Safe House

Safe House: Reynolds and Washington both give great performances, but that didn't quite make the movie for me. The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

Safe House is yet another movie that was vaguely on my to-see list, then shelved, then revived by a Roeper review. Reynolds and Washington both give great performances here, but that didn't quite make the movie for me.  The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

At first, everything was really fast, and I had no idea what was going on. Then I got into it, and it was pretty interesting. Then towards the middle-end, I just got really sick of the action. I was like, "Okay, alright, chase, we get it! Chase chase chase, they should've just named it 'Neverending Chase Movie.'"

There are some good action sequences, and some good car chases. 

Memento

It has enough cool aspects to earn a solid 3, but it's sad.

 I had to watch something solo today. I couldn't find any of the movies I actually wanted. I checked Xfinity free stuff (there is nothing there I will ever want to watch), Hulu, and Netflix to no avail. I was puttering around my last resort, Hulu, when I saw they had Memento. I had seen it earlier in my search, on my "to watch" list, but I'd long passed the point when I actually wanted to watch it, so I hadn't bothered to see if I could find it anywhere. But, seeing it there on Hulu, I remembered what it was actually about, and I decided it was time to see it, if only to finally be able to say I had.

Guy Pearce is awesome. One of my favorite actors, for sure. I don't think I liked Memento, though. There were a lot of twists, and parts of it were interesting. I liked some of the themes, and the dialogue was stellar in parts. But parts of it also lagged, and it was a bit of a downer. It's slightly reminiscent of The Salton Sea, in ways, but I liked that movie a lot more.

Stake Land

A few things don't work, but it's immersive and original.

Stake Land is intense. There's really no way to describe how viciously it pulls you in. You're immediately thrust into all the shock, horror, and gore. It's so hardcore it makes The Walking Dead look like Cinderella. I've seen my fair share of zombie/vampire movies, but I was not prepared for this one. It reminded me a lot of Feast, without the humor. Any humor. No humor here.

Contraband

Cool concept with lots of twists and tension.

I wanted to see Contraband before it came out, but I had pretty much shelved it until I saw Roeper's review. He said it was good, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I really liked it. It was hard to get into at first, though. That camerawork was driving me crazy. Totally unnecessary. Didn't add anything. What was the point? Either it stopped halfway through, or I just got used to it, because I didn't notice it as much after that.

Cowboys & Aliens

Also starring: Daniel Craig's butt.
A movie not without its faults, but good show.

I didn't want to see Cowboys & Aliens. It seemed too gimmicky. Everyone was all like, "what a crazy movie! It's all there in the title, cowboys and aliens, ha ha ha!" And I was like..no. Plus, I didn't like Daniel Craig. I didn't get why everyone liked him so much. I hadn't seen him in anything. Then I saw him in Skyfall. Turns out, he's a good actor. Then I saw Roeper's review of Cowboys. He liked it, and he made it seem like something I wanted to see, so I got it.

Cloud Atlas

Not life-changing, but it held my interest.

First of all, someone should really have done a better job promoting Cloud Atlas. Until I saw a review of it, I pretty much just knew it was a bunch of confusing stuff involving Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and the future, and that's not very appealing.

I liked the stories about the future the most. What happened in Neo Seoul was utterly appalling. Some of the stories weren't as entertaining/satisfying as the others, but you've got a lot to choose from, so it's kind of a wash. Some of the makeup was distracting, and there were times when the constant switching between stories got to be annoying.

I think my favorite character was probably Old Georgie. He was such a mystery, and he had a great outfit. The movie leaves a few things unanswered. Not about the Fall or the rebellion, like some people apparently wonder about, but smaller things. It makes me want to read the book, but there are so many upsetting parts I don't want to revisit.

Overall, it wasn't life-changing, but it held my interest.

Shutter Island

This movie has a lot going for it. Scorsese's a great director, DiCaprio's a great actor. The overall production is solid. The ending wasn't exactly a surprise, and it's still a bit more ambiguous than I'd like, although I'm not sure what could've been done to change that.