children of men

i'd seen this movie touted as one of the best films of the year so i was psyched. originally, the preview didn't capture me but i was willing to take a chance on some gritty sci-fi. instead, what i got was an intriguing set-up of a premise that moved along at a good clip, but then about halfway through, i realized that this wasn't going anywhere. the ending scenes are completely laughable and there's no real lesson (or warning) to be learned here. waste of time.

the good shepard

matt damon seems too young to be playing a father; especially a middle-aged one. robert de niro did a good job directing, but some of the movie was a bit confusing and most of it was just okay. it's topically about the beginnings of the c.i.a. but devolves into how being an agent can ruin your personal life. no duh.

i'm not sure if this "human element in movies" is worth it anymore. for movies like this, i'd rather spend time with how the c.i.a. was actually formed, get some interesting stories, and learn some lurid details; instead they always insert some crappy story about an unloved wife (honestly, who would ignore angelina jolie for 30+ years) and a creepy kid.

one of the actresses in the film, tammy blanchard, looks JUST like judy garland. blanchard played the young garland in a 2001 tv movie. the resemblance is astonishing.

i.m. pei

this is how architecture docs should be done; heavy on the insight, heavy on the architecture, light on the personal fawning motivation. the gehry movie may be more widely known but i enjoyed pei's fascinating explanations far more.

this dvd is actually two documentaries, "first person singular" and "the museum on the mountain."

dungeons & dragons

i watched volume 1 of this series to see if it jogged my memory. it did. i've seen some of the episodes before. despite efforts to make the d&d world come to life, the entire thing suffers from the same thing every 80s cartoon suffers from: it's out-dated. long on nostalgia but coming up short on current enjoyment. it's cheesy, it's hokey, it's simple. it's like watching thundercats for a few episodes and realizing "hey, this sucks!"

rocky balboa

what'd you expect? it's rocky. i don't recall rocky talking so much, or that he was so prone to making speeches, but it's enjoyable as any of the classic rocky films. the only big problem here was that the fight scenes sucked. half way through the final match, the editing gets weird and they start to interlace the boxing with flashbacks, scenes from earlier in the movie, and it's all just very distracting.