In this movie writer/director Paul Anderson brings a unforgettable of the world of oil drilling and speculation in the barren hills of California during the early 1930's. Equally unforgettable is the amazing performance of Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainfield, a maverick oil man and hustler, who lets nothing get in his way in the search for black gold. Lewis gets inside Plainfield to let us experience the megalomania of a man seeking family attachment to exploit it as a sales gimmick and when the person fails him he is ruthless in his destruction of the relationship.
Plainfield gets wind of a potential oil field along the central California coast an immediately sets out to lease the land from the hardscrabble residents of the area by promising them riches beyond measure and assuring them of his bona fides by portraying himself as a dedicated family man. He is opposed by a charismatic preacher, Eli, played by Paul Dano with supercilious oily demeanor which creeps you out.
Plainfield's megalomaniacal personality however will not brook any challenge to his need to beat down any challenger no matter what the effect is on others or himself.
It is marvelous performance by Daniel Day Lewis as he transforms Plainfield from a ordinary oil field worker into a vicious, unforgiving, maniacal, renegade capable of wreaking a terrible vengeance on those who he feels have betrayed him. The transformation is remarkable as every aspect of the physical attributes undergo a change, the face, the walk, and especially the eyes that mirror the inner torment which Plainfield cannot admit to or control.
See this movie by all means. In my opinion it is destined to be a classic.

This different kind of biopic in that main character is not in the forefront but the minor characters are the driving force of the movie. This is not to say that Denzel Washington as Mel Tolson, the debate team coach of Wiley College, an all black school in Marshall, Texas, does not add his considerable presence to the film. But the debate team members, Samantha Booke, Henry Lowe. and James Farmer Jr., (Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker, Denzel Whitaker) are the main focus of the story how Wiley College's team took on and defeated Harvard University's debaters.
The movie produced by Oprah Winfrey touches on the segregation that existed in Texas in the 1930's and how an educated and rising middle class African-Americans dealt with the indignities dealt to them by white segregationists. Wiley College is an all black school which like other similar institutions sought to instill pride and foster higher learning in its students. The debate team at Wiley was destined to become a symbol of African-Americans being able to compete with whites on an equal basis.
The cast is led by two icons in the black pantheon of movie stars, Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, who imbue their roles with wondrous humanity and dignity. But the kudos belong to the trio of youngsters who make up the debate team, Smollett, Parker, and Whitaker (no relation). They bring a freshness and inspiration to their roles which reflects well on the real life characters they portray. And indeed the three debaters went on to lead successful lives in their chosen fields. Samantha Booke became a lawyer. Henry Lowe became minister. And James Farmer Jr. achieved fame as a civil rights activist and founder of the Southern Leadership Council.
“The Great Debaters” is a movie that will leave you with a warm feeling and a hope that more African-American young people will be inspired by its message.

The London of Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) is dark, dismal, world totally suited to the horrendous events that will transpire as Todd sets out to wreak his revenge on the populace for having taken away his idealic earlier life. The movie is definitely not for those who are squeamish about bloodshed and violence. Thick red blood is the predominant color that pervades almost every frame in this story a man driven to avenge his lost love the only means at his command.
Sweeney Todd returns from exile after fifteen years having been sentenced by corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who covets his blond beautiful wife and daughter. He finds that his daughter has become the ward of the lecherous judge who plans to marry the girl. Sweeney's obsession to kill the judge drives him to find a measure of murderous relief by slashing the throat of whomever comes to his barber shop.
Todd finds an ally of sorts in Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) who runs a meat pie shop on the first floor of building and who has a more than passing romantic interest in Todd even after discovering his affinity to off his customers. Together they come up with what has to be the most novel entrepreneurial idea of the century. Suffice it to say that Mrs. Lovett's meat pies very shortly become an gastronomical success and Londoners flock to her shop. But there will be no happy ever after. Todd gets his revenge but it also is his undoing.
The surprise of the movie is that Johnny Depp can sing. He adds considerably to his stature as one of the premier actors of the day. He invests the character of Sweeny Todd with ferocity that emanates from his eyes and sends shivers down your spine. Helena Bonhan Carter is no less marvelous as Todd's unrequited love and also sings up a storm. You will not come away humming any of the music but you will know you have seen a powerful movie that plumbs the depths of a man's soul in deep torment.

This is a forgetable movie which leaves you wondering what's happening with Hilary Swank's career. Since her earlier dramatic successes she seems mired in films which are ill suited to her cinematic talents. In this movie she is Holly Kennedy who becomes a young widow when her hunky Irish husband, Jerry (Gerard Butler) succumbs to a brain tumor. Holly goes into blue funk alleviated only when she imagines her defunct husband is still with her.
Her mother, Kathy Bates, and her sister and two best friends try to get her to stop her self pity and return to her normal life. Into this scenario is introduced a cutsey plot device which drives the rest of the movie over an interminable length. Seems that Jerry before going to Irish heaven has penned a series of letters to be delivered at regular intervals and will provide suggestions on how to overcome her grief and get on with her life like singing badly at a karaoke bar, dancing at gay disco, and going to Ireland to visit Jerry's birthplace and having a one night stand with another Irish hunk. Try as she might Hilary Swank just does not generate the comedic chops needed for us to have some sort of empathy for her character. After a while one wants to swat her on the head and tell her to get on with it. Seems like the best lines were given to her supporting cast, Lisa Kudrow in particular.
If you plan to see this as a date night flick, be prepared to snooze during the last twenty minutes.

If you get thrill and chills from watching a politician inflate a military aid appropriation from one million dollars to a billion dollars, then you will be on pins and needles as you watch this movie.
Essentially that is the basis of the drama in the story of how Charlie Wilson, (Tom Hanks) a Texas Congressman, manages to almost singlehandedly convince his congressional cohorts to provide the weaponry needed for the Afghanistan forces to drive the Russians out of their country.
Initially Charlie is a less than prominent member of the military appropriations committee of the House of Representatives. His interests seem to be more in the area of the more fun aspects of the job like junkets and pretty women. His interest in Afghanistan is stirred up through the efforts of Joanne Hemming (Julia Roberts) a Houston activist socialite who introduces the president of Pakistan and convinces Charlie that he should see for himself the desolation of the Afghani refugees who are being driven across the border into Pakistan by the Russian occupiers. He does so and determines to find the funds to get the Afghani freedom fighter the weapons to drive out the Russians.
Aided by a maverick CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos (Phillip Seymore Hoffman) Wilson convinces the military appropriations committee to fund the armaments and the Afghanies are successful in driving out the Russians. But as history records the result was a mixed success because later those same freedom fighters became the oppressors and America had to go back into Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban armed with our own weapons.

This is a movie that I intend to see again. The insightful, witty, truthful dialog created by writer Diablo Cody ( Brooke Busey Hunt) is best by far of any comedy I have seen this year. If it were up to me I would award Diablo the Oscar of comedy writing and send all the other contenders home.
That being said "Juno" is much more than just dialog and I think it may be the sleeper film of the season. Without histrionics it deals with a problem many of today's parents face when their sixteen year old daughter announces she is pregnant. Ellen Page as the precoscious teenager walks away with the film as she deals with her indescretion, first as if it nothing more than a minor disability that will vanish in nine months and later as she becomes aware that there is a life growing inside her that needs to be provided for in a mature and humane manner.
To their credit her parents, played to perfection by by Allison Janney and J. K. Simmons, do not panic in the face of the unexpected but rather gather up their emotional resources and give Juno their unconditional love and understanding.

There's always a sense of trepidation as I enter a theater to view a movie made from a successful novel. I worry about what the screen writer has done to the plot, how the characters have been cast, what changes the producers have made to make it a commercial entity. But my fears where allayed quickly as the movie unfolded.
The movie tells the story of Amir, a Pashtun Afghani, growing up in pre-Russian Afghanistan and of his boyhood companion, Hassan, a Hazzara a tribal group looked down upon by the Pashtun majority. While never openly admitting it, Amir senses the divide that separates them even while playing together and participating in the annual kite flying contest over the skies of Kabul. Amir becomes increasingly aware that his father, Baba, has more than a passing interest in the welfare of Hassan. In a spiteful moment Amir plants one of his birthday gifts in Hassan's room and accuses him of theft, a calumny that he will later come to regret. Soon thereafter Amir and Baba leave Afghanistan as the Russians invade the land and eventually arrive in the United States where Baba tries to maintain some semblance of his culture. Amir marries according custom and settles in to life as a writer.
One day he receives a message from an old friend, now living in Pakistan, asking him to return to Afghanistan. He learns to his initial disbelief that Hassan is really his half brother and that he has an orphaned son living in an orphanage in Kabul. Amir comes to realize that the way to assuage his guilt for having betrayed his childhood companion is to rescue the boy and take him back to America.
The cast contains no names that will be familiar to American audiences. But they universally inhabit their roles and reveal a sense of family, loyalty of true friends, love of country, and sense of country which illuminates a part of the world to which we have had little exposure. With only minor changes the movie remains true to the spirit of Khaled Hosseini's novel and I had a good feeling as the end credits rolled that I had seen a good movie.

I have a problem with this movie in trying to determine if it is some sort of morality tale or just a good old horror suspense story. On the one hand it borders on the theological with its sub-text of a divine plan and the sacrifice of one man to save the world. On the other hand there is enough scary stuff to keep you intrigued and make you jump in your seat from time to time. But either way the plot is so full of holes as to make you wonder if some parts of the story wound up on the cutting room floor.
As the story goes, the world is stricken with fatal virus which wipes most of the population. New York City is ground zero for the outbreak and this is where we find Robert Neville (Will Smith) who after sending his wife and child out of the city sets about trying to find a vaccine to fight the virus. He trolls the city trying to capture mutant humans on which he can conduct his experiments accompanied only by his dog, Sam. The city is totally deserted save for some humanoid creatures that have somehow survived the infection but have become night crawling monsters. From somewhere, somehow, a lone uninfected woman and her son manage to find him and to solicit his help to escape to a haven somewhere in Vermont. Neville helps them escape but refuses to accompany them thus fulfilling his destiny as the savior of mankind.
Better you should ignore the metaphysical leanings of the story and just enjoy the scary parts.

Not having read the novel from which this movie was derived makes it problematic in commenting on how well or not it follows the spirit in which it was written. There is apparently some controversy relating to the atheistic philosophy of the author, Phillip Pullman, which certainly not evident in this film which is undoubtedly the first in a trilogy. As fantasy films, this is probably as good as many others of the same genre, maybe even a little better.
The film belongs to Dakota Blue Richards, as Lyra Belacqua, a precocious, feisty, rebellious youngster who lives in a sort of parallel universe where everyone has a visible personal animal daemon that talks and follows wherever they go. Lyra is sent to live with the mysterious Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) where she discovers that her former playmates are being kidnapped and sent to a northern clime for some unknown nefarious reason. With the help of a flying machine pilot, Sam Elliot, and armored polar bear, Lyra sets out to save the captured children.
If you are of mind that accepts talking animals, flying witches, polar bear kings, and such you will not be disappointed with this movie. It presents all the elements of the story which will be explored and expanded upon in the sequels to follow. But not being a fan of fantasy movies, I think I'll pass next time.

