Source Code

            What if you had the power to go back and view the last eight minutes of someone's life and help prevent a future tragedy from happening; would you do it? That is the basis for which the movie Source Code revolves around. Source Code is a sci-fi action thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot in the army.
               We first find Stevens when he wakes up on a train across from Christina (Michelle Monaghan) whom he doesn't know. Not only that, but he doesn't know how he got there and Christina recognizes him as someone completely different; a man named Sean Fentress. When Stevens looks in the mirror he even sees Fentress' reflection. If everything wasn't confusing enough eight minutes after Stevens wakes up a bomb goes off and blows up the entire train.
                Stevens is brought back to "reality" where he is in some sort of capsule and being spoken to by Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), some sort of military personnel. We learn that Stevens is there to use the technology source code, created by Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), to revisit the last eight minutes of Sean Fentress' life and find out who bombed the train. By finding the bomber of the train they can hopefully prevent a future attack that is supposed to happen later that same day. The trick of course is that each time Stevens goes into the source code he only has eight minutes to discover who the bomber is because at the end of the eight minutes the train blows up again.
                Getting Stevens to do all this isn't so easy though as he is still not exactly sure where he is and how he got to be a part of this program. The last memory he has he was with his unit in Iraq. So there's multiple conflicts going on as Stevens must discover who bombed the train, but also use his time in the source code to figure out what has happened to him.
                 I liked this movie because I thought it's plot was smart and original, even though it used a cliched conflict as its starting point. That of course being the bomb on a train and having to discover who did it. But once the movie dives into its real conflicts and story lines it gets much deeper and has twists and turns that were not expected.
                I thought everyone did a good job acting wise. Monaghan does a good job of having to constantly repeat the same performance with slight changes. As with Gyllenhaal and his character, he does well as his character is all over the place and constantly on edge.
                I give this movie a thumbs up and three out of four stars. It's definitely more entertaining and has more depth than its trailers lead on to. I will say it's fun to see in theaters, but it's not necessary too. So, if you feel like waiting until it's out on Netflix or Redbox then go for it, because you won't be losing anything from the movie without the theater experience. Enjoy!

Once again I don't have anything lined up for my next review so feel free to comment with suggestions.

Love and Other Drugs

             Today's review is for the end of the year 2010 flick Love and Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie is a romantic comedy and takes place in the mid to late 90s. Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, a guy from a well off family that gets an in into the pharmaceutical sales industry with Pfizer thanks to his brother Josh (played by Josh Gad, also seen in 21). Through the job Jamie meets Maggie (Anne Hathaway) a free spirited girl with stage 1 Parkinson's Disease and the courtship ensues from there.
             Now to begin with, I liked this movie. To me it wasn't you're typical romantic comedy. The plot was much more intricate and sophisticated than your typical rom coms, though it does have some of the typical cliches. What really puts this movie above other rom coms is its plot. It doesn't fall victim to the typical boy and girl don't realize they like each other or they hate each other crap. Now they do use the boy and girl fall for each other, but can't be together for whatever reason method but in a smart new way.
              The plot revolves around the drug sale industry that you never really see ever in movies and it dives into the launch of Viagra which gives it an interesting entertainment boost. The hardships for Hathaway's character Maggie with her disease is what drives the relationship through its ups and downs throughout the movie. It's the sense of reality and actual possibility of these situations that puts this movie above others in its genre.
               As for the acting in the film you don't think Josh Gad will be around much, but thankfully they bring him back into the mix and he provides some very nice comic relief throughout the entire film. Oliver Platt plays a nice side character with comic relief as well as Jamie's boss Bruce. Overall, the acting was good as both Gyllenhaal and Hathaway deserved their Golden Globe nominations, but it was fair for them not to receive Oscar nominations.
              All in all the movie was quite enjoyable. I believe most women would enjoy this film and its a romantic comedy that even guys can like. I would definitely recommend it for a date night as a movie both parties can like or at least something guys won't want to rip their eyes out while watching.
               So in conclusion I'd have to give this movie a thumbs up and 3 out of 4 stars.

Next up for review: A Single Man starring Colin Firth