Oh here we go an Oscaring ...

Just because I feel like it, here are my current Oscar predictions (reviews of the wonderful "Man on Wire" and the solid "Boy A" are forthcoming). Keep in mind I haven't seen most of these films because, well, most of them haven't gotten to the Quad-Cities.

Best Picture:
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Milk"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Wall-E"
Possibilities: "Frost/Nixon," "Revolutionary Road," "Doubt"
Possible surprises: "The Wrestler," "Gran Torino"
Comments: This is going to be an interesting year for Best Picture. Does the Academy overlook supposed biases (animated film, summer blockbuster) and nominate "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight" or do they go the more conventional route and go "Frost/Nixon" and "Revolutionary Road." I'll probably be wrong about putting both in, but I think at least one will make it and will become "Slumdog's" primary competition for the win.

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky, "The Wrestler"
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Christopher Nolan, "The Dark Knight"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"
Possibilities: Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Sam Mendes, "Revolutionary Road"; Jonathan Demme, "Rachel Getting Married"
Possible surprises: Andrew Stanton, "Wall-E"; Mike Leigh, "Happy-go-Lucky"; Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York"; Steven Soderbergh, "Che"
Comments: Would they really nominate the director of an animated film? I doubt it, but I wouldn't completely rule Stanton out, and he certainly deserves it. Aronofsky seems like the prototypical lone director nominee. Howard probably only gets in if his film does. Demme, Soderbergh and even Leigh are also intriguing lone director possibilities.

Best Actor:
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Revolutionary Road"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Possibilities: Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Clint Eastwood, "Gran Torino"
Possible surprises: Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Synecdoche, New York"; Benicio Del Toro, "Che" and Josh Brolin, "W."
Comments: Langella, Penn and Rourke are locks, with Penn and Rourke likely fighting it out for the win. Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but I'm really thinking Jenkins gets recognition here as well. That leaves the last spot, and DiCaprio, Pitt and Eastwood all have things working against them. It will probably be one of those three, but if enough voters fall into the "love" category for love it/hate it movies like "Synecdoche" and "Che" this would be a possible place for them to show up.

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "Revolutionary Road"
Possibilities: Kristin Scott Thomas, "I've Loved You So Long"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Cate Blanchett, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Possible Surprises: Michelle Williams, "Wendy and Lucy"; Kate Beckinsale, "Nothing But the Truth"
Comments: Hathaway, Streep and Winslet are probably locks (maybe Winslet will actually win one this year). Leo is on the bubble, but the performance brought a lot of praise. I'll be rooting for her (no, I haven't seen the movie, but I'll root for pretty much anyone from the original cast of Homicide). Hawkins edges out Kristin Scott Thomas for the last spot. Jolie has a chance. I haven't seen the film yet, but judging from the initial reaction to it, I question if we'd still be talking about the performance if it wasn't Jolie delivering it. Who knows, I was pleasantly surprised with her work last year. I'll say this for Beckinsale: if her work in "Nothing But the Truth" is as good as hers in "Snow Angels" earlier this year, she might deserve a nomination, and that says a lot coming from me (I think I might have compared her acting in "Laurel Canyon" unfavorably to plywood).

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robery Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
James Franco, "Milk"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Possibilities: Dev Patel, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road"
Possible surprises: Eddie Marsan, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; (gulp) Tom Cruise, "Tropic Thunder"
Comments: Has this category ever been weaker depth wise. I know I still have a lot of films to see from this year, but even for my own top 7 in the category would include two actors from foreign films I'm not sure are eligible and three co-lead performances moved down to fill out the category. Ledger is likely a lock to win. Hoffman will get nominated, and at this point, given how soft the category is, Downey Jr. and Brolin likely will as well. I'm putting Franco ahead of Patel and Shannon just because it has been a bit of a breakout year for him with this and "Pineapple Express," and sometimes the Oscars reward that.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Christina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Marissa Tomei, "The Wrestler"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"
Possibilities: Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Rosemary Dewitt, "Rachel Getting Married"
Possible surprises: Debra Winger, "Rachel Getting Married"; Samantha Morton, "Synecdoche, New York"
Comments: Cruz, Davis and likely Winslet, despite some apparent major category fraud, are in. In the battle for the last two spots, Adams and Tomei have enough momentum, and they are also bigger names than Henson and Dewitt. This is one category where a major surprise is possible. Also, I hope one of these ladies floors me when I finally am able to see some of the Oscar contenders. This category has produced some of the best performances in recent movie history (Adams in "Junebug," the not-nominated Maria Bello in "A History of Violence," Amy Ryan last year). This year, I consider Cruz' performance somewhat overrated, and she'd still be my favorite here.

Original Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York"
Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
Robert D. Siegel, "The Wrestler"
Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, "Wall-E"
Possibilities: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Woody Allen, "Vicky Christina Barcelona"; Thomas McCarthy, "The Visitor"
Possible surprises: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Martin McDonaugh, "In Bruges"
Comments: Black is probably in. The rest ... This is probably one of the most interesting categories because of the sheer variety of films. More than most of the other branches, the screenwriters seem to embrace critical favorites (see "Before Sunset"). Looking at moviecitynews.com's composite list of critics top 10s, "Wall-E" (No. 1), "The Wrestler" (No. 4), "Milk" (No. 5) and "Rachel Getting Married" (No. 7) made the top 10, with "Synecdoche, New York" and "In Bruges" in 11 and 12, and "Happy-go-Lucky" and "The Visitor" safely in the top 20. I know it is early, but "Vicky Christina Barcelona" is not in the top 30. I know some believe believe that because Woody Allen made a movie that people didn't hate, he's automatically going to get in, but he's not the only Oscar favorite in that bubble group. Three of Mike Leigh's last four films have netted screenplay nominations, and three of Kaufman's five total ones have been nominated. Maybe I'm biased because I thought the film was horribly uneven and that Allen's script lacked some confidence in his own storytelling abilities, but I just don't see it squeezing in here.

Adapted Screenplay
Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Justin Haythe, "Revolutionary Road"
Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
Eric Roth, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"
Possibilities: Jonathan Nolan, "The Dark Knight"; David Hare, "The Reader"
Possible surprises: Ummm ... they decide to say screw it and just give the award to Beaufoy when the nominations are announced?
Comments: Much thinner field than original. I have a feeling Nolan might squeeze in, but I just don't know whether for Haythe or Shanley.

Odds and ends

-- The Quad-Cities theaters don't have a single Oscar contender playing right now unless you count "Australia," which I don't. We do, however, have "Delgo," an animated film with a metacritic score of 28 which includes the voice talents of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt, meaning it may well have been sitting on the shelf since the late '90s.

-- "Pushing Daisies" just keeps getting better, making its cancellation all the sadder. This might be the best network TV show since the early seasons of "Homicide."

-- My most anticipated movies yet for this year:

1. "Synecdoche, New York"
2. "Slumdog Millionaire"
3. "The Wrestler"
4. "Happy-Go-Lucky"
5. "Frozen River"
6. "Rachel Getting Married"
7. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
8. "Milk"
9. "Revolutionary Road"
10. "Man on Wire"

-- As usual, the Golden Globe nominations had some surprising good (Franco, Downey Jr., all the "In Bruges" nominations) and bad ("Mamma Mia"? really? the continued overrating of "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and no TV nominations for "Pushing Daisies").

Movies No. 38-41

Movie No. 38: "Charlie Bartlett": A movie like "Charlie Bartlett" has to conduct a rather tricky balancing act: trying to keep its glib sense of humor but not detracting from the serious issues it wants to convey. As "Juno" showed last year, it can be done. Unfortunately "Charlie Bartlett" shows too often why failed efforts litter the indie movie trash heaps. That's not to say this film is as ineffective as something like "The Chumscrubber," but for most of its running time it is simply to flippant with its writing and in the performances to really be taken seriously, which it clearly wants to be. The only one who seems able to find that balance is (yep, you guessed it) Robert Downey Jr., who gives another really good performance in a mediocre movie. Between him and a decent number of laughs, "Charlie Bartlett" is entertaining enough to be watchable, but it is rarely more than that. C

Movie No. 39: "Stop-Loss": For the first half of the movie is actually very, very good. The battle scene works creating a sense of confusion and horror, and the scenes in the couple of days following their homecoming, where they struggle to reconnect with their lives, makes for compelling viewing. Once the stop-loss of Ryan Phillippe's character happens, however, there seems to be a turning point. From there, it becomes about the message not the characters. Whole plot strands feel forced into being rather than springing naturally, causing the story to lose its effectiveness. It's too bad, because there was a lot of potential here. C

Movie No. 40: "The Unforseen": This documentary about the fight to save a famed Austin natural pool that is threatened by upstream development takes on an interesting subject: the pros and cons of development. The problem is, its focus is so narrow and its arguments so simple that they only have maybe half an hour of interesting material. Unfortunately, the movie stretches for an hour and a half. There's some good here, and the events they describe provide fertile topics for discussion, but the film rarely sees clear to dig beneath the surface. A thoroughly disappointing doc. C-

Movie No. 41: "Choke": Let's start with the good. The casting is spot-on. Sam Rockwell does about as much with this character as I could see anybody doing. His glimmers of depraved joy account for most of the movie's best scenes. Kelly McDonald also does this brand of nervous sincerity as well as anyone. The problem is, the story simply isn't as interesting as it looks on paper, almost whiplashing at times from bizarre to cliched. Also, this tale of a sex-addict, his crazy mother, and the other sundry bizarre characters is told with the almost exact same tone and style as an episode of "Scrubs," right down to the "what have I learned" narrated ending. It works on that show. Here, it just doesn't fit. C-