Atonement moves along at a slow, deliberate, almost leisurely pace as the plot unfolds and the protagonists live out their destinies against the background of the lush English countryside and later against the starkness of London during World War II. It is almost like settling into an easy chair and slowly turning the pages of a favorite book. It is a story of adolescent love spurned, youthful calumny, true love, maturation, awakening regret, and ultimately atonement which will hold your attention and ultimately touch your heart.
Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious thirteen year old would be author, develops a crush on the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), which he rejects in no uncertain term not only because he is older but also because he is in love with her older sister, Cecilia Tallis (Kiera Knightly). When Robbie is accused of a brutal crime, Briony identifies him as the culprit, a lie which leads to his imprisonment and changes the lives of the three principals forever.
As World War II becomes a reality, Cecilia leaves the manor house and goes to London to become a nurse. An older Briony (Romola Garai), now beginning to understand and to regret her action, follows Cecilia to London and goes in to nursing as well and tries to reconcile with her sister. Robbie is given a reprieve from his sentence to join the army and becomes one the thousands of soldiers waiting to be evacuated during the retreat at Dunkirk.
I have read about the evacuation at Dunkirk but I was never so aware of the scope of the British retreat as when Robbie and his comrades come over a sand dune and see hundreds and hundreds of soldiers lined up on the beach waiting for rescue. In one slow long agonizing shot the camera captures the desperation of the men on that desolate beach, the destruction of equipment, the slaughter of horses, and the sense of ennui in the waiting which is the lot soldiers everywhere.
After the war the older Brioni (Vanessa Redgrave) goes on to become a successful author. And as she faces her own mortality, she makes her final act of atonement by giving in her last book Robbie and Cecilia a life which they were never able to have in real life.

I am not a Stephen King fan and this movie did do any thing to change my opinion of his novels no matter how successful they may be. There's a sort of psuedo-science mixed with a kind of metaphysical hokus-pokus that puts me off.
In this movie an assorted mix of towns people in a New England town are trapped in a supermarket by a malevolent fog containing blood thirsty giant spider-like creatures supposedly from another dimension. Apparently these have been loosed by government scientists working on a supersecret project called "Arrowhead".
The supermarket becomes a metaphor for the world under threat of extinction by some mysterious inexorable evil. The schisms of people under stress begin immediately to manifest themselves and divide the captives into different camps. One under lawyer, Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), are the disbelievers in the supernatural and are soon dispatched by their own foolhardiness. A second group falls to the demagoguery of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Hardern) who does a scenery chewing impression of a fanatic who believes that what's happening is a result of God's retribution for mankind's rejection of his Godhood. The third group is led by David Drayton (Thomas Jane) who reject the idea of divine retribution and set out to find a means of escape.
There have been much better films made from Stephen King's novels. This not one of them.

Disney Pictures seems to have a reduced its story making mechanics to a fine science which results in a cut and paste movie like this one. Take parts from "Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella", Snow White", mix them with cute cartoon animals and birds, a bachelor prince, a beautiful maiden waiting for her prince, an evil stepmother, a toady man-servant, and talkative chipmunk, shake well and plunk the into present day New York City. Doesn't that intrigue you?
If you must know the story, it's about Giselle (Amy Adams) a lovely maiden who converses with the fauna in the animated kingdom of Andalasia. She meets Prince Edward (James Marden)whom she thinks, as he does, that this is her true love. But evil stepmother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) has other plans which do not include her stepson's marriage. She lures Giselle to a well, dumps her in and cackles away.
But wouldn't you know, the other end of the well is a manhole in the middle of a New York City street. After wandering around a bit she rescued by Robert (Patick Dempsey) a divorce lawyer who has a cute little daughter and a girlfriend. When Prince Edward discovers what happened to Giselle he jumps into the well along with the evil Queen's man servant and the talkative chipmonk. Nobody in New York seems to think it strange that the these characters in medieval costumes are wandering around the streets.
In due time Giselle and Robert discover that they are truly in love. Prince Edward and Robert's old girlfriend leave the real world for the animated world. The evil Queen is vanquished and presumably everybody lives happily ever after. I suppose there is a sequel to this film somewhere in the future. Remind me to be out of town for the screening.

"August Rush" can more properly enjoyed if engaged, as Shakespeare might say in "the suspension of disbelief". It is a modern fable with some mythical elements thrown in as well as a dose Charles Dickens' "Oliver".
Lyla (Keri Russel) and Lewis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) meet unexpectedly at a party on a New York rooftop overlooking Washington Square. They spend the night in a romantic liason and part at first light. Lyla, a concert cellist, is torn away by her father and Louis, a rising rock musician, is left not knowing anything more about Lyla or how to find her. In due time Lyla finds herself pregnant but at delivery of the child her father tells her the child died. Heartbroken, Lyla gives up her concert career. Similarly, Louis gives up his band career and goes to other jobs and relationships in the corporate world.
But the child is not dead. Lyla's father forged her name and gave him up for adoption and ten years later we find him in an orphanage where he has become a bit of an outsider to the other children because of his belief that he hears music in his head which he cannot express and because he also believes that if he can find a way to give voice to the music he hears his true parents will hear it and know he belongs to them. The ten year old, now named Evan, runs away to New York where he is befriended by a Fagin-like character named Wizard who has gathered a bevy of homeless children in a sort of commune where they live and share their panhandling funds.
Wizard nicknames the boy "August Rush" and realizes that he has a child prodigy on his hands and tries to capitalize on it by selling him to a promoter. Evan runs away again and befriended by the pastor of a black church who also recognizes his talents and uses his influence to get him into the Julliard School of Music. Now August Rush, the ten year old amazes and awes his teachers and composes a symphony which will be performed at a concert in the park. Lyla is also on the program and Louis is playing in club nearby. So wonder of wonders, they are drawn together by the music and recognize that the diminutive conductor is their offspring.
If the tear ducts start to well at this point, don't be ashamed. Fairy tales always have a happy ending.

I haven't the vaguest idea what this movie is about !!!

But for the film being in 3D at the IMAX theater I probably would have passed on viewing.
After seeing it I know I would have passed. After the first few requisite zooms the novelty of 3D wore off quickly and the tedium of the story took over. How close the plot is the actual legend of Beowulf is questionable and the actors, high profile as they may be don't seem care about giving it life. Sir Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar seemingly can't decide whether to play comedy or drama while cavorting semi-nude in a toga bellowing for more meade. Ray Winstone (Beowulf) flexes and struts and strips to the buff to take on the monster, Grendel. Robin Wright Penn as the virginal Queen Wealthow makes do with one facial expression throughout the film. As for Angelina Jolie, who is the monster's mother, her digitally enhanced blue tinged body, is an adolescent's nocturnal fantasy.
As the story goes, King Hrothgar needs a hero to save his people from the monster Grendel. Enter Beowulf from a storm tossed sea. With much braggadocio and full of good king's meade, Beowulf gets naked and slays the dragon while appropriately placed props cover his naughty parts. He then sets out to dispatch Mama Monster who seduces him instead. Beowulf tells the king that he has rid the kingdom of the menace and Hrothgar is so grateful he cedes the kingdom to Beowulf and jumps off a parapet to his death (probably grateful to be out of the story!). Years later Mama Monster threatens again and Beowulf's lie is revealed.
So Beowulf has to go back and finish the job only to find after he slays Mama Monster that she has been saving a souvenir of their earlier liason, a junior monster, who Beowulf must now dispatch without a father/son chit-chat. So Beowulf emerges in this telling as a braggart, a liar, and a womanizer and if that's the definition of a hero then so be it. I think I'll look elsewhere.

The buzz has started for this movie in anticipation of the Academy Awards and it may well be deserved. The Coen brothers have fashioned a movie that is true to the novel that inspired it, true to the story that gives it life, and true to the fatalistic view of life in the featureless expanse of west Texas where it takes place. The casting is superb. Tommy Lee Jones is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell whose grizzled face reflects the desolation of the landscape in which he lives and tries to keep free from the modern evils that plague it. Josh Brolin is Llewelyn Moss who stumbles onto a fortune and suffers the consequences for trying to keep it.
But the most praise should go Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurth. He is evil personified. His eyes mirror a depth of depravity that makes you shiver as he dispatches his victims with no more emotion than he might give to swatting a fly.
Briefly the story is that Moss finds a satchel with two million dollars which has been taken from Mexican drug dealers who have been slaughtered by Chigurh. Moss flees across west Texas headed for El Paso and the Mexican border but no matter where he hides Chigurth is able to track him and leaves a trail of dead bodies all ove the Texas landscape. Sheriff Bell sets out to try to save Moss and his wife but soon senses that the cause is hopeless and no matter what he does the evil will out live them all.
And that's how the movie ends.

In "Lions for Lambs" Robert Redford has created a thought provoking film which should be required viewing for all Americans. Without being preachy and didactic he illuminates the dichotomies of thought which permeate our attributives toward the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But because some cerebral effort is required I would doubt that general population, raised on ten second sound bites, will be willing to absorb the dialog and draw conclusions from it.
Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) grants an interview to Janine Roth (Merle Streep), a respected television reporter to give her an exclusive story about a new military initiative in Afghanistan which will lead to ending the conflict there and ultimately in Iraq. Janine is initially skeptical and almost drawn in by the Senator's passion and articulate understanding of what the consequences of inaction could be. As she considers that similar proposals have led to naught but more military failures, she becomes reluctant to become a part of continuing to promote what might be just more rhetoric and faulty promises particularly when she gets a hint that the success of this new initiative may be a stepping stone for the Senator's presidential aspirations.
Back in California Dr. Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) professor of political science, meets with Todd (Andrew Garfield) whom he considers his most gifted and promising student. Todd, offspring of the wealthy upper class, has opted to spend his college year coasting through the requisite courses with relative ease and not becoming engaged with what's happening beyond the boundaries of his fraternity. In the talkiest part of the movie Dr. Malley and Todd engage in a dialog on whether or not Todd is willing to engage himself to do something positive, to be a part of change, or just stand by the way side and waste his potential.
Two of Dr. Malley's students, products of inner city schools, have chosen, over his dissent, to enlist in Armed Forces because of their belief that they will be better able to be forces for change if they are part of the effort. Their tragic death on an Afghanistan hilltop makes more poignant the loss of so many other promising and idealistic young people who went to war for similar reasons.
See this movie by all means. It will disturb you. It will annoy you. It will taunt you. But in the end it will make you think.

Lucas (Denzel Washington) rose from a hardscrabble background in South Carolina to the streets of Harlem to become a highly successful entrepreneur Frank. Wealthy enough to bring his entire clan to New York City, house them all in a spacious mansion, set them up in their own businesses, and become a folk hero of sorts to the denizens of Harlem, a sort of black Robin Hood. Ordinarily that would have been a scenario for a rags to riches story worthy of the American Dream. But the ugly truth about this story is that Frank Lucas built his empire by selling heroine. And even uglier is that the drug was smuggled into the United States in the coffins of the dead soldiers returning for burial.
Frank Lucas upset the illicit drug establishment controlled up to then by the Mafia by going to directly to the source in Vietnam thus eliminating the middleman. He undercut the current street price for heroine and established a brand name "Blue Magic" which came to be known for its purity and co insistency. That he was condemning thousands to the slavery of drug dependence did not factor into his measure of success.
Into this growing drug problem Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) comes as the head of a special squad of detectives charged with outing the drug king pins. Initially the spotlight falls on the Mafioso families but almost by happenstance the existence of the Lucas family enterprise is discovered. Ultimately Lucas is apprehended by Roberts and cuts a deal by giving up his connections and associates.
Washington and Crowe give excellent performances in their respective roles. Russell Crowe, in particular, as he struggles with being honest in a corrupt police system. Overall the movie was too long. Some judicious cuts could have been made without changing the mood of the film.

Normally I try to recuse myself for seeing or reviewing animated flicks. I have a thing about relating to characters whose screen life is a result of an animator's pen stroke. But occasionally I have to overcome my bias and give praise to where praise is due even if grudgingly.
Don't be fooled by the fact that this is an animated film. By my reckoning it's a cartoon for adults which children may or may not like. Written and produced by Jerry Seinfeld it contains much of the absurdities that characterized the TV Seinfeld series. Renee Zellwegger, Ray Liotta, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Rock, String, Rip Torn, Patrick Warburton, and, of course, Seinfeld himself are among the voice of the characters.
Briefly the story is about Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) who upon graduation from Bee University is faced with selecting his future in the hive from the many repetitive jobs that go with making honey in the hive. Barry wants no part of the drone life and escapes to the outside world where he runs into an understanding florist Vanessa. Barry discovers what he believes is exploitation of the bee's honey making industry. So he sues the human honey making corporations and wins his case. But all is not well in bee land as the bees turn to indolence and recreation no longer flitting about gathering honey and above all pollinating the flowers. Soon all the foliage is wilting and the flowers are dying off. So Barry must now set things right, which of course he does.
If you need an excuse to see a cartoon movie, you can't go too far wrong with "The Bee Season".

Having seen the movie in an earlier screening an acquaintance of mine gave a one word characterization. Said she "CUTE".
Sure enough that's exactly right. From the opening scenes as widowed father Dan Burns (Steve Carell) goes about his household chores tending to three pretty daughters you know that the rest of the movie will be saturated with cute.
While attending a family reunion Dan meets Marie (Juliette Binochet) in a book shop. They chat over tea and a shared muffin. The fires of love are suddenly flamed but there is minor complication. Marie is his brother's girl friend. What to do? Of course Marie ingratiates herself with the family who open heartedly accept her as Mitch's (Dane Cook) girl friend. Dan responds by making a total ass of himself which his boisterous family takes as a sign to that he needs to find a woman. That sets the scene for a few comical sequences as Marie and Dan have the inevitable falling out and the inevitable cute reconciliation in a bowling alley.
Steve Carell Seems to be carving a niche for himself as the kind of lovable, nerdy, sensitive guy who somehow always gets the girl. Maybe it's enough for now considering his success as the clueless boss in "The Office". Enough said.

That Eric Gosse's self-financed film is a labor of love is apparent from the lack of locations to the murky dark tenor of the interior scenes. For a story that purports to happen in sunny Orange County in California there is very little to suggest just where all this is happening. Drug wars happen in the light of day as well as in shadowy warehouses and low lit night clubs. And nowhere more than in sunlit California The plot is somewhat formulaic. A lawman of an unspecified agency (Erick Glosse) has infiltrated a drug lord's organization so far that he is number two in the gang and a potential heir to the whole operation. A unscrupulous FBI agent (Bobby Leoni) and a local detective (Lynn Freedman) are teamed up to stop an incoming multi-million dollar drug shipment. But along the way there are many complications and double crosses that are hard to follow in the dark cinematography. My main problem with the film was the sameness of the dialog. All of the characters seem to speak with the same inflection and tone and not with their own voices that could reveal the differences in their personalities. This was particularly apparent because the movie seemed to be short on action and long on dialog. Whether or not this film finds a distributer to take it main stream is, in my opinion, problematic. It is hardly competiton for some of movies of the same genre that have been released lately. So it may be that it's best recommendation is that enabled many neophyte actor, camera men, and film crew to get the requisite exerience to go on to bigger things.

One can hope that Halle Berry will eventually find a role which will match the emotional depth she displayed in her Oscar winning role in "Monster Ball". As Audrey Burke in this movie she comes close to but ultimately not convincing as newly widowed wife whose husband has been killed in a senseless act of violence. Part of the problem may be that the camera focusing on her flawless face seems to restrict her emotional range. In particular the repetitive close up of eyeballs of her and her co-star, Beneficio del Torre become an optician's dream.
Briefly the story is that the bereft widow, Audrey, seeks a measure of solace by offering her husband's best friend Jerry Sunborne, a heroin addict, a place to live and an opportunity to overcome his addiction. Her motives are not entirely clear even to herself. They seem to stem from a sense of guilt for having not been sympathetic to her husband's loyalty to Jerry and a twisted sense of despair that it was her husband not Jerry that died in that violent encounter.
The plot could have had some strong emotional overtones as Audrey struggles with her grief and Jerry with his addiction. But I did not sense any real chemistry between the two protagonists. Each seemed to be engrossed in their own problems and when the two lives intersected there was no real fire. Even the hint of potential romantic involvement did not ring true.

Dorchester, Massachusets is a old, dark, dingey, diverse neighborhood in Boston like many others in the big cities of the east coast. It is inhabited by those who may never escape the rundown houses and tenements that line the mean streets. Director Ben Affleck takes us into the hearts and minds of the who are destined to live out their lives in this environment. His aim is true because these are his forebears.
A four year child, Amanda McCready, from the neighborhood is abducted. Police chief Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) himself a parent of an abducted and murdered child, and Detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) lead the investigation and promise the child's mother Helen (Amy Ryan), a drug addict, that they will find the girl. But the girl's aunt (Amy Madigan) is not satisfied with how the investigation is proceeding and hires Patrick McKenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), a pair living-together private detectives who are long time residents of the area.
But this movie is more than a tale about an investigation of child abduction. It delves deeply in to the psyches of the principles and exposes their interpretation of what constitutes the greater good. Jack Doyle and Remy Bressant are in concert about their interpretation. Patrick McKenzie is equally convinced about his ideal until in the course of solving another child abduction he acts in direct conflict to his beliefs. Patrick eventually solves the abduction and is again faced with the conflict of acting in the best interests of the child and returning her to her natural mother or letting her stay with her abductors and live a better life. He opts for the former and the final scenes of the movie have him staying with the child while the mother goes on with her irresponsible life style.
Casey Affleck continues to inhabit the role of the conflicted young man he created in "The Assassination of Jesse James". He has a way with a role that makes it believable. Also giving excellent performances in this movie are Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Amy Madigan. All in all an excellent, if sometimes disturbing, movie.

Plot-wise "We Own The Night" offers little that's new except to replace the Italians with the newest villains on the movie scene, Russian gangsters. Even so it proves to be good entertainment in spite of being overly long, two hours and forty minutes. It holds your interest because of strong performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall. Eva Mendez is rather waisted in her role as the requisite eye candy.
Almost formulaic, the plot revolves around Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix), younger son of Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duval), a revered New York City Police chief. Burt's other son is Joseph(Mark Wahlberg), an up and comer in the department. Bobby has had much success in managing a night spot owned by a shadowy Russian gang chief. When Joseph is named to head a task force to take on the Russian drug lords the the story goes into high gear.
Joseph is gunned down but survives. But the Russians get to Burt and in a highspeed chase kill him. These two events cause Bobby to have a crisis of conscience. His loyalty to his Russian patron is challenged by a desire to get revenge for the harm done his brother and father. Bobby is offered a provisional position in the police department as incentive to go under cover and smoke out the drug sellers and to exact his revenge.
And therein lies the weak point in the plot. It seems hardly credible that the Russian mobsters would believe that Bobby could be on their side given what they did to his family. But incredibly they take him to their drug distribution location which, of course, the police immediately raid and apprehend all the bad guys. I just can't believe the Russians could be so gullible.

The Whitman brothers, Francis, Peter, and Jack (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman) set off across India on the Darjeeling Limited for what Francis, the elder hopes will renew the bond they once had as youngsters. Unbeknownst to the others Francis is also hoping to reunite them with their mother who abandoned them and is living in the mountains as a nun. Francis is also a control freak who is set on carrying out a daily agenda which will expose them to Indian holy places and thusly bring unity to their trinity.
But the Gods are not entirely on their side. After being kicked off the train after loosing a cobra in their compartment they find themselves lost in dusty Indian countryside. Along the way they become heros of a sort when they rescue three boys caught up in raging river. Unfortunately one of the children drowns in spite of their efforts and they are drawn to and touched by the joy and sorrow of the boy's family and the other villagers.
Eventually they find their mother (Angelica Houston) who is not exactly thrilled at their appearance and after having greeted them, tucked them in for the night, and fixed them breakfast, disappears into the mountains leaving them with another experience to bond over. They go up to a high place and bury a peacock feather symbolic of their new commitment to each other. Right!!!
Incidentally, Bill Murray appears in an uncredited cameo running to catch train and in the end as a passenger. I have no idea why.

Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), a young university student gets involved with group of students who are dedicated to supporting the revolution by putting on patriotic plays. In their zeal they hatch a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a Japanese collaborator, who is known to have been responsible for the deaths of many of their compatriots. The plot centers around Wong who must become Mr. Yee's mistress in order that the group can separate him from his body guard in order to kill him. So committed is Wong to the plan that she willingly loses her virginity to one of the group in order to learn how to become a seductress.
Mr. Yee is a shadowy accomplice of the Japanese occupation whose main job is interogate resistance members captured by the occupation military. His methods of interrogation far exceed anything we read about in today's news. His collaboration allows him to live in luxury ,free from any kind of oppression from his Japanese masters. But the price he pays is that he is fair game for assignation by the resistance.
This film has been subject to controversy because of its extremely explicit sex scenes. But I have to agree with director Ang Lee who refused to modify them just to get a R rating instead of NC-17. The scenes are essential to revealing the dichotomy of feelings the two protagonists have for each other. Less than erotic the sex scenes transform Wong and Yee from antagonists to lovers who find solace in their physical union from their personal agendas.
In the end it is the rebel who gives in to her emotions and the traitor who in an ultimate act of cowardice betrays his mistress to the Japanese authorities.

As Charlie, a recently released inmate of a California hospital, Michael Douglas cavorts through this film for all the world like a demented leprechaun with a full complement of facial hair. From the moment he gets to his less than model home in the middle of suburbia, he is man with mission. Having spent his time while in treatment researching a journal by an obscure Spanish explorer, Charlie is convinced that he has found an undiscovered cache of gold and that it is buried somewhere in the middle of all of this suburban expansion. It is in fact buried under the Costco store and in no time at all Charlie is scampering over the landscape with surveyors transits, metal detectors, and a back hoe to zero in on the exact location of the buried booty.
Charlie's teen age daughter, Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) who has managed to keep the homestead intact and supported herself during his confinement is at first unbelieving but as Charlie keeps finding clues to support his theory Miranda begins to hope. Her transition from disbelief, frustration, and uncertainty to understanding and support is what gives this film a charm which makes the story more plausible and entertaining. Ms. Woods steals show from her vastly more experienced co-star.

Watching this movie is like listening to a master story teller relate a story that you have heard many times before. Its slow pace and its cadences convey a tale of ultimate betrayal by a sort of western Judas. It cannot in truth be called true western because it does not have the requisite gunplay and horseback chases that seem to characterize the genre. Rather it is a character study of two ego driven men who are inexorably bound together to an inevitable end.
Casey Affleck renders a performance of a life time as the assassin, Robert Ford. Initially Ford is drawn to James by hero worship resulting from reading pulp magazines and from hearing about his exploits from his elder brother who is in the James gang. He dreams of achieving great things by emulating his idol and offers James his unflagging loyalty. But the outlaw repays Ford by treating him with contempt and constantly challenging his youth, his manhood, and inexperience. Ford begins to see that his path to the fame he seeks lies not in living the outlaw life but in killing his hero. Watching Affleck's mental torment in changing from hero worship to potential assassin is a lesson in inhabiting a role.
Brad Pitt as Jesse James creates a memorable role as well. He goes from jolly, jesting, and friendly to a malevolent, cruel monster in the blink of an eye. His paranoia makes him distrustful of his colleagues in crime and suspicious of anyone who might betray him. But even so, he is good husband and a loving father to his two children as he moves his family from town to town at the first hint possible identification and capture.
But in the end the movie suffers from being too long. The long lingering shots of the Canadian Rockies, the panoramas of the stark treeless plains, while spectacular do nothing to moving the story along. Similarly the epilogue which tells the story of Robert Ford's short life in the limelight and his death seems superfluous.

It is difficult to accord John McCandless,alias Alexander Super Tramp the folk hero status that director Sean Penn wants us to accept. Rather he comes across to me as disaffected college educated son of upper middle class parents who seeks to escape from a life of materialism and privilege in the suburbs of Atlanta.
The first inkling of his revolt against society is manifested when he vaults onto the stage to accept his diploma while his mortified parents hide their eyes. Shortly thereafter he takes off in a dilapidated Nissan ostensibly to find himself after giving all of his future college funds to charity and divesting himself of all his possessions. His goal is disappear from the life he has known and live day to day free from all ties and responsibilities. He believes that the ultimate in living free in nature can only be found in vast wilderness of northern Alaska.
On his way he encounters a series of characters who have issues of their own to contend with; a hippy couple who have relationship problems, an itinerant combine driver who is wanted by the FBI, a war veteran who lost his family in a tragic accident. With a seeming abundance of optimism and a smiley face he helps bring joy back into into what he perceives as their constricted lives.
So with boundless optimism he sets out to the far reaches of Alaska with knapsack, a .22 caliber rifle, and a sack full of rice. He finds an abandoned bus which becomes his shelter and settles down to live on the land with the freedom he was seeking. When summer comes and he decides to return to the world he finds that the river is impassible and that there is no escape. His dreams begin to wane and he finds himself unable to find sustenance from the land. It's not giving away the story that he dies after ingesting some poisonous weeds and his decomposing body is found weeks later.
Emile Hirsch plays McCandless with a sometimes irritating enthusiasm. He is supported by an excellent cast; William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his clueless and bewildered parents; Catherine Keener as a aging hippie; Vince Vaughn as an itinerant farm worker; and Hal Holbrook as surrogate grandfather. Their contributions bring much humanity to the film and make it much more real.
But in the end, one can ask why was this intelligent young man so intent on separating himself from society, There is a subtext of parental discord but it hardly seems enough for such drastic action. McCandless himself comes the realization as in the final days of his life he writes "Happiness is not real unless it can be shared".

A soldier recently returned from a stint in Iraq is AWOL. His father, ex-military policeman Sergeant Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), is convinced that there something amiss in his unexplained absence from duty. His own sense of duty makes it impossible to believe that his son would abandon his post during war time after a lifetime of inculcating his sons in his values of honor and duty. He and his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) have already lost one son in a non-combat related military accident. Thus he sets out on a mission to use his investigative skills to determine if his son is still alive.
As he begins his inquiries, a dismembered body is found in a field in field adjacent to the army base. Forensics very quickly establishes that it is indeed Deerfield's son Mike. As Deerfield examines the scene of the crime he finds his son's cell phone which contains disturbing pictures of the action in Iraq in which his son was engaged. In particular, the photo of a body crumpled in road which will later be a key to understanding his son's desperate pleas to get out of Iraq.
After a jurisdictional dispute with military authorities, Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) convinces her chief that she should take on the mantle of lead detective in the case. Sanders is fighting her own battle for recognition by her chauvinistic department head and her fellow detectives who assume that she slept her way to a promotion.
While initially at odds with each other's investigative techniques, they eventually develop respect and trust in each other's dedication to solving the crime. The interplay between the characters is much of the glue the holds the movie together through the twists and turns of the plot. Theron plays the detective in an understated but determined way which makes her believable and is one of the best characterizations of her career.
But Tommy Lee Jones is the heart of the movie. His craggy face is as stolid and immovable as his character but his eyes convey the turmoil within as he begins to understand the changes that can happen to otherwise normal young men in the cauldron of a war where the enemy is everywhere and atrocities can happen without thought or purpose. The ending may not be to one's liking because it goes against the thinking that war breeds heroes. And perhaps that's the message.

Jodie Foster and Terence Howard turn in bravura performances in this dark movie which will generate Oscar vibes. Jodie Foster, as Erica Bains, is a radio personality who gets her stories by prowling the streets New York with a tape recorder and commenting on the disintegrating soul of the city. Terrence Howard is Mercer, a recently divorced detective, with powerful sense of honor and duty which he brings to his work.
One dark night while walking their dog in Central Park, Erica and her fiance are set upon by a pair of thugs who beat them senseless while videotaping the attack. Her fiance is killed and Erica's wounds put her into a three week coma. As Erica recovers and returns home she filled with feelings of deep sorrow, all-engulfing rage and desperation. Without knowing exactly why, she buys a gun and in short order the opportunity to use it presents itself during the robbery of a convenience store. The torment Erica goes through is mirrored in her eyes as she struggles with the fact that she has just killed a man.
Mercer is also struggling with inner demons. He has been working to nail an abusive husband who has killed his wife but whose money has bought him freedom. Mercer gets involved with Erica, first as a subject of her radio show, and later as he develops empathy for her struggles and unspoken romantic feelings. But as he follows the evidence he begins to suspect that Erica may have been responsible for a series of vigilante-type killings.
And there in lies the dilemma. Erica wanted to find and kill those who killed her fiance but she is tortured by how she has found satisfaction in killing other malefactors. Mercer is tormented by the conflict between his policeman sense of honor and duty which demands that he apprehend a killer and his growing personal attachment to Erica.

"Eastern Promises" takes us on journey through the dark and violent world of the Russian underground mob in London. The brotherhood of violence and crime is depicted in tattoos on the torsos of its members. Nikolai ( Viggo Mortenson) seeks the star tattoo which will induct him into the inner circle of the gang headed by a steely-eyed Armin Mueller-Stahl who oozes charm as he dispatches his enemies. Nikolai must make his bones by being subservient to the bossman's son, an amoral bully who is deathly afraid of his father but harbors ambitions to be boss. Into this murky world Anna (Naomi Watts) is drawn while trying to find the family of a teenage prostitute who dies while giving birth. Anna finds a diary containing explicit and damaging evidence of rape and forced prostitution which could send the head man to prison. She is warned off by Nikolai whose advances she initially rebuffs. But she finds herself attracted to him and ignores his warnings which puts her and the baby in peril from the mobsters intent on finding the diary and destroying the evidence Be warned. The violence is bloody and graphic. The Russians mobsters preferred method of dispatching their enemies is by slitting their throats and there is no compunction in hiding their identity by cutting off their fingers and pulling out their teeth. There is also violent encounter in a steam bath between Nikolai and two thugs sent to kill him which will leave you gasping. Without giving away the ending, the story does not end in "happy ever after".

There are stupid movies that are funny and dumb movies that are funny, but this movie is stupid and dumb without being particularly funny. Occasionally there was a snicker at a particularly piece of shtick but mainly there were moans as the characters mangled the piece. Briefly, the premise of the movie is that the brothers Solomon, John (Will Arnett) and Dean (Will Forte), determine that their dying father's last wish is to have a grandson. Since the father is in a coma it's diffficult to determine how they know. But they charge ahead using Craig's List to find a surrogate mother since their own dating experiences are, to say the least, disasterous. But their choice Janine (Kristen Wiig) rebuffs their idea of a physical relationship and insists on artificial insemination. She also has a very large boy friend James (Chi McBride) who has some thoughts about the plan. With that the stage is set for every possible cliche about inter-racial dating, sperm bank procedures, expectant parent preparations, and pre-natal anxieties. Whether or not there is anything noteworthy about this movie depends on if you think Will Arnett's facial contortions are worthy of some sort of special award for ultra-stupidity.

John Farley (Sean William Scott) is a successful author of a self-help book who is to be honored by his home town at the annual "Cornival". To his dismay he finds that his mother (Susan Sarandon) is going to marry Mr Woodcock, the coach who tormented him in high school years. With a dimwitted class mate Farley sets out to discredit the coach any way he can so that the marriage will not take place. But wonder of wonders, he finds that it's possible that all that high school grief may really have helped form his character and provided the theme for his book. One bright spot in this predictable movie is Amy Poehler as Farley's self-admitted alchoholic agent.

The pre-screening of this indiotic movie was hosted by a local table tennis club who must not have seen the movie beforehand. It most certainly did nothing to enhance the popularity of the sport and they may be wondering what possessed them to hype it. One reviewer said it belongs in the bottom 100 films of all time. Just how far down depends on your personal level of sophomoric stupid humor. Straight to DVD I say and then into the trash bin.

Western fans rejoice. The "Oater" (movie slang for cowboy film) is back with an action filled story that will satisfy your western fantasies. Russel Crowe as Ben Wade, an admited no-conscience killer whose hobby is drawing sketches, is captured and is to be escorted to the train to the penitentiary in Yuma by Dan Evans (Christian Bale) who takes the job for $200 so he can save his Arizona farm. Along the way they are chased by Wade's crew of cut thoats led by a thouroughly despicable Charlie Price (Dan Foster) who delights in blowing people away almost indiscrimanently. Here's hoping this movie will bring westerns back to the silver screen.

Four FBI hot shot agents, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Gardner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Baker, are sent to Saudi Arabia to uncover the terrorists who car-bombed a US compound and killed many innocent victims. Immediately they find themselves thwarted by cultural rules and regulations which will make it almost impossible to do their job. But with the help of a friendly police colonel they, with much gunfire, grenade explosions, and rocket attacks, they ultimately persevere, of course. The movie is an interesting view of the US's attitude toward Saudi Arabia and its oil resources. There is a message too. One small victory over the terrorists is far from eliminating the hatred for America that the Muslim world encourages.

Julie Delpy certainly earns the plaudits that will come from this highly entertaining film about the relationship between two people, Marion (Julie Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg), who come from two different cultures, she from France and he from America. Delpy not only stars in the film but she also wrote the screenplay, directed the movie, and wrote the musical score. And if that were not enough, in what could be the final word in nepotism, her parents in the movie are her real parents. It gets better in that the cat, Jean Luc, is really her cat. All that aside, Jack finds himself totally bewildered and unable to accept the Gaelic attitudes toward sex and relationships. The dialog sometimes seem to channel Woody Allen's movies. All this makes for a fun-filled hour and a half.

Could it be that we are seeing the birth of a new action hero, Mr. Smith (Clive Owens) who has more ways to blow away the villains than even John Woo would have trouble matching. Forget the plot that mixes the rescue of a newborn baby, a baby factory for obtaining bone marrow for presidential candidate who has a fatal disease, a sympathetic ex-prostitute, DQ (Monica Belluci) who becomes a substitute mother, an amoral villain, Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) who solves his personnel problems with a shot to the head, something or other about gun control and gun manufacturers. Enough already! Don't bother to figure it out. Just sit back and enjoy the almost balletic action as Mr. Smith dispatches his enemies.

Before the movie started, the director, Richard Shepard, told the audience to be prepared to accept that the more outrageous the action the more likely it was to be true. Based on a true story, the movie takes us to post-war Bosnia where Richard Gere, a has-been TV reporter, Terrence Howard, his one-time cameraman, and Jessie Eisenberg, a new Harvard journalism graduate, set out to get an interview with the most vicious Bosnian war criminal known as "The Fox". As added incentive there is a five million dollar bounty for his capture. Along the way they find themselves in places where their identity as journalists is questioned and the are thought to be CIA agents sent to assasinate "The Fox". This puts them in the line of fire from loyalists and they must use their wit, charm and humor to get themselves out of danger. Since the film is not due out until late September, some tighter editing would make it a better film.

If you are expecting the return of the pod people, forget it. What you'll get is a gelatinous glob of goo that turns humans into zombie-like people who have no personality. Now drop Nicole Kidman a psychiatrist, into this scenario along with her young son who has built-in immunity to the infection. Add a kidnapping, a bunch of unblinking clone-like bad guys, and, of course, the obligatory car chase and you have a movie you have seen before.

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker reprise their roles as Chief Inspector Lee and Detective James Carter as they chase the members of a Chinese triad through the streets of Paris. Other than the location, don't expect anything new cinematically. There's the usual quota of pseudo martial arts acrobatics and a climatic battle in the girders of the Eiffel Tower. As twist to the routine plot, it turns out Inspector Lee has a brother who is one of the bad guys. I guess "Rush Hour 4" may not be out of the question. But enjoy this one. It has enough laughs for a Saturday night.

Unless you are a person who likes to ascribe human attributes to dogs, you would be well advised to miss this movie if your are over the age of ten. As far as I'm concerned, a dog, is a dog, is dog. The star of this juvenile fantasy is a floppy eared, soulful eyed beagle named Shoeshine, who after imbibing a mysterious potion is imbued with super dog powers which enable him to fly and capture bad guys. Wait for the DVD. It will keep the kids quiet on a rainy day.

"Stardust" is an entertaining romantic fable with a story line that mixes action and magic. A young man is infatuated with a girl in the town of Wall which is the line between the real world and the world of fantasy. To prove his love he crosses the line into fantasy and sets out to bring back a fallen star to prove his love. In the process he falls in love with the star (Claire Dane) and they find their path to happiness thwarted by petulant Michelle Pfieffer, who needs the star to restore her beauty, and a prince who needs the star to claim his kingdom. Along the way they are rescued by Robert DeNiro as an airship captain whose crew describes him as a "whoopsie". This alone is worth the price of the movie!

In this movie Jason Bourne solves the mystery of who and what he is. But fear not Bourne fans, in the bookstores now is another book, "The Bourne Betrayal", ready to continue the Bourne saga. That said, "The Bourne Ultimatum" is an action filled thriller, a fit companion for the two previous films. Once more Bourne manages to outwit, outfight, and frustrate his enemies. He also manages to fill the streets of European cities with mangled cars like an international demolition derby. Our empathy with Bourne stems from our perception of his ability to outthink his enemies and take them on with whatever weapons are at hand without the benefit of special effects and powers.

I haven't watched "The Simpsons" on TV with any regularity, but as far as the film is concerned it really didn't matter. The verbal and sight gags came fast and plentiful as Homer causes an enironmental catastrophe in Springfield by dumping a cannister of pig waste into an already polluted river. The President and the EPA determine to solve the problem by covering the city with a huge glass dome. Homer and his family manage to escape to Alaska but are drawn back to save the residents of Springfield when Homer has an epiphany. The movie manages to skewer a lot of sacred cows and the laughs are almost non-stop. I may have to see the movie again to hear the gags I missed the first time around.

I can't really quite say why I didn't really like this movie even though I did laugh along with the pre-screening audience. Maybe it's because of seemingly pervasive theme in recent teen-aimed movies that given their freedom to act, kids will solve all the problems of society. Charlie (Anton Yelchin), the scion of a wealthy family whose father has jailed for tax evasion, has been kicked out every private school he has ever attended. Seems he has a propensity for engaging in ventures which are bordering on felonies. When he winds up in a public high school his entrepenurial bent takes a new turn as he starts dispensing psychiatric advice and prescribing drugs to his schoolmates in successful effort to be loved by all. If you think about it a little, consider that the same behavior in an inner city school would be rewarded a jail term instead of approbation.

Having spent most of my early years working in my father's restaurants I've got to tell you I never saw a chef as beautiful as Catherine Zeta-Jones or worked in kitchen as pristine as the one depicted in the movie. That being said, the movie is a pleasantly formulaic story about Chef Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who has to adapt her food centered life to the demands of taking care of her young niece Zoe (Amber Breslin) whose mother is killed in an auto accident. In addition she must deal with preceived competition from Nick (Aaron Eckhard), a sou chef, brought into the kitchen to relieve the work load. Predictably, Zoe bonds with Nick and Kate eventually bonds with Nick and they all live happily ever after in their own little bistro in Greenwich Village.

Francisco Goya (Stellen Skargard) comes off as a secondary character in this movie. The main plot line is about what happens to Ines (Natalie Portman), Goya's young muse, who is accused by the Spanish Inquisition of practicing Judaism because she doesn't eat pork. In prison she submits to Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem) who defects to the French and denies impregnating Ines. When the French conquer Madrid, Goya takes Ines in and in due course locates her daughter, now grown, and discovers she is a prostitute, Alicia (Portman in a dual role). The fanaticism and cruelty that characterized the Inquistion and the viscious blood bath instigated by the liberating French Army are the basis for much of the graphic depictions in Goya's work.

If you are into sophomoric comedy and believe that four letter words are the norm in conversation, then by all means see this movie. Maybe time has passed me by but it's difficult for me to believe that all teenagers these days are so driven by soaking themselves in alcohol and bedding each other to the exclusion of other activities. Back in the stone age when I was in high school we had the same hormonal drives but I don't recall being so obvious about them.

"Hairspray" is bright, colorful, musical, and almost any other adjective you can apply to a movie so filled with energy and light. It spotlights several Hollywood luminaries in non-traditional roles, John Travolta, Michelle Pfieffer, Christopher Walken. It's almost worth the price of admission to watch Travolta in drag and in a fat suit strutting his stuff. Queen Latifah also adds her considerable presence and voice to the film as well. So it's easy to overlook the underlying story, the integration of a teenage TV dance show in Baltimore in the late 1960's.

Brenda Blethyn is in the pantheon of English actresses who can breath real life into the roles she undertakes. As Jean Dwight, an English standup comic who gave up her career in England to marry an Australian singer, she brings humor and pathos to the screen as she struggles to support her two boys while trying to revive her career in show business. Her struggle becomes more intense when the younger son finds romance and threatens to leave home. What makes the movie more entertaining is that the minor characters are well defined and help make the film a pleasure to watch.

Nora Wilder (Parker Posey) is a thirtyish spinster who has trouble maintaining relationships with potential mates. She meets a visiting frenchman at a party and due course believes that he is the one. But he has to return to France leaving her again doubting her ability to land a man. Her best friend Audrey (Andrea de Matteo) convinces her to go to Paris to find her dream man. But Nora's bad luck persists when she looses his address. I won't give away the ending, but I thought it did not ring true.

Rescue Dawn recounts the saga of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) who went down in his plane following a bombing raid in Laos in 1965 where presumably the US was not supposed to be. Dengler is captured by the Laotians and taken to a secret prisoner camp where he is subjected to inhumane conditions along with several other prisoners. Dengler succeeds in escaping, eventually to be rescued and returned to his ship mates aboard the USS Ranger. Overall it is a well told story that keeps you in suspense even though you know Dengler will be rescued in the end.

This movie is without question the darkest of the Harry Potter series. Between Harry's normal teenage angst, his visions of the past and future, and his premonitions of a coming conflict with his arch enemy Lord Voldemort, he is a tortured and confused young wizard. In spite of warnings from the Ministry of Wizards, Harry proceeds to train his comrades on the art of magical warfare. But to offset the seriousness of what's happening in the world of nascent wizards and witches at Hogwart, new school mistress, Mrs. Arabella Figg, is brought in to bring discipline to the student body. The students effort to thwart her efforts help lighten the overall tone of the movie.

This movie has a surprising and comical premise. A hit man (Ben Kingsley) has an alcohol addiction problem. Seems he often fails to complete his assignment because he asleep or falling down drunk. So his boss sends him to San Francisco to enroll in an AA program so he can regain his effectiveness as a hitman. He meets a woman (Tea Leone) who is not put off by his occupation and resolves to complete the 12 step AA program even going so far as sending gift certificates to the relatives of some of victims whom he felt he had offed badly because of his alcoholism. Of course things don't always go as planned and there are a few twists and turns to the plot before he finds redemption on his own terms.

It may be sinful to say anything bad about this film which tells the story of rat who aspires to be a chef in Paris. Born with an unusual sense of taste and smell he disdains the cuisine-de-garbage of the streets on which his clan subsists. He finds a human host to do his bidding, controlling his movements like a puppet and they both succeed in reviving a once famous restaurant. Overall it is a pleasant enough story in which even the villains are not really all that bad. So don't deny the little ones a trip to the cinema. You will be pleasantly entertained.

If you like lots of noise, explosions, crashing buildings and bridges, rapid fire weaponry, and vehicles that transform into talking piles of cams and gears then you must be a ten year old kid. That being the case you will get your money's worth with this movie, assuming you can make through 2 hours and 20 minutes of a plot about autobots trying to take over the earth. As has been the case in this genre, teenagers outdo their elders in resolving the crisis and saving the world. See the movie if you must, but bring ear plugs for the last half hour.

Don't let the intricacies and "geek speak" in the movie keep you from enjoying this film. It's a thrill fun ride all the way with just a couple of talky pauses that pass pretty quickly. Bruce Willis reprises his role as the indestructible Detective John McClan who chases a super computer hacker bent on bringing vengeance on the US government by hijacking all the computer systems in the country. Aided by a reluctant Justin Long, another computer whiz, Willis crashes cars, buildings, highways and downs a helicopter with a car while chasing around the eastern seaboard chasing the villain. And he is not hesitant to take on beautiful but deadly female martial arts villainess. No chivalry there. As they say in Texas, he "whales the tar out of her". It's a long movie at almost 2 1/2 hours but you won't really notice it.

This movie disproves the old adage the "there are no bad boys". Joshua is malevolent and evil to the bone. He manages to convey an air of an innocent ten year old while all the time plotting to remove his mother, who is suffering from post partum depression, from the scene and his father who even after discovering his son's psychotic tendencies finds himself accused of child abuse. Joshua manages to scam a child psychiatrist and does a job on poor old grandma who makes the mistake of believing that Joshua has found Jesus and couldn't possibly do wrong to anyone. Just why Joshua is this way is never addressed. So you can make up your own backstory.

To enjoy this film to its fullest you must be prepared to accept that God (Morgan Freeman) would want to talk with a newbie congressman Evan Baxter ( Steve Carrel) and much less involve Himself in a questionable land development project. Not only that, but God asks Evan to build an ark to prepare for a coming flood that will devastate the land. Initially doubtful, Evan, prompted by a series of miraculous physical appearance changes, builds the ark with the help of his family and the myriad animals who have convened two by two. Sure enough the flood comes and the ark eventually stops its watery voyage at the Senate chambers just in time to put a stop to a land development which will destroy the environment.

