#22: Love Actually

For us to do all types of films, love and romance are part of the genres necessary to watch the 365 films. I was actually completely surprised from this movie. Even though the title is Love Actually, it's less about love than you would expect it. It's got a great story outline, pretty much it's around six to eight story outlines that manage to come together in the end. Love Actually was extremely funny, where I expected something deep and romantic between two characters throughout the entire movie. Bill Nighy plays Billy Mack, a pop-star, who is unbelievable and so hysterical to watch. A tag team of big names such as Colin Ferth, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Kiera Knightley and Emma Thompson are among great role characters for this movie. This may be the most shocking but Liam Neeson made me almost cry of laughter, I always see him as this tough macho guy, but he plays the role of a single dad, who's just great at what he does in the film. The reason I say this is because of one of my favorite movies of Liam Neeson's is Taken, where he plays a father out to get gang members who kidnapped his daughter, where he just takes absolutely no prisoners. Oh, and I wanted to add, if you haven't heard of him, Kris Marshall, possibly the funniest character in the film. Outright hysterical. Now, the title Love Actually does come into play and love does play a pretty big role in this film, where it is prevalent around every character. It's a touching, laughable, saddening, and joyful film all at the same time. Richard Curtis hits the nail on the head with his directing and screenwriting. Lastly, if you didn't realize it's a British film, which inevitably makes this movie even better, for me at least.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

- Josh Berg

#15: Cashback

We came to a consensus at midnight last night that we both wanted to watch a comedy, but there's wasn't much that we wanted to see. We were considering Slap Shot, a hockey comedy made in 1977, so I guess I felt it was a little dated and we needed to be more current and watch something completely different, so we decided to go with the movie Cashback.

Personally, I really enjoyed the movie, while to me it resembled three movies in one: Click, 500 Days of Summer and The Machinist. Sean Biggerstaff, who plays Ben Willis, the lead role, reminds me of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. Throughout the movie, a theme of time manipulation reminded me of Click, and Ben Willis has insomnia, reminding me of Christian Bale's character in The Machinist. The writer and director Sean Ellis did a great job making this film, from the shots to the screenwriting to the whole performance in general. It felt completely different from anything I've ever seen and it was definitely worth seeing. It's a little vulgar but also extremely funny at times. For me, definitely worth the 100 minutes.

Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10

- Josh Berg

I re-shelved Cashback more times than I can remember when I was working at the local movie store in high school. Every time, I looked at the cover and rolled my eyes. "Another movie claiming to be 'artsy' that's just an excuse to get girls naked in strange places," I'd think. A worthy cause perhaps, but it's never produced a good film. Cashback surprised me. While there was a fair amount of nudity, the movie genuinely wasn't about degrading women.

Being a comedy, I expected there to be a fair bit of tasteless, sexist humor in Cashback. But while the movie definitely had a theme of sexuality, it stayed classy with its humor.

I really liked Cashback. The direction was amazing and the humor was spot-on. It was serious enough to get me caring about the characters and funny enough to keep me watching. It was a British comedy with British humor, a type some Americans don't have a taste for (I'm not being a worldly snob here, just telling you that if you don't like British humor, this movie probably isn't for you), but I thought it was hilarious and adorably genuine at the same time.

I recommend Cashback, despite the strange cover art.

Overall Rating: 8.7 / 10

-Taylor Dobbs