David Fincher Returns With Another Modern Masterpiece: Our Review of "Gone Girl" (2014)

Directed By: David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) 

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens

Rating: R for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexuality/nudity, and language

Run Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Synopsis: After discovering his wife Amy (Pike) missing on the morning of their 5th anniversary, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of the police, media and the public. As Nick stumbles around trying to clear his name, it becomes clear that neither Nick nor Amy was being 100% truthful with each other, with devastating results.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! While Sarah and I were back in Michigan this past weekend for a wedding between two dear friends of ours, we were able to sneak in a visit to a local movie theatre with another dear friend of ours to catch David Fincher's latest film, Gone Girl. Now, this is a film that I personally had been anxiously waiting for as I'm a huge Fincher fan (even took a Fincher film class in college), and while we're a few days late with this review we think it'll be worth it because we've had many thoughts about this film percolating in our brains. So without further ado, let's get to it Sarah. 

Gone Girl is based on the hit 2012 novel of the same name written by Gillian Flynn, who also had the pleasure of adapting her own work for the film's screenplay. It stars Ben Affleck (Argo) as Nick Dunne and Rosamund Pike (The World's End) as his wife Amy, both of whom were once-successful writers in New York City that lost their jobs after the recession and moved to Missouri when Nick's mother was dying of cancer. On their fifth anniversary, Nick comes home to his McMansion to discover a scene of struggle in the living room and Amy missing. What follows is an investigation into Amy's disappearance that takes many twists and turns, with a looming question over whether Nick killed his wife, and whether this married couple really knew each other at all.

Sarah: Right now is a good time to warn our readers that since it's been a number of days since the film came out and a couple of years since the book came out, we're going to discuss non-spoiler aspects of the film first and then touch on some spoiler territory at the end of the review. Don't worry, we'll give fair warning when that section is coming up.

A: Indeed we will. So Sarah, while we hadn't read the book prior to seeing the film, as I mentioned earlier this was one I was very much looking forward to and I know you were as well. Now that we've seen Gone Girl, what are your initial thoughts on it?

Around The Web: "Monsters University" trailer, "Finding Nemo 2" casting news, "Argo" Blu-ray feature, & cool Oscars posters!

Andrew: Hello readers! Once again Sarah and I have rounded up some of the new, best and/or cooler things that we've seen around the worldwide web the past week to share with y'all. So let's get right to it!

THE FIRST FULL TRAILER FOR PIXAR'S MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

A: Yesterday found the online release of the first full-length trailer for Monsters University, the prequel to Pixar's 2001 hit Monsters, Inc. It's actually the international version of trailer (from Great Britain to be exact) so it's different than what we'll probably see Stateside in the near future, but take a look and we'll hit up our thoughts on it afterwards!

A: Personally I'm a little divided after watching this trailer. Sarah knows this, but Monsters, Inc. isn't one of my favorite Pixar movies, and in fact ranks in the bottom half of my personal Pixar film rankings, but the original is still funny and enjoyable enough to watch even now. But this trailer just fell flat for me. It was nice to hear Billy Crystal and John Goodman's voices in the roles of Mike Wazowski and Sully again, but you can definitely tell they've aged by a decade because they just don't sound the same. What do you think of the trailer, Sarah?

Affleck Proves He's One of Today's Best Directors With a Great Political Thriller: Our Review of "Argo" (2012)

Directed By: Ben Affleck (The Town) 

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman

Rating: R for language and some violent images

Run Time: 2 hours

Synopsis: On November 4, 1979, Iranian revolutionaries took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 hostages – but 6 American diplomats were able to escape and took refuge with a Canadian ambassador. As tensions reached a tipping point, C.I.A. “exfiltrator” Tony Mendez (Affleck) hatches a plan, with the help of Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers (Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Arkin), to fly in to Tehran, pose with the “Houseguests” as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a sci-fi film called “Argo,” and fly out together.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Yesterday Sarah and I caught a morning showing of Ben Affleck’s new drama, Argo, which is based on the true story of CIA “exfiltration” expert Tony Mendez’s mission to get six American embassy workers out of Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage situation.

Argo is Affleck’s third directorial effort and his second in a row where he’s pulling double-duty behind and in front of the camera. It’s a film we’ve talked about at length now, Sarah, what with our appearance on the As Your Watch podcast where we talked about it and we previewed it a bit on Thursday, too.

It’s one that we’ve been hearing a lot of good things about including plenty of Oscar buzz. So now that we’ve seen Argo, what did you think of it, Sarah?

Sarah: I was thoroughly impressed! I thought that the storyline was good, but how Affleck execute the plot was amazing. The movie is based on a true story of a classified CIA operation and the general public didn’t know about it until President Clinton declassified it in 1997. (Editor’s note: Until then all the praise had been given to the Canadian government because if Iran knew the U.S. had successfully gotten embassy workers out from under them, the hostages would be in trouble.)

So the strength of the movie was that even though we knew how the story would end, the execution of presenting the story and keeping it as intense as it was was incredibly. Another strength of the movie was the cast. I really enjoyed this movie and can see why Oscar buzz is already surrounding it.

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, October 12th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's been a busy week for us here at Two Tickets For... both from a standpoint of trying to crank out more fresh content but also balancing that with out day jobs. It's also going to be a busy weekend what with FOUR brand-spanking new wide releases hitting theatres plus Sarah starts a new job this weekend. So while we may not be able to see all of the movies we'll talk about in this post by this weekend, don't fret - we'll try to find time somewhere.

Sarah, as I just mentioned we see the release of four new films in theatres that cover a fairly broad spectrum of genres. The most prominent film coming out this weekend is the latest directorial effort from Ben Affleck, Argo, but we also have a new horror movie in Sinister, a new family comedy in Here Comes The Boom starring Kevin James, and a wackier, R-rated action/comedy in Seven Psychopaths. 

(Let's take a second right now to mention that we were fortunate enough to be invited on the As You Watch podcast the other day and we talked about all four of these movies with Nick from The Cinematic Katzenjammer, Joe from Two Dude Review and Vern from Vern's Video Vangaurd. We posted about it the other day HERE and we wrote down the different time codes for the different segments of the podcast in case you'd just like to listen to the part where we discuss these films.)

So Sarah, let's talk about the big movie this weekend, Affleck's Argo, which has been garnering a LOT of Oscar buzz already. It's based on the true story of the 1979 Iran hostage situation in which supporters of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 hostages. Six embassy workers were able to escape and take refuge with a Canadian ambassador but were still in danger, so CIA "extractor" Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) concocts a scheme to fly to Tehran, have the six hideaways pose a Canadian film crew for a fake sci-fi film called “Argo” and get them out alive. Sounds heavy, and the trailer makes this look amazing. What are your impressions of Argo?