Bizarro World Headline Of The Day

 

The details are here, if you're that interested. I'm really not interested much. Unless, of course, he does it in drag.

Quick Review: Red

Finally. Time to write about a movie. "Red" is actually based on a comic book miniseries, but it's not a superhero epic or something way out like Scott Pilgrim. It's an action-comedy starring a bunch of veteran actors, and it's quite fun for what it is. Bruce Willis plays Frank Moses, a retired black-ops CIA agent who's bored with his quiet suburban life and rips up his pension check each month so he has an excuse to call the office in Kansas City to report his "missing" check and talk to Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). They've never met but he has a crush on her. An attempt on his life leads to his going to KC to protect Sarah (since he is sure his phone was wiretapped), and he also gets in touch with the former members of his black ops team (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) to help him find out who wants him dead. It's a pretty solid film. It had some laughs and the action scenes didn't have me rolling my eyes much at the improbability of it all. It's what a lot of the summer movies could be if someone put a bit more thought into them. I'm guessing this was released in the fall because the stars aren't young and hip.

I do have a couple of questions: why doesn't Frank have direct deposit? I think that's mandatory now if you have a bank account. And how can he call a specific out-of-town office and speak to the same representative every month? From my experience, it just doesn't work that way in the federal government. And if this has happened multiple times, shouldn't Sarah have gotten suspicious? My grade: B.

Quick Review: Invictus

The casting of Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in "Invictus" was certainly not unexpected. What is unexpected is the film in which he plays Mandela. It's not a straight-up biopic. Instead, it tells a specific story while touching on the entirety of Mandela's life, including his release from prison and rise to the presidency of South Africa. Shortly after becoming the nation's leader in 1994, Mandela attends a rugby game and notices that blacks in the crowd cheer against the South African team, the Springboks, seen as a symbol of prejudice and apartheid. With South Africa set to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Mandela sets out to change that, in order to help unite the nation, starting with a meeting with the captain of the Springboks, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). Needless to say, Freeman is excellent, as is Damon (who bulked up for the role to look more like a rugby player -- see photo). There's a somewhat predictable sports-movie aspect to the World Cup results, but it's offset by the fact that it's a true story and one I wasn't familiar with. My grade: B-plus.