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.