I love it when I watch a movie or TV show and hear a mention of a place that I’m familiar with. Of course, I’m not talking about major cities like New York, L.A., or Chicago, since they get mentioned often enough. I’m talking about lesser-known places like Slippery’s Tavern in Wabasha, MN, which hosted a few scenes from the comedy Grumpy Old Men. I used to eat at Slippery’s every now and then when I was in college, so it was cool to hear the mention in the film.

I also recently watched Mindhunters, which was supposed to take place near the Outer Banks of North Carolina (even though the movie was actually filmed in the Netherlands). I’ve never been to the Outer Banks, but have been considering taking a family vacation there at some point, so it was still neat to get the reference there.

And I don’t know why, but I do tend to like movies a bit more when they have that touch of familiarity about them. Heck, I even like Home Alone because the main house is in Winnetka, which is not too far away from here. What can I say, I’m easy to please!

The Oscar nominees for Best Picture have been released. They are:

• The Departed
• The Queen
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Babel
• Letters from Iwo Jima

So, how many of those have you seen? I’ve only seen one, The Departed, and thought it was very good. It’s not unusual for me not to be familiar with Oscar nominees because I rarely get a chance to watch movies while they’re in the theater, so it often takes me a long time to get around to seeing recent releases.

I’ve heard some great things about Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima, but am not very familiar with the other two nominees.

Well, I wasn’t old enough to watch the 1977 Oscars, but I’ve often heard of the event referred to as “proof” that the Oscar voters often get things wrong. In case you don’t remember, ‘77 was the year that Rocky beat out the likes of Taxi Driver and Network for the coveted Best Picture prize. What a joke, huh?

I just read a very good article about the Oscars and how the voters don’t usually go for the “edgy” stuff. I completely agree with the author about that one.

I used to love watching the Oscars. I’m a huge movie fan and always looked forward to the event. But recently, I’ve been turned off because I don’t agree with the voters’ choices and don’t want to waste my time anymore (when, oh when are they going to change the program to cut out the stupid musical numbers and shorten the damn thing???). Plus, with Crash beating out Brokeback Mountain, I see no reason to take the awards seriously.

Okay, I was tagged by Ms. Kat to participate in a movie meme, even though I said it was impossible for me to choose five favorites! I watch so many movies that I’m sure I’m forgetting some excellent ones here, but these are five that I can think of right now (and they’re not in order):

1. The Silence of the Lambs — This is the first movie that truly freaked me out.
2. Sunset Blvd. — I usually don’t go for old movies, but I was immediately drawn into this one.
3. Se7en — Had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
4. A Few Good Men — I’m not sure why, but I never get tired of watching this movie.
5. Forrest Gump — Another movie I can watch over and over again.

Looks like almost everyone has been tagged already….

Edit: I’m tagging sewcute!!!

My husband and I went to see a movie together at a theater today for the first time in ages! Seriously, it’s been at least six months since we’ve been able to coordinate our schedules, find a babysitter, and just enjoy a couple hours watching a movie.

We caught a matinee showing of the latest 007 movie, Casino Royale, at the the local cinema. I really liked that movie and will be posting a full review of it over on my Reviews and More blog, so please check it out over there in a couple of hours!

The Indiana Jones series is one of my favorite movie franchises ever, so I was pretty excited to see this little blurb about how director George Lucas is set to start filming the fourth film in 2007. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t scheduled to be released until 2008, which is still a long way off.

I’m really interested to see how they’ll handle the aging of the main character. Harrison Ford is 62 now, so it wouldn’t be reasonable to expect him to pull off the kinds of stunts that filled the first three installments. From what I read, the newest film is going to be more of a “character piece.” I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

(Photo from thealmightyguru.com)

I just rented Fever Pitch last night and I thought it was a cute movie. It’s a romantic comedy starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore as two people who have to overcome various obstacles to their relationship. With her, it’s the fact that she is extremely competitive and works very long hours in order to get ahead at her job. With him, it’s the fact that he’s a diehard Boston Red Sox fan and basically turns into a whole different person from April to October. He’s got season tickets and plans his entire life around Red Sox home games.

The movie was from the Farrelly brothers, who also did Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, and Me, Myself, & Irene. Unlike those other films, Fever Pitch isn’t exactly a “belly laugh” kind of movie. It does have some funny moments and I laughed out loud a couple of times, but it wasn’t a comedic romp or whatever. Overall, it was cute and likable — an entertaining movie to watch when you feel like spending an evening at home.

