Movie Review: Looper

Hired assassins who work for mobsters from the future. Looper is the story about Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who lives in Kansas in 2044. He's a Looper where his job is to kill anyone sent back from the future. He's given a time and location, and its his job to kill the person sent back and dispose of the body. The reason being that its too hard to get rid of bodies in the future.

There's something called a closed loop, its when a Looper had to kill his future self. You get a massive payday and you're retired to live out the next 30 years of your life till you you get grabbed by the mob so they can close your loop. No one seems to think this is odd or the fact that your final job is of you killing yourself but its pretty lawless in the future, people are starving, hungry, homeless and the mobsters rule certain cities to the point where they own and control the police openly. The Loopers are run by Abe (Jeff Daniels) who controls the town. He was sent from the future and apparently all time travel is a one way deal, he has the loopers who kill the people sent from the future and the Gat men who are his hired muscle for the everyday around the city missions. Loopers carry Blunderbusses, Gat men carry high caliber longer range, more precision guns. Also in this future 10% of the population are TK's, they have low level telekinesis and can do weak parlor tricks like making quarters float and spin.

Young Joe doesn't seem to question too much of anything about his job, he has his favorite hooker a constantly underdressed and underused Piper Perabo, he's saving his money for when his loop is closed so he can move to France, and he's a drug addict who thinks he's got it under control. When his only friend Seth, fails to close his own loop we see the grim side of what happens when a Looper fails at their job. When the time comes Joe is sent his future self closes his loop and we get to see the next 30 years of his life, of course what happens is what causes Old Joe (Bruce Willis) when his time comes to have his loop closed doesn't go quietly. Its a time travel movie so there's a few jumps between time and a few scenes repeated as par for the course. Joe has a reason he doesn't want to die in 30 years and the information of the future as to why loops are being closed and he wants to stop his. In the middle of all this is Sara (Emily Blunt) who's farm young Joe ends up at at, she's there with her super smart son Cid. This kid was a casting gem. As you get more into the story, young Joe's mission becomes clear to him, the dangers of time travel and how your memories get sharp or fuzzy based on what Old and Young Joe do while on the run from Abe's guys keeps you roped in. All the Looper contracts are being closed by the Rainmaker, old Joe's there to kill him and once you make the connection that Cid is the Rainmaker you know all possible outcomes are going to eat away at you. The future is dismissal but old Joe has a slice of life worth saving to him. Old Joe is married, clean and happy. He has to do this no matter how hard it is because the Rainmaker takes him away from his wife.

I really enjoyed this movie, for once a huge key element isn't given out in the trailer, I was completely surprised by it and things I expected to happen did not. Plus this kid Cid, highlight of the whole damn movie, keeps you invested in this movie even though Bruce Willis hair throughout the years is so comical you can't help but stare at it.

I give this movie a Matinee. It was great, just not the best thing I’ve seen this year, good enough to pay for sure but it just slightly fell short. The ending is just so final and unexpected but fits when you stop and think about it. I found myself dwelling on the ending for a while, there were a few ways they could have taken it but thats what they chose.

Looper is Rated R.

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Movie Review: Pitch Perfect

I’m pretty sure the success of Glee is the reason this movie got made. Having seen exactly 2 episodes of Glee, but an entire season of The Sing Off I figured I would give this movie a try. Worse case scenario I'd have new songs to add to one of my playlists on Spotify.

Pitch Perfect tries to grab you from the gate with the College a cappella championships where 2 teams from the same school are competing, sure its all singing and dancing but then they totally throw in a vomit comet you don't see coming and yes its pretty gross. Cut forward to the 1^st day of school at Barden University where we get to meet Beca (Anna Kendrick) incoming freshman, who wants to be a music producer and move to LA but her dad is a professor at Barden and so she has to go. The two a capella groups are there with all the other clubs, the Bellas led by Aubrey and Chloe (Brittany Snow) after the fiasco at last years championship can't convince anyone to try out. They are old-school, tired and look just like they walked out of a Mad Men episode, the Treblemakers on the other had have their pick and are approached by Jeese (Sklyar Astin) who wants to score movies when he gets out of college and Benji who has an insane level of fandom for Star Wars and magic, both can sing but of course Bumper, the leader isn't going to want the weird kid.

