This is one of those awesomely terrible movies. It’s super cheesy and super gory and pretty dang fun. The fight scenes are way over-the-top. The dialoge is ridiculous. The characters are complete stereotypes. And I couldn’t help but have fun watching. Sheena hated it. Most people would hate it. It’s not something I’d ever watch again, but it was just silly and crazy enough for me to enjoy.
C

Thor

I saw this because I’m excited for The Avengers later this year, and wanted to make sure I saw all of the individual character movies first. This is no Iron Man. Or even The Incredible Hulk. I wasn’t a big fan of Captain America, so this might squeeze by as better than that. The special effects were good, but the movie was a little too cheesy in my opinion. It did have Natalie Portman, so that helped. Worth checking out, but nothing special.
C

Oranges and Sunshine

This is a true story about a social worker who finds out about a UK government scandal where they take poor kids from their homes, tell the parents their kids have been adopted (offering them a better life), and then send them to Australia and Canada to work. Crazy, right? And it’s really interesting at first. But it just goes on and on and on. Although it’s a wild story, it’s very slow and very long and not exciting in the slightest. But Emily Watson is great.
C

Tabloid

A nutso Errol Morris documentary about a girl who falls in love with a Mormon, he leaves for his mission, and she goes and finds him and kidnaps him to snap him out of his being “brainwashed.” Yeah. It’s crazy. A huge part of the movie is actual, recent interviews with the girl (now older lady), and her side of the story. Which is really hard to believe because, well, she’s nuts. Definitely worth checking out if you like documentaries and can find it.
B

Moneyball

I don’t like baseball. I did like this movie. Not sure it’s Oscar worthy, but with all the other nominated crap this year, might as well stick it in there. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill were great. It was a little long and started to lose me at the end, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
B

We Need To Talk About Kevin

This movie is messed up. The storytelling is nonlinear, so it’s pretty confusing until you figure out what’s going on. And it’s very dark and creepy. I actually really liked it, but I don’t think most people would. The story follows a mother dealing with a child who’s legit crazy, and how it affects her life. It’s not at all a happy movie. Ever. There are great performances, though. And it was nice to see something way different than most movies these days.
B

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

A friend of mine from college told me I should check out this trilogy, which was started in the early 90′s, and finally finished just last year. I’ve yet to watch part three, although I know pretty much what happens, but I’m looking forward to it. The film’s about the murder of three eight-year-old boys, and the three teens arrested for the crime. It’s a crazy story, and really (REALLY) hard to watch, but it asks a lot of questions about our justice system and how people can be unfairly tried. The first movie deals with the arrest and initial trials of the young men.
A

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations 

The second movie deals with the appeal trials and new evidence found. At this point, the boys have been in prison for 5 years. Because of the controversy with the camera crew being given so much access to the original trials, they aren’t allowed inside the courtroom this time around. Although not quite as good as the first, we learn more and find out that a lot of things were overlooked 5 years prior. Again, I’m looking forward to watching the “conclusion.”
A

c.

This was a really cool concept. In the future, instead of money, time is used as currency. Once you turn 25, you don’t age anymore, and you’re given 1 more year to live. From there, the more you work, or whatever, the more time you earn. Cool, right? After that, everything went downhill. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it just didn’t live up  to it’s potential. Most of the characters are usually within a day of running out of time, and there is no sense of urgency at all. Maybe they’re just used to it? I dunno. I wasn’t buying it. And Justin Timberlake should stick to SNL sketches. He’s good at that. There were some good moments, and it’s worth seeing, just to get a glimpse of this future world that’s pretty interesting. Otherwise, not impressed.
C

Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak

In case you don’t know, Maurice Sendak is most famous for writing Where the Wild Things Are. He’s a crazy, old dude. Not like, senile, but just a nut, and 80 at the time this documentary was filmed. It’s pretty much just clips of a few different conversations with Maurice and Spike Jonze, with a little bit of Catherine Keener. And it’s really enjoyable. He’s a hilarious guy and has had a lot of crazy stuff happen to him. A lot of it was actually really sad, but it’s neat to feel like you’re really getting to know the guy. I want to be friends with him. This thing is only like 40 minutes long. Worth checking out if you can find it.
A

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I’m not real sure how I feel about this one. As soon as it was over, I liked it more than I did while I was watching it. I think I had to process what all had just gone on. This movie is super confusing. And I say that even though I think I did a good job of following what all was going on. It just seemed like it was more convoluted than it needed to be. There are tons of flashbacks, but there are no real signs as to what’s a flashback and what isn’t. You just have to figure it out. And it’s very, very slow. It’s the most unexciting spy movie I’ve ever seen. There is literally no action. I guess what I’m saying is, if you get bored easily during movies, just steer clear. I really did like the story, but I think it could’ve been executed better. I read that a mini-series was made of this book in the late 70′s, and it’s much, much better. I’d like to see that.
B

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I’m a big David Fincher fan, so I knew I’d most likely love this movie. And I did. And I do. I really don’t have anything negative to say about it. It’s a bit long, but not in a bad way, there’s just a lot of story to tell. And it’s very graphic, although not gory, which was good. In the rough scenes, you see just enough to make you uncomfortable and pull you into the story, but it doesn’t go too far with what you actually have to see. It’s still probably too much for a lot of people, but I thought Fincher did a good job of balancing the really heavy moments. It’s a great mystery story, and I liked how even after one part of the story is concluded, there were still more loose ends that needed closing. I could go on and on. This is definitely in my top 5 of 2011. I’m looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
A

c.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one, although not as much. At least I didn’t like it as much. It seemed to have less humor and the plot was a little messier. But it was still good fun.
B

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

No Mission Impossible will ever be better than Mission Impossible III. I just needed to get that out of the way. This was more realistic than 2, but still pretty silly. And there were parts that were just plain dumb. But, like all the MI movies, it was fun to watch. This is probably my least favorite of the franchise, though. Meh.
C

Hugo

I had NO IDEA what this movie was about going into it. Actually, I thought it was animated. Why did I think that? Although the main character is a little orphan boy, the movie is largely about the filmmaker Georges Méliès. You don’t have to know who he is or know his movies to enjoy Hugo, but knowing about him definitely made it more special. As I was watching them show clips from some of his films, I wondered how many people in the theater knew that those were actual old films, and that the character was based on a real guy. Again, it doesn’t really matter how much you know, the movie is still great. This one is definitely recommended. My only real problems with it were that the first half seemed really rushed to get a lot of info to you, and then the second half seems to slow down almost too much, where it was kind of dragging. But all in all I really liked this one. Check it out.
A

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh. Michael Douglas. Antonio Banderas. Ewan McGregor. Guaranteed to be great, right? Wrong. I’m not sure I can do justice in explaining how bad this movie really was. First of all, the main character of the movie isn’t an actor. She’s an MMA fighter. And it shows. Her lines, although terribly written, are delivered completely flat and boring. Second, remember all the cool music from Ocean’s Eleven, that other Soderbergh film? Well, they reused that. And it doesn’t work here at all. And I think it might have just been the same song over and over. Third, the dialogue. Ugh. It was just terrible. I think the script might have been written by a junior high stunt after learning about cliches in spy movies. Then there was the plot, and the sequencing, quite a few scenes of people just running, and lots of confusion. Who is that guy? What’s his job? Where are they now? The only good thing about the movie is the fight scenes. And they’re good because they’re interesting, but not at all believable. Right after watching the movie, I tweeted this, and I still think it’s the perfect review: “I asked @sheenapatton two questions during #Haywire that pretty much sum up my review: ‘Does she have cornrows now? When did that happen?’”
D (because Sheena and I had a lot of fun laughing at it)

Puss In Boots

I liked it! Keeping in line with the Shrek movies, this uses some old fairy tales as plot devices. And it’s really clever. And it’s pretty funny. And it’s nice to look at. So, see it.
B

Paranormal Activity 3

I’m not such a big fan of the “horror” genre. Not because they scare me, but because they’re usually just really dumb. The Paranormal Activity series is a nice change. It’s not gory in the slightest, and it mainly just feeds off of your sense of anticipation. Not a lot happens in these movies, and at times that’s annoying because it gets a little boring, but I think it works because just when you get a bit bored, something small happens that brings you back on board. This movie is in no way close to perfect. There are tons of things that happen, on tape, that the characters never go back and watch, which is really annoying. So much so that Sheena was kind of yelling at the tv. Things that once you saw them, instead of wondering what’s going on in your house, you’d just get the crap out of your house. But it wouldn’t be much of a movie if they just left the place where the crazy stuff was happening, huh? I think what I like most about the movies is the continued story. Although each movie stands alone just fine, the fact that every new one that comes out is a prequel to the last, getting you closer to where all this craziness started, is a really interesting way of doing things. It makes me actually care to see each movie. Not like, run out and see it on opening night or anything, but eventually see it. It’s safe to say that there is at least one more movie to be made, and I look forward to seeing where the story takes us.
B

c.

c.

