Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974) B+
Another damn good overlooked Scorsese film. Ellen Burstyn is fantastic as Alice and you really come to like her and feel for her and understand and appreciate her struggles. The only big problem for me is how annoying her kid is. It's kinda the point of the film, in which he is a huge weight on Alice with his bratty and slightly Aspberger syndrome personality, but he always made me cringe. He was too annoying, which I guess means it was pulled off well, but it still bugged the hell outta me.

Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) B+
I gave this an A- the first time I watched it but I don't like it as much anymore. Frankly, I thought this film tried a little too hard to get an emotion out of you. What people said they cried about (such as Andy's last scene or the scene where all the toys held hands when they thought they would die) I found to be cheesy and a bit pathetic.

Chronicle (Josh Trank, 2012) C+
I don't get what's so great about it. The idea behind the film is cool, but the execution isn't good at all. The "found footage" style is really just a gimmick and it's used so inconsistently. There are even jump cuts in the film, which doesn't make sense because it would mean that the character filming would have to have edited it in a program. Half the time it doesn't even feel like proper shaky cam, just someone using a really expensive normal camera and wiggling it a little. The actual action sequences are small in number, and they're shot from so far away, I guess to add realism. I'm paying to see an action movie because I DON'T wanna watch an epic telekinetic fight from a mile away on a flip phone. I wanna see it up close. The film abandons the style at the worst possible times. And the writing also leaves a lot to be desired. Overall it's not bad writing, but the setup for the villain is so cliché, in fact, it's a bunch of clichés piled into one poorly-written character. I knew this wouldn't be a good film, and I was right.

The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010/12) A
I didn't know what to expect from this. On one hand, Ghibli films are usually excellent, but Ponyo wasn't too good and I knew nothing about this film going in. Thankfully, it's absolute cinematic magic. It has all the staples of a great Hayao Miyazaki film (he wrote it). It has a strong female lead that never becomes annoying (which Ponyo lacked), beautiful art, wonderful music, and a nice whimsical and powerful story. When it ended, I just sat there, watching all of the beautiful art in the credits, and when those ended I just sat there still, absorbing what I just saw. I would go so far as to say that this is the best Studio Ghibli film since Princess Mononoke.

Toy Story 3 and Chronicle were great movies. I disagree with you.

Braindead (1992) 9/10

This is probably one of my favorite zombie movies of all time. It's just so gory and over the top that you won't expect what happens next. At lot of the scenes in this movie is just so random that it will make you say WTF? and laugh at the same time. At that time who would have thought Peter Jackson would be making epic movies later down the road.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, 2011) B
This is a sweet romantic comedy that never relies on slapstick like most romcoms do. The whole cast is awesome, especially Ryan Gosling, who is so smooth and charming and just plain hilarious. And there's a nice twist in the story that I didn't see coming.

Detachment (Tony Kaye, 2012) B+
I'll be writing a full review of this soon. It's an interesting sort of fictional pseudo-documentary about the school system, but there's a bit too much going on in terms of subplots and the film's portrayal of the students is a little over-the-top and extreme. The camerawork is also a little shaky and kinda gave me a headache. But, it's definitely worth a watch because of Adrien Brody's fantastic performance, and when the drama works, oh boy does it work.

Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols, 2011) A
Holy hell, this blew me away. I didn't know exactly what this movie was about. I was expecting an end of the world type movie, but it's actually a psychological film about one man's schizophrenia. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain are phenomenal (You're gonna nominate her for The Help but not this? Really, Academy? Really?) and the last act of the film is just really really intense, but not exactly in the way you would expect. It's so brilliant and it's a shame it was overlooked by so many people.

Goon (Michael Dowse, 2012) B
This one is definitely better than last year's Take Me Home Tonight. Most of the humor is in the dialogue of the characters but the fighting is actually quite entertaining. It's actually a pretty unique sports comedy in that Seann William Scott's character (he's very funny in it, by the way) isn't exactly the hero and his love interest, played by the adorable Alison Pill, isn't exactly the picture perfect pure woman. It's not an amazing or groundbreaking comedy, but it was pretty entertaining and definitely better than I expected. I will also be writing a full review of this.

Anyone seen J. Edgar?

I've noticed a lot of criticism surrounding the film, but it looks awesome as hell.

50/50 (2011) 6/10

There were some things that put me off with this movie. Like some of the jokes felt forced and Seth Rogan playing Seth Rogan. I can see why Seth Rogan is good for the role, but he just plays the same character in every movie. Also why does Rachael want to continue her relationship with Adam? I'm not going to spoil anything for those who haven't seen the movie yet, but what a bitch. This might be me just nitpicking, but what does having a girlfriend stopping you from going to Mardi Gras? Whoever wrote the script obviously haven't been to one. Despite it's flaws, the performances were great and it was well written.

@TRF

Thanks, man.

Looking forward to reading your mini-review

Buried = 4.0/5.0

Awesome. fucking. film.