Biking, Baseball And Joseph Gordon-Levitt: 4 Movies Worth Checking Out

A while ago my friend "Bear"* asked for some movie suggestions, so this is the first of many posts that will let you all in on some movies that are not quite as well known as say, Harry Potter, or

Avatar, but are pretty awesome in their own right none the less. So to start I thought I would give you two sports movies and two movies with one of the best young actors in the business, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. So first up is the true story, (Actually, they are both based on true stories, sweet) of a crazy Scot who challenged the cycling world authorities, (who are jerks, big fat jerks, well, ok, due to the fact that I am trying to lose weight I won't say they are big fat jerks, cause they seemed to be thin enough, but they are still jerks none the less) and changed the sport forever. I am talking about,

Flying Scotsman Trailer by clr16

Yeah, The Flying Scotsman is terrific, I remember seeing a trailer for it but then it disappeared out of theaters fast, as many of the really good movies do. Anyway, The Flying Scotsman is a very good movie about a man who is trying to overcome depression and

 disappointment to become the best cyclist in the world. The acting is quite good from the whole cast with Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Boyd, (minus the hairy feet**) and Brian Cox all putting in great performances, and it does a great job of letting you feel the movement of riding a bike incredibly fast, even one made with washing machine parts. So check out The Flying Scotsman, if you are looking for an inspiring movie or just really like weird shaped bikes. Next up is a movie about a small town that eats, sleeps and breaths baseball, (my buddy Joel would have loved growing up in this place) and they also play it a bunch too, well, at least they did before they had The Final Season.

The Final Season is a well put together small town small budget baseball movie that is predictable yet still good. It is fairly clean, family friendly and has a decent cast. Again as with the first movie, it is based on a true story, has a good message and oh, and it also has Rachael Leigh Cook, who looks really cute in a baseball hat. So if you likea da baseball, and you likea da movies, then you will probably like The Final Season.

Now, onto the awesomeness of Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Now you may know JGL, (thats whats all his friends call him***, and since I have seen so many of his movies it's like we are practically brothers, so he is cool with me using it) from such movies as Angels In The Outfield, 500 Days Of Summer and the best movie of 2010, Inception, (where he was awesome) but JGL is an incredibly hard working actor, and has been in a lot films, and not all of them get the attention they deserve. So to start, do yourself a favor and keep a "LOOKOUT"**** for the movie Brick.

Brick is a fairly unique movie in that it is a teenage film noir that would have made Bogart***** proud, (for those of you who don't know what Film Noir is I stole the following description from Wiki

 for you, "Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations.", for those of you who already knew that, pat yourself on the back, cause you are in the know) it has good solid acting, interesting dialog that although seems very unrealistic, works amazingly well for some reason and a well put together mystery. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as the lead, looking for answers about his ex-girlfriends murder among the elite of the high school culture, taking a lot of punishment along the way. This movie is not for everyone, some will find it too slow or too self involved, but for me, it works pretty much perfectly, and it might work for you too.

To finish up I leave you with another Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie that rocks and doesn't get enough love, The Lookout.

Just like The Flying Scotsman, this is a movie that I remember seeing trailers for and then it seemed to just never come out, so when I finally got a chance to see it I was bummed, cause it rocked, and hardly anybody saw it. Jeff Daniels and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are great together, bickering back and forth, and then you get a cool mystery and heist kinda all thrown in there. JGL gives a stellar performance as he tries to keep his mind straight while being stuck with an injury that fights him at every turn, (it is a little bit like Memento, which is another awesome movie in its own right), and it has a very satisfying ending.

So there you go, four movies that deserve to be seen that you might have missed. Feel free to let me know what you think if you end up watching them, or are ultra cool and have seen them already, that would of course mean you would have to comment, which seems most people don't want to do, (with a few exceptions, you guys that do read and comment, you know who you are, and thank you very much for taking the time to give me your thoughts, what ever they may be). So until next time, stay safe, stay in school, and stay away from the KFC Double Stacker, it is pure evil******. Blog at you later.

*I named him that, cause I tend to give people nick names when it suits them, like my friend Stretch, who got named cause she is tall and thin, but also has the last name Armstrong, and there was an awesome toy from my youth called Stretch Armstrong, so it just fits her perfectly, boy am I awesome.
**He played a Hobbit incase you didn't get the follicle foot reference.
***I just made that up, I have no clue what his friends call him.
****Ha, JGL movie title joke, don't worry if you have no clue what I am talking about, I do, and that is all that matters.
*****Bogart is a reference to one of the coolest actors in movie history, Humphrey Bogart, who did a bunch of film noir movies, and it makes me very sad if you didn't know that.

******That is unless KFC wants to sponsor me, in which case it is the best thing ever! Yeah, I can be bought, at least in matters concerning fast food chicken.