Doubt

Doubt. This movie has had some buzz for a while. It was nominated for academy awards before it even came out, has a strong cast, and no one seemed to know anything about it. Then it kind of went away. I had a chance to watch it, and most of my alternatives were horror movies so I went with it.

Priests. Nuns, catholic school. Strictness, religious services. I see. Meryl Streep is convincingly scary, Amy Adams is adorable and naive. Philip Seymour-Hoffman is ... well ... weird? I'm a big fan of PS-H. His range constantly impresses me. But he's weird in Doubt. I don't think it's just how his character is supposed to be, I think it's a bad role for him. The children were pretty unremarkable, as I guess they were supposed to be. There was a brief, slightly stirring scene involving Viola Davis, and I always like to see Ray Finkle's mother getting work.

Overall, the movie didn't really stand out to me. It was pretty boring, and took me a while to finish as I kept falling asleep. I'd say stay away unless you have a specific reason to watch it.

Sex and the City

Sex AND the City. I always call it Sex in the city. That's basically what it is. The loving wife recently watched this clunker while I was at work. Since I'll never watch it, I asked her to review it. Here we go :

"I recently watched 'Sex and the City: The Movie,' long after it's release for two reasons: 1) I was alone at home and 2) it was free on HBO. The alone part is necessary because my husband makes rude noises during the show(and most of the time for that matter - but it's worse during the show). The free part is because I am both cheap when it comes to movies and unemployed.

I give this movie a check-minus-minus. The writing was awful, the plot was boring, the characters seemed less interesting than in the series, and overall it was soul-less. Although I didn't think the TV series was extraordinarily relevant or compelling, at least it entertained me for a full hour. The movie was over 2 hours and didn't hold my attention for half of that.

Picture it: Manhattan, 2008. The movie begins by showing highlights of the sexual exploits of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte's lives and the fairytale romantic ending each found at the close of the cable series in 2004.

That's where it stopped being interesting. The writing had the depth and color of a script penned by frat boys asked to write about four women. Only their research material was limited to daytime's The View, O Magazine, and Harlequin romance novels. The movie had one non-white character who said sassy things like "Love is The Thing," and a montage of the ladies drinking and playing dress-up. Even the fashion, a highlight of the TV series, was boring in that the 4 fashionistas appeared to wear the same clothes as in 2004.

Skip "SATC: The Movie", even if it's free and you have no job."

Well done mugs :)

Babylon A.D.

Babylon A.D. Vin Diesel action movie... Quelle Surpise! It's set in a weird future, and has Michelle Yoeh,

lets hop right in. Vin is a badass, I get it. Rza can write music, I get it. Russia is in a bad place right now, I get it. Uh oh, Margo reluctantly agreed to watch this movie, and it's boring after 3 minutes. After the third awful edit, leaving us both wondering if they left out a scene or two, my lovely wife decided to 'rest her eyes'.
At least it's not all bad Vin Diesel. For about 10-15 minutes it feels like a bad Jason Statham movie. Congratulations. This movie isn't worth truly explaining, it's not even worth fixing the screwy formatting in this post. Just avoid B.A.D(see what I did there?)
zzzz
What? Just writing about the movie put me to sleep. Sorry for the drool...

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder. It looks funny, people liked it, great cast. How can it go wrong? I just watched it for the second time, and it didn't. It went right.
We start off with a few fake previews, a la Grindhouse, which well done. Then we get into the meat. Big stars are getting together to make a movie. sounds plausible, and it's what's really happening.
So what's good about TT? Jack Black is hilarious. I guess if you don't like Jack Black shtick, you might not be amused, but he cracks me up every time. Run around in your underwear, throw out non sequiturs, you had me at hello. Robert Downey Jr, terrific. You'll need a few viewings to actually listen to everything he spouts, and you'll be chuckling about it after. His character is outrageous, and unique IMO.
Steve Coogan isn't around for too long, but I love to see him. I wish he was my upstairs neighbor. If you haven't heard of Alan Partridge, you need to check him out. Soon, please. Danny McBride reprises his character(the inimitable Kenny Powers) from Eastbound & Down, who is kick ass and over the top.
What's not great about this movie? Well, you can tell Ben Stiller directed it. You can tell because he has himself do things that you might not otherwise cast a terribly terribly physically awkward person to do. Every time I see him run I want to slap him. Hard. Finally, Tom Cruise. Or rather the reaction to Tom Cruise. I actually really like poor Tommy. He was born in my home town, and I'm still behind him. But saying he was the best part of the movie is just ridiculous. And anyone who says they didn't know Les was TC, you're an idiot. Seriously. I'm done(don't get me started on the Jewface controversy). Watch it.

Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye. I've been on an action movie kick lately, and, well, this is an action movie. What do I know about it going in? It has Shia LeBeouf... And the title sounds like a singer's name. Shia was good in Even Stevens. He was terrible in a few other movies, and tolerable in Transformers. But for some reason people like him. And I don't mind him, or the fact that he always plays the put-upon good guy who doesn't know why this is happening to him. Oh well...
Eagle Eye turns out to be a terrorist espionage film. Not a lot of surprises, but the film certainly keeps us moving. I was excited to see Michael Chiklis being his hardass self(un commish like) and I'm always happy to see Michelle Monaghan. If you like her(as I do) you have to watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it(her role) might blow your mind. Rosario Dawson (working with Shia for a second time - see terrible movie link above)is adequate as an Air Force investigator, she's obviously working hard to not be pigeonholed.
Despite a silly plot, the movie flows well, and you never get bored. I'm a big Billy Bob fan, and he doesn't disappoint. If you're sitting around, thirsting for an action movie, give it a shot.