Critical MeMe

Unknown (2011)

2012-01-07T23:50:00.000-06:00

Man in Berlin for a conference gets into a car accident and it seems, when he wakes up from a short coma, everyone else has somehow suffered amnesia where he's concerned. It had me rolling my eyes for most of the movie as everything seemed so convoluted. It was obvious that he was being tricked somehow, but why? And how could it possibly make any sense?

I was happily surprised that the story came together seamlessly. I couldn't have predicted that the riduclousness on the screen would eventually be proven reasonable, but they pulled it off. Amazing that 3/4 of the movie could be saved by the last fourth (usually it's the other way around), but there ya go.

B

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

2012-01-07T19:27:00.000-06:00

Rudd is sweet as the titular brother whose honesty and good-samaritan tendencies land him in jail and then into the homes of his mother and sisters. He then proceeds to mess up their well-ordered lives with his complete lack of guile.

This is one of those "the screw-up is the only one who actually has his life together" stories. Of course, I say that and then can't think of a single example of a prior movie that falls in that category -- but I'm sure there is one since it felt like I'd seen this before.

Likable but obvious.

B-

The Fall (2008)

2012-01-02T21:33:00.000-06:00

What a lovely film.

It reminded me a bit of A Little Princess, in that we have a storyteller whose tale becomes a part of the film. In this case the narrator is Roy, a stuntman convalescing from both a crippling fall and a broken heart. The listener is young Alexandria, also recuperating in the hospital due to a fall, but with the advantage of mobility since it was her arm that was hurt.

There's the part of the story that is the epic tale that Roy weaves for Alexandria. We hear the words Roy speaks but see what Alexandria visualizes. The characters have the same faces as people from her life and her interpretations (sometimes changing on-the-fly) are our illustrations. For example: when Roy makes one of the characters an Indian, he refers to a "wigwam" while Alexandria sees a man from India in his palace. The visuals are simply stunning.

And then there's the "real world" half of the movie, in which Roy is suicidal and depressed and Alexandria simply wants to cheer her new friend up. Oh my word -- it's magic.

A

Robin Hood (2010)

2012-01-02T00:35:00.000-06:00

I guess this is what would be called a "genesis" movie: how Robin Longstride went from honest soldier to outlaw. It stops there, however -- we don't get any of those colorful robbing from the rich scenes. That'd be fodder for a probably pretty decent sequel.

There's a whole lot going on here and dozens of characters to track, but it never felt overwhelming. The look and feel was right, the faux history made sense, and the romance never took over the story, instead going for organic rather than manipulated. I thought everyone did a heckuva job with their roles. If this political history stuff was more my movie thing, I'd recommend it pretty highly.

B

Glorious 39 (2011)

2012-01-01T17:06:00.000-06:00

A young British woman, adopted as a baby into the family of a member of Parliament, stumbles onto a plan to make a deal with Hitler to avoid going to war.

There's a real tension to the story as we begin to understand, along with her, that there's real danger here. But it all seems to be too much. People are being blackmailed and, when that fails, killed...that I can believe. But driving someone insane? And out of love? It was just too weird.

All of the "whats" were explained by the end but I still had quite a few "what the hells" left unanswered.

B-

Fair Game (2010)

2012-01-01T09:50:00.000-06:00

Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame, a real-life CIA operative who was outed by the government, seemingly just to get back at her husband for writing a piece criticizing the government.

I remember watching this event unfold and how I felt, at best, annoyed on her behalf. Although I of course can't know how accurate the film is, it seems logical that an undercover agent would have operations in progress that would be jeopardized by revealing her true identity. That this seeming act of "oh yeah? well take this!" childishness could do more than simply rob a woman of her job and a family of their privacy but was okayed anyway demonstrates the dangers of having so few holding so much power.

I went from annoyed to downright sick at the renewed realization that we allowed a group of lying bullies to play games with our country for years and years, playing upon our fears and patriotism to get their way and have us cheer them for it. I don't know if I would've done what Joe Wilson did, but he's one man. And I believe he's a brave one.

OK. Back to the movie. Great job of explaining what was happening and why it mattered. Seemed to do a good job of getting the audience on its side (since I was already there I'm guessing at that). Could've worked harder at showing us the far-reaching damage incurred by the revelation -- the fact that this facet seemed somewhat marginalized helped to sell its accuracy/lack of sensationalism though.

B

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

2011-12-31T00:20:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-28T14:05:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-27T12:46:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-22T10:02:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-21T20:40:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-17T23:57:00.000-06:00

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: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 (2010)

2011-12-11T23:34:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-11T20:47:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-11T13:47:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-10T12:12:00.000-06:00

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 enought 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)

2011-12-07T02:25:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-06T21:46:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-12-03T22:47:00.000-06:00

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+

Thespians (2011)

2011-11-30T22:39:00.000-06:00

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: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 (2010)

2011-11-30T09:05:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-27T20:18:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-12T23:33:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-12T20:52:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-11T23:44:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-08T23:01:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-07T17:20:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-07T00:30:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

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)

2011-11-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

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)

2011-11-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

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+

The Legend of Hell House (1973)

2011-10-31T21:30:00.000-05:00

The owner of a haunted house employs a small group of people to spend five days living in it to see what they can prove about the afterlife. There's a psychic, a physicist (and his wife), and a survivor of the last group that attempted to stay in the same house.

