Movies I've Watched This Year
Each movie is given a star rating with five stars being the best.
Click on a movie's poster to view information about that movie, a summary, and a small, personal review.
A faded movie poster means I haven't watched the movie yet but plan to soon.
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Director: Guy Ritchie.
Key Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, and Stephen Fry
Run Time: One hour and twenty-nine minutes.
Summary: Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) has always been the smartest man in the room... until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large -- Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) -- and not only is he Holmes' intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective.
Date Watched: December 21, 2011. (I just wanted one up okay don't judge me.)
Likes: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows boasts both a stellar cast (including Fry as Holmes' brother Mycroft and Paul Anderson as the Watson to Moriarty's Holmes, Sebastian Moran; Rapace's Sim was only bettered by the fact she wasn't forced to fulfill the obligatory position of love interest) and a wonderful soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Harris' Professor Moriarty brings an understandably darker turn to the series, and there seems to be a muted desperation to Downey's Holmes, as he deals with both literally and figuratively losing two people close to him, which sees him into the final showdown at Reichenbach Falls.
Dislikes: As much as I liked the film, I couldn't help but come out of it with a feeling of wasted potential. I couldn't say what it was, exactly, but - to put it in perspective, I've seen it said that this was better than the first, and I think I'd agree with that from a purely objective standpoint. But it felt like Sherlock Holmes was everything that it set out to be, and with everything A Game of Shadows had going for it, it just could have been... more.
Director: David Fincher.
Key Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, and Stellan Skarsgård
Run Time: One hour and fifty-eight minutes.
Summary: In the midst of the fallout from losing a libel case against crooked businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström, journalist Mikael Blomkvist accepts a job from Henrik Vanger: to solve the murder of his niece, Harriet Vanger, who disappeared almost 40 years previously. As he delves into the history of the dysfunctional Vanger family, he is eventually driven to seek out help from Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant and asocial young computer hacker.
Date Watched: January 17, 2012
Likes: On occasion, a movie will come out that's praised by not only critics, but people I consider reliable sources for good movies closer to me, and for whatever reason (presumably because I am neurotic and my brain doesn't work correctly) I will resist seeing it despite that assurance I'll like it. In almost every case, when I do eventually go see it, I'll end up liking it even more than I would have thought: thus was the case with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I have no idea why I haven't been listing David Fincher as one of my favorite directors for years, because every movie I see of his ends up as one of my favorites. Whether or not its his influence or not, I also come out of every one of his movies loving an actor I had heretofore been unaware of, such as Rooney Mara, who was far and away my favorite part of the film. I feel like Lisbeth Salander is a great, complicated character, but she could have been treated very one-dimensionally, and I'm glad that didn't happen.
Dislikes: This probably isn't the sort of movie you want to see with your parents, unless you have a very interesting relationship with them. That's not to say I especially dislike that - I have no extreme feelings on it one way or another - but it's very true. It's brutal at times, but it's brutal in all the right ways.
Director: Brad Bird
Key Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton
Run Time: One hour and thirty-eight minutes.
Summary: The IMF is implicated when a bomb destroys the Kremlin, and Ghost Protocol - a black operation contingency that disavows the entire agency - is initiated. Off the grid and without any support, Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization's name.
Date Watched: January 20, 2012
Likes: I have a confession: I haven't seen any of the other Mission: Impossible movies. Okay, wait, I might have seen part of the first one, but I was like ten and found it all very confusing at the time. Anyhow, there was really one reason I went to see this one: Simon Pegg. Well, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner. Still, I very much liked the entire movie (and Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner especially, obviously).
Dislikes: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. That's just the most ridiculous title ever, isn't it? Well that's really the sort of mindset you should keep for the entire film. It's a good movie, very enjoyable, but don't come looking for the next big Oscar darling, because you won't find it, and that's for the best.
