prometheus

what a disappointment.  this one had so much potential.  the original director returning to the alien franchise to bring us the great story of the xenomorph's origin?  my expectations and excitement was really high.  the movie looks really great- the 3D was incredible, but the story that was told was so scatterbrained and stupid that the whole thing just came up empty.  it went in too many directions, none of which were what anyone wanted.  and the characters just acted in such so stupidly!  its like the writers thought to themselves 'whats the stupidest decision that this character could make right now?' and then proceeded with whatever they came up with.  but it does look amazing, so that keeps it from a one star.

abraham lincoln: vampire hunter

this is not a great movie, but its so ludicrous and so much fun that i forgive it a lot of shortcomings.  a fight on top of wild mustangs stampeding?  yes please!  its just so dumb that is passes into genius!

the avengers

five movies in the making, this was the culmination of not just the movies before it, but of my entire childhood!  i was an avid comic book reader, so to finally see this team-up on the big screen was the fulfillment of my childhood dreams.  and it was so good that it exceeded all of those expectations?  well, not many movies can have that much expected of it and not crumble, but this one was everything i hoped and dreamed.  five years later its still one of the best comic book movies ever made.

moneyball

a fantastic film about baseball.  now, there aren't many of those- i can probably count them on 3 fingers, but his one is quite remarkable.  what is really interesting about this one is that it's not actually about the game of baseball, rather, its about the numbers and stats of the players.  to be honest though, as soon as i knew it was written by aaron sorkin, i knew i would love it!  i'm a big sorkin fan going back to sports night and have loved everything he's done since, so it's not a real surprise that i loved this film too.
this film on paper sounds terrible: its the story of a guy who manages a baseball team based on numbers.  boring.  except that the writing and acting take this one to a most amazing place- its interesting and compelling in a way that i would have never expected.  the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes are what really make this film crackle and come alive with energy.  pitt, hill, hoffman, and pratt make this one come alive with so much heart and interest that i couldn't help but get drawn in and cheer when they found success.

Lone survivor

ugh.  my dad really wanted to see this one in the theater, i knew it wasn't exactly my style, but it's not like i'm going to turn down an invitation to the movie theater!  its 100% one of those 'rah rah merica!' type movies and doesn't really dig beyond that level of depth.  its a perfectly fine and well made movie, the roles are well acted and the whole thing is very competently made, its just that it was so hollow and predictable.  you know exactly how its going to end- just look at the title!  as i was watching it i realized that this movie is basically a horror film.  it follows all the tropes of a horror film: we are introduced to some young beautiful people, we get to know them while their defenses are down and they are joking around with each other, but once the terror begins, they each get killed one by one by a faceless killer until the last remaining person has to face them and defeat them.  oh, and its super gory.  i'm not usually interested in war movies, and i have very little patience for patriotic garbage.  this one fits exactly into all the stuff i do not like.

the killer elite

this one should have been really cool: the staith, clive owen, and de niro.  now thats a pretty cool tough guy cast!  unfortunately the whole thing is very lame and convoluted.  i basically love anything with the staith, but this one was rough even for him!

50/50

a look at what its like to face your death when your life has hardly even begun.  the film looks at a young man who is diagnosed with cancer and must deal with the repercussions of the news.  at times funny, other times moving, the whole thing is a great study of the struggles someone would have if they are told they might die in their mid 20s.

lion king 3D

this one is amazing, of course.  who doesn't love the lion king?  its definitely one of the top three animated movies of all time (personally, i'd put the top three as 'beauty and the beast', 'prince of egypt', and 'lion king', but not necessarily in that order).  with this being such an incredible film, we eagerly took advantage of the opportunity to see it again on the big screen- in 3D no less!  and it did not disappoint.  its just as fresh as ever, and the conversion on this one was breathtaking!  i could go on and on about how marvelous this movie is, how transcendent the music is, or how perfectly formed the characters and story is, but you already know.

dont be afraid of the dark

i'll admit, i saw this one because it was billed as 'guillermo del toro presents' this movie.  he produced it and co wrote it.  i am a sucker for almost anything del toro does, so i was in.  this movie is actually a remake of the original 1973 tv movie, but much of it is changed.  the basic story remains, but there are some important differences, like this one has a little girl as its hero instead of an adult man.  the main idea and inspiration for this seems to be twisting the tooth fairy myth and turning it very dark.  it has some good scares and fun atmosphere- a forgotten horror movie that was rather fun.

kung fu panda 2

who would have thought a cartoon panda voiced by jack black would be so emotionally moving and well written?  the story of po as he accepts the mantle of being the great warrior is a great look at what it means to find your place in the world, but still be uncertain of who you are.  as he fights off the bad guy he continues to develop his friendships with the other five warriors, and discover the mysteries of where he came from.  to see his history with his parents is very touching and surprisingly emotional.  and the whole movie is visually gorgeous and still quite funny!

