Lucky Number Slevin

Year: 2006

Why'd I Watch It?: Ken demanded it.

What's It About?: A guy caught in the middle of a fight between Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman and that's a bad place to be.

What'd I Think?: Josh Hartnett is a good actor. This is a good movie with an amazing cast and a wacky-ass storyline. Much like Tarantino things, but stylistically different and refreshing. Violence levels are very good, as one can expect from any movie whose poster sports Bruce Willis with guns.

Rating: 5 waffles

Love Actually

Year: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: Group decision.

What's It About?: A bunch of people who are all somehow connected to each other either falling in love or screwing up over the Christmas holiday.

What'd I Think?: Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The way all the stories overlap is interesting. Great cast. Nice stories. Alan Rickman. Yes.

Rating: 4 waffles

Loser

Year: 2000

Why'd I Watch It?: Boredom.

What's It About?: Dork boy likes a girl who likes their professor.

What'd I Think?: It was interesting. A nice...well, there were some not too nice aspects, but a nice story with interesting characters and locations.

Rating: 3 waffles

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingYear: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: It's LotR.

What's It About?: Hobbits and men and elves fighting orcs and other ugly things.

What'd I Think?: Words cannot explain how I feel about this movie. There were different things I didn't like, but all in all it was boootiful.

Rating: 5 waffles

Live Free or Die Hard

Year: 2007

Why'd I Watch It?: Elizabeth and I were bored.

What's It About?: John McClane McClaneing around D.C. on the 4th of July.

What'd I Think?: The use of Fortunate Son in this movie is wonderful. Also, it's just a lot of fun. Bad guy's no Alan Rickman, but he's okay. Just your basic summer action flick, but good stuff.

Rating: 4 waffles

Little Miss Sunshine

Year: 2006

Why'd I Watch It?: It looked really good.

What's It About?: A family, each of whom has their own issues, travels with a young girl to a child beauty pageant.

What'd I Think?: So so so happy! Another amazing character driven movie (like Wes Anderson movies). The cast is amazing. Besides The Departed, this is the best movie I've seen this year. Oh, I just love it!

Rating: 5 waffles

The Libertine

Year: 2004

Why'd I Watch It?: Johnny Depp. Also Jack Davenport.

What's It About?: The Earl of Rochester and all his debauchery.

What'd I Think?: Now did you really need to cast a whole bunch of people from Pirates of the Caribbean 2? Was in necessary to give John Malcovich that prosthetic nose and make Johnny Depp seem like a gi-normous douche? There was kind of a plot, but it was kinda lacking if it was supposed to be a love story of sorts between Depp and Samantha Morton (who was really great as was Rosamund Pike). If it was just about Johnny Depp poncing around and being a vulgar asshole, they did a good job. I did really like the sets, costuming, and cinematography.

Rating: 3 waffles

Les Diaboliques

Year: 1955

Why'd I Watch It?: Assigned for film class.

What's It About?: This horrible guy's wife and mistress kill him and then things go awry.

What'd I Think?: By the end of this one, it's worth sitting through all the weird build up. Just watch it.

Rating: 4 1/2 waffles

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Year: 2004

Why'd I Watch It?: Ann or Sarah wanted to see it.

What's It About?: Some unfortunate children getting shunted between adult guardians.

What'd I Think?: I've only read the first book and a bit of the second, so I'm no expert, but the film was pretty good. I thought Jim Carrey was okay (I'm really not a very big fan of his). The kids were good, I thought. I loved the subtitles they did for Sunny. And there was Jude. More like the dark profile of Jude. Jude Law IS the Shadow! No.

Rating: 3 1/2 waffles

Leap Year

Year: 2010

Why'd I Watch It?: Elizabeth and I thought it looked cute and we can see movies for free.

What's It About?: A girl trying to get to her douche-y boyfriend in Ireland to propose to him who is assisted by a Irishman who mocks her a lot (she kind of deserves it).

What'd I Think?: It was an adorable romantic comedy, as advertised. Matthew Goode is adorable when he isn't blonde and trying to destroy Manhattan.

Rating: 3 waffles

Laura

Year: 1944

Why'd I Watch It?: Assigned for film class.

