Movie Reviews: The Vow to Keep Safe the Extremely Beautiful and Dangerous Artist in Black

by Jack Garcia

It has been a while since I have written a movie review!  School and work, coupled with moving into a new place have really distracted me from it I guess.  I’ve still gone and seen some movies, I just haven’t gotten around to writing about them.  So in order to catch up, I’ve written seven mini-mini reviews.  Super short and sweet.

And speaking of sweet… do you know what the greatest movie theater snack in the world is?  Reese’s Pieces and popcorn TOGETHER!  I’m telling you, it’s life-changing!  Eat it!  My friend Michelle turned me on to it and it’s so good I snacked on some while writing this post…

Beauty and the Beast 3D AWESOME!

Starring the voice talents of Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson and Angela Lansbury, Disney’s timeless animated classic was re-released into theaters in 3D.  While, I still don’t care one way or the other about 3D, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my favorite Disney movie up on the big screen.  The love story is enchanting, the songs are memorable, and the animation is beautiful.  No wonder it was the first animated movie to ever be nominated for an Academy Award.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ADMIRABLE

Young actor Thomas Horn has a breakout performance as Oskar, a boy troubled with the loss of his father in the tragedy of 9/11.  I really thought he did a fantastic job as the odd protagonist.  His late father (Tom Hanks) has left him with a mysterious key which motivates him to search all over New York City for the lock it fits, dealing with his own issues along the way—including the patchy relationship with his mother (Sandra Bullock).  The story may be completely unbelievable, but his suffering is real and I enjoyed the film.

The Artist ADMIRABLE

I loved that this Oscar-nominated movie was in black-and-white, I loved that it was a silent film, and I loved that it was highly reminiscent of the movies made back in the Golden Age of cinema.  Silent film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) struggles to stay in the business when “talkies” emerge, and his fall makes way for Peppy Miller’s (Berenice Bejo) rise to fame.  The film is funny and charming with some impressive camerawork and storytelling and the two have some great chemistry together.  However, my excitement and anticipation for the movie had my expectations far too high, and I somehow felt unsatisfied.  I can’t pinpoint any real reasons, other than that it felt like Singin’ in the Rain without the singing.

A Dangerous Method AVERAGE

In this drama about early psychoanalysis, Michael Fassbender plays Dr. Carl Jung—a colleague of Sigmund Freud’s (Viggo Mortensen)—who is developing his methods while working with a crazed patient named Sabina (Keira Knightley).  Jung eventually takes Sabina on as his mistress… and not a lot happens besides that.  For me, Knightley did the most outstanding acting in the movie, while Fassbender and Mortensen were just good.   The drama had interesting moments, but overall was fairly dull.

The Woman in Black ADMIRABLE

One of my professors referred to this as  “the new Harry Potter movie” and for many I’m sure it’s hard to separate Daniel Radcliffe from his lifelong role as the boy wizard.  However, I didn’t have as much trouble believing him to be a married, young father in this Gothic horror movie.  Although he spends most of his time quietly creeping around a dark, scary house, I thought he did well in it.  The movie is simple and understated, and manages to create a chilling atmosphere and scare quite often.

The Vow AWFUL

This movie suffered from an identity crisis: it wasn’t sure if it was a chick flick or an indie drama, and frankly it wasn’t either.  Rachel McAdams plays a woman who gets in a car wreck and wakes up with amnesia.  She doesn’t remember her husband (Channing Tatum) at all, and he has to do his best to make her fall in love with him all over again.  The majority of the movie is Tatum earnestly trying to woo her and McAdams looking at him with complete indifference.  Not exactly the chick flick we were wanting.

Safe House AVERAGE

This movie was pretty decent, and I found myself having a lot of fun watching it.  Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a CIA agent looking after a safe house.  His job seems dull until a dangerous criminal Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) is brought in.  The safe house is attacked, and the two men must escape together.  As an action flick, I thought it had all of the necessary requirements:  a cool car chase, some awesome fighting, and even some male bonding.  Definitely worth seeing.