Inglorious Bastards (1978) — B

Law Abiding Citizen — B (would've been an A with a different ending)

Cabin Fever 2 — D- (the cartoon inserts saved it from an F)

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Season 1 -- B
Season 2 -- A
Season 3 -- A+

True Romance--A++

The White Ribbon — D

Would have been an F if not for the beautiful b&w photography, an awesome horseback riding tumble (in the first minute of the film) and a nice little scene of a young couple taking a carriage ride. I need to remember to avoid Haneke's stuff in the future. His whole schtick seems to be punishing viewers for wanting to be entertained or satisfied in any way by the movies they watch.



Don McKay — D

This was just in limited release a month or so ago, and now it's already on DVD. A genius concept — the protagonist/victim walks into a prototypical thriller scheme knowing from the start he's being set up — very amateurishly realized. Too often the setting felt like a comedy, completely cutting the legs off the suspense.



City of the Living Dead (aka The Gates of Hell) — C
Cat in the Brain — B

I appreciate Fulci's place in the pantheon of horror directors, but I don't particularly like what he does. His photography doesn't evoke the surreal atmosphere of Argento, his direction is far more literal and plodding than Soavi (who had a bit part in CotLD), and his effects are usually just laughable. Still, that zombie-versus-shark scene in Zombi earned him a lot of capital.



Cannibal Holocaust — A

Would have been an A+ but for the poor quality of some of the gore effects. The supplemental materials are very interesting — an hour-long discussion each with two of the starring actors, and a running commentary with one of those actors and the director, Ruggero Deodato, taped in front of an audience. Also has an option to view the movie in its various edited/censored versions (without the animal cruelty scenes, as one example).

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 7 — A

Even with 7 seasons, Larry David still manages to eff things up in his own unique fashion. Hilarious stuff!

A Serious Man -- A

Alice In Wonderland (2010) — C

By-the-numbers reworking of the classic story. Except for the crappy CGI that has become the status quo, and the constantly referring to the Jabberwock as the "Jabberwocky," pretty much nothing too objectionable. I think Crispin Glover was auditioning for a new Snake Plissken movie.



The Descent 2 — D

Moronic more-of-the-same sequel. Goofy "twist" ending tacked on in the last minute.



The Crazies (2010) — C-

Nothing new here. The 80's re-make of The Blob, or the recent King/Darabont movie The Mist, was pretty much the same story. There's a little twist in the last minute I thought was new, but then I remembered it was taken from Aja's The Hills Have Eyes re-make.

I started watching THE WHITE RIBBON on Netflix instant queue, but man, that internet-streaming business just doesn't cut it for an art movie, where even if you don't like it (like Allen), half the pleasure comes from the gorgeous photography.

Really looking forward to an upgrade to blu-ray and maybe Vudu later this year ....

I did go ahead with Soderbergh's GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE on instant queue; not sure if I mentioned that here in another thread, maybe. Soderbergh has a nice handle on that sort of bokeh-y decentralized depth-of-field-happy cinematography style that's all the rage in indie pictures, and which I actually do like in and of itself; but like most of his movies I've seen, the GFE seemed too loose and too empty of actual content. I'm all for subtle movies, but I couldn't shake the feeling that this watered-down, fictionalized, dressed-up, impressionistic look into the life of a high-profile escort was notably less interesting than a straightforward documentary about the life of the hardcore porn star he selected for the role would've likely been.

As to Sasha's Grey acting, I thought the critics a trifle hard on her: it's as serviceable as anything else in the film. (She's better here than in her other films.)

K

PS: The visual style of GFE reminded me half of the more polished IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, and half of the less polished THE HEADLESS WOMAN; THE HEADLESS WOMAN is the best of the three, in my opinion, but probably also the easiest to dislike.

I forgot to mention I also enjoyed the masturbation joke, which spanned three scenes.

All I wanted was some resolution to the "horror" and the "mystery," which is how the movie was marketed. I keep the counter on my DVD player set to show the time left, and with thirty minutes to go it became very probable that nothing was going to be resolved. Haneke's point is painfully obvious: this was the generation that would grow up to become the Nazis; their behavior stemmed from their youth and the harsh punishments bestowed upon them by their parents. Which still doesn't excuse the non-resolution of specific crimes against a community. It's one thing to make an abstract "art movie" — I love many of the films of Kenneth Anger — but it's quite a different thing to set up a narrative and then derail it.