Ananas

I agree with a lot of the films already mentioned, and to add to that, I think that "Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers" blows the other two films out of the water.

I don't know how I feel about this new modest del Piero. On one hand, he's a better player than he was a few years ago. On the other, he's clearly better than Serie B. Can't he be ungrateful in just this instance?

Someone mentioned Bad Santa in the films thread, which reminded me that Terry Zwigoff definitely deserves mention here. Two cult classics followed up by a movie I haven't seen but one that looks really good. I guess he goes in the "on the verge" category.

And speaking of Mos Def... Dave Chappelle's Block Party - 8/10 This is a film who's charm is equal parts the star's charisma, the musical talent on-stage and director Michel Gondry's profound appreciation for music and it's implications. It's both a concert film, comedy and documentary. Whereas the first two are pretty self-explanatory, Gondry's work on the documentary portion are more evocative than they are informative, but in the circumstances that's exactly what we want. It examines more the soul of Bed-Stuy, and how it contributes to the atmosphere of the concert itself. We also meet some of the more eccentric occupants of the neighborhood, including an odd white couple who Gondry is clearly fascinated with. It's a beautiful homage to a neighbourhood, a people and a music. For those with any tolerance for hip hop, this is not one to be missed.

Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind - Jim Carrey was awesome, but it was really Michel Gondry's amazing depiction of the dream world that made it a classic. Lost In Translation - Combination of Sofia Coppola's beautiful depiction of Japan and the performances of Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. Amelie - Surreal performances + Audrey Tautou. Million Dollar Baby - I didn't even like Hilary Swank until I saw this. Now she's one of my favorite actresses. Serenity - I think this critic's reaction sums it up: "The cleverest, crankiest, wittiest, wildest, and most character-driven sci-fi adventure in 25 years; it's the best outer-space trip I've been on since the empire struck back." -- Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM Donnie Darko - Cuz. Before Sunset - Because it was a sequel after nine years that not only maintained the originals charm, it blew it away.

Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans James Taylor - Sweet Baby James A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room

When A Stranger Calls - 3/10 PG-13 horror movies suck. Actually in fairness, my general rule is that horror movies suck, but PG-13 ones don't even tend to have the redeeming quality of being really campy. No language, no unnecessary nudity, no gory violence, and with that it's no fun to critique. This movie is as dull as paint, a film that takes 60 minutes to get to any kind of point, spends 10 minutes floating around something good and then ends with silliness. Most of the attempts at actual suspense is with the score, which is actually pretty good. But since the score is generally used in a desperate attempt to make a girl walking around a house frightening, the composer's noble efforts fall flat. All this has is a decent score and a wet Camilla Belle. Well, at least that's awesome.

Firewall - 4/10 This film commits cardinal rule number 1 of filmmaking: never be dull. Unfortunately, for the first 45 minutes it is. Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen and the rest of the supporting cast give spirited performances, but for Harrison Ford this seems to be little more than a vanity piece. The plot twists can be seen coming from miles away, and even then, they're still pretty lame. Mary Lynn Rajskub is great in support for all the 24 fans here, but otherwise there's nothing new to be seen. Just an incredibly generic hostage thriller/drama.

Bryan Singer's been awesome since before the millenium, but in the past few years he's become one of the best in the mainstream.. X-Men, X2 and Superman Returns are among the best comic book movies yet. Richard Linklater is in the same boat. Since the millenium he's made the awesome "Waking Life" and the sequel "Before Sunset", as well as the mainstream films "School Of Rock" and "Bad News Bears", both of which I enjoyed. Michel Gondry didn't do full length until the new millenium, so he's a given. Ditto (more or less) for Christopher Nolan, who hit with 2000's "Memento". On the verge, depending on how their follow ups go: Zach Braff, Paul Haggis, Joss Whedon, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, Todd Phillips, Gurinder Chadha, Sofia Coppola.

For those who haven't seen the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-3xsJnvZg I'm definitely looking forward to this. Other directors are so full of shit that it's hard to imagine watching 3 hours of them just talking, but with Kevin Smith it's great. He's the most honest person in the industry, and one of the most charismatic.

Final Destination 3 - 3/10 First, ROC wanted me to mention the following things: 1) This movie could have been made awesome had it featured a naked Diora Baird for 90 minutes as well as Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke talking about shit. 2) When this whole review thing is over, me and ROC and Kris Lemche are going to get an apartment. Joan of Arcadia is invited so it's not such a sausage fest. 3) The director's name is James Wong. That sounds like Wang. Hehehe... Now on to the movie. I'm sorry, but in what alternate universe are unfortunate accidents frightening? Tragic yes, but the subject of a horror movie? I mean, it's not like people lock their doors and bar their windows when a roller coaster malfunctions. No, they do it when there's some crazy ass villain on the loose, and I'm sorry but Death? The lamest of villains. Nobody doing their job is a villain. Especially Death. Imagine what we'd think of life if Death weren't around to give it meaning. Shame on you, Wong. Hehehe... Anyway, the great Kris Lemche has a scene for the ages, but for the most part this is contrived death sequences and unnecessary nudity. Not that I'm complaining, but once you've seen Diora Baird, no nudity will seem impressive for a while. Still, it's a fun movie... FOR ME TO POOP ON.

The Fast And the Furious: Tokyo Drift - 4/10 Car go fast. Car make loud noises. Tween go "oooh", and "aaaah". Everyone else, of course, sees it for what it is, a bland attempt to cash in on the success of a franchise that wasn't very good to begin with and certainly isn't now. Long gone are the prime time players. No Vin Diesel, no Paul Walker; hell, no Tyrese. We've got a former child actor and a former child rapper instead. What can I say that hasn't been said about this series already? It's the most desperate of attempts to distract from a dearth of creativity or a cohesive storyline. And the third installment isn't any better. Let it die now, please.

Hot Tamale - 3.5/10 Okay, I will now see EVERY movie Diora Baird appears in. Well, at least the R-rated ones. Apart from that (and a bit of decent humour), this one's a trainwreck. Made me appreciate mainstream films for a second.

It was good. Didn't match the charm and energy of the first film, but it held up enough because of Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp's work. Orlando Bloom is surprisingly tolerable in these movies, and I was happy to see Jack Davenport back with something interesting to do.

Curious George - 7/10 Richard Roeper said of this film that "to tell people my age, or someone 25, that they should spend nine or ten bucks to see this movie I can’t do it." I suppose I agree, but I wouldn't ask for someone with child to take their kids to A History Of Violence either, yet I still think it's a great movie. With kids captivated by the whimsical humour and parents enjoying Jack Johnson's matching tunes as well as Will Ferrell's spirited voice work, it's hard not to think this is a very good film. It's not Shrek or Toy Story, but it's definitely that animation has had to offer so far this year.

Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - 6/10 Not near as much fun as the original. It's still a massive looking swashbuckling epic, but that genre was dead before the first Pirates film revived it, and it only survives on the charisma and charm of Johnny Depp. It's still here, but on a lesser level. In fact, it's the performances of Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley that prevent the film from being a bad one, which is remarkable considering it's $225 million price tag. Definitely disappointing, but good enough to tide us over. Hopefully the final installment delivers.

The Devil Wears Prada - 7.5/10 Lush direction, razor sharp dialogue and multi-dimensional characterization already in hand, it comes as an amazing bonus that the cast of The Devil Wears Prada is as superb as it is. You could make the argument that Meryl Streep (who is superb) stars in this film with the heir apparent to her position amongst the Hollywood elite. Anne Hathaway, coming off of an Academy Award nominated film (Brokeback Mountain) and a decidedly adult oriented drama (Havoc) shows her ability to play mainstream without relying on appealing to the lowest common denominator. This one is a mix of comedy and drama, and it could be argued that this is her best performance yet. Rounding out the supporting cast are Adrien Grenier (Entourage), Stanley Tucci (The Terminal, Road to Perdition) and Tracie Thoms ("Where is the RENT? I must have the RENT") among others, astonishingly strong for a director only on his second feature. It's a populist dissection of one of America's most vain and elitist industries. And it works beautifully.

MORE EMANUELLE CHRIQUI DAMMIT! Other then that, it was awesome this week. Johnny Drama getting pissed when even Turtle had more on the go than him > *. Oh, and I saw a bit of that Lucky Louie. It was awful. Like late 90's CBS sitcom awful.

Poseidon - 5/10 150 million dollar budget, star studded cast, and yet they can't make a better movie than Paul Walker and a bunch of dogs? Poseidon is full of flashy special effects and plenty of talented performers, but without a solid screenplay or consistently sympathetic characters, this one is, erm, out to sea. Emmy Rossum must consider herself a seasoned world traveller by now. She's been hit by an ice age in New York, seduced by a angry choir boy in Paris and now sunk at sea. And Richard Dreyfuss, well, can they get this guy another decent role somewhere? I'm just happy there weren't any sharks in this flick, because you know he'd have stormed off the set screaming "I'm Richard Dreyfuss! I don't need to do this shit again." And the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie appears briefly as a singer (and it's a stretch for her, because this singer actually hits her notes), at some point even showing what could be interpreted as emotion, but the jury's still out on that one. Oh, and Johnny Chase appears with the Narc-iest of moustaches. Other then that, it's lame. It's The Day After Tommorow but not impressive enough. Not it disaster or anything, but too shipshod (the puns just keep coming) for my tastes.

RV - 4/10 I don't know if it's a by-product of no longer being in my teens, but suddenly I think that Robin Williams is hilarious. His high voltage antics, once a style I utterly reviled as deceptively annoying, now really seem to work with me. And in RV, his talents are well on display. So unfortunate is it that he doesn't get to play all the roles. Maybe it's just that the lead's family is so poorly constructed but everyone backing Williams up, save Kristen Chenoweth and Jeff Daniels as the oddball campers they encounter, comes off awful. So there's hope that Robin Williams can be funny, but man, he's got to get some better people on the other end of the camera.

Underworld: Evolution - 3.5/10 Ultraviolent, ultrasexed and ultralame, "Underworld: Evolution" has clearly lost whatever it was that made the original work. There is so much muddled characterization and non-sensical plotwork that it's hard to even follow the films many twists and turns, much less enjoy them. The fight choreographer has clearly chosen a tactic of ultra-gore to overcompensate for the underwhelming nature of the action elements, but when you've got nothing else to market the film on, it just doesn't work. Kate Beckinsale is too good for this like she was too good for Van Helsing. She really ought to get past the vampire obsession and take roles based on other merits.

Eight Below - 6/10 One might take this rating to mean that I think this film proves Paul Walker is maturing and improving as an actor. He isn't. The dogs emote better than he does. What it does prove is that everything has NOT been done under the sun, and there still can be interesting spins on the "man vs. environment" storyline. This one starts out in pretty typical fashion, with Arctic explorer Jerry Shepherd (Walker) and the scientist he is escorting (Bruce Greenwood) getting caught in a storm. The story changes however when the two get home, and the crew is forced to pull out quickly, leaving the dogs behind. This story isn't so much "man vs. environment" as it is "dog vs environment". And, as I've already said, this is for the better, because I can actually find sympathy with the dogs. It's a new spin on a familiar story, speaking volumes this time about the courage of animal over man. And in the end, it's a nice change of pace. Not a perfect movie by any means (it runs on a little long), but it is worth checking out for the simple astonishment of being entertained by a Paul Walker movie.

Inside Man - 7.5/10 Spike Lee's films are generally intelligent, and this film has an added psychological bonus. Not packed with over the top swerves but rather a consistent plot with a few big reveals towards the end, Inside Man is the director's most focused effort in years. It features a great cast, including Jodie Foster in her most original performance since Contact, as well as both Clive Owen and Denzel Washington, two of the most reliable performers in the industry. Although Lee does occasionally drift off into some of his unnecessary pretentious camera work, he is otherwise good and the source material is so good that I couldn't possibly dislike it.

Superman Returns - 7/10 Bryan Singer was in many ways the perfect choice to helm Superman Returns, the return after 19 years of America's favorite superhero to the big screen. His emphasis on character development and storyline over gaudy action sequences and action movie cliches hide the limitations inherent in making a movie about a guy who can only be harmed by a green rock. He also stays true to the spirit of the comics and attaches to the characters a dream cast, some of which drawn to the project by the prospect of working with Singer again. Superman Returns is a scrappy sort of film, not one that is going to be remembered as one of the best films of the year, but like the first X-Men film it's a great introduction (or in this case re-introduction) to the story for film audiences. And if Singer is at the helm next time around, the odds are good that it'll be even better.