What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945)

There's not enough story -- it's like watching a series of vignettes that people tell when they've already used up all of the interesting stuff. Hargrove is, apparently, supposed to be some hapless screw-up -- but he's no Gomer Pyle. He comes across as merely an inexperienced pleaser.

C-

Freaky Friday (2003)

Fun family film. Lindsay Lohan is a real treasure and Jamie Lee Curtis is also extremely good. Weak point is the son/brother…but no biggie.

B

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

This is nowhere near the Coen comedy peak (Raising Arizona & Big Lebowski)…but, the good news is that it's also nowhere near the Coen comedy nadir (O Brother Where Art Thou & Hudsucker Proxy). Lots of good stuff here, but they can't let well enough alone and wind up padding the proceedings with horrid, flow-stopping crap like the old, old, old founding lawyer "Hoib" and the hitman "Wheezy Joe." Billy Bob Thornton nearly steals the film in just two short scenes.

B-

Gothika (2003)

I love to be scared…but this movie gets the fundamentals all wrong. Yeah - the psychiatrist winding up in the asylum unable to remember why she was incarcerated is scary...hallucinations & disorientations are scary…and the film seemed to know that for the first 40 minutes or so. But then it decides that more is more. So they shove about 40 jump scenes in our faces and tack on an oh-so-banal "who's the baddie" hunt with a couple of red herrings thrown in for good measure. And then it doesn't even bother to explain how the characters get to the denouement, let alone the final ridiculous scene. So - bah at the film as a whole, and especially at the first third, which got my hopes up.

C-

The Magdalene Sisters (2003)

This is one of those "no WAY" movies. I was pulled in by the horrors of this film and appalled at the fact that it was happening so recently -- in that aspect, it reminded me a lot of Rabbit Proof Fence. A documentary included on the DVD version provides testimony from actual "Magdalene sisters." It happened. Amazing film.

A

Shattered Glass (2003)

Little liar fakes his way to fame and nearly brings down a respected magazine in the process. The kid's totally reprehensible…more for his simpering brown-nosing than his lies…but the movie cruises right along and is just so well done. Sarsgaard is amazing; Christensen a little weak.

B+

Last Orders (2001)

Interesting format…a man has died and his three friends & son take a day trip together to scatter his ashes fulfilling his "last orders." His life and relation to the principals is told in flashback…little bits at a time. The weird thing is that the man they're remembering and honoring is genuinely unlikable...just a self-centered man, an inattentive (and downright neglectful to one child) father and unsupportive husband. This casts an unfortunate "good riddance" pall over the film.

C

Star! (1968)

I didn't know that I possessed the capacity to loathe Julie Andrews…but there it is. Three hours of her most unlikable character can do that to a gal!

F

Veronica Guerin (2003)

I think it would have been pretty difficult to mess this one up. It's a real-life story about an Irish journalist pursuing stories about the drug pushers in Dublin and getting banged about and, ultimately, murdered for her efforts. So, it's naturally interesting and extremely well-acted, but not as involving as it should be. When she's finally done in I didn't feel the loss I think I should have. Instead, it just felt inevitable.

B+

A Walk to Remember (2002)

Cool kid falls for non-cool, Christian girl with leukemia, for crying out loud. She dies.

C

Under the Sun (2001)

Sweet, extremely well-acted romance between a middle-aged lonesome farmer and his breath-of-fresh-air housekeeper. Lovely.

A

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

A wonderful film for about the first hour…but after the heartbreak and the newness of Italy, the story settles into predictability and triteness. Too bad, really.

B-

Introducting Dorothy Dandridge (1999)

This story struck me as rather unremarkable. The movie, trying to force the "victim" angle, only succeeds in making Dandridge out to be amazingly inept at decision-making and personal relationships. Brent Spiner (as her manager/savior) is the real winner in this film.

D

Crush (2002)

Once again I'm amazed by how much I love Andie MacDowell movies, despite the fact that she actually appears in them. To say that this movie "touched" me is true…and yet so inadequate an explanation.

Andie's predictably terrible, however.

A

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2003)

I didn't quite understand the appeal of the squeaky-voiced woman at the center of the tug-o-war…though her daughter would be a child worth fighting for. It just wound up being a bore as I had no emotional investment in any of the players.

C-

Intimacy (2001)

I despise being confused during a film, and this one goes out of its way to keep you a bit off balance. I wasn't quite sure, by the way flashbacks were filmed, if he was divorced or his family were dead, or he was just fantasizing about something that never was...yuck. However, there are moments of great power and truth in this film and that makes it somewhat worthwhile. As a whole, though, it doesn't hang together. And, as a side note, though the sex is graphic it's shot in such a way as to be as unerotic as possible. What you think during the sex scenes is "they're having sex," not "ooooh, baby" or anything.

C+

Inside Moves (1980)

Charming story of a man, gimpy after a failed suicide attempt, finding a place where he's needed. A true feel-good film.

B-

Marie Antoinette (1938)

A bit long, but rather well-done film. Interesting & effective.

B+

Out of Time (2003)

Good in a "watch it quick" kind of way. Entertaining throughout, but probably wouldn't hold up to any kind of dissection.

B

An Unmarried Woman (1978)

Woman with a blandly perfect life is oblivious to the fact that her husband has been carrying on an affair and is completely blindsided when he announces he's leaving. What follows is a quite dull journey of therapy and experimentation. What a bore. Apparently the cast was filled out with people plucked off the street, as only the three main parts could act AT ALL.

D

Seabiscuit (2003)

I can see that there is an uplifting story here, but I was kept at quite an emotional distance throughout the film. Seemed to be just so unnecessarily sterile in its approach to the story -- giving us the equivalent of a report rather than an experience.

B-