Nice creepy vibe with some genuinely scary moments. Alas, the expositional and almost silly end reveal nearly undoes the whole thing.

B-

The Company Men (2010)

2011-10-30T12:01:00.001-05:00

Greedy company downsizes Ben Affleck out of his cushy job and then goes and downsizes Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones right out of their, more senior & cushy positions.

It’s a little TOO timely to be affecting, but it’s not a bad movie by any means. At least it didn’t have any false “HA HA, we discarded workers will, without missing a beat, immediately unite to make a new company that bankrupts the old one and teaches those bastards a lesson in humility and the importance of PEOPLE over MONEY!” that I was expecting with my eyes roll-ready.

Kinda quiet and almost boring, which is the price it pays for the reality of the situation (I also enjoyed that they didn’t try to make privileged corporate boy Affleck likable right away).

B-

Temple Grandin (2010)

2011-10-29T23:00:00.001-05:00

Amazing and inspiring story of Grandin, who diagnosed with autism at age 4 when autism was understood as a kind of childhood schizophrenia.

It's just gorgeously told. Temple understands the world in pictures and the director gets that across by giving us flashes of how she’s processing new concepts and phrases. Prejudice and triumph both get through marvelously here. A fantastic, beautiful, and important film.

Nora's Will (2010)

2011-10-29T20:25:00.002-05:00

aka: Five Days Without Nora

Divorced woman in her 60s commits suicide, but is sure to meticulously plan a family passover for everyone who will gather after her death. Quietly funny and also kind of heartbreaking with love, in the end, triumphing over petty religiosity.

Not a homerun, but a sweet look at a different kind of family.

B-

Make Believe (2011)

2011-10-29T16:54:00.002-05:00

Documentary following five different entrants (one a duo from South Africa) as they prepare for and compete in the annual Teen World Magic Seminar.

The movie was really focused on the kids rather than the magic -- which was great when the subject was Derek McKee (shyly sweet), Hiroki Hara (ethereal enchanter), or Nkumbuzo & Siphiwe (infectiously upbeat)...but NOT so great when the subject was either Bill Koch (annoying attention seeker) or Krystyn Lambert (magic's answer to Tracy Flick), both of whom I couldn’t help but actively root against.

So, yeah, it was interesting but basically an examination of the people involved in a hobby I don’t really “get.”

The Next Three Days (2010)

2011-10-29T00:20:00.002-05:00

Impressively smart movie about a woman in jail for the murder of her boss and the husband who both believes in her innocence and is determined to get her out.

The last quarter of the movie or so -- the evasion sequence -- elevates an already good film to great. I only wish that they’d stopped there. Going out of their way to make SURE there was no ambiguity about the wife’s innocence was overkill. It almost felt like the filmmakers were abiding by the Hays Code: we can't let the audience root for someone who might be an honest-to-goodness murderess! A killer should never get away...NOR would she deserve a husband who loves her! Make sure the audience know that she's worth their sympathies!

Definitely takes it down a notch.

B+

Frozen (2010)

2011-10-28T00:05:00.000-05:00

A couple and his best friend go skiing and, because they think that skirting the rules that everyone else follows is fine behavior, get stuck on the chair lift when the slope closes down for the week. It’s very high, very cold, a little more wolf-infested than expected, and -- for reasons inexplicable -- none of the three ever zip up their jackets completely or pull their hoods tightly together.

It’s not horrible and there are some truly tense moments, but it’s both low-rent and low plot.

C-

RED (2010)

2011-10-15T13:23:00.003-05:00

This was a waste of film (or whatever it is they use nowadays...at the very least it was a waste of time). The only thing it had going for it was its good-natured vibe.

Retired assassin Bruce Willis flirts over the phone with a drone in the pension department and, when he's targeted for death, she's the one he runs to. And then he digs Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren -- the old gang -- out of retirement to help him. I’ve seen this sort of stuff before; heck, EVERYone's seen this sort of stuff before. The attempts to make it rompish fell flat.

In short: no good.

C-

X-Men: First Class (2011)

2011-10-15T00:39:00.002-05:00

I don't claim to be a fan of comic-book movies, but I thought the first three installments were fine. This prequel, however, felt very slight. The kids' powers (exception being Raven, the blue shape shifter) were laughably weird.

Fassbender is magnetically intense (good thing he's playing Magneto, eh?), but I'll wager he thought that the movie's tone would be more serious than it ended up being. And, oh wow, January Jones canNOT act. It’s a miracle that she does so well as Betty Draper. My guess is that it's the only role she'll ever get right.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

2011-10-10T21:36:00.006-05:00

Celebrities -- and, more specifically, comedians -- are a different breed. They are driven and desperate while being both tough and sensitive. I don’t envy them one little bit.

