Archive for September, 2013
Now You See Me
September 3rd, 2013 | 
Author: Although I had heard and read good things about the movie, I kept putting off going to see it because I am not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg. He has gotten accolades as actor. Unfortunately, most of his roles are similar in that his character always comes across as a fast talking, hyperkinetic, ADHD, and autistic individual. In otherwords, he gets on my nerves. I did catch this movie recently and was somewhat surprised. Good cast all the way around and they must have sedated Eisenberg because he appeard relatively normal, which was a refreshing change.
The movie is about four magicians who individually answer a mysterious summons to an obscure address with secrets inside. A year later, they are the Four Horseman, big time stage illusionists who climax their sold out Las Vegas show with a bank apparently robbed for real. This puts agents Dylan Rhodes of the FBI and Alma Vargas of Interpol on the case to find out how they did it. However, this mystery proves difficult to solve even with the insights of the professional illusion exposer, Thaddeus Bradley. What follows is a bizarre investigation where nothing is what it seems with illusions, dark secrets and hidden agendas galore as all involved are reminded of a great truth in this puzzle: the closer you look, the less you see.
I would have liked for them to add a few more stops on their tour and a few more illusions, but the movie was quite entertaining and I will watch it again because I am sure there are some interesting fine points to it that I missed.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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Pain and Gain
I saw th previews of this movie and it looked pretty stupid. However, it did feature one of my favorite actors, Mark Wahlberg. While visiting a rural town, this was the only movie playing I had not seen, so I found myself watching it. This movie is based on the true story of Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) a Miami bodybuilder who wants to live the American dream. He would like to have the money that other people have. So he enlists the help of fellow bodybuilder Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and ex-convict, Christian bodybuilder Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson). Their kidnapping and extortion scheme goes terribly wrong since they have muscles for brains and they’re left to haphazardly try to hold onto the elusive American dream. I did not realize until after the movie that it was actually based on real events. In doing the usual Google searches, I confirmed this and also realized that the movie was certainly a bit comedically dramatized. This should be caterogized as a B/Cult movie, as I am sure it will catch on somewhat like Napolean Dynamite or more appropriately Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
This will certainly never be up for any kind of award, but it was a somewhat mindless bit of macabe entertainment.
Rating: 2 out of 5