So I was out to dinner with a friend last night when the conversation turned to our least favorite directors. My friend can’t stand Oliver Stone and basically refuses to watch anything that he does. Mine has got to be Anthony Minghella. His three major motion picture releases to date — The English Patient (1996), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Cold Mountain (2003) — were all critical darlings. But for some reason, I just couldn’t get into any of them. The storytelling was so slow and boring that I lost interest and didn’t care what happened to the characters. In fact, the only one out of the three that I watched until the bitter end was Cold Mountain, and I wasn’t very impressed at all. Then again, what do I know, right?

I finally got around to watching Crash, which of course won the Oscar for Best Picture earlier this year. While I definitely thought it was a good movie, I would stop short of calling it “great” and I honestly didn’t think it was Best Picture quality, know what I mean? Crash dealt with an important issues (like racism), but I wan’t particularly moved by what I saw on the screen.

On the other hand, I really loved Brokeback Mountain (the movie many people thought was the favorite to win). I thought that film was beautifully shot and flawlessly directed, plus the story was highly emotional. I was truly touched by that movie and it affected me for a long time after I saw it (and I’m not an activist or a crusader or anything like that).

I find it completely baffling that the Academy, which is of course made up of actors, directors, writers, technicians, etc. from one of the most liberal industries in one of the most liberal towns (Hollywood) would pass over Brokeback Mountain.

I remember the protests and the outcry immediately after the awards show, and, not having seen Crash at the time, I wondered if those people were just being sore losers. But now I understand the outrage. Brokeback was robbed.

Martin Scorsese films have always been kind of hit or miss for me. There have been a few movies that I’ve absolutely loved (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) and a few that have practically put me to sleep (Bringing Out the Dead, Gangs of New York), so I didn’t really know what to expect with his latest effort The Departed.

The all-star cast featuring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin was certainly a mark in favor of the movie, but I still wanted to wait until some of my friends saw it so I could benefit from their personal reviews.

Well, most of my friends liked the movie, so I decided to go see it today. Although I didn’t think The Departed was Scorsese’s best work, I did like it very much. I was particularly impressed with DiCaprio, whom I’ve never liked much. He has bothered me ever since his turn as Jack Dawson in Titanic (I thought he was god-awful in that) but he was great as Billy Costigan in this movie. It was also fun to see Matt Damon play a bad guy for a change!

Overall I’d say that The Departed is a safe bet to see in the theater. You won’t be wasting your money, so check it out!

After watching football all day, I decided to cap off the evening by watching a movie. I rented the 2005 Tony Scott flick Domino, starring Keira Knightley. I’m a big fan of Knightley’s, so I thought it would be interesting to see her play a very different character for a change. (She’s usually the delicate, damsel-in-distress type.)

I really didn’t know anything about the plot of Domino before I sat down to watch the film, so I was going in with a clean slate. It turns out that Knightley plays the title character, a woman named Domino Harvey who happens to be a bounty hunter. In other words, she tracks down people who try to disappear after posting bail through a bail bondsman.

Domino teams up with a couple of veteran bounty hunters and the three of them basically walk around kicking ass and taking names. Then the plot gets pretty convoluted as they get caught up in a fake heist that goes terribly wrong. It would be an exercise in futility to try to recap the plot here, so I won’t bother.

As much as I wanted to see Knightley in a different kind of role, I thought she was all wrong as Domino. I simply couldn’t believe that she could be a tough bounty hunter. I know that was kinda the point, since the real Domino Harvey (yes, the movie was based on a true story) was an ex-model and all that. But still — I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to actually enjoy the movie.

Plus, I think the film would have been much more effective if the screenwriter had told the story in a more traditional, linear fashion. Jumping around with all those flashbacks wasn’t necessary IMHO and was very distracting.

Overall, I say stay away from this one. It’s not worth your time or money, even if you’re a big Keira Knightley fan!

Well the weekend box office figures are in and it looks like Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan beat out the competition. The movie took in an estimated $26.4 million while Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause 3 came in second place with a $20 million dollar haul. Flushed Away from Disney was third with $19.1 million.

I was actually planning on seeing Borat this weekend, but didn’t get around to it. Maybe next week!

Full story from Yahoo Entertainment right here.

This will be my second mini movie review in as many days, which should give you an indication of how much free time I’ve had recently. It’s not that I’m less busy; it’s just that I’ve been getting my tasks done quickly instead of wasting time like I usually do.

