Oh that? That was a gift from Van Gogh

Sometimes you watch a movie which you assume is going to be absolutely terrible, but are completely caught off guard. "The Man from Earth" is that type of movie. Put your preconceptions on hold for this one, and enjoy the ride.

The movie is anchored by David Lee Smith's protrayal as a man who doesn't age. Smith's character, John Oldman, is a retiring professor who has a going away party with some of his university friends. The discussion eventually turns hypothetical about what a caveman would be like if they were alive today. Unbeknownst to his friends, John Oldman is in fact a caveman, and he is not that different from them.

This premise may seem absurd at first, but the actors manage to pull it off. You will recognize many of the B-movie actors that populate this film. People like Tony Todd, John Billingsley, and Ellen Crawford. The relationships between the actors seem genuine, and their surprise at the prospect that their friend is thousands of years old is believable and not hokey.

If you are able to put disbelief aside you will enjoy this movie. There is almost a Forrest Gump type story-line in this movie, because Oldman managed to be involved in some of history's most significant events. This movie really is great, and it tells a compelling story of humanity.

This is a solid 8/10, possibly a 9/10.

You Kill it We Clean it!

The users of IMDb have got it wrong when it comes to Sunshine Cleaners. This movie is not a 6.9, it is easily an 8. The pairing of Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as sisters, with Alan Arkin as their father, may not make much sense from a "they need to look alike" standpoint, but it is convincingly natural in practice. Christine Jeffs, in addition to directing this highly underrated movie, also directed a movie about Sylvia Plath aptly named "Sylvia." That movie starred Gwyneth Paltrow. I did not see that movie. Moving along.

This movie has an almost buddy cop feel to it. The story follows two sisters down on their luck who find success cleaning up crime scenes. Talk about an industry you don't think of. The dynamic between Blunt and Adams is very organic, and believable. Amy Adams character's son played by Jason Spevack put in an exceptional performance. Comedian Steve Zahn put forward a convincing dramatic turn as the philandering police officer.

The movie reminded me of Little Miss Sunshine. There are some dark undertones to the movie that I don't want to spoil, but they definitely add to the believability of the family interactions. Strife and sorrow can be very adhesive bonds. This is not a sad movie though. This is a very happy movie, but it is not your typical sugar coated Hollywood.

As I said, this is an 8/10, easily.

Not as Hungry as I'd Like

These four notes are etched into my memory for all time. Not necessarily because of how great this movie is (it isn't all that great), but because this movie was crazy hyped. I felt like there was constant advertising of it. And, I'll admit, I was very excited. That changed when I left the theater.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Hunger Games movie. Catching Fire simply did not live up to the first one. I did enjoy Catching Fire, but I thought it would be more enjoyable. I feel like the story just wasn't as engaging, and the characters seemed a little flat. Not all of the characters were flat though. I thought Elizabeth Banks actually did a fantastic job in this movie as Effie. Josh Hutcherson was also pretty solid just like in the first movie.

I will say that the movie is believably set up for the 3rd installment (I know the third movie is being broken up into two but whatever), so I don't feel like the series is unnecessarily carrying on. I think i've been too harsh on the movie. It definitely has it's moments. Lenny Kravitz? Exactly. Also, the introduction of Philip Seymour Hoffman was a welcome addition. Overall, this was pretty good. Not as good as the first, but close enough.

7/10. Entertaining. I'll watch again if I binge watch the quadrilogy at some point.

White House Fun

White House Down is no Air Force One. It's better. Although the two movies have the same rating on IMDb, WHD (yes I have acrnoymized White House Down to WHD, sue me) doesn't take itself seriously, and knows how to party. If you don't enjoy Roland Emmerich's work then we probably can't watch movie's together.

First and foremost. I like Channing Tatum. If this is what he is like in other movies then I'd be willing to see that one where his fiance forgets him or something. He plays opposite Jamie Foxx perfectly. This movie is like everyone showed up and said "Let's have some fun." Except Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her performance added some unneeded gravitas to the whole affair. But have no fear! Reliable supporting actor Richard Jenkins shows up with snark at maximum level as a congressman.

