Movies Watched The Week of 6/22 - 6/28

Welcome back gang.  I'm coming at ya with a new post of the week.  Some good stuff going here, but sadly nothing I love.  Nothing eternal that will stick with me.  But I still enjoyed them all the same to varying degrees.  Only three movies, but with wildly varying tones and genres.  There's also a new release in the mix, so I'm actually kind of timely for once (a week late, fuck off).  So I invite you all to read, and hopefully enjoy.  Dig in.

A Fish Called Wanda (June 22nd, 2014)

Director: Charles Crichton

Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin, and Kevin Kline

This was pretty good.  Gotta get that out the way.  This was very enjoyable all around.  But it wasn't without it's faults.  For one, some of the humor hasn't aged well/there's some dry spots in the movie.  I also didn't really buy the Jamie Lee Curtis character.  She seemingly has no motivation except for looking out for herself.  But that is thrown out the window later in the movie when she actually, kinda falls for Cleese.  It's a random development that comes off as undercooked.  The story in itself leaves a bit to be desired, as if no one knew how to make a crime story.  So the humor outweighs the narrative in this.  Which is fine, but a little distracting.  The cast is all game.  Cleese is at his Cleese-iest.  Curtis is like a flightier version of her Trading Places role.  Kline is funny, but a little too broad.  He shouts alot, thinking that alone is funny.  If the role wasn't as good, it would be much more grating.  But luckily it's not.  But to me, the MVP is Palin.  The man slays me in this movie.  His stuttering, would be assassin is just killer.  His quest to kill the elderly witness is beyond funny and lifts the movie up.  So the movie is a bit disjointed, but it is a good little 80s comedy with more staying power thanks to the cast involved. 

Rating: 8/10

Jersey Boys (June 24th, 2014)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen, and Michael Lomenda

This is a bit of a disappointment, because the show that it is based on is phenomenal.  I am not the biggest fan of staged plays, but this show holds a very special place in my heart.  So I was excited to see it.  And it's not bad.  It's just that Clint may not have been the best man to handle the material.  He's had a laid back, laconic style to his movies since Unforgiven.  And that works with some movies, like Unforgiven or Mystic River.  But sometimes it doesn't, like J Edgar or Invictus.  Here it kinda doesn't, but the story and the music propels the movie past Clints easy going directing.  Chronicling the 4 Seasons, the story itself is inherently interesting.  So right off the bat, an easier sell than Invictus.  It also helps that the cast is very game, with the MVP being Vincent Piazza.  Taking time away from being one of the many cast members that are more interesting than Steve Buscemi on Boardwalk Empire, he steals the show as the reckless and selfish Tommy Devito.  He is phenomenal and should hopefully have a long career.  The only one who doesn't do so well is Christopher Walken, because he just plays Walken.  Admittedly, he does have one really good scene. The music is great, so that part of a musical is sort of done before the camera rolls.  By basically not filming it like Les Miserables, it's shot well enough to not be distracting.  Mainly, the problem with the movie is it doesn't move the way it should. The play is like a Scorsese movie, constantly humming along with music playing and the story unfolding.  It would have been great to see Marty do it, or even Jon Favreau who was attached before Clint.  Either way, there are worse ways to spend money at the theater this week.

Rating: 7.5/10

Tightrope (June 28th, 2014)

Director: Richard Tuggle

Starring: Clint Eastwood

We jump from a movie Clint directed, all the way back almost 30 years to a movie he starred in.  This isn't the best movie he's done.  For his 80s run, it was high up.  Only things above it are Pale Rider and Sudden Impact (and for ironic tastes, Any Which Way You Can). The movie is surprisingly sleazy and sexual for a movie he's in.  He's never shied away from it, with a few of his movies actually having rape in it.  But this goes beyond that, to where it feels icky. But for the story, it makes sense.  It deals with a serial killer going after sex workers.  He rapes them and kills them.  So, dirty enough already.  But it also deals with Clint getting involved with these dirty, on the fringes sex workers.   He's a lonely divorcee, and he just wants to get off.  So he has fun, until the killer starts going after the women he's been with.  Then, shit kinda gets real.  Not really, because it sort of runs a little too long.  But Clint gets his man and ends up with a new woman.  All in all, a good days work.  Now, I still like the movie.  The only movie I've seen of his that I don't much care for is Firefox.  But this might be right above it.  

