Snitch

Snitch

Rating 3 out of 10

I'll be the first one to admit I don't have much patience with poor life choices.  With this movie the stupidity cup runneth over.  No matter how they try to paint it this is one bad decision after another.

John Matthews (Dwayne Johnson) is a very successful businessman that has a 18 year old son with his ex-wife.  The son has such hard feelings about the break up he goes by his moms last name.  He is big into drugs and his best friend is a drug dealer.  When that drug dealer buddy wants to FedEx him a large bag of pills he reluctantly agrees because he and his girlfriend are going to get some.  Amazingly enough this is against the law and equally amazing drug dealer buddies will throw you under the bus if it helps get them a lighter jail sentence.  He is looking at a mandatory ten year sentence (I guess no trial-straight to jail) unless he rolls over on someone else.  He has way too high of morals to turn in one of his other drug dealer buddies.  He will do his ten years.

Matthews feels bad for not being there with for his son and decides he will do what ever it takes to get the sentence reduced.  Does not matter what danger he puts his new wife, young daughter or business.  Not to mention one of his employees that was determined to turn his life around.  He agrees to go undercover with some of the worst Mexican drug lords in exchange for a lesser sentence.

I am amazed to see all the praise on Johnson for his role here.  I don't think he could possibly be more miscast.  It's hard to see big tough "the Rock" get slapped around by little druggies half his size.

Needless to say I didn't care for this movie at all.

Royce's Oscar Picks

The Oscars 2013

I have said before I'm not a big fan of the Oscars or awards shows in general.  I rarely agree with who they pick for the winners.  The academy tends to be a bunch of snobs that like to push artsy movies they feel you SHOULD like rather than movies that people do like.  That was the reason they had to enlarge the field of Best Picture candidates to try to appeal to the normal person.  I am more impressed with this years nominations than last years by a good bit.

Best Picture

Amour- This is the token foreign film nomination than no one has seen, but the Academy feels good.  I see a bazillion movies and keep up with many more yet I have never even heard of this movie before this nomination.

Argo- Fantastic movie.  I can see where people could see this movie and think it might be a boring 70s type movie.  It is not.  Ben Affleck has turned into a first rate director and does a great job acting here too.  It is a travesty he is not nominated for either of those.  This is a very good movie.  See it folks.

Beasts of the Southern Wild- This is a movie about a young black girl living in a bad area of New Orleans around the time of Hurricane Katrina.  I rented this movie twice and couldn't get past thirty minutes.  Maybe it's a great movie.  The first thirty minutes were very boring.

Django Unchained- I liked this ultra-violent racist western movie.  It has absolutely no chance of winning a best picture award.  I'm shocked it got a nomination.  I was entertained.  Not the type of movie that gets Oscar nominations.

Les Miserables-  Not my type of movie at all.  I liked the non-musical version from the 90's with Liam Neeson.  Movies where they sing every single word in the movie had me dreaming for the end of the three hour movie.  At one point this was a dark horse to slip in and get the win.  It seems to have cooled a bit though.

Life of Pi-  Visually I thought this was the best movie of the year.  I don't care for 3D movies at all but this movie was very good in 3D.  I thought the story was very interesting. Acting was good.  Not sure it has much of a chance.  Still very much worth seeing.

Lincoln-  I started several times to go see this movie at the theaters.  I could never carve out three hours for me to see this movie.  I don't remember a year where so many movies pushed the three hour mark.  I think Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor but a head scratcher why he played Lincoln with almost a falsetto voice.  I will rent this when it comes on DVD.

Silver Linings Playbook-  I REALLY didn't like this movie.  Not for me at all.  Some people loved it.  I don't see how.  I'm usually a big Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence fan.  I didn't care for them at all here.  Thought De Niro was worse.  Cooper beats bi-polar not with medication but exercise???  The dance thing at the end was embarrassingly bad.

Zero Dark Thirty- A good movie that is made into a very good movie by Jessica Chastain.  The movie slips a little too much into the technical part of tracking down Osama Bin Laden.  It finishes up with twenty minutes of action that makes it all worth while.

Predictions:

Should win: Argo

Will Win: Lincoln or Argo

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper- As I said I wasn't impressed.  Thought he was a little over the top

Daniel Day-Lewis- Didn't see this movie.  Lewis is always good. Can't imagine him not being good here.

Hugh Jackman- I will say he gave it his all.  The effort was there.  Not sure he is as good a singer is he thinks he is but I'm not really an expert in this field.

Joaquin Phoenix- Didn't see this movie.  Phoenix is a real head case.  Academy seems to like him.  He just gets on my nerves.

Denzel Washington-  Denzel is a great actor.  I didn't love this movie Flight.  Seemed I had seen him play the alcoholic before.  Made me more frustrated than entertained to watch.

Prediction: 

Should win: Ben Affleck-  He really got screwed!

Wil win: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain- I like her as an actress and this is her best job so far.  I think she is head and shoulders better than the rest of the field.

Jennifer Lawrence- Normally like her alot.  Not this time.

Emmanuelle Riva-  Never heard of her or this movie

Quvenzhane Wallis-  Cute girl.  Not my type of movie

Naomi Watts-  She was very good in the Impossible (movie about the Christmas day tsunami).  I'm not sure enough people saw this movie even though you should.

Prediction

Should win: Jessica Chastain

Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin-  He was good in Argo yet no where near good enough for a nomination.

Robert De Niro- To me he seemed like he was doing improv.  Normally good actor.  Not here.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman-  Didn't see this movie.  Hoffman is generally a very good actor.

Tommy Lee Jones-  I hear Jones is good in Lincoln.  He may have been alive when Abe was?

