The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp- A

Another Powell/Pressburger masterpiece and a great, enriching movie-watching experience. There is so much imagination on hand here that it's utterly shocking. The technicolor, as is usually the case with a P/P movie, can literally take your breath away. It runs 163 minutes, but it feels like 30.

The perfect antidote to an awful week. I'm buying the DVD immediately. I'm in love with this movie.

We're Not Dressing- C-

Really oddball 1935 musical, contained in the new Carole Lombard DVD set, co-starring Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman and George Burns. Interesting cast, but the movie's such a bizarre mess. Lombard is wasted, and only Ethel Merman gets any good lines/musical numbers. Not very good.

Inside Man- B

Clever, entertaining flick that only suffers due to an almost complete lack of suspense. Spike Lee's great eye for New York is definitely on display.

Can you share it with us, since I have absolutely no plans to ever watch this film?

*******SPOILERS*******

Basically what happened, was Leslie Neilson (playing the president in the movie) was getting a book read to him, the same Duck book that George Bush was reading to children when 9/11 happened, and his people told him that the world was being invaded by aliens and he said to hold on because he wanted to know what happened with the duck.

*******END SPOILERS*******

THE DESCENT - 7/10 (B-)

I loved WOLF CREEK. It was so well made an terrifying.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES was a good movie but it wasn't amazing and no where near fucked up

Eurotrip - B+

fantasic watch, the laughs never end.

Kiki's Delivery Service - A-

Nines Lives - A
The Benchwarmers - D

Wake of Death- F-

my god, i cant actually believe i saw this in theaters, ive never heard of this one so i immediately thought "Direct to DVD" and plus you have Van damme, and that cannot be good!....We only had two choices, this one and the Wild, most of my friends wanted to see the Van Damme crapfest. I told the bastards there were going to be sorry .....every single one hated it...HA!!

so anyways yeah it was horrible. the best part of this movie was the bad acting, the dialogue was hilarious, the story couldnt be more predictible and there nothing really original about it either. Its the typical cop thriller were the Chinesse are the bad guys

Nine Lives - B

Hostel - D
Breakfast on Pluto - C/C+

Silent Hill F

The Sentinel - B

Just saw Minority Report on DVD.

I'll give it a B. The concept was okay, but not what I thought it would be. Cruise, for all his off-screen insanity, really does have great stage presence. Easy on the eyes too. Special effects were pretty seamless. Had some script problems though.

Eyes Wide Shut C-

Call it artful. Thought provoking or whatever. But Kubrick has created a film with septic characters, a septically dull plot and done in a septically numb way. Honest a very very bad movie.

It sucks you didn't like it I've always loved it.

Silent Hill - 5.5/10

There is some great atmosphere here, amazing visuals, good use of sound, and it's easily the best video game adaptation made yet. However, it gets boring, as the plot is distractingly disjointed, after a while, I didn't give a shit about what was happening (hell, I could barely tell what was going on). That's not the only reason for the bloat--the worst part is that it doesn't delve far enough into outright scares for a 2+ hour long horror film, it is unsettling at times, but it doesn't go any further with the vast majority of the set pieces (though the climax in the church is awesome).

The sequel certainly has a huge amount of potential, it just needs a better writer and ballsier set pieces.

"Palmer soars, carrying writer/director Doug Atchison's film on new 'tween wings."
-- Carrie Rickey, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"Effectively anchoring the picture is Keke Palmer's lovely lead performance as Akeelah Anderson."
-- Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Everybody has their moment."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

"Wonder no more about the validity of spelling bees. In this one, a child brings new life to the people surrounding her."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE

The world of competitive spelling bees has always been a hard subject to dramatize. It is undoubtably a fascinating subject to behold, one which requires large amounts of both intelligence and strategy. But the fact of the matter is that audiences aren't drawn to them. Most would rather venture out to see an inspirational football drama rather than watch children spell for two hours. This is why the subject has been so rarely covered in film. Two recent examples, the documentary Spellbound and the drama Bee Season, have tried to connect with the average viewer - both recieving mediocre box office returns. Hopefully this trend will cease with the release of Akeelah And The Bee, written and directed by newcomer Doug Atchison. This tale of a young girl winning against all odds is one of the year's biggest gems - a heartfelt and moving film about the champion in us all.

The story follows young Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a shy 11-year old seventh grader who people think of as undeniably average. Her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett) barely notices she is there, her classmates dislike her and her teachers find her incredibly unambitious. She is only able to find solace with her caring older brother Devon (Lee Thompson Young) and best friend Georgia (Sahara Garey). But everything changes one fateful day when Akeelah unexpectedly wins her school's spelling bee. Located in a rough neighborhood in South Los Angeles, her principal (Curtis Armstrong) sees this as an opportunity for some positive publicity for the struggling school. Because of this, he enlists the help of famed teacher Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) to help Akeelah with her studies.

