Sidebar Comment Thread

Here's where you guys can comment on the blurbs on the sidebar. Have at it!

This is also where I'm going to archive some of the sidebar reviews, so revel in the posterity of it all!

28 Weeks Later
Considering how completely and totally opposed to this movie I was when I first heard that they were a) making an utterly unnecessary sequel to a movie that ended just fine the way it did, and b) not including any of the original cast or (worse) Danny Boyle...all that being said, it's not a bad movie. One scene in particular involving a horde of rage-zombies and a low-flying helicopter is worth the price of admission alone. The plot "twists" are a mixed bag -- the first one is a nice bit of misdirection as to just how the rage virus is going to return. The last one, involving the two kids, you can see coming a mile away. Just like that helicopter that...well, you should see it for yourself.

3:10 To Yuma
Full disclosure: the Western is not the film genre that holds the most interest for me, though it's not nearly as irritating as the fans of the Western, who never fail to greet any movie with some dust on its boots as the welcome return of a beloved genre, where men were men and horses were horses,that sadly went out of style because this country just got too fucking faggy. I'm looking at you, Bob Duvall. I'm also not too crazy about Russell Crowe, in case you haven't heard. All that being said, I liked this movie quite a bit. It never mythologized itself, my chief problem with the Western, and it presented characters rather than archetypes. Ben Foster continues his streak of being the best thing about the movie he's in, and Luke Wilson continues his streak of being the worst thing about the movie he's in.

Across The Universe
So take Forest Gump, Moulin Rouge!, that NBC miniseries The 60s, and Pink Floyd's The Wall, mash 'em all up, and drench them in Beatles songs and you get this movie. It's not good. The songs are good, but they're either set to such obvious (or obviously ironic) story arcs that the fun is gone. There are a handful of truly enjoyable sequences -- the "I've Just Seen A Face" in the bowling alley -- and performers -- Dana Fuchs (whose spot-on Joplin brings a whole lot to "Helter Skelter") and Joe Anderson, mostly -- but most of the rest is predictable and hollow.

Akeelah and the Bee
Wonderful, and a testament to how great actors (Laurence Fisburne; Angela Bassett) can really sell time-worn archetypes like the Mentor With a Past and the Overworked Ghetto Single Mom. Plus, Keke Palmer as Akeelah is delightful. Good year for kid actors, I have to say.

All the King's Men
I...honestly don't know. It's almost like there was a very good movie that got trapped inside the movie we got to see. I honestly am going to have to go back and watch it again, because I can't remember the last time I was torn this evenly between "excellent" and "awful." I'll keep you posted. [Oh yeah: watched it again. It's so bad.]

Alpha Dog
There are actually more virtues to this movie that I thought there would be. The attempt to depict how wannabe gangsta white boys come to actually commit the violence they only play at is uneven and ultimately toothless, but it's an enjoyable enough journey along the way. And, though I'll probably be accused of bias, Justin Timberlake is really not bad. I remember reading scathing commentary about how bad he as at playing "hard," but...that's kind of the point. Pretty boys just can't win especially when they're cast well. (See: Orlando Bloom in Troy) JT doesn't give the best performance in the film -- that would be either Ben Foster's hilariously over-the-top suburban drunken master or Sharon Stone's fat suit -- but he shows promise. Also abs.

Babel
Wow. Intense. But I thought it was excellent. Almost all the aspects of Iñaritu's 21 Grams and Amores Perros -- promising and well-acted films that devolved into annoying and pointless scenes of tragedy -- get rehabbed here and what results is a powerful and tightly-scripted (for the most part) emotional gut punch. Brad Pitt gives one of his stronger performances, but it's Adriana Barazza (with an assist from Gael Garcia Bernal) who walks away with the film. The scenes in Japan didn't work for me -- too tenuous a link to the rest of the movie; I couldn't connect with the actress at all -- but the other three story arcs kicked my ass completely. I didn't think Iñaritu had this movie in him, and I'm so happy to have been proven wrong.

