Trevin's What I've Been Watching!

A quick word about this segment; since television season is coming up, and since I'm anticipating weeks in the future where I won't have time to watch many movies, I'm going to add TV shows to this segment. I will  try and avoid talking about spoilers, but that may not always be possible. I'll try and warn people if there are spoilers, but just be on the lookout for that.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - I found this movie to be very entertaining. It was fast-paced and original, so I felt like it was a success. It had its fair share of jokes that fell flat, but overall, most of the jokes worked, making this a fun movie to see. It's a shame this didn't do better in the box office, because it's far better than the movies that have been topping the charts.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Spirited Away (2001) - After seeing this, and the first half of Howl's Moving Castle, I think I've realized Hayao Miyazaki is not really for me. While I appreciated both films, and found them visually stunning, I wasn't captivated by their storyline as much as other people have been by his works. Even though his stuff might not be my taste, I can still appreciate an achievement when I see one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Eat Pray Love (2010) - Now here's an example of a movie that's not my taste that I cannot appreciate. I found this film to be way too long, far too cliched, with terrible cinematography choices, and a questionable comclusion (did I really watch a woman find strength in her independence for 2 and a half hours just to see her get with another man?). There was one reedeming quality to the film, and it had to do with the male cast. This film had a very impressive male cast: Billy Crudup, James Franco, Richard Jenkins, and Javier Bardem, all actors I think have great talent. While most of them seemed to have mailed in their performances in exchange for the paycheck, there was a noteable exception. While Richard Jenkins character was terribly written and annoying (to me, at least) his performance in the scene on the rooftop was sensational. The dialogue in the scene was horrible, but he was very convincing as a man struggling with an enormous amount of guilt he's carried with him his entire life. While that part of the scene (the rest was stupid) is worth seeing, it's not worth the price of admission or the runtime of the movie. Avoid this one.

Rating: 1 out of 10

"Weeds" Season 6: Episode 1 - After the way Season 5 ended, I was very excited to see how this episode would turn out. To my surprise, the episode was actually quite dull. Nothing really happened in the entirety of the episode, which was a huge letdown. Despite that, the episode did allow for an interesting setup for the rest of the season, so we'll see how that turns out.

Rating: 6 out of 10

"Louie" Season 1: Episode 9 - This is a show that's been really hard to figure out, and I haven't decided yet if that's a good thing or not. Louis C.K. is probably my favorite American stand-up comic, so that is why I will give this show the ultimate benefit of the doubt. This show seems to change its style with every episode, causing the audience to stop trying to guess the direction of the show. This particular episode was rather interesting to me. Louie has a run-in with a bully on a date, and finds a unique way to handle the situation. I thought this episode worked very well overall, and I thought it was one of the better episodes of the season.

Rating: 7 out of 10