Monster

Overview:  Basiclly being abused her entire life, Aileen Wuornos runs from her family and lives the life of a hooker.  When the abuse became too much she became a "Monster", and ended up killing almost everyone who picked her up.  amidst all this she falls in love with a young girl named Selby, but even that couldn't save her from flushing her life down the toilet.

The Good:  Well slice off some broccoli and serve it to a crohns diseased kid, was some of the finest acting I’ve ever seen on film!  Let’s add Charlize  Theron to the make-yourself-uglier-for-a-movie-role-and-you’ll-win-an-Oscar category, because she is now one of them lemmings.  She was such a great actress in this movie that I didn’t even know it was Charlize Theron 90% of the time, and the only way you can tell it was her is if you’re utterly obsessed, and in that case you need to stop while you’re ahead because being married to a celebrity never works.  Charlize wasn’t the only brilliant performance on screen, Christina Ricci played Aileen’s companion with the relish!  Christina has always pursued the comically creepy roles, and this time she’s creepy but not comical at all.  It’s true she is not the head actress in this movie, but it’s with her that you feel a majority of the emotion with.  One last congrats to Charlize Theron for not making Aileen look like a hero at the end of the movie, I’m sick of movies that praise the villains and damn the heroes.

The Bad:  Man do I feel like I need a sponge bath! Any takers, no?  this film may have been superb, but it is about as white trash as a movie can possibly get…  except the movie “you’ve got served”, no film can touch that trash.  I seriously felt dirty after seeing this, hence the sponge bath request.  You see how gritty and disgusting the life of a prostitute can be, and it may be a problem for certain people.  It isn’t a film I’d be likely to watch again because of how depressing it can be, instead I’ll watch Charlize in “the Italian Job” where it’s fun and chipper, and Christina in “The Adam’s Family” where she’s….. Still creepy.

The Ugly:  The ugly truth for this movie actually is ugly, and disgusting.  It is a wonderful movie that paints (to my knowledge) a fairly accurate portrait of how abuse at a young age, if not treated, can really harm a person’s perception of reality later on in life.  This is an excellent film that needs to be experienced at least once, then after that you should probably shower and then put on a Disney film or something.

3 out of 5

Buried

Overview:  Ryan Reynolds, or Paul, is buried alive in a coffin with only a phone and a lighter, and like any self-respecting person he wants out… before the time runs out! Man I’m good at rhymes.

The Good:  This was a well crafted movie!  Even though the entire film is based in a coffin with Ryan Reynolds, I was at the edge of my seat the entire time.  What I was mainly afraid of was the possibility of the movie becoming boring because I thought “How can they make an hour and a half movie within a coffin and make it not suck?”  Well I don’t know how they did it, but they did; Ryan Reynolds’ coffin instead was like the Pandora’s Box of exciting storyline!  Ryan Reynolds was awesome in this movie, which isn’t a surprise since he’s great in everything, but he really made the “serious role” thing work this time (and no, “the Amityville Horror” doesn’t count).

The Bad:  basically all the “bad” that comes from this movie depends solely if you’re claustrophobic or not.  If you ARE claustrophobic, then this movie will probably give you nightmares for the rest of your life, then because of not having sleep you’ll turn into a zombie, and now that you’re a zombie your family won’t want to talk to you because your boring… long story short, don’t watch this movie if you’re afraid of small spaces; I’m not claustrophobic at all, and even this movie gave me the creeps.  Not that it can be helped, but the other bad part of this movie is that it’s all based in the coffin and you only ever see Ryan Reynolds… but if you have a problem with that then you’re probably claustrophobic, and you should refer to my previous statement.

The Ugly:  Despite the fact that you’re buried with Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for an hour and a half, this was quite the exciting movie that keeps you entertained the entire time, I was actually a little sad when it ended.  The one thing that you need to remember before watching this, if you decide to do so, is to buy all your claustrophobic friends a cab-ride home… they can thank you later.

3 out of 5

The Black Swan

The Good:  If anyone knows anything about Black Swan's director Darren Aronofsky, they'll know this guy's films are about as trippy as they come; Tim Burton doesn't even come close half the time.  A has an unnatural obsession with horror movies, and so to see a movie come out about ballerinas going sadistic was not only hilarious, but also kinda crazy and awesome!  Not only was the acting spot-on, but the story line was very intriguing, and by the end you were dragged with Natalie Portman into her world of madness.  It was a relief to know that everything was fake by the time the movie is over; we felt like we had to be pinched or hit with a tree branch to come back into reality afterwards.

The Bad:  Anyone who has seen the movie or even the trailer knows that there is some suggestive material between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, which wasn't necessarily bad when it comes to the story, but lets just say we're happy we didn't see this at the theater when we're sitting next to a bunch of suggestive people.  Depending on who you are, you may find some of the self-mutilation scenes VERY disturbing as well. For A he was used to it because of his horror movie obsession, but C had to turn her head away a couple of times... That's when A persisted in teasing her, but in a loving way that brought the two of them together... right?

The Ugly: The Ugly Truth about this movie is that it is very dark and violent! Parents need to make sure not to take they're adorable ballerina girls and boys to see this, because not only will they never want to dance again, but they will probably attempt to murder every swan or duck they see when they go to the park.  we're not so sure about purchasing this movie, but we will say it is definitely worth seeing, because beneath the morbid violence and sexuality, there is truly a unique work or art.

4 out of 5