Quick Reviews: Five More...

Oops, I did it again. Procrastinated on writing about the movies I've seen, that is. I guess all that writing for "Man of Steel" took a lot out of me...no, just the usual issues. Anyway, here are the most recent five:

The Bling Ring is based on a true story about shallow, vapid young people robbing the homes of shallow, vapid celebrities such as Paris Hilton -- celebrities so shallow that they tended to leave the doors to their homes unlocked, which made it much easier for the burglars. I can think of no further proof of the utter shallowness of Paris Hilton than the fact that not only did she cameo in the movie, but allowed the filmmakers to film the scenes of the robbery of her house at that very same house. The movie made no points, taught no lessons, and doesn't even function as a pseudo-documentary. My grade: D.

World War Z was just odd. It felt like a mashup of different genres -- science fiction, disaster film, horror -- and it all didn't blend well for me. And Brad Pitt as an action hero didn't connect with me either. Also, I hate that the film started out in Philadelphia, where Pitt's character's family lived, but was obviously filmed elsewhere (London, if I recall). Even the skyline didn't look like Philadelphia. My grade: C-plus.

Monsters University is a prequel, focusing on the first meeting of Mike and Sully at college. When Pixar's followed up on previous films they've been good (both "Toy Story" sequels) and bad ("Cars 2," from what I've heard). This one is okay, but it doesn't bode well for other planned sequels, including one for "Finding Nemo." Pixar needs to focus on original stuff again and leave sequels and prequels to Disney's direct-to-DVD products. My grade: B.

When I get excited about a movie based on its trailer, I am always concerned about a letdown. Thankfully, there was no letdown from The Heat, the Sandra Bullock-Melissa McCarthy mismatched-buddy-cop (well, cop and FBI in this one) action comedy. Lots of humor, foul language, violence -- but heart as well. Bullock and McCarthy work very well together. My grade: A.

The Lone Ranger has Armie Hammer in the title role, but make no mistake, the masked man's the straight man for Johnny Depp's shticky Tonto. The Ranger is more of a dolt than a hero, and it all strained my credulity. It got a surprising amount of laughs from others in the theater, but I mostly sat there sighing and rolling my eyes as it went on and on, interspersed with a ridiculous framing sequence featuring an elderly Depp-as-Tonto telling the story to a little boy at a traveling circus. My grade: D-plus.

My 10 Best (And 5 Worst) Movies Of 2009...

2/10/10 UPDATE: I've adjusted the list to add "Precious" to the top 10. This bumps the previous number 10 to 11. Sorry, Paranormal Activity!

While I certainly haven't seen every movie released in 2009 (some films I haven't gotten around to seeing, others haven't opened here yet), I've seen enough of them. To be exact, 77 of them. That's about 3 movies every two weeks. On average it ended up being a B-minus year. The movies I loved the most all got A or A-minus grades. The worst ranged from D-plus to D-minus. I somehow managed to avoid an outright F in 2009. Interestingly, the two best and the single worst all have George Clooney in common. It's possible that a 2009 movie I see in 2010 could work its way into the best or worst lists, but for now, here they are...

The Best!

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox - George Clooney and Meryl Streep, animated. Funny and smart.
2. Up In The Air - George Clooney, in the flesh. Ditto.
3. I Love You, Man - Paul Rudd (swoon -- see photo) and Jason Segel and their bromance.
4. Away We Go - One I was rather surprised to enjoy so much. Charming.
5. Bruno - The most hysterical movie of them all, but what kept it from the very top is that it's essentially Borat all over again.
6. (500) Days Of Summer - The most original romantic comedy of the year, if not the last few years.
7. Precious - Strong story, strong acting, and an ending that feels right.
8. Up - Pixar strikes again.
9. Julie & Julia - Meryl Streep again. Delightful.
10. Star Trek - I wasn't sure they could resurrect this franchise but they did it amazingly well.


Honorable mention (among the A-minus movies but not quite in the top 10): Paranormal Activity, Outrage, Humpday, It's Complicated

The Worst!

Dishonorable mention (among the D-plus films but not quite bottom 5): Sherlock Holmes

5. The Hangover - I know everyone loved it and it made zillions of dollars, but it left me cold.
4. Jennifer's Body - Tried so hard to be hip and turned out a mess.
3. All About Steve - Sandra Bullock had a great year -- thanks to The Proposal and The Blind Side, not to this dreck.
2. The Ugly Truth - Katherine Heigl needs better material if she wants to be a movie star.
1. The Men Who Stare At Goats - Only George Clooney saved this from the dreaded F.

All of my 2009 grades are here. If something's not on that list it's because I didn't see it. Agree or disagree with my choices? Is there something from 2009 still in theaters that I should see? And isn't Paul Rudd dreamy?

Quick Review: The Blind Side

One thing that I tend to wonder about when I watch a movie that's based on a true story is how much artistic license was taken when transforming the story into a film. "The Blind Side" is based on a book of the same name by Michael Lewis ("Moneyball") and tells the story of Michael Oher's journey from poverty to rich NFL player. Some of what is depicted in the movie (such as Oher's "younger brother" taking charge of Oher's football drills and dealing with the college coaches out to recruit Oher to their school) had me wondering a lot. It didn't really ring true. However, the essence of the story -- about Oher's being accepted into a private Christian school in Memphis despite a very poor track record in his previous schools, being taken in by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and eventually becoming a star high school and college football player en route to the NFL -- holds together. Sandra Bullock dominates the movie as Leigh Anne. It's a change of pace from her many romantic-comedy roles, and she does an excellent job. Bullock and Tim McGraw, as Sean, make a good on-screen couple. If you're not a sports nut like I am, there's not a terrible amount of football action so don't let that keep you away. My grade: B.

Quick Review: All About Steve

The good news: Bradley Cooper loses his shirt fairly early. The bad news: it doesn't stay off long enough to distract us from the rest of this movie. Cooper plays Steve, a network TV cameraman (although why a news network would be based in Sacramento is beyond me). He's set up on a blind date with Mary (Sandra Bullock), a creator of crossword puzzles and, well, more than just a non-conformist -- she's an all-around nutcase. The date doesn't go well and Steve ends it quickly, but due to a poor choice of words Mary thinks he's into her. Plot contrivances lead to Mary chasing Steve cross-country as he and his TV crew, in their news van, chase breaking news. Mary takes a bus, then hitches a ride from a trucker, then gets a ride from a fellow oddball she meets along the way. Yet Mary keeps managing to catch up to Steve at all the stops where they're covering breaking news. Incomprehensible. There's a message about being yourself but it's buried by the stupidity. Bradley, if you're going to do crap like this, at least show some more skin. My grade: D-plus.