Dallas Buyers Club

It pains me to type this but Matthew McConaughey is really freaking great in this. Seriously, what happened there? How did he suddenly end up in all these good films and shows and actually turn in brilliant performances (True Detective, The Wolf of Wall Street)?

The film is based on the true life story of Ron Woodruff. Other main characters in the film (most notably Rayon and Eve) are composites of different people an episodes from Woodruff's life. And talking about brilliant performances...Jared Leto is absolutely awesome in this, as well. In the past (after My So Called Life) he seemed to gravitate towards total weirdness (see: Mr. Nobody) and ugly stories (as in good ugly, see: Requiem for a Dream). This sort of fits both categories quite well, though.

...and he really is the prettiest girl in the room.

As for Jennifer Garner, she is not really given enough material to shine in, being mostly confined to her hospital desk and stuck in scrubs. She ends up being dress-up most of the time, smiling politely. She does that well, mind you.

I now understand why both, McConaughey and Leto got Oscars for their roles in Dallas Buyers Club. But I still think Matthew McConaughey is a weird, weird person.

8/10

A Perfect Getaway

It's always the ones you least suspect.

What looks like a dream honeymoon for a lovely couple about to go horribly wrong because a man/woman killer duo is roaming the Hawaiian islands turns out to be a charade played by said duo, which is actually the couple honeymooning.

First, a set of decoys is sent in. Here they come in the form of a guy that looks, sounds, acts and feels like a very bad guy. He and his hippie girlfriend are neatly pushed out of the way by the real bad guy, who plants evidence on them and has an unsuspecting bystander alarm the authorities of this 'suspicious' couple of tourists.

Then there is the big-talking cool hunky dude with his girlfriend. They are into very much in love and into drugs. He is also very handy with all kinds of weaponry. They seem like the perfect for for murderous duo in paradise. Those two turn out to be the actual targets, though.

But thanks to the killer briefly losing all ability to hit anyone properly with his gun (and then suddenly shooting and killing four guys in quick succession without blinking an eye) and his woman suddenly growing a conscience and smelling the opportunity to finally get out from under his thumb (and we know she only ever went along with killing people because he had this spell over her) the two survive. They may be all bloody but they are still very much in love and supposedly set to live happily ever after. Awwww!

Side note: Milla Jovovich can pronounce the word "Wow!" so convincingly, she is made to say it what feels like fifty times within the first ten minutes. And she is not much of an actress, is she?

4/10

Joy Ride

You really don't want to mess with a truck driver who has nothing else to do all day but plot his revenge while driving down those long lonesome highways.

Here, two idiot brothers think it is a great idea to impersonate a woman via CB and luring one "Rusty Nail" to a motel for a meetup. They send him to the room next door. This one, quite handily, is occupied by a first class racist asshole. Talking about killing two birds with one stone. The sounds coming from next door turn a little weird and the younger brother gets a little nervous and reports strange noises to reception. When the night clerk check in with room 17 via phone they get an answer saying that everything is fine.

Except it isn't. The racist asshole gets what he deserves - and then some. He is found lying on the highway with his jaw removed (but, miraculously, he lives and serves as a means to scare the shit out of our two brothers).

From there it only gets worse. Rusty is pretty resourceful and soon knows their car and their names and that they picked a female friend up from college, as well. And he comes after them. He kidnaps the college student's friend as a means to get them. He lures them to a deserted road near a corn field (aren't those fun?) and drives after them with his big-ass truck. In the end, he gets the girl and props her up with a gun pointed at her head that will go off if someone opens the door (room 17!). The brothers come to her rescue and nearly get killed in the effort.

Bruised and battered, they end up sitting in an ambulance when they are told who the guy was. And they are the only ones realizing that the now dead assumed truck driver is not the Rusty Nail that has been after them.

As a last scare in the film he talks to them via the CB of the ambulance.

7/10