Capsules for movie No. 33-37

Movie No. 33: "Flight of the Red Balloon": This is one of those "what am I missing?" films. Proclaimed by many to be a masterpiece, forgive me, but I just don't see it. The film is fine from scene to scene, but there is not much cohesiveness, other than perhaps a thematic focus on the harriedness of modern life. And that would be fine, except that the film flits about this way and that, much like its main character, a busy mother played by Juliette Binoche, and the titular red balloon. And perhaps that is the point, but I still don't see that making it great. B

Movie No. 34: "Burn after Reading": This send up of spy films is an entertaining enough flick, but it is still a minor Coen brothers work. An easy way to tell? A Coen brothers film starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Richard Jenkins should not be able to be completely stolen in just two scenes by J.K. Simmons. But this one is. That's not to say it doesn't have its merits. Its twisting of spy movie staples into its own "unintelligence" story is often quite clever, and the film does have laughs, especially Simmons' two scenes. In other words, it's no "Ladykillers," but it doesn't rise to the consistently inspired heights of the pair's best comedies either. B

Movie No. 35: "Tropic Thunder": Robert Downey Jr. is an acting genius. It's unfortunate the word can't be used to describe much else about this comedy. That's too bad because you can see something pretty special lurking there, if Ben Stiller and his co-writers had sharpened their knives and their focus a little more. Stiller, Downey Jr. and Jack Black play a trio of movie stars (the washed up action star, a five-time Oscar winner who has undergone a skin pigment procedure to play a black character and the star of a bunch of fart comedies, respectively) unsuccessfully trying to shoot a war movie when they get caught up in a real-life battle with a drug cartel. Downey's Kirk Lazarus is the best part about the film, showing an ability to be sharply focused and completely in character even during the film's broadest scenes. Stiller, who admittedly is less grating than he often has been in recent years, and Black don't fare quite as well. Neither is awful, but their performances, like the film's jokes, only work sporadically. It also probably could have used more precise editing. Even some of the movie's funnier scenes tend to drift on for too long, destroying the comic momentum (most notably one involving Tom Cruise as an evil mogul). Special mention does go to Jay Baruchel, though, who barely gets mentioned as being in the film but whose straight man actually gets more laughs than most of the film's stars. C+

Movie No. 36: "21": A rather indifferent telling of an interesting story, "21" is the tale of a group of MIT students who, working with their professor, employ a card-counting system to win loads of money at Vegas casinos, drawing the attention of an old-school Vegas enforcer. The montage-heavy style does little to make the film more interesting, but it doesn't detract enough to keep it from being watchable. Just competant enough to not be bad. C

Movie No. 37: "Quantum of Solace": The first scene in "Casino Royale" set the tone for the entire movie. It was bloody, jarring, dark and in a couple of minutes successfully rebooted a decades-old character. In a word, it was brilliant. Unfortunately, the first scene in Quantum of Solace also sets the tone. This time, Bond is in the middle of a car chase. Exciting start, right? Well, it might have been had it not been so haphazardly shot and edited as to make it almost impossible to tell which car was which. Instead of exciting, it is simply dizzying, distancing and confusing. Such is the case with "Monster's Ball" director Marc Forster's crack at the Bond franchise. Most of the film, at least the action scenes, seem to have been scripted or designed by someone who had just watched the Bourne trilogy back-to-back-to-back without understanding why those films worked. And things don't get better when Forster tries to add artistic flourishes, such as intercutting one action sequence with a scene from an opera going on in the background. The film also seems as though it wants to say something about what vengeance does to you, but it never really is able to rise to the occasion. Thankfully, however, the cast is back. Daniel Craig is still great in this role, combining a rough-hewn swagger with fierce determination. Also thankfully returning are Judi Dench and Giancarlo Giannini. Thanks to them, the non-action scenes are actually something of a joy to watch, a reminder of how good "Casino Royale" was. Here's hoping that the next Bond film is more like that film than this one. C

Four more to go, sometime later this week.

Capsules for movies No. 27-32

OK, here are the capsule reviews that I promised, from best film to worst ...

Movie No. 27: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days": One of the only movies I've ever walked out of absolutely floored but the directorial choices. Almost every shot is perfectly calibrated to make this story of a college student trying to help her friend procure an illegal abortion in Communist 1980s Romania one of the year's most powerful films. For instance, in one scene the main character Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) has been coerced into having sex. While many films might have shown the pseudo-rape, this one chooses to instead have the camera stay in the bathroom with her friend. We know what is going on next door. We don't need to see it to make it powerful. Instead we see her friend's face as she hears what is going on, realizing what she has done to her friend and what is in store for her. It's an amazingly powerful scene, and it is one of many great ones in this film. Had I included this on my list from last year instead, it might have toppled "Once" from the top spot. It is that good. A

Movie No. 28: "The Visitor": While the film could maybe use a few more shades in its plotting, as a portrait of a man discovering something within himself that he thought had died long ago, the movie truly shines. That is in part because of the wonderful work of Richard Jenkins, who plays Walter Vale, a professor who returns to his little-used apartment in New York to find a pair of illegal immigrants have made it their home. Also deserving high praise is Hiam Abbass as the mother of one of the immigrants who Jenkins' character forges a connection with. It is here that the heart of the film lies, and this connection is one of the main reasons director Tom McCarthy's followup to the also wonderfully low-key "Station Agent" succeeds. It's almost enough to forgive McCarthy for his role as sleazy reporter Scott Templeton on the fifth season of "The Wire." A-

Movie No. 29: "Paranoid Park": Messed up chronologies can either work ("Memento") or not ("21 Grams") depending on whether there is an actual reason for the device other than just to add dramatic tension to a story that otherwise would be lacking. Here, director Gus Van Sant manages to use his fractured storytelling as a way to further explore the confused, clutterred mind of his protagonist Alex, a high school kid who must deal with his role in the accidental death of a security guard near a skateboard park. Since Alex is, ultimately the one telling the story, how he chooses to tell it, the jumping around, putting off showing the death, tells us something about him as well. It's an interesting trick and it works well. While Van Sant never quite achieves the poetry he seems to be looking for in some of the scenes, he does craft a compelling character piece, and that is no small feat. B+

Movie No. 30: "The Edge of Heaven": I'll admit, plot description of this German/Turkish film involving the search for a dead prostitute's militant daughter by the son of the man who accidentally killed her made me a bit skeptical. That Fatih Akin's film succeeds, however, is a testiment to how it never loses its focus on its characters' humanity. It handles the film's themes about the search for connection in a wonderfully understated manner. Perhaps the film's only problem is that the fractured nature of its storytelling robs it of a bit of its momentum between its three chapters. That flaw, however, is minor compared to its success. B+

Movie No. 31: "Ghost Town": This Ricky Gervais-headed Rom-Com never really found much of an audience, which is too bad because it might be the most sneaky-good movie of the year. It goes along for most of the film kind of like its protagnonist, occasionally amusing, definitely competant. Then at the end it hits you just how much the film has actually made you care about these characters, something far too few romantic comedies succeed at. That is sneaky-good. And that is what makes this romance/redemption tale a wonderful surprise. B+

Movie No. 32: "Snow Angels": A much more typical David Gordon Green film than his other effort of this year, "Pineapple Express," for much of its run "Snow Angels" is also the far more consistent, effective film, partially thanks to wonderful performances by Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. That's right, Beckinsale, who I know I've said a few not-so-kind things about in the past, is utterly remarkable here as a mother, estranged from her husband and stuck in a waitressing job she doesn't seem to like. The film mixes sadness and desperation with hope in a wonderful combination. At least it does until an ending that just feels forced. Still, a more-than-worthwhile sit. B+

More coming soon.

OK, I'm behind

I just did a count and I'm 16 movies behind. Wow. So I'm planning to do capsule reviews for them in one longer post to catch up. One of the reasons I keep falling further behind is the daunting task of catching up, so hopefully this will get the blog somewhat back on track.

For now, though, through 42 movies, here are my personal choices for some of the Oscar categories in alphabetical order (although because I'm hazy on rules for foreign films, some of these might actually have been eligible last year instead, but who cares). There are some surprises (Kate Beckinsale, for example), but overall, this year has been slightly disappointing so far. I've seen a lot of B/B+ films, but only five so far have been A/A-

Best Picture
"The Band's Visit"
"The Dark Knight"
"4 Years, 3 Weeks, 2 Days"
"The Visitor"
"Wall-E"

Best Actor
Colin Farrell, "In Bruges"
Sasson Gabai, "The Band's Visit"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"
Karl Markovics, "The Counterfeiters"
Sam Rockwell, "Snow Angels"

Best Actress
Kate Beckinsale, "Snow Angels"
Juliette Binoche, "Flight of the Red Balloon"
Ronit Elkabetz, "The Band's Visit"
Anamaria Marinca, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days"
Frances McDormand, "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Aaron Eckhart, "The Dark Knight"
James Franco, "The Pineapple Express"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Devid Striesow, "The Counterfeiters"

Best Supporting Actress
Hiam Abbass, "The Visitor"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Christina Barcelona"
Cynthia Nixon, "Sex and the City"
Laura Vasiliu, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days"
Julie Walters, "Mamma Mia"

More soon

A short break from movie posts

OK, I know I'm massively behind here. But for today, I want to turn my attention to a different entertainment medium for a second.

According to reports, the best show on network TV, "Pushing Daisies," is stopping production after 13 episodes this season and might be done for good. It joins the likes of "Firefly" and "Freaks and Geeks" on the list of brilliant shows cancelled too soon.

