kid we will be scared when one character annouces they are going to be brave and go off on their own. When we get older we begin to laugh when characters make this announcement. When people laugh during a horror film it means that the director has a done a bad job of making us feel compassion towards the characters.

Modern horror goes for the classic cheesy lines coupled with the cheap thrills, but that was the 1980's and the special affects can and should be 20 times better then they were back then. Despite all that Nightmare on Elm street is sure to get a sequel because it just took the number one spot at the box office. Lets hope that it is the start of a two part series like Rob Zombie did and not the start of another 6 or 7 part series.

Bryan: [to Marko] You don't remember me? We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I would find you.


Former spy Bryan Mills allows his daughter to take a summer away in Europe but upon her arrival she is kidnapped by a group of men. Bryan must get to Europe and save his daughter before it is to late. Bryan must use his old set of skills to get the job done and make sure his daughter returns home safetly.

Taken has all the makings for a good film but somehow along the lines it does not quite get to being an elite film. When you think about what elite films do, they make you think, the immerse you with conflict and you want to know how it will end. Taken just does not do that. Perhaps it is because Bryan walks around as if he is a one man army and takes down all challenges that stand in his way. I do not know what it is about Taken for me that stops it from becoming one of my favourites.

Bryan: You either give me what I need or this switch will stay on until they turn the power off for lack of payment on the bill.

Bryan just has this way of getting the answers to his questions. I think the whole concept should have been approached in a different way. The concept of human trafficing was a good one, which is why putting to much focus on Bryan and his world class abilities took away from the great plot concepts they were working with. To me when a film focuses squarely on one man then there is no room to notice everything that is taking place. I would have much prefered a story where they were focusing on the inner workings of the men involved with abducting these women. Perhaps a story of an undercover cop trying to gain information on these guys would have been better, with a subplot where her father is trying so desperately to get her back that he himself is willing to work with an undercover cop. I really wanted to like Taken and I did buy into the concept but the whole one man army of revenge never really satisfied me.

Taken does have flare and style with the action it produces, and I can clearly see why action fans love this film. There should have been more purely emotional drama in this film. It would have helped solidfy the whole idea of the grieving parent. Taken does keep you cheering and hoping for Bryan because what happened to his daughter is never a good thing so the filmmakers knew they could get the audience to sympathize with his situation.

When it comes down to deciding whether Taken is a good film or not you cannot help but say it is. It has good acting a good concept and it has style. The things they could improve on or work on is a matter of opinion but when looked upon as a whole film even the most skeptical of people cannot deny that Taken is atleast a good effort.

A 19 year old Alice finds herself back in the land she thought she dreamed up as a a child. Only this time around Alice learns her true destiny, she must be the one to save Wonderland from the clutches of the read queen. Alice has help from her old friends including the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit. Alice is reluctant to take on such a heavy burden but with the help of her friends she decides it is what she is meant to do.

Tim Burton is a visionary master, he is known for creating worlds that are vastly different from the one we live in. Burton has a knack for brining pictures to life that most directors would otherwise never dream of making and he continues to pull it off. Alice in Wonderland was a Burton project through and through not just because of the offbeat settings but because of of the all too familiar faces we see in this film. Johnny Depp is Burtons go to guy and he has never failed before. Johnny once again proves how versatile he can be, and he gives another character he can be proud of. When people mention great actor-director teams they always seem to mention Burton and Depp and usually with high praise. They have made many solid films together and probably will continue to make solid films together until one of them decides to stop.

Alice had made for 3-d affects and yet the 2-d version is enough to wow any audience. You have a wide array of colors, creatures that will blow your mind and the element of fantasy which is enough to take any film fan away from their normal everyday lives. All though the effects were stunning it was not that really tipped the scale for me as far as liking this film goes. The main reason I liked this film is because it was good to see a fresh face in the lead role when Burton could have easily cast some who is already known. Mia Wasikowska was brilliant in an innocent way, Alice was such a quirky lovable girl and Mia was really able to make the audience feel that about her character. Like Alice we all have those childhood fantasies that we wish would be true, so when we are able to see these fantasies come true on the big screen we instantly fall in love with what we are shown.

