Brick - Johnson, 2005

Brick is the hard-boiled detective story retold at a California High School. And it mostly works, much as Clueless (7) worked in retelling Jane Austen. Hard to say if it is noir parody or noir hommage, but either way, it is stylistic and enjoyable.

Makes me interested in seeing The Brothers Bloom. A 7 rating.

W - Stone, 2008

I've already commented on Oliver Stone a bit. He has some talent but I often cringe at the way he portrays historical incidents. W seems like a TV movie of the week type of thing, very cheesy, and often stooping low. However, it does have some strong points, the first being Josh Brolin's performance as the title character. He nabbed the supporting actor Oscar this year for Milk, but he's excellent here as well.

Everyone here is more or less portrayed as a parody of their real selves, so if you can get by that a bit and not dwell on Stone's motives there, then this is a fairly entertaining film. A 5 rating.

Quarantine - Dowdle, 2008

Quarantine is basically The Blair Witch Project (4 rating) in an apartment building complex full of rapid zombies. I like the faux-documentary style to some extent, but there's not a whole lot of talent displayed here. Jennifer Carpenter clearly spent too much time working on her "trembling".

A 3 rating.

Seven Pounds - Muccino, 2008

Seven Pounds is a slow, sad, but basically moving story about a man trying to redeem himself. Will Smith does a decent job as the tragic hero. It's by no means a great film, but it is honest enough to merit applause. Rosario Dawson is much better than she usually is as his doomed girlfriend.

A 6 rating.

No Such Thing - Hartley 2001

A very odd, slow moving satire (I guess) about a monster and the media. I liked the monster, but just about nothing else. It's just very flat, with extremely bad music.

A 3 rating.

Righteous Kill - Avnet, 2008

Like everyone else, I'm a big fan of De Niro and Pacino, so it's great to see them in a film together, even if they are both too old for their roles. And they are both good in this film, better than most work they've done in years.

The only big problem with this film is that the script is obvious. It is supposed to be a crime thriller, but everyone will know the ending ahead of time. Avnet is more known as a producer rather than a director. He work is basically good here, but not outstanding. This is the same writer as in Inside Man, which was also pretty easy to guess. Maybe fooling the audience is either out of fashion or too difficult, so writers just try to make things all too clear?

Anyway, it's still well worth a look to see the interactions between the two leads. A 6 rating.

Gran Torino - Eastwood, 2008

Clint Eastwood is another director who I think is vastly over-rated. He's not bad, just not worthy of the many accolades he receives. He's all to obvious and his characters are very one-dimensional. He also uses no subtlety whatsoever, and will pound his message in with a hammer.

Gran Torino is a typical film for him. It's pretty good, but by no means great. The biggest problem I have with it is the stereotypical roles everyone plays. I liked the ending, but it was obvious, just like Eastwood. A 5 rating.

Swing Vote - Stern, 2008

Swing Vote is a real stinker. The plot is stupid, the acting is awful, the pacing terrible, etc, etc. Kevin Costner performance has got to be a lock for a Raspberry Award, and several of the supporting actors here need nominations as well. Madeline Carroll certainly gets my vote for Worst Child Actress for the year.

You really have to wonder how movies this bad get made. A 2 rating.

Vantage Point - Travis, 2008

Vantage Point is exactly like watching a longer episode of a TV show such as 24, which I'm not a fan of. There's lots of motion and explosions and shooting and impossible plotting, and not much else. I guess that isn't surprising since this is Travis' first film outside of TV.

It's OK, but over-acted and all too pat. A 4 rating.

Beowulf - Zemeckis, 2007

First off, I saw the 2D version, not the 3D, so take that into consideration.

Zemeckis is a director who often relies on gimmicks for his films, often losing focus on his story: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (4 rating), Forrest Gump (6 rating), and The Polar Express (5 rating) are examples. So, it makes it all the more surprising that he manages to give us a rousing good adventure story here.

There's plenty of action and heroic battles. The computer animation is fairly good. I'm sure it will look very dated in few years, but technically, it is quite a nice job.

Beowulf is depicted as a flawed hero who, like the king he took over for, pays a price for his weaknesses. The screenplay takes great liberties with the original story, but it tells an interesting tale. Nothing super deep here, but it does scratch below the service and is flat-out entertaining.

It is Zemeckis' best film and a 7 rating.

Man On Wire - Marsh, 2008

Man On Wire is a capable documentary about Philippe Petit's tightrope walk across the World Trade Towers. Overall, it is very good, but the music is bad and it sometimes gets a bit slow.

Well worth a look, but nothing special. A 6 rating.

Tropic Thunder - Stiller, 2008

I hugely despise Ben Stiller's work overall, often equating his participation in a movie as a fairly reliable bellwether of crappy content. Every once in awhile though, he does something moderately interesting. It's still mostly trash, but some of it is good. Dodgeball (5 rating) is a good example of this. Stupid, but it has its moments.

The same is true of Tropic Thunder. It's a parody of both the movie making industry and of war films, such as Apocalypse Now (8 rating). The movie never takes itself seriously, and is clearly self-parody, and it has several moderately interesting moments.

It's by no means a great film, but it is better than expected and mostly watchable. I was originally going to give it a 5, but after sleeping on it, the cheap parts stayed with me more that the good bits. A 4 rating.

We Own The Night - Gray, 2007

We Own The Night is a generally solid police drama with a few serious plot holes. Phoenix and Wahlberg are the sons of police chief Duvall. Initially, only Wahlberg is in the police force, but Phoenix gets dragged in after Duvall gets wacked. The acting by the main three is generally good.

The scenes with Phoenix and his girl friend are weak. And the scene where his friend accidentally mentions the hotel Phoenix was hidden away in is just laughable. What a cheap plot line!

Still, there is more good than bad here. The atmosphere is gritty and aside from a few scenes, it feels real. A 6 rating.

Inside Man - Lee, 2006

It may seem like I'm in Bizarro world when I give two positive Spike Lee pictures in a row, but here goes. I'm also going to update my last Lee review and say that this is his best film.

Now, that said, this isn't a great film by any means. It's just a better than average bank heist flick, but that's much more than I'd expect from Lee. Owens and Washington are excellent as robber vs cop, and the supporting cast is good. A 6 rating.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Sollett, 2008

Really had hopes for this film because I like the two leads, Michael Cera and Cat Dennings, but this movie just falls flat. First, what is with that disgusting running joke about the gum? That is just sick and no one wants to watch that. Next, the gay stuff is just so 1990's, and everyone else has moved on. Finally, Sollett is a decidedly untalented director.

Too bad because the music, the leads, and the setting were all promising. A 3 rating.

Pizza - Christopher, 2005

Pizza is a sparse and bizarre film about an obese teenage girl who hangs out with a handsome older pizza delivery guy for an evening. Not sure if it is a comedy, a comment about fitting in, or a coming of age film. This movie has its heart sort of in the right place, but it just doesn't go anywhere.

A 2 rating.

Run Fat Boy Run - Schwimmer, 2007

Run Fat Boy Run seems like a very curious choice for Schwimmer's feature film directorial debut. An out-of-shape loser (Simon Pegg) decides to run a marathon to gain back respect for his former fiancee. Most of the cast is British and the comedy is pretty fluff.

The film has some serious problems, including having Pegg and his rival (Hank Azaria) outpacing the elite runners in the race for a bit!! Also, Azaria's abrupt change from seemingly decent guy to complete jerk seems bizarre, yet predictable. Plus, the excessive news coverage Pegg gets for refusing to quit the race (never mind that he's running for about 12 hours and most every marathon ends after 6 or 7) is just surreal.

It's too bad, because it could have been a passable film. The supporting characters tend to outshine the leads, and a better film could have been made by paying less attention to the main love story, which doesn't really work. A 3 rating, and really closer to a 2 1/2.

Quantum of Solace - Forster, 2008

I'm not a big fan of the James Bond films. Most of them are pretty wretched. This one is better than most of them, but still nothing to write home about. Daniel Craig does a capable Bond (he certainly takes a beating), the scenery looks great, the women are hot, and the action sequences are well done. The problem is with the story. It seems very shallow and comic book.

Still, hmm, it is OK. Between a 4 and a 5. I'll give it a 5.

Crash - Haggis, 2004

Crash is an over-hyped and greatly over-rated film. It's just the kind of trendy baloney that wins an Oscar.

Now, putting all of that aside, it isn't that bad. There is some interesting dialogue and the story fits together nicely. Most of the acting is reasonably OK. The music is pretentious. The direction seems like a TV show. A 5 rating.

Butterfly On A Wire - Barker, 2007

Butterfly On A Wire is a variation on the much imitated Fatal Attraction (5 rating) theme. Other than a better than average performance by Pierce Bronson, there isn't much new or interesting here. It isn't terrible, just not terribly original.

A 4 rating.

Get Smart - Segal, 2008

Get Smart has surprisingly very little to do with the TV series of the same name and much more in common with Segal's other lame films. Carrell's performance is basically the same as in 40 Year Old Virgin (5) or The Office series, only with less sensitivity. It's not very funny and not at all clever.

Plenty of cheap, tasteless jokes here too. A 2 rating.

Miracle At St. Anna - Lee, 2008

First off, I'm not a fan at all of Spike Lee. In fact, I think he's one of the worst and most over-rated directors working. Now, here he comes out with a long movie that generally gets poor reviews and I'm going to tell you that it isn't that bad at all. In fact, I think it is his best film, which isn't saying a whole lot in my eyes, since the only film of his I have rated above a 3 is She's Gotta Have It (5 rating).

One of the main flaws is that it doesn't seem realistic throughout, but the point of the story (I think) is about miraculous events, even in the shadow of tragedy. So, I'm inclined to be a bit more forgiving about that. And even though it is a long film, it doesn't really seem overly so. Another of the most common criticism of this film is that it is boring, but I think the pacing is pretty good overall.

A lot of people have castigated the acting, and I think that goes along with the suspension of reality. These people are not behaving the way people do in real life, but rather in a story about a miracle.

Now, there are a few scenes which display Spike Lee at his very worst, including the horrible "white bigot owner of the soda shop" scene, or the "spit in the white bigot officer's canteen" scene. That is the Spike Lee I despise, but there isn't much of that in this film. Without those scenes, I'd give this a 6. But, a 5 rating.

Eagle Eye - Caruso, 2008

First, I want to bemoan the fact that some of the most ridiculous movies ever made have Chicago as their backdrop. We can add Eagle Eye to that list. The plot can be perfectly summed up by saying this movie takes the evil HAL computer from 2001 (8 rating) and lets it control people via the beginning of The Matrix (7 rating).

The computer decides to get ordinary people to carry out a crazy plan to assassinate the president. There's so many plot holes here that I couldn't possibly mention them all, but the biggest one is that the computer demonstrates fantastic, god-like abilities, including being able to kill them by electrocution. So, what does it need those humans for in the first place?

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Plotwise, this is a 1, but there are some saving graces, including some good action shots and a very good (although we've seen it before) performance by Billy Bob Thornton. Caruso is a TV director and it shows. He probably doesn't even read the script. A 3 rating.

The Wrestler - Aronofsky, 2008

The Wrestler is clearly a vehicle to get Mickey Rourke an Oscar nomination. It succeeded at that, deservedly, and bagged one for Marisa Tomei as well. I suppose Tomei got hers for still looking good with her clothes off, and maybe that's as good a reason for an Oscar nomination as any.

Aronofsky is a capable director, but the subject matter here is uncomfortable, much as it was in Requiem For A Dream (6 rating). It's all very stylish, but do we really want to watch that? At least that is better than being boring, as he was with Pi (5 rating) and The Fountain (4 rating).

Rourke is very believable as an aging profession wrestler, but unless you are interested in that genre, the film doesn't offer much more. This isn't Raging Bull (8 rating), where both De Niro and Scorsese were able to create something much more than the story of a boxer's career. It's a good effort with an excellent performance, but not as good as it is hyped up to be.

It also has one cheap, sensationalistic scene, where Rourke punches a meat saw in frustration. No need for that. A 6 rating.

A Love Song For Bobby Long - Gabel, 2004

A wordy, pretentious, and mostly dull effort from a new (and poor) director. John Travolta can be quite good, but when he's bad, such as here, he's very, very bad. Ditto for Scarlet Johansson, who has that sulk down, but not much else. Haven't read the book, but it seems like a story that just doesn't translate well to the screen. I'm very surprised that someone tried to make this film, and it was clearly a mistake.

Gabriel Macht is actually pretty good here, but it isn't enough to salvage the film. A 3 rating.

One Point O - Renfroe/Thorrson - 2004

Paranoia 1.0 is an under-rated (at least on imdb) and very stylish-looking sci-fi film. The premise is fairly simple - people in an apartment building are infected with an experimental biotechnology that is supposed to compel people to purchase specific products.

The real strength of the film is its mood and setting. The colors and sound enhance this dilapidated high tech future. The creepy characters in the apartment building and the strange events happening to them give a great feel to the paranoia theme. A 7 rating.

We Went To College - Santley, 1936

We Went To College is a very light, broad comedy set around a college reunion. It's mostly forgettable, aside from an excellent performance by Una Merkel, as a dissatisfied wife pining for an old flame. A 4 rating.

Deception - Landgenegger, 2008

Deception is pretty typical of what we get from Hollywood these days, mediocre story and sub-par direction. In fact, it is better than most because McGregor and Jackman are fairly good here. Michelle Williams gets my vote for one of the worst Oscar-nominated actresses working today. If it weren't for Halle Berry, I could possibly remove the "one of" in the last sentence.

It's not terrible, but it not all that great either. A 4 rating.

Nightfall - Tourneur, 1957

Jacques Tourneur has an usual film history as director. He mostly did B pictures, and plenty of low budget horror, most notably the cult classics Cat People (6 rating) and Night of the Demon (6 rating). He also did Westerns and Film Noir, including one of the best of that genre, Out of the Past (8 rating). He wrapped up his career as a television director in the 60's.

Nightfall is a classic B film noir, and the kind that makes you wish it had the production values of Out of the Past. Before Brian Keith went Disney, he excelled in these quiet/creepy B-movie villan rolls, and he's never been better than here. Anne Bancroft, James Gregory and Aldo Ray sometimes seem a bit too 50's stereotypical, but get the job done. Rudy Bond mostly did bit roles in his career, but he steals the show here as the Keith's nasty sidekick. A 7 rating.

So Young, So Bad - Vorhaus, 1950

So Young, So Bad is a very erratic B movie that suffers both from an uneven script and poor production values. The sound quality is terrible and the movie looks much older than 1950. Paul Henreid has a few crazy bad lines and his character is a bit dull.

On the plus side, the young cast of girls in the reform school, headed by Anne Francis and Rita Moreno, are really compelling. There are some believable and daring scenes of life in the streets and within the correction system.

This movie has some guts and is almost cutting edge at times, but most of it is wasted. A 4 rating.