Vantage points downward
So over vacation I saw a couple movies. Okay, I saw more than a couple. I actually saw so many that I couldn’t even keep track. One of those being Vantage Point.
The beginning was good. The president was assassinated at a conference in Spain, and there are about five different viewpoints of the assassination. The end of each viewpoint was left on a cliffhanger, and at the end of each I was wondering how the heck they were all going to tie back together.
They did. But not well. The motives of the assassination were unclear even after the credits were rolling. I thought the producers could have done a better job with that.
Despite my opinion, the movie is currently at the top of the box office.
Oh, and one other thing. Do presidents actually have body doubles?
Michael Clayton: A combination of everything good
Michael Clayton, George Clooney’s latest movie, is up for best picture, and I believe Clooney is up for best actor as well. In the movie, Clooney plays a lawyer who is considered a “fixer-upper,” and just does all of his firm’s dirty work. The case that Clayton’s firm is working on deals with a company called UNorth, who makes pesticides and other chemicals. A class action lawsuit has been brought against UNorth in terms of billions of dollars because they made faulty pesticides, which caused tissue deterioration in many farmers and was blamed for the deaths of 430+ farmers who died as a result of UNorth’s negligence.
One of Michael’s coworkers named Arthur, who was originally heading the defense for UNorth, realizes what he is doing defending a company that has killed so many (“I have blood on my hands Michael!” as he often exclaims), and thus he goes crazy. During all of this there are many plot twists involved, and who is good and who is bad seems to get jumbled together and get confusing at times.
It seems though that Michael Clayton is a deserving nomination for best picture and best actor, as Clooney did an amazing job acting, and when the film ends and you realize who has won and who has lost, you feel good “supporting” Michael through everything that has happened. Tilda Swinton also very much deserved best supporting actress as the nervous, paranoid executive at UNorth.
Also, Michael Clayton managed to provide a combination of what everyone wants, a little bit of humor here, a little bit of action and cars exploding there, and a lot of wit, good writing, acting and plot twists.
Almighty Family Movie
I have been extremely busy this past week because teachers always pile tests and quizzes the week before a school break. Due to this, I have not watched a lot of T.V., but I did see Evan Almighty Saturday night, and Fool’s Gold Sunday afternoon. I wrote about Fool’s Gold is my article, so I am just going to talk about Evan Almighty.
Steve Carrel stars in this movie that is a remake of Noah’s Ark. It was good, but not that funny. It had more of a family movie feel, but that could have just been because the whole time I was watching it, my younger sister was asking a million questions.
Besides the fact that it is a good family movie, there is not much else to point out about it. Steve Carrel is an extremely funny actor, but this movie might be the least funny movie/ TV show I have seen him in.
Next week is vacation week, but the week after that I will write more.
~Anthony D.
