2. UP An UP lifting story, great for adults and children. The tender story of Carl and Ellie, friends and lovers for life. His loss and his determination to perform the dream they shared, the stow away kid and his wilderness explorer badge! What a great story, and what a meaningful one. Adults (at least those who are even slightly sentimental) should love it, and children should enjoy both the beautiful story and the beautiful pictures with which it is told. Even the villain is a poor soul whose veracity was challenged and is determined to prove his truthfulness at all costs. The costs are too high for Carl, and there hangs the story for the second half of the movie. Both halves hang together, the characters function well. It’s a great movie. Probably the best of the lot.
3. An Education A story of seduction and innocence seen through the eyes of the innocent. A beautiful, elegant film with a simple story going from self discovery and appreciation of the new, to realization that there are serpents in paradise, and that one screws up. Carey Mulligan is fresh, believable, and compelling. Peter Sarsgaard is less believable as David, but still charming, and in the end a fake. One wishes he would be for real, for her sake, even though knowing better through life and experience.
4. Breathtakingly insipid, trite and entertaining Jake the warrior is taken in by the warrior Na'avi and made their own. He adopts them as well and together they defeat the evil, greedy, anti green Industrial American CABAL which, with the help of the American Imperialist government seeks to victimize the poor aborigines and exploit them. Should will all technical and artistic visual effect awards. Not a good picture! Virtuosity without PLOT
5. The Hurt Locker A bloody waste of time. This movie could have been great. It could have discussed how difficult it is to be far from home, it could have told a story of how one's experiences in Iraq impinges on the family now, and the future of the participant. It could have discussed our stupid rules of engagement. Why are we putting our people in harms way to protect those that want to harm us? But it does nothing. It follows senseless (unexplained) attacks on civilians and the military. Shows barbarism, shows how barbaric/and gentle our soldiers are with each other, and with Iraqi children, but gives no foundation for any of these Brownian (random) motions. As stated above. Bloody and pointless.
6. District 9 A crappy movie which assumes everyone understands racial prejudice and that cliché's can explain everything. Nasty earthlings refuse to understand pitiful immigrants and persecute them. Nasty government uses people's fear to justify moving 100,000 sapient being out of town, ostensively for their own safety, but in reality to look for new technology and rob them of their heritage. Add a bit of Deux Ex Machina, a racist protagonist that reforms, and an escaping refugee, and presto. Get ready for the next episode: The return of District 9
7. Inglorious Basterds Even Spiderman is more true to "real" life! I hated this movie. Could not buy into the spaghetti Western meets Adolf Hitler theme. Revenge dreaming at its worst. Other loved it. Perhaps having been born in a Concentration camp, and living all my life surrounded by people who know/knew war, atrocities, and mass murder. This light treatment of such a serious subject left me cold.
8. We are not swans, we are SHARKS! The Romance of Being Layed off! hroughout the film, Clooney is accompanied by two leading ladies. Beside from Kendrick, who’s character is made to go on the road with Clooney’s to learn about real human interaction, while trying to eliminate him, we focus on another traveler played by Vera Farmiga. Alex Goran is the closest thing to a female equivalent of Ryan Bingham, and therefore they make a connection in more ways than one as they cross paths. George Clooney gives a performance that is as charismatic as ever in the film. His charm carries the story from scene to scene, whether he is laying someone off or giving an inspirational seminar. Even though he is performing a job that should be so unlikable, it is hard to wield any ill-will towards his character. Vera Farmiga really takes over as the leading actress throughout the film. Her charm and on-screen presence is as contagious as Clooney’s, and makes you want to learn more about her character. Anna Kendrick does a sufficient job playing the antagonist to Clooney’s Bingham, but appears juvenile beyond acceptable means at certain points. But aside from some minor parts, it is hard to find faults with acting in the film. Pasted from <http://www.reviewstl.com/review-up-in-the-air-reitman-clooney-1211/>
9. The Blind Side (Not professionally reviewed. Not seen.) Ugh, Ben! I’m so sick of these fucking Oscar movies! Up in the Air may have been the most vexing of the lot so far, but The Blind Side, disgusting in its every detail, is by far the most insipid—and, uh, racist. And, uh, American. It’s about three of this country’s favorite things: Christianity, Football, and dumb black folk succeeding thanks to the charity of white people. Sandy Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a tough Southern white lady who adopts a big black boy who ain’t got nobody else. (As Scott Tobias describes it, “The family that takes him in literally picks him up from the streets during a rainstorm, like a stray. All that’s missing are the children pleading, 'Mom, can we keep him?'") They put him through a Christian high school, get his grades up, get him into college and, ultimately, on the path to football stardom. It’s really fucking Inspirational. The Blind Side’s biggest problem is its total lack of complexity (or, uh, conflict)—which, as I understand it, is its most notable point of departure from its Michael Lewis source material. Watching all 125 minutes of this shit is a chore. Pasted from <http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2010/02/05/the-blind-side-precious-slow-country-cousin>
10. Precious Did not see it. Sounds like The Blind Side without heroics (and more of a downer).
11. A Serious Man Did not See it Larry Gopnik is a Jewish man who is in the middle of a tragedy that he calls life. His wife is leaving him for another man, with no prior explanation. His daughter is swiping money out of his wallet, and her only concern is what she is going to wear and when her uncle will free up the bathroom. His son is in trouble at school with his bar mitzvah closing in fast. His brother could either be a genius or just crazy. Things just aren’t going good for Larry. What seemed like a quiet normal suburban life has turned into his worst nightmare. Larry is our proverbial Job, being tested with everything that his God gave him. Pasted from <http://www.reviewstl.com/a-serious-man-10-16-2009/> Sounds like a typical life for a Jew who, as usual, feels guilty for everything.
