You had me at Steven Soderbergh and Ryan Gosling

Generally when a movie is jam packed with amazing actors, not stars, you don’t even need to know the plot. You just know it’s going to be good. I said amazing actors and not stars because the cast of this movie are amazing actors. Ashton Kutcher is a star; huge difference. I didn't need Rottentomatoes' 81%, but that's just the icing on the cake.

Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's Elevan, Solaris, Ocean's Twelve, The Good German, Ocean's Thirteen, Che, The Informant! and Haywire) directs this action-thriller. "The movie follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart."

Unfortunately, this movie does seem to kill off Gwyneth Paltrow in the trailer. That's OK though. There still is a powerhouse of a cast to pick up the slack: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne and John Hawkes. Yea, I know. Pretty awesome.

With Soderbergh and his arsenal of a cast, it really is not that hard to see that this movie is going to be great. Did I mention that Cliff Martinez is doing the score?! He composed "Solaris" (Soderbergh). I LOVE that movie and I LOVE the score. It is a poster on my wall. Hands down one of my favorite movies and scores.

For real, this is an amazing, amazing movie. Now I need to watch this again. Is this on bluray? (checks) Aww...it's not.



Back to the point. This will be good. Solid director, cast, story, and plot. This is a legit scary story. This is something that could actually happen. EVERYONE is scared and creeped out by someone or something that can make you sick and die. Another huge realistic scary element is society falling apart. We've been in earthquakes, hurricanes and floods lately. People straight up flip the fuck out at the drop of a hat. Imagine if something really, really terrible happens. We are fucked, people. We are more likely to be killed by each other than the disaster that threw everything off track.

Watching Contagion will strike a "little too close to home" feeling because this is not an unrealistic scenario. You will feel better watching it in theaters and know that it is just a movie. I'm going to see this on Friday. I recommend you do the same.

Only complaint so far: Why did they use the "Dirty Dancing" font?

So when I say Ryan Gosling, all the girls AND guys scream that movie. I'm not even going to get into it or say it's name. Yes, it was an awesome movie. Let's be honest here though. He isn't that dreamy...OK who am I kidding? He's dreamy...and a pretty strong actor in my opinion. It must be clear though that that movie did not start his career.

I am not ashamed to admit that I own the movie. It deserves it's recognition. 

Did you know that he guest starred in "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1995) and "Goosebumps" (1996)?! I didn't either. Ryan Gosling's first real movie was "Remember the Titans." He didn't really begin to shine until a year later in "The Believer" (2001) where he plays a young Jewish man who develops intense anti-Semitic views (true story). He disappeared for several years and makes a decent comeback in 2010 with Blue Valentine, All Good Things, Crazy, Stupid, Love (I have yet to see this. I hear nothing but good things. I just haven't been in the right mindset recently to check out a genre like this. I'll get around to it though) and The Ides of March. Also with three more in the works. 

Our boy R.G. looks like he'll be able to pull off the subtle badass role in "Drive." This is directed by not so known Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson and Valhalla Rising). He won "Best Director" at Cannes for this film. So let's see here, Ryan Gosling, a Cannes Award AND 94% on Rottentomatoes?! Jesus! Is it the 16th yet?! 

"Ryan Gosling stars as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night. Though a loner by nature, Driver can't help falling in love with his beautiful neighbor Irene, a vulnerable young mother dragged into a dangerous underworld by the return of her ex-convict husband Standard. After a heist intended to pay off Standard's protection money spins unpredictably out of control, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals. But when he realizes that the gangsters are after more than the bag of cash in his trunk-that they're coming straight for Irene and her son-Driver is forced to shift gears and go on offense."

"Drive" stars a decent cast with Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Carey Mulligan, Ron Perlman and

Christina Hendricks. I've always liked Carey Mulligan (The Greatest, Public Enemies, Brothers, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Never Let Me Go). While she's never really done anything that substantial for herself, she has always delivered a superb performance.

I am definitely curious on how Nicolas Winding Refn is doing to deliver this movie. His past movies, while good, are generally extremely violent, quite strange and artistic...haha if that makes sense.

MPAA tells me that it is rated R mainly because of "strong brutal bloody violence." I just don't see it. 

Did I mention that Cliff Martinez is also doing this score too?! Our boy has been busy. I actually got the "Contagion" and "Drive" score while writing this just to get into the mood of the two movies. It's working I think and they aren't too bad! 

"Drive" is totally going to deliver on so many levels. A love story, probably a decent amount of bad ass car chase scenes (it is called DRIVE after all), action-adventure, decent story and plot, guns and cars flipping. I can ramble all day about what I think. I'm pretty sure Ryan Gosling and 94% speak for itself.

We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented

Alright, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to complain about the weather. That is not what this is for. I'm not going to complain that every day this week it has been gloomy, has been a constant steady downpour today and that it makes me sleepy all day. I won't do it. What I will tell you is that I feel extremely restless today. I do have things to do. I should be reading about information defense technologies. Sounds dry but it is actually interesting to me. I just can't sit still long enough to get through it. I blame ADD, the king of being lazy/procrastination and this weather! BLEH! As a reminder, not complaining, just making a note of the day.

What better way to battle my restlessness than to waste my time on a blog, right? I owe you some good movies for your brains to NOMs on. So that I don't always seem like a negative cynical dick about movies all the time, I will feature two movies that I actually want to see.

I'm blogging while it rains really hard outside and I'm drinking tea. Where is the closest Starbucks? By the way, if I had a mug that said "Dunkin' Donuts", that is what I would be drinking out of right now. Do you like drinking tea? I have really gotten into it over the past year. I drink it probably more than coffee and that is saying a lot. Plus, I think adding milk to it with a little bit of honey is damn good. I think that is the Englishman in me trying to get out. 

Well I gotta shove off pretty soon to class. The rain has continued to beat against the house this entire time. Now I must get on 66 to the Prince William campus for class. It is right near Nissan Pavilion (I refuse to call it jiffy lube live. What a fucking stupid name). 66 rush hour traffic in hard ass rain, kill me. OH! Now I'm complaining. I'll go then. In the mean time, I will continue to do my research on the next two movies. I promise it to you for next time. Watch the trailers below and be ready to discuss next time...

Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile.

How much you want to make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?

It's been nine days since I've posted! Ah! Where does the time go? I know everyone has been eagerly waiting for my next post. I haven't really had time to watch new trailers, let alone pick out which ones to cover. I'll make up for it next time.

I feel like there are three major things that people take very seriously in their life.

Religion 

Been there. Done that. I was raised Catholic and it didn't take. I wouldn't say I'm atheist. I guess I would say that I'm agnostic. I really have a lot gripes about religion. It isn't only the terrorists and fanatics that take a shit on a good concept so that they can twist it to get people to do what they want. Do yourself a favor and watch "Religulous" and some George Carlin stand up on religion. Both are pretty spot on (AHH! They are such leftist liberals!...is what you'll probably say). I really will not get into religion right now because then this blog would be very, very long. I would like to come back to this at some point though.

Politics 

I never used to give a rat's ass about politics. It was quite ignorant of me but I really could have cared less. I was raised republican and would just vote for whomever's ballot my mom handed to me. I am sad to say that I voted TWICE for Dubya. While it seems like Obama isn't mounting up to the President everyone hoped he would be, I don't regret that decision...yet. Not until recently have I really begun to care about politics. I guess it has something to do with age. After much reading from BOTH sides, I have gone to the dark side of the "godless" democrats. Again, another post I would like to cover more on.

Sports

Ah-ha! The point of this post! Sports should be categorized under religion because to a lot of people, they really are not that much different. I've never really been a super huge sports guy. I played street hockey when I was younger and ice hockey in high school. I religiously followed the NHL around that time as well. Around the time of the strike, I stopped watching. I always kind of wanted to follow other sports but never really cared enough to really make an effort. I was always more interested with the social aspect of the game...UNTIL NOW (dum dum dummmmm). Step back people, big life changing step here. I've always been kinda interested in doing fantasy football. I would either miss the deadline or not have anyone to do it with.

Terrible sport movie reference but this is one of the "terri-greats"

YES!!!

Oh god, I'm sorry but I love Sudden Death. It was right around the time I was obsessed with the NHL and Van Damme. This movie is awesomely terri-great that I can't even begin to describe. Sorry, back to the point. So when my friend Scott mentioned he was starting a fantasy league with his family and friends, I couldn't help but jump on board. My team name is "Ned Philanders"...I know, pretty clever if I do say so myself. We did our draft on Sunday and I didn't really have any idea what the hell I was doing haha. I was proud of myself that I got first pick and got Adrian Peterson. Watch him get injured first game or some bullshit. But yea, I am excited about it because it is something new for me. I look forward to wasting my time doing research on players and actually following games for a purpose. Even though we aren't doing one for money, I think it will be a great learning experience nonetheless.