Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Wow. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World blew my mind. I wish I could have seen this on the big screen, but blu ray wasn't too shabby. If you were raised in the time of Nintendo and enjoy music, all things fun and general silliness then you will love Scott Pilgrim. It's just unbelievably cool and geeky. I geeked out. I'm capable of geeking. 4 stars.
True Grit: This film was excellent. While it isn't classic Coen brothers, it does have their stamp on it. Jeff Bridges breathes new life into Rooster Cogburn, but Hailee Steinfeld steals the show as Mattie and I hope she wins the Oscar. There is also another welcome appearance by Barry Pepper (can the man do any wrong?). Great script, great story, great acting, & great photography = great film. Is it the Coen Brothers best? Not in my opinion. It's really good, but not best picture good. 3.5 stars
Inception: See previous review posted. I forgot to mention, the acting is very solid as well. Noting extraordinary, but nothing detrimental either. 4 stars.
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: This trilogy is all the rage right now in the movie blogosphere. It has already been picked up by Hollywood and is being remade by the wonderful David Fincher. In the hands of anyone else I would be worried, but I have faith that my main man Mr. Fincher will blow the original out of the water. As far as the original Swedish release, it is very very good. It is a very enthralling story that had me hooked from the start. It is full of moody atmosphere and mystery, it's well paced and sports very solid acting . Rooney Mara has her work cut out for her filling Naomi Rapace's shoes. For the most part I've read that the sequels (Girl Who Played With Fire & Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest) aren't as strong, and I'm assuming that is most likely due to a change in director, but still worthy films. So catch them all while you can before the US versions are released! The first two are already out on DVD/Blu-ray and the 3rd is coming soon. 3.5 stars.
Easy A: I had a lot fun with Easy A. It tries really hard to be as relevant as all of the John Hughes films that it pays homage to, yet it doesn't even reach the level of Mean Girls. However, I still loved it. Emma Stone (Olive) carries the film and along with her cool progressive parents (played by the lovely Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci), makes the movie worth watching. Hell, I even plan on buying it. However, I wish I never had to see Ally Michalka's stupid face and fake boobs again. I cringed every time she was on screen as Olive's annoying and promiscuous best friend. Her, and a forced spontaneous musical scene, hold it back from true greatness. Other than that, it's is a well done and fresh take on the High School genre. 3 stars.
Shutter Island: This was a quasi-controversial release by Martin Scorsese. Not for anything other than people didn't know what to make of it. Adapted for the screen from the Dennis Lehane novel (which I have on good authority is just as odd to read as the film is to watch) Shutter Island is the story of two detectives (DiCaprio and Ruffalo) who are investigating a missing inmate in a maximum security insane asylum. Mystery and twists are everywhere, but it's the performances and Scorsese's visual excellence that I responded so favorably to. I think the one word that describes Shutter Island best is LUSH. This is another one (see Book of Eli below) where your reaction to the resolution will make it or break it. It didn't bother me one bit. 3.5 stars.
Alice in Wonderland: Is it Tim Burton or Johnny Depp's best? No, not at all. Is it as bad as critics and people have been saying. No, not at all. If you're a fan of this combo, you should like this film. It's classic Tim Burton, and Classic Johnny Depp. Neither will follow the rules, or do anything similar to the classic Alice you may be familiar with or fond of. Overall I thought it was a lot of fun, and Johnny Depp was fantastic. Visual feasts abound, and style over substance is not necessarily a bad thing. 3 stars.
Macgruber: BEST SEX SCENE EVER! You can spoil the fun and see it on Youtube, but I urge you not to, and just rent this silly parody flick. It's really worth the watch just for that scene. It's not a good movie by a long shot, but I would definitely buy it for the days I just feel like something silly and mind numbing. If you hated the skit from SNL, you still might like this flick. It's a more fleshed out parody of bad 80's action movies, and I had a lot of fun watching it. 2.5 stars of ridiculous re-watchable fun.
Iron Man 2: Iron Man was such a fantastically fun introduction to the character, that the sequel was bound to be a let down. It was a let down, but I don't think it was as big of a let down as some critics will lead you to believe. The humor, fun acting, good script and general bad assedness is still there, but it's a bit more muddled than the first one. Still fun, but nothing too great. Note: Don Cheadle makes any movie enjoyable. 3 stars.
