Fred's Top 10 Movies of 2007

For the first time since the 2004 Awards Season, I am able to hand in my Top 10 List the week the Oscars come out. When I was in school I was notoriously late with my term papers, because while I love to write, HAVING to write can be a chore. But this year's crop of movies is the best in quite a while and writing about them was a pleasure. While there were no classics, picking a Top 10 List was pretty easy.

I saw 95 movies that were released in 2007 including most that could conceivably be on anyone's Top 10 List, minus the Iranian/French cartoon Persepolis. I saw Atonement Saturday and while I understand why it's been nominated (English manner movies will always get nominations no matter how uninteresting they are--see Howard's End), I do not agree with the hoopla surrounding it. Other big names like Once and There Will Be Blood did not make my list and the reasons for those omissions will be in their own reviews, which will be appearing shortly.

But when all is said and done, my list features only films that I personally loved and some that would never show up on any other year-end list. So hopefully, if you haven't seen some of these gems, you'll be inspired to rent them out.

Here goes:

First of all, the Actor of the Year has to be Josh Brolin, who is in FOUR of my favorite movies. In American Gangster he's a dirty cop, in In the Valley of Elah he's a jaded chief of police, in Grindhouse he's a doctor who becomes a zombie and in the best role of his life, in No Country For Old Men, he's a handyman who steals money from drug runners and then has to run himself. I think his scene with the pitbull in the Rio Grande alone is worth the price of admission.

1. Sicko (Special Edition) ---In 2004, I believe I named Fahrenheit 911 the Best Movie of that year and Michael Moore again wins the prize. I saw it on my birthday and while you wouldn't think a documentary on health insurance would be a fitting way to spend the anniversary of my birth, I came out of that theatre with a new consciousness. What the movie talks about is not the 50 Million Americans who don't have health care coverage, but the 250 Million who do and get screwed by those health insurance companies. Does Moore play fast and loose with the facts sometimes, maybe. But there's no denying that we are a sick country and we're only getting sicker and until Barack Obama, few politicians were bringing this up as a national crisis. I have health care coverage and always have, but it wouldn't take much for me or my wife to lose it. And we both know that what coverage we have is not as good as it was 10 years ago. Michael Moore is definitely the Upton Sinclair of our generation and for those who don't know, Sinclair is the old writer who made sure you don't eat blended rats in your hot dogs.

2. No Country for Old Men ---No Country would have been Number One, but the Coen Brothers screwed up the ending. The first 1:30 is so good that I could barely breathe while watching it. Then the last 20 minutes don't just fall apart, but are so bad and aimless you almost think the Coens messed it up on purpose. Why is it so hard for modern day directors to finish a movie? To give an ending, some closure. Writers and directors 10 times more talented than they have prided themselves on great endings, but so many times now the endings are either weak or non-existent. A favorite among directors nowadays is to have the actor look into the camera, the screen turns black and the credits roll and you get a large groan from the audience. I have a friend who dismissed my review of this movie when it came out, without seeing it first, and said, "Oh you just want a happy ending." That's not true, some of my all-time favorite movies had a very sad ending, but they ENDED. When he finally saw it, he didn't like the ending either, but he didn't like the whole movie, so it was impossible to gauge his reaction. But I've read it in other places. People hate the ending to this movie. The Sopranos Finale's ending might be 21st Century cool, but people hated it then and many still hate it now. For other directors to copy it will not curry those people's favor.

3. Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---At times corny, but overall a beautiful movie. The most magical of the year. Director Julie Taymor took a premise that Robert Stigwood destroyed 30 years ago with the Sgt. Pepper movie (starring the Bee Gees) and made it into a treasure. Actors portray a story that is pieced together out of the lyrics of Beatles songs and sing the songs in radically new ways, all against a background that explodes with color and psychedelia and makes the movie and the viewer come alive. The ending gave me goosebumps and that rarely happened this year. Probably the most amazing thing about the film was how it took Beatles songs that I normally don't like and rearranged them in ways that made me love them. Dear Prudence is one example. I realized for the first time that like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen maybe the Beatles were the kind of songwriters who should have let other, better singers do their songs.

4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [Theatrical Release]----A young woman in 1980s Communist Romania goes through the most stressful day trying to have an abortion. Terminating a pregnancy was illegal there back then and getting caught would mean prison for both her and the doctor. But her day isn't half as bad as it is for her best friend, who is the way more responsible one forced to run around their horrible town making sure it all happens without any glitches. Last half is filmed like a suspense thriller, with a jumpy handheld camera and your heart will be pounding.

5. Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition) ---Speaking of pounding hearts, this movie contains two scenes that not only made me jump out of my skin and seat, but made the old woman next to me yelp. A lawyer who is entrusted to fight a major lawsuit for a weed killer company has a breakdown, but mostly a huge attack of conscience and has to be wrangled in by the firm's "janitor," Michael Clayton. George Clooney does such an incredible job playing Clayton, because it fits his screen persona to a tee. That super cool Danny Ocean way he has of making everyone around him feel like things are going to be alright. The fact that in order to make these things go alright, you have to commit some white collar crimes is something that eats at "Mickey's" conscience. This movie had a good ending, although I'm not sure I completely bought it, but at least they tried. Veteran director Sydney Pollack plays the chief of Clayton's firm and with that supple voice of his, turns his usual winning manner into a microcosm of corporate evil. Tilda Swinton as the weed company's "hitman" is so overcome with nerves she literally has to smell her own fear.

6. Reign Over Me (Widescreen Edition) ---Most moving film of the year. First fictional movie that dealt with a family member of one of those lost on 9/11. Adam Sandler does incredible work as the shattered widower who was once a top NYC dentist, but is now just a crazy rich hobo. Don Cheadle plays his old roommate from college that has made it his life's work to bring this man back among the living. First half has so many great laugh lines that when the tone changes in the second half it seems abrupt, but very appropriate. I won't lie, I cried for like the last 40 minutes of this movie.

7. Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition) --Speaking of crying at movies. Holy Crap did this movie take me by surprise. Billed as some kind of Narnia-type film, it's anything but. An 11 year old boy and the same age girl who lives next door become best friends and through their imaginations build a wonderful kingdom in the woods near their house. But then something horrible happens in real life and the movie switches gears rapidly. From that point onward my friend Paul and I started tearing up and I believe many of the fathers in the theatre did as well. It wasn't for the sad thing that happened so much, as for the crazy way the other characters handled it. My wife on the other hand who sat between us was not moved. She laughed at Paul and me, but as I look at it from a distance I believe it might be a boy thing. Like how grown men weep over the final scene of Field of Dreams. It wouldn't even occur to a woman.

8. In the Valley of Elah --Tommy Lee Jones plays two great roles this year, both in Texas. In No Country, he's the sheriff out looking for the bad guy and the good guy with the money, but that's chicken feed compared to his role here as a former MP, out looking for his missing son home from Iraq. While Susan Sarandon has the relatively easy part playing the outwardly worried mother, it's Jones who does the hard work of playing both a strong military man and a father who has tremendous love for his boy. When a soldier arrives at his door with news, Tommy interrupts the soldier to apply a small piece of toilet paper to his shaving cut. It's a minor detail, but informs the character in two ways. One that he's a retired but strict military man who will not let another soldier see him be unkempt and two that it gives him a chance to gain his composure before he hears the news he expects. The final scene of this movie is right on target and the film is a great comeback for Paul Haggis, the man who made the much inferior Crash.

9. Superbad (Unrated Widescreen Edition)---The funniest comedy of the year made by the comedy factory that is Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up). This film was written by two guys while they were still in high school. Their idea? To make a movie that kids their age would want to see and 15 years later they did it. While it takes place in modern day high school it has an ageless quality that makes it familiar for anyone who's been a teenager in the last 30 years. One thing that is a bit different is the filthy way the young characters speak. I mean I knew guys who spoke like that then, but in this movie all the boys speak like that. What language? Where's the soap? LOL. There are so many great scenes and funny lines, but my favorite might be by the drunk redheaded girl at the party, "McLovin is going to take me to Hawaii." I won't explain it, you'll just have to see it.

10. Juno ---I saw the coming attractions and said to myself, "Okay cutish independent comedy with sitcommy characters." Then it started getting all this attention from critics around the country and I thought maybe the trailer wasn't accurate. Don't forget last year Little Miss Sunshine got a similar amount of attention. Slapping an independent tag on a comedy gives it a hands-off coda it might not necessarily deserve. So I saw Juno and really enjoyed it. It's very funny at times and very moving at other times and has a certain level of realism that holds the whole thing together. But.... But I'm sorry, it's a cutish independent comedy with sitcommy characters. Diablo Cody, which is such a stupid stage name, wrote this movie in a manner befitting a 1940s screwball comedy. Star Ellen Page could easily be replaced by Rosalind Russell as the quick-talking sharpie who has Cary Grant wrapped around her fingers. She has so many cool, look-at-how-clever-I-am lines that I don't buy it. Do you remember being 16? You are unmolded clay. You may be intelligent, but you are not yet quick-witted. In high school there were the smart girls who were shy and quiet and the not so smart girls who had a lot to say but little of it worth listening to. No one, NO ONE, I mean No One spoke like Juno does in this movie. And the idea that a teenage girl experiencing something as stressful as an unwanted pregnancy would be this glib about it is Nonsense. I realize it's a comedy, but it's supposed to be a comedy based on truth and if you can't believe the truth, it makes the comedy less effective.


Honorable Mention:


Grindhouse Presents, Planet Terror - Extended and Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)--If Quentin Tarantino had kept up his end of the bargain, this movie would have made my Top 10. The most fun idea of the year. Make a double feature that resembles the crappy cinema of the '70s. Robert Rodriguez got it perfect with missing reels, a scratched print and cheesy effects, but Quentin made a modern-looking film with nothing cheesy about it. In fact, Quentin's Death Proof is way overwritten with too many asides to things only he cares about. But what saves this whole project are the incredibly funny and disgusting sneak previews in the center of the double feature. My favorite--Thanksgiving. One word--SICK!!

Waitress (Widescreen Edition) ---Three comedies in one year about unplanned pregnancies. (I found Knocked Up pretty funny at times, but totally unbelievable and really a smack against women, which surprised me considering its creator is Judd Apatow.) Of the three this has the most likeable characters, but call me old-fashioned, I just wish the main character played by Keri Russell didn't have an affair with her married doctor. If they were both miserable in their marriages I wouldn't give it a second thought, but coming on to a happily married man cheapened the film for me a little. Andy Griffith though is fantastic as the town's grouchy old rich man.

Sunshine ---We just don't get many good science fiction movies anymore, in fact we don't get many at all. But this mix of Alien and 2001 was a great surprise this summer. An international crew is sent on a possible suicide mission to save the Earth by reigniting the dying sun. Made by the people who brought you Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, they put the same kind of edge into this tale and draw another great performance out of Cillian Murphy. The final confrontation is filled with muddled camerawork, but I'll excuse it for its perfect ending.

Nanking ---Devastating documentary about one of the most covered-up episodes in World War II history. The Rape of Nanking, as its book is appropriately called, was a period of time when a debased Japanese Army conquered the shipping town of Nanking, China and all the peasants who were too poor to escape. While the men were tortured and killed, the women and girls suffered repeated attacks from their savage captors. Many of the victims are still alive to tell their tales and do in this film, but what really disgusted me were the interviews with the 80-year old Japanese soldiers who recall their atrocities with laughter and smiles. This movie would have been in my Top 10 except for the unnecessary use of American actors to portray the roles of the Westerners, who stayed behind to protect these Chinese people from the Japanese. If they had just used their voices while showing archival footage it would have been fine, but mixing in their real faces in actorly guises alongside the real heartbreaking faces of the victims seemed like bad taste.

28 Weeks Later (Widescreen Edition) ---If there was no 28 Days Later this movie would be one for the record books. But while it lacks the original's new twist on an old genre, it makes up for it with its own amount of shocks and pulsating scares. About 6 months after the original, the refugees who left London are brought back to live among the ruins of their rage-ravaged city. Watching out for them is the American Army. When things go bad the Army turns bad. The carnage is heavy and crazy, but nothing matches the jaw-dropping scene from the beginning of the movie. It is such a colossal nightmare, I was sure it could only be a dream sequence, because no one would truly act that way. It wasn't and it sets the stage for what kind of movie you are about to witness.

American Gangster 2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition---Denzel Washington can walk through a role and still come up smelling like roses. He can play Frank Lucas in his sleep and at times almost does, but he rouses himself up for some wicked scenes. Russell Crowe does his best Popeye Doyle in the part of Richie Roberts. A cop who is dead honest on the job, but cheats on his wife incessantly. He is the much more interesting character here and his desire to bring down Frank Lucas doesn't jibe with how he treats him once he catches him. That's the filmmakers' fault. You can't portray Frank Lucas as a demon to his own people and then treat him like a misunderstood black executive.

The Bourne Ultimatum (Widescreen Edition) ---Jason Bourne does not make a bad movie. This is definitely the most exciting of the three with the stylized action from the first mixed with the documentary style of the second for an eye-popping, heart-stopping thrill ride. Unlike the first two though there are some bullshit moments that defy the law of physics, but overall a great time. Unlike the first two the background story is less compelling and seems more of the same from number 2, but you do get three Oscar-caliber actors to play CIA bad guys here--David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn.

Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition) --Viggo Mortensen puts on a great performance as a Russian gangster working in London, who wrestles with his conscience when a mysterious baby connects the gang with a strong-willed woman on the outside. Everybody is great here, from Naomi Watts to Vincent Cassel to Armin Mueller-Stahl, and writer director David Cronenberg stages one of the most hard-to-watch fight scenes with the naked knife fight in the sauna. But then ends the movie with a Sopranos-black screen, which I'll say again is a cop out.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly---Usually not my type of movie, but the story of the editor of the French magazine, Elle, overcome with a paralyzing stroke, is told with such great humanity and an unexpected sense of humor that this film is definitely a winner in my book.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ---Albert Finney is great as the father of two loser sons, played by Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hawke is his usual slimy self as the weaker, sniveling brother who robs his parents' jewelry store. Hoffman is miscast as the tougher brother who has to use the jewelry heist money to pay off some big white collar crimes. Hoffman can play sniveling with the best of them, but when he plays "tough" you can see the man behind the curtain. Final scene was way overdramatic for a movie that tries to keep it real.

300 (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---Is it a great movie? No. But it has to be acknowledged for being one of the most creative achievements in 2007. Tells the story of the Spartan War in graphic novel style, with live actors mixing it up with an entire CGI background. Visually mesmerizing and outrageously violent. Fun while it lasts.


The Freditor

Haha, Oscars have worst ratings ever

Two reasons always make or break Oscars ratings. One, popular movies are nominated giving the audience a rooting interest. Titanic is the highest rated Oscar for this reason. Young girls all wanted Jack and Rose to win it all, which they did. When a movie is nominated that didn't even make as much as a baseball player's salary, then no one is going to care if it wins or loses.

Two, the Host is so important. If the host comes out of the gate with a great monologue people might stick with it, but if he tanks then the casual viewer will move on to something else. Before I left the house I caught three minutes of Jon Stewart's monologue and what I saw was bad, except for the Gaydolf Tittler joke. That was funny. But that's a big problem there. Jon Stewart. Who thinks Jon Stewart is funny? I don't, if I did I would watch The Daily Show. He replaced the Funny Guy on that show, Craig Kilborn.

You want a funny host who used to actually host a funny show. Greg Kinnear from Talk Soup. He's a really good actor who happens to be very funny, and quick on his feet.

Instead they keep bringing back horrible hosts like Whoopi Goldberg. Let's look at the hosts since Johnny Carson stopped doing the show.

2006/7--Jon Stewart--Not Funny
2005 Chris Rock---Funny
2004 Billy Crystal---Funny during the Reagan years
2003 Steve Martin---See Billy Crystal
2002 Whoopi Goldberg---Interesting, not funny.
2001 Steve Martin
2000 Billy Crystal
1999 Whoopi Goldberg
1998 Billy Crystal
1997 Billy Crystal
1996 Whoopi Goldberg
1995 David Letterman---Great. One of my favorite Oscar hosts. Got slammed because he wasn't a Hollywood insider. Oprah Uma thing was dumb, but the rest of the show was fun. He'll never do it, but I'd bring him back.
1994 Whoopi Goldberg
1993 Billy Crystal
1992 Billy Crystal
1991 Billy Crystal
1990 Billy Crystal
1989 No official host
1988 Chevy Chase---Rather stick a grapefruit spoon in my eye than watch him.
1987 Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Paul Hogan---The Ménage à trois from hell.
1986 Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams---The hairiest Ménage à trois.
1985 Jack Lemmon---Only Neil Simon thought this guy was funny.
1984 Johnny Carson--The King.

The Freditor

Fred's Top 10 Movies of 2006

At long last, here is my Top 10 Movies of 2006. I finally finished watching all the favorites of the Academy voters and the critics and of course all the other movies I really wanted to see throughout the year. Some match, some are quite different. Hopefully, you guys might rent some of the lesser known films. There are also probably more foreign films than ever before. Not because I got all snooty and snotty, but because foreign filmmakers are finally making movies that I would enjoy.

1-Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)---The Best Movie of the Year. It achieved the highest goal of any movie I want to see--It entertained me throughout. Easily the funniest movie of the year, maybe of the decade. I laughed more at this movie than any since Howard Stern's Private Parts, maybe even more than that. What clinched it for me was after seeing it on a Wednesday night with two friends. I went back Sunday afternoon with my wife and different friends. I laughed more on Sunday than I did on Wednesday and that's after almost having a stroke on Wednesday. What helped was that I laughed so hard on Wednesday that I missed or forgot half the funny parts. And it's also the most original comedy I've ever seen. Basically an R-rated Candid Camera where the people know they are on camera and still say incredibly bigoted and stupid things. Sasha Baron Cohen as Borat should have received an award just for not laughing in the people's faces. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and rarely has anyone deserved an award more. He pulled off one of the greatest acting jobs in history, by fooling dozens of ordinary people with his foreign manners and stupid questions. I loved Borat on HBO, but was not prepared for how much I would love this movie. The only film from 2006 that I bought on DVD.

2-United 93 (Widescreen Edition) ---As polar opposite from Borat as any movie could be. The most serious film of the year about the most serious subject, 9/11. A perfect movie for DVD, because you really need subtitles to catch all the dialogue. This film was written from transcripts from the agencies involved on that day. The FAA, the military, the airlines and air traffic control towers. The realism is strong throughout from the mundane to the terrifying. The mundane makes it all the more terrifying, like when the stewardesses discuss the food they will be serving. I assumed that the film would be only about Flight 93 and how it crashed in the Pennsylvania field, but it actually encompasses all that went before it on that day, and much of it in real time. Paul Greengrass, the director, knows how to film in a documentary style from the inside out. His previous film Bloody Sunday was done in much the same way. The overlapping dialogue may have much to do with the action or may not and then there are those abrupt fits of violence that you might miss because the camera is focused on something else, like your eyes might be. Without knowing much about what happened in the plane that morning, this is probably as close to the truth as we will ever see. Using completely unknown actors was a brilliant move because a star would be a distraction. Certainly not for everyone to see, but that doesn't diminish its greatness.

3--Babel ---Finally caught up with this gem last week. Three stories told in three different countries about what trouble we can get into when we lack communication. Babel refers to the Tower of Babel, which is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. A pompous king wanted to build a huge tower to Heaven, hoping to meet God while still living. When the tower gets too high, God decides to put an end to this blasphemy and curses everyone involved with a different language. Before that everyone spoke the same language, the language of Adam and Eve I suppose, but now everyone in Babel spoke different languages and spread across the earth after that. This film has English subtitles for Moroccan (Arabic?), Japanese and Spanish. An American woman gets shot while on a tour bus in Morocco, she needs medical attention quickly, but there are no hospitals for hundreds of miles. Her children are back in the states and their Mexican nanny decides to take them with her to Mexico for her son's wedding. In Japan, a deaf teenage girl is having the hardest time adapting to hearing society. Her only link to the rest of the movie is that years before her father gave away the rifle that shoots the woman to a Moroccan hunting guide. I didn't worry about the tenuous reason for the Japanese part of the film because it all was so engrossing. Scene after scene felt like something I'd never seen before. Like how they kill chickens in Mexico, or how a Moroccan veterinarian would put in stitches, or how a deaf person experiences a nightclub. I couldn't believe some of the stupid moves that some of these characters make, but if people didn't make stupid judgments the newspapers would be pretty empty. Not as downbeat as the director's previous film (24 Grams), but has a ton of harrowing moments. I think he went a little soft at the end though. Particularly with the children in the Mexican desert.

