In case you haven't noticed, I don't really do movie reviews anymore. Why? Because honestly, I don't think anyone gives a crap about what I think about a movie. I know I take what other folks say about movies with several grains of salt. However, Gringo requested I put up my thoughts on Reign Over Me, so here you go. This is what I wrote on the VA Board:

I saw Reign Over Me last night. I liked parts of it, but overall I thought it was quite a mess. The pacing was very bizarre, bad editing, and it kept trying to be a comedy when it wasn't. Anytime I was getting sucked into the movie with a genuine performance, something would happen to take me out of it. I also had some major problems with the fact that Jada Pinkett Smith was portrayed as a bad wife holding her husband back. It just didn't make sense to me. Not to mention horrible usage of the word "faggot" which is a word I hate and just needs to go away. So yeah, I liked certain things, Sandler had some great moments, but overall I don't recommend it.

I'll also add that there were a couple plot lines that were pretty unnecessary and only caused the film to drag on. Which it does. The movie is two hours long as it is and it felt like I was in there a lot longer. I was very excited for this movie and I'm glad I saw it, but it really bummed me out. It could have been a whole lot better. So there's my review, take it for what you will.

Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

The Wire - The Complete Second Season

Alias - The Complete Second Season

The Lives of Others takes place in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall, and tells the story of a secret service agent who is assigned to spy on a successful writer and his actress girlfriend. He's a straight arrow, true to his government and his job (actually a rather talented interrogator), and when he's assigned this case merely because the Minister of Culture has an eye on the actress, he begins to question the judgment of his superiors, who are looking for evidence against an innocent man (the writer, Dreyman).

This won Best Foreign Film this year, and I'm so happy it did. Wiesler, our secret service agent, is played by Ulrich Mühe, who seems incredibly familiar even though I can't find any evidence that I've seen him in another movie. His character's line between honesty and dishonesty is tugged at constantly - he's observing a couple unbeknownst to them, but it's for his country, but he disagrees with why he observes them, but he learns to respect them, and then he wants to observe them all the more, and then he wants to help them, although that's not what he's supposed to do.

A tight screenplay takes us through the events quickly and thoughtfully. I appreciated the attention to artists and their passion for what they do, and that the inner conflict going on with Dreyman, who is actually a good man until the secret service overuses its power.

I'd be interested to hear what other people who saw this movie thought about it, particularly the last scene. I don't know why I liked it so much, but how the scene froze after the final line just made my day.

This is pretty awesome. I think it actually shows that Bruce Campbell beats out Anakin for being master of the "Noooooo!"