summer movies update!

It's been a while since I've made a post, if only because I've been doing SO MUCH stuff since I last posted about going to Washington, back in June. We're now near the end of July, and quite a lot has transpired. I've been doing the radio show pretty steadily, Beyond the Classroom, and I've also gone to see quite a few movies off of my summer list. Orientation Week has been coming along pretty nicely, with the mailing booklet going to print (a month or so late, for various reasons) today. But, I like to take breaks every now and then, since my vacation plans keep on getting derailed by various other things, and so here we are. Movies! I adore movies. Perhaps it is because they allow viewers to escape for a few hours...or, at least, that's MY reason. Some people enjoy being presented with profound movies, pieces of art that make you think about life and why things exist. I find all that incredibly boring, to be quite honest. I mean, I can enjoy a good 'deep' film, but for the most part, life is too busy to watch depressing or boring movies in my spare time. Hence, the summer blockbusters! While there are some films that accomplish both being fun and thoughtful, I enjoy the summer season because they are far more the former than the latter.

Here is a list of movies that I wanted to see, back at the beginning of the summer:

"The Avengers (obviously) (May 4th)

Men in Black III (May 25th)

Prometheus (June 8th)

Brave (June 22nd)

G.I.Joe: Retaliation (June 29th)

The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3rd)

The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)

The Bourne Legacy (August 3rd)

The Campaign (August 10th)

The Expendables 2 (August 17th)"

We are now at July 24th, and I have seen all of the ones on that list released to date, with the exception of G.I.Joe: Retaliation, which has since been pushed back to March 2013. A shame, but ah well, I crammed the rest of those movies in there. I already posted about The Avengers, which is still my favourite movie of the summer so far, as well as Men in Black III, but I have been remiss in posting about the other ones. Here goes with some quick reviews!

Prometheus

This movie was fun. I saw it with my best friend, and he had mostly the same thing to say about it that I did. It was very visually stunning, and Michael Fassbender had a great turn as the android David, but other than that, it kind of was just...there. It wasn't bad, and at the end there's a little bit that is almost as if Ridley Scott decided to say 'HEY, THIS MOVIE IS RELATED TO ALIEN! GET IT?!' It was somewhat unnecessary, but there you go. Honestly, though, it's really nitpicky of me to say those things; the movie was fun, I enjoyed it, and was entertained for the duration of it. The ending is one of those things where a sequel CAN be made, but if there isn't one, well, it's up to your imagination!

8/10

Brave

Pixar, as many people have said over the years, has made quite a few absolutely fantastic movies. Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story trilogy, and many others, they are all fantastic. Having said that, Brave continues the tradition of having excellent visuals; it is easily up there as one of the prettiest Pixar movies, ever. The animation is superb; there must have been a team of animators devoted to the main character's hair, it was so fluid all the time. But, apart from that, it was merely...okay. That is to say, I enjoyed it, and I laughed a LOT, but that seemed to really be all there was. The plot was predictable, and the villain wasn't very much of a villain. It was more about the relationship between the main character, a teenage girl, and her mother, the queen of the realm. Not being a girl myself, I feel as if females would probably get more out of this movie than I, which is probably why Savannah and Carrie (one of my very good friends), both girls, enjoyed it more than myself and Carrie's boyfriend. For me, this seemed to be a kids movie. There's no problem with that at all, not even one bit; I LOVE those kinds of movies, and I greatly enjoyed this one. It just seemed to me that the overarching message in Brave was not quite as complex as Pixar is used to conveying. Disney and Pixar are used to making family movies; there's a difference between that, and a kids movie, which (in my opinion) is what Brave is. Still, a super fun one!

8.5/10

The Amazing Spider-Man


The Spider-Man trilogy has been rebooted. The problem with this new reboot is that...well, we've seen it before. There's not much different about this movie when compared with the Tobey Maguire version of several years ago. I should say, though, the initial (and best) difference is the fact that Tobey Maguire is...well, not in it. Instead, the titular character is portrayed by Andrew Garfield, who is perhaps the most convincing Spider-Man I've seen in a while. He nails the character, and Emma Stone does the same for her own Gwen Stacy, though I had quite a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief when the movie tries to tell us these two adults are supposed to be 17-18 years old each. They're young, don't get me wrong (my age? Maybe a few years older?), but not grade 11-12 high school age. Apart from that minor complaint, the Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans, was awesome, but...even he felt recycled with his 'talking to himself as he goes crazy' scenes, which conjured images of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. The movie was just kind of recycled in general, and there's one scene involving construction workers in NYC near the end of the film where it was clearly supposed to be heartwarming, and ended up just being silly and funny. Again, it's not a BAD movie. I don't think I've seen any BAD movies this summer. It just wasn't 'blow you away' good. If I could change one thing, it would probably be the title: The Average Spider-Man.

7/10

Moonrise Kingdom


This wasn't on my list at all, but Savannah really really wanted to see it, and who am I to deny her? Any way, this is a movie by Wes Anderson of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' fame, along with 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Rushmore'. He makes quirky, well-written, almost indie movies, and Moonrise Kingdom was definitely all of the above. It was, actually, very very good. The dialogue was very intense, and the performances (from actors such as Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and a host of young kids) were absolutely fantastic. It was, without a doubt, one of the best movies I've seen this summer by far. It caught me off-guard how much I enjoyed this movie, and I'm glad I saw it.

9/10

The Dark Knight Rises


Let me just preface this by saying this movie, after The Avengers, was my most anticipated movie of the summer (probably even the year). It did not disappoint. It wasn't, in my own opinion, as good as The Dark Knight, but I enjoyed it more as a conclusion to the story of Batman than I enjoyed Batman Begins as an origin story. They're all excellent films, as Christopher Nolan is an excellent director, but I greatly enjoyed this one. Bane, as the villain, had his problems, minor as they were. He was still a little garbled, via the mask, and apart from that, he was just...bland. Bane was never the most interesting character, even as far as the comic books went, but he did the trick. Catwoman/Selina Kyle was actually fantastic; I was a little worried about how they might portray or use her in the movie, and really, as far as I am concerned, they absolutely nailed the delivery of the character. Anne Hathaway = awesome. Christian Bale was, as usual, good as Batman (and he even had another one of those hilarious growly lines in this one! In the first, it was 'WHERE ARE THE OTHER DRUGS GOING?!'; in the 2nd, it was 'I'M COUNTING ON IT.' and in this one it's 'WHERE'S THE TRIGGER?!'...oh Batman), though the best actor in this movie, by FAR, was Michael Caine. He absolutely stole every scene he was in, as Alfred, and I loved every moment.

Joseph-Gordon Levitt was also pretty fun as the straight laced, idealistic cop working for Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon. Both of them were pretty awesome. Honestly, at this point, I was surprised Leonardo DiCaprio didn't make an appearance or something, given all the Inception actors in the movie (Marion Cotillard was here as well, and we all know Tom Hardy was playing Bane). Ah well. The movie itself also relied a little too much on exposition directly to the audience (i.e. a character would say something, and instead of letting the audience imagine it themselves, they would just SHOW you what the character was thinking in a little mini dream flashforward), though I think it was necessary in some parts, and not in others. It ended on a perfect note, however. The fate of Batman, of Gotham City, of Bruce Wayne, of Alfred, of Bane, it was all tied up pretty nicely, and left it open enough that you can understand easily what would happen next. There were some nice nods to fans of the comic book, and there were some fun cameos as well. All in all, a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Will I see it again in theatres, as I did for The Avengers? Maybe. But, I'll be damned if this isn't one of the best movies of the year. With the ten Best Picture awards, Nolan better at least get nominated for an Oscar, haha.

9.5/10 (I wanted to give this movie a 10, and immediately after seeing it, I would have, but now that I've thought about it, it's not as good as The Avengers, which I DID give a 10. It's a different feel and tone than Marvel's movie, so it's unfair to compare them, but there were some glaring flaws with energy and pacing in this movie that IMO were not present in The Avengers, so I'm going with 9.5...not that's bad by any stretch of the imagination.)

