10 movies in 10 days

That was the challenge. Successsss (as Borat would say). Well, to be completely honest, it is more like 9 1/2 movies considering we turned one of them off half way through. You'll find out which one that was... I had to stick around campus this past week and Mike is coming off of a really busy season with the Vikings so we thought we'd ask around to gather some movie ideas based on some of our friends' favorites. Each one was recommended to us and it ended up being a great variety of films. We came up with an award for each. Enjoy :)

Our top 2 favorites: Gran Torino & Inception

Gran Torino wins the award for Best Character. Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) quickly transitions from a hard-hearted, insensitive bigot to an admirable neighbor and friend. It was a great film all together - a definite must-see. You gotta love Clint Eastwood, directing and starring...what a guy!

Inception wins the award for Best Picture. From an all-around perspective - the acting, production, idea behind the film, etc. - it was the best! Of all 10 movies, we'd recommend this one first. And if you've seen it, let's debate about the end because we're very opinionated over here! :)

The Time Traveler's Wife wins the award for most interesting story-line. It's a sad and touching story about a man who travels through time but stays in love with the same girl throughout her lifetime. It helps that Rachel McAdams is one of my favorites. I haven't read the book but it's on my list, especially after the film. I would definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for something different.

The Social Network wins for Best Performance. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg and was awesome. I bet we'll see more of him coming up... The movie itself was so-so for me. I'm not sure why it won so many awards but I think it's an interesting story of Facebook (although I wonder how much of it was realistic). Good for a snowy afternoon if you don't have much to do.

Eat Pray Love wins for leading to the most reflection. It's about a woman who goes on a journey to find her true happiness and in the process she uncovers a lot about herself. The therapist in me appreciated the nature of the movie considering I think we all need to continue to search for meaning in our lives but the realist in me also knows how stressful and difficult that can be. The jury is still out on this one...I'm not sure if I would watch it again or recommend it to many. I haven't read the book but I heard it's better.

Reign Over Me wins for being the most heart-wrenching. The story of a man who struggled to get through the loss of his wife and 3 daughters to the 9/11 attacks was heart-wrenching. It was definitely Adam Sandler's most mature film. I also found a special interest in his psychological struggle from PTSD given my background in psych. It was a solid film - although we couldn't keep it together during certain parts, we both really enjoyed it.

Garden State had the best soundtrack. The music is what makes the special moments throughout the movie memorable. Our memories are engaged and we are drawn in through the music that brings the emotions of a scene to life. Coldplay, The Shins and Iron & Wine have been 3 of my favorite artists lately and you can find all of them on this soundtrack. Check them all out-they're awesome. It's an interesting story, too. Not my favorite of the bunch but I did enjoy it. And I really like Natalie Portman.

Valentine's Day had the best cast. Lots of big names if you're into that kind of thing. Not my favorite story all together and I'm not a huge Valentine's Day person but Ashton Kutcher is one of my favs and he was one of the main characters so that helped (plus, Dr. McDreamy, yeahh). Tis the season.

The Back-up Plan wins the irrelevant award. I don't have much to say about this one...if your husband likes Jennifer Lopez, go for it...otherwise I'd pass.

Precious wins the award for being turned off after 35 minutes. I don't know if it was our mood or what but we both agreed it was the worst one we'd seen since Training Day. Yikes. I know it was nominated and won a bunch of awards but it didn't win anything in our house (other than being the worst). And too much swearing for me.

The movies that remain on our recommended/must-watch list:

The Pianist

Red

Toy Story 3

Vantage Point

Despicable Me

Avatar

Julie & Julia

Mamma Mia

Any thoughts or other recommendations?