Director: Danny Boyle (Slum Dog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later…)

Writer: Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Slumdog Millionaire)

Starring: James Franco (Spider-Man, Milk, Howl), Kate Mara (Shooter, Iron Man 2, We Are Marshall), and Amber Tamblyn (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Ring, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food – King Buffet

Intellectual Honesty

I am a big fan of Danny Boyle. I think he is one of the most innovative filmmakers currently working and his movies are always interesting. 28 Days Later… is about the only straight zombie movie I can stomach. Slumdog Millionaire is one of the best and most inspiring movies of the last 10 years. The scene in Trainspotting with the baby (if you’ve seen Trainspotting you know what I’m talking about) haunts me to this day.

I’m not overly familiar with Simon Beaufoy, but after seeing his credits, I’m going to have to keep an eye on him.

I like James Franco, but he never seems to get a big enough role in his movies.

I’ve been a big fan of Amber Tamblyn ever since Joan of Arcadia. That is one of my all-time favorite shows that nobody else has ever seen, from when I used to watch television. Although bringing her up in the context of this movie is fairly pointless. Nobody but Franco is in this movie for more than a couple minutes.

Baggage

I think the only negative I brought into this movie was that I knew how it ended already. Thanks Willy! Thanks for nothing that is…

I guess considering there was a blizzard going on outside, I had some worries that I would make it out of the parking lot after the movie. If I was able to get out of the parking lot, would I be able to get home. If I was able to get home, would I be able to get home in time for my scheduled phone conversation with Jill.

Synopsis from IMDB

127 Hours is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers, family, and the two hikers he met before his accident. Will they be the last two people he ever had the chance to meet?

Review

Two things.

Number one, this is a really, really good movie.

Number two, I’m not sure if I could ever watch it again.

Although I was impressed with Colin Firth’s portrayal of an inbred loser with a stammering problem in The King’s Speech and I’m pretty sure he will win the Oscar, I will now be rooting for Franco and his portrayal of a rock climber/adventurer (Aron Ralston) who gets trapped when a boulder falls on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.

Franco essentially is this movie. After he parts company with two other hikers (Mara and Tamblyn) the rest of the movie is essentially him. For most of the movie he is essentially trapped by a rock and can’t even move. Despite this fact, the movie is never remotely boring. The movie bounces between Ralston’s attempts to free himself from the rock and his thoughts about his life and the mistakes he made that led him to this position and fantasies about partying with the two hikers that were the last people to see him, possibly alive.

Ralston carries a video camera with him and some of the best scenes in the film are when he is filming his goodbye to his parents and his sisters.

Although I’m sure most people know how this movie ends, I don’t want to give it away to the few people that don’t know. The reason why I’m not sure I could ever watch this movie again is because of the brutality in the scene where he does get himself free.

I don’t consider myself to be a squeamish person, but I could barely force myself to watch the movie screen during this scene.

On a less grotesque point of the movie, the canyons of Utah are filmed absolutely beautifully. It is an absolutely beautiful movie to look at.

It is a great movie with a great performance, so my only real complaint would be that sometimes the style of the movie overwhelms the story and I fear that at some point in the future will make this film feel dated.

Rating
4.0/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
Honestly, I don’t know. I write now that I don’t know if I could ever watch this film again, but when this movie comes out on DVD, I’ll probably be buying it in the 2-Disc Special Edition, if there is a 2-Disc Special Edition.

2010 Ranking
I rank it as #3.

Here is my current Top Ten of 2010 (Subject to change on a whim)

1. The Social Network
2. Inception
3. 127 Hours
4. The Fighter
5. Hereafter
6. How to Train Your Dragon
7. Black Swan
8. Winter’s Bone
9. The King’s Speech
10. True Grit

Bonus Information

When we ate at King Buffet, we were the only people in the restaurant. The theater was mostly empty. If you eliminated the Oklahoma State Woman’s Basketball Team, the theater was practically vacant.

After get outside into the weather, I decided it was prudent to just stay in Ames, so I crashed at Jen and Derrick’s. Thanks to them for having an extremely comfortable guest bed!

I saw the trailer to Cedar Rapids. It looks pretty funny.

Up Next
Looks like Ames in only bringing in garbage next week, so a trip down to Jordan Creek to see Biutiful might be in order.

Movie – Blue Valentine

Director: Derek Cianfrance (Brother Tied)

Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, and Joey Curtis

Starring: Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Shutter Island, Halloween H20) and Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl, Half Nelson, Remember the Titans)

Theater – AMC Southdale 16 – Edina, Minnesota

Companion – Jill

Food – Ruby Tuesday

Intellectual Honesty

I don’t think I have anything to disclose. I like Ryan Gosling, after I forgave him for The Notebook, but I’m not a huge fan. I like Michelle Williams, but I’m not a huge fan.

Baggage

I don’t think I brought any with me. This is essentially the director’s first movie. There aren’t any actors in the movie that I dislike.

Synopsis from IMDB

The film centers on a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.

Review

For starters, I’m disappointed that the IMDB could only spit out that pathetic synopsis. I am terrible at writing plot summaries, but I’ll give it a shot:

The movie follows the beginning of the relationship of Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) and the end of their relationship in a nonlinear timeline. Beginning when Dean spots Cindy at a nursing home while working a moving job and ultimately finishing when they get away for a romantic weekend at a room themed motel.

I have admittedly struggled with processing this movie. I’d like to think that is pretty rare for me. I think I struggled with this movie because it took me so long to figure out who was the “bad guy” in the movie and that statement isn’t even accurate. Like in real life, when a relationship goes sour, it isn’t one person’s fault, but it is usually more one person’s fault than the other. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that Dean was more to blame than Cindy. That is because at the beginning of the relationship, Cindy might have been using Dean more than loving Dean.

