A review from The Movie Snob:

A Very Long Engagement (B). This is an anti-war movie disguised as a romance. The year is 1920, and even though World War I is over, provincial French girl Mathilde (Audrey Tautou, Amelie) refuses to accept that her fiance, Manech, was killed at the front in 1917. It was reported that he was executed along with four other French soldiers (for the crime of deliberately shooting themselves in hopes of getting sent home), but Mathilde holds out hope that somehow he survived, and she embarks on a quest to find out the truth. A great deal of the movie is told in flashback, and the director vividly depicts the horrors of WWI's trench warfare and the casual brutality of the men in command each time Mathilde's investigation turns up new facts. Not a bad movie, although a little long for my taste.

A review from That Guy Named David.

Friday Night Lights (A)
As a kid growing up in small-town Texas, H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights was considered required reading when it came out during high school. I remember reading the book and being amazed at the similarities of 1988 Odessa, Texas and its love of the Permian Panthers with what I was experiencing as a high school football player in a town of 6,000 in South Texas. All my friends that didn't experience small-town Texas high school football laugh when I describe the treatment that high school football players get where, from August through December, there is nothing more important than what happens under the lights on Friday night. From the small-town radio shows, the autograph sessions at the elementary school and junior high (seriously), the free meals at local restaurants, the "slide under the radar" treatment in many classes (especially on gameday), etc., the town's obsession with this sport unnaturally places 16 and 17 year old kids on a pedestal from which they feel they can never be knocked. The movie adaption of Friday Night Lights did an artful job of showcasing this treatment and the effect that the sport has on the kids and the community at large. Billy Bob Thornton did an exceptional job portraying the pressures that coaches (who generally make more than every other person at the school) feel to win every game or pack their bags and get out of town. However, I thought the movie and book were best when they profiled the players and various members of the community and the types of problems that they experienced, from racism to alcoholism to effects of the oil bust on an oil town. Perfect adaption of a great book.

From the desk of The Movie Snob:

In Good Company (B). Not a bad little movie. Dennis Quaid plays Dan Foreman, the head of advertising sales for the number one sports magazine in the company, and a happily married man with one daughter in college and another apparently in high school. His comfortable existence is thrown into turmoil by two unexpected events: his wife gets pregnant, and his employer is bought by a corporate mogul along the lines of Rupert Murdoch (cameo by Malcolm McDowell). This results in Dan's getting demoted to the number two sales spot, and a 26-year-old hotshot named Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) becomes his boss. To make matters even worse, Carter gets romantically involved with Dan's older daughter Alex (Scarlett Johanssen). The depiction of corporate life in modern America is the most arresting part of the movie, as the magazine's new owner immediately starts to identify and fire longtime employees in the interest of improving the bottom line. And there are some surprisingly touching moments along the way. Worth a look.

A review from The Movie Snob.

Hotel Rwanda (A). I am not in the habit of describing movies as "must-see" events, but I'll make an exception for this remarkable movie. It is a story about the genocide that took place in the small African country of Rwanda in 1994. As I understand it, the country consisted of two major tribal or ethnic groups, the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi. Suddenly, and apparently with very little warning, huge numbers of Hutu began massacring their Tutsi neighbors, generally with machetes. The Western countries were agonizingly slow to respond, and within a very short period of time something like one million Tutsis were butchered. This movie covers the span from just before the genocide until its end, which apparently occurred only because a Tutsi rebel faction finally managed to launch a successful counteroffensive and force the Hutu to terms. I saw an article about Rwanda not too terribly long ago, and it reported that there were still numerous Hutu in prison for war crimes that still had not been reached for trial ten years later.

This movie views the genocide from the perspective of one man, a very civilized and urbane Hutu named Paul (Don Cheadle), who manages what is apparently the fanciest four-star hotel in the capital city. We watch through his eyes as the situation rapidly deteriorates--the Westerners are evacuated, refugees fill the hotel in their place, and the handful of UN peacekeepers on hand are utterly impotent to help as the corpses literally pile up in the streets. Mercifully, the director manages to convey the violence and terror with a minimum of graphic close-ups, but the depiction is still extraordinarily effective. Cheadle's performance is Best Actor caliber, utterly convincing as an ordinary man suddenly called on to save over 1,000 people with nothing but his wits and the connections to the rich and powerful that he has cultivated over the years.

You must see this film.

(For further reading, I recommend The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa, by Bill Berkeley (2001).)

A book review from The Movie Snob:

All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks, by John L. Allen, Jr. (2004). This is a very interesting little book by the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter (an American publication of liberal/progressive leanings). First, Allen gives a very useful thumbnail summary of the various bodies that make up the Catholic hierarchy in Rome, from the Pope on down. He then debunks the "top five myths about the Vatican" before proceeding to explore the psychology, sociology, and theology of the Vatican apparatus. After doing all this in just over 200 pages, he tackles the immense project of trying to explain why the Church in America (to say nothing of the American media) and the Church in Rome seemed to have so much trouble understanding each other when communicating about the clerical-sexual-abuse crisis that erupted in 2002. Finally, he wraps up with a somewhat less thorough analysis of the Vatican’s response to the American military build-up and invasion of Iraq. All in all, a very interesting and enlightening book, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

A DVD review from The Movie Snob:

Titanic (A-). I recently stayed home from work sick - what better time to watch a three-hour Best Picture that I had never gotten around to seeing? Frankly, I wasn't expecting it to be very good, having heard over the years that the plot is simplistic and the characters two-dimensional. And those criticisms are valid, but I still really enjoyed the movie. I thought the "Lady and the Tramp" romance between Rose and Jack was reasonably believable, and the depiction of the doomed ship's last hours was simply amazing. It must have been incredible on the big screen. I'd say it was well worth the $9 I spent on the DVD at Sam's.

A review from That Guy Named David:

Million Dollar Baby (A-)

Since it's the awards season, I figured that I need to get on the ball and start watching some of the movies that will be winning awards over the next couple of months. Million Dollar Baby is definitely one of those movies. Essentially, it's a boxing movie that dips into serious issues much deeper than the sport itself. Issues of resiliency, poverty, importance of family, and life and death decisions are all packed into this 2-hour winner by Clint Eastwood. The performance by all three lead actors, Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank, are Oscar-worthy (and as demonstrated last night at the Golden Globes, Swank is a leading contender (no pun intended) for Best Actress). There is one section of the movie that gets a little sappy and slow, but in our theatre, this slowness was broken up by a woman who passed out, quit breathing, and had to be revived by CPR in the theatre. Seriously. She appeared to be better as they helped her out of the theatre, but it definitely added a different feel to the movie that will not be shared by everyone that goes to see it. Back to the movie, I would say it scores a knock-out, but that would be very cheesy and is not really my style (if I have a style). Overall, it's the best movie I have seen this year, but the year is only 3 weeks old.

New reviews from The Movie Snob:

The Phantom of the Opera (C+). This is a good rendition of a mediocre musical. Although I am a fan of some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work, Phantom has never really worked for me. It has about three good songs right at the beginning, and the rest of it is pretty forgettable. However, I thought the movie had some strengths, especially the vivid visuals of the various opera productions and the Phantom’s subterranean lair. I’m no judge of vocal talent, but it seemed to me that newcomer Emmy Rossum sang very well as the female lead and that the guy who played the Phantom couldn’t sing well at all. For me, the lackluster songwriting dragged the movie down as it dragged on. If you liked the musical, I think you’ll be pleased with the movie, but I don’t expect the movie to make any converts. It didn’t me.

West Side Story (B). I bought the DVD maybe a year ago and finally got around to watching it. I liked it pretty well. Everyone probably already knows the story, which is basically Romeo and Juliet set in the context of rival gangs in New York City. Tony, a former member of the Jets trying to go straight, falls in love with Maria, the sister of the leader of a Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks. A couple of things stood out about the show. One was its candor about race-relations, which seems ahead of its time considering the movie was released in 1961. And I really enjoyed the song "Officer Krupke," which satirizes the entire juvenile justice system in just a few minutes. It too comes off as way ahead of its time, with its references to judges, psychologists, and social workers who are taken in by juvenile delinquents who pass all blame for their behavior onto their environment. I liked it.

DVD reviews from That Guy Named David.

