I watched a bunch of movies on my flights to Europe and back:
Napoleon Dynamite
For the first 15 minutes or so I was thinking, what the hell is this crap, but then the film's style has grown on me.
Burn After Reading
I can't say I'm a huge Coens fan, but this was a fairly entertaining pitch-black comedy with a great cast. Brad Pitt's bimbo character had me in stitches and IMO it's yet another proof that, like Jude Law, supporting roles is where he really shines (whereas both actors tend to be bores whenever they're given a lead role).
Clash of the Titans (2010)
I've been a huge Greek mythology fan since I was a teenager, unfortunately this was pretty crappy and Sam Worthington's Perseus might be the dullest hero ever. I also thought that ditching the central romance and making Perseus revenge-driven (and a dour whiny bitch to boot) instead was a bad move. Other characters do make the movie more watchable, I especially liked Mads Mikkelsen and Ralph Fiennes' take on Hades, though the trend to cast Hades as a villain generally annoys me. Special effects, whatever I could see of them on a tiny screen, were good but the CGI Medusa was terrible! I actually preferred the Medusa in the older film where she at least looked scary.
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Since this was also available, I decided to watch the older film for comparison. While I wouldn't call it a good movie either and the special effects look horribly dated, it was at least fun and had a kind of campy clunky charm. Perseus in this movie also wears one expression throughout, but at least he's pretty and scantily clad and free of angst
And I had no idea that Maggie Smith was in this!
The Runaways
Really liked this film, mostly for the performances by Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie (my, hasn't she grown up). The story may be familiar and it doesn't dig too deep beyond the surface, but any film that reminds me how much I love music is fine in my books.
Away We Go
This movie entertained and annoyed me at the same time. I liked the main characters and there were some good comedy moments, but the film's determination to treat all other characters as either deplorable or pitiable was irritating, and there was too much of "characters saying sappy quirky-cute things over a twee indie soundtrack".
Vertigo
I'm glad I knew almost nothing about the story because it definitely caught me by surprise. I want to re-watch this film on a decent screen though, because the quality of this particular version onboard the plane was pretty bad.
D)........but Saoirse was wonderful..........the only downside I found was all the fantasy parts YET in a way it does not deflect from the whole movie at all.
