I Judge You for Your Taste in Movies

I. Love. Movies. No, you know what, that's an understatement. I live for movies. I want to watch them, I want to study them, I want to be in them (someday, hopefully). I'm not saying there aren't movies that I enjoy that would make Roger Ebert turn over in his grave, (Mr. Ebert, we miss you). I have very eclectic taste in cinema. I think that's how one should be. Be open to all sorts of stories told in all sorts of ways.

Except for maybe this..

I recently watched The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Billy Bob Thornton. This movie was fantastic. I went into not really knowing what it was about, but I was confident that with that cast, it would be good. The premise of the story is that RDJ is a hot shot lawyer in a big city who has an even bigger ego. It's a role that RDJ plays well, but if you're wary that it is too close to his other roles, you can suck it because everything that man touches turns to gold don't worry, there is definitely some layering with this one. Dealing with his own problems at home, he is called back to the small town where he grew up and has to face his father, the town Judge, with whom he hasn't spoken to in years. I'm vastly over-generalizing, as there is a pretty spectacular plot, but I don't want to give anything away.

Except this, I'll give this away because...well, just look at him. 

The setting and tone of this movie are very much throwbacks to the great family dramas of the late 1990's, early 2000's, but without all the cheese. The acting was brilliant. Also, you're probably going to go into the movie thinking that it will be predictable to an extent, which would be wrong. While a lot of dramas like this tend to be predictable, this one was surprising in a subtle way. It didn't throw a bunch of stupid twists at you for the sake of shock value, but it kept you on your toes.

I would recommend this to anyone who appreciates film. When I worked in a movie rental chain in a small, midwestern town, this is the type of movie people would pass over to rent the next Michael Bay flick. In other words, it's good, but most of the average population will probably ignore it.