If this movie shows up on cable tv and you haven't already seen it 10 times, watch it again. This is classic style action movie absurdity. The story is not believable, but the the movie is entertaining. Not much else needs to be said about this one.

8/10, will have to watch again, great action movie

Gatsby! Gatsby! Not Gatsby.

Baz Luhrmann made The Great Gatsby exactly the way everyone should have expected him to make it. Did you see Romeo and Juliet? Moulin Rouge!? What was everyone expecting from this movie? If you were expecting something on the same level as the actual book then I completely understand your disappointment. If you went into this thinking "Hey, this is a Baz Luhrmann movie, I bet it will be visually over the top," then you probably enjoyed it, like I did.

The acting in this is not great. It isn't bad either. Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Carey Mulligan all mailed it in. Although, Ms. Mulligan may not have realized she was mailing it in. Leo and Tobey surely knew that was not their best performance. I really enjoyed two of the performances in this movie: Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, and Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim. Edgerton and Bachchan both were believable with just the right dose of over-the-top for their respective characters.

One more thing. I enjoyed the soundtrack. I think a lot of people didn't think it was a good fit for the story, but I thought it kept the tempo rather well, and was a nice background.

Overall, I'm happy I saw this movie. It's not great, but it is worth seeing. 7/10, which coincidentally is close to it's rating on IMDb.

The Road to the Top

Director Nick Ryan's first documentary The Summit is a gripping tale of the horrible tragedy on K2 in 2008. I should state up front that very shortly before seeing this movie I had read the fantastic book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I think that may have influenced my viewing of the movie somewhat.

The Summit is a documentary, but it is one of those documentaries where you feel as though you don't know what happens at the end even though you do know what happens. The story follows the climbers from the beginning of the climb through to its tragic end and aftermath. You come away with an understanding of the passion that drives serious mountaineers, but also an idea of the terrible choices that people sometimes make on a mountain. That part was a bit difficult to understand. Why go on when things have gone so terribly wrong?

There were a couple of things about the documentary I did not enjoy. One, the movie claimed to be an exposition of some great mystery. From this I implied some sort of foul play, but the mystery was not really there in the documentary. My takeaway was that above 8000 meters things can get hazy and tragic. Two, I didn't really care for most of the actor reenactments of the events. Some were a bit too hokey. I should say that there were one or two that were very moving.

Those concerns aside this is a good documentary that tells an interesting story. The people interviewed seemed very frank in how they answered questions, and it didn't appear that anyone was trying to do some salvage job, or rewrite history. If you have any instance in mountaineering, or general adventure, you would probably enjoy this documentary.

6/10, but maybe 7/10 when I'm feeling very Tenzing Norgay

Let's Dance

I'm not sure what I expected from Silver Linings Playbook. David Russell really put together a very good film. Even a great movie, but not a super movie, or super great if you will.

This movie is very Bradley Cooper driven. His character is completely incapable of accepting reality, and yet at the same time is not oblivious to reality. There are strong performances from Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, and most impressively, Chris Tucker. I think that my two favorite performances in this movie were Chris Tucker's and John Ortiz's. Ortiz's portrayal of Cooper's buddy overwhelmed in his marriage was fantastic. This is not to discount Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. They both were exceptional in their roles. In fact, I think Jennifer Lawrence was more convincing than Bradley Cooper. There was a palpable sense of vulnerability in her character.

This is one of those movies where you watch it and you have your fair share of "What, is going on?" moments, but at the end you are very happy that you watched it. The story is sad. Bradley Cooper's situation is depressing, but the response of those around him is truly uplifting.

I don't think this movie should have been nominated for Best Picture (I can think of another movie that should have taken its slot), but it was a great movie.

9/10, this is a really good movie, a great movie. You will be happy you watched it.