jane got a gun (2016). directed by gavin o'connor.

when in doubt, watch gavin o'connor. kidding. but this is not a bad watch. tough woman in a cowboy setting, what is there not to like? natalie portman plays the wife hell bent to protect her injured outlaw husband from a bunch of tugs headed by ewan mcgregor (he doesn't sound too scottish so it's OK) with the help of her ex boyfriend, the taciturn joel edgerton. while the story was not as driven as it could have been, i like portman's character of being her own woman firm with the choices she had to make given the situation that she was in. in a world of war and poverty, rest assured that the victims will always be women and children, while men fight to senseless deaths. 

the accountant (2016). directed by gavin o'connor.

i didn't plan to see the accountant. not a fan of affleck, though i did pay to see a movie that he's in - and that was because david fincher directed it - gone girl (2014). i got the date wrong because i wanted to see nocturnal animals, but it's only going to be shown next week, so what the hell. i settled for a gavin o'connor fare. 

which is not necessarily a bad thing. 

what i like about gavin o'connor's movies is that he makes movies which are straightforward, almost by the numbers, but he usually have good actors working on it that it elevates the movie to something grander - think warrior (2011) with tom hardy, joel edgerton and nick nolte. i actually like that he doesn't overplay his hands, which can be annoying, it happens when people try to make things complicated that they actually are. the accountant was close to the border, but it didn't go as far. the risk of doing that, it makes a satisfactory watch, but not a great on. 

after watching this movie - which i kind of have mixed feelings about - critics are evidently divided into two camps - one which is kinder to the premise of an autistic accountant with military training punching people to a pulp like liam neeson would have done to save his daughter, or another who finds such story line simply preposterous. i always remind myself that suspension of disbelief is a must while watching anything, so this movie is enjoyable if the audience can be persuaded to be sympathetic to the main character who has trouble connecting with people. i don't know if ben affleck is trying too hard to emote autism, or he does it really well. as i mentioned before, o'connor would have outstanding actors in his film - this one is no exception - like anna kendrick who is underused, j.k. simmons, john lithgow and jeffrey tambor. actually i was impressed with the line up on the movie poster. 

worth a watch, but like i said, not exactly spectacular. 

warrior (2011). directed by gavin o'connor.

i don't know why i don't like warrior that much. i think i may need a second viewing. i think i don't enjoy the movie because there was sound problem in the theatre at katy and i can't make what the people on screen were saying. this is bad because it gave me the impression that there is a lack of time spent on the background of the principal characters. 

may be. 

though i suspect that is the case. some reviewers pointed out - by giving us little clue of what really happened between during the boy's growing up years, audience are not insulted with the obvious. honestly i don't mind a bit more drama. hardy doesn't say much apart from growling and grunting (which is good, hey that's acting ok!), but when he starts throwing coins at his father and breaks the old man with his adamant refusal to try to be family again, that's the kind of drama that i want to see. there is a scene when he picks up the old man, drunk for the first time after a thousand days of sobriety - we see that this is a man who can only connect with pain. 

at times i feel like watching vignettes of earlier fight movies despite knowing there is a moving plot and it is populated with intensely involved characters. if not for solid acting from nick nolte, tom hardy and joel edjerton (aussie men have the sexiest accent, amen!) i would have felt this movie is no better that last year's the fighter (2010) (which i don't enjoy that much either..i thought it was so-so). secondary characters in this movie, such as the principal and the movie parking lot scene makes the movie cartoonish. 

perhaps all those can be forgiven if i see it the second time and appreciate the movie for what it is. i like tom hardy's wounded beast persona who fights because he has a lot of rage to burn, edjerton's mild mannered family man who is doing the best he could and nolte's the alcoholic father who is trying to make amends with his sons albeit a tad too late. 

when they got in the cage to fight - these two have a lot to talk about. but there are not words for buried pain, and all that's left is anger. 

brawl it out, and i hope you will heal.  

there is another MMA fight movie worth checking out - red belt (2008), directed and written by david mamet, starring chiwetel ejiofor. it is not about toxic family legacy, and it's short of the intense fight scenes, but like one comment that i read - if you like emotions and objective correlatives, this can be hugely satisfying too.