14. Everything Must Go

13. Horrible Bosses

12. Our Idiot Brother

11. Bridesmaids

10. Beginners

9. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop

8. Super 8

7. Senna

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part. 2

5. 50/50

4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

3. Hanna

2. Attack the Block

1. Drive

c.

c.

c.

I expected this movie to be a lot sillier than it was. I’m glad it wasn’t. It was perfect. There are lighthearted moments, but they’re all pretty awkward because they seem so real. This whole movies seems very real. I heard Seth Rogen say that it was based on one of his best friends getting cancer and how he dealt with it, and that has to be how they got this movie so right. It just seems so very real. It’s sad and hard to watch at times, but it beautifully displays real friendship and real heartache and real love. It’s not a clean movie by any means, but neither is real life.
A

c.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I was really on board with this movie at the beginning. The story was cool, and the effects were pretty amazing. Then it just got cheesier and cheesier. I know it’s a comic book movie, but in the past few years it’s been proven that that doesn’t have to mean over-the-top. I did like the way they ended it, explaining how he can now be a part of The Avengers, which I look forward to seeing.
C

Beginners

This was a good movie. It’s funny and quirky and sad and happy and lovely. I don’t really know what else to say about it. I liked it. A lot.
A

Paranormal Activity 2

We watched this with the MZLs on Halloween night. It was pretty much what I expected. Really slow and uneventful for most of it, with some creepiness here and there. The ending was better than I expected, though. Movies like this don’t really get to me, but I can appreciate the style and thought it was pretty fun.
B

30 Minutes or Less

Very disappointing. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments, but not near as many as there should have been with such a funny cast. Bleh.
D

Our Idiot Brother

This was actually better than I thought it would be. It was more heartwarming than the silliness I was expecting. There are some really funny parts, but it’s mostly filled with very genuine moments. You can’t help but love a guy who feels like he should be able to trust people, at least until they give him a reason not to. Definitely worth checking out.
A

The Future

Miranda July is weird. It’s a fact. Sheena and I loved her first movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know. This one is good, too, but I don’t like it near as much. For most of the movie, it’s about as normal as July gets, but towards the end it just kinda goes crazy. It’s hard to really understand what’s going on. It feels like she thought she was being a little too straight with everything, so she went way weird for weirdness’ sake. It throws the whole movie off for me.
C

A Christmas Carol

We watched this with the family over Thanksgiving vacation. You know… since it’s time to start thinking about Christmas and all. It was pretty good. The animation was great, but it was way too creepy to be considered a kids’ movie. Those ghosts are scary! That is all.
B

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I honestly didn’t think I’d like this movie, so I put it off for a long time. I was wrong. This movie is great. Really great. The acting is great, the story is great, the animation is great. I really can’t say enough about how much I loved it. Again, this is very surprising to me. Check it out. For real.
A

c.

This movie was very unique and very funny. Also, super crude, just FYI. I love pretty much everyone in the movie, and they all did fantastic. I really don’t have anything bad to say about it. It wasn’t constantly laugh out loud funny, but rarely is a movie with a decent plot. And the plot here is pretty great. If you’re not easily offended, see it.
A

Drive

Awesome. Super awesome. It was a very deliberately slow (even literally, with a good bit of slow-motion shots) movie, in a very good way. The acting was great. The plot was great. The soundtrack was great. It was just a really great movie. It was way more violent and gory than I expected, but that was not a bad thing. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.
A

Scream 4

I don’t think I’ve seen a Scream movie since the first one. I MIGHT have see the second, I don’t remember. Anyway, this movie was enjoyable enough. Of course, they keep you guessing about who the killer is, which is always fun. It was pretty dang cheesy in parts, but it was entertaining.
C