Live Free or Die Hard

Tried and true Bruce Willis flexes, smirks and cackles his way through this preposterous script with aplomb. Justin Long, typecast as the nerd, plays a great counter to Willis. Long owns this character and it’s difficult to see him playing anything else. While the script is ridiculous and bad, the pace is supersonic and the testosterone-fueled entertainment value is high.

Sicko

While it’s true Michael Moore is selective with his data, he must be to tell the most emotional story possible. This is why “60 Minutes” doesn’t do hard-hitting exposés on Ralph’s brand enriched white rice. It’s bland. Moore takes his time with Sicko, reveling in his trips to foreign soil where there are hospitals with no cashiers. While he doesn’t offer many solutions for the American health care system, he avoids flat-out criticism. Through anecdotes he aims not to educate that the health system is flawed, (we all know that) but to energize his viewers into action by stating, strongly and emotionally, that all hope is not lost.

Evan Almighty

This was terrible. There are so many enormous lapses in logic, it’s almost as if the movie was made for the sole purpose of proving just how stupid and implausible the stories in the bible really are. Granted, it’s fiction, it’s fantasy, so I should suspend my disbelief. It’s not meant to be taken literally. But we all know and we can all identify basic human reactions. We know what shock is. Anger. Fear. Glee. When a character, any human being, reacts to something which is UNPRECIDENTED in human history by ignoring, dismissing, and scoffing at it, then we know this is behavior which is only meant to serve the plot. This is not behavior which is even close to the way a human being would react to a thing. It’s not funny. It’s not enlightening. It lacks genuine human emotions and reactions. It’s terrible. Sorry for Steve Carrell, as I’m a fan. Wow. Terrible. Really.

1408

I have always liked John Cusack. He has delivered consistently since 1985 and 1408 is no exception. It’s a “tour de force” as they say, wherein Cusack gets to plunge into a Himalaya-sized range of emotions from cynicism to debilitating grief. For this, the space and time to spread out, the plot and structure play only a secondary role. The middle act suffers because of this, and the spooky episodes become repetitive. However, the ending makes up for the slow middle and delivers a satisfying wallop. If Cusack can accomplish what he does in this paper-thin script, imagine what he’ll do with something meaty. (not forgetting Being Jon Malcovich)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I have very little memory of this movie, and not because I was drunk. (see Blades of Glory review.) It’s a low-impact, generic trifle. While the silver surfer effects were cool, and unfortunately invoked the potential for something much cooler, the whole affair is pretty bland. Too, it’s family friendly, which is also unfortunate, since they had Jessica Alba, and they made almost no effort to exploit her hot body.

Black Book

“Tits and Nazis. What more could you ask for?” Or so said Stephen Lyons, movie maven and WWII fanatic. Reviews of this made it out to be "Showgirls during World War 2", but Verhoeven’s saga is endlessly entertaining and flew by despite the 2 1/2 hour running time. Credit much of this to the lead, Carice van Houten, who completely embodies her character and fully realizes this part in a way few American actresses ever could. She’s beautiful, she’s naked, she seduces Nazis and plants bugs and runs around and spies and shoots people and crawls in shit (literally.) She's fantastic. The movie reminded me a lot of the 60’s-David Lean- Dirty Dozen style epic war movies. It was long and had everything but the kitchen sink. You needed a flow chart to follow the plot, but for the most part… IT TRACKED!! (Amazing!) Verhoeven’s American movies had their heyday, and it seemed as if, after the ho-hum Hollow Man he might be finished. Not so. This was a blast.

Once

Sweet, low-budget love story with a big heart. Some story inconsistencies and unanswered questions barely detract from the general point: art is a language of love.

Ocean's Thirteen

It’s all plot. It’s all tight. It moves fast. And MOST of it is funny. (The Oprah jokes are classic.) The stuff with David Paymer as the hotel critic – not so much. The best part, perhaps a holdover from Oceans twelve, is the secret, ridiculous con artist lingo. “Pulling a Susan B. Anthony at the airport.” “Wearing a Brody.” Etc. Seems as if it was not only designed to entertain the people watching it, but also the people IN it.