Undefeated- My shortest review ever.

Undefeated is a documentary about an inner city high school football team from Tennessee with a prolific history of losing on the football field. This film documents their journey as a coach helps them turn things around and work together as a team and experience success.

I liked this movie because it is not your typical Hollywood sports drama. It is one of the better sports documentaries I have seen. I give it 7.5 stars. Enough said.

Snitch

Snitch is a movie supposedly based on a true story about a teenager who is arrested for accepting a package full of drugs that his friend mailed to him. He is given a harsh sentence for a first time offender but the authorities are willing to cut him a deal in exchange for ratting out some drug dealers. Since this was his first exposure to the drug trade he doesn't know anyone and that is not a possibility.

His father who is played by  Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) ends up making a deal that if he can help lead them to the arrest of some drug dealers then they will reduce his son's sentence. He then gets an introduction to the local drug trade and begins using his trucking company to smuggle drugs, but he discovers being an informant has more long lasting consequences than he anticipated.

This movie is more drama than action and Johnson give s a convincing performance. Some people may be surprised by that, but they need to remember he is a veteran of WWE so acting should be second nature to him. What really impressed me about his performance was the fact that he was by far the most intimidating specimen in the entire movie, yet he did not rely on his size or strength at any point. He was just a regular guy who got scared and intimidated and was even naive when it came to street smarts. This is unlike the characters we've seen him portray in other movies where he is intimidating, cocky, and in control.

Snitch reminded me that I don't want to get involved using or selling drugs or double crossing those who do. I did't even recognize Benjamin Bratt as the cartel kingpin and was surprised when I saw his name during the ending credits. Susan Sarandon does a good job of conveying a selfish, career driven politician who is hard to like. Barry Pepper and Jon Bernthal also give good performances.

This movie was actually pretty short at only one hour and 35 minutes, but I really liked it. I give Snitch 7.4 stars.

Bernie

Bernie is a movie based on a true story about an undertaker who is the most liked person in the community. He befriends the widow of a recently deceased business man. He gains her friendship and trust over time, but the more time they spend together, the more possessive and demanding she becomes. She pushes Bernie to his breaking point and he eventually kills her and hides that fact from the town for 9 months before he is caught.

The brief synopsis sounds much more morbid than the movie really is. Bernie is played by Jack Black who I think is a very versatile actor. I really enjoyed his performance and he does a great job portraying Bernie as the nicest man imaginable. Shirley McClain was also great with her portrayal of the old mean and nasty victim. Matthew McConaughey plays the prosecutor, but I didn't really care for him in this movie even though he fit the casting with the Texan accent. I was impressed that he kept his shirt on the whole film.

The extras in this movie were very entertaining. Much of the film is shot in documentary style and the brief interviews with the towns folk are quite funny. I was surprised to later learn that they were not actors but were are actual friends and acquaintances of Bernie.

I give Bernie 7.2 stars, but I really had a hard time trying to define this movie. It's not really a comedy since it is more amusing than funny, but it's not serious enough to be a tragedy either. At any rate, it's worth seeing for Jack Black's performance.

4 Movie Reviews!

Here Comes the Boom- This is a typical Kevin James comedy. It is about a high school biology teacher who gets involved in mixed martial arts as a way to make money to save his school's music program. It is far fetched but I thought there were some really funny parts. I enjoyed the first half more before the movie started to take itself too seriously. I give it 6.6 stars.

Warm Bodies- I saw this movie only knowing it was a zombie comedy. It is basically a remake of Romeo and Juliet but it involves a love story between a zombie and a live young woman he has feelings for. I really liked this movie. I try not to use the word cute, but it was a cute story and was a good combination of romance and comedy. I thought it was clever, entertaining, and had a good message. I give it 7.5 stars.

Bully-This is a documentary about the problem of bullying in schools. It  featured many victims and even some of the bullies. It is a sad problem that affects so many kids and I don't mean any disrespect to those heart breaking incidents that it featured, but I didn't think the documentary was done that well and it was kind of slow. I give it 6.3 stars.

Jack Reacher- This movie was much better than I expected. Tom Cruise is an ex- U.S. Army investigator who gets involved in an investigation for an ex- military sniper accused of going on a shooting rampage in Pennsylvania. Reacher is much like a modern day Sherlock Holmes. There is plenty of suspense and mystery as he pieces together details of the crime, but there is also plenty of action in this movie. I had a hard time taking Rosamund Pike seriously as the female lead but besides that, I really liked this movie which included a surprise acting role by Werner Herzog as a freaky villain. I think I would actually like seeing more episodes of Jack Reacher than I would of future Mission Impossible movies. I'd love to see it turn into a series. I give it 8.1 stars.

Catfish

I am usually behind the times so it shouldn't surprise you that I am reviewing a movie that came out a couple years ago. When the recent events surrounding Manti Te'o and his mystery girlfriend came up in the news, I heard several people debating if it was possible to deceive someone in an online relationship to that extent. One of the people I heard talking about this simply said "Just rent the movie Catfish and you will see for yourself."

I had not heard of this movie before but those comments piqued my interest and I decided to rent it. Catfish is a documentary style film about a photographer in New York named Nev Schulman who receives a painting of one of his photographs. The gift was created by an 8 year old artist living in Michigan who really liked his work. Over time she continues to send him additional works and he develops a friendship over the phone and via Internet with her and her mother and sister. Over the course of several months Nev starts to develop more of a friendship with the older sister who is an attractive young woman shown to the right according to her Facebook account.

SPOILER ALERT:

After some time Nev and his roommates begin to suspect something is not right with the relationship when they discover several inconsistencies with the mysterious girl's story. They end up travelling to Michigan while documenting the experience to find out what is going on.

When they arrive, the mother of the young artist is very surprised to see them and eventually introduces them to her 8 year old daughter who they soon determine is not an artist at all. After several hours and multiple excuses of not being able to get them in touch with the daughter Nev has developed a relationship with, they realize that she does not exist.

The mother who is a woman in her 40's pictured to the left was the actual artist and had been sending him her artwork and pretending it was from her young daughter. She also created the imaginary older sister and had developed a relationship with Nev and had set up a string of fake accounts on Facebook to support her complicated story.

This movie was very interesting but I was as suspicious of the film makers as they were of their catfish. What are the odds that they just happened to be filming a documentary about their friend just as this happened? At any rate, it was an interesting show and it makes you think twice about trusting online friends you have never met in person. I give Catfish 7.2 stars.