I think part of this is because I was stuck on thinking that the following line uttered by Dean to a co-worker was supposed to be the essence of the movie:

I feel like men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry, like, one girl, ’cause we’re resistant the whole way until we meet one girl and we think I’d be an idiot if I didn’t marry this girl she’s so great. But it seems like girls get to a place where they just kinda pick the best option… ‘Oh he’s got a good job.’ I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who’s got a good job and is gonna stick around.

It isn’t the essence of the movie though. It is the essence of the beginning of their relationship.

Cindy doesn’t respond to Dean’s advances at first. Then when her boyfriend gets her pregnant by messing up their birth control “system”, she leaves him and finally Dean wears her down with his persistence and his cute little song.

When he finds out she is pregnant he goes with her to have the abortion. When she backs out of the abortion he marries her and raises the child as his own.

The film shows the beginning of the relationship where Dean is extremely caring and loving. The film shows the end of the relationship where Dean has descended into alcoholism and he has become increasingly controlling. My main complaint with the movie is that we never really get to see the middle. What turned Dean from the charismatic likable guy at the beginning of the movie to the shell of a man he is at the end?

I guess the truth could be that he never really changes. Perhaps it is only our perception and Cindy’s perception of him that changes. This is a movie that is definitely worthy of a 2nd look and it needs more thinking about.

The performances by Williams and Gosling are both brilliant. Williams is very deserving of her Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a woman unsure about what to do about her relationship. I hope she wins the award, even though I’m sure Natalie Portman is a lock for Black Swan. I would have liked to have seen Gosling nominated instead of Jeff Bridges for True Grit, but I’m guessing that he might have missed out on the nomination because there are similarities to this character and his Oscar nominated performance in Half Nelson.

Rating
3.5/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
I’m slightly leaning towards buying it.

2010 Ranking
After viewing it, I’m ranking it number 10. Although like Black Swan, its stock could raise the more I dwell on this movie.

Bonus Information
If you have a smartphone, I highly recommend the Flixster app if you like movies at all. Earlier in the week Jill and I had discussed seeing How Do You Know, but she couldn’t find it playing anywhere in the Twin Cities. With this app, I was able to find that it was indeed playing at 1 movie theater in Apple Valley. Jill worried that this was too far from Oakdale, but with this app we were able to look at every movie that was playing with in a 50 mile radius and we found Blue Valentine. A movie she wanted to see, but didn’t even realize it was out yet.

On the slightly negative side, I wasn’t able to find an app that was very effective in finding a restaurant in the area. So we ended up at Ruby Tuesday. That kind of violates my rules against eating at corporate restaurants, but I’ve never eaten at a Ruby Tuesday before, so it worked out. Although, my burger was tasty, Jill had an unfortunate experience with a salad.

Worry not good people, for it has already been decided that next time we will be eating at Fat Lorenzo’s. I also found a decent restaurant finding app, for other circumstances, but that is a secret since Jill has falsely accused me of being obsessed with my phone.

Movie – The King’s Speech

Director: Tom Hooper (The Damn United, John Adams)

Writer: David Seidler (Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Quest for Camelot)

Starring: Colin Firth (The English Patient, Love Actually, Pride and Prejudice), Geoffrey Rush (Shine, Shakespeare in Love, Les Miserables), and Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club, Sweeney Todd, Hamlet)

Theater – Fleur Cinema – Des Moines, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food – Ted’s Coney Island

Intellectual Honesty

I do love Helena Bonham Carter. I don’t know many actresses that play her range of completely psychotic chick to future Queen of England (not that underneath everything the Queen of England probably isn’t a completely psychotic chick) so effortlessly. I always consider it a good sign when there is only 1 writer listed in the credits. The less writers the better. Even if their most recent screen credit was something called Kung Fu Killer.

Baggage

I don’t like royalty in real life. I don’t like royalty in the cinema. If you have to have royalty, my favorite kind is with their head on a pike be carried by an angry mob. I don’t respect countries that have royalty. I particularly don’t respect countries that have royalty that only have ceremonial duties.

I was pretty sure that Colin Firth’s performance was overhyped.

Synopsis from IMDB

Tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George (‘Bertie’) reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stammer and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war.

Review

First things first. The accolades for Colin Firth’s performance as a man struggling to deal with a speech impediment are well deserved. I have no doubt that he will walk away with the Oscar and deserve it.

Nearly as great is Rush’s performance as the eccentric speech therapist that help the future King of England work through his stammering and his childhood traumas. He won’t get the Oscar because Christian Bale will deservedly walk away with that trophy, but Rush certainly deserves his nomination.

Helena Bonham Carter as Bertie’s wife, but I don’t know if there is anything particularly spectacular in her performance.

As far as movie royals go, these royals are tolerable. Yes, the movie would have been improved if at the end a mob of angry peasant would have broken in and cut off Bertie’s head and paraded it around the streets of London, but it wouldn’t have been historically accurate and I’m not sure it would have helped them fight the Nazis.

Perhaps that is where I struggle most with this movie. Bertie and Lionel are fascinating characters, but I don’t really think that if Bertie would have struggled through his big speech, the Nazis would have defeated England. At the end of the day he is still a figurehead.

Another thing that troubled me with the movie was the demonization of Wallis Simpson. I understand that she wasn’t the greatest human being in the world. She was definitely a Nazi sympathizer and a racist. There is even some evidence that she might have leaked information to the Nazis as well.

However, in this movie her greatest crime seems to be that she is American and even worse, a commoner. The movie has no sympathy for Guy Pearce’s King Edward VIII and his decision to give up the throne for the woman he loves. On more than one occasion the film suggest that the more correct course of action would have been just to use the woman he loved as a mistress rather than have her as a wife.

When he abdicates his throne to be with her, it is seen as an act of cowardice rather than love.

