Movie reviews

Every year at this time, lists of the best this and the greatest that are propounded.  A lot of it has to do with one writer's opinion and, as Charles Barkley is wont to say, opinions are like buttholes:  Everyone has one.  Chief among the lists are lists of the best movies that came out during the year.  Movie critics get all arty and inform us why such-and-such movie was Oscar-worthy.  I'm no movie critic, but I do like movies, so I thought I'd add to the worthless lists with a random one of my own.

I see a few movies every year myself.  I don't rush out and catch the midnight showing of any movie, since none of them is worth my time.  But I do watch plenty of movies on cable television, usually a couple of years after they came out.  Some of them I'd never even heard of, which makes the revelation that much more enjoyable for me.  Here, then, are some movies that I've seen over the past year that I enjoyed for different reasons (with a nod to one movie that I'd seen previously but that I hadn't seen in ages until this year) and a couple that I absolutely hated:

Kill the Irishman:  A movie about a real-life labor leader and thug in Cleveland, tracing his rise and violent death in the labor wars of the 1970's.  The Irishman, portrayed ironically but brilliantly by Ray Stevenson, was a gritty representation of what it was like in those labor wars.  It is also a sad commentary on the dog-eat-dog reality of labor unions.

Anamorph:  Willem Dafoe is one of my favorite actors.  I think he's quite underrated.  This movie isn't all that great, but Dafoe delivers his typically great performance. The reason I mention this movie is because I learned about the concept of anamorphosis, which according to Wikipedia is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image.  It's a grisly movie, but how anamorphosis was woven into the plot was interesting.  I also found anamorphosis to be interesting in and of itself, and since I learned about it in this movie, it makes the list.  I like when I can learn something at the movies.

The Guilt Trip:  Karen and I saw this over the Christmas weekend, and although I'm no fan of Barbra Streisand, I thought she did a great job in a very quietly funny movie.  It never went over the top to get laughs, and Seth Rogan is proving himself to be quite the comedic actor.  Of great personal interest to me was the scene at the topless bar where Babs and Seth seek car help.

Act of Valor:  I love good war movies, and this was another good one.  Actual SEALs were cast in the main roles and brought themselves more honor.  That actual missions were used for the storylines just added to my enjoyment.

Cookie's Fortune:  In my opinion, this is one of Robert Altman's finest yet most underappreciated comedies.  The cast is chock-full with name actors and singers, yet no one dominates the film.  The subtle humor in the movie is terrific, and the twist at the end never ceases to make me chortle.

Now, for the worst of the worst:

Chronicle:  Somehow this movie got rated pretty highly on some online movie rating service, so we went to see it.  I still don't know what the point of the movie is.

Any Twilight movie:  I can't remember if we saw both of them this year or only Breaking Dawn, but they are so horribly acted that they make the Harry Potter look like Shakespearean theater.

Cursed:  We saw this one last night on cable.  I taped it because it deals with werewolves, another theme Karen likes.  There were plenty of recognizable actors in the movie and by the time we got to the end of the movie, I turned to Karen and asked her how any of them had a career after this movie.

The Hobbit:  We had both enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies to varying degrees, and I'd read the book, so we thought this movie would be at least pretty good.  We were wrong.

(c) 2012 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles