Good Day, I think Matt Damon hit my top actors list when he starred in The Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and then Ultimatum. Those three movies were VERY interesting to watch. I could see where Everything Must Go would seem unusually unintertaining. As you said with the how "improbable the whole setup is," it makes you wonder, is this a big company that we are talking about? Did he lock the company car, and etc, etc. Questions like such said make the movie mostly boring to the viewer because you think about some of the questions and don't pay attention to the movie. :P Well, at least that is what happens when I get a boring movie.

Matt Damon hit my "stupid actors" list when he opened his mouth about politics. Though the Bourne trilogy is good.

[b]serfofChrist92 wrote:[/b] [quote]Matt Damon hit my "stupid actors" list when he opened his mouth about politics. Though the Bourne trilogy is good.[/quote] I tend to ignore what idiots say about politics and just appreciate their work. Martin Sheen is a good actor, but we tend to disagree when it comes to politics.

[b]Gamester4 wrote:[/b] [quote][b]serfofChrist92 wrote:[/b] [quote]Matt Damon hit my "stupid actors" list when he opened his mouth about politics. Though the Bourne trilogy is good.[/quote] I tend to ignore what idiots say about politics and just appreciate their work. Martin Sheen is a good actor, but we tend to disagree when it comes to politics.[/quote] Agreed.

I'm always kind of turned off by actors who speak out on politics - probably because they're almost always totally opposed to my own views. This put Matt Damon, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts on a list of people it was hard to admire. Damon, though, has lately impressed me with his consistency. He's been grounding the movies he's in sort of the way Tom Hanks used to (though he's not the actor Hanks is). And frankly, The Bourne Trilogy made Damon a household name but they aren't anywhere near his best performances. Bourne is a very physical role that in my opinion is not terribly interesting exactly because of the fact that neither we nor the protagonist know who he really is.

That is understandable. I am kind of an action junky so it was really entertaining to me. Especially when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. I never listen to politics lol.

^ Yeah, I wasn't saying the Bourne films aren't good movies, just that they don't show off Damon's acting the way something like Good Will Hunting or The Departed did. Each installment of the Bourne saga had at least one hand-to-hand fight that was very well choreographed and exciting to watch.

Saw two movies. One was pretty good. One was pretty awful. One was [b]The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo[/b]. One was [b]Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy[/b]. Guess which was which. 1. Drive - 8/10 2. The Adjustment Bureau - 8/10 3. Hanna - 7/10 4. Super 8 - 7/10 5. Martha Marcy May Marlene - 7/10 6. Horrible Bosses - 7/10 [b]7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - 7/10[/b] 8. The Ward - 7/10 9. In Time - 7/10 10. Source Code - 7/10 11. Contagion - 7/10 12. The Lincoln Lawyer - 7/10 13. Limitless - 6.5/10 14. Insidious - 6/10 15. Midnight in Paris - 6/10 16. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 6/10 17. Unknown - 6/10 18. X-Men: First Class - 5/10 19. Thor - 5/10 20. Crazy, Stupid, Love - 5/10 21. We Bought A Zoo - 5/10 22. Bridesmaids - 4/10 23. Everything Must Go - 4/10 24. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - 4/10 [b]25. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 3/10[/b] 26. Just Go With It - 2/10 Review of [b]The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo[/b]: This is an ambitious film. Not because it breaks new ground, but because it has so much ground to cover. Like many ambitious films, it's far from perfect; and its shortcomings are sometimes easier to point out than its strengths. First of all, it has to overcome prejudice from people who not only read the novel but also saw the 2009 Swedish film. Second, it features a lot of researching and fact-finding, which has a tendency to be unexciting unless we are given some small revelations along the way. Thankfully, director David Fincher also made Se7en and Zodiac, two movies about people tracking down a killer, and The Social Network, in which he made hacking look interesting. Unfortunately, the whodunnit aspects of TGWTDT are not as well-realized as those other movies, perhaps in part because they have to share the story with so much additional material. The family web of vice and deceit that forms the Vanger family never becomes as clear to us as it does to Mikael and Lisbeth, meaning that we don't share their passion for solving the mystery. That murder tale could easily have taken up the entire running time, and while it seems like the main plot thread we also have the story of Lisbeth's fight against the abusive state official in charge of her funds. This seems like a mostly unrelated element that occurs entirely before she meets up with Mikael, and is never directly tied to anything else in the second half of the film; that leaves us wondering why we need to vicariously experience such trauma. The film's appeal seems to hinge largely on its edgy attitude and harsh subject matter, but those who watch it to be titillated by sex and violence are likely to find it a bit tame for their tastes; whereas those looking for a mature thriller may be taken aback by how luridly the scenes of sexual violence are presented. It's a tone that's very hard to get right, though to Fincher's credit he gets about as close as I would guess one could. Style is, after all, one of the most winning aspects of the movie (the opening credit sequence is an oddity, both beautiful and unsettling). The easiest thing to admire is Rooney Mara's performance as Lisbeth, in particular her dedication. Her performance is good, but her physicality is even more impressive - those piercings are all real, and she shows them off by being naked a lot. She does smart, wounded, and occasionally scary and does it all admirably. The other head-turning performance is by Stellan Skarsgard who is entertaining as one of the Vanger clan. To me this is a movie that bites off more than it can chew - it's like 1 and a half movies (one mystery story and part of Lisbeth's story, which I suppose will be fleshed out in the two inevitable sequels) instead of just one. Falls just short of greatness, but there's enough talent involved that I would call it at least very good.