Although I've been a fan of Rivers for a long time, mostly for her honesty on her short-lived talk show and her willingness to "go there" when interviewing award-show-goers on the red carpet, I discovered during this film that I simply don’t find her stand-up very funny. I think she relies more on shock and ribaldry than cleverness -- but I’m still rooting for her.

This was a fascinating peek behind the curtain at a woman who will never stop working -- and she works hard -- because she'll never stop craving attention and acceptance. It's hard to know whether to admire or pity her.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

2011-10-09T14:35:00.002-05:00

I did it in the wrong order again, dangit! I read this lovely lyrical book several months back and then saw this...which I'm sure robbed me of some of the pleasures of this haunting film version.

The filmmakers did succeed in capturing the poetic “otherworldly” feel of these young lives -- it was a gorgeously quiet movie -- but they missed completely some of the subtext. On its own merits, I think the movie works, though it’s a bit more of a downer than it needed to be. In stripping down the story, they stripped away a bit of what made it such a compelling one.

Food, Inc. (2009)

2011-10-03T01:20:00.001-05:00

Eye-opening, but not in quite the way I expected. I was grossed-out, sure -- but not nearly so much that I would swear of meat because of it. I did come away resolved to eat organic foods as much as possible, both for health AND to do my part to stick it to corporations and government regulations.

Ugh. Sometimes I’m disgusted by what our country gets up to.

Biutiful (2011)

2011-10-02T22:40:00.001-05:00

Scattershot, confusing, depressing, and ugly.

Bardem finds out he’s dying of cancer but still juggles his two kids, crazy ex-wife, untrustworthy brother, and low-level criminal organization. Oh and he can see ghosts. It took a true act of willpower to get through this mess.

Drive (2011)

2011-09-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

This thing looked so ‘80s but felt completely new. Such a simple, unadorned movie about lots of bad guys and a single good driver who gets in deep, but nowhere near over-his-head.

Gosling is stoic and sexy and Carey Mulligan is worth the trouble.

A-

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

2011-09-26T19:20:00.002-05:00

Oodles of charm and cleverness. They did a really good job wrestling down the sprawling Scott Pilgrim volumes into a sharp and funny movie. This even cured me of my Michael Cera-fatigue.

I really, really liked this.

A-

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

2011-09-18T15:06:00.002-05:00

I love me some Nic Cage. I think he brings every ounce of himself, even to the fluffiest of roles. There's some worth to this film; it's not throwaway and it doesn’t even fit squarely in the “fluffy” category. It has great effects, lots of humor and good action.

The problem -- and it’s huge -- is the “star” Jay Baruchel. This kid is a talentless non-presence with an annoying vocal delivery. I kept thinking of how much more fun this would’ve been with almost ANY other actor of his age in the role. He single-handedly ruined it. I probably would’ve gone with B+ if Baruchel wasn't there to snivel and shrug his way through all of his scenes.

In a Better World (2011)

2011-09-17T20:34:00.003-05:00

I love a film that can capture youth in a believable way. Few films get a real hold of the angst and drama and “this is too much to bear” that comes with being 10-16. There is nothing I could be offered that would make me willing to return to that age.

Though the youth feel fully-drawn, the story is so much more than a coming of age drama. It’s bigger than that, in both an emotional and a global sense, and so powerful. If I had to boil down the moral I'd say that it's "we must look out for each other." Nah. Though true, it's just far too simplistic to paste onto this movie as though it could be summed up in a sentence.

A-

Brotherhood (2011)

2011-09-11T23:30:00.002-05:00

Frat prank involving a convenience store theft goes really wrong when a pledge gets shot. So how will they get out of this?

The movie felt waaaaay long even though it came in at less than an hour and a half, probably because it was all a variation on the same theme: a tug-of-war between the “WE HAVE TO GET HIM TO A HOSPITAL” guy and the rest of the brothers who were only concerned about covering their own asses. As it’s apparent that this particular chapter of the fraternity should’ve been shut down for several violations -- assholery abounds and disgusts -- I was never conflicted about what I wanted to happen.

This winds up being one of those “if that one dude was gone...everything would probably work itself out” movies. Effective but annoying.

C+

TiMER (2010)

2011-09-10T22:27:00.002-05:00

WOW, I liked this a lot.

Basic premise: everyone’s got a soul mate (apparently no one would consider choosing forever-singledom in the future) and you can get a little countdown device implanted in your wrist to let you know the day you’ll meet them, provided your one-and-only has also got a timer. It’s almost like arranged marriages but fate’s the arranger and fate’s never wrong...or something.

Really smart look at how people live their lives when dating’s kind of moot...always knowing ahead of time whether the relationship’s gonna last. Totally original and great and sad and silly and wonderful.

A-

Limitless (2011)

2011-09-09T21:35:00.003-05:00

There was way too much STUFF on the screen. It was like the director was in love with Fight Club and wanted every single scene to be an homage. If they would’ve just held back and peppered the screen with extras when he was on NZT, the drug that heightened him, that would’ve worked so much better. Also, if people on the drug can think better/smarter/faster, why the hell don’t any of them lie low?

Just too much and too easy to pull apart.

