Warrior was better than I expected. I'm not really into those Rocky type movies, but it was entertaining enough, if a little predictable.
I thought Moneyball was great. I like baseball (and the A's) but I thought it would be another Brad Pitt vanity project. It was so much more, and very informative. Made me miss watching pro baseball, something I gave up after the 1994 strike (the Expos were robbed!).
I recently saw We Need to Talk About Kevin, which I had high hopes for. I was mostly disappointed, but I did find myself thinking about the movie quite a bit afterwards. It was obvious and unnecessarily opaque in RED, but sort of galling. I wish the story was given more attention than the direction, though. At times I found myself wondering if I was watching a first year film student's interpretation of a good story, rather than watching a good story interpreted by a good director.
Contagion was pretty good. I don't want to give anything away, so that sort of halts my critique of it. But it's worth a look, especially if you like end of the world (?) movies with actual characters.
The Help was much better than I anticipated. There's been lots said about it, so I don't really need to add to that. But it was much more than I thought it would be from it's stated premise.
I liked X-Men. But I grew up thumbing for their newest additions with my father behind me looking for authentic Tin Tins. So I might be biased (No, I haven't seen Tin Tin yet. Told my dad, who hasn't been to a movie theatre since disco was hot and still has his original 1986 VCR player that I would watch it with him when I visited this summer. His response: "**** you! I'm goin' to see it this Friday! Yer sister downloaded me a ticket on the computer and everything!").
I though Bridesmaids was the funniest comedy of the year. Maybe of the last few years. It inspired me to watch SNL again for the fist time in over a decade. Yeah, that didn't work out. But Kristen Wiig is talented. That airplane scene is one for the ages, I could (and have) watched it over and over again. Still laughing.
For docs, the HBO special Hot Coffee was very informative. Try also (available on youtube for now) The Shock Doctrine.
The Muppet Movie. Sensational Inspirational Celebrational Muppetational!
The Descendants was unbelievably boring and bordered on unrealistic--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the one positive is supposed to be that it's a realistic view of family tragedy, it's the bowling ball that takes you down. Let me sum it up for you: George Clooney looking sad...in Hawaii!. Boom, done. I sincerely don't understand the hype around it. Ok, I do. Clooney could wipe his butt with a script and the public and critics would line up to stroke him off for it. But this movie is pointless and frustrating to think handsomeness is enough to make you an adored multi-millionaire who is thought of as an artist. Give me that jaw line and silky voice and I'm suddenly Van Gogh. It's sort of insulting, if it wasn't so charming...in Hawaii!
Overall, I feel like it was a slow year in movies. I love going to the theatre and being blown away, but I only went to see X-Men this year. Whenever I have a free night and want to download something I find myself looking at past years instead of this one. Maybe I was just out of the loop.
