Watched this last night. It was really good. Might be my favorite 2010 release. South Korean movie about a Mother who tries to save her mildly mentally challenged son from a murder rap. Excellent acting. Suspenseful, not predictable, and film noirish.

I bought that a couple months ago but have yet to watch it.

This is on my 'to watch' list. It topped a lot of critics lists as the best film of 2010.

My first salvo into the breach of Oscar season is met with a resounding meh.

Firth should all but lock up the Oscar for this. He's brilliant but this movie is total Oscar bait and after being nominated for "A Single Man" last year, I think the Academy gives it to him finally.

It's a supremely well-made movie with all the elements of a British period piece but much like Atonement from a few years back, nothing really stuck with me after it was over. What should've been a great story about friendship and overcoming fears/handicaps, just left me slightly annoyed at his whole ordeal. Just seemed much ado over a supremely privileged human being.

The critics are gushing over this. It's very well done, and at times quite funny, but overall it just left me flat.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

I caught a couple of things that I'd been meaning to watch for a long time and were expiring on Netflix's Instant Viewing over the weekend:

East of Eden
Bunny Lake is Missing
No Way To Treat a Lady

Liked 'em all

This weekend we watched....

The Kids Are Alright - predictable, but alright...
Grownups - funny. glad i didn't pay to see this in the theater though...
Easy A - it was alright, not sure it was nearly as great as all of the word of mouth I had heard about it...
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - good, but a little too long for my taste.

The Fighter (C+) Wasn't that impressed, Bale was excellent though.
Never Let Me Go (B+) Very well done, loved the washed out look. Big thumbs up for Cary Mulligan, real presence and damn cute dimples.
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans (B+) Suprised i liked it so much considering I'm not much of a fan for Cage.
Life During Wartime - Not sure about this, like to see it again soon. Some funny moments. Quirky.

Totally fun piece of movie trash. Cage actually taking on the type of character that made his 80's stuff so memorable.

I think it stayed in the theater for a week over here before getting dumped. Funny and bizarre all at once.

Finally got to see True Grit last night. Loved it. Had no idea that Barry Pepper was in it and was surprised I didn't hear more about that in the fawning over the film.

I dug this. Both of us did, actually. Maybe we just WERE in the modd - I know what you're saying, it wasn't perfect but for some reason we both really liked it a lot.

Finally saw Black Swan last night...intense.

Yeah I was coming off of a 4 day holiday bender. Probably should've gone to see Tron or something not so subtle.

I saw this last week and thought it was great. I enjoy the Coen's stuff and Jeff Bridges but, while I was definitely excited to see this, for some reason I went in expecting I wasn't going to like it all that much. I was completely wrong. One of the best movies I've seen in a while.

The Green Hornet. the trailers are horrible and led me to have low expectations going into this, but i was still hanging onto a thread of hope because of michel gondry. well, that snapped almost immediately. this is just a really bad movie. the casting is questionable, characters are unlikeable, plot shifts are baffling, camera gimmicks are lame, etc. the one thing that i liked, though, was that gondry used 3D effectively during a multi-panel montage scene. a lot of 3D movies have wasted the technology, but this particular scene used 3D in a fresh way during a non-action sequence. it's probably bad that my friend and i both commented on it afterward as the highlight.

Saw Black Swan while tripping on mushrooms, intense...

True Grit the other night, Jeff Bridges should now be considered a national treasure, holy shit what a great performance.

Everything I've read about Black Swan is that it's campy, which doesn't make me want to see it. I didn't like the Wrestler much either. The only incentive to see this movie is Natalie Portman.

I LOVED this one, but I was definitely in the mood for it. Colin Firth & Natalie Portman have locked up the Best Actor & Best Actress categories already, IMO. As has Christian Bale with "The Fighter". I still can't believe Bale has never even received a nomination (until this year, most likely, of course). "Black Swan" & "True Grit" were very good as well. I'm going to try to catch "I Love You Phillip Morris" this weekend.

just watched 'Cyrus' with John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, & Marisa Tomei.

solid, and very subtly hysterical.

Easy A

I loved this. I ordered it from Netflix because I have to appease the wife every now and then. It surprised me. Similar type movie to Mean Girls but also a modern take on the Scarlett Letter, which the movie is not subtle about.

I'd describe it a lot of ways, but campy wouldn't even enter the discussion. I'd say its probably more akin to some Polanski thrillers. I hated the Wrestler, but I thought Black Swan was one of the best films of the year. I think some of those comments concerning the camp can be attributed to one scene, which is probably the moment that sways the viewer into a mindset, rather than an actual plot-point.

For all the accolades that True Grit is getting, I really think it was just a walk for the Coen Bros. and Jeff Bridges. Yes, its good. But honestly, I didn't feel like it was Jeff Bridges stretching too far and there wasn't a "gotcha" script-wise that I thought was brilliant on the Coen Bros. part in adapting the book. Did they adapt it honestly, absolutely. Proficient, even. The girl though, man, she was amazing. Like Ebert said, its not easy picking a rookie film actor to play a part in a high-profile release, and on top of it be on camera 90% of the time. One of the best analysis' I heard of TG was that if it was made by anyone else, it'd just be getting positive reviews, not Oscar talk. You'd be speaking about the beautiful cinematography and thats about it. I found this to be pretty much spot-on. Liked it, but wasn't gaga crazy over it.

Shutter Island

Really crappy movie. Scorsese doing bad M. Night Shyamalan knock-offs.

You've successfully argued it on to my Netflix cue, aka purgatory.

Actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Story about a transgendered woman, who in high school, was the captain of the football team, heartthrob, etc, only to have feelings that he was meant to be a woman. What starts out as a standard "I've been gone for awhile and I want to see how people react" doc, turns into a story of a brother who is struggling with his mental illness, brought on by a brain injury. Oh, and Orson Welles is involved.

I loved the movie Singles growing up...I re-watched it tonight and its actually pretty awful and dated.

"I CAN STORE 20 NUMBERS IN MY WATCH!!!!!"

Why its worthwhile--not many films encapsulate that time like Singles. Yeah, its dated by today's standards, but the difference between it and watching Zach Morris talk on a brick is that it was satirizing the time, even then. That specific scene, the scene in the cab, dating video, etc always seemed like Crowe was making fun of the whole idea of how people made connections in the 90s. Just my take.