Square Eyes

Mad Hot Ballroom

This movie is the cinematic equivalent of a basket of puppies.  It's impossible to shoot a movie about 5th graders learning ballroom dancing and not end up with a cute, compelling and appealing movie.

The kids are great - you see the physical confidence they're gaining, the characters being forged by competition, the mastering of the fear of cooties.  The teachers are interesting and inspiring.

The only beef I reall have here is that there isn't much about the aftermath of the competition.  But that's small complaint indeed.  If you liked "Spellbound," go see this film.  If you didn't see "Spellbound," see them both.

Revenge of the Sith

You already knew it was gonna suck, so I'll be brief.  If you can convince the projectionist to run it with the sound off, it's a compelling film.  If he won't.. stick something large in your ears.

Seriously, the talking ruins everything.  The Lucas genius for coaxing wooden performances out of good actors remains in full effect.  No amount of VFX shots can cover for the terrible things he makes the actors say and the awful way he lets them say these things.

The ruining of my favorite childhood movie franchise is now complete.  Kudos, George.

high tension

I saw this at a preview screening and at least ten people walked out.  If you're not a fan of severed limbs and high-Fangoria nonsense, you probably will too.

In the 70's slasher/I Spit On Your Grave tradition, the violence is heavy and frequent, brutalizing its audience as much as the characters.  What it lacks in terms of making a success of that formula is catharsis.  The movie is cruel without being redemptive - it makes you gasp without allowing you to exhale.  The climax resolves nothing.

As if that weren't enough, the movie is mostly dubbed. Dubbed movies almsot universally suck. 

I recommend it to just about no one.

Also:

<Spoiler alert>The plot twist at the end is freaking stupid.</Spoiler alert>

batman begins

I can't say that I went into this with high expectations.  So much evil has been done in the name of Batman lately - is it so much to ask to have Schumacher deported?

I must report that this movie won me over.  Director Chris Nolan (Memento) gives us a darker, angrier Knight than the movies in this franchise have dared, and the gambit results in a layered and satisfying superhero origin story. 

The greatest part of this movie is given over to the subtle shadings between vigilante and hero, between revenge and justice, and that is as it should be.

My only major gripes are that the kid who plays baby Bruce Wayne kind of sucks ( i forgive him, because he's like eight or something) and Katie Holmes also sucks (i don't forgive her, especially in light of her most recent public antics.

Even if you're not a fanboi, this is a comic movie worth seeing.