Movies from last year pt 1

Movies I watched last year but haven't commented on yet. Yes, I'm that lazy.

Movie Review: The Fog of War (2003)
Picking the mind of Robert S. Mcnamara, one of the chief architects of America's war policy in WW2 and Vietnam. Amazing to watch, even if it's only to see how he can somehow compare himself to a man willing to burn himself to death to stop a war. 7/10

Movie Review: Why We Fight (2005)
A documentary examining past military undertakings by the US government up to and including their current occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. A very interesting and well made film but it doesn't contain anything new for anyone who's paid attention to American military aggression in the last century. 7/10

Movie Review: Death of a President (2006)
A mockumentary about what would happen if current US President George D Bush were assassinated. It's very skillfully done but I have to agree with many others that it is a bit tasteless to choose a real person to be the focus of a fictional assassination film. I don't like Bush either but that's now how I want him to be removed from office and I think this film would have worked even better with a fictional President. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Apocalypto (2006)
Mel Gibson's amazing view of the Inca Empire during it's decline into oblivion. The acting, sets, costumes, settings, are all breathtaking. But in effect this movie is just a big chase scene. Yet it all works very well. 8/10

Movie Review: Cache (2005)
A clever French film about a couple that find themselves being videotaped

Movie Review: The Constant Gardener (2005)


Movie Review: Syriana (2005)

Movie Review: Sicko (2007)

TV Review: Corner Gas (Season 4)

Odds & Ends

Movie Review: Collateral Damage (2002)

Caught this on TV when nothing else was on. Worth a pass.

5/10

Movie Review: June Bug (2005)

An excellent look at a Southern family and their foibles. Highly recommended. The acting is superb. No wonder Ebert called this one of the year's top 10.

8/10

Movie Review: Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Unrated Version (2005)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play 2 married assassins who's next targets are their spouses. Good action and fun.

7/10

Movie Review: Havoc - Unrated Version (2005)

2 girls from the good side of the tracks become enamored with LA gangsters and their lifestyles. This film is supposed to be the breakout part for Anne Hathaway but besides showing her doing some very unprincess like things it doesn't have much else.

7/10

Movie Review: Borat (2006)

Very, very funny. Borat pushes the edges of character comedy to the limit. Unfortunately the success of this movie spells the end of the adventures of Borat though.

9/10

Movie Review: The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007)

7/10

Movie Review: The Great Raid (2005)

Based on the true story of a mission to rescue GI's from a prison camp in the Philippines. I didn't know much about this part of the War so I found it very interesting. Not a classic though.

7/10

Movie Review: The Matador (2005)

A great film with Pierce Brosnan playing the exact opposite of his usual James Bond-cool self.

8/10

Movie Review: Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

A fun musical from the mind of John Turturro.
7/10

Movie Review: Children of Men (2006)

Looks like a sci-fi version of 'Black Hawk Down'. Very gritty and realistic.
7.5/10

TV Review: Lost - Season 3

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica - Season 3

TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 3

Book Review: Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss
A very funny book about English punctuation. Worth a read, and wouldn't you like to know how to use a semicolon properly?

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 8: The Final Reckoning - Jude Watson

Robert Altman: The Later Years

Movie Review: The Player (1992)

Altman's classic skewering of Hollywood and its many players. Featuring virtually everone in Hollywood in cameos as themselves. A must see. 9/10

Movie Review: Short Cuts (1993)

Based on a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. The formula; a group of seemingly unrelated people end up impacting on each other's lives. This style has been much copied recently but it all started with Altman. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Kansas City (1996)

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson lead this wild night of Jazz filled mayhem in Kansas City in the 1930's. Leigh is great as a gruff talking woman who's kidnapped a Governor's wife in a bid to get her husband back from the mob. 7/10

Movie Review: Gosford Park (2001)

The clue board game come to life. A riveting look at both the privileged and working class at a country estate in England just as a murder occurs. The bumbling detective is hilarious and every part is played to perfection. 8/10

Movie Review: A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

A fitting farewell film by Altman. This film follows the bacstage antics of the castmembers of a popular live musical radio show. The cast is huge and everyone just IS their character. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin just shine and heck, even Lindsay Lohan is good here. 8/10

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The penultimate Potter book. Once again Potter is a little more moody and brooding than I'd care for, but this time he's got a reason. Voldemort is on the attack and things are at their most dire. The shocker ending is also great. What a setup for book 7!

