The Last Airbender (2010) - Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Noah Ringer

Panned by the critics when it was released, I finally watched The Last Airbender this morning on my streaming Netflix account.

The last M. Night Shyamalan movie, Netflix ranked it as the most popular movie of the day.

I watched it. And it wasn't half-bad. In fact, it was better than bad. It was pretty good.

A take-off of the popular children's animation series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the story is about a world where four countries are at war. Once held together by the peaceful reign of a single avatar that controlled the 4 elements--earth, wind, air and fire--the avatar disappeared and war began. Each country has a breed of benders that can shift the elements of their country. Only the avatar, who can bend all four, can bring them peace. Suddenly, he returns, ready to bring them back to peace.

The movie stars Noah Ringer, as the last airbender, Dev Patel, as the wronged fire prince.

With awesome special effects and some great martial arts, the movie was produced by two of the TV shows producers and long-time Hollywood producer Kathleen Kennedy. She got her start with Steven Spielberg on his production of E.T.

Easy A - Emma Stone (2010)

This is a sharp, snarky romcom that takes a look at today's high school culture that, despite its 21st century facade of liberalism, has an untapped, hidden puritanical agenda.

A modern-day twist on The Scarlet Letter, Emma Stone plays Olive, who belongs to the invisible clique--the kind of girl who goes unnoticed.

Until one day, she makes up a whollop of a tale to get out of going on a camping trip with her best friend's bizarre family. She tells a tale of her own deflowering, which then spreads like wildfire through out the school, turning her into the school skank.

The next thing Olive knows, she is getting propositioned by nerd-boys to pretend to sleep with them so that their own reputation will be enhanced.

Funny, sad and full of teen-age angst, I was pleased at how smart it was. Probably one of my favorite scenes was when they did a montage tribute to all the great John Hughes movies.

Thomas Hadyn Church, Lisa Kudrow, Sam Tucci and Patricia Clarkson brought some great talent to the table.

I'd rack this one right up there with Clueless.

Easy A gets an A in my book.

The Piano Teacher - Isabell Hupppert (2002))

A deeply disturbing film about a professor of music. In a bizarrely symbiotic relationships with her mother, she is dogmatic, obsessive and unbending. The Piano Teacher is based on the novel Die Klavierspielerin by Elfriede Jelinek who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.

Unthinkably, a gorgeous young man who is a genius pianist falls in love with her and pursues her with abandon. She spurns all of his advances until he corners her. Then the tables are turned and she beseeches him to dominate her.

A study in control and submission, Isabell Huppert gives a Cannes awards-winning performance of an insanely controlled and then just clearly insane character. To watch her face, so taut with control, give just a glimmer, just a hint of emotion away. That was the joy of this movie, for me.

""Kick Ass" Kicks Ass! - Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicholas Cage (2010)

Just got back from the latest cinematographic attempt to lure prepubescent males into the theaters and, yes, it was my idea.

About a kid who wants to know why know one actually becomes a super hero, he decides to go for it.

He buys a green and yellow scuba suit and a pair of stick weapons and starts looking for trouble.

And he finds it in spades.

This movie is hilariously funny, wrought with the raunchiness of teen-age boys, blood lust and waves of unexpected violence--so unexpected my friend actually screamed.

The movie's violence and premise is outrageously ingenious and at times almost too horrific to watch. In many ways, the movie reminded me of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill but without the cultural references. Well, I guess it did if you were an adolescent boy.

But no parent in their right mind would let their kid see this. Of course, that's never stopped kids before.

So beware. But also be ready to laugh your ass off.

Phoebe in Wonderland - Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman (2008)

Phoebe in Wonderland takes an extremely interesting movie takes a different spin on Alice in Wonderland, and examines the world of a a 9-year old girl struggling with self control in her rigid, rules-based world.

The directorial debut of Daniel Barnz, the movie is based on a screenplay that he wrote 10 years prior.

Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota Fanning, shows herself to be just as formidable of an actress as her sister. At the tender age of 10, she firmly hold the center of the stage.

Patricia Clarkson, fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, gives another sublime performance. Her acting is so effortless that you don't even recognize it as acting. She just IS.

The story is a fascinating look at a young girl's struggle with compulsive behavior and the anxiety it causes in her obviously bright and artistic family. Bill Pullman plays Phoebe's father and is an English professor. Felicity Huffman, of Desperate Housewives fame, struggles with motherhood and her attempts to finish her dissertation. And Bailee Madison, as Phoebe's younger sister, is a bright light as her supportive, yet frustrated younger sister. All give very strong supporting performances.

And another favorite of mine, Campbell Scott, makes an appearance as the school principal.