|
Here at Done Dirt Cheap DVD Towers, there’s a certain someone that all of the girls have been swooning over for a couple of months now so it’s only fitting that we have a look at where the hunky Gerard Butler came from (come on guys, you have eyes too!). This week, Law Abiding Citizen hits the cinemas and is packed with a heap of Butlery goodness but is the flick actually any good? Well, we should really begin by mentioning that this is no rom-com, in fact, it couldn’t be further from one. Butler teams up with another one of our favourites, Jamie Foxx and the two work nicely together, complimenting one another’s scenes nicely. Nick Rice (Foxx) is a District Attorney on the rise but when he lets a rapist (and did we mention, a psychotic rapist?) escape from jail after he provides Nick with evidence that will further his career, Clyde Shelton (Butler) is not a happy camper! Clyde’s wife and daughter were tortured and raped at the hands of the man that Nick lets walk free causing Clyde to spend the next decade planning his revenge and can we just say, it ain’t pretty. When you’re done enjoying Law Abiding Citizen, check out Dolan’s Cadillac which is another film that explores a husband’s revenge against his wife’s crazed killer. But back to Butler, we thought we’d better have a more in-depth look at a few of this sexy beast’s (oops, we meant actor’s) past films and boy, what a delightful task this proved to be.  Firstly, just to show off his versatility, we thought we’d have a look at one of Butler’s roles in a family-friendly movie, Nim’s Island. Nim (Abigail Breslin whose career is developing nicely thanks to her sensational performance in My Sister’s Keeper) lives what can only be described as an isolated life on a remote island with her widowed father (Butler). Her only friends are the lizards, sea lions and pelicans living on the island but she finds a lot of comfort in reading about her favourite fictional hero, Alex Rover. Rover’s creator, Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) also leads a rather lonely existence but in a different location locked away in her city apartment. Nim’s world is thrown into complete chaos when her home is threatened by the arrival of a themed cruise ship looking to cash in on what the island has to offer. In a last ditch effort to save what she holds dear, Nim reaches out to Alexandra for help forcing the popular author to defy her agoraphobia and plunge herself into the world. We really loved seeing Butler as a father and a scientist (smart and cute, perfect!) in this fine feel-good flick.  For something way different, we took a look at 300 which is all about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Butler plays King Leonidas, the head of an army that includes his trusted lieutenant Dilios (David Wenham) and 300 other Spartans who are engaged in a battle to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his large (okay, massive!) Persian army. This sounds pretty straight forward right? Well, it would be if the Spartan Senate wasn’t trying to do everything in its power to thwart Leonidas’ attempts. In response, his wife Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) even tries to summon support for her husband, putting herself at the center of a humiliating plea to the treacherous Senator Theron (Dominic West). But this fails to produce effective results making the task for the 300 battle-hardened warriors under Leonidas’ command even more difficult (put simply, they pretty much know they’re actually sacrificing themselves, a commitment they’re willing to make if it means inspiring all of Greece to unite against the Persian enemy. 300 will have your stomach churning as you feel for the men and women sacrificing everything for their country.  There’s no way we can talk about Gerard Butler’s past work without taking a good look at RocknRolla which was directed by Guy Ritchie. This flick sees Butler playing One Two, a con artist making a nice living for himself in London thanks to his dodgy career in real estate. One Two idolises Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) who he sees as the man to take his career to the next level. When Victor (Dragan Micanovic), a Russian mobster organises a crooked land deal, Lenny realises that there’s millions of dollars up from grabs and wants in on a piece of the action. But instead of going in alone, he decides to involve Victor’s sexy accountant Stella (Thandie Newton), a corrupt council worker (Jimi Mistry) and even petty thieves such as Cookie (Matt King) in his evil plans. But before long, they all find themselves competing with one another as opposed to working together to secure the millions. As you’d expect, there’s quite a lot of violence in RocknRolla but hey, it’s a Guy Ritchie film so don’t come cryin’ to us!  What? Is our little Butler trip over? No fair… oh well, we’ll just have to think up something just as fun for next time!
|
