Movelist 2010: The Year of Leo

With the new year, comes movie list time!!! Here is where I list every movie that I saw last year. That includes the movies that I probably don’t want to admit to publicly about seeing, and there were quite a few this year. I also get to talk a bit about pleasant surprises at the movie theater.

Movies I would definitely watch again:

Inception - It is always good when a 2 hour and 40 minute movie feels like it is zipping by. I thought this story could have been told in a more straightforward manner and it would have been better. Instead, I felt like we were suppose to be watching for clues, which inevitably leads to looking for holes. Did he learn about inception from his wife doing it to him? Is it all a his? Who is "actually" and "alledgedly" dreaming in each scene? I don't ask these questions because I think it will be fun to discuss them. It won't be for me.

Black Swan - Aronofsky is back. Portman was awesome. I thought The Wrestler was a big ok. I can't count the number of times that my hair was standing on end. I thought the girl from the That 70s show, Mila Kunis, was decent, and the male lead, Vincent Cassel, was a dominant force whenever he was on the screen. Throw in the awesome music. Tchaikovskii's Swan Lake being fed and reinterpreted throughout by Clint Mansell.

Shutter Island - I think as long as you did not view this as a mystery movie, or something to figure out, this movie is pretty awesome. Good visuals, great music, solid acting.

Movies that I certainly enjoyed:

The Social Network - Directed by Fincher, written by Sorkin, Music by Reznor, and even a supporting role for JT. How was I not going to like this movie. Toss in the fact that this movie actually did the whole computer programming thing about as good as any other.

Waiting for Superman – I think the movie as a standalone documentary does a very good job of just getting into an issue and taking you to the “front lines” of education in this country. I was also fortunate enough to watch this movie with someone who works for the CFO of Boston Public Schools and a former policy person from SEIU. Needless to say, our discussion after the movie was quite lively.

Restrepo - Very amazing/depressing documentary following one deployment in Afghanistan. While it is not overtly political, it is hard not to think about what a waste it all is. This movie captures a ton of what appear to be very real moments with soldiers.

Kickass - A good coming of age movie, with all the necessary plot elements. Nick Cage's comeback of the century!!! Oh wait, I just saw a trailer for Season of the Witch.

The Ghost Writer – Roman Polanski’s last movie, is he in jail yet? Regardless of his personal problems, he can still make visual striking and rather gripping movies. In fact after I saw this movie, I was on a plane and someone was watching it on a Ipad a few rows ahead and I still found myself watching it even without the sound. Or maybe that just speaks to how depressing planes are…

Knight & Day - Pleasantly surprised by this one. While I normally find Cameron Diaz super annoying, she was pretty good in this. Still, I'm not sure if my positive review of this movie has more to do with my low expectations or its actual quality.

Centurion – Neil Marshall (the director of The Descent) directs this cold gritty bloodbath in Scotland. A Supporting role for McNaulty was fun to see. Overall this movie is fairly predictable, but it was well done. I think similar to the Descent, which was just a really well done horror movie.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Aside from the rather horrific violent sex stuff, this movie is a total joy to watch. A quality revenge and vindication flick, and the female lead is so awesome you can’t help but relish her vengeance.

Movies that left me a little clueless as to how I used the last two hours:

True Grit - I never saw the original, so I can't compare. I thought this movie was pretty ok. Visually, it was very appealing, and I liked the dialogue. I was just never that invested. I guess I was gearing up for a revenge movie, and for some reason this movie did not strike that chord in me. Oh yeah, it probably didn't help that every time Rooster Cogburn came on the screen, a guy behind me in the theater would say "the dude abides"...

A-Team - A solid action summer action movie. Not quite as good as Star Trek from last year. Can't imagine ever really wanting to see this again, but still worthwhile. Somehow I suspended disbelief for the flying tank scene, but when a single RPG sunk a cargo ship in port, that was a bit much for me to handle.

The Expendables - Not nearly as bad as I expected. Mainly because this movie was never going to take itself too seriously. With the Arnold cameo, making jokes about running for president. Even the over-the-top politicalness of the torture seen involving waterboarding and bringing back the rogue CIA running drugs through Latin America. So I can't really complain, but I can't imagine watching this again.

Alice in Wonderland – Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Lewis Carroll inspired material. Seems like a can’t miss, but it really didn’t feel right to me throughout. Visually of course it was very enjoyable, but the fun word play of Lewis Carroll was either too fast, too garbled, or non-existent.

