A New Year In Movies

So this blog has become rather unpredictable, with gaps in-between posting varying between months and weeks. For that I apologize. My goal last year was to watch 500 movies, which was a ridiculous amount of movies. Totally unattainable goal. Even 365 would have been pushing it. Well, when I got up to about 150 my phone had to be restarted and I lost my list, but from my estimate I’ve seen about 165-175 movies in 2011. Which is a good amount, but rather feeble compared to my goal. Oh well.

I’ve seen a lot of okay movies, quite a few good movies, and a handful of truly excellent movies. Bridge on the River Kwai and Gone With the Wind are my two greatest finds this year.

Soon I will be updating the site with my Oscar predictions, just like I did last year. I enjoyed that.

OMG I’m Behind

81. Something Wild (May 11) 8/10

82. Bridesmaids (May 13) 8.5/10

83. Blow Out (May 14) 7.5/10

84. Midnight In Paris (May 22) 9/10

85. X-Men: First Class (June 6) 6/10

86. Super 8 (June 9) 8/10

87. Three Amigos (June 24) 8.5/10

88. Season of the Witch (June 25) 5.5/10

89. Beautiful Girls (June 26) 8.5/10

90. Baby’s Room (July 2) 6/10

91. Tree of Life (July 5) 7.5/10

92. Robo-Geisha (July 7) 4/10

93. Horrible Bosses (July 9) 6.5/10

94. Cliffhanger (July 13) 7.5/10

95. Under Siege (July 15) 4/10

96. Transporter (July 15) 6.5/10

97. Transporter 2 (July 16) 7/10

98. Transporter 3 (July 17) 6/10

99. Death Race (July 18) 5.5/10

100. Captain America (July ?) 6/10

101. Never Too Young To Die (July 26) 10/10

102. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (?) 7/10

103. Cowboys and Aliens (August 6) 6.5/10

104. The Conspirators (August 12) 5/10

105. The Beaver (August 19) 7.5/10

106. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Aug 20) 6/10

107. Blitz (Aug 21) 5.5/10

108. Bug (Aug 23) 7/10

Movies 75 – 80

75. Thor (May 7)

I didn’t really know what to expect from this film. The trailers looked kind of goofy, the reviews were semi-good, but people who had seen a prescreener said it was great. I went with a friend, and ended up really enjoying it. That is, after the initial 20 minutes of the movie passed, and after we got to Earth. They have to get through a lot of backstory before the real story can begin, but because they spend so much time setting it up, they can’t actually spend much time on Thor’s transformation from a selfish and arrogant prince to reliable leader. So while the movie was just under two hours, I felt like it needed more. Which I guess is a good thing? By the time the end rolled around I was invested, it just took a little time to get there. The very end of the film gave me goosebumps. Really liked it. So while I felt the script needed one more re-write, and the director needed to stop with all the dutch camera angles, overall the film was very enjoyable. 8/10

76. No Strings Attached (May 7)

I guess it was a Natalie Portman night, because right after Thor I came home to watch NSA, as I like to refer to it as. NSA is a fun movie about two hot people having a lot of sex. The trailers made this film seem really bad, but it was actually quite funny. What’s also funny is the lack of conflict. Really, Ashton Kutcher is perfect, and Natalie Portman has a lot of emotional issues to deal with. And so there are two times in the movie where she’s like, “I don’t know, I love him but I don’t want to show my feelings.” And then she gets over it because he has no character flaws. He is 100% perfect human being. Considerate, loving, funny, etc. So in the end she’s like, “Stop being a dumb bitch” to herself, and they end up together and happy. Just for being charming I give this an 8/10

77. Mississippi Burning (May 8)

In case you didn’t get why they called it Mississippi Burning, they burn down literally 20 houses in this film. It’s like they screened it to an audience and the audience was like, “Whaaaaaaat’s with the title? Where was all the burning? We thought Mississippi was going to be on MOTHERFUCKING FIRE!” So they went out and filmed a shit ton of houses burning down and dispersed them every couple of minutes throughout the film. Where was I? Oh, it’s starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents investigating the disappearance of three civil rights activists in the south. It’s a fairly well made film, but it isn’t subtle and everything is black and white. The KKK men are all 100% evil, with little variation inbetween. I’m surprised the good guys weren’t all wearing white cowboy hats. But the story was interesting and the visuals were pretty and hot damn they burn shit down. Still don’t get the title though. 8/10

78. Solaris (May 8)

A trapped in space film that is rather slow and tedious, although it presents some very interesting ideas. Starring George Clooney and that chick from the Truman Show, this film doesn’t leave much of an impression. Although it does further the theory that the future is a very rainy and depressing place to live. Overall it’s confusing, but George Clooney goes up into space to see a patient, but when he gets there the patient is dead. It’s got some intrigue, but overall is rather lackluster. 6.5/10

