21 Jump Street

A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.

IMDb

RottenTomatoes

For the past few years, an adult comedy is usually made that takes everyone by surprise with how good it actually is, despite being a ridiculous comedy. The Hangover is probably the first film of this nature to come to mind. This year, 21 Jump Street came out with a less than expected duo of Jonah Hill [Superbad, Moneyball] and Channing Tatum [Step Up, Dear John], and killed it both at the box office and in reviews. It’s about time that I got around to seeing the big comedy hit of the year so far.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

IMDb [7.6]

RottenTomatoes [60%, 46%]

In 2009, Guy Ritchie [Snatch., Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels] came out with Sherlock Holmes, which set a new personal record for me: most times I’ve fallen asleep trying to watch one movie. I started that movie five times before finally getting through the whole thing without dosing off into a deep sleep of boredom. I’m not sure what specifically was the cause of my lack of entertainment, but there wasn’t anything specific that was actually entertaining either. Despite that fact, these are big grossing movies, and I feel obligated to watch and review something of this scale. Hell, there’s always a chance for a new Guilty Pleasure out there.

Contraband

To protect his brother-in-law from a drug lord, a former smuggler heads to Panama to score millions of dollars in counterfeit bills.

IMDb [6.6/10]

RottenTomatoes [51%, 56%]

It’s common knowledge that the first quarter of the year in Hollywood is for the Academy Awards, not for actual award caliber movies to be released. A lot of B-list movies are released in the second half of winter for many reasons: people are all catching up on the award season films, it is better to release a summer blockbuster when all the kids are out and about rather than inside in the cold with school finances. There are usually some damn fine movies sprinkled in the mix at the start of each new year, but we mainly come to expect some lower tier films. That’s where I think Contraband will fit in.

Shame

In New York City, Brandon’s carefully cultivated private life — which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction — is disrupted when his sister Sissy arrives unannounced for an indefinite stay.

IMDb [7.9/10]

RottenTomatoes [80%, 73%]

Writer/Director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender have now combined to make two low key really good movies, this one and the 2008 biography drama Hunger, in which Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike. I have yet to see both, but most all sources online have a majority of reviewers that think very highly of the two films, both the writing/direction and the lead performance of Fassbender. Well, now it’s finally time to see this film that I have been waiting so long to see! Maybe I’ll review Hunger next, since it is available on Netflix instant watch.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.

IMDb [8.0]

RottenTomatoes [87%, 79%]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an extremely good novel. Published posthumously after Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson suffered a heart attack, this book and the two others have found incredible worldwide selling success. In 2009, Niels Arden Oplev directed the first movie adaptation of the book in Sweden, with actress Naomi Rapace receiving international recognition for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander. So, Hollywood, being what it is, of course had to jump onto the bandwagon and make it’s own version. This was at first annoyingly predictable, and I didn’t look forward to it. But I found that David Fincher was on board, and then I jumped on the bandwagon as well.