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We checked out the Oscar winning movie, The Reader the other night. Kate Winslet finally got her Oscar for this one.

• I didn’t really know what this movie was about before I saw it
• It moves pretty slow and there really aren’t any characters other than the main two
• Call me naive but I didn’t really see why Winslet was so great
• There’s a lot of nudity in this movie
• Definitely not a movie I would watch a 2nd time
• Could have been a lot better with more story and less dramatic extension of scenes

My growing love for Jason Bateman continued with this comedy where Bateman owns a company that makes different kinds of extracts. Kristen Wiig plays his wife who no longer gets intimate with him. Ben Affleck plays his best friend and Mila Kunis plays a con artist he wants to hook up with.

• I didn’t know from the previews Kunis was a con artist and had ulterior motives.
• JK Simmons is solid and funny as Bateman’s #2 who can’t remember anyone’s name.
• Affleck’s drug talk is hilarious. I bet he had fun playing this role.
• The story is pretty bizarre and takes a little while to get where it’s going.
• There are funny parts but it’s not non-stop laughs.
• OK movie, but don’t go out of your way for it.

Heather and I finally got around to seeing the epicly hyped movie, The Hangover. My personal feeling is that the movie lived up to the hype and then some.

• Zack Galifianakis deserved all the hype he got for his performance. He was by far the funniest.
• I thought the baby had a much bigger role, the fact that it’s on the movie poster implies that it was around a lot more.
• The ultimate location of the groom seemed a little disappointing.
• There were TONS of funny moments but I thought there was a lot more they could have revealed about the evening. I feel like the movie would have been funnier watching all the stuff play out as it happened.
• Ken Jeong is funny, but does he have to play the same stereotyped guy every time?
• Worth seeing if you haven’t. Lots of funny moments. Ultimately could have been better in my opinion.

Continuing the recent movie deluge, this time it was Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

• I thought this movie was about a wrestler making a comeback, but it’s really about the end of a guy’s career.

• Rourke really was stupendous and deserves all the praise he got.
• I still think the gratuitous nudity by Marisa Tomei was an interesting decision.
• As a former diehard wrestling fan, I loved the in-ring scenes.
• The movie had a really gritty, almost low budget feel to it. So well done.
• I love when he plays the wrestling Nintendo game with the kid and the kid is explaining Call of Duty to him.
• I will definitely watch this again if it’s on.

I recently checked out Taking of Pelham 123. This one stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Travolta hijacks a subway car and Denzel is the transit guy on the other end of the radio.

• Travolta is so good as a psycho.

• Denzel is a little less reliable as an everyman. He is too calm and cool most of the time.
• I don’t really understand how this subway car is stopped on the tracks hijacked and the rest of the trains keep running.
• James Gandolfini is OK as the mayor, but it’s hard to think of him as anything but Tony Soprano.
• They did a surprisingly good job of making an unbelievable story seem realistic.
• The ending was OK.

I finally got around to seeing this Apatow film. I had low expectations but it was surprisingly hilarious

• Don’t expect anything other a stoner flick.

• But it’s a really funny stoner flick. I seriously laughed out loud multiple times.
• The fight scenes were hilarious.
• I know Seth Rogen doesn’t want to be typecast but he plays this role very well.
• The plot is horrible so rewatchability is low.
• Totally worth it if you were interested.

Michael Cera stars in this one playing pretty much the same character as he always plays. Kat Dennings is OK as a self deprecating music fan.

• This is essentially a two person movie. Norah’s friend has a decent amount of screen time.

• Unfortunately the scene where she fishes her cell phone and gum out of a puke filled toilet is one of the grossest things ever.
• I thought there would be a lot more focus on music but I felt like it wasn’t the focus I thought it would be.
• I thought it was weird all of these clubs they went to in NYC were under 21.
• Better than Adventureland, but still left me wanting more.

The next movie I have watched (thanks to all my movie channels DirecTV is letting me preview) is Spread. This one stars Ashton Kutcher as a manwhore who hooks up with rich single women and basically trade sex for material things.

• The first 45 minutes or so makes you incredibly jealous you aren’t Kutcher’s character.

• The previews make it seem like he has done this 100′s of times. They imply that but you never see it.
• Are there really THAT many women in LA that are this rich and single and just want guys to shower with gives in exchange for sexual favors?
• Even if there are, no one would allow him to do what he did because there are plenty of guys like him waiting.
• Very cliched plot where the main character has done to him what he does to everyone else and it wakes him up to it.
• I would watch the first hour again just to be jealous.

Added another watched movie to the list this week, Away We Go. This one stars “The Office’s” John Krasinski and SNL alum Maya Rudolph as a couple who unexpectedly gets pregnant and finds out their only living parents (Krasinski’s) are moving to Europe for two years. They embark on a trip around the country to visit friends and family to try and find a new life and place to raise the baby.

• John Krasinski is solid. I have recently gotten in “The Office” mostly thanks to my sister and love him on it. I feel like he really showed some potential, even though he was kind just playing Jim. He could have a long career after “The Office.”

• Pretty solid supporting cast of family and friends they run into. Allison Janney is just so good.
• This one was directed by Sam Mendes, who did American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, Road to Perdition and Jarhead.
• The main theme of the movie seems to be that no one’s life is perfect and appreciate what you have.
• Definitely a movie that, to me, did a good job of hitting it’s goal
• Subtle soundtrack that seems to only be noticeable at the right times
• If you had any interest in checking this one out, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Hollywood’s obsession with remaking movies continues. Cinematical is reporting that a remake of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is on the way. Heather and I just recently watched this one again. Christina Applegate was solid in this moving, but I don’t really think I have ever seen her in anything else, I never really watched “Married with Children.”

I think this movie was really underrated and is still pretty decent minus the horrible clothes. Plus my boy Josh Charles is in it.