I don't know but I been told...

Outstanding, Private Pyle. I think we finally found something that you do well!  

Here it is lads, another list to compensate for the lack on blogging (Apologies: trigeminal neuralgia has blighted my last 3 months on this planet, but as Cass Elliot sang, "It's getting better"...).

Recommended movies (Scoring 3.5 - 5 out of 5), in no particular order:
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Chronicle
The Descendants
Crazy Stupid Love
Warrior
Senna
The Rum Diary
Fright Night
Contagion
Blue Valentine
Life In A Day
In A Better World
Kill List

Notable close-but-no-cigars:
50/50
The Iron Lady
Haywire
Gentlemen Broncos
Drive
In Time
One Day
The Thing (preeeekmake)

1.5 star or less:
The Darkest Hour
The Wicker Tree
Texas Killing Fields
The Three Musketeers
Cowboys and Aliens
Sherlock Holmes 2
Attenberg
Hesher
Johnny English Reborn
Abduction
Tonight You're Mine
Apollo 18
Conan The Barbarian
Green Lantern

and finally, the 'I get it-but I don't get it' list:
The Artist
Hugo
Shame
War Horse

To conclude: More bad than good, I didn't understand the Oscars (especially the winners) and there's a lot of very average stuff out there that I didn't mention. It's been a tough, mostly uninspiring year so far; one that has almost brought me to my knees (at times) in respect to quality and quantity. Yeah, like I could do better, I know - I'm strictly speaking as a viewer here. Although I do think I could do better than 'Green Lantern'.

Times are changing -  not only the industry, but viewing habits, and not necessarily for the better. Sure, sales matter and film has to be profitable, but there is a very average dark cloud hanging over our options for entertainment. What troubles me is the value in the product: Everything is so immediate, and likewise so disposable.

Perhaps the emphasis for making money isn't so much as over-taking art and entertaining the audience as it is leaving them behind as a dot on the landscape? Some see these as exciting times, with more opportunity for writers and film makers... True dat (as they say on 'Treme'), but at what cost?

Information overload has flagged up on my radar increasingly, from movie promotion (I went from being knicker-wettingly excited about 'Prometheus' to 'Please God make it stop' apathy: And I've not even seen the darn movie yet.

"Sound off like you got a pair!"

Even the blogs and advice gurus have laid it on with a trowel to the point where I feel like Pvt. Pile in 'Full Metal Jacket'; lambasted by the drill sergeant for being a know-nothing stacked-high pile 'o plop. Inspiration is what counts, not hierarchial provocation.

So I'm choosing to concentrate on WHY I do this. To tell stories. To enjoy it. To keep learning: whilst keeping an ear open to developments and opportunity - but not to stand fear-struck like a rabbit in the headlights.

I think we should win it...