Arthur

April 12.

I can’t imagine a world where if I was a poor woman scraping money together to pay for a one bedroom apartment in Queens where I lived with my sick father and a billionaire offered me a million dollars as a sorry I lied to you I wouldn’t take it. I know we’re all supposed to pretend we are above money and that integrity is more important, but come on.

This wasn’t the only false part of the Russell Brand reboot of Arthur, but I have to admit, I didn’t hate it like I thought I was going to. It is too sad to really be a comedy and too silly to really be a drama but I found Brand and his nanny, played by Helen Mirren, to be a great team and enjoyed his antics and seeing some beautiful New York scenery.

I saw the original Dudley Moore version but I was a kid and don’t really remember it, actually maybe I only saw part two. Either way, I did think a few times that Brand was trying to imitate Moore, but then I found out that they are from the same area of England. So maybe they just sound the same when they are pretending to be drunk.

Rating: Like

Limitless

March 19.

Limitless is stylish and sexy with sweeping, gorgeous views of New York City and Bradley Cooper. Sure the story of a disheveled man with a serious case of writer's block who takes a miracle pill that lets him unlock his full potential has a few holes, but it's fun to watch anyway.

The actors, Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert DeNiro were all really good, even if DeNiro wasn't used enough. There's never a slow or dull moment in Limitless, but this is not the Inception of 2011. The story tries to throw in some twists, but I wasn't shocked and could kind of guess what was coming up.

Still, sometimes fun is all a movie needs to be.

Although, Limitless did make me think a little. If given the power of no limitations would I, or would any of us, do more than Cooper's character Eddie did, which was pretty much impress people with his intelligence like a parlor trick, get girls, and make money? Is Limitless trying to point out the sad state of our society? Or maybe this is just a movie trying to tell an amusing story and not a lesson in morals.

While watching the movie it seemed that the writer, Alan Glynn, of the book, The Dark Fields, which the film was based, was trying to make a statement about illegal drugs. You take them to get you through, feel invincible, can't live with out them, then can't live with them. But I can't find anything to back that up. So I should probably stop trying to read so much into this and focus on what really matters: Bradley Cooper's hot.

Rating: Like

The Triplets of Belleville

February 14.

I love The Triplets of Belleville. The animation and story are so whimsy, weird and interesting.

The story is about a boy, his dog and a woman I am guessing is his grandmother. They all live in Paris, so from scene one I was in.  The boy becomes interested in the Tour de France and starts cycling, with the old woman as his trainer. As he's racing in the Tour De France he gets kidnapped and his grandmother (dog in tow) follow his kidnappers to New York. The grandmother gets help from the expat French triplets, who were a famous singing act about 50 years before.

There are parts of Triplets that seem like a dream, or maybe the whole thing is a dream. I don't know. But I loved it anyway.

Rating: Love

Date Night

April 29.

A day of shopping at Town Square seemed like a great idea when LeSportsac arrived from the East Coast, but when the temperature went to 50 and the wind picked up the day turned into a take cover operation. So, after polishing off a pitcher of Sake Sangria at Kabuki, we ducked into Rave for "Date Night" with Steve Carell and Tina Fey.

Although, I love both actors separately I wasn't sure about this movie. These kind of comedies always seem forced and watered down. "Date Night" was a lot better than I expected but still fell on the ridiculous side of reality.

But, as long as you don't take it too seriously, it is fun and there are plenty of scenes with Marky Mark without a shirt.

The V.I.P.s

April 3.

I love how old movies don't need to fit into one genre or another. I'm sure "The V.I.P.s" is listed somewhere as a drama or a comedy or a romance, but it's really all three.

This classic was suggested to me by the Bushman, who has yet to steer me wrong, current rom-coms excluded. I added it to my Netflix queue without really checking it out and was intrigued by the list of stars in the cast. I had never seen an Elizabeth Taylor movie, or Richard Burton. Maggie Smith I know from "Harry Potter" and Orson Welles is, well, Orson Welles.

The film takes place during one night while a group of V.I.P travelers are stuck waiting for their flight from London to New York. There are so many great stories in the movie and each is well done. There aren't many movies that can successfully pull off intertwining story lines–yes, I'm talking to you "Valentine's Day."

Watching this movie, I'm reminded how much I love old movies. I've got to start watching more again. Thanks Bushman!

Wall Street

March 20.

"Wall Street" is one of those movies I kind of knew about but never saw because I was 8 when it came out and don't have much interest in finance, but I saw Shia LeBeouf talking about the soon-to-be released sequel and thought it might be interesting. (Although, part two was supposed to be in theaters already and was held up for some reason, always a bad sign.)

"Wall Street" kept my interest but I didn't find myself rooting for any of the characters. Charlie Sheen played the young broker, Bud Fox, who was trying to break into the world of the stock market. He didn't come across as special, intelligent, or likeable and I wasn't hoping he'd succeed. Michael Douglas was Gordon Gekko, the successful mentor who let Bud into the realm of the yuppie. He wasn't very likeable either, but he wasn't supposed to be liked. His character was a bit one-dimensional but a good villain can be fun.

This movie is so dated it was uncomfortable. There was even a classic montage featuring Daryl Hannah, who played Bud's girlfriend and interior designer, transforming his Upper East Side apartment into a palace of pastel and paint splatter. Ah, the 80s.

Remember Me

March 13.

Let me start by saying "Remember Me" wasn't great. It seemed to need some editing, but the story and characters are haunting me. Maybe it's because I didn't realize what it was about and didn't see what was coming, but I almost feel like I need to see it again after knowing how it ends.

I've only ever seen Robert Pattinson as a child in "Harry Potter," but I thought he was really good as Tyler. And he did a great American accent. Emilie de Ravin, who plays his love interest Ally, I know well as Claire in "Lost". I had a little trouble buying the Aussie actress as an American girl who grew up in Queens, but oh, well.

The story took so many turns, and centered around so many people I felt like it should have been a miniseries, but I liked the characters and wanted to know them more. I was never bored and wasn't ready for it to end. Even though, in the last few moments I knew there was no where else for it to go.

New York, I Love You

March 6.

You'd think with my love of New York and movies I would have seen "New York, I Love You" in the theater, but I didn't. I saw "Paris je t'aime," which is also made up of shorts set in the cities named in their respective titles. I loved "Paris" and intended to see "New York," so when Boba recommended it I bumped it on Netflix and got to it.

It was a little different than "Paris" because the people and scenes sometimes crossed but the fragmented stories, each with a glimpse into a moment of someone's life, was there. I, of course, liked some stories more than others. My favorite centered around an old, married couple played by Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach. It was sweet, a bit sad, and funny.

Although overall I liked the movie it didn't feel as New York to me as "Paris je t'aime" felt French. Maybe that's because I've only been to Paris once and don't really know what it's like. Most of "New York" seemed dark and frenzied. And New York City may be the latter, but, in my experience, it can be bright and fun, too.

Cop Out

February 27.

My weekend of bad movies started with "Cop Out." I love Tracy Morgan and feel like I must have had some affection for something Bruce Willis did but can't really remember what. So, when my friend, Side Cap, wanted to see the cop-comedy I thought, OK. Plus I feel like I always see depressing dramas, mostly because most comedies look awful. And this one was.

I guess it played off a lot of older cop movies that I never saw. So, a lot of the references went over my head. There was a lot of gory, violence, which I don't ever remember seeing in the "Police Academy" movies. OK, I'm joking, I'm not saying it should have mimicked the PA movies, but this was supposed to be a light, funny movie.

The story wasn't very good either. The NYPD partners get suspended for a eight weeks for screwing up a drug bust, which puts a wrench in Willis' character's plans to pay for his daughter's dream wedding. (Do you see the holes yet? She hasn't paid for anything and the wedding is two months away? And he hasn't started saving yet?) So he plans to sell his rare baseball card, which gets stolen by a small-time crook who sells it to the same drug dealers that they were supposed to catch in the beginning. There's definitely something better to see out there.

You've Got Mail

February 20.

"You've Got Mail" is one of those movies I always stop at when flipping channels. It represents a surreal New York that doesn't exist. It's all good weather and smart people living in beautiful, spacious apartments. Oh well, I still like it.

If you're an old movie fan check out the pre-email versions that I also liked. There is the 1940 version, "Shop Around the Corner," starring James Stewart, where two shop employees in Budapest who hate each other fall in love through anonymous letters. And the 1959 version, "In the Good Old Summertime," starring Judy Garland. The musical take on the story is set in turn-of-the-century America and follows the same formula: Man and woman hate each other but fall in love through letters.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

February 20.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is one of my favorite movies, even if it is about a prostitute and a gigolo. I've probably seen it 100 times. I love Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly and George Peppard as Paul "Fred" Vargas. It's all 60s-Style and New York City. I remember seeing it, more than once, in a great, old theater in New York while I was living there. It was a great way to watch an old movie – the sound of the reel and crackling of the old film. Although there's nothing like a theater experience catching it on TV is OK, too.

My favorite scene is when Holly and "Fred" celebrate his story being published. They spend the day doing things the other has never done before, including drinking champagne before breakfast, taking a walk in the morning (Holly has walked in the morning but only home from the previous night), going to the library, buying something at Tiffany & Co. (the only scene actually in Tiffany's), and stealing something from a five and dime. I've always wanted to do that. (Not steal something from a five and dime, spend the day doing things I've never done before.)

Me and Orson Welles

January 1.

"Me and Orson Welles" wasn't heavily advertised, at least not in Las Vegas where no one cares about movies like this, but I did catch a few previews and really wanted to get a glimpse of Orson Welles during his early days as a stage actor-director in New York. So, when my friend, Boba, bailed on seeing "Avatar" because she was paying for a fun New Year's Eve, I took the opportunity to catch this movie at the one theater in town where it was showing before it was gone forever.

I loved the movie, and I didn't realize until the end that it was made by Richard Linklater, director of two of my favorite movies ever, “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset.”

Although I never really got over how weird Zac Ephron, who plays Richard Samuels – the Me in the title – looks, (he looks like the woman in The L Word who has a sex change to become a man), I liked the character and the story set behind the scenes of an Orson theater production in 1937 New York.

The side story between Richard and Gretta, played adorably by Zoe Kazan, left me with a feeling of hope. But the star of the show was definitely Orson, portrayed by British-actor Christian McKay.