Tag Archives: jamie foxx

2013 Movie Reviews

‘White House Down’ just another ‘Die Hard’ rip off

I’m all for mindless action movies. I’m not going to sit here and say just because I review movies for a living that I know what makes a good movie more than anyone else. Hey, I’m just here to offer my opinion. In this case, I would say, it is my opinion that “White House Down” is not a very good movie.

I know, you’re shocked, right?WHDpic2

Another movie in a long, long line of movies aiming to rip off the “Die Hard” formula. Actually “Olympus Has Fallen” was more of a “Die Hard” rip off, “WHD” borrows a little more from the formula Bay used for “The Rock” — you know, a delusional government Patriot does something crazy to get attention — or in this case revenge. Except this time we get James Woods leading a takeover of the White House instead of Ed Harris. Not as interesting.

Then there are the heroes. Channing Tatum plays a wanna be Secret Service agent and Jamie Foxx plays — wait for it — the President of the United States. From “Independence Day” and “2012” director Roland Emmerich never lets the the movie pretend it’s anything but what it is but if we are going to settle for mindless, can’t the movie at least feel original?

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2012 Movie Reviews

Tarantino doesn’t hold back in ‘Django Unchained’ — movie review

Django3Quentin Tarantino is the quintessential definition of the modern day film auteur. Going back to “Reservoir Dogs” has compiled a brilliant resume of films that while you may not ever know what QT is going to do, you can definitely recognize that distinct Tarantino flare for the shockingly ridiculous. “Django Unchained” is Tarantino’s ode to spaghetti westerns, following a slave on a quest for revenge against the white man. Buckle your seat belts.

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2009 Movie Review

‘The Soloist’ (2009) — movie review

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Who’s in it?: Robert Downey, Jr. (Weird Science, The Pick Up Artist), Jamie Foxx (TV’s In Living Color, Any Given Sunday), Tom Hollander (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3), Stephen Root (Office Space, O’ brother Where Art Thou?), Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are)

Let’s get the ball rolling here.  So RDJ is a writer for a news paper.  Jamie Foxx is a schizophrenic former musician turned homeless man.  RDJ wants to do a story on this guy but quickly learns that befriending a crazy guy off the street isn’t always as easy as it seems.  The movie is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) and the L.A.  Times writer, Steve Lopez (Downey, Jr.), that found him on the street and helped him get his life back together.

Okay The Soloist is a fine movie, I guess.  This is a good enough movie and all.  It has great acting performances all around but the movie really fails to connect on any personal or emotional levels.  It’s one of those movies you’d think would get nominated for an Oscar based on previews, etc. but then you see it and almost feel cheated when its over.  Sometimes producers think they can just throw a few good actors on screen, base the movie on a true story of someone with some sort of handicap or affliction and think its gold.  It’s just simply not the fucking case here.

RDJ is great and Foxx is good here and they have great chemistry together.  There are some sad moments and the film does a good job of focusing on the isolation and confusion felt by Foxx’s character.  Yet it doesn’t quite deliver.  It’s what you think and nothing more.  Sometimes that’s good enough, here it’s not.

I can’t say I didn’t like the movie because I did like it but its probably not something I’d go out of my way to watch again, therefore I’m sot sure I’d ask anyone else to check it out.

6/10

Would I recommend this movie?: Partly, yes, because it is well acted and RDJ is pretty good to watch in just about anything these days, but the movie is really kind of blah.  So unless you’re a fan of RDJ or Foxx or just curious to learn the movie adapted version of the life of Nathaniel Ayers, pass on this one.