Zodiac

Zodiac (2007)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo
Directed by: David Fincher
SC=6 V=8 C=6
Grade: A+

I love movies about crimes...I don't know why...I'm not that violent... Anyway, this is one of the best I've seen, sticking very close to the real-life story. Paul Avery (Downey Jr.) is a star reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle. Also working in the office is Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal), a political cartoonist with a love of puzzles and no respect. A letter arrives at the Chronicle telling of two murders committed. In the letter, the person that wrote it took responsibility for both and sent a cypher to be published in the next edition. The paper doesn't take him seriously, which leads to more killings and more letters, from a man now calling himself "the Zodiac". At first kept out of the loop, when Graysmith solves one of the killer's cyphers and makes several guesses about the killer's next move, Avery starts sharing information with him. As they form a partnership, detectives Dave Toschi (Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) start investigating the case when the killer crosses into their county. As many obstacles enter the picture and many years pass, it becomes clear to most of the people involved that the Zodiac will never be caught. While he is fading in the public interest, Graysmith is only becoming more obsessed. As his obsession grows and he gets closer to the truth, the more he is putting himself and his family in harm's way.

Source Code

Source Code (2011)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, and Vera Farmiga
Directed by: Duncan Jones
SC=3 V=6 C=4
Grade: A-

I love Jake Gyllenhaal. I think he's an underrated actor and, yes, he's good looking. I mean, have you seen him?! Anyway, he's pretty good in this movie, though he wasn't as good as he was in Love and Other Drugs and I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I enjoyed Prince of Persia (which was a lot...I saw it twice in theaters...) Jake stars as Colter Stevens, who flys a helicopter for the Army. The last thing he remembers is flying one in Afghanistan. But, when he wakes up, he is on a train and he has assumed the indentity of another man. As Colter runs around the train, trying to figure out what's going on, the train explodes and he wakes up in some kind of pod. He talks to a soldier named Goodwin (Farmiga), who tells him that he has to go back on the train and find who the bomber is. After being sent back several times, and failing, he finally gets to talk to Rutledge, who is the scientist in charge. Rutledge tells him that he is part of a project that can project another person into the last 8 minutes of someone else's life. To add to the already not-ideal conditions, Colter also has to try to ignore Christina, who is across from him every time he wakes up on the train. But soon he realizes that he doesn't want to ignore her anymore and that, if he can stop the bomb from going off, maybe he can save her life. Goodwin tells him that he can't save the lives of the people on the train, but he can figure out who did this to make their sacrifice worth something. When Colter finds out what happened to him in Afghanistan, will he even want to stay in this reality? Or is another one more promising?

Love and Other Drugs

Love and Other Drugs (2010)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Grade: B

The only reason this movie gets a mildly low grade is because it was very dirty. I don't like awkward movies...and this is obviously one. My best friend and I went to go see it...about half an hour into the movie, we had already seen more of Anne Hathaway (not to mention Jake Gyllenhaal) than we ever wanted to see. Anne plays Maggie, a girl who is a very free spirit and won't let anyone "tie her down". But she meets her match in Jamie (played by Gyllenhaal, of course), who is very charming and won't let up until she agrees to go out with him. They eventually realize that they feel something for each other that neither has felt in a long time (or ever, in Jamie's case). But Maggie's sickness threatens to destroy their relationship for good.