Saturday, January 19, 2013

Movie Marathon: Ben Affleck

I said that I would do Ben Affleck movie marathon right after Matt Damon's. Well, here is it, I keep my promise really well, right? *talking to the mirror*

Before I start my review, I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Ben Affleck for winning Best Director (again), this time at Golden Globe Awards 2013! He beat four other top directors; Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Ang Lee, and Quentin Tarantino, which was a great achievement because it's only his third movie as director. Not only Best Director, but Argo won Best Picture - Drama (again) as well! I'm sorry, Academy what~~? :p

Haha I'm too excited to talk about Affleck's win. Let's back to the topic: Ben Affleck movie marathon.


Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt or known simply as Ben Affleck is, yes, one of my favorite actors all the time. Do I really have to say that every time I post about movie marathon? Yes, I think so. I can't think about anything cleverer to write as opening :p
By the way, yes, he has a younger brother, Casey Affleck. Yes, he's also an actor, and yes, he's as handsome as his elder brother. Oh, and yes yes yes Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are best friends since childhood. Together, they won an Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Golden Globe Awards for Best Screenplay following their work in Good Will Hunting. Even though they have their own families now, they still hang out together, sometimes with their family too. Is there any of you girls/boys can beat the loyal and long last friendship like Affleck and Damon's? Well, congratulations.
Affleck married to the actress Jennifer Garner and they have four three children; me, Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel. I don't know why do I even talk about his family here haha whatever. By the way, I really, really love Affleck's chin and I want a chin like that. Or at least a husband with chin like that haha kidding. Um, not really kidding actually :p

So, what makes you decided to do Ben Affleck movie marathon?
Same reason with Matt Damon movie marathon. Yeah, it's because of that Jimmy Kimmel video hahaha. It's really funny. The video features many of actors and actresses. Watch it, I say, watch it!

Here's the list of his movies, according to the time I watched them:
1. Good Will Hunting (from Matt Damon movie marathon)
2. School Ties (from Matt Damon movie marathon)
3. The Sum of All Fears
4. Man About Town
5. He's Just Not That Into You
6. Smokin' Aces
7. Bounce
8. Hollywoodland
9. Daredevil
10. State of Play
11. Surviving Christmas
12. Jersey Girl
13. Gigli
14. Forces of Nature
15. Boiler Room
16. Paycheck
17. The Company Men
18. Changing Lanes
19. Shakespeare In Love
20. Pearl Harbor
21. Gone Baby Gone (director, writer, and producer)
22. The Town (also director and writer)
23. Dogma
24. Chasing Amy
25. Armageddon
26. Argo (also director and producer)

After watching all of them, do you have any specific movies that you've been into?
Of course! But it's not just 4 or 5 out of 26 movies I've watched. There are more than it I suppose. Although Affleck had a bad time of his career in 2002-2004 (especially when he was still dating J-Lo) and his movies which were released that time didn't get so much attention (box office bomb, yes) I still love some of them. Listing time!

The first is Armageddon. Maybe some of you say that this movie is not good or whatever, but I LOVE IT. In fact, this is the first movie that made me cry :p Please don't judge me, I watched this movie for the first time when I was in 9th grade, so yeah I was a little bit overreacted to it. Affleck is sooo freakin handsome in here, playing a deep core driller A.J. Frost who, along with his boss Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and others, is recruited by NASA to drill the asteroid which will hit Earth in less than a month. When I first watched this I really didn't care about the storyline because all in my head was Affleck. Well, it apparently made me cry, so yeah I love it :)

The second is Argo, the third movie that Affleck directed. The Argo-hype hit me in October 2012 when some of the celebrities I follow on Twitter tweeted about how amazing this movie was. I was really curious, but Argo wasn't released at the local cinemas so I was losing hope to see this movie. But then, it was announced that Argo got many nominations in many award events, so did Affleck, and apparently they won several awards. I wanted to wait for the DVD or Bluray to come out but it's still long so I decided to watch the copy instead. And you know what, Argo, f*ck yourself! Fantastic and brilliant movie, it got me chills! Set in 1979 when the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries, Tony Mendez (played by Affleck), an ex-filtration specialist manages to save six Americans who escape from them and hide in Canadian Ambassador's residence, by making a phony film project. Well done, Affleck, well done. I bit my t-shirt and hit my brother with a pillow when watching this because it was so thrilling. Try to watch it guys, best Affleck movie so far.

