Robin Hood

Robin Hood takes its place in a long line of movies where I'm not really sure what the point of making or watching it was.

I hadn't ever heard of this version of Robin Hood. I'm kind of ambivalent about Russell Crowe, but he is good at playing this sort of character. The characters were the strongest part of the movie. They were all pretty likeable and interesting. The movie did seem to go on forever. But I was watching the director's cut. Although I think most of the scenes that were added actually were beneficial to the movie.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is Werner Herzog's look at the oldest known cave paintings. It's intriguing just from the perspective of the fact that basically no one ever gets to see them in person. He explores some other facets of life back then, like the landscape and other forms of art, so it's not only about the paintings. It's interesting to think about.

I wasn't interested in Cave of Forgotten Dreams when it came out, but someone (hi, ZT) said it "literally (literally)" blew their mind, so I figured I'd check it out. I watched the same way I always watch documentaries – in 10-minute intervals over the course of a day. It's a little slow sometimes. And it bugged me when they were first exploring and getting lots of shots of them shining lights on the drawings that were so bright that you couldn't actually see the drawings. But they eventually stopped doing that.

Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame is visually interesting, but the story is somewhat confusing and the action falls flat.

I saw a trailer for Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon that looked cool, so I requested it from the library. When it came in, I checked IMDb to see if it was any good or not, and I found out it was actually a prequel. I figured I had better watch the original one first. I love the  Huayi Brothers movies. They're always so gorgeous. The costumes in this movie were great. The sets were beautiful; I loved the use of different colors of light. It was cool how the eyes of the Buddha looked out over the city; it was such an interesting shape to look out of.

The action was confusing, though. I had no idea what was going on half the time. I think I'd like to see fewer movies choreographed by Sammo Hung. It just gets boring when you can't follow what's going on. I had a hard time following the characters and the plot, too. I could've used some of the pop-on character names from the Tai Chi movies here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Like all the HP movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is well done. It looks polished, the acting is good, and the story is creative. This one was definitely boring in places, but it kept me interested for the most part.

I like the Harry Potter movies. I've never read the books, and I don't really see any reason to, but I used to watch the movies when they hit a network TV channel for the first time. I think I even saw one of them in the theater. They're always well done; they look great, the acting is good, the story/things in it are creative. I totally screwed up the series for myself with this one, though. I knew I had seen HP 1-5, and I thought there were only 7 movies in the series. I thought Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 were movies 6 and 7. So, since I'd seen 1-5, I thought it was time for Deathly Hallows. How very wrong I was.

The Illusionist

The Illusionist's beautiful animation is captivating, but the story is really depressing.

Triplets of Belleville was a great movie. I loved the musicality of it, and how there was hardly any (no?) dialogue. The Illusionist is also beautifully animated. I love the small quirks of the animation, like how The Illusionist's hands move when he packs up his poster. I loved how crazy the rabbit was. But ultimately it's basically the saddest movie ever, and if I had known that going in, I probably wouldn't have watched it.

Stake Land

A few things don't work, but it's immersive and original.

Stake Land is intense. There's really no way to describe how viciously it pulls you in. You're immediately thrust into all the shock, horror, and gore. It's so hardcore it makes The Walking Dead look like Cinderella. I've seen my fair share of zombie/vampire movies, but I was not prepared for this one. It reminded me a lot of Feast, without the humor. Any humor. No humor here.

Shutter Island

This movie has a lot going for it. Scorsese's a great director, DiCaprio's a great actor. The overall production is solid. The ending wasn't exactly a surprise, and it's still a bit more ambiguous than I'd like, although I'm not sure what could've been done to change that.

Sex and the City 2

13 Assassins

Nothing unexpected here, but it was engaging most of the time, and you can definitely tell it's Miike.

Super

This movie was weird. Liv Tyler was super pretty. Ellen's character was completely unlikable, and Rainn's wasn't terribly far behind. It was interesting to see it play out, though.

TRON: Legacy

You can't really make a movie out of pretty lights.

True Grit

I didn't have high expectations for this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. I do love Westerns, or at least modern ones. The dialogue was good, and there was at least one surprise in the plot. There were about five too many instances of deus ex, however, and I was disappointed with the way it ended.

Death Race 2

They clearly had a problem finding quality people for this movie. The dialogue, direction, production, editing, and acting were all horrible. If you like Death Race enough, though, you can almost get past all of that. The idea behind the movie was solid, it was great to see how it all started, and they finally got something right when people stopped talking and things wrapped up at the end.

Despicable Me

Carell's voice was grating and I didn't think all the hip thrusts and butt jokes were entirely appropriate, but the minions were fun.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I like Cage, it had some good moments, and the magic was flashy, but none of that could make up for the atrocity that was the writing in this movie.

I still love the part in the trailer where Jay asks Nic if he's crazy and he holds up his fingers signifying "a little bit," though.

The A-Team

I don't have much to say about this movie, other than the fact that I like Cooper, and Murdock was pretty cool, too.

Inception

The actors and the scenery were interesting to see, and I really enjoyed the slow reveal of what happened with Mal. It's a fun ride as long as you don't think too much about the loopholes.

Red

I enjoyed it despite the fact that I'm not really a fan of Bruce Willis, and I think that says something.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Culkin's character was as interesting as Cera's was boring; Ramona was as cute as Cera was unattractive; the plot was as empty as the writing was meaningful, and it all came out to a wash.

Jonah Hex