Couple of Recent Flicks

In between playing the amazing Fallout 3 on Xbox 360, I watched a few movies last week. Some were new, some were old, some were right in the middle there. Last week's newer entries in the "Movies I Watched Roundup" were The Wrestler and Ghost Town, here's what I thought of 'em.

The Wrestler

Mickey "The Stork" Rourke and Headshrinkers' former manager Afa,
remember the Headshrinkers? Samu and Fatu? If you don't, you can;t come to my next wrestling-themed costume party.

When I heard about The Wrestler back around TIFF I was pretty stoked. As a pretty big fan of wrestling I was pretty excited to see a realistic, hard hitting, character driven piece based on something that you don't see tackled in movies very often. Much like the 1999 documentary Beyond the Mat, it's a fairly depressing look behind the scenes of a sport and a type of person most people have little to no respect for and it forces you to love both. Mickey "Mittey" Rourke really is amazing as Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Darren Aranofsky's choice to shoot the thing almost entirely hand held gives it the much needed documentary feel. I say much needed because the style of camerawork helps ward off the shittyness of the somewhat shitty scenes featuring Evan Rachel Wood. Seriously, Evan Rachel Wood is a wookiee when it comes to acting. In order to get her point across she just kind of makes unintelligable grunts and noises while waving her arms in the air. Bad casting choice? Ahyeah.

All that aside though, the thing I really loved about The Wrestler was that you really believed that Randy The Ram was a real wrestler. In fact I wish he was real, what a great finishing move! the Ram-Jam? Are you kidding me? Double elbow smash off the top ropes? Why hasn't anyone else thought of that? Great flick, if you haven't seen it yet, please do so. Marisa Tomei's boobs are also in it, and they give a solid performance.

Ghost Town

Why did I watch Ghost Town you ask? Well, despite not being a fan of romantic comedies (except those starring John Candy and/or Robert Downey Jr) I am a big fan of Ricky Gervais and since this is really his first film where he is the star, I figured I should see how he handles it.

Well the good news is this: Gervais is very funny, Greg Kinnear is his regular charming self and Tea Leoni gives a surprisingly likable performance considering her role could easily be soooo annoying. Despite these solid performances, Ghost Town is boring. Even Ricky Gervais being pretty funny and showing he can actually act too, isn't enough to separate this movie from countless other ghost-related romantic comedies/dramas.

That last comment actually says a alot because I currently think Ricky Gervais is one of the funniest people on the planet. Man, I can't wait until the movie he's writing with Stephen Merchant is done. Oh baby is that ever going to be funny. In fact, if you were to ask me what I think this movie will be like while I was on a roller coaster, I might give you this reaction:


So in short, see The Wrestler, and skip Ghost Town unless you really love Ricky Gervais but even then it's not that good.

My next blog entry might be ALL about Terminator 2 and how it might very well be the perfect movie, obviously aside from the original Star Wars Trilogy which, if watched back to back to back, is the perfect movie.

Until I update again, go listen to Guns & Roses' "Estranged" and air guitar your fucking dick off.

Your pal,
Andy