Movies for 2011

[valarltd]

1) Into the woods. Stage production. Famous fairy tale characters come together in Sondheim's musical. Bernadette Peters stars. Really entertaining, music very complex. Little Red Riding hood steals the show.(p)

2) Fiddler on the Roof. Traditions are changing everywhere as Tevye the Dairyman deals with five daughters and Russian Pogroms. (p)

3) The Many Faces of Christopher Lee. The veteran actor talks about his career, and shows off trophies of it, including Dracula's ring and the last extant piece of the Wicker Man. (N/A)

4) The Legend of Billie Jean. When the rich kids trash her brother's scooter, Billie Jean wages a one-girl crusade for justice. Helen and Christian Slater, Yeardley Smith looking all of 10. And one of the best Pat Benatar songs ever.(p)

5) Dreams in the Witch House. One of the Masters of Horror series, this gorey, sexualized Lovecraqft adaptation actually works quite well. A student rents the cheapest room he can find, only to be haunted by the long-dead Keziah and her familiar, Brown Jenkin. (f, 2)

6) The A Team. I was a fan of the TV series. This was a worthy successor. Liam Neeson was perfect for Hannibal and the rest of the cast did a bangup job. Some nice meta with Reginald Barkley starring in The Greater Escape. Big dumb action movie, and it was perfect. (f, 1)

7) Halloween. This was the original and I had never seen it. Minimal gore, lots and lots of suspense. Jamie Lee Curtis turns in an excellent screen debut. (p)

8) Dorian Gray. Ben Barnes is beautiful and evil in this remake. The story is classic, with some updating. We see ALL of Dorian's debauchery, including some same-sex interludes. Quite yummy and lush. (f,2)

9) Clash of the Titans. Big CGI retelling/mangling of the Perseus myth. Grimmer than the 80s version, much more Nietzschian. Really like the Medusa in this one. (p)

10) Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. I like the book this is based on and the movie takes some of the same ideas, but doesn't stay true. Cute love story added in, plus the typical winning Dad's approval theme. (f, 2)

11) Batman Begins. Christian Bale in typical origin story action movie with Morgan Freeman doing a Q style part.(f,1)

12) Machete. I wanted to see this from the moment I saw the fake trailer in front of Planet Terror. And it was just as awesome as expected. A renegade federale seeks revenge on those who killed his family. Violent, gory, nudity, and an on-camera crucifixion. But terrific. Lots of big names and strong women. Michelle Rodriguez is fabulous and Danny Trejo, although an ugly man, is ungodly hot. Bonus for Lindsay Lohan in a nun's habot with a big gun. Most memorable scene? the lowrider cars bouncing outside the gate like a pack of wild animals. (p)

13) The Jacket. A damaged Iraq War I vet is sentenced to an asylum where he is experimented on, and accidentally sees the future. AKA Kris Kristofferson plays with Adrien Brody's mind. Good film, some medical squickage. (p)

14) Cats Don't Dance. Animated tale of a cat who wants to be a movie star but finds one Dora Dimple firmly in his way. (f, 2)

15) Karate Kid. Will Smith's son takes lessons from Jackie Chan to defeat the bullies. (f,2)

16) Zombie Strippers. Ridiculous grindhouse piece about a bar making money on undead strippers, and stashing their undead customers in a cage downstairs. Yeah. Because that could not POSSIBLY go wrong... Gross, exploitative, and great fun (p)

17) Gangs of New York. Revenge tale of gang warfare over New York's Five Points during the draft riots of 1863. Leonardo DiCaprio is great, Daniel Day Lewis is brilliant. (f, 2)

18) White Oleander. Psychologically nasty piece about a mother and daughter as the daughter endures foster homes while mother is imprisoned. Michelle Pfeiffer does sociopath extremely well. I watched this thinking "Now I understand Signi and Gerda better. It will help in the next Nick book." (p)

19) The Spy Next Door. Jackie Chan's neighbor leaves him in charge of her three kids. Wackiness ensues. Entertaining, funny and entirely predictable. (p)

20) UHF. George Newman (Weird Al Yankovic) runs a TV station for his uncle against the corrupt network affiliate. Goofy, classic underdog story. (f,3)

21) Freakonomics. Documentary based on the books. Covers ethnic names, cheating teachers/sumo wrestlers, whether kids can be bribed into better performance (Confirmed Mudd's hypothesis on this: the bubble-kids, those almost passing, will work their tails off. The ones with no hope of passing won't bother) and why crime dropped in the 90s. (my statement: baby boomers aged out of it, and we baby busters couldn't continue their levels)

22) Despicable Me. Cute tale of a supervillain who adopts three little girls. (p)

23) 3:10 to Yuma. They so didn't even make me work for it with this one. Onelegged rancher takes an outlaw to the prison train. (f, 2)

24) Bambi. Oli was griping that she hadn't seen most of the Disney classics, so we'll be watching them. This is gorgeously animated, if a bit thin on plot. (f,2)


25) The Crazies. Cheap horror about a town where something in the water makes people homicidal. (p)

26) Jesus Christ Superstar. The 2000 version, all technofascist homoeroticism.

27) Charge of the Light Brigade. Quasi historical movie about the charge at Balaklava.This movie is the reason you see the disclaimer "No animals were harmed in the making of this film." (f, 2)


28) Tombstone

29) Repo: The Genetic Opera

30) Dagon

31) Hairspray

32) 30 Days of Night

reviews when I feel like it.

Comments

[bittermint.livejournal.com]

Was Hairspray the original John Waters classic, or the new musical? I loved the original. The musical version... eh.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It was the musical. I'd seen the original.