Be Kind Rewind
Very cute movie, if not a terribly substantial one, but I laughed a whole hell of a lot. Mia Farrow has, I think, had a whole lot of time to prepare for her role as a batty old New York lady. B

Bobby
Terribly disappointing, although now that I think about it, I can't believe I had gotten my hopes that high for an Emilio Estevez movie. Damn you, festival buzz! Seriously, though, it's an awful movie, made all the more awful by the story potential it squandered. The script was poor -- tone-deaf beyond belief and shallow as hell -- and the casting was an utter failure. A big, sprawling "name" cast can work -- Sin City made it work with a similarly sketchy ragtag ensemble -- but, for one thing, you can't just slap some horned-rimmed glasses on people, have them smoke indoors, and pretend they're from 1968. The final 15 minutes would have been an emotional gut punch if they were even remotely earned. They weren't. AWFUL movie.

The Bourne Ultimatum
Keep 'em coming, Paul Greengrass. These movies are so immensely satisfying, in every way. They're also a testament to the value of stocking every movie -- not just the prestige pictures -- with top-shelf talent. Matt Damon, Joan Allen, and David Strathairn are superb.

The Brave One
It just never comes together, at all, despite a good Jodie Foster performance. It's all kind of muddled, Terrence Howard is annoying, and it never feels like it says anything beyond "killing is cathartic but comes at a cost," which...okay. I hate to see Neil Jordan and Jodie Foster waste opportunities like this.

Bug
Holy balls. I knew going in not to expect anything like the horror movie it's been marketed as. In fact, don't expect a horror movie at all. What this is is the most invigorating and paranoid movie I've seen in quite some time. It's a slow build for sure, and your mileage may vary as to how patient you are in the early going, but I have to say that last half-hour goes absolutely off-the-rails in the most spectacular way. It rides the edge of ridiculousness for a long time, but it keeps itself upright due to sheer momentum. The performances by Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon are frighteningly good, and on the technical side, I have not seen better art direction or sound mixing all year. Praising the sound mixing? Weird, right? But if you watch the movie you will know exactly what I mean.

Candy
I wonder if maybe Oscar voters had been able to see this movie before voting on the '05 awards, they'd have given Heath that Best Actor trophy for Brokeback Mountain. I think seeing what he does in Candy, the kind of charismatic junkie that is so 180 degrees away from Ennis Del Mar, makes you appreciate him so much more as an actor. It's a brilliant performance, and in a more ambitious movie I'd go so far as to compare it to Billy Crudup in Jesus' Son. This movie isn't quite so ambitious, though, and despite a good many fresh, atypical moments, it's ultimately another movie about heroin addicts in love. But see it for Ledger's performance -- it's worth it.

Casino Royale
First thing's first: Daniel Craig is awesome and saaaaa-mokin'. But the movie -- and this is prefaced by the fact that I don't watch Bond movies at all -- is hysterically awful. Between the part-cheetah adversaries, the bizarre violations of the space-time continuum during the Poker Game of Indeterminate Duration, and the runaway gas car that managed to skid to a stop despite HAVING NO BREAKS, we were laughing our asses off. I almost can't wait for this to come out on DVD.

Catch a Fire
Powerful, well-plotted, and not as predictable as you might think. Nothing so special as to elicit a rave, but it's solid, and Derek Luke is very, very good.

Catch and Release
I had been puzzled as to why this film got such a cold reception from critics and audiences, not to mention how it sat on a shelf for a whole year. After seeing it, I get it. It's not offensively bad, just profoundly uninteresting, and a squandering of some real talent. I admit to coming into this a huge Jennifer Garner fan already, but I do think she has tremendous potential as a romantic comedy star, not that she got to show it here. And Timothy Olyphant is really an excellent actor. And they're both wildly attractive, and yet...nothing. Just a whole pile of poorly-paced nothing. Kevin Smith does an excellent job playing Kevin Smith (if you like him as much as I do, that's a very good thing), but Juliette Lewis is asked to play a cardboard cutout and very little happens that's in the least unexpected. Susannah Grant is on probation, as of now.

The Darjeeling Limited
It's become the fashion to hate on Wes Anderson as of late, but I'll never stray. He can keep making the same movie every three years for the rest of his life and I'll be absolutely satisfied. I really loved this movie, not as passionately as Tenenbaums, but I think more than Aquatic, Bottle Rocket, and even perhaps Rushmore. Adrien Brody was, as I expected, a brilliant addition to the repertory company, and he, Schwartzman, and Wilson made a fantastic trio. It's the most emotionally manipulative film Anderson's ever done, in the sense that it's his only film that actually contains emotions, but that's not a bad thing. To each their own, of course, but I will love and cherish this movie without guilt.