Christoph Waltz- Again head and shoulders better than the rest.  If not for Waltz Django would not have been nominated.  He was just fantastic.

Prediction:

Should Win: Christoph Waltz

Will Win:  Robert De Niro

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams-  I like Adams alot.  Didn't see the Master.  Thought she was great in Clint Eastwood's movie.

Sally Field- Never been a fan.  She always seems to be over-acting to me.  The Academy seems to like acting like this.

Anne Hathaway-  Killed me to see her cut off all her pretty hair.  I think out of all in Les Miserables she had the best voice.  She did a good job.

Helen Hunt- A therapist that sleeps with her handicapped patient to help him with his dream of losing his virginity just sounds creepy to me.

Jacki Weaver- All I can guess is they ran out of actresses to nominate.  She did nothing to deserve this nomination in my opinion.

Prediction:

Should Win: Anne Hathaway

Will Win: Anne Hathaway or Sally Field

A Good Day to Die Hard

A Good Day to Die Hard

Rating 5 out of 10

I'll admit I got a little excited when I first saw the trailer for the new Die Hard movie.  Getting a chance to see the baddest cop on the planet, John McClane, kick some Russian butt no matter how implausible just seemed like a can't miss.  After the Stalone and Schwarzenegger flops it was up to Bruce Willis to make a come out on top for the geezers.  This Die Hard is better than the first two mentioned films.  By about an inch.

After all the places  McClane has killed bad guys he was running out of American cities and needed to go to Russia.  McClane's little boy from the first Die Hard is now all grown up.  Jack is now in Russia and in trouble.  Dad flies to Russia to help out even though they don't get along and have issues from Dad never being around.  Turns out Jack is now working for the CIA in a big case to smuggle out a guy that has one of those super valuable "files" that has all the information necessary to bring down a huge mobster that has plans to blow up the world with his nukes.  No, this is not a plot driven movie.

This movie is nearly non-stop action from start to finish.  The problem is the action is so over the top and unbelievable you just can't swallow it.  This from a guy that bought Expendables one and two!  Willis gets thrown through or jumps into a dozen plate glass windows, leaps off tall buildings bouncing off scaffolds all the way down, swims in a radio active pool at Chernobyl (Russia not Sweden) all with barely a scratch.  Is McClane a Terminator now?

Out of the five Die Hard movies I would rate this one #4 only above Die Hard 3.  It's mildly entertaining but not something you'll want to see again for sure.  Time to retire the series.

No Easy Day

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden

by Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer

I am always intrigued by the behind the scenes books or movies about the hair raising missions of our nations Special Forces.  It makes me feel better knowing that they are on our side.  One thing that does strike me funny is how open they are now.  I ready Jesse Ventura's book I Ain't Got Time to Bleed in 2000.  He was the famous wrestler/ Governor and now off the wall conspiracy theory person.  At one time he was a Navy Seal just like the guy that wrote his book.  In his book he was clear that a Seal NEVER talks about a mission and he was mum about that whole part of his life.  Now just a dozen years later it seems the smoke has barely cleared from the Seal's rifle before he is penning his next best seller.   I'm not saying that's good or bad.  Just strange.

No Easy Day is a well written book by a guy that at the beginning says he changed the names to protect the Seals.  So I'm not sure if Mark Owen is his real name or not.  I think it is.  Owens had a heck of a career.  The book chronicles his Hell weeks working to be a seal after growing up in the colds of Alaska.  He was in on the Seal team that saved the ship Captain kidnapped by pirates (Seal snipers shot the three bad guys on the high seas).  As part of Seal Team Six he was in on many crazy missions.

I had just seen the movie Zero Dark Thirty not long before reading this book so I was very familiar with the events as Owen described them in detail.  I found it interesting and sad the way he described how the liberals were ruining their fight against the terrorists.  Treating them like US citizens.  Offering them lawyers.  An Army Ranger had to go on all missions to make sure no one's rights were violated.  If the Terrorist threw down his gun they had to arrest him and offer a lawyer only to fight them again a month later.  That part is really sad.

The book is a good one.  It gives insight to what goes on with these missions and what the build up was like in the take down of Bin Laden.

Bullet to the Head

Bullet to the Head

Rating 4 out of 10

I will admit when I first watched the trailer for this movie I got excited.  It looked like an action packed Stallone type movie with lots of good fights while you realize you park your brain at the door.  Sadly the last part what all that was true.  This movie is a mess even for this type of movie.  Yes I know. You hit yourself in the head with a hammer you should expect it to hurt.  As the wife often says I'm a man, I don't learn that easy.

Sylvester Stallone, who has to be closing in on 80 years old yet somehow still is chiseled like a Roman statue, plays a rough and tough hit man (Bobo)  hired with is partner to take out a bad cop in New Orleans.  He has a partner mostly so when he is double crossed and the bad guys (as apposed to him being the good hit man) take out his buddy he has more reason for revenge.  The killed bad cops ex partner shows up from NYC and when New Orleans police give him no help of course the person to turn to is the guy that killed him.  Takes him about five minutes to get Bobo's phone number and makes it clear he doesn't want the hitman he want's the guys that ordered the hit.  A buddy team from heaven is made!

The fight scenes are mostly cheesy and in the two minute trailer.  The two bright spots are the lovely Sarah Shahi who plays Bobo's tattoo parlor daughter and mostly Jason Momoa who does a great job playing the bad guy.  He was in the remake of Conan the Barbarian a couple years ago and I feel he has a future in action movies.  A bit of trivia in that he is married to former Cosby Show girl Lisa Bonet.

Good to see the old geezers Stalone and Schwarzenegger competing again.  I just wish it were not battling for the top spot on Royces Worst Ten of 2013.