This week has a possible contender (or contenders) for one of the best movies of the year, let's take a look.

BRAVE

...or as I like to call it, Pixar's apology for making Cars 2.

Synopsis:

Set in Scotland in a rugged and mythical time, "Brave" features Merida, an aspiring archer and impetuous daughter of royalty. Merida makes a reckless choice that unleashes unintended peril and forces her to spring into action to set things right.

Review:

Aside from Cars 2, what have we come to expect from Pixar. Great visuals, a good story, smart humor, and just an overall enjoyable experience.

And for the most part, we get most of them all except for the story. That's the biggest flaw with the film is its' story. Mostly because we've seen this story done several times before, the main plot of the story is for the most part from Brother Bear, one of the main characters turns into a bear and the main purpose of the film is for the two main characters to let go of their problems and find a way to work together and Brave follows in such a similar pattern.

But to be honest, this isn't the first time Pixar has stolen ideas from other films, Cars is reminiscent of Doc Hollywood and A Bug's Life is reminiscent of Three Amigos. At the same time, Pixar can usually get away with it if they do something clever with it, and for the most part, they do.

Now despite the fact that I didn't like the story, I thought this movie was pretty damn good. I really do like the main character, Merida, and I give credit to Kelly McDonald for creating an impressive personality for her, I liked a lot of the characters, I liked how the story played out, and it knew when to wrap things up.

Possibly the best thing that made the film work was that the chemistry between Merida and her mother (voiced by Emma Thompson) was very well done. Even when she turns into the bear, I really liked the chemistry that she and Merida shared on screen.

Despite that story, Brave is a pretty damn good movie and one of the best movies I've seen all year. It isn't up there with any of Pixar's best but I will gladly take this over Cars 2 any day of the week. A low

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Synopsis:

As an asteroid nears Earth, a man (Steve Carell) finds himself alone after his wife leaves in a panic. He decides to take a road trip to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Accompanying him is a neighbor (Keira Knightley) who inadvertently puts a wrench in his plan.

Review:

Ever since Steve Carell left The Office, I have been impressed with some of the film choices that he's taken. He could've done what Will Ferrell did and just focus on doing more comedic roles but he's actually done more dramedies, and I think that's pretty cool that he's stepping out of his norm.

So, let me start by saying that not only did I like this movie, I loved this movie, this is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.

This film was a very unexpected surprise, I was hoping for something good and I got way more than I could've expected.

For one thing, the story and plot were very well done and fairly constructed to a tee. Plus, they managed to bring in a good mix of comedy and drama and fit in to the film to make it make sense.

Also, I liked Carell and Keira Knightley, these are probably their best performances that I've seen from them so far, especially from Carell. The supporting cast also worked well although, don't be fooled by the ads saying that Rob Corddry and Patton Oswalt also play a part to the story. They only show up in the first half for a total of five minutes and then, they're gone for the rest of the film. That being said, I liked both of them for the small parts they were in. I also really liked the rest of the supporting cast including Melanie Lynskey, Connie Britton, Derek Luke and Martin Sheen.

I also thought the dark comedy elements worked really well here as well as the crazy things people were doing from people going insane to newscasters saying 'fuck' on national television, and the Friendsy's sequence. There was even a part near the end when I thought they were going to do a parody to the infamous Budd Dwyer suicide on national TV that happened in Pennsylvania in 1987 but luckily, they stepped away from that.

The best part of the movie is that they don't pull some copout bullshit and say the world is ending in some other way. No, the world literally comes to an end at the end, it doesn't cop out and the film ends with the world ending. That was the deciding factor to whether or not this movie would be good, they didn't pull some bullshit like Swing Vote where it goes, "who do you think Kevin Costner chose?", and just ends without a resolution. This movie doesn't do that and it works because of it.

I honestly have no flaws with this movie at all. I can't think of anything that I thought was a flaw that's worth talking about.

This is one of the movies that is a strong contender for the best of the year list for this year and also a contender for one of the best underrated movies that came out in this decade. Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World will be up there with The Big Year, The Weather Man, and The Ice Harvest as some of my favorite underrated movies. I give this movie a