Short Attention Span Review: "Inglorious Basterds"

Finally got to see this before it escaped theaters. I'm glad I did - it seems most worthwhile to see this movie on the big screen (especially the explosive finale).

That said: I didn't *love* this movie. My problem with it comes down to the simple fact that two storylines are leading to the same conclusion and diminishing each other as a result. Shoshanna's vengeful plan to blow up Hitler's top men in the cinema runs parallel to the Basterds' plan to blow up Hitler's top men in the cinema. A friend correctly noted that this is basically two movies competing with each other inside of one. Neither comes out the winner.

Some elements of the movie were winners for me, though. Christopher Waltz was a great surprise as Hans Landa. I most enjoyed the scenes where people just talked and tension built, and he was in most of those.

Short Attention Span Review: "Zombieland"

How to put this succinctly:

Tight, compact, clever, and fun. A horror movie with BRAIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNs!

Normally, I'm not a huge Woody Harrelson fan, but he's great in the role of the zombie apocalypse's answer to Han Solo. Jesse Eisenberg, on the other hand, needs to be careful not to get typecast into movies involving theme parks and the word "LAND" in the title. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are a promising couple of scoundrels on the make.

And what's not to like about a cameo from Bill Murray?

Short Attention Span Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Visually impressive, but not my favorite of the bunch. They cut a lot of good stuff that I would have liked to have seen and put in some things I could have done without. Solid, sure, and mostly entertaining.

I particularly enjoyed Jim Broadbent's performance.

Short Attention Span Review: "Year One"

Rather than joining the sheep getting their brain cells eradicated by Michael Bay's new giant robot movie, I gave Harold Ramis some money for "Year One." It's not a great movie. It's not a sweeping summer blockbuster. But it's fun and has some genuinely funny moments. I got a kick out of the slow-speed horse cart chase scene and the seemingly never-ending murder of Abel by Cain. And while Transformers had Megan Fox, Year One had three attractive women sharing the screen. Also: Oliver Platt vamped up and begging for Michael Cera to oil him up? That was pretty damned funny.

Short Attention Span Review: "The Proposal"

Although this movie is amusing, its fundamentally flawed narrative premise and forced conclusion strip it of most redeemable features. At its core, The Proposal seems to preach that it's okay to give in to Stockholm Syndrome - to be extorted into a situation and then become enamored with your captor - rather than leaving yourself open to the possibility of making a fresh start with an old love or maybe finding a *real* love with that girl in the coffee shop back in New York City.

I liked about 75 percent of this movie a lot. But the ending killed it for me.

Short Attention Span Review: "The Hangover"

I laughed a lot during this movie.

Worth seeing on the big screen and with a large crowd around.

It's politically incorrect, perpetuates some bad stereotypes, and would get my money for a second viewing anyway.

Short Attention Span Review: "UP"

Of all the Pixar movies thus far, UP has become, without reservation or qualification, my absolute favorite. And, as a heart-tugging narrative, it outclasses most live action movies out there.

This movie struck several chords with me. First, there's youthful longing for adventure that gets burdened down by the realities of adult life. Then there's the sorrow of loss of people you love - to divorce; to disease. And, finally, there's hope and renewal. All of this deep meaning, wrapped up in a shiny package of talking dogs, squawking roadrunners, and adventure fiction.

Just perfect.

Short Attention Span Review: "Angels & Demons"

I found The Da Vinci Code dull and predictable and, at times, utterly ludicrous.

The sequel's still fairly predictable, but it's not dull. The dialogue seemed pretty easy to memorize most of the time: "ROBERT, HERE!" "ROBERT!" "HERE!" Occasional monologues provided exposition along the way.

Hanks does a good job with the material, which involves a mystery surrounding a Pope's death and the murder of a priest/scientist over a container of antimatter. The movie then turns into a sort of "24" meets "Foul Play." No Manilow tunes, however.

Ewan McGregor deserves special recognition for his portrayal of an earnest young priest with surprising ambitions.

Short Attention Span Review: "Slumdog Millionaire"

I missed this Best Picture winner when it came out in theaters and now I really regret that - I wish I'd seen it on the big screen.

The storytelling style reminded me of The Usual Suspects, coupled with coming of age stories like Stand By Me, with a healthy dose of Scarface and the Godfather thrown in for good measure. It's all set against the backdrop of a country that I clearly don't know enough about thanks to the questions posed in their version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

The subtitles are fun to follow. The performances are nothing short of astounding, from the kids to the adults. And the story, in the end, is just a simple boy meets girl tale done remarkably well.

