Film Review: The Blind Side

I went to see this movie with my Mom about three Saturdays ago. On its third week in theaters, this film still have lots of people watching it. The theater was full.

Here's my review...

The Blind Side (2009)

Starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Quinton Aaron, and Lilly Collins

Watch the trailer for The Blind Side below:

[source: hollywoodstreams]

Synopsis

The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

I thought The Blind Side was a great movie. Another one of Sandra Bullock's awesome and successful films of 2009 (The Proposal was one of them. See my review of it here...save for All About Steve...though I didn't see that one, but I could already tell from the trailer that it was mediocre, unfortunately, even with Sandra on it...it just didn't compare to The Proposal and this film...a few people I know who has seen it were disappointed with it...so I skipped it and will probably just see it on netflix or red box when it's released on DVD soon, lol).

The Blind Side was a true story based on the life of NFL player Baltimore Ravens' Michael Oher and the Tuohy family (Leigh Anne & Sean and their kids Collins and SJ Tuohy). While the story is a typical rags-to-riches tale, it still was heartfelt, moving,
inspirational, and a true story. The casting and directing were brilliant. 
Sandra Bullock was outstanding in her serious, funny, and powerful performance here as (the lead star playing a wife and mother of two kids. Though I'm not fond of her blond hairdo, I now understand why it was blond here, lol.) Leigh Anne Tuohy, who is married to Sean Tuohy (played by country singer Tim McGraw), with two kids - teenage daughter Collins (played by pretty newcomer Lilly Collins, who surprisingly is Brit singer Phil Collins real-life daughter...interesting...she does not look like him, which she probably got her looks from her mother). Sandra was amazing in this film. It's her best acting (serious and dramatic-wise) I've seen her performed on-screen in a long time. She sure deserves all the glowing reviews, award nods and accolades, box-office success
(FYI: this film has now grossed over $153M in less than 4 weeks and still seating pretty at #2 on this past weekend's Top 10 after dethroning The Twilight Saga: New Moon from the Top of its previous weekend's BO stats...with just a $29M budget, according to Box Office Mojo. What a remarkable success for Sandra after just having a huge box office succcess with The Proposal last June). Sandra sure is unstoppable at over 40 years of age!Go Sandy!!! (she still looks younger than her age

too, pretty much looking young and the same over the years...talk about aging gracefully like a fine wine) ... as a fan, I'm very happy and proud of her for both of  these huge accomplishments she has with both

The Proposal and The Blind Side. It's about time Sandra gets the
recognition and award nominations from film critics awards and Best Actress nominations from Critics Choice Movie Awards, Golden Globes (double nominations for Best Actress in comedy/musical for The Proposal and Best Actress Drama for The Blind Side), and now a SAG (just announced earlier this morning) nomination for Best Actress for this film. Oscar nomination should follow soon...hopefully...we'll see!

Tim McGraw (I've only seen him in the lil' movie Flicka) as Sean Tuohy, husband of Sandra's character Leigh Ann, and father of two was pretty good here. He did a great job playing Sandra Bullock's husband in this film. Kathy Bates was, as usual, very good, but also very funny. She had small supporting role, but they were memorable and 2 of her scenes with Sandra and Quinton made me laugh, lol. Newcomers
Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher  (the man behind the story portrayed here) was wonderful in this film as does Lilly Collins (who ironically played Leigh Anne Tuohy's older teenage daughter name...Collins) and Jae Head as S.J. (the younger child of the Tuohys) was cute, adorable, and funny. The rest of the cast were great too.

Overall, I thought this film was AWESOME (esp. for a typical sports drama, but more interesting and intriguing because it was based on a true story), moving and inspiring. My mom and I really enjoyed watching this film. I highly recommend you see it, if you haven't already. It's a
MUST-SEE film (and one of the best and moving films I've seen this year) and as great as its hype, word-of-mouth, and incredible and huge box-office gross/success. It's one of the few films of 2009 that's a family friendly and you can take the entire family with you along with your friends. Go see it!


My The Blind Side Film Rating: ! (10/10; A+)