previous reviews here.  it’s been so damn long since i wrote this shit up, i forgot what some of these movies were about!  actually that was just The Messenger.  i had to look that up again. 

 

Shutter Island (2010) – leo dicaprio and mark ruffalo in a martin scorsese film about two detectives looking for a missing inmate at an insane asylum.  sufficiently creepy, if a bit campy, and develops into something better than it starts out as.  not bad.  3.5 stars.

The Messenger (2009) – woody harrelson and ben foster are US Army soldiers tasked with notifying the next of kin when a soldier is killed on duty.  ben foster, who was pretty fun in a mediocre movie like 3:10 to Yuma is turning out to be pretty annoying.  2 stars.

Youth in Revolt (2009) – michael cera is his usual wispy, wimpy self pining for a cool girl when he develops a naughtily misbehaving alter ego named Francois in order to play in her league.  has a few fun and silly moments and really had the makings to be great but turned out average, not bad, just average.  3 stars. 

Summer Hours (2008) – juliette binoche.  french film about a family’s inner debate and its unintended consequences.  i’m beginning to notice the french technique of storytelling.  save the punchline for the very last scene, and don’t ever come out and verbally say what it is.  3.5 stars.

Mystery Team (2009) – donald glover’s film about three grown teenagers who behave like seven year olds playing detective in true scooby doo fashion.  if scooby doo had S&M and strippers, that is.  very silly, and at least a little bit fun.  3 stars.

Kick-Ass (2010) - you remember that trailer with the tiny girl dressed up as a superhero saying words like “cunt” and kicking all sorts of bad guy ass?  turns out the film is actually a coming-of-age story in disguise, and it’s not really her that’s coming of age.  after you get over the novelty of the kids in costume and the psychotic little girl, there’s enough story and character to fall back on to make it a whole movie.  3.5 stars.

RocknRolla (2008) -  guy ritchie film.  if you’ve seen one…  3.5 stars.

Chloe (2009) – julianne moore and, one of my favorites, amanda seyfried in a kind of romantic thriller by atom egoyan about a successful, happily married doctor (Moore) who hires a prostitute (Seyfried) to proposition her husband as a test of fidelity.  naturally things like this have no way to go but down.  while i love the idea of watching amanda seyfried have sex with another woman, the characters on display really didn’t do anything but repel me.  2 stars.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) -  four goof ball losers go back in time to do what every person in a movie time machine ever does: change the past with lessons learned to create a better future.  ho hum.  but craig robinson from The Office is really pretty hilarious as always as is Rob Cordry most of the time.  3 stars.

Greenberg (2009) – ben stiller in a noah baumbach film.  baumbach seems to relish in these really isolated, hateable characters who should draw no sympathy, but actually do even if it’s to the tiniest degree.  jeff daniels in The Squid and the Whale and nicole kidman in Margot at the Wedding.  it’s a real high-wire act trying to balance the assholery with some tiny speck of decency.  the only problem here is that i had a really hard time finding anything redeemable about Greenburg.  while that didn’t completely ruin the movie for me, i can’t say i enjoyed it a whole lot and i don’t foresee its future life in my memory being very long.  2.5 stars.

Ip Man (2008) – donny yen film about a legendary bad ass gentleman, kung fu master, Ip Man, who eventually taught bruce lee.  meh…  you have to appreciate the way kung fu fight scenes are choreographed almost like a ballet, and shot a step back, inclusive of the action, so you can actually see the fight.  but overall the movie lacked character, drama…  soul.  2 stars.

Terribly Happy (2008) -  swedish film about a city cop with a spotty past assigned to some backwater town.  never really achieves the creepy factor it was shooting for and relying on.  2 stars.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010) – documentary about the notorious, conservative lobbyist jack abramoff and how he fleeced millions from native american tribes using his influence with the republican congress.  definitely creates some ick moments as the dirty dirty world of lobbying politics is brought to light, but for some reason i couldn’t keep my eyelids from drooping.  2.5 stars.

Ondine (2009) -  colin farrel in a neil jordan film.  farrel is a recovered alcoholic loser fisherman who hauls a mysterious girl out of the water in his fishing net.  does she have powers?  is she a mermaid?  farrell’s daughter seems to think so.  not a bad film, but could have been better if the daughter wasn’t a little too precocious.  still though, not a bad find for a film that no one’s ever seen nor heard of.  3 stars.