The DaVinci Code
I was expecting far worse, to be honest. I mean, I was eight miles ahead of every plot twist (particularly the major one) and the flashbacking method of providing backstory was amateurish, but for a summer popcorn movie, I can say I've seen far worse. Though -- and I may have to read the book to verify -- but it seemed like there was a lot of ideological equivocation grafted onto the story so as to, for example, fend off protests from religious groups. A lot of "To be fair, we're not saying Christianity itself is the villain here," going on, in mightily unsubtle terms. That was annoying.

Deadwood: The Complete First Season
This was a Christmas present I bought for myself. I had watched the first season when it first aired, but I didn't get hooked on the show until I re-watched season 2, so it's been a blast seeing it through from the beginning. Ian McShane used to seem so scary! Now he's just Al, respectable lowlife. I'm up to the Kristen Bell episodes, which are a treat indeed.

Diary Of The Dead
Ugh. It has its moments, here and there, but it mostly suffers from what was wrong with Land of the Dead: symbolism and allegory laid on far, far too thick, and the actual story and characters are for shit. Hearing Romero say, in the Q&A after the screening, that he approaches his movies with the themes first and the characters second, is both unsurprising and reason enough for me not to have to see any more of them. He's a great guy, with a fine mind for horror, but I have no interest in movies like that.

Dreamgirls
Pretty much the definition of a slow starter, as it took me a full third of the movie to get interested. Much of the credit for finally capturing my attention has to go to Jennifer Hudson, who really is stunning in her big showstoppers, to the point where you have to suppress your standing ovation. She wouldn't get my vote, but I'll be happy if/when she wins the Oscar. The rest of it is very uneven. Eddie Murphy's storyline is clichéd and boring, for example. One aspect I did like that I wasn't expecting to: Beyonce's "Listen," which was a much more powerful moment in the movie than the hit single would suggest. The lyrics to the songs are awfully blunt, but about half the time, the music makes up for it. That's not a great batting average for a musical, much less a Best Picture contender, but I won't deny that my opinion in general was a positive one by film's end.

Eastern Promises
I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen a movie so single-mindedly concerned with getting Viggo Mortensen naked and sweaty like this movie right here. I don't even think I'm viewing this from a skewed perspective -- Cronenberg tailors this movie around events, characters, and situations that ultimately climax in Viggo writhing around in his altogether. Overall it's a decent little movie, kind of an uninspired story, but blessed by a uniformly excellent cast, Armin Meuller-Stahl and Vincent Cassel in particular. The aggressive homoeroticism -- the film's chief feature besides Cronenberg's penchant for gaping neck wounds -- was unexpected but not unwelcome.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
I'd have preferred this movie to be straight-up awful rather than simply boring, which is what it was. Cate Blanchett's fantastic, and Samantha Morton's really intriguing as Mary Queen of Scots, and if the whole movie had been about them squaring off I'd have been happy. But as it was, Blanchett got that one scene to go super over-the-top and the rest of the time she's just brooding over Clive Owen and Abbie Cornish, both of whom are pretty but give very dull performances. Blah.

Evening
I had been assured that this was a terrible movie, but I wasn't prepared for how uneventfully, boringly terrible it was. Not even a particularly gaudy performance to laugh at. Just Claire Danes, Toni Collette, and Patrick Wilson being boring as you please, Glenn Close and Meryl Streep not being in the movie long enough to do anything, and poor Hugh Dancy trying his damndest to do something but getting no help anywhere. Depressing.

Factory Girl
I seem to be in the minority on this movie, at least in regard to Sienna Miller's performance, which I found surprisingly good and compelling. The movie itself isn't very inspired and is content to listlessly drift through the life of Edie Sedgwick without really saying much of anything, but Miller certainly impressed me. And Hayden Christiensen was, yet again, a foxy guilty pleasure.

Flags of Our Fathers
Wow. I was not expecting to love this movie, after it underwhelmed with critics and audiences, but I did not expect it to be so unrepentantly terrible. Just because Clint Eastwood filmed everything in a washed-out shade of gray denim doesn't mean the story isn't as blunt as a club to the head. Not to mention repetitive, unimaginative, suffocatingly literal, and somewhat embarrassingly scripted. Thank God Eastwood was able to make Letters From Iwo Jima so quickly and salvage his reputation, because this? Is shockingly bad.

For Your Consideration
As disappointing as everybody else has been saying, unfortunately. I'm not sure what it was. There was an anger this time around, a nastiness that weighted some of the scenes down, plus we all saw that ending coming a mile away and nothing was done to make it anything but a foregone conclusion. Catherine O'Hara was delightful, of course, and John Michael Higgins made me laugh pretty much every time he was onscreen. I guess that's the enduring pleasure of this Guest installment: catching the small brilliances. Like Sandra Oh's thirty seconds of wonderful. Jane Lynch got bigger laughs with her posture than some actors got all film (Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer).

The Fountain
It's a really remarkable movie, even if it tends to shove some pretty blunt imagery in your face and expects you to see it as deep rather than...kind of goofy. It looks spectacular, however, and Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz are perfect. I think I'm going to end of liking this a whole lot more than its flaws would indicate. Watching the film, you can see the constraints Aronofsky is working with, and the way he operates within those constraints and fills every inch of the screen with something gorgeous and emotional and true approaches...well, there's some brilliance in there. Some.

The Good Shepherd
Well, it's certainly a marathon, not a sprint. And I have no idea why Angelina Jolie even bothered showing up, considering how thinly drawn her character was. But Matt Damon continues to deliver good-to-great performances in everything he's in. And there are a handful of scenes that hit hard -- the waterboarding/LSD scene in particular. I can’t get entirely worked up about a movie that's essentially kind of boring and traditional. Though I wasn't wild about wasting talent like Alec Baldwin and Billy Crudup.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Eh. I appreciated how the film recognized the tropes of this genre -- this sort of Bronx Tale outer boroughs brotherhood of the schoolboy chums thing -- and went counter to them, but it's also stifling in its bleakness. The bright spots are Rosario Dawson's brief but sparklingly lively performance, as well as the gracious decision to have Channing Tatum walk around without a shirt for much of the film.

Hairspray
I'd seen parts of this movie -- the beginning and the end -- when I was hanging with my little sister back in Buffalo last month, and I remember thinking it was an okay movie and that Travolta wasn't as terrible as I was expecting (which threw my worldview for a loop, I'll tell you what). Last week, I saw the whole thing, and while I think the first and last twenty minutes are still the best parts of the movie, I liked Travolta far, far less. He (and Amanda Bynes, too, though I like her otherwise) is so shown up by the rest of the cast that it's embarassing. He's every bit the blight on the film I thought he would be. ...There, my world is back to making sense again.

Hard Candy
There is a cheap, exploitative core to this movie about a teenage girl (Ellen Page) who lures an unreasonably attractive would-be pedophile (Patrick Wilson) into a revenge-motivated trap. But I won't lie and say it wasn't an incredibly compelling and fast-movie movie while it lasted. Page and Wilson are dynamite and make their respective cases for getting a whole lot more work in the future. It's disingenuous in that it takes this shell of a boyish 14-year-old girl and fills her with the molten lava of Charles Bronson. But, again, Page sells the hell out of it. Recommended, but take a shower afterward.

Helvetica
Okay, now I do nothing but notice fonts everywhere, so thanks a lot, but I really liked this documentary about the world and the typefaces though which it's revealed to us. It's interesting, informative, and benefits greatly from the enthusiasm of many of its interviewees.

The History Boys
Very funny and featuring some lively acting. I'll leave it to lovely John for the perfect summation of the film's appeal: "Smart boys with varying degrees of sexual fluidity." Um...word. Samuel Barnett and Dominic "He's My Age So I Don't Have To Feel Pervy" Cooper are among the best of the boys, and special mention should go to Frances De La Tour, whose character could have been superfluous if she wasn't so unwilling to let that happen.

