Tag: Chris Cooper

The Company Men

I have recently seen an excellent corporate drama – “The Company Men“.  It’s not your average office romance or Wall Street con action.  It is a film about people.  People, who find themselves in the middle of crashing economy, like we experience now.  And even though people in this film are a bit richer than average, they are still deeply affected.

In the beginning, I was a bit skeptical.  I thought, it’s the poor people who suffer the most and who deserve the most attention.  But soon I discovered that I was wrong.  Not wrong maybe, but inaccurate.  It is true that poor people are affected the most.  But if you think about it for a moment – each and every one of us has a certain level of life, certain things that he values, certain wants and needs, certain little things.  And when outside circumstances make you lose those things that you enjoy and value so much, you do feel depressed, disoriented, confused, and sometimes angry.  And it doesn’t matter what those little things are – an extra pint of beer with friends, furniture in your house, or private jet flights.

One other important topic this film brings up is mutual respect and kindness.  Certain types of connections are well exposed and explained.  Support for local workforce, ethical business practices, corporate goals beyond pure financial benefits, are just some of the topics of this film.

What I particularly enjoyed, was how light the film felt despite all seriousness.  I think a lot of it was due to brilliant cast and good acting.  Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner – all make this movie so much better.

Overall, while this film doesn’t necessarily fit into my definition of masterpiece, I really enjoyed it and catch myself thinking a lot about it.  That, in my book, is worth a 5 out of 5 rating.  Strongly recommended.

The Town

I went to see “The Town” in the movies on weekend.  Too bad my experience was spoiled by the total failure of surround sound in the cinema and by a power cut due to the thunderstorm, two minutes before the end of the movie.  But I still liked the movie so much that I downloaded a copy and watched it in the comfort of my own home (really, are there any other options left?).

Before I say anything else, I have to do a disclosure.  I am biased here.  Crime is one of my favorite movie genres in general, and bank robberies, con artists, and heist schemes are among my top interests in movies.

With that, I am now free to say how awesome this movie was.  First of all, it’s a great story with great characters.  Not particularly original, but still great.  It got a slightly screwed up ending, but by now we should be probably get used to them anyway.  Still.  There is plenty to see – action, acting, drama, tough guys, car chases, gun fights, hot girls, Boston accent, and more.

Overall, I’ll give it a 5 out of 5.  But you still remember, that I’m biased, right?

Syriana

Syriana

I rented “Syriana” when I saw George Clooney and Matt Damon on the cover. Not that they are a guarantee of a good film, but they are a pretty good sign of one.  And indeed they both did a nice job in this film, however it wasn’t enough for me.

This time though, my criticism (critinism?) is not of the film itself, but of that particular DVD that I rented.  It didn’t have English sub-titles (although I don’t know if it didn’t have them originally, or if this DVD was a pirated copy).  Half of the movie takes place in Middle East and there is a lot of non-English talk happening.   I couldn’t make much sense out of it, except for the general dramatic mood and some people over there not being very happy with some people over here and vice versa.

Other than that, the film looked to be very nice – it has a certain mood, there is some good photography, and there is also a lot of human appreciation, which is something I like seeing in the movies.  That is when people appreciate other people for just being people.  There aren’t enough films out there promoting appreciation.  It was nice to see this one did.

I’d rate it as a 6 out of 10, with reserving a lot of space on either end of this rating due to not understanding half of what was said.

Adaptation.

Random pick from a pile of movies with well-known actors – “Adaptation.“.

Directed by: Spike Jonze
Genres: Drama, Comedy
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Cara Seymour, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, Brian Cox, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jim Beaver, Judy Greer, Litefoot, Doug Jones, Jay Tavare, Stephen Tobolowsky, Roger Willie
IMDB raintg: 7.9
My rating: 8.0 [rate 8.0]

Continue reading Adaptation.

Seabiscuit

Watched “Seabiscuit” on DVD. This is a pretty good family movie. It covers all the usual subjects about family, believe, giving second chances, friends, understand and all these. It also has a good coverage of horses and horse racing. I don’t know how accurate the subject is covered, but it does provide a good insight into horse racing.

As a film, it has a good story and a nice mix of joy and sadness as any drama should have. Most of the acting was OK, which was expected from the OK actors such as Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and Tobey Maguire. It was William H. Macy who did an outstanding job although playing a really background character – radio commentator. The movie is worth watching for many reasons, and he is truly one of them.

I’ll rate this film as 7 out of 10, hoping for some more films like with a slightly more original story.