Rating: 7.5/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 6/15 - 6/21

Hello all.  A busy week for me, so I only have a short list that was loaded into the early portion of the week.  Nothing game changing this week but a decent round nonetheless.  A throwback selection, from 1991 and earlier.  So enjoy the quick update this week and stay tuned for future updates.

Thief (June 15th, 2014)

Director: Michael Mann

Starring: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, and Jim Belushi

Michael Mann is a great visual film maker.  He has a look and it usually works.  It didn't really work in Manhunter, and he didn't really do it in Ali.  But right out the gate, he brings his visual style in the debut Thief.  The movie is a typical yarn about a great thief being roped into a situation he normally wouldn't be in.  Instead of the last job typical to the genre, it's working for a boss that is too grandiose.  It works in the same way, trying to make enough money to be done with the work.  But it is a nice wrinkle to it that seems fresh, even for a movie made more than 30 years ago.  Caan is great and adds a real toughness to the character, bringing that street tough thing he's known for.  This is really his movie.  The supporting cast is ok, but they are very out classed by Caan.  The movie suffers a bit from a common Mann problem, which is that it's too long.  Some judicious editing could have done wonders.  But there are other cases where it feels too short.  It's an odd dichotomy that Mann fell into with Heat, although the highs of that movie outshone the lows in a much higher degree than this movie.  This is a good enough movie that won't insult your intelligence or bore you to death.  For a good look into what Caan can do and to see where Mann got his start, the movie is luckily not bad.  

Rating: 8/10

Annie Hall (June 15th, 2014)
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen and Diane Keaton

It was funny.  I really wish I had a stronger opinion that that.  But it didn't hit me hard and it hasn't stuck with me since watching it.  It had it's moments but in the end it just didn't do it for me the way Manhattan did.  Following Woody at his most Woody (ie, the same role he always plays) as he falls for Keaton as the first ever manic pixie dream girl.  She's immature but not dumb, and when he broadens her mind she realizes what a shit head he is and splits.  That's it.  Following that arc from the honeymoon phase to her realizing there's literally any other man better to be with than whiny Woody.  The movie is more interesting in the way it plays with form and breaking of the fourth wall.  That is still felt to this day, with Louis CK trying very hard to be Woody on his show Louie.  This movie will totally depend on how much of this guy you can handle.  I'm indifferent with him so I could take it.  But for those who think he diddles kids and believes he's the only person who worked on the movie, you won't really like it.  It's not bad, just not really my cup of tea.

Rating: 8/10

Slacker (June 16th, 2014)
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Half of Austin it seems

It shouldn't be surprising that Linklater is one of, if not, the best directors at chronicling everyday life.  Yeah, sometimes an director will make a quick indie about nothing and go off to other things.  But Linklater has stayed in this wheelhouse throughout his career, even with forays into more Hollywood fare.  Seeing this, his debut, is a very interesting experience.  It shows what he was gonna go off to do later on, but in a much more experimental way here.  It has no plot at all.  There are no main characters.  Hell, there's barely any characters.  He just follows a giant ensemble of people in Austin, Texas for a few minutes at a time, than shifts to the next.  We start with a guy coming from an Airport, and get to know him quick.  Then we shift to a car accident he passes by, and off we go.  Constantly shifting.  This movie almost shouldn't work for someone doing this for the first time.  But he handles it with aplomb, making every single one of these people real and fleshed out.  It's a tough thing to do and he nails it.  Now, with the plotless nature of the beast, it plays like an anthology in a way and not every character will do it for everyone.  So you may daze out of one, but then be entranced in the next three.  Very talk, very experimental in a unobnoxious way, and very real, this is a creative jolt to the soul.  Filmed for $23 thousand, this shows anyone can make a movie with the right ideas and the drive.  As fitting a debut for a filmmaker as I've seen.

Rating: 8.5/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week 6/8 - 6/14

New post gang, but you guys probably figured that out.  A decent little week with decent variety.  Maybe not behind the camera, but narratively its broad.  Only one disappointment, but nothing truly bad.  So enjoy the new post and stay tuned for more content.