What's It About?: A beautiful woman is murdered and during the investigation the detective assigned to the case falls in love with her, but then something seriously bizarre happens.

What'd I Think?: Vincent Price Action Go! A slightly a-typical 40s detective film with interesting characters and an interesting plot etc. It's really enjoyable.

Rating: 4 1/2 waffles

The Last Starfighter

Year: 1984

Why'd I Watch It?: My mom wanted to.

What's It About?: Kid plays a videogame then gets recruited to fight in space by aliens.

What'd I Think?: Eighties style! Heavily influenced by the sci-fi films before it, in the vein of Star Wars and Star Trek.

Rating: 3 waffles

Land of the Dead

Year: 2005

Why'd I Watch It?: Sarah wanted to.

What's It About?: Zombies attack the last human city.

What'd I Think?: Wacky zombie movie. It's just kind of ridiculous fun, not as good as Dawn of the Dead. That might be all I have to say about this.

Rating: 3 waffles

Kontroll

Year: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: It was at the Beloit International Film Festival and Maya and I thought it looked good.

What's It About?: A man who works and lives in the Budapest underground.

What'd I Think?: Hungarian movie that takes place in the underground. It's pretty swell. Great music, great acting. Stylistically, it's just awesome. One of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Rating: 5 waffles

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Year: 2005

Why'd I Watch It?: RDJ.

What's It About?: RDJ getting set up for murder and solving it with some chick whose name I can't remember and Val Kilmer.

What'd I Think?: I think I need to watch this a second time to make a proper judgment on it, but as far as I can tell it's pretty much awesome all the way around. Acting is really good and fun. :D

Rating: 5 waffles

Kill Bill vol. 2

Year: 2004

Why'd I Watch It?: Saw part 1.

What's It About?: Her finishing the list.

What'd I Think?: I liked it a lot. This review is as useless as an asshole right here.

Rating: 5 waffles

Kill Bill vol.1

Year: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: Tarantino.

What's It About?: A woman who's lost everything setting out to kill the people who have betrayed her.

What'd I Think?: Like all Tarantino films the characters and script is what makes it good. V. violent=v. good.

Rating: 5 waffles

Judge Dredd

Year: 1995

Why'd I Watch It?: I had recently become familiar with 2000 A.D. and someone was streaming it online.

What's It About?: The law and Sylvester Stallone enforcing it in a future megacity.

What'd I Think?: It's fun and super 90s. While I wish it had been more like the comic, I'm glad this exists as it's so redonkulous. AH AM THE LAUGH.

Rating: 4 waffles

Johnny English

Year: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: Ann wanted to see it.

What's It About?: Mr. Bean, the secret agent.

What'd I Think?: There were plenty of actual funny things in here, gross humor only used twice (less is better). It was okay.
Year:

Rating: 3 waffles

The Jerk

Year: 1979

Why'd I Watch It?: My parents thought I should watch it.

What's It About?: Steve Martin who was born a poor black child and is now trying to make it through life.

What'd I Think?: Though tasteless at points, enjoyable all the same. Yes, it's funny.

Rating: 4 waffles

Jarhead

Year: 2005

Why'd I Watch It?: Part of Gyllenhaal Fest '10.

What's It About?: A bunch of marines going batshit during the first Gulf War.

What'd I Think?: Really great looking things cinematography-wise. Good acting all around, though maybe it's easier to act like disaffected, grumpy, crazy soldiers when you're pretty much in that mood due to shitty conditions on set.

Rating: 5 waffles

I Spy

Year: 2002

Why'd I Watch It?: Either Ann wanted to see it or we watched it on a movie Friday in summer school.

What's It About?: Remaking old things because no one has any more ideas.

What'd I Think?: By watching this I realized: I really like Owen Wilson. The movie wasn't really good, or anything, but hey.

Rating: 2 waffles

Iron Man 2

Year: 2010

Why'd I Watch It?: The first one was awesome.

What's It About?: Tony getting drunker and doing more pseudo-science.

What'd I Think?: I was very nervous with preliminary reports, but I really liked it. Whiplash was waaaay not stupid, as I feared he would be (due to writing, not because of Mickey Rourke). Sam Rockwell was fun, though a Hammer was a little less threatening than I thought he should be. The only real problem I had was Tony and Pepper getting together in the end. Ick. I liked what they had so much, way to fuck it up and potentially take away one of Tony's prime traits.

Rating: 5 waffles

Iron Man

Year: 2008

Why'd I Watch It?: Mike and I decided we probably should.

What's It About?: Tony Stark building this in a cave with a box of scraps.

What'd I Think?: For all my fan wanking about TDK, I enjoyed this movie more. Robert Downey Jr. is a better Tony Stark than nearly all comic Tonys. Watch it a bajillion times.

Rating: 5 waffles

The Interpreter

Year: 2005

Why'd I Watch It?: I'm not exactly sure why we decided to see it.

What's It About?: A U.N. interpreter who hears things she shouldn't.

What'd I Think?: I wasn't too sure about this on the way to the theater, but I think I enjoyed it more than the other people I was with (Ann doesn't like complicated movies that aren't fantasy). Love for Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. It was interesting. It had action, Africa-ness, and my favorite kind of "romance" (the unspoken kind with mutual caring and affection but no real kissing or anything like that).

Rating: 5 waffles

Inglorious Basterds

Year: 2009

Why'd I Watch It?: Tarantino.

What's It About?: Some American Jewish soldiers who kill Nazis and a French girl who wants to kill Nazis.

What'd I Think?: While not, in my opinion, Tarantino's best work, it was still very good once I got over the fact that it's straight up historical fan fiction. Christoph Waltz was so good. Overall, entertaining movie.

Rating: 5 waffles

Independence Day

Year: 1996

Why'd I Watch It?: Why not?

What's It About?: Aliens getting all-up-ons Earth right before July 4th.

What'd I Think?: Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum fighting aliens together. Go watch it now.

Rating: 5 waffles

An Inconvenient Truth

Year: 2006

Why'd I Watch It?: Thought it was necessary viewing.

What's It About?: Global warming and why it happens and what needs to be done.

What'd I Think?: Yay Al Gore! But boo to all the people who are all "I can't wait to go see this movie and laugh." Why does saving the Earth have to be a partisan thing? Yeah, Gore's a democrat, but not everything has to be about politics. This film is mostly informative, backed by cold hard scientific facts. It's really not funny, it's scary. The presentation of the information is really engaging and it's really not boring at all. Also, it made me cry, which was really weird. Everyone should see this movie.

Rating: 5 waffles

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Year: 2009

Why'd I Watch It?: Terry Gilliam.

What's It About?: An immortal magic-man who made a wager with the devil and his traveling band who save a strange man on the run from some Russians.

What'd I Think?: What can I say, Terry Gilliam is awesome. So colorful and wonderful. Great cast (Heath Ledger's last film). Your basic Gilliam affair. Oh yeah, and Tom Waits is mf-ing Satan.

Rating: 5 waffles

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Year: 2003

Why'd I Watch It?: I saw it at the library and it looked like the kind of thing I'd like.

What's It About?: A man out to avenge his brother's death.

What'd I Think?: Wonderful cast, wonderful set up, but then...nothing. It just sort of ends. Clive Owen should have gotten all cleaned up and then gone and kicked major ass all over the place, but no. That should have been the half-way point in the movie, but instead it was like the 3/4ths way point. The rest of the movie was all good, I'm just a little upset about being promised lots of violence by a dapper Clive Owen and receiving very little.

Rating: 4 waffles

I Heart Huckabees

Year: 2004

Why'd I Watch It?: I heard good things.

What's It About?: Coincidence and existentialism, concluding that maybe it means nothing.

What'd I Think?: V. good. Weird, but good. Mark Walhberg was excellent. In fact, the whole cast was very very good. I can see why some people would not like it, but if one likes things like Eternal Sunshine, then Huckabees might be enjoyable. If one has a problem with "confusing" movies that make you think about certain points and don't spell things out word for word, get the hell out of my movie reviews.

Rating: 4 waffles

I Am Legend

Year: 2007

Why'd I Watch It?: Part of our Will Smith marathon.

What's It About?: A man and his dog post-epidemic apocalypse.

What'd I Think?: The first half is really entertaining Will Smith goodness this time with a dog companion, then it has a plot shift of a Hancock degree, but not nearly as sappy. Like Hancock, it just kind of meanders into convoluted mediocrity.

Rating: 1st half: 5 waffles, 2nd half: 2 waffles

Hot Tub Time Machine

Year: 2010

Why'd I Watch It?: We thought it'd be a good movie to 40-and-a-movie.

What's It About?: Some friends who go on a trip to an old resort and get teleported back to the 80s in a hot tub.

What'd I Think?: Perhaps I should have four categories. Actual Good Movies, Really Bad Movies, Movies That Are Awesome, and Movies I Saw for the First Time When I was Drunk. This would be in the last category. I thought it was pretty entertaining, not as much as an average Apatow movie, but decent. According to my friends who saw it without drinking a 40 before hand, it wasn't really all that great.

Rating: a drunken 3 waffles

Highway

Year: 2002

Why'd I Watch It?: Part of Gyllenhaal Fest.

What's It About?: Jared Leto being a womanizer who sticks it to the wrong lady and has to go on the run from her husband taking his bffl, a drug dealing Jake Gyllenhaal, with him.

What'd I Think?: Dr. Cox is a totally drugged out hippie. This movie did a good job emulating the mid-90s stylistically. The script was wanting. I could do without the constant home video style flashbacks to Leto and Gyllenhaal's youth. It felt like a crutch, like they couldn't establish this friendship well enough in the very beginning so they had to stick this in everywhere. Dear God, Jared Leto's hair.

Rating: 3 waffles

High Fidelity

Year: 2000

Why'd I Watch It?: I think Sarah and I watched it? I can't remember since I've seen it at least 20 times.

What's It About?: How much breaking up sucks.

What'd I Think?: Nice movie, and entertaining. The way it was done and narrated was very well done....and John Cusack is in it... It appeals to my sad bastard sensibilities.

Rating: 5 waffles

High and Low

Year: 1963

Why'd I Watch It?: Assigned for film class.

What's It About?: A man who needs money to keep his well-run company but also needs to pay the ransom on a kidnapped child.

What'd I Think?: Akira Kurosawa, really? The whole first half of the movie is so unbelievably slow, but it really picks up later. The whole part with all the zombie-like strung out people is pretty creepy and the end is pretty good. Maybe there were some elements lost in translation, but over all, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I thought I would.

Rating: 3 waffles

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Year: 2008

Why'd I Watch It?: Emily wanted to watch it.

What's It About?: Hellboy and company having to save Earth from weird mythical people.

What'd I Think?: Having never seen the first one, I'm not sure how good of a sequel this is. It's the Pan's Labyrinth guy (Guillermo del Toro) so the art direction is super awesome. Kinda looks like Zdzislaw Beksinski's art come to life. Despite that, it was still pretty corny.

Rating: 4 waffles

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Year: 2001

Why'd I Watch It?: Maya wanted to.

What's It About?: Transvestite rock stars.

What'd I Think?: It was pretty good, in the same vein as Breakfast on Pluto, but very different. Kind of like the bastard child of Breakfast on Pluto and Velvet Goldmine.Not quite as empty-feeling at the end as VG, but not as feel-good as BoP. The story is really weird, the atmosphere of the film is interesting and kind of unique. A fun and entertaining musical extravaganza, to say the least. I think I need to watch it again.

Rating: 4 waffles

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Year: 2009

Why'd I Watch It?: It's Parry Hotter.

What's It About?: Harry and his friends dealing with a beat up book and lots of back story.

What'd I Think?: Better than OotP, but still not what I wanted it to be. Then again, I feel like I have exceedingly high expectations for Harry Potter things. I'll probably have high expectations for the next two movies too, though. Also, I didn't like the whole death eater thing at the Burrow thing. What the hell was that shit.

Rating: 3 waffles

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Year: 2007

Why'd I Watch It?: It's Harry Potter?

What's It About?: Harry and his friends dealing with Voldemort trying to kill everybody.

What'd I Think?: Stylistically it's really awesome. Again they abbreviated parts they shouldn't have and spent too much time on unimportant stuff. Uhg.

Rating: 3 waffles

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Year: 2005

Why'd I Watch It?: It's Harry Potter.

What's It About?: Harry and his friends dealing with dangerous tournaments and raging hormones.

