The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

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Secrets and Lies
Eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) moves with his parents, Ralf (David Thewlis) and Elsa (Vera Farmiga) from Berlin to Poland in the early 1940s. His father has a new job – a promotion. While he doesn’t want his family to know the truth of his job – kommandant of a Jewish death camp – he is proud of his contribution to the Father Land.

Young Bruno is bored at their new home as he must stay within the fenced and guarded yard. But eventually he finds his way out and romps in the woods in little boy play. He’s also looking for the “farm” that he can see from an upstairs window.

Upon reaching the “farm” – enclosed by electrified barbed wire, Bruno makes friends with a little boy on the other side of the fence. A little boy wearing odd striped pajamas. The boy, Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), and Bruno become fast friends and Bruno visits him nearly every day.

But the reality of Nazi annihilation of the Jews is ever at the surface, even if the boys don’t comprehend it.

Also appearing are Amber Beattie as Bruno’s sister Gretel; Rupert Friend as the brutal Lt. Kotler; and David Heyman as the Jewish doctor who is reduced to peeling potatoes and gardening within the family’s compound.

Directed by Mark Herman.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: A

The Event (2003)

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”It’s a lot more complicated than you think.”
Detective Nick Devivo (Parker Posey) is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of Matt Shapiro (Don McKellar) –- one of several recent suicidesthe Chelsea district of NYC.

Soon she is talking to Brian Knight (Brent Carver) who runs a holistic center for people with AIDS. Brian had been present when Matt died.

Matt’s mother Lila (Olympia Dukakis) and sister Dana (Sarah Polley) have accepted the fact that Matt was gay, had AIDS and took his own life, but his other sister, Gaby Shapiro-Schnell (Joanna P. Adler), is angry and bitter. When questioned by Nick, Gaby goes to Matt’s apartment and finds evidence that there was a celebration of life just prior to Matt’s death.

Also appearing are Jane Leeves as Matt’s lesbian friend and psychologist Mona Rothschild; Dick Latessa as Uncle Leo; Rejean J. Cournoyer as the gossipy queen Rory; Chaz Thorne as Chris, Nick’s brother and a cop who Nick recruits to secret into gay club to find evidence; Chase Duffy as the assistant district attorney.

Making a case for assisted suicide for terminally ill people.

Directed by Thom Fitzgerald.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minute

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

The Painted Veil (2006)

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”Does seem silly, really. To put all that effort into something that’s just going to die.”
It’s 1925 and Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) doesn’t really want to be in China with her husband Walter (Ed Norton) but he is dedicated to his bacteriology research and must be there. He’s a doctor who manages a government laboratory in Shanghai.

Kitty’s parents greatly encouraged her marriage to Walter even though she wasn’t fond of him. “Your days are running out,” they said to her.

Once in Shanghai, Kitty shows herself to be quite uppity and dislikes socializing with the other English people living in the Far East. But it isn’t long before she’s having a passionate affair with the vice consul, Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber).

When Walter is called into the countryside to deal with a cholera outbreak, he demands that Kitty comes with him. Despite her protests, Walter blackmails her by telling her he knows of the affair and he will divorce her in a heartbeat unless she comes with him. But Walter will allow Kitty to quietly divorce him but only if Charlie divorces his wife and promises to marry the shallow Kitty. Charlie refuses. So Kitty must go with Walter.

Kitty is upset by the primitive living conditions, the fear of being infected, and the threat of being attacked by the Chinese nationalists. But in short order, she is willingly working with the orphans.

Can Walter and Kitty earn each others respect and love?

Also in the cast are Toby Jones as Waddington, the deputy commissioner; Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior of the orphanage.

Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Directed by John Curran.
Run time: 2 hour, 5 minute

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B+

Jeeves and Wooster: 1:1 (TV Series)

Based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories

Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster (Hugh Laurie), a pre-WWII idly rich English bachelor, is a wastrel and prankster with a sophomoric sense of humor. His manservant Reginald Jeeves (Stephen Fry) is proper, educated, efficient gentleman.

Bertie's best friends, all members of the Drone Club, are as shallow as Bertie is and equal pranksters. The episodes mostly revolve around Bertie and his friends efforts to get married. His Aunt Agatha is pressing for Bertie to "marry well" as she knows this is his only salvation and a good woman could tame him.

This comedy series ran 23 episodes over four years (1990 to 1993). Outstanding costuming, venue, automobiles, and music.

Season 1, Disk 1:

1 "Jeeves Takes Charge"
April 22, 1990
Aunt Agatha (Mary Wimbush) orders Bertie to marry Honoria Glossop (Liz Kettle). Bertie isn't interested but his friend Richard 'Bingo' Little (Michael Siberry) is. When Bertie's plan to unite Honoria and Bingo backfires, Jeeves hatches a plan to convince Honoria's stuffy parents (Roger Brierley, Jane Downs) that he himself is unfit to marry their daughter.

2 "Tuppy and the Terrier"
April 29, 1990
Bertie wants to propose to Bobbie Wickham (Nina Botting). When Cyril 'Barmy' Fotheringay Phipps (Adam Blackwood) defeats him at golf, Bobbie recommends a water bottle trick that backfires. Whilst Bertie tends Aunt Agatha's pampered dog he is horrified when Bobbie gives the dog to the son of a Broadway producer. Hildebrande 'Tuppy' Glossop (Robert Daws) is infatuated with an opera singer and has dropped Bertie's cousin and her mother, Aunt Dahlia (Brenda Bruce), wants Tippy to give up the singer. Jeeves hatches a plan which involves Bertie singing in public.

3 "The Purity of the Turf"
May 6, 1990
Bertie's Uncle George (Nicholas Selby) wishes to marry a young waitress. Aunt Agatha is upset and instructs Bertie to offers the girl ₤100 to break off the engagement. Bertie meets Maud Wilberforce (Paula Jacobs), who has a connection with his uncle. At Twing Hall, where Lady Wickhammersley (Richenda Carey) has banned all gambling after Lord Wickhammersley (Jack Watling) lost the East Wing in a game. Rupert Steggles (Richard Brain) has arranged to take bets on the events at a village fair. Bertie and Bingo find that Steggles has rigged the events. Jeeves sorts things out.

My personal rating: B

Confidence (2003)

.” A confidence game is like putting on a play where everyone knows their part. The inside man, the roper, the shills, everyone that is, except the mark.”
Con man Jake Vig (Edward Burns) may have swindled the wrong man in Lionel Dolby (Leland Orser). Jake’s crew – Miles (Brian Van Holt), Big Al (Louis Lombardi), Gordo (Paul Giamatti), Lupus (Frankie G) plus a couple of cops on the take, Manzano (Louis Guzman), Whitworth (Donal Logue).

Travis (Morris Chestnut), a henchman for the King (Dustin Hoffman), is after Jake and his team for conning Dolby. The King feels Jake owes him money back for what was taken from Dolby. But the money’s gone. The team needs to find a new mark – one designated by the King.

Lily (Rachel Weisz) joins the crew to be the shill for $5M hit via Mr. Ashby (John Carroll Lynch) on Morgan Price (Robert Forster) of Price Trust.

But now Special Agent Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia) is trying to track down Jake.

A real cat-and-mouse game. The master grafter – can he win? Can you catch the red herrings?

Directed by James Foley.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minute

Rated R for language and scenes of violence.

My personal rating: B.

Top Viewed Actors & Directors

To date:

13
Bruce Willis

11
Anjelica Huston - Sean Penn

10
Kathy Bates - Hope Davis - Tim Robbins

9
Kevin Bacon - Philip Seymour Hoffman - Lili Taylor - Marisa Tomei

8
James Broadbent - John Cusack - Robert De Niro - Woody Harrelson - Vanessa Redgrave - Charlize Theron

7
Bob Balaban - Javier Bardem - Jason Bateman - Jeff Bridges - William Hurt - Harvey Keitel - Kelly Macdonald - William H. Macy - Alfred Molina - Emily Mortimer - John Turturro

6
Woody Allen - Pierce Brosnan - Michael Caine - Patricia Clarkson - Chris Cooper - Vincent D'Onofrio - Elle Fanning - Morgan Freeman - Andy Garcia - Ed Harris - Josh Hartnett - Dustin Hoffman - Richard Jenkins - Tommy Lee Jones - Nicky Katt - Ben Kingsley - Julianne Moore - Dermot Mulroney - Bill Murray - Bill Nighy - Natalie Portman - Alan Rickman - Mary Steenburgen - Celia Weston - Kate Winslet - Renée Zellweger

5
Alex Baldwin - Maria Bello - Cate Blanchett - Don Cheadle - Patricia Clarkson - Ethan Coen - Joel Coen - Toni Collette - Kevin Corrigan - Daniel Craig - Joan Cusack - Danny DeVito - Robert Downey, Jr. - James Franco - John Goodman - Luis Guzman - Philip Baker Hall - Anthony Hopkins - Samuel L. Jackson - Scarlett Johansson - Angelina Jolie - Catherine Keener - Nicole Kidman - Greg Kinnear - Hugh Laurie - Jennifer Jason Leigh - Donel Logue - Paul Newman - Thandie Newton - Amanda Peet - Ryan Phillippe - Richard Portnow - Bill Pullman - Gena Rowlands - Susan Sarandon - J.K. Simmons - Harry Dean Stanton - Kristin Scott Thomas - Dianne Wiest - Tom Wilkinson - Luke Wilson

Paper (1994)

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”This is the last straw? Where the hell were the straws?
Metro editor Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) is alternately loyal to and disgusted with a NYC daily newspaper, The Sun, where he works. His wife, Martha (Marissa Tomai), formerly worked at the same newspaper but is now home awaiting the imminent birth of their first child.

The publisher Bernie White (Robert Duvall) is not physically well. The managing editor Alicia Clark (Glenn Close) is always at odds with Henry and working hard to run a tight financial ship.

Henry secures a job offer from The Sentinel publisher, Paul Bladden (Spaulding Gray), but he really doesn’t feel like giving on The Sun.

When a big story involving racial violence erupts, The Sun is behind the curve. While Henry’s staff bickers about who’s going to cover which aspect of the story, other staffers are also bickering about any number of other things.

When two black teenagers are arrested as suspects in murdering two Arizona bank execs, Henry wants the story run but he doesn’t want the boys convicted in The Sun because they may be innocent.

But can he prove it? Can he get the scoop?

Also appearing are Catherine O’Hara as Martha’s pessimistic friend Susan; Jason Robards as the owner of The Sun, Graham Keighley; Randy Quaid as a paranoid columnist; Clint Howard and Roma Maffia as reporters; Lynne Thigpen as Henry’s assistant Janet; Jason Alexander as embittered bureaucrat Marion Sandusky, and Rance Howard as Alicia’s doctor.

Terrific Randy Newman end credit song –- “Make Up Your Mind.”

Directed by Ron Howard.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minute

Rated R for language and a scene of post- violence.

My personal rating: B

The Unsaid (2001)

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”…I observed the muscles in her face, the position of her eyes, the rhythm of her breathing. These are all nonverbal cues to the subconscious, to…the unsaid.”
Teenager Kyle Hunter (Trevor Blumas) is full of angst, tension, and hostility. Despite urging from his parents, Michael (Andy Garcia) and Penny (Chelsea Field), he refuses to go to his sister Shelly’s (Linda Cardellini) school recital. Instead he takes a handful of pills, goes to the garage, starts the car, and dies of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A few years later, Michael, a psychologist, connects with a former student, Barbara Lonigan (Teri Polo), a case worker and PhD candidate. She asks him to see a client of hers but Michael refuses as he no longer sees patients.

The young man had discovered his own mother beaten to death by his father. They boy ended up in a residential program but now that he’s turning 18, he’s to be allowed to leave the facility. Barbara doesn’t think he’s ready. Despite the fact that Thomas Caffey (Vincent Kartheiser) is really a “nice kid,” Barbara feels he is suffering from deep depression which he is able to mask.

Resisting the urge to look at the notes on and video of Thomas that Barbara foists on Michael, he finally yields and checks out the boy and is dramatically touch at the similarities between Thomas and his own son, Kyle.

This is a particularly difficult time for Michael. His daughter is becoming distant. His now-ex-wife is involved in a new relationship. He’s having hallucinations that his son is still alive. He is suddenly drawn to Thomas’ situation and decides to help.

Can Michael help Thomas? Can Michael help himself?

Also appearing are Max Peters as the little boy Thomas and Sam Bottoms as Thomas’ father.

Directed by Tom McLouglin.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)

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A married American woman, Mary Forbes (Jennifer Jones) visits her sister in Rome and falls in love with an Italian, Giovanni Doria (Montgomery Clift). Without seeing it, we know it was a passionate affair, but Mary knows she must end it for the sake of her young daughter back home.

She tries to write a letter to Giovanni but it’s impossible for her to do so she heads to the train station where he finds her. Giovanni tries to persuade her to stay with him and it’s a deep emotional struggle for Mary.

The majority of the film takes place at the train station with lots of swooning, swelling violin music, and many huge crescendos.

Young Richard Beymer plays Mary’s teenage nephew who comes to the station to see her off.

Script by Truman Capote and Ben Hecht. Directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Black and White

Run time: 1 hour, 16 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B-

Five Corners (1987)

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“So give the stupid dog the stupid sweater and see if he can pick up the stupid trail.”
Billed as a suspense comedy, this curious film focuses on the Five Corners area of the Bronx in 1964.

Linda (Jodie Foster), a young twenty-something pet store clerk, has a sociopathic stalker, Heinz (John Turturro), who was just let out of jail. She asks her former tough boyfriend, Harry (Tim Robbins), to help her but he’s not available much anymore since he became involved in the civil rights movement. Linda’s current boyfriend James (Todd Graff) wants to help but Linda refuses because the last time he tried to help he was badly beaten.

Others in the cast include Anthony Powers as Officer Zola; John Seitz as Officer Sullivan; Rose Gregorino as Heinz’s clueless mother; Kathleen Chalphant as Harry’s mother.

Directed by Tony Bill.

Run time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Rated R for violence.

My personal rating: B-

8 Women (2002)

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“Greed will be your demise.”
Young Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen) returns to her parents’ estate in the French countryside to spend the holidays. In short order, we meet her beautiful mother Gaby (Catherine Deneuve); her doting maternal grandmother (Danielle Darrieux); her impish 16-year-old sister Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier); her insolent maternal aunt Augustine (Isabelle Huppert); the household’s beloved cook Chanel (Firemine Richard); and the new maid Louise (Emmanuelle Beart). There is much rejoicing, but also bitterness shown by Aunt Augustine and suspicious glances by the maid Louise.