Smokey and The Bandit (June 8th, 2014)

Director: Hal Needham

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason

Pure entertainment.  That is what we have here.  No artistic ambitions beyond giving people a good time.  Burt Reynolds just smirks and laughs his way through the movie, while Jackie Gleason just unleashes vitriol at everyone in his path.  Sally Field is there.  It's seriously just a movie about Burt driving a car and getting chased by cops.  It's like the brainless but fun version of Vanishing Point.  If you can enjoy a movie like this, it's a hell of a ride.  If not, steer the fuck clear.  Me, I was in heaven.  Buford T Justice is fantastic and I'm upset he wasn't in my life earlier.  

Rating: 8/10

Juno (June 8th, 2014)
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, and Olivia Thirlby

Diablo Cody is a little too cutesy for her own good.  Seriously, the dialogue at the beginning of this movie is unbearable.  It's just nonsense that she throws in to make it seem like she's hip.  But it doesn't work.  And Reitman should have known this if he wants to be such a premiere director, as you can tell by watching everything he's done after Thank You For Smoking.  But despite the irritating hip and cute dialogue and look at me prestige directing, there's not a bad movie under here.  Ellen Page is good as the immature young mom, not ready for love despite her pretensions of maturity.  Cera is Cera.  Bateman and Jennifer Garner make the most of what they can with the little time they get.  Thirlby is a nice find. Cody just needed to be reined in.  It's also not as funny as it should have been with some of the people in it, and it very much tries to be funny.  This is a very good definition of just OK. It tries hard but falls just short.  Not even close to Reitmans best, but somehow not his worst.  

Rating: 7.5/10

He Got Game (June 10th, 2014)
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Rosario Dawson, and Milla Jovovich

It seems like if there was any movie in Spike Lees filmography that was made specifically for me, it was this movie.  It took me a while to get to it because I fell out of favor with the man after watching Summer Of Sam and The Miracle At St. Anna.  But I took the plunge and it is a fantastic movie.  A movie about a father (Denzel) and his sons (Allen) broken relationship, trying to fix things between them and maybe trying to fix themselves in the process.  All of this while the sons future in Basketball plays in the background.  This is some seriously powerful stuff.  Denzel is at fine form as the repentant father, a man with many problems but with the desire to change.  Allen does ok work, not really having to do much other than be good at basketball and scowl.  But the way everything plays out is all thanks to Spike.  He adds a grittiness to the affair and a love for the game.  This all feels real, even when he's doing his typical experimental stuff.  As someone who loves movies about father/son relationships, this was gold.  If you like sports and/or familial dramas, this is the way to go.  What a great movie, and underrated gem in Spikes cap.

Rating: 9.5/10

25th Hour (June 14th, 2014)
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Edward Norton, Rosario Dawson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Barry Pepper


Spike Lee hits another one out of the park with this look in the life of a man as he spends the day before his prison sentence with the people he cares about.  Ed Norton is a drug dealer who is about to do a 7 year bit in prison.  So he has to deal with his girlfriend (Dawson), his two best friends (Hoffman and Pepper), and his father (Brian Cox) among other people.  Tensions rise and Norton frets about the hell he is about to live and the mistakes he's made.  The others make mistakes too, dealing with the loss of someone they love.  Spike brings his typically gritty style to it, making New York pop like no other, the same thing he did in He Got Game.  It all culminates in the famous Fuck You scene, where Norton just unleashes all his pent up anger at everyone, including himself.  This is also one of, if not the first, to shoot in NY after 9/11 and deal with it in someway.  The cast is phenomenal.  Especially Barry Pepper.  It's almost criminal who underutilized he's been in cinema.  He's fantastic in this movie and should be a bigger actor than he is.  Norton anchors the movie and brings the pain to the role.  This is great, maybe not as personally great to me like He Got Game was, but it's still a powerful movie about the past coming back to haunt us.

Rating: 9/10

- Tom Lorenzo

movies watched week of 6/1 - 6/7

Welcome back gang, another diverse list coming at ya.  Diverse in genre, not really in time.  Spanning the late 70s through the 90s, the movies are a wide range of the decades.  Good movies show up, but there are two that just barely scratch the good label and not for good reasons.  So take a seat, read up on some new shit and enjoy the new installment.  Thanks gang.