You would be well advised to buy the comic book on which this movie is based. Maybe by studying the panels you may be able to figure what is left unexplained in the movie. The Four are called upon to save the world from an ambiguous force whose front man is silver clad man figure who draws his power from a surf board. Go figure! The Four exercise their respective powers in the battle and are thwarted for awhile by an old nemesis. It is left to Storm (Jessica Alba) to appeal to the Silver Man's innate good side and convince him to turn on his master just in time to save the world from being swallowed up.

This movie will certainly not get much play in the state of Utah. It is the story of a wagon train of migrants passing through Mormon country on their way to California. They are set upon and are slain by a group of fanatical Mormon extremists said to be under the orders of God and Brigham Young. The historical records bear out the veracity of the events but the romantic sub-plot just isn't convincing. Jon Voight is in his element, exhibiting a high degree of evil and malevolence as he chews up the scenery as the the bishop of the Mormons and chief architect of the massacre. In case you may be wondering, only one person was ever brought to trial and executed for his role in killings.

"A Mighty Heart" is a taut intense film that recounts the events surrounding the kidnap and subsequent murder of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, by Islamic extremists. The efforts of the various agencies, both US and Pakistani, are almost painful to watch as they follow lead after lead through the crowded less than friendly streets of Karachi. Angelina Joley as Pearl's pregnant wife Marianne, shines as she brings strength and vulnerability to a role which could have easily become mawkish in another actress. Her vacillation between hope and despair are excruciatingly affecting. But more than the basic story of hunt for Daniel Pearl this is portrait of a world most of will never see or experience. A world where religious intolerance, intrigue, and death are every day occurrences.

Look out America! A new merchandising teeny bopper franchise is about to hit the local screens in the person of "Nancy Drew" aka Emma Roberts also aka Julia Robert's niece. No question Emma Roberts inhabits the persona of Nancy Drew in a believable manner that makes easier to accept the sometimes incredulous plot about solving the mystery surrounding the death of a famous movie star in Hollywood. So the three star rating I give this movie is chiefly for the millions of teen age girls who may adopt Nancy Drew as a role model for her preppy wardrobe and her pert ever-optimistic take on life. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

This is quirky funny film made in New Zealand by New Zealanders. Essentially it is the strange romance between two social misfits whose relationship starts with a video game party where the girl is the "Shark" and the boy is the "Eagle". Hence the title of the film. She is fixated on capturing the man of her dreams, a loser who in turn is fixated on settling an old score with a bully who tormented him in middle school. Along the way we meet a motley assemblage of characters who have their own quirky personalities to add to the charm of the movie. All in all, pleasant way to spend an hour and a half.

Normally I have a built in bias against bionics because they never seem to ring true and tend to glorify their subjects. But this one fooled me perhaps because it has Don Cheadle as Ralph "Petey" Green as an ex-con radio personality who is remembered as the calming voice in the riots in Washington D.C. following the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dewey Hughes, Petey's friend and mentor who recognizes the power of Petey's personality and charisma which could become a voice for the black community. The interplay between these two disparate, an uneducated ex-con and an rising young executive, personalities is the engine that drives the film with a ring of truth.

The modern day "Rat Pack" is back again in Las Vegas with a flick that is only marginally better than "Oceans 12". Their claim to movie immortality still rests with "Oceans 11". Danny Ocean ( George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) gather their cohorts to avenge the scam that has been perpetrated on one of their own by casino tycoon, Al Pacino. Following a slower than molasses first act, things begin to happen in a torrent of somewhat incredulous events aimed at destroying the festivities on the opening night of a new hotel/casino. For example, a monstrous 35 million tunnel digger is imported from France and installed under the casino right in the middle of Vegas strip. I'd be willing to bet they did not have a construction permit for that excavation.

English comedy is still English comedy even if it has a couple America actors and an American Director (Frank Oz). The Brits have an inate ability to face the most farcical situations with aplomb and a sense of decorum. It all starts with the undertaker who delivers the wrong corpse for the wake and you know immediately that things are going to go awry in quick order. There's a mistaken dose of halicinogenic drugs which results in a naked man on the roof; there's a corpse who tumbles out of the coffin; there's black mail by a dwarf who reveals the secret life of the deceased; there's an apparent fatal accident victim who resurrects in the middle of the eulogy. The characters rant and rave in private, but in front of the assembled mourners they display the fabled British stiff upper lip. Be prepared to laugh from beginning to the stinger at the very end.

"Gracie" differs from most others sports films in that it deals with the family dynamics that drive its heroine to achieve her goal of replacing her older brother on the high school soccer team following his tragic death in an automobile accident. Her father, the team coach, and the school board do not believe that girls should play boys sports, but she presses on and eventually wins them over. The film is not high drama but it does manage to portray well the familial turmoil and subsequent reconciliation.

It's at least twelve hours plus since I saw this movie and I'm still befuddled and confused as to who did what to whom and why. There are so many characters who have each their own agendas to pursue that it's impossible to determine just what in the heck is going on. There are crosses, double crosses, and triple crosses. There are people who appear and disappear or who morph into other personas or things. There is a ship that keeps on sinking and suddenly coming back afloat. There are sword fights and bloody bodies galore. And a goddess who does her take on the "50 Foot Woman" and changes into a waterfall of crabs who also vanish. I could go on with all the incongruities but it would not change my opinion that this movie is a disaster with not much to distinguish it except for the fantastic CG effects. Better that the humans in the film had been also computer generated. My fervent hope is that Captain Jack Sparrow finds his ship, the Black Pearl, sails off into the pirate sunset never to return to the screen. Yarrr!

To enjoy this movie to its fullest you need to buy into a number of premises, namely, that Mr. Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a man with an addiction to serial killing which he has been able to control through AA meetings for the last twenty years; that he has a bloodthirsty, vicious alter ego (William Hurt) that keeps urging him too satisfy both of their blood lusts; that a serial killing predilection can be passed to the next generation; and that an attractive detective (Demi Moore) with a sixty seven million dollar fortune can want to be a cop. Once you can accept these premises, sit back and enjoy a reasonably good thriller. It's not Oscar caliber, but it's fun watching Mr. Brooks satisfy his addiction and actually come out smelling like a rose.

Though it may sound trite, the best adjective I can apply to this film is "charming". It's two main characters, the guy (Glen Hansard) and the girl (Marketa Irgova) imbue their roles with a certain naivete and naturalness which comes across as true to life. The story is slight, a street musician in Dublin meets a young immigrant girl who has a similar talent for music and together they set out to make a recording. The music they make is essentially the glue that holds the movie together. There is no grand romance or passion, just two people who meet, pursue their common interest together for a short time, and then go their separate ways.

Those of you who saw "28 days Later" won't miss anything by waiting for this sequel to hit the rental shelves. Briefly, the virus that turned the Brits into homicidal maniacs has been elliminated or so they (the American Army) think. People are bing allowed to return to London under strict controls. But guess what, the virus is still alive and begins its destructive spread to the populace. But two kids have apparently been immunized and the chase is on to eradicate them as well as every other living creature in the "Green Zone" under "Code Red". There are plenty of things blowing up as well as chemical fogs and a heliocopter that never runs out of gas. Somehow the kids find their way to the helicopter and are whisked away to Paris. How do you say "28 Weeks Later Yet" in French?

This is a well acted movie dealing with some weighty issues with empathy and directness. Child abuse, alcoholism, child neglect, generational differences are all treated with sensitivity and understanding without the mawkishness and sensationalism that sometimes prevails in movies dealing with these topics. Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, and Lindsey Lohan are grandmother, mother and rebelliuos daughter dealing with their own personal problems as well as generational inter-relationships which threaten to destroy their family. As weighty as the topics are, the overall tone of the film has light touch which makes it much more believable like these are people you have known.

The story is that this Wilson Brothers movie was two years in process and it probably could have percolated a little longer before being released at gala premier at the old neighborhood Inwood Theater. Brother Luke stars as a con man with a heart of gold who after a jail term is paroled to a retirement home job. Owen is the meanie who goes about scamming the retirement home residents out of their Medicare checks. While Andrew pulls the strings as the fillm's director. Eva Mendes provides the requisite eye candy who seeks committment from Luke. Overall the film has a sweetness of character but it is not enough to raise it to the level that makes it a must see.

Spidey is back for a third time. Whoopee!!! Whether or not it will eclipse its predecessors in interest, excitement, or money at the box office seems somewhat problematic for many reasons mainly due to the writers regurgitation of past films. At two hours and forty minutes it's three villains too long. Seems like every time the movie stops to portray Spidey's male sensitiveness or insensitiveness, as the case may, out comes another villian and the swinging thru the city starts all over again. In my opinion, this film sounded the death knell for Spiderman.

Watching this movie about poker contests, specifically Texas Hold-Em is a little watching grass grow and getting the thrill of finding two aces in the hole much like finding dandelion in a new lawn. To be sure, there is a modicum of drama in the thorny rivalry between a pair of father and son professional poker players-Tom Duval and Eric Bana. There is a bit of romance without passion between Drew Barrymore, an aspiring bar room singer, and the aforementioned Eric Bana. But it does not generate any sparks and the characters have nothing in common to generate any interest.

This movie is essentially a rip off of "Disturbia". Replace the high-schooler with an unemployed accountant and the serial killer with a suspected middle eastern appearing terrorist and you've got "Civic Duty". There are a couple differences which should be mentioned. Terry Allen (Peter Krause) has no friends, just his own paranoia to sustain him. And the movie does not end well. Overall the film just seems to be a "paint by numbers" exercise.

This movie requires a giant leap of faith. You are asked to believe that a third-rate Las Vegas bar stage magician, Nicolas Cage, possesses clairvoyant powers that enable him to see two minutes into his own future. And furthurmore that the FBI is aware of this power and wants to use him to locate an nuclear device which an unnamed terrorist group wants to detonate and blow up the coast of Southern California. And by the way, the terrorists are also aware of his power and want get him out of the picture. There's plenty of frantic action and and gun play but in the end..... Oh well, see it for yourself when the movie reaches the rental shelves.

The Worldwide Wrestling Association must be rolling in surplus cash to fund a bomb like this movie. Starring Steve "Stone Cold" Austin the film is a nightmare of explosions, blood and guts, sadistic behavior, stupidity, and the most irritating jump cut editing I have ever seen. Briefly the story is that an amoral Internet entrepreneur gathers a motley crew of ten vicious death row convicts to create the ultimate reality show. He turns them loose on a jungle island with cameras following their every move. The last man standing gets to go free. All suspense vanishes when Austin appears proceeds to dispatch all the bad guys. WWA fans will probably flock to see this film, but if you are not a fan I assure there better ways to spend your money.

A bickering married couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) have car trouble on a backwoods roads after wandering off the interstate and opt to spend the night in a creepy motel whose owner has an interesting hobby. After that introduction, pick up your pencil and write "as the man and his wife run for their lives out the motel room they are confronted by ... ". Now fill in all the scenes from all the horror movies you've seen in your life and close with "and they lived happily ever after". I wonder if Wilson and Beckinsale were playing this for laughs otherwise I can't think of good reason to waste film.

