This is it, the final Year in Movies post. Over the last twelve months I’ve watched a total of 71 movies (this includes the movies watched in December) and actually didn’t hate most of them. Note that this number doesn’t include movies that I just caught parts of on TV. If I didn’t see more than 50% of the movie, I didn’t count it. Below you’ll find December’s offerings. Enjoy them, because I don’t know if I’ll do this year long trek again next year.
Lost in Translation
This is a fantastic movie about two people who find each other while both are more or less lost in Tokyo. It’s the movie that re-introduced us to Bill Murray’s hilarity and introduced us to the beauty of Scarlett Johansson’s butt. It’s sweet, it’s well written and directed by Sofia Coppola, it’s a great movie.
Rating: 
Azumi
According to Netflix I enjoy movies that feature a strong female lead, revenge movies, and Japanese movies. Azumi meets all three categories in one film so it’s no wonder that Netflix recommended it. It’s the story of a girl, Azumi, who is orphaned and adopted by a Samurai master and raised, along with a group of other kids, to become the strongest assassins in Japan’s history. The reason? Kill the warlords who are hellbent on taking power and forcing the nation into constant war. Obviously the warlords don’t like this idea and do everything they can to stop Azumi and her fellow assassins. It’s pretty great, especially if you like foreign films featuring stylistic violence. And really, who doesn’t?
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The International
This is a “suspense thriller” about a bank that does very bad things. Strangely, a New York District Attorney and an INTERPOL agent are working together on an international investigation. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but maybe it does to you. The movie tries to be way more suspenseful than it is, even uses the cliché piano music to do so. There is a pretty sweet shootout in the Guggenheim, but really, that’s about all this movie has going for it. The plot is convoluted and silly and the suspense is added by the bucket — if this were a comedy there would have been an old fashioned laugh tracked added. It just comes off silly.
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When Harry Met Sally
Apparently this is a classic movie that everyone’s seen, at least a certain scene from, but I had never seen. It’s cute, it’s got some pretty funny lines, and overall it’s pretty good.
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Avatar
The mega-hyped, mega-budgeted James Cameron flick about a completely invented world of giant human-like blue people certainly lives up to the special effects and action hype. Surprisingly, unlike all of the reviews, the storyline is very engrossing and solid as well. It’s nothing new and the major themes are all taken from just about everything else out there, but it’s still a really good movie and a really fun ride. I didn’t see it in IMAX or Digital 3D (what the hell is that anyway?) and am glad I didn’t as I’m almost certain it would have given me a headache.
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Sherlock Holmes
I submit that Robert Downey Jr. is the best actor working in Hollywood today — especially when it comes to rich, eccentric, recluses. While the storyline for Sherlock Holmes is, at times, a little hard to follow Downey’s portrayal is amazing. It was fun and the directing was pretty awesome. The only thing I didn’t really like was the blatant sequel setup at the end of the movie. Can we have quality movies in Hollywood anymore without thinking about a sequel, at least until a few days after the movie comes out?
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The Incredibles
The Pixar story about a family of super heros who must actually get along in order to stop an evil mastermind is fun and silly and simply enjoyable. The first bit of the movie, explaining the super hero exile from public life, is basically a kid-friendly version of Watchmen. I found that interesting.
Rating:
Sky High
I like movies about super heroes and usually don’t care for things on the Disney Channel, but this is a movie that I actually enjoyed. It’s unique and cleaver and just plain fun. It’s about a high school for super hero kids that are trying to figure out how to use their powers. There’s a class war between the heroes and sidekicks hero support and, well, a real war. It’s fun. Watch it.
Rating:
Elf
See November
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~ fin ~
It’s November and that means we’re almost to the end of the Year in Movies run. But lets not get all sentimental just yet. On with the movies. Oh, and this might be one of the best Year in Movies posts yet. I’m just sayin’.
Sunshine Cleaning
This is about two sisters who aren’t really do much with their lives and decide to start a crime scene cleanup business. It’s a quarky movie with some laughs but takes a brief, but very unexpected turn. Wonder what I’m talking about? Just follow the storyline of the youngest sister. There isn’t a lot of character development, or depth for that matter, but it’s entertaining.
