I've yet to see The Reader or Benny Button. Of the rest, I really liked Slumdog Millionaire. I wonder how many people who have enjoyed this movie, realize that the brothers at the center of the plot are portrayed as Muslim rather than Hindi. I enjoyed the rest all for differing reasons. I thought Doubt was a clever mind game with some stellar acting especially by Viola Davis (yeah and some over acting too by a few of the rest). I'm not certain how many people got the point that suspicion about the Priest was a smokescreen for the real motivating doubt which was the loss of faith by the Mother Superior revealed only in the last scene. Although I prefer my historical flix with swords and ball gowns of 1800 or before, I enjoyed the nostalgia of both Frost/Nixon and Milk. I felt somewhat uneasy with the hagiography of Milk until the end when I understood why. In the last frames, when they disclosed the fate of all the portrayed, I realized that the Milk in the movie was the product of the revelations of the survivors of the AIDs crisis that followed most of whose finest accomplishments came in the movement Milk started. Trained in history, I had to remind myself that this was an entertainment not an historical account. The same is true of Frost/Nixon. Despite Langella's attempt to display of Nixon's "humanity," but I'm no more sympathetic to that evil man than i was before. The Reader's next
I also enjoyed the new Bond movie, Tropic Thunder and Iron Man but none are Oscar worthy.
I too have a penchant for DVD's at home where the popcorn is fresh, the butter real and the company unquestioned. My Netflix list is 100+ long. However, I have a disabled friend and the only way I can get him out of his apartment from time to time is to wheel him to a movie. We normally go during a weekday afternoon when the crowds are less problematic and the pop corn is somewhat fresher. I haven't been able to do anything about the ersatz butter.