Movie Review: Two for Tuesday

Look, you guys, I am really, really behind on my movie watching, so I hope you'll bear with me. I couldn't really bear to watch the Oscars last weekend because I haven't been to a movie theatre since the release of the last Harry Potter movie last July, so I'm a little behind. The last two weekends, we watched The Wrestler (2010?) and The Italian Job (2003). And you know what? I really, really liked them both. The Wrestler was fascinating because I had no idea there was this whole "world of wrestling" and that it was more of a performance than anything. I thought Mickey Rourke did a phenomenal job acting, and I love, love, love Marisa Tomei. I thought the movie was really interesting and entertaining, although there were a few scenes I just couldn't watch because they were so violent. The movie was also sad, but so well done that it was almost not noticeable? Does that even make sense? I'm not sure how the filmmakers did this one because there was not one particular character I really liked or identified with, it was more a window into another life I never knew about that was so fascinating to me. If you haven't seen this one, it's worth it, I think,
The Italian Job is one of those heist movies. A group of people get together to pull of a big robbery in Venice. This is one of those great movies with a whole ensemble cast (Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sutherland, Ed Norton, Seth Green) who travel around the world to pull of exciting heists. The plot begins in Venice with the group pulling off the robbery of a bunch of gold bricks. Things go wrong and one of the group turns out to be a rat. The plot then turns to revenge, with the group trying to get back at the one that turned on them. Overall, I loved this movie. Everyone, even the smaller characters, were phenomenal actors. The storyline was a little slow, but the chase scenes were fun and the action was good. The movie wasn't too violent and the one female lead was a really strong, capable woman, not a damsel in distress. If you haven't seen this one, I'd recommend it for one of those nights you just want some mindless entertainment. It was a good show.