Movie Reviews
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January 29th, 2010
2010 Movies
| Movie | Rating | Review |
|---|---|---|
| A Single Man | good | This was a difficult movie to watch, because it’s really very sad. Colin Firth should at least be nominated for Best Actor for playing a closeted college professor in the early 60’s. His long term partner has died in a car accident, and hasn’t been able to recover. I haven’t figured out what I’ve taken from the movie, other than I’m glad I don’t live in the early 60’s. |
| 2010 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films | very good | I look forward to these every year. My favorite for this year was a terrified young girl being force told a “revised” bedtime story by an angry, bitter grandmother. |
| How to Train Your Dragon | good | There’s nothing ground-breaking here with the story or special effects, but I enjoyed seeing wimpy Hiccup (that’s his name) ultimately teach the burly Viking townsmen that there’s something more to the dragons they’ve been battling for so long. You’ll have to decide whether the dragons are modeled more after cats or dogs. My friends and I are still debating that one. |
| Kick-Ass | very good | I love that moment when you’re watching a movie when all of a sudden you realize that you really really love what you’re seeing. I liked that I never really knew where this movie was going to take me – it kept on giving me one surprise after another. Yeah, there are some trace of Kill Bill, but Nicolas Cage was spot on as a quirky revenge-obsessed super hero wanna be. This movie made me think of what kind of super hero I could be. I already know my super hero name – “kaniption”. But what would my costume be? I have a Tina Turner wig in the closet. I could work that in somehow. |
| L.A. Pride Parade Short Film Program | very good | I try to catch these wonderful short film collections each year. This year the L.A. Film Festival is located at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. I saw a collection of short films including a young closeted high school student who fulfills a romantic fantasy inside his family’s dry cleaning store, and a touching documentary about a Cambodian boy suffering from arsenic poisoning who has found a way to teach his country about his condition. They were all wonderful films. I’ll remember them the rest of the year. |
| The Kids are All Right | good | It’s a joy to watch Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play a lesbian couple raising two teenage children. The movie did a very good job at navigating through the emotions of the children and parents as they unite with the sperm donor, played wonderfully by Mark Ruffallo. I enjoyed watching this movie roll out the layers of emotions, but the story never rose to the point where it touched me on a deep and personal level. But hopefully the success of this movie will encourage more projects that will also encourage story and character over explosions and giant mechanical monsters. |
| Centurion | good | This is a solid chase film which deserves to go into wider release. A small band of Roman soldiers are relentlessly stalked through the desolote and frigidly cold medieval Britain by their pict pursuers. The movie doesn’t break any new ground, but delivers tight story-telling and well acting (bloody) drama as the Romans are picked off one by one as they race to reach the safety of their northern garrison. It’s one of those rare action films that relies more on story and character than upon special effects, although the battle scenes are replete with gore and all-too realistic violence. |
Movie Favorites
| Year | Movie |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Moon |
| 2008 | Let the Right One In |
| 2007 | The Lives of Others |
| 2006 | Children of Men |
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain |
