The Hatter was sitting like a nerd in his chair, typing out one last post before Santa got there…

This week, my pace predictably slowed. Really, after a ten-watch week that involved five screenings, my pace really had nowhere to go but down. S’alright though, because the next seven days promise to get things back up to a usual level for me. I doubt that I’ll land on thye 425 I’d hoped for a few weeks back, but I’d wager that 420 is within reach…it all depends on how fast I can cut the year-end Matineecast.

The one weird side-effect of running about town all month catching advance screenings is that I now find myself with very little options. Weird ain’t it? The Theatres are crammed with so many wonderful choices, and I’m standing there just days after they open muttering to myself “Crap, they’ve got nothing for me”. There are still a few options of course – namely HOLMES, IRON LADY, and EXTREMELY LOUD.

But speaking of all of those films that opened in the last few weeks, they have given movie-goers some wonderful options to choose from. So if you find yourself with some spare time this week and you’re trying to decide, I assure you that you really can’t go wrong (unless your choice involves Chipmunks or New Year’s Eve – then God save you).

If you do finally get to catch up with titles like THE ARTIST, THE DESCENDANTS, TINTIN, WAR HORSE, DRAGON TATTOO, or MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, be sure to come back here and share your thoughts, yes?

Here’s The Week at Hand…

Screenings
HIGH NOON – I was going to put this on the blind side list for 2012, but I knew it was screening at The Lightbox in 2011. I considered that cheating.
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS – Lowered expectations are doing good things for my moviegoing these days.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 – Wasn’t as good as I was led to believe, though it might suffer in that it’s the only M:I I didn’t see in a theatre.
SPIRITED AWAY – The anime syllabus begins with a “Wow!”. In a future post, I’ll hash out my reaction further.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
THE INCREDIBLES – Three guesses why I reached for this one?
DIE HARD – Kicking off my Christmas movie-watching in earnest with a fave
SCROOGED – And then moving on to one that never gets old.

Boxscore for The Year
234 First-Timers, 176 Re-Watched
410 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

25 Replies to “Days Of The Week (Films Watched 12/17 – 12/23)”

  1. Merry Christmas 😀

    Good week- Firsts: Senna– It was nice; very well edited, but it suffered due to my very low attention-span for sport movies.
    Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol– As I said, I really enjoyed it. But I would like Brad Bird to make more animated films too.
    Alien– Scary shit. Quite liked it, even though I had to hit the pause buttons quite a few times.
    Aliens– SO BRILLIANT! Ellen Ripley is totally going on my list of most inspirational and badass fictional women.
    The Skin I Live In– Creeeepy. I liked the look and the sound of the film, but the story was a little hard to digest. I think Banderas’s Robert is at par with Ezra Miller’s Kevin as the most diabolical villains of this year.
    Clerks– What mundane epicness! Loved it.

    Rewatched- LoTR: The Two Towers (Extended version)– Though it’s the weakest in the trilogy, I still give it mad points for Treebeard-awesomeness.
    LoTR: The Return of the King (Extended version)– My favourite. Eowyn and Legolas rule all.
    Juno– I missed Michael Cera. I love this film so much!
    Scott Pilgrim Vs The World– Again, I missed Cera. And Wright. And the whole gang. This film is brilliance.

    I’m seeing L’illusionniste for Christmas Eve tonight 😀

    1. The two Alien films for the first time eh? That’s a very merry Christmas! I was about to ask why you didn’t watch FELLOWSHIP, until I remembered that you watched that last week. Lindsay is all excited because The Lightbox will be showing all three on the big screen next weekend.

      And not to give away too much, but THE SKIN I LIVE IN comes up on the year-end Matineecast quite a bit!

  2. Work and family obligations really wore me out this week so did not get to watch much:

    First time:

    Rango – Why did it take me so long to watch this? Such a fun film.

    Christmas Carol: The Movie – Watched it mainly because Kate Winslet and Nic Cage provided voice. The film is awful. It was made in 2001 but feels like a bad animated film from the 70’s.

    The Palace – Already talked about it on my site

    Things I Don’t Understand – Some good moments but the director tried to cram in way too many ideas.

