Movie Review Thread! (52 movies)

[Matt]

So, taking a but of inspiration from King Kool, ive set myself a bit of a goal this year: to see at least one new movie in theatres every week in 2011. I'm not about to restrict myself to 52 (or 100) words, but I'll be posting thoughts on the films I see here. I see a lot of movies as is, but what I'd like to do is force myself to get out and see more films that I wouldn't normally see, expose myself to more genres.

The rules:

1. To qualify as a "New" movie it must be one I have not seen before.
2. I do not have to see a movie in it's opening week.
3. I may not time-shift viewing. Two movies in one week does not mean I've banked a movie for next week. I must see one movie in each week. (barring absolutely unavoidable circumstances [like being out of the country for a week, or in hospital).

-m

Several people have asked if they can add their movie reviews in here, so I've modified the thread title. This is now the Movie Review Thread. fire away.

[the_lone_bard]

i didn't even think there would be 52 movies in theatres in one year...
at least here in aus it seems we get about 20 movies that get released 5 at a time and they stay for about 4 months each then the next few... seriously you can find 52 movies released in one year to watch? let alone a new one every week? i'd have to just watch things like 4-6 times in a row before i moved to the next one to see one every week...

[xdeathknightx]

There are usually 2 or 3 films released each month. And 2011 has already been dubbed as being TOO full of blockbusters which will probably cause a good number of them to not make their money back. And then there are local movies, straight to dvd movies. So should be pretty easy to do 2011 movies only.

http://io9.com/5723075/55-science-fictionfantasy-movies-to-watch-out-for-in-2011
this list alone has 55 sci fi and fantasy movies (some good some bad) coming out in 2011

And darn you Matt I was thinking about something similar

[Metcarfre]

52 < 80, it's true.

Good choice on True Grit.

And also, for damn sure more than 52 movies come out in a year - at least 4-5 'major' releases every week one would think.

[Evil Jim]

Finally more M@ Movies. I'm looking forward to this.

[saulfenky2470]

i wasnt a fan of true grit....something about just the way he played it.

i thought john wayne was better

[King Kool]

I am always simultaneously baffled and humbled when someone takes inspiration from me.

My goal in 2009 was similar, to try to get out and see at least one movie a week. I think I saw 45 or so movies, but I didn't keep track of them as well as I did in 2010. My goal this year is to try to get out and see two movies in theaters every week for the whole year, thus trying to see 100 movies at the theater. I'm not gonna write reviews, but I am gonna try to keep track of what movies I see.

Good luck.

i wasnt a fan of true grit....something about just the way he played it.

i thought john wayne was better

i wasnt a fan of your post....something about the way you posted it.

i thought lavos was better

[Evil Jim]

My goal in 2009 was similar, to try to get out and see at least one movie a week. I think I saw 45 or so movies, but I didn't keep track of them as well as I did in 2010. My goal this year is to try to get out and see two movies in theaters every week for the whole year, thus trying to see 100 movies at the theater. I'm not gonna write reviews, but I am gonna try to keep track of what movies I see.

You may consider the Wisconsin Film Festival March 30th - April 3rd of this year here in Madison, or later this month, B-Fest in Chicago. Both require travel, but are also a lot of fun & an easy way to get a dozen movies done in a couple days. Or in the case of B-fest, ONE day.

[saulfenky2470]

You may consider the Wisconsin Film Festival March 30th - April 3rd of this year here in Madison, or later this month, B-Fest in Chicago. Both require travel, but are also a lot of fun & an easy way to get a dozen movies done in a couple days. Or in the case of B-fest, ONE day.

i wanted to go to that. also i didnt expect someone else for the good old WI.

[Matt]

Week 1 (Jan 1 - Jan 7, 2011): Film 1: True Grit

I've never been much for westerns. I've never found the settings appealing, or the characters relatable. I don't have a taste for the aesthetic, and I've never really bought into the romanticism of the wild, unsettled frontier.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

For that I credit some very entertaining performances on the part of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld. I'd like to make special mention of Hailee Steinfeld here - a young actor can make or break a film, but she knocked this role out of the park.


The script is also a highpoint of the film. It's lighthearted and funny in all the right spots, and features sharp dialogue delivered with masterful timing.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable time - and I'd recommend it highly to anyone.

(full disclosure, I've never sen the original - but my dad is a huge western nut and has a copy - I shall need to investigate it).

-m

[tak197]

Question: if you happen to see two new films in one week, would seeing one of them the following week still count as one per week, or does the double viewing cancel the movie out for review?

[Sieg Reyu]

fiftytwogames.wordpress.com

Beat you to it. Albeit with vidja gaems.

Where's my royalties?

