Real Movie Review-Movie Reviews, Movie Quotes, Movie Trivia

Director: Francois Girard

Starring: Michael Pitt, Kiera Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho, Sei Ashina

Writer/director Francois Girard, of The Red Violin Fame, based this screenplay on Alessandro Baricco’s novel and has created a beautiful, but painfully slow, period piece. The scenes here are beautiful, but often have a dark and morose feel, that is compounded by lead Michael Pitt’s slow speaking style and the languid piano score. The characters are not developed enough to the viewer to really care what happens to them and, while the story held my interest for a time, it was just too damn slow and had lost most of my attention before its big finish.

Michael Pitt (no relation to that other Pitt, acting guy), is a young Frenchman named Herve Joncour, who finds himself recruited to become a silkworm trader in for his partner, Baldabiou (Alfred Molina). This profitable, but difficult business sends Joncour on several long journeys to Japan, taking him away from his professed love, Helene, played by Kiera Knightley, who is yet to make a film that I really like. Oh well, a lot of people really liked those Pirate movies, I guess. Anyway, Herve travels back and forth to Japan a few times and forms some kind of relationships with a powerful Japanese ruler, Hara Jubie (Koji Yakusho) and an un-named servant played by Sei Ashina. I never really quite bought into any of the character relationships here, and in a film like this, that is a big problem.

Beauiful camera work and pretty good performances here, but unless you are a dedicated fan of period pieces like Seven Years in Tibet (with that other Pitt guy), you are likely to find this one too slow, without a really engrossing story to carry you along its uphill path. Some may like it, but for me, this comes a distant second to a good nap. Come to think of it, it can help you to have one of those.

Director: Frank Oz

Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Andy Nymen, Ewen Bramner, Alan Tudyk, Jane Asher, Kris Marshall, Rupert Graves, Peter Dinklage, Keeley Hawes

Director Frank Oz (Stepford Wives, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) is actually best known for his Muppet voice work, including Bert on Sesame Street, but in Death At A Funeral, he shows that he can still crank out a pretty good comedy when he wants to. The cast here is superb and get all they can from Dean Craig’s witty screenplay. Some of the scenes are silly, and many of the best lines are in the trailers, but this is still a smart, funny and enjoyable small-scale comedy.

Daniel’s (Matthew MacFadyen) father has passed away and all Daniel wants to do is give him a dignified send off by inviting family and friends to the family home for the funeral. This soon proves trickier than you would think, what with unintentional drug abuse, a crotchety wheelchair bound Uncle, family money disputes, romantic pressures and a small problem in the form of a mysterious, small-statured guest (Peter Dinklage)who would like a private word with Daniel about his father…

Death At A Funeral is a fine British comedy about a funeral that is rigorously, and hilariously, adhering to Murphy’s Law. This film is another in the genre of family get-together comedies that plays kind of like a darker, funnier version of Father of the Bride, or My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and is worth checking out on TV or video.

Director: Wes Anderson

Starring: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan, Anjelica Huston

Writer/director Wes Anderson has a created niche for himself, after projects like “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” and the quirky classic, “The Royal Tenenbaums”. He is known for his unconventional formula that involves peculiar characters interacting with their equally unusual friends and families. “The Darjeeling Limited” follows this path, as well, and presents fine actors playing off-the-wall characters, and a script that has some very funny bits. It gets stranger and less funny as it progresses, however, and this affected my enjoyment of it.

“The Darjeeling Limited” starts out with an optional, but connected, 10 minute short film about Jason Schwartzman’s character, Jack interacting with a former girlfriend played by Natalie Portman. Is it just me, or does Schwartzman look Tom Cruise’s non sex symbol brother? Nevertheless, I recommend watching this preceding short. But speaking of brothers, the real film opens with Jack meeting his two brothers, Francis and Peter (Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody) on a train in India, as the beginning of Francis’ plan for a family spiritual journey following a near-death experience. The brothers have some issues to sort out, and attempt to do this while working around pepper spray, poisonous snakes, romantic interludes and lots and lots of cigarettes, on their way to a big surprise that Francis has set up for them.

