Due Date, 2010

Due Date, 2010
Director: Todd Philips
Cast: Robert Downey JR., Zach Galifianakis


Stage: Home theatre

Due Date in short: Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) must get to LA in five days to be at the birth of his firstborn. He is about to fly home from Atlanta when his luggage and wallet are sent to LA without him, and he is put on the "no-fly" list. Desperate to get home Peter is forced to accept the offer of Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) to hitch a ride with him cross-country. Peter is about to go on the most terrifying and agonizing journey of his life.



Preps: Hot in cinema, a little less warm in my living room. I only know it by its fame, not by content.


Reality: Yuk. One of the worst movies this year. How come actors accept stupid comedies like this? This one is a Roadtrip wannabe. Not even close to being as funny as that one, that is in my opinion, pretty decent movie. Well, this one will only get on your nerves. Downey in role of this nevrotic guy that urges to come to the labor of his newly born child. Zach in a role of a big child. Should be at least amusing. In my opinion, it underestimates the intelligence of a viewer. Therefore I need to give it a strong disrecommendation. I still feel a bit annoyed for even standing this for 45 minutes. This was at least my level of tolerance, before I shut this one down.

There isn't a good saying deriving from this. Or a good note, that you could appreciate. I strongly believes that it mocks US people and makes fun of their stupidity. At least that is something that would amuse an EU viewer.


My personal rating: 1,0 (you truly won't miss a thing missing this)

Due Date on IMDB

Wall Street 2 - Money never sleeps, 2010

Wall Street 2 - Money never sleeps, 2010
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin


Stage: Home theatre, HD version


Wall Street in short: As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.
Preps: I wanted to see the sequel badly ever since the first part. It inspired me into economy and I wanted to feel the broker's thoughts while bidding, selling, buying, and feel the taste of that much money. So, in my case, pretty expected piece that I hardly waited to get my hands upon. Let's see some Wall Street action..



Reality: What is to follow after the brainwash the first part of this movie offered? Absolutely brilliantly set (with many economical mistakes - as my professors claimed at the university and afterwards tried to explain to us, eager students), gave me the inspiration to study economy. It is rare that a movie gives inspiration to a certain profession. It definitely happened for instance in Top Gun, this is another good example of having a movie inspiring people to go to be brokers or at least, economists.

Therefore, the sequel draw my attention for several reasons. And one of the most important ones - to see Douglas in action again. This piece only proves that the man is made of steal. His energy will drive you like on a rollercoaster from the beginning to the steep ending. Broker world is closed for emotions and the people getting on its bus with feelings, tend to get broken along the way. The plot is quite easy to follow, again you are faced with numerous expressions, that are only used in this broker language world and that I am sure most people cannot follow. But you get the main idea how to create a distortion and scam someone.

The cast creates a good synergy - I would put someone else in the role of his daughter. The girl seems to be crying all the time and makes me wonder whether this was made on purpose. There aren't always scenes where she would be crying, although she seems as if on drugs each time she appears.
I absolutely adore the idea to connect the protagonists from the first part (Brolin - Douglas) and I cannot switch the movie off because it progresses all along the way. No time for picnic there, I cannot just go and fetch something from the fridge, I am curious about the next part all the time. Therefore, I strongly encourage future economists or the ones that wanted to be ones, to see this piece, as it will provoke inner spirit again and make you believe in this green entity that all of us are shutting our eyes from - money, but all of us need. But as said at the beginning, broker world, a.k.a. Wall Street, is no place for mushy feelings, mushy people. No place for emotions either. Roll down your sleeves and get into the game :)





My personal rating: 8,0 (made me nostalgic about the first movie and I absolutely love this economical đibrish - talking in words noone seems to understand).

Wall Street on IMDB

Buried, 2010

Buried, 2010
Director: Rodrigo Cortes
Cast: Ryan Reynolds


Stage: home theatre


Buried in short: Waking groggy in pitch darkness, Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working as a contractor in Iraq in 2006, slowly realizes he is trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried alive. With his cigarette lighter, he can see the trap he is in, and he quickly realizes that there's not enough air for him to live long. He finds within the coffin a working cellphone, which allows him contact with the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.

Preps: Wanted to see this piece on LIFFE, the movie festival, but I missed it. Heard a great deal about it and wanted to see it badly. Now I get it at home..


Reality: A strong reminder, how little we are to the society and how the importance is being measured as long as we are valuable. To be blackmailed is nothing really new, but to be buried underground, figuring out how long your cellular is going to hold and not being able to get to anyone that could help, is another story indeed. The plot seems vague and empty in the beginning, but later on the movie turns out to be a critic of US staying in Iraq, all the innocent people trying to get money for their service, turning out in hands of terorrists to be blackmailed - the movie is filled with negative pesimism, that can drive the viewer mad in thinking, how did we get this far.

Having governmental bureacreacy up to this level, tailored to serve the citizens, ending up in serving themselves, is simply to ironic to handle. Too much of black humour /irony - or shall we say or admit truth in this piece it will rock your soul. What would you do in order to get out of the box is one thing - Paul in this case can do nothing really important. Who to call, who to say goodbye from.. those are the questions popping in Paul's mind. How unimportant he really is, is shown by the attitude of various institutions that he tries to call. The main idea I am left with is, may I never turn up in a situation like this. With only government with its great attitude to help me or to assist me with something. The administrative procedures that serve themselves are simply too much. Vividly shown in the piece, dramatically cast by Ryan Reynolds.

One of the masterpieces, made on a very static position. It is extremely hard to fill in the movie if you are limited to one position or one location (for instance, brilliant job at Phone Booth). Nevertheless, I keep wondering, what the government is all about. About citizen not, for sure.



My personal rating: 8,0 (a truly unique piece of work, showing us, how little and unimportant we are..)


Buried on IMDB

Buried official page