Rental Recommendation: Wristcutters: A Love Story

Wow! Totally not what I thought that was about. So here's the premise. Suicides don't go to Hell. They go to this kind of parallel world where they have jobs and crappy apartments and singles bars but no one ever smiles. I had no idea that that was what this movie was about when I Netflixed it (Netflix is also a verb, boys and girls) but I liked it.

Finally a positive review. I have been pretty cynical and negative in my reviews lately and I was beginning to think it was something wrong with me rather than something wrong with the entertainment industry but Wristcutters has reassured me that it is indeed that the movies suck, there is nothing wrong with me.

Zia (who is a male, FYI and played by Patrick Fugit) is jilted by his girlfriend, Desiree, and slits his wrists in the opening sequence of the film. We catch up with him after he has been in the world of suicides for several months. He is seated at a bar where he is approached by Azura Skye who tells him that she and her friend have a game wherein they try to figure out how various bar patrons "offed themselves." He follows her back to her table with her friend where they meet Eugene (Shea Whigham) who bets they can't figure out how he died. The girls leave without figuring it out and he reveals to Zia that he was a musician in life and electrocuted himself by pouring beer on his guitar.

From there we watch the friendship between Zia and Eugene develop until one day Zia learns that his beloved Desiree is also in their world and the two set out to find her, which is the meat of the story.

It's actually a very well written and rather cute story with a happy ending (a legitimate and deserved happy ending not a force-fed Disney ending).

I absolutely recommend Wristcutters: A Love Story to anyone looking for a good, positive, cute indie flick.

Gamer

Starring Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall, opened in theaters Friday, September 4. Disclaimer: I copied and pasted this from a post on a message board and don't really want to "tidy" it up so basically you are getting the raw, bare bones of what I really thought. No one is paying me to do this so who cares HOW I write it?

I can only think of two applicable words here: Hugely disappointing! I had seen Milo Ventimiglia plugging it on late night and at Comic Con and it sounded really awesome. I adore Milo...both as an actor and as a beautiful man ... and Michael C. Hall never fails to impress but both of their characters... Yikes. The way Milo was talking about the movie, I definitely thought that Rick Rape was going to be far more integral a character than the five absurdly creepy minutes we spent with him. Same with Ludacris. He had top billing and he on screen, cumulative total, fifteen minutes, maybe twenty.

And Ken Castle (Hall).... Wow! As villains go, he was one of the worst I've seen. And not in a good way. Meanwhile, WTF was with the detour through the set of High School Musical? Singing and dancing? Really? I had to pinch myself to keep from shrieking with hysterical laughter...which is okay if everyone else in the theater also thinks what you are laughing at was funny (or asinine) but apparently I was alone.

Between the two, relatively similar films, I say Death Race was 1000 times better. Same basic concept...Death row inmates fighting to the death to earn their freedom, rigged competition that prevents anyone from winning the prescribed number of battles, but Death Race was definitely better.