MOVIE REVIEW - Fighter, The (2010)

From a quality perspective, it's probably a 7. From an enjoyment perspective, about a 3. So I'll average it to a 5. If a movie has heavy drug use, I'm almost never a fan; and this is no exception. Christian Bale is getting rave reviews for his crackhead brother role; and while he may have been alright (and lost almost as much weight as he did in The Machinist), his character was so deplorable and unpleasant and self-serving that I couldn't appreciate the role. Similar with Melissa Leo as Marky and Christian's whack-job mom - she did do a great job, but wow, one messed up woman. And those 7 sisters, now that was comic relief! They say Kentucky is full of hicks? Those Massachusetts girls were white trash to the max. Hilarious, though. Also hilarious how Christian kept jumping out the back window. As an homage to X-Files, I wish they had had the mom say to the sisters, "I'm haungry", in her best Mamma Peacock fashion. Mark and Amy were stellar, and the "fight for the dream" story in the movie was appropriately heartwarming. But overall, there was such filth and selfishness run amok, it was hard for me to enjoy it.

MOVIE REVIEW - Unstoppable (2010)

Quite a good thriller, where the "bad guy" is a runaway train with no driver. They did an excellent of job of making an inanimate object menacing. I looked up the supposed "true story" that this was based on, and surprisingly, something similar (though less dramatic, but still extremely dangerous) did occur in 2001 in Ohio - a driverless train going over 50 mph! The film had some mild eye-rolling dialog and overly dramatic melodrama and unrealistic action, but overall, it really had me on the edge of my seat.

I think this movie would easily span gender as enjoyable.