Life of Crime (2013)

Written and Directed by Daniel Schechter
Based on the book "The Switch" by Elmore Leonard
Starring John Hawkes, Jennifer Aniston, Yasiin Bey and Tim Robbins

Two common criminals get more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer who shows no interest in paying the $1 million dollar ransom for her safe return.

This quirky heist comedy, complete with a star studded cast doesn't particularly stand out in the sea of other films like it. In fact, the entire time I was watching it, I felt as though I had already seen it, despite knowing for a fact that I hadn't. However, regardless of any cliché or overplayed thematic elements, it achieves the ultimate goal of every movie. It entertained me.

All of the performances were believable and the chemistry between the actors was strong. Every plot point, line of dialogue and detail put in to the story flowed naturally onto the screen. And as a bonus, it was pretty funny. It played much like a low-key version of the "Ocean's Eleven" movies.

All in all, Daniel Schechter delivers a solid, enjoyable movie. It may fail to make itself memorable to the average movie goer and I'm not even sure if I will remember it in detail further down the road. But for the hour and forty minutes I was watching this movie, I was engaged. And there are more movies than I care to mention that couldn't do that.

My Rating: 6/10

Welcome to Me (2014)

Directed by Shira Piven
Written by Eliot Laurence
Starring Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini, Wes Bentley and Joan Cusack

When Alice Klieg, a woman living with borderline personality disorder, wins the Mega-Millions lottery, she immediately quits her psychiatric medications and buys her own talk show.

I could rant for a good while about how many problems I had with this film. Everything from the technical aspects to how painful it was watching this movie. And not painful in a good way, or an awkward way. While the subject matter was meant to be awkward and induce the same kind of reaction you get while watching Michael Scott on the Office, it's was just poorly made. About as poorly made as the TV show the protagonist of the movie created.

The owners of the TV studio she has help her in creating her passion project have no idea how a TV studio is run. Failing to achieve even the most basic knowledge of film law, such as slander, defamation and animal cruelty, these studio heads leave no mystery as to why their studio is failing. Only it's not portrayed as some grand comedy of errors. It is presented as this big surprise that the audience shouldn't have seen coming.

In a film that seems like it wants to bring an awareness to mental illness, it definitely succeeds in doing that. Only not for the better. It does more harm than it does good in it's portrayal of a woman with borderline personality disorder. She is given no redeemable qualities, not to mention any human qualities. She's seems more like an alien from outer space and even when she is given the chance to redeem herself, she fails miserably with empty gestures and actions that just reflect everything she did wrong prior to her conflicts.

Pictured: The lack of a character arc.

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Kristin Wiig. In fact, the only thing I've liked her in was "The Skeleton Twins". But I had such high hopes for this movie. I went in wanting to love it. I gave it a fair shot. And it just completely disappointed me. It had nothing to say that had any value. This is the first movie I have seen in a long time that I have no idea how it got made.

My Rating: 1/10