Angela's Talk

The Machinist

Dark, unsettling, atmospheric mystery....strange but also funny at times...some scenes reminiscent of 'Blue Velvet'.... terrific performances by Bale and Sharian keep the viewer engrossed and guessing right till the end

21

Good fact-based story, but not great. Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, The Other Boleyn Girl) is great. I kept wanting him to sing. I think Kate Bosworth has potential. Aaron Yoo (Disturbia, Rocket Science& The Wackness) is good. Kevin Spacey & Laurence Fishburne are both excellent with Spacey having the much better role.

Street Kings

Yawn. The first half put me to sleep. Forest Whitaker is good as a dirty cop. Keanu Reeves I was able to tolerate in this role by the end (and I am not the typical anti Keanu because I liked The Lake House, A Scanner Darkly, Constantine, Something's Gotta Give, The Matrix, Hard Ball, Sweet November, The Replacements, The Devil's Advocate, A Walk in the Clouds, Speed, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Bill & Ted's, The Night Before, Youngblood, Chain Reaction, Babes in Toyland and Point Break. But he has been in a few that I thought were duds like this: Johnny Mnemonic or Feeling Minnesota. Granted this was not as bad as those. ) The little romance did not stir me. Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) does not interest me, either. Boring, contrived, unconvincing. Not hard or fast enough. Dull, not sharp. I'd rather it was slicker, a harder R by 90%. Maybe someone will remake this in 15 years.

The 2nd half is not too bad overall compared to the first half. But this ain't no Crank, Gone Baby Gone or Mulholland Falls. If you have not seen those, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Se7en, L.A. Confidential, or Oscar winner No Country for Old Men, please see all of them before you see Street Kings. "No Prisoners."

El Orfanato (The Orphanage)

Wow, at first I was not interested in this movie because I mistakenly thought it was another lame horror wannabe. I thought the premise was fitting for Friday night CBS (not real scary). Boy, was I wrong, not about the story per se, but the quality of this movie. One of my best friends watch this with his wife (what??) and she liked it!! And she hates horror. They said it was really good. So I changed my Not Interested to Want To see and boy am I glad I did!! For me this film's strength is not in the story but in the storytelling. I wish I could make a movie this good!!! My hat is off to all involved. I recommend this because it is strong on Suspense and Mystery, the horror is strong, not gore but dramatic. For me, it had a great ending which I was surprised to find in a "horror" movie but again, this is not an average horror movie. If any of this sounds interesting, do not read the plot or anything about it. Just watch it and enjoy the process. Worth seeing!

Chaos Theory

3-1/2 stars movie with a 4 star message so I rounded up. (I rate everything high) Pretty good script, pretty good cast, Sarah Chalke from Scrubs is in lingerie, of course. LOL 8-10 times (not bad). Somewhat predictable but this is a comedic relational drama, not a thriller. Directed by Marcos Siega who has directed a tom of TV stuff, some music videos and Pretty Persuasion which I liked! I would have liked to see it directed by someone a little edgier. Oh well, it was okay. The main character went through transformation and he did up having some wisdom at the end. I would have liked to see Emily Mortimer more and Elisabeth Harnois, too. Maybe a little more time slowed down on the drama because the comedy side was good. Overall, it was better than I expected. Ryan Reynolds continues to move up the ladder.

Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants)

Blew me away! ***Just put it in your queue and be surprised :)