Manuel on Movies #17

Well, with 29 movies to review, you have to start somewhere, right?

Cashback - We saw this on instant Netflix a while back on a whim while looking for something interesting to watch.  It ended up being pretty good.  The story followed a young guy (early 20s maybe) who has just broken up with his girlfriend and finds he can no longer sleep.  He ends up taking a job at a grocery store doing the graveyard shift as he can't sleep anyways.  While working there, he finds he has the ability to freeze time while he can go on doing whatever he needs to do.  He takes this chance to freeze time whenever he works so that he can draw the customers in the store (he's a struggling artist).  Some of the women he even undresses so he can do nude art, but tastefully, of course.  This means, yes, there is nudity in the film.  The story goes on with him getting over his ex, developing a new love interest, and coming to terms and trying to figure out why he has this freezing time power.  I actually thought it was a well written, beautiful story that relied heavily on the great, funny script full of English humor and the good performances by the cast.  If you are looking for something different and out of the norm, check this one out.  7.5 out of 10

Drag Me To Hell - This was Sam Raimi's long awaited return to the horror genre (he got his start with Evil Dead).  There was a lot of buzz going into the release of the film as a throwback to how good horror movies used to be made.  And you know what, if that is what constitutes how horror movies were made, count me out.  Yeah, I didn't really like this movie.  I mean, it had an okay premise - girl is cursed by a gypsy and she tries to find a way to break the curse whilst dealing with all the bad things happening to her.  The thing is, the movie tried to be a gross-out horror film and I found it simply comical and stupid.  It had some okay scenes, but truthfully, I didn't find much appealing about this movie.  Oh well.  5 out of 10

Man on Wire - This is the Oscar winning documentary of the man who attempted to tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974.  Yes, those Twin Towers, WAY up there.  Well, we know the man didn't die because he is the one narrating the film, but everything in between from the idea to do the attempt to his life after is fascinating stuff.  As it was quite illegal to pull off a stunt like this, it is edge of your seat kind of stuff listening to him plan the attempt, break in, etc.  And he is quite amusing while he is telling the story too.  If you like good documentaries about interesting events in history, this comes recommended.  8 out of 10

Obsessed - This wasn't Oscar winning material by any means, but it was pretty enjoyable.  This is basically a Fatal Attraction type story without the actual cheating aspect ever taking place.  Ali Larter has a thing for her boss and does everything in her power to try to get him and break up his marriage to Beyonce at the same time.  It is fairly entertaining stuff and something that can keep your attention span up for two hours, but nothing more than that.  Not bad at all though.  I'd probably watch it again if it was on TNT or something and there was nothing else on.  7 out of 10

Powder Blue - This is the movie where Jessica Biel finally gets naked.  Ok seriously, I started off with that because that is the reason most people have either heard about it or actually seen it.  But you know what, if you did get a chance to see it, it was actually pretty good.  This was one of those different storyline movies where we follow four people and somehow at the end of the movie, their lives all come together.  It has been done before, but it was actually pretty good, if not, kind of a downer.  We follow a stripper, an ex-con, a suicidal ex-priest, and a mortician whose lives are all less than stellar.  Through fate and a pretty good script, their lives are intertwined. This really wasn't bad at all and in the end, had more going for it than, "Jessica Biel gets naked!"  7 out of 10