Particularly annoying is when Carter’s Elizabeth is upset that she is received by a commoner rather than the King. It would have been the perfect time for a mob of angry peasants screaming “Off with their heads!” to have broken into the room.

My personal problems with the conflicts in the movie aside, this movie is really well done and it is one of the best movies of the year. It is particularly great in the scenes with just Bertie and Lionel.

My only other real complaint is Timothy Spall’s portrayal of Winston Churchill. He comes off more like the Batman villain Penguin than Winston Churchill. It is very distracting.

Rating
4.0/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
Not likely, unless there is an alternate ending with… well you know what I want to see!

2010 Ranking
#5.

Bonus Information
It was exciting to introduce Nader to the greatness of Ted’s Coney Island. On the way home, we listened to true royalty: Elvis Presley.

Up Next
Looks like 127 Hours is next in the hopper.

Movie – The Dilemma

Director: Ron Howard (Backdraft, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon)

Writer: Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire, 21, The Switch)

Starring: Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball, Old School, Swingers), Kevin James (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Hitch, Paul Blart: Mall Cop), Winona Ryder (Heathers, Girl, Interrupted, Dracula) and Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream, A Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food – King Buffet

Intellectual Honesty

I’ve been a big fan of Winona Ryder since Heathers, (one of my all-time favorite movies) but it doesn’t seem like she has gotten many great roles lately. She was in Black Swan, but she seemed slightly out of place. Ditto for Jennifer Connelly. I know these won’t be great roles, but at least it is something.

Baggage

Oh Vince Vaughn, I wish we could just go back to Swingers and start all over again. Kevin James’ stand up comedy is hilarious, but his movies have been absolutely awful, with the exception of Hitch. He owes me a written apology for my sitting through Paul Blart: Mall Cop, perhaps the worst movie of 2009.

I’m not sure how Ron Howard became attached to this movie. My best guess is that he was feeling nostalgic for his early days of Night Shift, Splash and Gung Ho. I would think that the director of Apollo 13, Ransom, Frost/Nixon and A Beautiful Mind would pursue a more demanding project, but then I remember he also made Edtv, The Da Vinci Code and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Synopsis from IMDB

A man finds out that what you don’t say to a friend is just as important as what you do is this story of how far you can bend a brotherly bond before it snaps. Since college, confirmed bachelor Ronny (Vaughn) and happily married Nick (James) have been through thick and thin. Now partners in an auto design firm, the two pals are vying to land a dream project that would launch their company. Ronny’s girlfriend, Beth (Connelly), and Nick’s wife, Geneva (Ryder), are by their sides. But Ronny’s world is turned upside down when he inadvertently sees Geneva out with another man and makes it his mission to get answers. As the amateur investigation dissolves into mayhem, he learns that Nick has a few secrets of his own. Now, with the clock ticking and pressure mounting on the biggest presentation of their careers, Ronny must decide what will happen if he reveals the truth to his best friend.

Review

The surprise of this movie is that the best role and only performance worth noting is Winona Ryder’s turn as the cheating wife. Amazingly her character ends up being extremely likable and while you hate her for what she is doing, she is still intelligent, interesting and has a level of depth missing from every other character in the movie.

Kevin James is a little hard to believe as an auto-engineering genius. He plays the straight man and while Paul Blart proved that he doesn’t belong as the leading man in a movie, he is much better as the goofy friend like in Hitch than as the friend of the goofy guy.

Vince Vaughn plays the exact same role he has played in every movie and he plays it well, but at some point I hope to seem him cover some new ground. At least the character is likable in this role, unlike Wedding Crashers or The Break-up.

Connelly is completed wasted in this role. She plays Vaughn’s girlfriend struggling to trust him due to his gambling addiction. However, this is never really explored and seems to be mentioned as little more than a plot device.

Channing Tatum was surprisingly interesting as Zip, the man that Ryder was having an affair with. Surprisingly, I wanted him in the movie more. His character was legitimately funny.

Not legitimately funny but just flat out puzzling is Queen Latifah. I think her character existed only to remind the audience that on top of the dilemma Vaugn’s Ronny was facing, he and James’ Nick need to produce an electric motor that sounds and shakes a car like a muscle car from the 70s. Why anybody would be interested in such a product, I don’t know. Apparently the filmmakers felt it was necessary to try to make her “funny” by repeatedly saying “woman wood”, but it wasn’t funny.

Of course, that is really the main problem with this movie. According to the Internet Movie Database, this movie is both a comedy and a drama. Well, it tries to be a comedy but feels like a drama.

It isn’t completely devoid of humor though. It isn’t laughless like Grown Ups. In fact, the scene where Ronny gives a toast to a couple married for 40 years is one of the funnier scenes of the year, but the laughs are few and far between for the rest of the movie.

It wasn’t a bad movie, but it felt like wasted potential. It wasted the talents of Ron Howard, Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly. Even though Ryder is definitely the highlight of the movie.

I think a better ending might have gotten an extra half star out of me.

Rating
2.5/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
No, but I’m reminded that I should see if Heathers is on Blu-Ray. I would watch this movie again on cable.

2011 Ranking
As the first 2011 movie I’ve seen, it currently ranks #1. I hope it doesn’t hold it for very long.

Bonus Information
Since the Cinemark refuses to bring any movies of merit to Ames, next week Nader and I are going down to The Fleur to see The King’s Speech and I will introduce Nader to the greatness that is Ted’s Coney Island.

I’m sick of seeing advertisements for Sucker Punch. I’m intrigued by Hall Pass. I don’t know what to think of Your Higness. Might be an early contender for worst movie of 2011 (with Sucker Punch and Just Go with It), but it might also be brilliant.