Attack the Block (2011)

2011-09-05T15:20:00.003-05:00

Super little movie about Estate punks coming across a crash-landed alien, killing it, and then spending the rest of the night dealing with the bigger, meaner aliens that follow. They wind up having to seek help from a nurse they mugged earlier in the evening - and I really liked the understated way that the “if you just get to KNOW your neighbors...” moral was handled.

The effects were obviously done on a smallish budget, but they were simple and they worked. It was clear that everyone involved threw themselves into the film, resulting in a smart and believable story. I walked out happy & satisfied.

B+

Cedar Rapids (2011)

2011-08-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

What a weird movie! It went for naive sweetness rather than the big laughs and it suffered -- but not too terribly -- for it.

A little too familiar, a little too “small.”

C+

This Is It (2009)

2011-08-26T21:02:00.004-05:00

I grew up on Michael Jackson music -- watched the premier broadcast of his Thriller video, danced around to A-B-C when I was a toddler, and saw Captain EO at Epcot -- but I was never more than a casual fan. Like most, I thought he was weird and slightly grotesque and was more surprised than sad when I learned of his death.

But wow. This documentary footage really put his innate talent front and center. You see the hard, hard work he put into his music as well as the perfection he demanded of himself and others, all while staying impressively “nice.” I came away affected and can now see his death as the obvious tragedy it was.

A-

Let Me In (2010)

2011-08-24T22:20:00.004-05:00

Wonderfully quiet and unsettling -- I think it might actually be stronger than its precursor (which truly surprised me), even though there were a couple of less-than-perfect effects. I feel as though this iteration took pains to make sure I knew more about the who and the why, despite the very muted feel and sometimes near-silence of the action.

“Eat some now, save some for later...” Owen's singing of the jingle as bookends to the story was perfect -- the reminder that we're seeing a child, here; a child being drawn into something he doesn’t understand but that will now inform the rest of his years. It’s terrible and terrifying and so so sad.

B+

Barney's Version (2011)

2011-08-20T23:37:00.005-05:00

Giamatti gets the chance to show that the same guy can be both a cuckold and an old cock (see what I did there??), if you just let a movie span enough years.

This movie just seemed to go on and on... like three stories in one that did some kind of space-time trick so that it was much longer than its just-over-two-hours running time. I sort of liked it despite the fact that I was continually checking on the time and wondering where the heck it was heading.

B-

Source Code (2011)

2011-07-29T21:15:00.002-05:00

It's basically a thriller Groundhog Day -- guy has the same repeated 8 minutes on a commuter train to figure out where a bomb is, who put it there, dismantle it, and find out about a future target, all while navigating the other passengers who believe they're experiencing the sequence for the first time every time.

I thought it was a pretty good suspense movie that kept me guessing right along with the protagonist. I was satisfied by the conclusion even after it seemed as though there was no way to wrap everything up well.

B+

Solitary Man (2010)

2011-07-27T19:49:00.003-05:00

Heretofore devoted husband and father, owner of a thriving business based on honesty, chucks it all for a life of hedonism when he finds out he's mortal.

It's an interesting concept that seems to have a hard time letting us beneath the surface of things, but I liked it anyway. I think I mainly liked it because of Michael Douglas's performance. Somehow I understood what he was doing -- even as I disagreed with almost every move he made. I'm not sure I got the intended message, but I got SOME message with some meaning...and that's not half bad.

Ponyo (2009)

2011-07-19T22:50:00.003-05:00

What a weird-ass movie.

Fish swims away from home, gets found by a little boy, tastes the boy's blood, eats some ham, and decides to become a girl. For some reason, this causes the moon to get too close to the earth which makes the ocean rise...which means that the boy has to love fish-girl forever so she can become permanently real and the world won't be doomed.

I was not nearly high enough to get on this film's wavelength, but the animation is beautiful and the first section (in which the boy finds then loses his fish) is sweet as only a childish experience of love and loss can be.

B-

Joan of Arc (1948)

2011-07-16T20:50:00.002-05:00

An in-her-early-30s Ingrid Bergman plays the teenage Joan of Arc...and the rest of the movie was thought out just about as thoroughly. The weapons are clearly spray-painted cardboard, everyone is slathered in pancake make-up and I've seen more convincing battle scenes in elementary school plays.

This was just a long slog through crap. I'm not giving it an "F" because the subject can't help but be fascinating despite being butchered.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

2011-07-15T19:25:00.000-05:00

I'd put this second only to Part 1 in a "Harry Potter movies best to worst" list...but the experience was pretty much ruined by the presence of a yanky redneck couple and their runnin-around-makin-noise toddlers.

People. They're the worst.

A-

Pulp Fiction (1994)

2011-07-10T23:23:00.001-05:00

When this movie came out, I became a little missionary for it -- dragging friends and (in a couple of instances) bare acquaintances to see it. It shocked me in the best of ways. It was, quite simply, the most exciting thing I'd ever seen in a theater. When Forrest Gump took the Oscar, my faith in Hollywood was tested for the first time (hey -- I was young).

So, by now, I've seen it at least 7 times...I'd guess it as closer to 11 though. I showed it to my younger son and, while he liked it, he was not wowed. I had to point out all of the stuff that he'd "seen before" started right here in Tarantino's masterpiece, a label I truly believe it deserves. Yeah, there are a couple of sequences that feel slower than I remember them (Marsellus lecturing Butch in the bar & Walken's very funny but too long monologue regarding the very uncomfortable piece of metal) but it still works wonderfully.

The cast is perfect. The dialogue is still wonderful. It's earned its place as a touchstone of cinema.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009)

2011-07-10T20:01:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure this movie is any good, but it's definitely an entertaining one. This pretty much sums it up...

Nicolas Cage, as usual, delivers a hell of a performance. Say what you will about his personal quirks, the dude can ACT).

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

2011-07-09T23:37:00.002-05:00

A small town that has recently suffered the devastating loss of several of its children receives a visit from a lawyer eager to involve the families in a class action suit.

This is probably the third time I've seen this film and, I must say, it's still amazingly powerful. The cast does a flawless job of portraying their bereavement without making it seem false. The flashbacks to "before the accident" are heartbreaking in their everyday contentedness. What I saw this time around was different than what I remembered from the first viewings. The possibility of beauty and poetry and sadness exists in almost every scene and I think it's just too much to extract in one sitting.

An original, emotionally draining movie.

A+

The Housemaid (2011)

2011-07-09T21:00:00.002-05:00

Tense and sad story of a lower-class and slightly simple girl being hired as a nanny/servant. She finds herself in the new world of a very rich young couple and getting drawn into the ugliness of their lives despite herself. Her fellow servant, a supposed ally, is both untrustworthy and an incredibly sympathetic character.

I had NO idea of how to interpret the last shot of the film (starting at 3:50 in the embedded vid below), which is a stand-alone art piece type of thing -- kind of like the final scene in Places in the Heart where everyone, dead alive and moved-on, partakes in a church communion. Why they gotta go and fuck wit my brain even more?

B-

Salt (2010)

2011-07-03T00:28:00.000-05:00

Fun spy-chase movie that kept things hopping.

I didn't expect to like it, but there wasn't any time NOT to.

B

Skippy (1931)

2011-07-02T17:43:00.000-05:00

It's kind of like an extended Little Rascals episode...except without the talented kids or laughs.

D+

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

2011-07-01T23:41:00.000-05:00

Kept my interest despite some flaws in the telling -- mostly of the "how much time is supposed to have passed??" variety.

Audrey Tatou is quite good and I really enjoyed the peek at how the rich lived in France during this time as the American correlation is fairly well-known to me through film.

B-

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

2011-06-29T20:40:00.000-05:00

Lots of good information here, mostly about how one percent of the population break the financial rules the rest of us follow, getting away with it by creating the rules in the first place.

I learned several things: pilots are paid almost nothing, never voluntarily leave your home in a foreclosure, and that there are still a few Washington politicians who care about doing good. But all was nearly undone by Moore's sophomoric antics. A citizen's arrest? Driving an armored truck and taking money bags to the bailout banks for repayment? Crime scene tape around suspect companies? Come on, Michael. Your message is strong -- you don't need tricks to sell it. Grow up.

C+

Mildred Pierce (1945)

2011-06-27T11:00:00.001-05:00

Mildred’s unemployed husband has walked out on her and their two daughters. The older, an ungrateful, spoiled teenager, is embarrassed by their working-class status, but Mildred still manages to make good with a chain of profitable restaurants.

It tries to be all Sunset Boulevardy with a corpse up-front and the “how it happened” unfolding afterward, but it can’t touch that masterpiece. Melodramatic and fun in its way, but pretty one-note.

C+

Here Comes the Navy (1934)

2011-06-26T13:32:00.002-05:00

A "street-tough" type of guy gets into it with a Navy man who steals his girl -- so he decides to join the Navy to catch up to him and give him what-for. Well, somehow, he succeeds in becoming a hero twice over despite flouting all of the rules he can. I probably would've put him in the brig rather than decorating him, but whatever.

Watchable but dumb.

C-

Super 8 (2011)

2011-06-10T18:41:00.003-05:00

Oh, I looked so forward to seeing this -- I was sure it'd be terrific.

But dang. It plays on cheap sentimentality rather than giving us something new and rich. Not much story here at all and the group of kids is both boring and cliched. Other than Elle Fanning (who finally succeeded in winning me over with this film), there's just nothing special here.

C-

Get Him to the Greek (2010)

2011-05-27T21:15:00.004-05:00

Oddly paced and weirdly muted. There just don't seem to be nearly enough laughs to last through the entire movie. Brand seemed to be sleepwalking through it -- but at least Diddy seemed to be having some fun.

A Free Soul (1931)

2011-05-22T14:33:00.001-05:00

Have I ever enjoyed Norma Shearer? I really don't believe I have and this time is no exception. She's a grown-up daughter who constantly refers to her fall-down-drunk lawyer father as "darling" and starts hooking up with one of his mobster clients (Clark Gable) despite being engaged to a rather decent fellow (Leslie Howard).

