Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey has come a long way since his "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and "Fool's Gold" Days. I'm not saying those are terrible movies… but they're pretty terrible. After the release of the former, McConaughey took an unplanned hiatus from acting. I say unplanned, because he says he didn't really make a conscious decision to do so. He simply just started turning roles down and decided his time was better spent with his family.

Somehow, this was the best decision (or coincidence) of his career. Some would argue since his return to acting with the film "The Lincoln Layer", which I have yet to see, that his filmography has become significantly higher in quality and his roles have become more deep.

This is all extremely apparent with quite possibly his best role yet, in "Dallas Buyers Club".

In the film, McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof, a bigoted rodeo-cowboy/electrician who lives every day as if it were his last. Consumed by drugs, alcohol, gambling and unprotected sex, his life takes a turn for the worse when he passes out after being injured on the job and wakes up in the hospital. The doctor's tell him that while performing some tests on his blood, they found that he was HIV positive and only had 30 days to live.

This film takes place in the 80s, when AIDS and HIV weren't as widely understood as they are today. The extreme ignorance is shown throughout the film through Woodroof and his friends who now believe that Woodroof is a homosexual and is contagious to the touch. They shun Woodroof and force him to become estranged. Through all of his tribulations, Woodroof befriends a man he would have shunned and belittled in his past life. A transexual named Rayon, played by Jared Leto.

The big thing that stands out in this film are all of the great portrayals, particularly by McConaughey and Leto, who both took extreme measures to become their roles. Both had gone through dramatic dramatic weight loss to look their parts. But I feel even without their transformations, they still would have given outstanding performance worthy of several award nods.

I could never be an actor, because I like to eat too much.

This gritty, emotional and at times, humorous film is sure to see some Awards this coming season. Specifically Leto and McConaughey. But Judging by the trailers I saw prior to seeing this, they're gonna be given a run for their money. Regardless, these two give their best performance of their careers, in my opinion. This is definitely a hidden gem.

My Grade: A-

Snitch

It seems that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the go to guy for action movies now. Which is great. I've never really liked wrestling, but I was always a fan of his. Mainly because I heard he was a good cook. Unfortunately, I never did smell what he was cooking.

"Snitch" is based (loosely, I assume) off of a true story. It's about a Father who helps the DEA in order to get his son off a Drug Trafficking charge. He poses as a man whose business has reached hard times and wants to start transporting drugs to pay off his companies debts. With the help of Agent Cooper, played by Barry Pepper (One of the Most Underrated Actors of our time) and an employee of his named Daniel James, played by Jon Bernthal ("Walking Dead"), he finds himself getting deeper and deeper into drug trafficking, all to save his son.

Snitches GIVE Stitches

And Barry Pepper looks like a bad ass.

This movie was good for what it was. It was an action movie, and not much more. Although they did try to make it like a PSA by having statistics on drug related crimes at the end, but who cares? Dwayne Johnson keeps proving himself as an actor with every movie he makes. He has come a long way since "The Mummy Returns" and "The Scorpion King".

Also makes you appreciate how far CGI has come.

I saw this movie back in February and just decided to do a review now... Not the best way to do it, but I'm not getting paid to do these, so deal with it! BUt I can tell you that this movie was enjoyable, but it did have it's flaws.

The Soundtrack was not one of them. Surprisingly beautiful music for an action movie. Seriously. Listen to the whole song.

My Grade: B-