79. Wet Hot American Summer (May 9)

This film is downright hilarious for the first half of the film. It’s silly, but not too silly, and the jokes are all really funny and hit home in fast succession. It’s got a very strange vibe to it, like Dazed and Confused mixed with…I don’t know, Hot Rod? Mixed with Fat Camp? Maybe? Maybe not. Anyways, my roommate is on this kick where he entertains himself by not telling me what movie we’re watching, and then reveling in my confusion as I flounder about trying to figure out what the hell we’re watching. This is one of those films where I went in not knowing what the film was, who was in it, or anything about it really. But there are a ton of very talented actors in here, and they’re all very funny. The second half of the film, however, goes downhill a bit. It gets a little bit too goofy for its own good, and things get a little too crazy. It’s still funny in parts, but is just too over the top. Redeems itself at the end a bit. 8/10

80. One False Move (May 10)

Another instance where my roommate enjoyed my uncertainty, as I walked into this film not knowing what the heck it was about. Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton, this film is about a southern cop who wants to join the big leagues and be just like those LA cops. On the other side of film, BBT (as I call him) is a murderous thug who spends the movie heading closer and closer to Paxton, until at the very end of the film their lives collide in an explosive and bloody conclusion. It’s an interesting film, that I felt had an interesting premise, interesting themes, but could have been executed better. 7/10

A Sincere Apology To Source Code

Somewhere in the middle of all my reviews I forgot to write about one! And that film is Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright. It’s directed by Duncan Jones, the brilliant voice behind the 2009 sci-fi film Moon. So in order to make it up to the film, I’ve decided to write a real full-blown review. Hold onto something.

Source Code is about Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a soldier on a special mission to hunt down a serial bomber. But this is no ordinary hunt, as the first bombing has already happened, and using a special program that recreates eight minutes before the disaster, Colter must relive the last few minutes on the train over and over again, each time in search of the bomber. So what follows is a mix of Ground Hog Day and Speed with a little Eternal Sunshine thrown in. Colter is only given the 8 minutes before the first train exploded to find clues. He keeps being dumped in, and must interrogate his fellow train members, find clues, all the while trying to figure out who the bomber is to prevent the second attack that is due to come later on in the day. And remember that the train has already happened, so it’s like a simulation. Of sorts.

It’s a little confusing to explain, but that’s it in a nutshell. Now let’s start off by talking about what this film did well, and that’s have two very charismatic stars as the leads. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan are simply delightful, and bring a lot of energy to what could have been insufferable roles. Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright are throwaway parts, and mostly you see them on a computer monitor. But Jake and Michelle are great.

However, that’s about all I can say is good. The VERY first person I thought was the killer, really the most obvious choice, turned out to be the killer. None of the characters had personalities and were all two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. The story is ludicrous, and not in a way that was intentionally silly. This film tried really hard to be smart, and it just came off as even more ridiculous. I’m not going to give away any of the spoilers, but there are some twists that make it even worse, even if they do add intrigue at points. And then the story devolves into an Eternal Sunshine-type story, where Colter is trying to get with the girl (they revealed this in the trailer, so it’s not a spoiler). I know, it’s shocking that the guy tries to save the girl, and they bring in all this alternate reality crap that seems rather convenient at the end of the film.

It’s been a couple weeks since I saw it, so I could have told you more later. But really, the movie is just boring. If you don’t buy into the premise, and you grow frustrated with the main characters having to rely on the personalities of their stars due to lack of development, then this film will get REALLY old. Especially because it’s the same setting for most of the film, and they relive that moment over and over again. Where Groundhog Day could explore the rest of the city and really bring a sense of charm to the people who live there, we learn almost nothing about the characters on the train except for what’s right on the surface. But really, Colter only has 8 minutes to work with, so it’s a little difficult to spend time with people when there’s a bomb about to go off.

As a follow up to Moon, I feel like Duncan Jones really took a step down with this film. There is an excess on display, and I wonder where the money went to in the making of this film. The special effects, maybe? They were serviceable. I guess the stars asked for a bit of money. But over thiry million dollars? A bit much for not much payoff. The whole film is predictable, with certain details providing small pockets of mystery in an otherwise paint by the numbers science fiction film. It borrows interesting ideas from other films while providing little that is new. Has some entertaining sequences, but I would not recommend paying for this, nor would I ever feel the need to watch this again. 5.5/10

For those of you keeping track, that puts this film as slightly better than SWAT and slightly worse than Morning Glory. And this puts me up to 74 movies!