Movies of note from 2010

This is not an exhaustive list of everything I watched in 2010. It might not even be all my favorites. I don't keep track of the movies I watch so this is just what I happen to remember liking as I write this post right now.

(Here are movies of note from 2007, 2008, and 2009.)

The Count of Monte Cristo. No, not that one. THIS ONE:

Jeremy saw this sitting on the university library shelf and brought it home. It was so brilliantly campy that we had to watch every episode. Indeed, we looked forward to it, especially the part in the opening credits where Gerard  Depardieu comes busting out of the ocean surf holding a crucifix. That said, there were some glaring deficiencies in this version, like how everyone seemed to be too old, or how the movie skipped over the entire first part, or how some of the acting was really, really bad, or how it was in French, or how Gerard Depardieu was in it. But still, we enjoyed it. A LOT.

Middlemarch. Another university library gem. Jeremy started watching this with me and then quit after (or partway through?) the first episode. I persevered and I was not sorry I did. There are two performances that absolutely make this movie: Robert Hardy as Mr. Brooke and Rufus Sewell as Ladislaw. I keep meaning to read this book but then I figure it can't be that much better than this movie.

Speaking of which, Daniel Deronda. Another George Eliot book adapted by Andrew Davies, also discovered on the shelves of the university library. Jeremy watched all of this with me and while he liked the ending and thought it was perfectly appropriate, I still feel disenchanted with it. There is another way it could have ended; it would have been more natural and I think everyone would have been better off. Hmph.

You remember the new version of Emma, I'm sure. Currently, I am in love with the soundtrack to this movie, which you can download from Amazon for something like seven dollars.

Have I talked about Little Dorrit enough on this blog? No? Well, I watched it again this year, on our video iPod while we were in Egypt. Just thinking about hunkering down in our one AC'd room every night with headphones in, watching a few minutes of Little Dorrit while the kids were sleeping makes me all nostalgic. Mmmmm.

Finally, there is The West Wing, that TV series from a few years ago. My friends the Lewises recommended it to me and it is so brilliant I can't believe I'd never seen an episode before. Love it. Love CJ Cregg. I am currently on Season 3.

And now, the movies I saw in the theater this year:

Sherlock Holmes. We saw it in Idaho Falls. I think we were supposed to see Avatar but it was sold out? Or something? I really liked Sherlock Holmes, anyway.


Eclipse

Inception. We saw this in Ithaca in August while my dad babysat our sleeping kids. I loved it.

Robin Hood. Ridley Scott should be ashamed to have his name on this film. It could have been so awesome. Now we have to wait a few years before any other director can make another RH to correct his egregious mistake.

Harry Potter 7

Tangled. I took both girls to this movie with our babysitter and her family. It was Magdalena's first movie theater experience. They loved it. I think I loved it but I was so worried about Magdalena behaving the whole time (she did great) that honestly I don't remember it much. Huh.

I think six is a new record, at least in recent memory. Hooray for babysitters!