To Rome, with Love

The movie was very strange. It was an attempt to be nostalgic. I imagine it would be a better film for people who have already visited Rome for a significant amount of time.
There are 3 story lines that run independent of each other. They don’t intertwine. None of them seem completely believable, in fact, each of them leans heavily towards the ridiculous.
The feel of this movie is very similar to the feel of some off-off-broadway shows that I’ve gone to, except those shows had better dialogue.
Woody Allen is funny.
I don’t like Opera, but this film made the Opera singer funny.

Everything else was pretty much a waste.
4 out of 10. Add a star if you spent a significant amount of enjoyable time in Rome. Remove a star if you dislike Alec Baldwin.

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Seeking a Friend (for the End of the World)

This review contains spoilers, but only because I believe that giving this spoiler will help you enjoy the movie more. If you don’t want to read spoilers about this movie, all you need to know is I liked the movie overall.

Now on to the spoilers! 🙂

Seeking a Friend was a little sad, but not as sad as I expected it to be.

It had an early scene where a guy [commits suicide by jumping out a window and] (suddenly and unexpectedly) crash lands on Carell’s windshield. That prepared me to expect any close-up to be accompanied by a horrific scene. So, I was anxious the rest of the movie. However, that was really the only horrific scene, so it unnecessarily ruined the movie for me.

They really didn’t need to show it in such a jarring way. They could easily have shown a suicide jumper (depicting people’s sadness at the end of the world) without resorting to terror-tactics.

I liked Carell more in roles like this, where he not trying to be funny. If you are looking for a funny Carell, look elsewhere. But if you find him to normally be frantic, awkward, and annoying, you might enjoy watching him calmly face the end of the world.

Some reviews complained about Knightley’s performance, but not I. I found her performance consistent with the unstable character she plays in the film. I didn’t see any positive or negative energy between the two leads, but the world is about to end, so how much chemistry is there going to be? In fact, you could argue that more chemistry would have made the film less believable.

I liked the movie overall. I have to take off a point for the jarring suicide scene early in the film, so I give it a 7 out of 10.

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Movie Reviews for 2011

Films released in 2011 that I saw in the same calendar year

You can see a full list of films on Wikipedia

Films are listed chronologically

Title	Genre	Rating
The Green Hornet	Superhero Action Comedy	5
Unknown	Thriller Action Adventure	4
Hall Pass	Blue Comedy	5
The Adjustment Bureau	Romantic Thriller Political	6
The Lincoln Lawyer	Legal Drama	4
Win Win	Sports Comedy Drama	7
Source Code	Science-fiction Techno Thriller	7
The King’s Speech	Historical Drama	2
Your Highness	Fantasy Blue Comedy	4
Fast Five	Action Adventure	5
Thor	Superhero	4
Bridesmaids	Black Comedy	1
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Fantasy Adventure Action Sword	6
Midnight in Paris	Romantic Comedy Fantasy Historical	8
The Hangover Part II	Blue Comedy	5
Beginners	Independent Drama	6
Bad Teacher	Blue Comedy	7
Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Science-fiction Action	3
Horrible Bosses	Black Comedy	4
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Epic Fantasy	7
Captain America: The First Avenger	Superhero Historical	8
Rise of the Planet of the Apes	Science-fiction	6
The Help	Drama Comedy Historical	9
Conan the Barbarian	Fantasy Sword Sorcery Action	1
Colombiana	Action Gangster	6
Our Idiot Brother	Drama Comedy	7
Drive	Drama Action Gangster	6.5
I Don’t Know How She Does It	Comedy	4
Moneyball	Sports Drama	6
The Ides of March	Political Drama	6
The Three Musketeers	Steampunk Action Historical	4
Margin Call	Financial Thriller Historical	5
Anonymous	Drama Historical	3
Tower Heist	Crime Comedy	6
Immortals	Epic Action Fantasy Adventure Drama	4
J. Edgar	Biographical Drama Historical	4
Hugo	Family Adventure Drama	3
Mission Impossible	Action Comedy Drama	6.5

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City Island

I went to see “City Island” on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. The movie I really wanted to see, “Kick-Ass” was still playing, but I’d promised to wait to see it with Michelle, so it was off-limits.

Before I decided on “City Island” I went to imdb.com and saw it had a rating of over 9 out of 10.

This movie is about a family, on City Island in the Bronx, that excel at keeping secrets from each other. The most publicized one is the father/husband correctional officer who keeps his acting classes a secret from his family by telling them he’s out gambling.

The film is much better than it has any right to be. I’d not heard of this film from any main stream media and I don’t understand why it doesn’t have a greater buzz.
It’s a serious film. It’s a comedic film. It’s an educational film. It’s an inspiring film.

The audience laughed out loud many times during the showing I was at. Sometimes their laughter masked the next spoken line or two of the film’s characters.

Not all of the subplots are completely logical, but all of them are great fun.

I would highly recommend this film to adults. I give “City Island” 8.5 out of 10.

From Paris With Love

There was nothing good playing (that I hadn’t already seen), so I went to see “From Paris With Love” Tuesday night.

This movie is a spy/action movie. The plot is super thin, the action is ridiculous, and the dialog is childish. I kept waiting for the movie to get serious and become a “movie”, but it never did.

Maybe I was just in the mood for mindless action and silly jokes, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Everything was so over the top that I was able to watch it like a cartoon.

Sure, it had a couple of requisite car chases that would have bored me had I not used to opportunity to check my emails and text messages. There is gore, blood, and scores of dead people, but, it’s so cartoon-ish that it nary mattered a whit.

This is a great action/comedy popcorn movie. It’s probably not the best “date” movie. (You’ll understand if you see it. 🙂 )

I give it a 7 out of 10, but, with the warning that this is not an intellectual movie.