The Heat (2013)

4/5

The Heat tells the odd-couple story of an uptight FBI agent (Bullock) who is forced to work with a crude, plainclothes Boston cop (McCarthy) to take down a druglord. I had extremely low expectations going in, but I came away extremely impressed. I blame the trailers, which advertised it as a simplistic, family-friendly PG-13 cop movie starring Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock in silly situations and always-hilarious Melissa McCarthy telling tame jokes. It is not. It's a delightfully R-rated, profane, and ribald buddy comedy version of Bridesmaids, with some added action elements and even more irreverence. I loved it! Bullock and McCarthy have an incredible chemistry together that brings out the heart beneath the humor. I can give it no greater compliment than to say I laughed my heart out the whole time and enjoyed every minute of it. And I hope to see it again.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404463/

Gravity (2013)

4.9/5

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity is a visually mesmerizing and intensely satisfying film. It is, at its heart, a survival tale. Sandra Bullock plays a medical engineer lost in space, fighting for her life in thrilling, edge-of-your-seat action scenes that will leave you gasping for air. But add on to that a character study of an isolated woman, floating alone in the wide expanse of space. The movie gives us time to ruminate, reminisce, remember; it gives us space to think about mankind's history and achievements, man's hubris and arrogance. But add on to that the technical achievements of filming outer space in zero gravity. The effects are so complex they seem to defy explanation, so seamless they feel real. You don't even feel like you're in a theater; you're just floating in space, watching what happens next.

Bullock gives an indelible performance: her fear, her frustration, her courage, her failures all feel so achingly true. She keeps this story of space grounded in humanity. We feel for her. We want her to live, so every small setback feels epic, every new obstacle feels impossible. Despite my praise for the acting, the real star of the show is the cinematography. It is awe-inspiring and stunning. I saw Gravity in a regular theater, but I'm beginning to think that was a mistake. Gravity is the kind of movie that was envisioned and created for the kind of immersive theater experience that can only be appreciated in IMAX 3D. I can't wait to see it again--the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

4/5

While You Were Sleeping is a wonderfully light romantic comedy with just the right amount of emotion at the end to warm your heart. Sandra Bullock stars as the awkward fare lady for the Chicago (!) commuter rail. Peter Gallagher is the guy of her dreams who she sees take the train every day but has never talked to. One fateful morning, he falls on the tracks and she rescues him from an oncoming train. As he lies in a coma at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (!), she gets mistaken as his fiancée by the staff and by his charmingly dysfunctional family. Through a series of very unrealistic but incredibly funny twists, she is forced to maintain her guise until he wakes up. But that is not the only twist! After spending Christmas with the family, she meets coma guy's brother, Bill Pullman, and soon falls in love with him.

Shot extensively (if not entirely) in Chicago, the cinematography is an absolute treasure for Chicago lovers. The shot compositions themselves aren't that great, but they do have an amazing backdrop at which I stared joyfully in every scene. But what is really awesome about this movie is seeing the hospital in which I'm going to be doing rotations come July. (Well, I guess that's not entirely true--Passavant Pavilion no longer exists and all the buildings I'm going to actually be working in were erected post-1999--but still!) The acting by all was pitch perfect, the characters were quirky before it was hip to be quirky, and the writing was fun while the dialogue was funny. This movie comes with a lot of twists and turns and explores the topics of love and family expertly. Despite my overly enthusiastic praise for movies set in Chicago, While You Were Sleeping is a true treasure for any movie fan and a really enjoyable movie. You won't be disappointed.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114924/

The Blind Side (2009)

4/5

The Blind Side is a wonderfully uplifting true story of a young boy from the projects who is taken in by affluent Southerners and eventually succeeds as a professional football player. Sandra Bullock plays the rich Southern belle who sees a boy in need and takes him under her wing and Quinton Aaron plays the youth extracted from a bad situation by good people. This movie has an incredible power to touch your spirit; it pits kindness and generosity against hate and selfishness for the soul of a vulnerable young man. We are witness to people at a crossroads who can take the easy way out of someone's life or the tough way into someone's heart. It is satisfying on just about all the levels you would expect from this kind of sentimental movie.

The technical aspects are about average, better in some areas and worse in others. There is the seemingly obligatory montage at the end that's just oozing and dripping sap without adding any value. And there is the occasional dialogue that hammers in subtleties that would otherwise have remained in the background for the vigilant observer. Still, The Blind Side is an affecting tale, made more powerful by the fact that it actually happened. This is the movie to see if you need to reaffirm you faith in mankind.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/

The Proposal (2009)

4/5

The Proposal is a delightful romantic comedy that gives just the right amount of haha and aww that you'd expect from it and throws in a few additional surprises (especially for fans of The Office). The plot follows feared book editor Margaret something or other (Bullock)--in a role that seems conspicuously similar to Meryl's Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada--and her executive assistant Andrew something or other (Reynolds). She is at risk of deportation following a Visa fiasco and uses her position over Andrew to get him to agree to marry him so she can stay in the country. At first he refuses, then decides to take advantage of her situation and force her to promote him to editor after the marriage and divorce are all taken care of. Unfortunately, the FBI or whatever federal organization that gets involved in this sort of thing catches wind of their fraudulent endeavor, forcing them to take a trip back to Andrew's home in Alaska to prove that they are truly marrying each other out of love.

Yes, it is a ridiculously contrived scenario, but it works. It's thoroughly entertaining if you're willing to suspend your disbelief for a little bit. The acting was terrific. Sandra Bullock is as attractive as she was 15 years ago and Ryan Reynolds is as charming and charismatic as always. But what really made me love the movie was the acting by the side characters. Betty White (whom I knew from her role as Catherine Piper on Boston Legal) is absolutely exquisite. And Oscar Nuñez from The Office also has his fair share of laughs and surprises. The technical aspects of the movie are competent but unexceptional. The movie as a whole is extremely enjoyable and I actually would recommend you go out and see it if you like any of the actors involved.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041829/

Premonition (2007)

2/5

Premonition follows Linda and her husband Jim as their marriage is slowly dissolving. One day she answers the door and a cop tells her that Jim died in a car accident. The next day she wakes up in bed with him alive, and the next day it's his funeral. And back and forth. The reasons for this constant shift in time remain unexplained. It's an empty gimmick to get your attention during marketing so you pay for a ticket, but nothing really happens with it except muck up the plot line with impossible paradoxes. The plot is seriously awful, filled with holes and meandering, unrelated side stories. It is painfully obvious how the movie tries to capitalize on the techniques Memento popularized. The cinematography for most of the movie was abysmal. Two scenes in particular were like The Bourne Supremacy only ten times worse--yeah, that shaky.

I have to say though that there were actually a couple things I liked about this movie. The mood was exceptional; it kept you on edge and constantly looking for an explanation. Unfortunately, none came. Some of the dialogue wasn't bad, raising questions about morality and guilt, but when it did it felt completely out of place. Most of the time the dialogue acted simply as a lazy way to advance the plot. And I didn't mind the acting for the most part. Anything seemed Oscar-worthy after the dross I saw in House of Games. The editing was surprisingly good. The separation of the days of the week helped make sense of the unnecessarily confusing time shifts. Each day was given approximately the same amount of time and felt just as important as the others. After the first couple of days, however, when we figure out what's going on, it's simply a matter of time waiting for the event/ordeal to end. But the poster for this movie is amazing. Absolutely stunning. It has nothing to do with the movie, but still. Anyway, very unrecommended, although it is not completely without merit.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0477071/