Crazy Heart

I have been looking forward to this flick ever since I heard about it. I remember putting up the poster so I can start to promote it, but quickly I realized it probably wouldn't make its way to the big screen at most theaters. I was surprised and excited to see the bookings for it and ready to watch. The film was pretty damn good. The best performance was done by Jeff Bridges, in fact I am quite happy and shocked by his performance. His nomination was well deserved and I hope he actually wins something. The story was amazing and hell the music was actually really good. I am not much of a country nut but I do love that old school rock-a-billie country that has a strong influence of jazz in it. The other performances were not too bad either. I did not even realize Colin Ferrel was involved in this film till he showed up and he did a great job. His only flaw was that he struggled with his accent at times, but I give him a thumbs up because he is doing a thick Texan accent when he is actually Irish, much respect. I always struggle with Maggie Gyllenhaal because she is a good enough actress but she is very fucking weird looking and kind of strange, and sometimes I really struggle with her acting. I dont know why I struggle with her but as a whole her role was nothing special to me. I could have done without it or with a better actress. But either way I would highly suggest this movie for people who like indie biopic films. The movie was very good and very well acted. I enjoyed the characters, the music, and the story. If this movie shows up around you should go check it out. My next review will be Hurt Locker. Keep an eye out for it.

District 13 Ultimatum

This was a movie that I was extremely excited for... in fact I actually downloaded it twice so I could get the subtitled version instead of the lame dubbed version. I remember watching the first one a few years back when I lived in Portland at the Fox Tower. Even then I was tripping balls about the movie. So when I discovered that their was a second one coming out in a couple of weeks I was very ready to go watch it. But after finding that it was not releasing in any theaters around here and that it was not releasing on dvd until May or March or something like that my arm was forced and I had to download it...
So now after a little set up on how I obtained the movie how about a little set up on the previous and current movie... The movie stars David Belle an achieved Free runner with many internet videos on youtube and such. He is very talented at what he does and is fun to watch. It also stars Cyril Raffaelli not a household name to most but has stared in movies such as Kiss of the dragon(with jet li) and Live free die hard. In which he was a hacker with the bad guys and jumped around and kicked a lot. The premise of the movies is that there is a section called District 13 (distict b-13 in the first one). This section or sector of the city has been cut off from the rest of Paris with a giant wall and is ran by drug lords and in both movies more or less the government is trying to destroy the city so they can rebuild it.
Quick review of the previous film. It was damn amazing full of awesome action and full of amazing stunts. The story was ok at best but the movie, which was directing by people involved in the making of Ong Bak, was fun as hell and action packed.
This movie though fell a little short. I was super excited and after the first scene, though disturbing I was still excited. But after this it started to go a little plain. The movie still had some awesome action but it was definitely fewer and much further between. Even though there was still some action it was a far stretch to the first. In the first it was fluid and creative and in this one it felt forced and the camera angles killed some of the parkor stunts. Everything about the action was less interesting. The story was just as lame if not more lame and definitely more corny and unbelievable. There was more comical aspects which actually made it lame. There were more people involved which may be the reason it killed some of the action.
But to be fair maybe I shouldn't compare it to the previous one and try to look at it as an individual entity. From an action movie perspective it was entertaining enough. I enjoyed the moments of action that were in the flick. The story was good enough and not to far from other action movies in that I mean the story doesn't draw away from the action. On an action scale I would give it a 6/10.
Overall the movie was fun and I am glad I watched it. I am also glad I did not buy it because I am pretty sure I will never watch it again. There were a couple scenes that I would kill to watch again and again, primarily the opening scene. But the movie was less fun and not nearly as good as the first one. I would recommend the first one to anyone who hasn't seen it and I would recommend the second one for a one time watch(only after the first one). This film still does fall in a short line of films that are very fun to watch and dont come to this side of the world very often. Usually has awesome action and stunts that are out of this world and usually the lamest stories ever. Movies that dont use wires and dont use CG just old fashioned action and stunts that could seriously injure all involved. If you like this film I would suggest Ong Bak, The protector, Chocolate and there are probably more but this is all I know.