The Longest Ride - A Ride Worth Taking

Time for my thoughts on another movie.  :)

The Longest Ride (2015)
Rated PG-13 / 139 mins / Drama, Romance
Released April 10, 2015
Stars: Scott Eastwood, Britt Robertson, Alan Alda, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin...
Director: George Tillman, Jr.
Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks
"Two Couples. Two love Stories. One Epic Tale."

I went to see The Longest Ride this past weekend with my hubby at our favorite theater, The Grand at Pier Park.  The movie is based on a novel by the same name written by Nicholas Sparks. Many people know Sparks' work as he has written numerous novels (i.e. The Notebook, Dear John, The Best of Me, Safe Haven.....).

Nicholas Sparks is a fantastic writer!  He has a way of being predictable but still interesting.  In his books you can pretty much bet that there will be love and loss, there is usually someone expressing their love in writing (such as through letters), there is some connection to war, and almost always someone dies.  One thing is for certain - you will need your tissues because there are bound to be tears at some point.  I am always impressed with how Nicholas Sparks manages to be so predictable but still every story is somehow different.  A sign of a great author....make sure the reader knows what they are going to get but shake things up.

Take some time and read some of his many novels.  You can find information about them here:
Nicholas Sparks Official Page

If you are already familiar with his novels you know what to expect from a movie based on of them. Sometimes novels don't translate to the screen as well as they did on the page...especially romance. Everybody has different images in their head while reading...and Hollywood doesn't always make the right choices when casting.  But this movie didn't disappoint.

**Some spoilers ahead**

The Longest Ride follows the story of Luke Collins (played by Scott Eastwood) and Sophia Danko (played by Britt Robertson) as a couple of star-crossed lovers whose lives intertwine with Ira Levinson (played by Alan Alda).  Luke is a former champion bull rider looking to make a comeback after recovering from a traumatic injury in hopes of earning enough money to save the family ranch for his mother (played by Lolita Davidovich).  Sophia is a Wake Forest University art student about to graduate and begin her career in the NYC art world.   Sophia is dragged by her friends to a local rodeo where she sees Luke for the first time.  She later meets him at a party and a relationship begins.

After a date late one evening, they meet Ira when they rescue him (and his box of letters), after he wrecks his vehicle in a thunderstorm.  Sophia (and later Luke) begin spending time with Ira while he recovers in the hospital and later at his home.  During the visits Ira shares stories of his wife Ruth (played by Oona Chaplin), and the love they shared while Sophia reads the letters in the box to Ira. The letters are love letters from Ira to his wife, who also happened to love art.

The movie shows Ira and Ruth's love story through flashbacks played out beautifully by Jack Huston and Oona Chaplin.  The resounding theme of the movie comes in advice from Ira to Sophia - "Love requires sacrifice." All relationships face challenges, but with sacrifice (and hard work) these challenges will result in infinite rewards.  You already know this is a romance so you know there are rewards.  And while the movie is still predictable it is well worth watching and taking the ride with both of these couples.

IMDB page: IMDB - The Longest Ride

Official Site: The Longest Ride

And now just a few things about some of the cast.

I have to mention Alan Alda.  He was fantastic in this movie.  I don't think I ever seen him play a role quite like this.  He's always the funny guy or the man in charge (at least in appearance).  In this movie he was a feeble old man...and he played it beautifully.
You can see his complete acting list here: Alan Alda - IMDB

Jack Huston plays the younger version of Alan Alda's charachter and is fantastic to watch.  He is very easy on the eyes and a brillian actor.
You can see his complete acting list here: Jack Huston - IMDB

Oona Chaplin, who plays Ruth, is also great to watch.  She has a captivating beauty that's not the classic mold.  I'm sure many are already familiar with her from her work on Game of Thrones.
You can see her complete acting list here: Oona Chaplin - IMDB

I was a little concerned about Britt Robertson playing the female lead against Scott Eastwood before seeing the movie.  I really like her as an actree bu she seems so young to me.  Well, since she was born in 1990 she is still young. But Scott Eastwood is only 4 years older than her so the age span isn't really an issue.  And she did a great job in this role.  And the two of them together made a great couple.
You can see her complete acting list here: Britt Robertson - IMDB

And then there is Scott Eastwood....Yep, he's the son of Clint Eastwood...and looks so much like him. I mean...really, really like him.   He was born Scott Clinton Reeves (his mother's maiden name) and made his film debut in Flags of Our Fathers (2006), directed by Clint Eastwood. I read in an article that he continued using the Reeves name when he began his acting career because he didn't want to get jobs just because of who he was.  That's commendable...but there is NO way you can look at this boy and his handsome face and not know who is father is.  I've seen him in some other stuff, including some of my favorite TV shows (Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.) but he really shows his stuff in this movie (and I'm not ONLY referring to the nice butt shot).  He does a great job acting in this role and I can't wait to see more of him on screen.
You can see his complete acting list here: Scott Eastwood - IMDB

And for your viewing pleasure....

