Movie and DVD Reviews
True Grit(rated PG-13) - starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, and Matt Damon; directed and written by the Coen Brothers
Country Strong(rated PG-13) - starring Gwynneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Leighton Meester, and Garrett Hedlund
If you really like the western genre of film, well.... one of these is fulfilling, with great acting, a great cast, good dialog, and a respectable storyline, and the other one is, well....True Grit!
Yeah, sorry cow-dudes, but True Grit is more like a western version of a Shakespearean tragedy - only less interesting. Bridges could never replace John Wayne, as Rooster Cogburn, even if the story was not supposed to be a remake(I get that, really!) Steinfeld is being lauded for her role as a child out to avenge her father's murder, but c'mon - all she did was remember her lines - no real acting here. And Damon? Better to have had Jerry Seinfeld in that role. Damon was pathetic(hint: a 4th Bourne film, please?)
Country Strong is a romantic, Country Music tale, with plenty of great music, pretty people, and realistic circumstances. Tim McGraw will likely earn an Oscar nod, in 2011, for his supporting role as manager/husband of a latter-day Taylor Swift(Paltrow), at the end of her long, rewarding career. And the finale is more believable than that of the recently over-hyped Black Swan.
'True Grit?' Just plain grits. 'Country Strong?' Plenty of Country. Plenty Strong!
Country Strong(rated PG-13) - starring Gwynneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Leighton Meester, and Garrett Hedlund
If you really like the western genre of film, well.... one of these is fulfilling, with great acting, a great cast, good dialog, and a respectable storyline, and the other one is, well....True Grit!
Yeah, sorry cow-dudes, but True Grit is more like a western version of a Shakespearean tragedy - only less interesting. Bridges could never replace John Wayne, as Rooster Cogburn, even if the story was not supposed to be a remake(I get that, really!) Steinfeld is being lauded for her role as a child out to avenge her father's murder, but c'mon - all she did was remember her lines - no real acting here. And Damon? Better to have had Jerry Seinfeld in that role. Damon was pathetic(hint: a 4th Bourne film, please?)
Country Strong is a romantic, Country Music tale, with plenty of great music, pretty people, and realistic circumstances. Tim McGraw will likely earn an Oscar nod, in 2011, for his supporting role as manager/husband of a latter-day Taylor Swift(Paltrow), at the end of her long, rewarding career. And the finale is more believable than that of the recently over-hyped Black Swan.
'True Grit?' Just plain grits. 'Country Strong?' Plenty of Country. Plenty Strong!
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