Reviews by Matt

“The Kings Speech” follows the rise of King George VI before and leading up to England’s involvement in World War II. Prince Albert (Colin Firth) speaks with a stutter and is terrified to make speeches. In an effort to cure him of his stutter, his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) meets with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) a speech therapist and gets him to agree to treat her husband.

I was blown away by this movie. I went in not really interested in it, but left shocked at how much I loved it. I knew very little about it going in and had managed to avoid much of the hype. It is everything you have heard. It is a stunningly made and amazingly acted.

Of the two lead actors, I was most impressed with Rush. Lionel has a respect for the future king, but demands the same back. He treats Prince Albert as an equal and even calls him “Bertie,” a nickname reserved for use only by those in the royal family. Prince Albert allows Lionel these liberties and the two of them form a tenuous friendship. The relationship is tested at many points. Things are said and done that cross a line when dealing with a prince. Rush gives an Oscar worthy performance by making Lionel someone who is not afraid to do what is best for his patient. He is steadfast in his convictions and does not relent even in the face of a king.

Firth also deserves the nomination he recently received. Albert is a man looking to find his voice. He is not the most strong-willed member of the family. His doubts about his ability to give a speech lead to his fear of becoming the king. There is a power in his transformation we see in the two bookends of the film. In the beginning we see him struggle to give a speech at the closing of the 1925 Empire Exhibition to reading the declaration of war that brought Britain into World War II. I was impressed at what a convincing stutter Firth had and part of me thinks that this is why he was nominated.

Come Oscar night, I expect to see this win many of its 12 possible Oscars. The performances alone are reason enough to see this. Rush and Firth are stunning to watch and make these two characters powerful to watch in screen.

9 out of 10
Rated R for some language
118 min

There have been a plethora of superhero movies for close to a decade now, but this coming year may be the biggest offering of comic book/super hero movies ever. This summer there are three of them coming out within a few weeks of one another. But that is six months away--right now we have “The Green Hornet.”

When his father dies, Britt Reid (Seth Rogan) abandons his playboy ways and sets out to clean up the city. He enlists the help of his father’s friend Kato (Jay Chou) and dons the mantel of the Green Hornet. Where Batman and his ilk fight crime by standing for good, Reid’s Hornet fights crime by being the bad guy.

One man has a problem with this, Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz) a gangster who has a stranglehold on the crime in the city. He sets out to take out the would-be crime lord before his empire crumbles.

Rogan does a good job and is pretty funny, but his character is not even remotely likable. He is a rich, spoiled, jerk who does not earn any of the character moments the movie tries to give him.

Jay Chou is known to in Taiwan as a pop singer and movie star. In the past few years a few of his movies have been released here in the States. This is his first big movie role and he does a pretty good job. He is the sidekick in the partnership, but is really the one who does all the heavy lifting. He is a skilled fighter and designed the Black Beauty that the Hornet and Kato drive around in.

My biggest grip with the movie is Cameron Diaz. She adds nothing to the movie. All she is there for is to add tension between Britt and Kato. Even then it is forced and only hurts the movie.

Long story short, this movie is only worth it only if you catch it on cable on a lazy afternoon. Other than that, don’t worry about it. You are not missing much.

7 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violent action, language, sensuality and drug content
119 min

Hype is a dangerous thing. It can either work for you or against you. Think about every time you were so excited for something only to have it disappoint you. As a movie fan I try not to let hype get to me. I like to go in and be able to form my own opinions about a movie. I do not read reviews or listen to podcasts that review movies that I plan on seeing before I go. Once I go I like to see how their opinions differed from my own. But no matter how hard I try, every now and then, I let the hype get to me and sometimes it effects how I watch a movie.

That is what happened with “True Grit.”

When her father is murdered by a man he hired, Mattie (Hallie Steinfeld) sets out to get justice. She hires U.S. Marshall “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to capture Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and bring him to justice. One of Mattie’s conditions is that she accompanies him to see that Chaney is captured. Along the way they meet up with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) and the three go on the hunt for Clancy.