There was a certain amount of controversy about the use of the word “gay” in The Dilemma. To know what I think about that controversy read The Toad, The Turtle, and the Duck in David Sedaris’ “clever” Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Beastiary.

One other note, Raging Bull came out on Blu-Ray on Tuesday. If you haven’t already, you should run to buy it.

Movie – Country Strong

Director: Shana Feste (The Greatest)

Writer: Shana Feste (The Greatest)

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow (Se7en, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums), Tim McGraw (The Blind Side, Flicka), Garrett Hedlund (Troy, Four Brothers, Tron: Legacy), and Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl, Date Night, The Roommate)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food - King Buffet

Intellectual Honesty

I like Gwyneth Paltrow. All things considered, I thought she would have had a slightly better career.

I also like it when the writer and the director are the same person. It helps me buy into the auteur theory and I really like that theory.

Baggage

I really can’t stand new country music. I grew up listening to old country music and enjoy the works of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Sr. and Tom T. Hall (the first person I ever mention that name to and they instantly know the song Sneaky Snake – well there aren’t words for how I feel about that person). I can’t stand the warbling of any of the current country “musicians”.

I also thought that Tim McGraw was terrible in The Blind Side.

Synopsis from IMDB

A drama centered on a rising country-music songwriter (Hedlund) who sparks with a fallen star (Paltrow). Together, they mount his ascent and her comeback, which leads to romantic complications involving her husband/manager (McGraw) and a beauty queen-turned-singer (Meester).

Review

I’m not into cleverly changing the name of the movie to reflect how I feel about it. I leave that to Nader, but considering the inevitable resolution to this movie, I think the title is a misnomer. Cliche Strong would be a good name.

Cliche Strong because this movie piles one country music cliche on top of another on top of another. I understand that this happens because country music (the current incarnation) is the least interesting and least creative form of music being created today. If you write a song about your dog and a beatup pickup truck I guarantee you that it will be “rocking” karaoke nights all across Boone County, but it is as about as intellectually stimulating as paying your water bill.

It seems like this movie is meant to be the girl power version of Crazy Heart, only in the end the girl isn’t overly empowered. It follows the story of an alcoholic country musician, the only difference being the location along the career arc for the musicians. Bridges’ Bad Blake was washed up. Paltrow’s Kanter is still a big star capable of selling out arenas. Despite the fact that she fell off a stage drunk, 5 months pregnant and lost her baby.

Crazy Heart is much deeper and the music is better. Country Strong paints its emotions with a wide brush and it feels like it would be right at home on the Hallmark Channel. For you middle aged women out there, that wasn’t a compliment.

Despite Crazy Heart having better music, Country Strong is at its best when you don’t have to listen to the cliche characters struggle through cliche dialogue. It is best when they are on stage performing. I particularly enjoy the songs by Hedlund’s Hutton. The title song is kind of week, but the climatic Coming Home isn’t bad and is the best of Paltrow’s songs.

Tim McGraw doesn’t sing once in the movie, but he gives the best performance. As milquetoast as his performance is in The Blind Side, he is really good at playing a multi-layered douchebag here. He isn’t all bad, but in the end, he is a douchebag that takes his wife out of rehab too early and forces her out on a tour that her sobriety isn’t able to sustain. When she gets drunk before the first stop on the tour, he doesn’t see this as a sign that she needs to go back to rehab. He just forces the tour on, hoping to cash a bigger check in the future. Rather than spending more time with her, he spends it with Meester’s Stanton. McGraw is really good as a nonsupportive-semisupportive husband.

Nothing else really stands out in this movie, except that you’ve seen it all before. Done better.

Rating
2.5/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD
I won’t, but I considered buying the soundtrack until I realized they had replaced some of the songs performed by the actors in the movie with Faith Hill and Sara Evans. Not digging it record execs.

2010 Ranking
One of the most mediocre of 2010. Like Star Wars, made bearable by good music.

Bonus Information
While at True Grit the trailer for Country Strong played. Baier leaned over and proclaimed that he would seize the Man Card of anybody that attended this movie. I told him exactly when and where I would be watching this movie. He must have decided he wasn’t man enough to try to seize my Man Card, because I am still in full possession of it.

This review officially catches me up on movie reviews. In the future, I plan to use Tuesdays as a look back at my personal archives of photos. I’m going to go through every folder on my hard drive (before Photography 139) and start publishing a few out of a different folder every week. If I can stay disciplined, then I will use Wednesdays for movie reviews. Then I can officially get most of my private life out of the blog and turn to the creation of a collective blog. It is there that I hope to start a collection of fictional short stories. It is a goal any way.

Movie – Black Swan

Director: Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream)

Writers: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John McLaughlin

Starring: Natalie Portman (The Professional, Garden State, The Other Boleyn Girl), Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Book of Eli, Date Night), Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s Twelve, Eastern Promises), and Barbara Hershey (Hoosiers, Falling Down, Hannah and Her Sisters)

Theater - Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Jesse and Nader

Food – Mongolian Buffet

Intellectual Honesty

I didn’t bring a ton to the table. I’ve liked Natalie Portman as an actress since The Professional, but unfortunately she slummed for awhile by making those dreadful Star Wars movies. I think she is overrated as a beauty, but I think that happens to all actresses that come to the public’s attention at a young age or is in some type of science fiction/fantasy nerd film franchise. The double whammy for Portman. So when people tell me they want to see Black Swan just because Natalie Portman is hot (Willy), I don’t get it. I think Darren Aronfsky is kind of hit and miss, but more hit. The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream are fantastic. The Fountain is not.

Baggage

For some reason I have a prejudice against Mila Kunis. I’m not really sure why when I think about it. She is an integral part of Family Guy and Robot Chicken. Two of the greatest shows ever. She did stink it up something fierce in Book of Eli though, but I finally recently watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and she is definitely very watchable in this movie.