I am not much of a Wes Anderson fan. I find his work to be too offbeat, and that it has too little happening for my ADD movie watching tastes. I did, however find this feature to be interesting and funny enough (in some spots, damn funny) to entertain me until it got more eccentric and less funny towards the end. There are some good laughs, here, helped along by the talented cast. Anderson fans will love this and those who have not enjoyed his previous efforts would likely love to miss it. Opinions on this feature will diverge wildly according taste. Many will read this review and be saying out loud, “Maniac, you are an idiot.” I already know that.

Rambo (2008) *1/2
Director: Slyvester Stallone

Starring: Slyvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Paul Schulze, Reynaldo Gallegos, Tim Kang, Jake La Botz

Rejoice Rambo fans, rejoice, for the man of few words and many bullets has returned in a 21st century style action movie, complete with the new action requisite of hand held camera scenes. This modern look is mixed with retro slow motion sequences and also features the God awful return of the 90’s bullet-eye angle (like the camera is is on the bullet). The action scenes are exciting, so it’s target audience will be unlikely to object to the canned dialog, utter lack of any interesting characters or even any stereotypical development of the cliched characters. Why bother with that? Instead, there is violence piled on top of violence and, in a new twist for the Rambo series, there is a disturbing level of sexual violence, though it is tastefully handled with little nudity (insert sarcastic chuckle here). The whole thing is written, directed, produced, and probably catered, by Sly, of course.

John Rambo is living a quiet life as some kind boat-driving, snake catcher in Thailand, when he is approached by a group of young missionaries off to do good in neighboring, war-ravaged Burma. When John is unable to use his monosyllabic skills of persuasion to dissuade the group from going to offer aid, he is charmed by the only female member of the group, Sarah (Julie Benz) into taking them in. It doesn’t take long for trouble to start and the body count begins before he gets them to their destination with only a minimum of mayhem. He leaves them there and returns to busy life. Soon, however, they are taken prisoner by a group of nonsensical somebodies who seem to have no goal beyond killing and raping everyone they find. John can’t let that happen. You can guess what happens next.

I knew this would happen. Now that these continuations to 80s blockbusters have begun, they won’t stop until we are rolling around on the box office floor crying and pounding the floor. I tried to do it before this one, but I need help, people! I’m only one man! Rambo is a low brain action feature, that also vomits out an offensive, condescending view of changing the world without violence as pointless, naive and impossible. They must be right. Humans have been fighting for forever, and that really seems to be working in keeping the violence level down. Ok, all kidding aside (for now, at least), this Stallone offering will please fans of Rambo 2 and 3. Younger action fans may like it, as well, but it does lack the familiar style of the current bullet operas. As for the rest of us, we can only lie in silent fear that the Indiana Jones entry into the Hollywood 80s revival festival is up next, but we can trust Ford, Lucas and Spielberg, can’t we?

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Dillon Freasier, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Ciaran Hinds,

There Will Be Blood, by Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson, is a character focused feature, driven by a powerhouse Oscar winning performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, as the meanest man on film since De Niro’s Jake La Motta in Raging Bull. Anderson’s direction is visually impressive, but his score choices didn’t always seem to fit. The dialog is strong, but sparse (there is actually none for the first ten minutes of the film). The meandering story, written by Anderson, (based Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil!)is interesting, but always seems to leave the viewer waiting for more to happen. It’s almost like a watched pot that never does boil.

Daniel Day-Lewis is Daniel Plainview, a turn of the century oil man, who arrives in little Boston, California on a tip. Once there with his young son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), Plainview covertly explores the area, before using sweet promises to convince a ranch owner, Abel Sunday, and his forceful, but naive evangelical son, Eli, to lease him their land. Plainview then goes on to use the same tactics to gain control of the whole region, but he doesn’t prove quite as willing to share as he lead his new neighbors to believe.

Striking images, and a memorable performance from the always powerful Daniel Day-Lewis, make this film worth catching and will got it more than its fair share of attention on 2007 awards shows. Many will disagree with my view(what else is new?), but I see the story here as lacking focus and this hurts the impact of its ending. Still, a fine effort and worth catching either at the theater, or, later, on video.

…And It’s Oscar Time, Ladies and Gentlemen!
(imagine a rousing rendition of “Hurray For Hollywood)

It’s that time of year, when the most prestigious and well-publicized awards show releases its nominees to a hungry, salivating pack of critics and journalists and a largely uncaring public. Oh well, I’ll write about it anyway, since this is a movie website and because I have no life other than what I steal from the silver screen…so here it goes! Below I will add my all-knowing, and all-interesting, little views of each category. Cajun Carl may add a little input, marking his comments with a CC (pretty clever, huh?).