Rating:
Objectified
This is a documentary on industrial design by the same group that created Helvetica. It’s a fascinating look at what makes up good design and why and a conversation with those who are doing it, including Jonathan Ive who is the lead designer at Apple. If you’re a design nerd, you’ll enjoy this.
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Space Camp
This is one of the best bad movies to come out of the 80’s. It stars a bunch of people, like Kate Capshaw, Kelly Preston, Lea Thompson and a very young Joaquin Phoenix. The premiss is that a group of kids attending space camp end up being launched into space, for real. Why? Well, basically Phoenix’s character, Max, falls in love with a robot, Jinx, who talks to the NASA computers and figures a way to get him on a real launch. I kid you not. But it’s great. Check it out! It has some pretty great 80’s music as well, including a song that landed on my celebrity playlist last year.
Rating:
The Blind Side
Going in I thought this was going to be a sappy, tearjerker style movie; I was wrong. It was funny, poignant and an amazing story. If you haven’t seen this yet, go do so. It’s worth the cost to see it in the theater.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Kind of hard to not like a Charlie Kaufman story and this is no exception. What happens when people in a relationship decide to forget each other? A wicked trip to Jim Carrey’s mind is what. Did I mention Charlie Kaufman wrote it? What more do you need to know?
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Star Trek
I was never a Star Trek fan growing up, though I did enjoy watching episodes of The Next Generation. But that doesn’t really count I guess. Either way, I didn’t really know the difference between a Romulan and a Vulcan before putting in JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot. This was probably a good thing as all of the characters are re-introduced in a very cool story involving time travel and evil aliens. I really liked this movie and it’s well worth checking out.
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Elf
I’m no Will Ferrell fan, but this was actually a funny movie. It’s silly and quirky and has Zooey Deschanel and, get this, was directed by Jon Favreau — yeah, Swingers‘ Jon Favreau. Crazy, right?
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Angels & Demons
While The Da Vinci Code was a horrible adaptation of the book, this was a much better movie. Imagine that, considering this was the better of the two books as well.
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Dogma
Kevin Smith and the story of two renegade angels trying to get back into heaven. Need I say more?
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~ fin ~
So, um, I’m getting kind of tired of this series (and this web site in general) but because I’m committed, I’m going to see it through. So, yeah, here is this month’s Year in Movies. And bam!
The Collector
This sucks, don’t see it. I don’t even know what it’s about. I walked out after 15 minutes and ended up seeing:
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The Hangover
This is the funniest movie I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s hilarious. A group of friends go on a bachelor party in Vegas and wake up without a single memory from the night before. All they know is their friend is missing, there’s a random baby in the closet, and a tiger in the bathroom. It’s awesome. You just might want to close your eyes during the credits. I’m just saying.
Rating:
The Soloist
What’s with all these movies starting with ‘the’? Anyway, this is one man’s exquisite attempt to find friendship and meaning in a post-9/11 world. In the process, he meets a man who will soon change his life. Ok, this isn’t what the movie is about, but it could be based on the box art. This movie was good. I mean, I think it was. I don’t really remember.
Rating:
Push
Evidently there are people who live among the rest of us who happen to have special abilities. They choose to hide these abilities in order to hide from the government, who wants to round everyone up and turn them into weapons. Sound familiar? Probably since there’s a pretty bad tv show with a similar story. Anyway, this movie was alright and the climax was pretty unique — yeah, I just said climax, deal with it. Anyway, it’s a solid movie and stars Dijmon Hounsou, so you can’t really go too far wrong. I don’t even know what that means…
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Wall-E
If there is a better commentary on the state of our society, I haven’t seen it. So until I do, Wall-E will have to do. There’s very little dialog, but the point comes across loud and clear. We’re fat, we’re lazy, and we are massive consumers. But if we take a few minutes to actually look at the world around us, we just might like what we have to see (or not). Either way, we might get pushed to do something about it. It was a sweet movie. Was it worthy of all the Best Picture controversy it stirred up? I don’t know, but Wall-E is worth seeing.
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~ fin ~
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