The movie truly doesn't get going till we meet Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) every screen she's in is comedy gold, I was in tears with the sandwich screen, but she is clearly the main reason to even want to see this movie. The singing is good as to be expected, the audition where everyone sings Since You've Been Gone, the scene with the riff-off where all the a capella teams have a round robin sing-off based on the given category unless they get clapped out was very enjoyable. The only other times you really will enjoy are during the competitions, the announcer team of John (John Michael Higgins) and Gail (Elizabeth Banks) keep up the smiles while trading the insults. Its a total win just with their banter.

I give this movie a Redbox. Its entertaining, its catchy but its not amazing. I enjoyed myself but all I can think about is what will Fat Amy do next while the rest of the movie was cute as much as I like potty humor the barf jokes were way unnecessary. I’m just as content to follow the movie's Tumblrpage which is more entertaining.

Pitch Perfect is Rated PG-13.

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Movie Review - Trouble With the Curve

Clint Eastwood accepting his age? In Trouble with the Curve he plays Gus, the scout for the Atlanta Braves. He's crotchety, can barely see, need an earpiece to amplify his hearing and orders pizza delivered for breakfast so he won't end up burning his house down cooking. He's sent to North Carolina to scout what everyone is expecting will be the next big thing in baseball. The Braves have the number 2 pick and this high schooler is what they think they need so draft choice rides on his scouting report.

He's not just a grumpy old man. He also has a somewhat fragile relationship with his only daughter Mickey played by Amy Adams. Her dad is a baseball scout, Mickey isn't short for shit. That's her real name. She’s high powered lawyer about to make partner at her firm. She's the typical daddy's girl everything she does is to please him even if its not what he wants. She’s making tons of money working and living her life, dad wants her to date so she can have a husband to take care of her. He's set in his ways. When her dad's old friend and boss Pete played by John Goodman, asks her to join her dad on the scouting trip you know this isn't really a movie about baseball. Its a movie about father's and daughters.

Justin Timberlake is Johnny, is a rival scout, his teams has the number 1 pick and are also thinking about taking this kid. He was scouted by Gus when he was a player, the Braves drafted him rode him hard and he blew out his arm. Ended up traded then no longer playing, he's using this as a jump to the announcers box, if he pulls this off that job is his. He of course is completely taken with Mickey. She having no time for a social live takes a hell of a lot of work for him to charm her. There's also the arrogant guy who wants Gus' job (Matthew Lillard) he's aiming to push him out or and if he plays his cards right get all the way to GM. The owner Vince (Robert Patrick) spends his time in-between the old ways and the new not sure what's a better ideal. The kid they want to recruit? World-Class asshole. Bo Gentry fully believes he's god's gift and knows he's going to go high in the draft he's playing so he can get his dream of banging all the Desperate Housewives. Yes there are some small town country jokes up in there too.

The father and daughter really start off extremely rocky. He's mad she's there, she's upset he hasn't been telling her about his hearing and especially his vision going. He isn't willing to let her know that he thinks he screwed up raising her because she was on the road with him a few years. She needs him to know she spent years in therapy thinking he sent her away to live with family and boarding school because she thought he didn't want her anymore. The hole between them and how they view each other is massive but they bound over baseball and finally acknowledge why he sent her away after her mom died and how she's done everything she has to make him notice her. Its a heartfelt story about how the mother's death drove them apart but baseball was their one connector and with time acknowledgment and some leaps of faith they could repair that hole and get back to a normal relationship. The love each other but they are both stubborn and its funny to see them fight with each other. Sure there's baseball, and Johnny spends ¾ of the movie trying to get Mickey to go out with him, their romance is a subplot but Justin Timberlake goes some good comic relief. Of course Nope nothing bad happens to Bo before the draft, you want him to die in a fire & he gets drafted and all, but the movie isn't over, what happens after the draft is the payoff and the happily ever after for all the people you tend to like in general. Will except Gus, Your not really supposed to like him but he doesn't die.

I give this movie a Matinee. Its no Moneyball which I think is much better than this, but its an enjoyable film thats not really about baseball but about the people who have baseball weaved into their lives. Trouble with the Curve is rated PG-13. It clocks in just under 2 hours and opens in theaters nationwide tomorrow.


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Movie Review - Won't Back Down

This review contains spoilers

Jamie (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a poor single mom who's daughter Malia attends the neighborhood elementary school. The school has been failing for 19 years, her daughter (a 3^rd grader) can't read and has a teacher who completely ignores her class to shop on the internet. Nona is a teacher at the same school. Former teacher of the year is teaching a class of bored disengaged students. She's become world weary, her marriage is falling apart, and her son who she has enrolled in a different public school across town is failing miserably. They couldn't be more different, based on how they dress, their homes, how they raise their children Nona for instance doesn't allow candy or TV on weekdays, Jamie brings Malia over with a DVD player so they can be entertained and is shocked that Nona doesn't allow such a thing. The movie does a great job at pointing out just how different they are.

The reason they get together is because Jamie can't get her daughter into a better school or class and just happens to learn about the parent trigger law where a school that is failing can be taken over by the teachers and parents. The movie is set in Pittsburgh which doesn't have a parent trigger law. The only state where such a law exists in California. The two band together, Nona requires a ton of coaxing, and decide to see if they can get the support they need to get it in front of the board, like Hollywood magic of course they get it done in a few months instead of the years it realistically should take, even the people who explain what they need say it takes years to get to that point but you know its Hollywood. The thing is the movie can't decide who's the villain in the film, the school board who won't pass it or the teacher's union who is very much against it. The movie isn't completely anti-union. There's a scene with Jamie's boyfriend, Michael also a teacher at Adam’s Elementary and probably the most well liked person in the school where he explains who unions exist when they helped a good teacher keep his job. He's the voice of reason even if Jamie is more interested in making out with him than listening.

The movie is clearly trying to make a point but it gets lost along the way. It's great at pulling the heart strings, when Nona's son comes home with blood on his shirt after being pushed around by the other kids at his school where they call him slow she makes so hard choices and the woman sitting next to me was hysterical crying. When the teacher's union launches a smear campaign against Nona and we see why she is so overprotective of him you get how she got to where she was. Viola Davis plays this part with heart and you feel her emotion, as a person the explore her character but leave so many others cliches of themselves. I couldn't make myself like Jamie no matter how hard I tried, she's headstrong, she seems to want to help her daughter but she doesn't see the “greater good” or how not everyone wants what she wants. Even her Malia's absolutely horrible teacher who everyone hates, Jamie doesn't see why she wouldn't want these changes. You do at least feel for Nona, she's liked by her coworkers till they find out she's helping Jamie with the school takeover plan. She has a principal she can't stand one who gets it in his head she's aiming for his job, more magic, but hey we aren't taking prisoners here. Ving Rhames has a tiny part as the Principal of the coveted Charter school, Holly Hunter who plays the Head of the teacher’s union although later she seems to not be, daughter of union parents, Evelyn tries to make all these issues go away, she offers to give Malia a full scholarship to the fancy private school that half of the board sends their children to, She's got some board members in her pocket but of course she experiences a crisis of conscience when the attacks on Nona happen without her consent.

Now these being a Hollywood movie, they of course in a gripping vote manage to get it passed, Jamie makes this startling revelation that she's dyslexic just like her daughter, and they open their school where sure enough Malia can magically read. At that point I totally want to throw my hands up and slap my neighbor.

I give this movie a Redbox. Its not amazing, but I can see why some love it. It didn't make me cry or even feel overwhelmingly moved because I could see the pandering a mile away. I was more moved by The Lottery which is an excellent documentary about the character school system and the lives of a set of families who all try for the well regarded NYC charter school. This is dressed up to push an agenda but its clumsy. They had lots to work with but just didn't feel like bothering its unfocused and thats what keeps it from being a must see.

New School Year, New Challenges

Image Credit  Jimston Journal

Its a new school year. C1 has officially entered high school and I’m terrified. Having a kid with autism makes back to school take a completely different tone and set of challenges. My mind is focused on her adjustment to a new school with new rules, a school with 2000+ students, if my new IEP team will be as helpful and cooperative as the last, if I will have a month or more of daily meltdowns because the school is one big sensory ball of chaos. I have to again have the sex talk and not the way I expected. I have to focus on not being taken advantage of or being talked into something because her social skills and her inability to read people makes her an easy target.

Its stressful y’all.

Her first day wasn't too bad. After the obligatory first day pics, (which for me was a first time ever taking them before dawn) She proceeded to give me typical teen angst. Complaining I took too many pictures, thinking every noise she heard was possibly the school bus before I finally left her head off to the bus stop. 

Before she got real annoyed with me.

On her return home that afternoon, I had to 1^st tell her she forgot to turn on her cellphone, a requirement I have while she waits and rides the bus both ways. After I watched her and gave her space, I could tell she was trying to decompress I got to the myriad of first day questions. The one I feared the most clearly shook her up as well. While we'd been at the school twice for tours she was completely unprepared for the amount of kids. Her school is not considered overcrowded but that many students and that volume levels she came home shaking. Its been a week now and she's still coming home in sensory overload but its not as bad as the first day.

I may joke and kid on social media, I made several comments about a teacher of hers who was shocked when I told her C1 has had e-textbooks for 3 years.

Hello the teacher doesn't even have a website! I bet she thinks I was lying...

I still have to make some minor adjustments. She's used to classes with SMARTBoards and individual laptops, but she' new to the online testing area, something the State put into practice this school year. She's completely overwhelmed by the cafeteria line length but as with every school she's ever attended she visits the school library daily. She's amazed by the soda machines, the allowance of iPods in between classes and during lunch and she's gotten some class time with her iTouch. I know the social aspect will take a long time but I’m glad she's making it to the end of the day before she goes into her stimming episodes. Its the balancing game I have to play. Home life is considerably more chaotic because of her need to decompress but she's making it all the way to home so its just one of those things.

High School is a journey much more complex than I could ever imagine. We are already going to attend our first college fair soon. As I sat on the phone with K talking about both of our brand new 9^th graders who are venturing into this world, either child is the same we get to discussion what's similar, whats different and then joke about our high school days.

Milestones are funny like that. I have a high schooler. Its something I never thought would be a big deal but then when life gives you a child with special needs you realize that there are lots of milestones in life, they just sneak up on you. 

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Movie Review: The Words

Its a story, within a story, within a story and its not the least bit confusing. The Words starts as a book of the same name written by Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid) who is doing an author reading. He tells the story of Rory and Dora Jansen, a happy couple who were going through life as a teacher and a struggling writer in their Brooklyn apartment picking up with the success of Rory's book. Rory (Bradley Cooper) finally marries Dora (Zoe Saldana) and they honeymoon in Paris where after reflecting on Ernest Hemingway's home they wander into a shop and Dora buys Rory an old worn leather briefcase. Rory has written this novel called The Burning Tree, after a thick stack of rejection notices, I didn't even know there were that many publishing houses, he on the urging of his father gets a steady job as a mail room clerk at a large publishing house. Rory literally stumbles upon the manuscript while he is transferring his papers to the old briefcase. We find him enthralled by such an amazing book and one night when he can't sleep he feels compelled to copy the book on his computer word for word. He thinks nothing of it and goes about his day till his wife Dora finds the “new” copy and pushes him to send it to publishing houses completely unaware that he didn't write it. Of course the book, The Window Tear, becomes a big success.

Rory seems to take it all in stride. As we are watching the story being narrated, A young grad student come in to watch the reading enthralled as the rest of the audience for the tales in this book. Olivia Wilde plays the sexy grad student looking to score with an bestselling author. Everything is going just fine for Rory and Dora till we see the moment that Rory is confronted by the old man in the park a fabulous as always Jeremy Irons, who after playing along calls him out for stealing the book because its in fact his. We then get the story of the old man telling what happened in his live and his war tour in Paris that compelled him to write this book. We learn of his military service and his wife and child and the tragedy that forced him to sit and in 2 weeks bang out that book. The story itself is just as gripping as the first. We are tossed back to the original reading of the book The Words and reminded this is just a story. A painful twisting story with mostly fleshed out characters, (all the women are grossly underdeveloped) but again he is just reading a novel. He finishes his reading with the cliffhanger of how Rory was shocked to realize his fact story might get out.

When Clay is home wining the grad student she asks how the book ends. He then goes to indulge her with more of the details which we get to see again but she calls bullshit. He pushes her to come up with what she thinks would happen. She wants to know how Rory and Dora are at the end, she doesn't believe his neat ending. You start to wonder if the book The Words is truly a fictional book or something more. We are given a real ending about what happens to Rory and Dora.

This movie was just amazing. I was drawn in from the beginning and griped all the way till the end. It was so well laid out and had such heartfelt moments you really are understanding how the layers of the story go on and on and are intertwined but never make you lose grip of what's going on. There are not many movies were I stare at the credits in a wow moment because I enjoyed every minute.

I give this movie a Full Price. You care about these people not just Rory and Dora but the soldier and his wife. I wish it was a book because I would gladly pick this up.

The Word is rated PG-13. Its in theaters nationwide September 7^th.

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