When he is performing live, it is at embarrassing venues such as small coffee shops and bowling alleys. Barely sober enough to play on the stage, rehearsing with his backup band is out of the question. His small, overly devoted group of fans overlook his sub-par performances which are usually interrupted by his running off the stage to vomit. Lonely, Bad settles for company from his dwindling female fan base.

Alcoholism and depression preventing further success or human companionship, Bad is the perfect fallen star for the young reporter, Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to write about. Bad is happy to do an interview, but wants to keep the questions simple and unobtrusive, particularly about his current state. In the shamefully unremarkable motel room, Jean tries to probe Bad for more answers about his relationship with his ex-wife and children, but he proves uncooperative. Instead,  Bad retorts: “I want to talk about how bad you make this room look”.

Bad makes it very clear to his manager (James Keane) that he doesn’t want to tour anymore, especially at such horrible venues. However, his manager makes it clear that Bad’s lack of new songs and unwillingness to work with his old mentor Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) don’t allow him to play for more than a handful of people. Luckily for Bad, but perplexing to the viewer, he begins to have a romantic relationship with Jean and becomes a father figure for her four year old son (which ironically, is the same age his son was when he last saw him). His love inspires him to write new songs. On his bed he writes a beautiful ballad in a matter of minutes, which brings Jean to tears, not because of the it’s eloquence but as she realizes that Bad hasn’t used his gifts to the fullest extent.

However, just when things seem to be turning in the right direction, Bad’s alcoholism derails everything again. While watching Jean’s son at a crowded mall, Bad goes into a bar, begins to drink, and looses the boy. In a painful sequence of shots, Bad is seen limping around the mall screaming out in desperation to find the boy. Although he is eventually found, Jean cannot bear to see him anymore while Bad finally realizes he has to address his problem.

With the help of his only remaining friend Wayne (Robert Duvall), Bad enters rehab and successfully becomes clean. Although he was completely dismissive of the idea before, Bad begins to tour with Tommy Sweet and also writes him some songs. He expects that he can regain those ruined relationships because he has turned his life around, but it is simply not to be.

Jeff Bridges’ performance as Bad Blake makes him the front-runner for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards, and with good reason. He portrays an alcoholic with a realism where it is often over dramatized. In addition, the power of the role is made all the stronger by Bridges’ singing the songs himself in his rough baritone voice. Much has acclaim has been given to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s for her performance, but I was less impressed. There seem to be a large disconnect between Gyllenhaal and the character. Part of this is the way she performed the role, but it is further exacerbated by the weakness in the character relationships in the story.

Although Bridges performance is extraordinary, the reasons why Bad has a good relationship with Jean and a poor one with Tommy is not adequately explained. Bad is not a suave man, but somehow he is able to seduce a woman 25 years his junior. His overtly sexual and flirtatious conversations don’t lend any credence to why a woman would fall in love with him–yet Jean becomes smitten. In the same manner, one cannot understand why Bad hates Tommy Sweet. Played by the real-life bad boy Colin Farrel, I was expecting an unappreciative, arrogant star in Tommy Sweet. However, he is enormously appreciative and wants to help his old mentor. When they perform on stage, Tommy gives Bad all the credit while he gives him many offers to join him on tour. In my mind, I asked myself what’s not to like about Tommy?

The brilliance of Jeff Bridges’ performance is certainly the best element of the film. However, one does get the sense that Bridges’ plays a more complex character than the script created and deserves.

“Big Mike” (Quinton Aaron) is a very big boy. His size and color make him stick out like a “fly in milk” in the homogenous Memphis suburb.  Despite his raising (I use that word lightly as his mother crack addicted mother doesn’t know who he or his father is) Michael is an enormously shy boy. He is the perfect candidate for joining a gang in the inner city and hardly a candidate for the Christian day school a family friend tries to get him to attend.

Michael is an introverted boy who no one really knows much about. His aptitude tests place him at the lowest percentiles in almost every category and many write him off as stupid. However Michael isn’t stupid. He is just a shy boy who trusts no one and is haunted by the events of his childhood.

As previously mentioned, Michael is adopted by a white family and begins to have success. He is given every advantage he never had: clothes, bed, tutors, and more importantly, a loving family. Why are the Tuohy’s doing this? Some people in the community find it hard to understand.  Some friends see it as “white guilt” while others, including the NCAA, sees it as a ploy by the family to get the fabulous football star to go to the Tuohy’s alma mater, Ole Miss.

Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is Michael’s biggest supporter. She has the initial idea of helping him by inviting them into their home. Additionally, she tracks down his mother and finally decides adopt him. Her motives aren’t clear at the beginning, but the film frames it within the Christian beliefs of the family. Leigh Anne’s actions are initially pure charity, but in my mind her actions were never selfish, rather she truly wanted to help Michael. Frankly it was a great movie to see to start the holiday season. Its important message could be misconstrued by some as pure propaganda about the inability for blacks to have success in the United States without help. This view is ridiculous and a view without merit. It was a great story made all the better because it is true.

The only problem with the film is some of the acting. While Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron’s acting is fair enough, certain other roles are not nearly as good. The younger brother, played by Jae Head, is completely overacted. Although there are some funny lines and situations involving the small boy, he often overemphasized when delivering the lines that made certain sections of the dialogue uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, the movie’s story and message are moving. The Blind Side attempts to give the hopeless hope, and succeeds in doing so. The strength of the story helped me overlook some of the weaker technical elements of the film. I’m sure that you will also be inspired by the young man’s journey.

My latest hopes were poured into District 9: A unique film that joins the talents of unknown (but promising) South African director Neil Blomkamp with well-known epic film connoisseur, Peter Jackson. District 9 tells a story of an alien race that has crash landed on Earth after an important direction module falls from their Mothership. The aliens leave their Mothership hovering over the populated South African City Johannesburg as the occupants descend from their ship in search of parts to restore their ride back home. The film follows the events of the conflict as planet Earth tries to cope with their new neighbors as well as simultaneously attempting to gain information on their advanced weaponry. Despite the promising concept: District 9 only proves to disappoint my expectations as the film constantly prefers to use the sword over the pen. That being said, there’s still some stimulating aspects of District 9, but they never rise above the rest of the crowd.

Wilkus holds up a badge, surely they'll cooperate respectfully

Instead of focusing on what District 9 could’ve been, let’s focus on what is in the film and how that fairs in comparison to its competitors. The narrative storytelling is a hybrid between fake-documentary style of shooting, mixed with the more traditional Hollywood execution. The film flip-flops between fictional interviews with made-up sociologists and news reporters and the standard “camera follows character’s actions” method. At first the jump between both styles is a little disorientating but as the plot continues it begins to favor the later, more straightforward method, making it easier to follow the events of the story.

Whenever people aren’t being interviewed on screen you’re likely to see one of two characters. The first and most prominent is Wikus van der Merwe, an appointed official whose job is to control the Alien occupation situation. The second is Christopher, one of the Alien “prawns” who’s attempting to restore energy back to his personal ship so he can repair the damages done to the Mothership. The two characters’ paths quickly cross over one another, and they soon figure out that they’ll have to work together to achieve a mututally beneficial goal. The problem is District 9 makes the false-assumption that audiences would care more about Wikus, as opposed to the more intriguing and unknown Christopher the alien. The majority of the film is dedicated to Wikus’ story, but you’ll find yourself wondering “When are we going to see Christopher’s side?”

I found the film's level of "awesome" directly correlated with this guy's screen time

However the characters prove to be less than unimportant around halfway through the film. Without spoiling anything, Wikus learns how to use the Alien weaponry, and then the story spirals into a variety of excuses to have firefights and explosions. From the halfway point till the end of the movie, there’s a constant barrage of bullets flying through the air and bodies imploding from extraterrestrial hazardous effects. To be fair to the focus of the film, the action scenes are remarkably well done. The advanced alien technology left the writers to think of a lot of creative ways to blow up the human body. You’ll see a plethora of crazy deaths that will keep you saying “Oh Snap!” even if it’s the tenth time you’ve seen the same execution.

To complement these high energy action sequences, the special effects of District 9 look fantastic. The Alien prawns look lifelike and realistic, and every weapon, mech, and ship looks like its a part of the world. The overall design of every fictional element in the movie is extremely well done; there’s an obvious level of detail that was intended and the efforts of the filmmakers and special effect crew have created one of the most impressive CGI effects in cinema.

Behold: The Mothership

The only inherit problem with District 9 is the expectations it may have set up. The first half sets up a lot of questions that you’ll assume will be answered in the second, but they never are. We never learn anything more about the Aliens than what we knew at the start, how they act, if they have social classes, how they reproduce, or even their basic anatomy. It might be a little bizarre to demand answers to all of these questions, but it’s more bizarre to leave every single question posed unanswered.

These complaints are specific to the type of person you are. So as long as you go into District 9 expecting a popcorn flick with stellar effects and impressive explosions, you’ll enjoy every second of the build up to the climax. It saddens me that District 9 wasn’t able to exalt the genre back into greatness (or at least create an interesting fictional alien race), but that’s a poor reason to look back on a film unfavorably. It might not be the latest and greatest creation in the Sci-Fi genre, but that doesn’t make it crap either.