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.

zoolander

this one might not be as good as i think it is, but for some reason the humor in it hits me right in the sweet spot!  ever since i saw it the first time i've been quoting it ever since.  there are so many fantastic bits in it that i smile right now just thinking about the dance off, zoolander's roommates, the vip club, duchovny's hand model, will farrel's mugotu, etc.  i could go on for hours!  what makes this one even better is all the amazing bonus features on the dvd.  there are at least 3 hours of extra stuff on there and all of it is gold! this one is probably a time five comedies of all time for me.

buried

this is an impressive experiment.  they say that when you put limits on art it forces you to be more creative and work smarted to try and overcome those limits.  i cant think of a movie that had more limits placed on it than this film.  they whole thing is set in a wooden box the size of a coffin.  ryan reynolds stars as the only actor in the film (other than a voice or two on the other end of his cell phone).  he finds himself buried alive and has to try and figure out what went wrong and how to get help to get out of there!  the whole thing is surprisingly intense and exciting.  for all its limits, its still quite dynamic and interesting.  the developments and turns the plot takes along the way work well and leave an intense finale.

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.

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.

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!

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!

toy story 3

a very moving and emotional end to the story of andy's toys.

blindness

wow, this film is fantastic!  its a kind of study in 'what if'.  the question it starts with is what if the whole population of earth suddenly went blind?  how would we deal with the loss of our sense of sight?  the film deals with the societal repercussions of such an extreme loss.  its a pretty heavy drama about how human nature turns to savagery and fear when this happens.  we as the audience follow our main character, the only person left who can still see.  i am genuinely confused as to why this movie doesn't get mentioned more- it is truly amazing.  seek it out!

up

this is a pretty cute and fun little movie.  it goes in some unexpected places- especially with the bad guy and his zeppelin.  the real movie though is in the first 4 minutes, when we see the life remembered by the old man.  that part alone gives this movie 5 stars!

quigley down under

man, i love tom selleck.  i will watch that man in just about anything!  this movie is about a sharp shooter from the u.s. who heads to australia for a job.  the movie is very light hearted and fun for the first half, especially as he comes into town and shows off how good of a shot he is.  but as the film progresses it gets pretty heavy, the subject of the aboriginals and the crazy woman who takes a shining to him take a deeper turn but is done very well.  the bad guy in the film is played by alan rickman.  that should give you some indication of how great this movie is!  love it!

back to the future

a fantastic movie.  not much more to say about it than that!  i am always a sucker for a time travel movie, and maybe that can be directly traced back to this film.  i have seen this one so many times i can't even count, and its one that i could pop in any time and gladly watch it start to finish and love every minute.  at this point the film isn't really a movie anymore, its a legend- a foundation of pop culture, like star wars.

inception

a very clever original film by christopher nolan, this one looks at dreams and the different layers of consciousness.  it turns these abstract ideas into a mind-bendy action film.  with a great cast and amazing action, the fact that it doesn't really make much sense goes without notice (you know, until you take some time and think about it) until well after the credits roll.  at times trippy, and other times moving, this is one that will be a crowd favorite for a long time.

lord of the rings: the two towers

another amazing movie that stands head and shoulders above most other sequels.  its a bit misleading to even call the two towers a sequel since it, like the third one as well, were all filmed at the same time.  it is a great middle film and does a marvelous job of continuing the first one and adding layers and characters in an organic way.  i probably consider this one to be the second best of the series, but i think that might be because i thought the first one was so good.  and i love those ents!

lord of the rings: fellowship of the ring

there's not much that i can write about this series that hasn't already been said.  its amazing and created a whole new world that lives and breathes as a wholly realized vision.
so instead of talking about the movie, i thought i'd share a story about the first time i saw it in the theater:  i was living in utah at the time and a few friends and i went to go see it.  one of those friends was lani, a fellow teacher i went to college with.  she clearly didn't know anything about the films but decided to tag along anyway.  as we were leaving the theater after the film two of us were talking and mentioned that we couldn't wait for the next two movies.  lani overheard us and said 'oh, that makes a lot more sense!' she had no idea that it is a trilogy!  she was like 'we were two and a half hours in to the movie and they still hadn't gotten anywhere close to getting rid of that ring!'

watchmen: the motion comic

rightfully considered the greatest comic book ever written, this dvd set is the original comic book brought to life with limited animation.  purchased as a part of the watchman ultimate edition dvd set, this motion comic is a retelling of the original 12 part series.  what exactly is a 'motion comic' you ask?  well, its pretty simple really, the comic panels themselves are slightly animated while a narrator reads out the word balloons.  if its an image of a person standing there, the light on their face may change slightly, or if something is on fire the flames pulsate a bit.  its a little strange at first, but you quickly grow used to its limited movement.  its basically a visual audio book.  the most unusual part of this particular production is the choice that was made to have the same actor read all the parts- including the women!  the strangeness of it all quickly fades away because the story being told is so engrossing that none of it really matters.  the most amazing part was how quickly it passed by, the 12 episodes total almost five and a half hours!  many  people had a problem with the live action movie because it skimped out on the story and completely missed out on some of the themes, but this production misses out on nothing, considering it includes every single word of the original series!  despite the limited animation and only one voice talent taking on all the roles (which, to his credit, tom stechschulte does very well), it is a worthy adaptation of the seminal source material.

rko 281

i saw citizen cane, the movie that is considered to be the best film ever made, back in high school. we watched it for a film studies class and i fell in love with it! i've probably watched citizen cane over a dozen times since then. because of my fondness for that film, i was drawn to this one. this is a movie of what happened behind the scenes of citizen cane. the story of how the film came to be and how every studio in town wanted it destroyed is a very interesting one, and it is captured quite well in this film. as a lover of film, i also love to know what goes on behind the scenes of movies, which makes this one so riveting: its the behind the scenes story of the greatest movie every made! in it liev schrieber plays orson wells, the genius director who was the visionary behind citizen cane, and james cromwell as william randolph hearst, the inspiration for cane. it was a rather sorted mess with everyone against wells- many of whom had pretty good reasons, to be honest! as the new 'it' guy in town, wells struggles to find his first big movie that will live up to his hype. inspired by the newspaper magnate hearst, wells decides to use his opportunity to expose the tyrant, to show to the world that the emperor isnt wearing any clothing. its a move that may cost him his career, and the careers of all those around him. its an impressive recreation of the events and an interesting perspective on how and why it went down the way it did. liev does a great job as the over confident wells, and cromwell is fantastic as the self righteous millionaire 'victim' hearst. if you have ever seen citizen cane, definitely search this one out, it will illuminate the classic in a whole new way.

the legend of 1900

i had never heard of this movie before, and was very impressed with it! it follows the life of an infant abandoned on a steamliner at the turn of the century. we see that boy grow up on the steamliner as he learns life lesson from his adopted father figure. he grows to be a musical piano playing virtuoso, considered the best in the world! the man named 1900, due to his being discovered by his father on new years day of the new century, is marvelously played by tim roth. we get a real sense of the joy he gets from playing for the guests, but also the melon collie at the fact that he has no real home other than the ship. he decides, because he doesnt have any birth certificate or anything, to stay on the boat all his life. we follow him through his musical triumphs, playing in competition against the man who invented jazz music, as well as his lows as he sees the girl of his dreams but is unable to talk with her or follow her off the boat when it docks in new york city. it is billed as a fable, and there is much to learn from this interesting tale of a man who travels his imagination through music, but is unable to travel off the boat he was born on. this is a moving and enjoyable tale that i am glad i got the chance to see. it is truly majestic.