Showing posts with label Eva Mendes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eva Mendes. Show all posts

Friday, 7 February 2014

We Own The Night

A crime thriller from a few years ago. In the late 1980's, night club owner Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) gets embroiled in a struggle between Russian drug dealers and the cops, represented by his brother (Mark Wahlberg) and his father (Robert Duvall).


A good story, if a bit by the numbers, and somewhat unevenly paced. Phoenix is good, but the supporting cast is underused, especially Duvall and Eva Mendes as Green's girlfriend. However, it makes for a better than average pizza movie.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

The Place Beyond The Pines

Through the LoveFilm Instant service, this is a story of two men, the crime that joins them, and the consequences for both them and their sons.


An unusual crime drama, this is three stories told one after the other. The first is about circus motorbike rider Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) who, on finding he has a son, takes up robbing banks in a misguided attempt to support the boy and his mother Romina (Eva Mendes). He is finally cornered by policeman Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) and the second story is what happens to Cross afterwards when he discovers police corruption in the wake of the confrontation. The third story is about their sons who encounter each other fifteen years later and discover what happened.

It's quite a long film, which is hardly surprising given the content, and it does drag a little in places. Gosling does his best as the troubled Glanton, but he can only play one note and that's getting a bit tiresome now. Bradley Cooper does better as the principled, but ambitious, Cross, and the support is good, if somewhat muted. All-in-all a good movie, but requiring some patience, especially at the end.