2010 in Review: Movies

I am the last person who should be rating movies. I suck at movies. I rarely see them in the theater, and I've never considered myself a movie buff. But I did see a few movies this year, and this is my blog, so dammit, I'm gonna write about the movies I saw in 2010.

Except I can't remember any of the movies I saw on DVD. I thought there was something you could click on Netflix to show your viewing history, but now I can't find it. Anyway, I only remember a few of the DVDs I saw.

The first one I can remember watching was The Hangover. I thought it was going to be one of those crass, cheap-shot comedies that only appeals to frat boys, but I was pleasantly surprised. Funny.

I also saw Date Night on DVD. Of course, since it stars Tina Fey, I loved it. The funniest line of the movie was the very first line, when Tina Fey and Steve Carrell are sleeping and the two kids come and jump on their bed, demanding breakfast. "Ugh, you have so many needs," says a sleepy Tina Fey. I quote that so often. Also, I liked how right in the middle of being pursued by some bad guys who want to kill them, Tina and Steve have an argument about household chores. And Tina says all she dreams about is going to a hotel, by herself, and eating a sandwich. Although this movie was cheesy and unrealistic, there were some parts that I could relate to.

The most recent movie I saw was Babies, a documentary about babies growing up in different parts of the world. It was interesting to see the American parents take their baby to ridiculous baby enrichment classes while the Namibian baby is just crawling in a stream eating a rock. But I would have liked a little bit of narration and dialogue, because the raw footage got old about an hour into the movie. (Fortunately it was only an hour and 18 minutes.)

I saw three kid movies in the theater: How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, and Toy Story 3. Dragon was cute, but Vikings aren't really my thing. Nathan liked it. He told me he was scared during Despicable Me, so we walked out, which was fine with me because I wasn't enjoying it. We all loved Toy Story 3, which I think was the best movie I saw all year, even though I technically only went to it because of my kid.

The only non-kid movie I saw in the theater was The Kids are All Right, which wasn't the movie I most wanted to see or anything, but was the only chick-flick movie being shown in the theater one time when I wanted to go to the movies with my mom. I liked the movie, and it was thought-provoking, although not so much the feel-good movie of the year. I did like how it was about a gay couple raising children, but that the whole gay issue wasn't mentioned 112 times. Because I'd like to think we have moved past gay families as being abnormal and a big Issue.

So, those are the movies I can remember seeing in 2010. Clearly I don't have a future as a movie critic. Tomorrow I'll talk about books, which I think I can say a teeny-tiny bit more about than movies.