Dir. Andrew Dominik (2007)
Casey Affleck plays Robert Ford, a James Gang groupie who joins up with the brothers hoping to be their sidekick. His idol, Jesse James lets him tag along. Eventually some of the guys from the gang get caught and Jesse starts to get paranoid. In the meantime, Ford is growing to resent his childhood hero. I don't want to give anything away, but the title already beat me to it.
At over two and a half hours, this movie is long, but it doesn't seem too long. It's a great story with great performances by Affleck and Pitt as well as Sam Rockwell as Robert Ford's older brother. The cinematography is beautiful (the film is up for two Oscars, one for cinematographer Roger Deakins, and one for Affleck.)
If you don't mind a long, slow-paced movie, then I have to recommend this one.
8/10
3:10 to Yuma dir James Mangold (2007)
Dan Evans, small time rancher with a peg-leg (Christian Bale) is getting paid to make sure a charismatic robber Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) gets on a train to take him to his court appearance.
I got to admit I fell asleep in the middle, but I only missed the part where Wade is caught and Evans agrees to take him. Evans does this because he is in debt and he has to prove to his son, who is tagging along, he is not a pussy. Wade spends their time together trying to convince Evans to let him go, and he gives him a very persuasive argument as to why he should. Evans however, is not going to back down in front of his boy.
One review of this movie said that the original (haven't seen it) said that it was more believable because the guy playing Dan Evans seemed more scared and vulnerable then, well, Batman. That makes sense. I kind of liked this movie, but it just seems like a regular Hollywood good guy and bad guy movie only set in the old west. Maybe a little bit better than that.
6.5/10
Juno dir. Jason Reitman (2007)
An offbeat teenage girl gets pregnant and decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. Oh and it's not really a western.
I've heard complaints about this movie about the dialogue, the hip references, and even how much money it's made (over $100 mil). I don't think any of those things take away from the fact that this is a smart, funny original movie. Going into it, I was worried that the movie would be way too hip and cute for its own good, and that the way Juno talked would make my ears bleed. There are things she says that are annoying, but I think that this movie is good enough that it didn't ruin the whole thing for me. Their has been a lot of talk abut Ellen Page as Juno, but the supporting cast is also excellent. Michael Cera is playing the same character he always plays, but I haven't got tired of it yet. Also good are Juno's parents, played by J.K. Simmons and Olivia Thirby.
Despite a few annoying lines, the script is really good and the story moves along at a nice pace without seeming to try to hard to be too sweet, overly emotional or send a message or anything. So who cares if Juno has a hamburger phone and likes The Stooges? Would you rather she had an iPhone and listened to Soulja Boy?
8/10
7/150 movies
2/15 books
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