Ted

Live action family guy complete with arbitrary and obscure referential cutaways.  Kunis and Wahlberg perform hilariously on their second date, and a strange cast of supporting stars distracts away from lamely straightforward plot and a few flat self-directed jokes.  Stupidly juvenile premise works great, but could have used heavier R.

True Romance

Tarantino’s tale of a clean Slater’s injection into criminal world is brilliantly crafted and expertly populate with the best bit parts that Walken, Oldman, Hopper, Pitt and others have ever done.  Turning Slater and Arquette 1 into empathetic charaster is a True Miracle.  Naturally born prequel to Stone’s killed romance.

Haywire

Soderbergh’s Girl Fight Experience outgrows its predecessor and is bourne into disjunctive action mess.  Major stars braved traffic to show up onset and then suffered contagious underuse.  Fassbender and Banderas have names longer than their roles, and even McGregor just stumbles around in poorly edited mediocrity.  Carano however, Way higher.

Battle Los Angeles

Aside from being set in Santa Monica and mostly involving avoiding battle, Battle Ship Down is a mildly amusing War of the West attempt.  Eckhart battles with a sad attempt at back story in addition to variably killable District L.A-liens.  Overall, weakest element is contrived bomb plot and clichés galore.

The Thing (2010)

Clever remake/secret prequel functions as an update for original fans and newcomers alike.  Less impressive cast than the Carpenter construction leaves less empathetic characters, and it may be possible that effects advances actually removed viewers further, still attention to detail and a few effective scares mean some-thing was done right.

The Cabin in the Woods

Cleverly comedic send-up of the Friday the 13^th genre of horror, with appropriate homages to the Evil Dead.  Cleverly structured mystery thriller with deeply involved Mystery Science Theatre watchers and a completely unguessable ending.  Genuine performances, empathetic characters and plenty of twists make logic caps more leapable than a… zap!