Another year means another (eventually enormous) list of movies! I know it will be disorienting at first to see it be so tiny, but it will grow eventually. (That's what she said.) In the meantime, the first movie post of the new year!

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009): It's an OK thriller. Denzel Washington and John Travolta kind of phone it in with their character types, and I can't stand the filming style (there's all this slow motion bullshit that just makes me angry), but there's some decent action, even if the plot ends up razor thin.

The Station Agent (2003): Pretty touching movie that doesn't go through all the seemingly obvious plot motions. It's basically about three desperately lonely people who deal with their loneliness and pain in completely different ways. It's not as depressing as all that, however; all three main characters are pretty likable, and one is so improbably gregarious about his loneliness that it's difficult not to smile whenever he is onscreen. Plus, any movie that is willing to cast Peter Dinklage as its noble hero is fine by me.

The Final Destination (2009): My first time watching one of these movies the whole way through -- saw it with my brother, who has seen the first three for some reason and walked me through every single "twist" in the movie (not that any of them are particularly difficult to predict), because they have all literally been done in the first three Final Destination movies. Basically it's a series of absurd, hilariously improbable deaths over the course of 80 minutes. It's like a less offensive version of the Saw movies, where the only entertainment value comes from watching these characters die and cracking jokes about them. (My favorite: The main female character looks like one of the Olsen twins.) The ending is the stupidest, laziest thing I have seen in quite a while. Good times.

On the queue for this week: No idea!

Total Movies: 3 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination)