The Grudge (2004)

Evil house in Tokyo infects everyone who enters it with its evil. So that sucks for Karen, an American home health care aide filling in for the one who just went missing while working in that house. It's the same thing over and over & the explanation is dissatisfying, to say the least.

D+

When I'm Sixty-Four (2004)

Jim -- a quiet, introverted bachelor -- is heading straight from his last day as a teacher to the hospital for a nose job. His cabbie for the ride is Ray, a "man's man" who used to brawl in the streets for his football team. Ray's visit to the hospital to return Jim's left-behind jacket is the start of their unlikely friendship, which blossoms into an against-all-odds romance.

I have to admit, when the first romantic gesture happened, I kind of rolled my eyes. I was completely happy with the friendship, which made the romance feel unnecessarily forced. But it's all handled in the most lovely way and I was quickly won back.

B

Noel (2004)

One of those “lots of different stories that kind of intertwine” movies. We’ve got a lonely divorcee losing her mother to Alzheimers, an engaged couple made up of a very jealous guy and a very beautiful woman, a man who can’t stop seeing his dead wife in strangers, and a former priest looking for meaning.

It’s fine, but only because it’s Christmas.

C+

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2004)

A mix of old-school samurai flick (complete with bright-red “blood”), slapstick, and Bollywood-style musical flourishes (including a full-blown dance number at the end). This was super-weird AND oddly boring despite everything they were throwing at the camera, including a transvestite geisha.

D+

Baadasssss! (2004)

Fascinating look at one man's true-life quest to get a movie made when no one else was too interested in his vision.  Sacrificing his reputation, health, financial security and family, Melvin Van Peebles hustled 'til his dream was a reality and it's quite a ride.

The movie couldn't help but lag at times and it relied a bit too often on hallucinatory images, but really worth a look.

B

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

An eco-warrior experiencing a coincidence consults a pair of existential detectives to help him sort it out, but they uncover much more than he bargained for.  I was along for the ride and enjoying it immensely -- but the fun didn't last all the way to the end. Once Isabel Huppert came on the scene as a proponent of meaninglessness (a polar opposite view to the one taken by the detectives), things got more strained than strange.

The cast is completely game and story is warped and fun, but it just needed to figure out when to say when.

C+

National Treasure (2004)

Great dumb fun -- felt like an old-fashioned caper.  My biggest complaint is that the comic relief guy was not very comedic.

B

Speak (2004)

I started watching this months ago and stopped, I think because it was too soon after I’d read the book and I was getting hung up on “THAT's not how she looked” and “it didn’t happen that way.” Now that the book has faded, though, I thought this movie stood on its own very well.

A high school freshman goes from lively, happy, and good grades to a depressed, withdrawn loner struggling through classes. Of course there’s a reason, but she simply cannot speak about it -- and, eventually, reduces all speech to a minimum.  Powerful and important, especially for junior-high and high school viewing.

B+

Bright Young Things (2004)

We follow a group of privileged (for the most part) young adults as they flit from party to party -- no true relationships in sight. What I think was supposed to be funny wasn't very and what I suppose was meant to be touching wasn't either...it just felt false and forced from start to finish.

Two good things: 1) there was a particularly lovely bit of acting by James McAvoy when he was begging for invite after being banned from a party (embedded below) and 2) David Tennant! Even though he was playing a character we were all supposed to dislike for his milquetoastiness and for stealing away the girl from our "hero," I just love him so there.

As a whole, it was lazy and whatever big points Waugh may have made in his novel were completely lost in transition to screen.

C-

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2004)

This is Nick Broomfield's second documentary about Aileen Wuornos. In the first, "The Selling of a Serial Killer," he shone an unfavorable light on those who stood to gain from her death sentence. By putting together this film, he basically exposes himself as one of those opportunists.

It tells us nothing new and seems to simply exist to celebrate the fact that Broomfield was Aileen's favorite interviewer. It feels like a "look how much she trusts me" vanity project -- a completely boring and inept mess. We learn almost nothing about this woman except for the fact that she had become certifiably paranoid after her years in prison. And, really, is that enough to justify the release of a film?

D

Killer Diller (2004)

We've been moving, so there's been no spare time to curl up with a movie for the last couple of weeks. Finally though, the boxes are unpacked, the couch is situated in the living room, the DVD player is hooked to the television, and I'm able to pull out the red envelope to relax for a couple of hours.

Well, hell. Now my first movie-watching memory in the house I fully intend to inhabit for the rest of my life is this piece of crap. How did this amateurish pablum about a Christian halfway house with a lame chorus-singing group transforming into a bar-playing blues band wind up in my queue anyway? Here's a taste: Lucas Black (still trying to recapture his Sling Blade glory) is cast as a piano-playing savant who requires sliced tomatoes whenever flustered. Yes, it's every bit as bad as it sounds.

And I figured out why this was in my queue: damn Ebert & Roeper.

D

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

I saw this a few years back and decided to make it my pick for our thrill-a-thon. I was impressed the first time and none of my enthusiasm has dimmed. It's well-crafted and smart -- a real original.

I prefer the director's cut ending to the theatrical, but in both cases the movie leading up to the end is masterful.