There's scandal and threats and murder -- only much more boring than all of that sounds.

D-

Fly Away (2011)

2011-05-21T18:10:00.002-05:00

A nice woman with a severely autistic teenage daughter struggles to keep her life together while dealing with her daughter's increasingly violent and unpredictable behavior.

I have no idea of whether the girl was doing a good job acting, but I do know that she did a great job of putting me on the side of all of the people telling the mom that keeping her daughter at home was too much and the girl would be better off in a school better equipped to handle and teach her. I'm not going to win any sensitivity awards for that, I bet.

C-

Bridesmaids (2011)

2011-05-13T18:50:00.002-05:00

There were lots of funny ideas that seemed to be dropped too quickly and some unfunny ones that were allowed to go on too long. The pacing and editing were just altogether off.

It was a good time -- not bad at all -- but we should've waited until it was out on DVD.

B-

The Other Guys (2010)

2011-04-29T22:20:00.001-05:00

The first half-hour is so RIDICULOUSLY hilarious. But then it gets weird. I mean super weird-weird. I'm not even sure of the vibe it was going for. Bums having "screw parties" in a Prius? A running joke about event ticket bribes? The police captain moonlighting at a Bed Bath & Beyond?

I'm not saying that there weren't jokes to be had even in the midst of the weirdness, but it felt more like a series of skits than a cohesive story.

C+

Red Road (2007)

2011-04-02T20:04:00.003-05:00

I'm embarrassed to admit that the Scottish accents were so hard to decipher at times that there were entire scenes that left me baffled.

Still, it's an involving movie concerning a woman who's employed to scan cctv for signs of criminal activity and who inserts herself into the life of one of the people she sees. The story unfolds slowly and effectively; we spend quite a bit of time in the dark as to her motives. It's probably not quite as cathartic as it was intended to be, but it was still pretty dang good.

B+

Megamind (2010)

2011-04-01T19:40:00.003-05:00

This hit everything *just right* for me. I found Megamind, the character, to be so incredibly endearing -- I just loved him. I laughed quite a bit early on and had great affection for the entire production by the end. His childhood flashback even made me tear up a little. It's that kind of wonderful.

I seriously cannot believe that the inept How to Train Your Dragon was given a best animated picture nod while Megamind was ignored. That makes me mel-AHN-cully (start @ about 1:06 below).

A-

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010)

2011-03-27T13:26:00.003-05:00

I read the book and it was wretched. The film only improves on the source material by removing Blomkvist's bed-hopping and a lot of meaningless details (sandwiches? again??), and by giving us a glimpse -- although it comes rather late -- of how Lisbeth became dysfunctional. The movie was also surprisingly nudity-light for such explicit subject matter including bondage, rape, torture, and murder.

Still, there's no two ways about it: this is a distasteful story with an unrepentantly unlikable heroine. I don't know that I can heap kudos on it for simply improving on such a crappy book. I mean, it still pretty much sucks.

D+

Easy A (2010)

2011-03-26T20:50:00.002-05:00

OK, it is just a well-done teen movie, not a masterpiece -- but I just loved this: smart, funny, and just all-around entertaining. Reminded me strongly of Clueless (a good thing, in my opinion).

Exactly what I was hoping for when I sat down to watch it.

B+

A Film Unfinished (2010)

2011-03-26T11:47:00.003-05:00

This is a documentary cobbled together from actual footage taken for use in German propaganda films.

The pieces that showed life in the Warsaw Ghetto are amazing and horrifying, but the movie was simply not put together as effectively as it could have been -- and when you've got material this powerful, that's a true shame.

A diary device is introduced but then employed far too sparingly to have bothered (perhaps four or five "entries") and the timeline was out of order. Also, I'm sorry to say, The Pianist showed me the same world. Yes, I know that a cinematic production with actors is far different from raw footage with actual people -- but it took a bit of the shock out of these images to have seen it in any form previously.

C+

The Missing (2003)

2011-03-20T13:40:00.001-05:00

Single mom on the prairie loses her elder daughter to human-trafficking Indians and has to enlist her estranged father (who ran off to play Indian when she was a kid) to help find her.

There were times that the movie seemed almost OK, but it mostly just seemed like cliches with a dose of mysticism. Since it was directed by Ron Howard, even the "kidnapped to be sold into sexual slavery" story was somehow sanitized.

C-

Cyrus (2010)

2011-03-15T22:13:00.002-05:00

This is an inventive little film that feels like it doesn't take things quite far enough...though I don't know that I would've enjoyed it if it had.

Jonah Hill plays Cyrus, a grown-up son still living with his mother (Marisa Tomei). When she starts dating John (John C. Reilly) -- though Lord knows why she does since he's a mess when they meet and only seems to get more psycho the next couple of times they see each other -- things get weird. Or weirder, I guess.

The son and mom have a way-too-close relationship that is never fully explained. Is the kid developmentally disabled? Is he a sociopath? Had she created him with a misguidedly "open" parenting style? It was interesting, but stopped short of being anything beyond that. Felt just slightly underdone.

