This weekend touted a real hodgepodge of quality. Some were pretty darn good, some were rather mediocre, and some were just downright bad. Also, I got my hands on some brand new films…although that’s not always a good thing.
THE GOOD
White Lie – This was another brand new film that was actually good! The film follows Katie who’s been faking she’s had cancer for the better part of a year. Through fundraisers and various other means, she’s been able to scam a sizeable amount of money from people and she’s spent every last penny. When the school needs medical records so she can qualify for even more money (and free schooling), she gets desperate and starts grasping at straws to keep the ruse going. Even though what she was doing was incredibly awful, I couldn’t help but feel anxious in waiting to see if she pulled the deception off. Katie is a user and an abuser, but she’s got the charm enough to pull off this crazy stunt and justify her actions on top of it! Definitely check this one out!
Full-Dress – Wow, did this movie really take you on a ride. What first seems to be a film about some friends who get into business with the wrong guy turns out to be a film within a film. It’s also a bit meta because Christopher Abbott plays a version of himself. He’s working on this low-budget production as a way to work off community service hours for a DUI. He’s snarky and short and honestly hilarious. I loved how seamlessly the film transitioned from the “movie” scenes to real life, and I also enjoyed that the director was also acting in this! Aside from me being somewhat recently obsessed with Christopher Abbott, there was no hiding my excitement about seeing Gotham‘s Robin Lord Taylor with a major part. For the casual viewer of films in general, I suppose this could be tough to wrap your head around, but give a chance if you’re up for something creative!
THE BAD
Fatale – What a boring waste of time this was. After The Hunt, I was looking forward to Hilary Swank playing another unhinged individual. Also, this movie was directed by Deon Taylor, the same man who brought us the sometimes silly but still disturbing, The Intruder, a couple of years back. With that information I was at least expecting something of a similar quality! It must have been the script that let this film down. Anyways, Derrick Tyler is a successful talent manager who is feeling a lack of love from his wife so he decides to cheat in Vegas. Turns out he chose the wrong woman to hook up with. After Derrick’s home gets robbed, the detective assigned to his case is none other than Val, the random Vegas hook-up. She spends the rest of the film making his life a living hell. That sounds like a really cool plot, but it felt like nothing really exciting happened for most of the film! And, for it only being an hour and 40 minutes it felt like it dragged on forever. Don’t waste your time with this one.
Wild Mountain Thyme – I will say though, I’ll take boring over boring and bizarre. That’s what Wild Mountain Thyme was. I only just realized this was based off of a play with the same ending and I’m just not grasping why anyone would choose to adapt this to the screen. Jamie Dornan and Emily Blunt play Anthony and Rosemary, who are neighbors on Irish farmland. The shots are lush with green, but it can’t take away from the strange dialogue and the almost two hours it takes for these two to admit they like each other. Part of the main premise is that when his father dies, Anthony won’t be getting the farm. Then it almost makes it seem like he and Rosemary should get married solely so that doesn’t happen. John Hamm is thrown in there for some rather unimportant scenes and some ultimately ineffective conflict. Finally, and this is a MAJOR SPOILER, we learn the real reason why Anthony won’t admit his feelings for Rosemary. And that, my friends, is because he thinks he’s a honey bee. No joke here. That was real, and it was real stupid. Please save yourself some time and skip this entirely for the rest of your life.
AND THE MEDIOCRE
Honest Thief – Ah, the latest Liam Neeson action film. This one rides comfortably in the middle of his action resume, meaning I didn’t love it or hate it. It just sort of was. He plays Tom, a former Marine who now works on bank safes, and robs some of them in his spare time. He’s been dubbed over the years as the In-and-Out Bandit, but he’s ready to hang it all up for the love of his live, Annie. When he goes to turn himself into the FBI, at first they don’t believe him, but then two crooked agents decide to keep the cash for themselves and eliminate Tom. Of course that plan is not as easy as it sounds. Tom is no fool and has a back-up plan in case he gets duped. From there, it is a wild goose chase around Boston with some devastating casualties along the way. Not Neeson’s finest work, but the cast is pretty dreamy overall, so you can give this a go.