Before we’ve even had a chance to meet Suzon’s father, he’s found dead. In his bed. With a knife in his back. And the telephone line has been cut. A winter storm prevents the women from going for help.
Suzon becomes the interrogator, first going into the curious maid Louise. She discovers that her father’s black sheep sister, Pierrette (Fanny Ardant) is unexpectedly on the estate grounds probably spending time with the cook Chanel in the cabin where Chanel lives. Chanel tells Suzon that Louise is a job-hopping floozie.

The grandmother informs Suzon that her father had no money left and he stole the grandmother’s investment bonds two days prior.
Oh, wait, you need to follow the film to see the mystery unfold. Each woman has cause – and secrets. And beware, one never knows when one of these women will break into song!

An odd little film, not for everyone.

Directed by Francois Ozon.

Subtitles.

Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Rated R

My personal rating: B-

My July 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with *. Most titles link to reviews.

* Boys on the Side 07/07/09 (B)
* Phoebe in Wonderland 07/06/09 (B+)
Civic Duty 07/05/09 (B-)
* The Pink Panther 2 07/04/09 (B)
The Limey 07/03/09 (B=)
Introducing the Dwights 07/02/09 (C)
Laws of Attraction 07/01/09 (C+)

Boys on the Side (1995)

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3 Women
+
Road Trip=
More Than a
Chick Flick
Three women who don't know each other head out from the east coast heading for California. Jane (Whoopi Goldberg), a disgruntled lesbian band singer, Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), a secretive real estate agent, and Holly (Drew Barrymore), a pregnant gal whose boyfriend is an abusive druggie, are each trying to escape their pasts.

The gals get as far as Arizona when Robin falls ill and her new friends learn she has AIDS. Holly falls in love with a cop (Matthew McConaughey). And Jane is kind of the glue that holds them together.

Also appearing are Anita Gillette as Robin's mother and Estelle Parsons as a psychic. Plus some good tunes by Annie Lennox, Joan Armatading, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, The Indigo Girls, Pretenders, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many others.

Directed by Herbert Ross.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)

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”At a certain point in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are, especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals.”
Nine-year-old Phoebe Lichten (Elle Fanning) makes a curious connection with the odd Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson), the school’s new drama teacher.

Phoebe’s a “different” kind of girl. She’s not particularly well liked by her classmates and as a result, she’s sometimes caustic toward them. Her teacher, Miss Reiter (Madhur Jaffrey) calls Phoebe’s parents – writers Hillary (Felicity Huffman) and Peter Lichten (Bill Pullman) – to determine if something is wrong with Phoebe or if something is going on at home to cause Phoebe to be like she is. Hillary is quite tired of the constant probing into why a highly intelligent child must be troubled. Hillary quite encourages Phoebe’s uniqueness. Peter would prefer that Phoebe conform more toward “the normal.” He also says things to Phoebe that are unintentionally hurtful.

After seeing a performance of “Swan Lake” with her mother, Phoebe signs up to audition for the school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland.” While every other little girl craves the role of Alice, Phoebe just wants a role in the play. She runs circles around all the other little girls at the audition.

Phoebe’s only real friend is Jamie (Ian Colletti), a charming but also different little boy who collects dolls and wants to play the Queen of Hearts. He tells Phoebe that in order to get what one wants, one needs to pray to God or make God feel one is worthy because they’ve done something they didn’t want to do. In Phoebe’s case, she steps up her obsessive compulsive rituals, even to the point of hurting herself, just so she will win a role. For Jamie, his participating in phys ed meant he won the role he wanted. And for Phoebe, she was cast in the play – as Alice, which caused a great deal of jealousy among the other girls in her class.

Miss Dodger allows the children to take leadership roles in the rehearsals and it’s obvious that Phoebe is the main leader. But outside of rehearsal time, Phoebe continues to display her uniqueness and the principal (Campbell Scott) says she can no longer be in the play. The news is devastating to Phoebe. Her mother and Miss Dodger fight hard to get Phoebe reinstated in the play but there are still rocky roads ahead. Over time, she understands cryptic messages from the characters in the Wonderland story.

Others in the cast include Bailee Madison as Phoebe’s younger sister Olivia; Peter Gerety as Phoebe’s psychologist and Humpty Dumpty; Maddie Corman as a teacher and the White Rabbit; Max Baker as another teacher and the King of Hearts. Look for others of the aforementioned cast playing Wonderland characters.

Written and directed by Daniel Barnz.

Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and brief strong language.

My personal rating: B+

Civic Duty (2006)

.“What would you do?”
In the post-9/11 anxiety, Terry Allen (Peter Krause), who recently lost his job, becomes paranoid about a Middle Eastern neighbor, Gabe Hassan (Khafed Abol Naga). The comings and goings, visitors, and quantities of things taken into Gabe’s apartment lead Terry to believe Gabe is a terrorist.

Terry becomes obsessed with Gabe and breaks into his apartment when he is gone. Items Terry doesn’t understand make Terry more and more convinced. When Terry is unable to arouse the interest of the FBI, he turns all vigilante, captures Gabe and then must decide what to do about the police and FBI outside Gabe’s apartment.

The action culminates in a profound tragedy which is later followed by a disturbing whammy.

Also appearing are Kari Matchett as Terry’s wife Marla; Ian Tracy as police Officer Lloyd; Richard Schiff as FBI agent Tom Hilary.

Directed by Jeff Renfroe.

Run time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Rated R for language and some threatening situations.

My personal rating: B-

The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

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Successful Incompetence
The Magna Carta has been stole stolen in England. The Shroud of Turin has been stolen in Italy. The Imperial Sword has been stolen in Japan. At the scene of each is the calling card of The Tornado.

France’s Minister of Security, Joubert (Geoffrey Palmer), is concerned about France’s legendary Pink Panther diamond. He calls in Chief Inspector Dreyfus (John Cleese) and informs him that a special Dream Team of investigators from each country is being pulled together to find The Tornado. Dreyfus, of course, is flattered – until Joubert informs him that all the countries want Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) to take the lead on the Dream Team.

The Dream Team includes Vicenzo (Andy Garcia) from Italy, Pepperidge (Alfred Molina) from England, and Kenji (Yuki Matsuzaki) from Japan. They are joined by the luscious Sonia (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) who wrote a book about The Tornado’s reign of crime ten years prior.

Returning to the cast are Jean Reno as Clouseau’s assistant Ponton and Emily Mortimer as Clouseau’s secretary Nicole. Lily Tomlin plays Mrs. Berenger who is to instruct staff on political and social correctness. Jeremy Irons plays Avellaneda who is rumored to be The Tornado’s fence. Johnny Hallyday plays Milliken, the man who is revealed to be The Tornado – but is he really?

Directed by Harald Zwart.

Run time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Rating: PG

My personal rating: B

The Limey (1999)

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Don't mess with an angry old man.
When Wilson (Terence Stamp) is released from prison after several years, he flies to Big Sur to find out what exactly happened to his daughter Jenny (Melissa George) who apparently died of a broken neck in a fiery car crash. Wilson first contacts Eduardo Roel (Luis Guzmán), a friend of Jenny's, who had mailed Wilson a newspaper clipping informing him of his daughter's death. He also talks to Jenny's friend Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) and begins to get a bead on the fact that Jenny wasn't that sweet little child he know.

In near Terminator-mode, Wilson sets out to track down Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), the drug king Jenny lived with at the time of her death.

Other's in the cast include Barry Newman as Valentine's advisor Jim Avery; Nicky Katt, William Lucking, Matthew Kimbrough, John Robotham and Steve Heinze as assorted henchmen, goons, and bodyguards.

Interesting to see old footage of Terance Stamp in the 1967 film Poor Cow which was the inspiration for The Limey.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Run time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Rated R for violence and language.

My personal rating: B-

Rest in Peace - July 2009

Jul-01-2009
Karl Malden, 97, American stage, film (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, One-Eyed Jacks, How the West Was Won, Patton, Birdman of Alcatraz) and television (The Streets of San Francisco), Academy Award winner (1952), natural causes.

Introducing the Dwights

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Young Tim Dwight (Khan Chittenden) runs a “taxi truck” – moving van – in Australia. His flirtation with Jill (Emma Booth) while he’s helping her and her friend Kelly (Katie Wall) move leads to his first romance.

Tim’s controlling mum, Jean (Brenda Blethyn) isn’t too keen on this development. She works in a café but is trying to revitalize her stand-up comedy career and she’s worried that Tim’s relationship will disrupt the family

Meanwhile, Jean’s ex-husband (Frankie Holden), a grocery store security guard, is always reliving his youth who had a one hit wonder and no other musical success. He’s also grown jealous of Ronnie Stubbs (Philip Quast), the popular country singer who’s been paying attention to Jean.

Also appearing are Richard Wilson as Tim’s developmentally disabled brother Mark; Tracie Summut as Tori, Mark’s girlfriend at the sheltered workshop.

Terrific music by Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin, Bo Diddley, Joe Tex, King Curley, and more.

Directed by Cherie Nowlan.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C

Laws of Attraction (2004)

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“Lawyers are scum. Divorce lawyers, though, are the fungus growing beneath the scum.”
Neat as a pin and highly organized Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) and disheveled and bumbling Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) are highly successful divorce lawyers. They are also rivals in a high profile, big dollar divorce suit. They don’t like each other. No, they loathe each other.

In case after case, the two are pitted against each other. Finally it comes down to the bitterest case of all. Grunge designer Serena Jamison (Parker Posey) is represented by Daniel against punk rock musician Thorne Jamison (Michael Sheen), and each one wants only possession of their castle in Ireland. So off the disputing lawyers go to the moors of Ireland to interview the castle staff to determine who should win the castle. Captured by the mystical beauty of Ireland, the duo heads to a celebration in the nearby village and engage in a drinking match which results in the two of them awaking in bed together –- and married.

But the press has hold of the story before Audrey and Daniel can “dispose” of the marriage. They need to continue as opposing lawyers in the celebrity divorce to keep their faces in the law community. But when things get tough in the suit. Audrey and Daniel need to identify what is important to each of them.

Also appearing are Nora Dunn as Judge Abramovitz; and Frances Fisher as Audrey’s eager-for-her-daughter-to-marry mother Sara.

Directed by Peter Howitt.

Run time: 1 hour, 27 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.

My personal rating: C+

Rest In Peace - June 2009

Jun-30-2009
Harve Presnell, 75, American television and film (Paint Your Wagon, Fargo, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Patch Adams, Evan Almighty) actor, pancreatic cancer.

Jun-28-2009
Fred Travalena, 66, American comedian, impressionist, and actor (The Buddy Holly Story, Strange Hearts, An American Carol plus numerous television appearances), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Jun-27-2009
Gale Storm, 87, American film (Little Rascal and Three Stooges films, plus Tom Brown's Schooldays, Rhythm Parade, Swing Parade of 1946) and television (My Little Margie, The Gale Storm Show) actress and recording artist, after a long illness.

Jun-25-2009
Farrah Fawcett, 62, American actor (Myra Breckenridge, Logan's Run, The Cannonball Run, The Apostle, The Burning Bed), cancer.

Michael Jackson, 50, American singer and actor (Captain EO, The Wiz, Ghosts, Men in Black II, Miss Cast Away), cardiac arrest.

Jun-03-2009
David Carradine, 72, American stage, television, and film actor (Kung Fu, Kill Bill 1, Kill Bill 2), son of actor John Carradine, brother of actors Keith and Robert Carradine, hanging.

My June 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with *. Most titles link to reviews.

Shooting Star 06/30/09 (C-)
* The Man from Elysian Fields 06/29/09 (B+)
* The Pink Panther 06/28/09 (B)
* In the Land of Women 06/27/09 (B+)
* Taking Chance 06/26/09 (A)
* Something the Lord Made 06/25/09 (A)
* Infamous 06/24/09 (B+)
* Trapped 06/23/09 (B)
* Hide and Seek 06/22/09 (B)
* Evening 06/21/09 (A-)
* The Reader 06/20/09 (B+)
* Passengers 06/19/09 (B+)
* The Gleaners and I 06/18/09 (B)
Mercury Rising 06/17/09 B-
Blue in the Face 06/16/09 C+
* Defiance 06/15/09 (A)
* A Thousand Years of Good Prayers 06/14/09 (B)
* A Simple Plan 06/13/09 (B)
* Holy Smoke 06/12/09 (B+)
* All the King's Men 06/11/09 (A)
* Smoke 06/10/09 (B+)
* Gran Torino 06/09/09 (A-)
* The Good Shepherd 06/08/09 (B)
* Yonkers Joe 06/07/09 (B)
Blind Date 06/06/09 (C)
* Mozart and the Whale 06/05/09 (B)
* Vicky Cristina Barcelona 06/04/09 (B+)
* Revolutionary Road 06/03/09 (B+)
* He's Just Not That Into You 06/02/09 (B)
* The Door in the Floor 06/01/09 (B)

Shooting Star (2007)

a.k.a. Heber Holiday

Sierra Young (Torrey DeVitto) is a spoiled, rude, obnoxious, alcoholic young actress. She's in the process of ruining filming of her latest movie with her unreliability and emotional outbursts so she's sent packing off to a celebrity rehab facility in the mountains of Utah.

Also appearing are K.C. Clyde, Erin Chambers, Jimmy Chunga, Thurl Bailey, Sean Bott, Aaron De Jesus, Brittany Peltier, Jackie Winterrose-Fuller, Michael Flynn.

This film was well on its way to earning an F from me for the horrendously bad acting in the first two-thirds, but the acting actually improved and the film did have a germ of a good idea.

Written and directed by McKay Daines.

Rated PG for some mild thematic elements and language.

My personal rating: C-

The Man From Elysian Fields (2002)

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“If you don’t use success to enrich your life, then you’re just putting failure into Gucci shoes.”

Novelist Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) has run dry. His first novel, though critically acclaimed, didn’t make much money for him. He’s already groveled to his editor for an advance on nothing. He’s groveled to his former boss for his job back at an ad agency. He’s even groveled to his wealthy father-in-law. All to no avail. He’s depressed over the idea that he can’t support his devoted wife, Dena (Julianna Margulies) and baby.

One day, he talks to Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) who has a mysterious little office down the hall from Byron’s hidey-hole writing office. Turns out, Mr. Fox runs Elysian Fields, an elite male escort service catering to wealthy married women.

His first “date” is going to an opera with Andrea Allcott (Olivia Williams) who is utterly charmed by Byron. Andrea is married to the elderly, ill, and extremely popular novelist Tobias Allcott (James Colburn). Andrea is a lonely woman who truly loves her husband. Tobias doesn’t mind her having a lover. In fact, in short order, Tobias and Byron become friends, and Tobias solicits Byron to help him complete his last novel.

Others in the cast include Anjelica Huston plays Luther Fox’s own regular client; Michael Des Barres as Nigel Halsey, an aging escort; and Joe Santos as Dom, the restaurateur.

Directed by George Hickenlooper.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rating R.

My personal rating: B+

The Pink Panther (2006)

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"You never cease to surprise me, sir."
"It's true. My surprises, they are rarely unexpected."
When Yves Gluant, the coach of the French soccer team (Jason Statham) is murdered with a poisoned dart at the end of a game and his huge diamond ring, the pink panther, is stolen, the Inspector General Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) finds the most incompetent detective in France to cover the case so the press will leave Dreyfus alone to solve the case himself so he can, hopefully, be given the highest award in all of France.

of course, Dreyfus' plan backfires with wonderfully comic adventures as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) actually does solve the case.

Also appearing are Jean Reno as Ponton, the detective Dreyfus assignes to report back on Clouseau's investigation; Emily Mortimer as Nicole, Clouseau's secretary; Henry Czerny as Yuri, the soccer team's trainer from Russia; Kristin Chenoweth as Cherie, the team's secretary; Roger Rees as Larocque, Gluent's business partner; Beyoncé Knowles as Xania, Gluent's girlfriend; William Abadie as Bizu, a soccer player who resented Gluent; and Clive Owen as 006.

Directed by Shawn Levy.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated PG for occasional crude and suggestive humor and language.

My personal rating: B

In the Land of Women (2007)

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"I pride myself on being this great listener, but whenever I meet somebody new I find I'm doing all the talking."
When Carter Webb (Adam Brody), a soft porn writer, finds himself dumped by his girlfried, Sofia Buñuel (Elena Anaya), he decides he needs to get out of LA for a while so heads off to Michigan to read his quirky grandmother (Olympia Dukakis).

Despite his own despair, Carter finds himself drawn into the lives of the women who now surround him. Not only must he cope with his grandmother's senility, he befriends his grandmother's neighbor, Sarah Hardwicke (Meg Ryan), who becomes his walking and talking companion. Sarah confesses to Carter that her husband (Clark Gregg) is having an affair and she is facing treatment for breast cancer. Sarah's angst-ridden teenage daughter Lucy (Kristen Stewart) seeks his advice in the romance department and falls in love with Carter. Sarah's pre-pubescent daughter Paige (Makenzie Vega) is quite smitten with Carter and struggling with her mother's diagnosis.

In spending time with these women, Carter grows into being a real man.

JoBeth Williams appears briefly as Carter's mother and Ginnifer Goodwin plays the waitress Carter meets upon his return to LA.

Written and directed by Jon Kasden, who in his debut film shows us he learned the lessons well from his father, writer/directer Lawrence Kasden.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, thematic elements and language.

My personal rating: B+

Taking Chance (2008)

Based on true events

”You’re his witness now. Without a witness, they just disappear.”
Marine Lt. Col. Mike Strobi (Kevin Bacon) volunteers to escort the body of 19-year-old Private First Class Chance Phelps, across the country to Phelps’ parents in Wyoming.

Quite detailed and very poignant.

Tom Wopat appears as Chance’s father and Ann Dowd as Chance’s mother.

Directed by Ross Katz.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: A

Something the Lord Made (2004)

Based on true events


“Where you see risks, I see opportunities.”
Until sixty-some years ago, the concept of surgery on the heart was taboo because it was thought to violate the purity of the heart.

Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) was obsessed in treating traumatic shock. Just as obsessed as master carpenter Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) was in going to medical school.

However the Depression slowed all construction trade so Thomas needed to find a new job. This led him to get a job in Blalock’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He was hired to tend the dogs used for medical experimentation in and to mop the floors. But Thomas observed everything going on and quickly learned of Blalock’s passion. Thomas also read all the medical books he could in the lab’s library. Blalock saw potential in Thomas and soon moved him up to the position of lab technician even though he couldn’t yet get that official grade of job at the University.

Suddenly Thomas lost seven years worth of savings when his bank collapsed, he despaired of ever being able to become a doctor. He becomes even more involved with Blalock’s work and learns to walk out on Blalock when the doctor’s temperamental outbursts insult and degraded Thomas. But Blalock needs Thomas and he learns to be more respectful of Thomas -- and comes to truly respect him.

Years later when Blalock was offered the position of Director of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, he took Vivien Thomas with him.

Blalock’s methods of treating traumatic shock had saved hundreds of lives of American soldiers fighting in WWII. He was looking for the next horizon to explore. Blalock soon meets Dr. Taussig (Mary Stuart Masterson) who runs the Harriet Lane Clinic for Children. She inspires him to explore congenital heart abnormalities, specifically infants with Tetralogy of Fallot – blue babies – who are suffocating due to a blockage of the main coronary artery to the lung. Blalock was inspired anew.

First they needed to create a disease model in dogs to simulate the blue baby syndrome in babies. Then they needed to evolve a way to correct it. With Vivien Thomas’ keen insights and ability to develop specialized equipment (including the respirator), improvise surgical tools (miniature surgical clamps and canulas), and perfect techniques, Blalock and Thomas were finally able to perfect a method to save babies lives in 1944.

Among the medical residents at Johns Hopkins’ who were brave enough to assist in Blalock’s first heart surgery was Dr. Denton Cooley (Timothy Scanlan) who went on to become a pioneer in heart transplants.

Kyra Sedgwick plays Blalock’s wife Mary; Gabrielle Union plays Thomas’ wife Clara; Clayton Lebouef portrays Thomas’ brother who was a civil rights leader in the field of education: Charles Dutton plays Thomas’ skeptical father.

This is a significant film about improvement of the social and medical condition in this country.

Based on Vivien Thomas’ autobiography, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock.

Directed by Joseph Sargeant.

Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: A

Infamous (2006)

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"When you're talking to them, they seem like perfectly nice boys. To be frank, I'm much more concerned for my safety around Norman Mailer."
The story of author Truman Capote's (Toby Jones) quest for the story of Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and Dick Hickock (Lee Pace) who murdered a farm family in Kansas In Cold Blood in 1959.

Capote's bevy of gossipy NYC gal pals include Sandra Bullock as novelist Nelle Harper Lee; Sigourney Weaver as CBS exec Bill Paley's wife Babe; Gwyneth Paltrow as singer Kitty Dean; Isabella Rossellini as Marella Agnelli; Juliet Stevenson as socialite Diana Vreeland; Hope Davis as Slim Keith. With Peter Bogdanovich as Capote's editor Bennett Cerf; Jeff Daniels as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective Alvin Dewey who was in charge of the case.

Directed by Douglas McGrath.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated R for language, violence and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

Lulu on the Bridge (1998)

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""

The very strange tale of jazz saxaphonist Izzy Maurer (Harvey Keitel) who was shot in a club where he was performing by a suicidal man who went bizerk. In critical condition, Izzy loses a lung and knows his career as a musician is over.

On night, he stumbles across a murdered man in an alley and Izzy, in abject horror, grabs the man's valise and takes it home. A mysterious stone that glows blue in the dark and gives a sense of well being is in the valise along with a phone number. When Izzy calls the number to try to figure out what the stone is, he meets young Celia Burns (Mira Sorvino), an struggling actress. When they experience the glowing stone in the dark together, they fall in love.

Izzy's able to put in a good word for Celia before she audtions for a new film of Pandora's Box because his ex-wife Hannah (Gina Gershon) is the girlfriend of the film's producer Philip Kleinman (Mandy Patinkin). Celia wins the role and off to Ireland to begin filming with the director Catherine Moore (Vanessa Redgrave). Izzy is to follow in three days but instead, Izzy's is beaten up and his apartment is ransacked by thugs from Russia, China and Germany who are looking for the stone. He awakes in a dungeon and is later questioned by the mysterious Dr. Van Horn (Willem DeFoe) who knowa obscure facts from Izzy's past life. Meanwhile, Celia is in Ireland and Izzy hasn't arrived and she's frantic and depressed.

From there, well, things really go really unique and I'm still trying to assimilate what happened. It was sort of a rabbit hole adventure with an unexpected ending.

Others in the cast, mostly in tiny cameos, include Kevin Corrigan, Harold Perrineau, David Byrne, Lou Reed, Jared Harris.

In some ways, the ethereal nature of this film reminds me of one of my favorites -- All That Jazz.

Written and directed by Paul Auster.

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some violence, brief strong language and sensuality.

My personal rating: B

Trapped (2002)

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"My name is Joe and I'm going to help you through this thing."
Physician and research scientist Will Jennings (Stuart Townsend), his wife Karen (Charlize Theron), and their young daughter Abby (Dakota Fanning) are an idyllic little family living an idyllic life in Portland. Right after Will leaves on a business trip, Abby is snatched from the safety of their home by professional kidnappers Joe (Kevin Bacon) and his cousin Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince). While Joe begins the negotiations for ransom with Karen, Joe's wife Cheryl (Courtney Love) is at the hotel where Will is staying and does the same with Will as Joe is doing with Karen.

But Abby has a medical condition that may be exacerbated by the stress she is under while being held captive. The Jennings are told to not get the police involved but can they work through this horrendous ordeal without outside help?

Directed by Luis Mandoki.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated R for violence, language, and sexual content.

My personal rating: B

Hide and Seek (2006)

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"Best way to get over the past is to start something new."
When psychologist David Calloway's (Robert De Niro) wife Alison (Amy Irving) takes her own life in their NYC apartment, their nine-year-old daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) becomes nearly catatonic. David decides that they both need a change in order to move on so he and Emily move to a house bordering the woods in a small town in upstate New York.

Emily continues to be withdrawn and shuns David's attempts to spend time with her and provide her with interaction with others. She gloms on to an imaginary friend she calls Charlie and becomes even stranger when David befriends Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue), a young divorcee. Emily blames all manner of freak and horrible incidents on Charlie.

In the meantime, David realizes that the sheriff (Dylan Baker), the real estate agent (David Chandler), and the nearest neighbors (Melissa Leo, Robert John Burke) are also weird.

Long-time family friend Katherine (Famke Janssen), who was also one of David's students, is a sounding board for David and becomes Emily's confidant when Katherine comes to visit. Katherine sees how disturbed Emily is and wants to take the child back to NYC for evaluation. David wants two more weeks but soon finds other things that show that Emily is trying to punish him for her mother's death.

David tries to make sense of it all and find out who this Charlie really is but instead he must face his own demons.

Directed by John Polson.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for frightening sequences and violence.

My personal rating: B

Evening (2007)

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After she was gone, there would be no one who knew the whole of her life.
As Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) lays on her deathbed, she recounts the story of her first true love and the events of 50 years ago that defined her life, to her two daughters, Nina Mars (Toni Collette) and Constance Haverford (Natasha Richardson). Much of what Ann tells her daughters is cryptic as Ann sees scenes of her youth and grapples with being called to death.

In flashback, we see the young Ann (Claire Danes) as she arrives at her good friend's family's summer mansion in Newport where her friend Lila Wittenborn (Mamie Gummer) is to be married in a few days. Present are Lila's uptight parents (Glenn Close, Barry Bostwick) and Lila's brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy), who has always been smitten with Ann, has a drinking problem, and is convinced that Lila is marrying the wrong man.

When Ann arrives at the seaside mansion, Buddy introduces her to Lila's first love, Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson), a doctor who the Wittenborn family has known most of his life because he is the son of the Wittenborn's maid. Ann is intrigued and is drawn to Harris, beginning the most passionate romance of her life.

Also in the cast are Meryl Streep as the mature Lila visiting the dying Ann; and Eileen Atkins as the dying Ann's night nurse.

Based on a novel by Susan Minot. Directed by Lajos Koltai.

Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes.

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements, sexual material, a brief accident scene and language.

My personal rating: A-

The Reader (2008)

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"It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead."
When 15-year-old Michael Berg (David Cross) falls ill on the streets of post-war Neustadt, Germany, while on his way home, a kindly woman more than twice his age helps him. Once home with his family, Michael is quarantined for three months with scarlet fever. After his recovery, he returns to find the woman, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), to thank her. The two quickly become enmeshed in a routine where he reads from classic books to Hanna and then they two have passionate sex. As abruptly as Hanna came into Michael's life, after a few months she disappears without work to him.

Michael is left confused, but nearly 10 years later, when David (now played by Ralph Fiennes) is a law student, his professor takes select students to watch the trial of several Nazi prison guards who were accused of atrocities toward 300 Jewish woman who perished on their way to Auschwitz. Hanna is one of the defendents. She is convicted and goes to prison.

Many years later, Michael, now a successful attorney but emotionally withdrawn, comes across the books he had read to Hanna when he was a teenager. He again reads them aloud into a tape recorder and sends the tapes to Hanna. What follows is Hanna's best effort at restitution and Michael's reconnection with his own daughter (Jeanette Hain).

Kate Winslet won the Oscar for best actress for this role plus numerous other best actress awards from SAG and various film festivals.

Directed by Stephen Daldry.

Run time: 2 hours, 4 minutes.

Rated R for some scenes of sexuality and nudity.

My personal rating: B+

Passengers (2008)

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“Isn’t it common for people who are going through this to be disoriented, to be unsure of what he saw, even delusional?”

Therapist Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is asked to work with the handful of survivors of a commercial airplane crash. She feels strongly that “accurate reconstruction of the events is essential to the healing process.”

Upon visiting the hospital right after the survivors were brought in, she finds Eric Clark (Patrick Wilson) sitting naked on the gurney in a rather euphoric state. Later, in a group therapy session, sans Erik, she talks with descriptive Dean (Ryan Robbins), the cynical, fatalistic and bitter Shannon (Clea DuVall), the stunned Janice (Chelah Horsdale), and the suspicious Norman (Don Thompson), and finds that their accounts of the events vary.

In further contact with Eric outside the group, she discovers that he knows things about her, like how she takes her coffee and that she has a sister, that he otherwise would have no way of knowing. Claire begins exploring the link between post traumatic shock and extrasensory perception.

Norman soon tells Claire that he feels he is being followed by someone from the airline who wants to silence the survivors in an effort to cover-up what really happened to cause the crash. Survivors begin disappearing. Mr. Arkin (David Morse), an airline employee, visits Claire and she becomes certain that a cover-up is in the works.

Others in the cast include Dianne Wiest as Claire’s sweet but nosy neighbor; Andre Braugher as Claire’s advisor Perry; and Andrew Wheeler as the mysterious man.

A most uncommon transcendent thriller. Worth a second viewing to pick up the red herrings.

Directed by Rodrigo Garcia.

Run time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

Rated PG-13

My personal rating: B+

The Gleaners and I (2000)

Les glaneurs et la glaneuse

This most uncommon documentary begins with the definition of gleaner and images of some of the most famous paintings of gleaners of bygone times -- peasant women stooping to gather the leftover grain and produce left in the fields after farmers complete their harveest.

Filmed with a hand-held digital camera by Agnès Varda who also narrates and interviews various rural gleaners -- poor, well-off, gypsies, and charity volunteers -- in the French countryside, the farmers whose fields they pick, and legal experts opining on the laws of ownership.

I found particulary interesting the bits about those who glean the tons of left-over potatoes -- those that never made it into the harvest trucks, the overly large, the damaged, and the odd shaped potatoes -- because I worked the Idaho potato harvest in 2001 driving a 10-wheel, 11-ton 1958 Ford side-load truck in the fields to receive the fresh potatoes spewed up by the digging machines. Some days people waited along the side of the road with burlap bags ready to comb the field after the mechanical harvesting was done. On occasion, I even gleaned the fields for potatoes that I then baked when I got back to my quarters after driving a rickety, bumpy old truck for 12 to 18 hours. It was the food of the gods to me.

Varda then moves from the countryside into Paris to examine the modern urban gleaners who "harvest" their daily food from dumpsters and the sweepings after market. She also explores those who salvage non-edible cast-offs left at the curb: refrigerators, ovens, trinkets, dolls, bicycles, and other items that can be rehabbed back to functionality, sold, used in art, and for other purposes.

The DVD includes a one-hour follow-up filmed two years after the original film showing some of those interviewed, their reactions to the film, and what they are doing now.

Subtitled.

Run time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B

Mercury Rising (1998)

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"Let's go down."
Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis) is a rouge FBI agent who specializes in deep undercover work. After he dresses down another agent who jumped the gun and ruined Jeffries' collar on a case he's worked on for a long time, Jeffries is called back to Chicago and put on grunt duty by his superior, Lomax (Kevin Conway). He's called in to help find Simon (Miko Hughes), a nine-year-old autistic boy, whose parents (John Carroll Lynch, Kelley Hazen) have been murdered and finds a much deeper plot than anyone could have expected.

It seems that young savant Simon has decoded a government encryption code which two moronic programmers (Robert Stanton, Bodhi Elfman) hid in a puzzle in a commercially sold puzzle book. When Simon calls the phone number given in the encryption, they know they'd in deep doo-doo but let their boss, Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin). Kudrow orders that the boy be found and killed to keep the code secret, thus the slaughter of Simon's parents. But the assassin (L.L. Ginter) isn't clever enough to find the boy hiding in a hidey-hole in the closet. Jeffries finds the boy, however, and begins to unravel the reason why the boy is being hunted.

The rogue and the savant go on the run with the typical Bruce Willis bravado and extraordinary action.

Others in the cast include Chi McBride as Jeffries' only FBI buddy, and Kim Dickens as the woman Jeffries recruits to help him.

Directed by Harold Becker.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for violence and language.

My personal rating: B-

Blue in the Face (1995)

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"I don't know anyone in New York who doesn't say 'I'm leaving'. I've been thinking of leaving New York for... uh... thirty-five years now."
The bunch who made the film Smoke had so much fun together that they promptly went into improv mode and filmed it. Basically this is a series of incidents that mostly revolve around Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) who runs a little Brooklyn smoke shop.

Others in the cast include Mira Sorvino, Lou Reed, Michael J. Fox, Jim Jarmusch, Lily Tomlin, Jared Harris, Giancarlo Esposito, Madonna, Roseanne, José Zúñiga, RuPaul.

Based on situations created by and directed by Paul Auster and Wayne Wang.

Run time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C+

Defiance (2008)

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"We are the Bielskis and we WILL be back!"
Based on a true story.

1941. West Belarus. The SS is rounding up Jews, executing 50,000 and sending another million to camps where they will surely be killed.

Two young men, Zus (Liev Schreiber) and Asael (Jamie Bell), return from from Horodyszcze to their father's farm to find their parents both slaughtered and their young brother, Aron (George MacKay), hidden in a secret crawl space. They set off to hide in the forest and are found by their older brother Tuvia (Daniel Craig) who is traveling to the family farm.

Before long, others in the Lipiczanska Forest, women, children, and old men begin showing up and surrender to the leadership of the Bielski boys. They go in search of food and weapons and in the process, they gather more and more survivors who have been brutalized and are on the run.

"This is the one place in all of Belarussia where a Jew can be free."

For two long years, the Bielski brothers guided nearly 1,200 others in the community in the woods.

A powerful story of courage.

Co-written and directed by Edward Zwick.

Run time: 2 hours, 17 minutes

Rated R for violence and language.

My personal rating: A

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)

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"But I am only trying to help.
A gentle, tender and revealing story of family relationships.

Yilan (Feihong Yu) hasn't seen he father (Henry O) in 12 years and it is with trepidation that she meets him at the airport when he arrives from China.

Mr. Shi admits that he'd not been a good father. He was away for work much of the time and just never spent the time to care about his only child. Yilan had a much better relationship with her now deceased mother.

Their conversation is stained at best. And Mr. Shi tries to tell her how she should cook and carry on her life. Each day when Yilan goes off to work as a librarian at Gonzaga University, Mr. Shi snoops in her room and finds things that don't make him happy. He also takes walks, exploring the town, and meets a mature Iranian divorcee (Vida Ghahremani) who lives with her son. Together talk in fragmented English, Mandarin, and Farsi and reveal their own stories.

Will Yilan accept her father and will he accept her as she is? Can the two make peace?

From stories by Yiyun Li and directed by Wayne Wang.

Some subtitles.

Run time: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B

A Simple Plan (1998)

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"Do you ever feel evil?"
Feedstore accountant Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton), his dim-witted brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and Jacob's nearly as dim-witted friend Lou Chambers (Brent Briscoe) came across a crashed small plane, a dead pilot, and more than four million dollars in cash in a wintery Minnesota nature preserve. They hatch a "simple plan" to take the money and stash it, allow the coming snow storm to cover their tracks, and lay low until someone else finds the plane and dead pilot.

Though the vow secrecy to each other, Hank shares the information with his pregnant wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) who starts nosing around at the library for information. And when a farmer turns up dead with his ski-mobile, the conspirators panic and begin trying to figure out ways to be sure they aren't suspected of stealing the money.

Things only get more complicated from there.

Also appearing are Becky Ann Baker as Lou's wife; Chelcie Ross as the sheriff; Gary Cole as Neil Baxter who comes to town searchng for the plane; Bob Davis and Peter Syvertsen as FBI agents; and Bill Paxton's own father, John Paxton, as a feed store customer.

With foreboding Danny Elfman music.

Based on a novel by Scott B. Smith and directed by Sam Raimi.

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated R fpr violence and language.

My personal rating: B

Holy Smoke (1999)

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"Something has touched you, hasn't it?"
When two young Australian women visit India they visit a temple and experience the cult activity surrounding a guru. Ruth (Kate Winslet) is completely mesmerized but her friend Prue (Samantha Murray) is terrified and can't persuade Ruth to leave. When Prue returns to Australia, she immediately informs Ruth's parents (Julie Hamilton, Tim Robertson), they are aghast. Mum flies to India to try to get Ruth to return with her using the ruse that her Dad is quite ill and needs to see her. Ruth agrees to go for a brief visit.

Enter a "cult exiter," one PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel), a brash American complete with aviator glasses and alligator boots, who has been hired by the family to deprogram Ruth. But he's about met his match in the iron-willed Ruth and everyone's life is changed by the experience.

Also appearing are Sophie Lee, Daniel Wyllie, and Paul Goddard as Ruth's siblings; Pam Grier as PJ's assistant.

Written by sisters Jane Campion and Anna Campion, and directed by Jane Campion.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R for strong sexuality and language.

My personal rating: B+

All the King's Men (2006)

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"You only get a couple of moments that determine your life. Sometimes only one. And then it's gone. Forever."
Loosely based on the life of the legendary governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, this is the story of a Southern populist politician, Willy Stark (Sean Penn), and his rise from poverty to power while fighting corruption and with overriding concern for the common man.

Despite the poverty of rural Louisiana. Willy Stark, a farmer's (Frederic F. Forrest) son, and all eight of his siblings were college educated. His first public office was that of treasurer of Mason City where he battled against kickbacks from a construction company bidding on a new schoolhouse. His stance made him a pariah and he vowed to leave politics behind and continue his job as a door-to-door salesman. But when three children die in an accident at the schoolhouse because a fire escape collapsed during a routine fire drill, Stark's cautions were finally recognized.

At the urging of lobbyist Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), Stark is soon running for governor of Louisiana but while campaigning, he realizes that he's just been set up by Duffy to split the cracker vote so another candidate can win handily. From that moment on, Stark makes a commitment to step up his campaign and win against the upper class.

The story is mostly told from the viewpoint of Jack Burden (Jude Law), a journalist from an aristocratic family. Jack began covering Stark's campaign but once Stark became governor, Jack went to work for him.

When the influential Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins) supports a group of politicians in their request of impeachment, Stark tells Jack to find some dirt in the life of Irwin -- a man who was a father figure to Jack. What follows is the story of deceit exposed with tragic effects for several involved.

Also in the superb cast are Kate Winslet and Mark Ruffalo as siblings Anne and Adam Stanton, children of a now deceased governor, niece and nephew of Judge Irwin, and best childhood friends of Jack Burden; Patricia Clarkson as Stark's jealous mistress Sadie Burke; Jackie Earle Haley as Stark's friend and bodyguard Sugar Boy; Kathy Baker as Jack's mother; and Talia Balsam as Stark's wife.

T Bone Pickens served as the executive music producer so the soundtrack is filled with fabulous Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed. Lightning Hopkins, Hank Williams, Keb' Mo', and T Bone music plus a smattering of Mozart, Beethoven and others.

From a novel by Robert Penn Warren. Screenplay and directed by Steven Zaillian.

Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Rated PG-13 for an intense sequence of violence, sexual content and partial nudity.

My personal rating: A

Smoke (1995)

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The families we make when we are adrift.

Smoke swirls and drifts and seeps into place we can't even see. And so does this film.

Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) runs a corner smoke shop in Brooklyn. Several people swirl into his shop and his life -- people whose lives are in fragile times, just as his is.

When one of his regular customers, writer Paul Benjamin (William Hurt), inquires Auggie's camera, Auggie makes a revelation. In my favorite scene of the film, and the one that sets the whole tone, Auggie explains the photo albums covering each day of many, many years to Paul:

Auggie: "I guess you could call it a hobby. But I do it every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow."

Paul: "So you're not just a guy who pushes coins across a counter."

Auggie: "Well, that's what people see but that ain't necessarily who I am."

Paul, as he looks through the first album: "They're all the same."

Auggie: "That's right. More than 4,000 pictures of the same place. The corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue at 8 o'clock in the morning. Four thousand straight days in all kinds of weather. It's my project. What you'd call my life's work.

Paul: "Amazing. I'm not sure I get it though. What was it that gave you the idea to do this project?"

Auggie: "I don't know. Just came to me. It's my corner, after all. I mean, it's just one little corner of the world. But things take place there, too, just like everywhere else. It's a record of my little spot."

Paul: "It's kind of overwhelming."

Auggie: "You'll never get it if you don't slow down, my friend."

Paul: "What do you mean?"

Auggie: "I mean, you're going to fast. You're hardly even lookin' at the pictures.

Paul: "They're all the same."

Auggie: "They're all the same. But each one is different from every other one. You got your bright mornings and your dark mornings. You got your summer light and your autumn light. You got your weekdays and your weekends. You got your people in overcoats and galoshes. And you got your people in t-shirts and shorts. Sometimes the same people. Sometimes different ones. Some times the different ones become the same ones. And the same ones disappear. The earth revolves around the sun and every day the light from the sun hits the earth at a different angle."

Paul: "Slow down, huh?"

Auggie: "That's what I'd recommend. You know how it is. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Time creeps on its petty pace."

Others in the cast include:

Harold Perrineau Jr. as Rashid Cole, an African-American teenager who saves Paul from being hit by a truck and becomes almost like a son to Paul;

Stockard Channing as Ruby McNutt, Auggie's girlfriend from nearly 20 years before, who appears to inform Auggie he has a daughter who is pregnant and a drug addict;

Forest Whitaker as Cyrus Cole who didn't know he had a son;

Ashley Judd as Auggie's troubled daughter;

and Clarice Taylor as Granny Ethel.

This is a sensitive, ephemeral and cerebral tale, touchingly presented in a way that I think I will never forget.

Outstanding music by the Jerry Garcia Band, Louis Prima, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and others, plus my two favorites, "Downtown Train" and "Innocent When You Dream" written and performed by Tom Waits.

Written by Paul Auster and based on his short story "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story." Directed by Wayne Wang.

Run time: 1 hour, 62 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: A

Gran Torino (2008)

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"Me, I finish things."
After Korean War vet Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood, who also directed) loses his wife, he's left alone to live with his vast prejudices and his growl whenever he sees things he doesn't like -- which is often. Walt worked in the Ford plant for fifty years and is disgusted that his own son (Brian Haley) drives a foreign car and wants Walt to move to a retirement community. Walt's more than annoyed that his own old neighborhood has been taken over by Hmong people and gang have a stranglehold in the area.

When the neighbor boy Thao (Bee Vang) attempts to steal Walt's 1972 Gran Torino to fulfill a gang initiation, Walt reluctantly takes the boy under his wing to make him a man. He also befriend's Thao's sister Sue (Ahney Her) and becomes somewhat of a guardian angel to the two of them.

The old man can still pull out a Dirty Harry move or two, too. A touching, often very funny, film. Of all of Eastwood's incredible films, I consider this one truly his legacy.

Also appearing are Christopher Carley as the priest Walt's wife asked to watch out for the old man; John Carroll Lynch as the barber. Eastwood's 22-year-old son Scott, who goes by the name of Scott Reeves, also has a brief appearance as Sue's boyfriend.

Run time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

Rated R for language throughout, and some violence.

My personal rating: A-

The Good Shepherd (2006)

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"It isn't about dedication and loyalty, it's about belief in what we do."
Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), a quiet, unassuming man and member of the secret Skull & Bones Society at Yale (nominally the WASP future leaders training grounds), was a member of OSS, a intelligence service, during WWII. When the OSS becomes the CIA when the Cold War begins and Wilson soon rises to the top -- the head of CIA counterintelligence.

When he suspects that Castro was tipped off to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Wilson goes in search of the traitorous mole and in the process he explores the many failures, disappointments and betrayals in his own life.
Also appearing are Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Robert De Niro (who also directed), Keir Dullea, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Joe Pesci, and John Turturro.

Run time: 2 hours, 47 minutes

Rated R for some violence, sexuality and language.

My personal rating: B

Yonkers Joe (2009)

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The Eye in the Sky
Joe Duma (Chazz Palminteri) will gamble on anything -- cards, dice, horses, whatever -- and is always trying to find a way to con the win. He's a distant man, even toward his partner in crime girlfriend Janice (Christine Lahti), but most especially toward his young adult son Joey (Tom Guiry) who has Down syndrome.

When the director (Roma Maffia) of the group home where Joey has lived for a long time informs Joe that Joey can no longer remain in the home because of his violent outbursts, aggression, and profanity, Joe is simply at a loss about what to do with Joey. He's never really bonded with the boy and Joey's mother abandoned them long ago. Joe doesn't want the Joey around but is forced to take him until he can raise substantial money to put him in an expensive facility that can deal with the aggression and anger issues. Joe really needs one big scam soon and it's not going to happen in the casinos of Atlantic City.

When Joe's gambling buddy Stanley (Michael Lerner) arranges a deal with a couple of wealthy men in Miami (Arthur J. Nascarella, Saverio Guerra) to bankroll a big scam in Las Vegas, Joe, Joey, Janice, Stanley and a couple other gambling cronies (Linus Roache, Michael Rispoli, Frank John Hughes) head West.

But Joe ends up winning a whole lot more than money.

Written and directed by Robert Celestino.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated R for language including sexual references.

My personal rating: B

Blind Date (1987)

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"I just have this chemical imbalance almost like an allergy to alcohol. It just makes me crazy!"
Walter Davis (Bruce Willis) is a serious workaholic. He's been so enmeshed in his career that he's not bothered with other relationships. When he's required to bring a date to an important business dinner, he's at a lost until his brother Ted (Phil Hartman) and sister-in-law (Stepahnie Faracy) arrange a blind date with a friend of hers. However, he is cautioned to not let her drink alcohol.

Not paying heed to the warning, he offers Nadia (Kim Basinger) champagne before going to the restaurant. Big mistake. She twirls out of control and does several things that embarrass him and even compromise his job. As though that isn't bad enough, her ex-boyfriend David Bedford (John Larroquette) is stalking her and making Walter's life absolutely crazy.

Also appearing are George Coe as Walter's boss; William Daniels as the judge; Alice Hirson as David's mother; Joyce Van Patton as Nadia's mother.

Bruce Willis' first credited film.

Directed by Blake Edwards.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: C

Mozart and the Whale (2005)

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"After everything she told me, and checking on your excellent record in college, I'm wondering why you choose to drive a taxi for a living."
"At my interview with IBM after I graduated college, they asked me what my plans were, and I said, 'Probably go to McDonalds for a 12-piece McNugget and two cheeseburgers, and then do my laundry.'"
"Did they laugh, at least?"
"They smiled and said they'd call me. They didn't."
Donald Morton (Josh Hartnett) is a numbers savant with Asperger's syndrome who runs a support group for others with the same or similar disorders. When Isabelle Sorenson (Radha Mitchell), a music savant, joins the group, it's clear to see the romantic sparks fly. But can they endure and survive the unique challenges that their difficult conditions present?

Also appearing are Gary Cole, Sheila Kelley, Erica Leerhsen, John Carroll Lynch, Nate Mooney, Rusty Schwimmer, Robert Wisdom, and Allen Evangelista.

Inspired by a true story. Directed by Petter Næss.

Run time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and some thematic material.

My personal rating: B

Vicki Cristina Barcelona (2008)

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"Speak English!"
Twenty-something friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) go to Spain for the summer before Vicky's impending wedding to Doug (Chris Messina). Originally they are to stay with Vicky's parents' friends (Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Dunn) but they are swiftly enchanted by a sexy Spanish artist, Juan Antonio Gonzalo (Javier Bardem) who whisks them away to the island of his birth and woos both of them. Little do the women know that the recently divorced Gonzalo continues to have a tempestuous relationship with his artist ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz, who won the Oscar for this role) and it's about to explode again.

Written and directed by Woody Allen.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexuality, and smoking.

My personal rating: B+

Revolutionary Road (2008)

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"You been to Paris?"
"I've never really been anywhere."
"Maybe I'll take you with me then. I'm going back the first chance I get. I tell you. People are alive there. Not like here. All I know, April, is I want to feel things. Really feel them, you know. How's that for an ambition?"
"Frank Wheeler. I think you're the most interesting person I've ever met."
When Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet) first met, they were full of hope and aspiration. He was a free spirit with dreams of returning to Paris where he'd spent some time during WW II. She, a budding actress. But when an unexpected pregnancy pushes them to marriage, they assume the expected roles for young couples in the 1950s.

Frank settles into a corporate job where his father had worked in NYC while April became a stereotypical Connecticut housewife. They get caught up in quiet desperation and over time, it reflects in their marriage. They grow short tempered and irritable with each other. But when they finally resolve to give up the expectations of others and move to Paris as they both had once dreamed, complicating situations get in the way.

Also appearing are Kathy Bates as their real estate agent Helen Givings; Richard Easton as her husband Howard; Michael Shannon as their mentally unstable son; David Harbour and Kathryn Hahn as their neighbors Shep and Millie.

Directed by Sam Mendes.

Run time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.

My personal rating: B+

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

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The Rule Or the Exception
A complicated comedy about the complications of love and relationships. Set in Baltimore and focused more or less on a group of gal pals, their expectations of men, the men who don't want commitment and don't even call back, the disappointments, the deceit, the dissection of everything that was said between the opposite sex.

The cast of characters includes:

Gigi (Gennifer Goodwin) who has been told since childhood that the boys who treat her shabbily really like her a lot and so she her philosphy is "We are all programmed to believe that if a guy acts like a total jerk that means he likes you."

Conor (Kevin Connolly), a real estate agent. meets Gigi on a blind date and leaves Gigi feeling as though he'll call her again.

Anna (Scarlett Johansson), a yoga instructor, is seeing Conor. She is somewhat unenthusiastic about him but continues to tease him.

Ben (Bradley Cooper) flirts shamelessly with Anna in the grocery store and promises to help Anna get started in the singing career she wants to have. In a moment of guilt, he admits to Anna that he's married but they agree to be friends and he assures her he can help her career.

Neil (Ben Affleck) is Ben's best friend and is commitment-phobic. He doesn't feel the need at all to marry his girlfriend of seven years.

Beth (Jennifer Aniston) is Neil's girlfriend and she desperately wants to marry him and is annoyed by his lack of commitment.

Janine (Jennifer Connelly) is Neil's wife and a firm believe in settling down and getting married. She initially set Gigi up with Conor. She advises Gigi against stalking Conor when he doesn't call her.

Alex (Justin Long) owns a bar and becomes Gigi's dating "shrink."

Mary (Drew Barrymore), an ad rep at an alternative newspaper, is trying to learn the lingo of the electronic era in the dating scene. "I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

Paige (Brooke Bloom) is Beth's younger sister who is preparing for her wedding

Also appearing in cameo roles are Kris Kristopherson and Luis Guzmán.

Directed by Ken Kwapis.

Run time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language.

My personal rating: B

The Door in the Floor (2004)

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"Everything in fiction is a tool: pain, betrayal, even death. These are, you know, these are like, uh, different colors on a painter's palette. You need to use them."
Despite moving to a waterfront home on Long Island, children's book writer and illustrator Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and his wife Marion (Kim Bassinger) still cannot deal with their grief for their two teenage sons who died in a tragic accident. Little Ruthie (Elle Fanning), even though she was born well after the boys' deaths, is obsessed with them because her father constantly tells her stories about the boys when they were little and shows Ruthie the many framed photos of the boys that line the halls and walls of their home.

It's difficult for Marion to be a good mother for Ruthie because Marion, too, is obsessed with the boys and is often in near catatonic depression. When hard-drinking, womanizing Ted announces that he wants a trial separation for the summer, he hires Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), one of the boys' classmates from Exeter, to be his assistant. His plan is to use Eddie as a pawn to further corrupt the marriage. As he hoped, Marion takes Eddie as a lover.

Also appearing are John Rothman as Eddie's father; Bijou Phillips as the nanny Alice; Mimi Rogers as Evelyn Vaughn, one of Ted's models; and Louis Arcella as Evelyn's gardener.

Based on the first third of John Irving's novel, Widow for a Year, and directed by Tod Williams.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for strong sexuality and graphic images, and language.

My personal rating: B

My May 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with *. Most titles link to reviews.

* Hart's War 05/31/09 (B+)
* Boston Legal: 5:3 05/30/09 (B)
Prick Up Your Ears 05/30/09 (B-)
* Wendy and Lucy 05/29/09 (B)
* New in Town 05/28/09 (B+)
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 05/27/09 (B+)
* Boston Legal: 5:2 05/27/09 (B)
* Last Chance Harvey 05/26/09 (A-)
* Boston Legal: 5:2 05/26/09 (B)
* The Cake Eaters 05/25/09 (B)
* Boston Legal: 5:1 05/24/09 (B)
* Uncle Nino 05/24/09 (B)
* Brooklyn Rules 05/23/09 (B)
* The Italian Job 05/22/09 (B)
* The Cooler 05/21/09 (B)
* Modigliani 05/20/09 (B)
* The Year My Parents Went On Vacation 05/19/09 (B)
* Nothing But the Truth 05/18/09 (B)
* Ownng Mahowny 05/17-09 (B)
* Harold 05/16/09 (B)
* What Doesn't Kill You 05/15/09 (B)
Welcome to the Dollhouse 05/14/09 (C)
* The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada 05/13/09 (B)
* Forever Young 05/12/09 (B)
* The Mirror Has Two Faces 05/11/09 (B)
* Lantana 05/10/09 (B)
Charlie Bartlett 05/09/09 (C+)
Silent Fall 05/08/09 (B-)
* Husbands and Wives 05/07/09 (B)
* Frozen River 05/06/09 (B+)
Copying Beethoven 05/05/09 (B-)
Crossroads 05/04/09 (C+)
* Quills 05/03/09 (B+)
* A History of Violence 05/02/09 (B+)
* The Whole Wild World 05/01/09 (B+)

Rest In Peace - May 2009

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May-15-2009
Bud Tingwell, 86, Australian actor (The Desert Rats, Breaker Morant, The Castle, The Dish), prostate cancer.

May-13-2009
Frank Aletter, 83, American stage, television, and film character actor (Mr. Roberts, Tora! Tora! Tora!), formerly married to Miss America and actress Lee Meriwether, cancer.

May-07-2009
Mickey Carroll, 89, diminutive American actor (in seven of the Our Gang films, The Wizard of Oz)

May-04-2009
Dom DeLuise, 75, American actor (Blazing Saddles, The Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Silent Movie), writer, children's book author, chef and cookbook author, father of actors Peter, Michael and David DeLuise, renal failure.

Hart's War (2002)

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For the Better Good
Lt. Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell) is stationed behind the lines when the Battle of the Bulge is taking place. As the son of a congressman, he's put in a safe position. But when he and another officer are ambushed by Nazi soldiers while driving in the snowy woods of Czechoslovakia in December 1944, Hart becomes a prisoner of war and is sent to a stalag next to a munitions plant. Komandant Werner Visser (Marcel Iures) runs a tight encampment but has some benevolence toward the Americans there because, like Hart, he was Yale educated.

The highest ranking US officer at the stalag -- Col. McNamara (Bruce Willis) -- also runs a tight site. When two Tuskegee Institute-trained African-American pilots -- Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard) and Lt. Lamar Archer (Vicellous Shannon) -- are brought to the camp, racism among the GIs rears its head leaving Hart completely disgusted. McNamara does little to quell it. But when one of the most foul racists, Staff Sgt. Vic Bedford (Cole Hauser), is strangled in the yard in the middle of the night, Scott is accused of the murder. Rather than allowing the Komandant to execute Scott on the spot, McNamara demands a court martial hearing to be conducted by by the Americans with McNamara as judge and jury.

Hart is appointed defense attorney for Scott because he's had two years of law school. Convinced of Scott's innocence, Hart has an uphill battle and is not encouraged by McNamara. Getting madder by the minute, Hart wonders why McNamara is willing to sacrifice this innocent man.

Also appearing are Linus Roache, Maury Sterling, Sam Jaeger, Scott Michael Campbell, Rory Cochrane, Sebastian Tillinger, Rick Ravanello.

Intense and at times brutal with some stunning attack scenes and, according to former real-life POWs, a great degree of authenticity.

Directed by Gregory Hoblit.

Run time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Rated R for some strong war violence and language.

My personal rating: B+

Prick Up Your Ears (1987)

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"The whole point about irrational behavior is that it IS irrational!"
The life and death of English playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) as told in retrospect by his friend and agent Peggy Ramsay (Vanessa Redgrave) to Orton's biographer John Lahr (Wallace Shawn).

Also appearing ar Alfred Molina as Orton's jealous long-term lover Kenneth Halliwell; Frances Barber as Orton's mother; Julie Walters as Orton's sister; and Janet Dale as the landlady.

Directed by Stephen Frears.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

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Two Hankies
It's apparent that Wendy (Michelle Williams) only has one being in the world she really cares for and who cares for her -- her "medium-sized yellow gold dog" Lucy.

Driving from Indiana to Alaska to find work in the canneries in a 20-year old Honda, Wendy hits hard times in a small town in Oregon. With scant money, the car breaks down and needs probably $2,000 worth of work. Wendy has no choice but to leave it with the mechanic (Will Patton) but with desperate need for money for repair or replacement or other transportation, Wendy is caught shoplifting dog food for Lucy. She's hauled off by the cops but when she returns to get Lucy where the pup had been tied to a bike stand outside the store, she finds Lucy is gone.

With the help of a kindly security guard (Wally Dalton), Wendy visits the animal shelter, puts signs up around town, and searches everywhere for a few days. In the end, Wendy must make perhaps the toughest decision she's ever had to make in her life.

Also appearing is Will Oldham as Icky, a homeless many who previously worked in the Alaskan canneries and who gives Wendy advice about where to go and who to talk with to get a job there.

A touching little slice-of-life story.

Co-written and directed by Kelly Reichardt.

Run time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Rated R for language -- which is really pathetic as the language is minor but the story is one that should be seen by youngsters. PG-13 would have been more reasonable. Most children hear this "language" daily from those around them.

My personal rating: B

New in Town (2009)

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Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger), an ambitious young executive with a food production company in Miami, is assigned to go to northern Minnesota to restructure a plant and eventually shut it down. When she arrives at the airport in her short designer skirt and expensive high heels she walks out into the arctic blast and snow and wonders what in the heck she's doing there. The experience goes down from there when she encounters scrapbookers, tapioca, flannel, driving on the frozen lake, hockey, ice fishing, "hidey-ho," crow hunting, middle American values, and one "ass truck driver" who turns out to be Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.), the union rep she has to deal with in the whole transition.

Also in the cast are Siobhan Fallon as Lucy's secretary; J.K. Simmons as the plant foreman Stu Kopenhafer; Frances Conroy as townie Trudy Van Uuden; Ferron Guerreiro as Ted 13-year-old daughter.

I had some serious laugh out loud moments watching this chick flick but I think even guys would get a kick out of it.

Directed by Jonas Elmer.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated PG for language and some suggestive material.

My personal rating: B+

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

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"I've never seen anything like it. Blind from cataracts. I'm not sure if he can hear. His bones indicate severe arthritis. His skin has lost all elasticity, and his hands and feet are ossified. He shows all the deterioration, the infirmities, not of a newborn, but of a man well in his 80s on the way to the grave."
Suspend your disbelief right from the start of this intriguing fantasy drama.

On the night of WWI Armistice, an infant is born but his mother dies in childbirth. Stunned and depressed, the baby's father abandons him on the streets of New Orleans where he is found by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who works and lives in an old folks home. She takes the infant in and raises him as her own. Despite the prediction of his early demise, the old man in the baby's body grows and flourishes among the old folks and with the love of Queenie.

As his body gets larger, Benjamin (Brad Pitt) becomes less frail -- and younger.

The story is told as a diary read aloud by Caroline (Julia Ormond), the daughter of Daisy (Cate Blanchett), an elderly woman who is dying in New Orleans whist Hurrican Katrina heads toward Louisiana.

Others in the cast include: Elias Koteas as the clockmaker; Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Queenie's husand Tizzy; Elle Fanning as a young Daisy; Jason Flemyng as Benjamin's father; Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth, the married woman Benjamin has an affair with.

Directed by David Fincher.

Run time: 2 hours, 48 minutes

Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

My personal rating: B+

Last Chance Harvey (2009)

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It's never too late to take a chance.
Hapless Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is on his way to London for his daughter's wedding. Vulnerable at work, he's made the decision that going to the wedding is more important than keeping his position as a jingle writer for an advertising company. But the impending marriage of his daughter and loss of his job are scary for poor Harvey. Meanwhile, Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), a survey taker at Heathrow Airport, finds herself tired of blind dates, tired of her Mum's (Eileen Atkins) constant urging to get married already, and sad about having never found the right person to share her life with.

Harvey always felt that his awkwardness had been an embarassment to his daughter (Liane Balaban) and her mother (Kathy Baker) and had caused the divorce. He'd not been very involved with his daughter since then but he's crushed when she tells him that her stepfather (James Brolin) will walk her down the aisle.

The next day, after the wedding ceremony, Harvey begs off the evening reception saying he has to get back to NYC for work. But he's delayed by traffic and misses his flight so he heads to the airport bar to drown his sorrows. Kate is sitting at a nearby table having lunch and after slinging a few arrows at each other, they end up in conversation. Kate encourages him to go to the reception and he agrees -- but only if Kate attends with him. Harvey is empowered by his connection with Kate and is able to appropriately speak his piece in a toast he gives at the reception.

Having endeared themselves to each other and finding some degree of confidence in themselves, Harvey and Kate move on to consider their future.

Also appearing are Richard Schiff as Harvey's boss and Daniel Lapaine as Harvey's new son-in-law.

Written and directed by Joel Hopkins.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

My personal rating: A-

The Cake Eaters (2007)

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Secrets
After his wife's (Melissa Leo) death, Easy Kimbrough (Bruce Dern), a small town butcher, grieves his loss but also keeps secret the affair he's been having for many years. His son, 20-something Beagle (Aaron Stanford), works in a high school cafeteria and had been his ailing mother's primary caretaker. He resents the fact that his older brother, Guy (Jayce Bartok), abandoned the family three years before and left Beagle with so much responsibility. When Guy returns to town, too late even for his mother's funeral, Easy is just happy to have his boys together again, but Beagle needs to work out his anger.

Guy finds his old girlfriend Stephanie (Miriam Shor) has moved on with her life without him. Beagle strikes up a secret relationship with a high school girl, Georgia (Kristen Stewart), who has a terminal neuromuscular disease. Her bizarre mother (Marylouise Burke) is very controlling and overprotective of Georgia and yet has exploited Georgia's illness for artistic and and financial gain. With the encouragement of her mother's boyfriend (Thomas Cavanagh), Georgia becomes he aggressor in the relationship with Beagle. Meanwhile Georgia's supportive grandmother (Elizabeth Ashley) has her own secret revealed.

A quirky ensemble piece set in rural upstate NY.

Directed by Mary Stuart Masterson.

Run time: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Rated R for some language and sexual material involving a teen.

My personal rating: B

Uncle Nino (2003)

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"I'm awesome!
Robert Micelli (Joe Mantegna) is intense in his job working hard and long hours to earn a significant promotion. His wife Marie (Anne Archer) longs for her husband to be home more and be more involved in family life. Teenage son Bobby (Trevor Morgan) is wracked with angst and just wants to be accepted at his new high school in an uppity Chicago suburb. Pre-teen daughter Gina (Gina Mantegna) loves animals and longs for a dog of her own but her father says no.

When Robert's elderly Uncle Nino (Pierrino Mascarino) arrives without the Micelli's even know he's come from is home in a small Italian town, the Micellis lives are to be forever changed.

Duke Doyle and Daniel Adebayo play Bobby's hoodlum friends who are in a garage band with Bobby.

Written and directed by Robert Shallcross.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated PG for language and some teen smoking.

My personal rating: B

Brooklyn Rules (2007)

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Love, Loss, Loyalty
Three boys -- brainy Michael Turner (Paulo Aranjo), cheapskate Bobby Canzoneri (Daniel Tay) and vain Carmine Mancuso (Ty Reed) -- grew up on the tough streets of Brooklyn learning the power of the mob.

By 1985, the boys are young men still live in Brooklyn and are still best pals. Michael (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is studying pre-law at Columbia, working for a butcher, and becoming involved with classmate Ellen (Mena Suvari). Bobby (Jerry Ferrara) is still living with his folks, has a girlfriend, Amy (Monica Kenna), and is trying for a job with the post office. Carmine (Scott Caan) is getting involved with the mob via Philly Cabrese (Chris Caldovino) who has connections with the Gambino family and local thug Caesar Manganaro (Alec Baldwin).

Can their friendship endure?

Directed by Michael Corrente.

Run time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Rated R for violence, pervasive language and some sexual content.

My personal rating: B

The Italian Job (2003)

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"I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust."
Mastermind Charlie (Mark Wahlberg), veteran safecracker John (Donald Sutherland), inside man Steve (Edward Norton), computer guru Lyle (Seth Green), wheelman Rob (Jason Statham), and explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def), pulled off an amazing gold bullion heist from a Venice palazzo. But little did four of them know that one of them had his own plan to end up with all the profits.

Hatching a plan to recapture the gold and payback the turncoat, they add the beautiful Stella (Charlize Theron) to the team and set LA on its ear.

Directed by F. Gary Gray.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.

My personal rating: B

The Cooler (2003)

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Luck Be a Lady Tonighti
Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is a perpetually unlucky man. He's so unlucky that he has to repay a big gambling debt to the operator of the Shangri-La Casino in Las Vegas, Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), by becoming the house "cooler" -- the jinx called in to majorly ruin the good fortune of big gamblers who are winning at the Shangri-La.

Kaplow is an "old school" mobster -- he believes in keeping things the way Vegas was in the day when violence and intimidation was how the casinos stayed in business. He resists the pressure from the big mob to update, upgrade the Shangri-La, to modernize it, remodel, get rid of the old school methods in favor of mental manipulation and technology. Despite urging to get rid of the cooler, Kaplow feels he owns him. But with seven days left on his contract to Kaplow, Lootz tells Kaplow that in a week, he's gone.

Determined to not let Lootz go, Kaplow tries ways to retain him. But then Lady Luck comes Lootz's way in the form of a beautiful bar waitress, Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello) and Lootz becomes the luckiest man in town. He's no longer effective as a cooler as he brings good luck to every table he passes by in the casino. This does not, of course, please Kaplow.

Also appearing are Shawn Hatosy as Lootz's son Mikey; Estella Warren as Mikey's pregnant girlfriend; Paul Sorvino as the aging lounge lizard; Joey Fatone as the young lounge lizard; Arthur J. Nascarella as the mobster Nicky Fingers Bonnatto who wants Kaplow to change modernize the Shangri-La; Ron Livingston as Nicky's VP, Larry Sokolov; Richard Israel as Sokolov's numbers man Marty Goldfarb; Ellen Greene as the bartender; and MC Gainey as the highway patrolman.

Written and directed by Wayne Kramer.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R for strong sexuality, violence, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: B

Modigliani (2004)

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"You can't change destiny."
In 1919 Paris, the talk of the cafe society was Salone des Artiste, a competition for artists. Amedeo Modigliani (Andy Garcia) and Pablo Picasso (Omid Djalili) become enmeshed in their rivalry for the prize. Modigliani needs the money to rescue and raise the illegitimate child he fathered with Jeanne Hébuterne (Elsa Zylberstein), a young and beautiful Catholic girl. Her bigoted parents (Jim Baker, Michelle Newell) have sent the child away to be raised by nuns because Modigliani is a Jew.

Modigliani is intent on painting a masterpiece that will secure the prize.

Also appearing are Eva Herzigova as Picasso's wife Olga; Peter Capadli as Jean Cocteau; Dan Astileanu as Diego Rivera; Miriam Margolyes as Gertrude Stein; Ion Siminie as Claude Monet.

Written and directed by Mick Davis.

Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for some language and drug use.

My personal rating: B

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)

O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias

In 1970. while a military coup was raging in Brazil, the Brazilian team was also in the World Cup competition in soccer. When 12-year-old Mauro's (Michel Joelsas) Communist parents (Simone Spoladore, Eduardo Moreira) must flee for their lives, they drop off Mauro at his grandfather's apartment building where he will be safe until they can return for him.

Little did his parents know that Mauro's grandfather had just passed away. Suddenly the grandfather's neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut) becomes Mauro's guardian in the old Jewish district of São Paulo.

Mauro must begin a whole new life but his passion for football (soccer) helps him through the difficuly times. He is also befriended by the neighbor girl, Hanna (Daniela Piepszyk).

This film was nominated for and won many prestigious international film awards.

Directed by Cao Hamburger.

Subtitled.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG for thematic material, mild language, brief suggestive content, some violence and smoking.

My personal rating: B

Nothing But the Truth (2008)

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"Now for some reason, you don't reveal your source, you'll be held in contempt. And that means jail time. And we're not talking about some sort of a Martha Stewart cell with a butler nonsense."
When a Washington, DC, journalist, Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) refuses to give up her source when her article naming a CIA operative who recently went on a fact-finding mission to Venezuela is released, she is imprisoned on contempt charges for an indefinite period. But after a year, will Armstrong continue to keep her secret? And why?

Others in the fine cast are Vera Farmiga as the CIA agent Erica Van Doren; Matt Dillon as the prosecuting attorney Patton Dubois; Angela Basset as Armstrong's editor; Alan Alda as Armstrong's attorney Alan Burnside; David Schwimmer as Armstrong's husband, Noah Wyle as the newspaper's legal council; Floyd Abrams as the judge; and Preston Berry as Armstrong's young son.

Written and directed by Rod Lurie.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated R for language, some sexual material, and a scene of violence.

My personal rating: B

Owning Mahowny (2003)

Based on a true story.
"You've got a gambling problem, right?"
"I've got a financial problem. A shortfall."
Take one seemingly unassuming man -- Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) -- with a gambling problem plus access to millions of dollars because of his job as a banker. What do you get? The biggest case of bank fraud perpetrated by a single person in Canadian history.

Also appearing are Minnie Driver as Mahowny's girlfriend; Maury Chaykin as Mahowny's bookie; John Hurt as the astute casino manager.

Directed by Richard Kwietniowski.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Harold (2008)

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"A suggestion: Wear Fruit-of-the-Loom underwear. It hurts less when they give you a wedgie."
Thirteen-year-old Harold (Spencer Breslin) loves his little hometown. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. He's a leader in school. When his Mom (Ally Sheedy) tells Harold and his older sister (Stella Maeve) that she has a great job offer in another town, Harold doesn't want to leave, but he has no choice.

Most of the kids and some of the teachers in the new school simply aren't nice to a 13-year-old nurd with serious male pattern baldness, bunions, dorky clothes, old man attitude. Life is only made a little easier thanks to a school janitor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who befriends Harold.

Others in the cast include: Fred Willard as the doctor in the new town; Nikki Blonsky as Rhonda who has a serious crush on Harold; Nicky Katt as a policeman; Chris Parnell as Coach Vanderpool; Suzanne Shepherd as the sex-starved old woman next door; Elizabeth Gillies as Evelyn who Harold persues; Robert Gorrie as his sister's boyfriend.

Written and directed by T. Sean Shannon.

Run time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and teen drinking.

My personal rating: B

What Doesn't Kill You (2008)

Based on a true story.
Choices and Consequences
Two teenage pals -- Paulie (Ethan Hawke) and Brian (Mark Ruffalo) -- grew up together making pocket money as runners for a low level thug in South Boston. Fifteen years later they're tired of getting the small cuts from the jobs Pat Kelly (Brian Goodman, who also co-wrote and directed this film which is based on his own life) and decide to strike out on their own and call their own shots.

They get involved with drug supplier Jay (Brian S. Goodman) and his hyped up brother Sean (Brian Connolly) in dealing cocaine and steroids.

Also appearing are Donnie Wahlberg ans the determined detective tracking Paulie and Brian; Amanda Peet as Brian's long-suffering wife, Stacy; Angela Featherstone as Stacy's best friend Katie;

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R for language, drug use, some violence and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

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"Why do you hate me?"

"Because you're ugly."

In this NY Cupcake Land suburban satire, seventh-grader Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) must endure a bully (Brendan Sexton, Jr.), a nerdy older brother (Matthew Faber), an adorable little sister (Daria Kalinina) who is clearly Dawn's parents' (Angela Pietropinto, Bill Buell) favorite child, her best friend (Dimitri DeFresco) who is also a social reject, and a sexy high schooler (Eric Mabius) who is in her brother's garage band.

Written and directed by Todd Solondz.

Run time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: C

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

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"Promise me one thing, Pete. If I die over here, carry me back to my family and bury me in my home town. I don't want to be buried on this side among all the f***ing billboards."

When Pete Perkin's (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directed) best friend, Melquiades Estrada (Julio César Cedillo) is found shot to death in the Texas desert near his little goat farm, Pete makes it his business to both find whoever shot Melquiades and to take Melquiades home to his small Mexican village for burial.

What follows is one man's determination to do the right thing and another man's forced and violent journey to redemption.

Also appearing are Barry Pepper as the new, overly aggressive border patrolman Mike Norton; January Jones as Mike's beautiful but completely disenchanged wife Lou Ann; Dwight Yoakam as Sheriff Belmont; Melissa Leo as a loose woman who befriends Pete, Lou Ann and services the sheriff; Levon Helm as an old blind man on the high mesa; Mel Rodriguez as Captain Gomez of the border patrol; and Vanessa Bauche as Mariana, the herbalist.

Not for the weak stomached!

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated R for language, violence and sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Forever Young (1992)

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"It's the dead guy!"
When hot shot test pilot Capt. Danny McCormick (Mel Gibson) doesn't want to witness his beloved girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) in a coma after a horrible accident, he convinces his scientist friend Harry Finley (George Wendt) to using him as a guinea pig for a cryogenics experiment. Danny wants to be frozen for a year so he doesn't have to face Helen's condition. But after being frozen for 53 years, Danny comes back to life and finds himself in 1992.

Danny becomes involved in the lives of nurse Claire Cooper (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her son Nat (Elijah Wood).

Also appearing are Robert Hy Gorman as Nat's friend Felix; Joe Morton as Dr. Cameron, a modern crygenics expert; Nicolas Surovy as Claire's boyfriend; and Veronica Lauren as Nat's little girlfriend Alice.

Directed by Steve Miner.

Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Rated PG for some language and domestic conflict.

My personal rating: B

The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

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"This thing that we call a wedding ceremony is really the final scene of the fairy tale. They never tell you what happens after. They never tell you that Cinderella drove the Prince crazy with her obsessive need to clean the castle, cause she missed her day job, right?"
Columbia literature professor Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand, who also directed) and math professor Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) prove that romance isn't just for the youthful despite her exuberance and his cynacism.

Also appearing are Lauren Bacall (who was nominated for an Oscar for this role) as Rose's mother; Mimi Rogers as Rose's sister Claire; Pierce Brosnan as Rose's over-sexed new brother-in-law; Brenda Vaccaro as Rose's best friend Doris; Elle MacPherson as Gregory's ex-girlfriend; and George Segal as Gregory's hedonistic friend.

The song "I Finally Found Someone," sung by Streisand and Bryan Adams, was nominated for an Oscar.

Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

Rated PG-13 for language, sensuality and some mature thematic material.

My personal rating: B

Lantana (2001)

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"You know, you really should have told me that you have a weak heart."
Ten lives intersect, inject, reject and every other kind of -ect in this almost-all-Australian drama.

Police Detective Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) is guilt-ridden about his affair with Jane O'May (Rachael Blake). Meanwhile, Leon's wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) tells her psychiatrist, Dr. Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) that she's concerned about her marriage and is depressed that the passion and honesty seem to be gone in her relationship with Leon.

In another meanwhile, Valerie and her law dean husband John (Geoffrey Rush) have had their own distance for the past 18 months since the murder of their daughter and especially since Valerie's book about their daughter was recently released. In addition, Valerie is feeling odd about one of her patients, Patrick (Peter Phelps), who is having an affair with a married man.

Still more meanwhiles when Jane's neighbor and friend Paula (Daniella Farinacci) tells Jane that Paula's husband Nik (Vince Colosimo) has talked with Jane's estranged husband Pete (Glenn Robbins) and Pete wants to reunite with Jane. Jane proceeds to come on to the unemployed Nik when Paula is at work.

When Valerie goes missing late one night, puzzle pieces scattered all over begin to come together.

Leah Purcell appears as Leon's police partner Claudia Wiss who has covered his affair from Sonja and who is also smitten with a mystery man she sees regularly at the diner.

The first film to win all of the top six categories of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards: best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor. It also won for best adapted screenplay.

Adapted from Andrew Bovell's play Speaking in Tongues. Directed by Ray Lawrence.

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated R for language and sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Charlie Bartlett (2007)

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"Charlie, there are more important things than popularity."
"Like what? Cause I'm seventeen. And right now, popularity's pretty damn important."
"Like what you do with that popularity."
Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) has a desperate need to be popular. His antics toward this goal have caused him to be expelled from numerous prep boarding schools. Now at home with his mother (Hope Davis) in their mansion, he is sent off to public school for the first time in his life.

At first, the preppy boy is the subject of bullying by the high school punks, lead by Murphey Bivens (Tyler Hilton). Thanks to his mother's psychiatrist (Stephen Young), who is more than willing to write prescriptions for anything Charlie fakes, Charlie finds a way to become quite popular -- much to the dismay of Principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.).

Also appearing is Kat Dennings as Susan Gardner, Charlie's love interest who happens to be the principal's daughter.

Directed by Jon Poll.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated R for language, drug content and brief nudity.

My personal rating: C+

Silent Fall (1994)

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"Abuse victims make the best actors."
When a married couple is found brutally stabbed to death in the bedroom of their posh Maryland home, the only witnesses are their older teenage daughter Silvie Warden (Liv Tyler) who apparently was also attacked but remembers nothing and their young autistic son Tim (Ben Faulkner) who can't communicate any information worth using in solving the case.

Sheriff Mitch Rivers (J.T. Walsh) calls his old friend Jake Ranier (Richard Dreyfuss), a former child psychiatrist, in on the case in hopes of breaking the barrier surrounding the young boy.

Also appearing are Linda Hamilton as Jake's wife; John Lithgow as a child psychologist who wants to use drugs to get the boy to reveal information; and Zahn McClarnon as Deputy Bear.

Directed by Bruce Beresford.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

Husbands and Wives (1992)

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"God never plays dice with the universe"
"No, he just plays hide-and-seek."
When Gabe (Woody Allen, who also wrote and directed) and his wife Judy (Mia Farrow) find out their best friends, Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis) are breaking up, it causes the Gabe and Judy more distress than it appears to cause Jack and Sally. It also Gabe and Judy to reevaluate their own marriage.

Also appearing are Timothy Jerome as a man Sally tries to date; Lysette Anthony as Jack's new girlfriend Sam; Juliette Lewis as one of Gabe's students Rain with whom he is growing quite smitten; Liam Neeson as Michael who become's Sally's first serious boyfriend; Ron Rifkin as Rain's former therapist/ex-boyfriend; Blythe Danner and Brian McConnachie as Rain's parents; Benno Schmidt as Judy's ex-husband.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated R for language and a scene of sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Frozen River (2008)

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Desperation
Hardbitten Rae Eddy (Melissa Leo) and her two sons, 15-year-ild TJ (Charlie McDermott) and five-year-old Ricky (James Reilly) have been abandoned yet again by her shiftless, addict, gambling husband. With the final payment to owe on her dream double-wide and barely able to support her boys, Rae gets involved with a cynical young Mohawk woman, Lila Littlejohn (Misty Upham), smuggling Chinese and Pakistani illegals across the frozen St. Lawrence river from Quebec into upstate New York. Rae's greed leads to a life or death cat and mouse game.

Michael O'Keefe plays the trooper on the hunt.

Written and directed by newcomer Courtney Hunt. Melissa Leo was nominated for an Oscar for best actress and Courtney Hunt received the nomination for best screenplay. The film garnered numerous other prestigious nominations and wins around the world.

Rated R for some language.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

My personal rating: B+

Copying Beethoven (2006)

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"God whispers into the ears of some men, but he shouts into mine!"
In this fictionalization of Ludwig von Beethoven's last year of life, a young woman -- Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) -- is sent to serve as a copyist for Beethoven (Ed Harris). At great sacrifice by her father, Anna was sent to study composing at the conservatory in Vienna. She lives in a convent where her aunt is a nun and she is engaged to a promising architect, Martin Bauer (Matthew Goode).

Beethoven is not at all happy about a woman copyist but in time, the brilliant, deaf madman becomes totally dependent on Anna.

Also appearing are Phyllidia Law as the Mother Superior of the convent and Joe Anderson as Beethoven's nephew Karl who uses Ludwig to no end.

Though this film borrows heavily from Amadeus in some scenes and Harris' intensity as Beethoven shows through, it didn't leave me as charged as Amadeus did. But I must say, the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is masterful.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sexual elements.

My personal rating: B-

Crossroads (1986)

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"The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad, thinkin' 'bout the woman he once was with."
Eugene "Lightning Boy" Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a talented young guitar player who wants to learn the ways of authentic blues. When he meets blues legend Willie "Blind Dog" Brown (Joe Seneca) he's off on a journey to the Mississippi Delta with the promise of learning it all. Little does Eugene know that Brown is actually trying to buy his way out of a deal he made the devil decades early by offering up young Eugene in his place.

Also appearing are Jami Gertz, Joe Morton, Robert Judd, and Harry Carey Jr.

The strength of the film is some pretty good blues slide guitar but otherwise it's just sort of a mediocre sweet story.

Directed by Walter Hill.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C+

Quills (2000)

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"So many authors are denied the gratification of a concrete response to their work. I am blessed."
Imprisoned for many years for his pornographic and masochistic writings, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) eventually found himself in the insane asylum Chareton which was run by a benevolent priest, the Abbé du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix). He continued writing his tomes in his well-appointed cell and his manuscripts were secreted out to his publisher by the young and beautiful laundress Madeleine LeClerq (Kate Winslet).

When the emperor Napoleon (Ron Cook) discovers that de Sade's work continues to sell, he dispatches Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) to assess the situation and put and end to the writings. While the Abbé refuses to allow Royer-Collard to employ barbaric torture to "tame" de Sade, de Sade is gradually deprived of his quills, ink and paper and then the opulent decor of his cell and finally left naked in his barren cell. But he continues to find ways to write and tell his stories.

Also in the cast are Amelia Warner as Simone, the convent-raised orphan who becomes Royer-Collard's child bride; Stephen Moyer as Prioux, a young architect sent by Napoleon to renovate the Royer-Collard chateau at Chareton; Billie Whitelaw as Madeleine's mother who was blinded by the lye used to wash the asylum's linens; Jane Menelaus as de Sade's long-suffering wife Renee Pelagie; Stephen Marcus as the violent inmate Bouchon; and Elizabeth Berrington as the chambermaid Charlotte who betrays Madeleine.

While factually inaccurate, de Sade did spend many years imprisoned and at the insane asylum of Chareton. Liberties were taken regarding many incidents in de Sade's life. This is a profound film with graphic violence and sexuality. Some may find it extremely vulgar.

Directed by Philip Kaufman.

Run time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, violence and language.

My personal rating: B+

A History of Violence (2005)

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"In this family, we do not solve problems by hitting people!"
"No, in this family, we shoot them!"
The Stalls are an upstanding small town Indiana couple. Tom (Viggo Mortenson) and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) run the town's diner. Thier son Jack (Ashton Holmes) is a gentle spirited teenager who is bullied at school. Little Sarah (Heidi Hayes) is afraid of monsters.

When a couple of murderous thugs arrive at the diner and threaten Tom with guns, Tom shoots them both dead and becomes a hero.

Soon Tom and Edie are been stalked and threated by mobster Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) and his goons Frank Mulligan (Bill McDonald) and Charlie Roarke (Aidan Devine). Fogarty has seen Tom's hero picture in the newspaper and pegs him as Joey Cusack, brother of Philadelphia mobster Richie Cusack (William Hurt). From there the true tale unfurls.

Also appearing are Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney.

Direced by David Cronenberg.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: B+

The Whole Wild World (1996)

."To make life worth living a man or a woman has to have a great love or a great cause. I have neither."
When schoolteacher and aspiring writer Novalyne Price (Renee Zellweger) arrives in Cross Plains, Texas, in 1933 to begin the school term, she meets Robert Howard (Vincent D'Onofrio), an odd loner with a temper and a successful pulp magazine writer known for his Conan the Barbarian series. She's seeking advice but their friendship soon blossoms into more and Novalyne must learn how to deal with Robert's attitude and stories that offend her sensibilities.

Others in the cast include Ann Wedgeworth and Harve Presnell as Robert's sickly mother and doctor father; and Libby Villari as Novalyne's mother. Also appearing is Elizabeth D'Onofrio (Vincent's sister).

Based on the memoir of Novalyne Price Ellis. Directed by Dan Ireland.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated PG for a substantial amount of mild language and mature thematic elements.

My personal rating: B+

Rest in Peace - April 2009

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Apr-25-2009
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur, 86, American Actress (films Mame, Lovers and Other Strangers; tv series Maude, Golden Girls), cancer.

Apr-22-2009
Ken Annakin, 94, British Academy Award-nominated firm director (The Longest Day, Battle of the Bulge), complications from heart attack and stroke.
Jack Cardiff, 94, British cinematographer (Black Narcissus, The African Queen), natural causes.

Apr-12-2009
Marilyn Chambers, 56, American pornographic actress (Behind the Green Door) and politician.

Apr-04-2009
Jody McCrea, 74, American actor (Naked Gun, All Hands on Deck, numerous beach bikini flicks), eldest son of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee.

Apr-02-2009
Lou Perryman, 67, American actor (The Blues Brothers, Poltergeist, Boys Don't Cry), stabbed.

My April 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with * All titles link to reviews.

Say Anything 04/30/09 (B-)
* Hearts in Atlantis 04/29/09 (B+)
* Homer & Eddie 04/28/09 (B)
* Frost/Nixon 04/27/09 (A)
* Pollock 04/26/09 (B+)
* Hot Shots! 04/25/09 (B)
* In Country 04/24/09 (B)
Sunset 04/23/09 (B-)
* The Wrestler 04/22/09 (A-)
Pineapple Express 04/21/09 (B-)
* Trial By Jury 04/20/09 (B)
All or Nothing 04/19/09 (B-)
* The Player 04/18/09 (B)
Far From Heaven 04/17/09 (C+)
* At Close Range 04/16/09 (B)
* Cadillac Records 04/15/09 (B+)
* The Deep End 04/14/09 (B)
* Appaloosa 04/13/09 (A-)
* The Secret Life of Words 04/12/09 (B+)
* Imaginary Crimes 04/11/09 (B)
* Instinct 04/10/09 (B+)
* Doubt 04/9/09 (B+)
* Nights in Rodanthe 04/8/09 (B)
* RocknRolla 04/7/09 (B)
* The Commitments 04/6/09 (B)
* The Red Violin 04/5/09 (A-)
* Seven Pounds 04/4/09 (B)
* In the Electric Mist 04/3/09 (B)
* American History X 04/02/09 (B+)
* Slumdog Millionaire 04/01/09 (B)

Say Anything (1989)

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"I am looking for a dare to be great situation."
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), underachiever, kickboxer, and recent high school graduate, is smitten with the beautiful valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye) but Diane has spent her entire life focused on academics and the goal of winning a fellowship in England. She's neglected the social side of her life. But Lloyd is determined to change that and soon Diane is smitten with Lloyd, too. Their love grows but is complicated by the usual teenage angst and Diane's possessive father (John Mahoney).

Others in the cast include Lili Taylor, Chynna Phillips, Jason Gould, and Jeremy Piven as some of Lloyd's buddies; Richard Portnow and Philip Baker Hall as IRS agents; and Joan Cusack as Lloyd's older sister. Also appearing are Bebe Neuwirth and Eric Stoltz.

Set in Seattle. Includes one of my fav songs, "In Your Eyes," written and performed by Peter Gabriel.

Written and directed by Cameron Crowe.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B-

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

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"You're a strange man."
"Shhh. Tell no one."
When Bobby Garfield (David Morse) learns of the death of his old school chum Sully, he returns to his hometown for the funeral and finds that his other best friend, Carol, had also passed away. When Bobby drives by his childhood home, he thinks of the fun times he'd had with young Carol (Mika Boorem) and Sully (Will Rothhaar). He also pondered the curious boarder, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) who his distant, cold, widowed mother (Hope Davis) had taken in as a boarder.

The young Bobby (Anton Yelchin) spent a lot of time with the boarder, earning money by reading to the old man who was losing his sight. But over time, he realizes that the boarder is deeply mysterious, is fearful of being found by "the low men," sometimes falls into trances, and appears to know things that otherwise would be unknown to anyone else.

Others in the cast include Alan Tudyk, Adam LeFevre, Celia Weston, Deirdre O'Connell.

From a story by Stephen King and directed by Scott Hicks.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some violence and thematic elements.

My personal rating: B+

Homer & Eddie (1989)

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The Raggedy People
Two unfortunate souls are thrown together in what becomes a love story of sorts when Homer (Jim Belushi), a mentally retarded man, sets out hitchhiking from his home in Arizona to Oregon to see his ill father and meets Eddie (Whoopi Goldberg), a mentally ill woman who escaped from an institution) and she decides to give him a ride.

Others appearing in small roles include Anne Ramsey, Karen Black, John Waters, and Vincent Schiavelli.

Sort of sappy by this unusual buddy road trip film is sweet and touching.

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Frost/Nixon (2008)

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"I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's not illegal."
Three years after resigning the presidency, Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) agreed to a four-part interview by talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen).

Also appearing are Sam Rockwell and Oliver Platt as Frost's researchers James Reston, Jr. and Bob Selnick; Kevin Bacon as Nixon's aide Jack Brennan; Rebecca Hall as Frost's girlfriend Caroline Cushing; Toby Jones as Nixon's literary agent Swifty Lazar; Andy Midler as Frank Gannon and Kate Jennings Grant as Diane Sawyer who were working with Nixon on his memoir; Patty McCormack as Pat Nixon, Clint Howard and Rance Howard also appear.

Directed by Ron Howard.

Run time: 8 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: A

Pollock (2000)

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"If people would just look at the paintings, I don't think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It's like looking at a bed of flowers, you don't tear your hair out over what it means."
Ed Harris (who also directed) portrays the madman Jackson Pollock -- neurotic, alcoholic, womanizing, misogynistic, and brilliant abstract artist -- from the time he first began making an impression on the world in the early 1940s until his tragic death in 1956.

Marcia Gay Harden plays Pollock's wife Lee Krasner who was also an abstract artist. Others in the cast include Val Kilmer as artist Willem DeKooning; Sada Thompson as Pollock's mother; Robert Knott and David Leary as Pollock's brothers Sande and Charles; John Heard as architect Tony Smith; Jeffrey Tambor as art critic Clem Greenberg; and the art patrons Bud Cort as Howard Putzel and Amy Madigan as Peggy Guggenheim; Jennifer Connelly as his lover Ruth Kligman. Ed Harris' own father, Bob Harris, has a small role as a veterinarian.

With a good Tom Waits song over the closing credits.

Run time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

Hot Shots! (1991)

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"Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash."
Top gun fighter pilot Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) dropped out when an incident made him doubt his ability. But when he's asked to return to duty for a special assignment -- Sleepy Weasel -- to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear plants, he joins the team aboard the USS Essess to do his duty.

An aerospace company is trying to sabotage the effort and cause the destruction of the fighter planes so they can win the contract for the new planes. But that's small potatoes to Harley who develops a huge rivalry with another top gun, Kent Gregory (Cary Elwes) both in the air and about a woman.

Also appearing are Valeria Golino as the ship's psychologist; Lloyd Bridges as the Admiral; Jon Cryer, William O'Leary. and Kristy Swanson as a crew members; Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as the aeronautics executive; Bill Irwin as Harley's wacked out father; and Heidi Swedberg as a pilot's wife.

A parody of Top Gun with nods to Airplane!, Dances with Wolves, Superman, Gone With the Wind, and others.

Directed by Jim Abrahams.

Run time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B

In Country (1989)

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"...a hole in my heart."
Teenager Samantha Hughes (Emily Lloyd) never knew her father. She was born after he'd died in Vietnam. Her mother (Joan Allen) has remarried and lives in Lexington, Kentucky, while Samantha's Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis) raised Samantha in their small Kentucky hometown.

When Samantha comes across photos of her father, love letters he'd written to her mother, his dog tags and ribbons, she becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. She questions her uncle about the war since Emmett had also served in Vietnam. She questions three of her uncle's friends (John Terry, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jim Beaver) who were also war vets but she gets little information. She's also trying to find help for Emmett as he's a loose cannon, has symptoms of Agent Orange toxicity, and flashbacks to the war.

Others in the cast include Kevin Anderson as Samantha's boyfriend; Heidi Swedberg as Samantha's best friend; Peggy Rae and Richard Hamilton as her grandparents; Judith Ivey as a women who is smitten with Emmett; and Patricia Richardson as a vet's wife.

From a novel by Bobbie Ann Mason. Directed by Norman Jewison.

Run time: 2 hours

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Sunset (1988)

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"It's all true, give or take a lie or two."
When film producer Alfie Alpern (Malcolm McDowell) sets about to make a western in 1927, he hires Tom Mix (Bruce Willis) to play Wyatt Earp and actually brings Earp (James Garner) on set as the consultant.

When the proprietess of the hot bordello The Candy Store is murdered, Mix and Earp team up to solve the mystery.

Also in the cast are Mariel Hemingway as the daughter of the murdered woman; Kathleen Quinlan as Tom Mix's girlfriend; Jennifer Edwards as Alfie's sister; Patricia Hodge as Alfie's wife; Dermot Mulroney as Alfie's stepson; Richard Bradford and M. Emmet Walsh as cops.

Big Henry Mancini music.

Okay, so it got a couple of Razzie nominations and even won one (Worst Director), it's still a fun romp on a rainy day.

Screenplay and directed by Blake Edwards.

Run time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

The Wrestler (2008)

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"And now, I'm an old broken down piece of meat... and I'm alone. And I deserve to be alone. I just don't want you to hate me."
Twenty years before, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was one of the biggest headliners on the pro wrestling circuit. He appeared in huge venues and had mobs of loyal fans. But with age, Randy can barely get a match in VFW and community center rings. He's taken to working in a grocery store, but he still dreams of one last match with his nemesis, the Ayatollah (Ernest Miller) before he retires.

But real life and a heart attack get in the way of his dream. In the process, he works hard to fix and have a real relationship with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and solidify the relationship with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a stripper with a heart of gold who wants to move on to a conventional life.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: A-

Pineapple Express (2008)

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"In case you haven't noticed - which you haven't, 'cause from what I can tell, you don't notice anything ever - we are not very functional when we're high."
A couple of stoners -- process server Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and his dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) -- are on the run from Ted (Gary Cole), the supplier of the powerful weed Pineapple Express, who is determined to annhilate them because Dale saw Ted murder a man. Ted sends his two goons (Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) in search of the pair.

Also appearing are Rosie Perez as a corrupt cop; Amber Heard as Dale's underage girlfriend Angie; Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn as Angie's parents; Danny McBride as Red the snitch; Cleo King as the high school's police liaison officer; and Bill Hader in the opening as a 1930s soidier who is used by the government for secret pot smoking studies.

Twenty years ago, Cheech and Chong would have starred in this film. Overall, pretty dumb -- but also some wickedly funny bits.

Screeplay by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and based on a story by the two of them plus Judd Apatow. Directed by David Gordon Green.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence.
My personal rating: B-

Trial By Jury (1996)

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"You live your life, believing in things like justice and the law. Then someone grabs you off the street in broad daylight. Walks right past the police and tells you that he'll reach out from beyond the grave and kill your son. You don't think about right or wrong, you only think about survival. You do what you have to do."
NYC shop owner and single mother Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley) is selected to serve on the jury to determine the guilt or innocence of mobster Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante) who is charged with conspiracy to kill and the actual murder of 11 people.

The mob has already done away with two key witnesses and just as the trial begins they've murdered key witness Limpy DeMarco (John Capodice) along with the four cops guarding him. Valerie is briefly abducted by Tommy Vesey (William Hurt), a former cop turned mob good fella, who informs her that unless she votes for Pirone's innocence Valerie's son Robbie (Bryan Shilowich) will be murdered, and she'll be killed, too.

Others in the cast include Gabriel Byrne as the Federal prosecutor Daniel Graham; Kathleen Quinlan as the goons' mol Wanda; Margaret Whitton as Jane, the juror who befriends Valerie; Richard Portnow as Defense Attorney Leo Greco; William R. Moses as the flirtatious juror Paul; Joe Santos as the uncle of the defendent and witness Johnny Verona; Stuart Whitman as Valerie's Father; Robert Breuler as the dyspeptic judge.

Written and directed by Heywood Gould.

Run time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

All or Nothing (2002)

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"Funny, isn't it? Love. If you're not together, you're alone."
Phil (Timothy Spall) and Penny's (Lesley Manville) marriage has turned the way many long term marriages go. They live together, along with their two post-school aged children Rachel (Alison Garland) and Rory (James Corden) in an apartment project in London. It appears as though they are all together out of sheer habit rather than an particular bond.

Phil is a cabbie who rather not work hard but he's a gentle soul and morbidly philosophical. Penny works hard as a checker at a big grocery store and then comes home to cook and clean and tend the house. Rachel, a large and plain young woman, works as a housekeeper at a nursing home where she is loved by the residents and pursued by a tragic coworker who is at least her father's age. She seems to have very little to do with her family despite living in the same small space with them. Rory is an obese young man with anger issues and a penchant for aggression and other anti-social behavior.

When a major health concern strikes the family, will it be what they need to pull together as family who really cares about each other and themselves?

Written and directed by Mike Leigh.

Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B-

The Player (1992)

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"The next time you want to badmouth me, do it to my face."
Movie studio exec Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is being blackmailed by an anonymous scriptwriter who feels Mill has snubbed him. Mill suspects the blackmailer might be David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio).

Mill's job is on tenuous ground anyhow, as most jobs in Hollywood are, but he needs to not make his blackmail threat public and try to reason with the blackmailer. But when a death occurs, Mill is drawn further into a web which he needs to escape from.

Others appearing include Greta Scacchi as Kahane's girlfriend; Peter Gallagher as Larry Levy, man who may be getting Mill's job; Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett as detectives; plus Fred Ward, Dean Stockwell, Richard E, Grant, Sydney Pollack, Dina Merrill, and a cast of nearly thousands.

Very minor cameos by the likes of Angelica Huston, John Cusack, Harry Belafonte, Burt Reynolds, Patrick Swayze, Bruce Willis, Althea Gibson, Ray Walson, Robert Wagner, Lily Tomlin, Joan Tewkesbury, Rod Steiger, Susan Sarandon, Elliot Gould, Jill St. John, Mimi Rogers, Nick Nolte, Martin Mull, Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin, Jack Lemmon, Sally Kirkland, Sally Kellerman, Kathy Ireland, Joel Grey, David Alan Grier, Buck Henry, Jeff Goldblum, Scott Glenn, Teri Garr, Dennis Frantz, Louise Fletcher, Felicia Farr, Peter Falk, Paul Dooley, Brad Davis, Cathy Lee Crosby, James Colburn, Cher, Robert Carradine, Rene Auberjonois, Richard Anderson, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, and many more.

Written and directed by Robert Altman.

Run time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Rated R for language and some sensuality.

My personal rating: B

Far From Heaven (2002)

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"Oh, Raymond, Mrs. Whitaker sounds so formal! Won't you please... ask me to dance?
Cathy (Julianne Moore) and Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid) seem to be the ideal prosperous couple in this 1950s Hartford community. He's a successful businessman and she's a social leader. When Cathy discovers her husband is gay, she stands by him hoping that he will be cured by visiting a psychiatrist.

In the midst of this, Cathy has become quite smitten with her new gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), a handsome and tender man who is African-American. When Frank confronts Cathy with the gossip he's heard around town, he is enraged about how damaging this could be to his career.

Also appearing are Patricia Clarkson as Cathy's supposedly best friend Eleanor; Celia Weston as the leading town gossip Mona Lauder; Viola Davis as the Whitaker's housekeeper; James Rebhorn as the psychiatrist; Jordan Puryear as Sarah, Raymond's young daughter.

While I appreciated the exquisite attention to detail, the authenticity of costumes and settings, a color pallet that made me feel the 1950s, I just didn't care enough about the nature of either Cathy or Frank.

Written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content, brief violence and language.

My personal rating: C+

At Close Range (1986)

Based on a true story

"Most people who drive through here see farms. Houses, and fields, and shit. I see money, I see things, everything got my name writ' on it."

Brad Whitehead, Sr. (Christopher Walken) and his brothers and pals (Tracey Walter, R.D. Call, David Strathairn, J.C. Quinn) are big time thugs in the Philadelphia area in the 1970s, His nearly adult estranged sons Brad (Sean Penn) and Tommy (Chris Penn) and their pals (Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Geoffreys, Crispin Glover) are small time hoods who want to be in the big time gang.

Brad Jr. eventually learns that blood is not always thicker than water.

Also in the cast are Millie Perkins as the boys' mother, Eileen Ryan (who is the Penn brothers' real mother) plays their Grandmother; Mary Stuart Masterson is Brad Jr.'s girlfriend. Candy Clark is Brad Sr.'s girlfriend.

Sean Penn's amazing talent shone brightly in this, one of his earliest films.

Directed by James Foley.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B