Anyway: Akeelah and the Bee. I’d heard some very good buzz about this movie, so I was excited to see that my local Blockbuster ough.Akeelah doesn’t do particularly well in her classes, but has never missed a word on her spelling tests. Her teacher notices this and encourages Akeelah to participate in the school’s spelling bee. The winner will advance to the Socal regional finals, with the chance to advance to the State finals, and then on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

At first, Akeelah is reluctant because she doesn’t want to endure even more bullying from her classmates. But the principal basically forces her to do it, and of course she wins easily. Another man, Dr. Larrabee (Laurence Fishburne), is in the small audience and asks Akeelah to spell more difficult words, a task which she handles with ease. (Photo from studio still).

To cut to the chase here, Dr. Larabee ends up coaching Akeelah and with his help, she does make it all the way to the finals in Washington, D.C. Along the way, we learn increasingly more about the characters, including Akeelah, Dr. Larrabee, and Akeelah’s mother (played by Angela Bassett).

I thought this was a wonderful feel-good family film that can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages. Although it was pretty long, the scenes move by quickly, so you never feel like you’re mired in the middle of a spelling movie (of all things). The performance by Palmer was truly fantastic, which was of course paramount to making this film work since she was in nearly every single scene.

Akeelah and the Bee is an inspiring story, and I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for an uplifting experience.

I rented a DVD last night called The Sentinel. I had kind of heard of the movie when it came out in April, but was so busy back then that I didn’t have a chance to see it in the theater. But I was definitely interested in it since it stars Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, and Kim Basinger. I like all of those actors and thought any film they worked on together would have to be at least decent.

Well, I was right. Although The Sentinel has just an average rating on IMDB, I thought it was pretty good. Sure, the plot was a bit murky and the motivations weren’t explained clearly enough (one of the characters had previous ties to the KGB? Huh? Care to tell us a bit more about that, Mr. Screenwriter?), but overall the movie was entertaining enough to warrant the $4 rental fee. That’s all I ask out of Hollywood these days!

Anyway, here’s what I thought about the various performances.

Michael Douglas: It’s funny because I don’t consider myself a Michael Douglas fan at all, but I (almost) always end up liking his movies. I thought he was good in The Sentinel too and was a tolerable lead character.

Kiefer Sutherland: What can I say about Kiefer? I’m a huge 24 fan, so of course I’m bound to love anything that Kiefer does! I kept cracking up because all throughout this movie, all I could think about was that he was just playing a different version of Jack Bauer. He said several lines that Jack constantly says on 24 (”Dammit!” “I can’t get a visual!” “Set up a perimeter!” “I’m a federal agent!”) and had many action sequences that looked like they were choreographed by the 24 crew.

Eva Longoria: It was nice to see her in a role that was so completely different from Gabby Solis on Desperate Housewives. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Gabby character too. But I think Longoria could be so much more than just a pretty face. I liked the fact that her character in the Sentinel was competent without being bitchy.

Kim Basinger: Not a lot of screen time as the First Lady, but she did very well with the material she had to work with. Kim Basinger is another one of those actors that I don’t realize I like until I review their film history and see that most of their movies have been pretty good.

Overall, I would give The Sentinel a 7 out of 10 rating. It’s not going to knock your socks off, but I don’t think you’ll be bored with it either!

I rented Syriana last night based on all the rave reviews it has gotten (plus I wanted to see George Clooney’s Oscar-winning performance). Well, I’m not too proud to admit that I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on for most of the plot. It wasn’t clear to me what the characters were doing or why. I couldn’t tell who wanted what or what their motivations were. As a result, the film was thoroughly unenjoyable and I couldn’t wait for it to end. Plus, I didn’t care enough about it to even watch the extra features to see if anything could be explained that way.

I’ve gotta say that I absolutely hate movies like this. Look, I’m not saying that I need every plot detail to be spoon-fed to me, but what’s the freaking point of making everything so obscure and complicated? I mean, what kind of audience was this movie supposed to appeal to? I watch a wide variety of films and am able to enjoy everything from slapstick comedy to more cerebral fare. But seriously, I just don’t get what the hell everyone is raving about with Syriana. Do people automatically think something’s good just because they don’t understand it? Several professional critics, including Roger Ebert, admitted to not understanding the movie, yet gave it high ratings anyway!! What’s that all about? Here’s a quote from Ebert’s review:

The movie’s plot is so complex we’re not really supposed to follow it, we’re supposed to be surrounded by it. Since none of the characters understand the whole picture, why should we?

Um, yeah, okay Roger. Whatever you say.

I thought the movie flat-out sucked despite the strong acting performances by both Clooney and Matt Damon. So my recommendation is don’t waste your time on this money unless you’re really, really, really interested in oil and Middle Eastern politics!