The first quarter-hundred movies I’ve watched in 2013, with completely arbitrary grades and some comments.

• Gotta Dance — A-
  A documentary about a senior hiphop dance team put together by the New Jersey Nets for in-game entertainment. It’s joyful, but the fact that the team was created for commercial purposes and the organizers have certain expectations adds a level of drama over simply “old people liking to dance”.
• Good Burger — B
  Somebody was like, “The Good Burger sketch from All That was good, but it needs to be longer and have more yelling!”
• Resident Evil — B+
• Sweeney Todd — A
  So, so bloody. And I can’t be the first person to think that this is Burton’s attempt to make “Edward Scissorhands 2”
• End of the World — B+
  It’s super low budget, but at least explores an interesting idea. In all too many genre movies (disaster/zombie/horror), it seems no one in that world has ever seen a genre movie. End of the Movie puts the employees of a disaster-movie specialty video store through an apocalyptic scenario.
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 — Ugh
• The Dark Knight — B+
• Skyfall — A+
• Cowboys and Aliens — A
• Psycho — A+
  This is one of those movies that I always thought I had seen, but it turns out I just knew all about it from pop culture but had never seen it. So, huh, turns out it’s really good.
• Sucker Punch — D
• Friends of Eddie Coyle — A-
• Django: Unchained — A
• Wreck-It Ralph — A+
• Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel — B+
  Low budget but clever time travel comedy.
• Asphalt — B+
  I saw this German silent film at CIMMfest with a new, live(ish) soundtrack, but the movie was interesting on its own.
• The Man with the Iron Fists — C+
• Jack Reacher — B+
  I know fans of the books were upset that Tom Cruise isn’t 6’4” and blonde, but the whole ‘tough loner’ works even better with a short, dark haired guy, I think.
• The Fast and the Furious — C
• Killing Them Softly — A-
  I get the whole economic thing, but it’s still weird.
• Beauty is Embarassing — A
• Some Kind of Monster — A
• Parker — B
• Taken 2 — B-
• Premium Rush — B+