dead man

advertised as "a dark, bitter commentary on modern american life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western," you can see dead man one of two ways: as a brilliant masterpiece and a marvel of independent cinema, or you can be bored to tears with the meandering psuedo-plot and semi-babble. i think much of what you think about the movie comes down to if you like jim jarmusch or not. i happen to like him, most of the time, so i enjoyed dead man. however, i did make it a point to watch the movie by myself because i didn't want to subject others to a potentially "pointless" movie. so, buyer beware i guess.

lord of war

nicolas cage in a good movie? what is this? the rock? not only is nicolas cage good in lord of war, lord of war is actually good. there's a bit too much moralizing in this movie, but the writing, dialogue and "fun" facts about guns is worth the price of admission alone. highly recommended if you go in with little to no expectations.

since when did jared leto get second billing in a movie?

the forty year old virgin

judd apatow, creator/writer of “freaks and geeks,” makes his movie directing debut. and what a debut it is, filled with r-rated scenes and conversations galore. while this movie certainly isn’t for grandma and grandpa, it’s entertaining enough to keep your eyeballs directed forwards. well, until the end, which is better left unrevealed. i can see how easy this movie was to sell, “well, we have this loser guy right? he’s forty, and he’s still a virgin…sold!” successfully pulling it off must have been significantly harder however, because you can only ride a one-trick pony so far; luckily, seth rogen is along for the ride.

red eye

wes craven, rachel mcadams, cillian murphy, and brian cox? sounds like a winner. reviews touted this movie as a brisk tight thriller. it was more of a snore fest actually. nothing stood out, nothing jumped out, nothing was scary in the least. highly disappointing. mcadams and murphy make the camera happy but weren't they supposed to make the audience scared? oh well. yawn.

grizzly man

want to see what kind of crazy it takes to bring a man to summer with grizzly bears? introducing timothy treadwell. a documentary featuring timothy’s own footage (taken in the last three years of a thirteen year “career”), grizzly man is less about bears than it is about the nature of man. assuming man was peroxide blonde, vain and completely delusional, like timothy is. still, you have to give grudging respect to timothy because he does care about the bears, even if his methods of protection are a bit unorthodox to say the least. plus, he got mauled by his babies, so really, some sympathy please.