Ever since I saw the first trailer for this movie I’ve thought it looked somewhat inane. However, because of the tremendous reviews and the imminent Best Picture nomination, I knew I would have to go see it. It is better after all to make preparations for the Oscar Party early rather than trying to scramble to find the nominees later.

Synopsis from IMDB

Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side – a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

Review

I should start by saying that I’m pretty sure that the working title of this film was Masturbationfest 2010! There are 4 masturbation scenes in this movie, but one of them is cleverly disguised as a lesbian sex scene. During Natalie Portman’s first masturbation scene a thought crossed my mind. All of the Star Wars fans that came to see this movie because Natalie Portman is hot, probably looked at the screen and thought, “Wait, something is backwards here.” Although surely unintentional, it is the kind of meta-joke that I can appreciate.

I have already written that I consider Portman to be overrated as a beauty, but in this movie she is so grossly thin that there are times that she is hard to look at. During her 2nd masturbation scene, I thought, “All things considered, I’d really rather watch her eat a sandwich.”

I don’t want to dwell on the masturbation, but one of my first thoughts while I watched this movie was, the reason this movie is so highly regarded by the critics is because of all the masturbation.

It has been a long held theory of mine that film critics, not to sound Puritanical, overrate movies that contain sexual deviance. I’m not saying that masturbation is sexual deviance. I’m not saying lesbian sex is sexual deviance. I’m not saying that staring at Portman on the subway and masturbating is sexual deviance, okay maybe I am saying that one is sexual deviance, but if there is a hint of sexual deviance then film critics are all over it like a dog in heat.

There is no other way for me to explain why movies like The Piano or The Crying Game are so highly regarded. There is no other way to explain the one and only movie that Roger Ebert ever wrote.

When I left the theater, my initial gut response was that I had seen the most overrated movie of 2010. This was not without reason, with about 25 minutes to go the movie had become so insipid that I was ready for it to be over. However, when it ended, the ending was so great that it kind of saved the rest of the movie for me.

That isn’t to say that the ending was a surprise. If you paid attention to Portman’s character’s relationship with her mom, I think you could figure out the ending. One of the truths of filmmaking is that you can have problems in the 1st and 2nd act, but if you wow them in the 3rd, that is all that matters.

Truth is that if this movie would have ended in any other way, I would have considered it one of the worst movies of the year. Since it ended the way that it did, it is eking into my Top 10.

What do I mean by eking? Since I’ve left the theater, I have continued to think about this movie. The more I think about it, the more I like it. The performances are great, with the exception of Winona Ryder who seems hopelessly out of place in the world of ballet. Portman and Hershey are particularly great. As is Cassel. Kunis is very serviceable.

The visual effects are stunning and the music is fantastic.

So I sit here and I think on this movie…

Rating
3.5/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD
I think I might, but I might not.

2010 Ranking
I’m going to place it barely in my Top Ten for now.

Bonus Information
This is easily the most enigmatic movie of the year for me. There is a chance that I will see this movie again this weekend with Jill. If I do, I will revisit this review briefly.

Movie – The Tourist

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others)

Writer: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie, and Julian Fellowes

Starring: Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Angeline Jolie (Changeling, Salt, Wanted)

Theater – Century 20 Jordan Creek – West Des Moines, Iowa

Companion – Sara

Food - BangBang Mongolian Grill

Intellectual Honesty

I really like Johnny Depp. Even when he is in absolutely terrible movies (Alice in Wonderland or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) he is still worth watching.

Baggage

I can’t stand Angeline Jolie. Other than Girl, Interrupted; I don’t think that she has been in anything worth watching. Remember what I said about being an overrated beauty and Natalie Portman. That is Angeline Jolie times 10. That is a conservative estimate.

Synopsis from IMDB

Elise (Angelina Jolie) sits next to an American tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp), on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted for police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole.

Review

There isn’t much to say about this movie. It isn’t really worth much of a review. I think the best way to describe it is North by Northwest for stupid people.

The surprise ending of this movie you can see almost as soon as the credits start to roll. The opening credits.

There isn’t much action. What action there is, is boring. The love story is terribly contrived. For this being a love story, there seems to be a decided lack of chemistry between Depp and Jolie. The secondary characters seem like caricatures rather than fully fleshed out characters.

Looking for a positive. Venice is beautifully photographed. I would recommend this film to the Venice Tourism Board, but to nobody else.

Rating
1.5/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD
Nope. Don’t even think I would watch it again on basic cable.

2010 Ranking
One of the worst of the year.

Bonus Information

BangBang is AWESOME! It has replaced HuHot as my favorite Mongolian Grill. There wasn’t many people in the theater, but there was a May-December couple there. Only I think it was more like a February-December couple. I thought it was a grandpa and his teenage granddaughter, until they left the theater holding hands. I don’t want to sound like a Puritan (again), but gross!

Director: Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy, In Good Company)

Writers: John Hamburg (Meet the Parents, Zoolander, I Love You, Man) & Larry Stuckey

Starring: Ben Stiller (Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Greenberg), Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Heat) & Teri Polo (Meet the Parents, Beyond Borders, Meet the Fockers)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader

Food – Probably, can’t remember.

Intellectual Honesty

Meet the Parents is one of my favorite comedies ever. Meet the Fockers was an incredible disappointment. Ben Stiller is usually hilarious, but he does make some bad movies. Robert De Niro is one of my all-time favorites, but admittedly, not for comedies.

Baggage

I can’t stand Barbara Streisand.