The point of this blog post, however, is not to eulogize "Pushing Daisies." It was probably too different to survive on network TV. The problem is that with holdovers such as "The Office" and "How I Met Your Mother" suffering from some uneven episodes and the not-quite-as-compelling-as-it-should-be "Fringe" being the only new show that grabbed my attention at all, "Pushing Daisies" was one of only three truly standout shows so far this year. "30 Rock" has received its share of acclaim, and its star, Tina Fey, has never been more famous. The third show, however, is still languishing in the ratings and faces the possibility of joining "Pushing Daisies" at year's end, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Let's say you were trying to create a show that appealed to the largest possible group of people. You'd toss in healthy amounts of comedy, action, romance, intrigue and will-they-or-won't-they sexual tension. There would be workplace laughs and family drama. It would star a beautiful leading lady, a handsome but non-threatening leading man and a supporting actor who specializes in deadpan quips. You'd have enough of a through line to reward regular viewers, but the episodes would stand alone well enough for those who prefer procedurals. It would be hip enough to appeal to younger viewers but not risque enough to turn off older ones. And you'd somehow combine these disparate elements in a show that is actually really, really good.

Oh, and you'd throw in a character known as "Captain Awesome," just for good measure.

Essentially, you'd make "Chuck."

This is the type of show network TV is made for, and yet, its fan base has remained remarkably small. Maybe people were scared away by the whole "guy gets a computer full of government secrets downloaded into his brain" premise. But they shouldn't be. It has more laughs than most sitcoms, frequently kick-ass action scenes, interesting characters and the comedic stylings of Adam Baldwin ("Firefly"). What more could you ask for?

So if you haven't watched "Chuck" yet, give the show a try. You're missing out on perhaps the most compulsively watchable show on network TV.

No. 26: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Throughout his career, Kevin Smith's films, while generally well-liked, have often been criticized for being amateurishly acted, speech-heavy and indifferently directed.

So what does he do for his latest film, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"? He goes out and hires two reliably funny actors (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks), who both happen to come from the Judd Apatow school of improvisation, and have their characters make a film that will by its nature have bad acting and lousy production values.

Kind of a stroke of genius, really. And while the script for "Zack and Miri" doesn't quite live up to zany, profane glee found in some of Smith's other films, the decision to cast Rogen and Banks covers up many of its shortcomings.

The two play a pair of underachievers who have been best friends since elementary school. Their 10-year reunion is at hand, and all they have to show for that time is a couple of low-wage service jobs, an apartment they share and a mountain of unpaid bills. With their utilities being cut off one by one and eviction surely to follow, the pair hatch a plan to shoot a porn film, figuring their classmates probably would shell out $20 bucks a pop just for the sheer curiousity of seeing people they knew in high school having sex in a porn flick.

Will having sex on camera show the two friends show the two that their feelings have evolved beyond friendship? Do I even need to answer that? If you take out the raunch, this is, at its core, a fairly predictable romantic comedy. Rogen and Banks make it work, though, adding some depth to the insecurities and jelousies that the pair feel as the big day approaches. In the final, awkward interactions before their scene together is to be shot, the pair find a level of sweetness and heart that you wouldn't expect from a film with this title. Banks in particular does a great job making a character who could have come across as little more than a male wish-fulfillment fantasy into a believable, moving character. It may never reach the heights of something like "Knocked Up," but for what it is, the relationship aspect works much better than you'd expect.

So it's romantic. But you're saying, this is a Kevin Smith movie. Is it funny? Well, it's funny enough. Smith manages to pack enough jokes into the movie, that even though half of them don't really hit, that still leaves a steady enough stream of chuckles and a bunch of his usual quotable lines, not just from Rogen and Banks, but Craig Robinson (Darryl on "The Office") as well. As with "Clerks 2" he does have one scene toward the end of the film that manages to leapfrog any line of good taste without actually being funny, leaving you cringing more than laughing. But the movie recovers quickly enough, although I really could have lived without ever watching a scene like that in a movie.

On the whole, "Zack and Miri" probably isn't as fresh or insightful as some of Smith's previous work. Still, however, you've got a rom-com where both the romance and the comedy work well enough. That has to count for something.

B

Movie No. 25: "Be Kind, Rewind"

It's almost too easy to rattle off a list of the things wrong with Michel Gondry's let's-remake-all-the-movies-in-the-video-store comedy "Be Kind, Rewind." The central dramatic plot feels more derivative than the remakes the characters create. The dialogue is often so wooden the actors seem as though they're reading from cue cards. Several scenes seem shake-your-head-in-disbelief out of place. And, perhaps worst of all, the film is never quite as funny as you have the feeling it should be.


None of these things, however, is what stands out the most about "Be Kind, Rewind." That would be the fact that, despite all of these factors, Gondry's created a film that's compulsively watchable and frequently moving.


Mos Def's Mike is, in many ways, living life in the past. He spends his days behind the counter at an old mom and pop video store that's never gotten around to getting DVDs, working for his surrogate father figure Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover).

The store is as much a relic as the tapes that it stocks. Its primary promotional gimmick is that depression-era jazz legend Fats Waller was born in the room upstairs. The building itself seems to have been neglected for nearly that long with a roof in dire need of repair and a structure that seems shaky at best.

Other than the rare customer, Mike's only distractions come from the antics of his paranoid friend Jerry (Jack Black), a mechanic whose vision of what his clients' vehicles need differs somewhat from theirs. When Mr. Fletcher leaves and puts him in charge, however, he takes it seriously, seeing it as a chance to prove his worth. That plan, however, goes awry when an accident at a power plant leaves Jerry magnetized, causing him to erase every one of the store's tapes. When one of the store's only regular customers (Mia Farrow) comes in, what are they to do? They try to remake the movie in a couple of hours and hope she doesn't notice. Before they know it, their remakes have developed a massive following, leaving the pair and their leading lady Alma (Melonie Diaz) running ragged trying to get all of them made.

Although the remakes might never be quite as funny as you'd imagine they'd be, particularly with Black involved, there is a certain creative joy in seeing how they remake these classic (and often fairly special-effects laden) films with no time or budget. One scene in which Alma seemlessly shifts between directing about four or five different films is particularly mesmerizing.

More than even these scenes, however, "Be Kind, Rewind" draws its strength from its devotion to the idea of community, of people coming together with a shared purpose to better their shared future. When, in the movie's climactic scenes, the entire neighborhood conspires to rewrite their town's past, they are really telling their own stories, their experiences and dreams, and making a stand that they won't let someone else determine their future either.

There is also a thread running through the film that new and shiny doesn't always mean better, that it is more than simple nostalgia to in some ways mourn the loss of the crumbling neighborhood store, to the death of the "be kind, rewind"-stickered VHS format. New doesn't mean better when the world becomes more impersonal because of it. In the end it's heart that matters.

And such is the case with this film. It might not be as brilliant as Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" or as brilliantly inventive as his "The Science of Sleep," but it has a giant heart that is firmly in the right place. You get the feeling that if there were more movies like "Be Kind, Rewind" instead of ones focused only on blood, brutality and body counts, maybe the world would be, in some small way, a better place. For now, I'm just happy I saw it.

B

Movie No. 24: Miracle at St. Anna

Expectations are an interesting thing. Have them too high for a film and even a good movie may feel like a disappointment. When a movie gets blasted by critics the way Spike Lee's war film "Miracle at St. Anna" was, well, expectations tend to fall.

And perhaps that's a good thing. "Miracle at St. Anna" is by no means the masterpiece I was hoping for when I first heard about it, but it isn't the disaster some have proclaimed it to be either. It's a film with both powerful scenes and all-too-apparent flaws. In the end, however, the positives outweigh the negatives, even if not by much.

The film begins in the early '80s with an apparently random act of violence. A postal clerk pulls out a German lugar and shoots a customer buying stamps and an ancient Roman artifact is found stored at the bottom of his closet.

We then flashback to a group of black soldiers on patrol in Italy. A combination of German fire and a mistake by their racist commander leave four of the soldiers (played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller) stranded behind enemy lines in an Italian town along with an Italian boy that the hulking Pvt. Train (Miller) saved from a collapsed barn.

They must take refuge with an Italian family, including a Fascist father who believes Mussolini's only mistake was joining with Hitler and his lovely daughter Valentina Cervi, who attracts the attention of Luke and Ealy's characters and is friends with the local resistance fighters.

From films such as "25th Hour" and "Inside Man," it is obvious that Lee is a talented storyteller. The usual question with his films is his activism. When that activism works in conjunction with his storytelling skills you get classic films such as "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X." When they end up in competition, you get the second half of "Bamboozled," where Lee's hatred of his characters overwhelmed everything else. When the negative reviews started pouring in, especially given that Lee had been so outspoken about showing the contribution of black soldiers too often hidden in war films, I was afraid that this was the case again. Strangely, it was the other half of the equation that was weak here. When the movie failed, it failed solely because of its storytelling.

Part of the problem lies in the frame story. It should enrich the main narrative, add to our interest. Unfortunately it was so awkward in tone and ineffective at connecting emotionally that the film would have been better off if the entire thing had been axed. The battle scenes also seem to have been shot in such a way that they convey only death, and too often even minimize that. There is little power there, with the initial battle seeming to act as little more than a convenient way to have the four men separated in this town. It doesn't help that, especially during the battle scenes, the score by the usually wonderful Terence Blanchard seems to compete with the images more than complement them.

Between the duel bookends of the battle scenes and the framing story, however, we follow the soldiers, watch them interact, see their hopes and fears. It is here that the film, with an able assist from the four talented actors, feels most at home. It is the characters that hold our interest, give the film its meaning, and while even these scenes might never reach masterpiece-level, they are compelling enough to outweigh the film's problems, moving enough where I'm glad I watched.

C+

Movie No. 23: "The Counterfeiters"

When we meet Sally Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) at the beginning of Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Counterfeiters," he is something of a broken man, blowing through the stacks of money as if having them was torturing his soul.