This is Spinal Tap (C-) and Waiting for Guffman (A-)

I finally rounded out the Spinal Tap/Guffman/Best in Show/Mighty Wind group of satires and must admit that I was both overwhelmed and underwhelmed when all was said and done. As to Spinal Tap, for years I had listened ad nauseam about the brilliance of this movie from the Movie Snob and another guy that used to post on this site. I was told repeatedly that it was arguably the best satire ever written, and if I didn't think it was better than sliced bread, then I was an unmasculine idiot (well, I think that was what was inferred after I said I thought it wasn't not anywhere near as good as sliced bread... or banana, raisin, garlic or several other types of bread). Simply put, blah. Spinal Tap was boring, the music was just plain stupid, and it failed to hit on the jokes that I was told made this such a great movie. Maybe I should have appreciated the fact it was the first of these movies and therefore cut it some slack, but on its face, I was far from impressed. Waiting for Guffman, however, brought me back to the reasons why I liked Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. The acting was great (Parker Posey is a comedic genius), and there were enough quirky one-liners and ridiculous scenes to keep me laughing throughout. So, in sum, I have discovered that, unlike the Star Wars series, Rocky, etc., sometimes the original is not all that it is cracked up to be, and it takes a little time to get it right.

A book review from The Movie Snob.

I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe. I greatly enjoyed Wolfe’s two previous novels, Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full, but I had some doubts about his new book. Could a writer in his 70’s write a convincing novel about modern-day college life, especially one whose protagonist is a brilliant but naive 18-year-old girl fresh from the sticks? Well, I’m not sure the book is entirely convincing, but Wolfe’s writing is as fun and energetic as ever. The book opens with the title character's graduating from high school in the tiny backwater of Sparta, North Carolina, and then heading off to elite Dupont University. There her provincial manners and morals are subjected to one shock after another. She is scandalized by her dorm’s co-ed bathrooms, filleted by her wealthy roommate’s sarcasm, and flabbergasted by the two major hobbies pursued by DU’s elite student body—drinking and sex, in massive quantities. Her conspicuous lack of accomplishment in either arena quickly condemns her to unpopularity and loneliness, and the main drama of the book is whether (and to what extent) she will compromise her distinctly un-modern beliefs to escape her unhappiness. Three male archetypes emerge to pitch woo her way—shiftless, good-looking frat boy Hoyt Thorpe, sincere but none-too-bright basketball star Jojo Johanssen, and intellectual, egotistical, hopelessly nerdy Adam Gellin. Whom, if any of them, will she choose? At what cost to her soul? Sure, it’s an outlandish and outrageous book in some respects, but close enough to reality that I enjoyed the ride.

A video review from Movie Man Mike:

Noi Albinoi (C+):

This was an indie rental I picked up at Premier Video last weekend. [If you haven't been to Premier, you gotta try it. You can easily spend an hour just looking through their selections of movies]. Noi is the main character in this film. Noi is a gifted boy, whose intelligence and lack of discipline result in boredom with school, which in turn causes him to be expelled from his school. Noi dreams of escaping the cold wasteland of Iceland and moving to a warmer climate. After Noi is expelled from school, his father gets him a job as a grave-digger. Imagine digging graves in permafrost. It was enough to drive Noi over the edge. After Noi goes on a rampage and tries to escape Iceland with his girlfriend, Iris, he winds up losing everyone he knows and cares about to an avalanche. This is a slow-moving film, with some beautiful frozen scenery and some humorous characters. Overall, I was a little disappointed with the ending, but that feeling may be my American expectation of having everything tied up in a nice neat little story.

From the desk of The Movie Snob:

The Aviator (B+). The new Martin Scorsese biopic about eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes has been getting good reviews, and I’d say they are deserved. I enjoyed the film for several reasons. First, I really didn’t know much about Hughes’s life, and this almost-three-hour movie covers quite a chunk of it, basically from young manhood to middle age. Second, the movie is visually impressive, especially in the aviation scenes and the scenes of the extravagant nightlife enjoyed by Hughes and his Hollywood cronies. Third, the performances are very good. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was impressive in the starring role, although his youthful appearance was a little jarring by the end of the movie when Hughes must have been in his forties. Cate Blanchett plays Katharine Hepburn, a pretty odd bird herself, with gusto. Kate Beckinsale is stunningly gorgeous (but has sadly little screen time) as Ava Gardner. It’s a long movie, no doubt, but worth the ride. Hop aboard the Spruce Goose and check it out.

