Change Your Image
bpf851
Reviews
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Basically just an UGLY MESS from start to finish... don't waste your time.
Well. I must say I had pretty high hopes for Gone Baby Gone when I first saw the big names behind the title.
The acting overall is terrible. Casey Affleck is unbelievably bad in this role and the remainder of the cast is also pretty awful.
I am being quite serious and fair with my 3 / 10 rating.
The writing is a mess. Not only is it choppily written, everyone sounds exactly the same. There is zero writing ability here. As another side point... peppered throughout is ridiculous swearing. F___ this and F___ that.... not that I care at all about swearing, but it was just pointless. It just made the movie seem that much less realistic. It was like "let's try and make this movie gritty!" "Should we use character development?" "No, let's just slap cursing through the movie." Terrible, terrible mess. I am ashamed that I sat through it. This movie is a large bag of crap. Do not waste your time watching or renting it.
It is ridiculous that the name Affleck makes people automatically think this mush is worth watching.
I agree with the Oscar nod for best supporting actress to Amy Ryan. She was a bright spot in a feculent heap of self-indulgent trash.
Morgan Freeman steals the kid for himself.. that is the crazy plot twist at the end. No one cares because it would take a mushroom to write a plot that complicated. Wow, old black man, no one noticed you have a new white child... hmmm... interesting. Garbage, garbage.
Don't forget to mark my comment as helpful if you find it so.
Poor Boy's Game (2007)
Good premise - things unravel quickly from there...
I just finished watching Poor Boy's Game. It starts off with a fantastic, interesting premise - Donnie (Rossif Sutherland) goes to prison as a young offender for beating a young black man to the point that he is subsequently permanently mentally disabled. Ten years down the road, George (Danny Glover) the father of this disabled boy and Donnie cross paths again when Donnie gets out of prison. Sounds pretty good right? Well, a great premise just degenerates into a convoluted story that essentially gets lost in whatever point the movie is trying to make.
The story becomes fairly unbelievable when a black boxer, Ossie Paris (Flex Alexander) decides to enter into a grudge match following Donnie's 10 year stint in prison. Ossie was apparently friends with the disabled teenager prior to the assault. For some unexplained reason, Donnie's posse and Ossie's posse get into an inter-racial war eventually resulting in the murder of Donnie's family member Keith Rose (Greg Bryk) after he is involved in burning down the local black church. The movie culminates in a somewhat cheesy boxing ring showdown between Ossie and Donnie in which the handicapped guy gets hit with a chair.
So what makes this movie so unbelievable? Well first off, it is set in Halifax, Canada. Enough said there. The worst part of the plot is the fact that George (Danny Glover) decides to become Donnie's boxing coach... remember that George is the father of the kid Donnie beat into retardation 10 years prior. There is actually a fairly large attempt to cover up this glaring plothole throughout the film. For instance - When Donnie first enters the boxing gym, George repeatedly says to Donnie "I'm not doing this for you." There is also another scene when Donnie's posse is riding in a vehicle and Keith Rose keeps repeating 'George is coaching you - that's f**ked up.' So at least they tried to address it...
As for any sort of thematic coherence, don't look for it here. Just so you are aware:
1) Racism is bad 2) Redemption 3) People change over time 4) Don't judge a book by its cover 5) We are all really the same deep down inside
Glover, Sutherland, and Regan particularly deserve credit for lending credibility to a fairly bizarre plot line. Their performances really make this movie worth watching. I recommend this movie if you've got some time to kill. Shut off your brain and let the above average acting by these three cancel out the sub-par script. If you like sappy feel good movies that keep a quick tempo, you might also enjoy this movie.