In the past month, I have seen Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hangover Part III and Furious 6 and they were all good. If you liked the previous franchise movies, you will probably like these as well. However, I am not going to review them here because most people have probably already made up their minds about whether or not to see those. Instead, I am going to talk about The Place Beyond the Pines and The Iceman, which were fantastic and I am not sure these films are on most peoples' radar.
To be fair, I mostly saw these two movies because of who is in them (Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans), but I am glad that I did and now think you should too!
The trailers for The Place Beyond the Pines made it seem more like an action movie and, while it did have a few fast-paced scenes, I would call it more of a character study. Similar to director Derek Cianfrance's most recent movie, Blue Valentine, it is about the how these peoples' lives intersect and how each action affect those lives.
The movie is split into three acts. The first act focuses on the character of Luke, played by Ryan Gosling, a motorcycle stunt rider who starts robbing banks in order to provide for his son. The second act follows Bradley Cooper's character, Avery, who is a young cop in a small town police department run by corrupt detectives. Avery and Luke's individual stories only overlap once, but that small interaction has huge consequences, which you see fifteen years later in the third act of the movie between their two teenage sons. It is an intense story and very well done.
The acting is great all around, as is to be expected from all involved, but I was especially impressed with Eva Mendes. She is the only actor that is in all three acts of the film and normally I am not a huge fan of hers, but she actually surprised me in this. And, of course, I would get my wish of having Cooper and Gosling in the same movie only to have them be in only one scene together. C'est la vie.
My Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview has arrived! We all know how excited that makes me so, without any ado whatsoever, here is a list of the movies that I am most looking forward to seeing over the next few months.
May
3 - Iron Man 3 (Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany)
- The Iceman (Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Winona Ryder, James Franco, Ray Liotta)
10 - The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton)
17 - Star Trek Into Darkness (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch)
24 - The Hangover Part III (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha)
31 - Now You See Me (Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman)
Depending on reviews, other possibilities for May include: Epic (5/24), Before Midnight (5/24) and Fast & Furious (5/24).
June
7 - Much Ado About Nothing (Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Fran Kranz)
14 - Man of Steel (Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner)
21 - Monsters University (Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Hellen Mirren)
Other possibilities for June include: The Internship (6/7), Rapture-Palooza (6/7), The Bling Ring (6/14), The Heat (6/28) and White House Down (6/28)
The movie is split into three acts. The first act focuses on the character of Luke, played by Ryan Gosling, a motorcycle stunt rider who starts robbing banks in order to provide for his son. The second act follows Bradley Cooper's character, Avery, who is a young cop in a small town police department run by corrupt detectives. Avery and Luke's individual stories only overlap once, but that small interaction has huge consequences, which you see fifteen years later in the third act of the movie between their two teenage sons. It is an intense story and very well done.
