The Blind Side (2009)

Folks, I finally saw The Blind Side. To cut to the chase, I enjoyed it. I really did. But it’s not my favorite movie.6/10 possibly. I even watched it twice. So here’s the quick facts.

LIKE:

• They used real-life coaches. Although I’m terribly under-educated on the goings-on of college football, my mom kept me informed so that was fun.
• Sandra Bullock was, indeed, good in the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy. She knows how to chew someone out.
• Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher was (surprisingly) pretty good.
• All of his rugby striped shirts. Especially the only that looked like Gryffindor.
• It gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. The world had a beautiful pink Mary Richards bow around it. (Don’t worry if you don’t get it).
• It was fast-paced, there were funny moments, a moving story, kept my attention etc.

DISLIKE:

• It’s a freaking Hallmark movie. I can’t believe people are buying into its simplistic and superficial plot. Do you honestly believe that the ENTIRE Tuohy family just welcomed Michael in with open arms including a teenage DAUGHTER? And no one was even pissed that Michael nearly killed their son in a car accident? Who taught him to drive anyway?
• To go along with being too simplistic, they could have delved into soooo many interesting facets of Michael’s story including his challenges and struggles, his character growth, his background, how he dealt with becoming a charity project… etc.
• Instead, Michael is pushed to a supporting character IN HIS OWN STORY! The movie tells us about what a saint Leigh Anne is, how wonderfully Christian Leigh Anne is, how kind and charitable she was to save this poor good-for-nothing black boy and teach him to be something out of the goodness of her heart. Wtf.
• I’m sorry, but, it was pretty racist too.
• This may seem paradoxical, since I did say that Sandra Bullock was good but I honestly thought she was over-the-top. The whole don’t-mess-with-sexy-mommy attitude taken so far that a gang of young, fit black kids are actually scared? Not buying it. She’s bossy. To everyone.

If we’re talking sports movies, give me Hoosiers or Remember the Titans any day. But on the whole it was enjoyable. (Sure, what I dislike outweighs what I like, but there is something to be said for enjoyability). It may have been a little too perfect, but I liked it. I have my issues with it, but I would recommend it to someone.

Is it anywhere NEAR Oscar material? Heck no! Not everyone may have liked Julie & Julia, but I honestly find it to be a far superior movie to Blind Side – and Meryl Streep SHOULD have won. (I can honestly say that with NO reservations now). I mean, it wasn’t even like they were nominating her just because she’s elite and she’s “Meryl Streep.” She was good in that role, just watch footage of the real Julia Child and you’ll see what I mean. Count your blessings, Sandra, that America loves you so much.

Ten years down the road? People will look back at this and say “What WAS the Academy thinking!” You heard it here first.

master of suspense

If you know me AT ALL, you would know that I have a slight obsession with director Alfred Hitchcock.

(Think screeching violins if you don’t know who he is).

I love everything Hitchcock. Someday, maybe, I’ll post up a top ten list or something.  We have a few box sets of some of his super old stuff and my mom keeps saying “if you were a true Hitchcock fan you’d be watching some of these…” and I realized: she was right.

So I took the plunge. I watched a bunch of Hitchcocks over the weekend. I’m nowhere near finished but I made a good dent. Of his old British ones I watched these:

2+2=4. Heavy Irish accents+horrible sound=necessity for subtitles. (Which were absent). Moral of the story? This film should be reserved for Hitchcock students only. I had a really hard time following and it wouldn’t have been worth my time were it not for fulfilling my OCD requirement of watching and paying attention to all Hitchcocks. So I watched. Sara Algood plays Juno, a struggling housewife with a drunkard for a husband (Edward Chapman, “The Paycock”) during the Irish revolution. I tuned out during quite a bit of it… ha. But I read a synopsis afterwards and really the plot isn’t as boring as I thought. It’s unfortunate that this adaptation of Sean O’Casey’s play is so… old. It’s one of the first talkies, yo. But it was interesting. And now I can say I watched it. Yes!

On the other side of the spectrum… I found this to be a hidden gem that I had somehow never seen. It’s very similar to The 39 Steps – convicted innocent man inlists help of resilient woman and they fall in love and solve the mystery. Oops I think I gave away the ending. But I was impressed with some innovative and unique camera work, good solid characters/acting (Nova Pilbeam and Derrick de Marney) and a good musical score. Worth watching.

You’re probably wondering why I even write this junk up, right? I would wonder too. It’s for myself. Why publish it on the internet? Because on the internet there is always the off chance that someone will, you know, read it which forces me to edit, and learn more about what I’m writing. So yes. You don’t have to read my lame movie reviews. I like to keep track of the movies that I watch, and this is the best way.

kbye.