#121: Let Me In (7/10)

Let The Right One In is a 2008 Swedish film that I quite liked. You can read my post here.  Let Me In is the American remake. They both have the exact same plot... a girl befriends an outcast young boy... she is actually a vampire... young love blossoms.  Both films have a fairly deliberate pace and a distinct tone, which is also very similar between the two. This is basically a straight-up exact remake, but I didn't have a problem with that. It is a very good story that I was looking forward to seeing retold.

A lot of critics cast hate on Let Me In before they ever saw it saying there was no reason for its existence. I understand their point as Let The Right One In is a very good film that was very recently released.  However, nobody is holding a gun to their head forcing them to see Let Me In.

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The Day The Movies Died

I'm not one that buys into the comic book or super-hero nostalgia that is being sold these days at the multiplexes.  I wasn't even that big a fan of the "best comic book movie of all time"... aka The Dark Knight.  It is frustrating to see all the money in Hollywood get poured into these franchises.  For the most part I agree with Mark Harris from GQ Magazine. I might say that his piece "The Day The Movies Died" is a tad on the doom and gloom side, but he makes a lot a valid points.  If you haven't read it yet, make sure to check it out....

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The Social Network: Additional Thoughts

I re-read my post on The Social Network and I realize that I didn't say a whole lot about the actual movie.  Here are a few thoughts....

~The beginning scene bothered me. It is okay, but the extremely fast talking almost seems silly.  The main question is how a guy like Mark Zuckerberg ever started dating a girl like that in the first place.  I wondered how in the world he could have ever been charming enough to land that chick. How did they meet? How long had he even been dating her?

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#120: The Social Network (9/10)

In the spring of 2004 I sat in a Purdue University computer lab and set up a Facebook account. I had no clue at the time I was getting in on somewhat of the ground floor of a site that would change how we interact on the internet for years to come. I had no idea about the who, how, or why this site was created. I remained willingly ignorant of those facts right up to the time I started The Social Network.  Sure I knew the name of Mark Zuckerberg, but I had no clue who he really was or what part he played in the creation of the site. Now I've watched The Social Network twice. I'm still not sure how much I really know about the facts behind the creation of Facebook, but damn, what a story.

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#119: Buried (6/10)

I don't like small spaces. I don't consider myself full-on claustrophobic, but I've never had a psychological analysis.  At the beginning of Buried there were a few moments where I didn't know if I was going to be able to continue watching.  Seeing a guy stuck in a casket was bad enough. Thinking about the earth weighing down on top of him as he pushed up on the lid was almost too much to take.  I was able to make it through, and I am glad  I did.

From beginning to end Buried takes place in the small, confined space of a wooden box.  It is so small that our protagonist can barely move. It is completely dark. There are no flash-backs or cut-aways to stuff going on in the outside world.  It doesn't sound like the most compelling setting for a thrilling movie.  It is most definitely an experiment in film making. I thought the experiment worked well. It offered a lot of excitement considering the situation.

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#118: Cyrus (6/10)

I'm finally able to get things back on track with posting to this blog. I've been watching a lot of really good movies lately, and I am way behind on writing about any of them. That is what happens when you have a baby I guess. We've been snowed in around here all week, so I will try to take advantage of that by catching up on a few posts.

When I initially heard about Cyrus it immediately went on my list of "most anticipated". I really enjoyed the other films by the Duplass brothers (Humpday & The Puffy Chair). Cyrus would be the first one with a more well-known cast. I really didn't care that the cast was more well-known, but I did care that it was Jonah Hill and John C. Riley. I really enjoy both of them as comedic actors. I thought they would be great together.  With the solid story from the Duplasses I really had high expectations for this movie.

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