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Mens Health Home
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Gone Baby GoneCategory: DVD |
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List Price: $29.99 Our Price: $14.99 |
Usually ships in 24 hours As of: January 07th, 2009 02:28:35 PM |
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Customer comments on this selection. The Affleck boys come of ageWhen 4 year-old Amanda McCready disappears from her bed in the middle of the night, her aunt does what her useless mother won't and engages a pair of private missing persons specialists to find her. They have little experience with this kind of case, but armed with local knowledge, serious courage and a dangerously evolved morality, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his partner in work and love, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) accept - and get a lot more than they bargained for. The search for Amanda risks their lives, probes the dark history of the local police department, and threatens to destroy their relationship... The most pleasantly surprising thing about Ben Affleck's directorial debut is how assured it is. It's nicely adapted, slickly shot, cleverly edited, and stokes the requisite tension right from the start. Affleck really knows how to build a tense scene. The performances he extracts from his cast are terrific, especially from kid brother Casey who proves his star turn as Robert Ford last year was no fluke. Michelle Monaghan is engaging as his conflicted partner, and Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman are typically superb (despite faintly ludicrous characterizations). The plot topples over into semi-ridiculousness in Act 3, but by that stage it hardly matters: it's no longer about the story, it's about these characters, the choices they've made and must make now. In that regard, the final scenes are powerfully affecting, notwithstanding the hint of unreality about how we got there.  strong and gritty--with quite an endingGone Baby Gone is an outstanding movie with great actors and a plot that moves along so well and so fast that you are riveted to the edge of your seat the entire length of the film. The actors do a great job with the script and this is a strong showing for director Ben Affleck as his first film that made it to the big screen. The cinematography and the special effects enhance this movie all the more. When the action starts, we are in Dorchester, Massachusetts outside Boston. Dorchester is a tough neighborhood filled with drug problems and other types of dangerous crime; nevertheless people live there all their lives and develop relationships that truly matter. When four year old Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien) goes missing, the police come in fast but they don't have strong leads. The girl's Aunt Bea (Amy Madigan) and her husband Lionel McCready (Titus Welliver) enlist the help of two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to help solve the case. Bea and Lionel believe that Amanda's mother Helene (Amy Ryan) is not able to do enough to help find her daughter because of her emotional problems, not the least of which is that Helene scarcely cares what happens to her daughter. Patrick and Angie get some information from people in the neighborhood although even knowing these people for decades still makes getting any information difficult. Patrick and Angie also come up against Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) from the police squad who is not exactly happy to have them around because they're not experienced cops. The story takes many twists and turns which adds to the suspense; and the ending isn't necessarily clear until we see it in the very final moments of this picture. Along the way you can expect a strong performance from Morgan Freeman; and Amy Ryan steals the show as Amanda's mother Helene McCready, an almost hopeless drug addict who also gets involved in dealing drugs herself. Helene has even taken her child Amanda to a drug deal or two because, as she claims, she just doesn't "have daycare." I must agree with the reviewers who note that this movie is very much for adults and mature audiences. There is a good deal of profanity and violence. Moreover, guns are whipped around faster than the bullets speeding out of them. Other issues raised include police corruption, child molestation and murder. It's not a Disney movie! However, don't be fooled--this is one strong movie worth owning in your collection. The DVD comes with extras; the deleted scenes are really the best of them. Overall, Gone Baby Gone presents us with a complicated thriller type of mystery that highlights the tragedy of child abduction and how it can affect so many people. The ending is good subject matter for debate; therefore for at least this one reason alone you won't forget this movie anytime soon.  