Final 2012 Movie Addendum

I made one final push to catch some of last year's movies:

Zero Dark Thirty – 10
You’ll like this movie if you like
a.  Manhunts
b.  Great storytelling
c.  The next Meryl Streep
Turns out The Hurt Locker was no fluke.  Director Kathryn Bigelow is one hell of a story teller.  I have no idea how much of this movie is truth and how much is fiction, but it is a riveting recreation of the 10 year manhunt for Usama Bin Laden. 

Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a CIA operative whose 12 year career has been all about tracking Bin Laden.  She is the centerpiece of this film.  Jessica is the Meryl Streep of today, as it now appears she can play any role.  She’s not flashy here, but totally believable as her obsessive tracking of Bin Laden in the face of resistance from all sides, is what makes this film so enthralling. 

The movie covers a lot of ground, but never takes a misstep.  This is movie making at its finest.

Django Unchained – 8
You’ll like this movie if you like
a.  Tarantino
b.  Carnage
c.  Revenge
You must understand one thing about villains in a Quentin Tarantino film.  They have extremely high blood pressure, and that blood is bright red.  Consequently, every gunshot is a direct hit on a highly pressurized artery that explodes like it has been dynamited.  With each passing movie, these explosions get bigger and bigger.  Let’s hope this movie is the culmination of exploding artery syndrome.

Now I like arterial fireworks as much as the next guy, but it’s the storytelling of movies like Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill’s that makes me a Tarantino fan.  His depiction of slavery is properly gruesome and  Django has some brilliant comedy in it.  In fact its comedy moments make me hope that someday Tarantino will write a straight comedy.  There’s some great action, but it is so over the top in blood and gore, well it’s as funny as it is anything else.  For some reason the parts don’t equal the whole that it should.  The movie meanders slowly and bloodily to an inevitable conclusion, and I’d give Quentin the same piece of advice I’d give most of today’s bladder busting directors:  Two hours is better than two and a half hours. 

Ted – 8
You’ll like this movie if you like
a.  Raunchy comedy
b.  Seth McPharlane
c.  Teddy Bears
Coming from the pen of Seth McPharlane I expected a little more unconventional comedy.  Nevertheless, this rather simple and predictable story of a talking Teddy Bear hits all the right notes on its trip to comedy gold.  It’s not always pretty, it’s not always pleasant, and it’s certainly tasteless at times.  But, it’s fun.

Mark Wahlberg, plays a Boston adult (and nobody does Boston better, probably because he's from Boston) who grows up with a Teddy Bear who has come to life and expects to be a companion for life.  That is until girlfriend Mila Kunis tires of their childish behavior and inexplicably decides to keep Mark and kick Ted to the curb.  Hilarity ensues.  Just go with it.

Wanderlust – 7
You’ll like this movie if you like
a.  Jennifer Anniston
b.  Paul Rudd
c.  Hippies
This isn’t too bad as Jennifer Anniston movies go.  It helps that Paul Rudd is a solid comedic actor for her to play off of.  Their relationship actually seems real.  When Paul gets laid off, they are forced to abandon their beloved Manhattan and head to Atlanta.  After the story takes them to a hippie type commune, their relationship gets tested.  Nicely written and nicely acted, there’s nothing special here, just a nice little comedy.