JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME

Starting a movie, or centering it around the movie "Signs" is in itself, not a good sign. However, Jeff (Jason Segel) makes the seamless move from slacker to hero in the course of 83 quick minutes. Paired up with his brother, Pat (Ed Helms) borders the bromance line, but doesn't cross it. Jeff lives at home and his mother (Susan Sarandon) gives him the simple task of repairing a shutter in the kitchen, but he is either too stoned or too dumb to get that done efficiently. Instead, he looks to the "signs" he has been getting about "Kevin" and follows his heart in search of an answer. And he has a big heart. His path intersects with his brother, Pat, who has a heart, but has been keeping it hidden. Together they tie the string of this plot tighter and tighter until the end when it snaps. The ending of this film is gratifying and worth the slow start. This is a beautiful little gem of a show. The characters are multifaceted and entertaining. Aside from the ending, my favorite scene was when Sarandon catches on to the idea behind the fire alarm sprinklers. Segel is a lovable and sincere actor. This is a movie that should be worth the 83 minutes of your life.

FEATURED THEME MOVIE OF THE MONTH: IN TIME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY:

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.

Life is complicated enough, then you add in love and relationships. They are usually much more work and require a greater effort than does the initial attraction. So, is it worth it? The pain, the boredom, the real life, non romantic stuff? This movie wholeheartedly says yes. Often criticized for it's difficulty in following the out of sequence scenes, and the bizarre concept of memory removal, this film with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet present the magic upon meeting a "special someone" and the pain often associated with the years to come. Like most of my other favorite nontraditional movies, while this is a love story, it is also a Valentine's Day movie just because it begins on VD. The characters are engaging and quirky in their own right. I love both lead performances as well. Carrey gets to have serious and funny moments. I like him best when he isn't over acting. The concept is beautiful; a scientific way to erase a past relationship from your mind in order to move on with your life: the effects "on par with a night of heavy drinking." What I like best about the whole movie, is the last scene. Would you do it all again, even if it meant you would eventually feel pain and suffering due to whatever went wrong in the first place? Would you? If so, way to go. Make sure to catch this flick!

BEGINNERS: A TRUE LOVE STORY IN MANY WAYS

Hal: Well, let's say that since you were little, you always dreamed of getting a lion. And you wait, and you

wait, and you wait, and you wait but the lion doesn't come. And along comes a giraffe. You can be alone,

or you can be with the giraffe.

Oliver: I'd wait for the lion.

Hal: That's why I worry about you.

 

This film has the very essence of what I look for in a good film; it's magical and it's about love... the love between a parent and child, the love between a man and a woman, the love between a man and a life partner, the love between a man and a dog and the love a man has for himself. It really is a little slice of heaven. We meet Oliver (a cheeky Ewan McGregor who has just lost his father, Hal, to cancer. Lucky for us, we catch glimpses of their lives leading up to this time. Lucky for us we are engaged by Christopher Plummer as he finds himself widowed five years earlier and deciding it is okay to come out of the closet as a gay man and a man with a new lease on life. This performance is stellar. Oliver reflects on his parent's marriage and his upbringing as he meets and falls in love with a lovely french actress played by Melanie Laurent. Relationships are hard!!! It's amazing anyone has them at all. Of course, one of my favorite parts is the relationship Oliver creates with his father's dog, who does understand 160 words of English. The subtitles are very clever. Goran Visnjic is a surprising little gem as Hal's younger lover. It is a movie of hope within realistic perimeters. It is a story of love, struggle and redemption. It is a story you must see.  

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS: LOOKS PRETTY, JUST PEANUTS

Jacob: Who's the woman who works with the horses?

Camel: That ain't no woman, that's the boss' wife and she don't talk to nobody and you don't talk to her.

Really??? Could it really be this obvious what's going to happen after hearing a line like that? Oh, and of course seeing that picture on the cover of the box doesn't help much. This was just one big sad little film. It sure did look pretty, and everyone in it was pretty,but it was oh so predictable, and pretty sappy and the ending was so "happily ever after" I thought I might gag. I read online a review by someone who loved Titanic, so I suppose if you absolutely loved Titanic you might like this to. However, don't say you were not warned. Yuck!    

RED STATE: NOT YOUR AVERAGE "HORROR" MOVIE 

Well isn't this an unexpected present from director Kevin Smith. From the previews, this movie looks like one of those cheap, cheesy horror movies, but it is so much more than that.It begins with a simple redneck type tale of three teenage boys who think they have a willing sexual participant in an older more experienced woman who they go to meet up with one night. What they don't know, is that it is a set up orchestrated by the local right wing hard-core fundamentalist Christian sect. Once they are brought to the

 compound for their "redemption", does the movie truly turn into a horror movie.It is fast-paced, interesting, and thoroughly watchable. Melissa Leo does an excellent job as the leader's wife and Michael Parks is flawless as the charismatic leader of this sect. Watching him in this role is almost hypnotic. A truly surprising, disturbing and thoroughly enjoyable film. 

 SUPER 8: GOOD, BUT NOT SUPER

Yes, I am that one person who was not totally blown away by Super 8. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a good film and yes, I will admit to getting a little choked up at the end, however, I don't think that it came close to ET, the movie to which it was compared to endlessly. The story follows a bunch of kids who want to make a movie even if it means sneaking out at night to do the filming. One fateful night as they are filming,they are witness to a terrible train crash and they have a front row seat for the chaos that ensues. I think the thing that bothered me the most, was how the movie took such a hard right turn into sci-fi material while also trying to tug at the heartstrings. I won't say it was bad, just surprising, and just a tad off putting. Overall, however, I did enjoy the film.   

 THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE: AWESOME GLIMPSE OF HELL

They say that war is hell on so many levels, but whoever they are never met Uday Hussein. Dominic Cooper in a performance that is flawless stars as both the good guy and a bad guy in this riveting film. Based on a true story, we follow army lieutenant Latif Yahia as he is forced, literally at gunpoint, to become the body double for Saddam Hussein's thoroughly evil son, Uday. Not only is the story itself compelling to watch, but the way that they filmed Cooper in both roles was amazing. In fact, many people don't believe that the same actor played both roles. I loved this movie and his performance. Very much a must see film.Also, be sure to check out the DVD extras which feature the man who the story is based on.      

WRECKED: WHO IS HE??? WHERE IS HE???

A man, wakes up at the bottom of a ravine, surrounded by bodies and barely able to move...this is the setting for this terribly slow, but interesting movie. Honestly, I don't have strong feelings about it one way or the other. I think that Adrien Brody did a decent job with what he was given, which wasn't much. I was surprised to find him in this movie. However slow, the ending was fulfilling enough.