The Man from Nowhere (2010)
I'm kind of a sucker for a good revenge story and this is great one, maybe not quite as amazing as Chan-wook Park's vengeance trilogy, but pretty close. It's the classic "messing with the wrong guy" tale told with with heaps of mood and gorgeous cinematography. I'm not surprised to learn it was the number one movie in South Korea the year it came out, it really is that good.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
I hadn't seen this is ages and figured it was high time to revisit it. I'm happy to report it's held up well. Maybe not my favorite Spielberg movie but still a very good one. I was a little shocked by some of the actors in it. I expected Richard Dreyfus and Terri Garr of course, but was surprised to see Melinda Dillon (
A Christmas Story) in a major role, Carl Weathers in a brief cameo, Bob Balaban in a major role, and weirdest of all, François Truffaut in a major role.
Night Watch (2004)
Continuing my little streak of extremely popular movies in their home country, this movie was (and possibly still is) the highest grossing Russian movie ever. The premise, which concerns the battle between light and dark superhuman forces in contemporary Moscow while regular people remain totally unaware, has some pretty strong echoes of Harry Potter, though much more dark and violent. Pretty damn enjoyable though. I especially appreciated seeing a big blockbuster type movie that wasn't afraid to have a not very likable main character and a thoroughly downer ending.