Get Him to The Greek: "Barkeep! Absimff!" I've watched this movie twice, and it was even better the second time through. If you've seen the trailers, you might think that Get Him to The Greek is all raunchy humor and no heart. However, director Nicholas Stoller picks up right where he left off with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and improves on all of that film's strengths. He gives the raunchy comedy a big heart and characters we actually care about. The film even gets pretty touching towards the end (although the heart is sandwiched between a threesome and a Jeremy (you'll see)). Oh, do you hate Sean Combs? You won't after seeing this. He's hilarious. 3.5 stars.
Twilight: Eclipse: Soooo, I'm totally on team Jacob now. I get it. Vampires make horrible boyfriends. There is really no reason for me to expand on these films. Either you are willing to enjoy a horribly cheesy high school romance film about vampires, werewolves and overly dramatic tweens or you're not. Eclipse is the most appropriately stylish films of the series so far, but the first one is still the best overall. 2.5 guilty pleasure stars.
Until the Light Takes US: This was an incredibly bad documentary and has joined the ranks of the very few films I couldn't even finish. This is a good example of what is scary about trying to make a good movie. It is obviously made by newcomers, and it is obvious they are very passionate about the subject matter, however nothing ever comes together. The filmakers just don't have the skill. It's about Norweigian Black Metal! I was so excited and so sure this would be fun to watch, but it wasn't. The editing was poor and no context was given to any of the sequences. It was just an hour or so of watching people who were involved in the music movement, more specifically the crimes committed in Norway, ramble on about it with no discernable direction. I could have taken away just as much information from a newspaper article. A quick check on IMDB shows two new directors, five producers, and an editor who actually does have quite a few projects under his belt. I just don't think they had the material to make a full length documentary. Give me a voiceover, tell me what question you were asking; give me something! Zero stars.
Kick-Ass: Early in 2010 this film had huge buzz surrounding it. It's part of the "normal people become super heroes" genre that is becoming more and more popular. I had high hopes for this, but it just didn't live up to them. The ending did not sit well with me at all. It was just too easy and too predictable; especially for a movie that was the opposite of that for the first three quarters. In addition, Christopher Mintz-Plasse rubbed me the wrong way this time. He was great in Superbad and Role Models but was reaching too far here. However, it does have many things going for it. Nicolas Cage proves why he used to be in such big demand with a fantastic performance, and Chloe Moretz shows amazing promise in her role as the ass kicking Hit-Girl. Definitely still check it out if you were meaning to, but Kick-Ass just didn't do it for me. 2.5 stars.
How To Train Your Dragon: I finally saw this the other day and loved it! Granted it's no Pixar release, but it is a HUGE step forward for Dreamworks animation studios. They finally balanced themselves with improved animation, a unique story (on top of a familiar structure), solid voice work and fun action. It was an easy breezy 100 minutes. 3 stars.
The Book of Eli (jan '10 release): This is one of those movies that is best viewed completely cold. If you're at all interested, which you should be because Denzel Washington is awesome, don't read anything about it. It has one of those endings that will have you revisiting earlier scenes to see if it is even possible. I loved it. Others hated it. There is enough style and action to keep everyone entertained, but your reaction to the resolution will determine it's worth. 3 stars.
Daybreakers (jan '10 release): The earth is populated by vampires and it's the humans who have been pushed to extinction while vampires harvest their blood and sell it like soda at train stations?! Sign me up! Such a great idea with tragically poor execution. I was hoping this would be one of those bad vampire movies that I still like, but it turns out to actually be a complete mess. The ending was obviously tacked on and re-worked, and you can just smell behind the scenes tension on this one. I love Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, but you can't act your way out of bad writing and directing. 1.5 stars.
Here are the 2010 films on my to do list. The list could be as long as all the well reviewed movies of the year, but these are the ones I'm most excited about seeing: The Social Network, Machete, The Town, The American, Cyrus, Despicable Me, The Kids Are All Right, Micmacs, Going the Distance, Red Riding Trilogy, Winter's Bone, Black Swan, 127 Hours, Greenberg, Hereafter, & Somewhere. If you haven't heard of any of these yet, check out the trailers on Yahoo or Apple, and add them to your list if they look good.
Here are the films from 2009 that I watched in 2010 with a quick star rating: A Single Man (4), The Crazies (1), Gran Torino (3.5), The Road (3), (500) Days of Summer (2.5), 9 (2.5), Humpday (3), Extract (2), Vicky Christina Barcelona (4), The Hurt Locker (4), A Serious Man (3), Zombieland (im not sure yet), Up In The Air (3.5), Ponyo (3), The Informant! (4), The Invention of Lying (2), Fantastic Mr. Fox (3.5), Terribly Happy (2), District 9 (3.5), & Big Fan (3).
