The Tree of Life

             There's a strong possibility this will be the shortest review I have done to date. Why you may ask? Well it's hard to talk about, none the less review something when you don't know what it's about or what happened. That's precisely the predicament we have with this film.
              To begin with there is a lot more wrong with this movie than there is right, and there's not much right with this movie. I wasn't sure what was even happening in this movie until about 30 minutes in. At one point there's a period of about ten minutes where you don't even see an actor and you hear one whispered line that I didn't even understand. This time period is just filled with images of space and nature like you see in the poster above. Then at one point dinosaurs pop in there too! I was so lost and frustrated at this point that I almost turned it off. But instead, I forced myself to watch this film in its entirety. I wish I hadn't. Once this ended it was still hard to follow and to figure out what the heck was going on.
             What this film is about is the eldest of three sons of a 1950s family in Texas and his troubled relationship with his father. That's brief, but it is about as detailed as I can get. The son, Jack, is played by newcomer Hunter McCracken as a boy and by Sean Penn as an adult. Though Penn is barely in this movie. He's in about 20 minutes total, 10 in the beginning and 10 in the end and I'm not even sure he ever says a complete sentence. The mother, Mrs. O'Brien is played by Jessica Chastain (The Help) while the father, Mr. O'Brien is played by Brad Pitt (Moneyball).
             Another trouble with this movie and why it is so hard to follow is because it's all just a bunch of brief sequences and not scenes. It's like the entire movie is a dream scene or a bunch of flashbacks where only a couple of lines are said and then it moves on. Basically there's no flow between scenes and everyone seems to stand on their own, thus making it very hard to follow. Plus, to cap all of this off, the film runs at a length of 2 hours and 20 min. I felt like this movie was never going to end. However, this movie could have only been an hour and a half and I still know I'd be saying all of this negative stuff.
            Overall, this movie is confusing, strange, weird, long, and just plain terrible. Writer/director Terrence Malick is supposed to be a genius, but I just don't see it. At least not in this film. How it was ever nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at this year's Oscars I'll never know.
             I give this movie 0, that's right 0 out of 4 stars and a big thumbs down. It gets a 0 for all of the reasons I said above and the fact I wish I had never watched it, and that no one else should waste their time because they'll never get it back. This movie is out on DVD and Blu-Ray, but please don't buy and don't see it. Learn from me and save yourselves. Worst movie ever! Don't enjoy!

Editor's Note:  The next movie I will be reviewing will be the Best Picture nominee The Help starring Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Bryce-Dallas Howard, and Sissy Spacek.

War Horse

         Up for review today is another one of this year's 9 Best Picture nominees. As like many of the other nominees, I don't think it should have been in contention for the Oscar's highest honor. In all opinion this year was a bit of a dud. Thus because of that is why I believe 9 films still made the contention. The fact that only a couple of films really stood out to people caused all the voters to vote for many films to be in contention. That's my theory anyway, but let's move on to the actual review shall we.
        Well what is there too say about War Horse. It's a WWI set drama and directed by Steven Spielberg. So far, so good right? Well unfortunately it doesn't get much better from here. But let me say, the movie is not bad. It's just not great. When it comes right down to it all you have is a movie about a horse. A miraculous horse, yes, but a miraculous one that isn't real and is the main character of the movie. Thus in lies the biggest problem.
         In other movies about a horse, though the horse is the main center point of the plot of the movie it isn't your lead character. Look at Seabiscuit and Secretariat. First off, both are about true horses with amazing stories. That helps in itself. Secondly, though the story of the horse is what we're watching, there are main characters along side that help the story move forward and progress. In Seabiscuit you have Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridge's characters and in Secretariat there's Diane Lane who carries the show. But in War Horse, there's just a bunch of supporting characters to the horse that filter in and out of the movie before you can even really form an opinion of them.
         War Horse at its core is a story of friendship between a horse named Joey and his owner Albert (Jeremy Irvine). Albert is the son of a Scottish farmer who buys Joey at an auction. Albert becomes responsible for training Joey and in turn their deep friendship begins. When the war begins, despite Albert's pleas Joey is sold to the British cavalry. From here we watch as Joey goes and makes his way through the war facing many different challenges along the way in an effort to hopefully be reunited with Albert once its over.
          Sadly, this bond of friendship is the driving force behind this movie and it just isn't strong enough. There are some good things though as there's a reason it was nominated for 6 Oscars. However, these are mainly on the technical side. The cinematography is very good as the shots of the vast Scottish landscape and others throughout Europe are quite vivid and beautiful. Plus, John Williams score is quite good as well. As for acting, I think the best job goes to David Thewlis (Lupin in the Harry Potter series) who plays the villainous landlord of Albert's family's farm.
         In the end though, there's just not enough good to make up for the bad or just average. The movie runs at 146 minutes which is far too long. If this had been cut down to a solid two hours it could have potentially helped itself immensely. However, all we're left with is an overly long war story about a horse. At least with Seabiscuit and Secretariat you had the excitement of races to drive the viewers interest. This one doesn't and like I said it just becomes a movie about a horse. Big whoop.
         Overall, I give this movie a thumbs down and 2 out of 4 stars. I'm bumping it up from 1.5 strictly for its technical achievements.  But the story in itself combined with running time only gather a 1.5 for me. This movie may still be able to be found at a random theater here and there, but otherwise you can get it on DVD and Blu-Ray beginning April 3rd. Enjoy!

Editor's Note:  My next film will be the 2012 Best Picture nominee The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn.