Jackie Brown: Movie Review

Slick characters and slick dealings in one perfectly executed film.

I never thought that I would actually like a Quentin Tarantino movie, let alone think that it's a brilliant film that should be revered. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) was entertaining but most of his other violent, ridiculous "artistry" I couldn't even sit through. "Jackie Brown" though, gives us some powerful characters to connect to, a drug and money plot which for the most part makes sense, and relatively, very little violence.		1997 Directed by: Quentin Tarantino Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard Starring: Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson

The Hangover Part II: Movie Review

An extreme comedy that focuses more on shock than on creativity.

This time around they are in Thailand. Like last time, they have forgotten their night out, and as Phil confesses on a cell phone call to Tracy, things are bad this time. The good news is, Doug is okay, bad news is brother-in-law Teddy is missing and their answers may have gone crashing into a glass table.		2011 Directed by: Todd Phillips Written by: Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis

The Hangover: Movie Review

From nowhere to Las Vegas and answered the funniest questions ever asked.

The Vegas comedy done right. Mostly because "The Hangover" is funny. Very funny. As the guys start out on their bachelor party trip to Las Vegas we quickly get a sense of how funny this will be because of the sense of humour the characters have. Phil (Bradley Cooper) is completely unscrupulous, but that's okay he's only a school teacher. Alan (Zach Galifianakis) thinks the prospect of killing someone or being killed is hilarious.		2009 Directed by: Todd Phillips Screenplay by: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore Starring: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms

Bridesmaids: Movie Review

Apparently women swearing really is funny to everybody.

A movie for women, about women, and by women. Well, make that last one written by women but directed and produced with the Paul Feig and Judd Apatow touch. This means that we get comedy and emotion in equal parts. But it also means that we get perverted humour, cliché cat-fights, and sweet romance.		2011 Directed by: Paul Feig Screenplay by: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo Starring: Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph

The Conspirator: Movie Review

Guilty or innocent, "The Conspirator" gets everything right.

"The Conspirator" is an impossible trial to win, but it's tried by the best cast in the best manner possible. Heroes returned home from the Civil War to be greeted by the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline) and other high-profile members of the War Department. President Abraham Lincoln was occupied elsewhere.		2010 Directed by: Robert Redford Screenplay by: James D. Solomon Starring: James McAvoy and Robin Wright

That's What I Am: Movie Review

Teaching tolerance and loving one's self in a realistic, mature way.

Human Dignity + Compassion = PEACE. That’s Mr. Simon’s (Ed Harris) award-winning four-word solution to world peace. Unfortunately, children are cruel, and there isn’t even peace in his 1965 junior high classroom. “That’s What I Am” is narrated by an adult Andy Nichol, who, as an awkward 13 year-old is popular enough that he gets bypassed by the bullies but he wouldn’t want to jeopardize that by socializing with the outcasts.		2011 Directed by: Michael Pavone Screenplay by: Michael Pavone Starring: Ed Harris and Chase Ellison

Helena from the Wedding: Movie Review

The uninteresting answers are in the eyes (of alcoholics).

It's New Year's Eve and we have an assembly of couples all in varying stages of happiness, meaning unhappiness, in their relationships. But each relationship status is likely to change when Helena shows up. You know, the character that we seem to know about before we've even met her, and the one that they all met at the wedding. Whose wedding? I don't know, just one of the unhappy nameless couples.		2010 Directed by: Joseph Infantolino Screenplay by: Joseph Infantolino Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Lee Tergesen and Gillian Jacobs

Daydream Nation: Movie Review

An edge-of-your-seat, coming-of-age drama.

In a small town where teachers sit in front of apathetic kids in the classroom and teenagers have nothing better to do than find household items that might get them high, Daydream Nation sneaks in and takes everything by storm. Caroline (Kat Dennings) is new in town and it's not that she loves to cause strife or turmoil, but she's smarter than her fellow classmates and she's looking to define herself just as any smart, lonely teenager would do. This is the year that everything happens.		2010 Directed by: Michael Goldbach Screenplay by: Michael Goldbach Starring: Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas, Andie MacDowell and Reece Thompson

Revolution Summer: Movie Review

Revolutionaries who aren't going to change a thing.

"Revolution Summer" is about young revolutionaries; a group of young, smart, aimless twenty-somethings who are going to change the world with their aspirations, plans and brilliant ideas. But the film and its young heroes-of-sorts, get seriously sidetracked by parties, drugs and the mistaken belief that they are more evolved than the rest of us. Sound familiar? Yes, you have met them, during college, or after college (or even before because they ended up being too cool for school).		2007 (with 2011 DVD release) Directed by: Miles Montalbano Screenplay by: Miles Montalbano Starring: Mackenzie Firgens and Samuel Child

Midsummer Madness: Movie Review

Lives up to the madness in its title of the beauty of its country.

It's midsummer in Latvia, and everybody has gone mad. Although for most of these characters, they are probably just as crazy any day of the year. A group of British firemen are in search of the "magic fern"; two brothers hatch a plan so those damn capitalists will stop raising gas prices; a French woman picks up flirtatious men as she's on her way to distribute her late husband's ashes; a sex-crazed stewardess is on the prowl for Mr. Right or Mr. Right-now; an American and his taxi driver are trying to find his half-sister; and then there's a kangaroo...		2007 (with 2011 DVD release) Directed by: Alexander Hahn Screenplay by: Alexander Hahn, Alexander Mahler and Norman Hudis Starring: Orlando Wells and Gundars Abolins