The Gentleman - Movie Review

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Tom Wu and Eddie Marsan.

Written by Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies.

Directed by Guy Ritchie.

★★★

I first fell in love with Guy Ritchie with his gritty, blue-collar crime capers Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels and Snatch. He’s since been diverse in his choices. The Sherlock Holmes movies, The Man from UNCLE, his better-than-expected Aladdin, and here, he’s returned to those gangsta roots, and we as film-lovers are blessed by it.

It’s not great, but it’s good. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Michael Pearson, the marijuana king of Great Britain. He’s looking to retire, as it’s expected that marijuana will be legalized soon, country-wide. He’s looking to sell.

BUT a local reporter (Hugh Grant) is in on what Pearson has going on, and he serves as our skeevey narrator as he explains to Pearson’s right-hand man Ray (Charlie Hunnam) how he knows what he knows. In Ritchie tradition, he has interesting actors show up in supporting roles to keep the gangster ball rolling. I don’t even want to spoil what Colin Farrell is doing here.

Cloud Atlas - Movie Review

Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Doona Bae, Susan Sarandon, James D'Arcy, Keith David, Xun Zhou and David Gyasi.
Directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski & Andy Wachowski.

★★★½

Six stories are loosely connected, spanning from the 1800's to the distant future.  The ensemble shows up in each one. They may be the star in one storyline but a cameo in the next.  They interchange age, race, gender in weaving the tapestry of their tales.

There's nothing particularly profound here, and each story on its own might just seem okay, but the way these six intertwine, the pacing at which it jumps from one to the next, this is cinema that is alive, that moves.  I admire not only its ambition, but that a studio had enough faith to give it a budget.  It's tragic, really, that this didn't do better at the box office.

I hope this film isn't forgotten come Academy time, at least for some of the technical awards.  Make-Up, Costume, Art Direction, Sound should all get mentions.

It's also worth seeing on the big screen.  The effects are on par with the Matrix trilogy or Tron Legacy.

Random Movie News 9/15/11

- Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton will star in The Big Wedding, about a long-divorced couple who are forced to pretend they're still happily married at their son's wedding. It co-stars Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams. It's slated to open October 19, 2012.

- Hugh Grant has joined the ensemble Cloud Atlas, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw and Bae Doona. It's about people from different time periods, narrators that "hear each other's echoes down the corridor of history."

- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) will join Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Debt) in Mama, a horror movie from producer Guillermo Del Toro.

- Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) is close to signing on for the remake of Highlander.

- Seth Rogen will co-write, co-producer, co-direct The Apocalypse with longtime partner Evan Goldberg. It'll star Rogen as well as James Franco, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel, playing themselves locked in a house while the apocalypse happens outside, but the longer they're holed up, the more they get on each other's nerves.