My Review - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

So if you read my Brad Pitt blog below then you know that I'm partial to the guy. I had very high expectations for this film, very high. I must say that this indeed looks like Brad's 1st big-time super blockbuster Will Smith-like film. Its an awesome piece of cinema to say the least. Aside from being almost three hours long and Kate Blanchett's thousand-year-old babbling bed ridden character I had no issues. So to make this more to-the-point I'll do this in LIST FORMAT:

The film's backdrop: Early 1900s to 2001's Katrina ravaged New Orleans. I loved the authentic Louisiana plantation houses and beautiful scenery. The old folks home was a compelling setting to raise a child.

Special Effects: Phenomenal. David Fincher took the special effects that would normally be used to blow up planets or interstellar space wars and compressed them into the smallest details like dilating pupils, expressions, skin textures, etc.

Taraji P. Henson: Wonderful performance from this woman. As Benjamin's mother she projected to the audience such an authentic and unyielding love to a surrogate son that no one else wanted. She undoubtedly deserves recognition for another stellar performance.

Brad Pitt: He delivered one of his most subtle, understated performances. This film showcased Brad's range as an actor. We've seen him as the crazy mental patient bouncing off the walls (Seven), the anarchist lunatic bent on destruction (Fight Club), and the cool Agent guy (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) to name a few.

Kate Blanchett: An impressive performance as well. BUT, Kate as the OLD woman in the hospital bed speaking to her daughter got so bothersome I wanted to shoot myself. There were times when I couldn't understand what the hell she was saying. The prosthetics may have been a tad bit over the top there as well. She was only in her early 80s technically--I guess maybe cause she was on her deathbed. Did she have to be on her deathbed actually?

Biggest surprise: The guy who told the stories about being struck by lighting 7 times while minding his own business was absolutely HILARIOUS. Completely unexpected.

I know there are more things I could touch on but overall it was just amazing to watch Benjamin get younger and younger slowly but surly. Watching his life unravel in this series of adventures was reminiscent of Forest Gump and maybe Big Fish--but not too much so. There are people that say its just a punched up Forest Gump. NO WAY! This may be hollywood blasphemy, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a BETTER film than Forest Gump.

Overall though, The Curious Case of Benjamin makes you examine your own life and loves. It made me realize just how much I have actually done by the age of 28 years and how much more I'm in for. The movie did give me a melancholy feeling throughout. Maybe because I knew, just as we know in real life, that his good times would come to an end and he would lose everything he loved.



Until next time,

Sirius.

Go see it if you haven't yet. Pack a sack lunch--you're in for a long one. Definitely worth it.

The Strangers - Maybe I'm becoming a horror snob like Curt?

I have a good friend who's a pretty serious movie buff - his name is Curt. As a matter of fact, I have a few friends that are pretty serious movie buffs - Packy, Shilo (super serious), a few others. But Curt shares me and my wife's passion for old school and well constructed original horror ideas. The thing is, Curt is a little hard on the films most of the time. The wife and I usually search for the entertainment value instead of doing our best to break the films down structurally even though we are screenwriters. All of us have argued the merits and shortcomings of certain post 2000 horror films  many times over. 

Then comes The Strangers. I loved the premise from seeing the trailer--creepy, suspenseful, okay maybe a classic horror throwback in 2008? Curt loved this movie by the way. While I didn't dislike it, I couldn't help but feel a little robbed of some vital element. Everything was waaaay too easy for the murderers. While its cool to have a couple that is absolutely terrified the whole time, there usually comes a point when that terror turns into anger when the characters' backs are against the wall. The triumph of the human spirit had a very small role in this film. There was no point when the victims actually decided that they were not going out without a fight. These weren't gruesome creatures! These weren't supernatural killers like Jason or Michael Myers! These were two girls and a guy with doll masks and a paper bag over their heads. And for most of the time the two victims were terrified, the killers only had the most basic weapons--- a knife, an axe. Only after the pansy guy in the film gets a shotgun taken from him by a guy with no weapon and a bag on his head do the killers have a firearm. Come on! Seriously? I'm fine with everybody maybe getting killed in the end but the "triumph of the human spirit" factor to create SOME TYPE of difficulty for the killers was noticably absent. Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler were sobbing bags flesh the WHOLE time! Curt I gotta disagree with your assessment of this flick playboy.

Everything else was pretty cool - the masks, the creepy scenes where we see someone in the house early on, the knocking on the door, the summer house in the middle of nowhere, the friend getting his head blown off, the quick build-up to action. But the murderers left the house after re-dressing the victims, tying them up, and stabbing them in the abdomen several times WITHOUT A SINGLE SCRATCH! The film did give you the impression that maybe Liv Tyler's character lived but in my opinion --- she didn't deserve to.

Until next time.

-Sirius