The Butler

This movie is pure Oscar bait.  The cast has six Oscar winners and one person who's been nominated.  It deals with social issues from a left-wing point of view without pushing into the realm of controversy.  It's "inspired by a true story."  Unlike when director Lee Daniels' film Precious was nominated several years ago, 2013 was a pretty good year for movies and The Butler wasn't nominated for anything.  This is pretty common with films that feel like they were made explicitly to get attention from the Academy.  For the most part, Oscar bait movies are mediocre and largely forgettable.  However, The Butler (which will probably be largely forgotten) is actually pretty dang good.

It is the story of Cecil Gaines, a black man who worked as a butler in the White House for decades.  That's pretty much where the true story part stops and the "inspired by" starts.  The rest of the movie is a Forrest Gump-esque journey through civil rights history. 

The Butler is a fairly generic film bolstered by an all-star cast.  Not a single actor seems to be giving less than 100 percent.  In fact, some of the performances are stellar.  David Oyelowo as Gaines' eldest son threatens to steal the whole movie (some of that is because his character is the one who is actually involved in civil rights activism).  But it's Oprah Winfrey who gives the strongest performance of the film.  Her character has the best arc and the widest range of emotion and Winfrey rises to the occasion.  Couple this with her heart-breaking role in The Color Purple and you can see that Oprah is an actress of incredible skill.  Maybe now that she's done with her talk show, she'll start taking more film roles.

I'm a sucker for civil rights movies.  When I watch a war movie, regardless of the war, I can understand the motivations and cause of the fighting even if I don't agree with it.  When it comes to America's struggles with racial equality, I absolutely do not understand it at all.  Not only does bigotry and segregation make no sense to me, but how recent the civil rights movement was in our history is baffling.  As such, I find this subject matter captivating.  It's that strong subject matter and history that makes this movie good.  Cecil Gaines is just a framework on which to hang America's shame and it's progress.

The Butler is definitely worth your time.  It's fast paced and despite its subject, never takes itself too seriously.  There's plenty of comic beats to help keep the viewer from getting too bummed out.  Despite its PG-13 rating, I think it would be an appropriate movie for kids slightly under 13 and would serve as a sort of civil rights Cliff Notes.  

7 out of 10

Riddick

Riddick was one of the weirdest and most fun mainstream movies I saw all year.  And I like my movies weird.

This film picks up five years after The Chronicles of Riddick.  Riddick gives up his position as leader of the Necromongers in exchange for the location of his home world.  His is betrayed and despite killing the traitors, he is abandoned with a broken leg on a strange planet.  Riddick finds a building with a distress beacon.  He activates it in hopes of luring in a ship that can take him off the planet.  But he ends up calling in two ships: one with a ragtag crew of bounty hunters and the other with high tech mercenaries.  And they all want Riddick.  To make matters worse, a massive thunderstorm has unleashed swarms of vicious monsters and they are heading Riddick's way.

Riddick is essentially a bigger, weirder remake of Pitch Black.  I'm going to be using the word "weird" a lot in regards to Riddick.  Everything that happens in it is bizarre and often inexplicable.  The dialogue is laughable in its attempts to be hardcore.  The sexual elements of the film are baffling.  This is a movie wherein Riddick wanders around a desert fighting water-scorpions with the help of his trusty space dog.  Then he rides around on his space motorcycle.  Then he compliments a lesbian on her nipple color before promising that she'll ask him for sex (and she does).

The action scenes are crazy and gloriously over-the-top.  While the alien hordes are just a retread of Pitch Black, the critters are different enough to make the fights interesting.

I had a really, really fun time watching this movie.  That said, I'm not claiming that it's a very good movie.  It's mostly just hokey and weird and off-the-wall.  If you like the previous Riddick movies, then you'll probably get a kick out of Riddick.  If you just like bizarre, action cinema, then you'll probably get a kick out of Riddick.  If you like coherent movies with intriguing plots and strong dialogue, this is not for you.

6 out of 10

Closed Circuit

Closed Circuit has a lot going for it.  It has so many elements to it that, for me, would make for a great movie.  It has a cast I like with Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall (huge movie-crush), and Jim Broadbent.  Director Jim Crowley also made Intermission, which is a movie I love.  It's a political/legal thriller.  It's British.  So with all these elements in the mix, is Closed Circuit a great movie?  No, but it is a pretty good movie.

