Last Five Movies - Unemployment Edition

Seeing as I'm currently unemployed, needless to say, I've got a lot of free time to consume a lot of movies. Here's what I've seen recently:

I Love You, Man (2009)
Paul Rudd has managed to go from Phoebe's boyfriend on Friends to absolutely owning an entire genre of movies. Not as funny as Role Models, but at least twice as funny as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the last movie to star both Rudd and Jason Segel.

Knowing (2009)
And speaking of guys owning a genre, Nic Cage is the go-to guy for any Shitty Action Movie you may have. Remember when he won an Oscar? Neither do I.

Duplicity (2009)
A year after he wrote and directed a movie that was nominated for seven Oscars, I was expecting something a little better from Tony Gilroy than this confusing and marginally entertaining mess, which he also wrote and directed. But, he also wrote The Cutting Edge, so I should have suspected that not everything he writes is going to be Oscar-worthy.

Ratatouille (2007)
Until Dreamworks decides to really up their animation game and stop worrying about making money, they will never produce anything as well as Pixar. I don't care how much money all the Shreks and whatever else they've produced made, their entire filmography isn't as good as this one movie. Twenty-two Oscars for Pixar to two for Dreamworks; 'nuff said.

Yes Man (2009)
Have you seen Liar, Liar? No need to see this then.

The Last House on the Left (2009)
In the '70s, there were a number of horror movies made, like The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Last House on the Left, that shocked people with their portrayal of violence. They were cheaply made, were unrepentantly grim, and portrayed violence in a gritty and realistic way that gave them an almost documentary feel. They were terrifying when they first came out, but have developed cult followings over the years. And filmmakers have exploited these exploitation films by remaking them, but with the exact opposite qualities that made the originals so shocking. Wes Craven's Last House on the Left was so reviled that it was banned in many countries, most notably the U.K., where it was on the banned "video nasties" list for 30 years; it's tagline was "To avoid fainting, keep telling yourself, 'it's only a movie...'" This new version is a Disney movie by comparison. They even have the indecency to have a somewhat happy ending (and that thing with the microwave is impossible, by the way). I'm waiting with bated breath for a remake of I Spit on Your Grave.

Choke (2008)
A faithful adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's second-worst novel. I think you can do the math on that one.

Spaced: The Complete Series (1999)
Those who wonder where Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright get the inspiration for their movies need look no further than this show that Pegg wrote and Wright directed for the BBC. The zombies and action movie cliches are all here, and all brilliantly done, I might add.

The International (2009)
I'm sure this movie would have played better about 10 years ago, during the "swinging dick" years of international banking, but, during an age when the exact kind of debt financing portrayed in this movie has essentially destroyed the world economy, it comes off as kinda fanciful. It is a real hoot seeing the Guggenheim Museum get shot all to shit, though.

Frost/Nixon (2008)
Yet another movie about Richard Nixon by a filmmaker who hates Nixon. Good movie, but let the dead rest, will ya?

Donkey Punch (2008)
Yeah, I watched a movie called Donkey Punch that is actually about donkey punching. It's pretty much I Know What You Did Last Summer, but with more donkey punching and less Gorton's Fisherman.

And, after all that crap, the winner is:

Missing (1982)
Anyone considering traveling anywhere south of the Equator (or to the Middle East, for that matter) should probably watch this, because, despite what you might think, this shit actually does happen. It's based on a true story that was so controversal, the movie and the book on which it's based were pulled off the market for a number of years for legal reasons, and was banned in Chile, where the movie takes place. Nominated for four Oscars (with one win for Best Screenplay), it's one of the best movies to come out of the early '80s.

Check it out.