What'd I Think?: Best movie so far. Could see why they took stuff out. Much more plot-oriented. Visually felt pretty right. I like it a lot, what can I say? I'm pretty excited for the next one if they're just going to get better every time. I have to go see it again.

Rating: 4 1/2 waffles

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Year: 2004

Why'd I Watch It?: It's Harry Potter.

What's It About?: Harry, a boy wizard, and his friends dealing with a new professor an his boyfriend who's escaped from prison and is after Harry.

What'd I Think?: Those kids books. Who likes them? Not me. Okay, so the movie was awesome, even though there was much departure from the book. It rocked. Go watch it a bunch of times.

Rating: 4 waffles

Hancock

Year: 2008

Why'd I Watch It?: Mike and I had a Will Smith fest.

What's It About?: A homeless superhero.

What'd I Think?: The first half is really entertaining Will Smith goodness, then it has a plot shift of a From Dusk 'til Dawn degree, but not nearly as amusing. From there it just kind of meanders into convoluted mediocrity.

Rating: 1st half: 4 1/2 waffles, 2nd half: 2 waffles

The Governess

Year: 1998

Why'd I Watch It?: Johnathan Rhys-Myers.

What's It About?: A Jewess who flees her home and becomes a governess to support herself, but ends up having an affair with the father of the family.

What'd I Think?: Creepy, overly pretty Johnathan Rhys-Myers is always good, maybe? It was a pretty decent movie, not going to lie. Minnie Driver's not all that bad, I suppose. Sets were all nice. Story was fine.

Rating: 3 1/2 waffles

Good Will Hunting

Year: 1997

Why'd I Watch It?: In the early days of my Matt Damon phase.

What's It About?: A janitor who is really good at math.

What'd I Think?: One bad thing about this movie--Minnie Driver's laugh. She's a good actress, she can act so casual on screen and make it believable, but her laugh! Oh, and it showcases how big Matt Damon's rear end is. Besides that, it's a great movie with a great cast. Robin Williams is brilliant. And the Boston accents. I love the accents.

Rating: 5 waffles

The Good Shepherd

Year: 2006

Why'd I Watch It?: I heard good things.

What's It About?: The early days of the CIA.

What'd I Think?: Really need to watch this one again. It was very much the sort of thing I enjoy in a movie about US history, but it moved like a history documentary and by the end I forgot about the beginning.

Rating: 4 waffles

The Good Girl

Year: 2002

Why'd I Watch It?: Part of Gyllenhaal Fest '10.

What's It About?: A woman in a small Texas town who befriends a younger, slightly off boy and then makes some bad decisions.

What'd I Think?: This is my face after watching this movie :C There is no pouty frown deep enough. That being said, Jennifer Aniston, who usually bugs the hell out of me, was really good, and the same goes for Zooey Deschanel. Jake Gyllenhaal was fuckcrazy (as usual) and really adorable (as usual). John C. Reilly totally made the movie for me. I really like him. Good story, well written, and :C.

Rating: 4 1/2 waffles

Goldfinger

Year: 1964

Why'd I Watch It?: My uncle thought we should.

What's It About?: Sean Connery and gold.

What'd I Think?: My uncle told me this is the best Bond film, if that's true, I'm not entirely sure if I need to see the others. Don't get me wrong, I liked it enough, but I guess it's of an era and maybe I've been spoiled by too much Sci-fi that I want everything to have a considerable twist and a kick-ass female who's sole purpose isn't to easily submit to the charms of the male lead. I probably need a repeat viewing.

Rating: 4 waffles

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Year: 1980

Why'd I Watch It?: Sociology assignment.

What's It About?: A clash of cultures.

What'd I Think?: Cute movie, I guess. An interesting comparison between the San (Bushmen) of Africa and members of "civilized" modern society. In the end, a silly, but kinda depressing commentary on the effect of technology on humans (I had to write a paper on it, so sue me).

Rating: 3 1/2 waffles

Get Smart

Year: 2008

Why'd I Watch It?: Sammi wanted me to.

What's It About?: Maxwell Smart being stupider than he was in the tv series.

What'd I Think?: Enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Fun, but doesn't quite get the charm of the source material.

Rating: 3 waffles