Yes I had this movie hyped up for me, but I still put it at No. 3 on my top 10 of 2010. The truth is that I did not love it as much as I felt I should have. Because of what I had heard on a podcast, I went into “True Grit” expecting to be blown away. I was not, even though I really liked the movie.

Bridges and Damon have proven that they have what it takes to carry movies and win Oscars. They do another solid job here and are a great pairing. The true surprise is Hallie Steinfeld. No 14-years-old should be able to do what she does in this movie. She easily gives two veteran, Oscar winning actors a run for their money. She shares the screen with these two stars and holds her own.

Mattie is such a strong character. She has strong convictions and is willing to fight for what she believes is right. One thing that I heard that I do agree with is that every girl should see this movie. Mattie is a character they should see and learn from.

I let the hype for “True Grit” get to me and it jaded my view of the movie. I felt I should have been blown away by this movie and I let that feeling carry too much weight. The movie is still really good and worth a trip to the theater…just be careful and, as Public Enemy sang, “don’t believe the hype.”

8 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images
110 min

This was not a good year for me to see movies. I have been busier than ever and have loved every second of it. Sadly though this has severely limited my chances to go see movies. I had very few movies truly worthy of this list. I barely saw 10 movies this year and that makes this list harder to defend. I was tempted to do a top five, but where is the fun in that? So to give myself a challenge, I kept the top 10 format and came up with one of the more interesting top 10 lists you are bound to see.

10) Kick-Ass

Honestly this is only on this list because I did not see that many movies this year. It was a fun movie that is really meant only for the comic book fans of the world. I loved it because it was something different. The main character was the very definition of an average kid and just wanted to do something. There was the shock value of seeing a little girl curse like a sailor. All and all a really fun movie for the under 30 set in the Levy clan.

9) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Again this is a movie made for a very specific audience. Anyone who grew up in the 80’s with the 8 and 16-bit video games like Mario or Street Fighter will get this movie. It is funny and geeky and did not make diddley-squat at the box office. Sadly the world is not as geek friendly enough for this to be the box office smash it should have been.

This is also the first movie starring Michael Cera that has not made be physically ill. He actually did a good job of playing Scott Pilgrim and giving him a believable dweebey toughness.

8) Let Me In

This would have been No. 10 had I gotten to the theater more often this year. I really liked the original “Let the Right One In,” but this Americanized version added some things that made it better, but also took some things out that made it worse. Unlike the previous two, this movie is for anyone who likes movies. I also highly recommend the Swedish “Let The Right One In” too.

The real standout it Chloe Moretz. She is still very young but has some real talent on screen. She can play both creepy and sweet (sometimes at the same time).

7) The Town

Ben Affleck has come full circle. He has been redeemed from all the bad movies he made over the past 5 years or so. With “The Town” he is actor, director and co-writer. His performance is great if clichéd “bad guy with a heart of gold. ” The direction, especially in the heist scenes, is really quite good.

It was just the ending I did not like. I was unsure of how to take it. It is not that it ruined the movie for me, but it kept it from being a great movie. Granted it had a lot to contend with in other movies in the top 10.

6) Inception

This should be higher on my list. I really did love this movie, but I think that since I last saw it in July, my love as diminished. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was amazing. The way each dream was different from the one before it, made it easy to follow. But absence does not always make the heart grow fonder.

Nolan makes puzzles, not movies and this might be his masterpiece. He has one more Batman movie to make, “The Dark Knight Rises” which will come out in 2012, but he an make whatever movie he wants after all the success he has had and I will be in line to see whatever it is.

5) The Social Network

I need to start this by saying I hate that Facebook has become my go to site when I am bored on the Internet. It could get shut down tomorrow and I do not think my life would change that much. All that being said, I loved “The Facebook Movie.” The dialogue was amazingly written and beautifully performed.

The fact that a movie about the founding of Facebook could be so fascinating and done so well that I am actually looking forward to seeing it again even though it is very much a dialogue driven movie.