    Sherlock (BBC series 2010/2011) – Okay, not really film related but I quite enjoyed season one. Wish there was more than three episodes though.

    Merry Christmas to you, Lindsay, Shane and the entire McNeil clan. See you in the New Year!

    1. That’s gonna be me on my next entry. So much family running around and writing about what I *have* seen has left me very little time to watch anything new. ‘Course it doesn’t help that in lieu of movies I’m mowing through the seasons of The Muppet Show Lindsay bought me for Christmas.

      I’m gonna get on to Sherlock sooner or later – there’s just so much darned TV that I want to watch these ays!

  3. Nothing new this week. I’ve been pretty much burned out right now so I watched a re-watched a few films I had on DVD like The Darjeeling Limited (w/ Hotel Chevalier), Last Year at Marienbad, and The Red Shoes and stuff on TV like Spaceballs and the 2003 remake of The Italian Job. I’ll probably watching something I haven’t seen tonight in Topsy-Turvy and then go see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tomorrow morning. Anyways, Merry Xmas.

    1. I watched TOPSY-TURVY for the first time this past year and was quite taken by it…actually, on the whole I think Im starting to understand the fuss everyone makes about Mike Leigh.

      Hope your Christmas was good – what’d you think of Dragon Tattoo?

  4. Have a good Christmas! Between multiple gatherings and a rather eventful work-do, I’ve watched quite a lot this week.

    First-timers:
    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Yeah, it was okay. Very dark, which I liked.
    Fast Times at Ridgemont High – Goodness, Sean Penn was hilarious in this!
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – I actually loved this. It was extremely bleak. And poor Dobby 🙁
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – I loved this one, too. What a great end to the series.
    Horrible Bosses – Funniest comedy of the year. Mind you, I’ve been disappointed by just about every comedy this year. I’m turning into such a snob!
    Chatroom – An interesting idea that was let down by too many silly teen problems. I liked the style of it, though.
    Cinema Paradiso – Was on TV last night. I thought it was sweet…especially the end.

    Rewatches:
    Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Even better the second time. I can’t believe how much I loved it.
    Bridesmaids – My friends wanted to watch it. I still think it’s overrated and far too long, but I admit, I still had a laugh in some parts. Melissa McCarthy’s character is an inspiration.
    Love Actually – What can I say? It gets me into the Christmas spirit.

    1. Your avatar is she & Him, right? Been listening to them a lot this week…

      Not sure if you listened to the last podcast episode, but I mentioned Cinema Paradiso on it. There was one year where my favorite art house cinema in town had a free showing of that on December 23rd as a Christmas gift for its patrons. It was a perfect choice.

  5. Glad it seems you loved Spirited Away. I love it, too. As for my films…

    New Theatrical:
    -Hugo – Kind of a let down after the massive raves, but I still liked it.

    First Time:
    -Swingers – It was alright. I liked it more the more it went on.
    -Singin’ in the Rain – Not perfect, but I still loved it.
    -One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Loved it completely.

    Rewatch:
    (People were getting me into an HP mood…)
    -Harry Potter/Sorcerer’s Stone – A good start.
    -Harry Potter/Chamber of Secrets – I’ve never hated it as much as other people have, but I can definitely understand why people don’t like it. I still think it was perfect casting for Lockhart, though.
    -Harry Potter/Prisoner of Azkaban – I’ve always had a dislike for this one on an adapation level… but for some reason, this watch brought to light a LOAD more logic and plot holes that I’d never noticed before. So to me, it’s starting to fail even as a film.
    -Harry Potter/Goblet of Fire – By far the weakest of the movies. It’s not only a bad adaptation, but it has terrible interpretations of characters (Dumbledore in particular), and there are plenty of things just just plain don’t make sense, even separating it from the books.
    -Harry Potter/Order of the Phoenix – Great start to Yates’ takeover.

    1. What let you down about Hugo? Given how long it takes movies to get out to you, I’m surprised you pay any atention to what people are saying about them – it’d drive me nuts.

      For a moment I was feeling like putting on one of our HP movies – then I looked on the shelf and realized Lindsay had loaned them al out to one of her friends. Bummer.