Plus, pretty cool dance number at the end. Worth watching!

Short Attention Span Review: "W"

I didn't see Oliver Stone's "W" when it was in movie theaters. It seemed like exactly the sort of thing that would be just fine to watch on a TV screen. And it was.

It's not a bad movie. The performances are pretty good (although the standout poor performance, in my opinion, was Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice). I just didn't care and I didn't sympathize with ANYONE. Nor did I get much out of it, except regret that the pretzel failed its mission.

It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, it didn't change or validate any feelings I already had. It was the equivalent of a celluloid shrug.

Short Attention Span Review: "Star Trek"

I loved this movie. And my biggest fear, that Karl Urban wouldn't be up to the task of playing McCoy, proved totally unfounded.

The twists and turns applied to the existing mythos didn't bother me at all. The minds behind the revisualization of the Star Trek franchise did a terrific job. Nothing in this movie is a revelation or a deep social commentary, but it took a run-down jalopy and turned it into a hot-rodding machine.

Short Attention Span Review: "X-MEN Origins: Wolverine"

I went into this movie expecting to groan and grumble my way through it, just like I did during X-MEN 3.

I didn't.

I really had a good time watching this movie. I was even cheering for the cheesy leap-through-the-air-to-impale-the-helicopter moment because of the bad stuff that preceded it.

It's a big comic book action movie. Great fights, cool explosions, and lots of Hugh Jackman doing the snarly, SNIKT-y thing. Plus Gambit and a game of spot-the-future-mutants!

Oh, and Liev Schreiber did a great job too.

The fight with Deadpool reminded me a lot of Phantom Menace's Jedi vs. Sith battle...if Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon wanted each other dead.

Short Attention Span Review: "State of Play"

This movie, at its heart, comes across as a love letter to good old-fashioned newspaper journalism as it struggles to survive in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. The scandalous twists and turns are just window dressing for the rest of it.

Loved it. See it while you can. May be one of the last movies ever made that shows the process of making a print newspaper.

Short Attention Span Review: "Monsters vs. Aliens"

A lot of the best stuff from this movie really was in the commercials, but:

* Keifer Sutherland as Warren Monger? Pretty good.
* Stephen Colbert as the President? Not bad. Playing the Beverly Hills Cop theme to communicate with the aliens? Priceless.
* Good message about girl power or some such something or other.

Also: I want to use a couple of sports cars as roller skates. Can I?

Short Attention Span Review: "Watchmen"

Overall, this was a good movie. Like the graphic novel, it's got some points where it gets dragged down by too much of the talky-talky, but the visuals were great. The movie's not without other faults, though. Some of the actors weren't up to their tasks (Silk Specter and Ozymandius, I'm looking at you) and the gore and violence were so over the top that the fight scenes lost a lot of their visceral potential. (In Dark Knight, you don't actually SEE the pencil go into the guy's eye - the suggestion that it just happened is plenty to make an audience squirm.) Anyway, worth watching on the big screen, but be sure to take plenty of snacks.

Short Attention Span Review: "There Will Be Blood"

Here's me, still catching up on last year's Oscar contenders the night before the 2009 Academy Awards show.

GO ME!

So, I missed Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as Daniel Plainview when it first came out. I've been watching it in 20-minute increments during the past week or so. It is a painful thing to watch - not because the performance is bad (it's not), but the character is such an irredeemable, murderous, unapologetic asshole.

The music is a rumbling cacophony most of the time, sonically depicting the madness in this guy's warped mind. The cinematography is brilliant. All that said, I guess I appreciated it as a work of art, if not for any sympathy I might have had for the character.

Short Attention Span Review: "Coraline"

A brilliant work of stop-motion movie-making from Henry Selick. As a cohesive story, courtesy of Neil Gaiman, it's much better than A Nightmare Before Christmas (although I really love the musical numbers in that movie).

Short Attention Span Review: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Fantastic movie. Great makeup, but the stories and the characters that Benjamin meets in his remarkable journey of a life are what really seal the deal. It reminded me a lot of Forrest Gump. Worth the three hours it takes to watch it, and I highly recommend it on the big screen.

Short Attention Span Review: "Frost/Nixon"

I wouldn't say Frank Langella is spot-on as a body double for Richard Nixon, but he definitely pulls off the disgraced president's sullen pugnaciousness. Michael Sheen does a great job as David Frost, but I can't think of him as anyone other than Tony Blair because he has played the former British PM so many times.

Anyway, excellent movie. Now I want to see the play.

Will we get to see "Watchmen?" Maybe not!

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/12/judge-in-watchm.html?cnn=yes