Little boys should never be sent to bed early. They just wake up one day older.

Just because I was all distracted by my personal life for the last month and a half doesn't mean I wasn't watching movies. I just didn't feel like writing about them. But I thought I jump back into it with a big splash and do quick commentary on some of the movies I've watched recently:

Rumor Has It
This was a fun, but totally forgettable comedy. I enjoyed myself in the theater with lots of chuckle moments but few real laugh out loud moments. But it didn't really resonate. When I thought back the next day I couldn't really remember any of the jokes, and the parts that were supposed to be real and touching just missed. A fine fire and forget rental.

Holes
I love this movie. Watched it again and just had to say once again that it's great. A fantastic, sweet, smart family movie. Unless that concept scares you off go see it if you haven't.

Amy's O
I've owned this movie for a while and it almost got given away when I pruned my library recently. I remembered that I liked it, but it sort of petered out at the end. Since I couldn't remember it all that well I watched it again. Sure enough, it's a good movie (note that it's independent origins show) that sort of loses it's way at the end. In particular, the final scene is a little silly out of character for the movie and the characters. What this movie does best is attempt and explanation at female insecurity - which is probably why many of my women friends like it so much.

Spanglish
A well made drama full of unattractive and flawed people (I should note they're only unattractive in personality: Tea Leoni is a hottie.) But the Mexican characters and universally better people than the upper class family they work for. Heavy handed cultural commentary? Probably. I didn't care, I had fun watching, even though the destructive characters were at time painful to watch.

Raging Bull
I'd never seen this classic Scorsese movie and didn't really know when it was made. When I looked it up and saw it was 1980 I had more respect for it, such a great job of capturing an earlier time. It's well made and acted, and I loved the way he filmed the violence in the boxing scenes, but at the end of the day watching a movie about a self destructive, abusive, male chauvinist isn't all that interesting to me.

The Aviator
Anyone who complains that Leo can't act needs to add this to their list (along with the trump card: What's Eating Gilbert Grape?) Watching these movies about real people is always sketchy business, since I want to know if what they portrayed it true or not. And filming crazy people is tough too. Despite these obstacles I enjoyed this movie, though I thought it was too long.

13 Going on 30
I think I saw this movie before, only then it was called Big and it was much better. This is a cute enough comedy, and I'm sure has a lot of appeal to women who remember that teenage conflicted time in their life (boys and girl both have a tough time as teenagers, but in different ways.) My chief problem is that most of the people in this movie are not good or nice people. Even Jennifer Garner, who has come to realize the error of her ways, then tries to get the one good person in the movie to do something not so good. It's hard to make a feel good movie about unlikeable people.

Love Monkey
This is a new TV show on CBS that's casually about: New York, Male friends groups, dating, and the music business. Many people compare it to Sex and the City but that's just because they're lazy and looking for something to compare the show too. It's much tamer then Sex (it is on CBS), has more drama and less comedy, and appears like it will have longer and more significant story arcs. Sex and the City episodes were more or less self contained, this show hasn't done that so much. But they're only three episodes in so who knows. Anyway, I think it's a well made show and shows a lot of depth and polish for a brand new entry. If it matures as most shows do it should be excellent. Bonus points for casting the likeable Tom Cavanagh (Ed from Ed) in the lead.

March of the Penguins
Nature is frickin unbelievable. This story and these animals are amazing. Just the evolutionary questions are enough to boggle my mind (is that really the best way for them to reproduce? There's gotta be a better way?) The entire movie shows nothing but penguins, a few other animals, and ice - with Morgan Freeman narrating. This could get old, but the movie combats that by being nice and short. The info and shots overlap quite a bit, but I also recommend watching the documentary on the DVD about the guys who filmed the whole thing. Both together will take you less than 2.5 hours. Highly recommended, this is an amazing movie.

Greg the Bunny
This was a short lived TV series a few years ago that you can pick up on DVD now. I find it hilarious and a bit of a treasure, but I think it takes appreciation for oddball humor. I really enjoy it though, and wish they were still making them. Netflix has the DVD's (only two discs, like I said: short lived series) or you might be able to find them at your local rental store. I watched the first disk in the LA airport on my way back from California a few weeks ago and it made the long layover just fly by.

The New World
This movie got a lot of promotion budget in the summer and fall, then sort of disappeared as it was released. My guess is it didn't test well at all so the studio cut their losses and stopped putting money into promoting it. I can see that, this isn't a mainstream kind of a movie. It's slow, and has almost no dialog (I bet the actual spoken by characters on screen script is significantly less than your average half hour TV show.) But the film is beautiful and completely focused on imagining how strange it must have been for two 100% foreign cultures to meet and try to integrate. I found it fascinating, but it's not for everyone. This is the kind of movie that will be hard to watch at home. It's so quiet and slow that anything else happening in the house will distract you and ruin the effect. Find a good home theater to watch this in when it comes out on DVD (I'd be shocked if you can still find it in theaters.)

Finding Neverland
Wow! What a magical movie. I can't believe it took me this long to finally watch it. It was well deserving of all the accolades it got two years ago, and is one of the best movies I've seen in a few months. It showed great imagination to tell this story of how Peter Pan could have been written (I don't know if this movie has any semblance of reality and I don't care.) But then on top of a great concept they had flawless execution. A great film.


That's it. Next time I'll get back to my more standard format...

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