There you have it. My reviews of the movies I've seen so far this summer. Recap of this post:

Prometheus: 8/10
Brave: 8.5/10
The Amazing Spider-Man: 7/10
Moonrise Kingdom: 9/10
The Dark Knight Rises: 9.5/10

Men in Black III, btw, got an 8/10 from me, whereas The Avengers got a well-deserved 10/10. Obviously, this is my opinion (as I've said many times in my blog, haha), but with these subjective things, I figured I would say it one more time. I hope you enjoyed at least a small part of my reviews!

summer roadtrip #1

Well, I finally took a vacation. I haven't done that by myself in several years, as usually I am accompanied by my family in some way. Not to say that I dislike my family, they are all wonderful (my mom and dad, and then my little bro and little sis), but sometimes it's fun to just go somewhere with my friends instead.

So, my girlfriend and I decided to pack some clothes and go stay with my friend Brandon in Washington, DC for a few nights. We've never been to Washington proper, and Brandon wanted people to come visit, so everyone wins! I was particularly excited because, while a trip to the capital of the United States was fun, I also have an extreme fondness for roadtrips. We drove the whole way, from Toronto to DC, which all-in-all was a 11-hr trip, thanks to the various routes we took + traffic. We stopped for dinner in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, where we had food at a Lumberjack restaurant. Savannah had steak and mashed potatoes, and I had fish and chips, and both of our meals together cost less than 30$, even with drinks (I had Coca-Cola, don't worry, no drinking and driving)! In any case, we arrived in DC (after getting lost once entering the city, thanks to the ridiculous way the city streets are laid out) late on the 22nd (indeed, early morning on the 23rd), and immediately went out for drinks with Brandon. We got back at 4am (after a night where we went to a college bar, and I was propositioned by a ridiculously drunk girl IMMEDIATELY after Savannah and Brandon went to go get some drinks, it was weird), and then got back to Brandon's place.

This next part was fun, because we decided that it would be awesome if we took a day trip somewhere nearby. 'Nearby' initially meant San Francisco (according to Google Maps, it's a 42 hour drive), so we kept on grinding it down until we settled on Corolla, North Carolina, a 5-6 hour drive from DC. Sidenote: I am eventually going to drive to San Francisco, I think that would be awesome. We still had decided that Sunday (the 24th) was going to be the day for the trip, so we went to bed to get up early for Saturday morning (read: in 5 hours). After getting up and taking a quick shower, the three of us headed out to downtown Washington - to the National Mall. Brandon works at the Canadian Embassy, so we stopped by there and he showed us around. We then hit up a multitude of tourist spots: outside the White House, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial in the Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, the Pentagon and the Pentagon Memorial as well. We also went to the National Air and Space Museum, which was awesome, and learned that all 19 (!) of the Smithsonian Institutions are all free!

We had some awesome food in DC, too. Either the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence starts with 'We the People'...we went to Obama's favourite pizza place, called 'We the Pizza', and also stopped in at a place called 'Good Stuff Eatery'...I had a burger that was fried mushrooms stuffed with melted cheese, in place of a burger. SO GOOD.

When we crossed over to see the Pentagon, we were in Virginia, despite just being on the other side of the Potomac. We decided to explore for a bit, and found an awesome Irish tavern where we got some ridiculously cheap and delicious food.We soon headed back to Brandon's place, exhausted, and knowing that we had to get up super early the next day (even though we had just walked for 8 straight hours). In any case, we woke up fairly early, and headed out to Corolla, which is this tiny town on the tip of the Outer Banks, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. We had picked Corolla because Savannah loves horses, and apparently Corolla is known for their 'feral horses', which are basically just wild horses that live and breed on their own. She loves them, and who am I to deny her one of her favourite things? So, we drove down, parked my car near the beach, and walked for a mile or two until we found them. It was pretty awesome, actually, we were on a completely deserted stretch of beach, with the Atlantic stretching out forever in front of us. The water was crystal clear, completely blue, and it was about 30-35 degree weather (Celsius, of course, who do you take me for...an American?!). After we saw the horses, we walked a little back, and after Brandon accidentally fell into the surf, getting completely soaked, we just decided to go swimming in our clothes. Completely impromptu, and that led to a nice damp ride back to DC, but it was totally worth it. Swimming in the surf, with two awesome people (one of which is my girlfriend, to boot), on a gorgeous day with no one around? Yes, please.

