No Sudden Move

I have a sketchy history with Steven Soderbergh movies. I also have a sketchy history with crime caper movies, the kind that are convinced of how clever they are and think that you should be convinced of it, too. So what do you think happened when I watched this flick? Well, it wasn't all that bad, but you're not too far off. The bulk of the enjoyment here comes from watching veteran, professional actors like Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro playing off and against each other; they're fine, especially in the early segments of the film. But the plot eventually gets away from itself, becomes too convoluted, and then attempts a ham-handed effort at injecting a bit of socioeconomic commentary and muckracking into the tale, without that element really being part of the story from the start. It also doesn't help, either, that Soderbergh--despite or perhaps because of his reputation as an innovative filmmaker--seems unaware throughout the running time that his camera--possibly smartphone--created distortions of the image throughout the picture; a lot of the frames look like they were (unnecessarily) shot with a fish-eye lens. So despite some decent aspects of this movie, it mostly comes across as a muddle.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

After five minutes, I really wanted to hate this movie. It seemed determined to prove that video games really do make you stupid. Plus it seems to declare, in giant flaming letters, the end of the "Michael Cera era"--you get the worn out feeling of watching the same guy playing the same character in the same kind of movie...And yet, somehow, the movie finds away, through all of its visual hokum, its all-too-clever hipster/millenial street cred, and all of the reworked Matrix and Kill Bill moves, to rise above and deliver enough wit, good cheer and fun times to make for a movie that's impossible not to enjoy. A neat trick, and worthy of our appreciation.

Igby Goes Down

Such a sordid little tale. This one tells us that the East Coast idle rich are evil and loathesome. Duh. Still, they can also be occasionally funny, as seen here every once in a while (though not enough to make the film a must see).