Synopsis from IMDB

It has taken 10 years, two little Fockers with wife Pam (Polo) and countless hurdles for Greg to finally get “in” with his tightly wound father-in-law, Jack. After the cash-strapped dad takes a job moonlighting for a drug company, however, Jack’s suspicions about his favorite male nurse come roaring back. When Greg and Pam’s entire clan-including Pam’s lovelorn ex, Kevin (Owen Wilson)-descends for the twins’ birthday party, Greg must prove to the skeptical Jack that he’s fully capable as the man of the house. But with all the misunderstandings, spying and covert missions, will Greg pass Jack’s final test and become the family’s next patriarch…or will the circle of trust be broken for good?

Review

This isn’t really the type of movie that is easy to write about. It is a big improvement on Meet the Fockers, but it is nowhere near as good as Meet the Parents. All the usuals are back and are great in their roles. Owen Wilson’s Kevin character seems a little more forced than before and his part could have been trimmed considerably.

The movie is enjoyable enough, but it just isn’t terribly funny. It feels like we’ve seen all these jokes before, because we have. I don’t mind so much because I love the characters and the dynamics between Greg (Stiller) and Jack (De Niro) are lots of fun, but at the end of the day you feel like something funnier could have been made.

It is perfectly pleasant way to spend an evening, but I hoped for so much more than pleasant.

Rating
2.5/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD
Nope, but I will watch it when it is on television.

2010 Ranking
Doesn’t really deserve a ranking. I’ll have to be more proactive in my ranking system in 2011.

Bonus Information

I saw a preview for a movie starring Topher Grace and Anna Farris called Take Me Home Tonight. I am super pumped to see this movie. The fact that they lip sync to N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton is enough for me. I don’t even care what happens in the rest of the movie.

Director: Coen Brothers (Fargo, Blood Simple, The Hudsucker Proxy, No Country for Old Men)

Writers: Coen Brothers (Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

Starring: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart, Seabiscuit, King Kong), Hailee Steinfeld, & Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Departed, The Bourne Identity)

Theater – Springwood 9 – Ankeny, Iowa

Companions – Andree, Baier and Russell

Food – China Buffet – Ankeny, Iowa

Intellectual Honesty

I’m a big fan of Matt Damon and have been since Good Will Hunting. I like Jeff Bridges a lot as well. I have been excited for this movie since the first time I saw the trailer and not just because the trailer features a Johnny Cash song.

Baggage

I’m not really sure this is baggage or intellectual honesty, but it is probably a little of both. I love/hate the Coen Brothers. They have made some of the best and most original movies of the last couple of decades: No Country for Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple. They have made some of the worst movies as well: Burn After Reading, The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty. They have made some of the most overrated as well: The Big Lebowski and Barton Fink.

I’m not a fan of remakes, but since True Grit isn’t what I would consider a classic of the cinema, I don’t mind it being remade.

Synopsis from IMDB

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with “true grit,” Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her “grit” tested.

Review

It is hard to really pick which version of True Grit is better. This Coen Brothers version, or the John Wayne original. They are very similar. If I was forced to pick one over the other, I would pick the original. The few changes that the Coen brothers made from the original are not improvements. Even though Jeff Bridges is a better actor than John Wayne, John Wayne is better in the role of Cogburn. The role of LaBoeuf is not a particularly good role, but Glenn Campbell is better than Matt Damon. This is one of Damon’s worst performances to date. He isn’t dreadful, but he isn’t particularly good either. Barry Pepper’s performance is enigmatic. It seems that he is actually imitating Robert Duvall’s performance from the original.

Hailee Steinfeld is a revelation however. She is wonderful and all of the Oscar buzz surrounding her performance as the 14 year old girl that hires Rooster Cogburn to track down and bring her father’s murderer to justice is well-deserved. Mattie Ross is one of the best characters for a teenage girl to play and she nails it.

Although this is a small critique for a movie that is mostly filmed beautifully, there are scenes in the movie that are so overexposed that the natural beauty of the scenery loses its contrast. While I’m certain that this was intentional, (although it is possible that this was just laziness by the lighting crew as well) I didn’t enjoy it.

It is a good movie with many good performances and 1 great performance and a couple of subpar performances.

Rating
3.5/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD
I would consider buying this movie on DVD if I got it for a good price.

2010 Ranking
It is probably in the bottom half of the Top 10 movies I’ve seen this year. Maybe #7 or #8.

Bonus Information
The Ankeny theater is perhaps the poorest designed theater I have ever watched a movie in. The door was left open for the 1st 15-20 minutes of the movie. So was the door to the theater directly across the hall. For a good portion of the film I had to listen to the movie across the hall.

Before the movie there was a trailer for Country Strong. Baier announced anybody that saw that film would lose their “man card”.

Movie – Love and Other Drugs

Director: Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, Legends of the Fall, Glory)

Writer: Charles Randolph (The Life of David Gale, The Interpreter), Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac) and Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada, Bride Wars, Brokeback Mountain)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader Parsaei

Food – Probably, but can’t remember.

Intellectual Honesty

I love Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Particularly Anne Hathaway. I probably even like the Princess Diary movies more than I should.

Baggage

With the obvious exception of Glory, I don’t think that Edward Zwick can make a superior movie. I think he can make good movies, but they fall just short of great because he has tendency to allow the movie to break down into its weakest elements in the third act. Blood Diamond is a prime example. It starts out so intelligent and then turns into a run-of-the-mill action movie in the third act. You don’t leave the theater angry, but slightly disappointed by the wasted potential.

Synopsis from IMDB

Maggie (Hathaway) is an alluring free spirit who won’t let anyone – or anything – tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie (Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie’s evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.

Review

Once again I left the theater disappointed by wasted potential. Gylenhaal and Hathaway give full effort and they certainly have chemistry, but this movie is schizophrenic. It doesn’t know what it wants to be and instead goes in a hundred different directions.

The filmmakers clearly wanted to make a modern day Love Story and so they did aspire to great things, but since part of the movie is comedy and part of it is super serious it just feels very disjointed.