On the way back from Corolla, Brandon asked if we could stop in at the airport and pick up his friend Stacy. We did so, and headed back to his place, where Savannah and I plotted out our trip back to Toronto, and promptly passed out. Upon waking up in the morning, after making it through the obscene morning traffic of DC and dropping Brandon off at the Embassy, the two of us decided to hit up some last sights. We hit up the National Museum of the American Indian, since that is what Savannah studies and she quite enjoys it...seeing her be so happy and interested in the subject made me super happy =P We then went to the National Archives, where I saw the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, which was pretty cool...not to mention it made me want to watch 'National Treasure' again, hehe. Nicolas Cage, I know, but ah well, it's still entertaining to watch. After that, we headed out of DC, and began the drive home. We didn't stop very often, since by the time we got out of DC, it was 4pm, and so we got back to Toronto at around 3am, though it was worth it.

Fun facts about the trip: we traveled 2759 kms, all in all (so from Scarborough to Savannah's place dt to St. Catherines to fill up on gas, to Ridgway, PA, to Washington, DC, to Corolla, NC, to the airport, to DC, to Toronto, to Scarborough again). We also saw 32 of the 50 states represented in license plates during our trip (I'll post them in a later blog post, Savannah has them written down in her day planner), not to mention two Quebec plates and one British Columbia plate.

Honestly, it was super fun. It was nice to get away from everything and everyone (not that all that is bad, just that I needed a break), and spend time with someone whose company I greatly enjoy. Also, seeing Brandon was awesome, because he himself is awesome, and is a wonderful person, so it was fun just...hanging out with him. I entitled this post #1, because there might be a few more for me in the future. Niagara Falls looms as a possibility, either with friends or with Savannah, and she also wants to go up to the Bruce Peninsula for a day or two. I have no idea what's up there, so it could be super fun (and, let's face it, if I'm going with my girlfriend, it probably will be =P). Bottom line: roadtrips = awesome, and I can't wait to do it again.

Men in Black 3

I honestly couldn't think of a witty title for this post...ah well. I saw MIB3 recently, as it was on my list of things to see. I went with the girl I'm seeing right now, who is an awesome person and suggested that we see it in the first place, and we both greatly enjoyed it. I want to do one of my customary reviews, because why not, right? It's not as if a lot of people read my blog, but it's fun to do nonetheless, even if to get my own thoughts cleared up so I can explain them verbally to people later.

In any case, Men in Black 3. They don't shy away from the fact that Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) recruited Agent J (Will Smith) 14 years ago. In fact, 14 years ago in 'real life', it was 1998, and 1997 (which is what they were obviously going for) was the first year we ever saw Will Smith run down an alien to have him utter the words "N-Y-P-D. It means I will (k)nock your punk-ass down!". I love Will Smith, by the way. Indeed, MIB3 is the newest movie by Mr. Smith since 2008, when he last released both 'Seven Pounds' and 'Hancock'.

I went into this movie with fairly low expectations, because lets face it, MIB2 was absolute garbage. It was shameful, as far as movies go, and I don't know a single person who would say it was actually 'good'. I LOVE this series, and I wouldn't ever say that was a good movie (just like the Star Wars prequels, but hey). Having said that, this movie blew me away with how much it exceeded my expectations. I was readying myself for a 5 or 5.5 out of 10, and this movie is a solid 7.5 or 8/10. Will Smith reverted back to the playful, funny character he became famous for, and Tommy Lee Jones was solid again as the stoic, no humour, Agent K. The delight of the movie, though, was definitely Josh Brolin. As many have said, he absolutely nails the younger version of Agent K (as this movie involves time travel, where Agent J goes back and meets Agent K in 1969), via his delivery of dialogue and facial expressions. Even Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame is in this movie, as the bad guy (the aptly named Boris the Animal), and is near unrecognisable. There is also a character named Griffin, a being who can see all possible futures, all the time. It lends itself well to how the movie progresses, and provides some hilarious moments, too.

I don't really have much to say, I mean, the movie was simply solid. It had its funny moments, and after a slower-ish first half, the pacing picked up once the plot began to get underway. The events of the climax of the movie lead to a particularly poignant moment between Agent J and Agent K near the very end...it was a surprisingly soft touch for the kind of movie I expected it to be. Given how MIB1 ended, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but it was still extremely nice to see.

All in all, a solid, fun movie, especially for people of my generation who were 6-7 years of age when the first installment was released. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

8/10

Earth's Mightiest Heroes

I haven't made a post (before that last one) in a while, but I forgot to mention the new way Blogspot lets you actually post things. It's quite streamlined, though call me old-fashioned, but I enjoyed the older way a little better. I was probably just used to that, though, so I'll probably get used to this one eventually too.

In any case, the REAL subject of this blog post...The Avengers! Before I actually type out my review of the film, let me just say that ever since Iron Man came out in 2008, and I waited (on opening night) for the post-credits scene, I have been excited for this movie. I never thought that Marvel would actually realize such an ambitious project, and yet four years later, here we are. The result is quite honestly nothing short of amazing; Joss Whedon definitely has the fanbase pegged, as the movie is rife with explosions, witty dialogue, amazing fight sequences, awesome CGI...pretty much everything a fanboy like me could want.

The movie itself is pretty formulaic, because after all, these are 'Earth's mightiest heroes'. They're not going to initially get along, and the movie spends a good chunk of time setting up how this dysfunctional group is actually going to, you know, save the world. One reviewer wrote that 'these super-powered people have super-sized egos to match', and it's definitely true. There's one scene in particular that has almost every single star in the movie, all participating in lightning fast dialogue, bantering back and forth...it's quite well written, for such a short scene. That is, in my opinion, where Joss Whedon (with Zak Penn) excel in this movie; they make the dialogue super entertaining. I mean, it's what Whedon is known for, with Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer under his belt. But, yes, formulaic. The group gets together, they argue, an enemy arrives, they fight it, they win, the world is saved, everyone is happy. There was no other real way for this movie to pan out, in that order, simply because this is still (at its core) an origin story. Perhaps not an origin story for each individual hero (gotta see their individual movies, for that), but definitely for the team as a whole...and what a story it is.

But, while the dialogue is awesome, the explosions and fights are even better. Every character only has so much screen time, but in the climactic battle scene (the one so often referenced in the trailers), the camera seamlessly cuts from character to character, all fighting and walloping this mysterious threat to Earth's freedom. Maria Hill, Agent Coulson and Nick Fury, all SHIELD agents, they're all pretty awesome as well...oh, and Loki? Nothing short of phenomenal. I love Tom Hiddleston, really. Finally, the end-credits tag sets up an AWESOME sequel. I mean, it had been announced previously that the character they show was going to be in the movie, but I had quite honestly forgotten until I saw the scene, and realized a split second before...and the theatre (midnight screening) went absolutely insane. There is also ANOTHER post credits scene, so wait until everything is done, and you'll get to see that extra little tidbit. It's, quite honestly, hilarious.

All in all, I loved this movie. Prior to this film, this was my order of the Marvel films:

Iron Man >> Thor > Captain America >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Iron Man 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hulk

With The Avengers (which I am definitely going to see again in theatres) in play now, my order definitely looks like this:

The Avengers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Iron Man >> Thor > Captain America >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Iron Man 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hulk

It's THAT good. That's coming from someone who has read Iron Man since he was a little kid, and who LOVED the first movie (my dad has the original Iron Man comics, I got hooked on good ol' Mr. Stark from an early age =P), and it was that much better. I mean, it had Iron Man IN it, so it was definitely going to be awesome anyway. Regardless, the movie was just fantastic. Perhaps that's the fanboy in me talking, but...well, the movie was MADE for fanboys like me, so I think I'm justified in giving it the rating you see below. Avengers, assemble!

10/10

Summer already?!