Doin' the Time Warp

Movie Review: Timeline (2003)

A pretty weak movie based on a relatively weak book by Michael Crichton. A group of young research assistants go back through time to medieval France to rescue their elderly professor who is trapped there. At least in the book all the 'locals' spoke an incomprehensible old French. Here, that's not even brought up. Nothing to reccomend here, watch something else instead. 4/10

Movie Review: Master and Commander (2003)

Russel Crowe and Peter Weir's big screen adaption of a series of books of the same name. A British naval captain engages in a series of cat and mouse battles with an equally skilled French captain. An excellent movie that is well worth seeing. 7.5/10

Movie Review: The Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

A big action epic set in Jerusalem during the Crusades. Fantastic costumes, sets and action scenes. Unfortunately Orlando Bloom just doesn't have the persona needed to head a big movie. He looks good but he is the weakest link. 8/10

Movie Review: Dark Water (2005)

A Hollywood remake of a popular Japanese horror. I haven't seen the original Japanese film but this just wasn't scary. Jennifer Connelly and John C Reilly are excellent as usual, but there's just not much here. 5/10

TV Review: Desperate Housewives (Season 2)

Following a great first season, season 2 really fell on it's face. There was no real mystery this time around. The new family that moved in just wasn't enough to make this season compelling.

Robert Altman: The Middle Years

Movie Review: The Long Goodbye (1973)

Elliott Gould takes over the iconic role of Philip Marlowe in this Raymond Chandler story. Unlike Bogart's version, Gould plays Marlowe as more of a wisecracker not afraid to insult a gang of goons right to their faces. Marlowe is pulled into a mystery surrounding his friend's wife's murder. Marlowe is convinced he didn't do it but the mob and the police think otherwise. Also contains Schwarzenegger's first film role as a mob enforcer. 7/10

Movie Review: Nashville (1975)

One of Altman's best. A huge ensemble cast portrays country stars, music fans, political organizers and everyone in between. The music is great and all the actors sing their songs themselves. Kung-Fu's David Carradine is especially impressive on the stage. Lily Tomlin is equally impressive just sitting in the audience and watching. In fact, I think it's more difficult for an actor to perform by doing absolutely nothing and she just nails it. Her face and eyes tell more than any spoken lines could. It's amazing how Altman was able to weave all these different stories and characters together as he did. He'd use this formula again in films like Short Cuts, Gosford Park, and A Prairie Home Companion. 9/10

Movie Review: 3 Women (1977)

This is a movie I definitely need to watch again. There is a lot going on here and I didn't realize how many layers there were until it was nearly over. A fantastic movie about two women (Shelley Duvall & Sissy Spacek) who share jobs, an apartment, and sometimes seem to switch personalities too. A little bit like Altman's previous film Images, this one also considers the issue of personal identity. 8/10

Book Review: What to Expect the First Year - Murkoff, Eisenberg and Hathaway

Required reading for new parents. Great month-by-month information and tips.

Book Review: The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year - Armin A. Brott

Another valuable read, this is basically a slimmed down version of What to Expect, just for new fathers.

Strange Stories

Movie Review: October Sky (1999)

Based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes. I borrowed this video from one of the English teachers at my high school who had shown it in a few of his classes. It's a good film for students as it encourages them to strive for more, to 'reach for the stars' as it were. Jake Gyllenhaal is good in the lead role as an inquisitive high school student not content to follow his father into the mines for the rest of his life. I was also impressed by Chris Sherman, famous for playing the Terminator geek in the American Pie series but here becomes a regular bookworm-type geek. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Mysterious Skin (2004)

I really knew nothing about this movie going into it but was very impressed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt steals the show as a handsome and charming boy who ends up as a male prostitute. He shares a connection with another boy, a former classmate, who is convinced that alien abductions are the cause of his mysterious memory loss. The truth is far more disturbing. 'Chloe' from 24 has a small role as another abductee. A depressing film, but still one worth watching. 8/10

Movie Review: Sideways (2004)

A hilarious look at two middle-aged men on a tour of California's vineyards. Paul Giamatti is the struggling writer always looking for the next great bottle of wine. Thomas Haden Church is his soon-to-be-married buddy who is looking for his next great lay. They meet up with a pair of great women who seem perfect for them. So of course they are going to screw things up and boy do they. Very funny and touching, this movie also features Lost's Mr. Friendly, M.C. Gainey, in a hilarious scene that ends with him running naked through the streets. Must be seen to be believed. 9/10