Inception (2010) -i love this movie.  leo dicaprio sneaks into people’s dreams and steals information.  extraction.  he’s offered a way back home if he can sneak into someone’s dream and do what was thought impossible: plant an idea.  inception.  it’s a sci-fi heist film and takes absolute giddy pleasure in laying out the rules of the world and the structure of the heist.  christopher nolan has said repeatedly that that’s what he considers the fun part of a heist film.  the explanation of the heist and the rules that they are bound by.  you can see that here, as there is so much to explain, but those parts seem to fly by.  people will talk about how this isn’t really an original film concept.  heist films are done so often they’re a genre unto themselves.  the dream infiltration thing has been done.  but maybe it just happens to be so cool this time that it seems new?  at least it’s not a sequel or a remake.  another thing is this film’s epic scale.  there’s no way you look at this script and think you can do it on the cheap.  it’s filmed in like 9898 countries using all sorts of physical effects and explosions and what not.  i think i read somewhere that that famous hallway fight scene was filmed in an actual rotating hallway constructed for this film!  gotta respect the balls to go ahead with a massive film like this.  everything else: the relationship between leo and his dead wife, the amazing score, the pacing, the actual inception (both of).  i loved all of it.  wtf happens to the spinning top?!  i don’t know yet, but it’s fun as hell trying to figure that out.  just more to chew on from this fantastically ambitious and fun film.  4.5 stars.

Never Let Me Go (2010) -keira knightley, andrew garfield and the amazing newcomer carey mulligan in the film adaptation of Ishiguro’s outstanding book of the same name.  not sure how much to let out of the bag, but i’ll say the very minimum.  these three are young teenagers/adults who grew up together at a special school that has a very specific purpose.  sorry, but i’m reluctant to say more.  (they’re ninja assassins!!!)  the actual specifics of their situation are fascinating on their own and make this a bona fide sci-fi film, even though there’s nary a laser beam to be found.  as with any sci-fi film though, the futuristic concepts are merely new mediums to address age-old issues like authority, the concept of inevitability, the meaning of humanity and human connections.  carey mulligan, who nearly single-handedly elevated last year’s An Education to a serious best picture contender, is amazing again.  i should warn that i loved the book, and can’t tell if i like the movie because i loved the book.  it’s hard to separate film from book when watching film after reading the book.  4 stars.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) -michael cera is a teenage indie rocker who has a hard time with girls who seem to flock to him and not let go.  he’s now in love with the mysterious Ramona Flowers, played by mary elizabeth winstead (who also played the cheerleader actress in tarantino’s Death Proof segment of Grindhouse.)  pretty.  in order to get her, he must defeat her Seven Evil Exes.  the film is based on a comic book series and created to look like a video game.  flashing lights and digital sound effects splash all over the place as scott pilgrim defeats boyfriend after boyfriend on his way to relationship enlightenment.  kieran caulkan is a nice suprise as scott’s roommate, but the real star here is the video arcade style of filmmaking that, you know, gets a little old after a while, but is still pretty fun and different and fits the story perfectly.  3 stars.  (i also found it HILARIOUS that the tiny asian girl in the film kept calling ramona flowers a fatass even though she’s nowhere near fat.  hahahahaha)

The Square (2008) – australian film.  a normal, suburban married man gets in over his head when plotting to run away with his mistress.  actually not bad.  can any good come from a situation like this?  not really, but how quickly and how badly things get makes for a compelling story.  3 stars. 

I Love You Beth Cooper (2009) – Heroes’ cutie cheerleader Hayden Panetierre plays…. the cheerleader beth cooper, love interest of the geeky valedictorian who confesses his love for her during his graduation speech.  i heard this was a good book.  too bad the movie isn’t more than predictable cliche.  2 stars.

The Runaways (2010) – kristen stewart, dakota fanning and michael shannon in this joan jett-produced biopic about the original girl rocker band The Runaways.  that sounds like a promising lineup but the characters and acting never rise above stereotypical cliches in this film exploding with them.  the acting talent alone should raise this movie to decent levels.  it’s too bad no one told michael shannon that everyone else was mailing in their performance as he was the only one to actually instill any life into his character.  there’s an engaging story in there.  they just overlooked it to produce this after-school special with electric guitars.  i like the songs though.  2 stars. 

MacGruber (2010) – SNL macguyer spoof brought to film life.  may it die a quick death.  i have a thing for kristen wiig though.  her comedy always comes from a place of damage and vulnerability.  she needs a hug.   2 stars.

The White Ribbon (2009) – german period piece about the children in a small town and their interaction with authority there.  the filmmaker said he was making a film about the birth of terrorism.  i don’t think i gave anything away there.  it definitely leaves something to think about, even if it was kind of boring in the middle there.  3 stars.