Hamlet (June 1st, 2014)

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Starring: Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Bates

It's pretty fitting to cast the quite obviously insane even back then Mel Gibson to play Hamlet, the man who loses his damned fool mind when his Father is killed by his Uncle.  And Mel knocks it out of the damn park.  It may not be as iconic as William Wallace or unhinged as Martin Riggs, but he is completely transfixing in the role.  This is a more Hollywood version of the classic Shakespeare play, so it is a bit younger and a little sexier.  But a movie can't be completely sexy when Helena Bonham Carter is in it, here being young and as fresh faced as she can ever have been called.  Close does good work as Hamlets mother, utterly distressed at the slipping sanity of her son.  And Bates does good work as the traitorous Uncle.  It's a sleek, streamlined version of the story and does it self some good and sets it apart from other adaptations of the story.  This is truly Mel's movie and it's a shame he never went back to Shakespeare.  I'd have loved to see him as MacBeth.  Or even now it would be a treat to see him as King Lear.  Either way, highly recommended for Gibson fans and fans of the story/writer.  

Rating: 9/10

Slap Shot (June 1st, 2014)
Director: George Roy Hill
Starring: Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, and The Hanson Brothers


Paul Newman is an undeniable legend, an icon in cinema.  He managed to transfer from the old age of cinema to the post 70s model and still maintain his status as icon.  But there is something that he doesn't get enough credit for.  Which is?  The man is really fucking funny.  It's almost unreal how funny he is, able to drop a punchline with the best of them.  It was on point in Butch Cassidy, then showed up even stronger in The Sting.  But here in Slap Shot, he elevates this movie to classic.  An absolute rowdy hockey movie about a rag tag team that uses a trio of goons to scare the other teams and to gain more fans.  And oh my lord, are the trio of goons just brilliant.  The Hanson Brothers are absolute gold.  They are like the originators of Doug Glatt from Goon.  They are absolutely sweet idiots with the deity like capacity to inflict massive amounts of damage upon those who dare to accidentally cross their paths.  They are so simple and sweet, they bring toy cars on the road with them to play with.  It's great.  This movie is like the better version of Semi Pro, nailing the humor and the stakes.  For those who like sports movies, comedy and/or Paul Newman this movie is a must fucking see.

Rating: 8.5/10

Sleepaway Camp (June 2nd, 2014)
Director: Robert Hiltzik
Starring: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, and Christopher Collet

This is a very special movie.  It is absolutely of its time, in tone and quality.  This movie is an absolute horror show on every conceivable level, and not in a good way.  I haven't seen many movies this completely incompetent from top to bottom.  The acting is hilarious, the visuals are bland as hell, the motive behind the killers actions is terribly enacted and the movie makes no actual attempt to be scary.  But the weirdest thing about this movie is, I can see a decent movie hidden somewhere in there that got lost in pile of 1980s cocaine.  A good movie could have been made about bullying, sexuality and identity.  Now, while everything about this movie is terribly and a missed opportunity, it is an absolute must see.  It is something that needs to be seen to be believed.  It is so insane, so sleazy and such a product of that 80s mentality that it is a wonder it isn't a classic up there with The Goonies.  If you can handle terribly made "horror" movies, run and find this movie.

Rating: 1/10 and a 10/10 All At Once

Ravenous (June 3rd, 2014)
Director: Antonia Bird
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones, and David Arquette

Whenever someone tells you that a woman can't direct a masculine movie, slap them in their neckbearded fucking face and point them to this movie.  This is so fucking brutal and nasty, so completely about men that it just seems like a no brainer that a man made it but one didn't.  It's like if someone said 12 Years A Slave was made by a 24 year old white man.  This is a movie about Guy Pearce and a squad of soliders in the late 1800s fighting off an attack from cannibals.  It's got many twists and turns that to spoil them would be a crime to anyone who would want to see it.  I'll just say that Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle are great as usual.  The rest of the cast is good but are second fiddle to those two.  Which is fine, because they are the main reason the movie works.  They anchor it and reel you in, caring about their fates.  This was a surprising little pick up, a great genre pic from the 90s that got lost in the flood.  But see it and give it a whirl.

