In The Clouds

bacon ain’t no game

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mylandlockedbluess:

lol harley

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Standard Movie Review: The Standard Set-Up

standardmoviereview:

Just so we don’t limit the amount of standard we suggest in the world. We are going to provide at least 1 or 2 NEW movies every week. These movies will be movies that are in theaters. If you are going to pay $9.25 or even $11.25 for bull shit 3D premium then you need to know if your money is…

Muscles….Harley…Retard

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standardmoviereview:

The Ice Harvest

“As Wichita falls… so falls Wichita Falls.”

The Ice Harvest is a black comedy/drama film from 2005 starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. I didn’t have any specific expectations for this film, but I found it out to be a very standard movie. It had a perfect balance of drama and comedy and that is one hard feature to pull off.

Based off a novel of the same name and directed by the Ghostbuster Egon Spangler himself or Harold Ramis if you will. We see this story as best as we can in film. It is incredibly hard to adapt books to screenplays because in a book we have the full story in front of us and we know what people are thinking and what they are planning. We get a full layout of everything. In adaptations, we find only certain plots taken from the book and incorporated into screenplays. That is usually why book adaptations aren’t successful.

This movie kind of teeters on the edge of “I feel really bad for these characters” but can also flip you to “All these characters are dicks.” I don’t feel so bad when I laugh because everyone is an asshole! That is probably one of my favorite techniques in film is creating main protagonist that is flawed in some way that they eventually become the main antagonist to everyone in the film. This is what happened to one Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) in The Ice Harvest. Charlie is a lawyer and Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) a corrupted business man, wanting to escape their lives in boring Wichita Falls the two together, steal 2 million dollars from their boss, who so happens to be head of the mob in Kansas. Needing to leave town they are postponed by the freezing rain that has iced the streets over making them impossible to drive on.

With no way out of the city the two run around town trying to avoid Randy Guarrd (Randy Quaid or Cousin Eddie from The Vacation movies) and his men. With being stranded, it is only a matter of time until the duo is found. Vic takes the money for safekeeping and Charlie makes sure everything is on the DL.  Chaos of course ensues and we experience every moment of that.

With the concentration of problems contained into such a small location the conflict becomes even bigger. That’s what makes this movie attractive in a sense. Everything is blown up and farfetched but a black comedy is a very delicate genre that you don’t jump into, these movies take diligence and The Ice Harvest is a great example of that.

The most standard award for this film goes out to Oliver Platt. His character Peter Van Heuten, Charlies best friend who has married his ex wife after having a long-standing affair with her. Throughout this film is standard. He is drunk the whole time and causes trouble for Charlie, when of course, he is in enough trouble to begin with. He is hilarious and really brings light to this film allowing us to laugh.

If you are looking for a film that’s crazy and fun SMR recommends The Ice Harvest.

The Ice Harvest receives the rating of STANDARD.

standardmoviereview:

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead 

I recently watched this movie trying to find my Phillip Seymour Hoffman fix and I will tell you I got it. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a crime drama directed by the great Sydney Lumet. It was his last feature film before he passed in 2011. The name Sydney Lumet creates great stir in my cinematic mind set. He directed some great films such as, 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network.

The writer, Kelly Masterson tried to get this script produced for seven years until Lumet picked it up. Now he has been contracted to work on three more movies currently, one that is going to be directed by Barry Levison, which everyone should be excited for. With this being Masterson’s first script I can say that his writing technique has his own twist on the telling of a story in a non-linear way.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead has received a lot of critical acclaim. It has a rating of 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatos and a 7.3/10 on IMDB. It received numerous awards and praise as well from Roger Ebert  and Time.

Well of course, the most standard award goes to Phillip Seymour Hoffman in this film. The way his character progresses with the story are some of the twists I appreciated. We see this man’s life progress right before our eyes. With Hoffman being the main character, Andy Hanson, he creates the plan for the crime they are going to commit so he can make the money back he has been stealing from the company he works for just in time to pass the audit they are about to receive. On the other side of the spectrum is Ethan Hawk’s character, Hank Hanson, his brother that plays the cowardly follower.

Andy pitches the plan to Hank who accepts due to his debt to his wife from not paying child support and tuition for his daughter’s private school. The crime is perfect; they rob a traditional mom and pop jewelry store. The catch is its Hank and Andy’s actual Mom and Dad.

As the story progresses we see the true colors of these characters come out. We know what the true motivations are of each person in the film. They are each seeking something more or something they once had. The realization of what they want is the ultimate tool that progresses this film.

The way the story is written is something I find quite attractive, it’s a crime drama that doesn’t tell us right away what is going on which creates a conflict with us (the viewers) against the characters in the movie. The characters know what is happening and we have walked in on them while they were moving on with their own lives. Everything pieces together in the end and there is a sensible resolution that may not be completely satisfying but realistically dark.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead receives the rating of STANDARD

You can see the movie in full here at IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2391974169/

I decided not to go to class Monday, Tuesday and today. Frankly, I really don’t care. It’s only my education. It’s only my parent’s hard earned money. But we are all people. We live, breathe, get exhausted, get stressed, and last but not least, we have the ability to get a nervous breakdown. So in order to resist one of those, I need to make sure my body is in ship shape to face the man…

Ryerson…

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New Mumford & Sons….I mean, it’s pretty good

Ray B says I got class