Again, I watched a lot of movies this year (98). Most of those early in the year were rented from the awesome and local That’s Rentertainment and watched alone. Later in the year I had someone who appreciates movies as much as, perhaps more than, me to watch them with.

We got movies from the Urbana Free Library, watched some at the UFL, netflix, netflix-on-demand, That’s Rentertainment, and even saw one at the Harvest Moon Drive-in. We also saw several in assorted theaters, including a couple at Ebertfest.

March was the high with 17 movies watched, while August and October tied for the low with only 2 each.

I wish I had more to say about some of these highly varied movies. Some were awful [Wanted, Sleuth '#2'], some were corny [Balls of Fury], many were not in English, some were serious, and some were great. I’ll leave it to you to discover those on your own, though, as our tastes probably are not the same.

Movies watched in 2007

Movies watched in 2006

January 2008

Live Free or Die Hard
3:10 to Yuma
The Namesake
Pizza
The Simpsons Movie
Helvetica – enjoyable documentary
la Vie en Rose – did not like sequencing, and songs not translated
Balls of Fury – ping pong kung fu (if you like wackiness, what’s not to like?)
Once

February 2008

Blame it on Fidel!
War
Year of the Dog
Opal Dream
The Brave One
Film geek
Buffalo ’66
Acts of Worship
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (at Karen and Adam’s)

March 2008

Iris
A Beautiful Mind
30 Days of Night
Romance & Cigarettes
Across the Universe – not so impressed
Eastern Promises
Eagle vs. Shark
Eye of the Dolphin
Things that hang from trees
Night Watch
Agnes .. und seiner bruder / Agnes and his brothers
The Last Legion
The Hottest State
The Memory of a Killer
Alles for Zucker / Go for Zucker
The Kite Runner
Ani – Live at Babeville (Ani DiFranco)

April 2008

No Country for Old Men
Lust, Caution
Vitus
Beijing Bicycle
Walk Hard: Dewey Cox Story
Housekeeping (Ebertfest)
The Cell (Ebertfest)

May 2008

Savages
Romulus, My Father
Dead Fish
He was a quiet man
Yes
Juno (at Jeremy’s in TX)
Tristan + Isolde (at Jer’s)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull (theater in Killeen, TX)

June 2008

Delirious
The Visitor (at the Art theater)
Inside Deep Throat
Iron Man (at theater in Savoy)
Bedazzled
i want someone to eat cheese with
The Fall (Art theater) [again on 13 Jul]
We Were Soldiers

July 2008

Wanted (Savoy theater with S for free – thanks to IFO)
Hancock (at Harvest Moon Drive-in)
A Simple Curve (at Urbana Free)
As you Like It [2006]
Anything Else
Firefly – 1st episode
The Bothersome Man (Norwegian / at UFL)

August 2008

Secretary
Vicky Christina Barcelona (at Savoy? theater)

September 2008

The Ultimate Lesbian Short Film Festival
8 1/2 (at Krannert Art Museum) – this had a profoundly negative effect on me
Boarding Gate
Totally Baked
Room 314
Belle de Jour (at Popp’s French Night)
American Ramadan (at UFL)
The City of Lost Children
Charlie Bartlett
Watching You (lesbian shorts)

October 2008

Blue Gate Crossing
The Boss of It All (Danish from UFL)

November 2008

My Man Godfrey
Singin’ in the Rain (Krannert Art Museum)
Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. [1966]
Smart People
Happy-go-lucky (at Boardman’s Art Theater)
Paris, je t’aime (Netflix on demand)

December 2008

In Bruges
Twilight (at Beverly Theater, Savoy)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
The Golden Compass
Rashomon
Vantage Point
Holiday [1938]
Enchanted
Angel-A
Slumdog Millionaire (at Boardman’s Art)
Sleuth [1972 Olivier & Caine]
Sleuth [2007 Caine & Jude Law]
The Notorious Bettie Page

I’ll be ending the year by watching When Harry Met Sally. I imagine that I saw it years ago but I’m not sure. So I didn’t include it in the totals.

la Vie en Rose just bothered me. The lead actress did a remarkable job but the highly fragmented storytelling simply got in the way of the story. That kind of jumping around can make sense in some genres and with some stories but I feel that it was inappropriate in this one. As I watch an awful lot of foreign films I am used to songs not being translated (that is, not having any closed captioning), but in a movie where the songs are as much, or more, of the story that is simply inexcusable, in my not so humble opinion. This movie had so much potential but it really and truly let me down.

Sleuth x2 Why do people think they have to remake movies? Why do they think they can do it better? S wanted to watch these back-to-back so we did. The first one with Sir Olivier & Michael Caine was pretty good all-in-all. Not a great movie but it made sense, the story was well written and presented, the acting was incredible (only 2 people ever appear in the movie) and it was entertaining. The screenplay was written by the original playwright.

The new one had a screenplay written by Harold Pinter. Caine played the opposite role (that of Olivier) from that which he played in the first. Thankfully, this one was much shorter. The story was practically incoherent and I doubt if I could have properly understood the storyline without having seen the first one. Caine was his usual better than average self, if not great. But then no one could have been great in this useless remake. And Jude Law. Well, I’ll be nice and simply say that he is no Olivier or Caine.

Have also been watching some of the 1st season of The Outer Limits via netflix-on-demand.

Not sure exactly what 2009 will bring on the movie viewing front but I know it holds some surprises. I should be able to easily view all of the Serenity series. I imagine there will be more things via netflix and netflix-on-demand. And I still have 29 prepaid rentals at That’s Rentertainment.

But the biggest ball of happiness and surprise is bound to come thanks to S and me having passes for Ebertfest 2009. Schedule to be announced in March. Woohoo!