And then there was last night, when I knew I was going to be staying up late and so planned to sleep in a little before coming to work...which of course meant I got a text from a coworker around 6pm, asking if they could get a ride in to work this morning. It was fine...I like them and they've done favors for me in the past. The irony was mostly that a) what were the chances the one day I was planning to come in late they need to be here by 9am for a meeting and 2) they're also not a morning person and so normal would have been thrilled to have an excuse for coming in a bit late.
The reason for my late night was I went with Matt to see The Gift at 10:40pm. He "needed" to see it for his radio spot this afternoon (I'll post a link to it once the podcast is available) and couldn't go earlier because he was seeing the new Fantastic Four movie...which, by the way, he says was the 3rd worst movie he's ever seen in theaters. He rated it a half a star out of five. Tragic.My impression from the commercials of The Gift were that it was going to be a horror thriller...and it wasn't, which was fine. It was a very solid thriller and I liked it a lot. It had a pretty tight story, good acting and a couple twists.
Originally I wanted to watch this movie because of Jason Bateman. I'm generally a fan, plus he makes a good jerk. I really like him and so I leaned sympathetic to his character initially (even though you can tell from the commercials there's something up with him) and he unfolds his character pretty well. As an actor, he plays both comedic and dramatic rolls well. I'm not as familiar with Rebecca Hall - I think I've only seen her in The Prestige and Iron Man 3 up till now - but thought she did a good job as Bateman's wife. And I had no idea how talented Joel Edgerton was - he played a main character (Gordo), wrote and directed The Gift. That's pretty impressive.
Rated R for language, it was fortunately less sleazy than I was anticipating. I tried looking up the review on PluggedIn yesterday before the movie, but they hadn't posted anything yet. I'm really surprised to see it only got 1 and a half "plugs." I admit that from a strict moral standpoint that might be legit...it's basically a revenge flick...but you're also not going into a movie like this looking for something redemptive. The best person in the movie is Robyn (Rebecca Hall) who, though flawed, is a pretty darn nice person...which makes her a moral compass of the movie and a pretty good one at that. This PluggedIn assessment is a good example of why they're good for reference, but not for making your decision prior to seeing a movie.
If you're looking for a good thriller this weekend, I would definitely recommend checking it out!
~ Katie
Song of the day, part II! I've had this one running through my head for a couple of weeks, ever since I joined some friends for karaoke. Don't panic, I haven't been body snatched. I didn't sing...just watched. :) One of my friends chose this and it was amazing. I later learned it's his "go to" song and I could see why. Thankfully he doesn't read this blog (his ego does not need any extra inflating, lol) but I was really impressed and thought he knocked it out of the park. Because of this...and the fact that it's a great song...I give you "Cry Me A River" by Michael Bublé.
UPDATE:
I just noticed that I hadn't posted the link to Matt's podcast last week. So, here you go.
http://www.espn1480.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=7267312
One of my favorite movies is "Ransom" with Mel Gibson.
ReplyDeleteWill I like this movie?
Maybe? The Gift is more of a psychological thriller, I think. Not that Ransom isn't too...but I think it has more of an action thriller edge to it than The Gift does.
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