Basically, a pair of lawyers (who used to be lovers) have to defend a terror suspect who is accused of setting off a bomb in London.  As they negotiate the bureaucracy and build a defense, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that may involve MI5 (basically the British FBI).

First off, Closed Circuit is a great looking movie.  It's a cold almost sterile blue-gray movie.  The camerawork is also wonderful.  There's only a few "fancy" shots.  Mostly, it's a competently filmed movie with the focus being on conveying a good story.

And a good story it is.  It addresses issues that are on the forefront of people's minds, not only in England but in the U.S. too.  Too much governmental power, security agents spying on civilians, terrorism, abuses of the legal system.  It's all there.  Closed Circuit does an excellent job of establishing a sense of paranoia and maintaining it. 

None of the performances are stellar, but they are all good enough to get the story told without being distracting.  I actually felt like (acting-wise) I was watching a really, really good episode of TV.

Closed Circuit is a solid thriller.  Give it a watch.  It's a very short movie, so it winds up being very fast paced.  This isn't going to win any awards or change the world or even enter the popular culture, but it's a really nice bit of entertainment.  And that's all we can really ask of a movie.

6 out of 10

Thanks For Sharing

Did you see Shame and, when it ended, wish that they would make a sequel?  But did you also wish that that sequel would be a romantic comedy?  Well, you're in luck!  There's a movie called Thanks For Sharing that fulfills your wishes.

Now, it's not actually a sequel to Shame, but it sure seems like it.  Mark Ruffalo plays Adam, a hyper-successful New Yorker who has been 5-years "sober" from sex addiction.  On the advice of his sponsor, Mike (played by Tim Robbins), Adam begins dating again and meets Phoebe (played by Gwyneth Paltrow).  Adam must deal with having a relationship, fighting his demons, and being a sponsor to a young man, Neil.  Meanwhile, Mike has to face his past when his former addict son suddenly returns home.  Also, Neil befriends a sexually addicted girl and they become friends in order to recover together.

Thanks For Sharing isn't a bad movie, but it's not all that great either.  The problem is almost entirely in the script.  It's terrible.  The story is pretty good and the characters have nice (if clichéd) arcs.  But the dialogue is awful.  Really awful.  Much of the movie is people joking and/or flirting with each other and it's the worst.  The jokes aren't funny at all and the flirting is just plain awkward and weird.  To be honest, the dialogue reminded me of plays and screenplays I tried to write in junior high.  The difference being that it only took me one reading to realize that my words were unnatural and that I wasn't as clever as I thought.  Somehow, writer/director Stuart Blumberg (an Oscar nominee for writing) was unable to see that in his own writing.  And I guess that Oscar nod blinded the producers.

What you're left with is a film that coasts on the charm of its cast, which is ample.  Mark Ruffalo almost sells his lines but he does sell the conflict of being a sex addict who's trying to find love.  Gwyneth Paltrow is irritating, but she's in her underwear a lot, so I'll give her a pass.  Tim Robbins does a fairly good job when he's playing the wise, old sponsor, but it's not so believable when the emotions start flying.  The real standouts are Josh Gad and Pink (credited as Alecia Moore, but ask The Rock how being credited as Dwayne Johnson is working out).  Their storyline had the most progression and the script never has them flirt, so they come out looking like champs.

Here's a weird thing I noticed: none of the characters really overcome their impulses.  Just as they are about to give in, the phone rings.  This happens a half a dozen times in the movie.

For every good thing, Thanks For Sharing has something working against it.  I'm giving it a very slight recommendation (mostly because it has a great soundtrack).  Don't go out of your way to watch it, but there are worse ways to spend your evening.

5 out of 10

Runner Runner

This should've been a really good movie.  It's all about gambling and conspiracy and mafia-like behavior.  Instead, Runner Runner ends up being a really forgettable 90-minutes.

Justin Timberlake plays Richie, a Princeton student who loses his savings trying to earn his tuition through online gambling.  He discovers that he was cheated and travels to Costa Rica to seek out Ivan (Ben Affleck), the head of the gambling website, in hopes of getting his money back.  Ivan convinces him to stay in Costa Rica and join his business.  But the world of online gambling is not what it seems.