C+

The Horse's Mouth (1968)

2011-03-09T20:05:00.003-06:00

Annoying movie about an annoying artist who, though talented, makes a nuisance of himself at every turn by, among other things, vandalizing, harassing, squatting, and thieving.

I usually adore Alec Guinness, but everything from his gait to his voice was grating here.

Conquest (1937)

2011-03-04T12:28:00.003-06:00

I quite enjoyed the first third or so of this movie. During it, a former Polish peasant turned countess (to a much older count) worships Napoleon, but is alarmed to find out that he is interested in her romantically. When her country asks her to indulge him for their sake, she obliges and falls in love.

But then things get very blah moviewise. It's never downright bad, but it did take me a couple of weeks to finish up the watching as I stopped being interested in how things were going to conclude.

C+

Blue Valentine (2010)

2011-02-25T22:10:00.007-06:00

My problems with this movie were legion. This is what I *think* the filmmakers hoped would be running through my head: "why can't they work it out?" "Look, they were so in love!" But instead I was just thinking "ugh -- I hate everyone on the screen."

I think that starting the narrative near the end of the relationship was a mistake. When we meet Ryan Gosling's character, he seems like dead weight in the relationship, so I was against him before I saw anything that might have made me root for him. I'm also not sure why the costume designer thought that traveling to a mid-eighties flea market to pick up his wardrobe (where else could they have found a bald eagle sweatshirt and rapist glasses?) was the perfect stylistic choice. And then what was up with the camera work? The fact that we were right up in everyone's faces made it almost impossible to watch and extremely hard to take.

But the biggest problem? It was boring.

Surrogates (2009)

2011-02-21T22:01:00.002-06:00

This is a interesting idea: most people choose not to risk their bodies out in the world, opting instead to have realistic avatars, controlled from home, do the first-hand living for them. In our shop-at-home, chat-room world, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched. Gary and I paused the film several times while viewing to discuss what we were seeing and to explore what our own choices/feelings would be.

Surprisingly effective and enjoyable movie.

B+

Lebanon (2010)

2011-02-18T19:32:00.002-06:00

I have no idea how much time had already passed for the four-man crew manning a tank in the First Lebanon war (1982). I also wasn't sure how much time was supposed to have passed over the course of the film. The unexplained timeline, claustrophobic setting and growing filth of the space, rather than making for a tense story, just became elements that added to my annoyance and confusion.

All of the men seemed to be losing their minds to some degree and I wasn't sure exactly why. It's hard to criticize it because, you know, war is hard and all that, but I just don't think this story was well-told.

C-

Rabbit Hole (2010)

2011-02-10T20:30:00.003-06:00

I know that the death of a child can be hell for a couple -- but I wondered if the couple at the center of this movie might have been in hell even before they lost their young son when he ran out into the street. It's hard to imagine Nicole Kidman's character, Becca, ever having been anything other than repressed and, even as I say that, I know it's not exactly fair. People deal with grief in different ways yada yada, but I couldn't get any empathy going for her or her similarly bland husband.

The only times that the movie really became worth watching was in the scenes with the teen driver who hit the boy. That kid was brilliant and, even though he seemed to have been deeply affected by the accident, he also seemed to be alive...as though he was incorporating the pain into himself rather than either ignoring or letting it take over completely.

It's not bad, but the couple was just too generically sad.

The Proposal (2009)

2011-02-06T21:05:00.000-06:00

"Hey -- The Proposal is coming on Starz in a few minutes. Wanna watch it?"

"Uh, I guess so."

And I felt much the same once it was over. I didn't mind watching it, but I wouldn't have minded not watching it either.

Convoluted "green card" rom-com that had a smaller allotment of giggles than it needed with about 80 percent of those portioned to the first 30 minutes or so. Things just got increasingly stupid as it wound down to its predictable conclusion. But Ryan Reynolds was pretty appealing.

C+

The Fighter (2010)

2011-02-06T16:11:00.001-06:00

I'm well aware that I'm in the minority with this opinion, but I think this whole movie is a mess. The characters are outlines of people, the timelines are extremely unclear, and the out-of-nowhere brawls (cops breakin' hands just because yo -- catfight on the porch just because ho) added up to a couple of hours of eye rolling.

Another minority opinion: there's more method than acting in Christian Bale's method acting. Sure he lost the weight and learned the accent, but it felt like a stunt rather than like he WAS Dicky.

C-

127 Hours (2010)

2011-02-05T17:56:00.001-06:00

Although I'm almost positive the real-life Aron Ralston would annoy me (in his pre-accident incarnation, at least), James Franco does a wonderful job making him likable.

The movie is, quite simply, an achievement of storytelling. A guy gets trapped...but rather than having the audience remain trapped along with his body, we were allowed to tag along with his mind instead. It's an emotional, tense, and affecting journey. Even though I'm still not sure how much I'd like Ralston, I know I like the movie he inspired.

A-

Another Year (2010)

2011-02-05T15:25:00.007-06:00

Another Year is presented season by season starting with Spring...and I thought, halfway through. "oh no! we've still got Fall and Winter to go!"