It is a wonderful, perfectly pitched opening, so assured in its tone and character work. It is unfortunate that the rest of the film doesn't quite manage to live up to its greatness.

After the introduction, we flash back to during the war, when Sally was a hard-living master at his craft: counterfeiting. When the Nazis finally catch up with him, though, he is not put into the general population at a concentration camp, however. Instead, he is placed in charge of a group of printers and artists who have been given a not-so-simple task: counterfeit the British pound and the U.S. dollar to help fund the Nazi war effort. Thus they are given a choice: aid a government that is killing their people or get killed themselves.

The moral tug of war between those looking to survive and those looking to fight is given a good-enough portrayal. For some reason, however, it just can't seem to break through, to become more than good-enough. Perhaps it is because most of the other prisoners are only given one note to play: the saboteur, out to hurt the Nazis at all costs; the survivor, willing to do almost anything to make it through the war; the sickly, child-like artist who Sally takes under his wing.

The only other character who really offers much in the way of complexity and dimension is Devid Strieshow's Sturmbannführer Friedrich Herzog, the overseer of the group. A Nazi for convenience's sake, he makes an excellent mirror for Sally and a counterpoint as Sally deepens through his experiences in the camp.

On a whole, the film might not be at the same level of power as concentration camps dramas such as "Schindler's List" or "Fateless," but it is a compelling story, and Markovics' wonderful performance is enough to carry it past whatever flaws it might have.

B+

Movie No. 22: "Drillbit Taylor"

In the best of the Judd Apatow and friends films, the humor, however outrageous, feels connected to something real. It's what has made them, especially "Knocked Up," more than just the kind of disposable, unfunny comedies that litter theaters. Unfortunately, in "Drillbit Taylor" they have made exactly that: a comedy in which neither the characters nor the jokes really connect.

Nate Hartley and Troy Gentile play a pair of freshmen, who are targeted by the school bully for some rather over-the-top punishment. In order to protect themselves, they put out an ad for a bodyguard. Unfortunately, the only one willing to do it for their asking price is a homeless conman named Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), who plans to rob them.

What follows shouldn't surprise anyone. The boys learn to defend themselves, and through them, Drillbit learns how to be a better person. The problem is, despite Wilson's best efforts, none of it is really all that funny. Very little is really all that aggressively bad. It's just that none of it is really all that good. Unless you're stuck on a plane like I was, there's very little to recommend spending the nearly two-hour running time watching it.

D

Movie No. 21: "Sex and the City"

As a caveat to this review let me note from the beginning, I've seen a total of maybe five or six episodes of the TV show "Sex and the City." Maybe you need to have watched the show religiously for the movie to really work. But from the perspective of someone who didn't, to see such a drab film made from HBO's second most famous series is something of a disappointment.

As the film begins, Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie is apartment hunting with longtime on-again-off-again flame Mr. Big (an incredibly bored-looking Chris Noth), and the process of moving in together leads them toward walking down the aisle together. And of course, that draws together her girlfriends Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall). Loves are lost and found. Friendships are hurt and rehabilitated. The problem is, with the exception of the one storyline that really works, it all simply feels lukewarm or extraneous.

Part of the problem is the film's central relationship. I'm assuming, given the rather iconic nature of their on-screen pairing, that at one point Parker and Noth had actual chemistry. The professions of love sound half-hearted. Even before events conspire to rip apart the dream wedding, the pair seem ill-at-ease together. Being told by the script they were meant to be, but not really feeling it themselves.

This might not have been fatal, except that two of the other three friends are given little to do. For most of the film Davis simply drags her adopted daughter around and chirps indignities. Cattrall, whose storyline about trying not to cheat on her boyfriend with a new neighbor takes place mostly in California, seems so extraneous here that her character could have pretty much been excised completely without doing anything except making the movie shorter.

When two of your film's only memorable scenes are music montages, something is wrong.

The lone light comes from Nixon's Miranda. Her storyline about a marriage on the rocks through infidelity and neglect is moving, and her performance is so powerful that it seems as though it would be more at home in one of Nicole Holofcener's wonderful female-driven films than one otherwise struggling to find either its comedic or dramatic way. Unfortunately Nixon, and, to a lesser degree, Jennifer Hudson as Carrie's assistant, can only do so much for a film that never seems able to build any momentum.

C

Movie No. 20: "Shotgun Stories"

With attention spans supposedly getting shorter, it seems like most of our entertainment media, from movies to TV to music are looking for that hook, something to grasp our attention early, an attempt to demand we take notice.

There is something almost refreshing, then, about a film that goes against this grain. Nothing in the beginning of "Shotgun Stories," writer/director Jeff Nichols' debut film about a bitter feud between two sets of brothers in rural Arkansas, will grip you, make you sit up and take notice. But if you give your interest willingly, stick with the film as it slowly peels back its layers, develops its characters, the payoff is well worth it.

The film follows Son Hayes (Michael Shannon, "Bug") and his brothers Boy (Douglas Ligon) and Kid (Barlow Jacobs). The product of a drunken father who abandoned the family before getting sober and starting anew and a hate-filled mother, the trio are scratching out a meager existence, stuck trying to become the type of men that their father couldn't be for them. When their dad dies, however, Son's actions at the funeral touch off a feud with the sons from the father's other family, sending them all down a path toward violence and revenge.

That the film turns the three brothers, who begin the movie almost comically red-neckish, into such interesting, well-rounded characters is something of a minor miracle. It takes its time, slowly revealing the shadows and complexities. Credit also has to be given to the actors, especially Shannon and Ligon. You care about their characters, root for them to break free of the downward spiral the film's events have placed them in.

Once the violence starts, however, the film seems to stop taking its time. Several of the scenes, especially those involving Ligon's Boy, work, the overall impact simply isn't the same. While the film shows a great deal of passion in its anti-violence stand, the care shown toward its characters in the beginning seems to be lacking. The doesn't keep it from being an admirable work, or even a very good one. It simply keeps it just this side of greatness. B+

I'm back ...

OK, I'm back from vacation and will tackle the three I promised before vacation, plus two plane movies (the disappointingly inert "Sex and the City" and the just plain unfunny "Drillbit Taylor") after I recover from the jet lag.

Two other notes for those of you who pay attention to the side lists.

1. The movies to see list is no longer in the order I am excited about seeing them. That simply took too much time given blogger's list editing set up.

2. Yes, I did see "In Bruges" on the plane. No, I won't be reviewing it any time in the immediate future. Thicker British accents and poor plane headsets don't mix well, and I missed too many lines to give as good of an assessment as I would like. What I did see and hear, though, I really liked.

Pre-vacation note

I skipped a few for now in order to get three done before I leave (either because I didn't quite know how to start them or because I wanted to go more in depth than I had time for). Reviews of the three will be forthcoming, but for now:

Charlie Bartlett: Sporadically entertaining but at times too glib for its own good.

4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days: This film had some of the most amazing shot selection that I've seen. There were several scenes where I thought "Man that's brilliant"

The Counterfeiters: Very good, but just never seemed to cross that line over to great.

Movie No. 19: "The House Bunny"

Back during his triple Oscar nomination year, I wrote that George Clooney was becoming the actor whose movies I most looked forward to, not because he was the most talented but because, post-"Batman and Robin," it seemed like he simply didn't make bad movies.


Anna Faris is becoming the anti-Clooney. With the exception of bit parts in a number of great films (most notably her Cameron Diaz impression in "Lost in Translation"), her resume is dotted by films I either have absolutely no interest in seeing or have seen and wished I hadn't.


In "The House Bunny," Faris plays a Playmate (but not, as she disappointingly admits, a centerfold) who is kicked out of the Playboy Mansion. Homeless, and not that bright, she stumbles into a sorority house ("It's like a miniature version of the Mansion") and, through a series of supposedly comedic events, winds up the house mother to the campus' struggling, misfit sorority, complete with the book-smart but socially dim leader (Emma Stone), the anti-social cynic (Kat Dennings) , the exceptionally pregnant one (American Idol's Katherine McPhee), the one in the metal back brace (Bruce and Demi's daughter Rumer), the trailer trash one (I believe Dana Goodman) and the one too shy to even talk to her sorority sisters (pretty sure Kiely Williams). If she can't turn them around and make them popular enough to attract 30 pledges, they'll lose their house, much to the delight of a stuck up rival sorority who hopes to use the house for their overflow pledges.

Despite the fact the movie sounds more like a late-night offering on Cinemax than PG-13 multiplex fare, there had to at least be hope for the film. It's by the same writers as "Legally Blonde," which had no business being any good either but was anyway. Similar scenario, far different result (although some of the blame surely falls on director Fred Wolf, whose writing credits include "Joe Dirt" and whose directorial debut was "Strange Wilderness," a movie that was apparently so bad that a couple of Lisa's cousins seem to have been permanently scarred by it).

That's not to say there aren't a few laughs. Faris, as I said, is a gifted comedic actor, and when she gets a good line she can usually wring a great laugh. Unfortunately, those are few and far between, with most of the film managing to be patently absurd without being the least bit funny. I spent much more time shaking my head in disbelief than I did laughing. That's usually not a good sign.

D

Note: Once again, maybe I'm not the right demographic for this one. My wife enjoyed it.

Movie No. 18: Mamma Mia

I would like to begin this review by admitting that I am not in the target demographic for this film, which, judging by the audience we saw it with, is women in their 40s and 50s. They seemed to enjoy it immensely, and my wife liked it too. That being said, I spent most of the first half of the film wondering if Meryl Streep accidentally killed the choreographer's cat or something.