Runner Runner tries to be topical and relevant, but it fails.  There's a lot of time in the beginning dedicated to establishing the threat that online gambling poses to college students.  Then it throws "the economy" at you as well.  But it manages to feel rushed and underdeveloped at the same time.  The best solution would've probably been to not have any of that set up at all.  Isn't it enough that Richie is cheated out of his money and goes to get it back but gets seduced by the riches that the business promises?  Does a ham-fisted intro and constant moping about Wall Street raise the stakes of the film at all?

Only two and half actors make their screen time worthwhile.  One is Ben Affleck.  He makes a convincing villain.  He's charming and threatening.  Affleck is the best thing this movie has going for it.  Second is Anthony Mackie.  His role is so poorly written and cliché that it's super impressive that he doesn't sound like an idiot.  The 1/2 is Gemma Arterton.  She just looks amazing and I love the accent but the script gives her nothing to do.  Justin Timberlake delivers his lines like he's in a church play.  He's better than this, but you'd never know just watching this.

The biggest sin Runner Runner commits is being kinda boring.  No movie about gambling or conspiracy should be boring, and this movie has both!  Doesn't matter though.  The greatest asset of Runner Runner is that it's 91 minutes.

I had hoped that this was a smaller budgeted, crime movie that just slipped under my radar.  Turns out it slipped under my radar for a reason.  Runner Runner is a movie you catch on TNT and fall asleep to on a lazy afternoon.

4 out of 10

Don Jon

Do you feel that pornography is superior to actual sex but have never been able to adequately articulate your argument?  Then I have a film for you!  It's called Don Jon and it's written by, directed by and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

This is a movie about a young man's porn addiction and the impossible expectations from women that it creates in him.  Through relationships with a couple of vastly different women, he has a moment of clarity and becomes a better man.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a great job on his directorial debut.  His script is smart and funny.  The film seems very assured for a first-timer.  I would even say that Gordon-Levitt has a wonderful eye for montages.  The best scenes (both in scripting and directing) are his weekly visits to the confessional.  These serve as extra, comical benchmarks for his character's arc.

This is definitely a movie wherein the cast must be talked about.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jon is solid as always, although his Jersey accent is a bit on the comical side.  Tony Danza is amazing as his temperamental father.  Glenne Headly steals every scene she's in as Jon's mother.  Brie Larson (whose having an amazing year with well-received parts in Short Term 12 and The Spectacular Now) makes continuous mute texting feel like a great performance.  But the real stars are Scarlet Johansson and Julianne Moore.  Johansson gets to play as sex kitten, sweetheart, and manipulative bitch.  And she kills it.  Moore brings a much needed weight to her role.  What could've been an awkward role with dialogue that over explains the movie's themes becomes a hypnotic role of a sweet, awkward, and broken woman.  The whole cast is stellar.

Don Jon talks a good hard look at the way that men view women especially in the context of pornography.  It also has takes a tangential look at the ridiculous expectations that women have for men and compares romantic-comedies to pornography.  Basically, both sexes have crafted exceedingly selfish ideals for their partners.  The movie takes a long time to get to the point but when it does, the message is not rushed nor does it beat you over the head.  And the ending is incredibly sweet.

Don Jon is an excellent movie that any grown up should see.  It's especially poignant for people in their 20s and 30s who've sexually matured in a culture of instant porn.  That said, it's not a movie for everyone.  There's a lot of nudity (mostly clips of internet porn) and the subject matter is constantly and brazenly sexual.  I know that kinda thing makes some people uncomfortable regardless of the quality of the storytelling.  But if you're in for the tale of a man who learns that sometimes actual sex is better than masturbating to pornography, you will be greatly rewarded.

7.5 out of 10

2013 Movie List

This is it.  The list of everything I watched in 2013.  An asterisk denotes a film that I've never seen before.