Alice in Wonderland is a superb film from start to finish; you really can’t get enough of all these characters. Mia, Johnny, Helena and the rest of the cast make this a film that is not only focused on the effects but on making this whole other world come to life and breath on its own. Burton has created yet another gem of a film and words cannot express how much I really enjoyed this film.

Cal McAffrey is a DC reporter looking to get the next big story, which may just come at the expense of his good friend and college roommate Congressman Stephen Collins. Collins, whose assistant seems to have had an accident on the subway. The problem is that it may not have been an accident, but a cover up for one of the biggest military related companies in the country. The problem for Collins continues to mount when he is linked to his assistant in an affair. Cal goes on a manhunt to prove that his friend is being framed, but that may not be the only truth that he will find along the way.

State of play starts off right away with a major beginning, so that people can see the type of film it will be. The movie starts off with a brutal murder, which starts the conspiracy off straight away. The suspense and the story keep building, for the next two hours. The story may get a little confusing in the middle, because of all the leads that Cal gets throughout the film. Cal explains every one though close to the end. It isn’t really all that confusing, it just throws many confusing characters at you, and it expects you to pick them up with little explanation. It all does come to make sense, which is a really good thing.

The entire cast seems to feed off the script which has some of the best dialogue for a journalistic themed film. It uses journalistic language, and that is awesome. If you aren’t aware beforehand how journalism and the following of leads works, then this film will teach you that. It is a fascinating thing to see done, and seems like it would fun to pursue leads. The movie makes it look like a thrill, and that is a good thing. It makes the job look exciting and it shows the highlights of what a journalist can find themselves doing on a day to day basis.

As far as cast goes, it doesn’t seem like their could have been a better cast for a film of this nature then the one that was hired. As far as acting experience goes, these were all veteran actors looking to put their craft to work, and show what real acting is. Lead by Oscar winner Russell Crowe as Cal, a man who is deep into what he does for a living, and won’t stop until he has the real story, and not a bunch of gossip. Cal will look at every lead, and talk to them a bunch of times before he will run a story.

Ben Affleck, whose work never really impressed me to date, seemed to take it up a notch for this film and it ended being a solid performance. Affleck was able to show a vulnerable politician, at the worst time in his life. A man whose wife doesn’t really want anything to do with him anywhere, whose new love interest has been brutally murdered, and whose career seems to be heading down the drain just as quickly as his love life. Ben is able to express the feelings of Collins, without letting it become a cheese filled role. A good performance for a man whose career seemed to be taking a new turn in the form of directing. If Ben is able to tackle more roles like this one then maybe he still does have a chance to be a good strong lead actor.

Rachel McAdams was decent as well. She started off really slow, but her performance seemed to grow as the film went on. She seemed to be hesitant at first, but then the role seemed to grow on her, when she seemed to become comfortable with all the other actors around her. In the end she did end up having a really good turn. She hasn’t really had an overly amazing performance yet in her career, with the exception of The Lucky Ones which came out in 2009. She has always gotten support though from me as she is Canadian, and it is good to wish actors from your home country well. She has tried on occasion to be a good actress, acting in such films like The Notebook and Red Eye. Neither of which were overly impressive, but she had a good turn in both of those films.

State of Play from the trailers looked like an impressive film, and it was. Not for a moment does this film let you down. If you have seen the trailers and have been waiting for a long while for this one then it will be exactly what you think it will be. Keep in mind, that it does follow some of the clichéd aspects that this genre has carried for many years. But this is the best journalistically themed film since All the Presidents Men. A very impressive look at the politics of today, and how quickly a scandal can get out of control and ruin your life.

A well acted film. Great job from the entire cast, specifically Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams who needed to turn in major performance in order to salvage careers that have been filled with blips. Kudos to Crowe for shining once again in a film that he is hired to lead. Crowe always seems to impress, and that is why he is one of the premiere actors in Hollywood. Awesome.