A Year of Zip Movies: April 2011 (part 1)
Easy A (2010)
Easy A was lots of fun. Emma Stone is adorable, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson were hilarious and sweet in this. (I wish there had been more of them, but they aren't the focus of the story.) I thought the love story was the weakest part of the story - I didn't know enough about Woodchuck Todd to have a rooting interest in him except that the movie made it clear I was supposed to. He was inoffensive in a bland way... nothing wrong with that, I guess. But Emma Stone really shines in this role, and I hope she makes more good choices in the future! (And doesn't make every movie that comes along, like Amanda Seyfried!!) Recommended!! (I see that Emma Stone is going to be Skeeter in the movie of The Help - that might tip the balance of my seeing it towards 'yes please'.)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Great voice work as we have come to expect in Pixar films. I cried and cried over the kid growing up and giving up his toys - this is not the movie (or movie series) to watch if you have tendancies to anthropomorphize your stuffed animals. (Also, it was so hard for me to see the cuddly teddy bear as a bad guy - and to me, Ned Beatty is Stan/Big Man on 'Homicide' and a sweetheart.)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009)
I honestly thought this was a mocumentary - but no, it's for real. Anvil was and is a band from around Toronto that is credited (by big-time bands like Metallica and Guns N Roses) as a big influence, but they never caught the right break. (Bad or no management, uncommittted labels, and you know, being Canadian.) And this is the story of the fifty-or-so-year-old band members and best friends trying to make another album, do another tour, make it big while they still can. (I don't know enough about music to say if they're good or not - they seemed decent to me. And I was surprised that they can get an enthusiastic and big-name producer to work with them but no label to sign them.) I had some moments of being embarrassed for these guys, they are so earnest and yet so ... something. But it was entertaining.
His Girl Friday (1940)
I wanted to like this, I really did, but I just ... didn't. Maybe it was the dialogue-over-dialogue or all the yelling. Maybe I just couldn't appreciate the screwball comedy of it all. But honestly I didn't want Rosalind Russell to go back to Cary Grant - they didn't really seem to care about each other, just about the newspaper business. (What was wrong with Ralph Bellamy's character except that he seemed to be a decent and honest guy?) Sorry, but this just didn't work for me.
Out from Zip:
Green Zone (2010)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Moon (2009)
[Watched so far this year: The African Queen, Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle), Frozen River, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Battlestar Galactica season 2.5, Cool Hand Luke, The Blind Side, An Education, The Endurance, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, A Single Man, Shock Corridor, 2012, A Serious Man, Crazy Heart, American Splendor, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Easy A, Toy Story 3, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, His Girl Friday]