new to me:

The Adjustment Bureau: Too bad they didn’t do a better job with the setup/gimmicky backstory because Blunt and Damon actually have great chemistry. I loved all their scenes together which made it not as bad a movie as I’d heard. Also so much great NYC scenery.

rewatches:

Ghostbusters 1 and 2: Yes these are SO dated in so many ways but man they totally hold up humor-wise. Really entertaining even if they did bring Rick Moranis back to mind, after having gleefully completely forgotten of his existence.

Music and Lyrics: I am never ever ever going to be sick of watching this movie. It’s charming and delightful and Hugh & Drew are both adorable in it.

pre-sickness rewatch:

The Town: introducing Lauren to my favorite recent movie. Oh I still love every minute of it.

Loved every minute of it!

I wish some of the really smart and thoughtful movies/directors had the same budgets to work with as the Bond people because between fight scenes and explosions and the occasional makeout, there is some gorgeous cinematography.* But instead it’s used on a Bond film which no matter how much I enjoyed it is still just a Bond film.

I liked how they both explored deep back story here as well as laying the grounds for future story. I liked how Bond started out defeated and broken. And, you know, he did take his shirt off a few times.

Javier Bardem has always played creepy just fine. He is even creepier here with the crazy blonde hair. GAAAAHHHHHHH.

*If this movie doesn’t make you want to move to the Scottish moors and live alone surrounded by fog and rock, then you are a cold soul.

So bad. Way worse even than I expected especially considering how much buzz I’d heard about McConaughey’s performance in this. Seriously? The people spreading that lie are out to lunch, man.

And hardly any male stripping going on for a movie about male strippers so you don’t even get nearly as much eye candy as would have made it worthwhile. At least we saw it at the Brew ‘n’ View so I could drink beer while being disappointed.

This was acceptable. Some issues but Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz had some pretty nice chemistry and there were some great action-evolving-into-other-things scenes between the two of them. I liked the way they both tied it to the other Bourne movies and yet tried to give it some substance of its own.

(I have my issues with those movies as well. I mean the books are fantastic 100%, the first movie made a lot of stupid dumb choices. The second and third movies were better, thanks to Paul Greengrass, but still off track given they had to follow the choices the first set up. Still I do usually like this type of movie and I expect I will continue to. So there.)

Really enjoyed this. Thought the previews, and the title, were a bit misleading however. It’s really not the story of a couple as much as it is the story of Celeste dealing with the ending of her relationship and finding a new road.

The music was lovely, the acting was nice, and sure it was sweet and somewhat predictable but it’s not the Hollywood ending and it’s not a slam you down ending either. Nice.

I felt degraded and abused enough–and perhaps unable to ever eat chicken again–after this movie that I just cannot recommend it.

Sure, Matthew McConaughey does his role very well. So what? Sometimes that’s not enough to make a movie worth sitting through. (See “There Will Be Blood.” Career performance from DDL does not make that a movie I ever, ever, ever want to see again.)

Also: Every Single Person in this movie is a shallow jerk. You have no one to root for! NO ONE! Even the presumed naive victim just seems dumb, not wounded or someone you should care about.

Icky.

I really liked this in the end but it feels pretty formulaic for about the first 20-30 minutes. It seems like they’re giving too much away and you think “how are they going to drag this out for 2 hours” but then a new element gets added in. So I thought it got a lot more complex as it went along and in the end there were characters I really cared about the outcome for. Emily Blunt is amazing.

Did feel like Piper should have turned that role down or perhaps pointed out that the nudity was completely gratuitous (her character was clearly destitute without that).

Plus JGL and the director were there for a post-movie Q&A (I saw it at a screening a month or so before it came out) and JGL was wearing bright green socks and being super cute. So perhaps that colored my reaction. PERHAPS.

So ridiculous and actually pretty bad, I was very disappointed. Woody and what’s her name seemed like they had just met an hour before, not been married for years and that was just one of the things in this movie that was off kilter. Super stiff dialogue.

I recommend you watch Midnight in Paris instead.