Review: Lawless

Went up to see Daughter #1 at college and one night the "gang" went out to the movies. There, we divided and went separate ways, the younger ones going to see FINDING NEMO 3D, which I felt would be sheer torture to see again, even if was now in 3D, (look for a forthcoming rant on the "regurgitation" of old movies coming back through the theater, new and improved in 3D) So all of us over the age of eighteen, Daughter #1, Boyfriend, Jon and I, went to see the new release LAWLESS, which is Not a remake and is Not a sequel, for that the movie already has a couple gold stars!

LAWLESS is based Matt Bondurant's 2008 novel "The Wettest County in the World", which highlights his grandfather and great uncles adventures in bootlegging in the hills and hallows of Virginia during Prohibition.

The oldest, toughest and funniest brother, Forrest Bondurant, is plated by Tom Hardy  reviewed HERE  in ....

 

and most recently known for being the bad guy in the new Batman....

 

 

Which I confess I have no desire to see, even before the horrid shooting in Aurora, Colorado. I thought the first DARK KNIGHT was "darker than it needed to be" and unfortunately the sad loss of Heath Ledger, wasn't enough to reconsider just how dark films needed to be, but I digress again! I did enjoy Hardy in WARRIOR and I forgot he was also in Reese Witherspoon most recent movie, which also starred Chris Pine....

A so, so movie, haven't really enjoyed Witherspoon as of late, but Hardy and Pine are funny in it.

 

In Lawless, the youngest brother is played by Shia Beouf...

 

known for the Transforming franchise....

 

 

But pretty funny in his younger days in a great family film....

 



 

In LAWLESS, Beouf and his buddy beginning "souping up" their vehicles to race the bootleg to the next county, highlight the history between the Southern history of Nascar...

 

 

The "girls", there are barely two and they barely talk and they don't talk to each other, about anything, so the movie fails the "girl test" greatly- see here

Beouf's love interest is played by Mia Wasikowska, who the whole movie I could not place and had to imdb.com her- She was Alice!

 

The other "girl", a dancer trying to get away from the mob is played by Jessica Chastain, who traded covers with the Duchess for the August 2012 Vanity Fair cover and had an interesting photo spread and article inside.

 

Chastain is relatively new, she was the Southern wife who got cooking lessons from her maid in THE HELP.

 

 I was prepared for LAWLESS to be overtly bloody and violent and was pleasantly surprised that the "dark side" of the movie was blended in to the story and did not feel like it was inserted to full fill a "gore" quota.

Don't get me wrong, LAWLESS was disturbing, for the time and place in history was disturbing and I wondered how accurate the movie portrayed the hillbillies and corrupt lawmen, the mob and the women isolated and with little restriction on their morality. What I know about the history of that time, it was probably right on, the feel much like the popular and hopefully soon to be back FX T.V. series...

Stories set in the hallows and hills of the South seem to be  always on the dark side- I can relate- living in the Four Corners, where deep wide canyons and deserts make hiding away an easy thing to do and are a host for some interesting characters.

 



It really is a "Kick in the Head"!

Daughter #2, who is all of 14 years old, had discovered Dean Martin! His music and now all the films of the 50's. How you might say? Well, it stated with taking her to see...

A cute, if you can say that about a movie focusing on the last two week of life on earth before everything is obliterated by a comet. Carell, is his usual geeky guy, his wife, literally running away from him as the terrible news comes over the radio. Knightly plays a quirky girl with quirky problems and the movies is about the love affair that blossoms between the two in a time when nothing else really matters other than being with someone you love.
SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is the kind of movie, you stare at the screen as the credits roll, debating how you should feel or say about it, "yeah, that was a great movie, really enjoyed imagining the end of the world!" But it was a good movie and how does my daughter's new found interest in Dean Martin fit in, you ask?
Knightley's quirky character is in love with vinyl records, as in if you only had fifteen seconds to take what is important to you out of your house, what would you take? The answer for her, as much of her record collection as she can carry.
So a few days later, Daughter #2 comes home with a load of vinyl records just like Knightly has in her arms on the movie poster. Do we have a fully functioning record player.....no. That is okay, she likes the look of the covers and plasters her room with them, searches Itunes and the internet for 50's music and so now, as she is getting ready for school, Dean is wafting up through the floor boards from her room to mine and I am constantly thinking I left a movie on somewhere, because I didn't realize how many movies still to this day are using his songs ( according to imdb.com.....)
like.....

"Ain't that a Kick in the Head"

is in 

We did a trip to Grandmother's house and I come by my love of movies naturally,both parents are avid movie watcher, though both like the old stuff and in the comfort of their own home.
Before the luggage was in the house, Daughter #2 was scouring my mom's movie collection and with some suggestions we watched.....

Traveling over the mountains we had stopped by chance at a 50's retro cafe, it's walls covered in posters of Elvis, I Love Lucy and there Daughter #2 discovered James Dean....

Can't say I was ever crazy about James Dean, never could get past his mumbling...

Seen a bit more films of Rock Hudson, but can't say he is on of the actors I love to watch and....

Elizabeth Taylor is usually just too much for me, which I know is part of the era from which she came. But as a whole I have always enjoyed the movie GIANT, it ponders a pretty heavy question, racial equality, even if it does it in a 1950's kind of way.
That is why I love movie and it is so fun to watch another generation get into them. They give connection, one era to another- a kid in the new millennium digging back over 50 years ago to find something interesting, a connection from one generation to the next and what I love the most, the universal truths about our lives, happiness, loves, fears never change whatever decade the story if from!

And Here It Is...

Yes, the powers that be are starting to "titillate" us with Jeremy Renner's, who I just reviewed in the Bourne Legacy, new movie. A retelling of a classic fairy tale involving a witch, two little children and a cottage in the woods made of gingerbread. But now apparently, the siblings are all grown up and well....bad ass!

Oh, how I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they were trying to pitch playing a little boy who gets stuck in an oven to all the big tough action stars in Hollywood.
Gretal is played by Gemma Arterton, whose last action flick she played a pretty "bad ass" princess...

The English actress first was a "Bond Girl"....

She plays Strawberry Fields, an ill prepared  MI6agent that is sent to retrieve Bond form Bolivia and get him back on a plane. That doesn't happen and she dies, painted in tar.
I saw one of Arterton's films up at the film festival in Telluride, a few years ago....

and reviewed it HERE.
Watching the trailer for Hansel and Gretal, I was amazed at how close it looked at some other attempt to "mash up" a fairytale with a hard core action flick. My thoughts went to....

Look at Beckinsale's get up on the poster and then look back at the garb Arterton is wearing in the trailer. Apparently tight black pants, high heeled boots and leather works well in fighting evil.

There are a few other Steampunk, that Victorian era, steam powered inspired alter universe, movies similar to Hansel and Gretal....

 

And the funny thing is, none of them did that well? How will Hansel and Gretal be different? Well, apparently, according to COLLIDER.COM, they created an R version. More gore and blood the better and the funnier, so Hansel and Gretal will be a "gore fest".......yeah. Guess that is one way to get the young crowd in the theater, could it be a good story as well, I have my doubts.