Reviews

"The Reader" directed by Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry should not have been the 5th film to earn an Oscar-nomination as Best Picture. That honor should have gone to "Doubt" or "The Dark Knight". But, Holocaust-themed pictures are popular with the Academy so this film was nominated. However, this is not a great movie like "Schindler's List" but only very-good, like "The Pianist"

Michael is a high-schooler in West Germany in the mid-50s when he is afflicted with scarlet fever. When he gets sick on the streets, Hannah (the very good Kate Winslet) comes to his aid. After months of convalescense, he goes to Hannah's house to thank her for her assistance and soon the pair starts a romance. It mostly consists of Michael's reading literary classics to Hannah and then sex. This tryst lasts a few months and then peters out.

Almost a decade later, Michael is a law student and as part of a seminar on the legal ramifications of the Holocaust he attends a trial of several women charged with war-related crimes. Michael is very surprised to see Hannah on trial and has crucial evidence about her possible complicity. He must decide whether or not to bring it up.

I like this film but do not feel it to be one of the year's 5 best. So it gets a grade of 8 and a positive recommendation. But, do not expect a truly great movie when going to see this film.

This movie is rightly considered the front-runner for this year's Best Picture. It is easily the year's best and one of the best of the whole decade. It is directed by Danny Boyle, who should win the year's Best Director Oscar, and is about a young man, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, who should have been Oscar-nominated) who is a contestant on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Jamal does very well on the questions of the show, which are very difficult, and the police believe to have gotten so many questions right, Jamal must have cheated.

But in telling the story of his life, amidst grinding poverty and oppression, Jamal tells how he was able to know the answers to the questions that were posed to him. Jamal's story is mainly about how he combated his dire circumstances with his brother Salim and how he has always loved a young girl named Latika. In fact Jamal went on the game show hoping Latika would see it and that the two might be reunited after years of separation.

I went to this film expecting a lot and was surprised to see that it was better than I hoped for. It tells an uplifting story and mixes gritty drama, of how Jamal used his wits and courage to get by in a world designed to grind him down as he is only a "slumdog", with romance as Jamal never forgets Latika and only dreams that against all odds that the pair can get back together. So, this film gets a grade of 10 and the highest possible recommendation.

"Grumpy Old Men" is a movie about two senior citizens, John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) who have known each other their entire lives and love getting the better of one another. They refer to each other as "Moron" (Goldman) and "Putz" (Gustafson) and play pranks on the other. John puts a fish in Max's back seat causing an awful stench in his friend's car while Max uses his remote to change channels while John is attempting to watch the lottery. The two men embark on a competition to win the affection of an attractive woman, Ariel Truax (Ann-Margret), who moves into the neighborhood and each does his best to win her heart. This movie is very funny, Lemmon and Matthau are one of the movie's best comedic duo and their story is filled with touches that show how both men retain their vitality though they are getting up in age. So, this film gets a grade of 7 out of 10 and a pretty strong recommendation.

This is easily one of the top movies of 2008. In a comeback role, Mickey Rourke gives an award-worthy performance as a fading wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson who has a very shaky relationship with his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and a tenuous relationship with a stripper, "Cassidy", played by a very good Marisa Tomei. Randy has health problems, he suffers a heart attack after one performance and wants to get out of the wrestling game altogether. But it is from his loyal fans that Randy gets his only committed emotional support.

This movie was named by At the Movies Ben Manckiewicz as the best film of 2008 and while that may be a bit much this film is one of the year's finest. It tells the story of a man unable due to circumstances to move beyond his 1980s glory and as he is no longer young he can no longer perform as he once did. He wants a relationship with both his daughter Stephanie and "Cassidy" (Tomei's stripper name) but neither woman can commit to him how he would like. So, Randy continues to do the one thing he knows and loves, wrestling, even so doing so puts his health at great risk. This is an excellent film so it gets a grade of A- and a very strong recommendation.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is the washed-up former member of a 1980s WHAM! like group called POP. Alex is well past his heyday and is reduced to reproducing his past glories at reunions and amusement parks. Out of the blue he is asked to write a song for a current pop star who is a fan of his past work. Serendiptiously, Alex, who does not write lyrics, finds a collaborator in Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) who is a natural lyricist.

