Movie Night

After a busy week, I finally had a couple of days where I had the day all to myself. I spent it watching some movies that I've been meaning to watch for awhile now. The first three movies I caught were Rocky Balboa, Night at the Museum and The Prestige. So since I haven't posted anything here for the longest time, I'll explore my inner Pua and tell you what I thought of these movies.

First, Rocky Balboa... not Rocky VI, but Rocky Balboa. This was the movie Wilson was pimping quite some time before its release. I had an open-minded approach for this movie as I wasn't as pessimistic as say, Bill Simmons or as optimistic as Wilson. Anyway, it turns out I didn't like it as much. See, there are some who like their Rocky movies to be on the more cinematic side as the first two Rocky movies were. For me, I was never enthralled by Rocky's cinematic side. I saw Rocky as a really fun action movie, that's it. Basically, I liked my Rocky movies like Rocky IV. The beginning was really long and draggy and it took awhile before the plot moved along. Also, Stallone acting is never a fun sight. If you add Paulie, who looks really old and chews the scenery, it's borderline painful. Heroes' Peter Petrelli also makes an appearance as Rocky's kid. Again, not a big fan of his acting. Overall, the boxing scenes were realistic, and probably delighted the hardcore audience. For me, I wanted the Rocky IV type scenes where it's just unrealistic but tons of fun. So that's it.

Night at the Musuem was a good waste of time. Nothing memorable, but better than doing nothing.

And finally, The Prestige, a story of obsession and deception in the world of 19th century magic. Anyway, it's the movie Glenn was raving about for awhile. It's the best of the three movies I saw, definitely, but again I couldn't get behind the movie completely. The acting, of course, was superb. You can't go wrong with the three leads, especially Jackman, whose theatre work just knocks me out in awe. I loved the story and the reveals in the end. In the middle, though, I just couldn't behind the characters themselves. I like my characters to be redeeming; flawed, but redeeming. Otherwise, I just can't get invested in them. When Jackman's character sent Scarlett to spy on his rival, it just really pissed me off. I guess I just like my characters to be more rational. What makes the near-end interesting and what turned me off on the characters at the same time is that it turns out that there is no protagonist in this film. The audience is dragged through different points of view where they are told which character they should root for. It's an interesting take and definitely novel, but that's where I jumped off.

So that's it. My next two movies are The Departed and Casino Royale. So that should be fun. Ciao.