For some reason, I haven’t taken the time to review some of the movies I have seen this year. So let’s knock them all out in one post.

Valentine’s Day – We actually saw this on Feb. 14 in a theater full of teenage couples, which made me feel a little old, but that’s beside the point. The movie reinforced my belief that every piece of art does not need to challenge someone, does not need to shed new light on anything, does not need to really stretch its muscles in order to entertain. Sometimes, movies are just meant to be a fun way to pass time. This was one of those instances. My wife and I had a nice, non-threatening night out to celebrate our relationship. The movie was saccharine, predictable (save a couple of cute surprises at the end) and vapid to a fault. But that’s what life is about sometimes.

Alice in Wonderland – I had no real interest in seeing this movie, but took my daughter and her best friend to the 3-D version. I loved Valentine’s Day for everything it was not, and this movie bothered me for everything it was. That is, an incredibly vain attempt to show off technology and weirdness just for the sake of it. In truth, the movie didn’t bother me that much. It’s a fairly predictable and innocuous tale that entertained me at times. However, Tim Burton just seems so intent on reminding us that he’s bizarre and showing off the new technology that you wonder why there was even a storyline. I noticed late in the movie that one conversation between Alice and the Hatter featured very deliberate usage of the 3-D technology by having the person not speaking shot from behind at an angle so we could clearly see the third dimension. It added nothing to the story and we were far enough in that simply demonstrating the gizmo really wasn’t necessary. It was OK, but I expect to struggle to remember much more than the parts that annoyed me a few months from now.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Another nominee for The Bridget, this film kept me entertained from start to finish. I have not read any of the books from this popular series, but feel that they did a great job of capturing the spirit from what I know about them. The books incorporate drawings from the main character, so I wondered how that would translate to the screen in a live-action movie. They did a great job of having them play a role in the story without feeling forced or gimmicky. The story walked that fine line between slapstick and real life that allowed the adults and kids to stay focused on the film. The parts for the adults who came to the theater didn’t just involve double entendres that would go over the heads of the kids. Since the target audience is middle schoolers, that would probably be hard to pull off. But the notion of parents embarrassing kids played perfectly in the story and for the audience. I hope they get enough of a return on the film to consider expanding the series.