Goon

Not sure what motivated me to watch this movie.  Think I was aiming for something brainless I could tidy my apartment and fold laundry to, and in that case this movie delivered.  However, if you plan on using all your attention and focus to watch a movie, this would not be the one to choose.  I think I could tolerate it because I was using less than 25% of my brain to watch it.  Any more than that, and you might start to twitch uncontrollably.  Seann William Scott is far from the finest actor, and this is one of the most un-fine movies I have ever used 25% of my brain to watch.

Michael Collins

My love of Liam Neeson is what brought me to this movie, and my love for Liam Neeson is what got me through it.  A concept that just barely held my interest, about the formation of the Irish Free State, for me this movie was a little ponderous.  But then again, who doesn't love a story about the "underdog" fighting for freedom?  This film co-starred Julia Roberts (random!), Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman(in a typical grumpy un-likable role), and keep an eye out for a young Jonathan Rhys Meyers in one of his very first roles.

New Year's Eve

Nothing good to say about this movie.  I am not even going to go down the laundry list of celebrities who make an appearance.  You want to know how bad it was?  It was actually worse than the similar multiple-story-lined, "all-star cast" overloaded Valentine's Day (which was done by the exact same Director and Writer).  Blech.

The Amazing Spider-Man

This movie was awesome.  So much better than the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst version.  Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone put them to shame with this vastly superior version of essentially the same movie.  I also hear from my comic-book-reading peers that this latest version is more true to the comics, especially in relation to details surrounding Peter Parker.  My favorite difference?  How this most recent Spidey film was not nearly as cheesy as those of the past.  It felt more real, the characters more relatable.  (Although it was odd how Stone's character literally only wore mini skirts and boots the entire movie.  I really really wanted there to be a shot of her closet with the skirts/boots lined neatly in a row... haha)  Great, fun, entertaining, comic-book-hero movie!

 

Brave

Pixar's newest movie is a bit of a disappointment.  Don't get me wrong, it is exquisitely beautiful in its CGI animated magic, but at this point we expect that in a Pixar film.  What we also expect is a story that goes above and beyond your average children's film, and in this movie we just don't have that.  Several characters are introduced, and then essentially cast aside when they could have been developed and put to so much more use!  The witch, the evil bear, even the father.   The story centers around a young girl and her mother, and to be perfectly frank it simply was not enough.  The doors were there, the characters primed and ready, but no one was allowed to walk through.

Magic Mike

There is not much to say about this movie, other than the obvious - it had some pretty dazzling eye candy, and anything other than that doesn't matter.  You are not going to see this for the plot.  You are not going to see this for the acting.  You sit through those things just to make it inside Xquisite - the Tampa strip club run by Matthew McConaughey and populated by the likes of Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, and Matt Bomer.  Fancy dance moves, creative costumes, and abs to die for are the reason to sit through this movie, and not much more.  But do you need more?  ;)

In Darkness

Man, I have been so bad at this in recent weeks... here I am, after a long absence, with another seven-or-so movies piled up awaiting their very own post.  Here, in rapid fire, we start:

This was an odd week for me, watching two Holocaust movies within two days of each other (previous one being my previous post, on Bent)  This 2011 Polish film tells the true story of a man who hid Jewish refugees in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov.  To be honest, it was not quite as dramatic as I thought it was going to be, considering the subject matter.  In other words, I was never as emotionally involved as I could have been - the emotions were there on the surface based on basic content, but I didn't grow any attachment to the individual characters.  There were missed opportunities in this film, but even despite that the story managed to hold its own and engross me in it's tale of courage and survival.