Cabin in the Woods 3 stars

I was totally caught off guard with this movie.  I had heard some comments that I needed to see it but then I saw the 91 rating on Rotten Tomato and took the plunge.   I loved it!   It's not going to win any academy awards but it's a fun movie.   Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about the movie without ruining it for you.  So, don't try and find out what it's about.  It's best you have no expectations when you see it.

The basic premise is that you have five young adults going up to a mountain cabin for the weekend.  The typical slasher movie start but you'll notice it's different this time.  Okay, that's enough, you'll have to watch the movie to see what the rest is about....you won't be disappointed :-)

The Hunger Games 2.5 stars

This movie is from the popular teen series of books.  The usually means there is a good story that needs to be well told and that is the case here.  I thought the premise was interesting with an excellent cast of young stars.   The heroine is an outstanding actress Jennifer Lawrence.  She received her first of many academy award nominations in the movie Winter Bone (3 stars but depressing).  If you are a fan of the books I don't think you will be disappointed.  From what I heard the movie is very true to the first book in the series.  Not being a fan of the series I found the movie to be pretty slow moving.   I also found it irritating that the characters, although under constant threat of sudden death, never had a sense of urgency or never thought twice about marching through the forest without wondering if someone was about to end their life.   The other thing that detracted from the movie was the close up filming during the action scenes so that it was hard to figure out what was going on.  I guess it was to hid the violence but I though it detracted from the film.

21 Jump Street 2.5 stars

This movie is a vehicle to showcase two very popular actors Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.  It was not done because someone had a great script.  Like the 80's TV show they are sent undercover at a high school to catch drug dealers.   It has some pretty good laughs, mostly centered around bathroom, drug, or drinking humor.   Unfortunately, not enough laughs for the 90 minute film to be worth spending money for a ticket to see it in the theater.   Put it on your Netflix list and watch it for "free" instead.

Act of Valor 2.5 stars

Navy seals put a lot of hurt on a lot of evil men.  Well done and makes you feel proud to be an American.  Not worthy of the price of a movie ticket though.  You will enjoy it just as well on Netflix or when it hits TV.

Academy Awards 2012 Rest of the Awards

I don't care about most the awards. I think most people don't either and wish the academy awards was only a hour long and just did the these awards:

Best actor:
Demian Bichir (who? Never heard of this movie "A better life")
George Cloney (should win with this list of actors)
Gary Oldman (Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy) (Great performance, equal to Cloney)
These shouldn't have been nominated:
Jean Dujardin (The Artist):  Good but not great
Brad Pitt (MoneyBall) Likeable performance but not his best work.

Missing:
Kevin Spacey (Margin Call) Should be the winner, best performance of the year)
Ryan Gosling (Ides of March) Rivetting performance in a depressing movie
Daniel Craig (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

Best Actress: 
Rooney Mara (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)  Should win but won't
Viola Davis (The Help) excellent performance but not the depth of Rooney
Michelle William (My week with Maryilyn)  Great job but this is a strong field
Didn't see these actresses in their movies
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) I heard her performance was great but the movie stunk.
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs).  I wish I could have seen this movie, heard its great
Missing
Jessica Christain (The Debt) Nominated for supporting role in The Help instead but won't win
Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) Powerful performance.  Could win this if nominated.

Supporting Actor:
Ed Harris should win for The Way Home but not nominated :-(
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender for X-Men First Class...again, not nominated.
I can't support any of the actors who were actually nominated.  The best was Kenneth Brannagh but I bet Max von Sydow wins because he's at the end of his career.

Supporting Actress:
Octavia Spencer stole the show in The Help and I support her winning it.  I didn't see Janet Mcteer in Albert Dobbs but the rest of the field were just okay.
Missing:
Shailene Woodley for the descendents
Anne Heche for Cedar Rapids

Academy Awards 2012 Best Picture

The academy bases its choices on who is "owed" a nomination and which studio needs to represented.  Because of that the list has mostly movies that were okay but not great.
The Academy's List
Best Picture Nominees (In my order of quality): 
The Help  (My choice of these movies)
The Descendants (very close second)
Midnight in Paris (distant third)
These movies should not be on the list at all:
The Artist
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Hugo
Money Ball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

My List of Best Picture in order of quality:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (my choice for best picture)
The Help (close second)
Margin Call
The Decendants
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Ides of March
Win/Win
Midnight in Paris
50/50

Be sure you put these movies on your "must rent" list, they are all great movies.

City of Life or Death

Haywire: 3 stars

Haywire is my type of movie.   The hero doesn't want to kill and maim people but they just keep poking her with a stick until she obliges them.   The star is mixed martial arts super star Gina Carano.  The critics have been hard on her, saying her performance was subpar.  I disagree, I think she did a great job and played the character perfectly.  Lot's of other stars in this movie (Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton), who pretty much just stood around or got then their butt's kicked by Ms Carano.  The story was also very well done.  When Haywire 2 shows up next year, I'll be right there to watch it.

The Artist: 3 stars

The Artist is a silent film that is the critics choice for best picture of 2011.   The movie is a little like The Star is Born where a big star is surpassed by an underling and the big star can't not deal with their change of fortunes.  I thought the beginning of the film was great.  The story moved along and it really captures your imagination.  Then as the big star starts his descent into obscurity and depression the movie slows down and I started looking at my watch to see when it would be over.   It never captures that early magic which is a shame.  If they had kept it happy and light all the way through they would have had a great movie.  It's a good movie but does not make my top 10 of 2011.

Contraband - 2 stars

Contraband could have been a good movie but the story is so bad you spend most of the movie groaning.  Mark Wallenburg is a  crook who has gone straight.  Unfortunately, his young brother in law followed in his footstep and ran afoul of the local psychopath.   This is where the story goes very wrong.  In order to set things right Wallenburg's character tells the psychopath that he will become a crook again and bring him millions of dollars in ill gotten gains and things well be square.  Even though the psycho doesn't agree to these terms, Wallenburg leaves his family hostage while he goes away to get the money....what?  Does this sound like a good plan to you?  Well that's how this whole movie is written.  One bad idea after another ensues until it's wrapped up nicely at the end with many needless deaths of innocent people.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 3.5 stars

This movie has an all star cast in Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds and John Hurt.  The problem is you never get enough of any of the actors in this movie.  They are all great and all have excellent roles so this movie could have been four hours instead of 2 to give you enough of each performance.  This movie is all about cold war espionage.  There's a soviet mole in the upper reaches of England's M6 that must be discovered.   Warning!  Like all Le Carre novels this movie moves at a glacial pace.  That doesn't make it bad but if you are expecting a Mission Impossible type of action flick you aren't going to get it here.  It slowly builds, putting the pieces together, until it all comes together at the end.   

War Horse 3 stars

Steven Spielberg does a fine job with this movie.  It's a nice family movie (even with the war scene) that is worthy of your movie dollar although just barely.   It's the story of a boy and his horse that are separated when the horse is sold to the army for their war effort (WWI).  The movie is well done but very, very slow in too many places.  They slow down to give you a chance to feel the emotions they are trying to manipulate but more often than not you are not moved by what is going on in the movie.  You can wait and catch this on TV and not feel you have missed anything but if you were looking for a good movie to take your family to then this might just be the movie for you.