Review of Trumbo (2015) by Leon B — 16 Sep 2016

Review:

Although the acting in this movie was pretty impressive, I did find this film slightly boring and repetitive. Bryan Cranston plays the famous screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted, along with his fellow screenwriters, after being accused of being a communist. To put food on the table, he supplied his scripts to studios under another name, while the Trumbo brand was tarnished in the papers, and on the streets of America. During this period, his movies won Oscars and made a lot of money for studios, so he brought his fellows writers, along for the ride. As I've seen movies based on this period in Hollywood before, like Chaplin, I wasn't surprised with the outcome. Cranston was great as Trumbo but I was expecting more about the man, than the politics in Hollywood during the 50's and 60's. With that aside, the scenes with the family were sweet and I liked the relationship between Trumbo and his daughter but too much time was wasted on the politics, which we get enough of in this day and age. Its still a watchable movie, mainly because of Trumbo's determination to make movies whilst standing up for his rights and providing for his family but from an entertainment point of view, it's pretty average.

Round-Up:

There was a slight buzz in Hollywood when this movie was released but judging by the box office taking, the buzz didn't last that long. The real Dalton Trumbo died in 1970 at the age of 70, and he wrote big movies like Roman Holiday, Papillon, Johnny Got His Gun and Spartacus. He was a true leader, when it came to standing up for his rights and he did live the lavish life, compared to his fellow writers but you couldn't beat his talent for creating a classic movie, even though he had weird methods of screenwriting. It was good to see him finally get recognition for his work towards the end of the movie but I personally think that there was more to his vision, than the film portrayed. Anyway, this film was directed by, Mexican born, Jay Roach, 59, who also brought you the Austin Powers franchise, Dinner For Schmucks, the Campaign and the Meet the Parents franchise. Although this movie had some comedic moments, it isn't a full out a comedy like his previous movies, and I'm not sure that be was the perfect choice to bring Trumbo's amazing story to the big screen. With that aside, it's still worth a watch but it's not the type of film that you can watch time, and time again.

Budget: $15milion.

Worldwide Gross: $8.2million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/crime/dramas, starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, John Goodman, Elle Fanning, Michael Stuhlbarg,.

David Maldonado, John Getz, Laura Flannery, Alan Tudyk, Richard Portnow, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and David James Elliott. 4/10.