  6. Not a terribly busy week for me, since we recorded the podcast early:

    For Reel Insight
    -A Cry in the Dark
    -Death Becomes Her
    -Kramer vs Kramer
    -Silkwood

    New Stuff
    -I Saw the Devil
    -Midnight in Paris
    -Shakespeare Retold: Macbeth
    -Shakespeare Retold: Much Ado About Nothing
    -The Game (the first half, haven’t had time to finish)

    Rewatches
    -Love Actually
    -Scrooged

    And we’re currently rockin’ a Christmas Day LOTR marathon. Extended edition of course!

  7. Hugo
    Tintin
    Dragon Tattoo

    The Hangover Part 2
    The Truman Show
    Father of the Bride
    30 Minutes or Less

    Senna
    Tabloid
    Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
    13 Assassins
    The Myth of the American Sleepover
    Jackass 3D
    Metropolitan

  8. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    Die Hard
    Au hasard Balthazar
    Hunger

    A really satisfying week at the movies

      1. More than??? Wow, I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone else enjoying it quite that much. I certainly enjoyed it as much as the first: what did you like better thins time?

        1. Lord Blackwood just did not do anything for me at all. Jared Harris was, at the very least, a compelling villain who posed a threat to Holmes.

  9. BELLFLOWER: A clear visual talent, not just for the unique cinematography but the visual storytelling itself. Sadly weighed down by its horrible acting and meandering narrative.
    HAPPY FEET TWO: Ugh.
    TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL: A nice inversion of types, similar to that Grendel novel that sets Beowulf from the monster’s POV.
    MYSTERIES OF LISBON: Seven Samurai is the fasted three-and-a-half-hour movie ever, and this is the fastest four-and-a-half-hour movie ever. Gorgeous and playful to the end. I really need to see more Ruiz.
    FILM SOCIALISME: The most infuriating movie I’ve ever seen, yet one of the most beautiful, provocative and poetic. Destined to be one of my favorite Godards.
    SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS: I’m embarrassingly behind on Preston Sturges and this big time influence on the Coens is only a further reminder I need to catch up. Almost effortlessly quick on its feet and ingeniously circular in its movement.
    RIFIFI: Falls apart after the brilliantly shot heist but damn, that sequence is justly legendary.
    THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011): Fincher guts a mediocre slab of wish-fulfillment and makes it into something of a career summary. A dash of Ripley, a half-cup of Se7en, add Zodiac analog and TSN digital, serve ice-cold. Can’t overcome fundamental flaws in the story, but comes SO damn close.
    POETRY: Not as wrenching as Secret Sunshine but perhaps more profound. A meditation on art that reconciles its capacity for escapism and confrontation, suggesting each end can be accomplished only through the other.
    THE ARTIST: Some fantastic scenes but overall horribly paced and not even remotely like a silent film. It almost relies on dialogue, even, given the pretty but banal direction.
    THE IRON LADY: Hysterically bad. Frames Thatcher as some kind of Girl Power icon even as it obliviously presents her as damn near a brownshirt. Meryl gives good chameleon, but she’s so tied to the terrible script that she never breaks free of the movie around her to shine. Also, the stuff w/ Thatcher’s dementia was downright offensive.
    I MELT WITH YOU: This is neck and neck with POTC 4 as my worst of the year. Like Fight Club meets The Hangover, but way, way worse.

  10. That, my friend, is a boatload of watching for one week!

    Have you posted about THE ARTIST yet? I’d be curious to read what you didn’t like about it given that it’s one of my favorites of the year.

  11. I’ve been watching different versions of “A Christmas Carol” with my parents this season and “Scrooged” was our Christmas Day viewing. New to them, and I hadn’t seen it in so long it was practically new to me. Aggressively manic at times, but lots of funny bits and it captures the spirit of the tale surprisingly (given the manic-ness) well.

    You were asking if anyone else liked Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. Count me- and my film club friends- in. I’d recommend it to anyone who liked the first movie.

    1. Good to see you got some festive watching in. My watching of the Christmas films was far later than usual this year, mostly due to being a bit more social than usual. Happily though, I touched many of the bases while cooking up a storm on Christmas Eve – one of the bonuses of the TV being visible from the kitchen.

      What’s the next film on tap for your film club?

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