For those who don't know, "Mamma Mia" is based off a popular musical, which is based off the collecting works of the Scandinavian pop quartet ABBA. The plot centers around a young woman (Amanda Seyfried of "Mean Girls" fame) who is about to get married but believes there is a hole in her life, namely that she doesn't know who her father is. So, she finds her mom's diary from the year of her birth and finds there are actually three potential candidates. So, what else is there to do but invite all three (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) to the wedding, all without telling her mother (Streep).

Remember my comment about Streep and the cat? Well, the dance numbers, especially early in the film, seem designed to do little but make Streep look foolish without actually being funny. I know this might be heretical to say about one of the great living actors, but Streep never quite feels at home here. Maybe it is because, with the exception of a couple of nice scenes with Seyfried, she's never really in a scene with anyone else playing it straight. Julie Walters and Christine Baranski as her old friends and bandmates are delightfully over-the-top (Walters' hilarious turn is by far the best thing about the film), and Pierce Brosnan, as the once great love of her life, seems to be going for cheese while Streep's going for genuine emotion. Perhaps more for this reason than any, the movie is actually better when Streep isn't on screen.

Also, as is too often the case with musicals, there are a couple of dance numbers that just feel tacked on for the sake of getting the song into the show or adding a big number for a specific character.

It's not all bad by any means. As I mentioned, Julie Walters might indeed gnaw on every piece of the film's beautiful scenery, but she is very often hysterical doing it. Amanda Seyfried also showed a lot of promise. Given Lindsay Lohan's problems and Rachel McAdams' seeming self-imposed exile, she might just end up with the best career of the "Mean Girls."

That being said, the film's eye-roll to guffaw ratio isn't all that good, at least from the perspective of this mid-20s male.

C-

Movie No. 17: "The Bank Job"

A good story, told well.

That's what is at the base of pretty much any good, narrative-driven film. The best ones obviously go a lot deeper than that, but at their base is still a good story, told well.

And that is exactly what the based-on-a-true-story heist film "The Bank Job" is. It's not a great film and no one element really stands out, but it is consistantly interesting, and sometimes that's enough.

Jason Statham stars as Terry Leather, a small-time crook and used-car dealer who is approached by ex-model Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) about a potentially major score -- She's looking for a team to rob a set of safety deposit boxes, and sees Leather as the guy to lead it. What Leather doesn't know is the real reason behind the heist: a box filled with blackmail photos, including a rather scandalous shot of a member of the royal family. This being a British heist movie, it also including a cast of colorful characters ranging from a strip club owner to a black-power pimp to a cadre of corrupt cops and secretive Feds.

As seems to be the case with the few other British heist films I've seen, this one doesn't follow the same outline (or lack thereof) of their American counterparts. There's no Mametian surprises and double-crosses. There's no Ocean's 11-style "How are they going to pull that off" intrigue. Everyone's motives are plainly apparent from their first moment on screen. It's not about the twists and turns, it is simply about the ride, and director Roger Donaldson keeps the pacing at a reasonable level and just lets the story unfold. Sometimes no frills can be pretty darned effective.

B

Movie No. 16: "The Pineapple Express"

This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year, if only for the curiousity factor. David Gordon Green, director of mostly somber, lyrical, flowing films like "All the Real Girls" and "Undertow" taking on a project from the Apatow gang. I firmly believed that this film was going to be absolute genius or a complete disaster. Turns out I was wrong, although it definitely had aspects of both.

Apatow regular and the film's co-screenwriter Seth Rogan plays Dale Denton, a process server stuck in suspended adolescence, complete with a high school-age girlfriend. The two great loves of his life are talk radio and marijuana.

It's the latter that leads him to the home of Saul Silver (James Franco), a perpetually baked drug dealer. Excuse me, pot dealer (he takes offense when people think he sells the harder stuff). Saul might be a bit too clingy for Dale's taste, but he has good connections, through which he's managed to acquire Pineapple Express, a variety of marijuana so rare, Saul's the only one in the city selling it.

That, however, turns out to be a bad thing when Dale witnesses a corrupt cop and a drug kingpin (Rosie Perez and Gary Cole) kill a rival dealer. He tosses his marijuana cigarette out of the car window and races off before realizing that it can be traced straight back to Saul -- and him. From there, the pair set out on a paranoia and pot-fueled race to stay ahead of the drug dealers.

There's a lot to like here. First, like most of the Apatow gang's films, it is often very funny. Both the smaller asides and the larger set pieces usually work, especially what might be the funniest car chase since "Blues Brothers." And Green manages to fit in a few grace notes, a couple quiet moments to let you know he's still there.

Perhaps the main reason the film works, though, is the chemistry between Rogan and Franco, who is nearly unrecognizable as lonely, perpetually out of it dealer. They play off each other so well it is almost impossible not to get swept along for the ride.

Unfortunately, Green didn't have a heavy enough hand to reign in another typical Apatow trademark: excess. Sometimes more isn't more, and some more restraint could have been used in a rather over-the-top violent final sequence. More also isn't more when it comes to Danny McBride, who goes rather over-the-top as a drug middle-man. While Franco and Rogan bring a natural feel to their characters, McBride just seems to constantly be trying too hard for a laugh rather than letting them come naturally.

While these flaws keep it from being the bizarre masterpiece I was hoping for, they don't kill off all that is good about it. "The Pineapple Express" might have been a bit of a disappointment, but I still had a heck of a time watching it.

B

Movie No. 15: "Vicky Christina Barcelona"

"... and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character."

This line from "Adaptation" is played as a joke, given that it interrupts a voiceover by Kaufmann questioning what the heck he's doing at a writing seminar. The message is clear: Imposing one-size-fits-all rules just leads to cookie-cutter writing. And there are countless examples of narration that prove Kaufmann's point, from the hilarious ("Election") to the sublime ("The Shawshank Redemption"), adding texture and richness to the characters. Even on TV, the narration on "Pushing Daisies" adds to the show's whimsical, fairy-tale atmosphere.

Unfortunately there are times when that is not the case, when it comes across as little more than a shortcut. When I saw "Y Tu Mama Tambien" I complained that a couple of times it seemed Cuaron used narration because he didn't trust his actors to convey the emotions he was trying to portray. In the case of Woody Allen's latest film "Vicky Christina Barcelona," which includes heavy doses of rather drab, exposition-filled narration, it didn't seem as though Allen didn't trust his cast. It seemed like he didn't trust himself.

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) are a pair of recent college graduates spending the summer in Barcelona. As the narrator explains, they have vastly different views on love. Vicky is looking for security and consistency, believing passion will only lead to heartbreak. She's engaged to a man who's kind to her but whose sole topic of conversation seems to be things he's looking to buy. Christina is looking for violent, all-consuming passion. So it's no wonder that she is the one who convinces her friend to go when a Spanish painter (Javier Bardem) invites them for a weekend in his hometown and, if they so choose, in his bed. Both end up questioning what it is they thought they wanted out of love.

Much has been made out of the three way between Johansson, Bardem and Penelope Cruz (who plays Bardem's passionate but occasionally unhinged ex-wife). Those looking forward to the steamy scenes, though, will be disappointed, as much is told but little shown. Unfortunately for those looking for more than titillation, that's emblematic of the film as a whole. You're told that Johannson's character holds her own with the artistic circle that Bardem and Cruz's characters inhabit, but based on everything you see, I didn't really believe it. You're told that she's the key ingredient that allows them to exist in peace, but they seem more like her parents than her lovers. (Insert your Woody Allen joke here if you must)

It just seems that Allen doesn't trust himself to construct the scenes to complete his vision of the characters, so he simply had the narrator tell it to us. Say what you will about "Melinda and Melinda" (and I've said plenty myself), but it was clearly the work of a director who had a vision and was shooting for greatness. It resulted in what might be some of the worst scenes of his career, but he was certainly going for it. Too often, moment-to-moment, "Vicky Christina Barcelona" feels like it was the work of someone trying not to fail. That keeps it from being a disaster, but it also keeps it from being mentioned in the same breath as any of the truly memorable films that Allen has created during his career.

It would also perhaps help if Allen would get a new muse. His dialogue is such that making the audience believe the character would actually be saying these lines is half the battle. Diane Keaton was able to inhabit those characters completely, from the way she held herself to her gestures. Johannson tried to do that in "Scoop," but it just came off as a bad Diane Keaton impersonation. Here it seems she dispenses with the effort. It makes her performance as a whole better, showing some of the same skill she showed in "Lost in Translation" during the quiet scenes, but the dialogue once again trips her up. You just don't believe that she'd say the lines Allen wrote for her, and you think less of her character because of it.

That's not to say that this is a bad film. Bardem and Cruz give very strong performances, adding genuine artistic passion to the film. Their scenes together are probably the film's best. Even Hall, who has been getting little attention despite having perhaps the largest role, gives a very promising performance, even if she too trips over some of the more extreme Woodyisms. It's just that the film never manages to build any momentum, and the characters are never given time or space to breath and become more than archetypes.

C

Full posts later on

OK, I'm a little behind. Full reviews later, but ...

Good but not quite great:

Pineapple Express

The Bank Job

Disappointingly mediocre:

Vicky Christina Barcelona

Movie No. 14: The Band's Visit

While you might forget it while watching generic romantic comedy No. 3,297, there is something elemental in storytelling about the concept of "boy meets girl." Two people, often strangers, tentatively probing a connection they feel but don't really yet understand, talking, learning about each other, and often themselves, through it. Some of the best movies of recent years, from Linklater's masterful duo of "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" to last year's best film, "Once," have had this at their core.

So too does Eran Kolirin's feature film directorial debut, "The Band's Visit." While much of the attention given to the film concerns its small-scale exploration of Arab-Israeli tensions and how there is more that unites us than divides us, it succeeds in those things because it never forgets the importance of its characters and that central connection.

