The Girl Who Played with Fire

Some people might not realize that this is the same "girl" as in the last film-- so a better title might be, "The Girl, with the Dragon Tattoo, Who Played with Fire."

Anyhow, it's another scandalous mystery, and it got exciting fast, & stayed exciting.

Hubble (IMAX)

The biggest attraction of this IMAX documentary is the amazing views of galaxies far beyond our own.

These segments of the film--the ones containing actual Hubble images--should replace the tired "planetarium shows" in most science museums.

Inception

Fascinating idea that, once it gets started, goes full-speed-ahead with the capital-A Action, taking no more time to dare get ponderous.

It was so relentlessly loud, I had a hell of a time trying to get to sleep.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The first minute or two were enough to make me want to walk out, and the ending wasn't that much better-- but the middle was midly entertaining, certainly no worse than I'd been expecting for this movie.

I did like the nod to Mickey (two nods, if you stay to the end of the credits).

Kisses

Short and (bitter-)sweet, this movie bowled me over with its display of rarely-to-be-seen minimalist perfection.

The only problem I had with the film was the fact that its Irish accents needed more subtitling than they received.

Despicable Me

The little girl seems so much like the one from "Monsters, Inc.," the minions remind me of the "Toy Story" aliens, and the "other" bad guy brought to mind the Edith Head character from "The Incredibles."

Whatever-- the movie made me laugh, a lot.

Restrepo

I get that they're spending a year with soldiers stationed at "the most dangerous place on earth," but I don't get-- whatever it is they want us to get.

The impression with which I was left was that everyone, including the leader, was inexperienced & unprepared, and that we're all best off far away from there.

A Solitary Man

No explosions, not even any bombastic music-- just a STORY-- very simple and straightforward.

I quite liked it.

Knight and Day

You could hate this movie for the dead-stupid name, but that wouldn't be fair.

The biggest problem with the film is not that there's something to hate about it, but rather that there's nothing to actually really like about it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Very disturbing & enthralling, and I'll look forward to the followup film.

My biggest complaint would be the white subtitles, which seem to continually be swallowed up by the background.

Grown Ups

Not too bad, once it got over the initial few minutes of middle-aged men making fat jokes at one another (without apparent benefit of a comedy writer).

The fact is, the movie itself coulda lost a few pounds--it was overlong, sporting a paunch in the form of a useless plot addition.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

The results of the plastic surgery are difficult to look at, and the psyche of a performer is no secret, but these are not the reasons to see this film.

What I got out of the whole thing is that Joan Rivers is still shockingly funny-- and I wish the film had focused on simply documenting her standup over the course of the year.

Cyrus

If you've seen the trailer, you know all you need to know-- the ending is to be inferred, and then all that is left are the long dragging periods of nothingness.

The best thing I can say about "Cyrus" is that it is not at all as bad as I had expected.