The good thing is that the majority of these from 2009 were on my to do list from my end of year 2009 post. Hopefully I can get through my 2010 to do list a bit quicker. My goal this year is to write a full review of all the films in this post. It's a tall task, and I probably will completely fail, but I think I can slack off at work just enough to get it done. Thanks for reading.
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: This trilogy is all the rage right now in the movie blogosphere. It has already been picked up by Hollywood and is being remade by the wonderful David Fincher. In the hands of anyone else I would be worried, but I have faith that my main man Mr. Fincher will blow the original out of the water. As far as the original Swedish release, it is very very good. It is a very enthralling story that had me hooked from the start. It is full of moody atmosphere and mystery, it's well paced and sports very solid acting . Rooney Mara has her work cut out for her filling Naomi Rapace's shoes. For the most part I've read that the sequels (Girl Who Played With Fire & Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest) aren't as strong, and I'm assuming that is most likely due to a change in director, but still worthy films. So catch them all while you can before the US versions are released! The first two are already out on DVD/Blu-ray and the 3rd is coming soon. 3.5 stars.
Easy A: I had a lot fun with Easy A. It tries really hard to be as relevant as all of the John Hughes films that it pays homage to, yet it doesn't even reach the level of Mean Girls. However, I still loved it. Emma Stone (Olive) carries the film and along with her cool progressive parents (played by the lovely Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci), makes the movie worth watching. Hell, I even plan on buying it. However, I wish I never had to see Ally Michalka's stupid face and fake boobs again. I cringed every time she was on screen as Olive's annoying and promiscuous best friend. Her, and a forced spontaneous musical scene, hold it back from true greatness. Other than that, it's is a well done and fresh take on the High School genre. 3 stars.
Shutter Island: This was a quasi-controversial release by Martin Scorsese. Not for anything other than people didn't know what to make of it. Adapted for the screen from the Dennis Lehane novel (which I have on good authority is just as odd to read as the film is to watch) Shutter Island is the story of two detectives (DiCaprio and Ruffalo) who are investigating a missing inmate in a maximum security insane asylum. Mystery and twists are everywhere, but it's the performances and Scorsese's visual excellence that I responded so favorably to. I think the one word that describes Shutter Island best is LUSH. This is another one (see Book of Eli below) where your reaction to the resolution will make it or break it. It didn't bother me one bit. 3.5 stars.
Alice in Wonderland: Is it Tim Burton or Johnny Depp's best? No, not at all. Is it as bad as critics and people have been saying. No, not at all. If you're a fan of this combo, you should like this film. It's classic Tim Burton, and Classic Johnny Depp. Neither will follow the rules, or do anything similar to the classic Alice you may be familiar with or fond of. Overall I thought it was a lot of fun, and Johnny Depp was fantastic. Visual feasts abound, and style over substance is not necessarily a bad thing. 3 stars.
Macgruber: BEST SEX SCENE EVER! You can spoil the fun and see it on Youtube, but I urge you not to, and just rent this silly parody flick. It's really worth the watch just for that scene. It's not a good movie by a long shot, but I would definitely buy it for the days I just feel like something silly and mind numbing. If you hated the skit from SNL, you still might like this flick. It's a more fleshed out parody of bad 80's action movies, and I had a lot of fun watching it. 2.5 stars of ridiculous re-watchable fun.
Iron Man 2: Iron Man was such a fantastically fun introduction to the character, that the sequel was bound to be a let down. It was a let down, but I don't think it was as big of a let down as some critics will lead you to believe. The humor, fun acting, good script and general bad assedness is still there, but it's a bit more muddled than the first one. Still fun, but nothing too great. Note: Don Cheadle makes any movie enjoyable. 3 stars.
Get Him to The Greek: "Barkeep! Absimff!" I've watched this movie twice, and it was even better the second time through. If you've seen the trailers, you might think that Get Him to The Greek is all raunchy humor and no heart. However, director Nicholas Stoller picks up right where he left off with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and improves on all of that film's strengths. He gives the raunchy comedy a big heart and characters we actually care about. The film even gets pretty touching towards the end (although the heart is sandwiched between a threesome and a Jeremy (you'll see)). Oh, do you hate Sean Combs? You won't after seeing this. He's hilarious. 3.5 stars.
Twilight: Eclipse: Soooo, I'm totally on team Jacob now. I get it. Vampires make horrible boyfriends. There is really no reason for me to expand on these films. Either you are willing to enjoy a horribly cheesy high school romance film about vampires, werewolves and overly dramatic tweens or you're not. Eclipse is the most appropriately stylish films of the series so far, but the first one is still the best overall. 2.5 guilty pleasure stars.
