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I was going
to do a top 5, with much more elaborate comparisons to good movies of last
year, trying to contextualize my tastes and what-have-you... Then I found a 6th
movie to put on the list, and I wanted to get these all out before the
Oscars... So here is the first half of my top 6 list (6, 5, and 4), one of
which is just a link to a much longer review I did months ago. My best work?
Probably not. But a quick read.
I cannot
imagine this movie making it onto many "best of" lists. While it is very well produced, plotted, and
has sequences that evoke the right levels of discomfort, it is riddled with
clichés, the main character and his kid sidekick especially. Seriously, does every ex-cop turned unlicensed
private eye have to be a recovering alcoholic?
Can't they just be competent without being damaged?
I really
like crime as a genre of fiction and the nature of asking questions, gathering
information, the tension of confronting dangerous situations, and the darkness
of the consequences of failure. This
movie captures all of those aspects. It
is a good mystery with good characters, and there is a good resolution.
Some minor
complaints, I do not understand the accent that Liam is trying for. He should have just been an Irish cop in the
states, it would have been fine. They
also set the movie in 1999, with the Y2K bug serving as weird background
dressing for what is going on. I am not
really complaining about the Y2K thing, but it is an odd choice that boarders
on distracting. I imagine this movie to
couple well with my favorite movie of last year "Prisoners" for a
gloomy weekend viewing.
Overall: 9/10
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| I really like the quote on this poster, "People are afraid of all the wrong things." Weirdly profound. |
If you like
"No Country for Old Men", "Winter's Bone", and maybe
"Mud" this seems like the type of movie for you. A homeless man whose parents were murdered
when he was very young is told by the police that the man who did it is getting
released. Revenge is what follows.
What sets
this apart from others of this type is the vulnerability of the main
character. He is far from being the type
of unstoppable badass that defines movies about revenge. He frequently injures himself while fighting
and he can't use a gun for shit. But he
makes up for it by being crafty, setting traps, being elusive, and being fully
aware of how completely fucked he is.
There is a good scene in this movie, which is great when set in contrast
to "No Country for Old Men".
In "No Country" the psycho hit man has a major leg wound, so
he breaks into a pharmacy and treats himself like a badass. In "Ruin" the main character tries
and fails to treat a leg injury and only barely makes it to a hospital before
passing out, then later has to escape the hospital while naked.
This is a
dark and violent movie which takes a very pity inspiring protagonist and puts
him thru the wringer. Very good movie.
Overall: 9/10
 |
| Fun fact: I did not initially want to watch this because I thought it was a low budget independent film about Jesus. |
I already wrote a substantive review of this.
Needless to say it is worth watching and will take you on a journey. The sense of exploration tempered with hard
science, soft science, and sentiment makes me wonder what "Star Trek"
would have looked and felt like had Christopher Nolan and company had been in
charge of the reboot with this kind of tone and guiding mindset rather than the
generic (but fun) action movie vibe that Abrams used.
Overall: 9/10
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| They are going to release this in IMAX again, because it is awesome. |
(Tomorrow I will continue with my 3 favorite movies of the year.)
If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would appreciate it.
