Good Will Hunting

So, continuing with digging out my old blog posts from those I abandoned and buried deep.

Two or three years back I used to watch a lot of movies. Then, I just gave up on movies, altogether. They simply didn't make them good anymore, and I switched to watching television shows. Since, then I have watched some of the best content which is out there on television, which beats the shit out of movies- House MD, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Hannibal, Boston Legal to name a few.

I do however keep a lookout on the new releases. Sometimes, downloading a few which even IMDB has rated 6 point something, or 7 at best. My personal rule of thumb being download only those movies which have over 10000 ratings, and the rating being at least 7.

I have over the years of watching movies have developed a tremendous amount of intolerance and disdain for anything remotely stupid. I though depend on IMDB ratings, which unfortunately also rate some of the worst Bollywood movies very highly, I like to believe that the ratings normalise after a certain threshold of reviews have been reached. More, than the ratings, I usually prefer reading some of the user reviews. They offer quite a personalised insight into the movie, sometimes against the rating trend.

So, I recently watched these 2 movies- At Middleton and In Lieu of Flowers. Another movie that I watched almost a year ago and is worth mentioning in this post is Any Questions for Ben. The common factor in these movies are that they all have reviews which range from less than hundred to less than 3000. And the fact that the average rating is either 5 or 6.
My own personal criteria of rating any movie depends on the following factor:

1. Story/Script (Inherently, different as you can still make a good script out of nothing) 
2. Acting talent
3. Action  

Now, I will watch a movie and rate it highly if any two are available.

So, when I watched these movies I was presently surprised by the acting talent and the script. I had to write a review for all three movies.

At Middleton- The movie revolves around two parents who fall in love while they pull a bunk on their children's college tour. This is what the whole story is which unfolds in a timeline of maybe 4 hours compressed to fit 90 minutes of pure viewing pleasure. Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga are at their very best. And I have never been more impressed by the acting in any of the movies than this one. They both played their part to perfection. Reading up on movie trivia, I found that the movie was obviously a small budget one, but it was shot from beginning to end in a matter of 20 days! This movie is something that you must watch, to actually see what acting talent is. Vera Farmiga looks as beautiful as ever.

In Lieu of Flowers- Another gem I found, and I literally mean a gem. Why? Check out the IMDB ratings- 6.2 and this only has 234 reviews as of now when I write this post. How can it be? This movie in my opinion deserves more. The story revolves around two people- Eric and Rachel. Eric is shown to be grieving for the loss of his girlfriend who he was about to propose for marriage, while Rachel is shown to have lost her husband two years ago in a accident. Both of them meet in a anonymous club, trying to cope up with the lose, and somehow trying to fill the void in their lives which they believe nothing can fill.

The story revolves around not how they find comfort in each other or fall in love. But what people actually go through when they lose a loved one. Oh, and there is also a beautiful climax. You will never expect what hits you at the end.

Any Questions for Ben- Another good movie, that I happened to stumble across almost an year ago. The story is boring but the script is excellent. The acting even more so. And I was eyeing Rachael Taylor the whole time. The movie is about a guy who suffers a mid-life existential crisis in his early thirties when he is super successful at his career, and it seems that the girls can't pin him down for more than 3 months at best. He goes to a reunion and meets Rachael Taylor whom he had a crush on, and finds that all his success is rather boring as nobody is interested in what he does, even though he makes a killing amount of money out of it. He and Rachael are drawn to each other, and they then eventually break up. The movie is not a love story, but rather more of a coming of age story only with a twist- Ben came of age in his early thirties. My review, though not inspiring, I would still recommend this movie, as the acting was superb as was the climax at the end.

So, I know there are very few readers who actually suffer through my blog, but if you happen to take me on my recommendation, I would like to hear your take on these movies!