Last Five Movies

Cloverfield (2008)
I referenced this movie a while back, back before it even had a name. Turns out, it was worth the wait. Quite possibly the best "Monster on a Rampage" movie ever made. (Ok, maybe not as good as The Host, but a close second.) The acting, effects, writing, editing, and cinematography are all-top notch. However, a warning: if you're prone to motion sickness or vertigo, bring the Dramamine.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but...it's another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp joint, so it's worth a look. And, quite honestly, once you get past the fact that there is very little dialogue that is not in the form of song, it's a pretty good movie. And the music is enjoyable as well. Drag that the Academy's bullshit rules kept this from being nominated for any music Oscars, as I think it'd win everything.

Mr. Brooks (2007)
A crazy mish-mosh of a movie, with Demi Moore's secondary plot being completely unnecessary to the movie (you could completely remove it and not notice); with a terrible subplot where Brooks' daughter might be a serial killer; with the somewhat unwanted presence of Dane Cook; all offset by two terrific performances by Kevin Costner and William Hurt as Mr. Brooks and his psychotic alter-ego. If you could edit this movie down to just the scenes with those two, you might really have something there.

Rambo (2008)
I really need not say anything about this, other than that it is possibly the goriest action movie ever. Remember the D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan? Expand that out to feature-length, and you have some idea of what this movie's like.

Lots of good stuff, but the winner is...

Juno (2007)
Just a great little movie that justifiably got nominated for Best Picture. And even if Ellen Page doesn't win Best Actress (and she should), she's going to be in a LOT of movies. And, it's also refreshing to see a movie with Jason Bateman that doesn't actually require his being on-screen to be watchable (unlike every other movie he's been in recently). If you haven't seen this yet (and it's actually a surprise box office hit), check it out.

On a side note, I was hoping to see The Orphanage, a Spanish horror film produced by Guillermo Del Toro, last weekend. It was playing on at least a half dozens screens around the stateline area during the week. And then the weekend came, and suddenly all those screens were occupied by Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men. Thanks, studios, for flooding screens with shit I've already seen, just because it got nominated for an Oscar. Particularly Michael Clayton, which I'm guessing most people will just wait the two weeks until its video release to see. Or a month for No Country. But that's fine. I'll just wait the six+ months for The Orphanage to come out on video and get it on a free rental so the studios make no money.

That's fine.