This is the first time I've checked out/commented on this What I Watched series! Yay!

Ok so I saw the sneak of "Whip It" and I figured I should chime in with my two cents (I didn't get a free t-shirt though- teenagers need to stop moviehopping and stealing). When the cast is let loose, it's a ton of fun, and often very funny. Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore and of course Ellen Page all are fantastic here, as are the bit players like Zoe Bell (from "Death Proof") and Juliette Lewis. However, it becomes super-formulaic towards the end of the film. The disapproving parents, the important game that conflicts with another important event for the main character, the villain blackmailing the hero and of course, the final game where everything comes down to the final seconds. that's when the film starts to squander its potential and becomes "Hoosiers" with Juno Macguff.

Overall, when it shines, it really shines and regardless of how formulaic it becomes, it's a lot of fun. Good to see a film with a cast of talented, hilarious women.

The only thing I saw this week was a re-watch of "Mysterious Skin". It becomes more powerful every time I see it. The excellence of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet's acting still amazes me. The soundtrack, the entire supporting cast, everything in this movie is brilliant. And it has to be one of the boldest movies of the decade. The way it deals with sexuality in children – and never shies from it – is totally honest and moving. I don't like the term "gay movie", but, when it comes to movies-that-deal-with-homosexuality, so to speak, this is the best one I've ever seen.

Dog Day Afternoon ~ 5/5

Both Pacino and Lumet's finest.

Started watching The Shining for the second time. Sat through 37 minutes, turned it off, will finish tomorrow. Easily the freakiest, scariest, most disturbing movie I've ever seen.

Bought and rewatched The Boat That Rocked. Awesome movie with a fantastic cast (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans being the best), some great humor, and absolutely fantastic soundtrack. I feel like I'm gonna rewatch it every time I'm in a bad mood, though The Sting and Ocean's Eleven (2001) are good for it too.

Alien – A- great movie with incredible atmosphere

Aliens – B good action movie not nearly as good as the first

Alien 3 – C- quite a let down considering Fincher directed it

Taxi Driver – B good movie definatly not my favorite scorsese film

Quiz Show – B+ another amazing movie from 1994 forrest never should have won

Usual Suspects – A- great movie but saw the twist coming

The Village – A- really really creepy, wont be the same the second time round

Dexter Season 2 – A i absolutly love this show but its not as good as season 1

Snatch – A+ wow what an incredible movie, kinda like pulp fiction in england and on speed

Horror of Dracula (1958): B+
The Exorcist (1973): A
The Gunfighter (1950): A-
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): B
High Noon (1952): A+
Equilibrium (2002): B

9/20-9/26:

True Lies – B+
Battle for Terra – C-
The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio) – A
Infernal Affairs III – C
Shrink – B-
Modus Operandi – F
House of the Devil – B+
Away We Go – B+
Outrage – C
Bronson (rewatch) – A

I definitely plan to see the Toy Story 3-D double feature when it comes out. I haven't seen both films in years, so this is the perfect time for me to go out and get refreshed. Movies I've seen this week:

The Informant!: 3.5/4
A Clockwork Orange: 3.5/4
Full Metal Jacket: 2.5/4

Another slow week for me…

Breaking the Waves – It was good, and definitely made me want to see some more von Trier, but it wasn't great. Emily Watson was amazing and von Trier's semi-Dogme 95 style was really interesting, but it ran a bit longer than it had to in my opinion. 4/5

Fame – It had it's fun moments but in the end it was poorly acted, poorly executed and the story was really bad. It had too many characters than it knew what to do with. 2/5

In the Valley of Elah: D
Relentlessly pretentious and manipulative. I expected to like it but did NOT. Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron were completely wasted on stereotypical roles with no range. Tommy Lee Jones brought nothing special. Paul Haggis could have just as easily written an essay to make his point and spared us this film.

Bright Star: A
Just came back from seeing this. If you want action packed adventure or complicated plots or a changeable mix of characters, just do yourself a favor and stay away from this film. Bright Star, the story about a poet, John Keats, and the young girl, Fanny Brawne, who falls in love with him is like a window on another time. It's a tiny world in a tiny place and the few people we meet and get to know. The acting is stupendous. There is no part not finely tuned and convincingly delivered, however small. Paul Schneider plays Charles Brown, the unexpectedly coarsely beligerent friend of Keats and nemesis to Fanny Brawne. My admiration for Schneider grows. Ben Whishaw is witty, fun, serious, and captivating as John Keats. My admiration for Whishaw begins. However, as this story is framed, it is the story of Fanny Brawne. And Abbie Cornish brings her to life delicately yet completely and convincingly. This film is the making of Cornish. Its been a long time coming and well deserved.

Jane Campion has fashioned a film that is not unlike Keats' poetry: beautifully crafted, wonderfully detailed, stimulating to the senses, and perfectly formed. A glimpse into the heart of our existence. It was a distinct pleasure to view it.

I actually just saw Quintet this week as well. It's… one of the most appalling thing I've ever seen.

will you guys be reviewing trick r treat, because i just watched it and it was amazing imo.

@Patricia:

D for 'In the Valley of Elah'? Maybe I don't remember it that well, but I think I thought it was better than Crash. But then, I hated Crash. I agree about wasting Theron and Sarandon though, they could've had a ton of more scope. Anyhoo, here's my list for the week.

(500) Days of Summer – B+
I liked the non-linear screenplay. I liked Joe Gordon-Levitt, but I didn't somehow warm up to Zooey enough to bump this into the A category. Having said that, the movie was well crafted, very interestingly framed and styled, and quite heart warming in bits (I particularly loved how his little sister plays his agony aunt all the time.) It's a beautiful to thing to fall in love, ephemeral as it may be, I just wish Autumn hadn't come along so soon, it denigrates the effect of Summer.