An example is a great scene where Jamie goes to a meeting that is sort of a support group for people suffering from Parkinson’s. While Maggie is finding out that she isn’t alone in her struggle with Parkinson’s, Jamie is talking to the husband of a woman suffering from Parkinson’s. I wish I could find a snippet of the dialogue so I could copy and paste it.

The scene is a real eye opener and shows Jamie that being with Maggie is going to go down a very negative road as her health degenerates. It is a great scene as a stand alone, but in the movie it feels slightly out of place.

I think this movie had a lot of potential, but it tries to be too many things and ends up being not much of anything.

Great characters and great actors though.

Rating

3.0/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD

Not likely, but I would watch it again.

2010 Ranking

I don’t know that it particularly ranks anywhere. Maybe 2nd best Romantic Comedy that I’ve seen this year.

Bonus Information

Really nothing to report.

Movie – The Fighter

Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings, Spanking the Monkey, I Heart Huckabees)

Writer: Scott Silver (8 Mile), Paul Tamsay (Air Bud). and Eric Johnson

Starring: Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, The Departed, Planet of the Apes), Christian Bale (The Prestige, The Machinist, The Dark Knight), Amy Adams (Junebug, Doubt, Enchanted) and Melissa Leo (Conviction)

Theater - Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Mom and Nader Parsaei

Food – I don’t think so…

Intellectual Honesty

Amy Adams is by far my favorite actress. I would watch her in virtually anything. I’ll even slum and watch Talladega Nights now and again because of the small role she has in it. I don’t even hate myself in the morning. I had very high hopes for David O. Russell after Three Kings, but then he disappeared after I Heart Huckabees bombed.

Baggage

I really want to hate Christian Bale because he is such a doucher in real life, but he is always great and he makes such great movies. I’m never excited for a Mark Wahlberg movie because he is so hit and miss. He can be brilliant like in The Departed or terrible like he was in The Happening.

Synopsis from IMDB

A look at the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.

Review

This movie is dominated by great performances. Christian Bale deserves the Oscar for his performance as Dicky Eklund, a drugged up-washed out former boxer living off the glory of once knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard. He is followed around by a camera crew that he thinks is doing a documentary on his boxing comeback. In reality they are doing a documentary on “Crack in America”.

Dicky isn’t the main character in the movie. Dicky’s young brother Micky Ward is the main character. Dicky, along with the rest of Mickey’s family are hurdles that he has to hurdle to have a chance at an actual boxing career and an actual happy life.

I bring up Dicky first because he absolutely steals the movie. That isn’t to say that Mark Wahlberg is bad as Mickey Ward. He isn’t, but Micky is the simplest character in this movie and he is upstaged in nearly every scene.

Almost as great as Bale is Melissa Leo as Alice Ward, Mickey and Dicky’s mother, that uses Mickey (by “managing” his boxing career) to support the rest of her worthless family.

A particularly great scene in the movie is when Alice goes to get Dicky out of a crack house. She is crying behind the wheel of the car when Dicky starts to sing. He wins her back and damn it, no matter how much you hate him for ruining Mickey’s life, he wins you back too. Dicky makes bad choices, but he isn’t a bad person and you want to see him succeed almost as much as you want to see Mickey scrape off the barnacles in his life.

Amy Adams is wonderful (would you expect anything less) as the woman that tries to help Mickey steer his life in the write direction.

Without giving up too much of the movie, one of my absolute favorite scenes in the movie is when Dicky gets out of prison. He is cleaned up and intends to stay cleaned up. It is the scene where he tells his friends from his crack den goodbye. It is understated and brilliant.

The boxing scenes are by far the most realistic boxing scenes I’ve ever seen portrayed in a movie.

My only real complaint about the movie is that I would have liked to have seen more out of Wahlberg’s Ward.

Rating
4.0/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD
On Blu-Ray the first day it comes out.

2010 Ranking
3rd Best Movie of the Year. Behind Inception and The Social Network.

Bonus Information
There is a ton of profanity in this movie. Despite that fact, my Mom still liked the movie, even though she hates profanity.

Happy Birthday Jesse!

Another year older. Another year weirder.

So I fell really far behind in my movie reviews, so I’m going to crank out a bunch of these in short order and without much detail.

Movie – Conviction

Director: Tony Goldwyn (The Last Kiss, A Walk on the Moon)

Screenwriter: Pamela Gray (A Walk on the Moon)

Starring: Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Insomnia, Boys Don’t Cry), Sam Rockwell (Moon, The Green Mile, Matchstick Men) and Melissa Leo (The Fighter, 21 Grams, Frozen River)

Theater – The Fleur Cinema – Des Moines, Iowa

Companion – Sara Junck

Food – Mezzodi’s

Intellectual Honesty

I didn’t bring much to this movie. I enjoy Hilary Swank’s acting, but I don’t think that I’m partial to her in a way that impairs my judgment.

Baggage

None. Don’t have a strong dislike for anybody in this film.

Synopsis from IMDB

A working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders.

Review

This is a fascinating true story, but it doesn’t really come off as that interesting in the movie. A woman without even a high school diploma goes back to school in the hopes of eventually getting a law degree and then getting her brother out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit. And she does it!

There is nothing wrong with this movie and the performances are solid, but this is the type of white trash that overcomes incredible adversity character that Hilary Swank plays in her sleep. Sam Rockwell is solid as the brother. Melissa Leo is impressive as the cop that frames Sam Rockwell, but she has an even more impressive performance that I’ll get to in a later movie review.

What isn’t covered in the movie is what happens after the brother gets out of prison. A year after he won his freedom he fell of a wall and died. How tragic is that? What I think is also fascinating about this woman that spent years and years trying to get her brother out of prison is that after she gets him out, she stopped being a lawyer. She went back to being a bartender. That is a fascinating person.

