2012 Movies, TV, and Books (January - March)

[kalient]

In roughly chronological order. * means I've seen it before, bold means I can't believe I haven't.

January

1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Since I love Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law, there was really no question about how much I would enjoy this.)
   
2. Breast Picture (There's a reason this is only available streaming on Netflix. Entertaining, though.)
   
3. Oklahoma!
   
4. Sense and Sensibility (2008 BBC Series)
   
5. Pride and Prejudice* (1995 BBC Series) (Watched with friends who needed to see it. A long day, but it was fun to watch with friends. And it triggered a Colin Firth phase.)
   
6. Bridget Jones's Diary (with Colin Firth as Mr. Mark Darcy)
   
7. Archer, Season 2
   
8. The Red Shoes (1948)
   
9. Them! (1954)
   
10. Dorian Grey (2009) (sinister Colin Firth)
    
11. Then She Found Me (Bumbling/neurotic Colin. This has been in and out of my Netflix queue for ages, and I'm not really sure why I've been avoiding it. I was surprised how much I liked it, how much it moved me.)
    
12. Genova (endearing Colin)
    
13. The Illustrated Man
    
14. Bleak House (2005 BBC Series)
    
15. Un homme et une femme (I especially liked the quality of the scenes in color; it's what "retro" aspires to.)
    
16. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (more Mr. Mark Darcy)
    
17. An Education
    
18. Fever Pitch (1997) (British version, with scruffy Colin)
    
19. Main Street (2010) (Colin as a shady, smooth-talking Texan)
    
20. The Accidental Husband (more Colin)
    
21. Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
    
22. Hope Springs (still more Colin, this time as a character named Colin)
    
23. The Catherine Tate Show, all three seasons
    
24. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) (Still more Colin.)
    
25. Married Life
    
26. A Bit of Fry & Laurie, all four seasons
    
27. Valley of the Dolls
    
28. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
    
29. Hotel Babylon, Series 1 (It was good, but not enough for me to invest more time in the series.)
    
30. Romeo + Juliet (That was flippin' weird.)
    
31. The Last Word (2008)
    
    January highlights: Sherlock, Archer, Then She Found Me, Hope Springs, The Last Word
    
    February
    
32. The Matador (2005)
    
33. And When Did You Last See Your Father? (Beautifully acted. More Colin.)
    
34. Mamma Mia!* (Oh. my. Gawd. The singing was horrid. I was laughing/cringing the whole time. But it was part of Colin Firth movie day, so I endured.)
    
35. What a Girl Wants* (Adore this movie - so it might be my favorite Colin selection.)
    
36. RV*
    
37. No Strings Attached (I liked this a lot more than I thought I would.)
    
38. Easy Virtue (2008) (Disenchanted Colin.)
    
39. The Last Song
    
40. Matador (I'm glad I stuck this one out. Most of the film was strange but sort of boring, but I liked the end. Since it was Almodóvar, I should've known.)
    
41. The Sasquatch Gang
    
42. Charade (1963)
    
43. Downton Abbey, Series 2, plus Christmas at Downton (Decent closure, so I might not need to watch the next series.)
    
44. Snow Cake
    
45. Finding Bliss
    
46. See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
    
47. The Last Legion (Colin in an action movie. That was a little weird.)
    
48. Water for Elephants (First time I said it out loud: Robert Pattinson looks like an awful kisser. Very distracting when he's cast as a romantic lead.)
    
49. The History Boys (We had a Dominic Cooper day.)
    
50. Tamara Drewe
    
51. The Muppets (Cute in many ways, but I also had a few issues with it. Bound to happen with an update of something I grew up with.)
    
52. Twilight* (Decided to do a little movie marathon...)
    
53. New Moon*
    
54. Eclipse*
    
55. Breaking Dawn, Part 1*
    
56. Match Point (Seems like I can't stop trying to like Woody Allen. Still a futile effort. I just don't get the appeal. It was a good, interesting movie, but I'm never wowwed.)
    
57. Star Trek, Season 1
    
58. Bedazzled (1967)
    
59. Where the Truth Lies (The film that provides a direct connection between Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. With all the Colin Firth movies I've been watching, this'll really help my Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon skills.)
    
60. Piccadilly Jim (2005)
    
61. Next Stop Wonderland
    
62. Frankie and Johnny Are Married
    
63. Operation: Endgame
    
64. City Island
    
65. Peter Pan (2003)
    
66. Splitting Heirs
    
67. Mortified, Complete Series (Very cute.)
    
68. Tenure
    
69. Monday Monday, Complete Series (I liked this. Very sad that it only lasted one season.)
    
70. happythankyoumoreplease
    
71. SLC Punk! (Very fun.)
    
72. The Perfect Score (Should've saved this for our Chris Evans day.)
    
    February highlights: Snow Cake, Star Trek, Operation: Endgame, happythankyoumoreplease (despite the glaring "yeah right" issues), maybe Easy Virtue
    
    March
    
73. Melinda and Melinda (With Will Ferrell in the role of Woody Allen. That was a little weird. But I have to say that the mannerisms were muted enough that they really only hinted at Woody Allen. I was surprised to see that kind of subtlety from Will Ferrell.)
    
74. The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay (Hallmark Channel original movie, lent by a friend)
    
75. Battle Royale (Watched because people keep comparing it to Hunger Games. This is such a different story. Yes, they can both be boiled down to the same 5-word summary - kids fight to the death - and so there are some similar themes. However, the kids are selected in different ways, and that changes things a lot.)
    
76. The Devil's Double (Dominic Cooper. Amazing ass, fantastic acting. It's rare that I go slack-jawed, but I think my eyes glazed over a few times.)
    
77. What's Your Number? (Still not an Anna Faris fan, but yummmmmmmmmmm, Chris Evans.)
    
78. Nancy Drew (2007) (I was really looking forward to seeing Amy Bruckner and Kay Panabaker, who got relatively high billing. At first I missed them completely. I blinked. Went back, found them, and counted 5 lines between the two of them. Bait & switch, man. Bait & switch.)
    The Twilight movies (Had to watch them with my little sister - I really enjoy heckling them with her.)
    
79. Star Trek, Season 2
    
80. The Hunger Games
    
81. Exit Through the Gift Shop
    
82. Happy Accidents
    
83. Happy Ever Afters
    
84. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Free movie pass! And cool trailers I'd missed! Score!)
    
85. Waterloo Bridge (1931) (I expected something more interesting from Pre-Code Hollywood.)
    
86. Red-Headed Woman
    
87. God Is Great and I'm Not (Boring. And I'd much prefer a literal translation of the title.)
    
    March highlights: What's Your Number? (Chris Evans yum!), The Hunger Games

Books...

1. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton
   
2. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (As promised by a friend, I enjoyed this more than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The sea monsters were more integrated into the story, where the zombies felt tacked-on. I still kept Austen's original nearby so that I could periodically check in on her original intent. It's weird to keep a fiction book around for reference.)
   
3. Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo
   
4. Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler (For book club. Seems I'm not a big Anne Tyler fan.)
   
5. TwiLite: A Parody by Stephen Jenner (Better than Nightlight, the Lampoon parody. Less generic. It felt like the writer had actually read the original books.)
   
6. The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life while Making a Living by Randy Komisar (This has been sitting on my shelf for years, and I finally ended up reading it all in one sitting when I was snowed in. It was engaging, and a quick read. I didn't know what to expect, and I almost didn't bother reading it. Glad I did.)
   
7. The Armageddon Rag by George R. R. Martin (I wanted to read Martin without committing to A Song of Ice and Fire. It was kind of a lot of work, and not as interesting as I remember A Game of Thrones being. I'm sure I'll end up reading the series one of these days.)
   
8. The Hunger Games trilogy (My little sister finally started reading the first one, so I started re-reading to make it easier to talk to her about it. And then I had to keep going, of course. Read Catching Fire in a day. Mockingjay took a little longer, both because I read it on weeknights and because it's really depressing and I was having some avoidance issues. Oh, and she read Hunger Games in about three days once she got started. Guess it was a good recommendation.)
   
9. Valentine by Tom Savage (This one got its own post. The author doesn't even have a wikipedia page, but the movie "adaptation" does. Not a strong recommendation for the book.)
   
10. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Beautiful treatment of the topic of bullying - how insidious it is, and how powerless we are to stop it. I expected it to be hard to read, but it wasn't. It was sad, of course, but it reminded me how much easier it is to think about tragedy when it's translated into fiction.)
    
11. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (Liked the movie better.)
    
12. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
    
13. Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker by Syrie James (A light read for jury duty. I enjoyed it until Dracula became a misunderstood, self-loathing vampire trying to not be a monster. There should never be shades of Twilight in a Dracula story.)
    
14. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Book club. I didn't expect to like this, because I was underwhelmed by Run when we read it last year. I seriously considered skipping it, but since I basically picked the February and April books, it seemed rude to skip this one (March). I'm glad I forced myself, because I got caught up right away. It's not earth-shattering, and I'm a bit annoyed with parts of it, but I generally liked it. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't discourage someone who was considering it. How's that for "praise"?)
    
15. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Liquid courage!)
    
16. The Twilight Saga (to prepare for a weekend in Forks, WA with my sisters)
    
17. The Hunger Pains by The Harvard Lampoon (much better than their Twilight parody)