The Gunman - A Sure Shot For Me

The Gunman 

Rated R / Action, Crime, Drama

Stars: Sean Penn, Idris Elba, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance…

**spoilers ahead**

With two new movies out this weekend Ron and I decided to start early and take in one of them on Thursday night.  Last night we went to see the new Sean Penn flick The Gunman.  The movie is based on the 2002 novel The Prone Gunman written by Jean-Patrick Manchette. 

The Gunman is an action movie and in many ways is presented like every other action movie I’ve seen – which is not a negative thing in my opinion.  Sean Penn, who is now 54 years old, looks great physically!  He has obviously been spending lots of time in the gym as evidenced by his buff and toned body (you can get a good look at it during a surfing scene later in the movie – yes, I said a surfing scene).  My only complaint about him in the entire movie is his continual need to smoke a cigarette!

Sean Penn plays Jim Terrier.  Jim is a private security contractor who also happens to be a sniper on a mercenary assassination team in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  The movie starts in 2006 with images that I would definitely have rather not seen…but were important for the theme of the movie.  Thankfully the images of starving babies, war, and other atrocities were brief as they were extremely hard to look at.  While showing these images there were also clips from news programs as well as voice over discussing things like the private security contractors, world’s deadliest conflict, rape, vast mineral wealth, and meeting the demands of the Western world.  From this you know right up front that there will be lots of political overtones throughout the movie.

Jim’s girlfriend Annie is played by Jasmine Trinca, and exotic and beautiful woman.  Annie is an aid worker at a local clinic – where she gets to see firsthand the results of all of the atrocities in the Congo.  From the way they look at each other it’s obvious that Jim and Annie are deeply in love…something that seems to be a problem for Jim’s colleague, Felix (played by Javier Bardem).

During an operation, which I’m sure was supposed to be one of those “good for the country” operations but seems more like a “good for greed” operation, Jim kills the minister of mines of the Congo on the orders of an unknown client, unknown to everyone but Felix anyway.  As a condition of the successful operation Jim must immediately leave the Congo and his girlfriend Annie behind.  But don’t worry about Annie…Jim asked Felix to look after her so she’s bound to be in good hands…right?

Eight years later Jim returns to the Congo, but this time is not there as a private security contractor; instead he works for an aid group providing safe drinking water.  See, Jim is a good guy after all.  Jim is still having flashbacks from the minister’s assassination in which he pulled the trigger.  The flashbacks are accompanied by horrible headaches (as they should) which we later find out is because he has “post-concussion syndrome”.  While I don’t doubt that he would have these flashbacks, I do doubt that a person that can accomplish this kind of assassination would not have done MANY other things that would also be causing him duress, yet we never see flashbacks of those.

While working with the aid group the group is attacked by locals looking for “the white man”.  Jim manages to evade death (after killing most of the others in true action star style) and then commences his trek to find out who sent them.  He is certain it has something to do with the DRC assassination so he hunts down some of his old colleagues in London, Terry (played by Mark Rylance), who is now an executive at the security firm they both used to work for, and Stanly (played by Ray Winstone), who appears to be a beach bum.  You know that one of these is going to end up being a bad guy for sure.

Jim eventually ends up in Barcelona, where he finds that Felix and Annie are now married.  This seemed to surprise him but I doubt that anyone in the audience was surprised by this. After some “as expected” confrontations between the three of them, and some adultery between Jim and Annie (you knew that was going to happen right?), the action (and violence) in the movie really starts to heat up. 

It turns out that Jim has been keeping journals containing evidence of all the things the security company, including himself, did over the years.  Needless to say, the security company doesn’t want this information to come out….enter Interpol.   Of course Interpol is very interested in obtaining this information and they have the perfect agent for the job – Idris Elba.  Idris Elba really doesn’t do a lot in this movie…but he still looks good just standing there.

The remainder of the movie is full of action sequences, including a bull fight, leading up to the “happily ever after” ending.  Ok, so maybe I left out some significant scenes…I don’t need to tell you everything, do I?  You really need to watch this movie to truly appreciate the action scenes. 

I’ve seen some bad press about this movie criticizing everything from the Africans in the film not having any lines to speak to Sean Penn’s performance to the degrading of women to the predictable storyline.  But I enjoyed it.  I knew exactly what to expect when walking into the theater…an action film with political overtones.  I thought Sean Penn’s performance was great.  The movie actually kind of reminded me of the Bourne movies and the Taken movies….and I wouldn’t mind seeing other movies with the Jim Terrier character in them.  So even though some may not like it…it was a sure shot for me. 

You can find the movie info on IMDB here:

IMDB - The Gunman

And the official site here:

Official Site - The Gunman

And if you want to read the novel it was based on you can get that here:

Novel - The Prone Gunman