I have to admit I liked this film more than I thought I would. It is a fitting tribute to Adrienne Shelly who wrote, directed and acted in the movie. She was tragically murdered her New York apartment shortly after completion of the film. What makes the movie so satisfying is the beautifully drawn characters who in inhabit the ambiguos southern town. We have all known people like this in our own lives and that recognition imprints the roles in our minds. Keri Russell is a waitress in a pie shop whose solace from a loveless abusive marriage is in baking extraordinary pies. When she finds herself pregnant, she determines to change her life. Andy Griffith does nice turn as the resident pie shop philosopher who counsels Russell. See this movie and tell your friends by all means.

If you like intelligent, well-crafted, suspenseful murder mysteries don't miss this one. Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling turn in bravura performances that keep you on the edge of your seat. Gosling is an over-achieving prosecutorial rising star who hopes to use the murder trial of Anthony Hopkins as his gateway to fame and riches in the corporate world. Hopkins, the accused murder, however has other plans, namely acquittal, and his steely blue eyes fairly twinkle with glee as he torments his prosecutor by nullifying the evidence and watching Gosling's case disintegrate. Gosling finds himself in a moral dilemma. One path will insure fame and fortune, while the other will kill all chances to be a star in the corporate world but will let him live with his own values. See the movie and find out what choice he makes.

Alison (Katherine Heigl), a TV go-fer, celebrates her promotion to on air personality by getting totally bombed and tumbling into bed with Ben (Seth Rogen) a would-be website designer who lives with four other slacker friends of similar aspirations. No surprise, Alison finds herself pregnant after this one-night stand and the complications and situations resulting from Ben accepting his impending fatherhood and both of them dealing with the effect on Ben's friends and her relatives make for a hilarious movie that keeps you laughing to the end. Unlike many comedies, all the cast is likeable and distinct from one another so you come away with a feeling that you really know people like that. The only knock I have about the movie is the excessive use of four letter words. It's almost as if the writers wanted to prove they were ultra hip and that they are in the vanguard of new standards of expression in speech in film for the millenium.

I had a hard time determining if this movie was an extended commercial for PETA or an acting exercise for Molly Shannon to see if she could go through a ninety minute movie with one lugubrious facial expression which can only be described as that of an abandoned basset hound. If it were not for a nice comic turn by Laura Dern as an overly solictious suburban mom who is determined to not let her children face life's realities such as that chickens have to die before they can be eaten, there is a total waste of talent. The story line in quick summary is that Molly's character, after losing her beloved dog, turns in consolation to becoming a vegan, a dog rescuer, and an avid advocate for animal rights. As the movie fades to black, Molly is in a bus with others of like beliefs headed into the sunset, probably to throw paint on fur wearing celebrities.

While this film is somewhat formulaic, it is worth a bag of popcorn on date night due in large part to good performances by Bruce Willis and Giovanni Ribisi. As for Halle Berry, it is readily apparent that the cameraman loves closeups on her absolutely flawless face, a cosmetic company's dream. The plot involves an investigative reporter, Berry, accusing and getting a conviction on a prominent ad executive, Willis, for murdering her best friend. She is aided in this investigation by her sometimes creepy researcher, Ribisi, who ultimately solves the crime and sets up the twist ending.

Fans of Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino will be more than happy with these psuedo B movies which harken back to the days of weekend double features. The Rodriquez film, "Planet Terror" has a semblance of plot to sustain the amount of gore generated by a motley bunch who seek the source of a deadly virus which threatens to wipe out humanity. One the leaders is a curvaceous Rose McGowan who sports a 50 caliber machine gun in place of her amputated leg. On the Tarantino side, "Death Proof", The story sort of revolves around two prolonged car chases in which a grizzeled Kurt Russell persists in crashing his muscle car into cars filled with attractive young ladies. Why he does this, your guess is as good as mine. Without giving away the story, I will tell you that the chicks ultimately get their revenge.

It's quite possible that "Disturbia" may strike a responsive chord with the high school set with its potrayal of teenagers outsmarting their elders. Kale (Shia LeBeouf) is a high schooler who is sentenced to ankle monitored house arrest for punching his spanish teacher. To while away the time he resorts to spying on his neighbors and observes some strange happenings at Mr. Turner's (David Morse) house. Kale intuits that these events are somehow tied into unsolved murders that have been occuring in the area. With the help of two teenage friends he sets out to prove his thesis. How he goes about it provides a a few scary moments but there are so many holes in the plot that they eventually sink the story.

The first half of this film promises some excitement which it never delivers despite the star power of Oscar winner, Hilary Swank. She plays an ex-minister professor who specializes in debunking miracles which result from natural phenomena. In short order she is recruited to investigate strange happenings in a remote southern village where the people believe that the seven biblical plagues are being visted on them. It doesn't take long for the plot to turn into confusing religious mumbo-jumbo as the professor finds that she is to be the savior of a wierd cult of child killers. Obviously she defers and saves the innocent target of their obession. That Hilary Swank is the only recognizable name has to make you wonder why an actor of her caliber would take on such a project.

This a movie you will like or hate. There is no middle ground in this collection of skits loosely based on the Ten Commandments. At times bawdy, irreverent, sacreligious, comedic, and sophomoric the movie ultimately fails the test of continuity despite the efforts of some high profile actors; Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber, Ron Silver and others. I recommend you wait for the DVD and enjoy it with a six pack, a pizza and your most raccous friends.

Firstly, I must admit to being fan of English comedies. The Brits have a way of of lampooning themselves in deadpan sort of way not found in American comedy. In "Hot Fuzz" Sgt. Nicolas Angel of the London Metropolitan Police (Simon Pegg of "Shaun of the Dead") is transferred to a supposedly quiet village because he is doing his job too well and is embarassing his peers. No sooner does he arrive than a series of imaginative murders begin to occur. When the townspeople and his co-workers persist in labeling them "accidents" his policeman instincts kick in. With his side kick, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost, also of "Shaun of the Dead"), he sets out solve the murders. When Angel ultimately identifies the perpetrators he set out with a vengeance armed to the teeth and mounted on a white stallion. The shoot out that follows is as noisey. explosive, and action filled as any John Woo Hong Kong movie. Another "Shaun of the Dead" alum involved with this film is director Edgar Wright.

If you believe in predestination, this movie may be for you. If you don't it will just be a downer. Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce) consults with an itinerant fortune teller who gives him prognostications including one that he will die at the first snow. When a couple of the prognostications come true (a basketball team's unexpected win, the funding of a pet money making scheme) Jimmy begins to believe the fortune teller's words that once having chosen a path in life the end of the road is pre-ordained. Jimmy also has to deal with a stalker in the form of a buddy that he betrayed and caused the pal to serve a prison sentence.

"The Namesake" is a movie that is sure to win your heart on many levels. When you think about it on your way home you will find it portrays parallel themes and emotions from your own life experience. Ashima (Tabu), after an arranged marriage follows her husband Ashoke (Irfan Khan) from India to a cold and lonely United States. Their love grows as they raise two children and try to imbue them with sense of their Indian culture. Their son Gogle (Kal Pen) rebels against his heritage and sets out to integrate himself into mainstream priveleged society. The unexpected death of the father forces mother and son to face up to how their cultural heritage and their family ties will give them strength to carry on. Like any other family there are happy times, family strife, and sadness. But in the end it is a movie that celebrates family life.

This movie by far is the best comedy I have seen this year. The idea of two men competing as pairs skaters is just funny thinking about it. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, champion single skaters in their own right and opposites in their skating personas, are disqualified for life from competing in men's singles following a knockdown dragout fracas at an ice show. But through a loophole in the figure skating rules their coach finds they can compete in pairs skating, normally an event for a man and a woman. How they reconcile their different temperaments and go on to win the event will leave you laughing all the way home. Pay special attention to how the movie gently skewers the sport of figure skating and to the cameos of skating's stars of the past.

Whether or not you are a fan of sci-fi movies or not, you will find yourself enjoying this movie more than you thought you would. The main reason is the performance of Raihann Leigh Winn who is little girl around whom most the movie revolves. She will absolutely steal your heart. Essentially the story is about a brother and sister who find a mysterious box which when opened imbues them with extraordinary intelligence and abilities beyond their years. In the box also is a long eared stuffed rabbit named Mimzy which has been sent from the future to the obtain in some way a sample of untainted DNA. This is apparently necessary to insure the future of the human race after scientists over time have completely messed up the genomic sequence.

I am taking the coward's way out and not rating this movie or should I say cartoon. I can not see recommending a grown-up spend money to see it when there are many other more suitable films vyeing for their entertainment dollar. But if you have preteens in your family you will be dragged, however reluctantly, to watch cutesy ninja turtles cavort, fight, and mug all to save the world from a ghastly future. So put on good face, shuck out out some cash for popcorn and sodas and sit back and enjoy.

"Reign Over Me" tries hard to be a buddy movie but it just does not make it. In it, Don Cheadle, a successful dentist, tries to rehabilitate his dental college roomate, Adam Sadler, who has become isolated and estranged following the death of his wife and three daughters who were on one of the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11. As Cheadle tries various ways to get his former roomate some kind of psychiatric help he senses some truths about his marriage and career which make him aware of how structured his life is and how much longs for the freedom that Sandler seems to have in spite of his mental problems. Don Cheadle handles his role with a sense of comedy but Adam Sandler is still Adam Sandler, the doofus who mumbles his way through life.

Fans of action, adventure, and conspiracies will not be disappointed by this movie. It starts out fast and the pace seldom diminishes over the next two plus hours. Mark Wahlberg. a retired military sharpshooter, is reactivated by a mysterious government group ostensibly to sniff out a potential threat to the president of the United States by a long range sniper. He soon discovers that he has been set up as a patsy in a scheme to cover up a massacre of a village in Africa by the aforementioned government group. After recovering from his wounds, Wahlberg sets out to discover who set him up and the bodies fall fast and furious with the help of a empathetic FBI newbie.

Firstly I must admit to having a secret crush on Sandra Bullock. She almost always turns a good performance and she has excellent camera presence. But in this film she is constricted by what I can only perceive as flaky editing. A suburban wife and mother is told that her husband has died in a horrific auto accident. She refuses to accept the fact and goes delusional alternately reliving the time before his death and the aftermath with grieving friends and relatives. This continous time shifting becomes monotonous after a while and begs the question what exactly is the premise of the movie?

It may very well be that this movie is another step toward making "coming out of the closet" a celebratory event like a bar mitzvah or a christening. Gray (Heather Graham) falls in love with her brother Sam's (Tom Cavanaugh) fiance after a soul kiss which Charlie (Bridget Moynihan) doesn't remember and anyhow she is not of that persuasion. Gray struggles to understand her newly discovered lesbian tendencies which have been apparent to everyone except herself. Sissy Spacek does a kooky turn as Gray's psychiatrist with a unique method of treating her patients and Molly Shannon steals the scenes she is in as Gray's volatile best friend. At the end as Gray does a leap ala Mary Tyler Moore, minus the hat toss, you just know that Gray will be OK with her new found sexuality.

Time was when cartoons were cartoons and movies were movies. These days it's difficult to tell where one ends and other begins other begins. So it is with "300" where the actors must have spent all of their time acting in front of a blue screen while an army of computer nerds filled in the backgrounds and populated the armies. That being said, "300" is a vivid retelling of the battle of Thermopulae when King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartan warriors held off, to the death, the Persian hordes of King Xerxes who apparently had a penchant for body piercing. This noble sacrifice inspired the Greeks to rise up and throw out the Persian upstarts. Overall, discounting the somewhat comic book look of the film, it is filled with enough swordplay and gore to satisfy anyone's taste for action.

