District 9

This movie was absolutely nothing like I expected. In my mind I was putting Peter Jackson's sleek perfectionist style together with all the rave reviews I'd heard about, and I thought I would end up with something as visually stunning and enthralling as the Lord of the Rings movies. I had no idea the entire movie would have the look of a documentary with shaky, hand-held cameras. But even though it wasn't what I expected, it was still a fascinating look at what could happen if aliens came to earth. Of course it's very different from the usual alien invasion movie (I'm thinking War of the Worlds or Independence Day here), as the human-alien dynamic is basically reversed, but being unique is never a bad thing. And I think where Jackson's perfectionism comes through is in the way that the aliens and their technology looks absolutely convincingly real. All in all, not necessarily my kind of movie, but it definitely didn't suck.

9

This is an interesting little movie that seems as if it were made for kids, but is probably too intense for them some of the time, and may go over their heads the rest of the time. The look of the movie makes me think of a post-apocalyptic setting for the old video game Myst. The plot reminded me of WALL-E except this was much darker and slightly less in-your-face, although the message was the same: humanity is headed for certain self-destruction if we don't manage to change course in time; this one just left out the "oh, yeah, and you're all making yourselves obese" part.

Breathless

Some movies I watch and immediately forget. Others are thought-provoking and I'm glad when there's someone interested in discussing them with me. Then there are those movies where I get to the end and I feel like I need someone to explain them to me. (This movie is that third kind, in case you were wondering). Sometimes it's because I'm sure I missed something, but I'm not sure what that something was. Sometimes it's because I don't understand a character's motives or intentions. Sometimes it's just because I'm so accustomed to slick plot-driven Hollywood flicks that I don't know what to do with something I'm guessing people watch in film school. If you ever needed proof that I am accustomed to movies as opposed to cinema, here it is. I mean, I don't even know what New Wave means (and to be honest, I'm just not interested enough to find out, either).

I must admit I can't find much to say about this movie. I am certainly not going to make up a bunch of crap about it in an attempt to sound like I know what I'm talking about. This movie really just seems to me like a 50s or 60s crime caper in the vein of Charade, How to Steal a Million, or To Catch a Thief--all fun movies which I have enjoyed, and all movies that I was sure I "got," if only because they were merely skin deep--except that, because of the way it is edited and because of stronger character development, this one is obviously more artsy fartsy. But someone else is going to have to explain to us the significance of all that.

On a more superficial note, I would like to comment on the French in this movie. First, Patricia's accent was atrocious. Yes, she was an American and French was her second language, and I suppose if her accent had been too perfect it might not have been believable, but I have to wonder if that's the best the actress could do, or was she actually trying to sound that bad? I'm convinced even I could have done a better job. Second, I'm so proud about how much of the French I could understand on my own (ok, so maybe it was only about 17%, but still). I had thought that j'ai oublié toutes de la langue, and it's not like I could get by without English, but I'm glad that I remember more than I'd thought. And third, once again I found I know just enough French to be annoyed by the subtitles, which either left out entire sentences (though never very important ones, that I noticed) or translated in a slightly different way than I would have.

So that's my superficial American opinion of this apparently classic example of cinema.

Push

This movie was about as good as I expected it to be, based on the previews. It was a mildly entertaining action flick, a mishmash reminiscent of Bladerunner and The Matrix while not coming even close to their quality.

I was a little disappointed (but not surprised) to find that they don't sell a soundtrack for this movie. I really liked the sound of several songs throughout it. I was able to find some of the songs for sale individually, and bought four that I like.

Not that I didn't have fun watching this movie, but the only other things I can think of to say about it are negative. Some plot holes, but none serious enough to make the movie incoherent. The rainbow-colored force-field special effects were pretty corny. And I hated that there wasn't a real ending. Almost everything was left unresolved, as if it were an episode of a TV show. I think they thought this movie was going to do well enough to make a sequel. We'll have to see whether I can manage to avoid wasting my time on that. #2 is rarely better than #1, and if #1 is only mediocre, I can only imagine how bad #2 will be.

Four Christmases

I liked The Proposal better. This movie tried harder to be funny but overdid it a little bit, to the extent that most of it was unrealistic. OK, yeah, movies in general are not realistic, but this one pushed the envelope a little much in order to get laughs. Of course, realistic or not, I still laughed when Reese Witherspoon started kicking butt in the jump castle.

