Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

Movie Reviews: Drive

When I first saw the trailer for this movie I thought, "Oh look they made Transporter 4 without Handsome Rob." The opening scene of the movie fulfilled my prophecy. The Drive(r), played by Ryan I'm-fun-to-look-at Gosling, explains his ground rules, meets the clunky, disorganized robbers, and then does what he does best, drives. However, after this opening sequence, the film leaves the Transporter genre and enters down a road of its own; pun intended. Unlike the Transporter movies, of which I do love the first in the series, Drive dishes out chases scenes that are believable and obey the physics of a car. I should also point out that the movie is not one long chase scene *cough*Ronin*cough*, but actually digs pretty deep with a story that will keep your significant other guessing the outcome through most of the movie. A good chunk of this movie is spent in silence as Ryan I-am-so-good-looking-that-I-can-break-up-with-Rachel-McAdams Gosling looks off into the distance, smiles, looks back, stops smiling, and then turns again to reveal another heart-warming smil.....I'm sorry what were we talking about. Oh right, the silence.  Yes, the Earth is to Water as the Dialogue of Drive is to Silence. But it works.  And, actually, it's a bit fun. It makes me want to try it out in real life. When someone asks me something, I will just look at them and smile without acknowledging anything they just said and see what they do. The silent treatment leaves you to hanging on Ryan Your-Girlfriend-thinks-about-me-more-than-she-thinks-about-you Gosling's every syllable.  All in all it was fun movie with the title font of a Lethal Weapon, the music of a foreign french film, and the graphic fight scenes a la the Departed. Drive gets a B+ for it's unexpected twists, turns, and frequent lane changes.

Movie Reviews: A Story of Two Adams

It's been a while since I've written anything on Agnew's Mind. I guess the Jon and Agnew show has been a good enough to get most things off my chest. This MLK Jr. weekend has been nice and relaxing. I've been cooking and cleaning and been the perfect house wife for myself. In between the chores I have treated myself to a few films. The two I watched today were Real Steel and 50/50.

REAL STEEL
Real Steel, in case you can't tell from the movie poster, is about boxing robots. The best part about this movie is that it never tries to be something it's not, at least until the end, but I will get to that later. If you have seen the trailer for this movie then you already know the ending. Basically Wolverine is wagering has been who owes people a lot of money. He used to date Kate from LOST but she moved on, or so it seems, since he started gambling his life away. Enter little Anakin Skywalker, ok so it's not the same kid but I swear they cloned him. The young Jedi has a knack for training robots and so the two pair up to train an older generation boxing robot named, Atom. (I thought the robots name was Adam until they spelled it later in the movie almost making a point that everyone watching also thought his name was Adam.) Fill in a montage here and there and throw in some bonding moments for Logan and Annie and you have a big chunk of the movie. One thing I think needed to be addressed was the fact that these robots could malfunction and crush their human counterparts. Most of the movie I waited for the robot's eyes to change from blue to red and go into destruction mode. When it didn't happen I found myself wishing it would. The main villains are never really developed so who knows why they do what they do. Then you get to the end of the movie which is the only part that resembles a Rocky movie because it's taken straight from Rocky 1 and 4.  But something is missing.  The emotion. They fill in the emotion in this drawn out slow motion moment where everyone sheds a single tear. It's weak. So weak that I dropped the movie down to a C- just because of that scene alone. That and the fact that little Annie lets out a Phantom Menace "Yahooo" at the end. My recommendation would be to wait for some little cousin or friend's kid to ask you to watch this movie. I think with a kid's perspective the movie would be much more enjoyable. Wolverine with ROBOTS!  If you watch this alone and have seen a boxing movie before be prepared to experience some deja vu. A sequel is planned for 2014.  Get ready for robots running in the snow.  C-

50/50

Fifty-Fifty is a movie about Seth Rogan's friend, Adam, who gets diagnosed with cancer.  I remember seeing the trailer for this movie.  It had pre-preview segment with Seth, Adam, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt( 3rd Rock, Inception) who plays Adam in the movie.  This part was so memorable because (the real) Adam finishs the clip with, "Watch the movie and see if I live or die."  This is the tone throughout the movie; a serious life challenge surrounded by comedic light-heartedness.  This is exactly how I like my movies, emotional and real.  If you have seen (500) days of summer, this movie is somewhat similar.  I won't tell you what happens in the end but I will tell you a few things.  You will cry.  You will laugh.  You will say out loud, "Oh what a b*tch!" at one point.  You will stand up and cheer at another.  Be ready for many realistic life lessons.  It's not a downer of a movie but it is a movie about cancer and anyone who has been close to the disease will probably be vouching for the validity of many of the scenes.  By the end of this movie my face hurt from laughing and crying so often.  Some of the Seth Rogan jokes are quite raunchy but they actually lighten up as the movie progresses.  I give it an A- because it's just a really great movie.  I may watch it again at a later time.  Until then, it will be on my shelf next toa copy of  My Life.  I suggest watching this with someone who you don't mind crying in front of on a night where you can watch without laptop and cell phone distractions. A-