1) Jeff Who Lives at Home*
2) House of the Devil*
3) Tokyo Drifter*
4) Lawless*
5) Red Dawn (2012)*
6) I Saw the Devil*
7) Detour*
8) Timecrimes*
9) Killer Joe*
10) Road to Nowhere*
11) Beasts of the Southern Wild*
12) Vamps*
13) Dark Knight Rises
14) Footloose (2011) *
15) [REC]3*
16) Paranorman*
17) Pirates! Band of Misfits*
18) Wreck It Ralph*
19) Ghost and Mrs. Muir*
20) Hail the Conquering Hero*
21) Silver Linings Playbook*
22) Salome's Last Dance*
23) Zero Dark Thirty*
24) Searching for Sugar Man*
25) Lincoln*
26) Three… Extremes*
27) Amazing Shadows*
28) JLA: Doom*
29) Superman vs The Elite*
30) Four Lions*
31) Frankenweenie*
32) After Porn Ends*
33) The Street Fighter
34) Return of the Street Fighter
35) Sister Street Fighter*
36) Batman: Year One*
37) A Separation*
38) Premium Rush*
39) Cat People (1942)*
40) Les Miserables (2012)*
41) Seven Psychopaths*
42) Marriage Italian Style*
43) Flight*
44) Yesterday Today and Tomorrow*
45) Bitter Victory*
46) Chariots of the Gods*
47) The Raid: Redemption
48) The Invisible War*
49) 5 Broken Cameras*
50) The Sessions*
51) True Legend*
52) Max Manus*
53) Brainstorm*
54) Argo*
55) Skeeter*
56) Mother's Day*
57) Buried*
58) The Life of Pi*
59) The Great Adventure*
60) The Man from Nowhere*
61) Celeste and Jessie Forever*
62) Rock of Ages*
63) Rio Bravo*
64) The Black Cat*
65) The Ballad of Cable Hogue*
66) The Good, the Bad & the Weird*
67) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
68) Samurai Cop
69) Cobra Woman*
70) The Queen of Versailles*
71) Margaret*
72) Showgirls*
73) The Warriors*
74) A Tale of Two Sisters*
75) How to Steal a Million*
76) Bachelorette*
77) Robot and Frank*
78) How to Train Your Dragon*
79) Missing*
80) The Master*
81) Pitch Perfect*
82) Run Lola Run*
83)  Songs from the Second Floor*
84)  Mad Doctor of Blood Island*
85) Up!*
86) Taken 2*
87) Criss Cross*
88) God Told Me To*
89) Wreck-It Ralph
90) Jurassic Park (3D)
91) Melancholia*
92) The Robber*
93) The Old Dark House*
94) Chicken With Plums*
95) Evil Dead (2013)*
96) Dr. Strangelove
97) Sugar Hill*
98) Hysteria*
99) Cult of the Damned*
100) Fellini Satyricon*
101) The Apple*
102) The Black Stallion*
103) Topkapi*
104) Friday Foster*
105) Inserts*
106) The Monkey Hustle*
107) One, Two, Three*
108) Passion of Anna*
109)  Violent Playground*
110) Golden Needles*
111) Anna Karenina (2012)*
112) The Intouchables*
113) Cutter's Way*
114) The Mercenary*
115) Dillinger*
116) 10 to Midnight*
117) Blood Creek*
118) Cinemania*
119) Iron Man 3*
120) Breaker, Breaker*
121) Night of the Demon*
122) Howl*
123) Michael (2011)*
124) Howling 3*
125) Small Soldiers
126) Sans Soleil*
127) Police Story
128) Walker*
129) The Outlaw*
130) Smashed*
131) The Thin Man*
132) Baby Face*
133) Waterloo Bridge*
134) The Isle*
135) Red Headed Woman*
136) Django Unchained
137) The Seven-Ups*
138) Manda Bala*
139) The Night of the Grizzly*
140) Dr. Hekyl and Mr. Hype*
141) Clueless
142) Dan Aykroyd on UFOs*
143) Rapt*
144) Oz: the Great and Powerful*
145) R.O.T.O.R.*
146) Dinotasia*
147) The Mountain*
148) The Curse if Bigfoot*
149) Snitch*
150) Hansel & Gretel*
151) Tiny Furniture*
152) Jack the Giant Slayer*
153) The Last Exorcism Part II*
154) Stoker*
155) The Wolf Man (1941)
156) American Werewolf in London
157) Citizen X*
158) Jack Reacher*
159) The Call*
160) Upside Down*
161) No*
162) La Femme Publique*
163) Thief*
164) Five Fingers of Death
165) Auntie Mame
166) Summer With Monika*
167) Man of Steel*
168) The Lone Ranger*
169) The Impossible*
170) Warm Bodies*
171) Nosferatu (1979)
172) After Earth*
173) Side Effects*
174) Naked*
175) Dead Man Down*
176) The Host*
177) Spring Breakers*
178) Admission*
179) Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)*
180) Despicable Me*
