Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Brad Bird 2011

The film doesn’t make sense (at all) but it’s still pretty fun. If you are considering bringing a flask of bourbon to the theater, I would advise you to do so.  But caveat emptor: I like bourbon.

Anton Checkhov’s The Duel

Dover Koshashvili 2010

An adaptation of a novella, very much like a novella, it more or less washes over you and then it ends, and then you think about it for a few days hence.

Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee 2009

Demetri Martin and an excellent supporting cast do a good turn in this family drama set upstate New York during the eventful summer of ’69.  Ang Lee brings a little something more to everything.

Blue Steel

Kathryn Bigelow 1989

Jamie Lee Curtis and Kathryn Bigelow work extremely well together, and the movie starts out great.  Then everything goes nuts and you want to scream at the picture.  Oh, and Ron Silver is a sweaty man.

Grizzly Man

Werner Herzog 2005

I mentioned at a dinner party that I thought this was a funny movie and everyone looked at me like I had just skinned a puppy. So I watched it again.  It definitely is funny but in fairness I’m not sure funny is the best way to describe it. “Incredible” probably does it better justice.  It’s just that Herzog has such a good sense of humor.

Heavy

James Mangold 1995

Watched COPLAND the other day and was like holy crap, this was James Mangold’s second movie? Pretty fucking good.  What was his first?  (Hint: it was the movie I am reviewing now.)  And then I watched it.  And then I was like: huh?

m/s/e/a/k  points out that Mr. Mangold has a thing for fat losers and drowning girls.

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

Stephen Hopkins 2004

Filmic flourishes abound as Geoffery Rush identifies with Peter Sellers identifying with Chance the Gardener from Jerzy Kosinski’s book, BEING THERE.

The Company

Robert Altman 2003

If a ballet company was a ball you could pick up, take a closer look at, play with, and then put down, the ball would be this movie.  The dance performances themselves are spectacular.

127 Hours

Danny Boyle 2010

The music, the editing, the scenery, and the Franco all come together in this popcorn flick. It’s also the first Danny Boyle film I’ve liked since TRAINSPOTTING.

Observe and Report

Jody Hill 2009

Some people swear by this movie but I didn’t feel it. Except for Anna Faris – she delivers one of the best lines of the decade.