Some new reviews from the Snob:

The Matrix Revolutions. (B-) Left to my own devices, I would not have seen this movie opening weekend. I didn’t even see the first Matrix in a theater, and when I finally saw it on video I thought it was a very good flick but not earth-shatteringly good like some folks thought. But some friends of mine were all gung-ho to see Revolutions a.s.a.p. (e.g., Aimee, whom I mentioned in my recent review of The Matrix Reloaded), so we saw it Friday night, in IMAX format. I thought this was a decent movie, with much less of the endless impenetrable philosophizing that characterized Reloaded. I won’t say anything about the plot, but to me the Christian references seemed much stronger in this movie than in the last one. My friends and I also thought we detected several references to other sci-fi classics. We all thought there were some homages to the Alien movies, one scene reminded Aimee of something from the last Star Wars movie, and I am pretty sure that one incident was an intentional reference to something from Frank Herbert’s classic Dune series of novels. Anyway, there’s lots of shooting and stuff, and I was amused every time Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith graced the screen. “Hellooooo Mister Anderson . . . .”

Brother Bear. (C) Although this wasn’t really my idea, I was happy to tag along with some friends to see the latest Disney offering. My impression was that this is a perfectly fine movie for the kids, probably even less scary for the littler ones than the average Disney flick. Just a couple of fight scenes involving bears, nothing too over the top. It had some nice messages, like that love is really important, and some rather more questionable implications, like that bears only kill people because people kill bears. I’m no nature-science guy, but I’m a little dubious about that one. Anyway, it's nice for kids, but for adults it doesn’t rival classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. And the Phil Collins soundtrack is fairly painful.

…and from the Snob’s shelf o’ DVDs…

Best in Show. (B) I’m a big fan of This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind, but I always thought of this one, about wacky characters competing in a fancy dog show, as the weak link. I saw it once in the theaters and never watched it on video. But I picked the DVD up on sale somewhere and finally gave it a viewing the other night. I was pleasantly surprised at how many laughs it packs, and there are some very funny moments in the deleted-scenes feature as well. I especially liked one deleted scene of Parker Posey and that other guy as the tightly-wound yuppie couple. They’re apparently in therapy somewhere, and when they start unloading on each other about their various family members it is very funny. I still say this is only the fourth-funniest movie in this “series,” but it is worth a second look.