Take Five

By George Rose

October 30, 2009

Mayhap we as consumers have become too attached to our cell phones.

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Anyway, enough with the baseball jargon. I really can't even believe I wrote anything about sports, but it's not my main interest and is therefore not my main concern to write about. There are more pressing matters at stake, like what you should watch over the next week if you're bored. Well, if you're bored and are near a TV that doesn't have any of the World Series games on.

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

I've been doing this recently, recommending a movie that's currently in theaters. I think it's helpful because sometimes you don't necessarily trust the reviews you find in your newspaper, written by reviewers that are forced to step out of that mindless-mode most movies are best watched with, in order to be detailed and overly critical. I'm not here to rip apart every movie to its core, to find and nitpick over every last molecule of a movie. That can't really be done properly, anyway. Movie going is a personal experience with more than just the production parts affecting how we relate to a film. I think movies that have many flaws can still be enjoyable, and many movies that have won critical praise and Oscars are flat out boring. This week I offer you Law Abiding Citizen, and here's why...




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Not because it will win awards (it won't), not because there aren't other movies you could see (there are) and not because it did better than expectations its first two weekends; I'm suggesting Law Abiding Citizen because it was good enough to watch (pretty good, actually), had enough explosions to warrant the price of a big screen ticket, and is the best darn movie either Gerard Butler or Jamie Foxx has made in a while. Who knows when another one of their movies will be this accessible and enjoyable to the mainstream? Together they star in this thriller about a... you guessed it... law abiding citizen, Clyde (Butler), whose family is brutally murdered in front of him. He is then forced to watch an attorney, Nick (Foxx), make a deal with one of the killers to help avoid trial and keep his conviction rate up. This sets Clyde off, who kills the murderers and is sent to prison, where he continues exacting his revenge on everyone that was part of the legal system that wrongfully set one of the murderers free. It is then up to Nick to make right his past wrong decisions and stop Clyde from killing anyone else. The plot is fast paced, the death sequences are inventive and the story captivating enough to overlook its loopholes. Basically, this is a more toned down version of what Saw VI should have been if you swap the clown doll for legal terminology. It's not scary, but it sure is a better way to spend Halloween weekend than watching the Saw series' biggest disappointment.

That Thing You Do! (1996)

You want something fun and peppy? You want to tap your feet and bop your head to some great '60s themed music because you need a break from all the terror and death Halloween promotes? Go rent That Thing You Do! The musical (I think?) is about four young men (Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon Schaech, Steven Zahn and Ethan Embry) who start a band, called The Oneders, in their hometown of Erie, PA. After their first single becomes a smash hit, thanks to their manager (Tom Hanks), they change their name to The Wonders and go on a cross country tour that both establishes and destroys their careers.


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