pirates of the caribbean: on stranger tides

ugh.  i really enjoyed the first three pirates movies, i'll even defend the 3rd one, but this?  this one is just terrible.  the story makes no sense, jumps around, and goes nowhere.  as strange as it seems, this one really suffered without keira knighly and orlando bloom.  though they weren't that great in the first three, they at least kept the movie grounded and relatable.  the villain is lame and all the stuff with the mermaids is just plain stupid.  even jack sparrow can't save this one.

captain america: first avenger

oh man, this movie was great!  when they first announced that they were making a captain america movie i was very skeptical, how could they make such a cheesy hero into something cool?  especially today, when the world is so against america in general?  but somehow they did it!  they took the superhero movie and turned it into a war film.  the thing that makes this work so well is the starry eyed optimism of steve rogers.  his unbreakable spirit is infectious as he joins the army and goes through the training.  the whole thing is done incredibly well and sets the perfect stage for him to return in modern times and lead the avengers.  still one of the best superhero movies out there!

harry potter and the deathly hallows pt 2

it finally comes to an end.  they do a good job of raising the stakes and building up the tension.  the final solution to getting rid of voldemort is not as cool as i had hoped, but its still relatively satisfying.

hangover part 2

i absolutely loved the first hangover movie, so i was pretty interested in the second one.  oops, my mistake.  instead of giving us a great film, they just took the first one and made it again, except this time without the humor.  instead they made it grimier, grosser, and a whole lot meaner.  there are no new jokes, just the same ones as before, except without the wit and joy.  no thank you.

x-men: first class

usually reboots to popular franchises don't work, but this one is fantastic.  they got a great director in matthew vaughn, and some amazing talent with mcavoy, fassbender, and lawrence to help us forget the previous incarnation.  the setting changes to the 60's as we see the genesis of the x-men and follow charles xavier's journey from selfish collage kid to selfless team leader as he and his troop try to save the world during the cuban missile crisis.  this movie deserves to be in the upper echelon of x-men movies just for the perfect hugh jackman cameo!

thor

i wasn't so sure about this one when they first started showing previews of it.  the hokey norse mythology aspect looked pretty ridiculous.  i have no connection with the comic book origins, having never read a thor comic in my life.  yet, all that aside, i really loved this movie!  chris hemsworth was an amazing discovery in this film, he perfectly embodies the god of thunder and his old english style.  all the asgard stuff was absolutely fantastic- kenneth branough was the perfect choice to direct this movie, turning it from a superhero movie into a shakespearean melodrama about gods and mythology.  the stuff that takes place on earth isn't nearly as interesting, but the grandness and scope of the asgard world more than makes up for it.  what a treat!

shanghi noon

when jackie chan first showed up in america i was instantly hooked- even go so far as to drive 70 miles to go see 'legend of the drunken master' on the big screen.  i was really excited for 'rush hour', though that excitement quickly faded due to the utter annoyance of chris tucker.  eventually chan teamed up with owen wilson, whom i also like, and made this western comedy.  and boy oh boy, do i love it!  the action is wonderfully silly and wilson's personality and voice lend themselves perfectly to the western genre.  its a classic east meets west done in a way that hit all of my pleasure buttons just right!

watchmen

i know this movie gets a lot of hate from people, but i really liked it.  i had read the comic book many years ago and was very excited about it being turned into a movie. i saw it in the theater when it first came out and enjoyed it.  when it came out on dvd with this ultimate cut i was really looking forward to it, this special edition comes with the full comic book transformed in to a 'motion comic', which means that the panels from the book are given a little bit of movement as a narrator reads out the whole story.  its kind of weird at first to watch because the male narrator also does the women voices, but the strangeness of that soon fades and you get drawn in to the story very quickly.  i watched the motion comic and then went back to watch the full ultimate cut which includes a lot of scenes not in the theatrical cut as well as the pirate story from the comic.  the whole thing is pretty impressive for its scope and dedication to the source material.  i understand the concern that many people have with it being a little too slavish to the original and yes, it does leave the whole thing a bit lifeless and hollow, but its still a cool live action version of one of the best comic books ever written.

true grit

i've never seen the original film with john wayne but thought i'd give this one a try.  i went to see it with my dad who loves the original.  its a great story of a girl who wants to find and arrest the men who killed her father.  she goes and hires jeff bridges character to track them down and she goes along on the journey.  the bridges character is very cool and the whole movie rests on his shoulders.  everyone in it does a great job and its a fun one to watch, especially if you like westerns.

unstoppable

this is about as simple of an action movie as you can get.  denzel and chris pine are trying to stop a runaway train.  that's it, that's the whole movie.  its pretty tense along the way, offering some fun tension and clever challenges they need to overcome.  its pretty good.