[Matt]

Question: if you happen to see two new films in one week, would seeing one of them the following week still count as one per week, or does the double viewing cancel the movie out for review?

I'll review at least one per week, but I reserve the right to do more if I wish.

-m

[the_lone_bard]

wow...just wow... the only films i've even heard of coming out in 2011 are sucker punch and cowboys and aliens.
looking foward to both though.

now as for how many movies come out...wow, you get ALOT of them heres my local theatres link... oook so it no longer works... sign of a great cinema chain folks, there website isnt even online anymore...

but still i think they are still showing the second twilight film and havn't even got the new harry potter one yet...

[Digital Dolphin]

Anyone mind if I match Matt on this? I have been working towards seeing a movie a week anyways (I averaged 3 movies a month last year).

Week 1 (Jan 1 - Jan 7, 2011): Film 1: Gulliver's Travels

Probably the most important thing you need to know about this movie is that it is a Jack Black movie. Sure, the plotlines vary between Jack Black movies, but with few exceptions, he plays the same character, the movie runs with the same kind of comedy, and you can expect to face palm on multiple occasions.

If you grew up with the book Gulliver's Travels and you're wondering how accurate this movie is to the original story, I will remind you once again that it is a Jack Black movie. It bears about as much resemblance to the original story as Michael Bay's Transformers does to the original Transformers animated movie. In short: Loosely at best.

The acting was intentionally over the top, and the movie does not take itself seriously in any way. I don't say this as a bad thing, and I don't count it against the movie, as it is clearly the effect they were going for. Again, this is fairly typical of a Jack Black movie.

The 3D effects of this movie were unnecessary. They weren't BAD per se, but I didn't feel it added anything to it either. That being said, the effects were done well enough that it didn't pull me out of the movie experience. I became accustomed to them very quickly.

Overall, I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't overly enjoy it either. I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't a fan of Jack Black movies.

I give this movie 2/5

[House MD]

sounds like fun, i did this, over 31 days, i watched 31 films, and reviewed them in 31 words. it's fun

[King Kool]

I give this movie 2/5

(Puts on my Nostalgia Critic hat)

OK... I saw Gulliver's Travels yesterday. I'm about to SPOIL THE ENTIRE MOVIE, so if for some reason you bumped your head and were kidnapped and want to see this, don't read this.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
Gulliver works in a mail room at a newspaper for ten years, and he meets the new guy (T.J. Miller). Miller figured out quickly that Gulliver has a crush on Darcy (Amanda Peet). Gulliver says, "Ehh, I'll tell her when the moment's right, the next time we're alone." as they pile into an elevator that Darcy quickly darts into. TJ says, "Oh, I just remembered, I'm claustrophobic." and leaves them alone. That's the only really funny moment, and it's two minutes in.

Needless to say, he doesn't tell her, and TJ meets Gulliver in the mail room and tells him he's now been promoted to head of the mail room (on his first day? Really, movie?). He admonishes Gulliver's lack of ambition and tells him this is why he's always gonna be in the mail room. Gulliver is ashamed and tried to ask the late-working Darcy out, but he chickens out and says he wants a random form on her desk (to apply to be a travel writer. He plagiarizes some material from the internet to give to her (which is treated like the most "Eureka" moment ever) and gives it to her. She sends him to the Bermuda Triangle, alone.

While on the voyage, he looks in his magazine and says, "Build your own robot? RIGHT." Gosh, THIS is not gonna come up later, is it? No chance of that (especially if I've seen the trailer). Then a reverse whirlpool takes him to the land of Lilliput. He's tied up and they pull him down by his underwear and he absorbs a little man in his buttcrack. I don't think this character is ever seen again, so presumably he stays there for the rest of the movie.

Gulliver is locked in a gigantic sea cave that doubles as a dungeon with only ONE other Lilliput-sized cell, where Horatio is imprisoned. He was imprisoned for making eyes at the princess, who is currently being courted by the general of the armed forces. GOSH, I wonder if she doesn't really love the general, and Horatio and the princess will be together at the end.

I'm not sure why he cooperated at all, since he's gigantic, but suddenly there's a fire and he has to put it out with streams of urine. So he drops his shorts (which he calls trousers, strangely) to his ankles (because Gulliver is five years old) and unleashes the torrent to put out the fire, with many shots of the king being doused with a 2-meter thick stream of Gulliver's Dew. When the general gets his attention, he turns 180, still peeing, and hits the general inadvertently. Suuure. Why can people be hit with pee in kids movies and that's OK? I'll take a fart joke over impractical volumes of pee any day.

