Sloth: It's Kind of a Funny Story & Red

Just saw a couple of films at the Cumberland and had a lovely evening with Irene (yeesh, we might as well get married already!)...

 This one had an overall warm and gushy feeling to it, left us in a do-good moment that kept us going for the rest of the evening. As serious a topic that it touches on (suicide and mental unrest), it manages to throw in some good laughs and quirky kicks (as the title suggests). I even caught a nod to the great Pixies song "Where Is My Mind" during the middle when they played an instrumental snippet as part of the score! Then they also mentioned the band in a list of those that the lead female enjoys (lame!). Her character was the only one I couldn't stand very much, but then again it might be due to some of my own past experiences in High School that came flooding back... and not so much of the good kind. At the same time it was very nostalgic; all of the tough stuff one has to endure during "those teenage years" when you really feel alone and on the brink of SOMETHING, not knowing what exactly. As a whole, the film really gave its characters room to develop, interact and share themselves with each other and their audience. Great sequences with artwork and music (despite the cliched Broken Social Scene doing much of the music for an "indie, angsty teen" type of dark comedy). One large part of the film that stood out was how unrealistic the Psych Ward was (although I'm sure it wouldn't be much of a comedy if it was true to life). The actual state of such a place is EXTREMELY different (I have visited a few... not as a patient...), most are not so lovely and the staff are of a different character. HOWEVER, it's worth catching at some point in your life, not sure if it's worth the $12 - I got to see it for free so I couldn't really give you an answer here.

You definitely get to see your money thrown back at you from the screen with this one!! Enough Pyrotechnics and weaponry to employ my entire graduating class and possibly more for the whole year! As an action film it had everything: hero, girl he falls in love with/willing to risk his life for but of course never has to, awesome side-kicks, the funny one, and an evil villain... WITH A TWIST AT THE END! WHO KNEW THAT ONE WAS COMING?? AND MORGAN FREEMAN. Need I say more? What a great way to slip away from reality for a couple of hours. The parts of this film I couldn't stand were the extremely out-of-the-ordinary super-hero type of sequences that left me unable to suspend my belief for very long (Bruce Willis casually walking out of a fast-moving AND SPINNING car only to shoot on target without getting hit... all the while, the woman in the car is left unharmed and it parks itself only a couple feet away from his spectacular exit - YA FUCKING RIGHT). Also, if a film makes me write a review in 15% capitals, it must have been at least entertaining enough to get me so excited! Go and see your money dance before your eyes if you have nothing better to do this week!