My October 2006 Viewings

Includes my personal ratings.
Recommended DVDs in bold.

Moonlight Mile 10/31/06
Snatch 10/31/06
Noel 10/30/06
Curb Your Enthusiasm 5:2 10/27/06 (B)
The Weight of Water 10/27/06 (C+)
Good Neighbors 1-3:4 10/26/06 (B-)
Levity 0/24/06
Curb Your Enthusiasm 5:1 10/24/06
Over the Hedge 10/23/06 (C+)
Magnolia 10/20/06
The Break-Up 10/19/06
Dominick and Eugene 0/17/06 (B-)
Curb Your Enthusiasm 4:2 10/17/06 (B)
Curb Your Enthusiasm 4:1 10/16/06 (B)
Insomnia 10/13/06 (B)
CSI 3:6 10/13/06
Walking and Talking 10/11/06
Curb Your Enthusiasm 2:2 10/10/06 (B)
Once Upon a Crime 10/09/06 (D)
A Map of the World 10/06/06
The Lake House 10/05/06 (C-)
Lucky Number Slevin 10/03/06 (B-)
Curb Your Enthusiasm 3:2 10/02/06 (B)

The Weight of Water (2003)

Melodramatic Tension

Photographer Jean Janes (Catherine McCormack) and her husband Thomas (Sean Penn) set out for a small island off New Hampshire coast so Jean can gather photos to go with a story being done by the magazine where she works. Jean and Thomas are to meet up with Thomas' handsome brother Rich (Josh Lucas) who will sail them around the island aboard a yacht.

Jean and Thomas are surprised to see that Rich has brought along his stunning new girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley).

It quickly becomes clear that there's little holding Jean and Thomas together other than their daughter who is at home with her grandmother. Thomas is a sullen, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who has gone dry and feels inadequate. He's envious of his brother's good looks and good fortune, and quite smitten with Adeline.

None of this escapes the notice of Jean despite the fact that she is hot on the trail of unraveling a double murder that took place on Smuttynose Island about 130 years earlier. In the murder case, two Norwegian immigrants, sisters-in-law Karen (Katrin Cartlidge) and Anethe (Vinessa Shaw), were bludgeoned to death while Karen's sister Maren (Sarah Polley) escapes and tells the story that leads to the conviction of Wagner (Ciarán Hinds) who had previously rented a room in the house and had made sexual advances on all three women.

The contemporary story and the 1870s story unravel simultaneously as Jean investigates the murders and feels powerful energy telling her the real tale.

In truth, the two stories could have been interesting enough standing alone and by the last third of The Weight of Water the stories became so twisted together that it was difficult to parse each story individually.

While I didn't particularly dislike this film, I wish I could have liked it more. The ethereal filming techniques tended to be a bit heavy handed but the film direction while aboard the yacht in a fierce storm was thrilling. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, and brief language.

The Break-Up (2006)

Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Judy Davis, Ann-Margret, Vincent D'Onofrio.

Director: Peyton Reed

My personal rating: C+

Insomnia (2002)

A Real Sleeper

Nightmute, Alaska has a big murder case: Teenage girl found scrubbed clean in a dump pile. The local police need help which arrives in the form of seasoned L.A. cop Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his younger parter Hap (Martin Donovan), both of whom are under investigation by the LAPD Internal Affairs.

The eager young local detective, Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) is in awe of tough, on-target Dormer. She'd attended a seminar he conducted at one time and had studied many of his cases.

Dormer cuts right to the quick upon arriving in Nightmute and goes after the dead girl's abusive boyfriend but in the mix, he shoots his partner, Hap. Was it an accident or intentional?

While Ellie Burr follows up on this shooting, Dormer switches his focus on the eerie pulp fiction writer Walter Finch (Robin Williams).

Meanwhile, the ever-present Alaskan summer sun is driving Dormer crazy to the point that he isn't sure of anything himself.

I don't recall hearing about this film when it was released but I'm glad I found it now. Pacino, Swank and Williams are terrific.

Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Rated R for language, some violence and brief nudity.

Once Upon a Crime (2003)

Even the dachshund couldn't save it

One thing's for sure. The dachshund needed more screen time. Definitely, lots more screen time. At least the movie would have had something fun to watch that way. But as it stands now, this movie deserves nothing more than the Pooper Scooper Award.

While in Europe, ditzy Phoebe (Sean Young) finds a dachshund who she chases away at first and then realizes there's a hefty reward for this pup. She tracks down the dog who is now with the annoyingly neurotic, unemployed actor Julian (Richard Lewis). Together these two misfits form an alliance to return the pup to his owner in Monte Carlo and claim the reward.

Chaos ensues onboard the train when Julian sells the dog to the gambling addict Augie Morosco (John Candy) but Phoebe and Julian again become in possession of the dog.

Once the train stops in Monte Carlo, an Ugly American (Jim Belushi) and his beautiful wife (Cybil Shepherd) become involved with Augie Morosco's gambling addiction and are sucked in.

Meanwhile, Phoebe and Julian go to the dog owner's mansion around midnight to return the pup and what do they find? A woman's body, of course!

So who killed the dog's owner? Was it really Phoebe or Julian? Or was it the Ugly American and his wife, or the gambler, or maybe it was the gigolo (George Hamilton) who was seen in the woman's garden late at night.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't care who killed the woman, and it turned out to be a vast contrivance anyhow, so why should I care? This film could possibly have had lots of honest laughs in it but there were really none to be found.

Director Eugene Levy missed the mark all the way around. He needs to study timing and pacing and story and chemistry in such mad romp comedies as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Not rated by MPAA (Motion Picture Assoiciation of America.

My personal raiing: C-

The Lake House (2006)

Contrived, Cliched, and Tedious

lu·gu·bri·ous:
adj.
Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree, The Lake House.

I like time travel films. I really do. But this film did nothing for me except annoy and fatigue me. In fact, it put me asleep seven times when I tried to see it through to the end over three different days.

I can buy the time warp premise that Kate (Sandra Bullock) and Alex (Keanu Reeves) live in the same house two years apart and develop a relationship via letters left to and from each other in the lake house's mailbox. I can buy the concept that they shared the same dog, Jack (brilliantly played by a sadly uncredited rag-a-muffin pup, perhaps the best acting of the whole film).

I wanted to like this Alejandro Agresti film because I generally enjoy Bullock and Reeves. I really did want to like it. But the plodding, stilted dialogue, ever-brooding facial expressions, limpid body language, aching sorrow, mostly ponderous musical score, and lack of chemistry between Kate and Alex put me off. Way off.

Rated PG for some language and a disturbing image.

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viewed Oct-2006