Country Strong

Since I had a short class week (I almost have a 6-day weekend since my Wed class got moved to Tues and it ended at 10am LoL) I have literally been nose pressed to this book a friend sent me the PDFs to (between the iPhone and iPad, I have been reading at almost every available minute) and watching movies. Amazed my brain hasn't rotted yet... :P I guess I'll spend this evening and weekend doing homework to make up for it, but I have managed to get ahead in my schoolwork so it's not bad.

Next week starts my fisheries economics intensive course (April 25-29 and May 2-3, 2 hours a day). We have a final paper and presentation in the class. I've picked my topic, but have yet to start the paper or any reading. I want to get a jump on that. I also need to continue my search for my poll summary results for my policy topic. It's due in 2.5 weeks, but I've already started researching polls for it and my legislature profile is due next Wed and it's already written (just needs editing and a good fact to pull out to tell the class). So...in all, can't really say I was wasting the week since I'm in a good position. :P I also sent out queries about job help last Sunday so...Yup.

Country Strong (Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester) - Another somberish film. One of the main title songs (either Country Strong or Coming Home -- can't remember) was nominated for best song at the Oscars. It was a good film. I liked it, but -- as Chris said -- it was hard to tell who the "villain" in the film was. Not to say that you have to have one, but everyone made decisions that were not helpful so it was sometimes hard to feel a connection to anyone because you just thought they were all being semi-stupid and self-serving. By the end, though, it got to a point where you were able to connect to Hedlund's character (who is the main character of the movie, but it's hard to tell for a while) and the movie came to a point at the end. It is somewhat sad, but doesn't leave you down there at the end of the film. However, you do have to get to the end of the film. Paltrow's character is a troubled, famous country singer who is getting out of rehab and her husband and manager, McGraw, is struggling. to manager her career and trying to get her back on track (not to mention their marriage). I read the story is losely based off of a country singer (Mindy...something), but Paltrow's character is based more off of Britney Spears. At any rate, I liked it. I thought the acting was good. It's not a musical, it's more around the lines of Walk the Line for where the music is placed. Might be even less than Walk the Line, but I haven't seen Walk the Line in a while so I can't really say. I'd recommend it if you want to watch a drama (especially if you liked Walk the Line, but, in the end, this is sadder than Walk the Line). I wouldn't say it's as somber as Rabbit Hole since the subject isn't as heavy, but I don't think it's quite as good as Rabbit Hole because Rabbit Hole has a quality to it that Country Strong lacks. Grade: A- (like a 90%)

In other movie ponderings, I forgot to mention something I was thinking the other day about Tron. We had rented it to rewatch it and the movie holds up well on a second watch. I enjoy the film, but you do seem some of the corniness in the second rewatch more than the first time. It's still good, though, and I'll probably buy it eventually (action films are always rewatchable -- especially the grid motor-battle-thing). Anyway, I came to the conclusion that, in basic story, Batman Begins and Tron: Legacy, are somewhat similar (Chris takes offense because Batman is, well, Batman and Christian Bale is, well, far superior to Sam Flynn).

Both...

1) Lost their parents at a young age
2) Were fairly close to said parent(s)
3) Were sole heirs to a big corporation
4) More-or-less went out to "find himself" and left the corporation stuff alone
5) Came back to the corporation to find someone saying they should take the corporation back
6) Found a loyal employee from parents time that helped him (in some capacity - Sam's to go to the arcade, Bruce's to help him create Batman)
7) Went on journey, returned, and took back company
8) Installed loyal employee as the Chair of the Board of Directors

Classic basic stories. :)