New Pictures of ME!!!

I'm fabulous! Observe.

Zodiac (2007)

Great movie, but too long. I loved the cast and the story, but I've got things I want to do with my life and at 2 hours and 40 minutes, this one takes a chunk out of it. Also, I found myself wishing I didn't already know that the Zodiac was never caught, but that's no fault of the film's. Still, I enjoyed watching this great drama unfold against the faithfully (I imagine) recreated backdrop of 60's San Francisco. But more importantly I loved watching these brilliant actors together. Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Chloë Sevigny are some of my favorites and played likeable characters that you can feel OK about investing almost 3 hours in. I recommend Zodiac.

The Painted Veil

I admit that I do not like Edward Norton or Naomi Watts as a general rule.

As someone I know recently put it so well “they seem weak.”

But I guess that is why it is called acting. Because, not very long into “The Painted Veil,” I began to identify so strongly with each of their characters that it did not occur to me to question anything that they said or did. Each of them won me over to his/her side. (I do not know what all these recent award panels are thinking as this film has received one nomination -- for best score – thus far.) And it was not long before I started weeping for them both.

The locations in China are breathtaking and the script delves into philosophy, politics and personal experience in a surprisingly seamless and economical way. By the way, the musical score IS wonderful. Liev Schrieber, as a villain here, see review of the Omen,) is just right.

This is an epic and unforgettable film. It is not a “chick flick.” It is an “everyone who is human flick,”

Children of Men (2006)

Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón is a film adapted from P.D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men. The movie shows a tattered world in which no human child has been born for 18 years and the youngest has just died. As human extinction looms, violence reigns.

Children of Men is chilling because it rings true. Mankind dying with whimper. Infertile and without a future, civilization steadily descends in chaos. What makes the movie frightening is the superimposition of history on a near future. We see refugee camps in the UK that look, not by accident, like the West Bank or Gaza or Fallujah. The western middle class of the earth now live in the misery once found only in the poorest nations. We can see new technology, but only in the hands of the super rich and the military, the latter having become even more obviously an agent of the former. The acting is very good, but I think the most powerful part of the film is the background story and the visual environment. How fragile civilization might be and what it really might look like if we all gave up on it.

FRIENDS WITH MONEY

Jennifer Aniston

I usually don’t like any movie with Jennifer Aniston in it.
She is being forced upon us by a tone deaf movie industry that thinks we will flock to see her in droves because we loved “Friends.” Don’t they know that it usually works in the just the opposite way? She was always right on target in “Friends,” funny and just a bit behind the curve. Her performance in “The Good Girl” was quietly riveting, but since then, her movie performances have been cringe inducing – that is until “Friends with Money.” When she relaxes her face and allows us to see inside-- which is what movie acting is all about -- we can see an abiding and wistful sadness. It is as if she was hurt early in her life and has that etched forever on her face.

She should not “stretch” and pretend to be rich and carefree or vapid or even very successful. She will take her place as a great movie actor when she realizes her greatest gift – the ability to convey that wonderful, rueful knowledge that she never knows quite what she is doing and that things will probably end badly but life does go on in unexpected ways. Her character, Olivia, in “Friends With Money” conveys this knowledge and makes this movie memorable.

The Omen 2006

I wanted to like this remake because I loved the original “Omen” and all its sequels. But the latest version manages to completely miss the central love story between husband and wife so vividly portrayed by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick that made the original screenplay so credible. The audience must believe that the United States Ambassador to England so adores his wife that he would be willing to kill his own adopted son – not because the son is the devil and a threat to humanity but because the son is going to kill the wife he cannot live without. Liev Shreiber and Julia Stiles are pasty, bland and unconvincing in the roles of a married couple who are in love with each other. And, though Mia Farrow is extraordinary in the role of the Nanny from hell (literally), the rest of this movie is just window dressing. See the original. It holds up to this day.

Apocalypto

I loved it. The visuals of the Yucatan jungles and the Mayan city are beautiful. I really got into the characters, even the villains. The real meat of the movie is the chase, which is SWEEEET. The 50 minute sprint through the trees conveys a real sense of speed and never lets you blink.

There is a fair amount of gore, which may turn off the squeamish. Also, it has been mentioned there are historical inaccuracies and anachronisms, but even if you notice (I didn't) it won't hinder your enjoyment of the movie. Overall, it's exciting, engaging and beautiful. Go see it.


Also from Wikipedia: (same link as above)
The title Apocalypto is a Greek verb meaning "I reveal". The word "Apocalypse, which means "Revelation," is derived from this Greek verb, but the movie is not overtly religiously themed or connected to the biblical