Perch Mini Movie Reviews
Moon
Perch Score: 9.466/10
It’s hard to talk about this movie without immediately giving away what it is about. The trailer gives nothing away, and I went into the movie knowing only that Sam Rockwell was the sole crew member of a mining base on the moon, and that towards the end of his three year stay on the moon, he starts to go a little crazy and begins seeing things. That’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this fantastic movie, and while I still won’t give away anything about the plot, I will tell you that this is Sam Rockwell at his very best. I’ve yet to see any performance this year that matches his, and add to that the amazing CGI work done to recreate the moon and the base Rockwell lives on, and you get one of the surprise movies of the year. Not to be missed by anyone, if Moon is showing anywhere near you, by all means drop what you’re doing and go see it. It’s that good. (note: Duncan Jones, the director, is David Bowie’s son)
Trailer / Ebert’s Review / Metacritic
Public Enemies
Perch Score: 8.754/10
It goes without saying I prefer to see Johnny Depp any day as someone like John Dillenger over Jack Sparrow. I also love Michael Mann. So the fact that I really enjoyed Public Enemies is no surprise at all. The movie is stylish, fun, and very well acted, portraying Dillenger and everyone involved in his escape plan. This is one of my favorite performances by Depp in a while, and Marion Cotillard officially won me over with her role as Billie Freschette. Everyone else in the cast was great, except for Christian Bale. He didn’t do a bad job, he just didn’t seem to fit with the style of the film. The rest of the cast was like “this is a robbery see, putcha hands up!” and Bale and his gravely voice were like “I’ll catch you John Dillenger. That you can be sure of”. It just didn’t work for me. Definitely an Oscar worthy film, and one I’d been waiting for for a long time now and it didn’t disappoint.
Trailer / Ebert’s Review / Metacritic
Adventureland
Perch Score: 8.699/10
Greg Mottola, director of Superbad, directed Adventureland as his near impossible follow up to Superbad and my mindset going into this film was exactly that. There’s no way this can compete with Superbad. And, honestly, it doesn’t. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all. It does the job rather effectively of providing us with a funny, down to Earth film about college kids forced to put their big plans on hold and work at a crappy theme park. Jessie Eisenburg does a great job filling Michael Cera’s place as the super awkward main role. Although I think Eisenburg’s proven history in dramas, mainly in The Squid and the Whale, which is an oddly wonderful film, makes the serious scenes in this film much better. I’ll still give the comedic edge to Cera though. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the best movie in the world, but as a feel good comedy, it definitely does it’s job. I laughed more than I thought I would, and by the end found myself saying, “wow, that was actually pretty good.” And I’m sure you’ll find yourself saying the same as well.
Trailer / Ebert’s Review / Metacritic
The rest of the list…
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Perch Score: 8.122/10
More of the same great storylines and CGI, only this time there’s a vast jungle landscape hidden under the ice and the CGI guys went absolutely nuts towards the end with the use of 3D and simply making it look great. I’ll be the first to admit it’s not cool to like the Ice Age movies, but I just can’t help myself. This one might be the best of the series.
Miracle At St. Anna
Perch Score: 8.799/10
Fantastic movie. I was expecting something a little more political, considering Spike Lee did it, but it ended up just being a fantastic war movie. But Lee puts his fingerprint and style all over the movie, and I laughed quite a bit during the build up to the main part of the story. It’s the story of a troop of black soldiers sent into an area first only to be abandoned, and the town that takes them in and keeps them safe. A great film that you should rent next time you’re at the red box at McDonald’s.
Valkyrie
Perch Score: 8.455/10
Nothing like Miracle at St. Anna, this was one war movie I honestly had no desire to see. But Tom Cruise proves once again that, while I can’t stand his antics in real life, he’s still a dang good actor, and his character’s quest to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government makes for a great movie. Not Cruise’s best, but it sure surprised me how good it ended up being.
The Haunting in Connecticut
Perch Score: 7.689/10
Scariest movie I’ve seen in a long time. We watched it out of pure fun, not expecting anything, and Michelle’s eyes were covered most the time with her screaming “what’s happening!? What’s happening?!” with me just laughing at how much the last scene freaked me out. Don’t expect a life changing movie, but there’s plenty of scenes where the camera pans quickly to reveal a ghostly figure with it’s head cocked to the side in the back of the room for only the briefest of moments, but long enough to make you jump and think, what the hell was that. Yeah, it’s one of those movies, and it doesn’t let up on the eeriness by any means. Get a group of friends together and see it.
Movies I Want to See
- (500) Days of Summer
- The Informant!
- World’s Greatest Dad
- In the Loop (this look hilarious)
- Cold Souls
- It Might Get Loud (the guitarist in me wants to see this)
- An Education (screenplay by Nick Hornby)
- Inglourious Basterds
- District 9
- Heart of Stone
- Ponyo (Miyazaki’s, director of Spirited Away, next film)
There’s about 10 more movies I’d love to review, but I need to get going. You’ll just have to wait for the next installment of my Perch mini movie reviews. But seriously, if you have a chance to see Moon, do it asap. I loved it.
