Movie Micro-Reviews: Edition 95

Leah was around; Sherry is done with school.  Finally, some new movies!

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra	45	Moderately entertaining. Overacted. Action.
Iron Man 3	86	Maybe the best of the Iron Man movies. Tony Stark is still himself, but he is finally learning some humility and humanity. An interlude with a kid didn’t do much for me, but the rest of the movie was fun, funny and comic book.
Life as a House	72	In the mood for a drama with some real human comedy? This fits the bill. Hayden Christensen has trouble with nuanced anger here as he does in the Star Wars films, which is too bad given his character was angry for most of the movie.  But Kevin Kline gives his typical fully realized performance.
Lincoln	78	Tour-de-force for Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe Lincoln. I cannot say how many of the historical details were true, but it encourages me to see political in-fighting, rancor and skullduggery being the means to one of the great moments of progress in our history.
Captain America	86	Congratulations!  They made a Captain America without the camp, the jingoism, the schmaltz that could have killed it.  Good story, good action, and leads well into The Avengers. (It sure did!)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring	100	What can I say.  The mood is perfect.  The story hangs together.  The characterizations are charming and thrilling.  The effects enhance and draw you in, rather than amaze or distract.  Fantastic.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	98	The Ents are not silly!  The orcs are mean.  The slightly lower rating is for confusion they could have worked a bit harder to clear up.  But still near perfection!
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King	100	What can I say?  Probably the best film (series) ever.  The achievement is as magnificent as the story.  I’m so glad technology exists to do this right, and that Peter Jackson and his team were so dedicated to the vision. And it’s a great Sunday evening movie.  Dive in, get immersed in the world.  Enjoy. [We watch these again and again. Perhaps one day I will stop micro-reviewing them as we do.  But it is not this day!]