Week 2: March Movie Challenge

Two stacks of Movie Challenge goodness

Hey! My March Movie Challenge is going great, thanks for asking! I have yet to miss a day of viewing, and hopefully I can continue along that path. To catch you up, I set myself a challenge to watch a different DVD every day in March. A movie I've never seen before. You can read about the challenge here. Here's the post where I review what I saw in Week 1.

Now, onto Week 2 ........


Day Eight: WHITE HOUSE DOWN
Well I can report that it's better than the similarly-plotted Olympus Has Fallen, which was dire. Maggie Gyllenhaal is annoying (pretty sure universally, not just to me), but then you've got Channing Tatum, so things kind of even out. If you like action and EXPLOSIONS, this is your film.

"Too much of a good thing is wonderful"

Day Nine: BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
Loved it! Amazingly brave performances from Matt Damon as Scott Thorson and Michael Douglas as the fabulous Liberace. Full of opulence and extravagance, completely fascinating and utterly brilliant. Director Steven Soderbergh redeems himself from the god-awful The Girlfriend Experience, which I saw last week.

Day Ten: A SINGLE MAN
Incredibly beautiful and breathtakingly sad. Heartbreaking, in fact. This film is about love, loss and grief. A wonderful lead performance by Colin Firth, and the Directional debut of Tom Ford. Have tissues at the ready!

Zac has a wee-ly big crush

Day Eleven: THE PAPERBOY
It's all tits, ass, blonde hairpieces, false eyelashes and short dresses and then shit gets dramatic. John Cusack is creepy and sweaty, Zac Efron cops wee in the face, Matthew McConaughey cannot catch a break and there's a lot of "bitch, open your mouth". And I'll leave it there.

This shit is no laughing matter

Day Twelve: SNOWTOWN
Get ready, I have strong feelings on this one. In a nutshell, I feel like the subject matter is too disturbing and repulsive to get any enjoyment out of the movie. I couldn't even appreciate good storytelling, skilled Directing or fantastic performances, because I was too sickened by gruesome murders and stomach-turning torture. Not to mention the killing/dismembering of animals, which I turned away for. I can normally force myself to watch pretty much anything, but some scenes proved unwatchable. Even worse, this film is based on the real-life 'bodies in barrels' murders that took place in Snowtown, South Australia in the 1990's. Snowtown is gritty, intimidating, uncomfortable and horrendous. The only positive comment I have is that Lucas Pittaway, the actor who played Jamie, reminds me of a young Heath Ledger. Note that this film won numerous AACTA Awards, so it's not a bad film, it's just not for me.

Day Thirteen: THE BURNING PLAIN
The lemon cheesecake I ate while I watched this film was good. The film was pretty blah. If you're a hardcore Charlize Theron fan, you get to see her boobs, so there's that. Also, check out Jennifer Lawrence's acting before her meteoric rise to A-List status. It's pretty funny seeing her name billed three or four pages into the cast list.

Kids ask a lot of question during films, don't they?

Day Fourteen: ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH
My six year old son loved this 3D computer animated comedy, which has funny bits for adults to appreciate, too. Personally I loved Ricky Gervais as the computer system voice. My son loved the 'freezing bits'. It's colourful, energetic and a bit of fun for the whole family.

If you've seen any of these movies, let me know what you thought!