As the blizzard of 2010 approached us I decided to go check out the new movie Frozen. It’s a lower-budget independent film that reminded me at once of Open Water—a no-frills movie shot almost entirely in a single oddly claustrophobic set with people you’ve never seen before. Let me say that I’ve enjoyed similar films […]

This week found me stuffing in another 2009 film in Clint Eastwood‘s latest film Invictus. The movie focuses on a specific segment of Nelson Mandela‘s early Presidency in which he enlists the aid of the national rugby team to help cure the ills of his fragile country. Mandela, played exceptionally by Morgan Freeman (as if […]

I saw George Clooney‘s latest this past weekend—Up in the Air. The movie’s about a consultant who gets paid to fire people for companies that don’t want to do the dirty work themselves. It was a bittersweet experience to say the least. My job ended in July and I haven’t found anything myself yet so […]

This weekend found me catching the latest Philip Seymour Hoffman film — Pirate Radio. The story is very loosely based on actual events regarding a radio station broadcasting into England from a cargo ship out at sea during the mid-1960s. On-screen text tells us that the majority of England are fans except for British government officials […]

I saw Disney‘s A Christmas Carol this weekend and wondered if this was the earliest a Christmas movie has been out prior to Christmas. The movie takes the traditional Charles Dickens story (more or less) and augments it with every technological advantage we have today. It’s animated in much the same way 2004s The Polar […]

Later in the weekend I decided to check out the Korean vampire film that, in English, is called Thirst. The movie is a frustrating one that grabs your attention and then bores you once it has you. It tests your willpower by giving you a stunning visual and following it with another that’s entirely inconceivable […]

This weekend was another double-movie weekend in my sure-to-fail quest to get back into the swing of seeing nearly as many movies as I have the last two years. First up was Inglourious Basterds. It’s the latest movie from scatter-shot director Quentin Tarantino. I’ve enjoyed a few of his past efforts—most notably Kill Bill Vol. […]

This past week found me catching the well-received 500 Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of 3rd Rock from the Sun) and the quirky Zooey Deschanel. From the moment the movie started, I had the feeling that it would be my kind of film. It had a narration that just hooked me from the first word. What’s […]

Next up I saw a film I doubt few will get the chance to see. It’s playing at a local art house theater and nowhere else that I could find. The movie is called, simply, Moon. It stars Sam Rockwell as a lonely miner living on the backside of the moon somewhere in the “near” future. The movie […]

I saw Public Enemies today. The movie, about real-life 1930s era bank robber and public fascination John Dillinger, stars Johnny Depp For me, the review really should stop right there. It just gets worse from that point on. Much of the movie manages to hold its own. The look is fantastic including both the camera […]

The next movie on my hit list is State of Play. This is a fairly forgettable, and yet solid, effort featuring an all-star cast including Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn. The film focuses in the rising career of a young congressman (Affleck) and a time-worn investigative journalist (Crowe) who are brought together by a […]

I had a pretty interesting week for movies. I managed to catch two different films that were on opposite sides of the spectrum in nearly every way. First up was the Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller, Knowing. This might turn out to be the best “worst” film of the year. It was almost universally panned except […]