The Girl who Played with Fire – Unfortunately the last two movies in this series don’t have the same director as the first. This movie just did not really seem to work as well as the first in the series. That said, I will still be watching the last in the series.

The Town – The dialogue in this movie was completely laughable, but the action was certainly redeeming enough to keep me entertained.

Movies that I can’t say enough bad things about:

Iron Man 2 - Very few redeeming qualities about this movie. I guess my comic book history is a bit screwed up as apparently the Iron Man series is an argument in favor of large defense firms....who knew?!?

Predators - While I passed on AVP-R, I couldn't pass on this installment in the series. I fondly remember both predator 1 and 2 from my childhood. This movie is pretty brutal. While the director definitely wanted to set up some pretty classic shots, the characters were all pretty hopelessly flat.

Dinner for Schmuks - This was a predictable and mildly funny comedy. That said, the fact that I can't really remember any jokes no more than a week or two later, that is pretty pathetic.

Eat Pray Love - Wow, this was pretty astonishingly bad. I could not have had a more open mind going into this movie, but it really just got worse and worse as it progressed. While this appeared to be about self-exploration and female empowerment, it was nothing of the sort. As for travelogue, even there, I think it was horribly lacking. The only redeeming part of the movie is the idea for boiling down a place to 1 word, which I thought it was kinda fun.

Movies that I definitely would like to see from last year:

The King’s Speech

Animal Kingdom

The Fighter

Winter’s Bone

Exit Through the Gift Shop.

What am I missing? What did I get horribly wrong?

2009 Movielist

Well it has been a while since I last did this. But I think it is a worthwhile to note the passage of time. So here are all the movies from 2009 that I watched, thrown into four categories with reviews/explanations when required. Please tell me what I missed out on, and what I have all wrong.

Group A: The Cream of the Crop

Inglorious Bastards: The opening scene just rips you into the movie. Also, I loved the scene when Shoshanna is getting ready for the premiere with “Cat People” by Bowie rocking in the background.

Up in the Air: Great themes, rather important to think about at this point in my life. The three leads all develop throughout the movie, and they are all awesome.

Let the Right One In: While this Norwegian movie was released in 2008, it came out in the US last year. Really fun coming-of-age/vampire story.

Avatar IMAX 3-D: While I don’t want to put this movie here, the 3-D IMAX experience really did feel different than other movies. The effects were (for the most part) not distracting. Also, I really like Sam Worthington. He was playing the same role he played in Terminator: Salvation, which will appear later in this list (much later).

Group B: Enjoyable Movies

Star Trek: While I’m not a big trek nerd, I certainly enjoyed this movie. The whole time travel thing is a bit absurd, but oh well, everything else was just great fun.

District 9: Setting this movie in South Africa certainly hammers home the theme. I really enjoyed the look and feel of everything for the first 30 minutes or so, but then as the movie went on, it just seemed a bit off. Maybe it was just my dislike for the lead, Sharlto Copley.

The Hangover: I saw this movie a bit late, so for me it was a bit overhyped. Then again, it was with one Chris Goodson and a bottle of blended whiskey, and it was certainly the funniest movie I saw this year, but I don’t see many comedies. Mike Tyson!!!

Up: I found the opening sequence about the main character’s life, love, dreams, and death, was completely gut wrenching. Maybe too much so, because everything else that happened in the movie not involving his wife just seemed irrelevant to me.

Revanche: Some people are suckers for coming of age movies, but I’m always game for a revenge movie. This is not losing all rationality, scorched earth revenge movie, but more your exploration of all sides of revenge and how we handle the consequences of our previous actions. Ms. Link you are missed here in DC as an E Street movie partner.

Moon: This is just a well done SciFi movie. Sam Rockwell was great in the lead. Short and to the point taking some interesting twists on well trodden ideas.

Group C: Just Missed the Mark

Bruno: Going to see this with Lukas, Alex and the other PARC folks at IJCAI was certianly a fun interruption of the confernce proceedings.

Watchmen: The opening scene was good fun, and I really like the look and feel of the movie. But the story did not work for me as comic, and it did not work for me on the big screen.

The Internationalist: My “End the Fed” friends were jokingly calling about this movie, a documentary, well before it came out. But if we are working with Clive Owen and banks, I’ll take “The Inside Man” any day.

Public Enemies: Katrina and I’s first blu-ray movie at home. I loved the shots of Chicago, and there is never anything bad about Michael Mann doing bank robberies and shoot outs. But as I watch the movie, I really didn’t feel connected to any of the characters (one could say that was because I knew the outcome, but I don’t think that is the whole story).

Thirst: Chan-wook Park’s take on a vampire movie with a touch of religion thrown in for good measure. I had high hopes, but if you are going to see one of Park’s movie (and you really should if you have not), start with J.S.A., then get into his revenge trilogy (Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance)

Rain: Saw with Alex and Katrina at the DC film fest. A good coming of age story dealing with Caribbean island culture and poverty. I just felt like the filmmaker was trying to throw as many contemporary local issues as possible taking away from the story.

Food Inc: This documentary attacks the food supply of the United States. While an issue I care about and follow from time to time, I just felt that this was such an agenda movie that did not really get to much in the realities of the world.

Fast & Furious: Got to see this one down in Atlanta leading off a double feature like old times. Certainly, better than the third installment in this series, but below 1 and 2. Listening to Bill Simmons and Adam Carolla’s review of this movie enhances the experience.

Group D: Utter Disasters

Terminator Salvation: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is better than this piece of garbage. Sam Worthington playing a robot has more depth and character Christian Bale playing John Connor...

X-Men Origins - Wolverine: Aside from the opening sequence which used the same time and music transitions as Watchmen, this was a complete train wreck of a movie. I think was Chris from Scene Unseen who pointed out, you are making a comicbook movie about Wolverine, you have to get 1 special effect right: his claws. HIS CLAWS were terrible almost as bad as the movie!!!

Underworld – Rise of the Lychen: the 3^rd vampire movie on this list. Why do I continue to see movies in this series. Because the first one at least was completely unapologetic about what it was, and that works. Now I have no idea what happened in this movie or the last one, and I really don’t care.

Movies from 2009 at the top of my Netflix queue:

Hurt Locker

Aimee and Jaguar

Pandorum

Movies of 2007

Amidst office arguments over the movie Juno, I thought I would try to summarize what I thought was good and bad about 2007 movies.

Top 3

Eastern Promises – I was just completely engrossed throughout. Viggo steals the show

Michael Clayton – The female opposing attorney and the the guy who goes crazy, both of them are awesome. Clooney is clooney-ish. Some really memorable scenes. [Update: Morteza appropriately points out that there is no way I can justify this in my Top 3. So I guess it is Top 2 until I get to watching those movies on my to-see list]

The Namesake – A great story about first generation Indian immigrants to America. Pretty gut-wrenching and I really enjoyed all of the characters.

Honorable Mention

Persepolis – I really thought the animation traveled well from the graphic novel to the big screen. The music was a definite bonus over the graphic novel version.

Bourne Ultimatum – Best action movie of the year no doubt. Given my general dislike of big action movies these days, this is a surprise for me. Seriously this movie is running about 110 mph. I didn't really like the second one, but the first one was fantastic. I put this one as even better than the first.

Juno – I saw it knowing next to nothing about it and not hearing any of the hype since then. I'll say that it is probably not worth all the hype it is getting, but at the same time I think it is pretty solid. It was not about believability for me.

Sunshine – Just good old fashion Sci-Fi. Had some acting problems, but was by far the best out of an epic quadruple feature in Seattle beating out Simpsons, Sicko and Transformers.

Overrated

3:10 to Yuma – Maybe I wasn't really paying attention, or maybe I don't get into westerns, or maybe this movie really isn't that good.

Zodiac – I liked the style, but at no point during the entire 3 hours did I really care what was happening. Maybe I just don't like Jake Gyllenhall,

American Gangster – and yes I know TI, Common and the RZA are all involved and I'm still gonna call this overrated. Seriously the only scene I really liked was the Anthony Hamilton lounge scene, it reminded me of the Curtis Mayfield lounge scene from Superfly.

Probably just shouldn't have happened

Simpsons - no better than 3 average episodes glued together

Die Hard 4 – Perhaps if Bruce starts rocking some HGH...Sly style...(Rambo 4 was definitely better than this movie)

28 Weeks Later – Another movie that got made because of the Franchise. I guess when you make sure that everyone who worked on the first movie does not work on the sequel you know what you are gonna get...which is absolute crap.

Ones I'm Pissed a Haven't Seen

No Country for Old Men

There Will be Blood

Ratatouille

Rescue Dawn

Lust Caution

Gone Baby Gone

Into The Wild

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Teeth