I was intrigued by the trailer on the disc for another film, so I rented this and am I glad. Tons o’ fun. The cast (Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint) is perfect. I love a good farce and Brits do the best.

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What a nice surprise. I figured since I knew the outcome, it would be a snoozer. Not so. The owners quite literally bet the farm to keep that horse. Horse people say that race horses have “competitive hearts” and want to win. I’ve always said Bullshit to that. But I’d forgotten what Secretariat did at Belmont, a track longer than any he had ever raced.

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A real throwback to the gung-ho military films of yore. I could see Gregory Peck in Aaron Eckhart’s role. It’s Saving Private Ryan crossed with Independence Day without the latter’s soap opera. Yes, there are holes and contrivances in the plot, and maybe too much of the esprit-de-corps thing for some of you, but don’t dwell on them. It’s an action flick. Sit back and go with it.

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A documentary about the singer-songwriter scene in the late 60s / early 70s after it migrated from Greenwich Village to LA. If you don’t like James Taylor, Carol King, Jackson Brown, and their kin, don’t bother. I have some of their stuff on my ipod and listen now and again. A fair amount of navel gazing, but it was also a break from the flamboyance and glitter that was invading the rock scene at the time. The film is a nice time capsule of a period I lived through and watched from afar.  Would have loved to have lived in Laurel Canyon then.

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With such a frabjous cast I expected to be more engaged. Maybe it’s because Wall Street types seem so vacuous. I didn’t FF because I found it hard to follow. Maybe because I don’t understand derivatives and can’t fathom bundling debt, maybe because they presented no throughline character. You’ve got better ways to spend your time. (Low FF because I was hoping it would suddenly make sense.)

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I’ve always been more impressed with Cameron Diaz’s eyes than her acting abilities, but she owns this role. A predictable script (if a script about a gold-digging middle school teacher can be predictable) with some nice character touches, plus a good supporting cast. Engaging and not a terrible way to kill 90-some minutes.

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Caught the trailer and thought it worth a try. Glad I did. Has elements of “Leon the Professional” (a little girl imprints on a mystery man who has a cactus instead of a peace lily), lots of Korean Bieber hair and some really twisted villains. Most Asian fight scenes drag on and on; these are sharp and to the point. The final battle is truly spectacular.

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Pretty goofy. Yeah its look is true to the comics, but that hokey Kirby headgear, so cool on paper, is ridiculous on real people. Asgard (didn’t it used to have a 3rd a?) looks like a combo of a Richard Powers city and the Mormon Tabernacle organ. Odin opts out of and then back into the story at the moments most convenient to the screenwriter. The Bifrost technology was cool though. Engaging and entertaining but pretty damn silly.

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An amazing experience.  Brian Helgeland was fired from Payback (2 days after he won an Oscar for LA Confidential) because it was too dark. The studio was looking for a Lethal Weapon look-alike and he was staying true to the source novel, The Hunter by Richard Stark.  I’d always liked the theatrical Payback because Mel Gibson’s Walker was much closer to the book’s Parker than Lee Marvin’s version in Point Blank (1967).  But the director’s cut has an entirely different 3^rd act (no Kris Kristofferson) that’s so much darker and truer to the book. Yeah, it’s probably too dark for the general public, but not for my readers. So I say to you: rent the director’s cut and marvel. (And listen to the commentary.)

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A paper-thin plot that moves slowly (or should I use the more neutral “deliberately”), but is carried by the characters. The script makes even the 3 drug smugglers interesting. Funny dialogue and a nuanced performance by Brendan Gleeson. Watch this for the acting and the rapport between the actors.

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