Here’s the most recent in my long-running series of knee-jerk reviews of popular films.

Valentine’s Day – Cute – Saw this on our anniversary intending it to be a fun date movie and it came through. The plotlines are extremely formulaic and predictable and a few bits could have been cut to make it flow a little better, but it was actually pretty sweet and if you check your inner cynic at the door it’s worth watching. (A number of the relationship beginnings are highly ill-advised.)  The cast is pretty incredible, too. When you can throw away Julia Roberts as a bit-part backgammon-playing airplane passenger, you’ve got too many celebrities.

Cooking with Stella – Evil? – A Canadian/Indian film that claims on the cover to be an ethnic version of “Julie and Julia” actually doesn’t have a lot of cooking in it – instead, it’s about a larcenous Indian housekeeper to the Canadian High Commission who spends her hours scheming to swindle the gullible Canadians (Don McKellar + Lisa Ray) out of all their money. I failed to empathize with the protagonist Stella – the Robin-Hood sentimentality I think the director was trying to evoke was lost on me. There were parts of this I liked, but shady housekeepers aren’t my thing.

The Men who Stare at Goats – Brilliant – George Clooney and Ewan McGregor expose the secretive New Earth Army program that tried in the late 70’s to train psychic warriors capable of overcoming their adversaries with peace and love and hippie vibes. Completely hilarious and over-the-top clever through the entire film. And based on a true story! I’d been wanting to see this one for a while and it wasn’t a disappointment, I laughed hard and often and was completely engrossed in the story.

The Peaceful Warrior – Weird – I was getting the sneaking suspicion that this film about a gymnast learning to focus his mind and overcome his self doubt was going to go off the rails into new-agey propaganda land, and then it did. It was like a series of kindergarten philosophy fortune cookie mantras made into a cautionary tale for people who are too awesome – thinking, having lots of friends, and eating meat are all expressly verboten if you want to be able to do a triple-flip and then write a self-help book.

Scott Pilgrim – AWESOME – I don’t know how to make more people go see this movie, but it’s getting trounced in the box office by Vampires Suck and Piranha 3D. What is wrong with the world? It’s one of my favourite movies ever – it’s like the director took the lid off my brain and reached right in to tickle all the right places. I was really nervous, having read the brilliant comics, that they were going to destroy it like Hollywood’s done to so many other books – but the results were astonishingly true to the original material while expanding it to fit the big screen. Very clever and very fun!