From acid-trip factory that brought you the Triplets of Bellville, comes this far more tame and mainstream tale of… of… um, I’m not really sure. Magic? The animation had a refreshing hand-drawn look. It wasn’t all polished like today’s computer-generated perfect desserts. Instead, it was rough… like life. It had a dream quality to it. You’re never quite sure where it’s going, but it does make some kind of strange logical story… even if it’s one you wouldn’t expect as it skips from scene to scene. And I liked the rabbit too.
Despicable Me
A bunch of light-hearted fun. I really couldn’t find anything to complain about in this one. Animation was good, story was good… just, well, plain old fun.
Black Swan
Well… it was an interesting movie to watch. I suppose the characters were a little one-dimensional. I mean, even the main ballerina – it would have helped if there was some dark side to her past that she could draw upon. All we’re presented with is a basic innocent girl, who’s not very experienced in the world. Ok… but, how is it that she’s able to grow beyond this? She basically seems to get her motivation to change from nowhere, or from her own insanity or something. The filming in this movie was splendid, the acting was decent… but the story? meh.
The King’s Speech
How is it that I could be moved to care about the personal shortcomings of some monarch from over half a century ago? Because the story is presented as a human story… one of triumph over adversity. And it’s so well done, that anyone might relate to it.
This movie had a lot of elements done right. One in particular struck me – the lighting. In many of these period movies, we are presented with indoor scenes that are perfectly lit. But, reality isn’t that way. These grand old buildings are dark places reliant mostly on windows for light. Instead of creating fake lighting, the filmmakers figured out the best way to shoot with the available light (or faked it in more subtle ways). This combined with a liberal use of wide-angle shots developed a unique mood… as if the environment was another key character.
One thing I didn’t get at all though: In his first session with “the Doctor”, the future King’s stuttering is cured via a bit of a trick. Why couldn’t this same trick be used in the movie’s last scene? I was sitting there wondering why in the world they didn’t simply do this. It would not have made a very climatic movie arc, but certainly would have solved the problem at hand.
The September Issue
The only person who seems to understand the fashion industry is the daughter of the Vogue “boss”. There’s more to life. Indeed, just about anything is more real, and more objectively important than the world of fashion. Still, with that critique understood, this was a well done documentary about a world few outsiders really know.
Gran Torino
As the years increase, so does my respect for Clint Eastwood. This movie had a lot of things going for it – great writing, acting, story… I think the best part was the pace of the movie. There wasn’t some “Hollywood moment” where things changed for the movie’s hero; it was a real process.
Easy Virtue
Another of those movies with no character you can root for. They’re all just a bunch of privileged whiners… Seriously, this woman is distraught about having to sell 400 acres of land to keep this obscene mansion running? Hello! how about scaling back? How do you think the people downstairs feel about your predicament? Sheesh. Anyway, by the end of the movie, I figured they could all just go stuff it.
Priceless
This is one of those movies where I find it hard to sympathize with the main characters. One of them is a completely heartless gold-digger. The other has too much heart, and not enough sense. Still, even with that, it’s very watchable, and it did get a little better toward the end… And there were some funny scenes, and it’s always a pleasure to watch Audrey Tautou work her magic. In a sense, I guess I could sympathize with the plot from that aspect… Even though her character was despicable, I found it hard to turn away.
Kings of Pastry
Nicely done documentary about the pinnacle of pastry chefs… In a way, I had the impression that this thing just goes way beyond pastry… in the end, it’s almost like they expect these guys to be sculptors and mechanical engineers. Anyway, I guess you can’t really complain – they all go through this voluntarily, and the end results are pretty striking (I have no idea how they taste though).
One of my impressions seeing the displays on the final tables though was that few of them had a theme that tied the individual pieces together. Sure, they were very nice on their own, but there were these tables filled with wondrous, yet incongruous creations. I would think that a series of pieces that all told a story, and had a common aesthetic, would make a big impression.
Elf
Awwwwww.
Tron (the new one)
With some movies, you have to go in knowing what to expect. I was expecting a wild ride of special effects… And this movie delivered. I heard some reviews of this movie deriding the sometimes nonsensical, predictable, illogical plot. Plot? Pfft. Come on. It was good enough to shoulder the 3D fireworks. I cared about the characters a little… Enough. Sure a few tweaks might have made this a transcendent movie with a message and all that, but whatever… It was entertaining, and that’s all I was looking for.
True Grit
A movie has to be really confident in itself to be this straightforward and get away with it. It’s almost like this one was saying “in your face. Here’s what gonna happen, and you’re gonna enjoy it”. And I did.
Terminator Salvation
I wasn’t expecting much from this one, but you know what? It was fantastic. The mood was right, the acting was good, the plot made sense (yes, it made sense you nimwits)… It didn’t try too hard, and the action was first rate. I realize this isn’t the movie for everyone… Ok not most people, but I’m glad they made it, and enjoyed the ride.
2012
As someone who despised “Independence Day” as much as I did, you might think I’d loathe this just as much. No way! This movie was so preposterous, it went all the way past horrible and round back to fun. So much of everything was done/destroyed/tried in this movie, so many cliches, so much bad dialogue… there is simply no way to top it.
Toy Story 3
Honestly, this just made me feel good all over.
Transsiberian
For the kind of movie that ought to have a dozen twists and turns, this one pretty much stays on the main track. I suppose there’s something reassuring about a predictable plot, but then I wonder, is it really worth watching if you know what’s going to happen?
Beowulf
I am Beowulf… and you’re not. I hate to admit it, but I actually liked the plotline of this movie better than the original. It made sense from front to back. Sure, the action and dialog and 3D nuttiness was completely over the top, but that’s what made it so fun. I didn’t get to see it in 3D though – bummer… someday!
Benny and Joon
I kind of liked Johnny Depp’s little “antics” in this movie, but the rest of it didn’t really mean much to me. Can two different types of weirdos find love simply due to the fact that they’re both unusual? I don’t know maybe it could work with these two. It seemed that “Johnny” was the only person that Joon wouldn’t “co crazy” on, and Joon was the only person that accepted “Johnny” as a real person.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Probably the weakest of the series. I’m pretty sure this is the one with the mutant humans who worship the bomb. They could have just skipped this sequel entirely and moved to the next one.
Belle Epoque
I just can’t get past the beautiful girls and the sexual fantasies… what was this movie about again? I wasn’t paying attention to all that “plot stuff”… something about the spanish inquisition… er, revolution?
Being John Malkovich
An amazing movie. I thought I was in for some arty thriller that would be full of itself. It wasn’t like that at all. It was just completely hilarious and original. The puppet work was really cool too. Everything about this movie was just great.
Being There
I stayed up way too late watching this movie, and it just went on and on and on. It was totally unbelievable, but for some reason I just couldn’t turn it off. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the movie, but was interested to read more about the making of it afterwards.
Being Human
A kind of strange movie – Robin Williams as the “same guy” in 4 different time periods. It wasn’t that great of a movie, but at least it was an interesting idea.
Before the Rain
So, we start about halfway into the plot. All the characters are someone you don’t like, and the ending is utterly unsatisfying. Please, someone tell me something to like about this movie.
Beetlejuice
I liked it, but I only liked it once. The second time around, this movie was really annoying..