It's OK.It's OK. Don't put it at the top , or bottom, of your list.  Awful acting, barely competent directingFirst off, if you expect the main protagonist to have any depth whatsoever, please disabuse yourself of this misapprehension before beginning the movie. Casey Afflect cannot act, sorry to say. He mumbles rather than speaks, has only one expression (a slightly bored, slightly cynical, mostly "what the heck am I supposed to do now?"), is way too young for the part, and never, never convincingly shows his motivations or character. Why would anyone be afraid of him, and why would anyone ever confide in him? And how does he seem to know, from school (!??!!!) almost every non-policeman in the movie? The protagonist's girlfried is a cypher who seems to hang around her boyfriend for no discernable reason, doesn't seem to help him, and, like her man, has only one expression. On the plus side, Ed Harris is good. To the movie itself, it is a collection of scenes, not a coherent whole. What motivates the characters is either unsaid, and therefore unguessable, or presented at a sophomoric level. No subtlety at all. Maybe in trying to film the book the screenwriters wanted to include specific scenes and then tried to tie them together. Since the actors were bad, we can't determine why things happened through either their personalities or actions, but have to depend on the writing. Unfortunately, too much must have been lost in going from book to screen. In short, a mess. Avoid. Why, Ben, Why?!I'll start off by saying that I am a HUGE Dennis Lehane fan. He's not my favorite author (Harlan Coben is), but he's definitely in my top 5. I can't say that I like all of his books, but in my opinion "Gone Baby Gone" is one of his better ones. Usually, I don't like book to movie adaptations, as I tend to think that there's no way that a movie can supersede the book that it's based upon, but there's been a few exceptions that I can think of right off the top of my head. "Shawshank Redemption", for example, which is based on a short novel by Stephen King. "Mystic River" is another one, which is based on the book by the same name, and by no other than Dennis Lehane himself. So I thought to myself, it can't be all that bad. Boy, was I wrong. Ben Affleck, and whoever put him in charge, and behind the camera, should be fired and banned from having anything to do with movie making industry ever again. While we are at it, ban Casey, and all the other Affleck's, if there are any, too. But actually, it wasn't Ben Affleck's directorial debut that I have complaints about (honestly, I was quite impressed with it), but rather his choice of actors (I assume that he played a big part in casting). Now let me explain what exactly I mean by that. In my book, Ben Affleck is THE WORST actor of all time. PERIOD. I don't think the word "actor" can be even applied in the same sentence with Ben Affleck. I'm a movie buff, and will watch pretty much anything. However, I try to avoid movies with Ben Affleck for the reason mentioned above; Paul Walker (SECOND WORST actor ever... "Running Scared" is an exception - I enjoyed that movie enormously, and can only wonder how much better it could be without Paul Walker in it); and ... yes, Casey Affleck, who is the THIRD WORST actor, partially because of his VERY annoying voice, but mostly because of the fact that he simply can't act. Anyway... Back to the movie, and why I hated it so much. But you've probably already guessed it - THE CHARACTERS killed it. Casey Affleck's portrayal of Patrick Kenzie was, for the lack of a better word, HORRIFIC. Arnold Schwarzenegger would've done a better job. Is Casey the only one to blame? Unfortunately, not. His "better" half, as someone referred to her in the movie, or the character of Angela Gennaro, wasn't much better also. That's not how I imagined those two when I read the books. They lacked emotion; they lacked chemistry; they lacked anything else that you can possibly think of. And what about Bubba?! He's supposed to be the meanest, the toughest person to walk the face of this planet. Loyal to his friends, but ruthless to his enemies. So who was the whiny, whimpy fatso that played him? Hey, Ben, have you read the book?! Unbelievable... The girl's mother, and her uncle were overplaying a bit. Morgan Freeman was totally underused. I think the only bright spot in the movie was Ed Harris, who almost nailed his part. And the only reason I say "almost" is because he was surrounded by a bunch of losers. So to summarize, if you haven't read the book, and don't mind that pathetic excuse of an actor Casey Affleck, then there is a chance that you might enjoy this movie (although I would still recommend to just pick up a copy of a book, and read it). Otherwise, I suggest to stay as far away from it as possible. You've been warned... |
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