Watched this with my oldest yesterday. It was pretty cool. Entertaining and well-done. While I have never been an Elmo fan, watching this did help me to appreciate the artistry that Kevin Clash puts into his creation. If you have 80 minutes to kill, you could do a lot worse than this.

Films I enjoyed the most in 2011:

The Artist - the music, the script, the acting = a love letter to Hollywood
Win-Win
Midnight in Paris
Drive
A Separation
The Descendants

Watched this tonight, and both my wife and I really loved it.

yeah, the more i think about hugo, the more i'm surprised when people say the artist is hollywood's love letter to silent cinema.

Yeah, no doubt. This was crafted by someone who loves film, and wanted to create an ode to a bygone era where imagination and wonderment was still relevant and more exciting than realism.

I can't comment on Hugo, as I have yet to see it.
As for The Artist, I saw it for the first time this past Saturday and loved it. I haven't been in fine fettle of late, so its simple eloquence, plot = been there done that and my already undying love of "old films" was a much needed antidote and a perfectly timed one to boot.

I've yet to see The Artist, but would like to eventually. On a related note, a bunch of people I was drinking with last night were a bit up in arms about The Artist getting so much attention and everyone acting like no one else has been doing silent film work when Guy Maddin has been on that kick for years. Obviously this is the difference between mainstream movie making and underground artier stuff but an interesting point nonetheless. Obviously his movies aren't going to have the mainstream audience of something lie The Artist, but it wouldn't kill the majors to acknowledge that homages to silent film are not some sudden, new thing.

The only Maddin film I've seen is The Saddest Music in The World and that was several years ago. I do remember reading one of his essays on the DVD release of Ace In The Hole, the Billy Wilder/Kirk Douglas film from the early 50's. I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

I've seen Saddest Music and a couple others, including a couple of the silent ones and enjoyed them. If you liked Saddest Music at all, its worth checking out his other stuff. The earlier you go, the weirder it gets. Tales from the Gimli Hospital is pretty bizarre.

I'll have to keep an eye out for Ace in the Hole. Thanks.

Oh man, yes Maddin is amazing. Favorite film of his is "Careful".

unlikable cast of unknowns, annoying hand held found-footage shaky cammery,
this had everything against it but I was won over by the end, or more likely beaten
into submission by the level of debauchery Several laugh out loud moments include
a very angry dwarf and a bit when the police turn up to ask them to turn the noise down a bit
Comparisons to Superbad inevitable but better than Margolden Hotels or This Means Shite - 7.3/10

Watched Hugo at home 2 nights ago, and was sorta bored. Maybe I needed 3D, I donno. It just seemed so heavy-handedly message ridden about nostalgia and film history that I knew what was coming way before it happened, and I hate that. I was probably distracted and not able to immerse. But it did little for me.

Rampart. this felt like a good idea that had been through numerous rewrites and eventually someone said, "well, we've got to make it sometime, so let's do it now!" the main character is essentially someone everyone's seen dozens of times before. there were some little elements that were interesting, but the character's arc is just so flat, especially as a cop. the home life storyline has more potential, but there's really only one scene where i felt, "ok. he gets it."

Repulsion. this is basically a much sexier version of why does herr r. run amok? with the focus more on paranoia than boredom. catherine deneuve looks incredible.

Excellent movie. Harrowing in moments, as with Precious, but a more cohesive story. & a career performance from Kim Wayans (!) as the mother in denial of her daughter's orientation.

I'm a pretty big fan of Almodovar, but considering his last couple, I took pause before really sitting down to watch this. The freakiness is there. The twists are intact. The weirdness is absolutely fine. Thought it was really well-made. I'm hesitant to say I "liked it" simply because its not really a movie you come out of feeling all warm and fuzzy about. But the story was intriguing and if you're used to Almodovar's crazy worlds, then this probably won't faze you.



