The Awakening (2011)
Genuinely impressed with this moody, brooding, creepy thriller. Reminded me a lot of
The Others and
Woman in Black in that it's a successfully atmospheric haunting tale. Adored Dominic West, whom I had only previously seen in
The Wire.
What I think what really impressed me about this was that the ending, while perhaps a bit overdone, actually wrapped the story up quite well - I'm typically suspicious of "twists," but it really worked well here. Nice slow-burner.
4/5.
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ParaNorman (2012)
I love animated films. I love claymation. I love horror. And I really loved Coraline, so I was very excited about this one coming out from the same studio... But while it was absolutely stunning, I thought that the characters were silly, unbelievable, and 2-dimensional, the dialog was really lazy, and the story, while not bad, was just executed poorly. Huge disappointment for me because I really thought the animations was stunning.
Watch
Frankenweenie instead. Best animated movie of the year, hands down, and Burton's finest period.
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The Giant Mechanical Man (2012)
Cute Jenna Fischer in a cute indie romcom.
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For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
I'm all for chick-flicks, but this was just lazy, lame, and predictable. And - SPOILER - you don't even get any real girl-on-girl action. Damn.
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Admission (2013)
HA! Never have I been so thankful for free movie passes - This was awful. Just really really awful. I needed a Girls' Night Out movie and I figured - Hey, I like Tina Fey - I like Paul Rudd, how bad can it be? Oh, it can be bad. Very very bad.
I was hoping for a dopey romcom but this was an oddly ill-conceived drama. Also it had a random cow birthing scene.
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Wow, my most recent movie- watchings have been mostly disappointing... Going to have to remedy that...