Rating: 8.5/10

Manhunter (June 7th, 2014)
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: William Petersen, Dennis Farina, Joan Allen, and Tom Noonan

I didn't really think I'd ever say this, but Brett Ratner did a better job on a story than Michael Mann did.  Both men took on an adaptation of the first story with Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon.  And while neither are great movies, Ratner works it better.  The biggest problem here is that Mann tries way to hard to make this movie cool.  With a very 80s soundtrack that Nicholas Winding Refn jerked it too when he was making Drive, it doesn't really fit.  This is a procedural about a man who kills families for sexual reasons so he can "transform" to a higher form.  And the handling of that character is weak as well.  He isn't even seen until about halfway through the movie, and his entire story is rushed.  The relationship with the blind woman that makes him question his actions is insanely rushed, so much so that it's really off putting that they would think we'd believe this development.  They also barely get into his motivation, just sort of tossing it off to the side as if that was enough, missing the point of the book completely.  Mann seemed like he didn't care too much about the material, doing a work for hire job after Miami Vice.  The editing is bad too, very herky jerky in some scenes.  The other area that the movie doesn't do so well is casting.  There are a lot of good actors here, but they are miscast.  Noonan is a weird looking man, but he is not Francis Dolarhyde as described in the book.  Farina is not a believeable Jack Crawford, always seeming like a street cop and not the head of an FBI task force.  Allen looks like she is barely tying to be blind and is really given a thankless role.  Stephen Lang is way miscast as the sleazy Freddy Lounds.  He'd have been better as Crawford or a cop.  Only Petersen is cast close to right, but Mann doesn't give him good direction.  He delivers some lines very robotically or very loud.  He doesn't give off the manic, fearful genius that he is supposed to be.  But the biggest failure is the ending.  Not that it doesn't stick exactly to the book.  It misses the point completely, changing it to be cool.  A big shootout and then a fist fight between Petersen/the cops against Noonan/a shotgun, it is way too out of place in the story.  Throw in a completely forgettable Hannibal Lecktor (they even misspell his fucking name) done by Brian Cox, this movie is a big missed opportunity.  On its own, its a decent little 80s procedural.  But there are too many problems with the source material and the actual movie that it doesn't play too well anymore.  Very dated, it's only recommended to be a Hannibal completist.

Rating: 7/10

- Tom Lorenzo

movies watched the week of 5/25 - 5/31

Welcome back to the newest installment of my weekly movie viewing gang.  It is a wildly broad week in terms of genre.  It's a good week too, with the worst movie still being absolutely watchable in a hilariously bad way.  There are big things coming down the pipeline and it should be fun and epic in a way this blog hasn't done yet.  So read this, share it, and stay tuned.  It's been fun and should keep being fun.  Enjoy.  

Nosferatu The Vampyre (May 26th, 2014)

Director: Werner Herzog

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, and Bruno Ganz

Here's another entry in the section of remakes that don't suck and are actually good.  It's an argument that I can't really stand, as people who feel that way actively ignore movies like this to make a point.  Now, is it fair to compare a movie directed by a German auteur like this to a work for hire job like the recent Robocop?  Not really, but it's not a crazy comparison.  Mainly because  the real argument is letting artists with vision make movies, not hack jobs like Brett Ratner.  And this one had a harder job than most remakes, taking on the earliest iconic horror movie.  And he does a good job by making it work as a color movie with sound.  Its really a straight up Dracula adaptation with some changes.  But not so much that it isn't noticeable, Kinski being straight up called Count Dracula and all.  The movie isn't really scary, but it has a very dreamlike/nightmarish tone to it.  That was the best decision because it would be a fools game to try and be the same movie as the original, a movie of its time.  Kinski is a good Dracula, never reaching the heights of Max Shreck.  That's not fair though, seeing Shreck actually looked like that and was rumored to actually be a vampire.  Theres only one bad element in the movie and it was the goofy dick that they had play Renfield.  He is like a cartoon version of what a crazy person should be, a guy who looks like someone who should be on the Simpsons.  While the movie doesn't reach any classic level, it is a solid across the board (exempting Renfield) movie with a really good performance filled with sadness by Kinski.  It also has a very bittersweet ending which I really enjoyed.  A good, dreamlike movie into a nightmare, there are many worse ways to spend two hours.  

