Five movies coming your way. The hours of my job allow me to have several days off a week in order to do other things, so I usually watch a movie every morning after I wake up.

Wednesday, I was able to watch three films. The first was The Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day-Lewis. I had started this movie once a while back, but I never finished it. Being a big fan of Day-Lewis, and it being on sale for $5 at Best Buy, I figured I would give it another shot. It is a fantastic film with beautiful cinematography and a sweeping score. Michael Mann, who is usually more into crime and edgier stuff than adaptations of old novels did a great job with this. It is pretty cheesy at times, but it has some great battle sequences.

After seeing Jersey Boys and being pretty disappointed, I wanted to go back and watch a good Eastwood film. Million Dollar Baby is about 10 years old now and it still packs an emotional wallop. It gave Morgan Freeman his first Oscar (Yeah, I know. What the heck Academy), it gave Swank another, and it was the last winning film by Eastwood. It is such a beautiful and heartbreaking film. If only Eastwood could have harnessed the emotion from it and put some into Jersey Boys….

I next watched Fight Club. As a Film Studies major and having taken film classes with a lot of non-Film Majors, there is a handful of movies that are consistently thrown out that are people’s favorites. They are: American Beauty, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, and Fight Club. It is a fantastic movie. Ever since I saw it in 7th grade, I always wonder why people think it’s their favorite. It is such an edgy film that has stood the test of time (minus some poor CGI in some areas), Brad Pitt is amazing, and that plot twist has miraculously held some of its power.

Last night I watched Closer for the first time in a couple years. The little British film by Mark Nichols that earned Natalie Portman and Clive Owen Oscar nominations is a smart, sexy, and emotional film about relationships and love. It is by no means a happy film. It is filled with unlikable people who sleep around and treat each other poorly, but it is captivating and you get invested in their relationships.

Finally, this morning I rewatched Warrior, a hidden little gem of 2011 that deserves far more attention than it got. While it did get an Oscar nom for Nick Nolte, the film should have gotten far more than that. It is the tale of two brothers, a teacher and a marine, who have lived their lives apart due to a bad childhood. They are both fighters and they enter in an MMA tournament. The film is powerful. It has some great performances from some not-too-well-known actors like Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy. While it does contain a whole lot of cliche tropes from sports movies: the unbeatable opponent, the brother against brother showdown, the underdog story, and many more, it makes them feel more like a modern fighting movie than a remake of say, Rocky, in a different type of ring. If you haven’t seen it, go check it out.