Top Five and Foxcatcher

Top Five Review - 9/10

From beginning to end I was entertained. A famous movie star played by Chris Rock, made a "serious" movie and is doing all kinds of press for it. He was most known for a comedic trilogy called "Hammy" but wanted to move on from it. During the course of the movie he is being interviewed by Rosario Dawson who plays a journalist. The banter between the 2 is funny, yet kind of serious.

There are a lot of cameos by famous people and all do a good job. My favorite was DMX who really comes out of nowhere but had me laughing the entire scene. You learn more and more about Chris Rock's character as he's being interviewed. About his past and how he was an alcoholic. His fiancée, played by Gabrielle Union, is a famous reality TV star which I believe might be a take on the Kardashians.

Towards the end the underlying story kind of shows its face. There's a lot of swearing and the use of derogatory terms and a very crude sex scene, but I was laughing throughout most of the film. A pleasant surprise with no expectations.

Foxcatcher Review - 4/10

 As a casual movie goer who tries to watch as many as I can, I try to go out of my comfort zone with award season just around the corner. This got nothing but good reviews about how amazing of a movie and how fantastic the acting is. I thought the acting of the big three (Carell, Tatum, and Ruffalo) were truly great. I enjoyed watching them in much different roles than I'm used to.

The problem for me is that while impressive, the characters themselves aren't likable. The only likable character is Ruffalo who isn't the main part of the story for the first hour or so. The first hour is about Carrell and Tatum and what Carell's character Du Pont wants to accomplish. This part is boring and what he wants isn't something that makes you fix your eyes on the screen.
Plain and simple, without the tragic ending this entire movie would be pointless. It's a disturbing portrayal by Carell and like I said before, he delivers a perfect performance, it's just the entire story as a whole is too slow. It also doesn't mention that before the ending that 6 years had passed or the fact that Du pont is a schizophrenic.

People will probably disagree with my opinion, but I found this way too slow and uninteresting. Acting is great, story is slow and in the end tragic.