One Day

My wife and I saw this one on Valentines Day, so we were both in the right mood to see a sappy love story.  I was hopeful because I've always been impressed with Anne Hathaway's acting chops.  Honestly, the movie looked kind of cute so I dove in.

One Day follows a couple on their life's journey on one particular date in their lives over a period of 22 years.  Sometimes the couple is together, sometimes not, but it is very interesting to see their development from college graduation to full blown adulthood.  There are some very interesting side stories that keep the plot going.  There are some characters in the film that either shouldn't have existed or needed some additional fleshing out.

Anne Hathaway is again very impressive in One Day with a sometimes mousy appearance while at other times looking stunning.  Her overall performance is not as strong as in other films such as Devil Wears Prada, but frankly she just isn't asked to do as much.  The rest of the cast, while mostly no names, still does a very nice job.  Jim Sturgess, who plays Hathaway's love interest, does a good job but I can't help feeling like a stronger actor would have played this role a little better and strengthened the overall movie.

For a sappy movie to see on Valentines Day, I really enjoyed it.  The story is nice and fun throughout but I will say I hated the ending.  I'll probably give it a three out of five on Netflix.  If you're looking for a sappy one, I'd recommend One Day.

The Change-Up

The Change-Up is a comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman.  I saw the trailer and reviews prior to renting this one and figured there was no way this could be good but my wife wanted to see it, so here I went!

The movie is another body swapping flick.  Bateman plays a married man with three kids who is overly burdened with work and family life.  Reynolds, of course, plays a single playboy who sleeps with anything that moves and has basically no responsibilities to speak of.  When the two finally get to hang out they make a wish and end up swapping bodies.  The story is very predictable and weak because of that.

As I stated the film stars Reynolds and Bateman but also has a strong supporting cast that features Olivia Wilde, Leslie Mann, and Alan Arkin.  As always Bateman and Reynolds put on strong acting performances, though not either one's best.  Though these two do not have a huge role I tend to think the best actor in this one is Leslie Mann.  She provides some of the few humorous parts in the whole film.

Overall The Change-Up is a pretty awful movie with a few humorous parts.  I did laugh out loud during one kitchen scene but that was really about it.  I feel like I've seen about five of these body switching movies and I'm really tired of it.  I would never recommend this movie to anyone.

Margin Call

I knew this was a movie about the stock market and that it had a pretty impressive cast but other than that I wasn't sure what to make of the trailer.  I dove into this one head first and unfortunately found myself in a pile of...

Margin Call is a fictional movie loosely based on the 2008 stock market collapse.  The story follows a fictional trading institution run by filthy rich ridiculous characters.  It takes you through how this company caused the market collapse and ultimately collapsed themselves.  The story is very poorly told.  It's very difficult to follow the story and sometimes they dumb it down so much that the story doesn't even make sense.

The cast of Margin Call is where the film shines.  Jeremy Irons, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, and Zachary Quinto are the stars of the film.  While the cast is very impressive not many of them have great individual performances except maybe Quinto and Irons.

Please for your own good skip this one.  This story is weak, the acting is meh, and it's just a poor movie in general.  Honestly, I wish I had never even seen this.  I really like stock market movies but this one is awful.  Don't waste your time!