Seven Pounds

For better or worse, I tend to sort actors according to how much they rely on character acting skills versus just being themselves. At one end of this spectrum are actors like Gary Oldman, who are so good at morphing into someone else that I sometimes don't even recognize them.

At the other end are actors who just sort of fall back on attitude and charisma, and I would have to put Will Smith as a prime example. Now I like Will Smith, but in every movie I've seen him in he's just doing his cool/jokey thing, so I had written him off as not having much range. Until now...

I found Seven Pounds to be just a so-so movie overall -- story, acting, directing, etc. have some good points, but sort of get tedious and sentimental by the end. But what I noticed right from the start was that Will Smith has finally evolved some new acting range. In particular I saw in his face some depth, especially when he was showing pain.

I like it when actors (and most other artists, e.g. musicians) step outside their comfort zone and push into new territory, and grow. Welcome to a new level, Will.

Carriers

Virus-related apocalypse movies are a dime a dozen nowadays, so I was skeptical going into this one. My only real interest in it was Chris Pine, who I am a dedicated fan of thanks to Star Trek. I was pleasantly surprised, though. In addition to its fairly talented cast, Carriers managed to stand out amongst other films of its ilk by focusing on the characters instead of the virus. And although the movie is about how the survival instinct separates us from our humanity, it avoids becoming a morality tale by maintaining a delicate balance between tugging at the audience's heartstrings and shocking them. The concluding voice over monologue felt a bit forced and there's some 28 Days Later crossover here and there, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied.