I thoroughly enjoy movies and TV shows that have a strong focus on sports. Not such a fan of watching sports live, but seeing small clips of exciting games on the big screen is exciting to me. For example, that's one reason I loved 'One Tree Hill' was for the basketball scenes -- which isn't as much of a focus anymore but I still love it. Same goes for 'Friday Night Lights'. Awesome show, and some of my favorite scenes are the sports scenes.
This interest in productions about sports peaked my interest in 'The Blind Side'. I'm also a fan of Sandra Bullock, and was also puzzled by why they made her hair blonde for this movie. I guess she pulled it off, but I also hope she never goes blonde again. It's very very strange. Tim McGraw should also keep his hat on more often. He looks so different, in a kind of weird way, without it.
I didn't know anything about the actual, true story going into this movie. I just thought it looked like a good, heartfelt movie -- a type that we rarely see these days. The box office has really turned into a money hungry industry with little appreciation for a certain realism that connects with the audience. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my $100+ million dollar budget summer blockbusters just as much as the next guy, but sometimes a deviation from that is more than welcome.
I also enjoy reading up on people's and critic's expectations for the movie. Most of the time I disregard what the critics say, but no matter what they say I'll see it for myself and formulate my own opinion about it. One big hype about this movie was that it's Sandra Bullock's best movie, even Oscar worthy. I will admit that it is a deviation from her typical romantic comedy, and I do think she did an amazing job with this role, but I'm not sure about Oscar worthy. Even though the story was compelling and the acting was better than I expected, the movie itself does not jump out at me as Oscar worthy.
This movie did have some serious sentiment to it, however. I almost cried -- twice. That means a lot coming from me. If you don't know me you'll just have to trust me. It was also nice that they included pictures of the real family at the end. I don't follow football and I have no idea who this guy really is, so it was nice to put non-celebrity faces with these characters. It would be very refreshing to see more of this type of movie. I'm growing tired of sequels and remakes -- they're remaking 'The Karate Kid' and there's eventually going to be a sequel for 'Hancock' -- two movies which, in my opinion, really don't deserve any more attention. However, I am stoked for 'Eclipse' and 'Iron Man 2' this summer.
Back to the point, 'The Blind Side' is a movie worth seeing. If you're a normal person, unlike me, you might need a tissue. It's refreshing and it's real, and definitely worth a movie ticket and two hours of your time. It's not the type of movie I would want to watch multiple times, so I probably won't be buying it on DVD, but it's definitely a good one-timer.
And props to the kid who played S.J. -- he was awesome.