[b]Tinker Tailor Solider Spy[/b], on the other hand, is just confusing. Perhaps the single most confusing movie I've ever watched. I didn't even know enough to know what I didn't know. I didn't even know what questions to ask. I didn't know why the characters were doing what they were doing, what they felt, why any of it was so important. Would it have killed them to explain something? Anything? Obviously a question is who is Witchcraft, and who is Karla? Karla seems important, but I never found out who that was. When important people were killed, I felt nothing. How could I? I didn't know anything about them or how their assassins felt. This is a critically lauded film and I'm going against the grain by admitting I straight don't get the appeal. With nothing to latch onto, I was swept away hoping something would start to make sense, but it never did. As soon as I would think I was catching wind of a coherent plot, the story would swing away to some new development. So I was soon bored. I felt the movie was playing for its own sake, not for mine. Frankly, it's more frustrating than anything and I see it as a waste of a lot of very strong talent. Gary Oldman in one of his first major starring roles, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, and more. These are fine, fine actors doing good work in service of a movie that aggressively conceals emotion and motivation. I feel like I'm being too hard on it, but I just really didn't enjoy it at all.

Finally! Some great movies! [b]Moneyball[/b] in particular is one of the best movies of the year. I almost put it at number 2 (and maybe it'll creep up there) - it was hard to choose between that and Adjustment Bureau, but I went with the latter cause it was a movie my heart liked. I like Moneyball primarily with my head. I love that it's not really about baseball, but about management; it shows the excitement in phone calls and staff meetings, and the energy of standing up against an established way of thinking. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are a great team and the supporting cast is strong as well. Aaron Sorkin, the man behind last year's The Social Network, co-wrote the screenplay. This isn't as strong a movie as TSN but as I said it's still very good. Definitely a big recommendation here. [b]Rango[/b] was also a lot of fun. Not as funny or touching as it could be but very inventive in terms of its visual design. It has a quick wit and a clear love for other movies, especially westerns. It inhabits its own space in the 3d animated category. Refreshingly non-cutesy. 1. Drive - 8/10 2. The Adjustment Bureau - 8/10 [b]3. Moneyball - 8/10[/b] 4. Hanna - 7/10 5. Super 8 - 7/10 6. Martha Marcy May Marlene - 7/10 7. Horrible Bosses - 7/10 [b]8. Rango - 7/10[/b] 9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - 7/10 10. The Ward - 7/10 11. In Time - 7/10 12. Source Code - 7/10 13. Contagion - 7/10 14. The Lincoln Lawyer - 7/10 15. Limitless - 6.5/10 16. Insidious - 6/10 17. Midnight in Paris - 6/10 18. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 6/10 19. Unknown - 6/10 20. X-Men: First Class - 5/10 21. Thor - 5/10 22. Crazy, Stupid, Love - 5/10 23. We Bought A Zoo - 5/10 24. Bridesmaids - 4/10 25. Everything Must Go - 4/10 26. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - 4/10 27. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 3/10 28. Just Go With It - 2/10