A Couple Of Movie Reviews

Superman countdown...5 days...8 hours...20 minutes...

I have been in a movie mood the last couple of days. I watched "The Squid and the Whale" on Monday night. It was an excellent movie, but it left you wanting so much more that the end. Laura Linney is absolutely amazing (as she is in everything) and Jeff Daniels was as cold in this movie as he was sill in "Dumb and Dumber." While Jesse Eisenberg proved he is a much better actor than we saw in the dud "Cursed" I found his younger sibling played by Owen Kline is a much more likely break-out kid star. He doesn't have the cuteness of a Dakota Fanning or the charisma of a Corey (You know THE Coreys).
On Tuesday I caught the movie "Everything Is Illuminated." I have been wanting to see it for a while and I am so sorry that it took this long. Humor mixed with real emotion made for a magical movie chemistry. Sometimes the pieces all fit and in Liev Schreiber's directorial debut he makes it happen. Elijah Wood is sometimes over looked as a great actor because of some of his roles as a child, but what he lacked in "Flipper" he more than makes up for in this one.
Wood's co-stars held their own with the seasoned veteran. Boris Leskin played a crabby old man reminiscent of Barnard Hughes as Grandpa in The Lost Boys. And Eugene Hutz who plays the other main character Alex brought charm and grace to a somewhat slapstick role.
On Wednesday night I caught "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," the new Shane Black flick. Black slipped off the map after writing the 4 Lethal Weapon movies. He makes a triumphant return with this well written and perfectly acted flick. Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer play the dynamic duo Harry and Gay Perry. Together they bungle ever twist, turn, and lead in this mystery before stumbling upon the shocking solution. Welcome back Shane Black, I missed you.
And finally "Underworld: Evolution." I honestly was looking forward to this sequel, but following the standard movie sequel rules the acting was worse, the effects were more unrealistic, the plot was too wide open, and the door was left open for a third film. I am not saying that I hated the movie, because I didn't, but Scott Speedman didn't help matters. The role would have been more believable if Dolph Lundgren had been playing the role.

The Squid and the Whale B+
Everything Is Illuminated A
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang B
Underworld: Evolution C-


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