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“Gone Baby Gone” 4/5

After first seeing “The Town” and being sufficiently impressed, I decided to watch this to see if Ben Affleck the director is the real deal. This was actually better than “The Town” and quite impressive for a debut. Affleck has definitely been paying attention on set. While I’d say he’s the real deal, I’m not sure how much range he’ll have with stories not set in the Boston area with Boston-accented characters, although I’m anxious to be proven wrong.

It’s also a breakout star turn for Casey Affleck, who generally gets relegated to background roles, but here is very impressive as a PI investigating the kidnapping of a little girl. He’s equal parts sensitive hero and gun-toting badass, which makes for a good combination on him.

A well-crafted story with real moral implications, combined with the sharp direction doesn’t let the viewers out easy. I’ll be looking for more from Affleck. Hopefully he stays behind the camera more.

“Alice in Wonderland” (2010) 2/5

This is precisely what happens when you give someone like Tim Burton too much creative control (and that goes for pretty much every one of his movies over the past decade with the exception of maybe “Big Fish”). He is such a talented visual artist, but such a shitty storyteller. Too bad he can’t pick some better writers, or the studios can’t make him. Here is the Burton formula as far as I can tell:

1. Make Johnny Depp and/or Helena Bonham Carter look and act as bizarre and/or gothic and/or dark as possible.
2. Somehow manage to convince some other very talented actors to be in your movie.
3. String together some eye-popping set pieces with some incredible special effects.
4. Pay some cursory attention to the story and characters.
5. Call it a day.

The other problem with this movie is that it has joined the long line of fantasy impostors that have tried to emulate (poorly, at that) the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with some nonsense about Alice being destined to slay the Jabberwocky to save the people of Wonderland. Gone is much of the whimsy of the original book. I think I’m done with Burton until I hear otherwise.

“Sanshiro Sugata” 3/5

Akira Kurosawa’s first movie. It shows hints of his future brilliance: the black and white cinematography is gorgeous and his visual storytelling is already wonderful (especially for 1943). That’s about the most I can say in its favor. The story is a bit lacking, but that could be due to the fact that it was chopped considerably by Japan’s wartime censors and that footage remains lost. But for a first effort from one of the undisputed masters, it’s still worth checking out.

“Black Swan” 5/5

Darren Aronofsky has not made a bad movie. Let me rephrase that: he has not made a movie that has not blown me away in some fashion. Okay, so “The Wrestler” was a bit of pandering to the industry (not that it was bad, just not up to his usual standard), but that’s understandable after how much “The Fountain” bombed at the box office.

His strength is in finding these grand ideas and moments in seemingly small stories, and he does it with all his skill and artistry in full display. Everything from the cinematography to the performances to the sound design is top-notch. In this case, it’s nothing less than the complete psychological breakdown of a precocious ballet dancer during the lead up to and performance of Swan Lake. It’s also a giant metaphor for the Hollywood system and the steep price artists pay to achieve perfection. I really can’t express enough how much I loved this movie. It’s one of those rare pieces that creeps into your subconscious and stays there. I watched it 4 days ago and it’s still with me.

On a side note, I’ve discovered the wonderfully epic music of Swan Lake. I’ve been listening to it constantly since Sunday.

“Toy Story 3” 5/5

Can Pixar do no wrong? There are a few of their movies that I’m lukewarm on, but they’re largely victims of comparison to their better siblings. It’s been so long since I’ve watched the first two Toy Story movies, so the only thing I remember is that I liked them. Even then, this movie is do rich and fun and even very dark at times, that I was delighted to watch it. It works on so many levels. Although, I would probably keep it away from any kids with abandonment issues. Like I said, it’s very dark at times. Almost too dark for an animated film, but that’s one of the reasons I liked it. It didn’t shy away from the dark parts.

“127 Hours” 4/5

It’s only 94 minutes, but at times feels like it’s stretching into the 127 hours of its title, but in a good way. Franco is engaging for the entire movie. That’s good, since he’s the main participant for most of it. Danny Boyle’s directing style also keeps things from dragging on, while still giving you a sense of the time that has passed. And it is as bloody as everyone says, but by the time that scene comes around, Ralston has been through so much, and is literally on the verge of death, that it doesn’t really matter. It’s a shared cathartic and satisfying release.

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” 2/5

Okay, so it had a few cool action sequences, but the plot was largely nonsensical and Gambit was a giant disappointment. Also, Marvel needs to have its screenwriters talk to each other. At the end we see Professor X walking, but as we now know, he was paralyzed during the Cuban missile crisis at the end of “X-Men: First Class.” Marvel: things need to make sense. Even in your comic book universe.

I think Wolverine was better off with his origin shrouded in mystery, especially since they already spent so much time on him in the original trilogy. Let’s all forget that this happened. Move along.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” 5/5

Of all the movies in this series, this one above all did the best job of capturing the depth and texture of the book. And even then, it didn’t capture everything. But realistically, this is an impossible feat. It also helped that the final books was split up into 2 movies. Not much more to say outside of my book review. An immensely entertaining and satisfying close to an amazing story. People are going to be enjoying these movies for a long time to come.

“Kung Fu Panda 2” 5/5

Dreamworks Animation has come a long way from producing Pixar knockoffs. Love the different animation styles the filmmakers take advantage of for the intro and flashback sequences. Chalk it up to my impending fatherhood, but the flashback sequence was so well done, that it nearly moved me to tears. Easily makes my top 5 animated movies of all time list.

“X-Men: First Class” 4/5

Blows the Singer/Ratner trilogy away. Yes, there are still a couple of really stupid-looking and useless mutants, but the movie has style & wit, is cast really well (very much unlike it’s predecessors) and well put together overall, with one particularly breathtaking scene (the downfall of Magneto).