THE NINTH GATE (1999)

J Depp; Lena Olson

So often, right after the meglomanical mad men attain
their dream of invicibility, then they die
Disappointing ending; Music not great

Rating: 2 Ancient scrolls (scale 0-5)

BAD GIRLS (1994)

Madeline Stowe; MS Masterson; D Barrymore; A McDowell; Rbt Loggia; D Mulroney

I like all the actors so it was enjoyable, light romp, and kinda went along
alright, some of Kid Jarrett scenes not great, kinda preposterous shoot out
scene towards the end

"We might could change your mind"
"The whore shot the Colonel, get her"
"Let the Jezebel be dead to death"
"Can't tell one from another, just like men"
"We sold our bodies, why can't we sell some wood"
"I heard ya twice, the first time"
"I didn't know the language of love had words, maam"
"Bye sweetheart", "Bye sweet pea"

Rating: 3 Whoorin Cowgirls (Scale 0-5 whooors)

THE SURE THING (1985)

John Cusack; Nicolette Sheridan; Tim Robbins; A Edwards

Fun, light, 80's, romance, music is very good

"You have to experience it to write about it"
"You're flunking English, that's your native language"
"Use sincerity, its the best technique"
"I'm not going to bed with you, I'm going to bed in a
bed that you're in also"

Rating: 3 Babes on a California beach (Rating 0-5)

THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (2008)

Colin Hanks; J Malkovich; Emily Blunt; Steve Zahn

Kinda charming; interesting movie; heartwarming ending

"He made the impossible seem possible"
"Not affection, but something like it"

Rating: 3 Disappearing coins (scale 0-5)

THE GRATEFUL DEAD MOVIE (1977)

2 hrs. 15 min. homage to the Dead; graphics fun;
music excellent; Bill Graham; Fillmore West;
guitar cries and sings lullabies and ballads or
gently transports you to another place and time;
Sugar Magnolia; Casey Jones; Truckin; Playin the Band;
Johnny B. Goode; Jerry throws Phil down the stairs


"If the Thunder dont get ya the Lightning will"
"You cant let go and you cant hold on"
"We're all confused, what's to lose"
"They can't revoke your soul for tryin"
"Trouble ahead, trouble behind and ya know that
notion just crossed my mind"

Rating: 4 Doses (0-5 scale)

BOMB THE SYSTEM (2005)

Mark Webber; Jaclyn DeSantis; Gano Grills

Surprising indie artsy ghetto tale of heroism and infamy
with wanton drug use; a someone has to go to far and someone
has to get killed movie, gentle as he can be we know he could kill
Good story well-told

"A thief never thinks he'll get caught and a
cop never thinks he'll get shot"
"Real bad boys communicate in silence"
"That's the bitch about grafitti, it's temporary"
"Hate I can deal with, anonymity I can't"
"You have a chance to make something truly eternal"

Rating: 3 Tagged Els (0-5 Els)

THE HORSEMEN (2008)

Dennis Quaid; Ziyi Zhang; Clifton Collins, Jr., Patrick Fugit

Psychological thriller, lots of blood; grisly; kinda an 80's
feel to it, not quite up to today's standards

"I understand things that I see every year, buddy"

Rating: 2 1/2 bleeding forcibly extracted teeth (0-5 bloody teeth)

THE NIGHT LISTENER (2006)

Robin Williams; Rory Culkin; Toni Colette; Sandra Oh

Interesting; decent dialogue, interesting relationships,
suspenseful, I liked the way they handled the ending
Based on a true story

Music: Piano/classical adds to the movie

"What am I supposed to tell them, that there's a blind,
crazy woman from Wisconsin with an imaginary child who's
upset with me?"
"How's it possible to miss someone who never existed?"
"I loot my life for fiction"
"Real isn't how your made, its the thing that happens to
you" from Velveteen Rabbit

Rating: 3 Imaginary Friends (Scale 0-5)

[REC] (2007)

Manuela Velasco

Spanish zombie/horror flick done in documentary style,
with the heroine telling the camera (Pablo is the eyes
of the movie, we never see him) what she sees and in-
terprets as they are sealed in a building by the health
inspector/government as they fear an outbreak

Interesting in that it chronicles the beginning of the
epidemic, disgusting often, bloody.

Rating: 2 Severed limbs (scale of 1-5 severed limbs)

MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007)

Geo. Clooney; Tom Wilkerson; Tilda Swinton; Sydney Pollack; Michael O'Keefe

Action, conspiracy, vague morality, hero takes forever to "come around" to doing
the right thing, with all that not a particularly satisfying ending
Music not great

"If its real the pills won't kill it"
"It's like you're strapped to a bomb" (having alcoholic wife)
"We've been summoned"
"You got all the cops thinking you're a lawyer and all the lawyers
thinking your a cop"
"Find the seeds, Shape the soil, Speed the harvest, Feed the planet"
"I'm Shiva the God of Death"

Rating: 3 Sleezy Corporations (Scale 1-5 corps)

FANBOYS (2008)

Sam Huntington; Chris Marquette; Dan Fogler
Wm. Shatner, Silent Bob and Jay, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams

Well-geeked

Rating: 3 1/2 bitten off heads of chickens (scale 0-5 heads)

THE GAMERS: DORKNESS RISING (2008)

Funny in parts

Rating: 2 20-sided dice (Scale of zero to infinity)

THE INVISIBLE (2007)

Justin Chatwin; Margarita Levieva

Starts with stereotypic good boy-bad girl dynamic.
Good momma's boy about to breakout, gets beaten
to death, or does he? Both main characters go
through significant transformations and come to
understand. He is saved by death in this impossible
love story but maybe there is no death just another
re-start. Edgy. Charming. Worth a look. By the
makers of Sixth Sense.

