Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!

Still in the process of finalizing my resolutions for this year. In the meantime I will tell you what I thought of the movies I saw in the last couple days.

The King's Speech - I love period films and historical dramas. This completely lived up to my expectations. Colin Firth gave an excellent portrayal of King George VI - will be disappointed if he is not nominated for an Oscar. I gained some interesting insight on the royal family from watching this. I recommend this movie highly if you like historical dramas.

Black Swan - Wow! I was expecting something intense and different and I wasn't disappointed. Natalie Portman was very convincing as the high strung perfectionist ballerina with a few serious psychiatric issues. Very interesting - I have to say that I liked it - I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but if you are tired of the same old movie routine - this is very different. I do want to say that the only thing that really bothered me was Barbara Hershey's plastic surgery. I am so tired of seeing talented actresses who have ruined their natural beauty because they are afraid of their wrinkles. Makes me sad.

The Fighter - Based on a true story - love these movies. All the actors were authentic - very good! Not a fan of boxing, so the scenes where the guys are getting punched in the face and spraying the canvas with blood and sweat are hard for me to watch. But the relationships were complicated and real. I think there will be 2 supporting actor award nominations for this movie - Christian Bale for playing Dick Eklund the crackhead brother and for Melissa Leo for playing the mother. Good stuff. Definitely go see this movie.

How Do You Know - So, how do you know when a movie with actors you like by a director you usually like is going to be crappy? Unfortunately, you have to sit through it. I didn't seek out reviews on this one before we went. I soooo wanted to like this movie. Love Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd and thought they might be the next Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan - boy, was I disappointed. There are a few funny lines and the characters are mostly likeable, but it didn't really go anywhere. The only reason I'm not more upset about the quality of this movie is that we only paid matinee price. My advice - don't bother even when it comes out on DVD.

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