The film opens with an Egyptian police band, led by the exceptionally serious Lieutenant-colonel Tawfiq Zacharya (Sasson Gabai), arriving at an Israeli airport, set to play at the opening of an Arab cultural center. No one, however, arrives to pick them up. After some directions are lost in translation, they end up stuck for the night in a small Jewish town where, as one local put it, there's not an Arab cultural center or an Israeli cultural center or really much in the way of culture at all.

Early on, the film appeared to be heading toward a rather predictable romantic triangle with Tawfiq and young ladies man Haled (Saleh Bakri) vying for the affections of local restaurant owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz). Thankfully, the film is smart enough to care more about that tentative connection between the lonely Dina and heartbroken Tawfiq than any romantic hijinks. Watching them gradually reveal themselves, their pain and hopes, is beautiful to watch. Through them and the interactions of the other band members and the townspeople we see that barrier, the layer of culturally ingrained distrust that hangs over every action and must be broken through. Bakri and Elkabetz work some wonderful magic together

While you might not have guessed it from the beginning of this review, "The Band's Visit" is actually also a funny, entertaining film. In fact, one of its few faults is that at times it can get a bit too cutesy, too simple. Whenever it does, though, it is the film's dedication to the its characters that pulls it back. It's faith in that simple boy-meets-girl convention allows it to shine.

A-

Movie No. 13: The Dark Knight

One of the things that has seemed remarkably consistent about the recent spate of comic-book superhero films is the placement of the hero front and center.

For better ("Spider-Man 2") or worse ("Spiderman 3"), the three Spidey films were all, at their heart, Peter Parker's story. This year's "Iron Man" succeeds in large part because it keeps its focus squarely on its hero, with Robert Downey Jr.'s performance managing to, if not obscure, then at least outweigh the film's storytelling shortcomings.

Perhaps, therefore, Christopher Nolan's most audacious move in the creation of his second Batman film, "The Dark Knight," wasn't casting Heath Ledger as the joker (obviously a good choice) or jettisoning Katie Holmes (Maggie Gyllenhaal is infinitely better here) but rather in crafting a Batman movie in which Batman is mostly a supporting character.

This film picks up where "Batman Begins" left off. Batman (Christian Bale) might have gotten Carmine Falcone (played by Tom Wilkinson in "Begins") out of the picture, but organized crime is far from dead in Gotham. Others have risen to take his place, including Eric Roberts' Salvatore Maroni, while Detective Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Batman continue to work together to take them down, finding a new ally in crusading district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).

Not all crime in Gotham these days is of the organized variety, however. Enter Heath Ledger's anarchic Joker, a man perhaps more dangerous than all of the mobsters put together. Their motive is money, and therefore they are somewhat predictable. The Joker has no such cares. His motive is instilling fear, pure and simple, the sort of fear that can bring out humanity's darker inclinations.

Much of the hype for the film has centered on Ledger because of his untimely death. Something tells me, however, Ledger would have been the center of attention even if he had lived. His performance is simply that good, that scary and, at times, even that comedic (he is, after all, the Joker). I had assumed the "best villain of all time" talk was hyperbole, but after seeing it, he at least has to be in the discussion.

The use of fear as a theme is nothing new for Nolan. It ran throughout "Batman Begins" as well. Here, however, he broadens the scope. This isn't one man's fears. It's a city's. And Nolan wants probe what fear brings, both the good and the bad. And it's not scared of complexity. At one point the hero uses a technique to track the Joker that makes warrantless wiretapping seem more benign than knocking on a suspect's door. On the other hand, it also hints that believing that such a power should exist makes one completely unfit to wield it.

As much as Ledger commands the screen when he's on it, however, more than anything else "The Dark Night" is Harvey Dent's story. Eckhart imbues the prosecutor with a moral clarity that makes the scenes where that certainty is lost all the more tragic. Through him, the movie examines the need for symbols in times of crisis. While both are putting their lives at risk trying to take on Gotham's criminal element, one is more important because of what he can symbolize to people, the hope he can give. It is this realization that gives the movie's ending power.

You almost feel bad for Eckhart. He gives a wonderful performance here, giving Dent passion, swagger and determination, but too often in discussions of the film he goes almost unmentioned. It's too bad. This is the movie's central performance, and it's a darned good one.

A

Movie No. 12: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

It must be tough to follow up a masterpiece. The expectations are heightened. Everyone is expecting another bit of brilliance.

Perhaps Guillermo del Toro was smart in following up "Pan's Labyrinth" with Hellboy sequel. No one's expecting a sequel to a good but unmemorable comic book film to be a lasting work of cinematic genius, and it's not. It is pretty much like the first one, consistently watchable, visually imaginative, but otherwise not really remarkable in any way.

Here Hellboy (Ron Perlman) must fight to stop Prince Nuada, who is trying to resurrect an army of indestructible soldiers to fight humanity for mankind's encroachment on the forests, which were supposed to belong to his people under a long-ago truce. Also back from the first film are his aquatic friend Abe (Doug Jones) and his fiery - literally- girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair). Fighting along with them is Nuada's twin sister, Princess Nuala, whom Abe takes a shine to.

There's some attempts at some interesting character stuff involving how Hellboy wants to be accepted into a society that fears him because of how he looks, but neither that, nor any of the other thematic pieces sprinkled here and there are enough to lift it up to a higher level, to make it more than just well-made and good-looking summer entertainment. It ain't no more, nor any less. I don't regret seeing it, but compared to the superhero movie I'm going to be reviewing next, it comes across a bit like child's play, especially for a director of del Toro's immense talent.

B-

A few odds and ends

For those who haven't noticed, I finally updated my "WALL-E" review. Once again, another wonderful film from Pixar. It's in the same league as "Ratatouille" and the Toy Story films.

As much as I liked Ratatouille, however, I now realize why some didn't even think it deserved the best animated Oscar. If you look over to the side of the page under the 2007 list, you'll see I have a new No. 3. "Persepolis" is a different kind of animated film, contrasting the magic of "Ratatouille" with something more pointed and personal. The story of a young girl growing up in the repressive atmosphere of Iran is simply powerful.

"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" didn't fare as well, however. There's nothing all that bad about it, there's just not that much good. The store looks like it would have been a hoot to shop at, but nothing else about the film captured the imagination. It lacked that fairytale-come-to-life magic.

I also have to say, my experiences with the AFI list movies have been much better since "Gone with the Wind," especially "City Lights" and "Vertigo." Even those that wouldn't make my personal list, like "The Searchers," have impressed me. And heck, almost despite itself "Singing in the Rain" might be my favorite of the pure musicals I've seen simply because it is such a joy to watch.

Here's hoping that "The Dark Knight" lives up to its hype.

Movie No. 11: WALL-E

(Note: Sorry this took so long to get done. I actually postponed it to give me time to see a different movie first. You'll see later.)

Few filmmakers just capture the pure magic of storytelling as well as Pixar does. That's one of the best ways to describe their new film, "WALL-E" simply pure movie-making magic. Seriously, see this movie.

Our hero WALL-E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, is the last working robot on earth, or at least Manhattan. Humans have long since abandoned earth after toxic levels of garbage overran the city, and WALL-E's fellow robots, essentially full-service trash compactors left behind to clean up the planet, have long-since stopped working. But WALL-E has persevered, going back out every day to compact mounds of trash. Perhaps WALL-E has survived because he has found a reason to. Over the years, WALL-E has developed a personality, mainly a sense of curiosity and wonder. Every day, he saves certain treasures from the trash he compacts, bringing them back to his home.

For all of the treasures WALL-E has found, however, something is missing. Along with curiosity, the robot, whose only friend is a seemingly indestructible cockroach, also has developed a sense of loneliness, a longing for some kind of connection.

Then one day, a spaceship lands on earth carrying EVE, a robot with a specific mission and an itchy trigger finger. Finally, WALL-E hopes, here is the connection he has been longing for.

Much has justifiably been written about the movie's first segment on earth, which is absolutely breathtaking. The vistas are both strangely beautiful and haunting, a barren wasteland of trash. Perhaps better still, however, was the character work. Without more than just a couple of words, this section creates an utterly heart-breaking character in WALL-E. Both his curiosity and his near desperation are so vividly and wonderfully drawn that this robot seems more human than the people in many movies.

While the second half on a spaceship which now houses the human race is not quite as flawless as the first, but there is still a lot of brilliant stuff to be drawn from its rather dystopian view of the future. People have ceded so much of their lives over things and technology that they have lost those very human traits that the robot WALL-E seems to have developed. There's no curiosity, no wonder or awe. People have let technology take care of their every whim, and because of that they've kind of become a slave to it.

On thing that strikes me looking back on the last two Pixar films is how they seem to be digging back into the early days of movies for inspiration. One of the reasons why this review is late is that I wanted to wait until I'd finished seeing my first silent film, "City Lights," which has been cited by some as a possible inspiration for this film. I can see it. But several of the more choreographed comedic sequences reminded me of Pixar's previous outing. Many of the kitchen scenes in "Ratatouille" took on the same balletic quality as many of the scenes in Chaplin's film. It might be neither here nor there, but it is interesting how a company on the cutting edge of technology seems to be turning to the past for storytelling tips.

As some of you who have been reading the various incarnations of my movie lists for a while might recall, two out of the last three Pixar films cracked the top 10 for their respective years. I'd be surprised if it didn't happen once again this year.

In one word: "Whoa!"

A

What am I missing?

