Darin and I have been seeing a lot of movies lately, which has surprised the both of us — generally we expect to have a lot of movies available in November and December, but this year it seemed like pickings were sparse. In January, however, things have picked up tremendously. So, in no particular order, some movies we’ve seen recently:

Pan’s Labyrinth: Well, okay, I lied: this is at the top because it’s definitely the best movie we’ve seen in a while. Beautiful. Haunting. Depressing. The kind of movie that has an “up” ending that reminds you it’s just a fairy tale. Not like many other movies, so Diane says: go see it.

Dreamgirls: Wonderful! I cannot believe it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture (especially, as Darin said, in a world where Chicago could win Best Picture). I don’t know if this was a factor, but at the theater we saw it at, Dreamgirls was clearly marketed as a “black” movie — all of the previews were for other African-American-centered movies.

The Pursuit of Happyness: In contrast, all of the previews for this were for “white” movies, so I guess Will Smith isn’t black. Darin loved this, I had a hard time because a)child in danger and b)endless frustration. If you’re looking for an inspirational family movie, though, this is a good one.
     Ampersand over at Alas A Blog had an interesting discussion about what the message of the movie is. I guess I’ve got to go with the “superhuman” camp, because what Gardner manages to do in the movie is, frankly, noteworthy because so many people can’t do it.

Smokin’ Aces: A movie which has every single manner of killing someone possible, I think. Endless blood! Guns with really, really big cartridges! Mohawk-wearing tattooed killers who apparently can walk into a Lake Tahoe casino carrying a chain saw! Actually, the movie was fairly entertaining — kind of your standard Tarantino-esque violence with the bizarre, though snappy, dialogue — up until the conclusion, in which the rationale for what’s been going on is explained and it’s hideous and so ridiculously unethical I said, “Okay, I believed everything up until that point.” Yup, Mohawk-wearing chainsaw-wielding killers is one thing, the explanation for what’s just happened made me want to throttle someone. I think Darin enjoyed it more than I did, however. Maybe it’s a guy thing.

Casino Royale: You’ve seen it, you don’t need my input. It was pretty good!

Children of Men: Damn good movie. Not very subtle, but hilarious and scary all the same. Darin, who’s a big PD James fan, hated the book and said the movie was a million times better than the book, in case you too read the book and hated it. (eta: Darin begs to differ. “I did not hate the book. I didn’t like the book. If it had been from some author I’d never heard of, I might have thought it was okay, but it was from PD James.”)

The Last King of Scotland: You know, I heard Forrest Whitaker was nominated for Best Actor. Was he in this movie? ‘Cause we didn’t see him. Okay, not really, but Whitaker is fantastic as Idi Amin, and the Scottish guy who has to play opposite him does a very good job holding on to his patch of the screen with his fingernails.

Gosh, teacher-student pederasty is so cute, isn’t it? It doesn’t harm anyone and it’s even kind of fun!

(Bennett actually has the gall to give the student the line: “Where’s the harm in it?” Um… I guess ethics are a little fungible across the pond.)

I myself have not seen Pirates of the Caribbean: Everybody’s Money Belongs to Us, but via the Kung Fu Monkey we get the Ninja of Ask A Ninja doing a hilarious review of such. I don’t think I’m ready for Ninjas of the Caribbean myself though.

“More Gore! Less Verbinski!”