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Title
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Description
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Capote |
This movie recounts author and Jet-Setter Truman Capote's life while writing his book "In Cold Blood" in the early 1960's. Accompanied by his childhood friend from Alabama, Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), Truman begins in Garden City, Kansas and then later Leavenworth prison interviewing the friends of the slain Clutter family and then later the killers in prison. Capote is shown as very complex, egotistical, ambitious and manipulative. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a riveting central performance.
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Good Night and Good Luck |
A strong account of how one person can make a real difference in American history. This fast-paced docudrama recounts the events of the mid-1950s leading up to CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow’s decision to stand up against fiery Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was out to rid the country of communism. Set almost entirely inside the smoke-filled, pressurized newsrooms at CBS, the picture moves at a breakneck pace and successfully recreates the black-and-white look of that era, giving the film an added air of authenticity. I thought Frank Langella did a great job of recreating powerful CBS CEO William Paley.
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe |
A Disney adaptation of C.S. Lewis's enchanting story. To keep them safe during the World War II air raids of London, Mrs. Pevensie sends her children off to stay at a professor's country estate. But an innocent game of hide-and-seek leads them to a magical wardrobe that leads to Narnia, a world frosted with ice and filled with magical beings that is stuck in eternal winter at the hands of the cruel White Witch. Under the leadership of the great lion Aslan the children go into battle.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
The main characters are maturing and this film takes on the problems of growing up and Harry's dangerous encounter with a strong Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore announces that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament and Harry is selected by the Goblet to compete in a series of life-threatening tasks even though Harry is too young. Dumbledore asks Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the eccentric new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, to keep his highly perceptive and magical eye trained on the teenage wizard. But nothing is more daunting than the most terrifying challenge of them all - finding a date for the Yule Ball.
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Walk The Line |
Superior acting and authentic crooning capture the emotional subtleties of Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and his inevitable downfall during the early years of his touring career. As a child on a cotton farm in Depression-era Arkansas, Cash shows a strong interest in music, escaping from his no-frills life and strict overbearing father. As Cash’s success grows, so does his relationship with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), drugs, and alcohol, putting a strain on his family life.
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Wallace and Gromit |
The cheese-loving Wallace (Peter Sallis) and his ever-faithful dog Gromit (who never talks) star in a comedy adventure in their first full-length animated film. As the annual Giant Vegetable Competition approaches, it's "veggie-mania" in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood and the two enterprising chums have been cashing in with their pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto," which humanely dispatches the rabbits that try to invade the sacred gardens. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging beast begins terrorizing the neighborhood, attacking the town's prized plots at night and destroying everything in its path. Desperate to protect the competition, its hostess, Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter), commissions Anti-Pesto to catch the creature and save the day.
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Lord Of War |
Based on actual events, this black comedy/drama stars Nicholas Cage as international arms smuggler Uri Orlov. The story follows Uri from his humble beginnings as a Soviet immigrant in 1970s Brooklyn and peaks with his involvement in selling off the stockpiled arsenal of post-Cold War Ukraine to--among other top clients--the sadistic African dictator André Baptiste. Lord of War is an intelligent examination of the gun trade, but the plot is too scattershot.
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The Man |
Mismatching the two principal characters in a movie has become a comedy staple in Hollywood. In this movie Andy Fidler (Eugene Levy) is a dental products salesman who gets mistaken as an arms dealer. Tough-as-nails cop Derrick Vann (Samuel L. Jackson) concocts a screwball scheme in which Fidler will impersonate the crook he resembles to lead Vann to the criminals. But despite the steely presence of Samuel L. Jackson and the comic timing of Eugene Levy, the plot is pointless and the jokes are rehashed.
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Red Eye |
Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) hates to fly, but terror awaits her on a night flight to Miami. Lisa is seated next to a charming man named Jackson (Cillian Murphy) but moments after takeoff, Jackson drops his façade and menacingly reveals a plot to kill the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and if she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed by an assassin. Trapped within the confines of a jet at 30,000 feet, Lisa has nowhere to run and no way to summon help. As the miles tick by, Lisa knows she is running out of time as she looks for a way to thwart her captor and stop a terrible murder. Red Eye is a very good thriller with solid acting.
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Sky High |
Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano), the son of legendary superheroes Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston) begins high school at Sky High, an elite school for the children of superheroes. The only problem is that Will apparently has no special powers, and he can't let his parents find out! Lacking the abilities needed to attend hero classes, Will falls in with the misfit sidekicks, whose only powers include turning into a guinea pig, glowing, and melting. However, when an old villain with a new power reappears on the scene, the pressure is on Will and his sidekicks to save his parents, his school, and the earth itself. This superhero coming-of-age flick is moderately entertaining, family-friendly stuff.
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Dukes Of Hazard |
A dumb adaptation of a TV show where plot is simply stringing together a lot of car chases. Slipping into the boots made famous by John Schneider and Tom Wopat, Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville play moonshine-selling cousins, Bo and Luke Duke. Along with their ridiculously gorgeous cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) and joke-telling Uncle Jessie (Willie Nelson), the Duke boys take on Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (M.C. Gainey) and county commissioner Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds) when they discover that Boss Hogg is using his leverage to run them off their farm in order to turn Hazzard County into a strip mine for coal.
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The Island |
A SciFi movie mixed together with an action/car chase movie. Starts out like "Logan's Run" with an indoor controlled society dealing with the aftermath of an envrionmental catastrophe and then evolves into an action movie with a suped-up Caddy and motorcycles that can fly. Plot holes and impossible escapes galore, but it's enjoyable if you don't analyze it too closely, although it's a bit long-running.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
This movie is true to the children's book and the kids liked it (the audience even broke out in applause at the theater at the end). Johnny Depp does a good job as the quirky and somewhat weird Willie Wonka. The naughty kids get their just rewards and the Oompa Loompas do their dances. I particularly liked the sequence with the army of 100 squirrels cracking nuts and I liked how the colorful fantastic chocolate factory contrasted with the grey humdrum world outside.
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Fantastic Four |
The comic book quartet is finally on the silver screen. I thought they did a credible job although the critics were less enthusiastic. The characters and plot are pretty shallow, but I thought there was enough action and dialogue to make it reasonably interesting.
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War Of The Worlds |
Strong updated remake of the 1953 version with Tom Cruise fighting to save his dysfunctional family from the horror. The basic story outline and some of the scenes are very familiar and they are very dark, scary and chilling. The special effects are outstanding of course. The plot change of burying the alien ships long ago didn't make sense to me and they could have reduced the focus on blood near the end of the movie.
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Bewitched |
Based on the original TV series, the movie starts out light and breezy and you're ready for the fun ride with Nicole Kidman as Samantha. Then it goes whirling downhill into totally boring nonsense as the clueless Samantha falls in love with an egocentric lout. I thought Nicole did a good job with Samantha but the plot and chemistry with co-actor Will Ferrell were nonexistent. There were some cute moments (her Dad talking to her in a supermarket through food labels), but overall this movie is pretty much a waste of time.
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Batman Begins |
I liked this one. Batman is a dark, introspective and brooding character haunted by the death of his parents and a scary run-in with bats in his youth. The villians can feel the deep menace in his softspoken voice and they know he's a strong, grimly determined predator and and will do whatever he can to defeat them. I wish all the Batman movies had been as good as this one.
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Mr. and Mrs. Smith |
I thought this movie was pretty good and definitely watchable again (if you're married). Two secret-agent-like assassins get married, then get the marital blahs after "5 or 6 years", then almost get killed together after fighting off a virtual army of fellow assassins who are trying to kill them, then WHAM the sex is back in the marriage! I enjoyed the "what heck are you doing" and "we'll talk about this later" situations. This movie is just for fun and doesn't take itself very seriously.
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Robots |
Rodney Copperbottom goes to Robot City to make his fortune by inventing, but finds Mr. Bigweld is just a figurehead now and the Bigweld company is now being run by the evil Phineas T. Ratchet and his equally evil money-hungry Mom. What follows is a typical tale of the underclass robots fighting against obsolescence and big business in a robot-eat-robot world. But it's a pleasant enough diversion for a Saturday afternoon.
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Madagascar |
The animals in New York's Central Park Zoo are restless and escape with the help of some penguins and end up on the island of Madagascar. The urbanites are definitely out-of-place but after scaring off the native Foosa (a sort of hyena) they make friends with the Lemurs and "the party is on" and everybody is happy, except they're stuck on the island and are wanting to go home. This leaves it wide open for Madagascar 2. It's a fun animated movie but pretty mindless.
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Mindhunters |
A whodunit. Just accept it and don't get hung up on plot, dialogue or believability. A small group of FBI trainees on a training exercise on a small island are being killed one at a time. Who's the next one to be killed, how will it be done, who's doing it and why? Many questions, few answers until the end. It was okay. All the trainees had "weak spots" and it kept you guessing since everybody was getting killed in different gruesome ways related to their known "weak spot". The killer was twisted for sure, but it was not obvious who it was.
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Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith |
The long awaited completion to the 6-part series. Yes it's definitely good movie. But very dark and serious without any happy moments. The special effects were terrific as usual. The dialogue was lame as usual and Padmé is reduced from heroine to crying over Anakin. Anakin turns to the dark side rather easily; I was expecting a more troubled conversion with more confusion and doubt. And the Jedi are too nice - that is their weakness. Obi Wan should have killed Anakin. And Darth Sidious should have been killed instantly when they had him basically defeated. They didn't do it and they paid the price.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
This movie was a bit of a disappointment. It did not translate very well from the book. Much of the humor seemed vastly faded and the movie seemed best only at the very beginning (destruction of Earth) and the very end (creation of new Earth) where the special effects and the dialogue were equally good. But the middle parts were really pretty dull. I actually started checking the theater clock about 2/3rds through the picture - a very bad sign.
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Crash |
Racism and racial stereotypes take center stage in this tangled arrangement of Los Angeles residents messing each other up over race. The movie tries way too hard to get it's point across and you're pretty worn out by the end of the film. Every time they show you somebody doing good, the next moment that same person is shown doing something equally evil. And vise versa. After being whipsawed for 2 hours you're pretty tired.
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The Interpreter |
Nicole Kidman plays a UN Interpreter who overhears a whispered political assassination plot directed at a Central African dictator. Sean Penn plays a Secret Service Agent assigned to protect her when the assassins come looking for her. There's an air of authenticity to this film since they filmed at the UN Assembly Building itself, but strangely it felt somewhat lifeless at times and I never really got into it. Also the relationship between Kidman's and Penn's characters just didn't feel genuine to me.
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Sahara |
I really wish average movies like this one wouldn't waste perfectly good titles like "Sahara". Modern day gold hunters follow the trail of a US Civil War Confederate ironclad ship that somehow found it's way up a now dried-out river into Western Africa and is covered in sand dunes. Throw in an evil dictator, a solar power station that generates no power, and the World Health Organization and you get a real mess.
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Sin City |
Wow! Exceptionally dark, violent and R-rated, this is a great movie from a visual standpoint. Filmed in Black & White with occasional garish out-of-place colors using mostly CGI sets, it follows several nasty characters in an episodic way through the dark underbelly of Sin City. People are constantly hacked up and killed in some pretty horrible ways so bring a strong stomach. But the visuals are unique.
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Hostage |
A tired ex-LAPD hostage negotiator (Bruce Willis) gets involved in a small town robbery where 3 thugs invade a rich guys home and then are trapped there when the silent alarm goes off. Plot twist: the rich guy is a player in the underworld and now lots of desperate bad people are worried that data in a DVD case in the house must be recovered before the law enforcement guys find it. They threaten to kill the negotiator's family if he doesn't find it and hand it over. As usual in recent films - confusing and highly improbable.
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Be Cool |
John Travolta is lackluster in his portrayal of Chili Palmer, a former loanshark who is trying to release a singer from her contract. But nobody wants that to happen. Lots of people getting shot without much emotion. The only redeeming aspect of this movie is the "The Rock" who is actually quite funny in his part. There are also several rip-offs of Pulp Fiction (dancing with Uma Thurman for example).
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Constantine |
OK, this movie is weird. John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) has the power to see demons who are walking this earth in human form and his self-defined mission is to send them away permanently. Things get very dangerous for Constantine when Satan's son, Satan himself and the (bad?) angel Gabriel get mixed in. I liked the fiery visions of hell; it looked pretty bad. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.
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Million Dollar Baby |
A great boxing movie with Clint Eastwood as the aging trainer who reluctantly takes on "a girl" as his next trainee. This one doesn't end up where you'd expect, so better take a hanky.
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Coach Carter |
Samuel L. Jackson plays real-life California high school basketball coach Ken Carter who in 1999 transformed a losing urban team (Richmond) into a winning team practically overnight and made the kids get better grades with some unorthodox ways. A bit long in length, you get about what you expect in this kind of film, with lots of tough love and fighting with the parents and the school board. SLJ does a good job, but you know the plot and the outcome far in advance.
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White Noise |
The dead are trying to talk to us through the radio and TV, didn't you know? Not scary, not thought provoking, not making much sense and not very interesting. The title just about sums up my feeling about the movie and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have some time to kill.
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