My last discs

Tomorrow Netflix prices go up. I had planned on canceling my discs today, but that isn't going to happen. My goal was to finish Breaking Bad season 3 by the end of August, but I didn't even make it all the way through season 2. Things have just been too busy and it is taking us way too long to turn the discs.

September is going to be an extremely busy month and at this rate we aren't going to get through season 3 until mid October. Still, I am going to pay for the discs until we finish that off, then I am done.

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#137: I Love You Phillip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris is a couple years old but I sure of heck had never heard of it before a few months ago when a couple critics I respect were singing its praises. It is a pretty small film but it stars Jim Carey and Ewan McGregor as gay lovers.  Sound like a laugh a minute right?

 I'm not totally sure that it is a comedy, or a love story, or a prison escape film, or a true story for that matter.  I went in blind having no clue what to expect and I left a little confused as to what I'd just watched.

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No more numbers

Back in the day I was waffling about giving a number rating to every movie I watch. I untimely decided to go ahead and assign a score out of 10. The main reason being that grading or scoring films is so prevalent I felt I needed to do the same. The problem is I hate doing it. I can love certain things about a film and hate others. It makes it impossible to boil contrasting feelings down to a single number. I've think I've decided I want to kill the number thing. I don't like that idea that it allows you to directly compare how I've felt about two completely different films that would otherwise be incomparable.

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#136: Horrible Bosses

A couple weeks ago for my birthday we decided to visit the cinema to see Horrible Bosses. When I saw the trailer for this movie a few months ago I had high hopes. It looked like it could be the best summer comedy of 2011. I enjoyed Bridesmaids a lot, but I didn't find it all that funny. Hangover 2 seemed like it was a flop. I never saw it, but when it comes out on dvd I will form my own opinion. I was holding out hope for   to come out on top.

The plot is pretty ridiculous. Three friends are all having trouble at work and they decide each of their lives would be much better if their bosses were dead. After a little bit of shopping the assassin market they decide to get the job done themselves. Each one would take another's boss so as to not be traced back to the murder. With sheer stupidity and veiled racism they go about blundering through the whole deal obviously making a mess of everything.

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#135: Rango (8/10)

Every now and then a movie comes along and totally surprises you with its awesomeness. Rango was one of those movies for me. I expected a run of the mill Pixar wannabe animated film. It turned out to be so much more than that. I liked Rango better than most of the Pixar fare from the last few years. It is filled with amazing visuals, interesting looking characters, and plenty of solid action. It was very pleasant surprise that I can't wait to watch again.

I admittedly haven't thought about it too much, but I can't recall another film where the characters, especially the main one, is so ugly. They are ugly in the most beautiful and interesting way possible. Each animal is this film is given so much detail and texture. It seems like a lot of care was given when coming up with the designs for each and every character in this film. They came up with some very detailed and very ugly looking creatures and I loved looking at them. Even the minor characters who didn't get much screen time were designed very well.

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#134: The Fighter (6/10)

It seem like I always have a backlog of movies to write about and no time to do it.  It has been over 2 weeks since I saw The Fighter, and it is actually tough for me to remember my initial reaction. I definitely liked it a lot more than I thought I would, but I had really low expectations.

When I first saw the preview for it last year it didn't seem like the type of  movie that would appeal to me.  Its run at the Oscars only made me want to see it less.  Despite the positive reviews I hadn't really planned on going out of my way to see it.  Then I noticed it was streaming on Netflix instant, so I gave it a shot.

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#133: Black Swan (7/10)

I finally got around to seeing Black Swan. It seems like an entire year has passed since this was initially getting hyped. Amazingly I went in completely unspoiled. I knew nothing about the film other than the actors' names and the subject matter. Overall I was really impressed with it. It lived up to most of the praise I'd heard over the past several months.

Even though I really liked the complete film it was uneven for me. I loved 80% of it, and hated the other 20%. I suppose that is the way I am with most films that I really like, but this one felt exaggerated in its unevenness.

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Awesome movie weekend

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.

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#132: Devil (5/10)

The Sixth Sense blew my mind. Unbreakable wowed me. Signs disappointed, and The Village down right pissed me off.  I skipped Lady in the Water. I laughed at the scathing reviews of The Happening and frowned when everybody hated The Last Airbender so much.  I had no intention of watching Devil, even though it got middling reviews when it came out last year.  By some miracle we got free HBO and Cinemax for a weekend and Devil was on, so I DVRed it.

I suppose my expectations for Devil were so low that it could only exceed them, so it is a little unfair to say something like "it was better than I thought it would be". However, it was. I have to admit that I very much enjoyed the entire process of watching this movie. It is short and sweet. I'm not saying there isn't any room for improvement; because there is a lot of that, but I'm definitely glad I watched it.

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The dark of the Internet

I have been on the fence about watching Transformers 3. I didn't particularly like the first film. It was okay, but just kind of meh. The second one had a few cool moments, but overall was horrible. The last half hour seemed to drag on for an eternity. I have never been so excited to get out of the theater. Now the 3rd one comes along, and to make matters worse it is in 3D. I am not a fan of 3D.

I've been free all weekend. I had every opportunity to go see it, but I haven't done it. I guess I am scared that I will have a similar experience to the previous movie. Early in the week lots of people were able to go see press screenings. The early reaction was one of surprising approval. Most probably had extremely low expectations, and this film was able to exceed those. Then the second wave was the backlash from the somewhat positive comments that were being shared. It seemed as though some people on the internet have a deep seeded hatred for Michael Bay and the Transformers franchise. I've read several things lately (not all related to TF3) that reminds me some people think the internet gives them the right to be an asshole. I hope I never come across like that. I do write a blog in order to share my opinion about film, so it is already clear that I am full of shit.

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