Put this movie down as a "Buddy" movie on wheels. Four motorcycle riding pals, each facing and individual mid-life crisis, decide to take a cross country ride from middle America to the Pacific coast. What happens along the way' from the frequent pit stops to the ultimate face down with some nasty real bikers, gives them a true sense of comradery and also revitalizes their manhood. It also provides for some good laughs. "Wild Hogs" may not be quite your cup of tea but give it a chance and you'll be well entertained.

For the first hour and a half or so, "Zodiac" moves along in a promising pace thanks to the energy generated by Robert Downey Jr., the reporter on the story, and Mark Ruffalo, the lead detective on the case. Together and independently they chase down leads and develop suspect and scenarios to uncover the mysterious serial killer. But as no credible evidence is found to tie any one to the murders, the case is relegated to the cold case files. But Jake Gylenhaal, a newspaper cartoonist and amatuer sleuth, becomes obsessed with the case and begins to develop a theory of his own and tries, to no avail, to convince the proper authorities to reopen the case. It is at this point that the movie begins a down spiral from which it never recovers.

"Pride" is not a bad film, it is just formulaic. All of the elements of the genre are present. The only thing really different is the ethnicity of the principals. In this case. Jim Ellis, an ex-college swimmer, (Terence Howard) is hired to shut down a rickerty South Philadelphia recreation center. But, wonder of wonders, he finds a fully functional swimming pool in the run down facility. In short order, Jim weans some neighborhood youngsters from basketball and the local bad guys. He shows them how competitive swimming can become a way to develop self worth and pride in who and what they are. Mr. Ellis is still teaching swimming in the same location and continues to be a source of pride for that South Philly community.

In the opening scenes of "The Host", A Korean lab technician is being ordered by his American boss to dump umpteen bottles of formaldehyed into a drain which empties into the Han River. The predictable result spawns a mutant creature that resembles a giant footed catfish with a prehensile tail who delights in Korean cuisine, namely people. When the creature snatches up a little girl the chase is on to find her, by Grandad, Dad, and Dad's siblings, in the sewers where she has been stashed, ostensibly for a late night snack. The fun in the movie is watching how the attributes of the family are revealed, e.g. paternal love, sibling rivalry, family loyalty etc., while on the grander scale the elements of social commentary, anti-American sentiment, environmental concern, and governmental ineptitude are played out. All in all the film is fun to watch and if the subtitles are accurate translations, the dialog is a hoot. Just don't try to pick loopholes in the plot and sit back and laugh with everybody else.

All of Jim Carey's talents aren't enough to pull this movie out the convoluted plot machinations it goes through. Walter Arrow (Jim Carey), an animal control officer (go figure!), becomes obssesed with the number 23 after his wife, Agatha (Virginia Marsden) presents him with a novel by an obscure author which she accidentally? finds in a book store. As Walter reads the book he begins to have flashbacks in which the number 23, in all its permutations, starts to lead to some sinister revelations and threatens to take over his mind. The twists and turns of the plot get so involved and murky that it takes the last ten minutes of the movie to explain what happened. Even so you will leave the theater puzzling over some very large loopholes in the plot.

Some comic books survive the transition to film (e.g. Superman. Batman, Spiderman) and their heros go on to become screen icons. Whether or not Nicolas Cages's "Ghost Rider", in my opinion, will reach iconic proprtions seems doubtful. It's just somewhat discomfiting to see a flaming skeleton astride a red hot motorcyle chasing around after the bad guys. But the part of the story that gives me pause, is that after selling his soul to the devil and then gaining it back he has a choice to return to normal life and the luscious Eva Mendez. This he turns down to remain as he is and chase the devil forever. Hmmm.

The last days of the FBI investigation into the treachery of one of their own, Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), are chronicled in this movie that is almost hard to believe given Hanssen's 25 years of service and his strong almost fundamentalist Catholic faith. But in the light of more recent exposure of intelligence failures it becomes more understandable. Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) an FBI neophyte is given the task, as Hanssen's assistant, to uncover the evidence which will bring down the super spy. Both Hanssen and O'Neill face a conflict of faith and principles within themselves and with their working relationship as it develops into respect and friendship. The destruction of that relationship with the arrest of Hanssen makes for a compelling story that will hold your attention without the obligatory shootout at the end.

"The Lives of Others" presents an unsettling picture of what life can be in a society where the state's security depends on discovering and often manufacturing evidence of seditious behavior. An officer in East Berlin's STACI (State Security department) is ordered to conduct audio surveillance in the apartment of a prominent author and playwright. As he listens in on daily activity in the apartment and the interaction of the writer with his mistress and his companions he begins to develop an empathy with the target of his surveillance. His ideology is challenged when he contrasts his own stark, lonely, and unfulfilled life. In the end he finds a way to resolve this inner conflict, to his personal detriment, and continue his life with the knowledge of having done the right thing.

Those of you who are fans of Ioan (pronounced Yo-Ahn) Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower, Fantastic Four, etc.) will probably enjoy this movie which chronicles the life of William Willburforce, a British abolitionist in the early 1880's. His perseverance and personal committment to the cause of ending the slave trade in England make for an interesting, but not exciting film. Like many biopics, knowing that success will result from heroic effort takes away the suspense.

"Cute" is the adjective that immediately comes to mind with this movie. From "meet cute" to "end cute" it has enough "cute" to supply the movie industry for the next ten years. That being said, it is a pleasant enough movie which will not strain the brain cells and leave you with warm afterglow. Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant generate some on-screen chemistry which I predict will pair them in more movies in the future. And one more thing in this movie's favor. Check out Hugh Grant's stage gyrations which would make Elvis proud.

I wonder if "Norbit"'s release was deliberately delayed until Eddie Murphy's Oscar nominated turn in "Showgirls". Note that screenwriter and producer credits contain Eddie Murphy's name. I can only conclude that the movie had to be some sort of vanity project with its trite, inane, cliched, and farcical brand of slapstick and borrowed sight gags. What sort of incentive got Thandy Newton and Cuba Gooding to appear in it is beyond my comprehension. But randy sophomoric humour has an appeal to the masses so the movie will probably make a few box office dollars.

Over the years Diane Keaton has developed the screen persona of a ditzy lady to the nth degree. In this film she adds the dimension of a overly solicitious mother intent on controlling her fiesty daughter's love life. She is bound and determined to not let the daughter (Mandy Moore) fall into the same loveless marriage she has experienced. Daughter winds up having to choose between two handsome hunks while Mom finds the passion she has been missing with the father of one of Daughter's suitor. What else can I tell you. It's definitely a date night movie.

It has been many years between "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Venus" and a world of difference from the macho heroic sweeping panaroma of sand and sun of the former and the restricted elderly world of the latter. But Peter O'Toole still has the ability to command the screen with his excruciatingly and sometimes painful potrayal of an aging thespian whose infirmities can no longer sustain his once unbounded virility. O'Toole's performance unquestionably merits the Oscar buzz and I would not be overly surprised if he should walk away with Best Actor award.

"Seraphim Falls" starts out promisingly enough with a grizzly Pierce Brosnan running through the frozen woods and over a waterfall while being chased by an equally grizzeled Liam Niesen and his mercenary posse. It seems that has Liam seeks vengeance for the burning alive of his wife and children by a troop of Yankee soldiers under the command of then Captain Brosnan. In short order Mr. Brosnan disposes of Mr. Niesen's posse in some very creative ways and the two protagonists are left chasing each other on horseback or just walking over a desolate sagebrush and sand landscape. Somehow Angelica Houston pops in on this desert saga as some sort of peddler (Go figure!) Despite excellent performances, I hardly think this will be a big draw at the box office.

Sixty minutes of this raunchy film come pretty close to being a waste of film. Its place in posterity should be as model for how to stretch thirty minutes into ninety minutes. Or on how to take a second rate TV sitcom and make a movie bomb out of it. The only respite one gets is when the the cast gathers at the sheriff's department to decide what stupid thing to do next.

If body count were the criteria to judge a movie's success, "Smokin' Aces" would be a strong contender. Bodies fall all over a swank Lake Tahoe hotel felled by every conceivable firearm known to man. All of this in response by motley bunch of assassins who are after a million dollar bounty placed on a mob-related stage magician, "Aces". Not only do they need to "off" him, but they need to relieve him of his heart. The purpose of the hit only becomes clear at an ending, involving some FBI shenanigans, that strains credibility.

What a waste of a Thursday night this flick was. The TV lineup promised more entertainment than this movie provided. Five minutes into the story you knew just what was going to happen to our college sweetheart protagonists. And as is usual in this genre, the meanie, Sean Bean, knew exactly where they would be at all times and proceded to do his thing and frighten the be-jesus out of them. Along the way he disposed of a family and decimated almost the entire New Mexico State trooper department. Hopefully Sean Bean earned off this movie enough to afford a good shower and a shave. The only other thought that I can offer without giving away the ending, is that the movie adds to what seems to be becoming a systemic theme in these types of films --- CHICKS RULE!!!

Once upon a time in an underground kingdom far away lived a princess who longed to feel the warmth of the sun on her face and feel a breeze in her hair. But leaving the kingdom would mean becoming mortal never to return. One day she ecapes and becomes mortal in the form of Ofelia, an adolescent girl with an active imagination, who with her pregnant mother has gone to join her step-father the commandant of an isolated army post. Within the confines of the garrison is a labyrinth over-seen by a mythological faun who tells Ofelia that she is indeed a princess and can return to her rightful home if she can complete three tasks. Reality intrudes in this fantasy with the cruel, sadistic commandant who tortures prisoners, the mother who dies in childbirth, a maid who aids the guerillas, a sympathetic doctor who dies because of his sympathies to the rebels. And course there are the guerillas who are fighting for their freedom from fascist Marcos regime. With a minimum special effects all of the story lines blend to produce a fascinating story that will hold your attention to the bittersweet ending.

No question you have seen this movie before in any of a myriad variations. Instead of basketball, football, soccer, hockey, ballet, ice skating, or any other endeaver where winning out over adversity is the goal, substitute "stepping". Admittedly I didn't even know this "sport", an amalgan of clog dancing, Maori facial contortions, ghetto breakdancing, disco spins, and back wrenching acrobatics, existed and to what degree it was a national collegiate competition. Into this world our intrepid ghetto-raised hero is introduced. He promptly challenges the big man on campus, steals said man's girl friend, joins a fraternity with dreams of a "stepping" championship, teaches them to incorporate ghetto steps into their routines, gets suspended, returns just in time to help his fraternity win the title. Sound familiar?

As the end credits rolled and people began to exit the theater there was none of the usual chatter. Could it be that that "Letters from Iwo Jima" revealed the face of the enemy to them for the first time? They saw that war brings out the best and the worst in the soldiers who bear the burden of death and destruction all around them and who have no control over their destiny. From the top level of command to lowly private each man had a life to which he wanted to return and dreams to which he aspired. Very much like our own American troops. But the tragic truth that the Japanese soldier faced was that he would die defending his homeland on that desolate rock called Iwo Jima.

Movies Reviews for 2006 Screenings

Movies Reviews for 2008 Screenings