Out Of The Furnace

My Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Went to RedBox the other night and rented Out of the Furnace.  I enjoyed it, but it did run a little long, and had some unnecessary story lines and some pointless scenes.  However, the acting in the movie was still pretty good.  Casey Affleck and Christian Bale play believable brothers, and Woody Harrelson did a fantastic job as the bad guy.  However, here is how I would change it up a little...
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The first one to change would be the older brother of the two, Russell, played by Christian Bale.  I have chosen to go with Bradley Cooper.  Cooper has proven himself recently with two Oscar nominations in the past couple of years, and I would say he could play this character very well.
 

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The next character to cast would be Rodney, played by Casey Affleck.  I chose to go with Emile Hirsch.  Hirsch has done a good job and playing troubled characters such as in Into the Wild, Alpha Dog, and more recently Prince Avalanche.  I also feel as if Bradley Cooper and Hirsch would make a good brother duo.
   

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Next character to cast would be Harlan, the creepy back woods bad guy, played by the great Woody Harrelson.  I have decided to go with someone equally as great, and that would be Viggo Mortensen.  If you have seen Eastern Promises, then you could definitely agree that he could do well in this role.
            

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The last main character to cast would be the role of Lena, the girlfriend of Russell, played by Zoe Saldana.  I chose to go with Nicole Beharie.  Beharie has not been in too much, but I saw her in the movie Shame and she was very likable and would go well with Cooper.
       

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One of the last smaller roles I would cast would be for the role of John Petty, played by Willem Dafoe.  I have decided to go with James Caan.
     

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And last but not least, would be the role of Chief Wesley Barnes, played by Forest Whitaker. I have decided to go with Morris Chestnut.



Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed who I would have picked for Out of the Furnace.

Blue Jasmine

My Rating: 3 1/2 stars


I recently watched Blue Jasmine on DVD, and thought that of course Woody Allen did another phenomenal job.  The casting of course was pretty on point, especially with a Best Actress win for Cate Blanchett and a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Sally Hawkins.  However, I changed it up a little and changed the cast to what I would have picked if the cast already picked was not chosen.

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The first would be for the main character, Jasmine, played by Cate Blanchett.  I have chosen to go with Charlize Theron, mainly based on her roles in movies such as Monster and Young Adult.  Theron would be able to play the perfect combination of crazy as well as darkly humorous like this character calls for.

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The next character to cast would be for the role of Ginger, played by Sally Hawkins.  I have chose to go with Ari Graynor.  Some people may be asking, "who?" However, after seeing this indie actress play in some supporting roles in movies such as Lucky and Celeste and Jesse Forever, I believe she can capture this characters innocence and less than perfect lifestyle.

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Hal is the next character to cast, who was the sleazy husband of Jasmine played by Alec Baldwin.  I went with Jon Hamm as my pick, mainly from his roles in MadMen as well as in Bridesmaids.  He has already played wealthy business men, and would be very good at playing a character who acts innocent but is really actually very deceiving. 

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Chili would be the next main character to cast.  Played by Bobby Cannavale, Chili is loud, a little obnoxious, but also very loving and is Ginger's boyfriend at the time.  He drives Jasmine up the wall, and the two of them don't get along.  I have chose Anthony Mackie, mainly because I see him and Ari Graynor going well together, but he has also really shown his colors as an actor recently.

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The last main character that I will add to this cast would be Dwight, a love interest of Jasmine that falls apart after she lies.  Dwight is played by Peter Sarsgaard.  I chose Mark Ruffalo.  Ruffalo would play a good womanizer, as well as a character who is naive to the lies that Jasmine is telling him.  

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The last two characters I won't go into too much detail, but Al, played by Louis C.K., I would replace with Chris Pratt.  Augie, played by Andrew Dice Clay I would replace with Ryan Hurst.

Al

Augie

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed who I would have picked for Blue Jasmine