Movie Recommendations: October 2010

Unfortunately, my plans to watch and review The Social Network tonight fell through. This is admittedly a bit of a wrench in my plans, so instead, I needed to find another post. I had movies on the brain, so I decided on this eventually. I've been doing a bunch of lists as of late, and while this one is kind of list-like, I think that it's something that you'll all enjoy.

I've seen a lot of movies recently, some of them are movies that aren't really at the top of many people's lists, and I feel like they should get whatever minor level of publicity that I can give them.

Brick

I'm starting the list here because the main character is actually played by an actor that's been getting a lot of publicity recently. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (recently in Inception) plays a teenage outsider who's girlfriend is murdered. In a mix of an investigation, a social commentary, and noir love story. I'm not going to spoil anything else about the plot because it's really complex, and deep, but you should watch this movie. If you take nothing else away from this post – get your hands on a copy somehow and watch it.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

No, I don't care what the critics said. If you're a nerd, you'll be sold before this movie even starts. It's got everything. It's got a touching plot, a hot girl(s?), awesome fight scenes, and most of all, more references than you can conceivably catch all at once. It's out on Blu-Ray in the near future too, so you can grab it there if you want to, rest it at your preferred-video-getting-place.

Zombieland

I've been recommending this one to a lot of people recently, not only because of the inevitable end of society as we know it is coming at the hands of Umbrella Corp – and this will provide a valuable list of survival tools, but also because it's a fun story that I enjoyed watching from beginning to end. This story simultaneously is a great zombie story while completely deconstructing everything that we know about a zombie mythos. It's not a horror movie. It's a comedy, with zombies, but good and not some kind of Scary Movie version.

10 Things I Hate About You:

Speaking of actors who hit it big after a great movie, try this one. Heath Ledger and Julia Styles in a disney-style love story based on Shakespeare. That's right. If I need to say more than that to you, there's probably something wrong with you, but I will anyway. It's taming of the shrew in modern day, and you shouldn't hold it against the movie that they made a TV show out of it later (I don't know if the show is any good. I can't imagine that it is.) Ironically, and I just realized this now, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also in this, so I guess you can start calling me a bit of a fanboy now. I'll admit it. I like the guy, but this movie is quality with or without him. Strongly recommend.

Star Trek:

Last but not least, I've gotta put this one on the list. I've never seen anything Trek-wise until this movie came out. Moreover, I didn't want to see anything Trek-wise when this movie came out. I was dragged to see it with some friends, and I was very impressed. Knowing only passing things about the series (ie: Spock is a Vulcan. He is generally unemotional), I was able to follow along and catch most of the references to stuff in the movie. The plot was handled well, separating itself from old cannon without ignoring it. I'm interested in seeing where they go with this new branch of the franchise from here. For now, though, I'll have to settle for recommending the movie.

This list is by no means exhaustive, ordered, or otherwise complete. It's a list of the first five movies that came to mind as recommendations tonight. I might do this again, if I find myself in similarily dire straights with regards to a topic. I'm trying to get a copy of The Social Network again, and will review that as soon as I can. I also plan on seeing and reviewing Easy A. Aside from that, the last post of the Wrath Retrospective is coming up, along with the next installment of Seeking Shadows. Finally, I want to do a Magic: The Gathering post on a new T2 Blue/White Ally deck that me and my friends came up with over the last weekend that preformed surprisingly well in playtests.

But at the moment, it's after 2am, so I need to go to bed so I'm not a zombie at work tomorrow. Adios!