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As for Super 8, here was an exceedingly well structured film, with an excellent pace and a nice sense of nostalgia. I thought there were occasionally some dubious motivations (primarily amongst the adults in the film) and I also don't think all of the kid actors were particularly good. With that said, the two main kid performers (Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning) were terrific. I'm always up for seeing Kyle Chandler in anything. I've seen some people say that Super 8 is lacking in wonder, and I think that's not really true. The wonder comes not from the "surprise" but rather the interaction of the kids as they create a movie and work together to make it happen. I can remember doing fake radio shows with friends at that age, and that sense of creativity is what gives the movie a spark.

David Mumpower: I very much enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 2 as a character driven story with a ton of heart; it just wasn't very funny. As long as you know going in that the jokes are few and far between, it's a movie I highly recommend. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Bridesmaids since I've been anti-Kristen Wiig for the most part. Her SNL work did nothing for me, but I've been looked at her differently since Whip It. Bridesmaids asks a lot of her and she's largely up to the task. This is a movie with three major comedic scenes that all deliver tons of laughs. It's uneven but the high points are brilliant.

Super 8 is a movie I liked more than I had expected. I had mentioned in our trailer debate that this looked much more like batteries not included* than Cloverfield or E.T. This proved to be the case as the monster movie aspect largely fell flat in my estimation. Everything else about it is quite good. The two child leads both hit it out of the park, particularly Elle Fanning, and I very much enjoyed the fond sentimentality directed toward the children of the '70s and '80s. I do wish Kyle Chandler had been used more, but I understand why the kids needed to be the ones investigating the mystery. I'm not sure how well Super 8 will hold up on repeated viewings but I very much enjoyed it the first time.

I recently re-watched Beautiful Girls and I remain awed by Timothy Hutton's ability to flirt with a coy 13-year-old without the whole thing feeling too creepy. The usage of Natalie Portman's character is exceptional in identifying the depth of his arrested development. This is one of my favorite movies of its era and I'm pleased to see its quality is standing the test of time. I also re-watched Mulholland Drive and while the movie still doesn't make a lick of sense to me (I vividly recall Reagen Sulewski explaining the pre- and post-cowboy story elements after I left the theater upon initial viewing), it still has one of the best movie scenes in modern cinema. No, not that one, you perverts. Okay, that one too...but the one I mean involves a cuckolded director, jewelry, paint, and Billy Ray Cyrus. I crack up every time I watch it. The Hollywood player's method of revenge is wonderfully impulsive and the wife's outrage is somehow both justified and woefully misplaced.

Finally, I watched The Good Thief for the first time in a couple of years. This had been one of my most frequently watched movies of the 2000s, but it got lost in the shuffle of our having so many thousands of movie and television options. The incorporation of Leonard Cohen's music is sublime and I maintain that this is one the best movies of the 2000s to date. If you have yet to watch it and enjoy character pieces/tour de force acting performances, Nick Nolte's work in this project is every bit as good as Jeff Bridges' much more heralded outing in Crazy Heart.

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