The Holiday
FAR too boring to elicit anything like a recommendation, even though Kate Winslet is as delightful as you might expect. Her storyline isn't half bad -- if predictable and forcibly heartwarming -- but the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law portion of the movie? Total snoozer, for serious. Despite the fact that Diaz's character has my total dream job: she creates movie trailers. I know! Anyway, not that I'm advocating deep-sixing Kate Winslet's box-office bankability, but I'd wait for DVD on this one. If that.

In Bruges
Fan-freaking-tastic movie that puts every Guy Ritchie movie I've ever seen to shame. Stellar comedy combined with surprisingly touching moments and a surprising amount of blood all add up to a good time. The Colin Farrell conundrum continues as he's possibly more adorable than he's ever been before, yet he can still show up to the Oscars like a total skeezeball. B+

Inland Empire
First blush impressions of David Lynch's Inland Empire? I need to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire again. I didn't like it, then I thought about it for 24 hours straight. Now I think I did like it, but I need to see it again to make sure. Not that it'll make much more sense, but that's really, really not the point. Also, I think we should create a national holiday where we watch Grace Zabriskie's one scene over and over again.

In The Valley of Elah
It's a good movie, with a good Tommy Lee Jones performance -- it's certainly a supportable Oscar nomination he got. The movie tells a good story, though there are more than enough of those Paul Haggis touches to let you know it's a Paul Haggis movie, and thus not as good as it might have been. Too many characters externalizing what should be internalized. Charlize Theron's character seems like so much of a narrative construct that her character arc feels tacked-on and false. But it's a good movie, and unlike Crash it comes by most of its emotional impact honestly.

Jindabyne
A good movie with a GREAT Laura Linney performance. It explores the space where white guilt meets straight-up guilt, and whether we have the responsibility or even the right to try to atone for the sins of others. Well-acted and sharply written. Solid.

The Kingdom
While it certainly gave enough reasons not to like it -- its politics are patronizing, it's predictable, it tries way too hard for hokey symmetry -- but I ended up very much liking it, almost in spite of itself. It's an expertly put together little action movie with a strong and likeable cast (yes, even Jamie Foxx). I really like the way Peter Berg directs a movie.


The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Oh my God AWESOME. It's a cliche, but you really couldn't have made this movie up. It doesn't surprise me that nerds would get seriously hardcore about defending their nerdly fiefdoms, but everybody in this movie is playing such a specific role in the greater rivalry story, from the king terrified to lose his crown, to the sniveling wannabe, to the longing-to-be-cool official, to the relatively normal guy who nonetheless finds himself caught up in the obsession. It's just a fascinating story and as good a "sports" movie as has been made in quite some years.

The Last King of Scotland
Two fantastic performances -- outsized and dynamic Forest Whitaker and opportunistic and overwhelmed James McAvoy -- in the middle of a movie that almost lives up to them. It doesn't quite move beyond the two-man show, but as it is, Whitaker deserves and Oscar and McAvoy is proving me prophetic and growing into one hell of a young talent.

The Last Winter
I saw this movie with the illustrious JA and his lovely boyfriend, and while it was a fun time, it was by no means a good movie. Slow to get started, ponderous, poorly acted (Ron Perlman I can understand but seeing Connie Britton acting so poorly messed with my worldview a bit; maybe Tami Taylor is just the role she was made for and that's it), and just shoddily executed when it came to the oogedy-boogedies. It's a good idea -- global warming as a symptom of the Earth rising up and smiting we humans who have mistreated it -- but it's just massively fumbled.

Little Children
I definitely want to see it again, but on first glance I very much liked it. I guess it just goes to show that no matter how played-out the premise -- in this case the "seamy underbelly of the suburbs, with a thick ironic glaze" -- a well-made movie is its own reward. The movie does indeed have a talent for taking a whole lot of what seems wrongheaded on paper and making it work beyond all expectation. Case in point: that wicked Frontline voiceover and some extremely unsubtle foreshadowing. Kate Winslet is as good as ever, and I want to kiss Todd Field on the mouth for directing the rare film that treats Patrick Wilson as the impossibly beautiful and ogle-worthy creature that he is.

The Lookout
Doesn't break any new ground, but it's a really good movie throughout. That's three in a row for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so he's officially one of my favorite actors. And Matthew Goode was unrecognizable as the villain; he's really fucking good, and it really makes me much more positive about his participation in Watchmen.

Marie Antoinette
I was expecting to dislike this movie intensely, but I didn't. It's actually quite a good exercise in portraying the decadence of pre-Revolutionary Versailles in the guise of a sugary party girl, without making it seem too much like an exercise. There are times when the music cues and montages of frilly pink confections gets a little too heavy-handed, and the film as a whole could have been trimmed down severely. But the best scenes -- Antoinette and her party girl friends; anything having to with Asia Argento as Madame du Barry -- are wonderful, and there are enough of them to make the film worth watching.

Michael Clayton
Really, really good movie, which takes the shell of a legal thriller and fills it up with a character study. I understand why they stuck with the seemingly boring title "Michael Clayton" now -- he is what's at stake in the movie. He's the entire point of the movie, both subject and object. The screenplay is fab -- really economical in what it allows us to know about the characters and leaving the viewer room to find out for themselves. Of course, a script like that is out to sea without a good cast, which is why I'd hand out Oscar nominations to everyone. This is the best I've ever liked Clooney in anything -- he's astoundingly good. Tilda Swinton does so much with so little, both in terms of screen time and just words she gets to say. But in those three or four scenes, she gives you acres and acres of who this woman is. Even Tom Wilkinson, who gets the seemingly "easy" role of the crazy prophet (I kept thinking of Peter Finch in Network), but he manages to modulate it and keep the slobbering to a minimum. See this movie, seriously.

Mission: Impossible III
To the charges that it's simply an oversized, if very good, episode of Alias, JJ Abrams's directorial debut must plead guilty. All the tropes are there, from the "72 hour earlier" opening gambit, to the nervous Op Tech guy, to Michael Giacchino's score. Thing is...I really liked Alias, and this movie's a lot of fun. A little too easy to peg the plot by virtue of where the cast is billed, if you follow me, but aside from the fact that you can't be arsed to care about Tom Cuise and his lady love, it's some quality Abrams spy fare.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
Kind of dull, despite the 90-minute running time a lot (I mean a LOT) of go-go-go big band music. But Amy Adams and Frances McDormand are very good, and Lee Pace is just a peach. Oh, and whatsherface who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies...does she just talk like that all the time? Weird. B-

Monster House
Really fun. Nothing groundbreaking, as far as animated movies go, but it's a clever and enjoyable movie that doesn't need to bathe in pop culture references in order to endear itself to the audience.

The Nines
Pretty good, if inconsistent, and gets too cute with the whimsy at times. It goes for Big Ideas, though, and I liked that. The big news, however, is that Melissa McCarthy needs to be working a TON more than she already is, because she's just phenomenal here, and way more versatile than I ever gave her credit for.

Nixon
After delving into JFK again, I had an intense desire to re-examine this film, particularly since I don't remember digging it all that much. This time, whether it's because I know more of the history or I'm missing that old Oliver Stone brio or what, but I really loved it. As pure film, it's Stone at his best, with some wickedly awesome performances. But the amazing thing is how Stone was able to film the ultimate rebuke to George W. Bush a good 10 years before the fact. Seriously, watch this movie and take in all the comparisons to our current political situation. Then have a little quiet cry as to how we could have forgotten all the lessons we should have learned from Nixon about abuse of power and White House corruption.

Notes on a Scandal
A good movie that's gotten better as I keep remembering it. Judi Dench is just scarily good, for one, and I do admire how the screenplay keeps showing you all her cards at once -- making her three-dimensional without a hint of softening. And I'm always a sucker for a good Phillip Glass score.

The Painted Veil
This is not my genre of movies, the mannered costume drama cross-bred with the white man in a brown land film. But this movie not only held my interest, I actually ended up pretty invested in it by the end. Much credit to Naomi Watts and especially Edward Norton for their strong performances and to the script (and the Sommerset Maugham novel it adapted) for not taking too many of the usual shortcuts.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Or maybe this is the worst movie of the year. It's sad to see what began as an unexpectedly sparkling comedy slump across the finish line weighted down with too much convoluted mythology and not nearly enough action. Also, Peter Travers can suck it, he and all the other critics who blamed the downfall of the movie on Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley. Nobody in this movie did anything interesting, not even darling Johnny Depp. At least Orlando Bloom gave me a reason to stare at the screen. Actually, I should take that back -- Geoffrey Rush is a lot of fun. But the cast is not to blame for this movie's utter failure. It's the overstuffed plot, dull direction, and bloated (3 hours!) running time.

