Seraphim Falls

I liked both Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan in this movie. Liked the revenge theme and the setting. Also liked some of the revelations that come later in the movie. But the the last 20 minutes didn't do it for me. I won't comment in detail so as not to ruin it if you guys haven't seen it. Suffice it to say, the movie took something of a surreal -- I suppose metaphorical or allegorical -- turn which didn't seem to fit at all with the gritty realism that had been established up to that point. I was pretty disappointed.

I just read someone's Netflix review who talks about the parallels with Dante's Inferno, and so maybe there is more going on in this movie that I give it credit for. Or maybe it's just not done as well as it could have been.

Surrogates

I liked this movie as good popcorn Sci-fi cinema. It does have a few character problems, and is not going to blow anyone's minds with its idea, but it was fun and worth the watch. A lot of basic premise is simply asking the question of what would happen if you were to take MMORPG's to the extreme. Everyone has a robot in real life is what happens!

After you get past that premise, the movie is basically a murder mystery. Good, clean Sci-fi fun for some Sci-fi fans!

I would give it a B+ where Blade Runner and Star Trek are A+'s. It's more along the lines of one of the Will Smith Sci-fi movies like I Robot, or I Am Legend.

The Hurt Locker

I didn't know what to expect with this, but it did live up to the hype. This is really about what a man has to become to be successful at war. I was impressed with the foil relationship between the protagonist and his comrade. I felt that the movie was elegant in its construction. Each scene did good work for the plot or for character. Very efficient. I think the movie's real success is in a serious critique of American imperialism (and how we do war) while also avoiding a pedantic or patronizing tone (AND while maintaining engaging scenes).

Although I'm not sure I would have given the film best picture (I liked a sci-fi choice for a change like Avatar or District 9), I do think the film deserved to be nominated.

Arrested Development: Season 1

Boy, great show. Hard to see how this could have been taken off the air. Love the characters and the zany story lines. Watched all of season 1 (on instant play) in about 2-3 weeks. Ready for Season 2!

Mystery of the Megaflood: Nova

Somewhat interesting but ultimately disappointing documentary about a big flood that happened in the northwestern part of North America about 15-20,000 years ago. I got this because I thought it was going to be about the theorized megaflood that happened in the Tigris/Euphrates river valley thousands of years ago, thought to have inspired various flood "myths", and recorded in the Bible. None of that here, though, unfortunately. I don't even think prehistoric man had arrived in North America yet when this megaflood took place.

Resident Evil: Extinction

I had this on while I was grading. It's the third of the Resident Evil franchise. I like the setting: it's a post-apocalyptic (in the vein of Road Warrior) zombie, horror, action flick. The visuals are good, but like most of these films, there's not much story or character. Some of it just plain doesn't make any sense, but then again, that could be because I was also grading student papers at the time. Those don't make sense either!

Believe it or not, but they actually left the story open for a fourth film which I'll probably see drunk or while grading papers.

Sherlock Holmes

Continuing the Robert Downey Jr., theme. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I really liked the frenetic energy of the movie, including the music, which is a nice match to Holmes' chaotic brilliance. Downy Jr. is excellent once again, even though the character is much different from Tony Stark (though, oddly now that I think of it, there are some similarities). I liked the reimagining of the character and story. I think aspects are actually more true to the original, in terms of Holmes' dabbling with drugs and bouts of depression. There were some things in this movie that confused me some, but overall I really liked it and hope they do a second one, which is implied at the ending.