Directed by Gary Ross
Written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray
IMDB

I recently read all three of “The Hunger Games” books.  I enjoyed them quite a bit.  They’re good page turners and really entertaining.  So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that I also enjoyed the film quite a bit.  There were plenty of minor changes, and a welcomed look at the reality TV aspect of games.
You definitely do not need to be a fan of the books or a teenaged girl to enjoy this film.  It is actually a good movie.  It’s very well made and features a superb performance from Jennifer Lawrence.  It is a little long, but it doesn’t feel too long, except for the uncomfortable theater seats and the numbing of my butt.


8/10

Directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi
Written by Satoshi Takagi and Tetsuro Takeuchi
IMDB

Ace is given a whistle from his favorite band, Guitar Wolf.  When he blows into the whistle, it summons them.  When zombies start attacking he has no choice but to call for Guitar Wolf.  Ace is also falling in love with Tobio, a trangendered individual.
A really bizarre but entertaining and enthralling film.  The effects are pretty good, especially the zombie effects.  The zombies looks pretty cool.  Guitar Wolf is a Japanese garage rock band, though I have never heard of them.  They are fine.  Lots of heads explode in this one.


7/10

Directed by Lars von Trier
Written by Lars von Trier
IMDB

Kirsten Dunst is getting married, at her wedding, which her sister and brother-in-law pay for, she begins to have a breakdown and is very depressed.  Soon she chases her new husband away.  She heads back to stay with her sister and brother-in-law.  They notice that the planet Melancholia seems to be getting closer and closer, while they try to deal with Kirsten Dunst’s terrible mood.
At first a was a resistant to this film, but as the second half unfolded and the film turned from a meandering drama to a sci-fi film, I was hooked.  I would have been willing to watch it a second time immediately after it finished.
Kirsten Dunst’s performance in this film is excellent.  She was robbed by not getting nominated for an Academy Award.  Lars Von Trier does an excellent job with this film.  Very good. 


8/10

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan
IMDB

A mind-boggling movie about a team coming together to plant an idea into a business man’s head, so he will break up the company his father willed to him.  Layers upon layers of dreams.
I would describe this as a mind-bending heist film.  Action packed, but not for those who cannot pay full attention to a film.  My wife didn’t even understand what they were doing to the guy, she thought they were helping him instead of fucking him over really bad.  A super cool movie.


9/10

Directed by Duncan Jones
Written by Ben Ripley
IMDB

An action version of “Groundhog Day.”  An air force captain is placed into a man’s body on a train that is to explode in 8 minutes.  He must locate the bomb and find the perpetrator, and until he does he is put back into the same 8 minute chunk of time.
This is a silly/stupid/fun movie.  Completely entertaining.  Not mind-blowing, but a good popcorn movie.


7/10

Directed by George Nolfi
Written by George Nolfi
IMDB

A group of special agents attempt to keep people on track according to their “plan.”  Things go “off plan” when Matt Damon and Emily Blunt start falling for each other.  Damon attempts to out run the adjusters and make a serious attempt at dating Emily Blunt.
A good sci-fi/thriller/romance film.  An odd genre mash-up to be sure, but one that actually works well.  Good performances by the leads help things along.  Pretty fun.

7/10

Directed by Joe Cornish
Written by Joe Cornish
IMDB

A group of young British thugs face off against some aliens in an urban smackdown.
This is this decade’s “Evil Dead 2” or “Dead Alive.”  A phenomenal horror/comedy, which is a little heavier on comedy than horror.  It’s stylish, low budget and featuring excellent performances.  This is the rare movie in this genre that is actually a good film, not just a campy piece of stupidity.


9/10

Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by J.J. Abrams
IMDB

This is the best movie from 2011 I have seen.  It reminds me of “Goonies.”  Just a great movie that kids would love, but has a bit of an edge.  This is a sci-fi adventure, though, where “Goonies” is a straight-up adventure.
Some kids are making a zombie film when they witness a train wreck.  It is a military train and is housing an alien.  The military is looking for the kids and the alien.  The kids attempt to keep making their film as the military sweeps the town.
I loved this movie.  “Super 8” is a perfect movie for youngsters and adults.  It doesn’t talk down to the audience like a lot of movies made for a younger audience.  Anybody can enjoy this film, and surely will.

10/10

Directed by Jon Favreau
Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
IMDB

Aliens attack the old west.  A cowboy with amnesia and an alien weapon attached to his wrist leads a group of cowboys into battle against the aliens.
This movie was basically what I expected.  Nothing amazing, but a fun and stupid blockbuster action movie.  The special effects were good and they were used in an interesting way to set the tone of the film/color the background.  A total popcorn movie.

