Ananas

I enjoyed The Day After Tommorow for it's visuals, but I thought that it also mantained a mood of tension more appropriately than I'm used to PG-13 action films doing. It's a passable, if not great, visual thrillride. 6/10 for a marginal thumbs up from me.

Out of those I saw 50 First Dates and Badaasss. 50 First Dates was lame and Badass was simply that.

Yeah I agree, it's extremely shallow to discuss celebrities love lives. Leave them be... ... Jessica Simpson and Nick Lache. If they wanted a personal life they shouldn't have whored themselves to the media.

For those wondering, here's the listing for the Reefer Madness remake from the previews for the Winter TCA's:

Anyone else get the feeling Raver may be the significant other of Jack's that they won't kill off or get rid off immediately?

Bah, I haven't been impressed so far, although I'm sure it'll have turned cool within the hour. Hope the new cast members get better though.

Stage Beauty - *** (6/10) In the realm of historical rom-coms with a Shakespearean twinge, Richard Eyre's "Stage Beauty" ranks in between the very likeable "Shakespeare in Love" and the inconsistent "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The film follows Ned Kynaston and Maria (Billy Crudup, Claire Danes), two 17th century actors who are for most of the film at opposite ends of the career spectrum. In the beginning women are not aloud to act on stage, and so Kynaston is the most beloved performer of female parts in England at the time. His luck changes when King Charles' mistress convinces him to reverse the law so that only women are to play female parts. This is the perfect opportunity for Maria, who establishes herself as England's first actress. Their lives switch fortunes, as Kynaston is unable to adapt to playing men's roles and in fact refuses to do so. Now what elevates this film from mediocrity is pure charm. I was disappointed with some of the humour and realism in the story, but Claire Danes and Billy Crudup are perfectly likeable in their roles. They play off each other well, and in fact the scenes which they share are the best in the movie. This is just a really fun, harmless comedy that will make no impact neither fleeting nor lasting on the viewer, but will leave them thoroughly entertained. Thumbs up.

Point meet counterpoint. ←

Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure - **** (8/10) "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" may have been outgrossed in 1989 by films such as "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" and "Uncle Buck", but 15 years later, who really remembers those movies? In the case of anything involving "Bill and Ted", that has never been a problem. These two characters are Wayne and Garth before Wayne and Garth were cool, and the writing is a lot better. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter star as Ted Logan and Bill S Preston Esq, two "nothing going" teenagers whose dreams of rock and roll stardom are threatened when Ted's father threatens to send him to military camp in Alaska if he and Bill don't get A pluses on a History presentation. Luckily for them, they are given help in the form of George Carlin's Rufus, a man of the future who lends his time travelling phone booth to the boys to go back and gather the necessary historical figures to properly do the assignment. This film is a wildy funny comedy which succeeds on multiple levels. First, it's entirely watchable as a one dimensional slapstick. The characters are so off the wall and the two main characters are so well portrayed that the jokes don't strain at all, even when they're repeated several times over. If you choose instead to look for something more, the film is also effective as a biting satire of so many off the wall slapsticks before it. The logic errors in the movie are presented in a way that makes light of the industry more than the quality of the film itself, and are presented with such blatancy that it would be foolish to suggest they're accidental. It is all too appropriate that Keanu Reeves' best performance should come out of a movie that requires so little. Thumbs up.

Meet the Fockers - ** (4/10) If the greatest problem facing movies today is that of unnecessary sequels, Meet the Fockers is the perfect representation of what's wrong in Hollywood. Directed by Jay Roach and stocked with A-level celebrities such as Ben Stiller, Robert Deniro, Blythe Danner, Barbara Streisand and the legendary Dustin Hoffman, it has great potential on paper. However, the film falls into a sinkhole of unoriginality that takes away nearly all the potential for enjoyment. Stiller's Greg Focker has survived a weekend with his wife Pam's (Teri Polo) parents Jack and Dina (Robert Deniro and Blythe Danner), but the tables are turned when he must introduce them to his parents Bernie and Roz Focker (played quite well by Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand). This provides room for some character progression, but in the end it's just same old well meaning idiot Greg, along with the hard edged father in law Jack, and the new parents do nothing but serve to reinforce the superiority of one family over the other. It wouldn't be bad if the characters were the only thing brought back verbatim from the original "Meet the Parents", but in fact many of the jokes from the original are repeated here. There is so much repitition that the only really satisfying humour comes from the new characters (the Fockers), and even they are only funny in small doses. As for the actors, they play their parts perfectly well, but no one could have rescued this film. The performances are the only thing that make it better than "The Whole Ten Yards", another unnecessary sequel. Thumbs down.

Uh oh, looks like Jen Aniston's career is over.

The Woodsman - **** (8/10) From rookie director Nicole Kassell, "The Woodsman" is a haunting and disturbing story of a recently released from prison pedophile who attempts to get on with his life. It stars Kevin Bacon, taking the risk of his career as Walter, a hopefully reformed pedophile, who returns from prison to a bleak apartment, a dead end job and a friendless existence apart from his brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt). He takes a job at a lumber company, and meets Vickie (Kyra Sedgewick), a pretty yet hard nosed woman who actually seems to understand him. It is with her help, along with that of a psychiatrist, that he begins the process of self-medication and reintigration into society. This film is so well helmed by Kassell that it completely enraptures its audience. In viewing it, we take on not any specific character but instead an entirely new one. At times we can't help but feel sorry for Walter, while at others we detest him. The impartial manner with which the subject matter is presented is also an advantage; we choose to view any of the characters in our own way. Bacon is clearly the film's breadwinner; if one is to define great acting as convincing the audience that he is in fact not acting but simply living, he must be considered one of the best in the business. The support from Bratt and Sedgewick is fantastic, but perhaps the greatest of all comes from Mos Def, who plays Seargent Lucas, a character who hounds Walter part out of malice and the other out of real concern for the city's children. He's his own Javert; hard to hate, yet impossible to entirely agree with. Some interesting perspective, as well as profound mood creation and excellent performances make this a must see. Thumbs up. P.S. Anyone who doubts Mos Def as being capable of pulling off the Ford Prefect role, see this movie and your concerns will be silenced.

The Aviator - *** (6/10) "The Aviator" sees the reteaming of Martin Scorcese and Leonardo Dicaprio for the first time since 2002's "Gangs Of New York", and as such shoots for the skies. Of course, this time around it shoots far too high and nearly comes crashing to the ground as Hughes' planes did too often in the film. The movie is a partial biopic (it leaves off before the more embarassing stages) of Howard Hughes, the movie maker / playboy / airplane tycoon who made significant strides in all three areas. On one hand (and at the start), we see a struggling filmmaker who has big visions and even bigger budgets who makes the groundbreaking action film "Hell's Angels", and goes on to make "The Outlaw", as well as producing several others. In other parts of the film, we see the insatiable playboy who courts women such as Jean Harlow, Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. Finally, we see that which most accutely defines Hughes; the role of aviator. Hughes' contributions to the field of aviation are impossible to count, but in general, he made the industry bigger and safer. This is an absolutely jam packed film that is full of names, dates and other information. The characterization is done in a way that would have made the obsessive compulsive Hughes proud, so much that it runs nearly 3 hours. Something about the 3rd or 4th time they've done a scene with Howard breaking down as a result of his OCD or the continued emphasis on his hearing difficulties seems condescending, as if we didn't get it the first or second time around. Still, the film looks wonderful, and DiCaprio holds up well in the lead role, even if he still does look like a child throughout the movie. A marginal thumbs up, even if the hype is ridiculously overblown.

Silver and the Wachowski's had their egos collectively checked with the reaction to the two Matrix sequels, so I'm sure this will be plot heavy and not the special effects blunder their last two films were. Natalie Portman is awesome, so I can't see how it wouldn't be good.