Crazy Heart is a nice little picture of redemption that hits all the expected beats and is solidly crafted from start to finish with a bunch of quality songs to enjoy along the way.
The story follow Bad Blake a past his prime singer songwriter who has been supplying hits for a young country superstar, Tommy Sweet, as he tours dive bars and bowling alleys poking his head into sobriety only rarely along the way. When he rolls into Santa Fe, Bad meets a journalist, Jean, that he at first tries to bed as any old groupie, but develops a stronger connection with her and her son, Buddy, and finds a bit more meaning in his life with Jean and Buddy in it. Added to this, his agent and Tommy begin really pushing him towards writing Tommy some new material and after an appearance as Tommy’s opening act at a major concert, Bad, begins to dream up some new numbers. Though the alcoholic inside him doesn’t let him stay on his high streak for long.
The film was shot for not a lot of money and first time director Scott Cooper does a nice job at getting the most out of it. [Read more...]
Review: Crazy Heart
Review: Four Christmases
Seth Gordon’s feature debut is unfortunately a lackluster affair, though is saved from being a complete atrocity from the work of Vince Vaughn (though, he has been far, far better at times).
Brad and Kate have been a happily unmarried couple for three years now, they are successful, live together, and have no interest in spending anytime with each others and own families. Choosing to lie about trips to help third world countries when they actually go on fun vacations for themselves over the holidays, their families are oblivious until they are happened to be interviewed at the airport after every flight out of San Francisco has been canceled due to fog. Seeing there children on the news, their respective parents (conveniently all divorced for plots sake) call them up and invite them to Christmas leaving them with four houses to hit in one day.
The movie from here takes the couple on a journey from one side to the other, and does a very poor job of finding a balance of anything. [Read more...]
Review: We Own the Night
This cop drama is pretty much standard fare across the board story board with nothing we haven’t seen before. I think one thing that took a bit away from me on this movie was that the preview gave way too much away. But anyways, the lead, Joaquin Phoenix, does some great work here and is a character you can easily get behind and relate with. [Read more...]
