127 Hours: what would you give your right arm for?

I've been wanting to see 127 Hours ever since I heard about it, a) because i like James Franco, and b) because I've been fascinated by Aron Ralston's story (and i recently saw him on "Minute to Win It" and he seemed like a nice guy, not to mention resilient to say the least), and c) because it was directed by the same guy who did Slumdog Millionaire. The movie did not let me down.

As I mentioned in my previous post about finding a silver lining in bad movies, I'm a harsh critic, and believe that  there's usually room for improvement in most films. My friends were shocked to learn that i couldn't think of one improvement for this movie. I'm not saying it's the BEST MOVIE I"VE EVER SEEN, but I think it was perfect, just the way it was.

Summary: You probably already know what happened (and this isn't a spoiler since it's a true story and was all over the news when it happened) but here's a quick recap: Aron Ralston goes hiking/climbing alone, doesn't tell anyone, falls into a narrow cavern, his right hand gets smashed/trapped by a large boulder, and he's left for dead. He's totally stuck, and attempts for 5 days to free himself until he eventually resorts to cutting off his arm (which he does with a small, dull uni-tool that he had made more dull by trying to chip away at the boulder and by carving his name in the canyon wall). He ends up surviving and now is a motivational speaker. Woo hoo!

The film: The whole thing was filmed with only 1 main character (Ralston, played by James Franco) and pretty much only 1 setting (the cavern, which is a tight space, at that) yet the film managed to be interesting and provocative for the whole hour and a half. It was a lot more stylistic than i thought it would be (i dont really remember slumdog millionaire, it may have been similar): use of split screens, extreme close-ups (CSI-style), sound affects, dream sequences (to emulate him going crazy), etc. I thought James Franco was likable, believable, and consistent. And yes, the arm-cutting-off scene was really gross and i had to close my eyes most of the time. I mean, it only lasts a few minutes, but it's worse than any war scene or ER show, because you really feel for the guy, and have gotten to know him so well, and also because there's just blood everywhere since he doesn't have any supplies to help his impromptu surgery. Ultimately, the film does a great job mixing inner turmoil and the psychological aspect with an air of lightheartedness and fulfillment.

Anyway, as a harsh critic, i highly recommend this film. Get it on PPV for $5.99!

A Silver Lining: finding some good in boring Hollywood movies

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a harsh critic when it comes to films. I do think i have a bit of the "holier than thou" mentality since i was a film major and just can't enjoy stupid crowd-pleasers. Somehow i always seem to find things i DON'T like about movies (even Inception and some other hits). SO, i'm dedicating the "Silver Lining" series to finding the good things in movies (and in life)...starting with the two i saw this week:

The Adjustment Bureau was an interesting one. I knew literally nothing about it prior to seeing it. While I didn't love the typical Hollywood romance and ending, the silver lining is that the concept was interesting enough to make for a good discussion about where society is today, and what's going on in the world.

Hall Pass was really dumb. I could barely focus on the movie because I was so distracted by contemplating whether or not i should leave the theater! I'm not even exaggerating. I almost left the theater (like 30 times). Anyway, the silver lining is... well... shoot. i'm already failing at my goal of finding something positive in any piece of crap. I guess the silver lining is that now hopefully i've saved a lot of people time and money by encouraging them to not see it.

Well that's all for now! Have you guys seen any good movies in 2011?