So I'm trying to watch some of AFI's top movies that I haven't seen. And that's great when they are as wonderful and hold up as well as "Lawrence of Arabia," which I watched yesterday. But "Gone with the Wind"? Seriously? This is the movie that's so revered? Maybe it just hasn't held up that well over the years, but it certainly generates a lot of love for a film with two unlikable (and not all that interesting) leads, a massively overrated love story (if you can even call it that) and a storytelling style that manages to make the film simultaneously feel unbearably long and extremely rushed. Even most of the iconic lines (with the exception of the admittedly great parting shot) manage to feel leaden in the film itself.

Seriously, someone tell me what I'm missing here. Why does this film generate the level of love and admiration?

Movie No.10: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"

My first reaction after seeing the new Indiana Jones movie: What the @#$@#$?

And I'm actually not talking about the rather out there plot. I'm talking about just how sloppy some parts of it were. Granted there were also moments where you were reminded just how talented the people involved were, but there were too many moments that assaulted my suspension of disbelief with an Uzi, and the film never really achieved a level of consistency to make up for it.

To account for the character's aging, the plot has been moved up about 20 years, eschewing Nazism and religious artifacts for Communists and a more, well, sci-fi related plot. In the 20 intervening years, Indy has apparently added war hero and occasional spy to his previous list of job titles (archaeologist, adventurer, academic). He's been kidnapped and taken to a certain well-known and mysterious military "area" by a group of Soviets led by the somewhat psychic Col. Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett with a black bob) to find an artifact in the storage facility that Indy had helped examine (let's just say the town of Roswell is mentioned).

After a harrowing (and in one case eye-rollingly ludicrous) escape, a young greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) comes looking for Indy, saying his mother had told him to contact him after she and his pseudo-stepdad, a onetime friend of Indy's were kidnapped after Indy's friend had gone in search of the fabled Crystal Skull.

Some of the things that you'd expect from an Indiana Jones movie are still there. The action sequences still mostly carry the same level of excitement. Ford, though visibly aged, still wears the character well, and his easy delivery of some of the movie's snarkier lines helps add some intentional laughs to the proceedings, especially after he meets back up with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Blanchett also is a nice addition to the cast. Her character is occasionally a bit over the top, but the Oscar winner makes her work.

The problem is several sequences are so jaw-droppingly ridiculous (the refrigerator scene, the monkey scene and the "It drops three times" scene, among others) that they kill any momentum the film had. This is especially bad when they seem to, without fail, come immediately after the film's strongest scenes. Some parts feel overly drawn out. Others feel rushed. Overall it just doesn't really come together all that well. It's not an awful film, but it sure as heck ain't "Raiders of the Lost Ark" either.

D+

If you'll notice I also added "In the Valley of Elah" (better than I expected) and "Southland Tales" to the list. "Southland Tales" is a bizarre one. I simultaneously think I have it rated too high and too low. It has moments of a fever-dream type brilliance, but its plot also manages to twist and turn its way into utter incoherence. Let's just say this is a film that quotes liberally from the Book of Revelations, has Sarah Michelle Gellar's character hosting a TV show that can perhaps best be described as the McLaughlin Group if it were made up entirely of ditsy female porn stars, and has a couple of characters utter a variation of the line "I'm a pimp, and pimps don't commit suicide."

A little more on 2007

I was a little baffled when I made up the initial top-90 list why so many people considered 2007 such a great year for movies. There were certainly many I liked, but it seemed actually slightly down from a lot of years.

What a difference 12 movies make.

I have hit 100 and posted them, in order, on the side of page with the new ones having an asterisk. As you can see, many of them are toward the top. I already told you about "The Savages," but even better was "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." It lived up to its reviews. Many of the stretches are simply marvelous. I'd also highly recommend "Lars and the Real Girl," "Control," "The Hunting Party" and "Starting Out in the Evening." And as highly uneven as it was, "I'm Not There" had moments of, if not genius, then at least a reasonable facsimile. "Walk Hard" wasn't as good as the other two high-profile Apatow productions of last year, but it was frequently very, very funny. And while "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" was a bit of a disappointment to me, it, "King of California" and "Things We Lost in the Fire" were all at least passable. Even by far the worst, the bipolar train-wreck of a film that is "Romance and Cigarettes," had a delightful performance by Kate Winslet.

So hey, the year's looking up. I'll probably see at least another 10 or so movies. "Persepolis," "In the Valley of Elah," "This is England," "10 Canoes" and, for sheer curiousity's sake, "Southland Tales" are all on the list. What else do you think should be?

Movie No. 9: "Baby Mama"

I had a bad feeling at the start of "Baby Mama." The first 15 minutes are everything that Tina Fey's comedy "30 Rock" usually isn't: stale and really poorly paced. It seemed sloppy and flabby, in need of scenes trimmed a few seconds earlier and laughs that hit a bit harder -- or at all.

Then Amy Poehler entered the picture.

Poehler plays the trashy surrogate to Tina Fey's well-put-together corporate executive on the rise. The film is mostly about them becoming friends during the pregnancy, with a few predictable (and one rather surprising) twist thrown in along the way.

"Baby Mama" isn't a great film, but the interaction between Fey and Poehler makes it a watchable one. The SNL vets play off each other well, and with the exception of a couple of lines from Dax Shepard, most of the laughs come when the film's stars are sharing the screen.

It lacks the sharpness of a film like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," but as a matinee or a night curled up on the couch after it is released on DVD, it should offer a suitable amount of entertainment. C+

Movie No. 8: "Iron Man"

There's a lesson to be learned from "Iron Man." You don't cast Paul Walker when you can get Robert Downey Jr. You don't cast Jessica Alba when you can get Gwyneth Paltrow. You don't cast Ice Cube when you can get Terrance Howard. Their performances, especially Downey in the title role, help make "Iron Man" into a very good summer blockbuster.


While the casting of Downey in a superhero film might have initially raised some eyebrows, the role fits him like a glove (as perhaps well it should, given the actor's past and the harder-living aspects of Tony Stark's personal life). He imbues Stark not only with a charisma and quick wit that the public persona need but also with a good deal of humanity. Downey makes the character's transformation moving and believable as the weapons dealer's eyes are opened to the destruction that his life's work has wrought.

Perhaps the only complaint is that the action scenes weren't all that inventive or exciting. A film like "Spider-Man 2" worked both in and out of costume, but nothing here even approaches that film's train showdown. Still, though, it is not a bad effort. Not by a long shot.

B+

Drum roll please ... The top 10

OK here's the top 10. But first, a few awards.

Most underrated movie of the year: "The Hunting Party" I've seen this since I started putting together this list. It might not be top 10 worthy, but it is much better than the middling reviews and paltry box office would indicate. A very strong, darkly comedic look at Bosnia in the aftermath of the ethnic cleansing through the eyes of a trio of television reporters in search of a war criminal. It also holds the distinction for being the only film I've ever seen a trailer for in theaters after it's already been released on DVD. Apparently even someone at the distributor forgot they'd released the thing.

Most unjustly invisible film of the year: "The Savages" This is the film that would have cracked my top 10 list if I had seen it earlier (at No. 5 in fact). It got consistently good reviews, stars a pair of fairly recognizable actors, got a few Oscar nominations and is a very relatable dramedy. Yet it got scant publicity and grossed less than $10 million - worldwide.

Most overrated movie: "Grindhouse" While "Lake of Fire" and the also recently seen "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" come close, neither got the hype and the critical fanboy drool that the Tarentino-Rodriguez monster got. The Tarentino fawning was especially obnoxious given how "Death Proof" was something that even me, who is not a huge Tarentino fan, had never accused him of being: dull.

The Frances McDormand in "Laurel Canyon" award: This year's honor for the best performance in a bad movie goes to Jennifer Jason Leigh, bringing one of the few sparks of genuine humanity to "Margot at the Wedding."

Theme of the year: While many painted this a year of dark films, of destruction (for one of the worst examples, read Mitch Albom's simple-minded "Let's only nominate blatantly uplifting movies for Oscars" article), for me four of this year's best films were about creation, in two cases the creation of life and in two the creative process in general.

And on to the top 10:

10. "Rescue Dawn": This story of a man pretty much willing himself and his fellow POWs to survive through little more than his only crazy brand of hope manages to do something that other recent prison camp movies haven't, craft interesting, three dimensional characters and create genuine suspense. While Christian Bale is great as the perhaps slightly loony pilot Dieter and Jeremy Davies provides able support, perhaps most impressive of all was the wonderful dramatic work done by Steve Zaun. Best known for his comedies, Zaun gives one of the year's better performances as one of Bale's fellow POWs who latches onto the pilot's plans to break free.

tie, 8 and 9. "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Michael Clayton": It seemed only too perfect to put these two together. Both are wonderfully executed paranoia-driven thrillers led by movie starts delivering one of their best performances. Tony Gilroy had a hand in writing each of them. Both also share the same weakness, a slight feeling of been there done that. In the case of "Bourne," it is from the previous movies in the series, with "Clayton" other movies in the genre. Still, it is the execution that sets both apart. Credit Greengrass and Gilroy along with their casts and crews for pulling off two of the best movie-going experiences of the year.

7. "Zodiac": Much great fiction has been spun out of cops becoming obsessed with a case they are working, allowing it to eat them up from the inside, and Fincher's "Zodiac" deserves to be mentioned alongside such works as "The Wire" and "The Black Dahlia" (the book, not the movie) as one of the best such stories. In this case, it is not only the officers who fall prey to this obsession, but also reporters covering one of the most famous officially unsolved crimes in U.S. history, the Zodiac killings. It eats away at them, heightening the personality flaws they'd managed to keep mostly in the background as they stumble from one dead end to the next.

