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Movies Seen in 2010

51. The Wrestler (A-)

One of the really acclaimed films (and performances) of 2008, that was a period when I had almost stopped watching movies, so I finally went back to check it out. The film's by Darren Aronofsky, who previously made the interesting-if-inscrutable The Fountain. If one film came to mind while watching this, it's Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. If Million Dollar Baby was a dark take/deconstruction of Rocky, The Wrestler is a dark take/deconstruction of Rocky Balboa. In perhaps a refreshing twist, for once ignoring all medical advice turns out to not be a good idea. Rourke's performance got a ton of acclaim, and it's deserved (people love performances like this, where the character's situation so obviously mirrors the actor's, though Rourke, luckily, got the more traditional Hollywood ending).

Marisa Tomei, who's been the butt of a million "Oscar to the wrong person" jokes, is great here too; if nothing else, her nomination for this shows it wasn't a fluke. Evan Rachel Wood is good in her limited screentime (I thought the whole "she might be a lesbian" thing was odd; are roommates that unheard of?). The movie also gets a lot of mileage out of the wrestling subculture; I have not the slightest bit of interest in professional wrestling (my brother and his friends were crazy about it for a while), but it was neat to see how they go about their business.
 
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe [C]

While this movie looks and sounds absolutely spectacular, and is one of the finer Blu-Ray releases I have seen, the plot is so thin that the movie is not as enjoyable as it should be. I never felt any kind of connection with any of the characters.
 
I wasn't impressed by that one. I think trying to translate C. S. Lewis' charming little fables into Tolkien-style epics was a bad tack to take with them (and they don't even do an especially good job with that; for an epic, Narnia feels about as big as a snow globe; you can't seemingly walk anywhere in a couple of hours at most). It has strong points though, particularly the two younger kids, and Tilda Swinton. Also, really fantastic creature effects.
 
I saw Lion Witch and the Wordrobe, and while I enjoyed it the first time, the more and more I thought about it, the more forgettable it became. I never even cared to see the second one even though it's consistently on Starz and Encore.
 
Avatar (2009)... B
Amreeka (2009)... A
Just Married (2003)... B-
2012 (2009)... B+
CSA: The Confederate States of America (2004)... A-
Mississippi Masala (1991)... A-
 
I saw "Kick-Ass" last night. Ridiculously fun movie. At least as fun as Matthew Vaughn's last movie, "Stardust", though very different in tone. This movie is basically "Kill Bill" meets "Spider-Man" meets "Superbad".

Apparently, there's some controversy, because some of the marketing makes it look like it's silly kiddie stuff like Spy Kids, when it's actually extremely violent, and includes scenes with people's legs being severed and the like. But I don't know how one is supposed to market a movie like this. You can't really capture the way a movie like this subverts the superhero genre in a 60 second trailer.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]
74. 2012 [D]
75. The Fog of War [A]
76. The Octagon [F]
77. Leprechaun In The Hood [C-]
78. Ninja Assassin [D]
79. Modern Times [A]
80. Full Frontal [B-]
81. Dazed and Confused [ B]

I'm not convinced this movie had much in terms of substance, but it was certainly enjoyable and boasts quite a soundtrack as well as a strong cast of actors who have since risen in prominence. At times, it is a total fantasy (the police aren't even a bother to anyone until the very end), but a worthwhile one.
 
Movies Seen in 2010
Duplicity - C-
The Hurt Locker - A
Moon - A
The Princess and the Frog - B
Crazy Heart - B+
Julie & Julia - A-
A Serious Man - A
Fargo - A
The Blind Side - B-
The Informant! - C
The Big Lebowski - A
How to Train (Or tame ;) ) Your Dragon 3D - A

Whenever I go see a Kids movie, I always have doubts on if I will really enjoy it, other than if it's a Pixar film. That's probably why I haven't seen movies like Ice Age or Kung-Fu Panda (But with Pablo Sandoval sweeping San Francisco the last few years I might need to see it now). I was skeptical about this one, but after hearing the reviews and critics, I decided to go see it, and to see it in 3D

Boy I'm glad I did. What a wonderful movie this was, full of fantasy and emotional moments and great scenes. Granted, this is one of those "loser becomes the hero" type movies (Is that really a spoiler for movies like these anymore?) but how we got to that point was just really well done. The animation was gorgeous, and different Dragons were creative, and just the emotion and fantastical tone of this movie was beautiful. In fact, I would say this movie upped Avatar in that the visuals were good, but so was the story. Avatar's story was not good, but back to Dragon. Really liked the characters (Even though I couldn't spot Tennant), and really liked Furguson's character. I would say this is a movie if you have kids, take them, but if you don't have kids, see it anyway. This is a movie that takes you from reality and lets you escape for a few hours. It's a fun film, and one of the best films I've seen this year.

As for the 3D aspect, this was the first time I saw any film with the 3D craze. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I feel like a lot of the visuals would have been equally beautiful in 2D and there was only one scene were the 3D really added anything. That was the scene were Astrid and Hiccup were riding Toothless (Loved that name for the dragon by the way ;) ) for the first time and just the visuals were absolutely stunning. I actually choked up during that scene because of how beautiful everything looked. I might go see more 3D films (Like Toy Story) but I'm not sure if it's worth it.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]
74. 2012 [D]
75. The Fog of War [A]
76. The Octagon [F]
77. Leprechaun In The Hood [C-]
78. Ninja Assassin [D]
79. Modern Times [A]
80. Full Frontal [B-]
81. Dazed and Confused [B ]
82. Sherlock Holmes [B-]

Didn't intend to see this one again so soon, but, alas, I was not in charge of the film selection this evening. Still pretty entertaining, and still pretty apocryphal. I suspect it will take me a while longer to accept this version of Sherlock Holmes, which seems intent on transforming the character into movies that could be confused as originating from a comic book franchise. On the other hand, Downey Jr. and Law are pitch perfect in their roles, and Watson is rather enjoyably not depicted as an old fool in this incarnation.
 
52. Touch of Evil (A-)

I keep wanting to write that as "A Touch of Evil" or "The Touch of Evil"; the title sounds too short, for whatever reason. This 1958 film was Orson Welles' last studio project, after which he had burned just about every bridge out there; poor guy. This is one of the last of the major black-and-white film noirs, and it's one of the best that I've seen; too often I find that "classic" noir is constrained by the production code of the era, which required keeping things cleaner than the story really should be. Touch of Evil has the appropriate level of seediness. It suffers a bit from trying to pass off Charlton Heston as a Mexican, which just doesn't work at all (Welles' character notes at one point that he doesn't sound Mexican) - it's otherwise a credible performance from Heston as the straight-arrow cop. Welles steals the show as the villain, much as he did in The Third Man; he's by now dangerously huge, and he shoots himself in incredibly unflattering ways (though the constant emphasis on his portliness makes the fat guy-on-fat guy murder scene kind of comic). Janet Leigh, who has really terrible luck picking out motels, is good as the wife, who straddles an odd line between being a hard-nosed woman and a damsel in distress. Much as with Welles' other films, the camera work is great, and considerably livens up the film. The one real negative is the incredibly annoying comic relief desk clerk, who seems to have wandered in from a completely different movie; every scene with him takes me out of it.
 
Welles had certainly gained weight by 1958, but not to the excess of his later life. He's wearing a fat suit and make-up in Touch of Evil. There's actually an amusing anecdote where everyone on set was telling Welles how good he looked, while he was wearing the fat suit. ;)

The desk clerk you mention is played by Dennis Weaver, no? I think his character mostly (or perhaps totally, I don't know) came from the studio's mandated re-shoots done without Welles, but on the other hand he seemed to like some of these scenes, since he asks for them to be included in his long memo about how the film should have been re-edited.

Which version did you see, btw?
 
Okay--that's probably the best version, judging from what I've read online. But it isn't, of course, Welles' original version, since he approved of some of the studio changes made after he turned in his cut.

I know the memo is on at least some of the DVDs of the film. It would be interesting to read sometime when I have a moment to cruise through 58 pages...
 
53. Woman of the Year (B-)

This is the first of the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn collaborations (there would be eight more over the years), originally released in January of 1942. It got Hepburn another of her Oscar nominations, and the Oscar for Original Screenplay for Michael Kanin (whose brother cowrote Adam's Rib, which was my movie #) and Ring Lardner Jr. (he of the blacklist). As a film, it's...ehh. It takes some interesting detours from rom-com formula, such as having the leads get married about a third of the way through. The chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn is evident. It's a bit on the long side (around two hours).

There are a couple of aspects of the film that haven't aged especially well. Firstly, it's sort of awkwardly positioned on the feminist scale. Hepburn's playing her typical feminist heroine: she's an important, well-connected journalist, heavily involved in important international issues (we're told she had a one-on-one conversation with Churchill in London, she chairs a committee on Greek refugee children, she's voted Woman of the Year). Her suitor/husband is a sports journalist, and after getting married he finds she's rarely got much time or consideration for him; to at least some extent, she's not a "woman" at all. When trying to win him back, she attempts to cook breakfast, which she proves totally inept at - Tracy's character pulls a last minute save here by declaring that she's now going overboard in the other direction and that he's not interested in her being either Tess Harding or Mrs. Sam Craig ("Tess Harding-Craig", as he puts it). That in and of itself is pretty forward for the period, but the overall thrust of the movie is a bit awkward (at the same time, it's nice to see a romantic comedy where it's the woman who fucks things up and has to make amends).

