the children of huang shi

the cinematography and the true story behind this movie are stunning enough to make it impressive, even though it lacks emotional resonance. the Japanese occupation of China is horrifying and the white man as hero is annoying. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Radha Mitchell are, of course, beautiful.

sleepwalking

another movie where the central theme is 'redeem yourself by doing an act of extreme violence.' I'm kind of sick of that message. AnnaSophia Robb is all grown up and very sullen, Charlize Theron isn't in it enough, and it warmed my heart to see Mathew St. Patrick.

the dark knight

despite all the rave reviews from elsewhere, this felt like just another comic book movie to me. Heath Ledger was great but too creepy for my taste. and Maggie Gyllenhal isn't actually Katie Holmes, so that relationship made no sense. Aaron Eckhart - dude, that guy can get real ugly (and I thought he was mean in In The Company of Men).

butch cassidy and the sundance kid

yes I should have seen this years ago. now I want to go to Bolivia.

mamma mia

a very cute and bouncy movie with mostly terrible singing to catchy tunes. Meryl Streep is cute but she's just too old for this role - she would have had to have been a 40 year old whimsically sleeping around then getting pregnant. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but...nonetheless I would have enjoyed hearing more of her singing, rather than the enthusiastic older gentleman's beside me.

the tracey fragments

part of the Ellen Page film festival, this movie was directed by an old Toronto friend, Bruce McDonald. I liked the concept (story told in narrative and visual pieces) but it was just a bit too fragmented for my taste.

kit kittredge

this had all the hallmarks of annoyingness - Abigail Breslin, cutesy depression era period stuff, and wholesome theme, but it also had some mitigating factors - Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Stanley Tucci, and director Patricia Rozema. a very, very slight diversion, but kind of peaceful to watch, like a cloud floating by on a summer day.

the visitor

this quiet movie about mourning, loneliness, music, immigration, and New York is really good, especially if you've been watching a lot of things go bang this summer. it's no surprise that this second movie by Thomas Mc Carthy, the writer/director of The Station Agent, is impressive, but it is a surprise that he's the same guy who played Scott Templeton on The Wire. multi-talented, I guess.

dr horrible's sing-a-long blog

it's so great to have you back, Joss Whedon. watching Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion sing menacingly at each other is enough to keep me happy for weeks. can someone please remind me who Felicia Day/Vi was on Buffy? thanks.

my blueberry nights

Kar Wai Wong's first English movie is stylish and Norah Jones is certainly beautiful, but the narrative is very disjointed and it's pretty hard to care about the central love story, or the overblown performances of Rachel Weisz and Davod Straitharn. then again, I loved Natalie Portman as a blond, needy gambler, so it wasn't a total loss.

hellboy 2

this movie has tons of cool pan's labyrinth-type creatures in it, but that's most of the fun. hellboy is a great character, but he throws off a few good one-liners, and that's really it for the character development part of the story. it picks up where the other left off, so if you have as bad a memory as I do, you're kind of out of luck. this would have been better at the beginning of the summer, before all those other big action movies.

meet the browns

in typical Tyler Perry style, this movie is a mix of comedy and melodrama that kept me smiling, if not actually laughing. Madea doesn't show up until it's almost over, but her two minutes are enjoyably over the top. it's great to see Angela Bassett as the single mom trying to make good for her kids, and Rick Fox is charming if somewhat void of personality.

stop loss

I worked on Kim Peirce's first version of Boys Don't Cry, and I expected so much more from this movie that should have been fascinating - about the government sending soldiers who have finished their terms back to war. the characters are flat and the story...well, there really isn't one. this is a drama, but without characters you can care about, you're left with nothing aside from predictable flashbacks to the required horrors of war scene. disappointing.

charlie bartlett

Robert Downey, Jr. is just SO GOOD that he brightens up every movie, even ones that are pretty unoriginal rehashes of the outsider-becomes-popular variety. on the other hand, Hope Davis' talents are wasted as a strung out, wealthy, permissive mom. I'm digging Kat Dennings.

hancock

Will Smith is funny, especially before he cleans up, and I liked the way I never could really tell which way this action comedy was going next, but there is just a bit too much packed into 90 minutes. Charlize Theron made me smile and I think this is the first movie I've actually liked Jason Batemen in. the movie was wierd, and that was a good thing.

wall-e

somehow, I'm just never that impressed with cartoons. but I agree with the creators of this one, if there is only going to be one human in your movie, it should be Fred Willard. it had a good sci-fi concept, fat people cruising for eternity is particularly frightening, but in the end, it was still cute and predictable. shake the formula and I'll start to pay attention.

persepolis

wow. this movie is a cute, sad, deep history lesson/coming of age story. I want to watch it again.

the spiderwick chronicles

the plot of this kids' movie is so simplistic that I kept thinking there was more to it, right up until the moment the credits rolled. there are some pretty cute little goblins and various creatures in it, but with no story, it gets kind of boring. Mary Louise Parker plays her Weeds mom without the weed. Freddie Highmore kind of squeaks a lot.

wanted

at first it's kind of fun watching James McAvoy act sheepish and Angelina Jolie act super cool, and the special effects are great, but the movie kind of deteriorates into a lot of violence and a fairly predictable action plot. I closed my eyes for about 10 minutes at the end. but I was reminded that Mike Myers had a funny Morgan Freeman joke in The Love Guru, and that was pleasant.

the love guru

going into this knowing it is going to be terrible, you can still enjoy it if: (1) you ignore Mike Myers; (2) you love movies about Toronto; (3) you think Justin Timberlake as a cheesy French Canadian is pretty funny; (4) you like looking at Jessica Alba and Meagan Good; and (5) you enjoy celebrity cameos and jokes that reference past Mike Myers performances.