Take Shelter

See it.  Okay, before the straight dope on this, I have to get something funny off the chest.  Right before this film I saw "Barry Munday" (2010) and in it was a supporting actor named Shea Whigham.  Hadn't seen the dude in much of anything and then pow, here is here but in a totally different (but again) supporting role...the dude has chops.  Speaking of acting chops, Michael Shannon ROCKS!  He is a dude who, just because of his expression, looks, and size you hope isn't going psycho because, well, it would be bad.

Okay, only Curtis (Michael Shannon) can see and here things that are just outta place; he also has some majorly spooky dreams as well and a mother who has been committed for being a psycho.  "Curtis, the cards are stacked against you!"  This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and for me (who watches a ton of movies, that is about a month) it is close to being one to watch a second time.  It was that good.  The acting led by Shannon is awesome and so are the supporting roles as well.  The directing was great, the writing awesome, the cinematography great, and what you don't get often is a killer soundtrack.  The music was an element that just really pushed this thing way up there!  SEE THIS ONE!

Barry Munday

This movie was 3 years too late but maybe that is just about right.  "Knocked Up (2007)" was the first version of this.  It is a movie that is really a meeting place of 3 actor categories:

• Those who are on their way to more prominent roles,
• Those who once had prominent roles and are on the way down to obscurity
• Those who have been stuck in this sorta purgatory dealio and have been waiting to pass through the Golden Gates of the MGM studio

There are really no lovable/likable folks but you have to dig Patrick Wilson's "Barry Munday" as he turns from the slacker slouch to responsible dude.  The acting is good, really good, the directing is good and the script is pretty funny.  One dude who just nails it is Shea Whigham who plays Barry's best friend Donald.  He rips!  The only music I can remember is from the "Beaver Tree" but that is that.  Cinematography was all good.

I have no real recommendation either way, but for the most part, it beat the crap out of a ton of movies I have seen of late, so if you are looking for something, this one streams via the red envelope senders so not much effort needed to get the limited value.

London Boulevard

Nice!  Colin Farrell is the best I have ever seen him.  This movie rocked yet is smacked a ton of "Layer Cake" (2004).  These British crime films are such a mental contradiction: how can people with such proper accents be so nasty?  Whatever.  So the story line is the same: crime dude is honorable but wasting his honor in a non honorable profession and he wants out.  However, the kingpin likes his style and wants him to stay and promises the world.  Can he get out? 

If you liked "Layer Cake," you will like this, but don't see them too close together because it will be kind of like seeing the same movie twice except one will have subtitles.  The acting was awesome, the directing was great, the script rocked and the cinematography was good too.  Only goofer was the music that flared whenever Farrell and Knightley started doing the clutching prelude to other stuff stuff.

Monsters

Eh, it was okay.  A satellite goes into outer space to get some samples from somewhere and upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, it blows up and spreads its cargo in the area between the US and Mexico.  Now you have an infested area of big, I mean BIG aliens cruising the area and doing battle against the military forces of Mexico and the US all in an effort to just survive.  In the middle, a photo journalist must escort the daughter of his media mogul boss through the zone to safety in the US.

I am so sick of movies with kids of the rich slumming.  Call me pessimistic, but even when I hear about this sorta thing in real life, I don't buy it.  The girl annoyed me.  The dude was okay, but he ticked me because of being a dad who wasn't in his son' life.  Okay, now that I have destroyed (or at least found no reason to appreciate) the leads, well, it wasn't something that I would click past if I saw it on TV.  In better hands, this movie could have really kicked.

The score is something that I have to draw attention to becuase I don't even remember it.  When that happens, I am of the mind that it must have been good; it didn't detract so it must have added.  The acting was kind of like an uninspired Costner grade.  The directing, not bad, but still it could have been better.  As for the cinematography, it was good.  Script, it was okay.  If you are left with nothing else, you could do far worse than this.

2046

Darn!  I have been stoked to have really hit a vein of cinematic gold, but this last strike of the pick popped someone's septic tank.  I had no idea who or what was going on other than following the exploits of this dude who is obsessed with shagging a specific harlot...unfortunately, all the other harlots he does nic nic with just aren't of the caliber of this one.

At first I was intrigued with the sci fi aspect, but it went to heck and I lost patience waiting for it to come back.  Bail.  I am not even going to jam the directing, script, acting, cinematography or score.  The only score I can remember was...well, the dude scored a lot and I can really remember a specific one.  Avoid this.

The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch

No one I have ever seen or heard of, breasts I hadn't seen before (and still not enough to save this film) and that is it.  There was a ton of promise and action and all of it, but something was missing.  This film was like smelling a big, juicy, perfectly seasoned and cooked steak and then sinking your teeth into a veggie burger.

This post is being done over a week since I saw the movie and since my queue has been hijacked by 2 chick flicks and a kid flick, I am using my time away from the DVD player to write this.  Don't see it.  No one in it really gets me to root for them.  The hero personifies "Rage Against the Machine" as he protests social injustices, yet cruises back to his 4,000 square foot penthouse in downtown Hong Kong to sulk and mope.

Two Days In April

Wow!  This was really something to see.  Okay, full on dude film...unless you are a mother (of an NFL dreaming boy) who doesn't want her son treated like a piece of meat and needs a bit more ammunition for her case.  So this film follows 4 college football players from the end of their final college football season to the start of mini camps at the pro level.

The film covers what is at stake and all the stuff that they go through and must train for beyond what they did in college: Pro Days, Senior Bowls, Interviews, the Combine, etc.  There are shots and scenes that dehumanize them and just make them animals.  Slave trade is what it is.  The last part of the film covers each of the four in their houses, hotel rooms, etc. as they watch the 2006 NFL draft and hope to be called in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd rounds and beyond.  I never knew the gap in salary and how much difference there was.

This was a gripping film.  I got to 11:00 PM a few nights with a 4:30 AM wake up the next day but could not stop watching.  Wow, it was something.  The filming was great, the acting (there was none), the script (there was none), the editing/directing...heck, SEE THIS!