Still an A

The Final Cut (2004)

Cool idea: some people have recording devices purchased by their parents and implanted their brains pre-birth. Every single thing that person sees and hears throughout their life is caught on the device along with time stamping. "Cutters" have the prestigious job of editing this footage post-death for loved ones to view at the funeral.

They could have done so much with the concept -- but, instead, it all comes down to nothing more than pettiness (family members deciding which memories are a "must," etc.). I couldn't believe that there wasn't at least the point made that murders are almost non-existent because you never know if the victim is recording...what an oversight!

Robin Williams, once again, does his "why the hell did you ever give me an Oscar" shtick... you know, the same one he showed us in One Hour Photo and, oh, just look at his IMDb list and take your pick. And the mysterious memory that haunts him is completely ridiculous as is the way in which he gets a clue that it might be faulty (he cleans his glasses the same way?? give me a break).

A stupid, stupid waste of a decent idea.

D+

Team America: World Police (2004)

So shockingly funny -- even when it's going for the obvious laugh (which it almost always does). The songs, especially "America: Fuck Yeah" and the one that name checks Michael Bay, were tremendously clever. I don't even understand the "MATT DAY-MUN" joke, but it still cracked me up.

No -- I wasn't drunk while I was watching this. Yes -- I am appropriately ashamed to admit that.

B+

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

I'm not very crafty.... Each November, etc.

This was another one to which I'm glad I didn't devote complete attention. To spend more than two hours (!) doing nothing other than looking at this would've been preposterous. Sure, everyone on screen seems to be having fun and I've read a couple of interviews with the cast in which they uphold the apparently agreed-upon "it was soooo great!" story, but I'm not buying it.

What this reminded me of was the time when I was in high school and a big group of us went to Disney World for the day. I had a crush on a guy and had hopes of that I'd eventually be holding his hand in the Haunted Mansion. Cute little Dana apparently had the same idea and we weren't even off the monorail before it was obvious that he'd not be spending any time with me without some serious effort on my part. So I had SO MUCH FUN. I laughed a lot and jumped into group photos of Asian tourists and carried around a Mickey balloon I sweet-talked the vendor into giving me for free and was the freakin' life of the party. I was sure that he'd leave much-less-interesting Dana behind and rush to my exuberant side just to get a piece of the excitement I was generating.

Didn't work for me. Doesn't work for Clooney.

D

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

I didn't get it. I wanted to get it. I thought I would get it. But I didn't.

I'm sure this is incredibly clever -- supremely funny in a way that those who gobble up blockbuster "comedies" could never appreciate. Unfortunately, the hilarity was just way too subtle for me: a gal who actually likes Bill Murray and Wes Anderson.

Crap -- I'm pretty sure this means I'm out of the cool club, now.

C-

A Day Without a Mexican (2004)

The latinos in California disappear and the white buffoons left behind have no idea how to deal with it. No one's collecting the trash, washing cars, picking oranges and on and on. Oh, and the state's surrounded by a weird fog that no one's willing to pass through (whatever) and that cuts off communication from the rest of the world (um, yeah). There are some good ideas -- religious zealots believe this is the rapture, conspiracy theorists believe that the latinos are called "aliens" for good reason -- but those are just a couple of one-offs that go nowhere.

It's basically a one- (unfunny) joke movie. The "day" sans Mexicans actually goes on for at least a week...and the movie seems to as well.

D

Riding Giants (2004)

Wow. I mean....wow.

This documentary is, simply, amazing. It doesn't matter if you know anything about/have interest in surfing -- you get a crash course in the history, the lifestyle, the beaches, and the stars of the sport. Not boring for a minute and some of the footage will just blow you away.

B+

The Notebook (2004)

I cry all the time. Any decent long distance commercial can do it, the "visits from home" episode of Survivor does it, and the scene where Santa Claus talks to the little Dutch girl in "Miracle on 34th Street" does it every year. So, why in the world couldn't I muster a single tear for a film that so obviously and desperately expected them?

Basically, this is the story of a couple falling in love...being torn apart because of differences in class...and finding each other again. That sounds pretty good. Now, here's the conceit: the male half of the couple is reading the story to the non-remembering female half of the couple in a nursing home. That sounds even better. So why doesn't it work?

My guess is that it isn't affecting because it isn't all that interesting. I didn't fall in love along with the characters and actually found their courtship pretty boring. Why did he love her? Because she's pretty? Why did she love him? Because he's poor?

The framing device of the nursing home scenes gives the story some weight -- but it feels undeserved. This romance is far too lightweight to have such a poignant denouement.

C+

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)

I wasn't a huge fan of Bridget Jones's Diary -- but Renee Zellweger was adorable in the title role and I left the theater glad that she seemed to be looking at a "happily ever after."

In this film, Bridget morphs from cute to clingy and the extra weight that Zellweger again gained for the role somehow looks horribly frumpy rather than pleasantly plump this time around. The funny bits are stolen straight from the first film (inept physical fight between the two men/granny panties) and everything else is just tiresome. Even the breathy accent sounds more irritating than endearing -- why in the world would Darcy want this suspicious sabotager of good relationships?

This was extremely disappointing, which is quite a feat considering I wasn't expecting much.

D