{"id":1187,"date":"2014-06-13T20:20:54","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T20:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:45:45","slug":"on-the-road-to-charisma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=1187","title":{"rendered":"On the road to charisma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/external-content.duckduckgo.com\/iu\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BMTQ3MDU4MTI3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzg5NDYyMDE%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg&amp;f=1&amp;nofb=1&amp;ipt=8c67b9cefdab2e885b4352c6a7b2409a0f54ad7ce07b279a93c8ad86d443b3bc\" alt=\"Zero Charisma (2013) - IMDb\" width=\"186\" height=\"276\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2294965\/?ref_=nv_sr_1\">Zero Charisma<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2013)<\/p>\n<p>In his thirties, overweight, and living with his grandmother, Scott&#8217;s life revolves around the weekly <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dungeons_%26_Dragons\">Dungeons and Dragons<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>game he hosts in his basement.<\/p>\n<p>When one of the regular players quits to save his marriage, Scott recruits Miles, a successful blogger, to replace him. Eventually, his jealousy of Miles&#8217;s success and popularity with the other players leads to a confrontation.<\/p>\n<p>Scott&#8217;s sad tale is a warning. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Superman\">Superman<\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Simpsons\">The Simpsons<\/a><\/em>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pok%C3%A9mon\">Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>\u00a0are healthy outlets, but when we take our passions too seriously, we deprive ourselves of the joy they provide.\u00a0As Scott&#8217;s idol, Greg Goran, counsels him &#8220;it&#8217;s a game&#8230; if your players aren&#8217;t having fun, you&#8217;re not doing your job.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This low-budget, passion project is amateurish, but feels more genuine than most blockbusters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/external-content.duckduckgo.com\/iu\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BOGEwYWU5ODEtYjNmZi00YmQzLThhNzAtYTU4ODQzMmQxMTU4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg&amp;f=1&amp;nofb=1&amp;ipt=437abcbf0170317ffeb9c4f96abf46694b1da136e08f359e6b1b1edd2cd067ce\" alt=\"Road to Perdition (2002)\" width=\"198\" height=\"292\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0257044\/?ref_=nv_sr_1\">Road to Perdition<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2002)<\/p>\n<p>Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an enforcer for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Irish_Mob\">Irish mobster<\/a>\u00a0John Rooney (Paul Newman). \u00a0After Michael Sullivan Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) follows his dad to a meeting and witnesses a murder, Sullivan&#8217;s family is targeted for assassination to keep the murder quiet, but father and his son survive to seek their revenge.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Hanks is too likable and carries too much goodwill to be a believable hitman.\u00a0 The film would have been better served with a slightly more menacing lead, like Tommy Lee Jones or Josh Brolin.<\/p>\n<p>Newman is fantastic as the conflicted mobster who loves his top lieutenant, Sullivan, more than his own son, Connor (Daniel Craig).<\/p>\n<p>Craig is serviceable as Rooney&#8217;s overmatched son, but his role is not as large as it could have been.<\/p>\n<p>Stanley Tucci shines as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Frank_Nitti\">Frank Nitti<\/a>, but it feels like he was shoehorned into the story because his connection with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Al_Capone\">Al Capone<\/a>\u00a0provides an air of credibility to the film.<\/p>\n<p>Jude Law is Harlan Maguire, a contract killer who moonlights as a scandal photographer.\u00a0 While Sullivan claims a moral code governs his less than savory behavior, Maguire exists outside of morality.\u00a0\u00a0 This character was not in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Road_to_Perdition_(comics)\">original graphic novel<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0scenes involving him feel like they belong in a different film. \u00a0I love the character, but would have preferred more of the Rooney family dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Hoechlin currently stars as werewolf Derek Hale in the MTV series\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_Teen_Wolf_characters#Derek_Hale\">Teen Wolf<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0I won&#8217;t claim it&#8217;s good, but I watch out of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Teen_Wolf\">nostalgic loyalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Mendes films offer a bleak view of humanity. \u00a0Try watching <em>American Beauty<\/em>\u00a0(1999) and <em>Revolutiona<\/em><em>ry Road<\/em>\u00a0(2008) back to back.<\/p>\n<p>This film boasts great performances by Law and Newman, and an excellent ending, but it tries to do too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Zero Charisma\u00a0(2013) In his thirties, overweight, and living with his grandmother, Scott&#8217;s life revolves around the weekly Dungeons and Dragons\u00a0game he hosts in his basement. When one of the regular players quits to save his marriage, Scott recruits Miles, a successful blogger, to replace him. Eventually, his jealousy of Miles&#8217;s success and popularity with&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=1187\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">On the road to charisma<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[916,439,920,919,918,921],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-dungeons-and-dragons","tag-jude-law","tag-paul-newman","tag-sam-mendes","tag-tom-hanks","tag-tyler-hoechlin","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14846,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions\/14846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}