Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)

9/10
Amazing...I'm a huge Eastwood fanboy and have liked/loved just about everything I've seen him in so I'm not a fair judge but man this movie was great. Eastwood was a total powerhouse and can still carry a movie at 78 but I thought the two main "kid" actors (Sue and Tao I think their names are?) were good too. Even the usual knocks it would get (somewhat implausible plot, occasional wooden acting by the non-actor cast, predictable outcome, etc) I glossed right over because it was still a brilliantly made film. The song that plays at the end and having Eastwood himself sing it was just great too. I can't see it getting any major Oscar nods but I hope I'm wrong.

Godzilla (Roland Emmerich, 1998)

2/10
Haha okay kind of a step down from the other two classics but it was on late last night and I felt like turning my brain off so I watched it and yeah it's as awful as I'd heard. So many things wrong with it but I just loved how Godzilla was this 900-foot monster or whatever, could swat helicopters out of the sky, yet couldn't catch a freaking taxi.

Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)

9/10
Loved it...brilliant, surreal, and also with a great ending that defies typical Hollywood conventions. Reminded me a bit of A Clockwork Orange in the quasi-futuristic style it has. Highly recommended.

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

8.5/10
Great...can't believe I waited this long to watch the entire thing. I loved the scene where there's a top-down view of Arbogast coming up the stairs and Norman running out of the adjacent room with a knife. Combined with the music, it actually made me jump..impressive for a movie made 50 years ago. The scene at the end where Norman smiles at the camera and it ever-so-subtly flashes the skull of Norman's mother over his face is great too. Definitely worth all the hype.

The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006)

4/10
Just watched it earlier and uhhh I'm still trying to come to grips with this one too...not with what I saw, but with why I see people calling it a "classic". Give me a break. I like Darren Aronofsky and I really wanted to like this one but it was just a mess. I "got" the three storylines and the way they tied in to eachother but it wasn't particularly well done at all, it was garbled and uninteresting to watch. I would say that some of the effects were beautiful and Hugh Jackman gave a really good performance (if over the top a lot of the time) but that's about it. It was like a weird mix of Lord of the Rings, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Matrix: Revolutions. I hope The Wrestler is better...

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

7/10
I'm still grappling with a score for this one...the direction, cinematography and acting were all brilliant (especially Casey Affleck who had a much harder character than Brad Pitt IMO) but the story never really grabbed me...you could argue there isn't much of a story and you'd be right. But I never found it long despite its length (2h40m) and its tendency to meander. I really liked the ending.

The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)

6.5/10
Kind of torn since there was nothing I disliked about it but nothing I loved either. Good performances by Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, good special effects, interesting story...but yeah, nothing that blew me away either.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

8.5/10
Great Western directed by and starring Clint Eastwood...the back of the DVD case says the character of Josey Wales harkens back to Eastwood's The Man With No Name but that couldn't be further from the truth. Aside from being a quick draw and pretty much immortal, they're nothing alike, and it was interesting to see Eastwood play a character with a heart in one of his Westerns. A bit slow at times but no complaints other than that.