Zero Charisma (2013)

IMDb plot summary: An overgrown nerd who serves as Game Master of a fantasy board game finds his role as leader of the misfits put into jeopardy when a new initiate enters the group.
Directed by Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews. Starring Sam Eidson, Brock England, Garrett Graham, and Anne Gee Byrd.

Although I do have a fondness for nerdy cinema, this one was pretty tough to sit through. Despite having one or two funny moments ("I deal in reality, not fantasy! Now let's role play!"), when it came down to it, the main character was just too unlikable and the ending too abrupt. There wasn't a character arc so much as there was just... a sudden inexplicable change in behavior, which didn't work for me at all. Knights of Badassdom is a much funnier and more enjoyable nerdy comedy from this past year.

2 stars.

Flickchart: #1381 out of 2135, below Anything Else and above 17 Miracles.

Suspicion (1941)

IMDb plot summary: A shy young English woman marries a charming gentleman, then begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Nigel Bruce, and Cedric Hardwicke.

(Definite spoilers about the end of the movie.)

What was a very nice mystery most of the way through falls apart in the final few minutes with an implausible climactic scene. Too bad, because I was really enjoying it up until that point. It has a nice, slow build -- something Hitchcock does very well -- with plenty of suspenseful moments. While Joan Fontaine's character started off a little wimpy, she ended up being fairly resourceful, not the flighty doormat of a character she seemed at the beginning.

I would have liked for the film to be just a few minutes longer to actually have a chance to prove the final revelation was true. As it was, his declaration of innocence seemed unbelievable and I still didn't believe she was out of danger. Still, if you're willing to suspend disbelief at the end, it's a lot of fun. And I do really enjoy the way the movie portrays the last minute -- just the car slowly turning back around. It's got a nice subtlety to it.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #790 out of 2134, below To Sir, With Love and above Smiles of a Summer Night.

The Switch (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Seven years after the fact, a man comes to the realization that he was the sperm donor for his best friend's boy.
Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck. Starring Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Patrick Wilson, and Thomas Robinson.

Well, let me get this out there right away: The "child changes someone's life" movie genre is one of my very least favorite genres of all time. This one, however... wasn't terrible. Most of that was due to the child actor, who played his neurotic character very seriously and in a not-at-all cutesy way (thank goodness). He felt like a real kid, if maybe a little unusually intelligent for a six-year-old.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston are nicely matched here. Their characters are likable and their chemistry is believable. Like yesterday's viewing of How Do You Know, however, I found myself a bit more intrigued by the rejected boyfriend. Patrick Wilson's character and his eternal optimism is fascinating in comparison to Bateman's cynicism, and the scene where the two of them talk and Wilson doesn't even realize Bateman is snarking at him is one of my favorites.

The movie isn't great or anything. It rushes through quite a few of its emotional beats, and I don't really buy the abruptly happy ending, but if you're looking for a pleasant rom com, you could certainly do worse.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #821 out of 2133, below How Do You Know and above All That Jazz.

How Do You Know (2010)

IMDb plot summary: After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball-playing beau.
Directed by James L. Brooks. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, and Jack Nicholson.

This movie has some really good moments trapped inside a slightly-too-long script. The characters are all very nicely fleshed out -- none of them are two-dimensional stereotypes. I was especially impressed with Owen Wilson's character, who could easily have been turned into the movie's villain, but instead he seems like a regular guy -- somewhat arrogant and entitled and certainly the wrong man for Reese Witherspoon, but not malicious or vicious.

Speaking of Reese Witherspoon, I *really* liked her character too. She's not the stereotypical "strong female character" that I find so annoying, but nor is she a spineless doormat. She feels like a real person. Even though my personality is not very much like hers, I related to her just on the basis of her being a fully developed character. Nice.

All that being said, though, I wish this had been tightened up a little bit. The characters get somewhat lost in the two-hour runtime, and I'm a little worried that six months from now I'll mostly remember the movie's length and won't remember how much I liked the people in it. We shall see.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #820 out of 2132, below Peter Pan (1960) and above All That Jazz.

Knight and Day (2010)

IMDb plot summary: A story of a girl who gets mixed up with a spy trying to clear his name.
Directed by James Mangold. Starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Peter Sarsgaard.

I'll be honest, I thought I'd be much more bored by this than I was. It carries itself primarily on the charm of Tom Cruise and the relatability of Cameron Diaz, but it also benefits from a consistently light-hearted mood, a plot that's not unnecessarily complicated for the movie's fluffiness, and a surprising amount of really talented actors in supporting roles. It does go back and forth a little abruptly with the romance part of the story, but not distractingly so. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Not great, but it's an entertaining popcorn flick.

3 stars.

Flickchart: #846 out of 2131, below August: Osage County and above Camp Rock 2.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Jesse meets Ethan, someone she could finally fall in love with, but then she meets Troy, and now she has a dilemma.
Directed by Daryn Tufts. Starring Alyssa Milano, Christopher Gorham, Michael Landes, and Tom Lenk.

(Some generic spoilers ahead about the ending.)

This was... just okay. It has a pretty interesting plot, even if I did find the ending twist a little gimmicky and not great for actual emotional resolution of the story. My main problem with it, though, was that the main girl really doesn't have much of a personality -- certainly not one that's at all fleshed out. You only really need to do ONE thing to have a successful romance movie: create an interesting/likable couple that have chemistry together. The guy was great fun, but the girl... I'm not sure I could tell you even a single personality trait of hers. His literary agent even had a more defined character, and she was only on screen for like 3 minutes. This meant, unfortunately, that I spent most of the flick hoping he'd ditch the love of his life and find someone more interesting. Giving her a better personality could have made this movie much more interesting. As it was, I was unimpressed.

2 stars.

Flickchart: #1210 out of 2130, below The Shop Around the Corner and above Over the Hedge.

The Matador (2005)

IMDb plot summary: A globetrotting hitman and a crestfallen businessman meet in a hotel bar in Mexico City in an encounter that draws them together in a way neither expected.
Directed by Richard Shepard. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, and Hope Davis.

Well, I will definitely say this: All the posters I see for this movie are incredibly misleading. They paint it as some sort of gritty crime flick when it's really more of a quirky friendship movie. There ISN'T a lot of grit here, and that's okay -- it was interesting and refreshing to me.

It doesn't work all the way through for me, and I'm not *entirely* sure yet what was unsatisfactory to me about that ending, but Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear hold most of it together with some really solid and entertaining performances. It's a good thing the movie focuses so heavily on their interactions, because that's where the best parts are, rather than, say, complicated plotting or twists. Though I'm still musing on it now and as such it might end up further down my chart than it might deserve, I feel like this is one that will hold up pretty well the longer I sit with it.

3.5 stars.

Flickchart: #816 out of 2129, below Clueless and above Now You See Me. Clueless is too low on my list, I think.