Rocky Balboa (2006)

"Yeah....I think I gotta little left, you know...some stuff in the basement." -Rocky Balboa

So my local cable affiliate in South East Asia took this week to show all the Rocky movies.  I caught some of most of them. I purposefully did not watch Rocky V -It is aweful-, but I did watch all of Rocky Balboa.

Here's the review:  Did you ever wish Rocky V just didn't happen and that there was a film that made up for that fatty taste on the top of your mouth that ended the Rocky franchise....? Well...Rocky Balboa is the film for you.  It is not bad.  It is everything that Rocky V should have been.  A polite, cliche, slightly endearing echo of former glory. I recommend it. It has the songs. People chant "Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!", and the montage of him bulking up is right in line with what we all expect. New cast members of Geraldine Hughs and Milo Ventimiglia (Peter from Heroes) were acceptable.

Enjoy it for what it is.

On a scale of Rocky and Bullwinkle to Rocky Road, I give Rocky Balboa 2.7 out of 5 stars.

Runner Runner (2013)

"If I am being honest.  I would do it again." -Ivan Block

"wait DJ Deadmau5 and the dad from Home Alone in one movie?" -Me

"ehhhh...I'm just to tired to change the channel or turn it off." -Me

In this blog I often remark that I genuinely attempt to keep my movie watching to films that are at minimum only a waste of time.  I can then feel good that they were not a waste of life. Fortunately for me, I was already wasting my life, of my own accord, being too tired to leave the couch or move while being subjected to Runner Runner.  If I had paid money to watch it, I would have asked for my time back.

I will give credit where credit is due though.  There was about a 90 second segment of the film dedicated to the carnival party thrown by big bad Ivan Block (Ben Affleck) that was borderline Fillini-esque.  It was weird.  It was colorful. It was creepy. It was set to the beats of DJ Deadmau5. Then it ended and that was the best part of Runner Runner.

Cons:
Justin Timberlake:  I'm not sure if you only have one character to play, and I am willing to give you another chance...but please work harder.

Writers:  The coolest part of this movie might have been the math.  I may be a minority, but any movie that shuns actual math the way Runner Runner does and then goes out of its way to use math as its legitimacy crutch should have paid more attention to the math.  Lines in this movie include things like. "Non-weighted, game theory, dude!" and "These number are more than 3sigma out of wack man."  If you are going to use these terms...best explain them....not just dangle them there to sound smart.  -for the record in one scene they talk about the stat odds of something being comparable to winning the powerball multiple times.  One data point outside of 3sigma is not unheard of. It generally happens once out of every 1000 times also know as 1/1000 or .1%  which is orders of magnitude different than winning the powerball multiple times.

In summary, writers, math is cool. Please don't make it play a negligible role in your soulless movie about the hollowness of money and corruption.

On a scale of millenia to parsecs, I give Runner Runner 1.8 out of 5 stars.