181) Penny Serenade*
182) Wuthering Heights (2011)*
183) Rust and Bone*
184) Nostalgia for the Light*
185) The Hangover: Part 3*
186) 42*
187) Bullet to the Head*
188) Star Trek into Darkness*
189) Rumble in the Bronx
190) Top Hat
191) Trance*
192) The Wolverine*
193) The Perks of Being a Wallflower*
194) Now You See Me*
195) G.I. Joe: Retaliation*
196) This is 40*
197) Welcome to the Punch*
198) Two Headed Shark Attack*
199) Operation Condor
200) Umberto D. *
201) Dinocroc*
202) Fast & Furious*
203) Commando*
204) Ruggles of Red Gap*
205) Operation Condor 2*
206) Oblivion*
207) Antiviral*
208) To the Wonder*
209) On the Road*
210) Mud*
211) The Place Beyond the Pines*
212) Fast 5*
213) The Kid (1921)*
214) Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers*
215) Taxi Zum Klo*
216) Mother (2009)*
217) Elysium*
218) Olympus Has Fallen*
219) The Big Wedding*
220) The Company You Keep*
221) Scary Movie 5*
222) Epic*
223) Amour*
224) War of the Gargantuas*
225) Rolling Thunder*
226) Pain & Gain*
227) The Great Gatsby  (2013)*
228) The Iceman*
229) The Lords of Salem*
230) Punisher: War Zone*
231) Alienator*
232) Striker*
233) Riddick*
234) North Face*
235) Afterschool*
236) The Bling Ring*
237) World War Z*
238) The Room*
239) Room 237*
240) Shotgun Stories*
241) Survival of the Dead*
242) The Car*
243) I'm a Cyborg… and That's OK*
244) Fish Story*
245) Uncommon Valor*
246) Doctor Detroit*
247) Wet Hot American Summer*
248) Sleepaway Camp*
249) This is the End*
250) The Croods*
251) Knives of the Avenger*
252) The Blob (1988)
253) Casino Jack and the United States of Money*
254) The Devil's Rock*
255) Tabloid*
256) Super Mario Bros.*
257) The Unknown (1927)*
258) The Heat*
259) Creature (1985)*
260) Pacific Rim*
261) Maniac (2012)*
262) Dead Silence*
263) The Beyond*
264) Prince of Darkness*
265) The Bride of Frankenstein
266) My Amityville Horror*
267) The Internship*
268) Before Midnight*
269) The House on Telegraph Hill*
270) The Conjuring*
271) Only God Forgives*
272) The Red and the White*
273) The Last Days of Disco*
274) She*
275) Gravity*
276) Streets of Fire*
277) Cool As Ice*
278) Airport*
279) The Fury*
280) Extraterrestrial*
281) Trees Lounge*
282) Bloody Sunday*
283) The Piano Teacher*
284) R.I.P.D. *
285) Monsters University*
286) Grown Ups*
287) Witchfinder General*
288) Grown Ups 2*
289) Passion*
290) White House Down*
291) I Am Love*
292) Ender's Game*
293) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter*
294) Turbo*
295) Frances Ha*
296) Meek's Cutoff*
297) We're the Millers*
298) Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief*
299) Planes*
300) Zeta One*
301) 2 Guns*
302) The World's End*
303) Pride & Prejudice (2005)
304) Paranoia (2013)*
305) Mama*
306) RED 2*
307) The Little Mermaid
308) Getaway*
309) The Canyons*
310) The 3 Worlds of Gulliver*
311) Frozen (2013)*
312) The Smurfs*
313) Seeking a Friend for the End of the World*
314) The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones*
315) The Smurfs 2*
316) Paths of Glory*
317) I Spit On Your Grave 2*
318) The Purge*
319) The Snowtown Murders*
320) Killzone
321) Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan*
322) For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism*
323) Fast & Furious 6*
324) Side by Side*
325) Cobra*
326) Man of Tai Chi*
327) The Way, Way Back*
328) Kick-Ass 2*
329) One Direction: This Is Us*
330) The Family*
331) Prisoners*
332) Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters*
333) Memories of Murder*
334) Sector 7*
335) Insidious: Chapter 2*
336) The Young Girls of Rochefort*
337) Gallipoli*
338) The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes*
339) The Quest*
340) Carrington*
341) Pumpkinhead*
342) Hollywood Boulevard*