Being a chick myself, I liked the sweetness factor of The Proposal that Four Christmases lacked. And I have to say that either Reese Witherspoon is freakishly short or Vince Vaughn is freakishly tall (or both). But even though I criticize it, this was still a treat to relax in front of with a glass of wine after the kids went to bed.

The Proposal

This was a really cute movie. Total chick flick/rom com all the way, but it made me giggle. Of course, other than that, I don't have much to say about it, except that I wish the INS agent had surfaced next to the boat wearing scuba gear.

I think I giggled the most when the multitalented Ramon was stripping for the bride-to-be, and Gammie was yelling, "Smack his @$$, Margaret!" The giggling was mainly due to the fact that I just could not believe Carole's mom loves this movie. Did she love that part??

Volver

This was a quirky little movie, and definitely unique. I appreciated being forced to sit and just watch a movie for once (subtitles will do that to you).

Penelope Cruz is some pretty hot stuff. It's funny to see her in a movie role where she's speaking Spanish, although this shouldn't be funny, since it's her native language. But her speech is so rapid and harsh-sounding and very natural. Again, shouldn't be surprising, but I'm just used to hearing her halting and accented English.

The plot was somewhat predictable. I guessed who Paula's father was as soon as Raimunda said, "He's dead," and I figured out that Irene wasn't actually a ghost before Raimunda ever even saw her, though apparently Sole and Paula never did figure that out themselves. I also figured out that it was Agustina's mother who died in the fire, not Sole and Raimunda's. But predictability didn't ruin it for me. It was still fun and interesting to watch.

I don't think I could call this a comedy, though. I guess there was situational irony, and a sort of lighthearted attitude in the face of serious subjects, enough so that it certainly wasn't a drama. But none of it was (for me) laugh-out-loud funny, let alone groan-out-loud funny. Also, I did find it a little bit difficult to believe that gorgeous Raimunda was a sister to homely Sole, although at least this made sense with their father's attraction (ugh!) to one sister but not the other.

It is interesting to note (well, interesting to this non-Spanish-speaker, at least) that the title of the movie means "to return." Of course this applies not only to the return of Irene, but also to Sole and Raimunda's return home.

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist

I thought they didn't make good high school movies anymore (and never would again, since John Hughes has passed). Granted, this is nowhere near as funny as The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles, but it was cute and sweet and not raunchy like I thought all high school movies were these days (like American Pie).

I must admit I'm a little disbelieving that anyone could find Michael Cera attractive. I mean, it was incredible enough that he got laid in Juno, and that was just the result of boredom. But he had two beautiful chicks after him in this movie. I don't care what kind of music he likes. I'm just not seeing it.

How To Be

This movie is crap.

Avatar

If I hadn't heard so many people talking about how great this movie was, I probably never would have been interested in seeing it. It sounded like the kind of thing my husband might like, and of course I would have gone to see it with him if he insisted, but as it turns out, I decided that so many intelligent people couldn't be wrong. I was the one who insisted on going.

It was a really good movie. Great, fast-paced story, visually stunning, and more than once it was so intense that every muscle in my body was rigid and I was riveted to the screen. On the other hand, I must admit that after more than 2 hours I did glance at my watch and wonder how much longer until the end.

I also think perhaps my expectations were a bit high, based on rave reviews from friends. Sorry, Gary, I did not find it a "transformative experience." No, Anne, I can't agree that this was "hands down the best movie ever," although this is not because I can rattle off a list of movies that were far better. I could probably say it was among the better movies I've seen, but by degrees rather than indisputably. Oddly enough, the one friend of mine who did the best job describing Avatar was the one who likened this movie to Fern Gully.

I was definitely impressed by the special effects. I will admit that it had the best graphics of any film I've ever seen--possibly even the best of any film yet made. It was a rare moment during the movie that I was reminded that what I was seeing wasn't real. This is certainly a movie that begs to be seen on the big screen. I saw it in 3D, although I'm not convinced that this added to the experience other than to show off what a great job they did with the effects.

Bottom line: enjoyable movie experience, glad I saw it, it was fun and all, but my favorite James Cameron movie is still Titanic. I guess that proves I'm just a girly girl and always will be.