An English Trio...

About A Boy: 4 Stars. Wonderful adaptation of the book by Nick Hornby. About time a decent writer got some screen time. Great story, great acting, great directing by the Weitz brothers (of American Pie fame). Best English-language film of the year.

Enigma: 3.5 Stars. Love, sex, intrigue, double-crossing, and 40s-era technogeeks all play a part in this British wartime spy thriller. Another great story with stellar acting (especially in support by Jeremy Northam). I'm starting to think that foreign filmmakers are starting to overcome their American counterparts.

Gosford Park: 3 Stars. Finally caught this one at the local dollar theater, and was pleasantly surprised. It took awhile to figure out who was who, but once accomplished, this British aristocratic slice-of-live/murder mystery movie was rather fun to behold. Kudos again to Jeremy Northam for another great role in support, and here's hoping that Kelly MacDonald's considerable talents (and beauty) are oneday realized and rewarded.

I gotta get me some of that

The Padme Amidala action figure is sure to become the poster girl for S&M clubs everywhere....I can't believe they actually got this one into production, not that I mind, of course. Be sure to check out the zoom-in pics.

By George, he's done it!

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones: 3.5 Stars. I went to see the 12:02 showing last night (the 12:01 was sold out), and had some of the best seats I've ever had for a movie premiere. I've got to say that I totally loved this film. Yes, it had its problems, but they were contained, in my opinion, solely to the love story part (ugh, some of that dialogue, but at least the end result was believable). I thought the story was great, the acting was surprisingly solid, and the butt-kicking was the best since the lightsaber duel at the end of RotJ. Kudos to Christopher Lee for managing to get himself into two of the greatest movie series in history.

Heavenly bodies

Spent about an hour last night watching the planetary conjunction....turns out that it's higher in the horizon than I'd been lead to believe. At about 8:15, way out in west Lancaster (just north of 90th West and Ave I, in case you were curious), pretty much the only things visible in the western sky were Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Mercury. It was a warm night, with a strong, cool breeze, and it was just about as close to heaven as I've been in quite some time. Made me wish I had someone to share it with, but, as always, I'm workin' on that ;).

Another weekend, 3 more movies

Nine Queens: 4 Stars. Fantastic, gritty Argentinian conman film. You never know who's conning who till the end. Another real Spanish language treat in a year when the American fare is less than stellar.

Beauty and the Beast: SE: 4 Stars. Updated, remastered, and projected onto a GIANT screen, this true masterpiece of the Disney library shines in its re-release, clearly part of a multi-year plan as there was a trailer for the giant screen Lion King before this film. Disney's never done anything better, and it was a real treat to see it in such a stunning format.

Spider-Man: 3.5 Stars. Fantastic superhero movie from Sam Raimi. Great acting, amazing special effects, and the first original approach to a superhero since Tim Burton's Batman. Tobey Maguire is perfect as the tights-wearing webslinger, and Willem Dafoe does some fine work as the menacing, split-personality Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. Saw this one on the GIANT screen, too....I highly recommend it.

Forgot one...

Big Trouble: 2.75 Stars. I really wanted to like this, which is probably part of why I was somewhat disappointed. The curse of high expectations. Great acting, great dialogue, and amazing pacing (this movie never slows down for more than a few seconds). Rene Russo also has to be the sexiest woman alive over the age of 40.

More and More movies

Still catching them en masse....

Y Tu Mamá También: 4 Stars. Amazing road-trip, coming-of-age, wild sexual fantasy movie. Tons of sex for both boys and girls to enjoy. Great performances, great story, great dialogue (even subtitled). Didn't much care for the voiceover technique (turning off all other sound in favor of the dialogue), but that wasn't enough to detract from thie wonderful film.

Death to Smoochy: 2 Stars. Some snappy dialogue and decent acting can't save this turkey. The story's just too damned weak.

Life, or Something Like It: 3.5 Stars. Angelina Jolie and Edward Burns shine in this predictable romantic comedy. Nice to see Jimmy Eat World getting some movie soundtrack work.

Jason X: 2.25 Stars. Not a good film, but certainly an entertaining, over-the-top horror. Got an extra half star for an inspired sleeping-bag beating on the holodeck towards the end.

Van Wilder: 2.75 Stars. Nice little throwback to the early 80s comedies no one seems to know how to make any more. Ryan Reynolds seems to be channeling Jason Lee here, but that's not a bad thing. Tara Reid is watchable, which is nice for a change. More props to the soundtrack team for more Jimmy Eat World.

The Scorpion King: 2.5 Stars. One of the biggest surprises of the year, this movie was actually pretty good and very entertaining. Sort of a Conan-esque fantasy smash-up with a great, charismatic lead in The Rock and a hot babe in Kelly Hu. What more could you ask for? My main man Jimmy wants y'all to know he thought this movie was pretty much the worst thing since vegemite.