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Becklin
Reviews
Veronica Mars (2004)
I love this show.
I love this show. Veronica Mars is a sassy eighteen year old sleuth who in the first season tried to solve the case of her murdered best friend Lilly. We were introduced to all these different characters: Keith-her dad and former sheriff now private investigator, Duncan-Lilly's brother and Veronica's former boyfriend, Logan-Lilly's boyfriend and former friend of Veronica's, Weevil-leader of the motorcycle gang called the PCHers (after the Pacific Coast Highway), Wallace-Veronica's new friend and good basketball player. Through their interactions and other characters, really cool and interesting story lines were created. The first season ended with Veronica solving the case only to have minor story lines follow into the second season, becoming the major story lines of the season. The second season had two major stories: the explosion of a bus full of students that killed them all and the mystery of who really killed a PCHer that Logan is accused of killing. The outcome of Lilly's murderer's trial happens. Other characters are introduced: Beaver and Dick Jr. who are brothers and friends of Logan, Jackie-girlfriend of Wallace, Kendall-step mom to Beaver and Dick. There are many more, but the important thing to take away from this comment is that Veronica Mars is a smartly written and acted show that is mysterious, intriguing, funny, heartbreaking, and simply good entertainment. A must see for all fans of mysteries and sassiness.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
A Really Good Movie
First of all, I love Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson movies. If you all haven't seen their movies (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums)you need to rent them and enjoy. This movie was so touching. A son who's mother recently died introduces himself to his was-famous, washed up father. A woman reporter unsure of her future with her unborn child who was sired by a married man (though not to the mother). And a man who's career is almost gone, his wife is leaving him, his best friend was recently eaten by a shark, and now is facing his son whom he's ignored for the last thirty years. The story is amazing, the animation is very cool, and the documentary feel of the movie is great. Warning...there will be some who will not like this movie, but there will be those who, like myself, will list it at the top of their lists as their favorite movie.
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
This movie is Awful with a capital A: contains plot spoilers
This movie was ridiculous from the start. Let me save you all time from watching this movie. A woman who sells corn liquor to the locals takes in her cousin or nephew and he convinces her to open a café downstairs from her home. She does and she and the cousin become close. There is a scene later where she is locking lips with him. Later, the woman finds out an old boyfriend is coming back from jail and its tense between them, leading to a down and out fist fight in the café. The woman's cousin/nephew is enamored by the man. The ending was awful, the story was awful, and if I could get back the time wasted on this movie, I would appreciate it. A definite skip.
Constantine (2005)
Not what I expected.
Going into this movie, I thought, great, some stupid comic book movie. I was surprised, really. While the movie did lack in some in the plot area, the scenes of Hell were fantastic and the actors were all very interesting in their respective roles. Keanu Reeves gets a lot of criticism for his sometimes wooden acting, but if you think about it, there are a lot of actors that play the same roles all the time and rarely stray into challenging roles (Orlando Bloom for example). Here as Constantine, Reeves, as a chain smoker who is sick, is very convincing as someone who has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Rachel Weisz was also very good as a sister grieving for her dead sister and her quest to find out what happened. A surprise for me was Gavin Rossdale, who I just assumed would be really bad, but he was amazing as Balthazar. So, to see this movie or not? Well, if you like Keanu Reeves, religiously based movies, or even just have a few hours to kill, I'd say "see it". However, if you like to nitpick at every little fact, are insulted or offended by movies of religious nature and hate Keanu Reeves with a passion, then obviously, don't see it.