See 24 movies in the theater in 2008

13. 4 Christmases
14. Marley & Me
15. Seven Pounds
16. Twilight
17. Role Models (saw it twice, but the goal says see 24 movies, not 24 different movies :))
18. Saw V (saw it twice, but the goal says see 24 movies, not 24 different movies :))
19. The Spirit

15. 4 Christmases- It was cute, but I wouldn’t pay 9 dollars to see it again.
16. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- This was definitely worth my 9 dollars… I highly recommend it to everyone

Considering I only have 3 days left in 2008, I don’t foresee this happening. Oh well, movies cost a lot of money, so maybe it’s for the best.

Role Models

...that movie was hilarious! I thought it was really good :)

So I went to two screenings on Saturday and three screenings on Sunday, and saw a total of seven documentary films. I’m going to give the briefest of synopses on each of them.

The English Surgeon: The story of Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon who has visited Kiev in order to help out patients who are being failed by the Ukraine’s medical system.

La Corona (The Crown): A documentary about a beauty pageant held in Colombian women’s prison.

The Order of Myths: A film about Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, where the celebrations are set up along colour lines.

The Suicide Tourist: About legal doctor-assisted suicide in Switzerland, and some of the people who travel there in order to end their lives.

Freeheld: Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s struggle to get her pension transferred to her domestic partner, Stacie. The Oscar-winner in 2007 for Best Documentary, Short Subject.

Cure For Love: A documentary about the ex-gay movement in evangelical Christianity (and the ex-ex-gay movement as well), within the framing device of a gay man and a lesbian who are married.

STRANDED: I’ve Come From A Plane That Crashed On The Mountains: A documentary about Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 thirty years later, that has interviews with the survivors and dramatic recreations of their story.

They weren’t all easy to watch: the stories really hit me hard and stirred up a lot of thoughts and feelings about the world, which is the point of the festival. It was an emotional weekend, but they were all worth seeing, particularly Stranded and The English Surgeon. Next time you’re in your library or independent video store, try to track one of these films down.

This weekend I’m going to the Global Visions Film Festival. I got a six-pack pass when I donated to the local campus radio station, and there are a LOT of documentaries that I want to see. In fact, looking at what I’m planning on seeing, I’ll be able to make it to 24 movies by Sunday night. Not exactly what I was planning on when I started this goal, but I think it’s going to be an interesting and enlightening experience.

I want to remember this. I love watching movies.

11. Saw V

I went to these two movies one afternoon, expecting comedies with a little action thrown in. I was wrong: there was a lot more action than I had expected, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just that I had set myself up for a laugh-fest and got more than my fair share of explosions.

Briefly: Get Smart was mostly good, an average summer popcorn flick. Most of the jokes worked, some fell flat, but I honestly thought they could have made it funnier, and maybe lost one of the action sequences. I could be wrong, though. And I thought Pineapple Express was well-made, funny, and exiting, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I think I need to see it again to get a better handle on it, but as it stands, it sits in between Forgetting Sarah Marshall (AWESOME) and Superbad (okay) in the Apatow films I’ve seen this year.

I had forgotten to put this movie on my list, apparently. But I’ll write something quick here. I know a lot of people find the “message” in this movie a little heavy-handed, but I never really got hung up on the message. Well, maybe towards the very end, but overall, I was more interested in the beautiful animation, great storytelling, and amazing adventure. Wall-E might not be the best Pixar movie ever made – I think that’s a toss-up between Ratatouille and Toy Story – but it definitely stands up.

Haven’t updated in a while

10. House Bunny
11. Sex and the City
12. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
13. Nights in Rodanthe
14. Kung Fu Panda