Music quite good. Syntax, A Perfect Circle, Snow
Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, Suicide Sports Club,
Sparta, Broken Social Scene, Trail of the Dead

"This won't change a thing for you" (mother expaining
the impact of his father's death on his life)
"Dont worry Mom, this won't change anything for you"
(Chatwin explaining the impact of his death on her life)
"Word is, you're in trouble and I'm in business"
"I didn't see you before, I didn't know you"
"Still you" are the broken one "Still you"

Rating: 3-3 1/2 invisible stars (scale 1-5)

WIND CHILL (2007)

Ashton Holmes: Emily Blunt

Stalker freak (Holmes) chauffeur under false pretenses taking
unsuspecting college mate home for Christmas who then have run
ins with phantoms from 1953. The fun begins. Oh, btw it's
really chilly.

"I'm getting a restraining order on you if we ever get out of here"
"I would do it differently" (Blunt referring to the past 24 hours)

Rating: 2 1/2 violent phantoms (scale 1-5 phantoms)

KNOWING (2008)

N. Cage, Rose Byrne

So you want disturbing? Unbelievable teacher-class and father-daughter scenes?
A movie that tells you the story in the dialogue?

Started a bit slow, picked its way up to some pretty good suspense and action
scenes. The chosen have to leave everything behind. Seems like the end, maybe
it's just a new beginning. So, does the end of the world bring out the criminal
in you or the humanitarian?

Determinism v. Randomness/Chaos Theory ~ dumb argument, right? Everything is
determined? Everthing is random? Silly rabbit.


Rating: 7 Alien spaceships (scale 1-10 alien space vessels)

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY (2007)

Patick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Tom Waits

Been seeking something a bit different? A movie with a good sense of humor?
A movie quite fine, exquisite in its own way with Miracles in strange places.

"The only way its going to work is it if it doesn't matter"
"How much you eat, that's how old you are"
"Because if any of us had a clue, we wouldn't be here"
"When I'm here with you, I miss myself the way I used to be"
"We're all trapped in the world of the living"
Bad News ~~ "It looks like they'll be sending her back to Life"

Another change, new perspective
new eyes, newborns, side by side
smile and say goodbye

Music +

Rating: 10 Razor blades (Scale 0-10 blades)

THE READER (2008)

Ralph Fiennes; Kate Winslet

In case you forgot what you were about to watch, the music reminds you
with a sad, reflective, melancholy number
Strange feel to it, a vague, anomie with a hint of distaste and paranoia
With the sexual relationship his world was changed, he was now a member
She decides whats best for both of them and leaves without a word
You don't see much penis in movies
It is fascinating in some strange way (the movie not his penis)
She, who neither writes nor reads is moved more than anyone by the words
Evocative, touching...the impossible love as a theme for great drama with
the most moral sincere person being the most castigated, an irony of
justice movie
Satisfying ending



"You don't matter enough to upset me"
"The more I suffer, the more I love"
"Leave life more beautiful than when you entered it"
"Let me show you where we're going
It's ok kid, I don't want to know"
"Julia, how wrong you can be" (RF to his daughter who thought the distance
between them was all her fault)
"What we feel is utterly unimportant, its what we do" (NO!!!)
"It's exciting because its justice"
"The question is not was it wrong but was it legal"
the Concentration "camps weren't universities, we weren't there to learn"
"It doesn't matter what I think or feel the dead are still dead"

Rating: 69 out of 96 Tears

NEAR DARK (1987)

Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton

As this Vampire movie began I wondered how/why I got this one
With wild preposterous Winnebagos, lame characters, one bite and
a life lost, a bit sick and weird with the bllod sucking that's
supposed to be sensuous or sexual, a movie we are supposed to take
seriously, then we're not and most of the time we can't adding up
to a vamp love story with family values and violence and blood

"What do we do now?
Anything we want until the end of time"

"I come through every 50 years, make me a reservation"

"I'm down to my last inch of skin"

Rating: 1 1/2 bags of blood (on a scale of 1-5 transfusion bags of blood)

IN THE ELECTRIC MIST (2008)

Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Mary Steenbergen

Alcoholic who won't drink, good "leavings out" enough
to keep you guessing, some snappy dialogue,
shots were fired, scared straight theme, the thick
plottens, showdown ok not great, did we need the FBI
lady in battle with a see through top?, glorifies
planting evidence, a bit too neat and tied up at the end.

Some great blues, the music definitely adds to the movie

"If you look less, you may see more"
"It'll sound like cannonfire but it'll be thunder"
"It's still Louisiana, he still black"
"You address the past by addressing it"

Rating: 3 shots of non-alcohol (scale 0-5 shots)

SEVEN POUNDS (2008)

Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson

Different, interesting, provocative, Rosario Dawson sparkles, music not so much

Rating: 7 pounds out of 10

ABOUT A SON (2006)

Fascinating psychological study of Kurt Cobain created from hours and hours of taped interviews with video added years later. A creative project. Well done.

Rating: 4 Platinum Albums (on a 0-5 platinum album scale)

WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU (2008)

Ethan Hawke, Mark Ruffalo, Donnie Wahlberg, Amanda Peet

Kinda rough, gritty, not-at-all Disney, it is a movie of
transformation of street thugs with their own sense of honor.

Prison clarifies who your friends are, they are the ones who
know your release date.

ya "keep going down the same road, keep ending up getting to
the same place"

She waited 5 years while you were in jail, you owe her

Sometimes the same things happen to policemen that they have
perpetrated on others

Music: Ho-hum

Rating: 3 1/2 beating (on an Assault Scale of 0-5)