We haven’t reviewed many movies on this blog, at least in part because over the last year we haven’t been to the movie theater much, and also because we haven’t even seen too many films from the comfort of our own couch. However over the last few weeks Mrs. and I went on a mini-movie spree, cranking out The Town, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and The Young Victoria. I thought The Town was a pretty good cops and robbers drama, although I’m pretty sure Mrs. wasn’t as impressed. Neither of us was particularly impressed with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. First off, they could have done better on the title. Even "Wall Street 2" would have been an improvement on what they settled on. And second, the plot was hard to follow, probably because it wasn’t the greatest script to begin with. No need to run out and see that film (or stay in and see it as the case may be). The Young Victoria was a decent historical drama about Queen Victoria. Mrs. is a sucker for any historical (or fictional) film (or book, or TV show) about the British (or Russian, or . . . well, you get the point) monarchy, so she enjoyed it. If nothing else it left me wanting to learn more about Queen Victoria, who ruled the United Kingdom for over 60 years!
In addition to the films above, I also went to the theater on Christmas Eve with BIL S to see True Grit. Mrs. had no desire to see it, so it became a man date. True Grit is a remake of a film of the same name from 1969 (which I had never seen), which itself was based on a 1968 novel (which I had never read). I wanted to see this because I’m a fan of the Coen brothers and the trailer intrigued me (I'm a sucker for a well made trailer). BIL S and I were not disappointed. It was a quality film, and I even think that Mrs. would have enjoyed it . . . although even if she did she would claim she didn’t because once she makes up her mind that she isn’t going to like something, she makes sure that it’s true. Anyway, back to the film. It wasn’t as quirky as some previous Coen brother films and was more of a straight up Western, but it still had some laughs and the acting was good, including Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as a somewhat dorky Texas Ranger, and Hailee Steinfeld, who plays the 14 year old protagonist, Mattie Ross. She does a great job and I hope she gets an Oscar nomination for her work. The only negative thing I would say is the movie ends with a short flash forward with Mattie as an adult that at least to me didn’t seem to have a point. But that didn’t take away from a really good film. On a scale of “Shaking my head in disgust” to “Raising the roof on a dance floor”, True Grit scores a solid “Fist Pump”.
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