I don't re-watch a lot of movies these days. I don't have a ton of time for it, I'd usually rather check out something I haven't seen before. But I do have a huge DVD collection for a reason, I usually buy anything that I think will be worth visiting again. I find that I can usually enjoy a movie more the 2nd time around, I'm not focused so much on story, I can take in the filmmaking more, appreciate the details. We finally invested in a widescreen TV, so I thought it'd be worth it to see some recent favorites again.

Black Sheep - This movie absolutely cracks me up. I still think it's the best horromedy since Shaun of the Dead. A friend of mine was visiting that hadn't yet experienced the magic.

Cashback - Same friend was over, we wanted something funny. Our significant others were off watching the Sex and the City movie, so I figured we could watch a dude movie and check out some fine naked women, while also enjoying a good film.

Into The Wild - The first movie we watched after getting the new TV. My wife hadn't seen it yet and wanted to watch something with beautiful photography, this fit the bill.

The Simpsons Movie - This was actually the 3rd time I'd seen this film, an extreme rarity outside of the movies my son watches over and over again. My wife hadn't seen it, we wanted something brainless before bed.

Juno - Both my wife and I saw this in the theater, but we felt like revisiting it. The over-the-top quirkiness didn't bother me as much this time around, I guess I've grown used to it, from seeing parts of it all over the place.

By all reasoning I should be sick of quirky, coming-of-age indie-comedies. There's been a glut of them the last decade, every year a couple more are released, usually at Sundance; Juno being the most popular of the bunch, most are released on DVD and quickly forgotten. But I seek out all of them, I have some sort of an unknown affinity towards them; even though they're all starting to blur together; one large mess of awkward teenagers, smart-ass dialogue, symmetrical photography, over-done set design, obscure rock song soundtracks and dry, all-knowing narrators.

Rocket Science really takes the cake in the quirk department; there's very little here that rings true. I mean, who really plays The Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun on cello? But movies don't have to be real, that's the whole point, to produce an alternate universe of your own design. Writer/Director Jeffrey Blitz, who made the excellent documentary Spellbound, has created a fairly well-made and funny ride through the embarrassing teenage years.

Hal Hefner,an uneasy high school freshmen, stutters his way through life, his parents have just split-up, and his big brother is a bully and a kleptomaniac; nothing seems to be going his way until Ginny Ryerson the bright, cute captain of the school's debate team decides that he'd be perfect as her new partner. She thinks that those with disabilities make the best debaters, because they have a deep seeded sense of anger. He's willing to give it his best shot as long as he gets to be near Ginny; he has a major crush on her, since she's the only girl that's ever given him a second glance. When they make-out in the closet at school one day, he's done for, completely obsessed.

When he fails her by badly, by stuttering his way through their first debate together, she quickly gives up on him. Even going so far as to switch to a private school, to team up with the best debater in the city. Hal is crushed. After purging his anger in a destructive and humorous manner, he decides to get revenge. He does so by tracking down Ginny's old partner Ben, who had a public meltdown in the opening scene of the film. They make a goofy team, learn some valuable life lessons, and Hal figures a bit about who he really is.

There's nothing new about Rocket Science, every character has some weird tendency, from the Mom who's become some sort of nymphomaniac to Hal's Asian friend who follows him around like a lost puppy, none of the side characters seem more than a set of movie quirks. The entire film is like that, every cliche' of the genre is thrown in. The narrator even sounds like Alec Baldwin, a Wes Anderson alum; the entire film feels like Anderson light, but director Blitz makes it work. It's all so goofy and over-the-top unrealistic that it meshes together nicely, creating a sort of comic book world. While not as good as Rushmore or Juno; if you enjoy films of this sort it's worth checking out. - - Grade: B

I'm writing this after the Academy Awards, even though I saw the film about a month before. (Yeah, I'm way behind.) I'm glad that all it won is Best Screenplay, I think Diablo Cody has a fresh new voice, so it was somewhat deserved. But I would have been seriously pissed if it had won best picture, I was mad that it was even nominated. Sure it's a cute little film, but it's not mind-blowing. What I'm worried about is all the Juno clones we can expect in the next few years; sassy girls, speaking hip, through some life changing situation.

All that aside, I enjoyed the film. I loved the cast. Ellen Page is amazing as Juno, she takes these mouthfuls of hipster dialogue and makes them seem natural; I really can't imagine another actress in the role. She's an amazing new talent. (Also see her in Hard Candy.) I've enjoyed Michael Cera since Arrested Development, though he's stuck in the so-nerdy-he's-cool roles, he pulls them off well. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Gardner are both wonderful as the adoptive parents; I was especially surprised by Jennifer, she showed a lot of range, and sensitivity that I didn't realize she was capable of. J.K. Simmons was a stand-out as Juno's father, it was great to see a supportive father, even though his little girl has done something very wrong.

The film is really well directed by Jason Reitman, who with this and 2005's excellent Thank You For Smoking steps out from under his father's shadow. He's now a director to watch for. It's reported he's working on another film with writer Diablo Cody. There's been a lot of hype about Diablo; how she's gone from stripper, to blogger, to Oscar winning screenwriter. I can't name the writer on 9 out of 10 films, and with her first film she's become a Hollywood star; it's all too much too soon, and it'll be all downhill for her from here. But she has my attention, I hope that she can keep up the good work and not get jaded or burnt out.

As if you didn't know, Juno is about a teenage girl getting pregnant, deciding to keep the baby, and give it up for adoption to a local couple she finds in the classifieds. This is Lifetime Network territory, but it's the way it's all handled is what makes it fresh. The film gracefully walks the line between real-life drama and hipster comedy; one minute you're laughing hysterically, the next you're tore-up inside as Juno must make another big decision. Everything about the film, from the opening animation, to the cooler-than-thou dialogue, to the hamburger phone, to the sensitive-emo-rock soundtrack scream "look at me!", but somehow they keep it low-key enough for us to relate.

Honestly in almost any other situation the film wouldn't work. I've seen a hundred other films that try very similar things, but don't hit on all cylinders the way Juno does. It's one of those magical films, that lucks into getting just about everything right. I enjoyed it more than last year's version: Little Miss Sunshine, but I'd put it lower than Rushmore and Election, which also dabbled in the highly stylized, cool-teen-nerd territory. I don't think it deserved the avalanche of attention it's gathered, but it's a nice little film, that just about anybody can enjoy; which is saying something.