Away We Go – A-
Yes, people ARE gonna think 'm nuts for this one, but I can't help it. I truly and definitely DID like Away We Go more than (500) Days of Summer. Maybe 'm a sap for happy endings but this film spoke a little more to me than the previous one. So you probably can't watch this one with your younger sibling, but then Mendes is British, and that's just how they roll. Maya Rudolph is quite fantastic, but the movie belongs to John Krasinski. I don't know if it's a compliment or not, but he's so inherently likable that it's impossible to not enjoy the movie when he has this much scope. But yeah, the movie does have it's flaws, sometimes does find itself becoming a little too quirky, but I think the reason I liked this film is for the moments in between everything else, that just brought this couple together. And as always, I find it impossible to not like any of Mendes' work. ('m one of those that thought Winslet was far better in Revolutionary Road than The Reader. Sue me!)

Twilight – D
Ok, how do I do this? SO terrible, but I had to watch it to be able to mock it authoritatively. And in that respect, it did pay off. And I think it was about ten minutes in that my reason and resolve did start to wane, but I just quoted (to myself), a la that block of wood Pattinson, "Fine then, I'll just have to endure it!"

Gran Torino – A
I LOVE Clint Eastwood. He is SO totally the man. I mean, he is the one guy out there who can completely and thoroughly emasculate ANYONE by just standing next to them. But in Gran Torino, boy, I felt like a little girl in comparison to him. I still can't believe he's retired from acting. I think 'm gonna re-watch the Dirty Harry series now.

Table For Three – C-
I only watched this movie 'cause they said Jennifer Morrison's leaving House, but in hindsight, I shouldn't have. Whilst there isn't anything particularly grating about the movie, there isn't anything great either. Don't watch it, unless your other option is Twilight. Any movie is f***in' Citizen Kane next to Twilight.

Dil Bole Hadippa (Hindi film) – C-
The only thing that raises this above She's the Man is Rani Mukherjee's fantastic screen presence and incomparable energy. But that only lasts as long as it is waiting to be sunk by an even more pitiable screenplay. Having said that, I would buy the ticket again, maybe, if I could walk in just as the credits start to roll. There's a fantastic song-and-dance sequence then. All those of you who LOVED the joke-of-choreography-song-and-dance 'Jai Ho' would do well to check this out. Infinitely better. Oh, but wait, there's youtube for that.

What's Your Rashee? (Hindi film) – D-
Ashutosh Gowariker made one film that made it to the Foreign Language shortlist at the Oscars, and suddenly people called him a master film maker. That's how funny the film industry is. Lagaan was an Aamir Khan vehicle, not Gowariker's. Someone please remind them that he made god-awful messes before that, and terrible bores after. With the exception of Swades (which also did tank commercially), his only other credits are the snooze-fest 'Jodha Akbar', and this hysterically abhorrent 'What's Your Rashee?' Priyanka Chopra does a stellar job however (following close on the heels of Kaminey) and is let down by a downer of a screenplay. Finally, with a run time that pushes 4 hours, can someone PLEASE tell Gowariker that there is such a thing as an editing room. Next time you can a film, please visit it. Urgently!

The Lookout – A
Thankfully I found a good film to end the week with. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a treat as usual. Isla Fisher is adequately pretty. Jeff Daniels is fantastic. The screenplay is the master though. There was a spot in there that I thought the movie was a formulaic train-wreck, but then noticed that there were 45 minutes more left. And that's where it really picked up. By no means a masterpiece, it remains a deft, smooth, entertaining thriller, and a further testament to the chops of the most agreeable young actor around, Gordon-Levitt. I wanna watch 'Hesher' and 'Inception' now. (just a side note on Inception: it isn't odd but 'm looking forward to Inception a lot, but if I ranked the reasons for that, I find "another good Dicaprio film" about fourth or fifth on the list. Who would've thunk it?)

I caught Layer Cake n thought it was alright but too much like snatch.. a cool flick but the storyline means nothing really. I also caught I'm Not There the bob dylan flick and thought it was pretty awesome. Blanchett was awesome but i thought the richard gere character was kinda useless for the movie.

I guess my picks for this week have been asian and/or animated.

1. Thirst – Korean vampire movie I saw at the Helsinki International Film Festival. I liked it very much, the story and characters are very interesting and quite different from the usual modern day vampire genre. Also this movie deals with a lot more than just vampires but I won’t spoil it :).

2. 3-Iron – Another Korean movie, quiet, spiritual, mystical. Needs some thinking over before I can say anything more. I just finished watching it half an hour ago.

3. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – Another HIFF selection. A bit teen but likable. The ending needs shortening.

4. 9 – Also HIFF. Liked the feel of it but needs some work. I can see Burton & Bekmambetov in this. Interesting to see what Acker comes up with next.

I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for the first time. I know. Shame on me. It was a good movie. The gags floored me. The action was great. Harrison Ford is one sexy bitch. 8.5/10

"Jennifer's Body" – This follow up to "Juno" was fine. The Diablo Cody-esque dialogue was good in some sections and distracting in others with "Cheese n Fries" instead Jesus Christ. Too cutesy. Amanda Seyfried was terrific in the film. 5/10

"Shaun of the Dead" – Being disappointed with "Hot Fuzz", I was hesitant to watch this. I was wrong. I enjoyed the gory zombie humor, the side gags. It was enjoyable. 7/10