Cinematic Catch-up

I can’t believe I call myself a movie freak. I have been ignoring one of my true loves lately, for sure. And while sometimes other people may look at my Netflix queue and call me an idiot chuckle – no one can say that I don’t have varied taste. (OK, I am downright embarrassed by some of my movie choices, but I also talked about my vagina below, so how can it get any worse, right?)…

We’ve just been so busy lately, and with American Idol on its crazy 3 night rotation – there’s just been no time for movie watching. But below are the movies from the past few months to make it through our queue. Which by the way is 359 movies long. At least I am dedicated to putting movies in to the queue, even if I don’t have time to get them out of the queue.

John Tucker Must Die (3 stars)
This could have been a really good dark teen comedy, a la Heathers but it fell short. There were many funny movements but mostly bad casting (you didn’t believe the characters one bit) and the movie overall just didn’t gel.

Flags of Our Fathers (4 stars)
Well, it was pretty much “Saving Private Ryan in Iwo Jima” but I did cry at the end. We fast-forwarded through a lot of the fight scenes which were fairly extraneous if you are not into that sort of thing (we aren’t). But overall, the cinematography was lovely (and again, very similar to Saving Private Ryan) and the movie was very well done. Good job Clint.

Mirror Mask (5 stars)
I mentioned this one specifically already! If you are into special effects, rent it!

Material Girls (1 star)
OK, OK, I rented this one for a diversion. And it sucked at even that. It was horrible from beginning to end. And I promise Bryan did not watch it with me.

The Illusionist (4 stars)
You can’t go wrong with Ed Norton. This one was more like 4.5 stars in my book. If it wasn’t so predictable, I probably would have given it 5. But it was filmed so incredibly beautifully, Ed was awesome as usual, and even Jessica Biel (not known for her acting skills) gave a pretty good performance.

Annapolis (2 stars)
OK, I mainly rented this because I grew up near Annapolis. When I worked in the Annapolis Mall, every Friday night was a sea of white Midshipmen uniforms. Kinda a sorry excuse to rent a movie, but this movie was a fairly sorry excuse for a movie. It had it’s good points at times, but overall pretty disappointing. Oh, and by the way. It’s basically a boxing movie.

Casanova (4 stars)
I really think that Heath Ledger is one of the most underrated actors. He totally has Brad Pitt Disease. Where they are so damn good but nobody notices unless they put crazy contacts in, or in Heath’s case – play a gay cowboy up in Wyoming. He was totally charming and entertaining in this movie – a perfect Cassanova. Yeah, some parts of this movie were silly and sappy… but hello – it’s Cassanova. I really enjoyed it.

Little Miss Sunshine (5 stars)
I will admit I wasn’t sure they would have deserved the Big Oscar but I really really really loved this movie. Totally quirky fun. Steve Carell and the Nonspeaking Brother made the movie for me, I think. I love how Carell played against type and stole the show.

Devil Wears Prada (2 stars)
Yes. I just didn’t get it, I guess. I laughed at parts, but I was mainly annoyed. Anne Hathaway’s character made absolutely no sense to me. Like, when she finally got a chance to talk to a reputable editor that’s when she decides to go home to her boyfriend? But when Meryl Steep needs dry cleaning and dog walking she is 3 hours late? And also, while I think Meryl was good and is always good – I just didn’t get the hoopla over her performance either. ~~ducking and running.

Talladega Nights (2 stars)
These are going downhill aren’t they? I know there are some people who are quoting this movie like the bible right now, but I am going to be very un-PC and say that the real-life populations it reminded me of just scare and annoy me too much too much to actually like this movie. Yes, I laughed because Will Ferrell truly is awesome… but I promise you, I won’t be quoting Talladega Nights anytime soon.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (3 stars)
Danielle pegged this movie: “It just was a run-up for the 3rd one.” Yup. I was entertained, but thought it dragged on, the plot was a bit thin, and Johnny’s shtick was getting annoying. But still, it is Pirates of the Caribbean, so I still had fun watching it all and am looking forward to #3.

*To make my life easier (and to be able to copy and paste),
I use the same rating system as Netflix:
1 Star = Hated It, 2 Stars = Didn’t Like It, 3 Stars = Liked It,
4 Stars = Really Liked It, 5 Stars = Loved It

OK, so do you all have any movies to suggest I see next?