My father made a very good suggestion to me the other day. Wen I first started this blog I wanted to give the reader a lot of good content. I wanted them to know about all the movies I like and dislike. So I decided I needed to blow through as many as I could, but 3 movies per review seemed to be my limit. Once I got to 3, I started to get burned out. So my father suggested I trim it back to just 1 review at a time. Good call sir. Who'd have thought a parent was intelligent? :-) By changing it to just 1 review, hopefully it's a quick, easy, and hopefully entertaining read for you.
That said, here we go...
The Lincoln Lawyer: (2011) - R
Staring Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, and Ryan Phillippe
Overview - Mick Haller (McConaughey) is a defense attorney. He's dang good at what he does, and has gotten quite a few guilty criminals off the hook. One day rich-kid Louis Roulet (Phillippe) hires him to defend him against murder allegations. Is he innocent? Or has he just found the best g to get him out of a sticky situation?
Review - Matthew McConaughey played a lawyer in an amazing film 17 years ago called "A Time To Kill" In it he defended Samuel L. Jackson in a murder case (no, there were no snakes in his m-f'in court room). In the movie McConaughey gave, what I consider to be, the performance of his career. If you have not seen it, exit this blog, turn off your PC or Mac, put your pants on, put your shoes on, then call a friend to see if they have it, cuz you likely won't find it in Redbox. It's 17 years old for crying out loud! But on to the movie at hand. Matt decided to revise a role that was familiar to him, and that got him a lot of attention in 1996. Normally when we hear his name we think of a dim-witted surfer with no zest for anything but sex, working out, and not using deodorant (seriously dude!?). In this film he's a sleezy lawyer who gets paid by the bad guys to keep their own out of prison. And he's got a flawless record. The problem is that when you resurrect a role that people loved, you run the risk of being called uncreative or lazy. Which, sadly, is the case in this one. Though he does a great job in his role, and he certainly looks the part, he comes off as a carbon copy of his role in "A Time To Kill". Now, if you loved that film, and just want to see more of it, then by all means check this one out. Marisa Tomei plays his ex wife. she compliments him well because she is, by all rights ,a VERY attractive woman. She is also an attorney, but for the good guys. You can imagine that it might put some stress on the marriage and home life, being married to a sleezy con man. But she holds your attention, and plays the role well. Phillippe on the other hand. God give me strength. How this guy got into show business in the first place, is beyond me. In this film he plays a spoiled rich kid, which isn't a stretch, because he IS a spoiled rich kid. $5 says he was riding his solid gold Segway through the studio while the writers were meeting with casting, and the casting agent looked over and said, "Guys. How about Phillippe?" And they all laughed and said "Perfect!" If I could have one wish it would be to be able to punch him on the left kidney, just to see the "I'm rich and you're not" smirk fall off his face. Personal feelings aside, he was a type-cast for this role. Though any number of other punks could have played it better. For the uneducated, a "type-cast" is someone who seems to always be put into the same exact roles because the casting agents believe it's all they can do. There are a couple surprise cast members that you don't see in the preview that add some depth to the film. William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, and Michael Pen'a. All of them have experience being a supporting cast, so they don't fail us. There are a couple of twists in the film, but not so big you'll spill your 100 calorie light butter pop corn.
Overall I would give it a 2 1/2 out of 5. It's worth a watch, but it probably won't make your DVD shelf.
As always, I love suggestions, comments, and challenges. Please email me entertaindave@gmail.com and follow me on twitter @entertaindave
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ReplyDeleteYour verification deal seems to cause double posting? When I tried to delete my main reply that was showing twice, it deleted both... or something.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, just added this to my Instant Queue last night prior to seeing this, so I'm glad to see someone else thought it was worth a watch.