Black Snake Moan - Suspenseful in that I spent the entire film waiting for something absolutely horrible to happen. I don’t how it’d hold up to a second viewing.
Golden Compass - Visually fun but a lurching plot that kept me wondering what was going on (didn’t read the books).
Enchanted - I went in under duress and left glad that I had seen it. Fun movie.
Unforgiven - I remembered it being better but this time around Eastwood & the script just seemed plodding without much payoff in either character resolution or action.
Charlie Wilson’s War Great dialogue, very funny in parts, and (if it is to be believed) an interesting look at the manuevering done to fund the Afghans. Hoffman is, as usual, brilliant. Also, one of the sexiest movies I have seen in a long time.
Good Morning Vietnam OK. I don’t find Robin Williams funny, and his character annoyed me. I kinda wished he would shut up and stop talking over the music. Did this guy give birth to the evil spawn of “zany” DJ’s?
The Bridge on the River Kwai I’m re-watching this for about the 20th time. Leadership slowly going off the rails. Indelible.
Breach Not as good as I’d hoped, but worth seeing.
The Craft I had never seen this movie before, it was decent but actually is eclipsed by TV shows like Buffy.
I Am Legend Excellent movie, very atmospheric, has some plot issues but still a great movie for the big screen.
Aliens Yeah, I’d never seen this. Actually I’m a bit disappointed, I’d heard so much good about it. Takes forever to get to the action, and even then you see a shot of someone shooting, then a shot of an alien exploding, repeat. I think sometimes they even used the same shot of an alien exploding. The movie did look pretty good, in a dark dreary way.
Star Wars What can I say? Still a classic, still looks cool even with 30 year old technology.
Sweeney Todd: Edward Scissorhands goes back in time, bumps into Oliver Twist and they do a lot of crack. Message: Tim Burton sure knows how to make revenge flicks.
No Country for Old Men: Easily the best film of the year, possibly the best Western of all time. Message: Always be yourself.
3:10 to Yuma: Finest Spaghetti Western since Once Upon a Time in the West. Message: the bad guy almost always ultimately escapes, so why get perforated trying to stop him?
Die Hardest: Die Hard 3 without all the racism. Message: Don’t bring a keyboard to a gun fight.
Robocop - Caught this on one of the HD channels last night. Awesome 80s action flick. I didn’t get it though. So he’s basically a machine with a man’s chin?
The Kingdom - Reminded my of Syriana but not long and boring.
Transformers - If you ever wanted to see a truck wrestle a jet fighter, this is about as close as you’re going to get. Surprisingly entertaining.
The Good Shepherd - Matt Damon playing pretty much the exact opposite of Jason Bourne. Want’s so badly to be the Godfather of spy movies. It’s succeeds…as Godfather III.
Breasts: A Documentary - Oh good. Everybody’s boobies are different. And mine are better than others!
The Shape Of Things - Would have been a great short story but it was 90 minutes too much of a movie.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped - There’s a lot of brooding in French movies. It is sort of entertaining to watch a subtitled French movie with someone who speaks French.
Elmo’s Christmas Countdown - Not half as good as “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” or even “Elmo Saves Christmas.” Gets extra points for including Super Grover but the whole thing was kind of surreal.
I’m arbitrarily going to review the last two I saw in the theatre and the last two I saw on DVD.
Theatre: The Simpsons Movie: Not great but better than expected. Ratatouille: The opposite. Okay but I expected much better from a Pixar movie.
DVD: Ice Age: The Meltdown: Good for a sequel. Had an original story rather than just remaking the original. Rififi: Very good film noir. Surprised afterwards to read that Jules Dassin is still alive.
Charlie Wilson’s War - The Center speaker(s) were really low so I had trouble hearing the dialogue. I want in a little wary as I wasn’t sure how they will play it. All in all, good but not great. Hoffman was good, so was Hanks.
I am Legend - thought it’d suck, didn’t suck. Thought all of the god nonsense was unnecessary and we spent the ride home picking apart logic flaws, but the first hour or so was pretty good.
Juno - really really good. Incredibly well cast movie, great script, great music, and great performances.
Atonement - different than I had expected, but I enjoyed the story. Great cinematography (as I recall), decent performances.
The Golden Compass: Entirely predictable time-waster, but with a fairly charming protagonist. It feels a lot “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” adapted for the non-religious, but then de-fanged to keep the religious from torching the studio, apparently. Unfortunately, it’s completely devoid of humor, which is kind of absurd in a movie with more CG critters than people. Ian McKellen is a bear.
Stardust: A nicely done fairy tale with an excellent script and cast. No absence of humor here. Claire Danes and Ricky Gervais (dickering with DeNiro) are particularly wonderful. Ian McKellen again, this time as narrator.
