500 Film Festival

I love movies. Seriously. I invest way too much money in buying movies I want/like. So I figured, "Hey, why not write about movies in my blog?" Not necessarily in the sense of a movie review only blog, but review some films. I am going to try and stick with films I'm seeing for the first time but I do own several films so I am sure I'll dabble into those at some point. DVD is primed, popcorn is buttery, let's do this!

#1: 50/50
I saw this yesterday in theaters and wow. It was getting amazing reviews and now I know why. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an average guy living an average life. But when he finds out he has a rare cancer, his life is shaken. His girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), his best friend (Seth Rogan), and his mother (Anjelica Huston) are trying to handle the news and as the movie unravels you see who can handle it and who can't. My favorite character is Katherine (Anna Kendrick) who is the assigned therapist for Adam. She's got the book smarts telling her how to handle patients but not the experience and as she gets to know Adam, he helps her as much as she helps him. It's a moving film with a beautiful soundtrack, that I'll probably be buying soon or putting on my Christmas list. I give the film 9.5 out of 10 stars. I deducted .5 because I cried a lot. It's the kind of film that makes you want to call everyone you love and say "If you f*cking get cancer, I'll freak out man."

#2: the Black Dahlia
Based on the book by James Ellroy, it features a true murder with fictionalized characters. Since I had just finished reading my copy of the book, I wanted to watch the film. Set the late 1940s, the real murder of Elizabeth Short is the centerpiece of the film as two cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), get enthralled with solving the case and possibly ruining their own lives in the process. The film features several other large names including Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank as eye candy and romantic interests. I give the film 7.5 out of 10 stars. The film was well done as a noir, but true to form it doesn't stand well for the book. Bits and pieces were left out that in my opinion could easily have been added. A good noir film if you like that genre, but lackluster in comparison to the book.

#3: X-Men: First Class
I love comic book movies. Comic book movies got me into reading graphic novels and comic books. So I was bummed when I didn't have the time to catch this one on the big screen. First Class begins at the beginning of Professor X and Magneto. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) star well as the younger versions of beloved mutants (well beloved might stretch a bit far for Magneto). You get to see their stories from the beginning as well as how they come to form their beliefs about their mutant states. The story features the Hellfire Club run by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his right hand gal Emma Frost (January Jones) which was an arc in the comic I wanted to know more about. The film features some well known mutants in their younger times, such as the Beast and Mystique, but also some mutants not yet featured in the films, like Havok and Banshee. Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars. Well done as an action film, but not being read in the comics I couldn't tell you what is missing. Certainly entertaining, but only slightly more entertaining than other comic books films. Nothing too extraordinary. The standout for me was Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Being a fan of The Hunger Games, I was wary when she was cast as the lead, but after viewing this I think she will be very good as Katniss.

So there's my first three films. Overall, for three movies in one day I think I picked some good ones. Butter your popcorn and swirl your slushies! More coming soon!