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Arnie Carvalho
The 40 Year-Old-Critic: Before Midnight (2013)
The best film of last year is a sequel that no one could have predicted. It also turned out to be the best film that wouldn’t be reviewed for Now Playing Podcast.
Arnie C
The 40 Year-Old-Critic: This Is 40 (2012)
I feared the impact ‘This Is 40’ would have on me as my own birthday milestone neared. Turns out I was afraid for the wrong reasons.
The 40 Year-Old-Critic: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Out of all the X-Men films, this was the first one that had been really, truly fun while also establishing amazing rivalries and human drama. It was the first great X-Men movie.
It was a delight to watch, and I was ecstatic while recording the Now Playing review when I discovered Jakob and Stuart had seen the same film I did. The only thing better than watching an amazing film is sharing that enthusiasm with other film-lovers.
The 40 Year-Old-Critic: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
I wasn’t sure what to make of the film by the trailers. The characters appeared to be living in a video-game world, collecting coins and getting 1-Up extra lives. It was quirky but what was it? I expected the movie to offer some explanation; perhaps, Tron-like, Scott had fallen into a video game world, or maybe he had an overactive imagination like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
The 40 Year-Old-Critic: Avatar (2009)
I had heard rumblings about Avatar for years. James Cameron’s last theatrical film had been Titanic in 1997 — then the top-grossing film of all time. After that massive success the director dropped out of the spotlight, focusing on a few IMAX documentaries. It seemed quite possible in my mind that Cameron might not ever make a film again, and with each passing year I paid less attention to the rumors that swirled about his next project.