6/10

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman
Written by Christopher Bertolini
IMDB

This was not as completely awful as I was expecting.  I only watched it because my wife was at work and and I knew she didn’t want to see it, so I rented it from the Redbox (for free).
Aliens attack LA.  The military fights them.  Guns are fired nearly every second of this movie after the initial 20 minute opening.
The special effects are really good.  The performances are fine, although that doesn’t really matter in a movie like this.  This movie is about shit exploding and aliens being shot.  It works, although it is no “District 9.”
Maybe I feel a little bad about giving this a positive review after giving "Captain America" a negative review.  I watched "Captain America" with Rifftrax, which usually makes movies a lot worse.  And I was expecting it to be good, I was expecting this to be stupid, and it was.


6/10

Directed by Charles Band
Written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo
IMDB

Jack Deth is sent back from the future to fight trancers, possessed people in a zombie-like state brought on by Whistler, his arch-enemy.  Whistler is in the year 1985 for some reason.  Deth teams up with a pretty punk rock girl (played by Helen Hunt!).
This was a really cool movie.  It was dark, but totally silly and campy.  Plus, Helen Hunt is hot and has colored streaks in her hair.  How could you pass that up?  In fact, during this movie I got an erection from looking at pictures of 48 year old Helen Hunt.
I totally recommend watching this.  It's a really good time as long as you are into campy, goofy sci-fi movies.  Lots of fun.  Straight up awful poster.

8/10

Directed by Motoyoshi Oda
Written by Shigeaki Hidaka, Shigeru Kayama and Takeo Murata
IMDB

Unfortunately, I watched the English dubbed version, which I have just found out is butchered and re-edited.   What I saw was fucking horrible.  It was hard to follow and they called Godzilla "Gigantis" the whole time.  What the fuck is that?  Really terrible.

4/10

Directed by Andrew Niccol
Written by Andrew Niccol
IMDB

Justin Timberlake co-stars with Amanda Seyfried in this dystopian time-based thriller.  What the movie lacks in good perfomances it makes up in spades with time-based puns.
The premise: on your 25th birthday, a clock on your arm activates and counts down your last year.  The economy is based upon time.  You can get more time through work and trade.  Timberlake is given a century's worth of time from a guy who is sick of being alive.  Now the authorities (time keepers) are after him.  He kidnaps Amanda Seyfried (the daughter of a wealthy time merchant or some shit).  Seyfried and Timberlake partner up--and fuck--to rob time banks and give the time to the poor.
The movie is very stupid, but also pretty entertaining.  It uses the word "time" more than "Pulp Fiction" uses "fuck."  Like I said above, there are a lot of time-based puns.  I'm fine with that, but I would be hard-pressed to call it "good."
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film, but I wouldn't dissuade naybody from seeing it or make fun of them for liking it.  My wife and my dad liked it.  My father paid for us to see it, which is the only way I would have ever seen it.  It was a good time, though.

6.5/10

Directed by John Carpenter
Written by Bill Lancaster
IMDB

 John Carpenter presents this icy sci-fi/horror film.  An American research base in Antarctica finds a dog running outside.  They bring it in and soon find out that it is being inhabited by an alien that can replicate its host.
A very gross and excellent horror film.  I am not a fan of the original Halloween film (sorry), but this flick was excellent.  The monster/alien is super disgusting.  My wife and our friend Sara were freaking out during the movie, which made it so much more fun.  Sara can really get engrossed in a movie (even Marmaduke!), so watching stuff with her is always fun.
This is a perfect Halloween film.  It's on Netflix streaming.  What are you assholes waiting for?

8/10

Directed by Peter Manoogian
Written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo
IMDB

Looking for a movie to watch tonight, I ran across this ready-to-expire title.  The plot summary caught my attention immediately and I knew I had to see this film.  A short order cook gets into a scuffle with an alien on a big space ship.  When he finds out that the alien was a fighter, he decides to enter the titular arena and fight some aliens and attempt to become the first human champion in over 50 years.
How could I pass this one up?
The special effects are pretty sweet.  It's pretty much all rubber suits and cool space ship back drops and metal sci-fi tubes.  I feel like the more reality-based special effects (as opposed to CGI) come off as more realistic when done well, and ultra fake when done poorly.  They're done right in this film.
The performances are fine.  The fighting is pretty good, though.  This is a sports movie, which tend to pull me in even though I don't really like watching sports.  Hell, Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite TV shows and I have never been entertained watching a football game.  It is easier to root for the protagonist of a sports movie because there's a storyline behind him/her/the team.
I highly recommend this film.  It's not for everybody, of course.  If you are adverse to b-movies then stay away.  If you don't mind a little cheese, then this is a cheesy and very entertaining good time.
What an awesome poster.

