It's Almost Like Movie Christmas

First I want to thank RC for letting me post on his site occasionally. I've been much busier than I expected the past several months on my own website and life events in general. I love Strange Culture and its community. Thanks for letting me be apart of it.

At no point in the year have I been anxious to see four movies until this weekend. The Oscars have done this to me, and I don't know if I can really forgive them for causing the year to be this back-loaded. The thing that makes seeing these movies more urgent is that I head back to Fort Dix, NJ in January and I won't be able to leave base when I get there.

I plan on dragging my wife from Fort Worth to Plano (an hour drive through The Colony) to see the Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino. The reviews I've read are very good. I'm a big fan of Joe Morgenstern and his review couldn't have been more glowing. He doesn't describe it as another Dirty Harry movie, like the marketing wants you to believe. Morgenstern says Eastwood is coming to terms with his Dirty Harry persona and that makes it better. I love Dirty Harry and am excited to see how Eastwood brings it full circle.

Waltzing with Bashir looks fascinating. I love the idea of watching the action while the person being interviewed narrates in his own words. The idea is so simple that I hope it gets copied on more documentaries in the future. Making interviews interesting has to be the biggest challenge of documentarians because there's no action. This allows people to see and hear what they are saying instead of just listening. RC, can a film be nominated for Best Documentary and Best Animated film Oscar?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has potential because of the actors. I want to see Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett perform in another good movie. It may be a bit long for my taste coming in at just under three hours.

I've tried to ignore Tom Cruise since Vanilla Sky, but Valkyrie has potential. I normally like Brian Singer's films and knowing how the film ends I want to see how the movie stays suspenseful. Part of me hopes that Keyser Söze moves the briefcase to the other side of the oak table, but since this movie is based on history, I doubt it.

I've limited it to these four because I don't think I have time for The Wrestler and Frost/Nixon.

If you had one week to see a movie, what would you go see?

Update: My parents, wife and I did see Slumdog Millionaire today. It's a real nice film that uses "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" as a great plot device and it's a great rags to riches story. If you see it, stay for the show choir choriagraphed dance during the credits, it's delightful. RC wrote more about SM than I ever could.

You can read Adam regularly on The Stone Report Blog.