Until the Light Takes US: This was an incredibly bad documentary and has joined the ranks of the very few films I couldn't even finish. This is a good example of what is scary about trying to make a good movie. It is obviously made by newcomers, and it is obvious they are very passionate about the subject matter, however nothing ever comes together. The filmakers just don't have the skill. It's about Norweigian Black Metal! I was so excited and so sure this would be fun to watch, but it wasn't. The editing was poor and no context was given to any of the sequences. It was just an hour or so of watching people who were involved in the music movement, more specifically the crimes committed in Norway, ramble on about it with no discernable direction. I could have taken away just as much information from a newspaper article. A quick check on IMDB shows two new directors, five producers, and an editor who actually does have quite a few projects under his belt. I just don't think they had the material to make a full length documentary. Give me a voiceover, tell me what question you were asking; give me something! Zero stars.
Kick-Ass: Early in 2010 this film had huge buzz surrounding it. It's part of the "normal people become super heroes" genre that is becoming more and more popular. I had high hopes for this, but it just didn't live up to them. The ending did not sit well with me at all. It was just too easy and too predictable; especially for a movie that was the opposite of that for the first three quarters. In addition, Christopher Mintz-Plasse rubbed me the wrong way this time. He was great in Superbad and Role Models but was reaching too far here. However, it does have many things going for it. Nicolas Cage proves why he used to be in such big demand with a fantastic performance, and Chloe Moretz shows amazing promise in her role as the ass kicking Hit-Girl. Definitely still check it out if you were meaning to, but Kick-Ass just didn't do it for me. 2.5 stars.
How To Train Your Dragon: I finally saw this the other day and loved it! Granted it's no Pixar release, but it is a HUGE step forward for Dreamworks animation studios. They finally balanced themselves with improved animation, a unique story (on top of a familiar structure), solid voice work and fun action. It was an easy breezy 100 minutes. 3 stars.
The Book of Eli (jan '10 release): This is one of those movies that is best viewed completely cold. If you're at all interested, which you should be because Denzel Washington is awesome, don't read anything about it. It has one of those endings that will have you revisiting earlier scenes to see if it is even possible. I loved it. Others hated it. There is enough style and action to keep everyone entertained, but your reaction to the resolution will determine it's worth. 3 stars.
Daybreakers (jan '10 release): The earth is populated by vampires and it's the humans who have been pushed to extinction while vampires harvest their blood and sell it like soda at train stations?! Sign me up! Such a great idea with tragically poor execution. I was hoping this would be one of those bad vampire movies that I still like, but it turns out to actually be a complete mess. The ending was obviously tacked on and re-worked, and you can just smell behind the scenes tension on this one. I love Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, but you can't act your way out of bad writing and directing. 1.5 stars.
Here are the 2010 films on my to do list. The list could be as long as all the well reviewed movies of the year, but these are the ones I'm most excited about seeing: The Social Network, Machete, The Town, The American, Cyrus, Despicable Me, The Kids Are All Right, Micmacs, Going the Distance, Red Riding Trilogy, Winter's Bone, Black Swan, 127 Hours, Greenberg, Hereafter, & Somewhere. If you haven't heard of any of these yet, check out the trailers on Yahoo or Apple, and add them to your list if they look good.
Here are the films from 2009 that I watched in 2010 with a quick star rating: A Single Man (4), The Crazies (1), Gran Torino (3.5), The Road (3), (500) Days of Summer (2.5), 9 (2.5), Humpday (3), Extract (2), Vicky Christina Barcelona (4), The Hurt Locker (4), A Serious Man (3), Zombieland (im not sure yet), Up In The Air (3.5), Ponyo (3), The Informant! (4), The Invention of Lying (2), Fantastic Mr. Fox (3.5), Terribly Happy (2), District 9 (3.5), & Big Fan (3).
The good thing is that the majority of these from 2009 were on my to do list from my end of year 2009 post. Hopefully I can get through my 2010 to do list a bit quicker. My goal this year is to write a full review of all the films in this post. It's a tall task, and I probably will completely fail, but I think I can slack off at work just enough to get it done. Thanks for reading.
Team Jacob! Haha! I didn't see very many movies last year. I am surprised you haven't seen The Kids are Alright, though, I think you would give it 3 to 3.5 stars. I agree with you on most of your ratings of movies I have seen, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised too. On my list! I have The Town right now.
ReplyDelete