At first Akeelah is stubborn, lacking the motivation to work hard enough to move to the next level. But as the months pass, her bond with Larabee grows along with her ambition. As she moves through the regionals and then the state bee - she soon finds herself heading to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national spelling bee. With her entire neighborhood behind her, Akeelah must decide if she has what it takes to win.

This film has recieved much advanced publicity for some of its credentials. It is the first film to be co-distributed by Starbucks Entertainment, a new division of the famed coffeehouse. It is also well-known because Atchison recieved the presitigious Nicholl Fellowship to put this film in production. This award, given by the AMPAS, is presented to new screenwriters who display much promise. Upon seeing the film, it is evident why Atchison recieved this award. Akeelah And The Bee greatly benefits from the excellent script, which takes careful time to develop the characters - allowing you to become very attached to them by the end of the film. It also shows the true intensity of the actual competition, including a nail-biting final act as intense as any sports film. Atchison also succeeds in terms of direction, using many interesting shots throughout the running time. The film moves at a fast pace but never feels rushed - keeping the audience completely engrossed in the story.

The cast on display here is made up of talented veterans and promising new talent. Laurence Fishburne is great as Larabee, delivering one of his finest performances to date. His character has many layers to his persona, first appearing aloof and haughty but later revealing himself as a caring and sympathetic man with a dark past. Fishburne dives into this role and makes the character completely believable. Angela Bassett is also strong here as Tanya, and tackles each scene with charisma and strength. But the real heart and soul of the picture, and the reason that it is such a success, is Keke Palmer's breakout performance. The multi-layered performance is sure to be one of the year's best - and it is easily the strongest performance by a child actor since Haley Joel Osment's famed turn in The Sixth Sense. She fills the role with lots of energy, but also displays strong dramatic chops and excels in her dramatic scenes - creating a lovable and completely adorable character. Anyone who doesn't fall in love with Palmer as Akeelah must have a heart of stone.

Overall, this is easily the best family film of the year so far and one of the strongest inspiratational tales in years. While it may have some unavoidable cliches, Akeelah And The Bee succeeds due to a strong script and excellent performances, especially from standout Keke Palmer. There's only one word that comes to mind when summing up this film as a whole: G-R-E-A-T!

8/10 (A-)

The Sentinel - C+

Breakfast on Pluto - A-/B+

Mission to Mars - C+

When i was a kid and i saw it for the first time it actually scared me on a deep level. Now i watch it and I'm like, damn tom cruise is bad in this movie.

I saw it for the first time when I was younger as well, and I agree, it really scared me. Especially the orgy scene *shiver*

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO - 8/10 (B+)

An awesome, fun, colorful film! Cillian Murphy gives one of the best leading male performances of 2005 (he's better than Philip Seymour Hoffman ). He was very charming as Patrick "Kitten" Braden, and quite beautiful as a woman. It's too bad he didn't get a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars. Anyway, the music was really good too.

Recommended!

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch & Wardrobe (2005)

I was really looking forward to this film. Unfortunately, I thought this film was disappointing. There are also moments of Disney dullness and lameness serving no purpose.

I also read one the book versions. So, things I created in my own mind just seemed so much better.

I know many people enjoyed this film. I wanted to enjoy this film. I was really looking forward to it. But, it just fell flat with me and I was bored.

It just comes across as hollow and lacking a soul. It seems to just be there. That whiney girl was also getting on my nerves. Why couldn't Ice Bitch turn her into ice and crack her in half?

C-

Anything Goes (1956)- D

I generally enjoy even the silliest, lamest musicals but this was just plain bad. It has little to do with the original musical it's superficially 'based on,' and they even junked most of Cole Porter's music (retaining just a few, like "You're The Top."). Donald O'Connor has some nice moments but Bing Crosby is predictably sleepwalking through it. The writing is as bad as screenwriting comes, even for the musical genre. At the risk of sounding juvenile: it sucked.

Center Stage- C

Howlingly bad....but I kinda enjoyed it on its own stinky terms anyway. The first 30 or so minutes, I thought, actually worked fairly well, but the movie eventually collapsed under the weight of the painful performances by the cast. I chalked the acting problems up to the fact that they had cast ballet dancers in the lead roles....only to find on IMDB that two of the worst performances were turned in by the two leads without dance training, presumably cast on acting talent alone! Doh! The one exception was the lead, Amanda Schull. She wasn't great, but her acting had a genuine, unaffected quality to it.