Slant Magazine: Throughout his magnum opus The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick hopscotches between past and present, from the birth of our planet to a slice of '50s Americana, where a young boy is shaped by his mother's "grace" and his father's "nature"—opposing influences that will continue, for time immemorial, to course and pummel their way through his consciousness with the force of an exploding supernova. He is, like all of us, less than a blip in the universe's timeline, and for the grownup Jack (Sean Penn)—who waltzes with depressing resignation through the chilly manse he shares with a woman he keeps at arm's length, the steely tower where he does business, and the landscape of the afterlife—this is an admission of human inconsequence.
There is a fight at the heart of all of Malick’s films, a fight against the medium itself.
MediaStinger: "These movies didn’t necessarily have trailers that blew you away, but at the very least they all had potential to be much better than the actual final product."
Cowboys and Aliens was not a big disappointment to me or anyone else that I know that saw it. We all loved it and for the same reasons. The characters, the actors that played them, the fresh storyline that's not been done...it wasn't a reboot or sequel or prequel..just a new story and different.
I guess we have to agree to disagree on that one.
CO - Let’s be honest… it’s always a good time to be Brad Pitt. One of the sexiest men alive, rich and powerful, and an extremely underrated actor, he’s considered a shoe-in for a Best Actor nomination for Money Ball, out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week. He’s excellent in the film, which reminded us that beyond his good looks he’s appeared in a number of modern classics worthy of mention in our ongoing series Five Great Movies.
I think I found a new respect for his acting in Lengends of the Fall. That is when I started to like his acting a little. Seven was very good though.
