Basically, I will see any movie with John Cusack in it and almost any movie with Julia Roberts. Billy Crystal, who wrote and produced this film, if he’s being funny. So it was only a matter of time (six days actually) until I saw America’s Sweethearts, a sweet, funny movie. Christopher Walken makes a short but potent appearance at the end as the director of the movie-within-a-movie that is the point of America’s Sweethearts and he turns everything upside down.

This film had a bigger opening weekend (that is, had a higher take at the box office) than any of Cusack’s previous films, even Con Air but this is probably due more to Robert’s pull. It is apparently the second biggest opening for her.

recommended

Oooh scary, a world killing virus is on the loose, stolen by a renegade IMF agent, and Ethan Hunt and team must get it back in John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2 or gorgeous Thandie Newton will become the Typhoid Mary of 1999. You know he’s bad and that Tom Cruise will never let the girl be sad. And there is that totally cool motorcycle race/joust at the end!

definitely recommended

Director Darren Aronofsky knows weird. I mean strange. Plus, he knows Brooklyn or he found someone who told him the way to Coney Island and back. So, if you want to see a really cool film that is only superficially about the evils of drugs but is really about the evils of addictions of all types, check out this film. Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans (yes, the same guy who made you puke in Scary Movie) give great performance–only Connelly gives head (although you don’t actually see this onscreen)–and Aronofsky and editor Jay Rabinowitz take their performances to an entirely different plane with shot selection, pacing, and sound effects. Definitely cool but you need to have an open mind to enjoy.

recommended

Bob Graham, writing in the SF Chronicle, gave The Score a very positive review. My parents gave it a glowing report. I went with two of my friends and we all were looking for rusty railroad spikes to drive through our heads to end the agony. This is a Hollywood heist movie, like The Thomas Crown Affair, and the key to a successful heist flick is a continual ratcheting up of the tension (such as when Rene Russo accompanies Pierce Brosnan to his Caribbean hideaway) but director (and Miss Piggy/Yoda voiceman) Frank Oz never gives us any tension to ratchet up until almost the very end, which he then ignores for the remaining 90 seconds of the film. Don’t be surprised when Brando first comes on screen: he’s bulked up and looks like an orca in a bad suit.

Not recommended!

Watched a very funny Jet Li movie last night, which is called Meltdown on the DVD but High Risk on The Official Jet Li Website. A criminal kills Li’s wife and some schoolchildren after collecting a huge ransom; two years later, they face off again when “The Doctor” (played by Kelvin Wong) and his crew target some antique jewels at the opening of their exhibition. By this time, Li is working as the bodyguard (and stunt double) for martial arts film star Frankie Lane. Lane is famous for doing his own stunts but Meltdown shows us that’s just PR BS, Lane was a world class fighter who’s long since degenerated into a sex-crazed party wimp. To my eyes, the Lane character mocks Jackie Chan but in the end the charater redeems himself by defeating the most dangerous of The Doctor’s crew. Lots of laughs, not the least of which come from the dubbed English voices (Li does not do his own), and good fighting scenes.

recommended

Steven Spielberg’s first script since Close Encounters of the Third Kind is crisp and clean in places but A.I. Artificial Intelligence is muddled overall. Best thing about the film is Haley Joel Osment’s awesome performance as the robot David. Jude Law is classy and cool. The ending is just strange, too strange for me and that’s saying something.

not recommended