Follow2011 may be the year I feel meh about going to the movies.
The popcorn keeps getting more expensive, the commercials keep getting louder, and the patrons more obnoxious.
As much as my wife Lanna loves going to the movies.
http://lannaleemaheux.com/2011/12/23/kid-pack/#comments I find it more obnoxious all the time. It is usually better though when I see a mid-week show after the first weekend.
That being said there were 4 movies I saw in the theatre this year that I loved and 2 I adored.
My favorite movie of the year and favorite in several years since “Children of Men” (my favorite movie of the 2000s) was the wonderful “Super 8.” ****1/2 — This is what I loved about moviemaking as a child. Super 8 also got some of the harshest reviews and buzz I read of the year, such as sure it was really good, but I expected amazing. Or too much like early Spielberg (like this is a bad thing.) I love the children that acted in the movie, loved the empty town, and loved the sense of play. Highly recommended.
The other movie I adored this year is “Midnight in Paris” from Woody Allen. To me the best Woody Allen movie since “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and up there with his very best like “Annie Hall”, “Zelig” and “Bananas.” (It’s my list.) I loved his look at nostalgia, and how sometimes what came before sounds better then what’s here now. Wonderful movie and surreal. ****
3rd favorite of the year and a heck of a lot of fun was “The Muppets”. I have loved the Muppets since I was a little kid, and this exceeded my expectations in every way. Just a hoot, if you haven’t seen it yet go smile. ****
4th favorite .. Harry Potter 7:2 — I don’t want to say the full name, but really well done. Enjoyable, fun. A good day at the movies *** 1/2.
And that’s really all I consider top 10 material I have seen so far. I have enjoyed a couple other movies this year as popcorn flicks. “Captain America” was solid ***; as was “X-Men: First Class” *** … “Crazy, Stupid Love” was fun *** … I also thought “Thor” wasn’t bad **1/2. .. “Moneyball” felt like I did about “The Social Network” pretty, well acted, but frankly kind of dull. **1/2
Again not a great year for me.
Now to the disappointments:
First was one of the movies I was very excited to see .. I loved Warner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man” but unfortunately was dizzy in a way I haven’t been since the “Blair Witch Project” for his “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” **. I really wanted to like this movie. I did see it in 2-D (only 3-D movie I saw was Captain America) because I usually get nausated in 3-D and it was the only format it was available in. I understand they weren’t able to get steadicam shots due to restrictions in filming the caves, but the handi-cam was unfortunately all over the place.
The images were beautiful, but mainly I just felt sea sick. And the supporting parts of the movie didn’t thrill me. Disappointing.
Now the 2 movies I actually hated:
1) Bridesmaids * — Allie/@broke207 agrees that this was really crap. In fact if you funniest scene involves crapping in a wedding dress and having Wilson Phillips show up you are not a genius comedy. This was boring, stupid, and I have no idea why it was so popular. Didn’t find it funny … Heard the “Hangover 2” was as bad as I found Bridesmaids, so didn’t see it even though I loved the original.
2) Cowboys and Aliens 1/2* — This is one of the first movies I remember that I seriously considered going to the lobby and playing cell phone games over watching the film. It’s a really boring western, with a dumb science fiction movie on top of it. Waste of time. Boring, dumb. Heard the movie was based on the cover to a graphic novel, not the graphic novel itself and it shows. Would have been better as a YouTube short called “Cowboys, Aliens and Smurfs” at least that way could have had some blue goo and been done in 3 minutes. Sucked.
Curious what you enjoyed this year .. Curious about “The Artist”, “Hugo”, “The Descendents” and a few others.