Up in the Air and Sherlock Holmes, nothing terrible, nothing great

As the year winds down and we get our final entries into theaters, the last films that seemed to have potential are amounting to very little after all. About a month ago, there were four oe five films that looked pretty good. The John Woo movie Red Heart or whatever, that nobody saw, and Ninja Assassin which is supposedly terrible were two of them. Then there was Up in the Air and Sherlock Holmes, both of which, were nothing special. And finally there is Avatar which I have yet to see. For the recent two films that I did see, Up in the Air is the better of the two, an enjoyable movie that just doesn't branch out with creativity the way Clooney's Michael Clayton did two years ago. Instead, it keeps things very low key, with Clooney basically playing Clooney in all mannerisms and temperament. The plot covers all the bases, but it is so precise that it feels formulaic. Like they made sure to cross all the is and dot all the ts. Instead of going down a checklist (circular ending, character change), creative movies reinvent their own structure and formula. Take the movies from 2007, not just Michael Clayton, but also No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Gone Baby Gone, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Sherlock Holmes is also not a bad movie, but it has little going on aside from some occasional smiles at humorous moments. The plot is adequate and somewhat of a mystery, but this is Guy Ritchie which means action and style above all else. He does a find job with those two things, and that's what gives the movie it's momentum, but in the end, it is an entriely forgetable film.

Let's hope Avatar is great, because right now the best of 2009 list is looking pretty shabby.