Reviews

This is a musical... with Anna Kendrick... so I was thinking, "Awsome!" I love her voice, and she's a great actress, and a fun person, so I came into this with really high expectations. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping for. I also went into it completely blind. I didn't even read reviews before I watched it, so the timeline mix-up (which was really cool, but confusing at first) messed me up, a lot.

Cathy (Kendrick) is an up and coming actress. She falls in love with an up an coming, Jewish novelist named Jamie (Jordan). Her songs start at the end of their relationship and work backward. His start at the beginning and work forward. The whole thing ends in the middle when he proposes. The deconstructed timeline made the movie, once you figure it out.

They are two dreamy artists, so the love is fast and intense, but loses its substance when things get tough, and Jamie cheats on her, ending their marriage. It's a bit of a cliché, but probably happens more often than not. They are both so frustrated with their struggles in trying to make it in their perspective careers, that they lose touch with each other.

The music was good. Mr. Jordan is in the new Supergirl series, so it was fun to watch him sing. I was impressed. Mrs. Kendrick's voice was beautiful, as expected. However, none of the songs really stood out for me. I love musicals because singing is a talent I truly wish I had, but truly don't. I did theater all through high school, and my drama teacher would always make a spectacle of how horribly I sing. So, when I watch a show like this, with talent like this one had, I want something that will stick with me. Sadly, the repeating melody is mundanely present throughout. There weren't any ups and downs.

There is quite a bit of language throughout, and they even belt out the "F" word. I'm sad that Hollywood is doing that in every PG- 13 movie now.

What can I say about The Cobbler? It's an Adam Sandler movie. If you don't immediately know what that means, you probably shouldn't watch it because you won't like it. It isn't his usual, immature, Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore type movie, but it's closer to his old stuff than his new stuff. Yes, there's crude humor; that's just his shtick.

Max Simkin (Sandler) works as a cobbler in a run-down shop which has been in his family for generations. Life has gotten Max down as the day-to-day of being a simple cobbler is taking its toll on him. He's broke, has no social life, and no romantic possibilities on the horizon. To make matters worse, his shop is in the lower east side of Manhattan and in danger of being shut down. Simkin is struggling, along with the other shop owners in the area, just to stay in business.

A thug comes into Simkin's shop demanding some shoes be done by 5 pm that night. He reluctantly agrees, but his sewing machine breaks, and he has to pull the family heirloom out of the basement to finish the job. The machine is magic, and when he puts on shoes repaired by this magical machine, he becomes the person who owns them.

Simkin goes out to live the life he'd always wanted, in the usual Sandler comical way. He does some funny stuff, inappropriate stuff, and even some kind-hearted stuff with the shoes. Eventually, he comes back to his problem, and begins to put his life in order.

Of course, there's a sappy moral hidden beneath the comedy, and the movie ends on a high note.

I don't know if there can be spoilers for a movie that is based on true events, but I'll steer clear of giving too much info, just to be safe.

The 33 is based on the 2010 Copiapó mine incident. The mine is 100 years in the making, and more than 2,300 feet deep. When a boulder twice the mass of the Empire States Building shifts, the mine collapses, trapping 33 men half a mile underground the ground. They only have 3 days worth of food and water.

The mine is owned by a private company, and they don't begin to have the resources to dig the men out. When the Chilean government gets word of the incident, they try to come to the rescue. They quickly find that there is a reason it's taken 100 years for the miners to dig as deep they had.

When they drill a small hole to the stranded miners, and find that the 33 men are still alive, the world takes interest in their plight, and several countries rush to rescue the stranded men.

I loved this movie because most "based on true events" movies take too many liberties with the story in and attempt to thrill the audience, deviating so for from the truth that the whole movie might as well have been fake. Patricia Reggin handles this very well by focusing, instead, on the human aspect of the crises. There are a few 'edge of your seat' moments, but the true genius behind the film is the focus on very real problem of having 33 men trapped in a confined space when tempers are resting on a knife's edge.