Books & Movies 2010
Books:
24. Jack Cross: Love Will Get You Killed by Warren Ellis and Gary Erskine: One of Ellis's CIA/Spy stories. Good and violent.
25. Griftopia by Matt Taibbi: A lot of the book is recycled from Taibbi's Rolling Stone articles, but there's additional information and he ties it all together. Taibbi does an incredible job of explaining the intricacies of Wall Street's crimes in layman's terms, which is pretty impressive given that the complexity was in part meant to keep people from realizing just how boldly criminal some of their actions were.
26. Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra: It's George Carlin's autobiography, so obviously there's quite a bit of funny stuff here--including reprints of some of his classic routines, usually with some commentary about what inspired them and how they changed over time. There's also a ton of information about Carlin's life--some of it well known, some of it not. Carlin also talks about his drug, tax, and health problems, but true to form doesn't get overly dramatic about them or try to frame them as epic struggles or antything. The tone is kind of "some shitty things happened to me, some of which were the result of bad decisions I made. I dealt with them and moved on."
Movies
99. Unstoppable: Solid action/thriller.
100. Catfish: Messed up documentary about a guy who becomes friends with some people on Facebook and then finds out who they really are. Good stuff.
101. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 1: Kind of slow in parts, but generally more of the same, which is pretty good.
102. It's Kind of a Funny Story: Actually not as funny as I was hoping for, but still a pretty decent movie.
103. Faster: I'm pretty sure this was written to be a Vin Deisel movie, he turned it down because it was awful (which is surprising), and somehow The Rock and a really good supporting cast ended up in it (which is even more surprising). It's right on the verge of being so bad it's good, but the good badness isn't consistent enough for me to recommend it.
104. The Warrior's Way: Great stuff. Full review here.
105. Due Date: Basically a remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but still funny.
106. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: I've now seen all three of these movies, and I'm still kind of ambivalent about them.
107. The Tourist: Good, but could have been a lot better. The twist is pretty obvious, but that's not really the biggest problem. The real problem is that they never decide what kind of movie they're making. The spy stuff is done well, but the action scenes are dull in part because they try to make them funny without committing enough to let Depp go over the top. The crew should have either decided to make a formulaic spy flick or watched Hudson Hawk and the Flynt movies before making this.
108. Megamind: Fun movie. I loved the fact that the plot was a total departure from what I expected from seeing the trailers.
109. True Grit: Awesome.
And, the first movie of 2011:
1. Fair Game: Jet Girl and Spicolli as Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. Very well done, and does a good job of showing just how far Rove and friends are wiling to go in pursuit of their own political goals. A very mean-spirited portrayal of Bob Novack (who is only mentioned in the movie) would have made it better, but it's very good without that.
24. Jack Cross: Love Will Get You Killed by Warren Ellis and Gary Erskine: One of Ellis's CIA/Spy stories. Good and violent.
25. Griftopia by Matt Taibbi: A lot of the book is recycled from Taibbi's Rolling Stone articles, but there's additional information and he ties it all together. Taibbi does an incredible job of explaining the intricacies of Wall Street's crimes in layman's terms, which is pretty impressive given that the complexity was in part meant to keep people from realizing just how boldly criminal some of their actions were.
26. Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra: It's George Carlin's autobiography, so obviously there's quite a bit of funny stuff here--including reprints of some of his classic routines, usually with some commentary about what inspired them and how they changed over time. There's also a ton of information about Carlin's life--some of it well known, some of it not. Carlin also talks about his drug, tax, and health problems, but true to form doesn't get overly dramatic about them or try to frame them as epic struggles or antything. The tone is kind of "some shitty things happened to me, some of which were the result of bad decisions I made. I dealt with them and moved on."
Movies
99. Unstoppable: Solid action/thriller.
100. Catfish: Messed up documentary about a guy who becomes friends with some people on Facebook and then finds out who they really are. Good stuff.
101. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 1: Kind of slow in parts, but generally more of the same, which is pretty good.
102. It's Kind of a Funny Story: Actually not as funny as I was hoping for, but still a pretty decent movie.
103. Faster: I'm pretty sure this was written to be a Vin Deisel movie, he turned it down because it was awful (which is surprising), and somehow The Rock and a really good supporting cast ended up in it (which is even more surprising). It's right on the verge of being so bad it's good, but the good badness isn't consistent enough for me to recommend it.
104. The Warrior's Way: Great stuff. Full review here.
105. Due Date: Basically a remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but still funny.
106. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: I've now seen all three of these movies, and I'm still kind of ambivalent about them.
107. The Tourist: Good, but could have been a lot better. The twist is pretty obvious, but that's not really the biggest problem. The real problem is that they never decide what kind of movie they're making. The spy stuff is done well, but the action scenes are dull in part because they try to make them funny without committing enough to let Depp go over the top. The crew should have either decided to make a formulaic spy flick or watched Hudson Hawk and the Flynt movies before making this.
108. Megamind: Fun movie. I loved the fact that the plot was a total departure from what I expected from seeing the trailers.
109. True Grit: Awesome.
And, the first movie of 2011:
1. Fair Game: Jet Girl and Spicolli as Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. Very well done, and does a good job of showing just how far Rove and friends are wiling to go in pursuit of their own political goals. A very mean-spirited portrayal of Bob Novack (who is only mentioned in the movie) would have made it better, but it's very good without that.