4-The Queen---Did the impossible. Made me appreciate Queen Elizabeth. I never liked this lady before. Thought she was cold and aloof even before Princess Diana's death, but really despised her after Diana died. This film tells the story of the Royal Family's reaction to Diana's death in 1997 and how Tony Blair tried to save them from themselves. Blair was only Prime Minister three months when Diana was killed that night in Paris. She was already divorced from Charles and running around with an Arab playboy. The Royal Family used to love her, at least Prince Philip, Charles' father, did but she changed so much over the years that they all fell out of favor with her. When she died they didn't understand what a big deal it was to the public. They didn't even make a statement about it to the press right away. One scene shows the Royal Family staff watching Blair's press conference about the death and when he calls her "the People's Princess" all the women in the room start crying. Oblivious, the Public Relations man who runs the office, turns to say, "that was a bit overdone wasn't it" and is shocked to see all the tears. Indeed, the tears of England shock the entire Royal Family, including Charles. As the tears build, so does the resentment and at this point you feel much like England does about the Queen and her family. But this movie does the unexpected, it gives us a look at The Queen behind the scenes, from her feelings toward a male deer on their 40,000 acre property, to her fears for her grandsons, William and Harry. She's much more complex a figure than I ever expected. In fact, I hate to say this, from looks to demeanor she started to resemble my own mother. A realization that Tony Blair comes to as well. I think that's why this movie touched me so much. And while it feels like a well-written TV Movie, I'm glad it wasn't, because I probably wouldn't have seen it.

5-Pan's Labyrinth ---Take one part Schindler's List and one part dark chocolate Willy Wonka and you have the most bizarre movie of the year. A little girl's fantasy world shelters her from the madness of her real life. She is the stepdaughter of a brutal Army captain during the Spanish Civil War. This sadistic monster works happily under Franco and is trying to kill off the rebels hiding in the woods behind his stately country home. Meanwhile his new wife is having a difficult pregnancy with his unborn child. The wife's daughter's fantasy world is lead by a tall creature named Pan and his commands to her give her pause, but also give her purpose in trying to save her life and freedom. Nothing is held back here, from the gross gooey slime she must climb through to get the magic key or the battle scenes between the rebels and the stepfather's men. The stepfather, a small beast, is particularly cruel to a stutterer who they capture and reveals his real self when he tells his physician that if he has to save his wife or the unborn child save the child. I keep reading that kids should wait a few years before this seeing this film. A few years? I'm not sure I was ready for it yet. It's a tough watch, but it is extremely well made and eye-opening. When you are not hiding your eyes from a tough scene to watch, you are amazed at the exquisite detail of the other world. Like United 93, the subject matter should not take away from the movie's greatness. Wish it was overdubbed, because reading the bottom of the screen takes your eyes off the magic above.

6-Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)---Best Bond ever. Best Bond movie and Best Bond actor. The most serious Bond film. I'm not the biggest fan of the series, but I loved this movie. This is the first story in the series, retold from a modern point of view. Daniel Craig is not the best looking guy for the part, but he is the most manly and he is hardly a metrosexual. When a bartender asks if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, he asks, "do I look like somebody who cares?" LOL There was a bit of a problem wrapping it up, I felt like there were three different endings, but the final ending ending was perfect.

7-Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition) ---I gave this the seven slot only because of its name. I would like to put it higher. I still think of this movie today and haven't seen it in about a year. What a great little film. About four cool twists which I never saw coming. Done like a great magic act, which was how it was written. You think one guy is getting killed and it turns out to be the guy across the room. Josh Hartnett, who is a really good young actor, plays a fish out of water as a guy mistaken for someone else who is asked by one crime lord to pull off a difficult hit on another crime lord. Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley play the two crime lords, both with relish. Bruce Willis is the smarmy background guy who is part hitman, part architect. It's like as if M. Night Shymalan and Quentin Tarantino made a movie together, that cool and that good.

8-Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)---In 2027, the whole world is infertile. The last baby born was in 2009 and he just turned 18 and was killed. This slow paced end to the human race has made everyone a little nuts. The last baby born dying has made people even more depressed and the only city that's sort of holding it together is London. Our hero played by Clive Owen is given a task to complete, get this foreign woman to the sea at the other end of the country and see that she gets on this boat. To do this, he will have to evade police, local crazies running amuck and a rebel group looking to take her back. It's a grim look at the future, but it also has ties to today's world, with its treatment of foreign prisoners and immigrants. The lone voice of sweetness and reason is Owen's best friend played as an aging hippie by Michael Caine. Through Caine you hear about Owen's past and why he is the way he is. I loved how they never explained why the world went infertile. One friend who saw it was annoyed by this, but what caused AIDS, cancer or now autism? We the general public don't know and we assume no one else knows, or at least they are not willing to tell us, so I'm sure this scenario would also go unanswered. And he hated the penultimate scene, finding it too unbelievable. On the contrary, I found it incredibly moving and totally believable. In fact, I think if the opposite had happened I would think that that was just morose nonsense on the part of the filmmakers.

9-13 Tzameti----This movie starts off ant slow. Loses a couple places on the list because I did not discover this film on my own. Critics praised this French movie through the roof. If they hadn't called it the best thriller since Hitchcock I would never even have heard of it. But like I said, the beginning starts off so slowly that if it were a video I might have turned it off, but I was in a theatre and knew something was coming, not sure what, but we were building to SOMETHING. And it was going to be something hair raising and razor edged. Knowing that builds the suspense for you in a way the movie actually doesn't. I imagine it's like the first time people saw Psycho. They knew something bad was coming, but waiting for it only made it worse. The main character here is a Russian immigrant to France repairing this old French guy's roof. When the man kills himself, this kid of about 22 steals his mail. This man looked for a letter every day and when it arrived drove the man to suicide. Now my common sense would tell me that if getting a letter makes someone do that, chances are the thing in the letter is not that good. But this kid looks at it differently, he's desperate for money for him and his family and figures this letter could lead to something profitable. So he decides to use the train ticket and hotel fare that comes in the letter and journeys to where the possible money is. He gets there and realizes he's in way over his head. When you see great, tight thrillers, the audience's blood pressure rises, the metabolism kicks into high gear, people sweat and the temperature inside a theatre goes up measurably. All that happens here until finally you walk out of theatre and happy to get on the street where no more harm can come to your senses. Rare that a horror movie or thriller can do that to you, but when it does it deserves high praise. Subtitles hurt this movie a little, but I think the tough French voices make it more alien and scary. The harsh black and white photography is especially unsettling.

10-Little Children ---Talk about dark. A lonely, bitter housewife takes her child on play dates to have an affair with a lonely bitter househusband. Living in the same town is a pedophile who's just been released from jail. Is he better or will he strike again? His one date starts off pleasant enough, but turns into one of the more disturbing scenes in a movie that's filled with them. Everyone is good here. Bad News Bears' Kelly Leak, Jackie Earle Haley as the struggling pedophile; Phyllis Somerville as his delusional mother; Titanic's Kate Winslet as the overeducated housewife; and Noah Emmerich as a neighborhood vigilante. The kind of movie that shows the worst side of human beings and still makes you root for them to do better.


Honorable Mention:

Dreamgirls (Widescreen Edition)---Eddie Murphy did a great impression of James Brown back in the early '80s. He reprises it here to play James Thunder Early, an exceptionally talented black soul singer at a time when black singers couldn't get on popular radio. His role in this movie is good, but not as impressive as Jennifer Hudson the big girl who lost on American Idol. She plays the Florence Ballard part of the Supremes, as Effie the most talented member of the Dreamettes. She, along with Beyonce and this other girl play a Detroit trio who hope to make the big time. But she is too black, too big and her voice too strong to make it on traditional radio, so the Berry Gordy character, played by Jamie Foxx pushes her to the back and makes Beyonce the star of the group. The songs are stirring if unmemorable. This movie would have been 10 times better if they could have used real Motown hits, but Berry Gordy would never have allowed that.

Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition)---Saw Superman 2 recently, which is more entertaining, but this is a better movie, the best of the series. Skips 3 and 4 and gets right to it. Lex Luthor is more evil here and less goofy and I like the new Lois Lane way more than nutty Margot Kidder.

CSA: The Confederate States of America----Most creative movie of the year. What if the South had won the Civil War? Story told in documentary format like a Ken Burns film. Using real facts and photos and spinning a different history of America. In some ways much worse, in other ways not that much different. Doubt that many of the technological achievements that we take for granted today would have existed in such a repressive regime. I mean what did South Africa ever invent?

Happy Feet (Full Screen Edition) ---Singing, dancing penguins is good enough, but to use classic pop songs and reimagine them is another. Then you add in the best use of Robin Williams' talents in years and a strong, environmentally conscious storyline and you have yourself a real winner. Much more entertaining than the stalled Cars.

The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---Only my friend Harry really likes this movie. Every other person I've talked to was disappointed by it and they are all big Martin Scorsese fans. In fact, it's because they are Scorsese fans that they are so disappointed. They expect better from him. Maybe if it was original I would have appreciated it more, but like I said before, the Chinese original called Infernal Affairs was made better and faster (90 minutes) and when I was watching THAT film I never thought I was looking at a Best Picture. Still don't.

Blood Diamond (Widescreen Edition)---Director Ed Zwick has an independent vision that gets sideswiped by his commercial style. This could have been one the year's best movies, but instead of letting the characters be real he pulls up short because you can't have the main character be too dislikable a person. Leonardo DiCaprio could have put some mean varnish on his portrayal as a mercenary out to get the Pink Diamond, but Zwick makes him too soft too often. Love to see what a younger Gene Hackman could have done with this part. Djimon Hounsou is wonderful as the man who's trying to get his son back. When he raises a shovel in anger the fear and hatred of 400 years of oppression are seen in his eyes like no other actor's. Amazing how he can switch on from sweet to killer in a manner of seconds.

Half Nelson ---A young white male teacher in Brooklyn named Dan Dunne befriends a 12 year old female black student and tries to be both a friend and mentor to her. But despite her tough background and his comfortable background, he's the one with the problems, smoking crack and trying to make sense of his life. Dunne is played by probably the best actor of his generation, Ryan Gosling. Shareeka Epps plays the young girl and even though this is her first acting role she does a fantastic job. This movie is not at all sweet, but it has a good heart.

Stranger Than Fiction---Will Ferrell turns the heat down so much in this film that he almost seems like he isn't there. But his performance as Harold Crick is a gentle souffle that would be ruined by too much acting out as he is wont to do. Emma Thompson is a brilliant author who is writing the story of a man's life, Harold Crick's life to be exact. And when her novel narrates his story he can actually hear the narration in his head. He tries to outrun the narration, but it always catches up to him. Whether by skipping a bus to work or stepping through a puddle rather than around it, the author is always one step ahead of him. This might be more of a nuisance than a problem if she doesn't let on that Crick will eventually die. The story is brilliant and the performances by almost everyone, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal as the punk rock baker, are great. But the one sore point for me was that of Dustin Hoffman. His literary professor is certainly believable enough, but his reaction to Crick's dilemma seems too easily convinced. They lose a key dramatic element in the movie by first having Hoffman believe him too easily and then not be more amazed throughout by his predicament. It's like someone finding out that Jesus was back and walking among us. How long would that take you to accept as run of the mill news? Days, weeks, months?

Sherrybaby ---Gyllenhaal is back as Sherry Swanson, a recent ex-convict, junkie who moves back into her New Jersey neighborhood and tries to revive a relationship with her young daughter. Maggie gives one naked performance in this film, and I don't just mean with her clothes. The life of an ex-con and rehabbing junkie is nothing pretty, but to try and bring up a daughter in that environment makes it seem that much uglier. Couple that with the fact that her brother and sister in law don't want to relinquish custody of the child back to her and her seemingly nice, but incestuous father (Sam Bottoms) and you have a stew of dysfunction that you will need a bath to wash off. Danny Trejo is good as her sponsor, an ex-junkie who has a lot problems of his own. And Giancarlo Esposito is great as her parole officer, who wants to help her but is not above putting her back in prison. When you've been a tremendous screw-up your whole life and you don't have much family support it must be a crushing problem to try and make a better life for yourself. Sherry wants to and it is her struggle of one day a timing it that we the viewers root for her to overcome.

The Freditor

FINALLY--My Top 21 List of 2005 Movies

I like to do this list before the Academy Awards, but at first I just wasn't into it like in the past. I was kind of down on the movies that came out in 2005 and found it hard to be enthused about a Top 10 List.

Could I even find 10 movies worth putting on it?

Then I found a website with every movie released in 2005 and actually found it hard keeping it to 10. The Top 5 were very easy, but the next five became so impossible to choose from that I decided to make it a Top 21. Now you could say that none of those last 16 were great enough to be considered Top 10 material and you might be right, but I would say they are too good to be left off.

I saw the George Clooney double feature of Syriana and Good Luck and Good Night, and while good, they were a little sluggish for me. I like my movies to zip along.

So here's my list and as Harry says, "And that's that!"

1. The 40 Year Old Virgin---I've seen it 3 times now and it doesn't get old. I laugh at all the big jokes, but now I appreciate the little nuances as well. At first I thought the Paul Rudd character of the depressed, lovelorn sad sack was the one weak spot in the film, but upon further viewing I see his role as pivotal in balancing out the Maxim level of testosterone that permeates the film. I've come to love all the characters, even the secondary ones and really see this as a brilliant ensemble comedy. Everyone shines here. The script is hysterical and heart warming, the acting dead on and the party atmosphere rarely lets up. These four guys remind me of my favorite groups of friends over the years whether it's the Game Night crew or in college. The perfect metaphor for the entire movie is when one guy playfully punches another friend in the nuts to get him out of his funk. We all need that friend sometimes.

