harold and kumar escape from guantanamo bay

harold and kumar are funny. not just the regular toilet-and-weed humor, but also the America-sucks-and-is-full-of-racist-hypocrites humor. and that is what makes them so, so good.

wierdsville

this movie is AWESOME. first, it's Canadian. second, it has junkies, a hooker with a heart of gold, satan worshippers, medieval battle reenactors, and Scott Speedman. all independent movies should be this wacky and excellent at the same time.

martian chid

it's hard not to love a movie where a kid believes he's from mars and has the language, looks, and moves to prove it. or a movie where Joan and John Cusack play sister and brother. or really any movie starring John Cusack. I'm a fan.

king of california

Evan Rachel Wood is great as a teenager who has to grow up too fast when her single dad is carted off to a mental institution. she slaves away at McDonald's until he returns to shake up her life by searching for buried treasure under Costco. and I think that was Michael Douglas somewhere under that huge beard.

feel the noise

it's fun seeing San Juan on the big screen, but there really isn't much to this disjointed narrative about a kid who goes to live with his estranged father in Puerto Rico and learns how to blend hip hop and reggaeton. maybe if his music was a bit better....

the counterfeiters

I usually avoid Holocaust movies, but this one, on balance, is more interesting than devastating. It's a true story of a Nazi effort to produce large quantities of pounds and dollars from a printing press in a concentration camp. the counterfeiters receive so many privileges - like food - that you can almost forget where they are at times. Karl Markovics is great as the incredibly tense and intelligent master forger at the centre of it all.

reservation road

with such great actors and a good director (Terry George) I was hoping for a lot more from this overwrought tale of a small town hit and run. Joaquin Phoenix, while I adore him, just does too much as a father seeking revenge and Mark Ruffalo positively makes you squirm as a single dad lawyer who just can't do the right thing. Jennifer Connelly weeps and Mira Sorvino smiles. and there you have it.

forgetting sarah marshall

I really thought there would be more to this than just another cute, formulaic romantic comedy, but there wasn't. I laughed out loud twice, which isn't much, considering my passion for Jason Segel. I laugh more times during an episode of How I Met Your Mother. The Hawaii setting reminded me of 50 First Dates - which had a more interesting script. oh well. I still enjoyed it, I just felt vaguely disappointed.

starting out in the evening

a 6 Feet Under fan just has to love this movie starring Lauren Ambrose and Lili Taylor, but Frank Langella is also great as a very sad old writer who gets involved with a starry-eyed grad student during his attempt to finish what will undoubtedly be his last novel. the movie is very literary and all about relationships, but not overly sentimental. it actually has a few surprises, even if you've seen the preview a few thousand times. caribbean cinemas finally screened it here in Puerto Rico, a week before it comes out on DVD. it'll be a good rental.

the business of being born

this documentary is amazing if only for the fact that it shows at least 5 actual home births, most of them in water - and it's incredible! those tiny little tadpole-babies coming out made me cry. the information is sad and typical - the US has 65% more hospital births than any other developed country and the highest mortality rates for mothers and newborns. you probably already know it, but you still hate it. the film is simple, but fascinating.

wristcutters: a love story

I really liked this film about where people go after they commit suicide - to another, just slightly bleaker life where nobody smiles and everything is kind of run down and ugly. Patrick Fugit is a good, understated actor and Shannyn Sossamun is sexy. Shea Wigham is awesome as a bad Russian rock star who loves his family and hates everything else. even his car is terrific. the movie achieves a cross between the mundane and the supernatural, in grey, believable tones.

dedication

I liked this little indie about a very crabby writer who starts to think he should be nicer when he meets a lovely young woman but really just doesn't know how. Billy Crudup completely pulls off being an asshole with a soft side, although Mandy Moore pretty much lets her eyeliner do the acting for her. I think this one hit some kind of nerve from my past. it would have been much better without the predictable ending though.

street kings

this movie isn't boring, which is pretty high praise, but it's also not very original. it's always fun to watch corrupt cops find their moral centre but still keep lying and killing, but it doesn't always make sense, and it's a tiny bit depressing. Cedric (the Entertainer) was my favourite part. and is it me, or did Forrest Whitaker lose some weight for this one? he looks good!

la misma luna

nothing about this story of two Mexican immigrants to the US - a 9 year old boy looking for his mother who left him four years before - stood out for me. that's about all I have to say about this one.

my kid could paint that

this is an interesting doc about a 4 year old art star, but I would have preferred more exploration of the meaning and quality of modern art and art fraud in general, and less whining by the mom about how horrible it was to expose her family to the media, and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

romance and cigarettes

this movie has an amazing cast and an amusing premise, but it's (necessarily, by virtue of being a musical?) superficial and a lot of the talent is wasted. nonetheless, Kate Winslet is literally red hot, we get to see Tony Soprano reprised (minus the power and money), and Susan Sarandon is lovely to watch as always. the all-sister girl band of Mandy Moore, Mary Louise Parker, and Aida Turturro should have been funny, but wasn't.

the bank job

when I see a movie described as a "heist thriller," I tend to get all tingly. this one has a good balance of action before and after the heist, and political and personal intrigue. and, it's a true story. well played by Jason Statham and familiar faces Daniel Mays and Stephen Campbell Moore (with Saffron Burrows trying a bit too hard to seem glamorous and mysterious), it's entertaining if a bit hauntingly violent. but it's hard to argue with a true story.

21

it's fun to watch a geek transform into a rich, smooth, Vegas cat. but I can't believe this is the real, true story - it's just a little too Hollywood. let me know if you have the scoop on the truth. I loved Aaron Yoo as a kleptomaniac. and, in good news from the real world - Amy just won the Pulitzer prize. congrats Amy!!!!!

the other boleyn girl

this movie sure tries to pack a lot of history into two hours - in stark contrast to the Tudors, which purports to tell the same story but plays out very differently. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are cute but Natalie gives too much and Scarlett gives too little. it's amusing, but certainly not a history lesson and, in the end, too rushed to really enjoy.