Wednesday, December 31

so many movies, so little time

I love movies. To prove it, I have a top-level membership with my local film society that gets me free movies at their two theaters all year. I have the three-at-a-time Netflix plan. I have a Netflix Roku box, the thing that let's you see stuff from your "watch instantly" queue on your TV screen. Problem is: the little red envelopes tend to sit, unopened, for weeks at a time. One time I had this French movie for like two months and finally I said, Sara, let's face it, you're not going to watch that movie. Send it back! My queue is so long there's stuff still there I put in when I first opened my account several years ago. And there are 52 thing in my "watch instantly" queue. And it's amazing how a year of my film society membership goes by and I haven't gone to a movie every week like I'd planned. 

So, in my efforts to simplify life in 2009, I've downgraded my Netflix account from the three-at-a-time plan to the one-at-a-time plan. I'm still hoping to get to the theater every week, and I'm going to stay on top of the Roku. I am! I am!

Meanwhile, here are some movies I've seen lately with my ten-ish-words-or-less reviews:

Grey Gardens: Sad and funny documentary about koo-koo mother and daughter. 
Hamlet 2: Comedy for grownups. Funny! Stand & Deliver meets Waiting for Guffman
Frost/Nixon: I have mixed feelings about Ron Howard movies. It's no Apollo 13.
Slumdog Millionaire: Imperfect, but I loved it anyway. Favorite Danny Boyle so far.
Let the Right One In: Creepy. Swedish. Had a bad headache while watching, so I don't know.
The Departed: Saw it when it came out, am watching it again. Still awesome.

If you are so inclined, tell me in the comments what you've watched recently and LOVED or HATED.

11 comments:

Mari said...

While at my parents for the holidays I saw the new Indiana Jones, The Departed, and Burn After Reading. The first two I saw in the theatre when they came out. Burn After Reading I had not seen. So funny! Brad Pitt was hilarious.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

Oh no, Sara! You have a movie problem!

Favorite review of yours: "Creepy. Swedish."

Gerb said...

I've *wanted* to see more than I've actually seen these past few months. In a nutshell:

QUANTUM OF SOLSTICE - Bond, and yet not.

TWILIGHT - entertaining though perhaps not as intended.

AUSTRALIA - just say no.

MAMA MIA - Who knew Meryl Streep could sing? Pierce Bronson cannot.

BEDTIME STORY - fun for the kids.

VALKYRIE - not great. At all.


Clearly, I need to get out more. Or sign up for Netflix!

Sara Z. said...

Gerb, I'm so tempted to see Australia, but Luhrman's movies are usually deeply flawed.

Can't stomach Tom Cruise, so no Valkyrie for me. I do want to see Twilight!

Mari - I've heard mixed reviews of Burn After Reading. Maybe I'll try it.

Anonymous said...

We are on our Christmas Break, so we have been to see three movies in the theater, which is practically unheard of.

Doubt - Good performances, liked the play better.

Milk - Sean Penn was impressive, but it didn't move me as much as I thought it would.

Slumdog Millionaire - Probably my favorite movie of the year. Though I must agree it was imperfect, it still made me feel good. Millions made me feel the same way - I think Danny Boyle and I must have similar outlooks on life, because his movies really move me.

Erica Orloff said...

I must run to see Slumdog. I don't think I realized it was Danny Boyle!

E

Melissa Walker said...

Grey Gardens might be my favorite movie of all time. Either that or Goonies, which I'd review as: "Kids and pirates. Major adventure and big friendship. Chunk rules."

Alyson Noel said...

Recently saw:

MILK- Loved it. Really parallels the whole Prop 8 thing and Sean Penn is amazing!

SLUMDOG- LOVED it! My favorite this year!

QUANTUM OF SOLACE- liked CASINO ROYALE more.

TWILIGHT- Entertaining, and good for such a low budget.

All of my Netflixs are relegated to Buffy watching, I'm currently on season 6!

Amanda Ashby said...

A combination of living in New Zealand AND having young children means that I never manage to see a movie until it has been out for at least ten years (hehehe, give or take a bit).

Anyway, the best movies I've seen lately are Eastern Promises and The Spiderwick Chronicles. Oh, and Kinky Boots was pretty cute as well. As for all the new movies, I'll get back to you on them in 2010!!!!

Sara Hantz said...

I go to the movies fairly often... Mamma Mia my favorite last year. I'm still waiting to see Ghosttown and Slumdog.

Unknown said...

Valkyrie-not my kind of movie, I did not like it at all.
Slumdog Millionaire-I LOVE it!!! My new favorite movie of all time. I can't wait until it's out on dvd. :)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-Awww, just amazing!!
Burn After Reading-it was okay, but not amazing or anything.
Twilight-oooh this one was a bad bad movie, but I didn't expect any greatness in the first place so there was no room for more disappointment
The Spirit-yeah..not that great. The movie would have been pretty good but the storyline and dialogue killed it.