4) How To Train Your Dragon

I so very much wanted to put this higher. I love this movie. The problem is that my top three movies were better movies over all. Sadly someone in my position has to balance love of a movie with best movie I saw. If this were a list of movies I love from 2010, this would take the top spot easily.

What started out as a movie I had no interest in turned into my surprise of the year. The story, at its core is a boy and his pet and his attempt to fit in. The core relationship in the movie is not between Hiccup and his father or Hiccup and Astrid (his love interest). It is the relationship between Hiccup and the dragon Toothless. You cannot help but get teary-eyed in many places during the movie. I love this movie and cannot recommend it enough.

3) True Grit

Just saw this on New Year’s Eve, so my review is not up yet, but I was impressed with this movie. I heard a lot of talk about how amazing it was and I was not that impressed. I still really liked it, but it was not the best movie I saw this year. I fell victim to hype, something I rarely pay much attention to and it colored how I saw this movie. I wanted more when I left the theater.

The performances are great. Jeff Bridges can act, I think we all know that given his track record of the past few years. The true surprise was 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. She holds her own with stars like Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and some of the other stars. If she keeps this up, she should have an amazing career.

2) Toy Story 3

A great way to wrap up the story of Andy’s toys. This was the first trilogy that I was able to see all the parts in a theater (I don’t count Spider-Man 3 because it does not exist). I am not going to gush over the awesomeness of Pixar because I have done that every year and in every review of one of their movies, but they rock and can do no wrong.

If you did not cry in this movie, check your pulse. The final scene in the movie is something that everyone can relate to. Not going to spoil it if you have not seen it, but you really need to see it.

1) 127 Hours

No other movie this year affected me as much as “127 Hours” did. It is an amazingly simple movie. A man trapped beneath a rock in a canyon way out in the Utah wilderness. He is going to die unless he does something drastic. What is more amazing is that it is a true story. Aaron Ralston, played by James Franco, had to cut off his forearm in order to survive.

In an interview I heard with director Danny Boyle, he addresses the idea of could anyone cut off their arm if they were in Aaron’s position. He said “(the movie) says could you do this? And people go, ‘I couldn’t do that’ and they talk about it like that. What we wanted to convey in the film is that yes, you can. And not only yes you can, but yes you would. You would do that. And people say ‘No I wouldn’t, I would just die’ and you go ‘No you wouldn’t’…and that thing that combines us all, which is that we will keep living.”


Bring on 2011!

Almost forgot:


I make a lot of movie recommendations. It just comes with the territory of being know as the movie guy. I do not get many movies recommended to me, so when I do I take it seriously. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, told me I had to see “The Town.” I had that Friday free so I took her recommendation.

“The Town” takes place in Charlestown Mass. It is known for its high occurrence of bank robberies. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is a man who makes his living doing just that—robbing banks. During one such robbery, he and crew take Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After they let her go, Doug keeps an eye on her to make sure that she doesn’t know anything that could get them caught. He “bumps into” her one day and they strike up a relationship. When Doug’s best friend James (Jeremy Renner) discovers the relationship he confronts Doug and the relationship between the two friends becomes strained.
Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) is determined to catch them and hopes that Claire can give him anything to use to catch them.

For a long time Ben Affleck Hollywood’s whipping boy. I even used him in an April Fool’s article for the school paper. In the past few years he has been anything but that. He made is directorial debut with “Gone Baby Gone” a few years ago. It got nominated for a few Oscars and Ben was back in the good graces of Hollywood. Now he is back as writer, director and this time, star of “The Town.” Affleck gives a really good performance here. He shows that he is a great actor and those movies he made for a few years were just flukes.

There is a lot to like about this movie. Renner and Hamm deliver some pretty good performances too. Even Blake Lively (of “Gossip Girl” fame) is actually impressive. All around, the movie is strong. There are some pretty intense car chases and the final robbery takes place in an unlikely and iconic Boston setting.
It would appear my friends don’t have such bad taste in movies. I will take future recommendations with a grin of salt though because my friend also told me she was going to watch “Twilight” that night too.

8 out of 10
Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use
125 min