He's celebrated as a hero, and is thrilled to be the big man on campus for once, so he starts lying about being a big shot in his homeworld. (Billy Connoly plays the king, and I swear, he gives up on the English accent in this scene and just does his natural accent.) The little people build him a human-sized home (they're excellent builders, but did they tear down the city to make room for this? Where did they get all the trees and metal?) He plays Guitar Hero with little people (or pretends to, I guess), and I wouldn't even bring it up, except that it leads to another slightly funny moment, where the paused KISS Liliputs ask if they really need to be there for Gulliver coaching Horatio in flirtation (because it worked so well on DARCY).

The little folk find his boat and iPhone, where despite having no bars, Gulliver can get furious voicemails from Darcy where she finds out the work was plagiarized (maybe she should have checked this before giving him a three-week tropical vacation, but alright, whatever), and she's going out to the tropics herself despite being quite easily seasick (because only two people work there, Gulliver and Darcy).

The general and the princess have a falling out because of Horatio's advances (which are just old rock music lyrics) and he sails to the other small kingdom and has them build the giant robot they found in the magazine (If they just needed a picture of a robot with threadbare schematics, I thought these great builders coulda figured that out on their own, but alright, whatever.) He returns with a robot that's larger than even Gulliver and hangs Gulliver by his underwear and forces him to surrender. He confesses all the boasting was a lie, rather than saying, "I'm still made of flesh. I can't beat a robot, certainly not one that's larger than me! Isn't that reasonable?"

He's sent out to "the place that must not be named" on a raft and that turns out to be Brobdingnagia or however the hell that's spelled, and he's placed in a dollhouse. Darcy arrives in Lilliput and is captured the same way as Gulliver and imprisoned in the giant sea cave. The little people know about her because of Gulliver's boasting, so Horatio goes out to Brobignarnia and finds Gulliver and tell him his princess is captured.

Let me point this out quite clearly. Gulliver is twelve times the size of everyone in Lallapalozza, but in Brosbeforehosia, he's one-twelth the size. This means that Horatio is one-one-hundred-forty-fourth the size of the colossal house that Gulliver is sequestered in. Yet somehow that isn't explained, he gets to the second floor of this humongous house, into a dollhouse on a table and onto the second floor of the dollhouse.

HOW? How the hell did he pull that one off? Did he ride on a cat like a flea? Did he teleport? Wishful thinking? Why not just give him a jetpack?! At least it woulda been explained! They explain how they get down safely (with a parachute from a dead pilot), but for Horatio to get up there, there is NO explanation.

So, they get back and Jack Black faces off against the huge robot and wins by pulling wires out of its buttcrack (see, he was defeated by a wedgie, so this is ironic), but Horatio climbs inside to disable the electric shocking hands that the evil general didn't see fit to use before (Gulliver is a wuss if he didn't even NEED to use those the first time before he gave up).

Now, here comes THREE scenes you've seen in every damn movie, one after the other. 1. Horatio and the princess nearly kiss, but are interrupted. 2. The stern authority figure (this time, the king) says something that sounds like he's about to have Horatio arrested before changing tone completely and approving of the union. 3. The general grabs the princess by the Princess Zone (her arm) and holds a knife to her throat.

To this movie's credit, the conclusion to that scene is unexpected. The princess, thoroughly fed up with his hi-jinks, pushes his hand away and punches him in the face. Normally, this is where Reginald VelJohnson would have to shoot someone, but this time, she handled it alone. That was at least different.

Then the two small villages are about to start fighting again, when Gulliver starts singing "War" to tell them what is war good for. For some reason, this convinces them to not fight? My buddy walked into five minutes of this movie and said it was worse than the half-hour of Yogi Bear he had seen (one of the reasons I was interested in seeing this). This was the scene he was talking about. This is Gulliver's Travels at its most unbelievably unconvincing. It's like they're not even TRYING.

Almost as unconvincing is Darcy falling for Gulliver, as they sail back to the real world. The last scene shows Gulliver returning from a trip to Papua New Guinea and kissing Darcy. TJ Miller (who I just looked up and saw his character's name is Dan, but since he plays the same character in every movie I've seen, I'm gonna stick with TJ) wheels in the mail with the new new guy, and acts with complicity that can be called "Biff buffing the car at the end of BTTF Mode," if that's not too many B's and F's.

So, TJ Miller, a guy who quite rightly admonished Gulliver for his idleness and wasting his life, and actually inspired Gulliver to go HAVE this crazy adventure, is forced to to the "bad guy contrition" scene as if he did anything wrong other than be in a terrible movie. Whereas Gulliver, who is lazy, thoroughly exploitative of the Littlebopeep's generosity, a coward, obnoxious, selfish, ignorant and, most importantly, a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR, HE gets the promotion and to have sex with Amanda Peet because of this campaign of deceit.

