A Look at the Movies I Got to See in 2011

Ok, maybe the third time will be the charm

Movies from this past year I actually got to see

I don’t see many movies. I find it boring to sit in a theater for two hours when I could be outside doing something fun. For some reason, going to the movies isn’t the same “magic” experience it was when I was a kid. From high prices to irritating people around you, it’s just not fun like when I was a kid. I will talk some other time about the movies in the 80’s which I loved. However, this year I did see a pretty fair share (for me) of films and wanted to just go over them. This list isn’t going to be very long, but here we go anyway.

 

JUST GO WITH IT-I am not the biggest Adam Sandler fan in the world, and while I love Jennifer Aniston she does make bad movies (Bounty Hunter? Ugh!). I am not sure what compelled me to see this movie which has Adam Sandler making up one lie after another in an attempt to win a girl. Honestly, I kind of liked this movie. The actors were good and the story was cute, if a bit contrived. The end killed me though, it was if they just decided to stop and that was it. There is not big climax, the movie just ended and suddenly the leads we knew would get together did. As for the movie Adam Sandler released later that year, I won’t even dignify that one.

SOURCE CODE-I love movies in which we get to see an event from different points of view. I loved Groundhog Day, and Vantage Point is one of my favorites ever. This movie was good, even if the plot was kind of contrived. Basically it’s about a guy who keeps being sent to the last moments of a woman’s life before being killed in a train wreck. He has to keep doing this until he finds out who and what caused the explosion which wrecked the train. Was it time travel? Was it alternate realities? Don’t know, fortunately the movie isn't very long and moves so quickly and keeps you interested enough so you don’t realize how silly the plot really is.

GREEN LANTERN-I have loved Green Lantern since I was a kid; this is the character that brought me to comic books. Superman is and always will be #1, but GL is a close second (tied with Batman). So, this film could have been awful and I would have gone to see it. It wasn’t that bad, but I admit it wasn’t great either. For the most part they stayed true to the mythos. The CGI was ok, and Ryan Reynolds surprised me a decent Hal Jordan. The real flaws were the writing, maybe they rushed the script to much but the script just one too many flaws. However, to see my favorite superhero finally brought to life on screen was awesome and the kid inside me loved it.

SUPER 8-I kind of saw this by accident. It starts out a very nice period piece about kids trying to make a little movie. Then the alien arrives, and the film just gets weirder and weirder. You can tell Steven Spielberg was involved with this, the movie felt like a tribute to him. It reminded me of four or five of his other past movies. Can this guy come up with anything new? This was a fun watch, but wasn’t anything new and I always hated the way the film just ended with no resolution to what happened to the characters after the alien vessel finally left. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.

ZOOKEEPER-I admit I liked Mall Cop, but this one was just to hard to take. I watched this because it was filmed where I live in the Boston area. I wish I hadn’t. This plot was so thin, I really couldn’t believe it. The talking animals weren’t cute, they were just annoying. Kevin James shtick of falling and screaming is starting to get old. The worst part was he had no chemistry with Rosario Dawson. I swear I didn’t even realize they were supposed to wind up together till halfway through the movie. Silly and full of clichés. The worst scene was that stupid T.G.I Friday’s scene. It was so dumb!

MONEYBALL-I gotta tell you, I really liked this movie. I have been a diehard Red Sox fan for years, and this behind the scene look at Major League Baseball was very interesting. I can see how someone who doesn’t care about Baseball would not like this, but for me it was very interesting. Brad Pitt was really good in this, and I guess the only complain I would have is that there was not very much real Baseball in it. The end of the movie has a scene in Fenway Park, and I loved seeing that place on the screen. It brought a smile to my face; Fenway is one of my favorite places in the world. I really want to see this again, and was lucky to see it with my Baseball loving Aunt which helped the experience.

COWBOYS & ALIENS-This was an interesting film. It’s a great concept, what if aliens invaded the old west? It starts as a classic western and is really good, and then the sci fi comes in. That’s where the movie kind of spirals down. As the alien plot starts to develop, it begins to feel more like familiar territory, as if I had seen it before. When the woman is revealed the be an alien, that's when I started to give up on this film. Then when the cowboys board the alien ship I thought I was watching Super 8 again, it's so similar! The aliens were bland and boring; I didn’t even care about them. The cast was great, especially Harrison Ford. So, as a Western it was great but as a Sci Fi flick, not so much.

THE MUPPETS-I think most know that I am the one person who did not love this movie. It was really good, but some things just did not sit well with me. I hated the two human leads, and the love story just bored me. The villain was a cartoon, and the way it ended kind of irked me. However The Muppets were great and some of the music numbers were really good. The Rainbow Connection scene was totally worth the price of admission. Walter was a surprisingly sympathetic and very relatable character. I love the Muppets and anything they do, so even with the gripes I have with this film I imagine when it finally does come out on DVD I will be purchasing myself a copy.

I would like to explain why certain films are not on this list. Thor never appealed to me, so that was out. I gave up on Harry Potter after the second movie.  Transformers 2 was one of the worst experiences of my life, so the third was out (ok, I exaggerate but I really did hate that 2^nd movie).  And since I am not a twelve year old girl Twilight had no appeal for me.

There a couple movies I am sorry I missed. I kind of wish I saw Winnie the Pooh. I feel like I missed something not seeing the Captain America movie, may have to rectify that. And Tower Heist kind of looked interesting. Of course there are other films you couldn't pay me to see and I am glad I missed them, like that Mel Gibson film The Beaver.

Looking ahead to next year, not really sure what is coming out. I am eager to see the new Batman movie. I am a DC fan (obvious since I missed the two Marvel movies but saw the one crappy DC one), but I may just have to check out the new Avengers movie. The Three Stooges? Please! Finally, I am not sure about the new Spider-Man movie. We’ll have to see when it gets closer. If anyone has suggestions for films I missed this year, or new one's coming next year, I would love to hear them.

That’s it for now, looking forward to going over my list next year. Until then, Happy New Year everyone!