Most of this movie is fairly predictable. Alex and Sophie find romance as they work on their song and then face difficulty as Sophie objects to being asked to commercialize her work while Alex, who is very grateful for his second chance, takes the request as merely being about business and is fully prepared to bastardize his effort.

This movie is only pretty good, Grant and Barrymore share a good chemistry but the material is only average and proceeds in a manner that is totally predictable and done better in other romantic comedies. So, this movie gets a grade of B- and a moderate recommendation. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore fans will like it but the average fan might not like the expense of renting it.

Roscoe Jenkins has taken the name "RJ Stevens" and become a self-help guru with a book and talk show based on the premise "the team of me". He heads home accompanies by his self-absorbed fiancée, Bianca, who has the idea that they should record RJ's parent's 50th anniversary celebration.

At home, RJ's family does not treat him as the important semi-celebrity he is in LA but as the child who could never defeat his cousin Clyde in any competition and as the boy still under his parents' dominion at home. Roscoe's relatives played by James Earl Jones. Margaret Avery, Cedric the Entertainer, Mo'nique and Michael Clarke Duncan are all funny and good at puncturing the bubble of Roscoe's believed importance. Eventually Roscoe learns some important lessons about the importance of family and remaining connected to them and becomes the man his father has always wanted him to be. This is a decent, somewhat funny movie so it gets a grade of C+ and a moderate recommendation.

Sandra Bullock has been good in several movies, including "Speed", "While You Were Sleeping" and "Hope Floats" but this is probably her best film. It is not to be confused with Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later". In this movie, Bullock plays Gwen, a woman with alcohol and prescription drug problems. After crashing a wedding limo, which she stole, into a house a judge makes Gwen enter a substance abuse program instead of sentencing her to jail. Like many addicts, at first Gwen denies she has any type of problem, but she prefers the clinic to prison so she goes to the facility. At first Gwen is a very difficult patient but eventually concedes that she has a problem and begins to work to get better. This picture mixes fairly serious drama with humor, as Gwen both owns up to her predicament and interacts with a comic cast, including Mike O'Malley, to gently poke fun at the situation which Gwen finds herself in. I like this movie, though it is by no means a great film, so it gets a grade of "B-" and a moderate recommendation.

Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) was the most corrupt President in US history and was forced to resign before he was tossed out of office by the US Congress. Because he resigned and was pardoned for any possible criminal offense by President Ford, Nixon was never officially questioned for any of his possible crimes. David Frost (Michael Sheen) noted there was a hunger in the US to have Nixon question about his improprieties and convinced the disgraced former President to agree to a 4-part interview, 1/4 of which would be questioning about the Watergate scandal. The best scene in this film occurs not during Frost's questioning but when a drunk Nixon calls Frost in the night before his Watergate interview. Nixon delivers a drunken rant which reveals the type of personality he truly had. He rails at the elite institutions of the nation which never fully accepted him as an equal and informs Frost that he sees their interviews as a battle between two men, only one of which could be the winner. This is one of Ron Howard's best movies, it is the equal of "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind" and should be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It gets a grade of "A" and a very strong recommendation.

John Farley (Seann William Scott) was an pudgy, out-of-shape youth who grew up to write a self-help book, "Letting Go", designed to help people overcome childhood trauma. John's trauma was his gym teacher, Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), picked on and humiliated weak kids as part of his teaching method. John's book is very successful so he is named winner of his town's "Corn Cob Key" award. When he arrives home, John learns his mom Beverly (Susan Sarandon) is romantically involved with Mr. Woodcock, something John cannot accept or even condone. So, most of this movie is funny bits in which John tries to dig up dirt on Mr. Woodcock or tries to compete with his ex-teacher to prove to him he is not the loser Woodcock pegged him as when he was a kid. Both Scott and Thornton are accomplished comedic actors, though both have been funnier in other films, like Scott in the "American Pie" series and Thornton in "Bad Santa", but they do bring some, not a lot of, humor to this film. I would not have recommended this film to people to see at the theatre but it is worth a Netflix rental, particularly if one likes the humor of its stars. It gets a grade of "B-"

I was very pleased with this movie. Like her ex-husband, Nicole Kidman stars in a remake of a 1950s sci-fi classic. Kidman plays Carol Bennell, a Washington DC psychiatrist, faced with a crisis when alien spores infect humans, through liquid, causing them to become emotionless and hugely desirous of converting every Earthling to their mutated species. It is during the REM stage of sleep that the "infection" converts those exposed to the alien species so Carol must make sure that she never sleeps after she is exposed to the infection. Carol is aided in her quest by her boyfriend/scientist Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) and together the two realize that Carol's son Oliver is not susceptible to being converted due to a strain of chicken pox he suffered previously. I like this sci-fi remake more than "War of the Worlds" which was a bit overwrought and if one merely wants to see a good movie with no pretensions other than to provide entertainment one will like this movie. It gets a grade of A- and a recommendation that acknowledges it is a worthy remake of a 1950s classic.

Eddie Murphy remade "The Nutty Professor" in the mid-1990s but the original co-written, directed and starring Jerry Lewis is a funnier film. Lewis plays Professor Julius Kelp, a chemistry professor who is enamored of one of his students, Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens) Julius realizes Stella is out of his league, she is very pretty and he is the ultimate nerd, picked on and dissed by everyone who knows him. So, Julius develops a chemical formula which allows him to become a cool, suave ladies man, and he calls himself "Buddy Love". Stella sees through Buddy's posturing and thinks he is mostly a self-involved jerk, but is nevertheless somewhat interested in him. Julius eventually learns an important life-lesson and is able to attract Stella for the man he really is. This is a funny movie, Buddy in an obnoxious way is very amusing, so this picture gets a grade of B+ and a strong recommendation.

John Wayne is mostly known for the westerns he starred in, like "Stagecoach" and "The Searchers" but during the WW II era he made some good war pictures. This is one of them. It is the story of American and Filipino resistance to the Japanese' occupation of the Phillipines during WW II. Wayne plays Col. Joe Madden, an American who stays behind when the US evacuates the Pacific islands at the start of the war and heads a band of guerrillas comprised of both American soldiers and patriotic Fillipinos. One of men under Madden is Andres Bonifacio, the grandson of a famed Fillipino leader, who must accept that the woman he loves is giving aid to the enemy through radio speeches requesting that the island people submit to Japanese rule. This movie, directed by Edward Dymitryk, is based on actual events, which occurred on the island chain, and the reality of the struggle to free the Philipines from the Japanese is very compelling. So, it gets a grade of B+ and a strong recommendation. It is one of John Wayne's best movies.

"Dodge City" is Warner Bros.' action star Errol Flynn's attempt at the western genre. He portrays Wade Hatton, an adventurer who settles in Dodge City, Kansas and attempts to clean up the unruly city to make it safe for civilians who find the "cowtown" dangerous. Hatton's main antagonist is Jeff Surrett, a businessman who uses violence to achieve his aims. Hatton is ably assisted by his sidekick, Rusty (Alan Hale), who acts as deputy and backs up Hatton in all his fights, while he is sheriff and before. Wade has a contentious relationship with a woman, played by Olivia deHavilland. At first she does not like Hatton, blaming Wade for the death of her brother on a cattle drive but coming to love him when he shows his courage in opposing the men who make Dodge City a dangerous place to live. This film is directed by Michael Curtiz, one of Warners' top directors and top-billed by Flynn, a major star, bu this is only an average western, so it gets a grade of B-

In "Double Indemnity" and "The Apartment" Fred MacMurray proved adept at drama. In this Disney, family comedy he shows his strenght as a comedic actor. MacMurray plays Ned Brainerd, a collegiate professor who devises an invention, "Flubber" (flying rubber) which is super-bouncy and allows his car to defy gravity. A rich alumni, Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) wishes to get his hands on the invention and the millions of dollars it is guaranteed to garner, so he uses under-handed methods to try to wrest control of Ned's spectacular discovery. Their is good humor throughout this movie, particularly when Hawk's desires become known to Ned and Ned uses "Flubber" to make Hawk bounce out-of-control. This film is one of the Disney Company's first comedies and one can only wish that their later one's are half-as-funny as this early venture. This movie gets a grade of A- and a very strong recommendation.

"Mutiny on the Bounty" was first made in 1935, starred Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, and won an Oscar as Best Picture. This lavish remake, starring Marlon Brando as the mutineer Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as the cruel Captain Bligh, is not Oscar worthy,it is nowhere nearly as good as 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", but it is still an impressive, entertaining film. In this movie, Christian is Bligh's second-in-command, and at first stands idly bye as Bligh's cruelty leads to the death of a couple of men. But finally, when Bligh will not allow fresh water to be dispensed to a man who has drunk sea water and is near death, Christain finally rebels. Both Brando and Howard perform well in this movie, Brando's Christain is especially good as he plays a man one or two social classes above Bligh but who at first submits to Bligh's insensitivity as a way to maintain order aboard a ship at sea for a long period of time. This movie gets a grade of B+ and gets a strong recommendation.

"Field of Dreams" is the best baseball fantasy yet filmed, followed closely by "The Natural". In this picture, Prof. Vernon Simpson (Ray MIlland) invents a chemical which makes any object avoid wood. This property is invaluable to baseball pitchers who wish that their pitches avoid contact by batters. Simpson, tests his invention himself as he gets himself hired by the St. Louis baseball team. Their is decent comedy in this movie as Simpson tries to hide the reason for his success from his teammates, such as Monk (Paul Douglas), and his manager, Jimmy Dolan. The reason Simpson has for pitching, in addition to proving that his invention works, is to earn money so he can marry his girlfriend Debbie (Jean Peters), but he wants her not to find out why he has departed his college campus. I like this movie, it would probably play better during spring training, not the dead of winter, so it get a grade of C+ and a modest recommendation.

I am always surprised to learn how little I know. I knew there were murder plots against Adolf Hitler during WW II, but I did not know that there were large conspiracies against the evil dictator and that there was an attempted coup after Von Stauffenberg's (Tom Cruise) attempt to kill the Nazi leader. This is a good movie and like with "All The President's Men" and "Apollo 13", knowing the result of the action before seeing it did not diminish my enjoyment. Cruise and cast do not employ German accents (a few actors like Tom Wilkinson sport British accents) but they are believable as WW II era German officers. The best thing about this fine picture occurs after the bomb attempt when Von Stauffenberg and his colleagues attempt to pull off a coup and topple the Nazi regime before it destroys all of Germany. I give this movie a grade of "A-" and a strong recommendation.

This film is one of Hollywood's great films about an individual's fight to find freedom in an oppressive environment. Randall MacMurphy (Jack Nicholson 1975's Best Actor) is a prison convict judged to possibly be mentally ill and sent for evaluation to a mental hospital in 1960s Oregon. In the hospital he is under the "care" of Nurse Ratchett (Louis Fletcher in an Oscar-winning role) who is cold and unsympathetic to MacMurphy and all the other inmates. She desires order and obedience from the men in her charge. This immediately sets MacMurphy and Ratchett at odds as MacMurphy is not about to be anyone's lackey.

MacMurphy demonstrates his desire for freedom and individuality in many ways . He gets Ratchett to OK a vote to decide if the inmates will be able to alter their strict work schedule and watch the World Series. MacMurphy thinks he has won when all the cognizant inmates vote to watch the game. But Ratchett stifles Randall's bid when she insists on counting the catatonic members of "the group" as "No" votes so MacMurphy is frustrated in his effort.

MacMurphy desires to prove to his minders that he is mentally ill and should not be sent back to prison, so he escapes from the hospital with Cheswick, Taygor, Harding, Martinia and others and absconds with a charter boat so the men can go fishing. This effort surely puts Randal in hot water with hospital officials, but it accomplishes MacMurphy's goal of being kept in the mental hospital. What he does not know and no one told him is as an involuntary committed man, MacMurphy, unlike most of the other men in the hospital, who are voluntarily in the hospital, MacMurphy can be held as long as the hospital officials desire.

MacMurphy and Ratchett are at odds throughout this movie. This film shows the down-side of this country'r mental health system where under-paid and overly officious health workers like Ratchett can use their power to abuse those supposedly in their care. This is shown best in Ratchett's treatment of teenager Billy (Brad Dourff) whom Ratchett controls by threatening to tell his mother of Billy's encounter with a woman MacMurphy brings into the hospital, at night, for a party. Billy is terrified that his mother will find out that he was with a woman, and Ratchett knows this, but nevertheless makes the threat to him.

There are vociferous critics int the United States of the psychiatric profession and of the use of medication to control the freedom of mental patients, the Church of Scientology being the most prominent. I don't agree with the critics' point of view, but this movie, in which several people are hurt in the oppressive mental hospital strengthens the case of those who dislike the mental health system in this country. This movie does a great job of showing MacMurphy's fight against oppression, to remain an individual in a totalitarian system, so I grade this film as earning 9 points out of 10. This film is deservedly among the top 100 ever according to the AFI and I encourage everyone, especially Jack Nicholson fans to watch it if they get the chance.

This is a very good movie based upon a novel by Larry McMurtry. It tells the story of a modern Texas rancher, Hud Bannon (Paul Newman) who is amoral and his life with his family as they face tough times when their cattle herd is diagnosed with hoof and mouth disease. Hud sees the diseased cattles' demise as the chance to move his father (Best Supporting Actor Melvyn Douglas), Homer, out as head of the family ranch. He argues that buying diseased Mexican cattle is evidence that his father is no longer capable of running the ranch.

Trying to oust his father from his job is not Hud's only wrong. He carouses with married women, he advises his father to sell their sick stock before the government has a chance to examine them and he ually assaults the family's maid Alma (Best Actress Patricia Neal) but is stopped by his admiring nephew Lon (Brandon de Wilde). Hud is utterly amoral and is an early anti-hero, such as Newman later made popular with his character Luke in "Cool Hand Luke".

The best scenes in this movie occur between Hud and his father Homer as the two engage in the combat that had persisted for many years. Hud thinks his father dislikes him because of his role in the death of his older brother. But Homer tells Hud he disliked him well before his son's death. He tells Hud that his problem is he does not care about other people and how he affects them. And, his father worries that Hud is a bad influence on his grandson Lon, who seems to admire Hud and his ne'er-do-well ways.

This is a very well-acted movie, with 2 Academy Award winning performances and Newman a nominee for Best Actor. It tells the story of a bad man, Hud, and his pernicious influence on those around him. I liked this movie more than I though I would and grade this film as getting 8 points out of 10

"300" is a popular movie but not a very good one. There is little plot and a lot of violence. It tells the story, not well, of 300 Spartans who battled hordes of Persians seeking to destroy them and to te Greece. It is not so much the violence I object to, I really like "Braveheart" and the "LOTR" movies, but the fact that there is lo little drama in recounting the Spartans story.

Spartans, the movie informs its audience, were trained to be warriors from an early age. They are constantly drilled and tested so by the time they reach maturity they are able to encounter any foe with a good chance of being victorious in the encounter. Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is the king of Sparta and like other Spartans was trained to be a soldier and to never give in to his enemies demands. This training is put to the test when King Xerses of Persia comes to Greece intending to conquer the nation-states of that region. Xerses' forces vastly outnumber the Spartans and is certain, because of his superior numbers, to defeat the Spartans in battle, no matter how valiantly the Spartans fight. But the king of Persia turns out to admire Sparta's warrior mentality and all he demands of Leonidas is that he kneel before him, acknowledge him as his God and let Persia control Greece. But, this Leonidas will not do and he recruits the 300 best Spartan warriors to got to war against Persia. After this development, the movie is filled with battle scenes and mayhem as the 300 heroically oppose the vast Persian army.

So, with very little plot development behind it, the movie moves on to several very graphic battle sequences as the audience sees Spartans stab, impale, sever and behead their opponents. For a while it seems the Spartans are going to make the cost of victory so high that the Persians might give in. But, in a sub-plot a hunchback, whom Leonidas would not let fight with the 300, turns traitor and the Spartans are outflanked, leading to their doom. This sub-plot, like the one involving the Spartan queen and a council member only slightly ups the dramatic ante as both are very predictable in their outcomes.

Some people might be squeamish about the graphic violence of this depiction of a graphic novel by Frank Miller. But the battle sequences are the best thing about this movie. The action is almost all done with CGI as actors fight scenes that were filmed in front of "green screen" with backgrounds later added digitally by computer whizzes. It all seems very realistic and it is hard to tell what action is computer enhanced. But good CGI effects lacking a compelling story is a hollow victory for the movie's makers. I get the point that Spartans were warriors, more than willing to die to defend their nation. But this is a thin reed to base a 1 3/4 hour movie. I like the action of this film but not the story so I grade it 6 points out of 10.

"Wild Hogs" the new comedy from Tim Allen, John Travolta, Bill Macy and Martin Lawrence is a good comedy that entertains throughout but is far from scintillating. Macy is the funniest character in the film as Dudley, a nerdish computer programmer who is part of a weekend motorcycle club with Doug (Allen), Woody (Travolta) and Bobby (Lawrence). Each man is in a bad place in their life when the movie starts and each needs to get away, more to rediscover themselves than to explore America. So, the club goes on a cross-country trip from Cincinnati to the Pacific coast. They have several adventures along the way, the most interesting, and time-consuming, being their run-in with the Del Fuego motorcycle gang in New Mexico. The club runs afoul of the Del Fuegos leader, played by Ray Liotta, who hates them because in his estimation Woody, Bobby, Doug and Dudley are poseurs, who embarrass real motorcyclists. Feeling this Liotta steals Dudley's motorcycle leading eventually to a confrontation between the two groups. The comedy in the movie is uneven and Travolta does not seem to be suited to this type of humor, he is much better in "Be Cool" and "Get Shorty", but overall this film provides solid entertainment. I grade it a 2.75 out of 5.0 points.

I have not seen the Broadway musical that is the basis for this movie and only part of the 1968 movie that is the basis for the play. On its own this is a funny movie with decent music.

Leo Bloom (Matthew Broadrick) is an accountant assigned to review the books of Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) a Broadway producer. Boom realizes that with a really bad play, creative accounting could lead a producer to make more money than he would with a smash. He tells this to Bialystock and Max decides he must find the world's worst play, with the worst director and stage it. He persuades Bloom to help him.

Max and Leo find "Springtime for Hitler" by Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell) and decide that this is the play that will make them rich. They find a flamboyantly gay director Roger to stage their play. Unfortunately for Max and Leo their audience finds their play very amusing, it makes money and the 2 face prison for trying to cheat their investors.

The movie's director Susan Stroman tries to make this movie like attending the stage show. Her actors emote too much, like they are trying to be heard at the back of a play's theater. This is especially true at the beginning of the movie. I know the play was one of Broadway's all-time biggest smashes but she and Mel Brooks should have tried harder to adapt the play for its new environs in the movies.

Nathan Lane and Will Ferrel got Golden Globe nominations but I think Broadrick and, especially Uma Thurman, as Swedish bombshell Ula, are the film's funniest characters.

The song's are alright. The lyrics are very clever and help advance the story. The music is not that original but, as a comedian originally, Mel Brooks is probably much more comfortable with words than creating music.

I like this film pretty much and think it is well-worth seeing; especially if, like me, you never saw the stage play.

"Munich" is not Steven Spielberg's masterpiece; that would still be "Schindler's List". But, it is Spielberg's most intelligent film. Without providing answers, Spielberg accomplishes what most great artist do, uses his art to make his viewers consider the real world. In this case that is by posing the question, "what is the most effective way to deal with terrorism?" There are two basic choices, avenge terrorism with violence against its perpetrators, hoping it will deter future acts or accept that violence begets more violence and vengeance merely further fuels the anger that spurs terrorism. These questions are mostly posed in the last 45 minutes of "Munich", the first hour and 45 minutes is a very good thriller.