What is this really telling our children? Ebert said that this is a movie kids might enjoy. That might be so, but kids might also like doughnuts for breakfast. This is donuts for breakfast if doughnuts were made with crushed glass and sprinkles that made you selfish.
SPOILERS END HERE!

I hated this movie. If I had seen it last year, it would have easily made my worst of 2010.

[Digital Dolphin]

Week 2 (Jan 8 - Jan 14, 2011): Film 2: Season of the Witch

Right off the bat, I have to say that I enjoy Nicholas Cage movies. They tend to be a little cheesy, often are over the top, and they are something of a guilty pleasure for me. And I'll also admit, I went to see Season of the Witch, because I was looking forward to a Nicholas Cage movie.

Season of the Witch is NOT a typical Nicholas Cage movie. Yes it has a few cheesy lines that make you laugh, but they are few and far between. Beyond that, I found myself being drawn into the story, constantly wondering what was going to happen next.

I really enjoyed the acting in this movie, especially from the supporting cast. Claire Foy did a great job of portraying "The Girl", and I'd love to see more of her work.

Here be spoilers
One of the things I liked most about this movie is that the church, while portrayed as flawed and corrupt, was not "the bad guy" in the end. More realistically, it was portrayed as having good and bad people in it.

One of the first comments I made about this movie was right during the beginning. The creature that was attacking the priest/monk person. I made the comment "that really doesn't seem like a witch to me". At that point, I figured it was poor writing, and chalked it up to being a Nicholas Cage movie. I think that cemented the surprise for me when at the end they discover that it wasn't a witch at all, but a demon.
Spoilers be over

So in the end, I give this movie a solid 3/5.

[Matt]

Week 2 (Jan 8 - Jan 14, 2011) Film 2: Black Swan

I can't recall the last time I walked out of a film actually shaken by what I had seen. This film left me with chills. It was a few moments after the credits started to roll before I managed to collect my thoughts. Needless to say, I thought this a pretty powerful experience.

I'd qualify Black Swan as a horror film long before I'd place it in either the drama or the dance categories. It's dark, terrifying, and deeply disturbing. And it speaks to some of the darkest parts of the human psyche. It also features one of the best performances I've ever seen out of Natalie Portman.

I really don't want to spoil any of it if you don't know much about it so I'm not going to go into detail. All you need to know is that you should see this movie. If you like film as art, if you like great performances, and skillful execution, if you like a film that can make your skin crawl without gore or violence, if you like a film that challenges you, if you like a film that can leave you speechless, you should see this movie. If you like cinema at all, you should see this movie.

-m

[Digital Dolphin]

It's worth noting that I don't think I have EVER agreed more with Matt on a film than his assessment of Black Swan. It's a very powerful and intense movie. I really really enjoyed it (but I saw it last year so it doesn't count for me for this).

If anyone's curious, I plan my week 3 to be Evangelion 2.0, and my week 4 to be Green Hornet. However, I can't promise I will wait until week 4 to watch Green Hornet... so I might need a different movie

[Matt]

Heh. I was gonna see Eva 2.0 too.

-m

[saulfenky2470]

ok is there a inside joke with the spoilers? cause....im confused

[Digital Dolphin]

ok is there a inside joke with the spoilers? cause....im confused

The inside joke is .... highlight them

Matt: That's awesome XD

[epocalypse]

Week 2 (Jan 8 - Jan 14, 2011): Film 2: Season of the Witch

Right off the bat, I have to say that I enjoy Nicholas Cage movies. They tend to be a little cheesy, often are over the top, and they are something of a guilty pleasure for me. And I'll also admit, I went to see Season of the Witch, because I was looking forward to a Nicholas Cage movie.

Season of the Witch is NOT a typical Nicholas Cage movie. Yes it has a few cheesy lines that make you laugh, but they are few and far between.

And I'm with you...

Beyond that, I found myself being drawn into the story, constantly wondering what was going to happen next.

And you lost me. I saw season of the witch, too, expecting cheesy Nick Cage brilliance, and I did not get that. Nor did I get the movie that you apparently saw. Instead, I got boredom, huge amounts of boredom. I found the film appallingly dull, failing to be entertaining even as a piece of camp/so bad its good cinema. I saw the GI Joe movie the other day on netflix, and I would actually rank it higher then Season of the witch (maybe a 3 out of 10). As for this film, I give it a 1 out of 10, because for me, not a single damn thing of interest or content occurred in it.

[Master Gunner]

I have to agree with epocalypse. Right up to the end, it was 100% predictable (well, other than I expected Cage's character to sleep with her at some point). As for the end itself: while a slight twist, it only exists due to the reshoots made after its release last year was delayed, originally the ending was exactly like the rest of the movie. Also, it changes basically nothing except the visual effects. The climax would have proceeded pretty much exactly the same either way.