Definitely, Maybe

"I don't think anybody imagines on their wedding day that they'll be in the 46% who doesn't live happily ever after..."

Directed by Adam Brooks
2008
Date Viewed: Tuesday March 30, 2010

I was really hesitant to watch this movie. For me Ryan Reynolds is hit or miss (same with the rest of the cast which includes Elizabeth Banks, Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz). Romantic comedies are hit or miss. Plus the story didn't look all that interesting. I saw one too many previews though and curiosity got the better of me. I had to know how it ended. This is the story of Will (Ryan Reynolds) who is about to sign his divorce papers. His daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin) wants to hear the story of how her parents met so Will obliges, but changes the names and tells the story of the three main women he dated. Basically its How I Met Your Mother in movie form. Except without Barney. Or big laughs. And without being legen wait for it dary. Anyways, basically Will has a college girlfriend "Emily" (Elizabeth Banks) who he leaves in Madison while going off to New York. Meets "April" (Isla Fisher) who he becomes good friends with. Is intrigued by "Summer" (Rachel Weisz) and drama ensues. Eventually Maya figures out the ending to the story and realizes that Will was always in love with one of the other women (not her mom) and that now that he's divorced he should go after her. So she helps him find and woo her. Kinda weird. I've never known a preteen kid to be so happy that her parents are divorcing and that dad has a new girlfriend the day he signs the divorce papers... Oh well, it's Hollywood. Sorry if that was confusing... :) The movie is sort of original for a romantic comedy in the puzzle-ish story telling. I was almost happy close to the end when I thought it was going to just be a messy ending, but of course they had to wrap it all up neatly. I loved the relationship between Will and Maya and how they talked and interacted. Overall I think I would give this a C+

Sid and Nancy

"But Sidney's more than a mere bass player. He's a fabulous disaster. He's a symbol, a metaphor, he embodies the dementia of a nihilistic generation. He's a fuckin' star."

Directed by Alex Cox
1986
Date viewed: Wed. and Thurs. March 24-25 2010

This movie is about the strange relationship between Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) from the Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Nancy is loud, then louder, then SHRILL. She was SO obnoxious that I had to break the movie up into two viewings. I've discovered that I don't like movies where two people are in love and trying to make it work but one of the people is so completely unlovable (for example, Brokeback Mountain.... Ennis was SUCH a jerk! I couldn't believe that Jack was sooo in love with him!). Gary Oldman was amazing as Sid, I don't think I've ever seen a more fantastic performance out of him (except for maybe in Fifth Element... hee hee... so kidding). There were a few cool scenes, like Sid singing his own weird version of "My Way" for a music video. There are a bunch of punk concerts with the Sex Pistols, but really SLC Punk is a far superior punk movie. There are also a bunch of scenes involving heroin use, but really Trainspotting is a far superior heroin movie. Basically what it comes down to, is that I would not recommend this movie unless you're a die hard Gary Oldman fan and want to listen to Chloe Webb (who rivals Wolowitz's mom from Big Bang Theory in the yelling department) shriek for 2 hours. D+

"You can't handle the truth" Thursday

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return"

Hachiko: A Dog's Story

"Hachi taught me that you should never forget anyone that you've loved."

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom
2009
Date Viewed: Tuesday March 23, 2010

Hachi is an Akita puppy who winds up in the care of Parker Wilson (Richard Gere) and his reluctant-to-have-a-dog wife (Joan Allen). Parker loves LOVES this dog to death and Hachi loves LOVES Parker. Hachi follows Parker to the train station every day, sees him off, and then sits and waits until Parker comes home in the evening. One day Parker dies suddenly while he's at work (no spoiler. It's on the case for the movie.), Hachi patiently sits until Parker's son in law comes and takes him home. Day after day Hachi returns to the train station and sits in his "waiting spot" for Parker to return. The community takes him in and feeds him and pets him and talks with him, but mostly Hachi is interested in keeping an eye out for his owner to show up. Hachi waits for 10 years and then finally dies of old age in his "waiting spot" (again not a spoiler). The story is beautiful and sad (and true). The music swells at all the right spots. The seasoned actors do their jobs nicely. There is something lacking though, and I can't put my finger on what it is. It did get a little slow in the middle with montages of Hachi and Parker playing and bonding. There was still something about the movie that didn't have that magical "oh this is an awesome movie" spark. C+

P.S. I officially have 2 followers! Woo hoo!!!

Fame

"Success is connecting with the world and making people feel. It's finding a way to bind together people who have nothing in common but a dream, and falling asleep at night knowing you did the best job you could. Success is joy and freedom and friendship. And success is love."

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
2009
Date Viewed: Sunday March 21, 2010

Two things you need to know about this movie:
1. There is no plot.
2. The choreography and the music are fantastic enough to make up for it.

B

Atonement

"I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me."

