Lawless -
It's so rare to come across a great movie that I'm shocked when I find one. This is not perfect, but it gets so many things right, that it's easy to look over the missteps.
I'll admit that as soon as I saw "based on a true story" my heart sank. I've said in the past how I really, really hate those words. It's just so distracting for me. Fortunately, up until the end, I was able to forget that I was watching a lie.
Everyone is great here, including Shia. It's nice to see him in a "real" role, outside of the crappy Transformers movies. Tom Brady's role is subdued, but he does it so well. Guy Pearce is amazing as the fancy Chicago cop. It's nice to see him in such a cool role.
The only iffy character is Maggie, played by Jessica Chastain. She does well enough, but she has no real purpose outside of being a token female. I wonder if it's even a real character, lor just made up to have a woman in the movie. Sure feels that way.
It ends up being quite a violent tale, with bloody gunfights throughout.
The ending is a bit hard to swallow, and once again, I wonder if it really happened this way. I figure they couldn't fudge that, though, without people squawking, so it must be. Truly bizarre.
I really liked this movie, overall. It had a great atmosphere, good direction, and some great characters. Very much recommended.
Doghouse -
This was a random pick off of IFC On Demand, and both Nan and I loved it. It's not a great film in any way, but it has such a great sense of humor about itself, that it's hard to argue against it.
This is kind of what happens when you combine Evil Dead with Shaun of the Dead. A zombie movie, with plenty of violence and gore, but also plenty of laughs.
Recommended for anyone who enjoyed the above two movies. Just don't expect something as great as those two and you'll be alright.