☻☻☻☻ Wonderful, see it in the cinema over and over
☻☻☻ Great, well worth the admission / DVD / etc
☻☻ Fluff, but fun
☻ Flawed, yet watchable
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☻☻☻ Win Win (2011). Lawyer Mike Flaherty's (Paul Giamatti) life is pretty much a disaster. His legal practice is in bad shape. So's the high school wrestling team he coaches.
Becoming the paid legal guardian of Leo Poplar (Burt Young) may not be ethical, but it keeps the wolf from the door. Then Leo's grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer) shows up and the wolves follow. Mike needs to redeem himself and save Leo and Kyle from a scheming drug addict (Melanie Lynskey). Can he do it?
I enjoyed watching Kyle worm his way into the hearts of Mike's family and seeing his ethics held up to those of his contemporaries. I believe Mike found a win-win solution, despite the cost.
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☻☻ Water for Elephants (2011). Ivy League veterinary student Jacob (Robert Pattinson) parlays himself into the job of circus vet after the automobile death of his parents.
He falls in love with Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), the star performer and wife to evil ringmaster August (Christoph Waltz). It's only a question of time before the inevitable occurs.
For one of those hot days when a movie in an air conditioned theatre is just what you need.
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☻☻☻ Rango (2011). Household pet Rango (voice, Johnny Depp), goes walkabout in this modern animated adaptation of the Grimms Brothers' fairytale, The Brave Little Tailor. Love-interest iguana, Beans (voice, Isla Fisher), needs water to save her daddy's farm. But dirt-poor Wild West town Dirt's a place where water is power and a golfing turtle (voice, Ned Beatty) with a handicap has his paw firmly on the tap.
Watch the weird and wonderful Dirty citizens get their just deserts in the Mojave desert or just count the movie tributes: a Wizard of Oz death; Star Wars chases; 2001: A Space Odyssey low-gravity antics; an Apocalypse Now Valkyrie theme; Ghostbusters references; and much more. I loved the Birds' chorus posing as an owlish mariachi band.
Keep a bead on Peacemaker-packing villain, Rattlesnake Jake (voice, Bill Nighy) and an eye open for Spirit of the West (voice, Timothy Olyphant), a spaghetti western Clint Eastwood.
Take some time off and have a good time watching this above-average humanity versus nature morality tale
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☻☻ The Lincoln Lawyer (2011). Low rent Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) takes on the case of a lifetime. Rich kid (Ryan Phillippe) looks guilty as sin, but he's innocent and wants Mickey to prove it.
Based on bestselling author Michael Connelly's whodunit, the film combines nicely paced action and remarkably tolerant bikers with the kind of legal tactics we all guessed exist.
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☻☻☻ The Borgias (2011). There's a Spanish pope and his family in the 15th-century Vatican -- Alexander VI, Cesare and Lucrezia. Graced with the pope we have to thank for the Spanish Inquisition, Christendom will never be the same.
A sumptuous costume drama about the people who cemented crime into family. And the enemies who sought to depose them.
Upstairs Downstairs meets the Mob.
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☻☻☻ Certified Copy (2010). Within a framework of original art and authentic copies, a Tuscan art dealer and a British author spend a day out of town. Perhaps they're strangers, perhaps not. Prompted into playing the roles of an estranged couple, they act in character: Her the overwhelmed single mother with him cerebral and responsibility-free.
A fascinating look at interpersonal relationships, authenticity and originality. For the art-house crowd.
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☻☻ Unknown (2011). A forgotten briefcase at the airport turns a conference trip to Berlin into a nightmare of mistaken identity.
A surprise ending accomplished with the aid of an unusually helpful taxi driver and a good-guy ex-Stasi officer.
The film's fast pace, location shots and remarkably believable conclusion turn what could have been a cookie-cutter action flick into a fun night at the movies.
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☻☻ Limitless (2011). Sci-fi fantasy in which a magic pill can turn human dross into gold.
Have fun watching the little guy make good. Warning: The moral of the story may not be a message you want to send to your kids.
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Why not spend a few hours after the film pondering over the scientist's choice of name for his program and the choice of source code as a movie title.
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☻☻☻ True Grit (2010). Mattie Ross, age 14, takes on a drunken US Marshall and a Texas Ranger in a bid to avenge her father's killing. Find out who has true grit.
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In my post: Love, War & Remembrance
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In my post: Love, War & Remembrance
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☻☻☻ Let the Right One In. Watch the DVD or Blu-Ray, then read the mesmerizing book by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Or vice versa.
Make sure it's the Swedish version an not the North American Let Me In.
☻☻ The Company Men (2010). Finally, top management with a heart (Tommy Lee Jones as Gene McClary).
You may even begin to feel sorry for high-fligher Bobby Walker (Ben Affeck). See if predictably down-to-earth Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner) does.
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☻☻ Primeval (ITV) It's back! No more Douglas Henshall, but still dinosaurs, time travel and mayhem. And now, even more scientists gone bad!
Who could ask for more?
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Lots of surprises in the last episode. Check out the cast of Peter Jackson's two-part film adaptation of Tolkien's The Hobbit if you what to understand one of them. The good news is a fourth series is now in the works!
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Take the opportunity to read the rest of Dibden's Zen books, such as Dead Lagoon (book #4), Coso fan Tutti (#5), A Long Finish (#6), Blood Rain (#7), And Then You Die (#8), Medusa (#9), Back to Bologna (#10), End Games: The Last Aurelio Zen Mystery (#11).
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