The third is The Town, the second movie that Affleck directed. Yes, Jeremy Renner was in this movie and his role as Jem Coughlin earned him Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actor. But we're not talking about Renner here (yes, I will do his movie marathon later, promise!). Affleck played Doug MacRay, a professional bank robber who falls in love with a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) whose bank, yes, was robbed by him and his 3 friends before, while trying to hide this relationship from them. The Town is recommended for you guys who love heist/robbery movies.

The fourth is Gone Baby Gone, the first movie that Affleck directed, but he wasn't playing any roles in this. The lead role, Patrick Kenzie, was played by Affleck's younger brother Casey. Patrick and his girlfriend/partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) investigate a little girl's kidnapping which ultimately risks everything including their lives. Well, I first watched this movie when I was 8th/9th grader and I really really loved it. Affleck brothers really did good job working together in this movie. I hope there's more collaboration between them like this :)

The fifth is State of Play, starring Affleck and Russell Crowe. The story follows a team of reporters (played by Crowe and Rachel McAdams) who work with a police detective to solve the murder of a congressman, Stephen Collins' (Affleck) assistant. One thing that I love from this movie is the investigation. Ya know I love detective thingy, but reporters can do the same! I thought this movie is a heavy political drama and blah, but actually it has some mysteries that makes me sit sweetly for 2 hours to watch this.

The sixth is The Sum of All Fears. Jack Ryan was previously played by Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford. In this movie, Affleck took the role. This time Jack must find out about the terrorist plan that threatens to induce a conflict between US and Russia's newly elected president. FYI: Jack Ryan will be played by Chris Pine in the 2013 movie.

The seventh is Paycheck, where Affleck played Michael Jennings, an engineer who is offered a job but his memory must be wiped afterwards. After deciding to take the job and gets his memory wiped, he discovers that he's being chased--and he has to find out why. I love this movie, but when watching it, my mind was a little distracted by, uh, I forgot. I didn't watch it seriously, but I did watch the ending. Maybe I should watch it again? Yeah~

The eight is Pearl Harbor. Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett? Who can't say no to them? Hahaha. Anyway, yes, this movie is telling about the Pearl Harbor attack that happened on December 7th 1941, but with more love story. Rafe McCawley (Affleck) and Danny Walker (Harnett) are two best friends who become Army Air Corps pilots. Rafe falls in love with a nurse (Kate Beckinsale). Who knows that Rafe's decision to go fight in Britain affects his relationships with both his best friend and girlfriend? Don't worry, the love story is fictional, but I can say that it dominates the whole film than the Pearl Harbor incident itself. It's just me, maybe you have different thoughts. Cool effects though.

Actually, I love some other films like Jersey Girl and Changing Lanes, but this post is too long already haha. I'm kinda lazy to use jump break so this is it. And I watched 3 episodes of Saturday Night Live in which he was the host. It was sooooo funny! My favorite episode was S29E15 when the prologue was about his relationship with J-Lo. Couldn't stop laughing =))
By the way, Affleck is confirmed to direct and star in an adaptation of Live By Night, a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Gone Baby Gone novel. I also can't wait for his next movies To the Wonder and Runner, Runner.

"As an actor, you can steer a scene in another direction by playing it a little differently. And honestly? I like being an actor, and I want to keep having a career."
-Ben Affleck

That's it from me, see you in the next movie marathon post! Gotta think about who's next! ;)

Pics were taken from Google, then were made into a collage by me.

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