Tom and Gerri are a married couple in their late 50s/early 60s and they still enjoy each other's company. The problem is that this is less about Tom and Gerri, who simply serve as an anchor, than about the desperately needy and bordering-on-manic Mary. I simply don't know anyone like Mary -- but that might be because I instinctively walk the other way if I meet anyone even half as self-centered as she is. I could barely take her drunken whining for the duration of the film, so the prospect of actually having her be an interloper into my private life for an entire year would make me seriously contemplate moving (though, to be fair, Tom and Gerri had had enough of her by Autumn, too).

As Gary said on the way out of the theater, "It might be a slice of life, but what's interesting about this particular slice of this particular life?" Personally, I was interested in the life of Imelda Staunton's depressed housewife, introduced at the beginning of the story only to vanish after her second scene. I kept hoping she'd come back.

Duplicity (2009)

2011-02-05T10:50:00.004-06:00

There's this pretty woman -- and she's some kind of insider corporate mole chick. And there's this prettier man -- and he's some kind of inside-man corporate mole guy, but not as clever as she is. She beds him to steal a file and his feelings get all hurt. And then they start working together and become lovers and design some fierce "let's get rich by finding some corporate patsies" plan, but they can't really trust each other because they double-cross for a living and -- oh -- I'm tired.

The timeline isn't linear and I had a hard time keeping track of "when" we were and what I knew. I was often confused and never quite sure of who to trust...all of which would've been fine if I cared a fig about our devious couple. Since I didn't (I mean, this pair seemed more compatible in Closer, for crying out loud), I just became increasingly frustrated at the twists and turns and double-backs. I think the plot was convoluted enough without screwing around with the timeline.

C

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

2011-02-04T21:25:00.002-06:00

I was really looking forward to this movie -- I'd heard all kinds of good things about it. Unfortunately, I saw it in my living room rather than in a theater wearing 3-D glasses, and I'm thinking that rather robbed the film of what made it so special to the first-round reviewers.

It was adequate, sure, but it wasn't original or very funny (a chuckle here and there was all I could muster) or transportive. I also found Jay Baruchel's vocal stylings as the hero Hiccup (um...har har?) less endearing than grating.

C-

The King's Speech (2010)

2011-02-03T21:20:00.003-06:00

Colin Firth was my choice for the Oscar last year, but lost out to Jeff Bridges. No matter -- he's got it sewn up this time around with the more showy role of the stammering Prince Albert, Duke of York.

The speech impediment, which has plagued him since childhood, is a particular embarrassment since he's pressed to speak publicly with more frequency as the king, his father, ages and his elder brother is away sowing copious wild oats. Firth does an amazing job garnering sympathy with his panic-stricken eyes and then slapping down that pity with his undeniable royalty. This is a man with a problem, but he's no commoner. His new therapist, however, demands a more familiar relationship -- another hurdle for the irritable Albert.

I do have one question...if the "headphone" anecdote is true, why the heck didn't he simply wear them every time he was to record a royal speech?

A-

Black Swan (2010)

2011-01-30T20:38:00.003-06:00

Natalie Portman plays Nina, a ballerina who's worked tirelessly to be perfect and who desperately wants to dance lead in Swan Lake. The only thing holding her back is her inability to allow herself to be anything other than perfection...which means that her dancing lacks a danger and looseness the director desires for the role. I'm not a dance fan and the style about which I know the least is probably ballet, but the cinematography of the movie somehow lends its eye to the viewer. I could see how Nina's moves were more sharp than beautiful and I loved the way Portman wore the determination all over her face. The more desperate she became to nail her moves, the more uncomfortable I was.

The story as a whole was disorienting in the best of ways. Tricks that would normally make me nuts -- like a camera spinning around its subject -- were at home here, furthering the vision rather than distracting from it. The final dance, especially, was magnificent. The more I think about what I saw, the more impressed I am.

A-

Down Terrace (2010)

2011-01-29T20:40:00.001-06:00

Although IMDb, the Netflix sleeve, and most critics dub this a "black comedy," I couldn't find anything funny here.

Here's what I *think* the story was: a father and his middle-aged son, some low-management types in a loose criminal organization, are released from prison. The minute they get back to their rundown cookie-cutter home, which they share with the father's matter-of-factly humorless wife, they start wondering whose snitching put them away. The prison pen-pal of the son shows up pregnant, adding to the tension, and people start getting killed. And sometimes there are folky jam sessions because that's how they do.

I was bored, annoyed, confused, and never entertained. But the acting wasn't bad, so there's that.

D-

Moon (2009)

2011-01-28T19:52:00.001-06:00

I'd put off watching this movie for more than a year because I knew it was, essentially, a one-man show and I haven't liked the films of this particular man (Sam Rockwell) in quite some time. This time, however, the material was interesting and he didn't play a slimeball. Yay!

Basically, the one-man crew for a fuel company's outpost on the Moon is nearing the end of his three-year contract. Things start to get weird when he has an accident when checking on one of the harvesters and he wakes up in the infirmary confused about how he got back to the base. It's clear a little too quickly what's going on -- I think the mystery could've been teased out to better effect -- but it's still some strong and compelling stuff.