Whip It

I saw the preview of Whip It on Saturday. It is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore who does a fine job directing and acting. Ellen Page gives a fine performance and who I believe is one of the funniest people on the planet, Kristen Whig, is at the top of her game. A major strength of the film is the cinematography which makes you feel like you are inside the roller-derby. The love story didn't work which is one of the flaws of the movie, it seems that Page's character immediately falls in love with some guy, simply by looking at him which is not a realistic thing at all. There are also some other problems I had with the realism of their relationship later in the film. A good thing about the plot is the main focus of the story. It sets the roller-derby as a backdrop for the story at home with her parents, instead of the conventional route of setting her story at home as a backdrop for the sports story. In all though it is a wonderful, inspirational story about a girl discovering to take her own path and not the one her parents laid out for her.

Whip It - 3 out of 4

-Zach

The Informant!

The Informant! is an interesting comedy staring Matt Damon who gives a surprisingly great performance. Steven Soderbergh also directed the Ocean's series, but as you may expect from a director as versatile as him, this film is completely different than them. This wacky, twisting, espionage movie starts out slowly but slowly escalates until it explodes in the final act into chaos. The type of comedy it employs is not joke based comedy but comedy that becomes funnier when you think of the plot as a whole. It isn't laugh-out-loud funny but it is more of the type of thing in which you find your self giggling as you exit the theater. There is another side to the plot of this movie also, one that I don't really want to give away but it really makes the movie. If it ended in a more conventional Hollywood way it would not be nearly as satisfying as it was in the end.

The Informant! - 3.5 out of 4

-Zach

Movies I Saw Away

I went away again over the last few weeks. I saw a few movies over my vacation so I'll give them all short reviews and ratings.

First I saw The Final Destination. I felt it was a worthy installment in the series and at an equal level with the previous ones. Don't expect anything of any substance here, just some light gory fun.

The Final Destination - 3 out of 4

Next, I saw Paper Heart. It is a very sweet movie. I was touched by many of the stories told and the movie still holds a lot of truth.

Paper Heart - 3 out of 4

I also saw Taking Woodstock which I found rather dull and uninteresting. I felt there were some amazing scenes but on the whole it is not worth seeing.

Taking Woodstock - 2 out of 4

Finally I saw Extract which I thought was very funny and Mila Kunis and Jason Bateman were both very good as well as many others.

Extract - 3.5 out of 4

I will probably see a movie this weekend and I'll try to get around to reviewing it.

-Zach