Performance by an actor in a leading role

George Clooney in Michael Clayton -overrated…no chance
Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood - The best bet - Won         the drama Globe, so he may be in good shape, here.         Still not playing near me. Maybe some day.
Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd - Johnny picked up the Comedy         Globe to add to his trophy room,     but I don’t think he is         a good bet for the Oscar.
Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah - Good, but not good         enough
Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises - My pick, but a dark         horse to win, here.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Casey “Baby Ben” Affleck did a         good job, here, but not quite this good.
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men - Best Bet, since he beat largely the same field for his Globe, but         Wilkinson could take him here at the ‘Big Show’.
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War - I liked this movie and this performance, but probably the most         unlikely to win, besides Casey.
Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild - Hmmm, I haven’t seen this one, yet (not in my area), Hal is a long time         character actor who could scoop a ‘we owe you’ Oscar.
Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton - This is the best performance of the year, in my opinion and he has been         unsuccessfully nominated before (In The Bedroom). I am         putting him just below Bardem as most likely to win.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age - never write off sumptuous British period pieces, but this is a         sequel, and kind of a lightweight movie, so I doubt it.
Julie Christie in Away from Her - Best Bet - best performance and got the Globe, so should deservedly win this         one.
Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose - Never saw it
Laura Linney in The Savages - Never saw it
Ellen Page in Juno - Ellen gave a great performance in a very good film, but she is too young, the film is to light         and this will be one of those “It’s a honor just to be nominated”, things.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There - She is playing a real person (sort of) and playing someone completely different         from herself. Since the Academy loves both of those         circumstances, this is the closest thing to a sure bet         there is, this year.
Ruby Dee in American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan in Atonement - Since Saoirse has the best performance in this critically acclaimed film, she is the         only other nominee to have a shot, here.
Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

Best animated feature film of the year

Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics): Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Ratatouille (Walt Disney): Brad Bird - Should win easily.
Surf’s Up (Sony Pictures Releasing): Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in art direction

American Gangster (Universal): Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
Atonement (Focus Features): Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer - 2nd most likely         to win.
The Golden Compass (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set         Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by         DreamWorks/Paramount): Art Direction: Dante Ferretti;         Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo - Great sets in         this one. It should win and I think it will.
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros.): Roger Deakins - Some really nice         film work, here, but most likely will be ignored.
Atonement (Focus Features): Seamus McGarvey - Best bet.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Janusz Kaminski
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Roger Deakins
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design

Across the Universe (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
Atonement (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Universal) Alexandra Byrne - Might snag one here.
La Vie en Rose (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood - Best Bet

Achievement in directing

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
Juno (Fox Searchlight), Jason Reitman - Some very nice work, here, but most likely too light to win.
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - Best Bet - at least until         I see Diving Bell and Blood.
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Best documentary feature - No pick - have only seen one.

No End in Sight (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group         Production: Richard E. Robbins
Sicko (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan         O’Hara - This was great, (I admit I haven’t seen the         others, however. Has anyone?), but I don’t think Moore         can win this year.
Taxi to the Dark Side (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
War/Dance (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject - who watches these? I don’t even know where to see them.

Freeheld A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
La Corona (The Crown) A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
Salim Baba A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
Sari’s Mother (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing - Well, I really have only the simplest of how to judge film editing, and have not seen three of the nominees, but I guess I’ll take a shot.

The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal): Christopher Rouse - some good work, here
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling
Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor - Best bet, so far, I guess

Best foreign language film of the year - I haven’t see any of these. Not playing in my area. Why would they? Probably only me and one other guy would even think about seeing any of them.

Beaufort Israel
The Counterfeiters Austria
Katyn Poland
Mongol Kazakhstan
12 Russia

Achievement in makeup

La Vie en Rose (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
Norbit (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Best Bet. This movie made         a fortune, they have give it something.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) I didn’t think that the music in any of these films was anything special. What do I know?

Atonement (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli - Best bet, since it won the Globe, I guess
The Kite Runner (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by         Paramount Classics): Alberto Iglesias
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
Ratatouille (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami - This flop deserves nothing.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“Falling Slowly” from Once (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from Enchanted (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from August Rush (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined
“So Close” from Enchanted (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” from Enchanted (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz - No         idea what will win, but of the nominees, I guess this is         my fave. I still think Music and Lyrics had the best         original songs.

Best motion picture of the year

Atonement (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers -         Best Bet, but please, God, no.
Juno (Fox Searchlight) A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith,         Producers - Very good film, but too light for an Oscar win.
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry         Orent, Producers - Are they kidding? most overrated film         of the year.
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin,         Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers - haven’t seen         Blood (below), so this is my choice so far, though I think         the snubbed Eastern Promises was a little better.
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production:         JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi,         Producers.

Best animated short film - Where do they show these? Birthday parties?

I Met the Walrus A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
Madame Tutli-Putli (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and
        Maciek Szczerbowski
Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven) (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production         Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
My Love (Moya Lyubov) (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec         Production Alexander Petrov
Peter & the Wolf (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh         Welchman

Best live action short film Who watches these? I mean, really, who? I don’t know anyone, who has ever seen any live action short film.

At Night A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth Il Supplente (The         Substitute) (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia         Production: Andrea Jublin
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) (Premium Films) A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
Tanghi Argentini (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
The Tonto Woman A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew         Brown

Achievement in sound editing - I’m like a vegan judging a BBQ rib cook off here, but someone has to do it, so here it goes…

The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal): Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg - the sound was good here, but unlikely         to win
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay - Best bet, I think because the voters         probably only know a little more about the category than         I do and will go with what has won other stuff.
Ratatouille (Walt Disney): Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Matthew Wood
Transformers (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins -         bad movie, good sound, so maybe, who knows.

Achievement in sound mixing with all I know about sound mixing, I’m a blind man picking his favorite porno, here, but here it goes.

The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter         Kurland - Best bet….just because
Ratatouille (Walt Disney): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate): Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
Transformers (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and         Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects

The Golden Compass (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben         Morris and Trevor Wood - Very cool polar bears, but is         that enough?
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Walt Disney): John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier -         Best bet - Made so much money, it will likely win.
Transformers (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl         and John Frazier - probably the best effects of the three,         but it is so bad, will they let it win something?

Best Adapted screenplay

Atonement (Focus Features), Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
Away from Her (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
No Country for Old Men (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen         Best bet, I think, but I might be letting my own opinion         cloud my judgment.
There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Original screenplay

Juno (Fox Searchlight), Written by Diablo Cody - Best bet, or should I say my best guess, in a category that         can go anywhere, but I’m pulling for you, Diablo!
Lars and the Real Girl (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.), Written by Tony Gilroy
Ratatouille (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
The Savages (Fox Searchlight), Written by Tamara Jenkins

Director: Noah Baumbach

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zane Pais, Jack Black, Flora Cross, Halley Feiffer, Ciaran Hinds

Director Noah Baumbach, of The Squid and The Whale, fame, tackles another family drama, here. The acting is good, as to be expected with the likes of Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, as well as Jack Black, in a rare dramatic role, though he also provides the comic relief here, as well. The characters are well-developed, but not particularly likable, which hurts a story that is already slow and mediocre.

Nicole Kidman is Margot, a writer attending the wedding of her younger sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), along with her coddled son, Claude (Zane Paris). Margot is less than impressed with her sister’s choice of a groom, played by Jack Black. New and past issues between the sisters re-surface, along with new ones.

Margot at the Wedding plays a bit like a duller, darker, family version of The Big Chill. It does have some loyal fans out there, but I’m not one of them. It may please some fans of chick flick dramas, but there are stronger choices out there.

Director: Ang Lee

Starring: Tony Leung Chui Wai, Wei Tang, Joan Chen, Lee-Hom Wang,

Lust, Caution is a darkly, beautiful Ang Lee period piece set in China during the Japanese WWII occupation. The plodding story and the sub-titles can make it difficult to get into, and to follow at first, but there are wonderful performances and a good story that will eventually draw in most viewers.

Lust, Caution is about a young Chinese woman, Wong Chia Chi, who joins with a group of students to go undercover to bring down a powerful Japanese collaborator named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chui Wai), whose socialite wife she befriends. This is only the beginning as she is pulled deeper and deeper into the deception. This is a Taiwanese film, and the unedited version has sex scenes that are longer and more graphic than we are used to with North American features, so you probably don’t want to sit down and watch it with your parents, in-laws, grandmother, etc., unless your family dynamic is fundamentally different from mine.

Lust, Caution is an enjoyable, and well-made, foreign feature that should please patient viewers who are comfortable with sub-titled features. It is reminiscent of a similar Dutch feature, Zwartboek (Black Book).

Director: Matt Reeves

Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman

Writer Drew Goddard, and director Matt Reeves, both of whom have mostly little screen resumes, have come up with what will certainly be the first water-cooler-talk movie of 2008. This ambitious, small budget, (by Tinsel town standards, anyway) film got rung up for around 30 million. These days 30 large (ok, really large) will barely get you an A-list star, and these guys made an entire monster movie with it! Hats off and some applause for them on that! But, what about the end result? Is this movie any good? Well, yes, it is pretty good as well. This is film-making in the true reality TV style. The entire movie is seen through the eyes of a video camera being carried by the characters and takes place in a 24 hour period. It starts slow, but when it picks up speed, it doesn’t slow down. The small cast all have TV backgrounds, except for Mike Vogel, and all were unknowns to me. They do a good job with a script that mostly calls for running and saying ‘Oh my God’ a lot. The characters are not well-developed and that is an area that could have been improved, but I don’t think Reeves wanted to slow down, once he got moving. The story is simple and incomplete, since we only know what the characters see and they don’t know what’s going on, either. The results are effective, and create a mood that is unlike virtually any film I have ever seen.

Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is enjoying his last day in New York with his friend, Beth (Odette Yustman) before heading off to work in Japan. Things move rapidly to an evening surprise party for him, put on by his brother, Jason (Mike Vogel), who is told by his gf Lily to video tape the festivities so Rob has something to take with him. Jason promptly passes the task off to their friend, Hud (T. J. Miller). The story spends longer at this party than needed and still doesn’t let us get to know the characters well enough, but things pick up when their building is rocked by something that feels like an earth tremor. The group takes to the streets where they are soon bombarded with the detached head of the Statue of Liberty. Hmm, that seems unusual. Soon, the small group is fleeing Manhattan (like everyone else, except for incoming military forces), only to try to return when Rob gets a call from Beth, who has been trapped in her apartment.

Cloverfield is packed with tension and has an original style that has really only been seen in the Blair Witch Project previously. Imagine Blair Witch turned into a monster movie with a lot more cash to spend, a far better script, and you will have a pretty good idea of what to expect here. If you have any emotional issues in seeing New York in an authentic state of panic, or have tendencies toward motion sickness, then this may not be the best choice for you, but, besides that, I recommend it if for no other reason, than being a movie that really is different. That is a rare sight, indeed…

Director: Rob Reiner

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd

You would think that Rob Reiner’s motion picture about the unlikely friendship of two dying men from completely different lives would be morose, and that some dialog would be lost to the sounds of sniffling behind you, but you would be wrong. There are some emotional moments in the film, but Reiner keeps the pace brisk and moves quickly past these scenes. He uses bright daytime settings which further reduces the morose impact of the film’s sadder moments, which are quickly followed by more upbeat scenes. So while The Bucket List is not as sad as you would think it would be, it is also funnier than you would expect as well. Justin Zackham’s screenplay is sprinkled with some pretty good dialog, that is given flawless delivery and perfect timing by master performers, Freeman and Nicholson. The story is good, but at only 90 minutes, I felt that it could have been developed some more.

Jack Nicholson is Edward Cole, a sarcastic and mannerless billionaire, who collects hospitals like they are hotels in Monopoly, but feels differently when health issues land him in one of his own hospital beds. Thanks to his own policy of two patients per room, no exceptions, Mr. Cole has a roommate. Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is an affable family man, and a working man with an uncanny trivia talent, who quietly feels that circumstances have robbed him of opportunity in life. The two men form an unlikely bond due to their circumstances, and when both find that they have less than a year to live, they take Carter’s list of things to do before he dies, and run with it. Soon the two men are on a whirlwind, global adventure, over the objections of Carter’s wife, Virginia (Beverly Todd).

Both Freeman and Nicholson are great here and there are some laughs as well. Worth seeing for drama fans and those who just love to watch Jack in action. Imagine a white, geriatric version of Thelma and Louise or Last Holiday, and you will have some idea of what to expect.