Well, it's been a whole semester since I last blogged; I dunno what happened. I used to blog so frequently, though, the year DID get a whole ton more crazy (cray?) as it progressed. Less video games, less internet-ing, less everything, really. On the plus side, I was elected VUSAC President, after an intense race against a worthy opponent. To be fair, however, I did win by a somewhat comfortable margin, so that was a little nice too. In any case, as a result of that, I am now mandated to hold office hours in the VUSAC office, so here I am. A minimum of 30 hrs a week spread out over a minimum of 4 days (wooo, Fridays and weekends off!), so not too bad. There are some other things to look forward to over the break, however, so that's fun too...time to look ahead!

McDonalds $1 drink thingy! Now that it's available again, I plan on measuring my consumption of these drinks. So far, I've only had one, but it IS the beginning of May. I have the entire rest of the summer to take advantage of this. The plan: rip the red square with the golden arches on it, and keep it in the first one, to avoid having hundreds of those cups at my place...that would just end up being kind of gross, I think, and would probably attract ants or something. In any case, that's the plan. Last year, when I worked at Jameson Bank, I probably had one a day for the entire summer. That was a matter of convenience, though, since it was in the same building, and I literally just had to take an elevator down to the food court in the basement. Now, I have to leave the Birge, lock up the office, and walk over to McDs. I dunno how much I'll end up drinking, but, I can still imagine it'll be a lot...fountain drinks are SO TASTY. It'll probably be an unhealthy amount, but still.

TCAF! Otherwise known as the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, it's being held this coming weekend at the Toronto Reference Library near Yonge and Bloor. I'm going to go see my favourite webcomic artists, namely, Christopher Hastings of Dr. McNinja, who I have literally missed every time he's come to Toronto. Along with Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, it should be a fun time. Definitely buying some prints or something and hopefully will get them autographed!

The Avengers! It's literally TOMORROW NIGHT. Holy crap am I excited. I have literally been waiting to see this movie since Iron Man came out in 2008 and I saw the tag after the credits about the 'Avengers initative'. The crowd (which I was a part of) went nuts, and suddenly fast forward to 2012, and the movie is going to be a reality. I hear nothing but good things, AND I'm going to go see it with my awesome girlfriend, so...that's going to be pretty much nothing but awesome.

That was an appropriate segue into what I *really* wanted to talk about, i.e., the summer movies. The summer movie period is always my favourite part of the summer, because they have those high-octane movies that all the studios hope will be multi-million dollar blockbusters, and so they're all supposed to be crazy. I LOVE those movies, and so, I'm looking forward to them. Here are the ones I'm especially excited about:

The Avengers (obviously) (May 4th)

Men in Black III (May 25th)

Prometheus (June 8th)

Brave (June 22nd)

G.I.Joe: Retaliation (June 29th)

The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3rd)

The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th)

The Bourne Legacy (August 3rd)

The Campaign (August 10th)

The Expendables 2 (August 17th)

I have no doubt some of these movies will be down right terrible. In fact, I am hoping some of them will be...because that's part of the fun! Of course, I also expect that some of these movies will be awesome in every way. The Avengers, Prometheus, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises...I have so much hope that they will be amazing. For me at least, the jury is still out on the Amazing Spider-Man, though I'm definitely going to see it regardless. Really, I'm going to see all of these movies. I'm definitely going to see all the comic book ones at midnight, and maybe even Prometheus will be seen at midnight as well...that movie looks so cool, my god. As per usual, I'm going to post reviews of these movies when I see them, so...woo for that!

Anyway, time to go grab some food. Huzzah for more blogging this summer!

holiday movie roundup

A simple title, one that basically says what I'm going to talk about (for once). With my cousins and siblings, people who I love very very much, I got to see a fair amount of movies this winter break during my time off. It was pretty fun, I must say...and, before you judge me and tell me I'm a horrible person for letting my 13-year old brother see some of these movies, he only came to see two of them with us. ANYWAY, here we go!

The movies I saw this break were:

New Year's Eve
The Muppets
A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas in 3D
The Adventures of Tintin
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Yup, a fair amount. I will now proceed to rank them from the worst to the best (as if you reeeeally care. But still, let's do it up!):

6) A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas in 3D

Honestly, the only reason this movie is in the last place spot over the #5 spot is definitely the 3D. I have said many times before, but my god, 3D sucks. Even in this movie, the ONLY thing they used it for was blowing weed smoke in the audience's face when Harold and Kumar get super high. I mean, alright, like most guys, I enjoyed the gratuitous nudity (by only women, I might add), but....eh. It was just boring, although the crazy stuff Harold and Kumar get into are occasionally entertaining.

