movies, july-dec

Well, seeing as how I don't think I'll have time to watch any more movies before the end of the year, I thought I'd go ahead and write up Part Two of movies watched in 2008. You can find part one here: http://iwiggleitjustalittlebit.blogspot.com/2008/07/lets-all-go-to-movies.html. Sure, everyone else tells you which movies they liked the best out of the ones they've seen. But I tell you about ALL the movies I see for the first time in a calendar year. That's really something, I think.

28. Ratatouille
Cute. If talking culinary rats feel persecuted, they should come live with me. Once I get over my initial fright, I will allow them to live with me and do my cooking.

29. Gone Baby Gone
It was good baby good.

30. Margot at the Wedding
Mmm, just as cringe-inducing as all the reviews said it would be.

31. The Notorious Bettie Page
A very interesting bio, and without watching it I might not have cared that Bettie Page died a few weeks ago. It was also beautiful to watch, a very artsy looking movie. Gretchen Mol was awesome. But ultimately, there were all these holes that left me wondering about some of Bettie's actions, motives, etc. She seemed too inconsistent.

32. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
One of my favorites of the year. The main actor, Mathieu Almaric, is amazing. It's hard to watch without imagining yourself in that situation, and I don't think many people would have been as strong as he was.

33. The Dark Knight
I saw this on an IMAX screen in Seattle! Midway through there were technical difficulties which was nerve-wracking, but everything got fixed. Heath Ledger was just as good as everyone in the world has said. As soon as this movie was over I was ready for the next one.

34. Elegy
I got to see this movie for free because I know people. It has Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, who have a relationship, but the main thing I remember about it is not understanding the ending.

35. Hamlet 2
While it's obvious that they came up with the song "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" and decided to write a movie around it, I still found the movie enjoyable. I like that Steve Coogan. I just looked at the IMDB quotes but they don't have any of my favorites up. A challenge for me, perhaps?

36. Hot Fuzz
I think I liked it at the time, but I don't remember much of it now. I think I was distracted.

37. House Bunny
I really loved this movie, but I had a few martinis in me.

38. Baby Mama
It was enjoyable enough, though I mean I think if you wanted to watch Tina Fey in action it would be better to just watch five 30 Rock's in a row instead.

39. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Nothing like following up a light-hearted romp like Baby Mama with this Romanian movie about abortion. This movie came from Netflix and it took me several weeks to get around to it, I guess because I don't have a lot of nights where I want to come home and get depressed. You watch this movie and go, "Oh no, why did you do that" or "Oh no, don't do that" over and over. But some images of this movie stuck with me much longer than those of other movies on this list.

40. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
In this movie based on the American Girl character, a spunky go-getter named Kit Kittredge has to solve mysteries, battle prejudices against hobos, and keep her head while her father loses his money ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I enjoyed all the references to hobos the most.

41. War, Inc.
While I usually say that every movie is John Cusack's best movie, it was hard for me to get into this one. Perhaps I had my sights set too high after reading that it was a spiritual sequel to "Grosse Pointe Blank," or maybe my dislike of Hilary Duff was too hard to overcome. That's not to say I wouldn't sit and watch it a million times if I had a lot of spare time. It does have John Cusack in it, after all.

42. Trading Places
My dad walks around the house saying lines from this movie, which I thought I had seen, but I actually don't think I had. Because I didn't remember anything when I watched it this year. I watched with my dad, who unfortunately slept through Jamie Lee Curtis' nude scene. But he was awake for "looking good Billy Ray!" "Feelin good Lewis" which is sort of an important thing to my family.

43. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
The puppet musical was the best thing. The actors were all enjoyable enough to watch but I found the story kinda tiring.

44. Four Christmases
If this movie is indeed supposed to take place in the course of one day, then it was one long-ass day. But there was a Nativity scene in this movie that I just thought was hilarious.

45. Tropic Thunder
This movie had a bunch of great performances -- I found Robert Downey Jr and Ben Stiller to be reliably terrific -- but I thought the whole Tom Cruise thing was overrated.

46. Kissing Jessica Stein
I got this movie because I heard that pre-Mad Men Jon Hamm was in it; his real-life girlfriend co-wrote and stars in it. Turns out Jon Hamm is only in a brief scene but the rest of the movie, about a woman flirting with lesbianism, is enjoyable. The characters could be frustrating, but so can everyone.

47. Bee Movie
I laughed out loud several times. LOL as the kids say. It was cute, but maybe too long? But then I checked Wikipedia and it was only 90 minutes, which seems about the minimum length a movie should be. If I had kids that wanted to watch it a lot I'd probably get annoyed.

48. License to Wed
On the one hand, I love John Krasinski and can be easily entertained by romantic comedies. On the other hand, Robin Williams currently (not old Robin Williams per se) is the acting equivalent of nails screeching against a chalkboard and Mandy Moore is fairly annoying. Unfortunately, John K had too big an uphill battle to climb for this film's redemption, though fake pooping babies always help. All in all, a depressing way to end my movie watching year.