Ben Affleck

The Accountant

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Accountant
  • IMDb: link

The Accountant Blu-ray review

The Accountant is your basic action-thriller with the twist being our main character is an autistic accountant who turns out o be a genius both with math and guns. Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is targeted not by any one of his any number of dangerous clients but by a robotics company for confirming embezzling found by one of the firm’s junior accountants (Anna Kendrick). The story also features a subplot involving a retiring agent (J.K. Simmons) of the Treasury Department and his protege of sorts (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) who are hunting the forensic accountant whose client list includes some of the world most dangerous criminal organizations.

The script by Bill Dubuque gets a little too cute for its own good tying in Christian’s past, but the movie works better than I expected. Affleck is put to good use here as the autistic character I wouldn’t mind seeing more of, and the pairing with Kendrick is refreshingly not by-the-book.

…

The AccountantRead More »

The Accountant Read More »

Top Ten Memorial Day Box Office Movies

/ / Top Tens & Lists

Top Ten Memorial Day Box Office Movies

Until recently with big-budget super-hero films opening in late March and April, Memorial Day weekend has long been the unofficial beginning of the summer movie season. When you take a look at the top ten box office movies over Memorial Day weekend what you find is a collection of sadly mediocre, and downright awful, films. Seven of the top ten are sequels. Of the six I’ve written full reviews for only two have received a passing rating. Memorial Day may begin the summer movie season, but, as these ten movies show, it’s far from the best summer blockbusters have to offer.

…

Top Ten Memorial Day Box Office MoviesRead More »

Top Ten Memorial Day Box Office Movies Read More »

From A to Z – The Top Ten Movies of 2012

/ / Top Tens & Lists

2012 turned out to be a pretty darn good year at the movies. There were two films which I gave perfect scores to this year, one of which the majority of the country won’t be seeing until early next year. I’m breaking my own rule of including it on the list, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Between these two films, which naturally open and close the list (as it’s presented alphabetically), are eight other films rounding out the class of 2012.

Cutting down my list to ten means I need to speak for a moment on films that barely missed the cut. John Carter was the year’s most under-appreciated film, The Cabin in the Woods turned the horror genre on its ear, Ang Lee delivered an amazing journey with Life of Pi, Wreck-It Ralph was this year’s best animated feature, Safety Not Guaranteed was a terrific little sci-fi flick almost no one saw, and Moonrise Kingdom was director Wes Anderson‘s best film since The Royal Tenenbaums.

Enough with what didn’t make the list, let’s get down to discussing what did:

…

From A to Z – The Top Ten Movies of 2012Read More »

From A to Z – The Top Ten Movies of 2012 Read More »

Argo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Argo
  • IMDb: link

argo-movie-posterSome stories are so unbelievable they must be true. This was the case with Charlie Wilson’s War, one of my favorite films of 2007, which examined the absurd series of events that led a relatively unknown Congressman from Texas to lead the charge to bring down the Soviet Union.

Argo, the latest from director Ben Affleck who also stars in the adaptation of CIA Agent Tony Mendez‘s account of what became known as the “Canadian Caper” involving the extraction of six American diplomats from Iran during the Iran Hostage Crisis, is a similarly astonishing, and certainly well told, tale that’s so crazy it must be true.

Affleck stars as Mendez, a CIA extraction expert who comes up with a plan to safely smuggle out six Americans who escaped the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran on November 4, 1979. His idea is to pose as a film producer scouting locations for a new sci-fi movie in Iran and to pass off the six diplomats (Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Christopher Denham, Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishé, Joe Stafford) as other members of the movie project.

…

ArgoRead More »

Argo Read More »

State of Play

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: State of Play
  • IMDb: link

state-of-play-poster

State of Play is an ambitious project which, at times, gets away from director Kevin Macdonald. The script was worked on by the men who gave us Michael Clayton, Lions for Lambs, and Flightplan. And, for better or worse, you can see each writer’s stamp on the film, meaning at times it becomes both too preachy and too focused on “getting us” with unexpected twists. To be fair, many aspects of the film work well and it’s an enjoyable, and even somewhat smart, thriller which has something to say about the state of both journalism and politics.

Cal McAffey (Russell Crowe) is a reporter’s reporter, that dying breed your more likely to find in a movie like this than an actual newspaper office, at least these days. He’s a throwback, the last of the old guard focused on finding the truth of a story and bringing it into light. His stark worldview is encroached on by a sassy young blogger (Rachel McAdams) who can put out several tasty tidbits a day, an editor (Helen Mirren) pressured to make the paper more commercially viable, and a breaking scandal involving the death of an assistant to a golden boy politician (Ben Affleck) who just happens to be Cal’s former college roommate.

…

State of PlayRead More »

State of Play Read More »