The Lives of Others: A skillfully written and executed movie, probably the best I’ve seen in the last year. Captures the dread of living under a brutal regime, especially the cafeteria scene with the students. No Ian McKellen.
A Very Long Engagement: From the same people who did Amelie, and with Audrey Tautou again in the starring role. It’s a mystery set during and a few years after WWI. It has quite a complicated plot, and it can be hard to keep names and faces straight, but once you lock into it, it’s a superb movie. Also lacking in Ian McKellen.
Sweeny Todd - Poor directing and lazy editing distract from decent performances. Sacha Cohen steals the show in the beginning and the rest of the film never lives up.
AvP Requiem - The best Alien/Predator genre movie since Predator 1. Not a classic, and no memorable human performances, but solid action fun.
Hot Fuzz - A hilarious parody of the modern American guns-action genre. Wonderful humor and wit throughout.
Jesus Camp - Very good, yet simultaneously depressing and heartbreaking watching the active fanatical brainwashing of innocent children.
Hot Fuzz: my son and husband thought it was hilarious. I thought it was cute but not laugh-out-loud funny.
Stardust: my absolute knock-out, ‘bestest of all’ movie of the year. Saw it twice in the movie theater, rented it from Netflix and got the DVD for Christmas. How many stories are centered around a fallen star who just happens to be a snarky blonde? Original and charming.
Bourne Identity/Supremacy: Pretty good action movies that made more sense the second time around.
Waitress: fabulous movie. I didn’t tell my family about Adrienne Shelly’s horrible death until after the movie so we watched it from different emotional places—me knowing that this charming movie was the last one I’d see from her, and my family just enjoying the film.
The three things that every movie would benefit from. Ian McKellen, zombies, and gratuitous nudity.
Really, Nemo? Would Citizen Kane have been a better movie if a naked Ian McKellan had eaten Joseph Cotten’s brains.
Lord of War On the poor side of mediocre. A lot of the choices the main character made just didn’t make sense. Can’t say more without spoilers.
Flightplan Good actors, interesting concept, good direction and the stupidest scheme ever. I don’t expect realism in escapist suspense movies, but this was ridiculous. Again, can’t say more without spoilers.
Enchanted - Fun family flick that throws a lot of sly sarcasm at Disney’s own cliches. Worked far better than I expected it would.
I Am Legend - Thought it was really great, but felt like a lot was missing in terms of loose ends. The ending didn’t bug me as much as others, but then I don’t really have a huge aversion Shyamalan-esque endings. I really want to read the book now.
No Country for Old Man - Gorgeous movie, phenomenal acting. Anton Chigurh is chilling through and through. Absolutely hated the final act and ending. Love 'em or hate ‘em, Coen brothers’ movies are never boring.
The Water Horse - Good, clean, fun family movie. Nothing astounding in terms of plot, but great cast, acting, and visuals.
The Simpsons Movie- Bought it. It was okay, but I expected better, and I can’t get over the fact that after the townspeople saw how the Simpsons got out of the dome, they all didn’t do it- why wouldn’t they have?.
The Science of Sleep- Hated it. Turned it off 30 minutes in.
Idiocracy- Thought it would be better, but it was okay.
Sherrybaby- Loved it. Maggie Gyllenhaal deserved an Oscar nom for this role, in which she became the character.
Rescue Dawn - gorgeous scenery, very matter-of-fact story about an American pilot captured and plotting escape from a Viet Cong pow camp. No superhuman heroics or action scenes, just a low-key story of courage and bonding through adversity.
Eastern Promises - awesome movie, great powerful script. Vigo Mortensen apparently must appear naked in every David Cronenberg film.
Shoot’em Up - goofy, silly, nearly plotless action movie. Not very memorable, but decent flick to waste an evening with
Bourne Ultimatum - the tech level of this movie, especially compared to the first in the series (Bourne Identity) is extremely silly. Everyone in the CIA is apparently a mad haxxor who can tap any system almost instantly. In the first movie we have a map with pushpins and Julia Stiles listening to a police scanner. Otherwise its a solid, no-nonsense action move. Doesn’t go for huge complicated setpiece shoot-outs.
Alice the Goon, I have to ask… have you seen Eternal Sunshine or anything else directed my Michel Gondry besides The Science of Sleep? I ask because I loved ES and always assumed I’d like The Science of Sleep. Do you think the two can be compared in any way?
I loved Eternal Sunshine (and I even own a copy of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, not that it’s the same kind of thing but he did direct it) but damn if I could muster up a modicum of interest in Sleep. I do have ADD, and it can be difficult for me to get into a movie if it doesn’t hook me right in the beginning- maybe that’s what happened, but I spent the majority of the time I did watch it thinking, “Now, what’s going on, again?” A certain amount of surrealism and bizarre images I can handle, but that movie was just too much for me.
I really want to read the book now.