Sad movies* - Sue Thompson

Been watching a lot of movies wif tGiF in recent weeks. The strange thing is that all the movies we have caught have been really good! And it's all kinds of genre - romantic comedies, dramas, action etc.

Some of them have been pretty sad - not as in bad but not the kind of movies which leave a warm fuzzy feeling inside. And i'm gonna blog about them - 3 movies, to be exact. Warning here - super spoilers ahead as i will talking about why i say they are 'sad' and this will necessary involve the ending.

The first movie i wanna talk about is Oscar hopeful 'Up in the air' starring George Clooney.

Wonderful show, great cast. george does not disappoint, as usual. And to me, a really original storyline - about someone who is hired to fire people. he flies all over the country just to terminate the employment of people, doing a job that the employers do not want to do.

The main character played by George is Ryan. He loves his job. He loves flying all over the place and living off a suitcase. But as the show progresses, he realises that he is not really as happy as he thinks he is - and he starts to long for a real life. A life shared with someone he truly cares for. A life at a place where he can call home.

My favourite scene will be when he makes a surprise visit to his sister to attend her wedding. On the wedding day, he steps in to prevent a disaster and saves the day - and his other sister turns to him and say "Welcome home" despite the fact that he has been there for more than a day.

But the sad part was when he was ready to give up his empty life of chasing meaningless goals and start a real life with the one he loves, she breaks his heart. So he ended up back where he was at the beginning of the movie, doing what he was doing.

It was really sad but it reminded us all that we should not get caught up with meaningless pursuits in our lives but spend time on the things which really matter. For Ryan, he realised it too late.

The next movie is where we see Mel Gibson on the big screen again, the first time since the brilliant 'Signs' in 2002. The movie is 'Edge of Darkness'.

Mel is Thomas, a cop and a single parent to a daughter whom he loves dearly. She was killed early on in the movie and Thomas tried to find those who were responsible - initially thought to be targeting him.

He soon discovered that his daughter was involved in something really big - a huge government conspiracy to produce nuclear weapons but it would be traced back to other nations and not the US. Her daughter was going to expose the matter and she was silenced for good. Thomas soon found that this was way above his head.

It was great seeing Mel on the big screen again - he is still as charismatic as ever with a strong screen presence. I also loved the character played brilliantly by Ray Winstone - Jedburgh - who was supposed to used by those in power to 'clean up' the evidence. Although he worked for the government, he was still a man of principles and he was almost an ally to Thomas.

This not an all out action movie - but i must admit the best scene for me was when Thomas took out a car and its driver who was trying to run him over. Cool!

Well, the people responsible for the death of his daughter received their just desserts in the end. But Thomas had to do it on his own as the conspiracy is so huge that even his closest frens in the police force were afraid to interfere. It was a bittersweet ending as Thomas dies but we see his 'spirit' walking away with the 'spirit' of his daughter, reunited and happy again.

Finally the last one is certainly not the least. A superb war movie, 'Green Zone'.

You wanna know how good it was? Well, i was so terribly exhausted when tGiF and i bought the tickets and i wondered if i was gonna waste the movie and fall asleep in the cinema. Well, i couldn't! It was brilliant! Matt Damon was in his 'Bourne' element too.

Yes, another government conspiracy/cover-up movie. some have even labeled the show as 'anti-american'. Basically it depicts why weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq in the recent war there.

As the movie goes on, we discover that the main source of intel which the govt of USA depended on never provided info about WMD. On the contrary, he made it clear that there were no WMD at Iraq. Yet, certain people in the government wrongly relayed the intel, saying that the source confirmed that there were indeed WMD. It was based on that intel that USA went to war in Iraq - together with UK and other allies. Was the US government tricked into going to war - or did they just want to hear what they want to to justify what they hope to do?

Miller stumbles upon the truth and worked hard to secure the source and expose the lies. Unfortunately, just when we thought he finally got him, the source was killed. The action in this movie was fast and furious with the Bourne-style of hand-held cameras being used in most of the action scenes. I was pleasantly surprised that i did not get any motion sickness at all!!! Maybe the brain tumour which was taken out recently was the cause of my motion sickness problems?

Anyways, the movie ends off with Miller giving his story to reporters all over the world. We never know wat happens after that.

But as we walked out of the cinema, tGiF said 'That's sad (if the movie was true)'. I personally do not think the movie is very far away from the truth. Why is it that up to today, no WMD is found?

It is indeed sad if so many young soldiers had to give up so much - some their lives, even - just to facilitate the lie so that those in power can achieve their goals. And so much suffering casued to the Iraqis too. So so sad. But so so good - i'm referring to the movie, of course.

So tt's it folks. I hope i can also blog about the other great movies i have seen recently. As even as i look in the papers today, there are so many potentially great movies to catch too! Glad that the Easter break is near. :-)

Pics taken from various sites online

*A huge sixties hit which was one of my fav songs when i was younger. i love the story they incorporated into the song lyrics.