Movies We Saw 2012, Part II

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-- For those unfamiliar with the Movies We Saw feature on my blog, it's much like the Books I Read feature, but, maybe you've guessed already, it's about movies. As always, I love having him contribute to the blog, and I hope you enjoy! --

And we’re back… with Part II.

Chronicle – This movie wins the award for Most Under the Radar. People are over “found footage” style movies, and superpower movies get done a lot (see my previous post). Plus the film came out in the dead-movie zone of February, so it is easy to understand why no one watched it. But it was really, really well done. Again, less can be more, and this movie certainly exemplifies that idea.

Man on a Ledge – We were going to see Moonrise Kingdom. We were in the car on the way there. But then Mary came down with a migraine. Steve (Madeline’s husband) and I went to the Red Box at the corner grocery. We had a hard time finding something that none of us had seen, and we ended up with something that none of us had seen for a reason. It had an absurd plot with twists and characters that were not believable in the least bit. The effects of Mary’s migraine might have been worse for us than her (but probably not).

The Dark Knight Rises – Say what you will about this film, I really enjoyed it. It could not possibly live up to the standard of The Dark Knight; that was not going to happen. It did do well to wrap up the story line and complete the arc that began in Batman Begins. Batman is the mantle and not the person. Also, I was fascinated by the Bane character, even though we really had no idea of his motivation (loyalty?). For the next several hours (days), I imitated Bane’s unique voice, which Mary continues to insist sounds like Sean Connery. Also, we took Lucy to the theater with us and for the first 20 minutes, we couldn’t believe how stupid we were, but it turned out alright.

Moonrise Kingdom – We finally did make it to the theater for this one (again, with Lucy). I love Wes Anderson films. I wish I could be in one of his movies because then I wouldn’t ever have to show emotion (some may say that is not too different from how I act anyway). I could stare at people with an intrigued, amused face and then reply with a flat, short answer. Anderson writes beautiful dialogue and creates fascinating characters (with or without emotion).

The Amazing Spider-Man – I wanted this movie to be good. A lot of people said it was. We watched it and we didn’t get that at all. It was slow (slooooowww), and so much of it didn’t make any sense. Why did everyone listen to Gwen, who was she? Why did no one freak out when Parker threw the football into the goalpost and the post bent? Also, not a good idea to have big name actors play Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (President Bartlet). They completely overshadowed the characters around them. I will take the Tobey Maguire film over this one every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Skyfall – What can be said about this James Bond film that hasn’t already been said? It is the most successful Bond movie of all time, and well deserved. I originally thought that Casino Royale was still better but the more I thought about it, the more I liked Skyfall. I am amazed, though, that the studio could get it so right with Casino Royale and Skyfall and yet so terribly wrong with Quantum of Solace.

Brave – Remember when Pixar couldn’t miss? That was pre-Cars 2. All it took was that one movie for people to doubt the credibility of a studio that made 11 consecutive first-rate movies in a row without a miss. Cars 2 was bad (really bad). Brave was better, but it wasn't Toy Story. And it wasn’t WALL-E. It wasn’t even Cars [1]. That may be a good thing. I think this movie appeals more to the fairer sex.

Men in Black 3 – I saw this movie because of name recognition. I didn't expect much and I didn’t get much. A lot of other people saw this movie and liked it and good for them. It just wasn’t for me.

The Bourne Legacy – Jeremy Renner is everywhere (as I mentioned in my last post). He did a pretty decent job filling in for the venerable Matt Damon. The story shifted to Aaron Cross and it was interesting. Some talk has been thrown around about a future Bourne film which has both Jason Bourne and Aaron Cross. That could be interesting too. Legacy did its best to live up the original trilogy, but it didn’t quite get there.

Premium Rush – Joseph Gordon-Levitt on a bicycle? I am not quite sure why I watched this. I guess I was in the mood for some mindless entertainment (I watched it while assembling a play kitchen for Max and Maggie on Christmas Eve night), and that is almost what I got. It was about as bad as you would expect.

Trouble with the Curve – This is what the movie had going for it: baseball, Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake. This is what the movie had going against it: predictable story, uninteresting characters, Matthew Lillard. I am a sucker for baseball movies (and JT). The movie had a happy ending, so at least there was that.

Lincoln – Our final film of the year. Daniel Day-Lewis is my favorite actor. I talk about There Will Be Blood all the time, and Gangs of New York is awesome too. When I first heard that he would be playing Lincoln, it instantly got me excited for the film. He was beyond magnificent. He was perfect. People are born with innate abilities for certain skills which they have to discover. We are all better off that Lewis found his calling in acting. The scene in which Lincoln ponders the constitutionality of the Emancipation Proclamation might have been the best scene of any movie all year. You know what is going to happen with the thirteenth amendment, you know it will pass, but the movie still makes the event a suspenseful, emotional climax. This was about as good a movie to end the year on as you could get.

That closes the book on another year of movies. We are already hard at work on another year of movies, starting with the surprisingly polarizing Les Miserables. Mary actually saw it (last year) before I saw it (earlier this month). Sneak peek: Mary loved it and me… not so much.

One last point, I will probably be contributing to Mary’s blog more, but my posts will almost solely be about movies, TV, books, and sports. If you don’t want to hear more from me, you can email Mary and she will gently let me down. I’m out!