Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Perfect Host
We follow criminal John Taylor (Clayne Crawford) as he tries to evade the police after a bank robbery. His search for sanctuary leads him to the home of Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce) who allows Taylor to enter under the guise of "friend of a friend". This leads Taylor to join the psychosis fueled dinner party he might not get to leave.
David Hyde Pierce is great in this movie going from gracious host to scared hostage to terrifying capture. And he sells all of them. What I really love about Pierce's performance is how you can spot where he slips into "crazy mode" and then goes full throttle shortly after with him eating food off his imaginary guest to keep the illusion going. There wasn't a moment that I doubted the character was capable of his actions, adding to the fear of what might come next. Clayne Crawford's character was also great to watch for multiple reasons. First and foremost it was a fully developed character. He had motivations for what he was doing and an intelligence hidden beneath the "common thug" exterior giving me a reason to hope he makes it out okay.
The only weakness of this movie comes in the last act of the film when I though there was one to many reveals. This isn't detrimental to the movie, but taking out one of the extra reveals would have helped. Overall I am very pleased with the film and do recommend you go watch it. As of right now the film is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Netflix Streaming.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Real Steel

This movie draws you in to root for the damaged characters. Jackman's down and out former boxer. His estranged seemingly genius son Max . And Atom the mute junk yard robot with something special about it. You'll watch these characters all rise up from their perspective dumps and cheer them on. The audience in my theater became so wrapped in the movie that there was cheering when Atom began winning his match. If a film can bring a bunch of strangers to unanimously cheer for a fictional fight, how can it be called anything but good.
Do yourselves a favor and catch this feel good movie in theaters.
IMDB: Reel Steal