Here's an idea I had for a post around the beginning of the year, and being the day before Oscar, thought it'd be a good time to finally do it!!! I don't see a whole lot of movies in theaters, so I thought I'd do a recap of what I'd seen in the past year. I think I've got them all here.
I put the images in in random order, and The Box came at the top. It actually happened that I was thinking about this movie the other day, and couldn't remember what it was (or even what the MacGuffin was), then happened to look at the top DVD rentals for the last week and there it was!!! One of the top five I saw all year (actually, one of the top three, I really liked all top three about equal), very clever. I also liked that it was set in 1976. I suppose it could work fairly well in just about any modern day, but '76 it was. The premise is that a box is delivered to a couple. If they open it and press the button, they get a million dollars, but somewhere a complete stranger dies. The fact that I completely forgot about that plot device underscores the layers to this film.
Jennifer's Body wouldn't have been my first choice, but my wife and I were going for our anniversary evening, and this was her choice. She enjoys a good horror movie. I don't know that this was a good one, and it comes out at the bottom of my list. I think a lot of the trouble with it is it couldn't make up its mind which way it was going to go. It has a bit of scary, a bit of funny, and it seemed like it was trying a bit too hard to be hip. Too soon after the Great White Station fire??? I think so. I liked the visual effect of Devil's Kettle. I also liked the apropos naming of the co lead actress' character, Needy. Some hot girl on girl action is always nice, and this had a bit but could have used a bit more. From the title, it could have used more of Jennifer's body. It made a great explanation of the success of boy bands, and I did like the ending.
The older boy and I went to Inglorious Basterds. Quentin Taranteno never fails to deliver, and this is no exception. From the trailers, I was expecting a lot more Nazi killin'. That's not to say that there weren't many killed and good action, but I was surprised by how many and how much time of the move was spent in non action sequences. Not to say I was falling asleep during these portions, quite the contrary!!! These scenes were so tension filled that I was figuratively on the edge of my seat for almost the whole movie!!! Well done!!!
Appropriately, the final movie on here was the must see of the year, Avatar. The day after Christmas I took the family to see this at Universal Citywalk's IMAX theater in 3D. We took the train out there, as usual for visiting the Universal area. Just outside the train station was a hot dog vendor with giant dogs at reasonable prices, and we dined sumptuously before heading up the hill. We made it to the theater a very short time before the showing, and thus there was limited seating, and we ended up fairly close to the front.
As has already been widely reported, the effects were amazing, total eye candy. The story line is nothing you haven't seen before, but it was played out quite well, and overall made for a great movie going experience. The 3D gimmickry was pretty good, I'm not sure if the total package of that and IMAX justified the price tag for the whole day, but oh well. I liked the way the subtitles were rendered in 3D. One of my favorite moments came a few weeks after, when I read in the paper that Republicans don't like the movie because it stands for everything they're opposed to.
I don't follow awards shows, but I would be surprised if Avatar takes the top prize, the story just wasn't that original. Inglorious Basterds maybe, but I haven't seen much of the nominees. I did see Up on DVD, and it's another I'd be surprised if it took a top award, also. From what I've heard of a few of the other contenders, probably none of what I've seen.
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