My August 2008 Viewings

Includes my personal ratings.
Recommended DVDs in bold.
Underlined titles are direct links to reviews

Steal Me 08/30/08 (C)
Monarch of the Glen 7:2 08/28/08 (B)
The Departed 08/27/08 (B+)
My Son the Fanatic 8/28/08 (B+)
The Man Who Sued God 08/25/08 (B+)
Psych: 1:1 08/23/08 (B)
Monarch of the Glen 7:1 08/22/08 (B)
Touch 08/20/08 (C)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 08/19/08 (B+)
Camilla 08/17/08 (B+)
Monk 6:4 08/16/08 (B)
Kansas 08/15/08 (B-)
21 08/15/08 (B)
Meet Bill 08/14/08 (C-)
Wristcutters: A Love Story 08/13/08 (C+)
Nobody's Baby 08/12/08 (D)
The Tic Code 08/11/08 (B-)
Lions for Lambs 08/10/08 (B)
Henry Fool 08/08/08 (C)
The Monarch of the Glen 6:3 08/07/08 (B)
The Golden Bowl 08/06/08 (B)
Monk 6:3 08/05/08 (B)
Breach 08/05/08 (B)
The Bank Job 08/04/08 (B+)
Cassandra's Dream 08/03/08 (B+)
Lakawanna Blues 08/02/08 (A-)
The Hammer 08/01/08 (A-)

Henry Fool (1997)

The Golden Bowl (2000)

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"I want a happiness without a hole in it! I want the bowl without the crack!"
Maggie Verver (Kate Beckinsale) is an innocent in England who is doted on by her millionaire American father Adam Verver (Nick Nolte). Enter Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam) from Italy who marries Maggie for her money but is really in love with Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman). When Maggie wants to match up her father with Charlotte, Charlotte agrees because that will assure she will still be able to be near Amerigo and their affair can continue. But Charlotte is torn when Amerigo wants to return to Italy and Adam wants to return to America.

Also appearing are Anjelica Huston and James Fox.

Directed by James Ivory.

Run time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Rated R for a sex scene.

My personal rating: B

Breach (2007)

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Based on America’s most dangerous turncoat – FBI agent Robert Hanssen.
Devout Catholic, father of six, former Chicago cop, Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) was the most unlikely cat-and-mouse counter-operative in the history of the FBI. Hanssen had been head of the agency’s Soviet Analytical Unit and was considered the most knowledgeable analyst on Russian intelligence and for six years had been the liaison to the State Department. He was just beginning a new assignment at the FBI as the head of Information Assurance to protect the agency’s system from cyber-terrorism and information.

Hanssen is known to the FBI as an internet sexual deviant, so Agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney), has assigned a young agent, Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe) to work in Hanssen’s office to document his every move.

What O’Neill helps to discovers sets the FBI and the nation on their ears.

Also appearing are Dennis Haysbert as Dean Plesac, Special Deputy in Charge of the investigation of Hanssen; Kathleen Quinlan as Hanssen’s wife Bonnie; Caroline Dhavernas as Eric’s wife Juliana; Gary Cole as Agent Rich Garces; Bruce Davidson as Eric’s father John.

Directed by Billy Ray.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B

Lackawanna Blues (2005)

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Every Community
Has a Nanny

Rachel "Nanny" Crosby (S. Epatha Merkerson) takes in every stray human she finds and puts them up in her boarding house, feeds them, and helps them make their way. Into her life comes the baby Ruben Santiago, Jr. when his addict mother Alean (Carmen Ejogo) abandons him and his father (Jimmy Smits) can't raise the boy alone.

Ruben grows into a fine young boy (Marcus Franklin) influenced by the diversity of this community, its cultural life and music. Nanny, whose husband Bill (Terrence Dashon Howard) years her junior, loves this little boy as her own whilst she goes about the business of being the Nanny to many adults, too.

Other characters in this wonderfully music driven film include
Mos Def as the jivin' singer/bandleader; Louis Gossett Jr. as
Ol'lem Taylor; Macy Gray as argumentative Pauline; Ernie Hudson as the dreamy Dick Barrymore, Rosie Perez as the hairdresser Bertha' Liev Schreiber as the social worker; Patricia Wettig as the wealthy mother of Laura (Julie Benz) who Nanny saved from an abusive husband (Henry Simmons); Charlayne Woodard and Byanca Godwin as Bill's girlfriends; Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Paul, the mysterious murderer; Barry Shabaka Henley as Shakey Winfield; Lou Myers as the insane Ol' Po Carl; Adina Porter as the stylish lesbian Ricky. Hill Harper plays Ruben, Jr. as an adult.

The real Ruben Santiago, Jr. actually wrote this as an autobiographical play which was a big hit on Broadway. He also wrote the screenplay for this film, a loving tribute to his Nanny.

Directed for HBO by George C. Wolfe.

My personal rating: A-

The Hammer (2008)

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Don't Ignore

A Second Chance

With the Summer Olympics set to open in just a week, this seemed like an interesting film to catch. I truly wasn't prepared in advance for how much I'd like it! Clever -- even laugh out loud -- dialogue, an interesting script, a certain quirkiness, all add up to my favorite feel-good movie of this year. It's a comfortable and easy film to watch with lots of tender humanity.

Despite Jerry Ferro's (Adam Carolla) best friend Ozzie (Oswaldo Castillo) giving him a commuter mug when Jerry picked up Ozzie to go to work, Jerry's 40th birthday went down from there. The building contractor Jerry and Ozzie work for is a jerk, a bigot, and verbally abusive and insulting. When Jerry and Ozzie pull a prank they know will cause damage to the contractor's truck, they are promptly fired.

Jerry goes home to the apartment he shares with his girlfriend Nicole (Constance Zimmer) to find she's bored with the relationship and wants out. Nope, not a good day at all. And after years of bouncing from job to job, relationship to relationship, Jerry's left feeling hollow.

But Jerry has a place to go. A former Golden Gloves boxer who gave up on the sport for himself when he was 19, he still teaches a 6 p.m. beginners' boxing class at the Broadway Gym in LA. He talks the owner into giving some carpentry and repair work to Ozzie to tide him over, and maybe give himself a bit of carpentry work, too.

That very afternoon, Eddie Bell (Tom Quin), a big time trainer, says he'll give Jerry $10 to spar with an up-and-coming young soon-to-be pro, the cocky Malice Blake (Jeff Lacy). Despite getting knocked around some, Jerry lands a knockout punch and suddenly he finds himself heading back into competitive boxing with an eye to the 2008 Olympics.

Meanwhile, Jerry is smitten with the charming yet kooky Lindsay Platt (Heather Juergensen), a public defender who is taking Jerry's boxing class. They have some really funny dates and, of course, fall in love. But when Lindsay gets a major job offer in another state, both Jerry and Lindsay need to evaluate what they mean to each other.

Harold House Moore and Jonathan Hernandez play Robert Brown and Hector Padilla, to young and talented boxers who befriend Jerry.

Directed by Charles Herman Wurmfeld. From a story by Adam Carolla.

A few side notes here, gleaned from the bonus material on the DVD I watched:
+ Scriptwriter Kevin Hench is not only one of Carolla's best friends, he's also married to the lead actress, Heather Juergensen.
+ Carolla truly was a Golden Gloves boxer and also a journeyman carpenter before he got into show biz.
+ Carolla and Oswaldo "Ozzie" Castillo have been friends for about 18 years. They worked together as carpenters for years and, in fact, helped build the very Broadway Gym which is used in the film.
+ Castilla, from Nicaragua, had never acted before. He was actually a paramedic training to be a doctor when he had to escape his country due to the political unrest, and traveled up through Mexico and across the border in the trunk of a Cadillac with several other people. He got a job quickly and saved up to bring his wife and son into the USA.
+ In real life, Tom Quin is a boxing trainer.

Run Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Rated R for brief language -- which amount to two F-bombs, quick and appropriate. No other "language" that I caught and I think it's a darned shame that it got the R rating because many who would really enjoy it will now miss it.

My personal rating: A-