"You have no idea how hard it was to find a happy image from this movie."
Unrelenting, brutal, honest, and oddly enough, hopeful, "Precious" is an important if not imperfect work. You saw the trailer, and you likely welled up while watching it. Precious is the titular, beaten, illiterate, molested, double-pregnant — that's only like, half of her woes — 16-year-old striving to survive in 1987 Harlem.
The positive: There are 3.5 stellar female performances (Mariah's the .5) in this, and that's something you truly never see. Who knew Mo'nique had skills beyond "Phat Girlz?"Also, it's important because it's a galvanizing depiction of youth drama oh so rarely seen in theaters. You will absolutely feel for Precious by the end. Or you're dead.
The negative: Daniels is an ambitious and confident, but ultimately an inexperienced director. Day-dream fantasies are effective forms of escape, until they seem to make no sense, and hamper the story. Also, narration is the lazy-man's device of adaptation, but, it did work.
2012. B-. 
"Yeah ... Chuck-E-Cheez ..."
Roland Emmerich hates L.A., The White House, India, China, Yellowstone Park, and, well pretty much ze whole planet. Or, at least that's one way to interpret the damage that may ensue three years from now. A $260 million dollar disaster porn, "2012" is dumb, fun and full of ruuuuun! Earth go bomb. Audience go whoa.
The positive: The first two thirds are plausible, damn scary, and kind of exciting. This is a super-duper-sized disaster film about running away from surprisingly effective pixels, such as hot lava balls, and the Sodom that is Los Angeles sinking. It almost makes you ignore...
The negative: That last third with the arks felt tiresome, and you do kinda notice the running time. Silly red countdown clocks. They never mean anything good ("Speed," "Wargames," "Die Hard with a Vengeance"). And yeah, the wannabe Spielbergian drama is always teeth-gnashing. No George Segal! Don't die! Oh, you died. I really didn't see that coming this time.
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