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Poseidon
Poseidon (2006)
8/10
Exactly what a summer movie should be
14 May 2006
I loved this movie. It's not going to win any Oscars for Best Screenplay, but the characters (and actors) were fun and very likable and you cared what happened to them. The effects were extraordinarily well done. This was everything I wanted in a summer movie. Nothing challenging intellectually, but spectacular visuals, well-thought-out predicaments and sexy performers. I won't give away the ending, but it was much more satisfying than the original.

Richard Dreyfuss' performance stays with you more than you would imaging it would. He may be a better actor than this simple action movie material deserves, but he brings himself fully to the role and he comes off great.
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The Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
8/10
Come for the fantastic effects, stay to laugh at the cheeeesy dialog.
28 May 2004
Even with the entirely unconvincing 3D animated timber wolves, the special

effects here are superb. The water effects are MUCH better than Titanic, and the weather effects have come a long way since Twister, and the ones in Twister were very good.

A lot of the dialog was eliciting laughs in the audience i saw it with. I couldn't tell if the director was winking or not, but a lot of the "courageous" moments were eliciting a lot of reaction.

Whatever its "artistic flaws", it was really fun. And I left the theater feeling good, rather than queasy, the way I did after Armageddon.

I'd see it twice.
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In America
In America (2002)
One of the most authentically felt films I've ever seen.
21 November 2003
I'm not really big on this kind of film, but this one won me over in a big way. Jim Sheridan has such a sure hand as a director that even as the story meanders along, and you're not quite sure where things are going, you know HE knows and you end up trusting him and going along for whatever ride he wants to take you on. The characters and the actors portraying them are so winning, you don't want the movie to end. You just want to stay with them forever.

Every role, right down to the two border guards and the hospital administrator are perfectly cast and performed. The two sisters playing the daughters are amazing. But the acting in the film really belongs to Samantha Morton. It really is a high wire act. In lesser hands this character might have been completely unbelievable. But her love for her husband and children is so palpable, you completely buy everything she has to go through with them.

There were so many chances for cheap sentiment here, but the movie never went there. Really beautiful.
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The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1980)
This performance should have made Lucie Arnaz a star.
21 November 2003
Yeah, Neil Diamond wasn't really much of an actor here, but Lucie Arnaz was great. Not only fun and charming, but she really showed she could act. Great screen presence-- you just wanted to hang out with her!

I wish more people had seen her in this.
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Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko (2001)
10/10
God bless Drew Barrymore for having the courage to produce this!
17 June 2003
Warning: Spoilers
I am so tired of predictable movies. I had no idea where this one was going, and to it's great credit, I didn't care. I was along for the ride, and happily so. But when all the seemingly-unrelated threads started weaving together so beautifully and unexpectedly, I was just completely delighted.

And I'm so tired of "nerdy" characters in movies who are really just Cindy Crawford in bad glasses. I mean the kind of character that everyone treats as untouchable when there's really nothing remotely challenging about their world- view and their "nerd" problem could be solved with a better haircut. In this film the title character isn't ugly; there's nothing you can put your finger on, but he puts off such a weird, disturbing energy that you totally believe everyone would avoid him.

POSSIBLE SPOILER?

Another thing-- I was also SO happy to see a character be GENUINELY HEROIC. Not some sting-ray-bike-riding, fist-pumping, yelling-"YEAH!" -to-the- heavens PHONY bullsh*t hero, but someone who does something brave and selfless even though no one may ever know or appreciate that he did it, just because it was the right thing to do.

Great film. God bless Drew Barrymore for having the courage to produce it.
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Twice in a Lifetime
Twice in a Lifetime (1985)
2/10
You'll be sorry...
3 June 2003
When the mopey Gene Hackman reaches the point where he has to choose between two whiny, irritating women-- his wife played by Ellen Burstyn, and his mistress played by Ann-Margaret-- you'll wish he'd just dump both of them and run away.

Add to this Amy Madigan's grating, one-note, Oscar-nominated (!) performance and you have a movie you'll want to turn off halfway through. My recommendation? Do it. Turn it off. There must be an kitchen-gadget infomercial on TV or SOMETHING better to watch.
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