From The Movie Snob:

Beyond the Sea (B-). A Kevin Spacey film about the life of 60's pop star Bobby Darin. Darin, probably best known for singing the hits "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife," is portrayed as a young man consumed by ambition to be the biggest star in America -- bigger than Sinatra. An episode of rheumatic fever as a child left him with a weak heart, and he knew he would not live a full life. And during his short life, he did indeed make hit records, win grammies, get nominated for an Oscar, and marry another 60's star, Sandra Dee. For all that, though, his life seems to have been relatively uneventful (for a celebrity), and the movie is interesting without ever really catching fire. Not bad, but definitely not great.

The Movie Snob’s 2004 Year in Review.

I’ll say up front that a couple of these movies probably came out in 2003, but I saw them for the first time in 2004. Thus, they’re on this list. So sue me.

Best Drama: I’ll pick two, in no particular order. First, Friday Night Lights. I am not much of a sports fan, but I found this movie engrossing. It’s the true story of a single season of high school football in a small west Texas town that is consumed with football and demands nothing less than a state championship of its coach. Billy Bob Thornton is fine as the put-upon coach, but the young actors who play the stars of the team are really outstanding. Second, Finding Neverland is an excellent little movie about the life of playwright J.M. Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. Johnny Depp was perfect for the part. Honorable mention to the comedy/drama Sideways, about two buddies facing down their midlife crises by drinking their way through the California wine country.

Best Action Flick: I’ll pick two again. The thinking man’s action movie would be Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Russell Crowe delivers another fine performance as the gruff and bluff Captain Jack Aubry, and the director did an amazing job of filming the sea battles between these old wooden sailing ships. For mindless schlock, I thoroughly enjoyed Troy. Sure, they reduced a war that lasted ten years to roughly two weeks, ignored the gods that started the whole thing, and changed Achilles’ motivation for sulking out half the war from timeless honor to [ick] love. But for all that, I enjoyed every minute of it. Honorable mention: Spider-Man 2. But I liked the first one better.

Best Comedy: Slim pickings in this category since the Spinal Tap crew didn’t put anything out this year. Surprise hit Napoleon Dynamite definitely had some laughs, but I felt a little guilty for laughing at people who seem to exist solely to be ridiculed by the rest of creation. Shaun of the Dead was a fun ride for a while, but it ran out of gas before the end. Mean Girls and I Heart Huckabees both had their moments, but were by no means great.

Best Documentary: I was sorry that there was no Winged Migration II this year, but happily another excellent documentary filled the void. No, I’m not talking about the Michael Moore atrocity. I mean the 2003 release My Architect, a fascinating biopic about architect Louis Kahn, who designed the Kimbell Art Museum over in Fort Worth. He lived a strange life, marrying only one woman but leaving children by three. His youngest child made this excellent film to try to understand the father he barely knew.

Best Melodrama: If you blinked, you missed I Am David, the tear-jerking tale of a little boy who escapes from a Communist concentration camp in 1952 Bulgaria. Yeah, it’s syrupy, and the plot has some holes in it, but I still loved it.

In a Class by Itself: The Passion of the Christ. Enough ink has been spilled about this movie to last a lifetime. I won’t add to it here.

Other Honorable Mentions:

The Barbarian Invasions – a French or Canadian or French-Canadian import about a father who is dying and his estranged adult son who reaches out to comfort him in his last months.

Big Fish – not the biggest, best, greatest movie of all time as That Guy Named David would have it, but definitely an enjoyable one.

The Station Agent – a very sweet little movie about friendship. An angry dwarf moves out to the middle of nowhere to get away from people, but he learns that getting away from people isn’t that easy.

Cold Mountain – good story, beautiful cinematography, fine cast. And Nicole Kidman somehow manages to run a pathetic little dirt farm throughout the whole Civil War without a hair out of place.

The Incredibles – fine movie, just a little long for my taste.

Bubba Ho-Tep – the best Elvis-versus-the-Mummy movie I have ever seen.

A video review from That Guy Named David:

Garden State (A-)

I must admit I am a big-time sucker for the introspective, "what the hell am I going to do with my life" type of movie (ex. Lost in Translation, The Graduate, Beautiful Girls, Wet Hot American Summer). This movie fits in that category. Plus, it stars Natalie Portman, one of the three current actresses over whom I have a mild obsession (Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Garner round out that list). As to the movie itself, the plot centers around a twenty-something that has gone home for his mother's funeral. During the trip, he meets up with Portman (who is great in this role), does some drugs, hangs out with friends, and comes to the realization that he can feel emotions after years of being stuck on various medications. I wasn't sold on the ending, but it didn't ruin the movie for me. All in all, very good.