2. King Kong---Before I reconsidered 40 Year Old Virgin, I considered this the finest movie of the year. It's easily the best made movie, with its wonderful attention to detail. Lord of the Rings creator, Peter Jackson, recreated New York City in 1933 at a movie studio in New Zealand. And what a beautiful job he does. Scene after scene is a smorgasbord for the eyes and the action moves along pretty swiftly (at least after the sea voyage to Skull Island). Kong looks fantastic and his ape-like movements are extremely real. You might quibble with the choices of Jack Black and Adrien Brody for the male leads, but you cannot say enough about Naomi Watts performance as Ann Darrow. She's beautiful, funny, athletic, tormented and her scream is perfect. When Brody's Jack comes to rescue her, she actually looks sad that she must leave her true love Kong behind. The scene of Kong butt-skating on Central Park's Wollman Skating rink is the most romantic of the year. The Christmas Lights on the trees just add to the warm beauty of the moment. I loved this movie and thought the 3+ hours went by very quickly. It is an awful shame that more people didn't see this new classic.

3. Cinderella Man---Talk about recreating New York City in 1933, this movie does it and for the whole film as opposed to the one hour in Kong. Russell Crowe is brilliant as usual as the Depression-era boxer, Jim J. Braddock. Maybe if he didn't throw his phone at that bellhop, more people would have gone to see this movie, but that shouldn't take away from its greatness. Renee Zellwegger shines as his strong wife. A New Jersey family struggling after years of being on top of the world, this movie is as much about the Depression and its character-challenging effects as about boxing. When Braddock's son steals from a storekeeper, he shames the boy into giving the salami back and apologizing to the man. When Braddock is forced to swallow his pride and take government assistance (essentially welfare), he pays back every penny when he gets to fight again. My boy, Paul Giamatti, hits another one out of the park as Braddock's brotherly manager. If this movie was released around Christmas it would have been nominated for tons of Oscars. As big a shame as King Kong's fate.

4. The Upside of Anger---Joan Allen is sexy. What???!!! Who knew? The queen of dowdy, but great acting, puts on some show here as a mother of four daughters who's husband suddenly abandons her for his secretary. She becomes angry and bitter and a big-time drunk and let's all her inhibitions run wild when she hooks up with Kevin Costner's drunken, ex-ballplayer neighbor. Costner schmoozes his way into the back door of their lives and really is a glutton for punishment. A man who will hang out with five women (the girls range in age from 16 to 24), who all have issues of their own. The best role in the film might belong to the one daughter's much older boyfriend. As played by the film's writer/director Mike Binder is at once a very funny sleazeball and then a pretty good guy with a different way of looking at things. The scene of him slurping his soup and Joan Allen's furious reaction is one I had to play over and over again on my DVD player. Hilarious.

5. A History of Violence---Peter Jackson and his crew were not the only Lord of the Rings' veterans to come back with another great film. So did Aragon's Viggo Mortesson as Tom Stall, a small-town Indiana coffeeshop owner. When two sick, violent felons come into his restaurant, his response changes his life forever. Like all movies that are supposed to be about anti-violence this film revels in it (see also Unforgiven). The action scenes are sick and funny and arouse cheers from the audience. But the relationship between Stall and his wife, played by Maria Bello, is warm and playful, until it gets down and dirty. The sexiest love scenes you'll see in a movie this year.

6. Wedding Crashers---Would have finished higher until I saw it a second time. This movie pins all its humor on Vince Vaughn, without him it limps along. Owen Wilson thinks he's funny in the picture, but he's really just a straight man. But when Vaughn is in the scene, hilarity ensues. He makes this movie hilarious the way Bill Murray used to. Like 40-Year Old Virgin, the movie cheerfully blends its Maxim/Stuff sense of humor with more mature romantic yearnings.

7. Batman Begins--The first great Batman movie. Christian Bale can sometimes come across as dry toast, but it's Pepperidge Farm, so the taste is unique. The Murderer's Row of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson and Tom Wilkinson add all the spice you'd want. The action can be sometimes confusing, but the big stunts are tremendous. Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow is a terrifying character and the finale is one of the best you'll see in any action movie. Loved Gotham City, the island with the million bridges and especially the above ground train. One word kept coming out of my mouth throughout the movie, "Cool!"

8. Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic---I read complaints about the songs. Some worked some didn't, but her standup is incredibly funny. This was the year of comedy (including the very entertaining The Aristocrats, which Silverman also shined in). Silverman's stand-up act is incredibly offensive, but very enjoyable. She sets up so many jokes with a left hand and then surprises you with a right. "A couple of nights ago, I was licking jelly off my boyfriend's p---s. And I thought, 'Oh, my God. I'm turning into my mother.'" The real joke is that she delivers lines like this with a combination of California beach girl and nice Jewish girl. My favorite: "Guess what, Martin Luther King? I had a dream, too. I had a dream that I was in my living room. I went to the back yard, where there was a pool. And before I got into it, a shark came out. And he had braces. So maybe you're not so f----g special."

9. Hustle and Flow---It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp and can anybody deny that? Terence Howard did the impossible. He had me feeling sorry for and eventually cheering for a pimp to make it in this world. Howard's pimp, Day, has three hookers who he takes pretty good care of, but one black girl is always angry. The white girl is trash, but he gets her to believe in herself and the other black girl is pregnant and sweet as Tupelo Honey. I realize completely that this movie manipulates you into cheering for these Southerners, but unlike so many bigger movies this year, you really feel a special bond between you and the characters. We root for prisoners to escape, why not root for a pimp and his girls to lead an honest life?

10. Capote---Catherine Keener plays supporting roles in two of my favorite films this year. First as the trashy, but loving Trish in 40 Year Old Virgin and then as the very serious, very quiet best friend of Truman Capote, Harper Lee. Capote is the story of how Truman came to write his classic, "In Cold Blood." Two bad guys try to rob a Kansas farm house and end up killing the entire family around 1957. When very odd, very gay Capote arrives in this small town it's Harper Lee's demeanor that allows him to interview this town's folk. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves the Oscar for bringing Capote back to life. Like Jamie Foxx's Ray, he becomes the character and shows us all of Capote's outward exuberance and inner demons. Unfortunately the movie is not as brilliant as the character. It's 90 minutes of story told in 2+ hours.

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--The best of the four Harry Potter films. The effects are great, but it's the heart that's always been missing in the past that bursts through here. The filmmakers capture the torture of pubescence perfectly.

12. Millions---From the man who brought you Trainspotting and 28 Days Later of all things, comes the best children's movie of the year. Two young brothers discover a bag full of cash in England, just before the Pound is to be destroyed and the Euro put in its place. Damien is adorable as the younger, better brother. He wants to donate all the money to the poor, but Anthony wants to spend it on cool stuff. The best of many great scenes in the movie is when Anthony turns his classmates into a junior Secret Service complete with sunglasses. Nice what a few quid will do for you. Could be a Christmas classic if America discovers it.

13. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang---Shane Black, the man who wrote Lethal Weapon and tons of other action hits, finally puts his unedited stamp on the genre with this gem. He brings Robert Downey Jr. back to life as a lowlife, dirtbag who stumbles into a cop role in a police movie. When the movie's movie producers make him hook up with Val Kilmer's gay private eye/film consultant, great fun is had by all. Sort of a serious spoof of the action genre, in the way Shane Black meant Last Action Hero to be.

14. Unleashed---Jet Li's best American movie. He plays "Dog," a caged assassin, who Bob Hoskins keeps locked up until he needs some heads to roll. Morgan Freeman plays the blind piano tuner who saves Dog and turns him back into a man. In an odd way, sort of like an ultraviolet, kung fu Pinocchio.

15. The Matador---In a year with several funny movies, add this one to the list. Pierce Brosnan plays the role of his career as an assassin with stage fright. Greg Kinnear plays a bored traveling salesman who half-seriously wants to learn the tools of the trade. Brosnan's sailor-on-leave dialogue is priceless. Remington Steele is dead.

16. Kung Fu Hustle---Comedies usually die with subtitles, so it helps if they have slapstick to cross the cultural divide. This Chinese movie has the most creative slapstick I've ever seen. It makes live action into a Roadrunner cartoon and still makes you feel for the characters. The landlady is the best.

17. Crash---Best movie of the year? Not even close, but a memorable and rare look at racism in America. Overdone and ham-fisted, definitely. Does it really try to manipulate you, absolutely. First time director Paul Haggis has too many coincidences that tie everything up to really take this film seriously. And while white characters do not utter racist dialogue this openly in real life, at least this film tries to address an issue that you rarely see in American film. Sweeping racism under the rug like it doesn't exist is like bandaging an infected wound without taking penicillin, eventually the country will get septic shock and not be able to heal itself.
18. Mr. and Mrs. Smith---Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie beating the shit out of each other for 45 minutes and killing bad guys the rest of the time. How could you not love this?

19. Munich---Overlong, but if I was a Jew I'd really love this movie. Finally the Jews are doing the killing and not being pushovers. Not the message Spielberg was trying to convey, but the one many like me took away from it. Don't mess with Golda Meir.

20. Junebug---Sllooooowwww. But what an adorable presence Amy Adams is. As Junebug the young pregnant wife of a real Southern jerk, she plays a sweet North Carolina girl with small dreams and a big heart. Her sister in law is a whipsmart Chicago editor played by Embeth Davidtz, who wears black and looks at first like a stuck-up bitch, but who's humanity increases as she is exposed to Junebug. This movie strives to be like real life and unfortunately I recognize it all too well. Like when I was young and there were those do-nothing Sundays. You could easily turn your brain to mush like Junebug's inlaws do. The scene of the Jewish Davidtz being surrounded by Bible-thumping Christians is very awkward. Her husband has done a great job of hiding this part of his life from her, so you can imagine her shock when he starts singing hymns--Solo.

21. March of the Penguins---Started an entire industry of Penguin movies. Slow, yes, but beautifully told. I know way more about penguins now than any other non-domestic animal in the world. When we get to heaven, don't you expect God to sound like Morgan Freeman?


The Freditor

Atonement: A British Cold Mountain without good music and much less interesting

* * * (out of 5)

I never met my grandmother on my mother's side. She lived in Ireland, but one story I heard about her always made me smile. She didn't go to movies often, but when she did there had better be a lot of action, otherwise she would squirm in her seat and say not too quietly, "let's move it along." Or "is anything ever going to actually happen?" She would have been squirming in Atonement

Actually, Atonement would make a really good episode of Masterpiece Theatre. Told in an hour, it would be riveting viewing. But Joe Wright (director of the much superior Pride and Prejudice) is forced to take this one hour of material and stretch it across 2+ hours. As you can imagine there is a lot of time for you to look at your cellphone's clock.

I enjoy Rashomon-style story telling, where you see what one character sees and then you see what actually happens, but the alternative versions of the stories in this film are not too far from what the viewer saw. And the stories themselves are none too riveting. There are several moments in this film which are made to be much bigger than they are. A little girl looks out a window and sees her older sister take off her dress in front of the gardener whom she likes and jumps in the fountain in just her slip. The girl comes out wet and see through. The little girl looks as confused as we are. What did she just see? It turns out the older girl was retrieving a broken piece of china that the gardener broke by accident. Wow, it's like two completely different stories. Can you show me that again? LOL

And when director Wright really wants to throw you a monkey wrench he blurs the camera so that the scene plays out much more mysteriously than it should. Oh my God, is that a ring on the floor in the distance? What does that mean? It means someone dropped it. Little more. I feel bad for Wright, because he has so little material to work with, but he read the script and he took the job. If you don't have the ingredients to make a cake, then don't bother trying.

Starting off in 1935, this British trifle shows manor life in a country estate with a 12 year old girl named Briony and her active imagination. She has a crush on Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the family's gardener, but he has his sites set on her older sister Cecelia (Keira Knightley). This makes Briony mad and watches them with an angry puss. If they ever remade the Bad Seed, this little girl would play her perfectly. The movie jumps forward to 1939 and World War II in France. Robbie and two Army pals are stuck there and after getting the word of a British retreat, try to head back toward England. This part of the movie consists of a lot of long walks with not a German soldier in sight. What are they retreating from? Sunsets and good cheese?

There is one tracking scene which was technically pretty cool. I'm not sure how long it lasts, but probably close to 5 minutes, with one camera uninterrupted as it pans out on a beach filled with hundreds of British soldiers and follows Robbie as he works his way through this crowd of humanity. Wilson manages to show in one take how cruel and decadent the British Army was before its leadership tightened the reins. For some ungodly reason soldiers were shooting healthy looking horses on the beach in France. I gave it three stars mostly for the acting and the cinematography. When I saw the trailer for Atonement months ago, I was afraid that I saw the whole movie and except for the end, I pretty much did. Note to self: Stop watching trailers, they spoil too many movies.


The Freditor

Rambo--Most Serious Film of the series. Should have been NC17 for the violence

* * * * (out of 5)

I love the Rambo series and have ever since I saw First Blood Part 2. To me, Part 2 was the birth of the modern action movie as we know it today. It was written by James Cameron, who went on to make Aliens and Terminator 2 and brought the action film to new heights that are rarely scaled today. Cameron's original story of the psychological trauma of the Vietnam vet going back to 'Nam was a much more serious film that Sylvester Stallone changed to fit his political ideology. Stallone made it a rousing Hollywood spectacle that I still loved. But Cameron was upset by the changes, took the theme and made Aliens with Ripley filling the Rambo role.

