In theaters now:

The Cabin in the Woods– This was a movie made for horror movie buffs.  It had scares, gore, humor, and lots of in-jokes… I loved it!  It’s hard to say much about the plot without giving it all away, but it is much more than your average “group of 5 college students head to an   isolated cabin where they are attacked by… something…” movie.  Plus Chris Hemsworth is hot.  I so wish he had been cast as Gale in “The Hunger Games” rather than his brother…

The Avengers – Of all the Avengers movies, I’d only seen Thor, but it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out what was going on, as all the comic book heroes are pretty well-known.  Thor, actually, was probably the best of the group (which includes Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America) to have seen, since the villain of this movie came straight from the Thor movie.  Let’s just say it’s a win for Joss Whedon, who was also involved in Cabin in the Woods.  I love the humor.  I also really loved seeing Scarlett Johanssen kick ass.

The Lucky One – My best friend Melissa made me see this one… although she didn’t really have to force me (come on, Zac Efron is HOT!).  I’ve never read a Nicholas Sparks book and don’t intend to start anytime soon, but I still know exactly what to expect from one of his movies: a sappy lovefest where I’ll probably tear up before it’s over.  Aside from the plot being completely improbable, I thought Zac did a decent job as a former marine suffering from PTSD who falls for a divorcee with a kid.

The Raven – Oh, I had such high hopes for this.  I probably should have listened to my initial misgivings about funny John Cusack being cast as the melancholy, insane Edgar Allan Poe, and especially my misgivings that Poe did NOT in fact have a goatee but instead just a mustache.  This was really difficult to follow and sort of dragged on and on.  It wasn’t completely terrible but it could have been so much more…

On DVD & Netflix Instant:

Game of Thrones, Season 1 – I haven’t read this book series and figured I’d give the show a try before picking up any of those tomes.  Now I might be compelled to read them.  This show is that good!  The characters are completely fascinating.  My favorite would have to be Tyrion, the dwarf – he’s hilarious but much much more than just comic relief.  I also really like the storyline with Dany, the Dothraki queen… It’s going to be a long wait for season 2!

Rubber – When I heard there was a horror movie about a tire that kills people, well, I just had to watch it.  It was surprisingly funny and ironic.  A preview on the DVD was for…

Hobo with a Shotgun – a coworker had told me about this movie, having only heard the title.  Finally, after seeing the trailer, I watched this on Netflix Instant.  This is probably the most quotable movie I have ever seen.  It is over the top hilarious and gory.

Best Quote: “When life hands you razor blades, make yourself a baseball bat… covered in razor blades!”

The Tudors – I had stopped watching Tudors after Anne Boleyn got her head cut off at the end of Season 2, and finally I got around to finishing it off.  Wikipedia became my best buddy as I watched, because I just had to know if the things happening were true.  Not that Wikipedia is the most reliable source, but basically it was pretty true to history.  Somehow it made the death of a douchebag like Henry VIII actually sad.

Captain America: The First Avenger – After seeing The Avengers I decided to watch this.  I had expected it to be more about after they pulled Cap out of the ice, but the movie was all flashback to his origins and how he ended up in the ice.  Aside from some weird CGI in the beginning to make Chris Evans look like a short, skinny weakling, it was decent.  There’s just something so earnest about Captain America that makes him likeable.

The Muppets – I love Jason Segel, ever since he was in Freaks & Geeks, I love him on How I Met Your Mother, I loved him in the terrible, terrible movie Bad Teacher, I loved him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  He has that character, the funny yet sensitive guy in a committed relationship, down pat.  This was his character with the awesome Amy Adams with Muppets, which was just great.  Those of us who grew up with the Muppets will appreciate the humor that will certainly fly right over the heads of kids today.

The Howling: Reborn – Ah, the classic werewolf movies made to be teen scream type of movie.  There were scenes with high school seniors making gooey eyes at each other to the track of some insipid pop song, and pretty much no werewolf transformations or nudity.  You could say this was The Howling: Reborn as a Wussy Shadow of the Original.

Best Quote: “Now I’m gonna do what I should have done 18 years ago: Abort you!”

Young Adult – Ugh, what a depressing movie.  It’s supposed to be a comedy.  Here we have a beautiful woman (Charlize Theron) with a career as a YA ghostwriter for a series (that sounds suspiciously like the Clique series), and yet she makes really bad choices: she’s an alcoholic and hurls herself at her high school boyfriend after finding out he’s happily married and just had a baby with his wife.  I loved the rapport between Charlize and Patton Oswalt, who plays “the hate-crime kid” – a guy who back in high school got beat up to the point of being crippled for life because some kids thought he was gay.  The main character made no epiphanies about her terrible behavior – and her behavior was REALLY terrible.

Contraband – I was bored and turned this off after about half an hour… not even Mark Wahlberg and the potential to glimpse his abs could keep me interested!