Wednesday, April 30, 2008

At the movies

expatbrian

I watched several movies this week that were nothing more than big name actors in mediocre films. I'm not going to review them here other than to say that I was disappointed in Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford with Brad Pitt, Michael Clayton with George Clooney, No Country for Old Men with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks. Sure, there is some good acting, even some exceptional acting, but I like to be entertained, not bored. And these bored me.

On the other hand, these are my gems of the week.

Cloverfield-4.5 stars. Very unusual scary thriller about a group of partiers in new york who get caught up in an invasion. Entirely filmed as if by a camcorder held by one of the group, this is my favorite scary movie so far this year.

Redacted-3.5 stars. Like Cloverfield, this is filmed as if from a camcorder held by a soldier filming the real life story of his squad in Iraq. The value of this movie is that it effectively shows the horror and brutality of the war and the horrendous impact it is having on our young soldiers. I'm bias but, if the media and the government won't let us see what is really happening in the war, then at least we should watch movies like this that make a strong attempt.

Across the Universe-4.5 stars. This nice boy meets girl story is told through beatles songs and is simply elegant and excellent. If you like the beatles and want a little romance blended in, you're gonna love this.

American Gangster-3.5 stars. Not half bad movie about a mob drug king and the cops trying to take him down. Denzel and Russell Crowe.

The Brave One- 4.5 stars. A keeper. Jodie Foster as a woman who seeks revenge for a brutal attack. Put this high on the list.

Hero Wanted-3.5 stars. Cuba Gooding Jr., one of my favorite actors as an apparent hero twice over. Not his best ever but a good story with an unusual ending.

The Great Debaters-4.0 stars. Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker team up in this cheer-the-underdog true story about a black debate team from a tiny college that goes for the big time. I was surprised at how much I liked it.

If you're not already using emule and http://www.sharethefiles.com/ to download movies, try it. If that's a little high tech for you (and it's not really very high tech) then http://www.surfthechannel.com/ has a great selection of streaming movies and TV shows that you can watch just by clicking on them. Enjoy

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