Now, 23 years later, John Rambo is back, running a boating business along a river in Thailand. He's not just angry, but seethingly bitter at the world and all that live in it. He grunts less in this film, but curses at people way more. He's like your angry grandfather only with a 60 inch chest. But there are few Hollywood moments in this film. It starts off with real news footage of the "civil war", really genocide, going on in Burma and shows both the violence and after effects of that violence, including rotting skulls from beheadings. I can't stress enough how inappropriate this movie is for children and many women. I was shocked to come out of the theatre and see a father walking with his four kids, discussing how good the movie was. Not one kid was older than 10. I realize video games have made this generation desensitized, but I can't believe that kids are that far gone that they won't be shocked by what they saw. I was.

Ten years ago, Steven Spielberg made the most realistic war film up until that time in Saving Private Ryan. He took the gore and carnage of the extremely violent horror movie and made it real on the beaches of Normandy. Writer/director Stallone takes that same kind of carnage and uses it to maximum effect in this the most violent action film ever made. When these Burmese soldiers raid a village they kill women and children on screen, chop off limbs with machetes and commit other atrocities. When Rambo cuts off a Burmese soldier's head it looks like Gallagher smashing a watermelon with a sledge hammer. Bullets literally cut people in half.

But Rambo is also older and wiser. When he is challenged, rather than react he just stays mute and waits for things to calm down. One woman, Sarah Miller (Julie Benz from Dexter), has a way of soothing this savage beast. She plays a missionary who along with the other members of her church are on a peacekeeping mission to Burma and who hire Rambo for a ride. Despite his warnings they still want to go as she explains to him, is trying to save another's life, really a waste of your own?

As with last year's Rocky Balboa, there is closure with this series. Stallone can still write and is an able director. Hopefully he gets a chance at making more movies. In an era when there are so few real movie stars, he makes you remember why he was one.

The Series in Fred's order:
Part 2
Rambo 4
First Blood
Rambo 3


The Freditor

So Sorry, Website was incomplete I actually saw 95 movies released in 2007

"1408" "28 Weeks Later" "300" "3:10 To Yuma"
4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 days
"Across The Universe" "American Gangster" "Alpha Dog" "The Astronaut Farmer"
Atonement

"Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" "Black Book" "Black Snake Moan" "Blades Of Glory" "The Bourne Ultimatum"
"The Brave One" "Breach"
"Bridge To Terabithia"
Brooklyn Rules
The Brothers Solomon
"Bug"

"Charlie Wilson's War" "Death At A Funeral" "Die Hard 4" "Disturbia"
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly "Eastern Promises""Enchanted" "Fantastic Four 2"
Farce of the Penguins
"First Snow" "Fracture" "Freedom Writers" "The Golden Compass" "The Great Debaters"
"Grindhouse"

"Hairspray The Movie"
Halloween "Hannibal Rising" "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie"
"Hitman" "The Hoax" "The Host" "I Am Legend" "I'm Not There"
"I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry" "In The Valley of Elah" "Juno"
The Kingdom"Knocked Up"

"The Last Mimzy"
La Vie En Rose
The Lookout
"The Messengers" "Michael Clayton" "Mr. Brooks""Music & Lyrics" "Nanking" "No Country For Old Men" "No End In Sight" "Norbit"

"Ocean's 13"
Once "Pirates Of The Caribbean 3" "Pride"
"Ratatouille"
"The Reaping" "Reign Over Me"
Rescue Dawn
Resident Evil--Extinction

The Savages
Saw IV "Shoot Em Up" "Shooter" "Shrek 3"

"Sicko"
"The Simpsons Movie" "Smokin' Aces" "Spiderman 3""Stardust"
"Sunshine"
"Superbad""Surf's Up""Sweeney Todd Movie"
Talk to Me
"There Will Be Blood" "Transformers The Movie " "Vacancy" "Waitress" "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

War
"The Water Horse" "Wild Hogs""Year Of The Dog" "Zodiac"


The Freditor

The Savages: Strong, heartfelt dramedy about "kids" dealing with an aging parent

* * * 1/2 (out of 5)


Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney in a movie together should be gold and their performances are in the dark dramedy, The Savages. The movie rests comfortably on their acting, but for some reason cuts out another stellar performer, Philip Bosco, from getting in on the action. Hoffman and Linney play near 40 year old siblings who have to deal with the rapid decline of their aging father, Bosco. Lenny Savage was a bad father who beat his kids and eventually left them for another woman. Their mother was even worse, abandoning them when they were quite young. As damaged souls, the "kids" are now barely functioning adults, channeling their pain through difficult careers. Linney is Wendy, a career freelancer who is a wannabe playwright. Hoffman is Jon, a professor of social resistance theatre. Obviously, neither one is making a killing with their higher educations.

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins (The Slums of Beverly Hills) doesn't give Bosco enough to do, but lets her two leads fly with the material. While their father struggles with dementia, Hoffman and Linney have their own form of craziness to deal with. Wendy pretends to have a problem with her uterus to gain some kind of sympathy from her married, older lover and Jon cries every time his girlfriend makes eggs, I guess as some kind of response to his own mother leaving him. Wendy's immaturity extends to her stealing office supplies at work and sinking to new lows to get grant money for her play. For once, Hoffman's character is the less crazy person in a movie.

Linney does a remarkable job here. She takes a potentially dislikable character and turns her into someone you root for and even like. While her face always looks like it's on the brink of crying, she doesn't bring you down with her performance. Like her character does for her father, she manages to find light in really dark corners. I also loved the depiction of nursing homes. Hoffman's Jon says it perfectly, they are places you go to die. Dying is never pretty and when nursing homes try to look pretty, it's never for the residents, but for the guilty families. The more guilt you feel, the more you will be willing to pay.


The Freditor

Talk To Me strives to say great things about civil rights, radio in the '60s, but feels like same-ol'

* * 1/2 (out of 5)

I can't remember ever being underwhelmed by a Don Cheadle movie, but this film was not up to his high standards. Some movies are good at hiding their low budgets, but this is not one of them and while it had high ambitions, the skill level of its director and writer were clearly lacking. Imagine taking Good Morning Vietnam, Private Parts and Malcolm X, throwing them in a blender, but having this concoction made by the blaxploitation team that brought us Superfly or Coffy. There were times when the writing and acting were so phony and overdone that I thought I was watching Good Times on TV Land. The usually good Taraji Henson as the girlfriend is especially bad at the overacting. I felt embarassed for her.

Cheadle plays real life Washington, D.C., disk jockey Petey Greene. An ex-con who bullshits his way into a job at the biggest R&B station in 1966 DC. While the town is mostly black, the radio station caters mostly to the whites and definitely to the white advertisers. Even a black station like WOL is run by a white man (Martin Sheen) and has DJs who toe the party line. Petey can only be real to himself and his audience and the locals love him for it. He speaks his mind and while much of what he says makes you laugh, he's not a comedian, a distinction his producer, friend and manager Dewey Hughes fails to make until it's too late.

Petey is often given credit for calming down the angry black people in Washington the night Martin Luther King was shot. Rioting took place in that city and across America that day, but Petey was able to harness that anger and talk his audience into using it in more creative ways. This definitive moment in the movie lacks the power it clearly wants to achieve. In better hands it might have captured it.


The Freditor