Seven Pounds

Seven Pounds (2008)

Directed by: Gabriele Muccino

Written by: Grant Nieporte

Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper

Rating: PG-13

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

I'm back again! This is the second installment of the Archives Report: Vacation Edition. I watched plenty of films over my 9 day vacation, so there is still more to come.

Hopefully your wounds aren't too salted from all the outrageous claims I made in the previous entry, and that you can look past it into my relative objectivity from this point forward.

To be frank, this is not my freshman viewing of Seven Pounds. Far from it, in fact. But I happened to watch said film with three people who WERE watching it for the very first time, and it brought back some memories. I think the best time anyone watches this film is the first time.

That being said, I don't want to give away any plot details for those embarking on their maiden "Seven Pounds" voyage. I will try to keep the synopsis brief and aloof.

Brief and Aloof Synopsis:

A man called Ben with a fateful secret (Will Smith; Men in Black)  embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers, including a heart transplant patient (Rosario Dawson; Men in Black II) and a blind man (Woody Harrelson; Zombieland).

Thoughts:

Hopefully I didn't give too much away. I took some liberties from the brief synopsis posted on IMDB and that's all!

I still don't want to say that much about the movie. Will Smith has always been one of my favorite actors, and he never stops short of proving his dramatic chops. Dawson and Harrelson both really shined in their roles as well.

Barry Pepper (The Green Mile) actually gave one of the most impressive, un-sung performances of the film. He didn't have an incredibly large role, and at first his role is unclear. After his role becomes clearer, Pepper shines in this extremely dramatic and impactful role.

The remaining supporting cast is strong but does not stand out. Smith, Dawson, Harrelson and Pepper command the scenes they are in.

Now that I have gotten through my thoughts on the actors (I have college level acting training, you know!) I will start in on my favorite element of this film: the story's presentation.

One of the basic but fundamental elements to writing or creating a successful script is to create some kind of questions. When the audience has questions, they hang on and become interested in the answers. A main source of criticism that I read on films and plays alike is that they didn't resolve all their questions, or the questions weren't deep enough to care about the answers.

While fundamental, Seven Pounds uses this element well. When you watch this for the first time and are remotely interested in what is going on, you will have a TON of questions. Why? Because I did, when I saw this movie in theatres back in 2008. How do I know YOU will? ....I don't, but I'm assuming for 1 reason, and that would be the quizzical looks and explicit questions asked by my three movie watching companions. My steadfast response continued to be "Keep watching".

Seven Pounds was succesful in part because of the strong performances of its main actors, but mainly because of its commitment to basic dramatic elements, and executing them well.

Conclusion:

I recommend this movie. It is imperative that you have a few tissues handy when you decide to embark on this particular quest. However, what we learn from this movie is that ultimate good can come from ultimate bad, and Barry Pepper has some great acting chops!

Seriously, I can't give too much away, but watch this. You won't regret it.

Thanks for reading as always. I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions! Comment, Facebook us or Tweet @archivesreport! Thanks again! God bless!

NAH

The Social Network

The Social Network (2010)

Director: David Fincher

Writers: Aaron Sorkin, Ben Mezrich

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Brenda Song

Rating: PG-13

My Rating: 5 stars!

I vowed to start writing in this more frequently, so to my million and a half readers- you're welcome! Anyhow, it's a blog kind of morning. Fourth of July at almost noon, barely been awake for 53 minutes. I watched a movie last night with my girl, and so me and my Quaker Chewy Dipps (yes, that is the correct spelling, direct from the box that's two inches to my left) bars have something to say.

I came into a copy of The Social Network via buy one get one free sale at K-mart. I bought this one, and got Easy A for free. I've already seen that one but I will happily review it should my readership vote in that direction. Anyhow, I've told enough quirky little anecdotes for one day, and it's time to get to what I thought of the movie. Again, I won't give away too much of the story, but if you really want to get it, you can look it up online. It's not exactly a secret. 

The Social Network is the fabled tale of internet game-changer Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg; Zombieland) and how he created and built the social networking powerhouse we know as "Facebook". I don't want to give away too much of what happens, but the origins of Facebook go back to 2003 when Zuckerberg's girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara; The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), breaks up with him, and he creates an incredible "hotness rating" website, as well as trashes her by name on the 2003 blog-o-sphere, and let's face it, everyone knows that trashing someone on LiveJournal is pretty much the biggest 2003 slap in the face you can possibly receive. But Zuckerberg's "hotness rating" website that crashed the Harvard server received him some notoriety around the school, including an offer to help build "The Harvard Connection", which was a primitive social network for Harvard students only, geared mostly towards dating. Zuckerberg eventually flakes on this project for one of his own.

I thought this movie was incredibly well acted. It was clever. The story was told well. I actually learned things. For instance, that Zuckerberg and the original Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield; The Amazing Spider-Man) were the only two listed as the founders of Facebook (meaning Zuckerberg did most of the work), and that internet innovator and creator of Napster Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake; Friends with Benefits) was a huge influence on Zuckerberg and had a major role in Facebook. The most interesting thing I learned, however, was that Mark Zuckerberg was a socially inept computer nerd who created Facebook for many reasons, but the main one seemed to be that he had to social network because he had so few friends of his own.

I gave this movie five out of five starts because I just thought it was a beautifully made film. The Oscars they won for Best Original Score, Best Achievement in Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay were well deserved, and honestly I think that Jesse Eisenberg should've gotten a second look for that Best Actor nomination he received. But 3 wins out of 8 nominations really isn't bad. 

I would highly recommend this movie. Especially if you are on Facebook. So...everyone. :)

Here is the link to the IMDB page for The Social Network in case you would like to do a little more research:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/

and here is the link to the GetGlue forum, to see what the people who watched it most recently have been saying:

http://getglue.com/movies/social_network/david_fincher

(Once again, I have hyperlinked to the GetGlue homepage. If you do not have an account, do yourself a favor and get one. I could care less about any other networking venue, but GetGlue is one that is genuinely fun, especially for movie and TV lovers like myself. Seriously though. Follow me on GetGlue.)

Alright, that wraps up my post this time. I've already received a suggestion from a reader (but it's one I have to track down a copy of, first), but keep them coming! Please comment on here or Facebook (hehe) and make a suggestion for improvement or of a review to do! Thanks so much for reading! All 3 of you!

NAH