I really haven't been watching many movies this year. I've had a new baby, a new job, and little interest in the movies that have come out over the last few months. There were some leftovers from last year that I still hadn't gotten around to. I decided to change that. I started the weekend off with Black Swan on Friday night. I watched Trouble the Water and The Fighter on Saturday. Then on Sunday I saw Rango. I wasn't too impressed with Trouble the Water, but the rest were great.
For some reason I always get a little put off by the movies that get tons of attention during awards time. I still haven't seen The King's Speech, but plan to at some point. Black Swan wasn't a film that excited me all that much, but still I felt like I had to see it. This was the same with The Fighter. I was impressed by both, but for totally different reasons.
The biggest surprise of the weekend was Rango. I had no idea what to expect out of that one, and I was pretty much blown away. I really wish I would have gone to the theater to see it. The visuals were beautiful and the narrative was interesting even though the plot wasn't all that inventive. I'm not sure you could even classify Rango as a kids' movie. It was a pleasant surprise.
It was a great weekend of movies, and there are a lot of others I want to check out. I'm really looking forward to seeing Cedar Rapids, Source Code, and The Company Men. However, for the next several weeks I am going to be catching up on television shows. Last summer I watched the first season of Breaking Bad and loved it, but I never got around to season 2 or 3. I added all the discs to my Netflix queue and they will probably be the last things I get in the mail from them. Once I am up to date I will cancel my discs in the mail and just go with streaming. Season 4 of Breaking Bad just started on AMC last week and I am dvr'ing them all. I would like to be caught up before the end of season 4 but that might not be possible.
Another big AMC show is finally coming to Netflix instant and I am pretty excited about it. Mad Men should be available to stream tomorrow. I've never watched it before, but I have a feeling I am going to like it. I'm not even sure how many seasons there have been, but I know I will have to put in a lot of hours to catch up. I'm sure my time will be better spent watching Mad Men than the new 2.5 Men with Ashton. I am going to try to avoid getting roped into any stupid sitcoms this year so I can focus on shows of higher quality.