The other is also a product of the film's production period. It was released in January 1942, meaning it was filmed some time in 1941; as such, the America we see here isn't at war, but the big fight is very much underway overseas (Tess' office even has a big map of Europe clearly demarcating the extent of Axis territory). Tess is, as I said, an internationalist; Sam really couldn't seem to care much at all about it (he doesn't even know what Vichy is). On their wedding night, they're visited by an old acquaintance of Tess', a Yugoslavian diplomat who has just escaped from a "concentration camp" (a term that obviously had less horrific connotations at the time) and has rushed to see her - Sam (and the film) treat him and his entourage as comic intruders. It feels kind of bizarre.
 
I saw The Greatest, which would be a questionable title if the movie sucked, but fortunately I was really taken by the film. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons and Aaron Johnson, The Greatest is a subtle and poignant look at grief and how we all grieve in different and unique ways.

The plot follows young lovers Bennett (Johnson) and Rose (Mulligan) who lose their virginity one night when later on Bennett tragically loses his life in a car accident. This isn't a spoiler, since this is the basis of the film. The rest of the film follows the family unit of Allen (Brosnan), Grace (Sarandon) and younger kid brother Ryan (Simmons). Allen is the stoic father, unable to show emotion. Grace is the inconsolable mother, whose grief is intense. Ryan is the drug addled brother, torn by the death of his brother, whom we gather had a significant but perhaps negative affect on his life (or so we're initially led to believe).

Enter Rose, who shows up at their doorstep announcing to the grieving family that she is pregnant with Bennett's child. The family reacts in different ways -- Allen, being the consummate gentlemen and leader of the house, takes Rose in and in a strange inexplicably poignant way ends up bonding with her. Grace is more indifferent, if completely disinterested in helping out Rose or learning anything about her. She doesn't care about Rose's child. She wants her own child back.

Rose's explanation for moving in with them is that she has no place to go, but what we gather based on Rose's interaction with the family is that she barely knew Bennett, and wishes to know more about the dead father of her unborn child. It's a very strange but affecting dynamic that brews amongst the household, and makes for some very compelling scenes, such as one where they all have dinner together and a slew of awkward moments arise.

The Greatest portrays an emotionally intricate portrait of a family that is unsure of how to cope given the loss of someone very close in their lives. It examines the difficulty of grief and how there are no easy answers. Everyone reacts in their own way. Ryan, who appears emotionally detached throughout most of the film, is forced to come to terms with his emotions in an unfortunate but natural way. Furthermore, the characters grow and transform right before our eyes. There are no big revelations, or melodramatic shockers, but quiet, introverted conflict. The Greatest deals with repressed baggage, and how we internalize things we don't want to confront, and how eventually those feelings will manifest and find a way to externalize themselves sooner or later. It's also about the relationships in our lives, and how we are each significant to each other, whether we realize it or not.
 
Twelve Angry Men (original, and only true film version) 10/10
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix 8/10
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]
74. 2012 [D]
75. The Fog of War [A]
76. The Octagon [F]
77. Leprechaun In The Hood [C-]
78. Ninja Assassin [D]
79. Modern Times [A]
80. Full Frontal [B-]
81. Dazed and Confused [B ]
82. Sherlock Holmes [B-]
83. From Russia with Love [B+]

This is probably my favorite Bond film with Connery in the role. It retains the almost primal version of the character shown in Dr. No (witness Bond's rough fights with two villains near the end), but also introduces Q and a few other elements that would become standards of the series. The gadget, a tricked out briefcase, is still simple enough to be believable. SPECTRE's plot is straightforward (pit Russia against MI6 in order to steal a Lektor device) and the identity of Blofield hasn't been demolished of dramatic possibilities by endless recasting yet. Bond even still has his girlfriend from the last movie (alas, any sense of a private life for the character will be dropped in the next installment).

Robert Shaw is an inspired choice to play Grant, and absolutely perfect until he opens his mouth. Alas, his voice doesn't quite project the menace of his eyes and body language, but it's a small complaint. The Istanbul Station Chief is probably the most developed and sympathetic secondary character in the series until Mathis 20 films later, and when Bond discovers his death it's an honestly sad moment.
 
Watched Seraphim Falls on DVD last night...it was Not. Good. at all.

Stupid previously viewed blind buy....
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]
74. 2012 [D]
75. The Fog of War [A]
76. The Octagon [F]
77. Leprechaun In The Hood [C-]
78. Ninja Assassin [D]
79. Modern Times [A]
80. Full Frontal [B-]
81. Dazed and Confused [B ]
82. Sherlock Holmes [B-]
83. From Russia with Love [B+]
84. Dr. Strangelove [A]

(Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

This dark comedy by Kubrick is brilliant, hilarious, and well-crafted. It's not the first time I've seen it, and, really, what more can be said about it that hasn't already been said? I was particularly keyed in on the sexual subtext of the film, and boy, is it everywhere. :lol:
 
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