I'm pretty sure no one is reading at this point anyway so dropping my two cents worth on three films seems like an exercise in futility but my whole life is an exercise in futility so ha!
Pride is your typical inspirational sports story. Terence Howard stars as a young man who experienced prejudice in his college years when trying to compete as a swimmer, years later in 70s Philadelphia, he gets a job clearing out a soon to be shut down rec center where he discovers, cleans up and begins using the abandoned pool. A group of local kids who use the lot to play basketball are deprived of the hoops and wander inside the rec center and are soon inspired to become swimmers.
Its typical because it has all the plot points you would expect to see. Early failure, racial prejudice against the black kids trying to break into a "white" sport, training montages, and eventual success. The story is based on true events and you can see real documentary footage of the actual coach if you sit through the credits. Howard's performance was strong and the movie accomplishes everything it sets out to do. I suppose there isn't anything wrong with telling an inspiration tale about keeping kids off the streets and out of gang life through recreational activity but I wonder if there is a way to tell such a story in a less stale cliched way. Swim fans and fans of sports underdog stories may enjoy this film more than I did. I am glad to see Howard still putting everything into his performances, I hope he has lots of success.
Shooter is about as mindless as Hollywood gets sans Michael Bay at the helm. We follow trained sniper Swaggert (Mark Wahlberg) who after being betrayed by the military living in seclusion. He is hired to help find a presidential assassin but is instead imbroiled in a conspiracy on a high level. Wahlberg (phoning in his performance, guess he needed a break from his intensity in The Departed (2006)) plays the sort of Matt Damon action hero well enough. The movie delivers the fight scenes and gun fighting that one wants from a movie like this all wrapped up in a ludicrous plot that is instantly forgettable. But I give a shout out to Ned Beatty who I can't remember seeing in a film since the Superman franchise. He was so great as Otis. Final verdict: Popcorn fluff that I enjoyed well enough.
The Host is a much critically praised horror film (91% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com) from Korea. It is apparently the highest grossing Korean film to date. Neither of these is exactly high praise in my view. Night Watch was the highest grossing Russian film to date and that move was seriously lacking in all that is good. This film is trying desperately hard to evoke at least three different genres: 50s horror, comedy, and social commentary. I think it fails at all three. It has all the subtlety of a Jerry Bruckheimer film, forced humor and blunt force anti-American sentiment. I was in pain after watching for a half hour and was praying for the end after that.
Poor acting (apparently intentional), poor character development (again intentional?), and overall pointless meandering story drove me insane. The filmmaker seemed more interested in making the monster move in a neat fashion than anything else. It could have been at least twenty minutes shorter and in general just left me angry.
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