Reign Over Me

Sandler delivers an incredible portrayal of grief and distress. Cheadle is good but can’t compare to Sandler and Burrows as they step far outside their comfort zones. One of the only films without a number in its title (93, 25) to handle this subject matter appropriately. Sandler should stay serious.

Deep Blue Sea

They trapped some sharks, made them smart, and harpooned them with giant hypodermics. What could go wrong? Turns out the sharks are about an even match for Mace Windu, the Punisher, Bootstrap Bill, and LL Cool J. Mediocre plot and dialogue made tolerable by great surprises and hilariously bad FX.

The Ghost Writer

Polanski delivers another healthy Baby with this political thriller. McGregor is nuanced and empathetic as he investigates a brilliantly cryptic Brosnan. Supporting cast, though arbitrary, Hutton and Belushi, are excellent, and the entire piece has a ghostly sense of foreboding. Respectfully suspenseful, an altogether excellent ride, with a perfect ending.

Stardust

The best comedy fantasy since Princess Bride and an outstandingly clever film. A cast of supporting superstars surround a relative unknown as he makes his way through an ingeniously funny fairy-tale land. De Niro and Pfeiffer provide two of the best performances, of the film, and of their recent years.

Crash (2004)

Candy coated look at the intersecting lives of several hundred people in Los Angeles. Melodramatic and carefully constructed to remind to the viewer that racism is terrible. Lives intersect repeatedly, and so on occasion to brilliant editing, performance, and music to form several powerful tear-jerk moments. Better title: Hate Actually.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

Bad Lieutenant gets checkup from Dr. Mulholland himself, who Lynches the performances before letting Herzog run amok with editing and inclusion of documentary footage. The two stand-out performances come from Lieutenant veterans, Shannon and Dourif, and to say that either is type cast is just crazy. Another interesting Herzog experiment.

The Young Victoria

The Duchess on casual Friday. Altogether average period piece, with mundane plot and decent performances to be Blunt. Distractions included occasionally dysfunctional Barry Lyndon-esque lighting and strange Scorsese-style anachronistic editorial flourishes. Also hurt by oddly punctuated title cards and pre-credits history textbook. Bettany and Strong are perfect for this, period.

A Single Man

Beautiful and contemplative freeform character study elevated to excellence by sublimely nuanced performance of Colin Firth. Strong supporting cast too; Goode is great, but Moore is better. True surprises are the editor and first-time director Tom Ford, who craft a piece of art. Watch, errr… listen for Jon’s Hamm-eo appearance.

Love Actually

Sprawling romantic comedy set on the corner of Magnolia and Notting Hill. Basically a fictionalized account of every single person in England on and around Christmas. Beautiful editing and writing create sublime mix of sincere sadness and hilarity. Easier to name British actors excluded rather than included. Uh… John Cleese?

Burn After Reading

Coens, Clooney, and Swinton agree this is No Movie for Michael Clayton as they revisit jovial O’ Lebowski days. Arsenal of Oscar nominees join silly fray while pursued by dude-like CIA and its Jonah Jameson leader. Surprisingly brilliant movie about stupid people including mad Malkovich, prettified Pitt and jealous McDormand.

Sin City

Rodriguez brings together outstanding cast and exemplary style in perfect screen adaptation of comic series. Sure, the cinematography and dialogue had all been pre-determined by co-director, Miller, but RR cuts it cleverly a delivers a beautiful hybrid. Uses voice-over to excess and seems a bit to arbitrary, but otherwise, spectacular.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Gill.I.Am makes mess of things again, this time aided by Ledger’s death. Radical rewrite renders movie incomprehensible but justifies involvement of every sexiest man alive. Law, Farrell, and Depp all emulating Ledger spectacularly can’t cover up perplexing plot or hopeless mini-me. Instead of watching, view poster and imagine the rest.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Ex-sitcom Labaeiouf replaces current sitcomer Sheen (cameo, duh) and becomes an actor. Mulligan shines but the Gekko seems twisted out of character. Starts well but crashes midway through and Even Steven just rides the oddly edited rollercoaster till the anti-climactic end. Current affairs familiarity can’t save this Stone from sinking.

Machete

Trejo finally gets lead role as Rodriguez realizes that his bad movies are his best. Simultaneously lampoons lost genre while actually analyzing current affairs issue. Beautifully incorporates footage from source trailer and provides caricature stereotype characters for Latino cast and wild ones for De Niro, Lohan, and surprising impressive Segal.

The Expendables

Excess celebrity (quantity and individual size) and absence of story constitute amusing but unsubstantial spectacle. In-jokes provide occasional amusement as does speculation about which seen broke Stallone’s neck. Perhaps crowning moment is Planet Hollywood reunion, which serves up dialogue on par with its food. With eighty percent fluff, impressively well-titled.

Red

Intentionally quirky performances by venerated actors create necessary defining kitsch. Story is as vapid as Parker’s character and the otherwise well-shot fight scenes often degenerate into infinite ammo machine-gun fire. Basically an action party for Oscar winners and a film well worth watching when it reappears ad infinitum on TNT.

The Social Network

Three names synonymous with cinematic excellence – Fincher, Sorkin, Timberlake – craft action-free courtroom drama (sans court) that’s hilarious, exciting and powerful. Eisenberg follow’s Cera’s Pilgrim on journey out of Cera’s shadow, and Timberlake’s celebrity is used perfectly. Boring title and poster prove you should never judge a book by its face.

The Town

Ben’s back. In Boston, in action, in more ways than one. Daredevil and Gossip Girl perform uncharacteristically well alongside ever-spectacular Renner. Hamm’s a ham hunting these mad men, and Cooper can’t quite pronounce words wrong right. Tense and exciting, like old Affleck has Heated up Departed and Gone Baby Gone.