The Godfather

Rated R. Drama. 175 min

I know this may come as a shock. Who hasn't seen The Godfather? Here's the thing. I had only watched it on television and not all the way through. Yes, I had not seen one of the most iconic movies of all time. But I watched it last night.

Let me just tell you.. Ah I can't.

Okay. So they are in the mafia. There are a bunch of sons. Don Corleone runs the fam bam and has his hand in the cookie jars of politics and gambling. Well things start changing, drugs start becoming important and everyone fights and kills everyone. Its a long movie. Everyone should see it. If not, I'll go through it real fast and then youll have to.

Don Corleone's daughter gets married. He turns out to be abusive and gets someone in the family killed which gets him kicked out of the family. The Godfather does favors for people on his daughters wedding so he helps out his godson by getting him in a movie. He does this by cutting off a $600,000 horses head and puts it in the movie makes bed. They start talking business with a mafia guy from a different family. He wants to deal heroin. They say no. So This guy kills one of their dudes. Then tries to off Corleone! Well he fails, but Sonny takes over. But Sonny sucks. Michael is an army vet and has never been in the family business. Well he gets pissed that they tried to kill his dad. So he kills the one responsible and his dirty cop partner that broken his jaw. Because of that, he has to go into hiding for a year. So he goes to Italy. He marries this girl. He gets word that one of his brothers was killed so they gotta move somewhere else. So he and his wife are getting ready to move. Well they blow up his wife. His poppa feels better and brings him back home. So far, things are bad. The Don knows hes gonna die so he makes Michael the new Don. He wants to move business to Vegas and be legit. Dad calls a meeting with the other Mafia guys and they say they all have a truce. He is training his son on what to do when he dies so that he in turn does not die. Poppa finally dies. Someone from the family sold him out and tried to get him killed. He sets up a master plan and kills EVERYONE. 

Told you, its a long movie. But its freaking awesome and you need to see it if you havent. I have the trilogy so now I really need to see the rest. Sorry if I spoiled it, but now you can see how freakin awesome it is!!

5 out of 5 stars

The Change Up

Rated R. Comedy. 112 min

I love Jason Bateman. I love Ryan Reynolds. They are both hilarious and so very different and I was so excited when I saw that they were doing a movie together. 

Bateman is this hard working, family man, lawyer that has worked all of his life to get to where he is today. He has a wife, 3 kids, big house, lots of suits, nice car and is really hoping to make partner at his law firm.

Reynolds is a stoner, wanna be actor who has never finished/ accomplished anything in his life. He has a bad relationship with his dad and sleeps with an endless string of women. 

These men have been friends since they were kids, though they are in very different stages of life now. They go out one night, get drunk, pee in a fountain and wish for each others lives. And thats exactly what they get. Reynolds suddenly has 3 kids and a wife to pay attention to and a job that actually matters. Bateman finally has some time off. Has to do some light pron movie and has an empty apartment to bring women back to. 

Moral of the story is that they needed to learn to be just a little more like one another. Bateman was really high strung and only cared about getting ahead in his career and possessions. He needed to instead care more about his family and spend time with them. Reynolds needed to actually finish something. He actually got interested in the lawyer job and rocks it out. He starts seeing only ONE woman and is able to mend a relationship. 

Good story and great comedy.

4 out of 5 stars

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Rated PG 13. Comedy/Drama. 118 minutes.

I will start out by saying that I waited FAR TOO LONG to see this movie. Mainly because again, the man sis not want to watch with me. I can't say that I blame him because I cried. Twice. They started talking about how he met his soul mate when he was 15 and thats how old I was when I met Kevin, so sue me if I cried! Another reason it was probably a good idea for us to stay away? Two words. 

RYAN GOSLING.

This man could possibly ruin all other men for me. I dare him to visit my state. I cannot handle how attractive he is. Its unfair really. While I was watching I thought to myself, "Damn! I wish I looked like him!!!" 

Back to the movie. It was super sweet. Totally all about love and how sometimes it works and sometimes, well, it really doesn't. And its hard and it sucks. But it can be the most amazing thing at the same time. Even when you aren't looking for it, love can sweep you off your feet.

I like movies that show things in all different perspectives, young to old. Everyone can relate. You can relate based on your current situation, on previous encounters or see what you have to look forward to. I couldn't relate to all parts of this movie, but it was still real to me. It was funny, it was tender, and it made me cry like a little love sick puppy. I too love love. I love seeing it and being in it. Its the best feeling in the world, but also, more scary than anything you can feel. I wish I hadn't waited so long to see it.

4 out of 5 stars

Sherlock Holme:s A Game of Shadows

Rated PG 13. Action. 129 minutes

I am so glad I watched the first Sherlock Holmes movie shortly before I saw the new one. It reminded me of the story, the bad guy is the bad guy behind everything in the first film, and it reminded me of the speed of the movie. This is a great sequel. It was right in step with the first. The dialogue, the story, the way it was filmed, everything was the same as the first. Not to say I felt like I had seen it already. But it stayed so true to what Ritchie had intended with the first movie. Robert Downey is just as adorable and quirky as ever. Jude Law still puts up with his crap,but they have this unbreakable bond. I don't think Holmes got in as much trouble with the law as he did in the first, but he is just as insane!

This movie was a lot of fun, and really perfect if you loved the first film.

