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PerryHere
Reviews
Small Town Crime (2017)
Unsung gem with lots of style
Really glad I landed on this one tonight. Small Town Crime reminded me of a sort of one-horse/one town Pulp Fiction in many ways. A character heavy, stylized (but not over-stylized) noir/crime film with with some dark humor and Westerns homage thrown in. Not as much of a comic book feel as PF, but this is definitely a movie that hovers slightly beyond how the real world works. Loved the contrasts: brutal shoot em ups transposed against everyday domestic scenes, the overly stereotyped characters and the quirky unique ones. Lot's of car chases and scenes in cars, and for the lead character, his souped-up 80s muscle car is an anchor set piece. The story here isn't as gritty as you might think; it's lighter and breezier than its subject matter; the villains here are comic book villains, the the heroes are drunks and pimps, and the bad guys die and the good guys live. As others have said, the movie was amply cast with talented actors.
Real Steel (2011)
Surprisingly enjoyable dose of alloy
The Bluray has been sitting in it's red Netflix mailer for nearly three weeks and I needed to deal with it. Glad I finally did.
Setting aside a couple of quibbles (a contrived setup, circa 2011 automobiles everywhere ... except for that weird truck, and a few other annoyances) this was a fun and very decent film, er Movie.
Jackman, who gets the masthead, does a decent job with his character; but Dakota Goyo, playing his estranged son, steals the show. The movie wouldn't have played nearly as well with a poor performance from "the kid" and Goyo - whoever he is - deserves props for a heartfelt and way cool performance.
Evangeline Lilly also did a nice job in the girlfriend role and the romance stuff is peppered in just enough to not get too annoying. One wonders though, what the hell does she actually do - there's never a soul in her fathers old gym. Anyway - she fit well.
I thought the CGI was wicked good; roger rabbit good. It folded in seamlessly, looked great, and there were only a couple of issues with the actors trying to play to the green screen (is it me or was Jackman way too close to Atom in sparring).
Jackman was pretty, er, jacked for the film. Must have worked out like two months straight before the film. Helped the plot realism anyway.
That dude James Rebhorn (Mr. Trask from Scent of a Woman) was in the film as well and he was actually decent, but he's like way too old to be the kid's step dad. Hope Davis must have married someone like way older than herself. Anyway, just a thought.
Nods to Rocky, E.T., and Wall-e are not unevident, and there was an awful lot of product placement crap, but I guess you have to hedge your bets somewhat when you spend $110 large. They probably should have released this in the summer instead of October since it plays well to kids and adults alike. Atom - the robot - could have been a touch more bad-ass but I guess I'm glad he slid to the rear a touch in the grand scheme of things. The actors stood out more.
Anyway, it was a good movie and I'm rating it a 7.