Movies I've seen lately (that I didn't cover dismissively on Twitter)
Enchanted: Disney should not have tried to satirize Disney unless it was prepared to do so with complete freedom and viciousness. I'm sure they thought they were being very brave, but this isn't any more insightful about its target than Sex in the City is about dumb sluts.
Leatherheads: A perfectly adequate comedy that seems to have gotten dumped on a little too heavily because of the backlash against Renee Zellweger.
Semi-Pro: Some good material here, but the "stick-in-the-mud love interest" problem endemic to sports comedies is unusually acute here. Talladega Nights provides an interesting contrast by having far fewer belly laughs, but (a) wisely making the love interest a flat-out villain and (b) including a weird, borderline-brilliant performance by Sasha Baron Cohen. That scene where Baron Cohen has Ferrell armbarred in the pool hall is pretty much its own movie.
Rescue Dawn: First-rate stuff, but did anyone else think there was a weird "Resourceful, brave German tries unsuccessfully to save assorted feeble Americans and Asians from themselves" thing going on?
Valkyrie: Well, the son of a bitch did it. He found a way to make you cheer for Hitler.
Baby Mama: An odd, likeable buddy movie for chicks with an effective Act II twist. Unusually for buddy movies, one of the buddies actually had to create and portray a character. Amy Poehler, you are universally beloved and you might still be underrated.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Kind of fun; essential for Downey Jr. fans; and features one of the occasional Kilmer parts where he checks in and reminds us that he's our Brando (not coincidentally, he's looking more like him every year). But it tries to get around the "self-conscious narrator" thing by having the self-conscious narrator be self-conscious about his self-consciousness, and the whole thing's still just goddamn annoying. And God bless him and all, but when Downey is annoying, he's really annoying. Has anybody since Eszterhas built a bigger career out of less actual accomplishment than Shane Black?
The Foot Fist Way: Not quite the must-see that the cult would have you believe, but still pretty funny.
The House Bunny: I just kept thinking that on a real campus, the bubble-headed Playmate house mother would have WAY bigger problems than the snobby rich girls across the road who embrace the same anti-/postfeminist values but just aren't quite as much fun. Let's do a sequel and see how Anna Faris in hot pants handles a LGBT sexual-health seminar or a Take Back the Night march.
If you can only see one: Rescue Dawn
If you can only avoid one: Valkyrie, obviously
Best actor: Kilmer
Best actress: Poehler
Best supporting actor: Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn
Best supporting actress: Sigourney Weaver in Baby Mama