The movie starts with the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics of 1972. Israeli PM Golda Meier decides on the first tack in responding to the terrorism, saying at times a nation must compromise its values and that Israel must appear strong before the world. Avner (Eric Bana) is recruited to lead the team that is assigned to locate and kill the 11 leaders of Black September that planned the attack on Israel's athletes. Avner is provided with a team of 5 with various skills, such as bomb-making, clean up and documentation. The team starts upon its mission and begins to kill the terrorists. (not said, but note-worthy is in appearance the Palestinians killed all appear to be middle-class, middle-aged men. It is possible by killing these people, Israel inadvertently allowed younger, more radical and violent men to take their place).

It is after about 1 hour and 45 minutes that the movie changes from mostly straight-forward thriller to questioning the effect of the killing. Various men of Avner's team have various reactions to participating in killing others. Then, having attracted attention, members of Avner's team start to be killed. Avner becomes almost paranoid about his own safety. By film's end, Avner fantasizes that he is both a member of the Black September attack and a member of the doomed Olympic team.

Spielberg also portrays both Israeli and Palestinians as defending their actions due to their desire to have a home. This is a familiar Spielberg team. The unanswered question, which having seen the film one must consider is: What do you do when 2 people want the same home. Can they ever reconcile these desires and find a way to live in peace? The Cold War, South Africa and, hopefully, Norhtern Ireland found peaceful resolutions, maybe one day this can also happen in the Middle East.

"Memoirs of a Geisha" is a beautifully photographed film with an excellent story. I never read the best-seller but still found the plot to be compelling.

Chiyo and her sister are sold to 2 separate geisha houses to be trained to enter that way of life. In Chiyo's she almost immediately runs afoul of Hatsumomo, who is already a geisha. Hatsumomo is jealous of Chiyo's potential as a geisha and they have a life-long rivalry.

Because of Hatsumomo's conniving and her own attempts to reunite with her sister by running away, Chiyo becomes the slave of the woman running her geisha house. She almost give up hope, but the kindness of "the Chairman", who buys her flavored ice and gives her some money, revives her spirit and Chiyo vows she will someday be a geisha.

When Chiyo is trained as a geisha her name is changed to Sayuri, and she immediately attracts the attention of many men, but she longs only for the Chairman. Her rivalry with Hatsumomo continues, as Hatsumomo and Sayuri's patron both want their protégé's to be "adopted" by the woman running the geisha house.

At film's end, Japan's loss in WW II changes everything. Geisha's become westernized and some are more prostitute than geisha. Sayuri, however, retains hope that someday she might be reunited with "the Chairman" and fall in love.

I think this film has an excellent chance to be nominated for some of the more technical awards - cinematography, make-up, score and others - at the Oscar's. The woman playing Sayuri, Zhi Zyang (?), was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress and she too could be nominated for an Academy Award

"Cheaper by the Dozen 2" is a superior film to the remake that was made a couple of years ago.

It is again the story of the Baker family, Tom, Kate and their 12 children. In this installment Tom (Steve Martin) is worried that his older children are leaving the nest and no longer want to spend time with their family. To remedy this, he plans a week-long vacation at a resort on Lake Winnetka. All the children attend.

Upon arriving at Lake Winnetka, Tom learns his childhood rival, Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy) is there with his family of wife and 8 children. Jimmy has built a lavish home there with all the amenities. Tom and Jimmy are jealous of each other. Tom envies Jimmy because he is financially successful, has a trophy wife and well-behaved children. It seems like the perfect life. Jimmy is jealous of Tom because going back to his childhood Tom has always been the popular one. He was more popular with s, and even his father liked Tom better than Jimmy.

Their mutual envy leads both men to competing as to who could have a better vacation. This leads to a contest among all the families on the Lake for the coveted Cup to be won by the family which wins the most contests, such as the Egg Toss, Three-Legged Race and others.

There is not a lot of laugh-out loud humor to this movie or drama. Mostly it is a good family film, one that can be enjoyed at Christmas time.