Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, is notorious for his dry, fact-filled, yet information-less press conferences. I got to thinking today, what would “BB” sound like if he was answering the kinds of questions that, say, a political candidate might get.
Rating: 
I have kind of a hard time giving this film only 3.5 stars. It’s well made, well acted, and well directed. It’s kind of an update of the Raquel Welch film, “Hannie Caulder,” but without the depth. Given that Luc Besson co-wrote this film, it’s kind of surprising that it fell short in this way.
Zoe Saldana does a great job as the heroine, a little girl in Bogata who grows up and then seeks revenge years later on the men who killed her parents. She looks great in this movie and handles the action scenes well. Her thin frame isn’t something viewers are used to seeing in this kind of role – people in the “assassin” role are usually beefed up in kind of a para-military way.
The problems with this movie start early, after Cataleya (Saldana) gets to Chicago and tells her uncle (who is a killer) that she wants to be a killer too, in…
The weather reports are saying Hurricane Irene is “the worst since Gloria”, back in 1985.
I was in Boston for Gloria. Actually in a small town in Eastern Mass., just outside of Concord. The town had a total of 4 traffic lights. Understand that in 1985 no one had cell-phones or smart-phones or broad-band. Dial-up Internet was all there was at best – at 1200 baud if you could afford a “good” modem. So if you lost power or your land-line telephone, you were cut off from the world.
Despite this, and the warnings on TV, everyone went to work as usual on the day of the storm. Most people left a little early, though. The rain started to pick up around mid-afternoon and I went down to the grocery store. By now the skies were darkening and the light outside was kind of eerie. The store had hired a fiddler, dressed in maritime garb – pea-coat, hat, and so on.…
Rating:
Think of this as more of a “4 + 2” than a true “3.”
This latest installment of the “Final Destination” franchise starts out very promising. The cast represents many stereotypes you’d like to see bumped off in colorful, gory, and creative ways. Including a Tom Cruise look-alike (and act-alike).
The initial set up is good. A bunch of management trainees going off for a team-building exercise. One person on the bus foresees them all dying – and that’s done pretty well – a super job of CGI on the bridge collapse. Then he wakes up, gets everyone off the bus before it goes over the side, and then the Grim Reaper (played by veteran actor Tony Todd) goes to work evening the score.
The first two make-up deaths are epic. The first one I didn’t see coming at all – I was expecting something completely different but they really thought it through and animated the hell…
Rating:
Four stars for a predictable romantic comedy? Yeah. Go figure.
This is a familiar plot – two good looking people from opposite sides of the country happen to meet, become friends, and want to engage in casual sex with no strings attached. Part way through they realize (one way or another) they’re actually in love. Complications ensue, but they end up together. Yay.
What makes this movie work is the chemistry between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. I don’t know if they actually like each other, or they’re actually better actors than I give them credit for, but what comes across on screen is absolutely charming to watch. It’s been a while since I saw a movie couple who actually appeared on-screen to be – a couple – two people in sync.
There’s a slight role reversal in that Timberlake’s character is from LA and a little on the soft side, and Kunis’ is from New York…
