The Blind Side

From 2009 to the present day, I wrote off The Blind Side like it was nothing. I've never been a big football fan even though it is the most popular sport in the United States and I just got tired of all the praise that this film got. As with any film though, The Blind Side can't be judged until it's watched. It offers like a dozen things that seems to come out of nowhere and it's very likable indeed. An overall great film.

Based on a true story, The Blind Side follows around homeless teen Micheal Orr (Quinton Aaron) who never grew up with parents who were there for him and who's really got nothing going for him. Like a billet family, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) take Micheal in and raise him in a proper home that he never had. They show him the ways of life and Michael ends up turning into a football star through it all.

It sounds exactly like a football film but it also has the elements of family, how to do well in school and also how to channel violence in the right way. Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw play perfect parents and Bullock's work here won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar Award in 2010. Collins (Lily Collins) and S.J. (Jae Head) play the kids of the family and both come off as unexpectedly good and add fun and humor to the film.

Another reason this cannot be considered just a full football film is the racial issues touched on here. This part of the story is of a African-American teenager trying to live in the South where we know it can be hard and the film tries to deliver the message that everybody is the same regardless of  the color of your skin. I think this is one of the important messages in this world today and it is always nice when a film touches on this.

Once we get to the football scenes, we can't stay it's bad either. It's typical in the sense that it shows  the character Michael Orr developing a toughness that wasn't there before. It also adds a football flavor to an already packed film and it is fun to watch cameos from college football coaches Nick Saban to Lou Holtz. Don't expect any good acting from these coaches but that is to be expected and the quality of the acting by the cameos is kind of beside the point anyway.

The Blind Side is a majestic, heartfelt and insightful film that would work perfectly for the Relationship classes that are now taught in High School and College. The film is mostly for teenagers but also for the whole family too. Expect a tearjerker though.

4.5/5

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You've Got Mail

 

It's hard to believe but there was once a time in the dating world where the use of technology didn't have the impact that is does today. With Facebook, Twitter, dating sites and advancements in phone technology, there are now so many ways to connect or make contact with a person where as before you really only had a home telephone or even letters. You've Got Mail was a 1998 romantic comedy that introduced new technology to the dating world and in a very cheesy way. 

Small time book owner Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) is living in the Big Apple and must compete with the opening of the new Fox Books run by the high profile Joe Fox (Tom Hanks). As it turns out, both of these business-owners are instant-messaging each other without realizing who the other is and a love relationship forms.

                     Nothing better than a REALLY dated computer

If anything, this seems very much like a typical relationship film. It is a love story that starts with people not connecting, being enemies and both doing opposite type of things. Even though these ideas are very dated now (when that last time you heard of anyone using AOL?), the instant- messaging is what makes this story. At the time, instant-messaging was somewhat new and I believe AOL may have been using the movie as a marketing idea. The idea that these people are messaging each other without realizing each other is unlikely but we can still very much go with it. It provides us with an ending that we see coming a mile away but there is still something in it to make us like it.

In this love story, there are a lot of hidden messages and surprises offered. Through the book theme, we learn what it means to own a book company whether big or small. We also get to watch life as it was in 1998 which is quite interesting close to twenty years after the fact. Even though it is redundant in every shape of form, we do learn a little about dating and how that works. From Greg Kinnear to Steve Zahn, You've Got Mail has a surprisingly strong supporting cast for a type of film like this. It's a very needed part of a love story that's only half-good.

You've Got Mail is far from an outstanding love story. As mentioned earlier, it's as dated as it ever could be and the leads have done much better romantic films. That said, You've Got Mail is still very much revolutionary while still sappy. It is one of the few tech love stories that men could really enjoy.

3.5/5

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2014 Week 5 box office totals

1. Ride Along $12.0 million - I expect this to fall by next weekend but this has had a really good run that can't be described as simply noteworthy.

2. Frozen $8.9 million - For a film that came out in mid-November, it is very impressive that week after week it is making money and strong money too.

3. That Awkward Moment $8.7 million - Not necessarily bad for an opening on this weekend but I really question why this wasn't released in the summer or the spring.

4. The Nut Job $7.3 million - If this was a normal week, I would expected for this to fall and it did  but it got lucky more than anything this week.

5.  Lone Survivor $7.1 million

6. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit $5.3 million - I expected this film to do well at the beginning but once again it is just in the middle of the road for box office receipts. It is slowly but surely making it's money back though.

7. Labor Day $5.2 million - I didn't except this to make much on it's opening weekend due to the dull subject matter but even so and for this type of week, this should have made more.

8. American Hustle $4.2 million

9. I, Frankenstein $3.8 million- For a slow week, this was the week for this type of film that could rise but it didn't really and is still a ways off.

10. The Wolf of Wall Street $ 3.4 million - Like American Hustle, this film is starting to slow down and both should be out of the top ten by next week.

What we have learned: Ride Along is impressive again and Super Bowl Sunday week is always a slow week.

What's ahead: The Monuments Men, The Lego Movie and Vampire Academy all come out next weekend.

Predictions for next week: I expect The Lego Movie to dominate and it will be another weekend for the kids.

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Argo

Like John Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis or our treatment of the Japanese during the second world war, you could say the Iran hostage crisis is basically forgotten. As a reminder, the Iran hostage crisis took place during the 70's with fifty-two Americans held hostage in the U.S. embassy by Iranian students during the Iranian Revolution. Along with 9/11, this is still one of the biggest acts of terrorism against the United States.

Argo is the fictional story of the real Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a U.S. CIA agent who must pose as the producer of the fictional movie Argo with the idea that this will hopefully free the hostages and lead them out of Iran.

Years ago, you could put a big disaster mark at the idea of Affleck directing a film on the Iranian hostage crisis. Now though, Affleck is really at the top of his game. Throughout this film, we can tell that he knows this story and did his homework. He really looks at every possible angle and worked well with the budget provided. The bottom line is this is not the same shallow Ben Affleck that we knew back in the early 2000's.

One highlight is how Affleck creates a tense feel in this movie. We watch characters that you feel for so badly because they are innocent and should not be in this predicament.  These are characters that you can root for with acting just where it needs to be. The 70's setting is accurately depicted and this is a film that you can say "I feel like we are in the 70's". Once we reach the final act, you really don't know what the final outcome will be which keeps the viewers interested right until the end.

The most beautiful thing the film does is to depict how a film is made. The movie is not only original but you really learn how to make a film including how to do casting, marketing and set location. Most of it was stuff I knew but it is still some very fun and interesting stuff.

I could never love this film like some others and I don't see this having a big impact on me. It is a little long for my taste but Argo is a movie I recommend because we can learn so much about an important story and also see some outstanding direction by Ben Affleck. This is a film that in the end feels like a big fun history lesson.

4/5

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