#133: Black Swan (7/10)

I finally got around to seeing Black Swan. It seems like an entire year has passed since this was initially getting hyped. Amazingly I went in completely unspoiled. I knew nothing about the film other than the actors' names and the subject matter. Overall I was really impressed with it. It lived up to most of the praise I'd heard over the past several months.

Even though I really liked the complete film it was uneven for me. I loved 80% of it, and hated the other 20%. I suppose that is the way I am with most films that I really like, but this one felt exaggerated in its unevenness.

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Awesome movie weekend

I really haven't been watching many movies this year. I've had a new baby, a new job, and little interest in the movies that have come out over the last few months. There were some leftovers from last year that I still hadn't gotten around to. I decided to change that. I started the weekend off with Black Swan on Friday night. I watched Trouble the Water and The Fighter on Saturday. Then on Sunday I saw Rango. I wasn't too impressed with Trouble the Water, but the rest were great.

For some reason I always get a little put off by the movies that get tons of attention during awards time. I still haven't seen The King's Speech, but plan to at some point. Black Swan wasn't a film that excited me all that much, but still I felt like I had to see it. This was the same with The Fighter. I was impressed by both, but for totally different reasons.

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#132: Devil (5/10)

The Sixth Sense blew my mind. Unbreakable wowed me. Signs disappointed, and The Village down right pissed me off.  I skipped Lady in the Water. I laughed at the scathing reviews of The Happening and frowned when everybody hated The Last Airbender so much.  I had no intention of watching Devil, even though it got middling reviews when it came out last year.  By some miracle we got free HBO and Cinemax for a weekend and Devil was on, so I DVRed it.

I suppose my expectations for Devil were so low that it could only exceed them, so it is a little unfair to say something like "it was better than I thought it would be". However, it was. I have to admit that I very much enjoyed the entire process of watching this movie. It is short and sweet. I'm not saying there isn't any room for improvement; because there is a lot of that, but I'm definitely glad I watched it.

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The dark of the Internet

I have been on the fence about watching Transformers 3. I didn't particularly like the first film. It was okay, but just kind of meh. The second one had a few cool moments, but overall was horrible. The last half hour seemed to drag on for an eternity. I have never been so excited to get out of the theater. Now the 3rd one comes along, and to make matters worse it is in 3D. I am not a fan of 3D.

I've been free all weekend. I had every opportunity to go see it, but I haven't done it. I guess I am scared that I will have a similar experience to the previous movie. Early in the week lots of people were able to go see press screenings. The early reaction was one of surprising approval. Most probably had extremely low expectations, and this film was able to exceed those. Then the second wave was the backlash from the somewhat positive comments that were being shared. It seemed as though some people on the internet have a deep seeded hatred for Michael Bay and the Transformers franchise. I've read several things lately (not all related to TF3) that reminds me some people think the internet gives them the right to be an asshole. I hope I never come across like that. I do write a blog in order to share my opinion about film, so it is already clear that I am full of shit.

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