4 out of 5 stars

Our Idiot Brother

Rated R. 90 min. Comedy/Drama

I. Love. Paul. Rudd.

There. I said it. He is fabulous, I have loved him since Clueless all those years ago. I love every line that he says in every movie that he has ever been in. He's a hottie, hes hilarious, and he can act, what more can you ask from a guy?? Again, this was a movie I REALLY wanted to see in theaters, but was unable to because of the boyfriend. 

'Brother' is about Ned. Ned is the nicest, most trusting and loving guy you've ever met. He wants to make everyone happy and he's honest. A CLOTHED police officer asked him for weed and yes, he bought it and yes, he went to jail. But thats just his nature! Like he says, he thinks people are honestly good and if you give them the chance to prove that to you, hopefully more often than not, they'll impress you. He says whats on his mind. He observes people, he is simple. Unfortunately, his observations and trusting personality get him into trouble. He lets people know things that were told to him in confidence. It all ends well and his family realizes that the reasons he was driving them crazy are the reasons they love him the most. 

It really was a sweet story, and something I needed to see at the time. I too like to think there is good in everyone and that people want to do the right thing. I don't believe in keeping secrets, but being honest. Ned is someone we all can learn from. 

God that sounded like the end of a high school English paper...

All Good Things

Rated R Drama/Thriller

The main draw I had to this movie was Ryan Gosling. After 'Drive', I'm going to watch anything that man ever does. I had never heard of this movie, but it sounded pretty interesting. I love true crime, so anything at least based on some actual events, count me in. This movie was WORLDS different than what I thought it was going to be. I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it.

The description says that David Marks (Gosling) wife goes missing, that did not happen until the end. You see how he meets his wife, Katie. The Marks family owns mass amounts of property in New York circa 1970s, this is where the story begins. David is the oldest of two sons and not interested in this rich, preppy lifestyle. He and Katie marry about a year after meeting and move out of New York and start an organic store. David's father is not impressed in the least and forces David to move back to New York and participate in the family business. Part of Davids issues with his father stem from watching his mother commit suicide when he was only a child and he has never gotten over these issues. He isn't thrilled in the least about being home and working, but Katie is trying to make the best of it. She wants to raise a family and focus on other things than the job, but Daivd refuses based on his own problems. The relationship becomes very rocky and the couple spends less and less time together.

Katie becomes pregnant and David forces her to get an abortion. After that, things go downhill rapidly. They spend even less time together, Katie goes back to school to become a doctor, David hates this, why, I still have no idea. I think he was just realizing that he was still losing her. It all comes to a head when David grabs her by the hair and drags her out of her graduation party in front of her entire family. Things continue to get violent, btu because he is a trust fund baby, not all of his money is his, so Katie cannot leave him because he is her source of income. So she blackmails him and the family. Though they both want the relationship to work, it just doesn't seem to, David keeps ruining things. One day, poof, she is gone. We never find out what happened to her. It could have gone one of two ways. He killed her or she really just left him and never contacted anyone again.

After she vanishes, he gets out of town and goes to Texas. To really stop being David Marks, he starts dressing like a woman.. He gets into this weird friendship with an old man that lives in his building. The old man finds out that David has lots of money. The old man also does some of Davids dirty work and kills one of his best friends because she writes a book that sounds too familiar to Katies disappearance. The old man becomes too much for him to handle, so he kills him. David somewhat narrates the story while he is on trial for the old mans death. He was convicted of unproper removal of a dead body, because he chopped him up ino pieces and dropped him into a lake, but the death was ruled self protection, because they had a fight.

Like I said, we never find out what actually happened to Katie, we just watch the story of a WEIRD man with tons of issues..

3.5 out of 5 stars

J. Edgar

Rated R Drama/Biography

I will be the first to admit, I knew NOTHING about J Edgar Hoover, though I totally knew his name. This may sound terrible, but I thought he had been out President, because lets be honest, Herbert Hoover isn't very memorable.. I will also be very honest in saying that I was REALLY skeptical of this movie. I do love Clint Eastwood, mainly for Gran Torino (I laughed harder at that movie than I probably should have and I laughed because I totally understood and it was making me so happy) but heres why I was weary. Biographies like this can be REALLY slow. And dark, which makes for a boring movie. Let me tell you, this movie was anything but boring. So interesting that I have thought about it for the last two days.

This movie paints such a great picture of the man. I loved it mainly because it didn't tell only what he did in his personal life and not only what he did in his professional life. It told it all! I think thats why I have such a problem with other government officials movies.. It only tells one side of the story, maybe thats because the people aren't all around interesting?? I learned right from the begining something that I never knew. Hoover helped start the system for coding books in libraries, making them easier to find! Might be super simple, but too interesting for me haha Also, makes sense why he wanted to do the same with people while creating the FBI. The movie deals with his personal and professional lives, talking about a few specifics in both. Theres the story about trying to find a missing child and about how he blackmailed basically every president to keep the FBI up and running. It also looks at his odd personal life, or lack of one. He had a somewhat strange relationship with his mother, zero relationship with women, but couldn't bring himself to have a relationship with the one man he did love, his right hand man, Tolson. I loved getting to see who he was in both areas of his life. It made him more of a person to me, unlike most movies in this genre do.

I HAVE to tip my hat to DiCaprio and Hammer. DiCaprio is freakin amazing in just about anything he is in, and he completley sold me on Hoover. I fell in love with Hammer in Social Network, and this movie made me realize that he really is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He will be around for a long, long time.

5 out of 5 stars