Iron Man 3, Fast and Furious 6, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, Elysium

Summer blockbusters
Entertain, but are tiring
And blur together.

Explosions, no plot,
Spectacle, no character
Bad writing abounds

Of the five I saw
Only two put some effort
Towards a decent script

Surprisingly, they
Were Iron Man and Fast 6,
The rest were just noise.

Silver Linings Playbook

A showcase for great
Acting and directing, it
Is full of strong and

Downright surprising
Performances (DeNiro's
Still got it!). Though the

Plot is overly
Hollywood at times, there is
A lot to like here,

Plus any film that
Can redeem Chris Tucker is
Doing something right.

Zero Dark Thirty

The intensity
Of Argo, with the torture
Of late 24.

The politics are
Second to the story, though
It's a bit light on

Character. Who knows
How accurate it is, I
Don't really care. It's

Gripping, unpleasant,
Moving, and will make you think.
All welcome, rare traits.

Django Unchained

Full disclosure: I
Am a big Tarantino
Fan, and love westerns

I was predisposed
To really like this movie.
Slick, funny, gruesome,

And too cool for school
A well-acted though choppy
Revenge fantasy,

It lived up to, but
Didn't surpass any of
My expectations.

The Hobbit (non-3D, non-48 fps)

Yes, it felt dragged out.
Yes, it was underwhelming.
Yes the characters

Were regretfully
Underdeveloped. Not to
Mention how crazy

It is that they are
Eeking three movies out of
One fairly short book.

Despite all of that
Returning to Middle Earth
Was a lot of fun.

Looper

A dark and brutal
Drama disguised as sci-fi,
A thriller with brains,

 Looper will make you
Think, just not about happy,
Fun, or pleasant things.

Top-notch direction
And a nicely streamlined plot
Keep it all moving.

While a unique take
On time travel makes up for
The super-grim tone.

Sleepwalk With Me

Mike Birbiglia's
Charming, bittersweet tale of
A sleep disorder

And how it caused him
To (eventually) be
A better man and

Do better on stage.
A fairly lightweight story
Taken mostly from

His standup routines
It is cute, funny, well made,
And winningly short.

Resident Evil: Retribution (IMAX 3D)

Not a good movie
But at least a fun one, it
Shares a lot with the

Last movie I saw
In IMAX, Avatar. Both
Have bad acting, great

Action, and I found
The ridiculousness was
Rather endearing.

RE wins out though,
It doesn't take itself at
All seriously.

The Expendables 2

The dumbest movie 

To be released this year, I

Really enjoyed it.

Less a movie, more

The best videogame I'll

Never get to play.

Better action than

Part one, with more silly one-

Liners and even

Worse dialogue. It

Has everything you'd expect,

Both the good and bad.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

An original
And unflinching (though somehow
Not pretentious) tale

Of a girl finding
Her place in the universe,
It is a creole

Winter's Bone with a
Much younger yet equally
Intense lead actress.

Q* Wallis carries
The whole movie on tiny,
Impressive shoulders.


*Her first name is actually Quvenzhané, I'm guessing it is four syllables, but I wasn't confident enough to try to include the whole thing.

Moonrise Kingdom

Even if you don't
Like Wes Anderson's style,
You've got to admit,

He sure knows how to
Do a lot with a little.
Here his overly

Precise direction,
Lyrical storytelling
And eccentric cast

Combine to make a
Charming, funny tale of young
Love and adventure.

Prometheus

The superb acting
And directing deserve a
Better script, one with

Good dialogue and
Character development
Luckily I tend

To have a soft spot
For sci-fi that tries to be
More than just action

Prometheus TRIES,
Very hard, for greatness but
Never quite makes it

The Cabin In The Woods

A lot has been said
About how much you should know
When going to see

This crazy freak show.
Yes there's a cabin, and it's
A giant cliche

But that is the point
So why don't you stay? Come for
The humor, and Joss

Whedony bits, but
Don't be surprised if all your
Expectations are completely and utterly subverted by how he messes with convention.

21 Jump Street

Wow, what a pleasant
Surprise. If it weren't for the
Chemistry between

Tatum and Hill, this
Could have been a complete wreck
Their exuberance

(Along with the sharp
Writing, clever cameos,
And general sense

Of fun) totally
Won me over. It's silly
But somehow, it works.

The Hunger Games

Well, that was intense.
Despite some cheesy effects,
And the condensed plot

Gary Ross pulled off
A great adaptation of
The anti-Twilight

Compromises were
Made for brevity, not the
Heart or characters

Jennifer Lawrence
Tough as nails, carries the film
On sculpted shoulders

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (in 2D)

Deck the halls with lots
Of dick jokes, fa la la la
La la la la, sigh

The third Harold and
Kumar movie may be leaps
And bongs better than

Part two, but it still
Lacks the surprising charm of
The original



There's some holiday
Cheer, but you'll laugh a lot more
If your eggnog's spiked.

The Three Musketeers

Combine the Princess
Bride with Assassin's Creed 2,
Add every cliche

You can think of, and
Then make it just stunningly
Anachronistic

Add a dash of fun
Casting choices, pour on too
Much bad CGI

Blend thoroughly with
Some downright decent swordplay
And try to enjoy.

Classic Movies I've Somehow Never Seen Until Now Special Edition: Blues Brothers

Everything about
This movie is great, I wish
I'd seen it sooner

Incredible car
Chases are eclipsed by the
Sharp comedy, which

Is nothing compared
To the musical numbers
And the cameos

You will laugh, you will
Cheer, but most of all, you will
Dance, sing, and feel joy

Drive

Let's put it like this
This : Bourne :: Drive : Fast and Fur'ous
I'll elaborate

An indie movie
At heart, with deliberate
Choices all around

Music, direction,
Casting, jarring violence,
Visceral chases

More thought went into
This than every Michael Bay
Movie ever made.

Captain America

The thing that struck me
While watching this silly and
Campy yet very

Fun movie, was that
Chris Evans REALLY nails it
He's charismatic

Without a hint of
Sarcasm or relying
On comic timing

The movie is worth
Seeing just for that, but lots
Of stuff blows up too