Movie Review: Garden State (2004)

Written by, directed, and starring Zach Braff. I've never seen the TV series Scrubs so this movie was my introduction to Mr. Braff. What a performance he puts on here. Braff plays Andrew, a mildly successful actor who returns to his hometown after many years for his mother's funeral. He encounters his father, a psychiatrist, who has had Braff on medication for years. Andrew reunites with several old friends and a beautiful newcomer played by Natalie Portman, a 'real character' herself. This results in a wonderful new state of mind for Andrew as he begins to fully experience life. Fantastic performances by Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm, plus a super hip soundtrack, help this little gem of a movie. 7.5/10

Movie Review: White Noise (2005)

I was intrigued by the trailers for this so-called horror film. What a flop. Michael Keaton plays a grieving father who is convinced his dead wife, and some scary others, are communicating with him via the white noise his TV and radio pick up. Completely unbelievable and idiotic, this was very disappointing. Amazingly enough a sequel was made. Some posters at IMDB complain that the sequel has little to do with the original but I think that should be its main selling point. 4/10

Robert Altman: The Early Years

Upon hearing of Altman's death late last year I knew I would have to make myself watch more of his films. I had only see 3 of his movies and really enjoyed all of them. So I set myself upon a mission to find and watch as many movies of his as I could.

Movie Review: Mash (1970)

I remember watching the MashTV series as a kid. I didn't get all the nuances of the show but I still thought it was funny. Until now I had never seen the original movie though. This movie has quite a different feeling than the TV series. Firstly, I don't recall ever hearing a gunshot or explosion at any point in the movie. If it weren't for the casualties coming in I wouldn't have known there was a war going on in the background. Apart from one instance the doctors don't seem to be under any stress whatsoever, even in the middle of surgery they are having a good time and trading barbs. The pristine green football field that is used for too long in the second half of the movie also comes out of nowhere. Are these guys near the front lines or on a college campus? By the end of the movie I was getting a little disappointed in that this movie had nothing to do about war until I heard the final announcement over the hospital's P.A. system. Throughout the movie announcements were made about war movies that were going to be shown for the staff. The announcements were very sarcastic and stressed how unrealistic these movies were for those caught up in an actual war. The final announcement of the movie was a self-referential announcement about the movie Mash itself. It was only then that I realized that this entire movie was a work of absurdity, it had as little to do with real war as any of the other movies they had mocked. My opinion of the movie flip flopped immediately and decided it was a very good film. 7.5/10

Movie Review: McCable & Mrs. Miller (1971)

One of my old college roommate's father worked on the set of this movie. Set construction I think. What I didn't realize until I read about this film on IMDB is that it was filmed in my home province of BC in Canada. This has to be one of the grittiest Westerns out there, a real precursor to Unforgiven. It shows how dirty and uncomfortable life probably was for those living out on the frontier. It also shows the main gunslinger, here Warren Beatty, with a definite sense of fear in him. He's human. Julie Christie is also great as the not-afraid-to-speak-her-mind madame of the brothel who is McCabe's partner in nearly every sense of the world. The big shootout scene at the end is fantastic and very realistic. People get hurt. People are scared for their lives and hiding. Not as exciting as Young Guns but the tension is much higher. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Images (1972)

I knew nothing about this movie going into it and was completely blown away. If you like David Lynch's Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive you'll probably like this. The film follows a woman with severe psychological problems, possibly multiple personalities, through a vacation at a lonely cabin in the countryside. The crazy thing with this movie is that it is all shown from Cathryn's (played by Susannah York) point of view and I was never quite sure what was real or not. Some characters appear to just be figments of her imagination but I was never totally sure. Hard to follow at times but I found this fascinating. 9/10

Book Review: I Killed Hemingway - William McCranor Henderson

A struggling writer makes a deal with the devil; he agrees to ghost write a novel for a bigger-than-life character who claims to have murdered Ernest Hemingway. As the writer hears more and more stories he begins to believe less and less in their veracity. The hype surrounding this shocking new 'autobiography' pressures the writer to press on with his plan while his own literary intentions get pushed to the side.