Rutger-11

Seven Pounds is a drama and drama's really only work if you care for the characters. Will Smith certainly makes you care for his character. Seeing someone with that much charisma play a character that is as sympathetic as Ben Thomas is a great joy.

Sometimes I felt the movie tried to push the feelings of the characters a bit to hard onto the viewer. Such as the music being a tad to strong at times. But then again, it's a drama, moving you is the intention. And if you're open to being moved, Seven Pounds does that extremely well!

The story itself is small and personal. The tone the characters keep is upbeat, but most things that happen are definitely not. The result is something that's bittersweet.

There are a lot of real Bond-fans complaining about this film. All the clichés seem to be missing! You know them, join me! "Bond, James Bond", "Shaken not *yawn*...". Quantum of Solace is unlike the classic Bond films, it goes step further then Casino Royale which was already changing things. It has a lot of the reality of the Jason Bourne series and the film is the better for it.

I've seen the old Bond movies with good old Sean Connory recently, and was severely disappointed. Those movies are crap from my point of view. They lack any sense of realism and although that might have some charm, the stories become a bit like a children's books. Shallow, simplistic.

In this film however, we get to see the two sides of being a top spy. It reminded me of the two sides of being an airliner pilot: You get to go to beautiful places, you hang out with beautiful girls, but everything is short-term. And in Bond's case, rather brutal. When people die in this film, you notice. There is almost zero cannon fodder. Fights are dirty and killing anyone is a big deal.

The story itself is the weakest side, it had a lot more potential I think. Especially as there were some gray areas in the stance between good and bad which could have been elaborated to give the film more depth. All in all though, you should see this film.

I didn't know Brian Regan, but this show is great! He has a good eye for the plainly ridiculous. Such as a warning sign on a horse trailer: "Caution: Transporting show horses!". And then with great facial expressions and character goes on on what that means to him as he drives past it.

There is no real political or moral inclination. He plays out American situations and characters in a sharp, mocking way. He has some great laughs and some very funny visualizations, but he won't have you roll out your seat laughing. Although I did do so almost on stressed out guy working at the butterfly pavilion!