127 Hours

This movie is pretty much what I expected it to be and that’s why, for most of the movie, I forced myself to multitask rather than focus completely on what was happening on screen. Especially at the end I tried not to watch too closely (if you don’t know what happens, you must be living under a rock [haha!]). James Franco did a fantastic job and was almost the only person in the movie, definitely deserving of that Oscar nomination. I don’t want to own this one, but it was worth checking out just to say “Hey, I saw that!”.

Paper Man

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this movie. The acting was fabulous, I know that much. Emma Stone, Jeff Daniels, and Lisa Kudrow all did a splendid job; I definitely had empathy for their characters. The storyline, however, was a bit too odd – a middle-aged writer can’t sit still and has an imaginary superhero friend named Captain Excellent. His wife only visits him on weekends to allow him time to work and also to get away from his insanity, so he hires a babysitter for himself and they become really awkward friends. Odd story, but decent movie overall.

Limitless

Bradley Cooper is pretty. Wait, that’s not the point of the movie, but it’s a definite bonus. This movie was surprisingly good – decently acted, interesting concept, and entertaining plot. If you need to know what it’s about (other than Bradley Cooper), the basic idea is that a guy starts taking a drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain, thereby allowing him to do many things an average man cannot. He starts accessing information he didn’t know he had and making connections in completely new ways. Fascinating concept that is likely to spark conversations and entertain you, too.

Dakota Skye

Dakota Skye is a teenage girl who has a unique superpower – she can tell when a person is lying and knows what the truth is. Because of this power (and teen angst in general) she’s unhappy and is somewhat of a slacker. The plot starts getting interesting when she meets Jonah, her boyfriend’s childhood friend, who never tells a lie. The more time Dakota and Jonah spend together, the closer they get and start to fall for each other. Predictably, this causes some problems so now the movie has a plot. It’s an interesting story, but quite slow at times.

Timer

The premise of this movie is pretty nifty: it’s an alternate reality where a timer was invented that, when implanted in your arm, will start a countdown until you meet your soul mate provided he/she also has a timer. The story follows two sisters, one whose timer says she’ll meet her man at age 45 and one whose timer hasn’t started yet, and how their timers affect their, and others’, life decisions. It’s a fantastic concept but it’s a shame the acting wasn’t up to par. If you have Netflix streaming, it’s certainly worth the $0 to check it out.

Cowboys and Aliens

This movie has a terrible title. I won’t say that the movie was spectacular but it wasn’t as bad as the title would have you believe. It’s entertaining, but that’s about as much as I can give this film. Being a western with aliens, the storyline didn’t stand a chance of being genuine or heartfelt. Also, the acting was mediocre and I felt little kinship for the characters (with possible exception of the Native American, but since I don’t remember his name I guess I didn’t care that much). I say you should save yourself $9 and just Redbox it.

Gnomeo and Juliet

Let’s start with some honesty: I love Romeo and Juliet so my opinion may be a bit biased. That being said, I really enjoyed this movie. It was adorable and followed the basic storyline about as well as you can expect from a cartoon about garden gnomes. There were little Shakespearean references and a few slightly dirty jokes for the adults and a cute love story with Elton John music for everyone! Oh, and did I mention it was all English people doing the voices? Fun! One complaint I had: please leave out the dance scene at the end, thanks.

In & Out

Hello, 1997! Kevin Kline stars as a high school English teacher in a small Indiana town. Only a few days before Howard (Kline) is supposed to get married, a hometown boy wins an Oscar and outs Howard as gay in his acceptance speech. As is expected in movies, Howard’s life turns upside down as everyone, including himself, struggles with his sexuality. Although the movie was entertaining and made me laugh, I like to think that fourteen years later we are more open to homosexuality and that this premise wouldn’t be successful now. Of course, I could just be an idealist.

Clerks

Admission: I didn’t pay a lot of attention to this movie. It is quite slow and completely driven by dialogue from an almost entirely drug-using, male cast; it was hard for me to relate much as a drug-free female. There were moments where I felt for the plight of the retail worker, but mostly I thought “glad I’m not this guy”. Plot, from what I could tell, read like this: guy gets called into work on his day off and then life sucks, sometimes because it’s life and sometimes because he makes it suck. And Kevin Smith doesn’t talk much.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

What if Hell is just like the world we already live in, but worse? That is the concept behind Wristcutters – everyone who ends their life ends up in Hell together which is surprisingly similar to the world they just left. Zia, a young guy who decides to off himself because his girlfriend dumped him, meets a girl and struggles with his feelings for both his ex and this new dead chick. Overall, it’s an interesting concept but pretty depressing when you realize every person hated their life so much they decided suicide was a fabulous idea. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Me and Orson Welles

I’ll admit, at first I was slightly ashamed to watch a movie with Zac Efron, but I gave it a try anyway. The movie is about a young actor who earns a part in Orson Welles’ production of Julius Caesar. To me, the best parts of the film were Christian McKay’s performance as prick director/actor, Welles, and the interpretation of Shakespeare’s work. In fact, I could have done with just seeing Welles’ 94 minute production of Caesar and skipped the plot entirely. Alas, the mediocre story was there and, when coupled with Zac Efron, resulted in only an okay film.

The Four-Faced Liar

Boy and girl move to NYC and live together. They’re anal-retentive and grossly perfect at times. Let’s call them Greg and Molly. Greg and Molly go to a bar and happen to meet another guy and two girls (not as exciting as it sounds, boys). This time, the boy (James) is dating Chloe and they seem to be less perfect and a bit more real. The other girl, Bridgette, is a lesbian and immediately has a crush on Molly. Shit ensues and we find out whether your relationship is perfect or real, it can all come crashing down. The end.

2012

Apparently the Mayans were right - the sun is going to take us out on 12-21-2012. Enter John Cusack and his family – the world starts crumbling and, despite all odds, they survive all sorts of crazy shit. You’ve only had two flying lessons? Sure you can dodge fire rocks shooting from the sky! You’ve been abandoned in China? A monk will give you a car ride and help save your life! If you want to be entertained by the destruction of practically the whole of humanity and suspend belief about what people can survive, this is the movie for you.

Super 8

A rag-tag group of boys is working on a zombie movie when, all of a sudden, they accidentally witness something they shouldn’t have – a massive train wreck. The next hour and a half is spent trying to understand what happened and help save first the girl, then the town from a Cloverfield-esque monster. Also, there are strained parent-child relationships and teenage friendships and love. Pretty much if you took two parts Goonies and one part Cloverfield, the resulting movie would be Super 8. Also, here’s a tip: the reasoning for the title is revealed during the credits, so don’t leave.

Reservoir Dogs

Have you seen a Quentin Tarantino movie before? If the answer if “yes”, then you probably don’t have to see this movie. There’s a gratuitous amount of profanity, blood and guys in suits, so pretty much like Pulp Fiction minus women and Samuel L. Jackson. Now, if you want an idea of the plot, here it goes – a bunch of guys are trying to steal some diamonds but the police show up and now the boys are trying to decide which of them is the mole. So, if you want a movie full of dialogue and blood – watch Reservoir Dogs!