Thespians (2010)

Not quite as good as the in-the-same-vein Make Believe -- mainly because most of the kids seemed less passionate about acting than about being on stage (but I guess that’s par for the course for thespians).  Still, I was invested in the big competition and definitely rooting for some over others.  Melanie from Orlando, pictured, was a particular acting standout (she's in the duet piece from Danny and the Deep Blue Sea; if you see this you'll know what I mean).  I won’t be surprised if she makes it as her talent seems natural and built to go beyond her teen years.

One observation: teachers of high school students seem to have the group mentality of high school students...like they're clique leaders who wrest control but still desperately want to be liked.

B-

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2010)

I feel like this was good...but it was also confusing, and not JUST because of the British accents.

A newbie journalist is beat up every few minutes because he won’t lay off checking into the disappearance of a young schoolgirl that seems tied to two other missing girl cases from a few years back.    He gets involved with the mother of one of the girls and runs afoul of a local bigwig, which seems to be why the police hate him...

I wasn’t ever completely sure what was going on, exactly -- I just knew that this writer was never going to get anywhere except maybe the emergency room. There are a couple of other Red Riding movies; perhaps they’ll shed some light on this one.

B-

Super (2011)

My expectations completely failed me here.  I thought this would be a comedy with a dark edge.  I didn't care for Kick-Ass, but I loved the idea of it and I was simply hoping that this would improve on the "regular dude decides to be a superhero" premise.  I guess it did that sure enough, but it was really so much more.

I liked this story so much that reading the comments on IMDb from people who didn't like it actually upset me -- as though I had a personal stake in the film.  Something about it just spoke to me in an almost religious way. I kind of GOT it and appreciated its commitment to its own bizarre truth.  It wore its heart on its sleeve and made me hurt and hope more than it tried to force laughs out of me.  There were moments of jarring brutality that actually elevated it to a point of consequence.  And the coda, where our superhero finally understands his role in the plan, was just beautiful.  Spiritual.  I'm not kidding (though I think, based on the aforementioned comments, very few are on board with me).

Well, at the very least, everyone should be able to agree that this is a daring, original offering.  And that's not nothin'.

A-

Empire Records (1995)

Why wasn't this movie bigger?  It felt, to me, like a '90s Breakfast Club -- those a decade younger than I should've loved this to death.

It had a kind of "slapped together" vibe, which only added to its charm. There’s a lot of quirk and angst and (bonus!) it’s got a great soundtrack.

B+

Date Night (2010)

An “ornament special” -- but I’m sure that with one eye elsewhere was the only way to make this movie decent. There were some giggles here and there, but the story itself was just ridiculously lazy. Felt like a throwback to a stupider movie-making era.  The over-the-credits shenanigans contained some of the funniest lines.

C

The Eiger Sanction (1975)

Hilariously inane movie that has Eastwood as a retired assassin turned professor being pulled back in.

His employer is an albino, the job’s going to take place during a treacherous climbing expedition, he’s being menaced by a gay man and his little dog “Faggot,” and he’s training with a Native American goddess who doesn’t mind flashing her breasts and never speaks (dreamgirl much?).

Oh, it’s awful...in the most awesome of awful ways.

D

The Conspirator (2011)

A pretty square movie about the trial of Mary Surrat, the owner of the boardinghouse that allegedly served as conspiracy headquarters for the plot to assassinate Lincoln.

There were some good moments, but I can’t know for sure that events occurred anywhere near the way the film purports they did, and that mars the film “Perfect Storm”-style.

C+

Going the Distance (2010)

Terrific chemistry between the leads and a unexpectedly raunchy -- and therefore kinda fun -- romance was marred by a lackluster story and peripheral characters who were either generic or ridiculous.

C

Cinema Verite (2011)

When I’m reading a true-life account of anything, I always flip to those glossy pages in the middle of the book to get a look at the photos of the people involved. Even when I don’t care about the subject, I’m fascinated by the real faces.

Cinema Verite does a great job of weaving in actual footage of the Louds, America’s first reality family, throughout the re-enactments for the film. It’s a decent movie, but without the constant reminders that this stuff really happened -- these are real people -- I wouldn’t have been very interested.

C+

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

Rather dispassionate entry into the series.  It's basically Jacob and Edward vying for Bella’s affections by means of a scowl-off, apparently.

Meanwhile, an army of brand-new vamps is being amassed to take Bella down. The crappy wolf effects do not help at all.

C

Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

A kind of interesting look at a year in the life of the Times...but instead of giving us a thorough overview, we got more of an in-depth look at a handful of stories.

Not bad, but it didn’t too much to convince me that the NY Times deserves to be saved.  It did, however, make me feel nostalgic for the good ol’ days, when stories could be coddled and made epic before publication.  Nowadays, with bloggers spitting out rumors as soon as they're heard, the "behind the now" format of print publication just can't keep up.

C+

Step Up 3D (2010)

Needed more dance and less romance -- especially since the romances were pretty generic.

Crappy rivalry story with some cool dance numbers in between. Could’ve been really fun in 3-D, but in our very 2-D living room set-up, it was pretty dumb.

D+