6. "Knocked Up": Yes, the ending feels a bit easy, but nothing else about the film is. While most would probably see the raunch as the biggest difference between this and more conventional romantic comedies. For me it was the lack of plot devices conspiring to keep the characters apart. The issues they have to work through aren't comedic misunderstandings; they are genuine issues that you'd expect these characters to have to deal with if they were actually going out. They spring from the characters, giving the comedy an honesty. It makes the happiness seem well-earned. Oh, and the film is flat-out hilarious, just like you'd expect from a Judd Apatow-directed feature.

5. "Juno": The start is awkward, but once this film gets rolling it is tough to stop. It's funny, highly quotable but also remarkably human. There's a wonderful scene at a mall, where everything clicks into place for the title character that is among the year's best. The romance is nicely played by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, and the supporting cast is amazing, especially including Jennifer Garner. Between her success here, her husband's directorial effort and the pair of great lead performances given by her brother-in-law, it sure was a great year for the Affleck clan.

4. "No Country for Old Men": This one could move up on second viewing if I can just figure out a couple of questions about what certain parts of the ending means. This might just be the Coen Brothers' best, and considering this is the duo that made "Fargo," "The Man Who wasn't There," "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou," among others, that's saying something. The scene between Bardem and Kelly McDonald is especially chilling.

3. "No End in Sight": While "No End in Sight" is generally lumped in with the anti-war documentaries, the best of the docs I saw from last year says very little about the U.S. going into Iraq. Its focus is less anti-war, more anti-ineptitude. The movie paints a frightening picture of months following the fall of Saddam's government, painting a picture where loyalty and cronyism were valued above expertise, advice was rejected if it disagreed with what was "known" to be true and diplomatic decisions were taken out of the hands of diplomats and made by the defense department instead. This film provokes anger in all the right ways without showboating or grandstanding. Think of it as everything "Fahrenheit 9/11" could have been but wasn't.

2. "Ratatouille": This might be one of the least funny of the films Pixar has produced (although there are still plenty of laughs). Their simple storytelling magic has never shown brighter, however. Few films have better captured the passion and exhilaration in the creative process. While he might not get the level of acclaim as some of the top directors out there (directors of animated movies rarely do), Brad Bird is simply one of the great storytellers working today, and, as strange as it sounds, this story of rat who longs to be a gourmet chef is pure cinematic magic.

1. "Once": Few films this year were simpler in concept. None, however, hit the emotional chords quite as well as this story of a pair of musicians hesitantly stumbling toward love while, to be cliche, making beautiful music together. And oh how wonderful the music is, propelling the film emotionally onward from the first magical duet of the Oscar-winning "Falling Slowly" to the humor and sadness of Glen Hansard's "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Guy," from Marketa Irglova's "If You Want Me" to the exhilaration of the recording scenes. The story is simple, tender, sad and hopeful. It is, quite simply, great.

That is the list. What did I get wrong? What should I still watch (I've got "Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Lars and the Real Girl" and "I'm Not There" at home to watch next)? What would your top picks be?

Up next, delayed reviews of two films I've seen recently, "Iron Man" and "Baby Mama."

Nos. 11-20: We're almost there

No. 20. "Offside": A remarkably smart and entertaining film about a group of girls who get caught trying to sneak into a big Iranian soccer match. It manages to discuss gender in Iranian society and sports fandom. And the celebration scene at the end is great.

No. 19. "Into the Wild": I initially had this a bit lower on my list. While I don't agree it is the masterpiece that many do, I decided to bump it into the top 20 for two reasons. First, the supporting characters almost all left an indelible impression. Catherine Keener especially is amazing here. Second, in retrospect, the film didn't let Hirsch's McCandless off as easily as I'd first thought. While it clearly admires aspects of his personality, it does clearly shows how his inability to see past his own philosophy kept him from absorbing the wisdom from those he meets along the way that might have saved him. He was spouting off wisdom but refused to accept any in return.

No. 18. "Charlie Wilson's War": While it might not be Aaron Sorkin's masterpiece, it does manage to showcase the same verbal wit that made "The West Wing" and "Sports Night" shine. That being said, I would be interested to read Sorkin's original ending before it was changed to see if it was as much of an improvement over the final one as I'ver read.

No. 17. "Away from Her": As a story about losing a loved one gradually, it is an extremely effective, heart-rending portrayal, and Christie's grace lends it even more emotional weight. By that measure, the film possibly should have cracked the top 10 list, but parts just seemed a bit, well, false. Maybe it is just because I'm judging all cases by my own experience with my grandfather, but Christie's character seems afflicted more with movie Alzheimer's than actual Alzheimer's. That is really one of the film's only flaws.

No. 16. "Hot Fuzz": Flat out one of the year's most consistently funny films. Personally I even thought the film was, heresy of all heresies, an improvement over their last outing, "Shaun of the Dead." Unlike some recent spoofs that simply seem to be a string of reference points, "Hot Fuzz" manages to send up the buddy-action movie genre with an actual storyline and characters. Just flat-out hilarious.

No. 15. "The Wind that Shakes the Barley": While this IRA drama can get a bit repetitive, it is also an extremely powerful film with another top-notch performance by Cillian Murphy.

No. 14. "After the Wedding": Mads Mikkelsen, the villain in "Casino Royale," plays the head of an orphanage in a poor village in India who gets invited to the wedding of the daughter of a potential donor. Instead of a mere celebration, he finds a web of secrets, plans and deceptions in which he is a key piece. An exceptionally interesting examination of power and, ultimately, love.

No. 13. "There Will Be Blood": I'll be honest. I need to see this one again. I had a splitting headache the entire time through that might have clouded my experience. That said, great first half, but the second half was a bit of a let down, and I think more development was needed with Dano's storyline to really have the final scene be as powerful as it was intended to be.

No. 12. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford": Yes, narration sometimes becomes a bit much and the film occasionally feels as long and unwieldy as the title. That being said, at its best, it is as good as any film this year. And Casey Affleck is a flat-out revelation. This is the year's best performance, overshadowing what might also be the best work of Brad Pitt's career. This is another one that could easily move into the top 10 with another viewing.

No. 11. "Gone Baby Gone": A Ben Affleck-directed movie nearly cracked the top 10. Who would have thunk it. The storyline isn't always as solid as you'd like, but they manage to maintain a rather stunning moral ambiguity, not allowing the audience any easy copout the way lesser films (I'm looking squarely in your direction "The Contender") often do. And the final scene is simply stunning. Oh and Amy Ryan, simply amazing. If not for Affleck's Robert Ford, this would be the year's top performance.

Up next, the top 10. Although you can probably guess it at this point.

Nos. 21-30: Inching my way toward No. 1

Well, it was bound to happen. For the first time since I started this list, a film has cracked my top 10, making the one I will eventually get around to posting old news already. But more on that when I get to the top 10 (although kudos to anyone ... other than Lisa, who already knows it ... who can guess what it is).

30. "Superbad": This is the crudest of the Apatow movies and far less focused than "Knocked Up" "40 Year Old Virgin" or even "Finding Sarah Marshall." That said, it has as many belly laughs as just about any movie from last year. Given the hype, I was kind of disappointed in the storytelling, which meandered a little more than even Apatow movies usually do, but I've got to admit, I still occasionally break out quotes from the movie.

29. "2 Days in Paris": I'm not sure I'd enjoy actually knowing either of the main characters in this rom-com about a couple, one a New Yorker and the other a native Parisian, visiting her family in France. That said, they sure are entertaining to watch. Director/star Julie Delpy has crafted a pair of distinctive characters and while the dialogue might not always be fluid, it makes it feel more real. The former film critic at my hometown paper compared it to "Before Sunset" only minus the wisdom. That feels about right to me.

28. "Dan in Real Life": Yah, I didn't think any film involving Dane Cook would ever be ranked this high either. There's no one thing about this film that really stands out, but as a whole it simply works. While he might be known for his broader comedy, Steve Carell acquits himself nicely in the everyman role. And Dane Cook actually isn't terribly annoying. That's the most shocking of all.

27. "The Lookout": It might not be the most memorable crime caper ever made, but this is yet another strong performance in what is becoming quite an interesting career for the guy once known as the kid from "Third Rock from the Sun." Levitt is wonderful here as a former athlete who lost his big man on campus status after an accident leaves him with memory problems. Jeff Daniels provides stellar support as Levitt's blind roommate/friend.

26. "Waitress": OK, the pies themselves often don't sound that appetizing. But that is one of the only things off-putting about this big-hearted comedy about a pregnant piemaker trying to escape from her controlling husband. Simply a joy to watch, in part because of a winning performance by Keri Russell.

25. "Breach": One of the most overlooked movies from last year. Chris Cooper is amazing as Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent selling secrets to the Russians. This is up there with his best work (including "Adaptation") and alone is reason enough to see the film. Fortunately, most of the rest works reasonably well too.

24. "In the Shadow of the Moon": The No. 2 documentary on the list, this is simply a fascinating look inside the space program from the men who took part. While the film glosses over some parts, there are a lot of details here I never knew, including why the first space landing was almost scuttled, and what undisputed first Buzz Aldrin has on the moon. A must see for anyone interested in the early days of the space program.

23. "Eastern Promises": The highs don't reach quite as high as Cronenberg's previous collaboration with Viggo Moretenson ("A History of Violence"), but that doesn't negate the effectiveness of this brutal, chilling story.

22. "3:10 to Yuma": I'm not a big fan of the ending, but for most of the rest of it, it was simply a great film, giving a pair of top-notch talents in Russell Crowe and Christian Bale a chance to play off each other in the service of a script that works. Simply a great western, something which isn't all that common these days.

21. "Atonement": The cinematography is oustanding, and it's got a wonderful story with a gut-punch of an ending. Too often, however, you could feel the director's hand and a couple of choices seem self-indulgent given the film's tone. Still a very good film, however.

Up next: One of the year's funniest films and the movies with the year's two best performances, among others.