As Opposed To "False Grit"?

So Christmas has come and gone, and the new year is upon us. I hope everyone had a great holiday season (I know I did), and I also hope that all of you readers have a safe and happy 2011.

To celebrate the upcoming conclusion of 2010, my dad and I headed out to see Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of True Grit this afternoon. And as you can probably guess, the movie was pretty darn cool. But that will happen when you get the Coens and The Dude together.

But yeah, True Grit is a great flick. The Coens' direction is fantastic, and the cast is amazing. The highlights, though, are Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. Bridges is awesome as the character John Wayne won an Oscar for, playing Rooster Cogburn with a grizzled attitude that makes him one of cinema's coolest antiheroes. Steinfeld is even better, as her earnestness in the role makes her very likable. Steinfeld plays her character as smart, stubborn, and slick-talking, which I thought was a lot of fun. Steinfeld is simply wonderful, no two ways about it.

The long and short of it is that True Grit is worth seeing, especially for Bridges and Steinfeld. But even without them, it's still an fabulous movie, and everyone involved should be proud of themselves. True Grit's not just an awesome remake, but an awesome movie in general. I'm not even really all that into Westerns, and I thought it was amazing. So True Grit gets four stars and  a proud recommendation. Go see it right now. Besides, it has to be better than Little Fockers. That one just looks horrible.

I Want One Of Those Light Cycles

Holy crap, Christmas is just a few short days away. I've been staring at the calendar for a while now and I still can't believe it. The year was trucking along pretty quick as it was, but it seems like there was maybe three hours between Thanksgiving and right now. The last several weeks have been a real blur. Now Christmas is this coming weekend, and even though I've already gotten all my holiday shopping done, I still feel like I'm unprepared. But I don't think I'll have a problem getting into the Christmas spirit. It's one of my favorite days of the year, and all I need is to sit in front of my tree watching Clark Griswold's family shindig or Ralphie Parker's unrelenting quest for a BB gun in order to properly ready myself for the big event.

While I'm getting ready for Christmas, I figured I'd hit up a movie theater for a change. I hadn't been to the movies in right at a month, so I figured, "eh, why not?" So I made a point of heading out to see the newly-released Tron: Legacy. I thought the first movie was tons of fun in spite of its flaws, something that I can say about its sequel. Legacy isn't a great movie, but it's definitely a fun one, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I'll come right out and say that nobody's going to see the movie for the plot or anything like that. You're going to be seeing it for the visuals. Just like the first Tron, the visuals are what are driving the movie. And considering that Legacy's special effects are infinitely more advanced than the original's (and in 3D too), you're gonna be amazed. The movie is nothing short of stunning. It makes me wish that Disney would pretend it was George Lucas with the original Star Wars trilogy and update the original Tron with Legacy's visuals, because that'd be awesome.

But the movie's got a few other awesome elements going for it, primarily the music and the cast. The soundtrack was arranged by French techno band Daft Punk, and it's nothing short of awesome. I friggin' loved the music, and I kinda want to run out and buy the CD. And I'm not even a fan of that genre of music! That's how good it is.

The acting is great too, with Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde turning in fine performances. They're outshined, though, by Jeff Bridges. Bridges plays two characters, both a hero and a villain, and he's fantastic in both roles. And whomever did the CGI work to make Bridges look like he did back in 1982 deserves a special mention, because the de-aged Bridges looks amazing.

I know this hasn't been a very in-depth review of the movie, but really, what you see in the trailers is pretty much what you get in the theater. So if you think the advertising for Tron: Legacy looks cool, then you'll probably like the movie. Personally, I'm going to give it three and a half stars and a thumbs-up. If you want to watch the first movie before seeing the sequel, though, you're gonna have to put forth a lot of work. The DVD of the first movie appears to have gone out of print, so you'll probably have to hunt it down on eBay if you want to see it.

And it's weird seeing that Jeff Bridges has two movies - this and Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of True Grit - coming out within the span of a week. True Grit looks like it's gonna kick ass, so here's hoping it actually does. I guess we'll see in a few days.

One More Rocky Viewing

I'm pretty much the most neglectful blogger there is. Once again, I had stuff to actually post about for a change, and I put it off for a week out of sheer laziness. What the heck is wrong with me?

Anyway, last weekend saw me take in my fourth midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, four. It probably would have been five if I'd gone to both Halloween shows instead of just one, but there's no sense in worrying about that now.

But as with the other three, I enjoyed myself tremendously. I know I probably sound like a broken record in these posts, but it's the truth. I always end up having a ball whenever I'm there. The crowd was a bit smallish due to the weather, even then, it was still a heck of a show.

The most amusing part of the night, at least in my eyes, were the ten Rocky Horror virgins who happened to be sitting near me. Apparently one of them had recently turned 16, and having been introduced to the movie through the Rocky Horror-themed episode of Glee, she got a bunch of friends together in costume and showed up to the screening as her "sweet sixteen" party. Two of them even got called up on stage to take part in the virgin initiation, too. For their sake, I hope they had a ball. (And if the birthday girl, through some fluke, reads this, happy belated birthday!)

There's really not much else to say about it that I haven't said in my three other Rocky Horror posts, other than I'm sad they're not having a December show. I guess that makes sense, since the theater's usual weekend for it would fall on Christmas. But hey, I could probably use a month off anyway. I'm totally looking forward to the January 2011 show, though.

And in other movie-related news, I've posted three new reviews over at "Sutton at the Movies" if you're interested. The movies in question: Judge Dredd, The Human Centipede (First Sequence), and Reefer Madness. You did indeed read two of those titles correctly. And thanks to Judge Dredd and The Human Centipede, November established my all-time record for most reviews in a single month at ten. When I started my job back in March, I didn't think I'd have time to review more than two or three a month if I was lucky. But ten in a month? Either I'm writing faster or I've had more time on my hands lately. Maybe a little of both. But at least one of my two blogs is getting some regular content, right?