In an attempt to stick to our movie-related New Years resolutions, Jess and I plan to keep a weekly record of our progress towards our goal. See if we hit our goal this week and what movies we watched. You can also check out our initial resolutions post here.
My big goal this year is to watch three types of movies a week:
- 1 New Movie (anything that has come out in the last 3-4 months)
- 1 Movie From My Netflix Queue (it has to be from the list I cemented in stone at the beginning of 2014 to count)
- 1 Movie I’ve Been Meaning to Rewatch
Lets take a look at what was watched this past week.
New Movies:
- Avengers: Age of Ultron – I don’t quite get the complaints about this movie. I thought it was so much fun from start to finish, with some great action set pieces and interesting new characters. Also, I thought Black Widow’s story line was fascinating and that she got plenty of screen time compared to the boys (where was Thor?). I’m so curious to know more about her back story. Anyways, another success from the MCU for me.
Re-watched:
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier – So after watching AOU and then with all this talk about Civil War it got me in the mood to revisit this one. I’m definitely not as crazy about this as other people, but it’s definitely super solid and I love all the conspiracy stuff going on. It’s cool how it is the most important to everyone else since most of the standalone’s are just single stories. It really pushes Cap into the forefront of this group. My complaint on re-watch is that it felt slow and the stuff with Nick Fury felt very clunky when you already know where it’s heading.
Off the Queue:
- Sólo Con Tu Parejo – So in an attempt to improve my record on Alfonso Cuarón movies, I checked this one off my list (also caught Children of Men for the first time last month). I agree with a lot of what Mette wrote in her Started From the Bottom post, for the record. It’s crazy to see how far Cuarón’s come from this little silly romp. It was a fun watch even though the lead does not really induce much empathy even though he’s falsely diagnosed with AIDS, which is pretty awful. It did however include a sex scene at the end that would probably go on my list of favorite sex scenes if I ever made one.
New Movies:
- Digging for Fire – Just saw this at the Maryland Film Festival last night (which is why this post is late going up) with director Joe Swanberg in attendance. Swanberg’s naturalistic style and use of improvisation is trademark at this point but always provides a satisfying watch. The actors are endearing in their performances (I even liked Rosemary DeWitt for a change) and Joe’s knack for capturing cringeworthy moments is abundantly present.
Re-watched:
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – I haven’t seen this original version since High School and I was pleasantly surprised how disturbing the film still is. With so many iterations of the story with sequels, remakes, prequels and homages I went into the film forgetting exactly how everything went down. It’s a little slow paced at times but still highly effective. Essential horror movie viewing.
Off the Queue:
- Passion – This Brian De Palma flick didn’t gain high marks from critics but I threw i on my queue because of the Giallo feel of the trailer and a cast that included Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace. The movie wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated but it did have a cheap quality to it – aesthetically it looked a bit like something you’d see on late night cable. I loved Rachel McAdams in this, though and I wish I could see more of her butt in more challenging roles.