Movie Review: The Accountant

This weeks movie is one that caught my attention with the trailer as something I might be able to relate to. I have always been different than others and not really good with socializing. However, I probably will not do some of the things that this guy does. I started this blog with the hopes to understand and relate to people better. And with that, I hope you enjoy my review on The Accountant.

The movie starts with what looks like a man getting out of a taxi then running across the street into a building. He climbs up the stairs, gun in hand, while some voices can be heard from around the corner. We then see a shadow figure of a gun being pointed at a guys head, then a shot rings out and we cut out.

Next we go 30 years in the past at the Harbour Neuroscience Institute in New Hampshire, and find a young boy with Autism (played by Seth Lee) sitting at a table dumping out a puzzle. He blows on his fingers, then starts to put the puzzle together quickly while some adults speak to each other in another room. It turns out they are the boys parents, and they are talking to the neurologist about how to handle his behaviour and sensitivity to things like lights and clothing. He suggests that the boy spend a month or two with him, but the father, a military man, says if he is sensitive to those things he doesn't need more of it and refuses. At this time the boy finishes the puzzle except for one lost piece and he starts freaking out. His brother doesn't know what to do, but the young girl with Autism in the room finds the missing piece for him. He then completes the puzzle, which we now notice is upside down.

The acting was very well done for most of it, but it felt a little off at times. Ben Affleck took his role and made it almost seem like he was his character, even if it was a little stale sometimes. However, John Bernthal didn't quite give me the feel of a good bad guy from the way he sounded. But otherwise, it was pretty good acting for many of the other actors.

The story was actually relatable in the terms of how people with brains that function differently work, and I could believe that someone with his abilities could end up like this. And with the twists throughout the movie, some subtle and others more obvious, it felt like the kind of thing that could happen to people in real life, almost. Though the flow through of the movie wasn't the greatest, it still had some great moments in it.

Overall, the acting went mostly well, and the movie had some great twists and turns, but sometimes it felt off in areas that can be found if you have a good eye. But, it had good intensions for it all, which was only a little off, but mostly on, and for these reasons I would rate this movie 7.8/10.

Movie Review: Storks

There are times when doing a job seems like it's too tough and not worth it. I feel that way a lot, even though I sometimes don't have a good reason to. It would be easier for me to just stay in my room all the time and not worry about everything else in the world. This weeks movie, Storks, touches on that theme when the storks go from delivering babies to household goods. Is taking the easy route the better way to go?

The movie starts with a narration by Junior (voiced by Andy Samberg), telling us the history of Storks, which can be seen in the trailer below. For as long as time Storks have delivered babies. No matter what happened to them, they had to deliver. As we watch the stork get tortured and beaten up trying to deliver the babies, we end on a still of one crazy situation. Well thank goodness they don't do that any more, because they now deliver packages for Cornerstore.com.

Junior is then seen flying through the store, celebrating his one millionth delivery. Everything seems to be going great, although no one seems to want to celebrate with him. They give him excuses, but he shrugs it off. He gets nervous when he is called to the boss office. This is when we meet the boss Hunter (Voiced by Kelsey Grammer) who informs Junior that he is up for a big promotion. Junior is really excited until Hunter informs he has will have to fire the orphan Tulip (voiced by Katie Crown).

The movie had a plot that gave time for them to develop the characters and that was nice, but it also lead to a lot of almost wasted scenes that dragged on a little too long. It did have a few surprise twists throughout the movie that was fun to watch, but then became generic at the end. I almost wish they had done a different ending than what they chose. You can tell they are trying hard to compete with top animation creators like Pixar and Dreamworks, but missed the mark. The motion animation was okay and was not too hard to watch.

The voice acting was fun, but I have to say a lot of the jokes given seemed a little forced, and it was a little distracting at times. I wonder if the movie would have done better with some improvisations from the actors to give the animators something more to work with. Makes me wish Robin Williams was around to show them how to bring a character to life, like how he did with the Genie in Aladdin. It was more enjoyable to watch this movie than Norm of the North, so they get a big thumbs up from me there.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie to watch, but not up to top level tier. Kids might get a little lost in the middle, but they will have fun with the characters. And for these reasons I would rate this movie 6.6/10.