Final rating: 4/10

5) New Year's Eve

That shit does not happen in real life. I'm sorry, but, as someone who is perhaps jaded by the fact that I haven't met someone in FAR too long, meeting someone as magically as EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER did in that movie simply does not happen. It was a fun time at the theatre because I went with two of my favourite people, but still, the movie itself was awful.

Final rating: 4.5/10 (I can't bring myself to give this a 50% or more, I just can't, but at least it didn't have 3D)

4) Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Well, now that we have the CRAP movies out of the way, I really enjoyed all four of the remaining movies. Putting one over the other was actually somewhat hard, because they were THAT entertaining. MI4 was actually awesome, and perhaps the best in the entire series (yes, even over the first one). Some awesome shots, AND I got to see it in IMAX. They really had a good plot (even though the villain was a little dumb), and the action sequences were brilliant. Even the gadgets were sweet. It was directed by the dude who directed 'The Incredibles', and honestly, it showed. Things happened like they would in animated movies; there was a sweet chase through a sandstorm that Cruise partook in, and it was awesome. Honestly, a fantastic action movie, and they even set it up just in case Cruise doesn't want to return to the franchise in the future!

Final rating: 7/10

3) The Muppets

SO GOOD. I loved this movie, especially 'Life's a Happy Song'. I honestly am not one to enjoy such silly movies, but perhaps the nostalgia factor of the Muppets was too much for me to handle. Chris Cooper as the villain with his 'maniacal laugh', that was too awesome. Heck, all the guest stars in their cameo roles were awesome too; Jim Parsons was particularly well used, I think. It was a fun, light movie, and even the jokes that broke the 4th wall were great. Jack Black, who I'm not the BIGGEST fan of, even HE was awesome. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys silly things like that, and of course, it has some good music along the way too (also, Amy Adams is super hot).

Final rating: 8/10

2) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Man, I really love Robert Downey Jr., and this movie made me love him even more. Jude Law was great as Watson again, and it was an amazing performance by Jared Harris. He really stole the scenes he was in, IMO. Anyway, I also found it hilarious that there was no real female character in this movie, as Irene Adler (played by the crazy attractive Rachel McAdams) was in the previous installment; it was literally a bro-fest between Holmes and Watson the whole time. I'm down with this, really, and apart from that, the movie was more super sleuthing/detecting from the first one. Stephen Fry also made a great turn as Holmes's older and smarter (but infinitely lazier) bro, Mycroft. Another good action movie, and a little sillier...but still entertaining.

Final rating: 8.5/10

1) The Adventures of Tintin

Yes, this is the best movie I saw over the break. Yes, this movie IS that good. The 3D (yes, it WAS in 3D, and yes, I DID go see it in 3D) was absolutely fantastic; it was animated, so it was a little less jarring, but the only movie I've ever seen with better 3D was Avatar. Everything was super cool, the voice acting was great, and the action sequences were absolutely ridiculous. There's one action sequence involving a motorcycle and a chase through a Middle Eastern-themed city, and it was probably one of the best action sequences I've ever seen. Granted, it was largely made possible by the fact that it was not real, because some unreal stuff happens during it, but...well, yeah, it was awesome. Go see it. Captain Haddock, one of the main characters, is played and motion captured by Andy Serkis, he of Gollum/Smeagol and Caesar (from 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes') fame, and again, he does not disappoint, in his body language and in his voice. Quite frankly, this is one of the best animated movies I've seen, ever (even when compared to some Pixar movies...SOME, though, not ALL), and definitely the best one I saw over the break.

Final rating: 9/10

Well, those are the movies I've seen this break. I didn't get to see 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', or 'The Darkest Hour', but I will see them eventually. I hope they're good!

P.S. I saw the trailer for 'Prometheus', the prequel to 'Alien'. Um...what? This movie looks AWESOME. I can't wait...2012 promises to be a good year for movies, outside of the anticipated comic book ones. woo!