I finally got caught up on some movie watching

I really love movies but I find it difficult to make time to watch them. That said, I'm really picky about what I want to see with the limited time I have to devote to them. I have compiled this list of films I have made time to see over the last year. Mind you all of them were seen after I had a chance to digest many reviews, which in most cases probably gave me a mindset going in. What follows are my mini takes & ratings based on a scale of 1-5. Casino Royale **** This one was under scrutiny ever since Craig was announced as the replacement for Brosnan and the nay sayers were sent home crying when the audience, media & reviewers all gave it 'thumbs up' and hailed it as one of the best of the series, "A great re-boot of this tired old film series". I've watched this one 3 times. Once in the theatre and twice on DVD. As a Bond fan since "Doctor No" I have mixed feelings about it. First off, I didn't walk out of the theatre a foot taller and humming the Bond Theme in my head as I left. That, as every Bond fan knows, is the true mark of a passing grade on these films. However, it IS a very good film. I always enjoyed the gritter Bond films like From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the Timothy Dalton Bonds. I became disgusted with the producers when they had Roger Moore pick up Jaws by his teeth with an electro magnet & dump him in the shark tank. Mainly because ten years earlier, Dean Martin had picked up some guy with a metal plate on his head with an electro magnet. I felt at that point, when Bond had to steal a bit from a Matt Helm Bond spoof, he became a parody of himself. Final verdict...Daniel Craig did a great job. It had a terrific script. Casino Royale was the 'origin' story. I didn't buy into his romance with Vesper as much as I did Lazenby/Rigg in 'OHMSS'. The torture scene was great, as was the ending. I'm not saying they should go back to the excess of the Moore era or "Die Another Day" overblown cgi wind surfing, but Craig just isn't Bond...yet. I'll wait for the next one to pass final judgement. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer **** With all the dark, obsessed, brooding superheroes in film today it was really nice to see that this one stayed true to its source material. Lots of funny bickering between the characters and great cgi of the Silver Surfer. This was a great 90min, short by todays standards, popcorn movie. I even liked the first film, but this one was much better. ..and in the category of: Nowhere near as bad as reviewed by the media Ghost Rider *** Pretty faithful adaptation of the comic book. My Super Ex-Girlfriend *** Nifty mindless comedy with a really funny premise. These were much Better than I expected Cars ***, Happy Feet *** I'm not the biggest fan of this new 3-D animation but these two films were fairly amusing. I have to give the bigger nod to Happy feet though because of the music. RV *** Much funnier than the reviews led me to believe. The Lake House *** I wanted this to be good & was afraid it would really suck. I was pleasantly surprised. Then again I am a sucker for time travel type stuff. Transformers *** I expected the worst, even after positive reviews because I hated the cartoon & comics of these characters. I was actually facinated by this one. Could have been a half hour shorter though. The Pink Panther *** Going in I was thinking I had seen all the funniest stuff in the trailer. I was surprised at how funny it was. The best of the non-Peter Sellers Panther films. Steve Martin was suprisingly good as the bumbling Clouseau. Good Night & Good Luck **** Terrific film! One of the best films in recent years. David Strathaim was channeling Edward R. Murrow as eerily as Brandon Routh did Christopher Reeve in Superman Returns. Thank You For Smoking **** One of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. Great stuff. Live Free Or Die Hard *** I'm glad this one was as good as it was. Not the best of the series but a lot better than it could have been. Night At The Museum ** Another case of great trailer, fair to good film. This wasn't terrible by any means. Pretty funny. Great supporting cast. Good mindless entertainment but I just didn't buy into the whole 'I need to impress my kid' subplot. I especially enjoyed seeing Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke & Ben Stiller's mom, Anne Meara. These were as good as expected Sin City *** Great adaptation of the comic, especially the visuals. Spiderman 3 *** Forget Spiderman 4. You can't top this finale to the trilogy. Superman Returns **** Great casting choices! Brandon Routh, mentioned earlier, Kevin Spacey, terrific as Luthor. The scene where Luthor stabs & kicks the crap out of Superman was so real that it was really painful to watch.Unfortunately Kate Bosworth was horribly miscast as Lois Lane. Nice 'sequel' to the Donner films. I can hardly wait for "Man of Steel" when Bryan Singer gets all "Wrath of Khan" with it. The Bourne Ultimatum **** Another teriffic end to a trilogy. Wraps things up nicely with enough of an open end to bring Bourne back, but now that he knows who he is, where do we go from here? These were disappointing The Good German ** I was really anticipating great things from this film. It had great Casablanca-esque photography but came no where near the heart tugging story or feel of that fabulous film. In fact this is one of the most depressing films I have seen in a while. Shoulda, coulda...... Man Of The Year * Another case of funny trailer, lousy film. Good cast, but who wrote this? All of Robin Williams funniest bits are in the trailer.