The Tourist

Drive-by Blog: The Tourist

If starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp is all you really want, then this was made for you.  If you care at all about originality, plotline, story, or acting then enjoy poking fun at this one. Its Thomas Crowne meets Salt meets Face Off, but not near as exciting.

The Tourist is a story about a woman who is involved with a criminal, and is torn between her love for him (and his billions) and the right side of the law.   She pulls Frank (Depp) into her tangled web of lies and deceit to act as a decoy for the police and a mob boss.  As Elise (Jolie) plays Frank like a love sick puppy, we continue to see flashes of a man (Rufus Sewell) that we assume is the elusive man everyone is hunting down, Alexandre Pierce.

Well unlike any spy/supense movie I have ever seen before, there is a twist!  Elise isn't who she says she is, and then.....oh my word neither is Frank!   As much as I don't think I can ruin the movie, I will say no more as to not "spoil" the film.   Straight sex appeal and celebrity are the only reason I can see this movie made any money and if that was the goal then touché.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood

I eat my words. My brother told me that I would regret not seeing this in theatre.....dang.

Crowe plays Robin Longstride, a man who isn't sure of his beginnings that decides to follow through with a dead man's last request of uniting his father and sword.  The man ends up being Robin of Loxly and Longstride quickly fills (impersonates) his role as husband to Marion (Blanchett) and son to Sir Walter Loxly (von Sydow) so that they can keep their land and have the leader they deserve. Okay at first I was like, "Damn, not even an evening of grieving?!".  Then Marion explains that her husband has been gone for years and that it was a marriage of convenience and they were only together for a few weeks.   It was different time period and with war, keeping lay of the land was the priority.

King Richard Lionheart (Huston) dies and then his younger brother, Prince John, becomes the new King Of England and starts by trusting dark people and making bad decisions.  The French are let into the monarchy set up for an easy take-over, the young prince retires the King's most trusted advisor William Marshall (Hurt), and Robin of Nottingham with his Merry Men start fighting back.

Bottom line this was a great action movie. We got the story that we had never seen before rather than the guy in the triangle green hat steeling bags of coin from the Sheriff.  Crowe was well cast, and Scott directed a seen before movie into an original.    

Only thing left to do now is find my niche to become a archer assassin.

The Fighter

Drive-By Blog:  The Fighter

 Melissa Leo and Christian Bale both won Academy Awards for their supporting roles in The Fighter, not the best at acceptance speeches but they 100% deserved the Oscars nonetheless.

 Dickey Eckland (Bale), and Micky Ward (Wahlberg) are half brothers and both boxers. Dickey's time in the spotlight has passed and HBO is following him for a documentary on the effects of crack cocaine. Micky is an up and coming boxer who is struggling to be more than a "stepping stone" for other fighters.  His girlfriend Charlene (Adams) convinces him to fire his mother (Leo) and brother and hire a legit manager and trainer to get his career going in the right direction.

The Fighter shows the fall out of this family and what they have to do to repair the family.  Dickey goes to jail, but gets clean while continuing to give his kid brother boxing tips from inside.  The mother struggles with being pushed out of the loop and takes her team of daughters to intimidate Charlene (unsuccessfully) into leaving her son alone.  Micky starts to win fights but remains torn on cutting his family out of his boxing career.  Don't worry, happy ending.

  I believed the actors, the emotions, the dynamics and was impressed with direction, acting, writing and editing.  Watching the boxing matches felt like seeing a HBO live fight and really pulled you in while adding an extra layer of intensity.  In a nutshell this movie feels real and pulls no punches. (sorry, had to!)

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

Drive-By Blog:  The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia


Before you let yourself be offended by the title alone, Whites is the surname of a below the law family in Boone County, West Virginia.

Large white trash family that does and sells drugs, doesn't abide by the law, are violent and aggressive, go in and out of jail, and we can't stop watching them on this film.  They have some celebrity due to one of the older brothers, Jessco White, who is known for his role in the documentary Dancing Outlaw.

Hank Williams III stars and soundtracks in this film, and is a family friend and admirer of the Whites.

Being a huge fan of documentaries, I watch and wonder how much is real and how much is leading us to feel and opinionate a certain way.    With The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia I imagine the Whites sitting around watching their doc on a wood panel tube television and feeling very prideful and accomplished.

If you plan to watch it and don't have experience with southern mountain accents, then find a translator or be ready to rewind a bit.  If it wasn't for the excessive illegal activity then I am sure we would see these proud to be criminals in a reality show that would share the same audience as Jersey Shore.

The Runaways

Drive-By Blog:     The Runaways

Kristin Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie; the two leading ladies of The Runaways, one of the first all girl rock bands in the 70's. They were angry, conflicted, experimental, and naive.  Wait what's the word for that......oh right, teenagers! Four teenage girls made up a sexy rock band that blew up the charts and the world until the pressure got to be too much for lead singer and the face of The Runaways, Cherrie Currie. The present tells us that this probably ended up being one of the best things that could have happened in Joan Jett's career.

This is a good movie to start my "drive-by" blogging because there is just not that much to say. Although a biopic, not much here is surprising or interesting aside from the fact that they did blow up as an aggressive all girl rock band in the mid 1970's. Cherrie Currie is now a chain saw artist and Joan Jett is still a well respected rock star for her record toppers with The Black Hearts.

As far as a rating this movie  I sat through the whole thing without falling asleep, and that is the closest I can come to a compliment.