Movies Watched In 2009

I did watch more movies than this, but here's a list of what I saw for the first time.

1. Appaloosa- 3 Stars
Review- Basically, it's the same western film that's been produced over the last 40-50 years. The most believeable aspects of the movie were that Jeremy Irons makes a good bad guy and Viggo Mortensen is a great good guy. But the whole premise that two "peacekeepers" come into a town just as a marshal and his deputies were murdered, as well as one of the city officials and his wife, and clean things up under their own version of law and order is a bit cliche. The shoot outs were marginal, with a few exceptions. The first time Ed Harris and Viggo confront some of Jeremy Iron's men in the bar, that scene was nice. But as soon as Rene Zelwegger shows up, the storyline is doomed. Her character was predictable and there's no way a man who's seen as much drama and life as Ed Harris' was supposed to have experienced, wouldn't see the nightmare of a woman Zelwegger was from a mile away is simply unbelieveable. Take her out of the story and figure out a different way for the two heroes to have a shootout with two other great gunslingers later in the film, and they would have had a better story, and subsequently more stars in this rating.









2. Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist-3.5 Stars
Review- It would have been 4 stars had there not been 2 scenes that were unneccessary and disgusting. When Nora's friend (her name escapes me and has no real meaning in the overall storyarc) gets wasted, pukes her guts out in a nasty bathroom and loses her gum in the toilet, only to fish it out and chew it again, that was beyond sick. And the fact that Nick never would have had a chance with the slutty chick who dumped him at the beginning and that he's hung up on the whole film, it just didn't make much sense. The music in the film is great, and the nice guy wins in the end are good plotpoints. But somehow the parents of these kids either don't know or don't care that their kids are roaming all over NYC all night long. Seriously, is that not a story point?








3. Taken-5 Stars
Review- Lesson #1-Don't ever screw with Liam Neeson. Lesson #2-If you break Lesson #1, expect very bad things to happen to you. If you get anything else from a "life lessons" element from this movie, you're an extremely enlightened person. Other than maybe, don't ever let your children travel to Paris. That doesn't take a genius to figure out. That's what I got out of this movie. I also got 2 hours of the coolest fight scenes, great story, and hero wins plot. I didn't give away anything with that last line. If you thought you were going to watch Liam Neeson track down the people who kidnapped his daughter and not actually enact his revenge, you're disconnected from reality. Yes, Neeson wins. And you cheer him on the whole way. He's cut-throat in his methods and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish his objective. The only thing I didn't like in this film was how stupid his daughter was, and how seemingly unchanged she was at the end, along with his ex-wife played by Femke Jansen. But they played their roles well for what they were given. I'd encourage our political leaders to view this movie as the real way to confront and deal with nations who disregard our value of human life, and to treat them in the same manner. Maybe that would improve our reputation in the international community. Maybe if Iran, North Korea or the Taiban thought, "Under no circumstance should we ever screw with the USA," they wouldn't be such problems for us.







4. Quantum of Solace-5 Stars
Review-Was there ever a Bond as bad-ass as Daniel Craig? The answer is no. It doesn't matter if you're a fan of Connery, Moore, Dalton, or Brosnan, no one encapsulated the bad-ass qualities of England's 007 like Daniel Craig. I personally thought Brosnan was the worst. He only captured the womanizer aspect of Bond, and only marginally. I watched a few of the classic Roger Moore and Sean Connery ones a few months ago, and the fight scenes move so slow, maybe that's just the way dudes fought back then, but the bad guys would have lasted all of 10 minutes combined against Daniel Craig. That point is made, on with the review. The film gets going with a bang, actually one of the coolest chase scenes ever, where Bond's Aston Martin actually gets banged up pretty bad. I'd love to see how they shot that scene. Of course there's some cool chase scenes on foot and the action is nonstop. It's a cool revenge story and you see that there's more method to Bond's madness than just beating the living crap out of the people he's looking for, or ever killing them, although he does a lot of both. All in all, not quite as good as Casino Royale, but pretty darn close.







5. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian-3 Stars
Review- Decent sequel, but too different from the book to be remarkable. The guy who played Prince Caspian got annoying after a while. The CGI characters were decent but overdone. Maybe that's all you can do when you're trying to have badgers, centaurs and other mythical creatures as feature characters, but I remember Jim Hennson and Frank Oz doing better with puppets. Hopefully the next in the series will stick to the book series, that's where the best results will come from.







6. Bee Movie-4 Stars
Review- A cute, funny, and intriguing story that mixes great with Seinfeld's humor. Loved the story, and even the ridiculousness of a bee and a woman having a pseudo-romantic relationship and even the really hokey part about a bee suing humans over honey rights. In a kids movie, anything goes and it sure did here, but it was all well done with a lot of class. Great family viewing or a good Friday date flick.










