So, you might have been expecting a review of "A Single Man," since that's what I said I was planning to see in my blog. Well, all didn't go exactly as planned, so we saw "An Education" instead.

Both movies were at about the same level on my Movie Mission list. We saw it at the Landmark Edina Cinema.

Even before the movie started, I had some trepidation about how to review it. And how to rank the movies once I had watched them. I didn't want to use stars, although that actually makes sense.

So I decided to combine the sensible stars with some nonsensical male actors' names. I hope this isn't similar to Victoria Jackson's rating system on an old Saturday Night Live. I believe her rating system was this: "4 stars, which is pretty good. If it was 2 stars, it would be the best. Rush out and see it. 3 stars is the worst - don't waste your time or money. And 1 star is pretty good."

So here's my rating system:
4 stars, the best, gets a Johnny Depp.
3 stars, still pretty awesome, gets a Robert Downey Jr.
2 stars, OK, worth watching, but kind of boring, gets a Leonardo DiCaprio.
1 star, can't in good conscience recommend, gets a Jeff Bridges (sorry, Bridges lovers).

So, by my scale, 'An Education' would get 3 and a half stars, which equals a "half-Johnny Depp."

This was a very good movie. The costumes were great. It was suspenseful throughout. The acting was excellent. It wasn't perfect. I question some of the plot choices. I would recommend it highly.

I'll have to go back and rank some of the movies I've already seen, in case anyone finds that helpful as well.

Movies for the weekend? I'm planning to rent "The Hurt Locker," which I have high hopes for; and "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs," which I don't.

Here's a link to a favorite Oscar blog:
http://oscar-watch.ew.com/

And here's the ongoing list:
(R means it is or will be available for rental, M means I've got plans to see it on the calendar, E means it's an emergency because I'm worried it might not be in theaters long and it's not coming out on video in time, movies I've seen are listed at the end.)

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E-Nine
R-The Hurt Locker
Invictus
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
M-The Young Victoria (Jan. 28)
A Single Man
Brothers
Crazy Heart
R-The Informant!
The Last Station
The Blind Side
It's Complicated
R-Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
A Serious Man
E-Where The Wild Things Are
Everybody's Fine

MOVIES I'VE SEEN:
FULL-DEPP (4 stars) - Up In The Air
FULL-DEPP (4 stars) - Inglourious Basterds
Half-DEPP (3.5 stars) - An Education
(500) Days Of Summer
Julie & Julia
Up
Coraline
District 9
FULL-DICAPRIO (2 stars) - Duplicity
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hangover
The Princess And The Frog
The Proposal
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek