Since we signed up for Netflix we’ve been watching lots of movies–which is good, since I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. (The last time I regularly watched movies was, I think, high school.)

Of course, my taste in movies tends towards explosions and marshal arts. I’ll watch drama, but what I really want when I watch a movie is an escape from reality. Hence: science fiction, comic book, and heist movies. Plus movies where Brad Pitt gets the beat up. (Snatch, Fight Club, etc)

And I’d pretty much rather eat lint than watch a romantic comedy, and movies about high school are almost universally out, because in real life, the geeks and the unattractive girls never come out on top.

So here’s a list of the movies we watched recently, from most enjoyed to least enjoyed, which should tell you quite a bit about my tastes.

The Italian Job – We absolutely loved this. It’s got a bunch of actors I really like (Seth Green, Jason Stratham, etc) and I didn’t even recognize Edward Norton (he did an excellent job of being absolutely hateful and nasty). I finally put my finger on what I love so much about movies like this—it’s when they get interpersonal interactions between the characters right. The little tiny things that make the characters seem more real. They did an absolutely fantastic job with that here (Other movies I’ve particularly loved for this: Fantastic Four for the scenes between Sue and Johnny Storm, and Lost Boys for the scenes between Michael and Sam). This is a movie that we will watch over and over again. And we especially loved the Easter egg of Seth Green’s takes on the scene in the garage. “Perfect.”

The Boondock Saints – Holy cow! What a great movie! As much as I hated the Italian guy and found him incredibly annoying and didn’t understand why the brothers put up with him, I tolerated him, because the brothers liked him. We were very sorry that there were no special features in the copy we rented, since I would love to have seen the deleted scenes. I also would have loved more of an explaination as to why the brothers were working in a meat packing plant. But really, it hardly matters in the long run, because relatively quickly I just stopped asking questions and watched.

Romeo Must Die – Excellent fight scenes AND it’s not a kissing movie! I really liked the story, as well as how things worked out. And I loved the fact that they were riffing on Shakespeare, yet not claiming to actually be Romeo and Juliet. I’m rarely a fan of movies made from books, (unless, sometimes, I’ve seen the book before reading the movie.) But making something similar yet different–that I like. And I really liked Jet Li. He’s cute, he’s small, and somehow has a look of innocence about him, so it’s very easy to like him as a hero.

Walk the Line – As good as Reese Witherspoon was, I have to say I was more impressed by Joaquin Phoenix. Johnny Cash was a complete asshole at times, yet I was still rooting for him. And the music was fantastic. They did an excellent job with the entire thing.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith – Fun. I like watching things explode. Plus, Brad Pitt gets beat up!

Cradle 2 the Grave – A heist movie AND lots of exploding things, plus excellent fight scenes. I watched this and “Romeo Must Die” on the same day, but I think that this had the fight scene with Jet Li that I preferred. The one thing I didn’t like was the fake x-ray/MRi that showed you the spine compacting or however it was the person died. Distracting and annoying. Luckily, it didn’t happen too frequently.

Bulletproof Monk – Action! Adventure! Ass kicking! Mostly I liked this movie becuase I like Yun-Fat Chow.

Cool World – I remember seeing this in the theater, and although it’s got nothing on what they can do now with movies, it was still pretty impressive to watch. Plus, it was fun. And Brad Pitt gets beat up.

MirrorMask – I am not a huge fan of Dave McKean’s artwork, so I was more distracted by what he’d done, than drawn into the movie. Which is too bad, because I very much liked the story, and really wanted to love this movie.

Memoirs of a Geisha – If you stop watching this movie at the point when they have to evacuate the city, you’ll have an excellent movie. The second half of the movie I found both annoying and boring, but the first half was gorgeous and fascinating.

A Knight’s Tale – Alan Tudyk is adorable, as always, and I didn’t recognize Paul Bettany as the guy who played Steven Mautin in Master and Commander. And having seen him in other things already, I was more impressed by Heath Ledger here that I might have been otherwise. I thought this was a fun movie, but I also thought they could have done more with it than they did. The jousting was fascinating, and well done, as was the bashing about with swords. I also loved the fact that after a particularly brutal jousting session, the main character is covered in bruises and generally in terrible shape. Of course, I would have preferred it had we not discovered this during a stupid love scene. But, you can’t win ‘em all.

Constantine – Okay. in the comic books Constantine is a blond, brooding, British, chain-smoking asshole. Why on earth did they cast Keanu Reeves in this part? He managed to fail miserable at being each and every one of those things. However, the story wasn’t much in line with the comics I’ve read (that would be only three, I admit) so that somehow seemed appropriate. If I watched it as a movie that was completely unrelated to the character of John Constantine of Hellblazer, it wasn’t so bad. Except for the fact the Keanu Reeves is the most unconvincing smoker I have ever seen, and that “Chaz” makes a lot less sense coming from an American accent than a British one.

Hudson Hawk – It’s silly. It’s a heist movie. And the singing really amused me. But then I like heist movies almost as much as I like movies where things explode.

La Femme Nikita – I liked the story. But I kept getting confused as to what was going on. Probably should have paid more attention.

Kingdom of Heaven – I continue to be unimpressed with Orlando Bloom. And, why did they add in the stupid love angle? I would have found the movie far more interesting without it. On the plus side, however: Dr Bashir (Alexander Siddig)! Yay!

Elizabeth – I liked the costumes.

King Arthur – It’s possible this story could have strayed farther from the mythology surrounding King Arthur and Camelot—but I don’t know how. I did like Gawain though, and I thought the guy that played Cynric(?) was fantastic. I was rooting for him to survive. But really. Killing off the characters who actually have a strong mythology of their own is stupid.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – I resoundingly mocked Michael for getting this in the first place. And I realized within the first few moments it was going to be just as awful as I’d feared it. The only thing that could have redeemed it at all was to have killed off Polly Perkins. Preferrably within minutes of her appearing on the screen. By the end, I was really hoping she would die a hideous, painful, and explosive death. But throughout the movie I kept wondering, what is the POINT of all of this? Why are they doing this? The only plus was that Angelina Jolie was an awful lot of fun to watch. But not enough fun to make up for the rest of the movie. Pretty much the only reason enjoyable thing about this movie was the fact that I MST3K’d it the whole way through. (And now you know exatly how much Michael loves me, that’s he’s willing to put up with that.)

Sky High – After less than five minutes I had escaped downstairs so I didn’t have to watch any more. As I said, I have very little tolerance for movies about high school.