What was the last movie you saw at the theaters?

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009)




Young director Reitman's follow-up to Juno also appears a cinch to be nominated Best Picture of 2009 when the noms are announced next year. It's reminiscent of Juno in that it's a crowd pleaser and has some indie-sounding songs on the soundtrack (most of them turning up in the film's second half), but the story itself couldn't really be further from Juno except that it is about a person who seems to have found his comfort zone although his current situation is forcing him to reexamine how comfortable he truly is with his life.

The person is Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), an expert hatchet man-for-hire who flies to various corporations and tells people that they are fired to save their own bosses the aggravation of having to do it themselves. Ryan is very good at what he does, and he also makes money on the side giving seminars to people about how to lighten the loads of their personal lives by cutting loose (or "burning") all the extraneous things they have, whether it be possessions or people and relationships which only tend to wear one down and make one grow old faster. Ryan's one goal in life is to earn 10 million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines and become only the seventh person to do so and earn his way into such a selective club. Besides owning no property at all (he barely spends a whole day straight in his own place), he has no intention of ever marrying or starting his own family, and all his relationships are what he calls casual.



However, three things converge on Ryan to make him look at life from a different perspective. First, he meets attractive Alex (Vera Fermiga) who's also a constant traveler with a similar appreciation for casual sexual relationships and he finds her a little bit special. Second, his younger sister (Melanie Lynskey) is getting married and since he's now the man of the family, he begins to feel a tug from his familial side which he hasn't for years. Lastly, Ryan is confronted with the fact that his boss (Jason Bateman) wants to cut costs by doing all the firings over the internet in what amounts to video conference calls, and this will force Ryan to change his entire lifestyle. The thought of having to stay in the city housing the corporate headquarters (Omaha, Nebraska) chills him to the bone, and he has a young woman named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) to "thank" for that. Before the changeover though, Ryan takes Natalie on a typical job trip to show her what it's like to fire someone you don't know face-to-face.

George Clooney is the centerpiece of Up in the Air, and although he's well-known for doing things effortlessly (in a Cary Grant manner), he's never been more natural and felt like such a real flesh-and-blood character before. Although Ryan has some questionable character traits, he's really not all that different from many people you and I probably know. The fact that he has to spend a lot of time communicating with people at some of their darkest hours may make it easy to think of him as a sort of "people person", even though he's spent his entire life trying to unburden himself from having to get close enough to people to develop a relationship. It's easy to understand why Ryan likes his life the way it is, but it's also understandable how these two new women in his life and his reawakened sense of family bring about a slight emotional crisis within him. Clooney is perfect in the little things, the looks, the smiles which might turn to frowns and the way he recognizes when he may have just about had enough of the same-old routine. Of course, it helps when you have fully-fleshed out co-stars to work with. Farmiga is incredibly sexy and has an instant rapport with Clooney whether it's in some form of sexual gymnastics or the way she encourages him to break into his old high school to take a stroll down memory lane. And Kendrick is adorable as a seemingly-tough up-and-comer who is still much too young to be so totally in control of her emotions and lets them out on occasion. I really think you can expect all three of these actors to get Oscar nominations as well.



Director Reitman, who also co-wrote, never uses any flashy visual techniques although the use of airborne shots to illuminate how similar many of the U.S. Midwest meccas are was a nice touch. Otherwise, he seems to have done a good job of keeping the laughs flowing (have I mentioned that this is a comedy?) and kneading in just enough drama and plot twists to keep everybody from thinking that it's all just a little too predictable in it being solid, but a little lightweight, entertainment. It's apparently only a coincidence that this film was made during our current economic crisis because the book and the project have been ready to go for a few years now, but I guess that just adds to the fortuitous nature of the entire film. It's definitely a highly-watchable flick but probably not one "big" enough to garner an Oscar for Best Picture, but as I said earlier, it will be in the Derby for sure, and Clooney, who already snagged a Supporting Oscar for Syriana, has a good shot for the Prize which eluded Cary Grant in competition.
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I recently saw Bad Lieutenant; Port of Call--New Orleans, with Nicolas Cage. A well-done film, interesting, but it's hard to know what the plot really is.

I've also just seen Defamation, which was so-so, imho, and Four-Seasons Lodge, a documentary about Holocaust survivors who find each other and end up spending their summers in a communal resort in the Catskills.
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the last I saw was Twilight: New Moon. I love it!



Saw The Princess and the Frog a few nights ago. I was very disappointed, especially with the music. They had jazz to work with, for crying out loud! It should have sounded great, having the classic Disney catchiness with a little novelty, seeing as they haven't done anything quite jazz-like yet. But god, the songs just morphed into a dull line of tones and noise. I couldn't even remember any of them when I got out of the theatre. They were droll, the lyrics were mediocre, and had awful timing when they came into the story. And here I thought this movie might work...



Avatar. Pretty nice feeling afterwards, I went to Macdonald's and the cups had Avatar branding on them, it wasn't so cool.



Had a choice between Avatar and Sherlock Holmes... and I went with the latter... and loved it...
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Sherlock Holmes was the last i saw. it was "ok"



The last one I watched was Avatar and I absolutely loved it!
Don't know about other people criticizing it but I think they should focus on enjoying it.



2012
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martian leader's Avatar
RightUpTheLittleTramps@ss !
Suzie Q so nice to see you Yay

I heard the song Suzie Q at work today.
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Arnie Cunningham- Right up the little tramps @ss!