Summing up the summer.

In the spirit of one of my linked blogs, What I Watched Last Night (at least, until he started using multiple posts on the same movie), I'm going to provide bite-sized reviews of the movies I saw this summer:

Iron Man 2 - Plottier than the first, but entertaining enough; Rockwell and Rourke make terrific villains

MacGruber - Gross-out gags, silliness, some of it hilarious - MacGruber!

Nightmare on Elm Street - Interesting story, good work by Haley, but pales next to original, overall

Chloe - Impressive nudity by beautiful leads undercut by weak script, weaker ending

Prince of Persia - Good action, funny banter, delightful turn by Alfred Molina

Killers - Quite violent for a rom-com...and quite entertaining; definitely worth a look

Just Wright - Queen Latifah and Common are charming, but lack of narrative conflict a serious liability

The A-Team - Fine origin story, good action, but bears only slight resemblance to the show

Shrek Forever After - Not a patch on the original, but some laughs; Walt Dohrn hilarious as Rumple

Toy Story 3 - Pixar's latest is nearly perfect; a smashing conclusion to the story

Death at a Funeral - Uneven; the original is probably better, but the cast makes it worthwhile

Knight and Day - Beautiful scenery, impressive action scenes trump disjointed script

The Last Airbender - Undeniably flawed, but far less terrible than it's been made out to be; folks, get over yourselves

Despicable Me - one of the year's surprises; funny and surprisingly affecting with terrific voice work by Carell

Predators - Exciting, worthy follow-up to Predator with terrific action scenes, interesting cast

Sorcerer's Apprentice - Nice effects (if a few too many of them), good chemistry between Cage and Baruchel

Inception - Unlike Nolan's The Dark Knight, this is deserving of the hype; engrossing the whole way

Salt - Attempt at building Bourne-like franchise doesn't entirely work despite fine action scenes, good acting

Dinner for Schmucks - Cast, particularly Steve Carell and Jemaine Clement, outshines uneven script

Charlie St. Cloud - Zac Efron sees dead people; not-bad drama benefits from lovely scenery, Rolfe Kent's score

The Other Guys - Some hearty laughs and Ferrell and Wahlberg make a neat team, but too many Step Brothers-like sidetrips detract

Cats and Dogs 2 - Surprisingly enjoyable follow-up focuses mainly on animal action; lively voice work (esp. Marsden) and strong gags help

The Expendables - Perhaps the ultimate 80s action movie; nearly overwhelmed by CG carnage in last third but fun

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Funny, sweet, exciting, well-cast; unapologetically, my favorite film of the year

Piranha 3D - Not the original, but an insane reimagining; Snakes on a Plane turned up to 11 with crazy-ass gore and fun cameos

Nanny McPhee 2 - Follow-up takes a while to find its footing, ends up quite entertaining with some nice surprises

Lottery Ticket - Enjoyable psuedo-remake of Friday; some strong laughs and good messages

Takers - Part GQ photo shoot, part heist movie; a decent guilty pleasure