The Brave One

This movie began with this disturbing violent seen of a couple that gets savagely beaten in Central Park. Jodie Foster's character survives, but her fiance dies.

She's not just immediately out for revenge. She's scared. She now fears things she didn't really know existed prior to the attack.

And then she gets a gun. And then all of the sudden, she is a witness to some horrible things done by horrible people, and with the gun, she takes action...

Jodie Foster pulled off this part, but I can't think of anyone else who could have. She's not just tough- she's also vulnerable. Best movie I've seen in a while. So glad a good movie finally came out...

Death At a Funeral

This was a British comedy. Sort of like "A Fish Called Wanda"- It was one of those stories with this complicated set of problems where one thing leads to the next, to the next to the next. And it feels sort of exhausting.

Maybe I would've liked it more had it not been for the OUT OF CONTROL couple of laughers that kind of spoiled it for everyone.

As the title implies, there is a death, or at least a near-death/homicide during a funeral. But if I explained it more than that I would sound crazy. And this would be a very long and boring post.

If you're into that type of comedy, you'll like it and you should see it.

No Reservations

This was actually a really sweet movie and not cheesy like the preview made it seem!

It stars Catherine-Zeta Jones as a foxy yet bitchy chef (Kate) in a successful restaurant in NYC. Her sister and 9 year old niece are in a car wreck on their way to visit her. Her sister dies, but her niece survives and Kate becomes her guardian. Little Miss Sunshine (aka Abigail Breslin) is of course exceptional in her role. She's the new Dakota Fanning.

A new assistant chef named Nick comes to help out in the kitchen and as bitchy as Kate is, he sees the best in her and they fall in love. Nick is played by Aaron Eckhardt who is for sure the most attractive chef there ever was. Super manly. Super hot. Even if the movie sucked, it would be worth the $9 dollars just to look at him for and hour and 1/2.

But the movie really doesn't suck at all. It's actually quite good. And my small theater was pretty full of people watching. And I think we all really enjoyed it!

You'll be hungry after you see it. And you might even want to cook!!!

Talk To Me

Don Cheadle is such a great actor. He's great in every role and he always chooses really good ones.

This is the true story of a DJ who came from the streets. And 10 years in prison. He was an outspoken DJ in D.C. back in the 70s and he told it like it was! He probably paved the way for tons of radio personalities. He helped his community thru hard times, like the day MLK was killed.

How cool that he was given the chance to be exactly what he was meant to be.

shopgirl

I barely remember this movie being in theatres which is a CRYING SHAME!!! This was perhaps my favorite movie I have seen all year. I cannot believe how much I loved this romantic movie...

Claire Danes plays the shopgirl. A simple, ordinary girl. (Which is a rare thing, especially in LA in Saks!) There she meets an older man, played by Steve Martin. He asks her out on a date and the relationship begins. All the while, she's met this other guy, played by Jason Schwartman who isn't the polished gentleman that Steve's charactor is, but he IS funny and he does seem pretty smitten with the shopgirl.

So the lesson from this movie is that in a relationship, to really GET, you've gotta GIVE completely- And how heartbreaking it is when someone can't totally open themself up to a relationship for fear of getting hurt.

I loved all three of the characters in this movie- Claire Danes especially. Steve Martin wrote the novella that this movie was based on. He IS brilliant. Oh, and he isn't the typical funny man in this, and he plays this part so well.

So if you're like me and you didn't get a chance to see it when it was in theatres, see it now on DVD, or on "Encore"- FYI, it's going to be shown again on that channel on my BIRTHDAY!!! June 24th!

Once

My friend texted me and just wrote "Go see Once"- and so I did, without even knowing what it was about- I had not ever heard of it.

It was sort of a musical. The story of a singer-songwriter- in Ireland I think- who busks on the street but wants to make it big. He meets a girl who quickly becomes his friend, his cheerleader, and one of his accompanist as he makes his cd demo.

It's a very sweet story- And it has a beautiful ending.

CHALK

This was a "mockumentary" (similar to Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, etc. but done by different people) about highschool teachers. I thought this movie was really funny, but agreed with my husband that (maybe) it could've been even funnier.

A couple of the characters were so funny- The teacher who tries to be the funny friend to his class, and the gym teacher!!! I wish there had been more screen time of them- Or maybe a couple more characters equal to them.

But I totally enjoyed this film. I was one of the really loud laughers in the full theater. I think too that if I saw it again, just like when I saw "Waiting for Guffman" over and over, I'd find it funnier each time.

Waitress

I've seen several good movies lately and this was my favorite of the bunch.
It's the story of a young waitress living in a small town who's also an artistic pie maker that finds herself pregnant and in an unhappy marriage. Through out her entire pregnancy she doesn't want the baby. And she begins an affair with her doctor.

Not to ruin any part, but just to say...what a beautiful and magical movie moment when the baby is born and what she says!!! I loved- LOVED the way this movie ended. One of the best this year for me.

Land of Women

This was one of those dramadies... 1/2 drama, 1/2 comedy I guess (to me that means it's a real life kind of story) , starring Adam Brody and Meg Ryan. (Those are the only people in it who's names I know...there ARE other people in it too...)

I use to love Meg Ryan, and I guess who didn't? But then she started chosing movies I didn't enjoy as much. I'm sure she needed to. She can't be in all romantic comedies. And this was NOT a comedic role for her! It showed what a really good actress she is.

The charactor played by Adam Brody is a 26 year old "soft porn" screen writer who is a bit disenchanted with his life. He's always yearned for writing something to be proud of but living in LA he seemed to have just gotten too caught up in life. So after his girlfriend breaks up with him (in the first scene of the movie), he decides to go to Michigan and live with his negitive grandma who is convinced she's dying, even tho she isn't ill.

He and his grandma's across the street neighbor is Meg Ryan and her family. He befriends her, and then her daughter as they are all going through rough spots of real life. Something told him he should go live in Michigan for a while, and he was right.

I don't ever like to give much away about good movies like this, other than to say, it is so worth seeing... It's along the same lines as Garden State. Well worth the little bit of money and time you'd spend to see it.

Perfect Stranger

Please, I really encourage you to ignore the Dallas Morning News' review on this movie. I think they gave it a D. They made it sound predictable and just sort of stupid. But I saw Halle Berry talking about it on a show, and the people on the show with her who had seen it seemed to really like it and think it had a shocking twist at the end so I decide to check it out.

It was a GREAT suspense-thriller. I love that genre of movie but it seems like there haven't been many, or at least many good ones, in a while. But this one was so good that I bit down all of my fingernails and RAN to the restroom when I had to use it during the movie. I was glued to it from beginning to end. And then afterwards, my husband, who loves finding the holes in scipts on why something couldn't really happen that way- couldn't find a hole! He really liked it too.

Like many suspense-thrillers, this movie begins with a murder. And then it's an unraveling of twists trying to figure out who did it... Halle Berry is so pretty that her beauty is actually a distraction. But I forgive her. Bruce Willis is a good slimey, charming guy. But it's Giovanni Ribisi that is fascinating to watch. He is such a under-rated actor. Am I the only one that LOVES him? I may have been the only one who saw the movie "The Other Sister" (I think that was the title) with him and Juliette Lewis. If you see that, you will see that even years ago, he was a really fine actor.

What a fun movie to see. It will take your mind off of anything else. And that can be a great thing.