Directed by Joe Wright
2008
Date Viewed: Saturday March 20, 2010

Atonement opens beautifully. First you see a playhouse, then it pans out slowly and then you see a long trail of toy animals littered across the floor. You hear the sounds of a typewriter and finally you see Briony (Saoirse Ronan) at the typewriter finishing her play. She grabs the paper out of the typewriter along with a stack of papers next to it and runs through the huge, gorgeous house to find her mother. In the meantime, the typewriter sounds have been integrated with the music. Every so often throughout the movie you'll hear the typewriter mixed in with the music. I thought it was really cool. Atonement is about Briony and her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and the gardener's son Robbie (James McAvoy). Basically Briony is a bored and bratty little girl who misunderstands the things that she sees. And she's kind of a creeper. She ends up falsely accusing Robbie of raping her cousin. Which of course since it's a movie, they take the word of a 13 year old girl without really adequately investigating... It is really cool though because the movie shows what Briony sees when she's creeping about and then it shows what really happened. Briony and Cecilia end up being war nurses (separately) and Robbie goes off to war after he gets out of prison. The movie ends up spanning about 50 years or so and throughout the whole thing you know who Briony is because she has the same. Exact. Haircut. For 50 years. Kind of a lame-o.... I ended up enjoying this movie more than I thought I would. It was kind of long and I can't stand Keira Knightley but it still definately deserves a B

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

"Which one of you nuts has got any guts?"

Directed by Milos Forman
1976
Viewed On: Friday March 20,2010

There are so many "classic" movies that people ooh and aah over how amazingly good they are. I make a point to try and watch them, going in with high hopes. More often than not I end up disappointed. The biggest offenders were Annie Hall (which now I've discovered that I just plain don't like Woody Allen), Taxi Driver (SO boring, and nothing happens!), The Shining and Dr. Strangelove (I knew it'd be weird, but come on) just to name a few. I know that movies are made differently now. Everything is so quickly paced that going back to old movies sometimes feels like you're trudging through that thick mud of the Swamp of Sadness in Fantasia (The Neverending Story). That doesn't go for all older movies though. There are plenty that I've LOVED such as 12 Angry Men, Rashomon, The Sting, Full Metal Jacket to name a few. I decided to watch One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest because it kept coming up in conversations with Bobby and my brother and I think my sister talked about it too. So last night I finally was going to see what everyone was going on about. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. It was boring. And long. But I kept watching through it because I knew that it had to get better. I was right. It picked up about an hour in and then got really really exciting about 30 minutes from the end. Looking back I think I enjoyed it as a whole. The acting was super amazing and it was kind of interesting seeing all these old actors in their younger days. Especially Brad Dourif who was just a kid! Jack Nicholson plays R. P. McMurphy who is sent from prison to a mental institution to find out if he's really crazy or if he's faking it. He meets and sort of befriends the other patients in his ward and shenanigans ensue. There's evil Nurse Ratched who lead their therapy sessions and, for lack of a better word, is just a vicious hateful bitch. Even though it started out slow, I still give this movie a B-

"You can't handle the truth" Thursday

Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

Carriers

"Sometimes choosing life is just a more painful form of death."

Directed by Alex and David Pastor
2009
Date viewed: Monday March 15, 2010 (second viewing)

This is neither a scary movie nor a zombie movie. It's more of a drama with some semi suspenseful parts. I was disappointed that it wasn't scary and zombie-ish since those are totally my fave, but I did mostly enjoy this movie. It's about 2 brothers (Chris Pine, who does an AWESOME job playing a know-it-all jackass :) and some unknown) and 2 women (Piper Perabo and Emily VanCamp) who are driving across country to escape a killer virus. The story is unoriginal, so I was hoping for some unpredictable twists and turns... Well no such luck. I did, however, love Christopher Meloni who played a father trying to save his young daughter. I don't really know what else to say about this movie.... C+

Waltz With Bashir

"Memory is dynamic, it's alive. If some details are missing, memory fills in the holes with things that never happened."

Directed by Ari Folman
2008
Date Viewed: Sunday March 14, 2010

This movie was AMAZING. It's about Ari (the director) who is trying to recall the memories of the Israeli/Lebanon war that he's blocked out. He visits fellow veterans and asks for their stories to help himself fill in the gaps. The animation was really really neat. I was looking up info on this movie and I guess the artist, David Polonsky, drew with his left hand because the drawings he did with his right hand were too beautiful. Each memory has a different color scheme and the drawings are very unique. The men that Ari interviews are all really veterans in real life and the movie is filled with their true stories. Between the haunting, but not over done war images, the beautiful animation and the way Ari told the story, I give this movie a big fat A

My top 10 and bottom 10 of 2009

My top 10 favorite movies of 2009 in no particular order:
Inglorious Basterds
Avatar
Star Trek
Zombieland
Precious
Up
Up in the Air
The Hangover
Watchmen
Crazy Heart

My top 10 worst movies of 2009:
Adventureland
Transformers 2
Angels and Demons
The Unborn
Inkheart
Dance Flick
The Last House on the Left
The International
Taking of Pelham 123
Push

The 2 movies I was suprised that I really liked:
Boondock Saints 2
Jennifer's Body

Welcome to my fantastic blog...

I've been told that since I watch so many movies (and even have a movie journal) that I should start a movie blog where I review/process the movies that I see. I mulled this over for a bit since I am not a writer and I feel like I always use the same three words to describe how I feel about each movie i see, but now I've caved to the pressure from my sister to be a blogger just like her (she's blogging about her pregnancy... so cool). So here goes nothing. Bear with me as I try and come up with a good way to rate movies. I want to figure out a certain set of criteria that a movie would have to meet to receive 5 stars or whatever. So I have that to think about. Also I'm trying to figure this site out so that might take a little bit... So yeah. That's my plan :)