D.Moore

Ugh. I originally wanted to stick with a one-star rating, not comment and avoid insulting the screenwriters, director, actors... All of them. But I just couldn't do it. I can say with a clear conscience that I haven't seen a more boring film with worse (non)humor in a long time. I must admit that it was simply impossible to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall in one sitting. On almost every occasion, I would pick up my cell phone, go to the fridge, see if I'd gotten an email, and who knows what else... None of that helped. The main "hero" is an unsympathetic jerk. His ex-girlfriend is not even worth writing about. His ex-girlfriend's boyfriend is a complete idiot, whom I would torture in a way so cruel that people have been afraid to invent it yet. In terms of the other characters, one is more useless than the next. An hour and forty minutes of unfunny misery, boredom and an attempt at unconventional humor that should hopefully have resulted in some kind of lesson. Brr. As most of you can probably guess, I give one single star for Mila Kunis. But that's all.

One of the few remakes that is better than the original. It’s more brisk, more witty, more cynical, more black-humored... Just better. The Ladykillers is the perfect relaxing movie for me, a movie for every time of day, every season. The Coens knew exactly what the original film lacked.__P.S. I wonder how many people will get upset now when they read that I actually like The Ladykillers more than The Big Lebowski?

I'm quite surprised, but compared to the Coen brothers' remake, I didn’t find that the original The Ladykillers was as good. It's not that the film wasn't entertaining, it's not that Alec Guinness didn't portray the ultra-slimy gangster well, it's not that the rest of the cast was bad (I was most entertained, sorry Mr. Sellers, by Herbert Lom, whose murderous look is simply unique) and it's not that the old lady wasn't wasn’t worth killing... I just laughed less than I expected. Nevertheless, the film deserves four stars.

This is comic book taking another beating. But I don't want to start with the negatives: Road to Perdition is an excellently shot film with Newman's successful music, which appropriately supports the melancholic cinematography, and which, when added together, makes for a truly dense atmosphere. Sam Mendes has traditionally been able to nicely handle conversation and action scenes (the shootout in the room is something else - I'm looking forward to Skyfall), and the actors who have come together here are all excellent and do a really good job (I even took seriously the gangster played by Tom) and... And that's where the pros end. The biggest downside is... You guessed right... The script. I wonder why filmmakers keep doing this, but even this time they only took certain things from the comics (the opening 30 minutes or so and the bank robbery), twisted or threw away the rest and added their own ideas. And what ideas those were! Like the killer Maguire - sorry Jude, he's brilliantly acted, really, but completely unnecessary. Or the farmer and his wife, the stay with them and the silly epilogue that goes with it. Bleh. And so on. It’s too bad, because such a solid gangster atmosphere shouldn't be wasted. I give three and a half stars to this.

For Willis's exit from the spinning car, for Malkovich's mad Malkovich and his pig, for Helen Mirren standing in her evening gowns behind a machine gun, for Freeman in the nursing home and general's uniform, for Mary-Louise Parker's eyes, for Bruce's bloody brawl with Karl Urban, for Ernest Borgnine, for great action scenes like the one at the airport - which are both thrilling and entertaining - for the witty one-liners and the cool script, for Richard Dreyfuss's character, for Beck's music, and for the way the end credits roll... I give it all four and a half stars. Red is really great fun with many memorable moments, which should not be missed by any fan of action lightened with humor. I don't give it five stars only because of the occasional "too much comic-book-ness", which was especially evident in the actions of the commandos and special forces - they simply behaved like assholes (the beginning in Moses' house, the shootouts in the garages).

I don't claim that Jack Kevorkian is Al Pacino's best role, but I do think that he handled it perfectly and breathtakingly. The film, which clocks in at over two hours, is gripping mainly because of him (he doesn't play the doctor, as is his wont, but he simply is him), but it would also be a mistake to forget Barry Levinson and the excellent line-up of supporting actors - an unrecognizable Susan Sarandon, the always likeable John Goodman or Danny Huston with a really bad haircut. Euthanasia is still a hot topic (I don't understand why) and it was good to see that the filmmakers approached it in the same way that Dr. Kevorkian approached death - with sensitivity and dignity. Thank you, HBO, for making this.

I was originally a bit scared of How to Train Your Dragon - I didn't like the dragons in the photos at all. And that includes the main character Toothless. But as soon as he first appeared in the film and I saw his movements and expressions, I fell in love with him. And the other dragons, too. That was the first big plus. Others include the amazing aerial scenes, Powell's music, the humor... Just about everything. Yet isn't it all cliché? So what?

A very, very slow moving story told by Phillip Noyce with the help of Michael Caine's acting skills and Brendan Fraser's efforts, beautiful cinematography and Armstrong's almost hypnotic music. Although after the first few minutes I thought I "knew what I was in for", the script managed to surprise and not bore me during the hour and forty minutes. My rating might have been higher if The Quiet American had been a bit more gripping and dramatic (after all, very, very slow-moving films can do that too) - as it is, I give it a clean four stars and I am going to go read Green's novel.

Boring, so much that it ended up being the only thing that surprised me about this film. One star for the music and one star for the criminally underused Kristen Wiig. I wasn't amused, I wasn't moved... Nothing. It’s a shame.

A casual comedy that isn't very funny, but it did entertain me. John Malkovich is impeccably enigmatic (I'll probably use his handshake - I don't have what it takes for a super penetrating look, after all), Colin Hanks is weirdly bland, Emily Blunt is pretty, Steve Zahn is underused, and Tom Hanks is actually there only briefly, which goes for a bunch of other showbiz stars and starlets. The script could have been less predictable and less like Almost Famous, but whatever. A pure three stars. The Great Buck Howard has to be recommended to J.M. fans. "Jerry Springer had a serious accident, and everybody went to film it." "Who?"