Vindicated

9 months ago

Just watched: We Own the Night

We Own the Night

A truly surprising solid film that had it’s shock and awe value throughout. The film opens up with a bang… a fingerbang that is, as Joaquin Phoenix is getting hot and heavy with his girlfriend Eva Mendes. Things don’t last long as Phoenix is quickly summoned to oversee things going on in the night club he is affiliated with. He’s into it deep with some pretty nasty characters in the mob. Plot twist… he’s related to two cops, his brother (Wahlberg) and his father (Duvall) who just happens to be the police chief. The film is very dark and gritty, there’s no one scene that is bright and vivid. There’s a car chase that takes place during the rain that is one of the best filmed scenes of recent memory. Great acting was made by great writing throughout. I’m interested to watch the other films of director James Gray.

8/10

we own the night

1 year ago

Watched: Contraband

Contraband

Finally the first “2012” film that I’ve seen. It was a decent start to the year. Nothing monumental or ground breaking about this film at all. It has a pretty solid cast, I like pretty much everyone in it sans Kate Beckinsale. Decent story packed with some great action scenes. I felt like the twist in the film however was too forced and too predictable. I saw it coming a mile away. It did have a okay ending that wrapped everything up nicely.

The acting had some real solid parts mainly being Foster, Wahlberg and Ribisi. I couldn’t stand when Beckinsale was on screen. I felt like we were deprived of a lot of screen time from Ben Foster. He can truly light up any film that he’s in and I don’t think they utilized him as fully as they could’ve. Wahlberg was the same that he is in every film. Badass, tons of shouting and corny one liners.

The one huge beef I had with the film was how horrible the cinematography was at times. Shaky camera angles, out of focused shots, etc. It felt like I was watching a shitty homemade film on Youtube or Vimeo. Director Baltasar Kormákur should get the blame for a lot of that. Nothing stood out for me direction wise, seemed like any other crime/heist film.

6.5/10

1 year ago