8.5/10

Directed by Damian Lee
Written by Damian Lee
IMDB

First of all, I watched this film with Rifftrax.  I would never have sat through this entire flick on its own merits.  It was awful.
I'm not 100% sure what this movie is about.  It was extremely difficult to give it too much attention at any given time.  Basically, this movie is "The Terminator" done really wrong.
This film was very bad. Do not watch it. If you absolutely have to see it, stick to the Rifftrax version. Jesse Ventura stars in this and Jim Belushi makes a cameo, so that should tell you something.

2/10

Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Thea von Harbou
IMDB

Freder, the son of city planner Joh Fredersen, is shocked to learn that his family's fortune is built upon the labor of workers. He decides to trade places with a worker in order to understand exactly what it's like to be one of them. After his shift, he is invited to hear an oration from Maria, where she tells of a mediator between the "hands and heart" of the machine. It's him, obviously, and he falls in love with Maria.
Joh Fredersen doesn't like the way Maria is whipping up his workers and making secret plans with them. He goes to a mad scientist, Rotwang, and they decide to use her likeness on a robot. They kidnap her and use magic or whatever to transform the robot into looking like her. The plan is to have her tell the workers keep working, but Rotwang has other plans, and he has her tell the workers to revolt.
This movie is epic. I watched the complete version that is 148 minutes, as opposed to the 114 minute cut that had been going around until they found a full print in Argentina. The film originally debuted in Berlin at 153 minutes. So this is probably as good as it will ever get. There are a few missing scenes which are filled in by a description of them. I cannot imagine trying to make sense of a 114 minutes cut of this movie. They would have to leave out so much important plot elements.
This film is a true classic. I would not be able to truly respect a person who told me they did not like this film. Visually, it is amazing. The special effects are pretty fantastic for 1927 and the city of Metropolis is spectacular. The acting is silent film acting, so it kind of sucks. That is to be expected and you can't fault the film because of it. It is a small obstacle to overcome.
I highly recommend this film to anybody who has never seen it and has an interest in cinema. This film is history. It has an amazing story in how they found the missing footage. It is a fantastic sci-fi epic. Watching it is an event.

10/10

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Written by Jean-Luc Godard
IMDB

Lemmy Caution, an American priviate eye, visits a city in outerspace controlled by a computer, though the synopsis on IMDB says the scientist Von Braun controlls it.
Well, this movie is extremely odd. The first hour is a bit of a task to get through, but the last 30 minutes are very fun and worth the wait. My girlfriend did not want to finish the film, it was interrupted by a phone call to her from my mother. So I watched the last 30 minutes and really liked it. I was sort of having a hard time staying awake for the first hour, though.

6/10

Directed by Alex Proyas
Written by Alex Proyas, Lem Dobs and David S. Goyer
IMDB

A man wakes up in a strange city without much of a memory. He finds himself wanted for murder. He sets out to piece his life back together and find out if he is guilty. To give anything else away would spoil this film.
I accidentally had this movie sent from Netflix. I forgot to update my queue when I sent the last movie I recieved, and did not watch, in. I am glad that I did. This film is a mixture of Momento (the amnesia part, not the terrible going backwards part), Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
This film is a highly underrated. I have barely heard anything about it. I'm not even sure how it ended up in my queue. At first I thought it was a movie starring Scott Bakula that doesn't even exist.
This movie twists and turns until you reach the end, for a positive surprise, not a "twist" ending, really. It actually makes sense. There are a few moments of corny dialogue, but overall it is entralling. A very strange sci-fi noir and well worth watching.

9/10

Directed by JJ Abrams
Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
IMDB

I am not necessarily a huge Star Trek fan. I could be, in theory, but I have only seen a handful of episodes. Though, I eagerly await the impending debut of all the Star Trek series on Netflix Instant.
I loved this movie. There was a bit of fan service and audience winking at the beginning of the film that was somewhat gross, but necessary. This movie fit into the Star Trek canon, even, which is nice. They made a new Star Trek with younger actors and had it still tie into the old Star Trek series and films. That was pretty impressive.
The special effects were fantastic. I am not a huge special effects person, but these were quite essential to the film and looked amazing. The action sequences were great and exciting. The story was solid. Very good overall.

8/10