The Fighter

David O. Russell is such a great filmmaker but it's hard to imagine he'll ever top Three Kings. The Fighter, however, comes close; it's really, really good. Although there is plenty of boxing it's essentially a story of two brothers, Mickey Ward and Dicky Eklund, played by Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. Bale is the showier of the two performances, and a lot showier. He's like a Warner Brothers cartoon character on crack, and it's a great performance. I liked everyone else too--Amy Adams, just believable enough as a tough townie, Melissa Leo as a monstrous mother with her brood of terrifying daughters, and Wahlberg as a simple guy just trying to become a boxer. None of this would work, however, if Russell wasn't pulling the strings. It's beautifully paced, cut and packaged, and he handles the boxing scenes perfectly, making them realistic instead of aestheticized to death a la Scorsese.

Date Night (2010)

I thought this was an entertaining, well-paced film even though it wasn't actually that funny. Part of the problem is that Steve Carell and Tina Fey are arguably the two funniest people on television right now, in two of the juiciest sit-com roles--Michael Scott and Liz Lemon. So it's kind of underwhelming to see them in less than stellar material. Still, they were likable and the film had some decent scenes, and some nice cameo roles, including Mark Wahlberg as a perpetually shirtless black ops security expert.

The Other Guys (2010)

I should probably stop going to see Will Ferrell movies in the theater. They almost always tire me out and I end up feeling ambivalent about the movie, then later, when the film shows up on HBO I start watching scenes and it grows on me. Just so long as I can watch in short bursts. This happened with Anchorman, with Blades of Glory, with Step Brothers. This will probably happen with The Other Guys. I liked it okay. Parts were funny, and many parts were more clever than funny. Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg had good chemistry as an overly cautious police accountant and a hot-blooded cop. I loved Michael Keaton as Gene, the good-natured Captain of the police station (plus a manager at Bed, Bath, and Beyond). None of it was great and for right now I think of it as the movie that got me into air conditioning for a Saturday afternoon.