Stuntmen (3 stars): an amusing look / at the stuntman industry / mockumentary style

Orange County (3½ stars): the transition from / high school to college is hard / but also funny

The Princess Bride (5 stars): truly a classic / epic comedic romance / with awesome swordfights

Singles (3½ stars): from Cameron Crowe / a film about single life / and finding the one

Shades of Ray (3½ stars): a sweet indie film / an identity crisis / both funny and real

Iron Man (3½ stars): excellent relaunch / to a franchise and career / more RDJ please

Iron Man 2 (3½ stars): the sequel lives up / to my expectations and / perhaps exceeds them

Aw, Cary! A flower and smoldering gaze for me? You shouldn't have!

Notorious (4 stars): Hitchcock delivers / Cary Grant’s best performance / plus great female role

The Cove (4 stars): surprisingly fair / with huge amounts of research / hard to watch at times

Lethal Weapon 2 (3 stars): the toilet bomb scene / is worth price of admission / on its very own

Precious (3 stars): good performances / but too melodramatic / for my normal tastes

Butterflies are Free (3½ stars): flighty hippie chick / befriends and falls for blind guy / in sweet funny film

The Bounty Hunter (2 stars): wanted to be like / His Girl Friday but failed / so miserably

HouseSitter (3½ stars): Steve Martin flustered / by Goldie Hawn’s odd antics / makes hilarity

My Man Godfrey (5 stars): like Easy Virtue / happy and before the war / kooky and awesome

The Big Sleep (4 stars): whodunit and why / Bogey and Bacall trade barbs / and light up the screen

She Done Him Wrong (3 stars): pre-code scandalous / plus a young suave Cary Grant / yes please I want more

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (2½ stars): kind of cute in parts / swimming pool number is weird / never quite grabbed me

Casablanca (5 stars): doesn’t get better / if you haven’t seen this film / please fix right away

Gone With The Wind (4 stars): i loved the first half / second was quite a downer / a gorgeous epic

How to Train Your Dragon (4 stars): like Lilo & Stitch / at turns poignant and so fun / want a dragon now

Chloe (3 stars): first half got five stars / but the end went off the rails / not in a good way

People Will Talk (3 stars): lighthearted movie / about serious issues / plus it’s Cary Grant

The Guild, Seasons 1, 2 & 3 (5 stars): hilarious look / at collisions of real life / and online networks

She’s Out of My League (3½ stars): a sweet knee-slapper / one of the better rom-coms / of the past few years

The Awful Truth (3 stars): a husband and wife / suspect worst of each other / bring on the hijinks

How to Marry a Millionaire (3 stars): some pretty ladies / try to land themselves rich men / but find love instead

Easy Virtue (5 stars): i love this movie / i’ve said so a few times now / but it’s still quite true

Shutter Island (5 stars): Scorsese directs / another cinematic / thriller tour de force

The Wolfman (2 stars): i wish i had watched / an american werewolf / in london instead

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (5 stars): if the writer’s strike / brings entertainment like this / let’s strike more often

The Illusionist (4 stars): underrated film / about illusion and love / and the force of each

Girl With a Pearl Earring (4 stars): a study of art / and the way artists connect / in their unique way

Coco Avant Chanel (3 stars): stubborn as a mule / that was one of Chanel’s traits / and it served her well

Crazy Heart (4 stars): a country singer / trades his dignity for booze / but learns his lesson

Cop Out (2 stars): I wanted to laugh / they should have hired Abed / to write it instead

Pulp Fiction (3 stars): innovative, sure / but i wanted more of uma / and a bit less bruce

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (3 stars): John Krasinski gives / an interesting showcase / of why most men suck

Don’t Bother to Knock (3 stars): Marilyn Monroe / gives an edgy performance / in unsettling role

Alice in Wonderland (4 stars): i saw some heart here / where a lot of folks did not / in Alice’s arc

I’m also trying to see as many Oscar-nommed movies and read as many Oscar-nommed scripts as possible before the big night on March 2nd.  I know there are a lot of folks out there who say the Oscars don’t matter unless you’re nominated for one, or they’re not in line with what the public thinks is good, but I still enjoy them.  And I don’t know — it is a jury of one’s own peers voting, and that has to count for something I think.  Generally, I’ve found that, even if I don’t agree that the Oscar picks are the best of the best, they’re still films worth seeing.  Now, onto the Haiku Review…

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (4 stars): visual stunner / in the Gilliam archetype / I miss Heath Ledger

Dorian Gray (3½ stars): lovely to look at / a worthy adaptation / please come to the States

Adam (4 stars): an autistic man / struggles with love and himself / moves the audience

La Jetée (3½ stars): a film in still shots / mind-bending and heart-breaking / check out 12 Monkeys

Food, Inc. (5 stars): eye-opening doc / helps us make informed choices / when choosing our food

Cry-Baby (3 stars): so bad it is good / ’50s spoof with fun music / and young Johnny Depp

Charade (5 stars): murder and deceit / but Cary Grant charms us so / can Audrey trust him?

America’s Sweethearts (3 stars): a guilty pleasure / an atypical rom com / about Hollywood

An Education (3½ stars): naïve girl wants more / older man shows her the world / and opens her eyes

The Hurt Locker (4 stars): detonation team / fights against bombs, hate and angst / can’t defeat the thrill

Un Chien Andalou (3 stars): unrelated scenes / but the brain makes connections / that do not exist

New York, I Love You (3 stars): it wanted to be / charming like Paris, Je T’aime / but can’t quite get there

Valentine’s Day (2½ stars): too many stories / to tell any of them well / but some parts are fun

A Serious Man (2 stars): life is difficult / for the man in this movie / not sure of the point

Pretty Woman (3½ stars): for Valentine’s Day / iconic rom coms are good / even when single

Arsenic and Old Lace (4 stars):  screwball comedy / with a bit of slapstick, too / Cary Grant is hot

District 9 (5 stars): men v. aliens / against odds, two join forces/ one of the year’s best

Blind Date (4 stars): a tragic story / hopeful yet melancholy / captivating leads

Nine (2½ stars): pretty to look at / A few enjoyable songs / otherwise empty

Nosferatu (3 stars): vampires are scary / and can haunt your dreams with ease / when they’re not sparkly

The General (4 stars): a silent movie / with a delightful story / and Buster Keaton

Up in the Air (4 stars): a story about / the worth of what we carry / or leave behind us

What’s Up, Doc? (3 stars): Barbara Streisand / plays a screwball heroine / who gets what she wants

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (5 stars): revenge fantasy / and unknown consequences / not for claustrophobes

Statuesque [short film] (4 stars): Neil Gaiman directs / a short, silent film about / statues come to life

Avatar (4 stars): we’ve seen this before / but it’s still a good story / with gorgeous visuals

Shaun of the Dead (4 stars): a zombie movie / that spoofs but has lots of heart / Simon Pegg is great

The Bicycle Thief (2 stars): black, white, and silent / an Italian classic film / I hate the ending

Rebel Without A Cause (4 stars): a James Dean movie / that was surprisingly great / holds up against time

The First Wives Club (2½): so-so comedy / about fed-up ex-spouses / who get their revenge

Leap Year (2½): guilty pleasure film / rom-com clichés left and right / Ozymandias