Drive (2011) - Movie Review

Up and coming director Nicolas Winding Refn, who hails from Denmark, has made a very bold statement with his first mainstream Hollywood effort. Best known previously for his direction of critically acclaimed films like Bronson and Valhalla Rising, Drive will definitely get his career going full speed ahead as he brings us a story full of understated drama contrasted by brutally intense action sequences.

Seahawks - No Worse Than Expected

After two weeks of the NFL season, things have played out pretty much exactly as everyone would have expected. Opening on the road in San Francisco and Pittsburgh was going to be a daunting task and you would be hard pressed to find someone that thought we would win either of those games. Going in to that first game in the bay area, we knew the Hawks had deficiencies at offensive line and question marks at several other position groups on both sides of the ball. This meant weeks one and two would be a serious uphill struggle and now that these first two games are in the books, it is very clear to me who the Seahawks starting quarterback should be moving forward.

Straw Dogs (2011) - Movie Review

First, let me just say that I have not seen the original version of this film from 1971 which stars Dustin Hoffman and Susan George so I am not able to offer any comparison between the two. That being said I still had a pretty good idea of how the movie would play out based on the trailer which can be viewed at the end of this review. This is a fairly straightforward tale that does have some interesting twists and turns, but could it live up to the promise of being the intensely violent thrill ride we see touched on in the trailer?

Contagion - Movie Review

There seems to be a lot of hype about the quality of this movie partly due to the star studded cast featuring Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet just to name a few. Director Steven Soderbergh also adds a large credibility factor due to previous critical successes that he has brought to the screen including the likes of Traffic, Erin Brockovich and his breakout feature Sex, Lies, and Videotape. All of this quality star power both in front of and behind the camera should certainly have Contagion primed for some award season honors down the road, but after watching this movie I walked out of the theater with a differing opinion that what I had already heard and read.

Warrior - Movie Review

The Movie: Warrior

The Director: Gavin O'Connor

The Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn

The Story: The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament - a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged, older brother.