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?