7. Bottle Shock- 2.5 Stars
Review- I picked this up at the library because it had Alan Rickman in it. It also has the guy that payed Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek film (don't know his name). The storyline was decent enough about a few wineries in California competing with the respected French wineries in a contest in the 1970s. Too bad the lead girl is a tramp and doesn't seem as all-American as they try to make her out to be. You know the end way before it happens, and you suspect the pothead kid with no future and no ambition will change his perspective by the end of the movie. Of course he does. Everyone wins, but it's not dramatic and doesn't invite you in to celebrate with the characters. Instead, the credits roll and you say, well that's 2 hours I can't get back. Guess it's time for bed, or something else.






8. My Super Ex-Girlfriend- 2.5 Stars
Review- I wanted to see this in theaters because I'm a comic book nerd and it looked cute. Good thing I waited until I could borrow it from a friend. The storyline seemed interesting enough- a guy struggles to keep his sanity while dealing with an ex girlfriend who happens to be a super hero. The stuff they pulled from the Superman storyline and history are borderline criminal, along with how Uma Thurman's character (Jenny) gets her powers, her arch-nemsis, her powers and so forth. It's cookie-cutter from Superman and Smallville. What really sucked about the story was the assumption that Luke Wilson was the first guy to date G-Girl, or that he was the only one who didn't end his relationship with her, or that he was the only one who had dated her and ended the relationship that she hadn't gone Fatal Attraction on and either lived to tell the tale or not told the press about it. Jenny is crazy, and I don't know how anyone would consider a second date with this chick. But maybe that's supposed to be the point. And the more Anna Ferris' character tries to be attracted to Owens, the worse it gets. It was funny to watch Ferris and Thurman fight, but the end was way too cheesy and stupid. But I guess that's what you get when you have unoriginal material.






9. The Bucket List-4.5 out of 5 Stars
Review-This was a shocker, not in story but in what I expected to watch versus what I actually saw. From Jack Nicholson, I didn't expect to be near tears at the end, nor did I anticipate that I would enjoy his character. Both of those things happened and this movie was well worth the time and emotional energy. Morgan Freeman never disappoints, and the whole story of 2 cancer fighters from both ends of the socio-economic spectrum coming together to discover what's really important in this life is a must see for everyone.









10. 17 Again- 4.5 Stars
Didn't know what to expect, but this was a great film. Zac Efron is a great actor and the storyline and plot were superb. Didn't fall to the old cliches of movies of this sort and has a happy ending. Good fun.
















11. Madea Goes To Jail- 4 Stars
This was funny, but could have been much more. Didn't like the end, mostly because there's no way things turn out that way and everyone is happy. Wanted to see Madea beat more people. But dropping the lady's car from the construction equipment was classic fun.













12. Gran Torino-4 Stars
This was a great movie with a poignant ending and great storytelling. It wasn't hard to believe that an 80 year old Eastwood could still hold his own against some street gang kids. It was great seeing how his character transformed into a likeable guy and learned how to break his own prejedices, and accept his neighbors as family. Great movie about love and sacrifice, but probably so brutal it would be hard to watch again.










13. Over Her Dead Body-3 Stars
This was a pretty hokey movie about a fiance that's killed on her wedding day and returns from the dead with a mission, only she doesn't know what that is because she wouldn't shut her mouth while the "angel" was trying to give her instructions. So she assumes that her mission is to protect her former fiance from falling in love again. So as he starts dating a psychic, the dead fiance starts playing mindgames with the new girlfriend. Predictable ending and storyline. The only redeeming thing in this whole movie were the sparse comedic moments throughout. Worth watching if you have 2 hours to kill and nothing else to do.







14. Maid of Honor- 2 Stars
This only made 2 stars because of the funny moments where Patrick Dempsey looks like a jack-ass. There's way too many so-called romantic comedies out there where a best friend is invited to be a part of the wedding only to realize their true love is the best friend getting married. Thus, they begin this plot to change the mind of the to-be married and ruin the wedding. The storyline always follows the clueless one who's just discovered that this person is "meant" for them at the expense of the hearts and lives of the other party, who is forgotten about as quickly as the wedding is ruined. Piece of crap. This only worked for Patrick Dempsey in Enchanted, but that ended well for all the characters in the film, not just the main ones.







15. Junebug-1.5 Stars
What the hell was this movie about? The characters are all struggling to figure out who they are and what they want. Amy Adams was the best thing in this film, and I felt sorry for her that she was put with such a lacking story. Each character is longing for connection with someone, and they all settle for crumbs instead of the full meal. And the art that the main character is so crazy about is digusting and disturbing. Waste of movie and waste of time.











16. Twilight-3.5 Stars
A decent flick. I guess I see why the kids are all hyped on it. But the main vampire Edward acted way too much like a juvenile to be a guy that's hundreds of years old. Maybe it's because he's trying to woo a teenage girl. I don't know. There's a lot of poor acting in the film, but the main characters do a good job. Strangely, I actually want to see the sequel to see if it lives up to the hype.