Planet Terror
This would be the...er, gooier half of the Grindhouse double feature. Seriously, it's the most disgusting movie I've seen this year. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it did mean that whole chunks of the movie went unseen by me due to turning away in revulsion. Good job, I suppose.

The Prestige
It's too long, that I can say for certain. And it very likely tries to cram too much into its narrative. For for a very long movie, it's paced as well as you possibly could pace it, and simply from a cinematography standpoint, it's brilliant. As for the actors, Michael Caine manages to stand out the most, playing a very Michael Caine part. And Scarlet Johansson, while not being in very much of the film, gets a couple of the juiciest scenes. It's not a "best of the year" movie, but it's certainly worth the price of a ticket.

Pumpkin
Tonally schizophrenic movie -- like, wildly so -- but I'm glad I saw it. It kept bouncing back from hyper-ironic to sweetly earnest, to hopelessly retro, and I honestly couldn't keep up. B-

The Queen
First and foremost, Helen Mirren is as good as advertised. She creates a strong and, most importantly, likable character that ended up turning my preconceptions around. As a film, its strengths -- it manages to touch upon every crack and crevasse of what could easily be seen as a simple story of tragedy -- are so closely intertwined with its weaknesses -- a disappointing tendency to spell everything out, particularly toward the end. Plus, any film that can make that string of a case for the royal family at the expense of a sheepish public has my respect.



Rendition
For a movie whose subject matter is so vital, this is a terrifically dull movie, with a whole lot of time wasted on a go-nowhere subplot that could have been better spend deepening its largely shallow characters. Jake Gyllenhaal is very good, as his is the only character that's allowed to change, but the rest seems like a tragic waste of time. C

Rocket Science
A movie this low-key and precious cannot afford to move as slowly as this does, and it's guilty of most of the things a movie like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine gets accused of (i.e., quirks for quirk sake -- that cellist playing Violent Femmes??). That being said, once it gets going, it's got some seriously funny moments, and the universe of policy debate is absolutely fascinating. Also, if you hate Nicholas D'Agosto as "West" on Heroes (and why wouldn't you?), this movie will either deepen that hatred or completely turn you around. Personally, I thought he was phenomenal.

Running With Scissors
When I first heard this movie was getting made, I said that its success or failure would depend solely on the kid they got to play Augusten. Turns out I was wrong: Joseph Cross is pretty great in what ultimately becomes an impossible role, but the movie still sinks. It's just hollow in a way the book wasn't. And then, maddeningly enough, just when we come upon something heartfelt and surprising...the movie ends. I need to read the book again just to remember why I loved it.

Severance
Kind of a so-so movie that never truly took off for me, but there is one scene -- the one with the bear trap -- that is utterly horrifying and hilarious and one of the best I've seen in a horror movie in a long time. Just fantastic.

Shortbus
The Salon.com reviews says this: "Let us sound the ass kazoo of freedom! is Mitchell's rallying cry." How do I offer a better recommendation than that? Make no mistake, this movie is not for the faint of heart. But if you can embrace the graphic and non-simulated sex scenes, your reward is a sweet, funny movie that manages to say something without having to say something, you know? The sense of humor employed in this movie means you smile before you laugh, and the film's two biggest laughs come in the most unexpected of places. Loved it.

Shrek The Third
Same issue as the first two (though I still admit to laughing my ass off at the second one): clever premise drowns in haphazardly commissioned pop culture references and annoying vocal performances by the three leads. You really do wish that Prince Charming and the princess brigade could have the movie all to themselves. That said, here's hoping that another, better movie steals the idea to use Heart's "Barracuda" on the soundtrack for a siege of some sort. That shit was hot.

Snow Angels
Wow, depressing! But very well done, kind of splitting the difference between David Gordon Green's romantic slice-of-life All the Real Girls and southern gothic Undertow. I was expecting something of a different movie, so the turn of events about halfway through probably took me by surprise more than most, but I though Green really lulled the audience into security with some fine human comedy before pulling the rug out. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell are good, and Amy Sedaris is hysterical just standing there, but the standout performances are all given by the kids: Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, and Connor Paolo. B+

Spider-Man 3
Holy God, was this an unexpectedly terrible movie. I was never as big of a fan of the Spidey franchise as others, but I still liked them and even after hearing how this underperformed I was shocked by how unrepentantly bad it was. The only saving grace, James Franco's unexpectedly affecting performance, was ruined by an over-repetetive storyline. Everything else was just uninspired, poorly thought out, and silly. Just awful.

Starter For Ten
Yet another placeholder light Brit flick for James McAvoy to tread water in while he waits to become the Next Big Thing in the states. He and The History Boys' Dominic Cooper are the leads, but they don't make out or anything. You know who I did like was Rebecca Hall, who played Christian Bale's wife in The Prestige. She's in Woody Allen's 2008 movie, and I'm really interested to see what she does with it.

Stranger Than Fiction
DELIGHTFUL, to borrow from James Lipton, or at least from (appropriately enough) Will Ferrell's version of James Lipton. So much better than I was even expecting. This is a smart movie with a clever premise that does the audience the supreme favor of not spending two hours pointing out how clever it is. The premise is presented, and then the filmmakers set out to tell a story. And it's a story with well-drawn characters and just about the strongest and most likable acting you can imagine. Ferrell is super, and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman are pretty excellent as well. But Emma Thompson steals the show, for me. That lady needs to be given a national holiday in her honor. LOVE HER. It's just the most fantastic movie. And if it seems too thinky for a Friday night? It's not. There are times when it's like a lit geek's wet dream of a comedy (where else would you get a punch line about a Golem?), but it had a near-packed theatre in Buffalo APPLAUDING at the end. It's a crowd pleaser. At least in my crowd.

Talk To Me
It's a really good movie, with Don Cheadle going a good job but Chiwetel Ejiofor doing a great job. It's a movie that passed the multitasking test, i.e. I was planning on watching this on the laptop while doing other things but I ended up stopping and just watching the movie. Also, Taraji P. Henson needs to be in a lot more movies, because she's great.

The Ten
Spotty and not nearly as funny as it should have been, given the talent. Winona Ryder's excellent, though, and she's so rarely in anything these days that it might be worth watching for that. And Adam Brody continues to beguile me long after everyone else in the culture has gotten over him. His segment was the movie's best -- too bad it comes so early in the film.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Disappointing! Terribly so. I was expecting so much more from this movie than self-congratulatory cutesiness and an overlong series of conversations with private investigators. Less unmasking of the MPAA members' identities, please; more interviews with filmmakers about why we should care.

La Vie En Rose
The worst movie of the year? It's up there. It's one big braying scream of a film that wants to use every color in the rainbow of human misery to bring gravity to a central performance -- Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf -- that tries to impress us with sheer volume. I cannot believe she's going to pull an Oscar nomination for that crap.

Volver
Well, I officially will have to catch up on the Almodovar stuff, because I very much enjoyed this movie. As advertised, Penelope Cruz is actually good -- it's a world of difference to see her so relaxed onscreen -- and along with Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas provides a hell of an acting trio. Dueñas is especially impressive and responsible for many of the film's funniest moments. Overlong, sure, but very likable.

Waitress
Really great, funny, sweet little movie that may not be for everyone due to some tonal inconsistencies and an aggressively happy ending, but I absolutely loved it. So great to see Keri Russell get another chance at a lead role, and she's brilliant, and in a very un-Felicity way besides. Also great? Jeremy Sisto, who has to play the abusive lout of the system and constantly brushes him just to the edge of cartoonish before pulling him right back. It's great to watch. And Nathan Fillion is as dreamy as he needs to be, plus ten. Great movie.

Year Of The Dog
Once again, "animal people" (dog people in this case) make no sense to me. I'm sorry. This is a good movie, but not a favorite of mine like it is of other people I know. That being said, it has maybe the best ending of any movie I've seen this year. Loved that they left things like that. Molly Shannon's really good, but my favorite performances were given by Peter Sarsgaard and Regina King.