| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doubt - PG-13 | "Oooh, look at us, we're ACTING." | January 7, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Orphan - R | Definitely the most surprising movie and the guiltiest pleasure of the year. This movie isn't at all scary, but it is dark, funny, and completely perverse. The twist ending comes out of nowhere and makes no sense and is totally, ridiculously stupid, but in a wildly entertaining way. The movie wouldn't be anything without the performances of Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, who, as one of my fellow movie lover friends says, should be in everything. This movie is trashy, sick, and just plain fun. Perfect lazy day entertainment if you ask me. | January 7, 2010 | N/A | |||
| The Proposal - PG-13 | Adorable! Yeah it's very "Hollywood" and falls into all the romantic comedy traps, but Bullock and Reynolds have great chemistry and make it work. The interview sequence over the closing credits is priceless. These actors are perfect together, and they both have amazing comedic timing and presence. | January 6, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Daybreakers - R | January 6, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Youth in Revolt - R | January 6, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil - Unrated | I know I'm in the minority, but this didn't do much for me. Maybe I went in with too much expectation. It was considered one of the best docs of the year, even the best films of the year, and almost nothing lives up to the hype for me. There were some sweet and funny parts, and it was cool seeing some Toronto landmarks like Pancer's Deli. But overall, it just seemed like a couple of whiney guys way past their prime, who didn't know when to give up. Probably doesn't help that I'm not a metal fan either. | January 4, 2010 | N/A | |||
| The Wedding Singer - PG-13 | Cutest movie ever! How did it take me over twelve years to see it? From the song selection to the costumes and production design, this movie gets everything right. And then there is Adam Sandler's surprisingly understated performance, and his undeniable chemistry with Drew Barrymore. And the little twist on the cliche chase-to-the-airport ending was adorable. | January 2, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Incendiary - R |
While Michelle Williams delivers yet another top-notch performance, she and the rest of the talent involved are completely wasted in a film that isn't sure how to handle itself. Williams plays a woman who loses her husband and son in a suicide bombing at a London soccer match. She wasn't at the game herself because she was having an affair with a sleazy journalist she met in a bar, played by Ewan McGregor.
Even with a concept that is a little far-fetched and perhaps a little more than trashy, this is the least of the film's problems. From the point of the bombing in the first act through the rest of the movie, the story completely loses itself to it's own overambition. It tries to get into heavy political and religious issues, but it doesn't delve as deep as it wants to, instead treading in safe, but unsatifsfying shallowness, and seeming unable to focus on one theme for more than a few minutes. Several plot points are completely unbelievable, not to mention ham-fisted, like the tribute the city sets up for the dead, consisting of a thousand blimps hovering over London, each one with a photo of one of the bombing victims. The image looks like a scene out of Blade Runner or Children of Men, while no other shot in the movie comes close to resembling these futuristic dystopias. What, could they not find enough marble to build a simple, elegant memorial statue? Other unsubstantial points include Williams' forged friendship with one of the suspected bombers' sons and she tracks him down and meets him on a commuter bus, and her "dear Osama Bin Laden" voiceover monologues, where she addresses the Al-Qaeda leader directly, searching for a reason for her son's death. Ewan McGregor, the "other man" in the scenario, is almost completely forgotten in the second half of the story. His journalism background provides a logical reason for him to investigate the attacks, but his character isn't given enough screentime to show his process, and his discovery of one of the bomber's identities feels too coincidental. His relationship with Williams takes a backseat, while another man comes into the forefront. Matthew MacFadyen, playing the cop assigned to the case, spends more time pursuing Williams' character romantically than actually working. He and Williams apparently knew each other previously, as her husband was also a cop, but this previous relationship is never explored, only mentioned in passing. McGregor is far more likable and seems more interested and capable in getting to the bottom of the attacks to provide Williams with some closure than MacFadyen does, and a new, honest romance could have blossomed between the two of them, but the film remains too unfocused to be a subtle character drama, choosing instead to go big and all out with it's agendas. |
December 30, 2009 | N/A | |||
| L.A. Story - PG-13 | Steve Martin's absurdist humour at it's best. A sweet romance that also manages to keep you laughing with one crazy joke after another. It's a complete send-up of life in Los Angeles, though I fear some of the material that's meant to be satirical is actually completely true. | December 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Killer Bash - Unrated | Fantastically bad! The script fails on every level, from the nonsense plot to the bad dialogue. The special effects, particularly the lead character's red demon eyes and alterned voice, and the -- spoiler alert -- inferno finale are cheap looking. And that's being charitable. But this is worth a watch for one reason, and one reason only: Cory Monteith, best known from the TV series Glee. This movie was made a few years before he hit it big on that show, and it's funny to see him in such an amateurish role. Despite the horrible material he has to work with, he does the best he can, and he easily comes off as the cast member with most natural talent and the greatest potential at a serious career. I'm still confused on the gay subtext, why all the male cast members were sans shirts so often, and especially that fraternity hazing scene where they rubbed each other down with alcohol, even though none of their characters were actually gay. But whatever, I'm not going to complain about good-looking guys in their underwear. :) | December 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Blind Date - Unrated | A major disappointment. After the effortlessly sublime Interview, the first in a trilogy of American remakes of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's work, this second installment is more like a botched experiment. Trying very hard to be cinematic and whimsical, it comes off more kitschy and vulgar. The concept is great: a middle aged couple go out on "blind dates," role playing as if they don't know each other. I love both Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, and I expect great things from them, but they are mismatched here, lacking the chemistry that Sienna Miller and Steve Buscemi had in Interview, which made that film such a pleasant surprise. The production design and editing is a mess, complete with tacky music selection and overly bright set decor, amateurish cutaways of the couple's personals ads and home videos, and an awkward voiceover by the couple's daughter, who is never seen, and only used a few times in the first act before being dropped altogether. If this movie was trying to make an artistic foreign film (which I haven't seen) more accessible to an English audience, it failed miserably. | December 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| One Dark Night - PG | December 26, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Newcastle (Blue Blue Blue) - Unrated | Gorgeously shot coming-of-age-drama. Makes me want to go surfing! Great acting from a talented cast of upcomers. | December 26, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Politist, adj. (Police, Adjective) - Unrated | December 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel - PG | December 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Kingdom - R | Boring, other than a few great one-liners from Jason Bateman. | December 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| My One and Only - PG-13 | December 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Cedar Boys - Unrated | December 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Only - Unrated | December 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| All Good Things - Unrated | December 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Nine - PG-13 | Musical entry of the year, can't live without that. | December 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Unmade Beds - Unrated | December 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Obsession - Unrated | Something was off. The pacing, or the supporting characters or the setting? I don't know. It didn't feel right. But the three lead performances are all great. It's just too bad they weren't in another movie. | December 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Asylum - R | Kind of slow, with a very strange ending, but great performances from Csokas and Richardson. The look and tone reminded me very much of another forbidden love British drama: Close My Eyes with Clive Owen. | December 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| American Pie Presents: Book of Love - R | December 17, 2009 | N/A |
22280 ratings
1429 reviews