If this thing interests you, check out this link:

The Innocence Project

Rating: 3.5/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD

Not likely, but I would definitely watch it again.

2010 Ranking

I don’t think this really has a ranking. I guess it would sit just out of the Top Ten Movies I’ve seen this year.

Bonus Information

Before the movie I developed a love for boursin cheese. Thank you Mezzodi’s and Sara!

Movie – Unstoppable

Director: Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Top Gun, Domino)

Writer: Mark Bomback (Race to Witch Mountain, Live Free or Die Hard)

Starring: Denzel Washington (American Gangster, Glory, Malcolm X, Training Day) and Chris Pine (Star Trek, Just My Luck)

Companion – Nader Parsaei

Food – Probably but can’t remember.

Intellectual Honesty

I love Denzel Washington. I’ll watch him in just about anything and makes almost everything better. I like train movies. If I were to ever make films, one would definitely involve a train wreck. A real train wreck. No CGI!

Baggage

I think Tony Scott is a merciless hack and one of the worst filmmakers in the world.

Synopsis from IMDB

With an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train barreling toward a city, a veteran engineer and a young conductor race against the clock to prevent a catastrophe.

Review

Unstoppable? Unbearable is more like it.

You want to make a Tony Scott movie, here is his style in a nutshell:

Zoom camera. Cut to: Camera panning in a circle. Repeat until audience is nauseous.

For the most part, the acting in this movie was okay, but the action sequences were dreadful and the “ideas” these people had for stopping the train were laugh-out-loud ridiculous.

Plus here is free advice for Tony Scott. Next time you are trying to make a train look like it is going faster than it really is, even if you speed up the film rate, it is still obvious how slow the train is moving when you include so many other moving points of reference in the shot.

This film isn’t really worth any more discussion.

Rating: 1.5/5.0 Caramels

Buy on DVD

Not even for a buck.

2010 Ranking

Probably the worst action movie I saw in 2010.

Bonus Information

Nothing to report.

Movie – Megamind

Director: Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa)

Screenwriter: Alan Schoolcraft & Brent Simon; Both their first film as a writer.

Starring: Will Ferrell (Anchorman, Stepbrothers, Talladega Nights), Brad Pitt (Se7en, Fight Club, Babel), Tina Fey (Mean Girls, Date Night, 30 Rock), David Cross (Mr. Show, Run Ronnie Run, Arrested Development) and Jonah Hill (Super Bad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek)

Theater – Cinemark Movies 12 – Ames, Iowa

Companion – Nader Parsaei

Food – Chinese Homestyle Cooking

Intellectual Honesty

I love David Cross.  He and Daniel Tosh are kind of 1A and 1B for my favorite comedian.  I would watch David Cross do about anything.  That includes be in Scary Movie 2. Mr. Show is still the greatest show ever. Arrested Development is one of the Top 10 shows of all-time as well.  I also love Tina Fey.  Not enough to watch 30 Rock, but I think that is because I’m sick of people telling me I should watch it.  Also, I can’t stand Alec Baldwin. However, if David Cross was in it, that would surely trump my hatred of Alec Baldwin and I would start watching.

Baggage

I don’t particularly enjoy Will Ferrell in starring roles.  Anchorman is entertaining.  I enjoy Elf. But Talladega Nights is simply wretched, despite the fact that Amy Adams is in it. You all know how I feel about Amy Adams. I would rather watch anything with Will Ferrell than watch Jonah Hill.  I can’t figure out why he still gets work.

Synopsis from IMDB

After super-villain Megamind (Ferrell) kills his good-guy nemesis, Metro Man (Pitt), he becomes bored since there is no one left to fight. He creates a new foe, Titan (Hill), who, instead of using his powers for good, sets out to destroy the world, positioning Megamind to save the day for the first time in his life.

Review

Will Ferrell is actually fairly decent in this film.  Tina Fey is great. David Cross is brilliant, of course. Brad Pitt is barely in it, but is great.  Jonah Hill sucks it up beyond belief.  That is particularly hard to believe considering this is an animated film.

I don’t know if there is particularly much to say about this film.  It is decently written. The animation is good, but probably not all that special. Especially compared to the work Pixar does.  The characters are likable. The ending is satisfying.

The best part of the movie is Megamind’s interactions with Minion. I also enjoyed the references to Superman.  I’m not a comic book guy by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoyed the references to the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie.

In essence this is an enjoyable kids movie that has enough going on to entertain adults as well. I enjoyed the movie, but I will have forgotten it exists in about 3 years.

Rating

3.0/5 Caramels

Buy on DVD

Not likely.  But I would definitely watch it again.

2010 Ranking

3rd Best Animated Film I’ve seen this year. How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 are both much better.

Bonus Information

I had to endure an ad for some Glenn Beck thing before the movie started. I remember when that guy wasn’t a complete psycho doucher.  That feels so long ago.  Some people think I’m liberal because I believe decent Health Care is a right and not a privilege. Other people believe that I am conservative because I hate poor people. (The 2nd part is a riff on a Daniel Tosh joke.) The truth is that I’m not an ideologue at all. I favor common sense and solving problems.  Neither political dogma has a monopoly on the right answers. I don’t hate Glenn Beck because he is conservative. I hate Glenn Beck because he never tells the truth. You are entitled to your opinion, but you aren’t entitled to your own facts.  The point is, seeing him on the movie screen made my movie experience at least 15% less enjoyable.

Up Next

Conviction, Unstoppable, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Morning Glory. I would still like to go see Waiting for Superman and Fair Game while they are still in Des Moines. 127 Hours comes to Des Moines next week as well. I will DEFINITELY be making a trip to Des Moines to see 127 Hours! Good thing I have lots of free time Thanksgiving week.