Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln had an extremely tumultuous career as President of the United States. The Civil War and emancipating the slaves, culminating in his assassination. He was a man of many stories and loved by many and this new (albeit early) frontrunner for Oscars nails it on the head.

Lincoln is far less of a biopic than it is merely a period drama of his accomplishments in the last months of the Civil War, but as a period drama it is stupendous. Take Steven Spielberg, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, and the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis and combine them and you will get one of the greatest takes on a president ever made.

Opening in true Spielberg fashion, we are tossed right into the middle of Civil War at its peak. After an opening similar to Saving Private Ryan we meet the man, Abraham Lincoln (Day-Lewis). With many people against him, the movie follows how he helped end the Civil War and free the slaves.

Want to know what it felt like to live during 1865? See this movie. The art direction, costume design, and dialogue is how I imagine it was during this time. 

Daniel Day-Lewis became Lincoln, as he does with most of his roles. It is incredible to watch. It feels almost like watching a play where Abraham Lincoln is playing himself on stage. Sally Field as his deranged wife is astounding. I believed her emotion and felt like she actually was going crazy from losing a child. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones are perfect in the roles they play. 

With an odd amount of humor, unfortunately not joining the movie until a good 45 minutes in, James Spader's character and his other cronies are hilarious and provide some uplift and laughter to an otherwise slow movie. Without them I probably would have fallen asleep.

As a period drama this is an awesome movie, but as always seems to happen, slow movies will get lots of Oscar attention. I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve the nominations, but as of right now I don't think it should win best picture. Day-Lewis and Field are definite front runners for Best Actor and Supporting Actress. It will be quite the showdown in these categories this year. I hope anyway.

9/10

Looper

Have you ever had that movie experience where your mind is completely blown? Like Memento or Inception or even The Dark Knight (Heath Ledger's performance, whew!)? Would you like to have your mind blown again? Well look no further this year, for in the realm of science fiction, one movie reigns supreme: Looper. (My apologies to Christopher Nolan for not supplying pop culture with a mind destroying film this year)

Before this movie I could only fathom what seeing Blade Runner for the first time in theaters could have done to someone. It would have been mindjarring (my personal combination of mind blowing and bottling). As was my experience with this film. Rian Johnson has done what he did to film noir with Brick (2005): flipped it on it's head.

I thought I knew sci-fi movies and knew the kind of movie that Looper was, but whatever thoughts I had in my mind were changed because of this movie. The story begins with us following the life of Joe played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. His narration draws us in slowly and gently, but ever so subtly and we are transported to another world (or dimension depending on how you look at it). And after that we are given the conundrum: "if you were to meet your future self, should you kill him or her if you were a looper? "The sci-fi genre has not seen the likes of this movie since Alien or the aforementioned Blade Runner. The script is written so beautifully with subtle mentions of different topics that we never get a full explanation of, but have to fill in with our minds, and keeps reminding you that Bruce Willis is from the future. (Most of the movie I had to remind myself that he was)

But nobody likes a good story without a great ending. And Looper does NOT disappoint. Four little words in the film are all it took to blow my mind this time around. I walked out of the movie, drove home, and immediately asked my roommates if they wanted to see it tonight. The acting is incredible for the genre. And the special effects/make-up used to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt look different are unbelievable. He is transformed into a younger Bruce Willis with no visible changes at all. I could barely believe my eyes.

Whether you like sci-fi movies or not this is an absolute must-see. (Do you like Christopher Nolan movies? Yes? GO SEE THIS MOVIE TOMORROW!)<--Said in your Billy Mayes voice. This is a movie that could turn non-fans into die-hards (no pun intended Mr. Willis).

9/10

Dark Knight Rises

I have started this post at 3:54 am, the morning of July 20th. Or more accurately the day I've been waiting for for nearly a year, anticipating the glorious end to a great trilogy.

My previous favorite movie theater experience was a stereotypical event that many people would find irritating. I saw Wolf Creek in Mayfair mall at night. While at the theater the other spectators were yelling at the screen, which I loved! However this triple-feature at least tied that. In between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight we had trivia and between each of the movies we had a jolly old man come in and introduce the next film. It was also filled with some big Batman nerds, which made the experience that much greater. And I should say that midnight showings are nearly sacred to me. I LOVE midnight showings, the entire atmosphere is just better at these showings.

The third act of this trilogy is one of the better third acts I've ever seen. My opinion could be swayed due to my viewing of the entire trilogy in theaters. This was the first time I've ever done an in-theater movie marathon before and I'm happy this was the one I chose to see. The Dark Knight Rises tied in so closely and so well with the first two that having just seen them a mere six hours before the midnight premiere made the tie-ins that much more apparent. Many of the similarities were in the dialogue and a few flashbacks, but what set this apart in the trilogy was the cast.

The characters in every movie have had great performances (i.e. Joker/Heath Ledger). However, every character of this film has a perfect actor or actress who should have portrayed them and in true Christopher Nolan fashion each received his or her perfect fit. Whether it was newcomers Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) or John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) or old favorites Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) or Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) the actors were pitch perfect. Ladies and gentlemen we have a Catwoman that I actually liked! Not just a sex symbol, but a real character, Hathaway showed some grit in her performance as the jewel thief. For a comic book movie the characters felt real and not just like they were straight off the pages of a book.

What was really weighing on this film for many moviegoers was the villain, Bane. If you remember back to the first two trailers, his voice was nearly unintelligible and their best solution was to re-dub the film. It was the best solution and only strayed into the unbelievable and almost annoying once. Annoying may not even be the right word, but it got a bit high for a big guy like Bane. I simply cannot write a review without mentioning how Tom Hardy compared to Heath Ledger's Joker. Seeing as how the two villains are nearly polar opposites (one more physical and the other playing a more mental game) they were both great performances. Aside from Hardy's voice his performance gave me chills. I had to get picky to even think of this one incident.

As for the action, what would a Christopher Nolan Batman movie be without a lot of action? From the many new gadgets and the old ones he brought back were great fun to watch on screen. It was a terrific blend of action, character development, and story. So perfect that Nolan almost achieved something only two things have accomplished before: getting me to cry. I know I'm not the only one in the theater who was close to tears, and I don't care either. It was that good.

There are plenty of twists and turns that, while sometimes guessable, are much more fun to just let them happen. Replete with many jaw dropping, "aha," and "oh my god, did that really happen?" moments, Overall I thought it was a near perfect end to an outstanding trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises is the summer movie event I've been waiting for. I cannot wait to see it a few more times in the theaters. 

9.5/10