Rating: 8.5/10

Cobra (May 28th, 2014)
Director: George P. Comsatos
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, and Andrew Robinson

This is just pure, unadultered 80s awesome/awful.  The only movie that Stallone made that was more 80s was Rocky IV.  Its like someone told Stallone and the director a basic outline of Dirty Harry, they did a few rails of coke and came up with this beautifully stupid movie.  Stallone is Marion Cobretti aka Cobra (already I'm with ya).  He's apparently on a squad in the LAPD that is called in when they just want to kill a perp quickly and efficiently with a quip delivered after a kill.  When a gang of what appears to be anarchist gang members (it's not really clear what they are) start killing people for some plot that is, again, not very clear, Cobra comes in to protect a witness.  This is not a good movie.  I need to make that clear.  But it is filled with such a wonderful amount of what the fuck were they actually thinking, that it plays like a great time capsule for the 80s.  Stallone has made much better, but surprisingly made much worse.  If you got the stomach for stupid action, this is a good time.  If you can't deal with that, steer the fuck away from this.

Rating: 6/10

The Color of Money (May 30th, 2014)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Leave it to Marty to take a work for hire job that is a 24 year old sequel about pool players and somehow turn it into something special.  Following up on where Fast Eddie Felson is after all these years is a blast.  Paul Newman is in fine form and rightfully deserved the Oscar nom/win.  Now selling booze and living a life outside of the pool hustling game, he is awoken from a slumber when young hot shot Tom Cruise waltzes in to his life and re invigorates him.  There is a wonderful sense of fun in the movie until Newman hits a point where he has a midlife crisis of sorts.  He realizes he missed so much and doesn't want to miss it anymore.  Cruise is ok in the role, still a bit too fresh to fully play the cocky idiot, especially next to Newman.  Mastantonio fares better as the street tough girlfriend to Cruise.  The movie doesn't feature too many surprises, playing like the usual sports/mentor movie.  But Scorsese and Newman elevate the movie completely and help make the movie more than a cash grab.

Rating: 8.5/10

Contact (May 31st, 2014)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerrit, and James Woods

Now, this is a movie that took me completely by surprise.  It is a movie that was Zemeckis' much anticipated follow up to his Oscar winning behemoth Forrest Gump.  But it was a movie that seemed to disappoint alot of people and didn't have the greatest rep for a while.  But it seems to have gotten a better rep as time went on and for damn good reason.  It is a very interesting take on the Sci Fi genre.  It follows Jodie Foster as a scientist who spends her time searching for life in the stars by searching for radio frequencies.  She is obsessed with finding alien life so she can hopefully find meaning on Earth.  When she actually finds signs of life, everything changes for her and for the earth.  It is a very surprisingly engrossing movie that manages to feel realistic but very rooted in Sci Fi.  And while Foster is good and anchors the movie, I'm more fascinated by McConaugheys character.  He's the guy who ends up falling in love with Jodie.  And while the relationship feels real where I can see them as a couple, it somehow feels a bit rushed.  But thats not why I'm so interested with Matts role.  The guy is a "priest", a man of god who isn't involved with a church but believes in the almighty.  He also isn't against technology and science, but is wary of the way people have been increasingly reliant on technology to detriment of their lives/happiness/drive.  It's such an interesting take, where in other movies he would be a bible thumping rube who is hates all science.  But he is a realistic man who only wants to find the truth and keep things good for both sides of the equation.  It's a refreshing character that shows how different the movie is. People are people and they aren't all falling into one type. This is a movie that pushes a scientific mind, an atheist into understanding why the spiritual believe.  Without proof and a definite idea of what happened, belief is powerful and can't be explained sometimes.  That's ballsy. It has some bad points though.  There is a villain for some reason who is very mustache twirlingly bad.  And there is the unfortunate 90s CGI in the climax which is a shame.  But aside from some minorly bad elements, the movie soars for the most part.  I was pleasantly surprised and have new found respect for Zemeckis.  I highly recommend this movie.

Rating: 9/10

- Tom Lorenzo