Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

I really liked the idea of this: the Kremlin gets bombed and it looks like Americans are responsible (Tom Cruise's IMF team to be specific), so they're disavowed and have to work with what they've got to clear themselves.

There was quite a bit more humor in this one courtesy of both Simon Pegg, as a finally-field-qualified agent, and the iffy equipment that had a tendency to not work as intended.  There were also a few truly innovative action sequences: a climb up the Burj Khalifa, a chase in a sandstorm, and a brutal race in an automated parking garage.

Delivered exactly what I wanted and little bit more.

B

Jane Eyre (2011)

This is the fourth adaptation of Jane Eyre I've seen and, despite being the most elaborate of them, it's also the least effective.

Having read Jane Eyre, I know it's not exactly bursting with joy -- but this production went out of its way to be depressing.  It was dark to the point of oppression early on and the orphanage scenes, told in flashback, felt like flashbacks in that they came off as exaggerated and cartoonish with few details.  The caricatures were there, but the loneliness that made her one friend such a brilliant bright spot barely registered.

I watched it with Gary and he liked it quite a bit more than I did so I can't help but wonder, since I've read it and seen a fair few of the film versions, whether this DOES stand on its own when not suffering by comparison.  Ah well, I've just got to go with what I think with all of my history intact.

C

The Life Before Her Eyes (2008)

We see Diana, a woman in her mid-30s in a comfortable marriage and home, with a bit of an indulged brat of a young daughter.  We then see Diana as a high school student, spending time with her best friend right before tragedy -- in the form of a student gunning down classmates and teachers -- strikes.

The story is told in this kind of back-and-forth: adult Diana is coping with the upcoming anniversary of the tragedy while teen Diana butts heads with her mother and rebels in general, while enjoying her deep friendship with the religious Maureen.  I was annoyed by the back-and-forth at times...things got a little arty (especially near the end) and the bratty daughter's behavior made my jaw tighten.

But then the end finally came and the question of "what happened" was finally answered and, I have to say, it was worth it.  Even the flourishes that were annoying me moments before became poetic in retrospect.  In short: I bought it.

B+

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Owen Wilson’s never looked worse and Rachel McAdam’s never acted worse.  The usual Allen affectations abound. I checked, and I haven’t loved a movie of Woody’s since 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors; the closest thing to a winner since then has been Don't Drink the Water, but that's a TV movie.

I’m just tired tired tired of the angsty manic chatter that has become his go-to tic for all of his protagonists. It requires more than simple suspension of disbelief. It demands suspension of memory of all of his other films and of a desire for something different. If this were my first Allen film, I might think it worthy of a B or B+, but since I’ve seen so many, it just seems like a pale imitation of The Purple Rose of Cairo mixed with a bit of Bill and Ted’s or Forrest Gump.

C

Fright Night (2011)

Wastes no time letting you know that the nerdy teen spouting vampire theories is spot on: there is, indeed, a creature of the night in suburbia and keeping a low-profile isn't one of his priorities.

This was the perfect combination of ridiculous, funny, and scary -- I’m guessing that Buffy was more than a passing inspiration (having the Criss Angelesque illusionist's self-given title be “Vampire Slayer” only adds to this argument). Made me love David Tennant even more, if that was possible.

B+

El Norte (1984)

Young-adult Guatemalen brother and sister must escape their hometown where there father has been killed as a rebel and their mother has been scooped up by the authorities. They decide to go north to the states.  The first 30 minutes or so were interminable -- the cinematography was supposed to be MEANINGFUL, I’m sure, but it came off as simply affected.  Once they start their journey, things pick up considerably.

They hire a coyote, crawl through an old sewer line, get settled into a motel that serves as a "cheap Mexicans" work force tenement, get jobs, learn English, and dodge INS.  This is just not strong enough storytelling to have any impact. It’s like an after-school special about the less fortunate; you get the point that life is hard for immigrants, but only because it’s hammered in the dialogue -- not because you actually feel it.

C

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 (2010)

Less confusing than the first one and it also featured a serial killer whose methodology made me feel a little less gross (prostitutes rather than children as victims is, somehow, much easier to take).  But it still felt deliberately murky.

It’s like a thick-with-accents and some-scenes-left-out version of LA Confidential.

B

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

The trailers for this movie made it look so stupid. And, alright, yeah, it’s stupid alright.  The Bureau is basically all-powerful at manipulation of the world (stopping time...moving objects) but they can only travel through their special portals if they're wearing HATS.  Uh, okayyyyy.

Still, there's a kind of sweet “true love can conquer anything” plot and the leads, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, are pretty dang winning. Sometimes that's enough.

C+

Crossfire (1947)

A civilian winds up dead after meeting some soldiers in a bar. The investigator on the case questions several of the servicemen and we see their stories in flashback.  I thought it was going somewhere cool, but no.  It wound up just being a disposable sermon about the small-mindedness of anti-semitism.

Not bad, but it coulda been so much better if it would’ve stopped preaching for a couple of minutes.

C

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Great-looking movie that knows how to use digital effects in such a way that they don't distract from the scene. Robert Downey Jr. is hotter than usual and the story was fun enough to keep my attention (ok, I fell asleep in the middle of it, but only because I was SICK).

Just a fun couple of hours.

B

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

I’m pretty sure that Steve Carell can only imitate himself (i.e. Michael Scott), because -- with the exception of Anchorman (which, come to think of it, may have simply been Michael Scott with an IQ of 60) -- I’ve never seen him do anything else.

Despite his predictable presence, however, the movie is pretty good. It’s at its best in the far too few scenes that put ladies' man Gosling and down-to-earth Stone together -- I wanted them to be the entire movie. They earned an “A” in interesting and endearing while the rest managed to be merely fine.

B

The Help (2011)

It was certainly fun/entertaining to watch, but come on...it’s not really that great of a movie.  It's basically an emotional button-pusher that works for those who want those buttons pushed.  I didn't mind it, but the manipulation was so blatant that there was no way to give myself over to it without feeling like a willing dupe.

Part of the problem was that we never got past the surface of the many, many characters.  The flashback with our heroine Skeeter and her aged maid comforting her when not asked to a school dance wasn't touching -- it just felt inconsequential and random.  I had the same feeling when Skeeter's (fairly new) boyfriend took off.  We’d barely gotten to know him before he dumps her for the very thing that drew him to her in the first place.

The only storyline that I was even the least bit interested in was the one that had Jessica Chastain's new bride being shunned by society.  The problem is that it showed that the Jackson women were cold to ANYONE outside of their circle, color be damned.  These women were bitches, straight up.

Just kind of all over the place and in desperate need of focus.

B-

Reuben, Reuben (1983)

A washed-up poet, living on readings to bored housewives who later jump into bed with him, finds himself completely smitten with a college student at least 20 years his junior (Kelly McGillis).

The story starts out kind of promisingly: his disdain for himself and almost everyone he meets coupled with his verbal acuity was interesting for a while...but not long enough. It actually got rather uncomfortable in the last half. It was harder to watch him after falling head over heels (and hard to believe  that the empty McGillis could inspire anything beyond an erection) as at least before he hadn't been making any attempts at likability.

D+