he_who_leads

As soon as I saw the trailer for 'The Place Beyond the Pines', I knew I wanted to see it. It looked like a sweeping, muscular, foreboding thriller. The arty kind rather than the cheap Hollywood kind with cheesy one liners. The film delivers on this promise. It's moving, visionary and extremely suspenseful. Unfortunately, it loses its focus in the final third but it's still definitely worth watching.

Circus performer Luke (Ryan Gosling) finds out he has a son with fling Romina (Eva Mendes). In order to step up and provide for his family, he turns to crime. His actions have repercussions which echo for many years to come. If we were to divide the film into three chapters, the first chapter belongs to Ryan Gosling. The strong, silent type, covered in ink, whose emotions rise to the surface when he finds out he has a son. Gosling trying to repair the mistakes of the past succeeds in involving us in the story emotionally. The struggle for grace and redemption in the face of grim circumstances and practicality sets the tone for the movie, and the bursts of choral music and cinematography are very effective.

The middle act belongs to Bradley Cooper, as a cop, Avery, who becomes involved in Luke's criminal exploits. The middle is my favourite part of the movie. The plot thickens and the suspense level is extremely high. Ray Liotta is very memorable, sleazing his way under our skin. Both Luke and Avery, respectively, find the waters choppy and unforgiving as they try and navigate by their internal moral compass. Luke thinks crime is the answer, while Avery learns politics has to be played.

Up until the movie's final chapter, director, Derek Cianfrance, has done a great job in crafting a tale of high drama and consequences. A criticism would be that his storytelling style can feel claustrophobic. Like following the thread of an overly-linear choose-your-own-adventure tale, where a sense of context is lost. The final third jumps forward in time. It's not necessarily bad – in fact it's still interesting, but it could have been a lot better. The choice to shunt to the side so many of the established characters makes the film lose momentum, so in the moments where they are on screen, its hard to connect with them. There's a feeling of too much unresolved business, not helped by the film peaking in the middle. However, there's no denying the film's vision and power. I was still left shaken and slightly breathless, feeling that I had been taken on a ride. The cast has pedigree and everyone commits themselves well. And the director is to be commended for reaching for the stars instead of trying to play it safe.

Overall - just 'good enough'. Sheen provides a wealth of material and they skewer him well.

First of all - the dais is pretty disappointing. For a guaranteed ratings winner (it was CC's highest rated roast) a lot of the old, big names like Lisa Lampanelli, Gilbert Gottfried, Nick DiPaolo and others weren't there. And Jon Lovitz and Steve O are not worthy replacements. Not to mention no people from Charlie's world. I guess that says something about the guy right? Or maybe the producers are just getting lazy.

Speaking of which, they have to stop getting Seth MacFarlane to MC these things. He's gotten boring and doesn't bring anything special to the shows.

WINNING!!!: Jeff Ross owned the night - he's been roasting Charlie on their comedy tour and brings out the A material. Amy Schumer is also nice and nasty.

MIDDLE GROUND: Anthony Jeselnik has some good one-liners but his delivery is kinda annoying. I believe Patrice O'Neal when he said he had to throw out some of his prepared material. He seemed to be winging it a bit, but I like how he tried to describe the roasters (Anthony as a Medieval Restaurant waiter lol). William Shatner did well. Jon Lovitz...

TIGER DUD: Kate Walsh was pretty bland, Steve O was terrible, Mike Tyson was all over the place. Get rid of MacFarlane.

Overally it was funny and enjoyable - you have to be pretty lame to screw up a Charlie Sheen roast, but a bit more effort next time Comedy Central.

3 nice guys have horrible bosses - lets call them sleazebag, slutty and heartless bastard. Pushed to the edge, they decide to rid the world of their evil masters for the good of mankind.

Which is a great premise. But its actually a pretty hard needle for the film to thread. Firstly, the three nice guy leads aren't very engaging. They're too nice and not well fleshed out at all. It seemed totally out of character for them to want to commit murder. Sure, sleazebag and heartless bastard are assholes, but they're actually funnier (especially Colin Farrell) and more entertaining than the nice guys. And, there's no way I want Jennifer Anitson's deliciously kinky slutbag dentist knocked off. As two of the nice guys say to the third - 'your situation will never get any sympathy out of us.' She's actually the best thing in the movie.

Its funny in parts, and becomes more interesting later on, as the plot starts to twist and turn. But the constant hysterical dude chatter is kind of tiring. Like 'The Other Guys' although that film was better.