Big Screen: Atonement

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

As faithful to the book as possible, given that it’s a film (is that not self explanatory?). Great performances. Nostalgically lovely to look at (1940s. Ah.). As (momentarily) romantic and sexy as can be…and then as heartbreaking and painful and… And it’s really that good. Cee thinks so too. As she points out, the “incidental” music…is just great. The staccato typing? Wow. The back/forth juxtaposition to resolve disparate points of view? Done so well.

And by the way, the book? ALSO THAT GOOD.

Keira Knightly. James McAvoy. Joe Wright (director). Well done.

Big Screen: Sweeney Todd

Exhilarating. Johnny Depp shines once again. I loved it. A very enjoyable night at the movie theater.

If anyone ever films Dickens (again), they need to hire the guys that did the CGI London for this movie!!

Big Screen: Charlie Wilson’s War

The previews for this movie didn’t thrill me and I’m happy to report I was proven wrong. Well acted, well directed, and quite thoughtful. Nice to see Tom Hanks having fun again. Although if I were Emily Blunt I’m not sure I would have taken that part: a real waste of her acting skills.

And holy crap does Philip Seymour Hoffman just blow this thing right out of the water: he’s top notch here!

DVD: Flags of Our Fathers

Some of the “storming the beach” filming was really amazing, although I think it would’ve been better on the big screen.

But the story was a bit scattered. And having that many well known actors popping up in bit parts can be kinda distracting, even though they were good performances.

Big Screen: Juno

I loved it. Yes, as funny as the previews made it look, but really so much more than that. Heartbreaking and bittersweet and some really lovely, deeply sincere moments.

I tried to keep my expectations low considering several much-hyped indie flicks this year that I did not feel were all they were cracked up to be (Waitress and Knocked Up, I’m talking to you). This surpassed even my more optimistic hopes.

I’m impressed. Strong performances, lovely soundtrack. Thumbs way up.

Big Screen: I Am Legend

Lots of really scary stuff – two of the three of us were hiding behind our coats most of the movie. Will Smith is hot (and BUILT in this film. K asked: “Why doesn’t he look that way ALL THE TIME?”) and I really liked a lot of it.

Up until about the last 10 minutes where suddenly everything happened all in a rush, they threw in some baloney Utopia and extra characters and I really thought that was a bunch of crap.

And if you cannot handle seeing certain animals getting hurt = DON’T GO TO IT. That means you, Mom.

Big Screen: Margot at the Wedding.

HATED it. Yes. Hated. Thought it was one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year. Badly, badly written. Hard to judge whether the directing and acting were good or not / when the basis of the movie is that bad, the other things don’t even seem to matter.

The “funny” parts were awkward and misplaced; the scenes with the neighbors seemed to belong to some other movie, perhaps a Stephen King-type horror flick; there wasn’t really a single character (except perhaps the teenage boy) who had normal human reactions to anything that happened. And frankly, I could not even find one person I cared about, was interested in, or didn’t think was a moron. There were many times in this movie, during arguments between various characters, where one person would be yelling at the other “But you’re so smart! You’re so intelligent!” I didn’t see a single iota of evidence of that.

Tracy yelled out “Give me a break!” at one point; and we could hear people muttering “wow, so bad, so bad” as we left the theater. Since Tracy and I have rarely agreed on movies in the past month, I was surprised to find we both hated it equally. Michelle, on the other hand, seemed to like it. It cracked me up to read her comment: I find myself still thinking about this movie days after I saw it, and that’s something; because until the moment I read that, I had completely wiped this movie out of my mind. (And then I read her post and thought “OH FUCKING HELL I’ll actually have to think about it long enough to write it up. Yuck!”)

Hated it.

Big Screen: I’m Not There

A very original/unusual take on the biopic. The many past and possible lives of Bob Dylan, were he a few (five? can’t remember exactly) different people. Some of it was very entertaining and well done, other bits I could have done without. Similar to, say, Being John Malkovich, you’re either going to be able to go with it or you’re not.

Thought Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale were all excellent. Blanchett and Bales’s sections were some of the most factually-based bits; there were moments in Blanchett’s that were straight out of filmed Dylan interviews I’ve even seen. (Michelle Williams’ bit part was really, really nicely done and Charlotte Gainsbourg was excellent as well.) But they could have left out the entire Richard Gere segment and I would have been fine with that (except for missing a great cover) – that imagined life just did nothing for me. More of a fairytale aspect going on there. And I didn’t find the segment with the little boy that engaging either.

Enjoyed the music, enjoyed a lot of it. Didn’t love it. But certainly worth seeing. Not going to see many things like it.