Much like the band this was all over the place. I'm not going to say it wasn't enjoyable, but it definitely didn't have the slickness of many docs coming out now. Its a pretty straight-forward history of the band, that leaves you at the end feeling guilty for not owning more by the them, which I guess is sorta the point. The graphics were cheesy though, and the shots weren't fantastic--but it got the job done.

I've been wanting to see that Fishbone flick. Played some of Truth and Soul for my kids and they went nuts for it. If it's not too bad, maybe I'll watch that movie with them, too.

saw john carter yesterday - it was pretty mediocre

Angelo is a swearing machine, but other than that its fine, haha.



That's unfortunate. It was actually a flick I was kinda looking forward to seeing.

Hugo - A bit of a slow-go with too many pleasant-but-not-exciting characters, but did love the various silent film and historical event homages. Seems like more could have been made of the whimsical setting. Solid without being crucial.

Horrible Bosses - Funny, but not as funny as it was built up to me to be by friends.

Mon Oncle - I love director Jacques Tati's aesthetic and subtle sense of humor. But the tight focus of this film did not, in my opinion, allow Tati's strengths to shine like they do in some of his other films.

Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour - Resnais made one of my favorite films in Last Year At Marienbad, so I guess it's only natural to have given this high expectations and for it to not have lived up to them. It's a great big sigh of a film, which showcases some amazing moments, but never quite hits a cohesive stride. Definitely the sort of film I'd like to see again to see how it works on a second viewing.

Point of No Return - bleh--didn't realize this was a remake of La Femme Nikita, a movie I hated. I remember about half of La Femme, and this movie did those scenes worse.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Visually-striking silent.

mediocre might be a bit strong

it was ok, just nothing terribly spectacular

the first in my movie double bill last night was not as bad as the
reviews have been, OK so it is a bit shit and the scary jumps are
really no worse than a dog suddenly barking at you.
Despite the almost unanimous audience reaction at the end as folks
were walking out "well that was awful" and "what a waste of time that was" etc
I quite liked the way it finished or maybe I was just relieved it was actually over.
Still, it seems unlikely there will be Devil Inside 2 - phew, but... you never know!
6.3/10





it was almost a relief to see something on the big screen where the
camera didn't jump around every few seconds like it did in the other film.
This was easy to follow, nothing unexpected happened, basically thriller by
numbers fare yet with a good cast and Kate Beckinsale not in a pair of leather trousers
for a change. The baddies were a bit rubbish (no seatbelts when driving, ooh hardcore)
and it was more like a mediocre episode of 24 but worth catching on DVD perhaps.
6/10

Thought this was great.

saw this last night on PBS's Independent Lens



Reminds you that consumers do have power to change the way corporations are run. Not in the basic, answer to the shareholder sense, but if you make choices and support products you believe in, something can come of it.

recent viewing:

Cabin in the Woods - Glad I knew nothing about this going in. I like this quite a bit, the twist is cool, but not as great as some of the reviews are making it out to be. Still pretty funny and well done. - 4 stars
The Raid: Redemption - Really awesome martial arts and action sequences, great score, decent acting, little to no plot or backstory, (which is kind of the point I guess), either you dig this kind of thing or you don't...I dig it. - 4 stars
Hunger Games - Meh, It was alright...3 stars
21 Jump Street - Some funny moments, entertaining for what it was. Thought Channing Tatum was funnier than Jonah Hill, and some of the smaller bit actors were funny, namely Rob Riggle and Ellie Kempler. - 3.5 Stars
Jeff Who Lives at Home - This was alright...funny at times. Did not like some of the things about the way it was shot though...lots of herky jerky movements with the camera, kind of starnge. Had a somewhat feel good ending, but overall was kind meh about this. 3 stars
Martha Marcy May Marlene - Very sparse storytelling with a number of plot holes, but this was a really great acting job by Elizabeth Olsen. John Hawkes was also great. Really well done for a first time writer/director. 4 stars
12 Angry Men - Can't believe I hadn't seen this till now. I loved it. 5 stars

Just saw Cabin in the Woods. Fucking loved it.

That's all.