I saw this because I’m a fan of the comic.  Wish I hadn’t. How can you make such a mess of a comic considered by fans and professionals alike to be one of the greatest of all time?  Samuel Jackson was beyond awful.  In the comic, all you ever saw of the Octopus was a pair of gloves, and that was…enough. Eisner wrote a million storylines. This was crap. Avoid this. I’m a “Spirit” fan…I had to see it. You don’t.

FF=5

An Argentinean scam.  It’s a bit predictable after seeing other scam films, especially when you hear about the inheritance.  Diverting.  You can’t FF these films much because you need to see how the trap is set.

FF=1

Based on a true story and worth seeing because the odds against these refugee Jews avoiding the Nazis and surviving in the Belorussian woods were staggering.  But they did.  It has a certain amount of grit and realism, even if Daniel Craig’s hair never grows or gets out of place.

FF=1

John Cusack (one of my picks to play Jack in the old days) and Morgan Freeman go head to head.  There’s some moral ambiguity and some good dialogue but a bit too much of the great outdoors for me.  Freeman is a cold-blooded assassin whose nice-guy turn at the end seems out of character, but it’s an engaging thriller.

FF=1 (during the long-shot treks through all that beooootiful scenery)

An absolutely charming film (French, I think) about bugs. The photography is magnificent and there’s virtually no narration. You learn NOTHING. It’s pure visual enchantment. This is a must-see film. Only 75 minutes long.

FF=0

Saw this on someone’s rec. A much deeper, more complex film than you’d ever guess from the awful trailer.  Would have been much better without the superhero battle crap.

FF=2

A fun, fun flick for veteran horror film fans with a nice twist I would have seen coming if I’d been watching more carefully.  The fight with the old woman in the car using a stapler and a ruler are pure Sam Raimi bad-boy craziness.  A number of gross-out effects that are so gross they’re funny.

FF=0

A psychological drama/mystery crossed with science fiction. I didn’t recognize Keira Knightley at first.  Pay attention or you’ll get confused – it’s worth the effort.

FF=1

This true story takes place in the old USSR.  Stephen Rea plays an indefatigable Russian police detective on the trail of a serial killer.  He’s blocked at every turn by the bureaucracy and by ideologues who claim that serial killers are a product of decadent capitalist societies and cannot exist in a workers’ paradise like the USSR.  The irony would be funny if not so tragic: Early on he had to release his chief suspect (who later confessed to the killings) because he was a Party member in good standing.  A dozen or more lives would have been saved if he hadn’t been so hindered.

FF=0

A 2-part German melodrama about the firebombing of Dresden.  A little soapy, and part two dragged a bit, but generally engrossing.

FF=2